The speaker crackled open and the friendly if slightly manic sound of Engineer Stevens reverberated around the cockpit. 'Actually Lieutenant it's entirely probable, given how quickly I was able to get the communications systems up and running. Now if you don't mind I have a few other essential systems to shore up before getting everything else operational. Agent Smith, your weapons console should be operational again.'
Smith looked down at the glowing hologram underneath his hands. 'You are... correct, Engineer.' he admitted, but refused to go as far as to compliment him.
'No need to thank me, Agent.' he replied. 'Stevens out.'
'Well.' Phil stated to the crew at large. 'It would appear that things turned out better than expected.'
The speaker came to life once again, but the voice behind it was much less assured. 'Hello? Can anyone here me? Help! The ship started making all these weird noises and then exploded and then the stuff came pouring out and I got soaked and then these big snakes turned up and started dancing and...' the rest of the sentence trailed off into incomprehensible gibbering.
'Ensign Hawkins, head down to Sick Bay and assure our Doctor that the world is not going to end.'
Trigger stared back at him, aghast. 'Sir... I'm in the middle of some very complicated... Can't you go instead?'
Phil smirked. 'Ensign, that's a direct order. Unless you have a problem with obeying orders that is.'
'No sir.' the young man sighed. 'I'll go and...try and calm him down now, sir.'
Clearly Trigger hated dealing with Doctor Samej as much as Phil did, now there was one encounter that he would have enjoyed watching. Manic meets panic, the implacable object hits the unrestrained terror. He wished someone else could be as entertained by the jokes in his head as he was.
'Captain, I'm not sure if I'm reading this right, but my communications station is decoding all kinds of transmissions and sending them to me. All of them are Voravian except for one, would you like me to play it?'
'Go ahead Lieutenant, the more information we can get while sitting here the better prepared we'll be when the shinpad hits the fandango.'
'Pardon sir?'
'Just play the transmission.'
'Right you are, sir.'
The viewscreen temporarily winked out from the vastness of space and into the visual transmission. Phil had been expecting audio only, but now he was staring at the haggard features of Darwin, who looked much like a balloon that someone had left in a hot press for too long.
'What is it? Can't you see that I'm one engine fluctuation away from being blown to pieces by the Voravians?'
The image switched to that of a woman that Phil recognised, it was his new neighbour from his apartment block. What in the blue hell was she doing out here in space?
'I am the envoy for the Human Genome research station, you may call me Anne. Prepare to be boarded, we have much to discuss.'
'Didn't you listen to a word I just said?' Darwin fumed. 'If we drop out of hyperwarp for even a second the Voravians will be upon us!'
Anne offered him a cool smile. 'Who said anything about dropping out of hyperwarp? I plan to board you whilst remaining in it.'
'Impossible.' the Captain muttered, somewhat placated.
'Captain Darwin, I assure you that I am capable of many things that you deem impossible. Now prepare to be boarded, I have to discuss the Human Genome's plans for the Voravian destruct button upon their mothership.'
Darwin waved a hand in irritation. 'I know, I know. They have a button that disables their entire fleet as a failsafe measure, but that will only incapacitate them. Where are we going to find the fire power to destroy their ships, woman?'
Anne narrowed her eyes. 'Captain, I am fully aware of your transgressions with crew members of the opposite sex. Call me woman one more time and you shall not have the equipment to ever make such transgressions again.'
There was something cold and clinical about the deliver that made Darwin visibly swallow the retort he had been planning. 'I... Very well... Does the Human Genome station have some kind of weapon to destroy the Voravian fleet then?'
Anne nodded, the ghost of a smile playing upon her face. 'Within the central chamber of the station there is a weapon poised to destroy the fleet as soon as they drop out of hyperwarp, the Scavanger and all aboard it shall be unaffected. Enough of this though, I shall discuss it in detail when I arrive. Anne out.'
The viewscreen faded back into its permanent screensaver, the starry backdrop of their own immobility.
