Dark Running (Fourth Fleet Irregulars Book 4)

by S J MacDonald

  ‘There will, given another half hour, be at least ten organisations represented down there. Liberty League, of course, will rush people here in force, many of them students. They have an admirably well organised rapid response system, signalling all their activist members whenever there’s a call to action stations, laying on buses and bringing in the mobile publicity unit. They, of course, campaign against us on the grounds of their belief that we abuse our crew and are using prisoners as expendable in dirty operations. See the ones in the red tabards? That’s Families Against the Fourth, a splinter group of Justice Now. They campaign against us on the grounds of their belief that we are releasing dangerous criminals from prison, giving them a champagne lifestyle at public expense, and allowing them to run riot and rampage, endangering respectable citizens.

  ‘Over there is Justice Now, you can always spot them by the yellow placards. In the usual way of splinter groups and their parent organisations, FAF and Justice Now will certainly be shouting abuse at one another very shortly, if indeed they are not doing so already. Also somewhere in the mix will be Greenstar, who remain convinced that we carry out experiments on animals aboard our ship, regardless of all assurance to the contrary. None of them are a problem, really – they may be noisy and occasionally spit or throw food, but they are legitimate, responsible organisations. Over there, though, where you can see the police forming a much stronger cordon, that will be the local branch of Human Frontier, racist thugs hoping to get a real riot started. If this goes according to form, we will also have representatives of First Contact, campaigning for us to admit that aliens are visiting our worlds. They tend to feature in the ‘and also’ coverage, particularly when they lay claim to alien abduction, telepathic communication with aliens or having seen aliens shopping at the mall. Beyond that, there will be several organisations who don’t really have any particular issue with the Fourth, but are very keen indeed to get even a few seconds of airtime to publicise issues they do feel very strongly about, like People Against Poverty, racing people in to grab camera time saying, ‘I don’t know why these people are wasting time protesting against the Fourth when there are very much bigger issues in our society,’ a point of view I have a good deal of sympathy with, myself.

  ‘The people you can see over there are members of the public, massing under the Human Gravity Principle that the bigger a crowd of onlookers becomes, the more attractive it becomes to other people. At a certain point, when it reaches critical mass, local politicians will appear to grab airtime for their own agendas.

  ‘You might hear people talking about this casually, joking, and it does all look quite harmless from up here, doesn’t it? Mildly amusing, even. But go down there and walk outside, Ms Lucas, and there will be nothing amusing about it whatsoever. You can’t even make out words amongst the yelling fury that comes at you, it’s just a wall of hatred roaring at you.

  ‘And what you have to understand, in that, is that once you are identified as a member of the Fourth, you may face that hatred coming at you anytime, anywhere. Facial recognition systems may pick you out, even if you’re out of uniform and doing the ‘hat and shades’ routine. And if you are spotted, either by a journalist or some activist scoping where they suspect members of the Fourth might be, you will have that coming at you, right in your face, till security can grab you out. We have found it necessary, even, to run risk assessments on people’s families, providing Protection of Privacy Orders and security support as needed. Anyone joining the Fourth, even on secondment, must consider those issues very seriously, responsibly, in making that decision.’

  He paused for a moment, letting her think about that as she gazed down on the storm of protest gathering below. Then he turned away from the window, himself, giving her an evaluating look. She looked, he saw, interested, taking it all in, unconcerned.

  ‘Sir,’ she acknowledged, and seeing that he expected rather more of a response than that, ‘I have, I assure you, considered very seriously and responsibly before making the decision to apply for placement with you. I am not dismissing security concerns, sir, really not. However, with respect, sir, I do not recall any clause in the oath of service where it says, ‘feel free to opt out if things get difficult or dangerous’.’

  It was a good answer – the kind of answer Alex might well have given himself. He could see she meant it, too, so nodded, satisfied that she really did understand enough to be making an informed decision.

