The Clones of Mawcett

by DePrima, Thomas

  "Third watch?"

  "Of course; I'm the second officer."

  "Okay. See you tomorrow?"

  "Sure. How about I stop by for lunch?"

  "Great. See you in my dining room at noon."

  After sharing a hug that clearly demonstrated their close bond as siblings, Richie returned to his ship. Jenetta read through her messages and then called the captain of the San Francisco. She invited him and his senior staff to have dinner in the Base Commander's private dining room. The Captain enthusiastically accepted and Jenetta set the time. She next called her dining room and told them how many to expect for the meal. Such was the life of a Base Commander. Meet and greet, wine and dine, and wheel and deal.

  Captain Fortins of the GSC destroyer San Francisco, followed by the staff members that he'd chosen to bring, entered the private dining room of the base commander promptly at the appointed time. Jenetta, wearing her dress uniform, stepped forward to greet the small dinner party.

  "Welcome to the Dixon Space Port, Captain Fortins. Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen."

  Fortins extended his hand to Jenetta. "Thank you, Commander. It's a pleasure to be here, and a real pleasure to meet you. Allow me to introduce my staff. This is Lt. Commander Van Buren, our chief medical officer."

  "Welcome Doctor Van Buren."

  "Thank you, Commander."

  "This is Lt. Commander Kirvan, our chief engineer."

  "Welcome Commander Kirvan."

  "Thank you, Commander."

  "And these are Lieutenants March and Flores."

  The younger officers' eyes were glued to the medals, the most prestigious in the galaxy, that Jenetta wore on her uniform. Seldom did a young officer have an opportunity to meet someone that had received the Space Command Cross, and almost never one who had been awarded the Medal of Honor. Since Jenetta was the only Terran ever to have been awarded the Nordakian Tawroole Medal of Valor, it was doubtful they would ever see that medal again on a Space Command uniform. The SC Star, Bronze Comet, and two Purple Hearts were like icing on a cake. The three ribbons that represented participation in a major engagement, one each for the Battle at Vauzlee, the Battle for Higgins, and the Battle for Dixon, were aligned below the medal ribbons.

  "Welcome Lieutenant March."

  "Thank you, Commander."

  "Welcome Lieutenant Flores."

  "Thank you, Commander."

  "My First Officer and the second watch group are still on duty," Fortins said, "and your brother and the third watch group are asleep. You were together with your brother today, I understand."

  "Yes, he came for a visit as soon as you docked, and I'll be seeing him again tomorrow. Shall we take our seats at the table?"

  The mess attendant immediately began to serve appetizers once the six officers had taken their seats at the large circular table.

  "What do you think of our prize, Captain?" Jenetta asked.

  "I'm impressed. This is an amazing base. Was Raider-One similar?"

  "Very. This asteroid is a little larger overall, but the basic construction of the port is the same. According to the construction records we've found, they first hollow out the asteroid. Then they construct an interior shell of pre-stressed plasticrete panels, linked together for strength. Lastly, they backfill any gaps between the panels and the hollowed out area with vacuum plasticrete to provide maximum strength. It's a phenomenal engineering feat. The habitat area is almost identical to that of Raider-One; at least as far as I know from my examination of the floor layouts in the computer and the limited movement that I had in the corridors of Raider-One."

  "Commander," March said, "we were able to hear everything that happened to you at Raider-One because of the trial, but we haven't been able to find out very much about the Raider officer that attacked you while you were in command of the Song. Could you tell us about that?"

  "Oh, there's not much to tell. Commander Pretorious stole a uniform and laser pistol from the Delhi after it was destroyed in a collision with a Raider destroyer during the Battle of Vuazlee…"

  The young officers were spellbound as Jenetta recounted the entire tale. Even though she didn't embellish it at all, they sat with their mouths open until she was done.

  "Wow," March said.

  "Ditto," Flores added.

  "The entire incident lasted only a few minutes. The doctor bandaged my wound and I was perfectly fine in a few weeks."

