Path to Europa

by Garion Swann

  "Alright, sorry," Alex said looking confused.

  "Anyway, get out of the suit, us three are the people who know the ship the best, so we need to be with the search crew. If we answer their questions and let them look around, we'll get through this as quick as possible."

  Chapter Five

  Alex, Grant and Grey waited at the port airlock, the search party's shuttle had docked, and the green light had illuminated to signal that everything was airtight and safe to enter. Alex remembered back to his first run-in with Lady Jean he watched them from the same spot as he was waiting for the search party enter. The Michelangelo's airlock opened, and five people came aboard, the security for the search party had a quick look around and motioned for the search party to enter. Someone who looked less important than they thought they were walked with six more people flanking, Alex assumed this was Commander Young. He looked at the uniforms of all the people who had boarded his ship, and it was a bad match between green and yellow. Who would choose those sort of colours? Alex brought himself back to concentrate on the approaching man.

  "Captain Harper," The man said holding his hand out, it was the same voice from the comms.

  "Commander Young," Alex said accepting his handshake, "Welcome aboard the Michelangelo, this is my Chief of Operations Grant McDonald, and my Chief Engineer Grey," he said pointed to each of them. Young shook both their hands.

  "It's a routine search, Captain. We usually conduct them on new vessels in our space, it shouldn't take long. That is if you have nothing to hide if you do have anything to hide now would be the time to say." Young said, he sounded like he had said this a thousand times.

  "Nothing to hide," Alex said. Knowing full well he had a cloaked sensor buoy in his fuel tank.

  "Okay, we'll begin our search. I have to inform you that if anything is found aboard that shouldn't be the whole crew is liable for punishment." Young said and started to walk away.

  "Commander," Alex said, Young turned back around, "Ship policy is that no one is allowed around the ship without a member of the crew present."

  "The policy will have to be avoided this time, Captain," Young replied.

  "I have followed your policy I would appreciate if you followed mine," Alex said, he was asserting his authority aboard his own ship.

  "Fine, there's three of you, and we have three teams." Young said, "Team one take the cargo bay, team two engineering and team three will take everywhere else." Young ordered his teams.

  "Grey, go with team two, I'll go with team three and Grant go with team one," Alex ordered his two of his three most trusted crew members. Each team was made up of two security, two other people who were the ‘searchers' this included Commander Young. All the teams left to go their assigned parts of the ship.

  Grant was at the front of the team, everyone was quiet while walking and Grant hated quiet.

  "So how many ships do you guys search?" Grant asked the women walking next to him. She looked and smiled at him, it was a friendly smile Grant thought, it was genuine.

  "About four a week on average," she replied. She had a calming voice, one that you would expect a counsellor to have, she had long ginger hair tied back in a ponytail that dropped past her shoulders. She was shorter than average, Grant estimated she stood at just over five foot. She had a satchel which Grant presumed contained scanning gear and held two side arms, one across her chest, the other on her hip. Behind them stood the other searcher, dressed in the same yellow and green uniform, he had a more substantial bag over his shoulders, more scanning gear probably.

  The group walked through the long corridor, the ship itself was a simple layout, deck two, which they were on, was in two sections, engineering took up a quarter of the floor space and the cargo bay the rest. Engineering also had a small part of deck one, which contained the main engine and the central engine cooling column and fuel tank in the aft left corner of the ship.

  After a few minutes of walking and more small talk between Grant and the woman in the search team, they arrived at the entry to the cargo bay. The cargo bay was depressurised most the time as it would waste power, there's no need to provide air to a room full of cargo.

  "Is this an airlock entry?" she asked.

  "Yes, you can use our EV suits if needed?" Grant said. The Michelangelo had various ‘one size fits all' environmental suits.