  ‘All right,’ he said. ‘But there is one other matter. I am unable to tell you the nature of the operations we’ll be undertaking, even if I wanted to, as I do not know them myself. I can, however, tell you that they are likely to be a long-haul mission. There is no guarantee that we will be able to get you off the ship at the end of your placement, so you’ll be taking a chance, in that, of being with us for the duration. Even if we can drop you at a port or swing you aboard a liner, it’s probable that you would not get back to Chartsey in time for graduation.’

  That would be a big issue for most cadets – families would come from all over the League for the graduation ceremony, which was every bit as grand as two thousand years of tradition could engender. There would be bands, a dress parade, a glory of VIPS, speeches. As Top Cadet, Tina Lucas herself would be expected to give the valedictorian address. It was supposed to be the proudest moment of a young officer’s life.

  Tina smiled – briefly, and she got it under swift control, but not before Alex had seen and understood the mischievous hope that she would be out in deep space with them, avoiding that.

  ‘I’m not concerned about missing the ceremony, sir,’ she assured him. ‘Gaining a commission is a means to an end, not an end in itself.’

  He wondered if she was quoting deliberately from his own valedictorian speech of ten years ago, and looking at her innocent expression, decided that she probably was. Though it was, indeed, the kind of clichéd remark that got trotted out at every graduation. He never had been any kind of hand at public speaking.

  ‘All right,’ he said again, and this time, nodded. ‘I’ll be heading back to the base in a few minutes – you can wait outside and come with me.’

  A flush of pleasure flooded her cheeks and she put snappy delight into her salute.

  ‘Thank you, sir!’

  Jen chuckled, once the door had closed behind her, walking over to stand at the window with Alex and looking down, too.

  ‘Weird how quickly you get used to that,’ she observed. ‘I do remember a time when mobs of screaming activists didn’t thunder out of nowhere at us, but it’s just become normal now; routine.’

  Alex nodded. The trick to coping with it, he’d discovered, was not to take it personally, to recognise that there really was nothing he could do or say that would change what those people believed and accept, philosophically, that this was just the way things were. Even so, Alex would be glad to get back into space, back in the environment that he considered home. Two months on any planet, he felt, was more than enough. And, as he sent orders to security to have Cadet Officer Lucas given clearance as a serving member of the Fourth, he smiled in anticipation. She might or might not turn out to be more use than nuisance, professionally. But one thing he was sure of; having her aboard was going to be fun.

  Four

  ‘Alex – good to see you, dear boy!’

  It was hardly a conventional greeting from a Fleet officer to his skipper, but then, Buzz Burroughs never had been conventional. He was, at seventy, the oldest officer still on shipboard service. He was only middle aged in groundside terms, but the Fleet had generally faded officers into groundside roles by then, regarding space duties as best carried out by the young.

  Alex grinned back at him, accepting a fatherly pat on the shoulder.

  ‘You too,’ he replied, and asked, ‘Good leave?’

  ‘Lovely,’ Buzz assured him. Many of the Fourth had family scattered across the League. Knowing that they’d have this long leave once they got back from Novamas, many of them had sent trav
el warrants so that their families could come to Therik for a visit. More than twenty of Buzz’s own family had blitzed in from Flancer, renting a house of their own to get Buzz right away from the base.

  Alex hadn’t minded that, even though he knew that they were doing their best to persuade Buzz that it was time for him to retire and come back home to Flancer with them. He hadn’t even minded knowing that Buzz’s family was hostile to him – they were quite obviously of the view that if they so much as allowed Buzz to call him for a chat, Alex would be hauling him back to work. They’d clung on to him jealously till the very last moment, too, parting from him only when he had to head up to report aboard ship. Buzz’s happy beam, however, was proof enough that he too couldn’t wait to get back out into space.

