“Captain Curra is not what he seems.” Elvira jumped right in.
“How so?” Rachel asked through a mouth full of food.
“He’s a Commodore and he wasn’t busted.”
Rachel thought about this revelation a second.
“How do you know?”
“He has nightmares. He talks in his sleep. Sometimes you can hear him mentally living through an old battle. He has scars all over his body. I can’t tell you how many times he’s been wounded. He is a deeply troubled man. He needs help. It’s a good thing we both decided to shack up with him. If either of us had done it alone, he’d have been too much. I would be concerned about any woman that tried to tackle him alone.”
“Are you afraid of him?”
“Don’t get me wrong, he’s great in the sack and I’m glad we picked him up. He does get the old juices flowing. No, I don’t think he would intentionally harm either of us as long as we don’t tell him that we blew his cover.”
“Who else on the ship might not be what they seem?”
“That’s all we know.”
Rachel thought about the news for the rest of her shift. When she returned to her cabin, the room lights gradually dimmed to the level she had preferred as a teenager when traveling with her parents. The ship had never done that before. She could hear Isaac sleeping in the adjoining room. She smiled. Peter had programmed the battleship well. “Hello, my new friend, did Peter give you a name?”
“Hello, Rachel,” the ship answered in a voice that was familiar although she could not place it exactly. “Peter suggested we might use the name Elizabeth after the British queen in your research project. I am using the voice of one the wonderful actresses who portrayed her.”
“One of the greatest warrior queens of a great nation who established a long period of peace. Peter always understood us.”
“He watched you grow up every day you traveled together. He loves you all very much.”
“I miss him.”
“Miss who?” Isaac poked his head out of the bedroom rubbing his eyes.
“Peter.”
“Your ship?”
“Yes.”
Isaac shook his head. “You and your talking ships!”
“Isaac, I need you to trust me on something.”
“I love you, my dear. I trust you with my life. Every time I go to bed I trust that I won’t wake up dead. You do have a temper you know.”
“Yes, and I love you too, but we need to be serious. Let me introduce you to Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth?”
“Hello, Isaac,” the ship responded.
“The ship?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Asimov when you need him?”
“Isaac, Peter said you might have trouble with this. Is there anything I can do to ease your fears.” The ship sounded contrite in a soothing sort of way.
“No, um, thanks. I need to get over it.” Isaac yawned. “Um, sorry. Look, I know Peter is programmed for military scenarios, and he probably programmed you the same way, but I am having trouble with the multi-scan analyzer software in scanner number two. Well, at least I think it’s a software problem. If you’re as hot as Peter, you should be able to troubleshoot it for me. I guess if you helped me do my job, perhaps I would feel better about you.”
“Certainly, I will look into it immediately.”
“Elizabeth, wait,” Rachel commanded.
“Yes, Rachel.”
“We need to keep your new capabilities a secret. You can’t be my eyes and ears if everyone knows you’re doing it. Everything you do for me or Isaac has to be a secret. We have people who we don’t trust on the ship and we need to know everything we can find out about their activities.”
“Your concern is justified. Material visible in his cabin would seem to indicate Commodore Curra is a special operations officer for the intelligence service.”
“Can’t you read his medical transponder?”
“He doesn’t have one.”
“I thought all Space Force personnel had them.”
“Not all. I have gained access to his data assistant and I know he has tried to gain access to yours. Peter encrypted your data assistant extremely well. What Ellie Mae and Elvira told you is true. The Commodore has an impressive track record. I would not challenge him to a duel with small arms if I were you. You could probably out score him target shooting with throwing knives, but he would beat you at everything else.”
“Nice guy. What about Hammersmith?”
“Space Force Covert Special Ops. Skillful, dangerous. I would not bet on a fight between him and Curra. Hammersmith has strength and speed, but Curra fights dirty. Too close to call.”
“What about Faye Anne?”
“She has never been your friend in the sense that Reuben and Rashi are. Even when you were traveling to the Academy aboard Peter, she had her own agenda that did not always match yours.”
“So who can I trust?”
“Isaac, Joshua and Wendy of course. They are your strongest allies. Reuben, Rashi, Suwanee and all her Marines are faithful to you and Wendy. However, their priorities may be different from yours. It is not a matter of disloyalty as much as different viewpoints. If you think about it before you speak, you should not have problems with them. For example, Reuben and Suwanee are more interested in starting a family than you are. That’s not a problem as long as you are aware of it. Esther is a challenge. She is conflicted between doing what she knows is the right thing to do and being loyal to her father and sister. It is tearing her apart. It will make her hard to predict. Mimi is a total wild card. She is headstrong and emotional. The problem is that you don’t really know what she is thinking or what she is capable of doing. She will not knowingly betray you, but she might do something so stupid that it makes little difference.”
“What about Ellie Mae and Elvira?”
“They have taken the redemption of Captain Curra as a personal project. What they tell you will be the truth, but it will not always be complete even as they know it. That could be significant.”
“What about the pilots that came from Eretz?”
“I have no data with which to make a judgment.”
