Frontline sf-4

by Randolph Lalonde

  Recovery

  The internal communications on the Clever Dream were down, but it didn't take them long after Assistant Chief Paula Mendle and her crew brought it into the pressurized rear hangar behind the landing deck to discover a miracle. Even with the collision and rough, urgent ride, the extensive damage to the starboard side of the vessel and the cramped situation in the ship's hold no one had been badly injured.

  Stephanie watched as the refugees, all worn, covered in grey dust and muck, were led off the ship by the security officers she'd brought with her. The few people they could spare from medical were busy straight away, and before long they were under the command of a tall female nafalli.

  Her spirits rose the moment she caught sight of Captain Valance. He was as ragged and as visibly battle weary as everyone else. She couldn't help but notice the holes in his stolen armour as he walked down the half open forward crew ramp and gingerly dropped down to the deck a meter below its end. Her heart sank as a woman — the woman known to her as Ayan or at least someone who could have been her sister — came down the narrow forward ramp right behind him.

  Stephanie tried to put the feeling that she'd lost something aside but couldn't look away as Ayan put her hand on his shoulder before taking the last step down beside Jake. He flashed a tired, quick smile at Ayan and it was returned in a fashion that looked quick, easy, familiar. Stephanie's feelings of dread at seeing someone she suspected her Captain, her Jake, had loved and lost were only matched by her guilt at wishing the woman had stayed dead.

  She shook it off the best she could and swallowed the lump in her throat. Even from a distance I can see he's smitten. Stephanie glimpsed back to Ayan, who was stepping aside so a well muscled Asian fellow could disembark. She's beautiful, a kind of beautiful you don't see out here. How could I have thought that I could compete with her memory? If Jake and I got together I'd always be trying to live up to what she was and now she makes a reappearance. Stephanie tried to turn her thoughts away from the night they spent together. I can't have him, I can't do anything about how he feels and I won't compete for him.

  Stephanie looked away purposefully, looking at the hull of the Clever Dream instead of the forward debarkation ramp but not seeing, just making sure that if someone were to look in her direction they wouldn't catch her staring at Ayan. All the while she tried to put down the sense of loss that was so thick it made her queasy. I should have expected this, if it wasn't some ghost from his past it would be someone nicer, smarter or prettier than I am. Jake and I are too alike to be together, better off friends and co-workers. Stephanie sighed, her palm came to rest on the butt of her holstered sidearm. If I really want him to be happy the best thing I can do is make sure that woman is the safest person on the ship.

  Ashley came down the lift behind her, closely followed by Price, and they rushed to her. “Is your comm not receiving?” Price asked her, anxious.

  Stephanie checked and noticed that only her proximity radio was operating, the ship's comm relay wasn't connecting with her command and control unit. She looked to the nearest soldier and pointed to her ear. He checked his communications status. “My connection to the relay is down, but I've got you on proximity radio,” he replied to her.

  She looked at Ashley's command unit and saw that hers was connected and working properly. “Okay, that's strange. Try switching to a security band.”

  Ashley selected a security alert preset and was immediately disconnected from the primary communications relay. “Someone's taken the security comms off line,” she said aloud, even though everyone there knew what was going on. “Are you okay?” she asked, recognizing that something was amiss with her best friend.

  Stephanie cleared her throat and nodded. “I think Captain found a few extra passengers.”

  Ashley looked up the length of the Clever Dream and went wide-eyed. “That can't be-”

  “I think it is, somehow.”

  “She's shorter than I imagined,” Ashley commented, tilting her head. Her eye drifted to Minh, who was walking back up the ramp. “Like the new boy,” she purred.

  “Ashley!” Stephanie whispered, rolling her eyes.

  “What? Run around in your pants and you have to expect some staring,” her attention wandered back to Jake and Ayan, noticing that his arm was across her back. They were speaking to each other quietly as they started towards them. “I'm sorry Steph,” Ashley said as she turned back to her friend.

  “It was a one time thing,” Stephanie dismissed. “Don't either of you mention it,” she continued, making a point to look Agameg in the eye.

  “I didn't say a thing, not even to Finn.”

  “Good, thank you Agameg,” A thought struck her then; “Why aren't you two on the bridge?”

  “That's what I came down her to tell you, the bridge is gone, Panloo and a few other bridge officers are taking over control from the secondary command center but-” Ashley started to crack up, recalling the scene on the bridge. “Alice got us out but stayed to pilot the ship and the status display outside-” she shook her head sadly, mournfully. Price put a comforting arm around her.

  Agameg finished Ashley's thought; “The bridge is exposed to open space. If she wasn't killed in the breach, any radiation spike…” he trailed off as Captain Valance approached.

  “Who was on the bridge when it happened?” Captain Valance asked, only hearing the second half of the conversation.

  “Just Alice, I'm sorry.” Price replied quietly.

  “Do you know for a fact that she's dead, were you able to get a reading through the doors?”

  “No but the chances of her surviving aren't good,” he offered helplessly.

  He looked to Ayan. “I have to go find out. If there's any chance…”

  She nodded, barely hiding her worry. Without warning she pulled him down and kissed him urgently. “I understand, be careful,” she whispered against his lips.