  ‘Hello.’ Buzz had noticed Tina Lucas, standing next to Alex. She had become a fixture there over the last five days. Finding that she had already – naturally – completed the transfer training required of Fleet personnel joining the Fourth, Alex had said that she could shadow him until Commander Burroughs came back to work. He, as the Exec, would be responsible for organising her schedule. It was apparent from his startled look at seeing a cadet next to the captain, and wearing Fourth’s uniform too, that Buzz Burroughs really had been kept totally out of the loop by his loving family. Alex wouldn’t have thought that there was any spacer in the system by now who didn’t know that Cadet Lucas was doing her final year placement with them, but it was evidently a surprise to Buzz.

  ‘Cadet Officer Lucas,’ Alex introduced them, and explained, ‘She is doing her placement with us.’

  Buzz’s face lit up. He had already told Alex that he found it strange and a little sad that their ship was to be excluded from the traditions of Snotty Season. He beamed at Tina with genuine pleasure, not a thought given to the extra workload her presence would generate.

  ‘Excellent!’ he said, assuming that the First Lord had changed his mind for some reason, which he would no doubt find out about later. For now, he just gave her a handshake and a beaming smile. ‘Welcome aboard, dear girl.’

  ‘Sir.’ Tina acknowledged. That, though, was all the time they had right then for conversation – other officers were already following Buzz through the airlock, while the Lt in command of the port-watch crew was standing nearby, trying not to look anxious.

  There were procedures for taking back a ship that had been laid into port-watch, so they wasted no time in getting to work. Alex and Buzz had to inspect the ship before handover, just in case, as Buzz observed, someone had walked off with an engine while they were away. Other officers had their own checklists to work through, and it was the better part of an hour before Alex was able to certify that the ship was in good order, everything just as he’d left it, and relieve the Lt of his port-watch command.

  The Lt – one of Jen Mackada’s officers, not a member of the Fourth himself – departed along with his crew, leaving Alex back in possession of his ship. Within minutes, shuttles were plying back and forth between the ship and base, bringing the rest of the officers and crew. The frigate, so eerily deserted under port watch, came alive again as people surged aboard, found their bunks, unpacked kit and caught up with their mates.

  For twenty one of them, though, this was a whole new environment, as they were joining the ship for the first time. Eight of their officers and thirteen crew had left the ship on their return to Therik, going back to their assignments in the regular Fleet. In their place, they had another batch of high achievers on secondment.

  Alex welcomed each of them as they came to the command deck for the ritual salute and signing aboard. He was formal about it, leaving it to Buzz to do the warm chatty handshakes. He would get to know all of them over the next few days, but for now, it was better just to give them time to settle in and start to do their jobs. Most of them, he knew, would fit in very well, coming aboard with a very positive energy and enthusiasm.

  The notable exception to that was Lt Commander Sartin. There was, in every batch of supernumerary officers, at least one officer Alex would not have chosen himself, as if to make the point that he could not have everything his own way. In Lt Commander Sartin’s case it was very obviously a political appointment. He was unusually senior to be serving a tour on secondment with them, for a start – most of their secondment officers were Subs, with an occasional Lt requested by Alex for particular fields of expertise. He had not asked for Mr Sartin, though acknowledged that they did stand in some need of his field of expertise. Lt Commander Sartin was an Internal Affairs inspector specialising in finance. He had spent the previous two years on assignment aboard the flagship carrier, Zeus.

  Anyone in the Fleet would recognise at once from that exactly what was going on with his appointment. Zeus’s captain was one of Lord Admiral Jennar’s allies, Old School to the bone. Pressure had obviously been applied at the Admiralty level to get Lt Commander Sartin assigned. It might be cynical to assume that his intention was to gather evidence that Lord Admiral Jennar could use against them, but Alex felt pretty sure that that was in fact why he was there. He was to become their Second Lieutenant. Now that Alex was a captain, he was entitled to a flag exec, meaning an executive officer who was not scheduled to take watches on a regular basis. Martine Fishe, therefore, would now be the First Lieutenant. Lt Commander Sartin had taken the Second Lieutenancy, on the basis of having considerable seniority over Lt Very Vergan, their Third.