  The mess attendant began to serve the entrees, so further discussion was delayed until everyone was served. For the rest of the meal the visiting officers questioned Jenetta about the attack on Mawcett, the Battle for Higgins, and the taking of the asteroid space base.

  "I have a copy of your book about Mawcett," Kirvan said. "It's wonderfully detailed and written. It's amazing that such technology existed almost twenty thousand years ago and yet all trace was lost until the scientists uncovered it during the past decade."

  "I'm sure there have been a number of civilizations throughout the galaxy that have risen to greatness only to disappear into oblivion. There were even several on Earth, although none achieved anywhere near Dakistee's level of sophistication. Until the underground facility was found, no one even suspected that the Dakistee civilization had been so advanced, but twenty thousand years of erosion and corrosion can erase most signs of a dead civilization."

  "Commander," Flores said. "I have a good friend aboard your old ship, the Prometheus. He says it's a great ship and that everyone misses you."

  "It is a great ship, and it has a great crew. Who's your friend?"

  "Lt. Commander Timothy Eaton. He was promoted into your old position as Second Officer."

  Jenetta felt as though Flores had stepped up to her and slapped her. Space Command had promoted someone into her position? They didn't promote for temporary reassignments, so now she understood why she was still here on Dixon; there wasn't a position to go back to. Jenetta carefully hid her emotions from her visitors.

  "When did your friend join the crew?"

  "About seven months ago."

  'Seven months!' Jenetta screamed silently. 'That was right around the time that the Prometheus left Dixon. They must have gotten Eaton from one of the other ships in the task force. One way to find out.'

  "Your friend must have been part of the task force that helped take this station?" she said to Flores.

  "Yes, he was on the Amsterdam. They took a torpedo hit that killed thirty-one crewmen. Tim was lucky to have been on the bridge at the time. The bridge made it through the battle intact."

  "The Amsterdam is a good ship with an excellent crew. They kept on fighting until the battle was over, even though, as you say, they were seriously damaged."

  Jenetta continued to smile and entertain the group for a couple of more hours even though her heart wasn't in it. She had been so busy the past months that she hadn't maintained contact with anyone on the Prometheus. Just keeping up with calls to her folks, her brothers, Eliza, and Gloria required more free time than her busy schedule allowed. Now, with her position aboard the Prometheus gone, she wondered how much longer she'd be stuck here. She shouldn't really have expected them to hold the job open for six or more months, but she felt that she should have been told. Perhaps they didn't want her to know, fearing that her performance here would suffer. She was sure they knew how much she wanted to be part of the Prometheus' crew.

  The San Francisco remained at Dixon for two more weeks, and Jenetta spent every possible free minute with her brother. She never mentioned what she had learned about the Prometheus, and never again expressed her unhappiness with her job.

  At the end of its R&R stay, the San Francisco left for its patrol of sector 8667-4869. Jenetta came down to the docking pier to smile and wave goodbye to Richie, who waved from the ship as the docking hatch was closed and sealed.

  Jenetta stopped looking for her replacement after that. She would see the job through until Space Command decided that she should go elsewhere. She might have been able to use her fame and
influence to get a ship, but playing politics was something she was loath to do. Instead, she began associating more and more with the people that moved through the port.

  Since being named as commanding officer of Dixon, Jenetta hadn't had time to work on leads to Christa's whereabouts, but now she began to make time to collect information she thought might help her find Christa. As the days, weeks, and months passed, she built a small network of valuable acquaintances. Her role as base commander provided a lot of contact with military people, freight haulers, civilians, and the numerous lower forms of sentient life arrested by the Marine security patrols. She encrypted and sent to Captain Kanes any pertinent information that she picked up.

  Jenetta was working in her office one day when a message arrived from Commander DeWitt. She pushed the play button to view it after finishing the report that she was working on.

  "Hello, Jen, congratulations on your promotion and your appointment as Base Commander. Your present, in the form of the Raider security ship, arrived yesterday and I just had to thank you right away. My people are already busy trying to reverse engineer the energy weapon. It's the most exciting thing that's come our way in months. I'll let you know what we find once we figure it out. Congratulations again, and thanks."

