She nodded and waved him off. "I'm fine. Haven't gotten much sleep lately, with all the attacks going on."
"I'm a little young to be your father, but I'd suggest getting a few hours rest. You won't be good to anyone if you collapse due to exhaustion."
"I appreciate your concern, Vincent. But, I'll be okay. Nothing these old bones can't handle." She reached into her notebook and pulled out a single sheet of paper and handed it to him.
"What is this?"
"The reply to your request. The names and file information of your new recruits. Thanks to the attacks, I couldn't get you more. Hopefully, they are enough."
Wellard scanned the sheet, noting the names of his new engineers. One name, in particular, caught his eye. "Marco Capelli? The heir to the Capelli family fortune?"
Flannigan smiled. "The same. Talked to him for a few minutes after his graduation ceremony a week ago. Seems his father insisted on his enlistment. Wanted him to learn how to operate and repair the systems they produce."
"You would think it would be easier to have him work in the lab," Wellard replied.
"And safer," Bremerton added.
"Normally, I'd question his reasoning, but it seems we need bodies for these new ships we keep creating. No matter how hard we try, they don't fly themselves."
"Indeed," Wellard said. "Well, I appreciate it. Vaughn will too, considering we stole Richards from him."
Flannigan smiled. "If you could excuse me, I'm running late for another meeting. I swear that's all they think I'm good for anymore."
"Of course, Admiral."
Flannigan started for the door but stopped after a few steps. "And Vince, try to keep Capelli alive. Hate to see what would happen if we got the future CEO of Capelli Enterprises killed."
Wellard laughed. "No promises. But I'll try."
Chapter Twelve
New Earth Sector
Fighter Bay, NECS Endeavor
The sounds coming from the fighter bay grew louder as Tegan closed in. The sounds were not that of fighters and technicians working on the birds, preparing them for their next inevitable combat. Instead, it sounded like the guys were doing something fun. For the first time in weeks, Tegan's face lit up, and she jogged towards the bay.
When she arrived, she found the middle part of the bay had been cleared out, the usual fighters pushed closer to the bay walls. Tied off along the wings of the adjacent fighters, two lengths of rope secured the open space turning it into a makeshift boxing ring. Two of the pilots were in the center, each wearing a set of padded gloves. The men were both from blue squadron, the unit that had backed up her squad on the run at the Aplin anomaly. They had been the ones to take down the two fighters that had made it past her and Lancer, saving Switch and Fireball from a horrible fate.
The men danced around each other, taking the occasional jab but neither seemed ready to strike. For a while, she wasn't sure either man was willing to hit the other. Why they were wasting their time in the ring when someone else more willing to fight could've been in there was beyond her. But that was their problem, not hers. She was just there to watch the event, see what her boys were made of when the fighting got close.
One of the pilots in the back of the crowd noticed her. A terrified look had filled his eyes, but her smile brought him back down to Earth.
"Easy cadet, I'm just here for the show." Even as she said the words, she knew the others on the flight deck were going to struggle to believe her. To convince them that everything was fine, she'd have to go further. She took a few steps and grabbed a chair propped next to the ring. Standing on top of the seat, she cupped her hands over her mouth to make herself heard through the noise. "I'm here to watch, not ruin your fun. As long as you boys can play fair and know when it's time to stop beating the shit out of the man in front of you, I don't see an issue with a few matches. And before you ask, no I don't intend to step into the ring myself. You'll have to find another officer stupid enough for that."
Just like that, it seemed everyone in the room exhaled before the room returned to the way it was. For a second she almost regretted getting them stirred up again, especially seeing as if anyone got hurt she would be the one answering to the CO since she was the ranking officer on the floor. But screw it. If Captain Wellard or his stuffy XO couldn't handle them having a little fun, then they could lock her up as punishment.
She knew how it was to put her body on the line day in and out without an end in sight. Days like that, a person needed a release. Typically, she'd settle for hitting the gym, but she wasn't against banging the gloves with another pilot if the situation was right. While she wouldn't have minded stepping into the ring, she was just as content with watching the festivities play out in front of her eyes. Besides, her rank had a nice little perk. A ringside seat on the far side of the ring.
Once she was seated, the two pilots tapped gloves once again and started to spar. Without the threat of a junior officer ratting them out, the two seemed less timid than before. That fact was clear the moment Jackson threw two quick jabs followed by an uppercut that was meant to decapitate Swoop. The younger pilot was too fast for his older counterpart and ducked the blow long before it hit home.
"You missed the one earlier. Two pilots from Gamma Squad faced off against two from Green in a four-way rumble. By the time it was over none of them could see, let alone lift their arms to swing at anyone else."
Tegan burst into laughter. The four pilots, while former squad mates, were now some of the fiercest rivals the fighter wing offered. Each pilot often placing wagers on the number of kills he and the others would make by the end of an engagement. Until today their friendly rivalry hadn't come to blows, and if what Richards said was true, she doubted it would again.
"What's a little ole computer geek engineer like yourself doing down here in the shark's den? Shouldn't you be programming algorithms or some shit?"
