“Feel free to personalize it as you will, within reason of course. I want you to feel at home during your tour with us. Your record preceded you, of course, and I am looking forward to working with you, Commander. A strong executive officer makes any captain look so much better,” he told her through a broad smile. “Get settled. There is a meet and greet for the new officers at 1600 hours in the Officers Lounge, followed by dinner for the senior staff in the Captain’s Mess.”
Willoughby shook her hand warmly once more, and left. Left alone for the moment, Sarah took stock of her new situation; as she took stock of her surroundings. “Pretty posh digs,” she thought. “If I’d known they lived this well, I’d have pushed to make exo the day after I enlisted,” she joked to herself.
At 1555 she left her quarters heading for the meet and greet, still wearing her travel uniform. In the corridor she ran into Peter Preston. “Well look at you, Ensign,” she said, then checking to see that the corridor was empty, she grabbed him and gave him a great hug. “Good for you, Peter. I knew you had it in you – have it in you,” she told him. It was only as she let go of him that Sarah noticed that he was in his dress uniform.
“Didn’t the captain tell you that it was formal?” Peter asked, when she expressed her surprise. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled Peter back into her quarters.
“My dress blues are in there.” She indicated her travel bag. “Get them out and run them through the auto-press, please,” she instructed him as she began peeling of her current uniform. When Peter stood transfixed for a moment, his mouth slightly agape at what he was seeing. “C’mon, Peter, you’ve seen it all before, and from a less flattering angle, too,” she reminded him.
Peter shook off his shocked stupor as her last piece of clothing hit the floor, and Sarah dashed into the sonic shower. He found the dress uniform in her travel bag, and fed it into the auto-press to be freshened up and pressed. He also dug out some fresh undergarments to go with the, now immaculate, dress uniform. When, two minutes later, Sarah emerged from the shower she appreciated his anticipation of her needs.
“Now that’s initiative!” she quipped with emphasis, as she jumped into her uniform. Even though, as she reminded him, Peter had seen it all before, he still averted his gaze as Sarah dressed. Before they left her quarters, she gave him a thank you peck on the cheek. By now quite used to relating to Sarah as his superior, Peter was taken aback.
Realizing the reason for his surprise Sarah said, “That wasn’t a kiss from your exo, but a sign of gratitude from your friend,” adding, “both for your assistance and your gallantry. She smiled warmly, and, in spite of himself, Peter smiled back.
Then, as they emerged from her quarters, they were all business. If anyone had passed by at that moment they would have never given a moment’s thought to the fact that the new exo and the newly assigned ensign were in her quarters together.
As they arrived at the Officers Lounge they were, once again, met by Captain Willoughby. “Commander, Ensign, I see that you have already met on the way here.” He smiled at them both. “And Commander, I see that you guessed that dress blues were expected, I only realized a moment ago I forgot to tell you that this was a formal gathering.” Sarah sensed a slight tension in his remark.
“You can thank Ensign Preston for alerting me to that fact. You see Preston and I were at the Academy together, and I recommended his candidacy at Officer Candidate training. I was anxious to congratulate him on his success. When I saw him in dress blues I realized my error of dress and dashed back to my quarters to change.” She smiled broadly at Peter.
Willoughby also smiled at Peter, “Thank you, Ensign, for helping to correct my oversight. Come along, both of you, grab a glass of bubbly. It’s time for the traditional welcome toast.” He indicated the bar along the back wall and faded off into the crowd until it was time for him to make the toast.
As they picked up their drinks at the bar, Sarah purposely reached beyond Peter so that her mouth was close to his ear. “I can’t explain just now, but I may have put you into the captain’s crosshairs. I’ll explain later. For now, you need to watch your six.” In response Peter gave her an almost imperceptible nod.
It wasn’t until a day or two later that Sarah was able to “run into” Peter in a more or less isolated area of the ship. She didn’t go into all the details of her meeting with Admiral Porter, but she did tell Peter that their chance meeting and his help in her quarters the other day had probably put Peter in the captain’s bad books for foiling his plan to embarrass her at the reception, as she was sure that was what it was. He could have told her from the start that it was a formal reception.