'It would appear that Captain Darwin is baiting the Voravian fleet into a trap.' Smith mused. 'Most interesting.'
Annika stared at him in disbelief. 'Interesting? They're going to wage biological warfare on the Voravians, it will kill millions!'
Smith shrugged. 'As opposed to the Voravians who were going to land peacefully and shake hands with the inhabitants of Earth?'
'Enough.' Phil said, catching both their attentions with how firmly he said it. 'We need solutions, not quibbling over the moral implications.'
Once more the cockpit was filled with the sound of brains being racked, they had a matter of hours to somehow avert this conflict, but no means of doing so while stranded here in space.
'It would appear that what we must do is obvious, but how we are to go about doing it is less so.' Smith stated. 'In order to prevent the Voravians from destroying Star Command and decimating the Earth's populace we must activate their off switch.'
'And in order to prevent the Voravians from being destroyed we must find a way to disable the Human Genome station's weapon.'
Smith snorted in disgust at the idea. 'Have you any idea how hard it would be to infiltrate a large station full of operatives?'
'No harder than gaining access to the Voravian mothership in the midst of their war fleet.' Annika shot back.
'Enough!' Phil shouted, slamming his fist down on the arm of his chair. 'We will do both these things, and we shall split into two teams in order to accomplish it.'
'Captain, we only have one ship.' RJ ventured. 'How are we going to be in two places at once?'
'That much is simple, Pilot.' came Terry's voice over the intercom. 'I'm going to program two escape pods to crash into both targets at once.'
'Are you truly insane?' Smith said. 'In what world do you believe that they won't simply shoot us down for encroaching upon their space during a time of war?'
'I'm going to rig the pods with miniature cloaking devices, they won't know what hit them until we're out of there and into safety.'
Smith actually struggled for words for a moment. 'How do you know about the cloaking technology?'
'You never said I couldn't access the Engineering computer. It has ties to the data from all of Star Command, I was able to bypass a few security restrictions and find out all about this experimental technology.'
'Captain.' Smith said, almost pleading. 'I strongly object to this plan, the chances that neither company will make it back in one peace are exceptionally high.'
Phil mused over the sentence, but ultimately it all boiled down to one thing. 'Do you have an alternative to suggest, Commander?'
Smith fell silent.
'Does anyone?' Phil asked, meeting the eyes of each of the crew members.'
'No sir.' came the staggered chorus of replies.
'Agent Smith is correct in his risk assessment, but given that we are out of viable alternatives it's all we've got. I can't order any of you to do this, so if any of you wish to remain with the ship I will not think any less of you.'
The crew stared amongst themselves, each lost in their own respective thoughts.
'If any of you wish to abstain from this deadly mission then please make it known now.'
RJ turned and offered him an easy smile. 'You've taken us this far Captain, I'd be a fool not to see the rest of it out, for good or bad.'
Trigger stared at RJ's response and realised he was next in line. 'I... er... They're going to find this ship anyway, aren't they? So really
this is the safest choice to make, right?'
RJ offered him a reassuring nod. 'Right.'
'Then I'm in.' the Ensign stuttered.
Annika's smile made RJ's look like a grimace. 'You are the chosen one, I would follow you into the very core of the sun if you demanded it of me.' her expression quickly changed as she shot a glance at Smith, all eyes then turned to him.
'Two teams of three, I shall command the first team and Captain Jones shall command the second. I shall take the Lieutenant and our Engineer with me, the Captain shall have the Ensign and the cowboy.'
RJ snorted in derision. 'Ain't nothing wrong with being a space cowboy, Stiff.'
Smith offered no retort, and Phil barely noticed the exchange.
'Are you seriously putting me in charge of an entire team?' he asked.
Smith arched an eyebrow. 'That appears to be the case, does it not?'
'Why? I thought you considered me a liability in the field.'
