"No..." it was the first time Jack had honestly thought about it in a long time. "At one time I think I did. But not any more."
"Then you should tell her."
Jack thought about that for a moment. "I think she already knows." He got serious and in hushed tones, told Alité the story. How they met, how they ended up on the Princess, and how they decided to take the pirate cruiser. He explained how they drifted apart. Alité listened carefully and agreed. She surmised Maria knew but felt she would deny the reality as long as possible. Jack admitted, that sounded like something Maria would do.
The conversation was interrupted by an incoming call on the ship's commlink. Jack reached over and punched the button on the night table to answer the call. He leaned back against the bed's headboard. "Yes?"
"Hey, Jack, Paul here. Listen, I know you're probably involved in something vastly more interesting..." Jack could hear the smile in his voice. "But we've come up with several viable routes and possibilities for parts, we thought you'd like to go over them..."
"Sure," confirmed Jack, "I'll meet you in my ready room, say a half hour?"
"You got it," shot Paul. The commlink beeped once and ended the connection.
Jack stared at the beautiful woman, laying on top of him. She was daydreaming and absentmindedly drew circles in his chest hair with her index finger. When she looked up and caught him staring at her, he smiled. A genuinely warm smile that made her tingle. Jack peered into her eyes, they were a pale lavender. He brushed a stray lock of silken hair from her face. "Duty calls..."
She kissed his chest and rolled off him. "Ok," she said, pouting and mocking disappointment, "if you must."
"I must," he countered, smirking. He got up and strolled to the bathroom. "Listen," he continued as he turned on the shower, "do me a favor, take Fritz down to level three and let him run around the officer's garden for a bit. Ok?"
She climbed into the shower with him. "Sure. But then you owe me a favor.”
"Like what?"
She soaped his back, "Oh, I'll think of something..."
Jack grinned, "Yeah, I'm sure you will."
CHAPTER NINETEEN
PRINCESS HEDONIST/FREEDOM: DEGOBAH SYSTEM
The bridge was buzzing with crew members working on last minute systems repairs and software testing. Jack hurried through their midst and entered his ready room at the back of the bridge. He was about five minutes late, and everyone who was to attend, was already there. "Good morning gentlemen!" He looked around but nobody spoke, he was surrounded by seven Cheshire Cat grins. "What..?" He looked down at his uniform for an obvious blemish or a missed button, then it dawned on him. "Ok, Ok, good afternoon. Ok? Is that better?"
There was a good deal of chuckling and elbowing at Jack's expense, but Brian was the first to speak. "You've got somethin' right here..." he pointed between his teeth and made a sucking sound like he was trying to dislodge a stubborn food particle. It was done so seriously, Jack didn't realize he was joking and began imitating the routine.
"But I don't feel anything," said Jack, picking the invisible blemish with his fingernail.
"Well, it's right there," continued Brian, pointing at his own teeth. "What does it look like to you, Pappy?"
"Gee, I'm not sure..." added Paul, carrying the joke along. He pretended to inspect the spec and imitated Jack by picking his own teeth, making his own sucking noise. Jack was oblivious to the others who were desperately fighting to keep from laughing out loud.
"It sort of looks like..." began Brian.
"Fur pie?" finished Paul. The room exploded with laughter, and Jack tried unsuccessfully to look perturbed.
"Holy crap! I didn't realize we were still in high school... seriously. Ok, Ok, you guys, you've all had your little laugh. Can we get down to business now?" Jack ran his fingers through his hair.
"First things first, Jacko," called Derrik as it quieted down. "Be a good sport and tell us who the lucky lady was." The other meeting attendees chimed their interest as well.
Jack declined, “Nothing doing - you guys keep secrets like a sieve holds water.” He hoped he could sit down with Maria and square things with her before she heard it somewhere else first. He knew this group of gossip mongers couldn't keep it to themselves. "Cmon, let's get down to business here, what are our options?"
The lights were extinguished, and the conference table projected a three dimensional holochart above it. Trigoss laid out several options using an electronic pointer to illuminate the various routes through the Genesis Gates and possible destinations. The object was to find parts, for free if possible. Trigoss knew the exact location of one such place. It was the closest of the three destinations, unfortunately it was owned by the UFW. Salvaging on the sly would not be a likely prospect and parts would be costly. The second was an independent space salvage yard, but the exact location was unclear. It was in a safer system, but they'd have to cross several sectors heavily occupied and patrolled by pirates. The third was suggested by Ragnaar. Its location was also not exact, and it too required traveling in pirate occupied sectors, but for a multitude of reasons, it seemed to be the lesser of all evils. Ragnaar believed the third facility was owned by the pirates, but didn't feel it was likely to be patrolled or protected, because it was hidden and the pirates preferred stealing new equipment to repairing old. It remained the best chance for obtaining the parts they needed without cost. It was also possible that spare fighters and parts might be kept there.
After a short discussion, a unanimous decision set their course for the third destination. It was also agreed, upon Gantarro's request, that before they departed, the Freedom would fly escort to the Princess Hedonist until they were clear of the present sector. Once clear, the two ships would part company and continue on to their separate destinations.