“I’m sorry, Peter. I may have put you in harm’s way just for being my friend.” She said.
“That’s ok, Commander. That’s what friends are for. Besides, I wouldn’t have been there to help if you hadn’t sent me off to OC training.” He grinned. “Look at the dumb Knocker kid now. I’m an officer on a Corps Jump-three ship. That’s because of you, Commander.”
“No, Peter, it’s because you earned it – dumb Knocker my ass!” she said emphatically. “You were officer material from the start. I just pointed you in the right direction.”
“I still owe you anyway,” Peter told her earnestly. “You started everything that night when you didn’t kill me.”
“We do have quite a history, don’t we, Ensign?” Sarah smiled.
“Yes ma’am,” Peter smiled back. Then a bit more hesitantly he asked, “Permission to ask a very personal question, ma’am?”
“Go ahead, Peter. And if it is that personal you can call me by name.”
Sarah looked at Peter. His face was almost crimson with embarrassment. He began “When I joined the Corps they gave me a full physical, that included fixing any bones that had been previously broken, and repairing any scars that I had.” Peter faltered before continuing hesitantly, “I hope that you won’t be mad at me for noticing, but the other day as you were jumping into the shower I noticed that you didn’t have most of the scars I saw that night…”
“How can I be angry, when your sense of modesty is so strong?” Sarah commented. “Nudity was never a hang-up for me.”
“Well, it’s just that I noticed that they left the scar on your butt.”
“Yeah, I wanted to keep that one.” Sarah seemed to get a faraway look on her face. “Mandy accidentally gave me that one. I was practicing with my shuriken, throwing stars. I was working on my accuracy when banking them off other surfaces. Only, I forgot to lock the door of the practice room. Mandy opened the door just as I was banking a shot off it. The shuriken bounced just as I had planned, but the new angle sent it right into my butt. It’s the last thing that she ever ‘gave’ me. It’s special.”
When he saw the look on her face, Peter apologized. “Sorry, Sassy, I didn’t mean to bring up sad memories.”
“Don’t worry, Peter. Where Mandy is concerned, there is only one unhappy memory, but I do miss her, a lot!”
For the next few months Captain Willoughby kept up the façade of cooperating with his executive officer, while constantly putting Sarah into positions that could have made her look bad; even affect her record. Most of the time Sarah saw through the attempt and was able to avoid it, minimalize the importance of the situation, or turn it back on the captain himself.
Peter, too, proved that having been a “dumb Knocker kid” had its advantages. In the zone you had to be constantly watching your back. It seemed that in some ways it was the same in Stellar Corps. He was never sure if the orders came from the captain, or from elsewhere in the chain of command, but they invariably were made to look as if they came from the exo. For Peter that was often the red flag that allowed him to avoid embarrassment, or worse.
As with Sarah, there was usually a way to sidestep the trouble or turn it back on its source. If anything, whether because he was much lower down the chain of command, or simply because of his zone instincts, Peter was actually better at dodging the hit
than Sarah.
It all came to a head at once when the Pegasus received her assignment to patrol the League’s frontier with the Galoran Empire. From the moment the assignment came through the hairs on the back of Sarah’s neck stood up. While the header on the message said that the orders were cut at Corps Station 15, Sarah dug deeper and found that their actual origin was Earth Command. The orders were issued to Base 15 by Admiral Porter.
Knowing this, Sarah did two things. First she quietly contacted Captain Grissom and apprised him of the situation.
“You’re right, Commander, it is strange. Again, Porter is seemingly getting into areas that are outside his jurisdiction. Are you sure about this?”
“Very sure, Captain,” Sarah assured Grissom. “I have learned a lot in space that they didn’t teach at the Academy; like how to do research without it being logged, or contact people without the call being monitored, or appearing in the official COMM log.” She smiled at Grissom’s mild look of surprise.