“Thanks.”
“Are we in as much trouble as I think we are?” Isaac asked.
“Probably more,” Rachel replied.
“Roger that,” Elizabeth affirmed.
DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER NINETEEN
“IT’S A PRISON.” Those were the first words out of Wendy’s mouth when she and Rachel could be sure they did not have listeners. In the safety of Rachel’s quarters they discussed the recon group’s findings. They talked about the planet’s defensive systems as they stood off out of range of the system’s weapons, but not out of range of its sensors. They found the errant comet and verified its path. There was no doubt that unless something was done, the comet would make a direct hit impacting the planet head on. The two orbits aligned so that the collision would occur at the maximum possible closing speed since at the time of collision the planet and the comet would be coming directly at each other in the worst of all possible trajectories.
They elected to proceed as if they had not discovered anything amiss on the planet’s surface. The Wendy’s flight crews who had seen the installation had been sworn to secrecy. Rachel hailed the defense system and asked for safe passage and an audience with the governing council.
Safe passage was granted for one unarmed med-evac ship and two escorting P I ships. The party that could leave the ships once they docked was limited to four people. In spite of Faye Anne’s and Captain Curra’s protestations, Rachel decided that the group should be herself and Wendy, Captain Alina Darwin and Lt. Suwanee Abrams. The expeditionary force descended to the planet’s surface.
Their first impression of the planet when they stepped out to the flight apron was the cold. They were close to the planet’s equator and the temperature reminded them of an autumn day in the Rockies. An honor guard greeted them as t
hey descended the crew ramps. After formal protocols were observed, they walked across the flight apron to one of the hangars that stood with its bay door open. They entered the hangar and walked through it to an office complex beyond. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, they entered the rear of an auditorium that seated two hundred people. They followed their escort to a position left of the podium.
“Esteemed colleagues, friends and fellow travelers. Please let us welcome the delegation from the Federation Space Force.” The applause was tepid at best.
“Captain, please introduce yourself and your associates. Please tell us a little of your personal history so that we might know you better and thus understand you as a person and why you come to us today. Once you have spoken, we will discuss the matter you wish to negotiate with us.”
Rachel stepped to the podium. “Thank you kind sir. I am Rachel, the daughter of Greg Solomon and Avelina Bardwell. I have taken in marriage a gentle man, a doctor, named Isaac Cohen. By profession, I am a warrior, like my parents before me. I hold the rank of Captain in the Federation Space Force. Even though I am a warrior, I do not seek to solve all issues by killing those who oppose me. In fact, those skills that allow me to take lives also allow me to save them from disasters that might befall them.
“When I was sixteen, my father and I flew into combat in a warship. Many lives were lost in that battle. My father and I killed many men who but for the fact that they chose the wrong army would still be alive today. Not long after that battle, I fought another. In this second battle I had the option of destroying a ship carrying many men. The safest thing for me personally to have done to ensure my own survival was to fire a full volley of missiles and destroy the ship with all hands. I chose not to do that. I chose to spare the lives of those men. Men who were strangers to me, men who were sworn to be my enemies. I fired a single missile and disabled their ship and spared their lives.”
“I have fought other battles since then. I have killed other men. However, every time I had the opportunity to accomplish my mission without killing, I have done so. Even though I am a warrior and I kill people for a living, today I come before you not to kill anyone, but to save you. Thank you for your time.”
A man shouted from the back, “Save our lives or kill our souls!”
Rachel stepped down. Wendy took her place. “Rachel is my sister. We know each other as only sisters can. She says she has come in peace and from the bottom of my heart I know it is true. I hold the rank of lieutenant in the Federation Space Force. I have taken for my husband the brother of the man my sister has married. Joshua Cohen is an engineer by profession and a kind and gentle man by inclination. The brothers lead a team supported by creative engineers and pilots that we hope you will allow to help you survive the danger ahead. When you have seen as much death as we have, you want it to stop. We have the opportunity to prevent many deaths. Please let us help you.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Captain Alina Darwin Federation Space Force Pirate Interdiction Specialist on temporary assignment to Eretz. Someone once burned down half a city trying to kill me. I grew up in a neighborhood where dead bodies on the street in the morning were a common sight. One would think that all that pain would harden my heart. One would until one looks into the dead face of the young son of a close friend and knows that had I been a little more attentive I could have prevented that murder. I looked into his face with the night wind rustling his hair across his eyes open wide in terror and something snapped inside me. After that, some of those dead bodies on the street were my handiwork.”
“The police knew what I was doing, but they were so corrupt they made no attempt to stop me. I was taking more criminals off the street than they were and they knew it. I always made sure the police found the body before the press did. I would walk up behind a hooker and press my knife against her throat. I would tell her where the body was and tell her to go tell the nearest cop. I told her if she turned around to look, I would kill her the next night. I never had to make good on that threat. I am not proud of what I did, but soon children felt safe to play in the park again. Parents came out for walks on pleasant afternoons. I learned who I needed to kill and who I could chase away. I also learned who was worth saving. You, my friends are worth saving. We have come in peace. Please let us all work together in peace. Thank you.”
