Jethro 3: No Place Like Home

by Chris Hechtl

  Deja made his way to the front of the bridge where the tanks had been set up next to the normal helm station. There were two vertical tanks, anti-gravity tanks designed to let a user float in a virtual environment while piloting the ship. They were new additions to the bridge, added to aid him in piloting the ship.

  He was a Marine, normally he wouldn't be at a helm station. He'd given it up when the Admiral had freed him and his crew mates on the freighter Destiny from the Horathian pirates over four years ago.

  They lived in interesting times as some liked to say, and what he wanted wasn't what the Navy and civilization necessarily needed. Case in point, he was here, ready to take the Conn once again, something he had never wanted to do again. This time it was different though; he was doing it to save lives, his own included.

  When Firefly had received word of Antigua's impending invasion they had raced to the rescue. He had been asked to volunteer his services at the Conn. As a Selkie, he like many Marine mammals had the inner ear and native ability to pilot a craft or starship better than virtually any being in the known galaxy.

  Firefly and her crew had banked on that ability; it had allowed them to indeed race to Antigua's rescue in record time. Now they were doing it all over again, this time with engineering issues cropping up. Twice in the past week they had a near disaster with a node or engineering fault. He knew they were running on borrowed time. Hopefully, when they were in subspace external repairs could be made quickly.

  “That you Corporal?” First Lieutenant Janice Yu asked. Lieutenant Yu was chief hypernavigator of the ship. She was an old Firefly hand and had also served with Captain Mayweather as a civilian on their ship the Carib Queen until that ship had abandoned them in Pyrax to die. Instead, they had lived and thrived.

  “Yes, ma’am. Reporting for duty.”

  “Good. I'm about done in here,” Janice said as the spare pod opened. He realized she had signaled it to open. She probably was tired as she sounded. He could understand it, flying Delta was hard. It was like swimming in a current, sometimes against it, which was exhausting and nerve wracking.

  “Ma'am, I'm here to relieve you,” he said formally.

  “I'll be relieved in a minute. Just as soon as you get your bald butt in the tank and log in,” Janice said as he climbed into the tank.

  He snorted softly. He had worked with her now off and on for months, most of their rough edges had been worn smooth. She still was a bit jealous, but she'd gotten over it and seemed to think of him as an asset and a friend. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

  “God I'll be glad to slow down and take our time,” Janice muttered as he jacked in. He connected cables from the inside wall of the tank to his implant ports. They couldn't afford the slight delay wireless connections caused. Even a millisecond could mean the difference between life and death.

  Once he had signed into the system he closed his eyes and felt data flowing into him. His implants processed the load and then projected a sea around him. He felt the force emitters below him spin up, lifting him off the deck. Additional emitters in the ceiling caught him in a suspension. He could move freely, both in virtual or his body. He tested it, running through the preflight checks with a professional air.

  “I wish I had implants like this when I had been on Destiny,” the Selkie said, scanning the log. There were no incidents. He was glad of that.

  “I'll bet,” Janice replied. “Hell, me too for Carib. She was a sweet ship.”

  “Think she's still around ma'am?”

  “Who the hell knows! I don't really care now. I mean, I miss a couple people on her, but not her Captain. I've moved on for the most part,” she said, voice tightening ever so slightly.

  “Sorry ma'am.”

  “Don't be. You didn't do it. You've been through your own hell. I shouldn't be ragging on you anyways. You're a good sport doing this. Thank you. If I never said it before...thanks. Thanks for doing this,” she said.

  Deja wasn't sure what to say. He slowed his usual routine, a bit uncomfortable.

  “You know, when you were first put forward I didn't want you. I resented the hell out of the intrusion, and the implied insult that I couldn't handle it. After seeing how you fly though...,” she snorted softly. “I have to admit, I developed a serious case of envy over your heritage.”

  “It's not all it's cracked up to be ma'am,” Deja said as she silently worked. “It's as much a curse as it is a...gift.” He snorted at his statement in self-depreciation.