“I shouldn’t be so surprised,” he told her. “Commander Sarah Maloney is still ‘Sassy the Hunter’. Your instincts are still great.
“I’m going to ask some discrete questions at this end, and lay some ground work in case this is the trap we suspect it to be.”
“Thank you, Sir. I’ll keep my eyes open here, and take some measures as well. Be careful, if this is a trap they’ll be none too gentle with anyone who is on my side. As you told me, Thom, watch your six.”
Grissom smiled. That was the first time she had ever called him by his first name; even if it was not exactly Corps protocol. “Well I guess that is what co-conspirators do,” he thought, as he closed the connection.
When the suspected plan was initiated Sarah recognized it immediately. The scenario outlined by Admiral Porter that day in his office began to unfold. In her morning briefs from Corps she noticed that there was an entry mentioning the possibility that they may have to deal with a Breten refugee ship that was trying to evade capture or destruction by Galoran forces. The Bretens were on a heading that was expected to intersect with the Pegasus’ new patrol route.
Sarah relayed this information to Captain Willoughby at their morning briefing. His immediate response was to put the ship on high alert. He ordered the tactical officer to scan particularly for Breten ships.
Just after 1300 hours Ensign Parker reported scanner contact with a small Breten ship running at high warp. Long range scans confirmed that a Galoran destroyer was closing, but was still far enough behind that the Bretens would make League space before the Galorans intercepted them.
Willoughby immediately emerged from his ready room and took the con from Sarah. “Sound General Quarters” he ordered. “All weapons to bear on that ship.”
Sarah surveyed the bridge. Most of the crew on duty were not new, and didn’t seem too surprised at the captain’s order. It was Peter who questioned it.
“Sir?” was all he said.
“You disagree, Ensign, then, you’re relieved. Lieutenant Rogers take over.”
Sarah could see the set-up unfolding. Rogers moved to replace Peter at the tactical station. As Peter vacated the chair, Sarah gave him a nod and he hesitated near the door to the lift.
The captain turned to the communications officer. “Sissons, open a channel to the Breten ship.”
“Channel open” Lieutenant Sissons responded”
“Breten vessel, you are approaching the sovereign space of the League of Systems, do not attempt to enter our territory or you will be fired upon.”
Sarah noted that the captain was careful not to identify himself or the ship over an open com channel.
The Breten ship slowed a bit, but didn’t stop or deviate from her course. At current speed, she would still make League space before she was intercepted by the Galoran destroyer. When Willoughby saw that she was still on course he ordered Rogers to fire a warning shot across her bow. That’s when Sarah stepped in.
“Lieutenant Rogers, belay that order,” she commanded. Then turning to the captain, she said, “Captain Willoughby, under Section 601.1 of Stellar Corps regulations I am relieving you of your command for actions contrary to the laws of the League of Systems…”
“How dare you,” Willoughby exploded, as he advanced on Sarah menacingly.
“Don’t even think it, Captain,” she responded, her voice calm and even. Again, she nodded at Peter, who drew his sidearm, a handheld PPC. “Relieve the captain of his sidearm, if you will, Mr. Preston.”
“Aye, Captain,” Peter responded emphasizing Sarah’s assumed rank.
Sarah turned again to Willoughby. “Captain, you are relieved of command, and it is my duty to place you under arrest,” she continued.
“Escort him to the brig,” she told Peter.
Again he answered, “Aye, Captain.”
“Sissons, alert security, have them assist Ensign Preston in escorting Captain Willoughby to the brig. Then, open a channel to the Bretens.
Sissons did as she was told. A moment later she reported, “Channel open, Captain.” The relief in her voice was audible.
Sarah raised her voice slightly. “Breten vessel, this is Acting Captain Sarah Maloney of the LSS Pegasus. Ignore our previous transmission. Continue on your chosen course, if that is your intention. You will not be molested.”
Lieutenant Rogers reported that the refugee ship had resumed its original speed, as a squad of SPs entered the bridge and fell in alongside Peter as he directed Willoughby to the lift.
