Running With Argentine
Page 32
"I'll need someone to grab my things on the Pelican and have them moved here; I found an apartment attached to the hospital. I'll be using it for my personal quarters."
Argentine was starting to frown when he noticed that the lieutenant had a small grin on his face.
Yeah, he thought to himself. Why fight it?
"Captain?" Sami said from the doorway leading off from the hospital's main lobby or triage center…
"We need you," she finished as she ducked back out of the room.
Argentine followed her down a hallway and into a new room where Paula was engaging with the ship's computer.
Mandi was watching silently.
"How can I help you?" Argentine asked.
"I've mapped Sami's brain patterns and we’re ready to have her put on the interface and fine tune it. We thought you'd want to be here for that."
"Really? You've already done that much?"
"It was easy, Captain.” Sami explained. “You just lay down on one of those tables and let the machine scan you."
"Okay… What's next?"
"Are you ready, dear?" Paula asked.
Sami nodded and put on the tiara…
After a moment her eyes got wide… "Oh wow," she said.
ΔΔΔ
"Me next!" Mandi said enthusiastically.
Paula chuckled.
"First, I need to show Sami how to do this. Complicated orders to the ship require either verbal or typed instructions. But that leaves us with a problem…"
"I don't speak… whatever language it is that you and the ship grew up with," Sami finished.
"It's called English; and you're right…"
Paula sighed.
"I had hoped this would be easier, or at least wouldn't take as long," she said while typing. "I'm going to instruct the ship’s computer to learn Standard so you folks can communicate…"
She suddenly stopped typing…
"That's odd… The ship already knows Standard…"
The characters on the screen in front of Paula suddenly switched to a recognizable Standard format.
"Maybe not so odd, Paula," Argentine said gently. "After all, the ship has been drifting for two hundred years with nothing better to do than absorb all our communications and entertainment transmissions… She may know our language better than we do."
Paula chuckled again…
"Well, it certainly makes things easier. I'm going to need a few minutes to show Sami how to do this.
"Has everyone else found an interface that fits them?"
Argentine assured her that they had…
"Then in the meantime, Captain, you have some decisions to make. You need to decide exactly what position you want everyone to hold, and more importantly, you need to decide who ranks who all the way up and down the line."
Argentine couldn't help but notice that Mandi's eyes narrowed slightly at this pronouncement…
"Paula, I understand the necessity of having a captain. And I can understand that certain specialties, like astrogation, require special skill sets… But we've always been a little bit more informal than what you're talking about.
"Can't we just assign a few officers and then designate everyone else as crew – with equal standing?"
"It doesn't work that way, Captain. Access to various portions of the ship is granted based upon specialty and rank. You might, eventually, be able to figure out something for the crew, but your officer corps will definitely fall into a hierarchy."
Sami was looking uncomfortable and Mandi was uncharacteristically quiet.
"While the rest of you are doing that," Paula continued. "I'm going to lay down on one of these beds; I'm extremely tired…"
For all his lack of actual command experience, Argentine instinctively knew that this was a leadership decision he needed to get right – and that it could only happen by consensus…
"Okay," Argentine finally said. "Have everyone gather in the hospital's lobby.
"We'll figure this out together."
ΔΔΔ
"Get stuffed!" Barry replied emphatically. "Are you all having a laugh? I've been on this crew longer than she has… And since when have we started trusting her anyway?"
"Oh, is the big bad-boy pilot threatened by the likes of me?" Mandi answered innocently. "I would've thought a brave guy like you could handle anything…"
"You're absolutely barmy, you know that?" he responded
Argentine sighed.
Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe it would've been better to just make the decisions himself…
"For the hundredth time,” she continued. “None of you would be here without me and I'm not about to let you push me out of the decision-making."
The specialty assignments had been easy; it was the rank assignments that were causing all the problems.
Sami was obviously the lead astrogator, just like Barry was obviously the pilot. The chief would be head of engineering and Dr. Amaya was really the only one that could fill the lead physician's role.
They weren't sure how the ship would designate its head of security or combat operations, but whatever the title was everyone accepted it would go to Lieutenant Stark.
Marco Petulengro had volunteered to be ship's purser and, even though that felt a little like giving a thief the keys to the safe, since all the positions were only temporary it was fine.
"Remember everyone, we’re only taking on these positions long enough to sell the ship, or get a reward, or whatever… Don't let the titles go to your head."
Mandi had no problem accepting the position of ship’s communications officer and, of course, he would be the ship's captain.
So no one had a problem with their specialties; but they were running into major problems when it came to who outranked who.
Finally, the lieutenant jumped in to help make sense of things…
"Okay, at the moment Sami carries the highest rank. So, in reality, hers is the only opinion that counts…"
That shut everyone up fast.
"Sami, who do you want to captain the ship?"
"Without hesitation she said, "I want the captain to be Captain."
"Okay. I believe the Captain should have the right to pick his second in command. We don't want a divided leadership group – can everyone agree on that?"
Everyone, some reluctantly, agreed…
"Captain, who's going…"
"The chief will be second," Argentine said quickly. This was a no-brainer in his book.