"Probably." Richards grinned. "But the CO gave me a few hours of rec time. Came down here to spend it with you, but found this going on instead. I've never been much for sports, but watching your pilots beat the snot out of each other is changing my mind."
Tegan snorted and leaned back in her chair, taking a moment to let his words sink in. He had come down here to spend time with her? While she appreciated the sentiment, he didn't know what he was getting himself into. Or her, for that matter. Pilots dating outside of the fighter wing was practically unheard of. Adrenaline junkies like herself tended to gravitate to similar people. Fast relationships with fast men after flying fast ships through space. Out there you can't afford to slow down, so it forces you to keep the same mentality running at all hours of the day.
But the truth of the matter was she was tired of it all. She wasn't sure if she was ready for anything serious yet, but there was something about the computer geek from engineering that intrigued her enough to consider it.
As the fight raged on, she watched Richards out of the corner of her eye, especially when one pilot landed a particularly nasty blow on another. The man had talked a good game, but it was clear from his expressions he wasn't here to watch the fights.
"You want to walk?" she asked, pulling at his arm. Richards didn't hesitate, standing up at his first opportunity to make his way through the crowd. Tegan let him get a head start before following him out into the hall, only to get a few sidelong glances as she did.
In the corridor, the door shut behind them drowning most of the noise with it. Their walk reduced it more with every step. Richards waited until they were nearly at the stairwell before he stopped and turned around. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a plastic box about the size of his palm out of his briefcase. He handed it to Tegan who regarded the device skeptically.
"What is this?" she asked, holding it into the light.
"A little piece of tech I've been working on the last few weeks. It's a passive scanner that looks for jamming signals like those used on the anomalies. When it finds them, it will chirp then send a signal to your
HUD pinpointing its exact location. I can't promise it will help with targeting the damned things, but that's not its purpose."
"Its purpose is for us to know what we are getting ourselves into before it's too late," she said, without hesitating. "Brilliant if you ask me."
Richards shrugged. "I don't know about that. All I know is that we can't keep getting lucky. If we didn't come up with something, it was just a matter of time until we found ourselves dealing with something we can't handle. At least this way we'll know."
"I assume you have enough of these babies for the rest of the birds? It would be nice to have every last one of them tracking the damned things."
"Not yet," he said, blushing. "That's the prototype. No sense in mass producing them if they don't even work."
Tegan's heart sank. Knowing the device hadn't been tested made her second guess the genius of it. Sure, it sounded great in concept, but so did a thousand other things. Still, at least Richards was attempting to fix a bad situation. For that, she at least had to give the device a chance. The worst that could happen is that it didn't work, in which case she could remove it from her ship. Best case, it worked as intended in which case the NEC adds another valuable asset to their arsenal.
"One thing about the device," he said, sheepishly. "You have to be close for it to detect the anomaly."
"How close?"
"Oh, close enough for it to disrupt your communications and radar."
Shit. That meant she had to be damned near on the thing for it to work. Still, the device had its merit. At least it would tell her the anomaly was disrupting her ship, so she didn't freak out when her squad mates blips disappeared from her HUD.
"Fine. Just tell me how to plug the thing in."
He reached into his briefcase and produced a small datapad and handed it to her. "Step-by-step instructions. If there's something you don't understand just call me and I'll try to walk you through it."
She scanned the device for a moment before putting it in her pocket. "Looks simple enough. I should be fine."
Tegan was about to say something else, but before she could, Richards' comm beeped. He held the device up to his ear and turned it on.
"Richards." He was quiet for a moment while someone talked on the other end. "Copy. I'm on my way." He flipped the device off and put it back in his pocket. "I've got to go. Problems on the bridge and all. Need my expertise."
Tegan snickered but pulled herself back together. "I need to get back to the boys too. They're going to give me enough shit for leaving like I did. Think I'll sneak back to my fighter later and try to get this thing in tonight. Doubt anyone even looks at me twice back at my bird."
"Sounds good." Richards smiled and walked up the steps. He made it halfway up the level and stopped to see if Tegan had walked away just yet. She hadn't, but only because she was still trying to figure how the hell she was going to sneak the device back into the flight deck with every last pilot in there watching the matches. It was only after she decided it would have to wait until the next day when she realized she was still standing at the bottom of the stairs. Looking up she noticed Richards' calming smile as he cast one final glance back at her before ascending towards the bridge.
Chapter Thirteen
New Earth Sector
Bridge, NECS Endeavor
The door opened, and Commander Bremerton stood as Richards strolled through the door. Richards nodded to the commander as he entered before setting his briefcase on the floor next to his station.
"Sorry to call you off of your rec time so early. Just trying to come to grips with our next mission."
"It's nothing," Richards replied. "I've been trying to wrap my mind around it myself. So much to come to terms with."
"Indeed, which is why I called you here. I need to know what we need to be looking for when we arrive at the wreckage so I can relay the information to the CAG. Anything we can do to speed up our time would be helpful."
"Well, first of all, they need to search for any computer systems. Ideally whole units, but even pieces may work. Admiral Flannigan may have handed us every bit of information she had, but there is always more."