To Phil's surprise, the Agent offered him a smile. 'This may come as a shock to you, Captain. In all our dealings you have come out victorious, I begrudgingly consider you a... capable leader.'
It was the greatest compliment Phil had ever received, and he was almost certain he heard a high-pitched squeal of delight from Annika behind him. 'I shall do my best to live up to that billing, Commander. Thank you.'
Smith waved away the response, already engrossed in the details of the mission. 'Both exploits are equally dangerous and unpredictable, I shall lead my team into the heart of the Voravian fleet and you shall lead yours into the Human Genome station. There shall be no further communication between us upon launch of the pods, and no way of coordinating our efforts. I don't need to tell you how I feel about the success rate of such a plan.'
Phil nodded. 'That's it then, we just need to pay the armory a visit and then wait for Terry to fix up the pods.' he looked up at the speaker. 'How long will that take, Terry?'
'The pods were undamaged in the recent surge, I could probably rig them with the cloaking device in under an hour now that primary systems are stable.'
'Any questions?' he asked the crew.
None were forthcoming.
'Very well then.' Phil said. 'If you'd lead the way Commander, I believe we have a mission to be preparing for.
'Aye Captain.' Smith smiled, leading the way to the armoury.
Phil didn't know what he was going up against, he didn't know how he was going to defeat it, and he was fully aware that he had a snowball's chance in hell. That moment in time though when Smith called him Captain was the finest hour he had experienced. He had won the respect of the very man he had assumed would overthrow his Captaincy as soon as he got the chance. Irrespective of anything else, today was a good day to be the Captain of this fine crew.
He just hoped that their good days weren't numbered.
Chapter 42
! ! !
'There are eighty-seven light fighters approaching our position Captain, a single hit from any of them will be enough to take us out of hyperwarp!' the panicky Ensign informed him.
'Suggestions, that man?' Darwin said, crossing and uncrossing his legs in a manner that elicited many a wince from those unfortunate enough to look in his direction.
'I don't know sir, I fear we're all going to die!'
'Settle down Ensign. We can't die, I'm on board. Well, you could probably die, given that you're one of the little people and all. Me on the other hand, I'm pretty damn safe.'
He stared down at the glove with a smile on his face, damn safe indeed. Now, how exactly did one turn this thing on? He gave it an experimental shake but nothing happened... well, that wasn't good then.
'Aren't you the reason the Voravians are chasing us in the first place, sir?' his Lieutenant informed him.
Darwin shrugged, still transfixed by the glove. 'I couldn't tell any of them apart, I'm sure they're much the same when it comes to us. They'll just pick the first bold, heroic and chiselled character they get their claws on, should they end up boarding.'
With that pesky question dealt with, he continued to wiggle his fingers in the hope that there was some kind of weird gesture or hand signal he had to make in order to activate the glove's powers and save the day.
The communications went off again. 'Sir, they've taken us out of our hyperwarp bubble again!'
'Engage the hyperwarp then!' the Captain bellowed, waving his hand about in multiple patterns.
The darkness of space was replaced once again with the judder and squeal of the Scavanger's hull as it launched itself into the bluey-purple of hyperwarp for a sixth time.
Well, that's easy enough then. All they needed to do was keep re-engaging the hyperwarp while he tried to figure out how this contraption worked. He vaguely remembered that the folks at the research station may have mentioned a few things about its function, but he had far too much on his mind at the time to really follow.
'We have one more attempt at this and then the engines will be cooked. I can't promise you that we'll be able to manage even that if they take us out of it again.'
'Engineer, you can and will find a way to make it happen.' Darwin informed him, pointing at the communications speaker with his sparkling hand as if it had offended him. 'Now where's my egg-nog?'
'Sir, it's very difficult to carry egg-nog from the replicators when the ship is pitching and yawing from exiting and entering hyperdrive.' a chatty and somewhat frightened officer said as he handed him a half-spilt mug.