  Jenetta smiled and then sighed as she returned to her work as an administrator. At least the people in the Weapons Research section at Higgins were enjoying the work they were assigned.

  The occasional perk of meeting an old friend was a lot more common on a base than onboard a ship. A few weeks after Richie left, the GSC research ship Archimedes, named after the famous Sicilian-born Greek mathematician and inventor, docked at Dixon and Jenetta received an unexpected visitor at her office.

  "Karen!" Jenetta cried, when one of her best friends from her Academy days entered her office.

  Lieutenant Karen Anderson, all five-foot six-inches of her, came stiffly to ersatz attention. "Lieutenant Anderson reporting to the Base Commander's office, to request a visit with an old friend, ma'am."

  Jenetta came out from behind her desk and wrapped her arms around the red-headed officer. "It's so good to see you. You look wonderful."

  As Anderson relaxed her prankish stance, her animated, freckled face lit up with a wide smile. "Not as good as you though; you haven't aged a day since we graduated from the Academy. Everybody always says that, but in your case, it's a hundred percent true. And I seem to remember being a couple of inches taller than you once. I can't believe that you're the Base Commander here, Jen. Of course, since returning from the dead you're the hottest thing in Space Command."

  "It's true; I'm the CO. I was also a bit shocked when it happened. But I'll get back into space again."

  "This is a dream job. You're not happy?"

  "You know me, Karen. My heart is on a ship. Speaking of which, what are you doing on a ship? I didn't think that you wanted shipboard duty."

  "That was just a defense mechanism," Karen said, her pixie-like green eyes twinkling. "I only said that I didn't want it because I knew that I'd never be in the top half of our class at the Academy. I'm not a brain like you. Scholastically I was only 186th in our class of 289, so I never expected to get shipboard duty. I was stationed on the Ethridge Space Station at Nivella-3 when I was offered the posting to the Archimedes, so I naturally jumped at it. I couldn't believe they picked me. I love it on the ship and I've never been happier in my life."

  "That's wonderful, Karen. I'm so happy for you. Um, Ethridge? Wasn't that where Heather Gulvil was posted?"

  "Yes, and she's still there. She's a Lieutenant and a Senior Food Service Administrative Officer now. She talks about you all the time, telling everyone how close you both were while at the Academy."

  "We were close?" Jenetta said grinning.

  Karen laughed. "In her mind, you were. I didn't remember it exactly that way either."

  "Does she still tell everyone that'll listen, how I smoked up the zero-grav lab at the Academy?"

  "Yes, but now she claims that it was a planned prank, rather than a mistake. She tells people that you did it just to get a reaction out of grumpy old Professor Hubera. She says that you were the only one who could do it and not have it hurt her grade. Even with the failing score on that one lab exercise, you finished number one in his class."

  "I guess that I'll never live that incident down completely."

  "Jen, you were only seventeen; a kid. You were nervous, and time was almost up for the test. It's time to get over it. Besides, I don't think that it's thought of very much anymore; other than by you, that is. Whenever your name comes up, all people normally talk about is how you single handily destroyed Raider-One and cleaned up this part of the galaxy. Of course, now all they're talking about is how you were cloned. A lot of people think the Galactic Alliance Council, the Admiralty Board, or SCI was behind it so they'd have more Jenetta Carvers around."

  "You're kidding!"

  "No. You know how some people are. That's why giving your clones citizenship has been such a hot issue. The paranoids are afraid that it may lead to more un-intentional cloning of important personages."

  "I was as opposed to cloning as everyone else!" Jenetta said sharply, then softened her voice as she added, "but now I've changed. I love having two sisters. I wish that I had them when I was growing up."

  "How does your family feel about them?"

  "They've welcomed them as if they were always there."

  "That's great. Now tell me how you wound up on Dixon as the Base Commander."