  “Don't get me wrong; I appreciate you, even though you are dumb jarhead,” she said. He exhaled noisily, this time in humor. She shrugged. “Having an extra hand in Delta has made it easier on us in the nav department. Again, thank you.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I'm regretting letting so many of my people stay in Antigua. Not that I wanted to stand in their way of getting their own ships, but hell, this is a bitch when we're shorthanded,” Janice said candidly.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She shook her head and relaxed, slumping a bit. She wiped at her brow. “Damn. It takes a lot out of you doesn't it? Or at least me it does. I never thought Delta would be so hard.”

  “For me too ma'am. I'm used to swimming for long hours though.”

  She eyed the Selkie. He felt a bit self-conscious but kept his cool. After a moment she nodded. “True, you are more built for this than I am. I keep forgetting it. Well, we'll have to juggle the schedule a bit so you'll have more downtime before we exit. At least a shift off.”

  “I thought we were stopping in Triang ma'am?”

  Janice shook her head. “No, the skipper wants to get to Pyrax ASAP. We don't know when the attack will hit there.”

  “I see. So we're skimming the systems again?” Deja asked, not sure he liked the idea. Skimming a system was dangerous. He was the only one who could safely navigate the crisscross course around a system's periphery in hyper to get from one jump point to another. They had briefly considered finding a jump point that avoided crossing the system but that had the high potential of running them off course.

  Of course, skimming a system wasn't without its own inherit dangers. A mass in real space, also known as subspace, projected a mass shadow in hyperspace the larger the mass, the larger the shadow. A ship could brush off interactions with small masses at lower hyperbands. But if they impacted a mass square on or hit too many in a short period of time, it could overload the ship's systems and potentially cripple or destroy the ship.

  The very real threat kept him on his flippers. It was also exhausting, so he was wary of doing it again. Doing it five more times would be trying, but he now knew he could do it. Worse, the Captain knew, so she was probably expecting a better performance this time. He grimaced slightly.

  “Yes. Think you're up for it, Corporal?” Janice asked as she scanned the readouts on her HUD.

  “Yes, ma’am, I think the team is.”

  “Good answer. We're going to stop briefly in Agnosta to pick up fuel and do a swap. How many people are up in the air at this point.”

  Deja nodded his bullet head. “Good to know ma'am. Getting a break would be nice.”

  Janice snorted. “Just don't get too comfortable. We're going right on to Pyrax, and if possible, beyond it. And no, you aren't going ground side. The skipper insisted she's hanging on to you.”

  “It's nice to have an admirer ma'am. As long as she doesn't stay too attached ma'am. I'm a Marine after all; I'm going to stay that way.”

  Janice eyed him for a moment and then snorted. “Semper Fi then. Ready for the hand off?”

  “Yes, ma’am, when you are ready,” he said, activating his implants. He had been in observer mode. He felt her pass the controls to him. “I have the controls ma'am.”

  “Corporal Deja has the controls aye. Course marker bearing three point nine five by mark one one for the next parsec, adjust heading as needed but keep it in the box,” Janice intoned professionally.

  “Aye ma'am. Cours
e marker three point nine five by mark one for one parsec, stay in the box aye.”

  “Keep her on this heading for most of your shift. Your course is plotted out. Engineering is still having issues with the starboard drive pods so don't push her any faster than you have to,” Janice said.

  “Aye aye, ma’am,” Deja replied.

  “Good man. I'm off then,” Janice said, disconnecting herself from the linkage.

  Deja felt out the link as the computer adjusted to his style of piloting and then moved the ship along her plotted course once more.

  ---( | ) --- ( | )---

  On the way back to Pyrax, the crew had to deal with hidden battle damage and tease as much intel out of what they had downloaded as possible. Firefly had been only lightly damaged in the fighting, but the long near flat-out race to get to Antigua and the deferred maintenance in Pyrax as well as Antigua began to take its toll on things.