"Not sure how viable that is. We'd be asking our pilots to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. Without power to the systems, they will be impossible to determine amongst the wreckage. Especially once you consider it will be fighter pilots doing the searching."
"Perhaps we could use the shuttles too. Team up the pilots with engineers to help point out the valuable wreckage from the rest of the junk. It will still be hard to distinguish, but at least this way we have a chance."
"Sounds like a plan, I'll send a message to Vaughn and have him put together a crew."
The doors to the bridge opened, and Captain Wellard's haggard form strolled through the threshold. The man just didn't know when to quit.
Bremerton felt a twinge of jealousy at seeing the captain. He tried to suppress the emotion, but that only helped to send it into overdrive. Wellard had told Bremerton that he trusted him with the job. Not only that, Wellard believed Bremerton was more capable than he was at coming up with a plan of action.
But now it seemed like a ruse, something said to get Bremerton to lower his guard. If the captain trusted him to plan the mission, then why the hell wasn't he back in his quarters getting some rest? He was no use to everyone overworked and exhausted, himself least of all.
"Captain, I thought you were going to rest. You aren't going to be of any use to us half asleep."
"Indeed," Wellard agreed. At least the man had enough sense to know he should've been resting, even if he didn't have enough to see it through. "I was almost down to my quarters when I thought of something that might be of use." Wellard sat at his terminal and punched commands on the screen. Bremerton watched as his fingers stopped before producing a datapad from a nearby drawer and entering it into the machine. He pressed a few more buttons before pulling the datapad out and handed it to Bremerton a few moments later.
"What is this?"
"Something to keep an eye on since I know you are intent on searching the wreckage. I've loaded the schematics for a device present on every ship ever created. Its sole purpose is to log every bit of information that runs through the ship at all times. It was designed to help determine when a ship went critical and why, but I believe they may suit our purposes."
"I thought they stopped installing them on ships decades ago," Bremerton noted. There wasn't a point for them to exist. After they'd ironed out their ship production processes and stopped using cheap parts to build their ships, pointless accidents stopped happening. Now if something happened to a ship, it could be narrowed down to the actions of someone on the ship or an outside force. Both were easy to determine if you knew what to look for.
"They considered it, but some of the top brass decided it might be a good idea to keep them around. Never know what will come in handy after the fact." Wellard stood and stretched his back once he was back on his feet.
Richards studied the datapad while Bremerton watched. The man knew computers better than anyone he knew. If anyone could figure out what to look for inside the device, it was him.
"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to catch a nap. Ship personnel should be back onboard in less than four hours. Once everyone is secure, I want you to set a course for the Gibraltar system. I should be awake by the time we arrive so we can figure out who destroyed the base and why. Commander, you have the bridge."
Bremerton snapped a quick salute which the captain returned. Richards, mired in the datapad, nearly skipped the decorum, but quickly snapped to attention and returned the salute.
"I have the bridge," Bremerton said, nodding as Wellard strolled off the bridge. Once the doors shut, he glanced over at Richards and shot him a wry grin. The man may have been brilliant, but it was clear he wasn't used to working or even being on the bridge. He'd have to get used to it in a hurry if he intended to keep his field promotion or if he wanted to make it permanent.
&
nbsp; Richards apologized before retreating to his console to study the new information, leaving Bremerton alone at the helm. With everyone either working on the problem or enjoying time off, there was nothing left for him to do but wait. While he did, he studied the video feed from the attack, looking for any sign that might be important later on.
So much information to pour through and so little time.
Chapter Fourteen
Gibraltar Sector
Bridge, NECS Endeavor
Captain Wellard strolled onto the bridge as the faint image of the wreckage loomed onscreen. It was barely larger than a speck, but it was clear something was wrong. Gone were the dozens of ships that could usually be seen orbiting the station at all hours of the day, as were the lights typically visible as far as a few hundred kilometers out.
Also absent were the signals from the dozens of beacons that orbited the station. The beacons served as both a way to facilitate communication with incoming ships and to extend the station's sensors.
"Sir, detecting a handful of smaller frigates peppered in with the debris."
"Open a comm. Tell the ships they are ordered to flee the wreckage immediately or face criminal charges."
"You intend to prosecute them?" Bremerton asked.
"Only if they push the issue," Wellard replied. "Though I doubt it will take much convincing for them to leave."
While he didn't expect them to stick around now that an NEC ship was present in the system, he knew they would be right back the second they were gone. The thing he found odd about the whole situation was the total lack of NEC ships in the system, to begin with. Scavengers and pirates were always a risk after a major battle as there was no shortage of people willing to spend their hard-earned credits on second-hand ship parts. Even more valuable was the information and technology present on both the base and the ships. Things were left out in the open that should've been guarded much better than this and long before now. But that was a problem for someone else. He was here to search the wreckage for information. He hoped someone else came around soon to patrol the system. Otherwise, there was a risk someone would end up with something valuable and likely important.
Infamy (The Mythrar War Book 2) Page 5