  He caressed her face with the back of his fingers as she let him go. He nodded and ran for the main lift. Stephanie was right behind him accompanied by two of her guards. “I'm going with you, there's something happening in the security office.”

  They ran into the large lift and it closed behind them. Stephanie stood beside Captain Valance as he pulled an emergency kit open and retrieved an emergency vacsuit. She knew it was the worst possible time, there would be other opportunities, and despite everything going on there was only one question on her mind, one thing she wanted out of the way; “So is that really Ayan?”

  He stopped with the vacsuit half on over the ruined West Keeper armour for a moment, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. “She looks a bit different, but that's her,” he answered. “She seems a little bolder, but second chances can do that.”

  “Are you two?” she asked quietly, more mouthing the question than even whispering aloud.

  He sealed up the front of the flimsy looking one size fits all vacsuit and started to work on the sealing face piece. “Too early to say,” he whispered back so the two guards who shared the lift with them could at least pretend to have not heard.

  “Okay,” Stephanie whispered back.

  “What's going on in security?” he asked irritably.

  She cleared her throat and put thoughts of him and Ayan out of her mind as best as she could, embarrassed that she could allow her professionalism fail her so utterly in the middle of a crisis. “Someone's shut down the security comm relay. My people are already working around it, but obviously whoever did it was trying to buy time for something.”

  “All right, get control of the security office, I'll check in once I know what's happened on the bridge and start directing rescue and repair operations,” he said in a stiff, impersonal tone.

  Stephanie's eyes focused forward on the doors to the lift, replying; “yes sir,” as she straightened up. As they arrived she tried to suppress the embarrassment at asking the wrong question, she could have asked; 'how are you?' or 'what happened down there?' or even 'is there anything I
can do to help,' but she was distracted by her childish hopes and expectations even while her entire security team, hundreds of people were at risk.

  The express car stopped, the doors opened and they stepped out into the abandoned forward command deck causeway. It was eerie seeing the large corridor completely empty, even during night watch in hyperspace there was someone about, it was a busy ship and those few command levels were the nerve centre. The large double doors leading into the bridge were sealed shut, the control panels to either side of them blinked red, indicating that the doors couldn't be opened due to pressure differentials or other problems. Just beyond that was the security office, and that panel blinked a bright blue, indicating a lockout.

  “Do you need any help?” she asked quietly. “We can have an armoured suit down here in fifteen minutes. You'd be properly protected.”

  He finished sealing the faceplate and ensuring that the vacsuit was secure as he started into a dead run for the main bridge hatchway control panel. “We don't have that kind of time.”

  “Let me go after her, sir,” offered one of the security guards that had accompanied them. “My vacsuit is armoured and I'm fresh on shift.”

  “No, the intensity of the radiation inside is too high, even with your vacsuit.”

  “But sir, if it's too high for me then-” the guard gently countered.

  Jake stopped him mid sentence, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Alice is alive in there, but barely. I'm going in after her because I can regenerate, and I won't sacrifice anyone else. Now get out of this section so it can depressurize.”

  Stephanie directed the pair of soldiers to head for the security office with a hand signal and they both obeyed without hesitation. She just stared at him through the flimsy faceplate of the emergency vacsuit for a moment. “What do we do if you don't-”

  “Trust Ayan, Jason, Laura, Minh and give Oz the command chip. They're all better at keeping a ship than I ever was alone. Now get out of here, she doesn't have much time.”

  She nodded and started to turn when he caught her shoulder. Stephanie was almost afraid to look back, she didn't know why, but she did anyway.

  “Take care of each other,” he said firmly before beginning the emergency decompression sequence.

  In just a few quick steps she was beyond the nearest emergency bulkhead and its thick, black surface rose up behind her and when it clanged into place she punched the order into the control panel in the hallway to force it to become transparent. She stared mesmerized as the vacuum suit inflated slightly, reacting to the increasing pressure outside of it and after all the air had been evacuated from the small sealed off section of hallway, the large bridge hatch doors were drawn out of the oval frame, bathing Jake in blue and yellow light. There was focused radiation coming in through the lensed walls of the wormhole, and probably even more being generated by the compression of space all around the ship. It was a miracle that Alice was alive at all, it would be a greater miracle still if her and Jake could make it out.

  “Do you want us to breach the security office without you Ma'am?” asked one of the soldiers behind her.

  She snapped out of her spellbound state, hesitantly drawing her stare away from those open bridge hatchways and stepping into a march towards the main security office doorways. Her personal code was short, she punched it into the door control panel reflexively and stepped aside, rifle at the ready as it slid open. Her command and control unit automatically did a scan of the room beyond and revealed one body, good atmospheric compression and several active computer terminals. “I'm reading all clear.” she announced.

  “I can verify,” replied the soldier beside her. “Whoever was in there is dead or gone.”

  “All right, lets head inside. Look out for personnel mines and improvised traps,” she ordered, leading the way.