  Chief Chowler was frustrated by damage and pace of the ship and made no bones venting that frustration when the Captain called him on it. “Skipper, if you recall, we focused on the other ships, the ones we captured first. They and Antigua Prime got priority.”

  “I know that chief, but this is unacceptable. We need to squeeze out more...”

  “More what?” The exhausted chief snarled. More than one officer's eyes widened at his tone; it was simply not done to interrupt the skipper, let alone rant at her. “We're pushing her too hard, too fast. Yes, we took light damage; it was all on the shields. But those shields haven't been overhauled yet. Some of the nodes were weakened in that long run and the battle right after. Throw this run in, a mostly green crew who don't know their ass from their elbow and we're going to break something, mark my words,” he practically spat out, body tense. “The constant wear is getting to some things that passed muster before. Stuff that should need a light overhaul is going further and further out of spec. We're beyond spec on the lifetime of the bow grav nodes for instance; they should have been rebuilt four thousand hours ago,” he said, and then blushed as he realized he'd lost his cool and to the Captain of all people. His shoulders hunched slightly. “Sorry skipper, but that's the truth. Putting it off for so long to keep the ship out of dock and in space has turned around and bit us in the ass this time.”

  She drummed her fingers but didn't say anything as the other officers looked from her to the chief.

  “And the constant flight time in hyper doesn't help to weed out minor issues before they become bigger headaches,” the XO said sympathetically. “It's not like our engineers can get out on the hull to fix problems they know about,” Shelby said, glancing at the Captain and the AI avatar.

  Chowler nodded but set his jaw. He didn't like making excuses for himself or his people; he wanted things to run smoothly, professionally. He regretted leaving his best and brightest in Antigua. And he hated how tired he and some of his remaining bright boys and girls were getting. They were scattered all over the place, trying to keep an eye on the ship while also keeping the rookies from doing something stupid. He'd thought he'd picked out some sharp cookies in the recruits, and a few were indeed sharp, with some engineering training to back it up, but most had no background in engineering at all, but spirit of space were they dumb! And safety! He frowned ferociously. He'd had nine accidents, two of them damn near catastrophic since they'd headed out.

  Renee studied his drawn face and sunken eyes for a moment. She forced herself to take a mental step back and deep breath to assess the situation dispassionately. The Chief was probably getting two to four hours sleep every two days, if that. If half of his department was anything like that then mistakes were bound to crop up, something she hadn't factored into her plans. She was tempted to call him out on his rant, but he looked genuinely contrite so she decided to let it slide for now and then exhaled noisily. “I know you're doing your best chief, but we're a Navy ship. Figure it out. We'll...I don't know. We'll find some time for you on the hull, if not in Triang then somewhere else. Be ready for it; it most likely won't be for more than a half day, if that.”

  “Aye ma'am. Let me know in advance, and I'll have the parts replicated and on hand. The ones I can. The rest we'll have to cannibalize.”

  “Do that,” the Captain said. She turned to the doctor. “Doctor Standish, I believe you had some issues you were resolving with our recruits?” She asked politely.

  Shelby glanced at the chief as he slumped back tiredly. She knew he knew he'd gone a bit overboard and deserved a dressing down. But apparently the Captain had taken his exhaustion into account and cut him some slack. She'd no doubt talk with him quietly later about the incident. Shelby made a note in her implants to do so and keep a closer eye on the engineering side for the foreseeable future.

  ---( | ) --- ( | )---

  Doctor Standish okayed the recruits a second time two weeks into their journey. “What was the holdup, doc, if you don't mind my asking,” Major Pendeckle asked, coming to infirmary for the final release.

  “Well, I won't break patient confidentiality, but we had a few things pop up. They raised some flags, and I determined a second look was in order. I apologize if it interrupted your schedule, but since it was a health concern not only for the patients but potentially for the entire crew, I had to do it.”

  “You had your duty to perform, doc,” Major Pendeckle replied with a nod. “Anything we need to be aware of?”

  The doctor sighed. “We had to go over exams again because the lab turned up hepatitis in three test results and a random drug test raised a red flag. We've since resolved them all.”

