by Tony Healey
It gave her goosebumps.
“Granted. Tell him to land in the main hangar,” she said. She turned to the bridge crew. “Everybody find relief for your stations. I want you all to come with me.”
She hit the comm. panel. “Chief, Commander … I’ll meet you both in the hangar. There’s something you need to see.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, they stood together behind the glass separating the observation lounge from the main hangar. Her command crew all looking worse for wear but, like the Defiant herself, still in one piece.
They watched as the hangar bay doors opened to admit to the small ship. It was angular, a triangle shape with a smooth dome covering the cockpit. It had huge engines on either side, at the ends of it airfoils. Its landing gear appeared from hatches under its hull and it settled gently down to the deck.
The doors shut and the hangar filled with breathable air. The light above the airlock from the lounge to the hangar changed to green.
“Come on,” King said to them all.
They formed a line in front of the ship. As the dome of the cockpit slid back, they could make out the pilot in his body suit and helmet, all of it black.
Exactly as she remembered.
Commander Greene turned to her. “Captain -“
She put a finger against her lips. “Shhh.”
The pilot climbed down from the ship, removed his gloves.
“Attention!” King barked. They all formed a rigid salute.
Chang looked around. “I don’t know what’s going on here,” she whispered to Ensign Boi.
King heard her, made eye contact. “Something historic,” she said.
The pilot removed his helmet. He looked just like the snapshot of him in the history books. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a scar down his right cheek like the dark trail of a tear.
They all drew in a breath and held it in awe. Captain Gerard “Hawk” Nowlan looked about at them all, then slowly returned the salute.
King cleared her throat. “Gerard Nowlan?”
He nodded, bemused at the way they were acting. “Yeah, that’s me.”
“The Captain Nowlan?” she asked again. To make sure. To make it perfectly clear, for herself as much as the others. Because she didn’t believe it. Not even with him stood there, alive and healthy in front of her. It couldn’t be true.
The pilot broke into a cheeky grin. It was exactly as she remembered the photo of him on Knapfor VI. “Yeah … why d’you look so surprised? You’re the rescue party, ain’t yuh?”
Jessica shook her head. “No, sir. I’m afraid we’re not.”
“I don’t follow,” Nowlan said.
Jessica looked down at the deck, as if it held all the answers for her. She looked back up. “We’re not here to rescue you, sir, because you’ve been missing in action fifty years. Technically sir … you’re dead.”
Nowlan looked from one to the other, to see if it was all some kind of joke. Then he looked about at the ship. It was an old ship from King’s standpoint, but to Nowlan it looked state of the art. New. Advanced. Jessica saw his eyes widen.
“Fifty years? But …” he looked away, lost in thought. Whatever he’d been about to say faded away for the moment. “Anyway, I ain’t got a clue where in the blazes I am. I’m lost here.”
She smiled, despite the weight in her heart.
“And so too are we, it seems.” she said.
PART TWO
COMMANDER
1.
The legend was back from the dead.
Captain Jessica King watched Gerard “Hawk” Nowlan chat with Lieutenant Chang and instantly recognised his toothy grin from the plethora of material available on him when she was in the Academy. It made her head hurt to think about how he could be here, right now, alive and kicking. She doubted he’d been on this side of the black hole more than a few days. If that was the case, then in that short space of time half a century had passed.
A one-way street, she thought. It doesn’t matter whether you can go back or not because if you do there might not be anything left to go back to …
“Everyone?” King said suddenly. “I’d like your attention for a moment.”
They all stopped talking and looked at her.
“I know you’re all as stunned and excited as I am by having Captain Nowlan among us, but it’s been a long day,” she said. “I think it best we resume this after we’ve all got some rest.”
Commander Greene nodded his approval. “Agreed.”
“There will be a meeting of all department heads in the conference room in eight hours time,” she said. “So get your heads down. Dismissed.”
They filed out of the hangar, leaving her and Greene with Nowlan.
“That’s gonna be some meeting,” Greene said with a low whistle.
King rubbed her temple. “Yeah I know.”
Nowlan stood with his hands on his hips. “So, uh …”
“Sorry, Captain Nowlan, I’ve neglected you -” she started to say.
Nowlan put his hands up. “It’s okay, Ma’am, no apology necessary. To tell yuh the truth, it’s all kinda strange. They’re treatin’ me like I’m some kind of … hero or somethin’. I’ve only been missin’ a day.”
King looked at Greene. His eyes warned caution.
“Well, you know … you saved our lives,” she said.
Nowlan shrugged. “All in a day’s work,” he said with a grin.
King shook her head and laughed. “Yeah.”
“Captain, I could show Captain Nowlan -” Greene said.
“Just Hawk,” Nowlan cut in. “If y’all don’t mind.”
“- noted. I could show Hawk to the Ambassador’s quarters,” Green continued.
Jessica nodded. “Good idea. Captain Nowlan, if that’s agreeable with you, then my first officer will show you to your quarters. You could probably do with some rack time yourself I imagine.”