  Alex wasn’t worried – he had already satisfied himself that Jonas Sartin was not of the fanatical breed. He might well disapprove of virtually everything they did and how they did it, but he was real Old School, so would keep his opinions to himself. He could be relied upon to carry out his duties with quiet, professional efficiency. As for gathering evidence against them, as far as Alex was concerned he was very welcome to do so – pretty much everything that happened on the ship was a matter of record anyway, and it wasn’t as if they had anything to hide.

  Alex was pleased to see, at least, how Mr Sartin responded to meeting Shion. She was almost dancing with excitement as she came back aboard, delighted to see everyone again and to meet the new people. Alex had half an eye on how they reacted to being introduced. Some of them were rather tongue-tied, gazing at her in rather obvious wonderment, but most were just as excited as she was, frankly thrilled to meet her. Shion quickly had them at their ease with her, too, joking about what she called ‘the alien princess thing’.

  She was not, in fact, a princess in any human cultural terms. As she’d explain herself, patiently, she had been of very minor importance on her homeworld even before she’d quit her job, and the titles that went with it, to come exploring in the League. The only title she used now, and the only one that had any significance for her, was that of Sub-lt.

  Jonas Sartin was evidently well prepared for meeting her. His calm, courteous manner was exactly the same with her as with every other junior officer being introduced to him. Nothing in his manner betrayed any sign that he might find her superhuman intellect intimidating. It was almost as if he didn’t know that she was alien.

  She certainly didn’t look alien – tall, slender and graceful, she would be accepted as human in any company. She was attractive, too. Her complexion was richly black, her features delicate and her eyes warm and dark under their thin arched brows. Her hair was cropped into a youthful geometric style, her manner cheerful and confident. Only displaying her multi-cognitive intelligence or super-fast reflexes would give her away – that, or someone realising that her physique was so very different internally that her heart was where her liver would be in a human, beating with a slow triple thump.

  In this company, though, she did not need to pretend to be human. Anyone listening to her conversation with Buzz would realise that she was not an ordinary officer, as she told him enthusiastically about her adventures on leave.

  ‘We had so much fun,’ Shion enthused, in response to Buzz’s enquiry as to how she’d enjoyed her leave. ‘Your worlds are amazing, just so much t
o see, so much that’s beautiful and so much that’s appalling or just bonkers. We saw birds in a park, you know – ducks. I love ducks! And we called in at the university to look at the students.’ A peal of laughter. ‘They were fun! And we went to Cosmos Park – I ate candyfloss and threw up. Isn’t vomiting weird? Never done that before. And we grav-dived off a sky tower and went to a pie factory and oh, so much – I’ll tell you all about it, later.’

  She was obviously aware of how busy he was, with all the screens open in front of him and several calls awaiting his attention. She was also looking at the bank of screens on a side bulkhead which gave views of all the working areas around the ship. This was one of the Fourth’s most controversial innovations, an open-comms system which enabled anyone aboard to watch and listen in on what was happening on the command deck, whilst at the same time allowing the officers there to keep an eye on what was going on throughout the ship. Shion could take all that in with one glance, identifying everyone and what they were doing. Her attention, though, focussed in on engineering, where Alex was in discussion with Morry Morelle, their engineer. Tina Lucas was standing next to him, making notes on a comp. ‘Oh, is that her?’ she asked, with ungrammatical enthusiasm. Then, answering her own question as she saw the cadet insignia on the girl’s uniform, she looked at Buzz with yearning hope. ‘Do I get to be her oppo?’

  Buzz smiled. Shion’s status was rather irregular, given that she had never been to a Fleet Academy or officially graduated as an officer. She had been given honorary League citizenship by the President, and signed into service with the Fourth on an honorary basis, too, undertaking duties at Alex’s discretion. She was, however, accepted by all of them as a working officer, carrying out all the duties of a junior Sub. It was Fleet custom to assign any newcomer to the ship an ‘oppo’, someone of equivalent rank who would be responsible for settling them in. In the case of cadets on placement, that role was traditionally taken by the most junior Sub aboard. And that, in terms of length of service, was Shion.