  One of her men lay awkwardly half inside a side office door. From the awkward angle his neck was turned and the burn mark at the base of his skull Stephanie could tell that there was no reviving him. “Continue your sweep, be careful and watch your scanner results,” she said to herself as much as the pair of security officers with her as she slowly made her way to the central terminal at the rear of the long main security office.

  “Do you recognize him ma'am?” asked one of her troopers.

  “No, look him up.”

  “Lyndon Edsel. Qualified on rifles, basic maintenance and infantry manoeuvres. He was assigned to nights.”

  “Well, someone got behind him,” the officer who had earlier volunteered to take the Captain's place commented.

  “Low velocity explosive round. At least it was over quick,” said the other, shaking his head. “I'm verifying all clear on my scanner.”

  Stephanie sighed and released the lockdown on the security communications system. “All right, check the other offices, be careful. Whoever did this is someone we trust.”

  “Do you think it was our suspect?” asked one of the guards.

  “It could have been, but he hasn't shot anyone yet.”

  The other officer knelt down beside the fallen soldier and gently closed his eyelids. “He was strangled before they shot him in the back of the head. Whoever did this didn't want to make any chance at him being revived,” he reported quietly. “This was an assassin.”

  Stephanie stepped in front of the main communications terminal and released the lock on the security bands. Her communicator came to life with questions from security personnel and soldiers across the ship and instead of addressing any one of them in particular she interrupted all of them. “Security office is secure. Communications systems are secure.” She checked the squad status reports as they populated on her command unit and selected one that showed that they were backing up the security team in medical. “All right, squad seventeen; I need you to proceed to the security office and lock it down. Everyone else be on alert. We have at least one more murder and our suspect is someone we know and trust. He was most likely on the command deck before the bridge breached.”

  She checked the logs and found that someone had accessed the computer system from the central terminal. When she looked for records indicating what he or she had done while they had access she found them completely empty. “It'll take me a while to find out if they altered or deleted anything. He was in here though.”

  “So our guy was after information?”

  “I can't say for sure, he could have been after info or covering his tracks. We'll have to look for holes in surveillance records, new additions to our records, dummy files meant to stand in for something they deleted. None of it is anything I'm specialized in.”

  “Here's hoping Captain found a data analyst on Pandem,” one of the soldiers with her remarked.

  Stephanie heard the emergency bulkhead doors outside in the hallway lower and a medical alarm sound. She was out of the security offices in seconds. Jake and Alice were face down in the hallway in front of the re-sealed bridge doorway. “We need medical up on Command deck right now, the Captain is injured,” she said hurriedly as she quickly closed the distance between her and the very still pair on the deck.

  “They're already on their way, Captain Valance told us we'd be needed. For clarity, which Captain is in need of care?”

  “Both, hurry.”

  The last of the refugees were waiting to load in one of the large express freight lifts. All those in need of more urgent care had already been moved to the infirmary. Stephanie's security teams made quick work of the potential mayhem. They seemed well practiced at handling rescue operations. Ayan, Oz, Minh and Jason waited at the head of the group for the lift.

  The doors opened to reveal Laura and several security personnel. The look of shock and joy on her face when she saw the foursome was utter. “Oh my God,” she whispered as she shakily stepped out of the bulk express car and was taken into Jason's arms.

  She wasn't one given to emotional outbursts, but the relief of seeing her husband after so much time and difficulty combined with the unbelievabl
e sight of her best friend, the very one she had attended a funeral for less than two months before was overwhelming and as she looked up from Jason's shoulder to see her again, standing there, smiling brightly, healthy and teary eyed she had to ask; “Is it?”

  Ayan stepped forward and put her arm around Laura's shoulders; “Doctor Anderson and my mother, they used a scan taken before your wedding,” she grinned, misty eyed.

  Jason pulled her into their embrace and Ayan kissed her best friend on the cheek before squeezing. “I don't care how,” Laura managed through her tears of joy. “I don't care how.”

  Minh stretched his arms around all three of them with mirthful enthusiasm as they shared the relief and joy of friends reunited.

  “Why is Minh half naked?” Laura managed.

  “I have nothing to declare but my underwear!” Minh grinned as he squeezed the trio.

  One of the guards, laughing just as hard as everyone else, put a blanket over Minh as she moved past to help the last of the refugees load into the lift and get up to medical.

  Triton's Heart

  “He's just down there Ma'am,” pointed the security officer that had served as her guide. When he picked her up at her quarters he was caught off guard by her civilian attire and easy manner. That morning had brought good news and she would be meeting important people that day. She wasn't a member of the crew yet, not officially, so she took the opportunity to create a dark violet vacsuit with a broad dipped neckline, loose sleeves and a long skirt that swished as she walked. The whole thing could seal around her in an emergency, but that potential simply wasn't visible, especially since the whole outfit had a stretchy cotton fabric style she enjoyed.

  Everyone else aboard was wearing a Triton uniform or an off duty vacsuit that was similar and included their rank, which was marked both with a silver skull on their chest and stripes of one kind or another on their cuffs. Even though Laura had told her she could add both the Triton skull and letters beneath to her clothing she decided not to. It didn't seem right to assume she was a member of the crew, especially since she hadn't been given a position on the ship by anyone or spoken to Jake.