Hawk smiled. “Yuh. Not a bad idea.”
Greene indicated the hangar bay door. “This way sir.”
King watched them go, and then when she was finally alone she turned to Nowlan’s ship. She gazed at the sight before her. As a girl, Jessica had spent hours staring at the poster on her bedroom wall; a photograph of this very ship which had fuelled her inclination to enter the Academy in the first place.
She ran her hand across its pitted surface, where it was inscribed with Speedy above a thunderbolt in yellow. The hangar was practically empty save for a few deckhands going about their duties. Jessica climbed up the side of the ship and stood above the cockpit. She couldn’t allow herself to step down into it.
“This is too strange,” she said aloud.
She didn’t think there was anyone close enough to hear but a voice piped up from the deck. “Sounds strange when you put it that way, sir,” a deckhand said.
Jessica climbed down. He gave her a salute.
“Lieutenant Renfro, Captain,” he said.
She returned the gesture. “Lieutenant, you have the watch right now?”
He nodded. “Yes sir.”
“I want you to make sure nobody comes near this ship. Run your standard routines, but you’re the only one to touch it, you understand?” King told him.
“Yes Captain,” Renfro said.
Satisfied, Jessica headed for the door.
* * *
Jessica set her glass of vodka down when she heard the door chime.
What now? she thought. She’d just started to unwind, finally. She was looking forward to a few precious hours of rest.
“Come,” she said. The door slid open and Commander Greene stood outside with a bottle in his hand.
“Can I come in? I brought a drink,” Greene said. He stepped inside and the door closed behind him.
Jessica picked up her glass and shook it. The vodka sloshed back and forth. “I’ve already got a drink, Commander.”
He waved her away. “Down it will you? I’ve got a real one for you here.”
She mana
ged a smile and made room for him on the sofa. Greene looked around for another glass and then sat next to her.
“Come on,” he pushed her.
Jessica rolled her eyes then knocked the vodka back in one go.
Greene looked surprised. “I’m impressed,” he said, taking the empty glass from her.
He poured them each a double. It was a silky pink liquid. She sniffed it disapprovingly.
“Don’t turn your nose up, sir. This stuff costs a lot of money,” Greene said.
“What is it?” Jessica said, making a face.
“It’s pink,” Greene said. He clinked his glass against hers and downed it in one. Jessica did the same. It was oily, and had a medicinal aftertaste. But it was strong. Already she could feel it hit up against the vodka.
“It’s got a bite,” she said with a grimace. “So is this what you came here for, Commander? To get me drunk?”
Greene laughed. “No ma’am. Just to see if a friend of mine is okay. You might know her. She’d hard-headed and stubborn.”
“Cheeky sod,” Jessica said.
“Only joking. But really, you okay? It’s been a long couple of days,” Greene said.
Jessica sighed. “Yes it has.”
She became aware of him looking at her, trying to gauge whether or not she was showing signs of stress.
“Del, I’m all right. Really. I just need to grab some shut eye,” she said.
Greene nodded his approval. He poured them both another measure of the pink stuff. “Right then. Well, drink that and I’ll be on my way.”
They downed their drinks together. Greene got up.
“Thanks for dropping by, Del. I appreciate it.”
He shrugged. “It’s nothing.”
“Del, I meant to say earlier. As soon as you’re able I’d like you to compile a list of the missing in action, and killed in action. That way we’ll know the sort of losses we’re looking at,” King said.
Del nodded. “Yes Captain. Good night.”
Jessica watched Greene leave, then sat back down. To her right the blue gas of the nebula floated past. She sat looking at it for a while, then leaned back against the sofa and closed her eyes.
I’ll rest them for a minute, she thought.
Then she fell asleep.
2.
Once more, the singularity consumed the Defiant. She felt herself get pulled in all directions at once. Everything torn apart. Ripped away from her. She would have screamed, but she had no mouth. No voice. Even in the dream, she was nothing and everything all at once.
“We can give you a life, give you a purpose,” Singh said.
Jess shook her head. “I’m not good enough. I’ve tried already. I don’t have what it takes.”
Singh tilted her head up, his hand under her chin. “With my help you will have. If you’ll trust me …”
Jessica by his side as he perished.
Tears streamed down her face.
Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Please don’t go, please.”
Captain Singh shook his head slowly. Smiled. “Jess … We each have our time. My own is at an end …”
“No …” she managed to say.
Singh reached up, stroked the side of her face. “Now it is your turn to do as much as you can with the time you have …”
He smiled again, then his eyes seemed focus on something far away. The light in them faded. Singh’s hand fell away from hers and the sound of his last breath issued slowly from between his lips.
“No …”
Everyone was around her, even Singh, then she was alone.
Floating in a sea of black. A never-ending night, devoid of stars. A miniature Starbase 6 hung suspended in front of her like a child’s mobile, spinning as if on a string. Then, seconds later it exploded. She shielded her eyes.
Then she saw the Defiant, no more than a foot long, and hundreds of tiny people falling from it like confetti. “My people,” she said.