  "No that's ok thank you, we have a drone that makes our life easier," she said smiling. Grant smiled back, it was more that he was happy to see her smile rather than smiling at what she said, He pressed a button on the airlock which opened the first door, The security that accompanied the search team had positioned themselves either side of the teams, keeping an eye on the corridors. The search team started to unload the drone it was basically a box on wheels, it was about two feet high, two feet long and one foot wide. The drone had various sensor nodes and cameras on the front, it made it look like a head and eyes, it was like a robot dog.

  "Drone is ready, boss," The speaker had a large control unit that hung around his neck, it had a screen and various toggles, switches and movement controls.

  "Get it in Jack" the red-haired women replied.

  "You got it, Janie," Jack said.

  Grant had suppressed his emotions and attempted to suppress his physical response to Janie's presence, he realised that was her name when her colleagues said it. She was extremely attractive, the sort of image Grant would see when he pictured a perfect woman. Granted there was more to it than just looks, but that's all his imagination had focused on, his response was not all sexual attraction, but the genuinely lovely personality she seemed to have. It was easy to assume that all the Yventi boarding party members were like their egotistical Commander Young. Grant watched as Jack moved the drone into the airlock and nodded at Grant to confirm he was ready. Grant moved to the airlock controls and commanded the first door to close and seal, once he established the seal had been made he used the life support systems to drain the oxygen from the airlock, he then opened the second door which would allow the drone to move into the cargo bay itself. Grant saw the video feed appear on a screen on the portable console that Jack used and readouts from the drones various sensors on another screen.

  "The ship is approximately three-hundred metres long, this will take some time," Jack said to Janie.

  "Let me know when it's complete, or you find something interesting." She turned to Grant, "Mr…" she stalled, not knowing Grant's name.

  "Grant McDonald, but please call me Grant," he said to Janie.

  "Grant and I will be reviewing the ships audit log," she said to her team, then turning to Grant she asked, "Do you have a place we can work?"

  "We don't have offices or anything, the closest place with a desk would be my quarters," he realised what he said just as he finished speaking. He'd just invited someone he didn't know, who was currently searching the ship for things that shouldn't be there, under normal circumstances it would be a little less weird but in this case, they did have something to hide on board.

  "Perfect," Janie said which surprised Grant.

  "This way," he said leading Janie to the hatches that will lead them towards the upper decks. He heard movement behind and turned to see one of the guards following, Janie had also noticed.

  "Don't worry Sergeant, I'll be fine." She said tapping her sidearm. He was about to protest, "Stay here, that drone is worth more to the Yventi than I am, that's an order."

  "Yes, ma'am." the Sergeant said snapping to attention.

  "Good. Grant, please lead the way," she said holding her hand up to the direction they were about to walk in. Grant continued to walk, heading for his quarters.

  "What's your name?" Grey asked the leader of the search team he was showing to engineering. He'd asked as soon as they left the airlock.

  "That information is irrelevant to this search," the man said without looking at Grey.

  "Irrelevant, do you treat all newcomers to your space like this. Not a good impression, we come to trade, and
you give us the cold shoulder when we talk, terrible." Grey loved winding up purely military people. They never relaxed when on duty.

  "Mr Grey, the sear…" the man started but was interrupted by Grey.

  "Woah Woah Woah, just Grey,"

  "Excuse me?"

  "My name is Grey, not Mr Grey, just Grey, you got it?"

  "Grey," the man confirmed. "In our space, everyone's a suspect until proven innocent, I do not care about your name until you are innocent."

  "Talk like that is what helped lead to the fall of Earth," Grey replied.

  "Talk like this keeps our space and citizens safe," the man said, to his credit he fully believed what his was saying.

  "Ok, Nancy it is," Grey said. He continued before giving the man a chance to respond, "So Nancy, I would like to make sure you understand that this is my engine room. Anything you wish to look at goes through me, do you understand?" Grey was being assertive, he wanted to make himself more of an alpha than the leader of the search party.

  "Mr Grey," the man paused and correcting himself, "Grey, I need you to realise that impeding the search will most certainly prove your ship's guilt."