  “That's good to know,” the Major said, knowing better than attempting to pry for more information. If the doctor said it was handled, that was it. He cocked his head thoughtfully. “Any other issues?”

  “No. We took the time to give each the basic identification (ident) implants, those that had missed them in the first place. We corrected a few minor things that had been overlooked or passed over for future referral. They should be ready to go.”

  “Understood then. I'll let Valenko know you've given him the green light. He and Jethro should give them a healthy jump start for their training regime.”

  “Please tell me you're not going to send these kids into combat so soon!” Standish protested, eyes wide. “Not like Antigua!” He shivered. They'd given him one hell of a workout in trauma triage and surgery. One he didn't know if he ever wanted to repeat.

  The Major shook his head. “Here's hoping we're not, doc, but you never know. No, we’ll figure something out. I'll keep you posted.”

  The doctor eyed him for a moment and then nodded curtly. “You do that Major.”

  ---( | ) --- ( | )---

  Shelby nodded to the ratings humping coils of cables and lights out of main engineering. She stepped aside; they were already in motion. They fumbled, but she waved them silently along so they continued on. When they had passed she entered the engineering department. “Can I help you ma'am?” a woman asked.

  Shelby checked her over. She was new; the XO knew her crew inside and out. She pinged the blue-haired ladies implants and then nodded at the IFF. “Recruit Sedic? I'd like to see the Chief if he's available.”

  “We can make an appointment for you or...” the woman noted the XO's face and then sighed slightly. “...Or not,” she finished lamely, attempting to recover. “He's over with the group giving another lecture on safety ma'am,” she said patiently.

  “Another one?” the XO asked. She knew Chowler; the safety lecture was the first thing anyone got, which meant a refresher so soon had some ominous reasons for it.

  Ida Sedic made a disgusted face and pointed to the knot of people near the corner beyond her. “For some they either missed the first or they are just too clueless to get it stuck in their heads. Some have to learn the hard way ma'am. I heard Bjoren will have to wait to get his finger and thumb back.”

  Shelby made a face and then nodded. Engineering country was a dangerous place; you had to be on your toes and sa
fety conscious at all times. She nodded tightly. She had heard about injuries; apparently they were lucky no one had done something so stupid it had impacted the performance of the ship. Or perhaps they had? She thought, cocking her head as she slowly wandered over to the recruits. It wouldn't fully explain some of their performance issues, but it would be like the chief not to make excuses like that. He...she frowned thoughtfully.

  Fortunately, the meeting seemed to be over; the engineering noncoms were waving them off. “Go on, back to your stations,” one Veraxin said. He paused, clicking his mandibles in confusion as the XO registered in his brain. “Sorry, um, ma'am.”

  “No problem Petty officer. The chief...”

  “Headed to his office,” the Veraxin replied, pointing his upper left arm in the proper direction.

  Shelby smiled. “Ah good. That used to be my office. I hope he fixed the coffee machine in it. I kept forgetting to get around to it,” she said, moving along.

  The Veraxin chittered something too fast for her to make out. She looked back, but he was already haranguing people back to their posts.

  When Shelby arrived at the door she knocked on the open hatch combing. “What is it this time?” The Chief snarled from behind his desk. He looked up with an exasperated sigh in time to see Shelby step through. “Um, ma'am...uh...”

  “Twice in one day, Chief, you need to get a lid on that mouth and temper of yours,” the XO said, closing the hatch behind her.

  “Sorry ma'am,” the Chief replied as he stood. “Are you here to chew me out or did the skipper...”

  “Captain Mayweather can do her own chewing out in her own way, Chief,” the XO replied. “But, I'm here to see what's going on and lend a hand.”

  Chowler shook his head. “Ma'am, I know you're busy with the kids...”

  “Which are settling in. We've got most of the paperwork situation handled, Security has reported no one has wandered into restricted areas in an entire shift, and I understand the Marine recruits are going to get off their lazy tails and to work shortly.”