The door from the bridge swished open at about the same time Jack called for the computer to turn up the lights. Alité strolled through the door with a tray full of sandwiches and beverages. Fritz sauntered in behind her. Her hair was pulled back severely in a tight bun and she looked nothing like the woman Jack had spent the night with. She distributed the drinks in silence but smiled warmly at Jack before leaving, her eyes lingering on him. The men watched her go without a word.
The men thought about their first task and sipped quietly, some taking sandwiches from the platter. Suddenly Brian looked up at Jack and smiled. "No..!" Everyone turned to look at him.
"No what?" asked Mike.
"That was her!" exclaimed Brian. "Did you see the way she looked at him?"
Paul wasn't convinced, "The Ice Princess? Nah, couldn't be..."
"That had to be her!" insisted Brian. Jack tried to look innocent but it wasn't working. Despite biting the inside of his cheek, he cracked a half smile. Primarily because he couldn't help thinking about last night. "Look at his face," urged Brian, "it's written all over his face!"
"I don't get it," grumbled Mike, "I've been watching her all week, I can't get her to even look at me..."
"Shows she's got good sense," volleyed Jack, still leaving Brian's accusation unconfirmed.
"Ouch!" said Paul sympathetically.
The meeting deteriorated to rolling banter and jokes before Jack was finally able to bring it back to order. "We need to talk about crew assignments and placements. First, I think we'll give navigation to Ragnaar. Any objections?" There were none.
Ragnaar bowed. "Thank you, sir, I am honored. I will do my best."
Jack nodded then turned to the Professor. He was the only person in the room, not in uniform. He stood to one side and puffed on his pipe, dressed in a comfortable brown tweed English sport coat. Jack studied him for a moment and tried to remember which hand was real and which was mechanical. "Professor, first I
want to thank you for all your assistance on the software for the Freedom..."
Professor Edgars waved his pipe. "Don't mention it, old boy, t'was rather enjoyable."
"Well," continued Jack, "I can't imagine you not being around and I'd like you to stay on with us... as the ship's first officer with the rank of Commander."
His eyes widened, "I say!"
"Look," added Jack, motioning to the others, "we're all pilots. We can do our best for this ship, sitting in the cockpit of a fighter. But we need to know she's in capable hands while we're gone. We need to know we'll have a ship to come back to..." The others all nodded their agreement. "Besides, I can't imagine it'll be boring..."
The professor tamped the tobacco in his pipe. "Sounds absolutely smashing! And you know me, anything for a bit of adventure... I must say you've taken me a bit by surprise. I was going to ask to tag along, but this is more than a man could wish for. I'd be delighted!" They welcomed him to the crew with a toast.
Thinking of the night before and the all too memorable hangover, Brian rolled his eyes. "Let's not start that again." It bought a round of chuckles and light laughter.
"What about ship's security?" asked Paul.
Jack sipped his carbonated fruit juice. "Mmm, Raulya and Myomerr have the clear advantage there, they've served on this ship before. They will share responsibilities of internal security and weapons systems." Ragnaar made a sour face and Jack ignored him. "Well," concluded Jack, "I'll need a list of recommendations for gunnery positions, helmsmen, etc."
"I think I could do most of that," volunteered Ragnaar.
"I can give him a hand," added Trigoss.
"Good. How many people do we have now?" asked Jack.
"Sixty-seven," answered Trigoss. "We might pick up a couple more before we leave tomorrow... adventure seekers." Several of the newest crew members were former passengers on the Princess Hedonist.
"It's far from a full crew," admitted Steele, "but it's a start. I think it would be wise to teach the women some of the other positions." He could see Ragnaar making another face. "Look, I know there are some of us who think women only belong in the kitchen, but the truth is, there might be a time, when an extra hand or two could make all the difference in the world. So do me a favor Ragnaar..."
"Oh please, sir," he said, retreating, "anything but that! Torture me, give me the hardest duty, ask me to sacrifice my life... but don't ask me to work with the women!"
Jack was almost in tears trying to hold his laughter. "For crying out loud, relax, Lieutenant! I just want you to pick someone to interview the women and find if any of them already have any talents or experience."
Ragnaar stared at the floor. "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."
Jack, laughing, waved it off. "Forget it." He dismissed the meeting.
"Oh, one more thing," said Trigoss, as the others filed out. "We managed one more generator."
"That's great! How'd you do it?"
"Well, don't thank me yet. It's built from all the parts we could salvage from the burnt units. It only operates at about half capacity, and I'm not sure for how long."
"That's Ok," conceded Jack, "every little bit helps."