  "Wrong place at the wrong time. I was the acting first on the Prometheus and my captain was the senior officer at the engagement here. When the battle was over he sent me to take command here and get things sorted out. That led to me being named Acting Base Commander while the task force repaired the battle damage to the ships, which in turn led to me being posted as the official Base Commander. I guess that I owe the promotion to the position, since they only appoint officers holding the rank of Commander, or higher, as base commanders, other than at small outposts."

  "You're the first in our class at the Academy to become a full Commander, you know."

  "Yes, I know. Quite a leap for the person voted 'most likely to remain an ensign for the longest time.'"

  "Oh, those class titles are such nonsense. Look at Gary Bushnell; he was voted 'most likely to be first to make captain.' He's still a Lieutenant, although he's been on the Lieutenant Commander Promotion Selection List for two years now."

  "How about you? Are you on the list?"

  "No, we science officers don't move up like you hot shot line officer types. Maybe in a few years I'll make the list. When you make Admiral, in a couple of years," Karen said smiling, "you can give me a little push."

  Jenetta laughed. "You've got it. For now how about a walk through the shopping concourse; then tonight you'll join me for dinner."

  "Great. Can you get away?"

  Jenetta smiled. "I'm the base commander. Who's going to tell me I can't take a break to chat with an old friend. Let's go."

  Karen's ship remained at the base for five days and she and Jenetta spent every evening together until she had to leave. Karen even joined Jenetta for dinner as a special guest when Jenetta entertained the senior command crew of the Archimedes, surprising the other officers by her presence at the meal.

  A month after the Archimedes departed, the Johannesburg arrived at the port. They had briefly exchanged fire after a chance encounter with a Raider destroyer in sector 8667-4332. The Johannesburg tried to give chase when the Raider ship turned and fled, but damage to its power systems prevented them from traveling faster than Light-150. They naturally headed for Dixon so repairs could be made. Dixon didn't have a complete ship repair facility like that found at Mars, but it did have three enclosed shipdocks, and offered the maximum in Space Command protected refuge while a ship's systems were taken off-line.

  After having the crew disembark, except for Marine security personnel, Jenetta ordered the ship moved t
o one of the two currently available, enclosed spacedocks. Once the ship was moored inside, and the dock pressurized, workers could perform their duties without having to wear bulky EVA suits.

  Engineers from several ships in port collected to assist in the work on the damaged systems. Jenetta's office arranged housing for the displaced crewmembers and coordinated the repair efforts. As was her custom, she entertained the senior staff on their first night at the station. The entire senior staff came for dinner since only Marine guards were left onboard the ship, and her private dining room was filled to capacity. They talked about the brief battle with the Raider ship, and discussed tactics for several hours.

  "How would you have handled it, Commander?" Captain Rhein asked Jenetta.

  "I doubt that I would have handled it any differently, Captain," Jenetta responded. "A random encounter in space hardly allows for a battle plan. It was pure chance that they damaged your power systems. It could easily have gone the other way. Then instead of your coming here for repairs, you would have been bringing us prisoners; if any survived."

  "It would suit me fine if none survived. I had several friends on the Delhi, and my roommate at the academy was the first officer on the Song. He was on the bridge when the ship was damaged at Vauzlee. Perhaps you remember Commander Harant?"

  "Just the name, I'm afraid. When I took command of the ship after the battle, the bridge officers were all deceased. It was hours before we could even reclaim their bodies. We had to wait until the bridge bulkheads were repaired and the bridge re-pressurized. The crewmembers of the Song and the Delhi were terrible losses, and they were just part of our total losses that day. We made the Raiders pay though. They lost fifty for each of ours."

  "It's not enough. We have to stamp out these vermin once and for all. They've been running rampant for thirteen years now!"

  "We're making progress, sir. In the past two years we've slowly been cutting away at their bases, ships, and personnel. I understand they're having trouble recruiting new people; even from the scum on Urgucet. The word is out that Space Command is coming on hard and that employment with the Raiders is not conducive to long life."