  "And if you or your team make a change to a system you don't know, or accidentally do something that causes the wrong mix ratio in the engines that causes an explosion that kills everyone aboard both ships, what then? My engine room, my rules. You will get your full search but under my supervision to keep it safe. Do I make myself clear?"

  "Yes you do, now we must begin."

  "This way, Nancy," Grey led the team towards the entrance to engineering.

  Alex had asked Tina, from security, to keep an eye on the search team that were currently searching decks three and four-room by room, inch by inch. Commander Young had asked the Captain for a private conversation, no doubt he wanted to interrogate him. The Captain led Young to his office, upon entering he motioned for the Commander to have a seat, he made sure Young sat on the visitor's side of the desk, he wanted to keep his physical presence authoritative, which is why he didn't choose a more comfortable setting.

  "Can I get you a drink, Commander?" Alex said moving to where he kept some bottled water.

  "No, I'd like to begin," Young said, in his harsh tone.

  "Very well," Alex poured himself a drink and moved to sit down at his desk.

  "Captain, do you have anything aboard that you shouldn't." Young was staring at Alex, he seemed to be looking down at Alex. To Young, Alex was just another Captain, someone else to bully and feel mighty in front of. Alex had figured out what sort of person Young was, he was someone who had to prove himself to others and more so, himself constantly.

  "No," Alex said quietly, matching Young's stare.

  "You're from Europa, Captain?" Young said, his tone changed, it's like he was attempted to sound friendly.

  "That's correct," Alex responded.

  "What brought you to the other side of inhabited space?" Young asked.

  "A very angry pirate,"

  "You've had dealings with pirates, Captain Harper?"

  "Pursued by," Alex said, his tone expressing his irritation.

  "And your visit to Trulen station?" Young's said sounding more authoritative.

  "Repairs,"

  "Yes, we noticed that your ship had recently undergone major work, must have been expensive?"

  "Very," Alex said, he'd decided to keep his answers as short as possible.

  "You left Trulen empty handed, no cargo. Seems strange for a cargo ship to have no cargo,"

  "As you pointed out repairs are expensive, I had to take a loan out. Trulen does not...,"

  "Trade with people who have an outstanding debt with them," Young interrupted, "Yes I know, a strange policy but it works for them I suppose." Alex saw a different side to Young, a curious side. Young was a military commander who wanted other people to know just that, he had done well to get his own Command at a young age, from what Alex knew of the Yventi Pact it had a small military, enough to defend its own sectors. Yventi never tried to gain more territory they just kept what they had and were happy.

  "You would have traded with Trulen though?" The severe tone was back.

  "I trade with anyone who gives me a good enough price," Alex said, why was he asking about Trulen, did he know something?

  "Does that include criminals, Captain?" Young asked.

  "No,"

  "So the slave runs you did for the Pirate known as Lady Jean were what?" Without knowing the full story, it has got onto the news networks that thousands of slaves had been rescued and sent to Europa.

  "Either you're intentionally changing that well-known story to annoy me, or you really don't know the full story which would surprise me." Alex wasn't going to be played, not on his own ship. He knew Commander Young was looking for cracks.

  "Enlighten me, Captain."

  "We were threatened by Lady Jean, and we fooled her. We managed to drop the slaves off with Europen authorities and ran." Alex said, he was frustrated but tried hard not to show it. He wondered how long this would go on for.

  "But why would you talk to Lady Jean in the first place," Young continued probing.

  "I didn't get a choice!" Alex's ability to control his frustration had reached its end, he snapped at Young. "My ship was drifting, my crew was dying, and Lady Jean towed us to a station and threatened us. She told us to take cargo through Europa, we didn't know what the cargo was so we found out, once we found they were slaves, we then sorted a rendezvous with Europan ships and ran as far as we could after transferring the slaves!" Alex was ready to jump over the desk and make Young's expression a little less smug. "Now if you don't mind Commander Young, I think your questions have become inappropriate, you can be sure I will be putting in a complaint with your government!"