■ ■ ■
Alone with Fritz in the darkened ready room, Jack Steele stood in front of the conference table and studied the three dimensional holochart floating above it. Instead of each point of light representing a particular star, planet, or Genesis Gate, like on the previous chart they had plotted, on this, they represented entire solar systems. And there were thousands of them. A pale blue cube at one end represented millions of miles of space, their present sector. It was only about an inch square, in a chart over eight feet long. A blue line snaked away, perhaps seven inches to a pale green cube of the same size, the place where they hoped to get parts. From there, a green line departed for the other end of the table, sometimes completely obscured by the lights of alien solar systems. It ended in a pale yellow cube almost eight feet away. Fritz was sitting in one of the conference chairs at the far end of the table. Jack moved closer to him and the yellow cube. "Y'know what that is, kiddo? That's snowy mountain peaks, green forests, blue oceans and warm, sunny, golden beaches. That's home, Bunky. That's what that is." The Shepherd wagged his tail. He vaguely remembered running in the water. He wasn't sure, but he thought it may have been fun.
It was difficult, even with the chart illustrating it, to comprehend just how far away home really was. But never the less, Jack programmed the table to show the most direct route home at any given time. It seemed to be a good way to keep that fine tenuous thread from breaking and leaving him emotionally adrift and homeless in the starry void.
A general announcement came over the comm, informing all crew members that engineering would begin main engine warmup momentarily and that all unnecessary power consumption must cease until morning after main engine startup. Jack nodded to himself and switched off the holochart, watching the thousand-plus points of light disappear.
He strolled from the ready room onto the bridge. The operations officers and technicians were busy shutting down the computers, sensors, work stations and anything else that wasn't required. With full generator power, it would not require more than a few short hours for engine warmup, and that was with systems running. But, as it was, the ship would require most of the night to warm up the engine cores. Jack and Fritz left the bridge to head to the officer's garden before retiring for the day as nothing else could be done with all the systems off line. Besides, tomorrow would probably prove to be a full day.
The garden was nowhere near as large as the Ecosphere on the Princess, but it was sizable enough for a fair stroll among the trees and flowers. Jack enjoyed the sweet smell of the air and Fritz seemed to remember about the joys of rolling in the grass. Sitting under a tree, he watched the Shepherd run and frolic, noticing how much more fluid he moved than just the day before. The dog appeared to be regaining more of his old self back and this made Jack very happy. Fritz found a stick and brought it to Jack, dropping it on his lap. They played fetch for awhile until it became obvious the dog was tiring. "That's enough, dog. Don't want to do too much too fast." Jack stood up and walked towards the garden's port entrance, the German Shepherd trotted at his side, still proudly carrying his stick.
Ragnaar met them at the elevator. Jack and Fritz were going up, the Lieutenant JG was going down. "Here, sir," said the former pirate, "the info you wanted on personnel." He handed Jack a data disk.
Jack took the disc. "Your choices for helm and science stations... are they sound?"
"Yes, sir."
"No favoritism?"
"No, sir. Just the best for the job."
Jack believed him. "Ok, Lieutenant, thank you. Please inform the first shift you have chosen that they are on duty for start up and pull out tomorrow morning. We'll discuss gunnery positions after we get squared away and under power."
"Yes, sir." Ragnaar saluted smartly. Instead of taking the elevator, he turned and hustled down the corridor, presumably to notify crew members of their duty status.
■ ■ ■
The lighting in the corridors was muted to save power and the corridor partition doors were fixed open, the system off line for the same reason. The low droning hum of the engine blowers was a new and different sound, a contrast to the silence of the past three and a half weeks.
Jack stepped through the doorway and into his quarters, to discover not one, but two women waiting for him. Maria and Alité. No sooner did he realize this, then he spun on his heel toward the door. Uh ohh... he thought.
"Freeze!" yelled Maria, jumping to her feet. "Where do you think you're going to, Mister?" Her speech always slipped into Spanglish when she was upset.
“I uhh..." he couldn't think of anyt
hing believable, "nowhere," he mumbled. The dog stood next to him, not quite sure what to do or where to sit.
"I thought we were going to spend the night together. Where did you go?" She stood with her hands on her hips. Alité sat demurely on the sofa, adjusting the slit of her casual evening dress.
"You," said Jack, defensively, "were unconscious!"
"So what? You couldn't wake me or wait till morning?"
"Wake you? Are you kidding?!" Jack moved to the bar to get something to drink. "I carried you over my shoulder, from the galley to your quarters. I completely undressed you. I even tucked you in. And the only word you said the entire time, was gribnitz."
"Gribnitz? What the hell does that mean?"
Jack leaned back against the bar and shook his head. "Hell if I know." He took a sip of ginger ale. “It came out of your mouth, not mine.”
Maria began losing steam. "So why didn't you stay with me?"
"I'm sorry," shrugged Jack, "but I really didn't want to wake up next to a drunken lush, it just wasn't an appealing thought."
"But we've done it before..."
"That's how I knew it wouldn't be appealing," he said quietly, staring into his glass.
Maria shifted uneasily. "So who's she?" She motioned toward Alité.
Alité didn't want any room for mistakes here. "I'm the Captain's personal porter," she said, rising off the couch. "He was here with me last night."
Jack winced.
Maria stiffened. "What? What the hell is she talking about Jack? Did you sleep with her?"
The room suddenly felt warm. "Well I..."
"OH, you did!" she interrupted, stomping her feet, "I can't believe you! How could you? Men are such pigs!"
Wings of Steele - Destination Unknown (Book 1) Page 29