No sooner had Rogers confirmed the increase in the Breten’s speed when he reported that the Galorans had also increased their speed. “All scans indicate that both are pushing their engines beyond tolerance. It will be a race to see who gets here first.”
“Charge battle shields to one hundred and twenty percent. Helm, bring us to within a hundred thousand kilometers of the frontier. If the Breten ship makes it into League space, I want you to put us between them and the Galorans.
“Rogers, stand ready. It’s not unknown for the Galorans to fire upon a fleeing ship even if it is in League space. If they do, we are not only going to protect that ship; we will return fire.”
“Ma’am?” Rogers responded, surprised.
“Our orders are not to interfere so long as a refugee ship is still in Galoran space. If, however, they get across the frontier, then our orders are to render all necessary aid,” she explained, adding, “If they do open fire, and we are in between them and the Bretens, then they would be firing on us; that deserves a very strong response.”
“Aye, Captain,” was all Rogers said turning back to his console. “Shields at one-twenty percent of maximum,” he reported a moment later. “All tubes loaded and ready, all PPCs charged.
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
The next few minutes were tense as the Breten refugees inched closer to the frontier, with the Galoran destroyer still in pursuit. Scanners showed them arming weapons as the Bretens passed into League space. As ordered, the helm officer manoeuvred the Pegasus into position between the Bretens and the frontier. The Galorans continued on-course.
“Sissons, give them the standard warning,” Sarah ordered.
“Warning sent, Captain,” Sissons reported.
The Galorans continued on, until they reached the frontier. Just as it appeared as though they were actually going to cross into League space, the ship cut its engines and turned aside; returning the way it came at greatly reduced speed. A cheer went up on the Pegasus’ bridge.
“Mr. Rogers, maintain General Quarters for now.” Sarah commanded. “They may have had an Axia-class vessel along for the ride. We’re not sure if they can fire when cloaked, and I’d rather not find out the hard way. We’ll maintain alert status until we deliver the Bretens to Corps Base 15.”
“Lieutenant Sissons, institute a ship-wide hail. Inform the crew of Captain Willoughby’s arrest. Tell the Officer of the Day that he is to have no visitors without my prior authorization.”
“Aye, Captain.” I
t seemed to Sarah that the crew sounded almost happy to address her as captain. She hoped that it was genuine.
A few minutes later Lieutenant Sissons reported that she had made the announcement concerning Captain Willoughby. Her board showed a marked increase in intra-ship chatter and “The Officer of the Day confirms your order. Captain Willoughby will be kept incommunicado until you say otherwise.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Ensure that all the chatter, to and from, is logged for future analysis, and hail the Breten ship.”
Melanie Sissons knew that Sarah’s reminder about logging the com chatter was important. It was not unknown that when a captain was relieved, members of the crew who were inordinately loyal might make moves to restore him to command. Usually such conspiracies were evident in the pattern of chatter following a captain’s arrest.
“Hail established, Captain,” Sissons reported.
Sarah stood on the deck between the forward stations that faced the view screen, which made up the front wall of the bridge. Presently the image of a very tired Breten officer appeared on the screen.
“Greetings,” Sarah opened, “I am Acting Captain Sarah Maloney of the League Jump-ship Pegasus. Whom do I have the honour of addressing?”
“I am First Officer Balor Prim of the Breten warp-ship Terrador. My captain was gravely injured in our escape and is unconscious in our Medical Bay.”
The condition of the bridge behind Prim gave evidence to his words. The extent of the damage to the Terrador’s bridge was visible on the Pegasus main view screen, and reflected the pummeling that was evident on her outer hull.
“We have over one thousand souls aboard as well as what is left of our crew,” Prim continued. “Our engines are overtaxed and life support is minimal. We gambled that there might be a Stellar Corps ship awaiting us if we succeeded in crossing the frontier, and pushed all of our systems beyond their limits. Will you help us?”
“Captain Prim, are your tractor emitters still functioning?” Sarah noted surprise on Prim’s face when she addressed him as captain. “They are.”
Chronicles of the Stellar Corps: Sassy Page 16