'Dunno why I have a taste for the stuff, but that's the crazy consequences of space for you.' Darwin replied, slurping from the mug with gusto. Not that he would be the sort of man to know he was doing it with gusto, or quite frankly ask gusto's permission to do so.
The Scavanger let out another unwanted shudder and the blackness of space began to flicker through the hyperwarp bubble, they were mere moments away from discovering whether they had one more jump left in them or the Voravians had a session of target practice ahead.
'Engineer, keep us in that hyperwarp bubble thing!'
The reply in the speaker came over a series of alarms and screeches. 'Captain, I cannot deny the laws of thermodynamics! These engines are overheating and will come apart long before we get to Star Command unless you do something fast.'
The Captain rolled up his sleeves. 'Time to get to work then. Ensign?'
'Yes, Captain Darwin?' the Ensign looked up at him, the briefest flicker of hope in his eyes at the authoritative tone.
'Steady as she goes.'
The crew groaned as one, then the slow realisation that they were all doomed slowed their frenetic working pace.
Darwin dusted off his hands and leaned back into the seat. 'That should do it, now we just wait for the pace to pick up and we'll be back to Earth before we know it.'
A beam of light shot out and was immediately the subject of the viewscreen's attention, soaring through the narrowing gap between the Scavanger and their Voravian foes and exploding in a blinding conflagration. Darwin and his crew instinctively shielded their eyes but the viewscreen had already compensated, though there was little it could do about the figure that now stood in front of it.
The speaker came back to life. 'Captain, the hyperwarp bubble remains stable, and the Voravian fleet have withdrawn somewhat. I don't know what you did up there, but it worked.'
'All in a day's work, Engineer.' he replied with a smug face. 'Well done Ensign, excellent work with the whole going steady thing, I knew it would... who the devil are you?'
This last part was addressed to the lithe figure that crossed the bridge to stand face to face with Darwin, a look of utter contempt written plainly upon her features.
'I have kept the Voravians at bay for now, see to it that you don't ruin our chances any further, Captain.' the way she spat out the last word suggested to Darwin that she didn't entirely think much of his ranking. Without any further word she passed out through the double doors, security did nothing to stop her.
H
aving now gone out of Darwin's immediate range, the Captain promptly lost interest in her and instead shifted his focus to the damnable pink glove that was wrapped about his hand. Why in blazes hadn't it leapt to his aid when he had most needed it? He'd been chugging pints of this damnable egg-nog and still there was nothing. He'd done everything that woman had asked of him and still there was no change, was it supposed to start talking to him or something?
Come to think of it, the woman who had just appeared on the bridge did look awfully like the one he had been forced to deal with in the transmission. Strange that this far into space everyone started looking the same to him. Funny thing, space.
'Captain, there's someone down here in Engineering who calls herself Anne, say she wants to repair our engine systems. Do you know anything about this?'
Anne. Yes, that had been the name of the girl in the transmissions, hadn't it? Strange how this one had the same name, perhaps these deep space trader folks weren't as imaginative with their names as the ones back home. Unless...
'Captain Darwin.' an agitated and distinctly familiar female voice came over the communications speaker. 'If you don't give me access to the Scavanger's Engineering systems I shall be taking command of the entire vessel, is that clear?'
The damnable woman was on his ship! He vaguely recalled that she had said something along those lines, but at the time he hadn't really been listening as there were too many other things occupying his mind. Like that young Ensign from...
'Darwin, this is your last chance, respond or be stripped of your rank.'
Stripped eh? Well, that sounded agreeable enough.
'Very well then!' Darwin replied. 'Let her have at it, Engineer. I'm sure she knows her way around many systems.'
There was a disgusted groan at the sleaze and then the transmission cut out, modern women these days were so hard to please. Why, a fine young filly getting attention from her Captain back in the day...
Darwin sank into reminiscence once again, back into a half-imagined time where things were more simple and he wasn't constantly accosted by people who thought they knew better than he did.
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