She reached out to try and catch them. They fell through her fingers like grains of sand. She cried out. “Come back!”
There was an emergency klaxon, an alarm.
She turned toward the sound. Tears ran down her cheeks. Hot, like the heart of suns. They were everything she felt, everything she held contained within. Something she couldn’t share with anyone but herself, in the ruin of her own nightmare.
The sound grew louder.
BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP -
3.
- BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP
She woke to find herself still on the sofa, the computer alarm buzzing from somewhere in her quarters.
BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP
“All right, all right. I’m up.”
The noise stopped. She got up slowly and stretched. The used glasses were still on the side, and her head ached a little from the drink. Whatever the pink liquid was, it was strong. She’d not fallen asleep on the sofa for a long time.
She went to the bathroom and showered. Freshly scrubbed, with clean hair and a crisp uniform, Jess imagined the past two days washed down the drain. She checked the time and decided to walk the ship before her meeting. A first-hand look at the damage and progress of the repairs would help her plot her next move. She checked the time and saw she had plenty of time to get around the ship and see what sort of shape they were in.
King left her quarters and as she walked along the corridor outside, she thought about how critical the next couple of days would be, not only to her, but to the crew. They needed a leader, and whether some of them agreed or disagreed, she was the designated replacement of Captain Singh. Regardless of what anyone else might think, she knew she’d earned it. Singh would’ve agreed with her. He’d trained her for it.
To get through this, they will need to accept that I’m in charge, and that I’ll do my very best to keep them safe and well.
Secretly her decision to Jump without coordinates dogged her.
There was no other choice, she told herself. You can’t second-guess something you had no control over. It was either Jump or die. We jumped.
King knew there’d be crew who’d resent her for making such a decision. Regardless of the fact that in her shoes they would have been forced to make the same choices.
The joy of making the right choice … and the guilt of making the wrong one. They’re both yours, she thought.
“Talk about the short end of the straw,” she said aloud as she climbed the ladder to the deck above. She was thankful there was nobody about to hear her.
* * *
Regardless of everything that had happened, and was happening, the repair teams aboard the Defiant were doing their very best to get the old girl back in shape.
The decks exposed to the vacuum remained sealed off for the time being, but when King visited munitions she found it looked vastly different to before. All of the debris had been removed, and the hull breaches dealt with. The fire-damage was isolated and repaired, and she could see where whole new panels had been installed in the place of old burned-out ones.
“How we doing?” she asked as she surveyed the repair teams efforts. An Ensign shot her a quick salute.
“Yeah, fine Captain. In another six hours we should have all tubes operational again,” he said.
“Good,” King said. “You must have worked around the clock.”
“Can’t leave the old girl defenceless,” he said.
“Well, you should be proud of yourselves. Where is Lieutenant Swogger? Is he around?” she asked, looking about.
“The Lieutenant has gone for some rack time,” the Ensign said. “To be honest, sir, I don’t think he’s stopped since the explosion.”
King nodded. “Understandable. Very good. I’ll catch up with him later.”
She walked away and passed the spot where Singh had died in her arms. A tightness wrapped its arms about her chest, but the sensation passed the minute she walked into the corridor outside. She’d allow herself time to grieve, but not now.
* * *
Some of t
he ship’s corridors were in worse shape than others. She passed through several that were virtually untouched by the battles they’d been through. Others were still littered with debris, fallen circuitry, broken piping. She stepped over a pool of dried blood on the deck of one corridor, her mind instantly flashing back to Singh and then to Del when he’d been thrown across the bridge during the initial battle with Sepix.
Several crew saluted her as she made her way to the engineering section. She wasn’t surprised to find Chief Gunn there. “Have you even slept, Chief?”
Gunn turned around, gave a sloppy salute. Jessica didn’t mind.
“I got a few hours,” she said.
King rolled her eyes. “Yeah right.”
The Chief directed two crewmen as they replaced a section of piping.
“Easy fellas. Remember, we don’t have spares,” she said.
“How’s it going down here?” King asked.
“Oh, okay. We’re getting there. The damage looks worse than it is. I’d say that we’re in worse shape structurally than we are internally. You’ve seen the decks that have been sealed off?” Gunn said.
King nodded.
“They’re the big jobs. We’re not going to be able to save all of those decks, Captain. There isn’t the replacement material for it. It might be a case of us repairing the hull plating to half of them and leaving the rest open to space,” Gunn said.
“Wow, that bad?” King asked.
“If we were in dock, I wouldn’t even worry about it. But we just don’t have the material to go around,” Gunn said.
“Okay, noted. Listen, Chief, I wanted to say that I know it got a little heated at times. Don’t take it personally,” King said.
“Not a problem,” Gunn said.
“Well, thanks for all your hard work, Chief,” King said. She looked around. “You’re doing a fine job.”
The two crewmen fumbled with the replacement, and the Chief snapped.
“I said be careful! Don’t you two listen? I could do that repair on my own!”
Jessica laughed. “Chief, I’ll leave you to it. See you at the meeting.”