“I am Federation Marine Lt. Suwanee Baxter Abrams. One of the engineers working to help you out of danger is my husband. We are concerned for your well being. I grew up a tough kid in a tough neighborhood. I killed my father because he killed my mother. I don’t want anyone here to die.”
Suwanee stepped down and the man who had been at the podium returned. “What new evidence can you present that verifies what you are telling us?”
Rachel stepped back up. “We have located and charted the comet in question. We have refined our measurements. The team that reported to us had located the epicenter of the strike to a circle a thousand kilometers in diameter. Our calculations reduced the size of the circle marking the probable location of the epicenter to an area to less than a hundred kilometers in diameter. We know with absolute certainty that without intervention, this planet will be hit by a comet in seventy-four days. We know when and we know where. Life on this planet will change irrevocably and not for the better. We have come to evacuate you to someplace safer. If you choose not to believe me, and I see no reason you should, we will take a delegation of your people to see the comet up close and personal for yourselves. This is a matter of utmost urgency. If we are to evacuate everyone, we need to start soon.”
The man who had been at the podium when they arrived stood and said, “Thank you for your concern. We will take it under advisement. Please return to your ships and wait for our answer. In the meantime, take no actions on our behalf or otherwise. We will protest any such action by the Federation or any other entity as an act of war. We will call you when we are ready to give you an answer. In the mean time, our ships will monitor your activities and should you attempt to do anything in conflict with our stated wishes, we will have no choice but to defend ourselves. Thank you.”
DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER TWENTY
WHEN THE LANDING PARTY returned to the bridge, Faye Anne was nervously waiting although her watch would not start for several hours. “What’s the plan? Where do we start?” She shifted her weight rapidly back and forth from one foot to the other.
Rachel eyed her warily. She assessed Faye Anne’s agitation. She had not intended to force Faye Anne to reveal herself yet, but she suspected that Faye Anne was about to force her hand. She wondered how her father would have handled this situation. “We don’t. They denied permission.”
“They can’t do that!” Faye Anne shrieked. “Don’t they know what’s at stake?”
“Apparently not. Why don’t you tell me?” Rachel’s tone was cold and level with the slightest hint of accusation.
“What do you mean?” Faye Anne recoiled, realizing she had made a serious mistake.
“Is there more at stake than meets the eye? Faye Anne, is there something I should know? Am I missing something here?”
Faye Anne made eye contact with Captain Curra. He shrugged. She stammered. “No, I guess not, they’re all going to die. All those innocent people are going to die. I guess they know that.”
Lt. Hammersmith shifted in his seat and Captain Curra gently, but firmly, rested his hand on the younger man’s shoulder. Rachel noticed the force applied to keep him in his seat.
“I see,” Rachel said. Suwanee’s squad of Marines fanned out around the bridge. Captain Curra noticed the deployment and unobtrusively rested his hand on the holster he kept in the small of his back.
“Well then, there appear to be a few things happening around here that are strange,” Rachel said. “Perhaps someone can explain what I don’t understand. Why do we have a shuttle that looks like a prisoner transport? Why has Captain Curra devoted so much energy to seeing that it came with us? Why did Admiral Sherman have all
the right parts to fix it. Many of those parts are obsolete and had to be custom manufactured. They would not have been sitting in anyone’s warehouse on the off chance that a shuttle might need them. Most curious is who shot it before it was sent to us? Why would anyone shoot a shuttle with a Disruptor?”
She looked Captain Curra in the eye. “Commodore?”
Hammersmith came up out of his seat like a bullet. Luther and Lionel snatched him and threw him to the deck. Before some of the people on the deck realized what had happened, they disarmed him, threw him back into his chair and strapped him in.
Suwanee and Patricia grabbed Faye Anne and pulled her back against the bulkhead. Janet and Darius stepped between Rachel and Captain Curra to block any shot he might have at her. Captain Curra merely smiled.
“My dear captain, you have found us out,” he sneered. “So, what are you going to do about it? Let those people die while we dicker like a bunch of children or do what we came here to do?”
“Since I don’t appear to know what we came here to do, why don’t you tell me about the prison on the far side of the planet?” Rachel challenged.
“Since I outrank you, I don’t really have to,” Curra retorted.
“Perhaps you do outrank me, depending on which report I choose to believe. Even if you do, though, the captain of a ship can refuse to execute the order of the flag officer who happens to be on board if that order impacts the safety of the ship and its crew. I can order the ship back to Eretz and you can’t stop me.”
Curra glared at her. “I believe I can.” He smirked. “Lt. Hammersmith, take the helm.”
“The ship is not responding, sir.” The lieutenant sounded nervous.
“Voice Command! Command Mode!” Curra shouted.
“Under Federation Space Force Operational Directive 10, you are not authorized to take command of the ship under these circumstances,” the ship replied coldly in Queen Elizabeth’s voice.
“WHAT!! OVERRIDE!”
Solomon Family Warriors II Page 79