  "Not to worry Captain, I've finished," Young said as he stood up and headed for the exit to Alex's office. Alex let out a relieved sigh, he put his head in his hands and closed his eyes to relax for a moment. He had about ten seconds of quiet when his console beeped alerting him to an urgent message, it was from Nuisance regarding her investigation into the sabotage. He forgot about Nuisance. Hopefully, they wouldn't link her to Trulen.

  Grant opened the hatch to his quarters, once he and Janie were in he closed the hatch and his room was sealed, The Michelangelo was a modular design, quite common for freighter ships, it meant they could expand the ship as required, replace whole rooms easily. A consequence of this, however, was that most the rooms were very square and quite dull. Grant looked to his table where he had two chairs, they could work there, he began to panic when he saw all the mess on the table, old meals, various pads with unfinished work, as well as his augmented reality game, he hoped he had not left one of his more intimate programs running.

  "S-sorry for the mess," Grant said quickly, "I don't get much chance to tidy up."

  "That's okay," Janie said, she then smirked, "It's not every search I do that I get to see one of the crew's underwear." Grant froze, he suddenly wondered if he hadn't put some clothes on this morning, but he realised that was silly, then he noticed what Janie was referring to, he had left yesterday's, dirty clothes on the floor. He quickly bundled them up into a storage compartment he used to store dirty laundry until he could clean it. Water was a limited resource aboard starships so he and the other crew would wait until they are on a station and they could use the facilities there to wash their clothes.

  "Sorry, maybe this wasn't the best place to work," Grant said with a nervous laugh.

  "Don't worry Grant, it's fine," she said as she moved to the table to sit down, Grant's eyes lingered longer than they should have, he eventually told himself to be professional. Grant sat down in the other chair and picked up one of the pads.

  "What do you need to know?" he asked Janie.

  "Oh not much, just a manifest of the cargo please, we want to make sure it matches what the drone finds," Janie said producing her pad as well.

  "I just sent it to your pad, we could have do
ne that in the corridor," Grant said, wondering why they'd bothered to come to his quarters at all.

  "Oh well, we're here now," she said smiling.

  "Forgive me if I am wrong to say this, but you don't seem like you belong on a crew with Commander Young," Grant said, this made Janie chuckle.

  "He is certainly a challenging commander, constantly in need of reassurance that he is in charge," Janie said openly.

  "He'd have your head saying that," Grant said with a chuckle. He noticed how Janie had relaxed more since they'd sat down and begun talking.

  "Yeah but he'll never know," Janie said he tone becoming more friendly. Grant had very quickly become extremely attracted to Janie, she was fun to be around, in the short time they had been talking he knew he wanted to talk a lot more with her. Scenarios started popping into her head, she could join on the Michelangelo, he could go to Yventi. They could do more missions into Yventi space, and they could meet up as much as possible. Grant stopped his mind wandering again and returned his concentration to Janie once more.

  "How long have you worked for Young?" Grant asked, making conversation.

  "About eight months, I was previously stationed on a customs station doing searches, but saw a posting available to a ship on the border and jumped at it. It's good pay, and the ships are not that bad, could be better though" Janie seemed sad when she said the last bit, Grant got a feeling she was not enjoying the border assignment.

  "Well, you never know what life may hold, it may get better," Grant said reassuringly. He didn't know Janie at all, but he felt like he wanted to make her happy as if she was a friend.

  "Maybe, I've got four months left of this assignment, not sure if I'll extend, transfer or leave the military,"

  "To be honest, I've known you less than an hour, and I can already tell you don't want to extend," Grant said bluntly, it was true they'd only just met, but he already knew she was unhappy where she was. He could see the Janie was in deep thought, deciding not to pursue that topic any further he changed the subject.