"Captain, do you care if the crew picks the number three?"
Argentine thought for a moment. "Lieutenant, are you sure you don't want that spot? I would think you've earned it."
"Like I've said before, I'm just along for the ride until we can cash out."
The crew then voted to make the lieutenant number three…
Sami, Barry, Dr. Amaya and Mandi were all given the next equal rank, and Marco Petulengro would get whatever was the Roosevelt's equivalent of a noncommissioned officer's status.
Once they'd gotten that settled, Argentine suggested that they get the process started. He walked with Sami back to the neural mapping room.
Paula was still asleep in one of the bed like tables. Argentine hated to disturb her but he thought it wise that she monitor Sami her first time directly interacting with the ship.
He was somewhat lost in his own thoughts when he heard Sami's increasingly anxious voice, "Paula? Paula! Captain, she won't wake up!"
Argentine quickly moved to Paula's side and ascertained the problem…
She was dead.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Mystery, Revelation, and Denial
Aboard the Roosevelt
They carried Paula's body back to her own cabin and laid her out on the bed.
The rest of them claimed nearby cabins for themselves and settled in for the night. It'd been a long day and Argentine wanted everyone fresh for what was probably going to be a long tomorrow.
Dr. Amaya had insisted on staying
behind in her new hospital apartment. She'd declared that she'd been alone most of her life and that she'd be fine. Besides, she had a little more exploring to do and didn't want to have to walk all the way back when she was done.
He wasn't going to argue.
As a matter of fact, he was too tired to even think.
He set on the side of the bed, in the cabin he'd chosen, and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. As incredible as it was discovering this ship, he still felt uneasy.
Why couldn't he just be joyful, he asked himself. They were very close to accomplishing what they'd set out to do – the reward for this ship would be astronomical. Gathering a nest egg like that was something he'd assumed would take years.
He laid flat on the bed and closed his eyes…
The Roosevelt was ten times more incredible than he’d ever imagined. Which meant his mountain cabin was that much closer to being a reality.
They just had to negotiate a buyer…
To do that, they'd first either have to keep her location secret or learn how to operate and defend her. Probably both…
To do that, he was going to have to get accepted by the ship as her commander and start figuring out how she worked…
To do that, he was going to have to keep his team happy and lead them…
Argentine fell into a deep sleep that was only interrupted by the weird dream of a sixteen-year-old girl dancing at the foot of his bed…
ΔΔΔ
Dr. Amaya wasn't the only one that had stayed back at the hospital.
Lieutenant Stark had surprised her after everyone else had left…
"Why are you here?" she’d said with some concern.
The lieutenant held his hands up chest high and said, "I'll leave if you want me to. I just thought it would be nice to talk for little bit first."
"Yeah, about what?"
The lieutenant let out a heavy breath…
"Are you always so distrusting and… Hard?"
"If you’d grown up the way I had you wouldn't be so trusting yourself," she retorted quickly.
After a moment he relented, "Yes, I guess I can understand that. I really can. I actually had a good childhood, but once I entered the Navy… Everything got very real, very fast."
"So what is it you really want?" she asked again.
"I honestly don't know," he admitted. He surprised himself with the answer, but it was true…
"Don't take this wrong, but I think I see a little of myself in you."
She raised an eyebrow at that…
"We're both survivors," he explained. "I don't know what you've been through, and you don't know what I've been through, but I think it's pretty obvious we’ve both been through a lot. I don't know if that makes any difference, but… I want you to know I appreciate how you took care of Gossip. At the time, I didn't realize how much danger I was putting you in, but you didn't hesitate… He wouldn't be alive without you and that says a lot for you in my book."
When she didn't immediately respond he said, "I didn't mean to be bothering you. I can leave now…"
It was the doctors turn to surprise herself…
"No," she said quickly. "You can stay… For a while. Tell me what you meant by saying you could tell I'd been through a lot…"
"Well, I really don't want to be giving offense…"
"I think we're both beyond that, don't you?" she responded.
"Yeah, maybe… I just don't think either one of our secrets are going to be easy…"
She tilted her head to show impatience…
"You're a drug addict," he blurted out.
After a quick moment she responded, "Do you want a gold star for figuring that out?"
"It's just that in my profession, I'm trained to be observant. I notice things…"
"Well, if you wouldn’t have left my personal bag back on Trinity there wouldn't have been anything to notice," she said stiffly.
They were now both sitting in front of one of the consoles and lieutenant again raised his hands…
"I'm not trying to judge. I'm just making an observation."
She remained silent.
"Okay, I'll admit it. I'm curious. You're obviously bright, you have high principles or you wouldn't of helped save my crewman's life… I don't get it.
"You're a Doctor, so you have to understand all about addiction…"
She was leaning back in her chair and was surprisingly relaxed with the conversation. This was a subject she never discussed with anyone. It was also none of this man's business, but at least there was an honesty in his straightforwardness. And he had taken her off Trinity…
"So, you want to know why I use drugs?"
He nodded.
"Okay, I'll tell you."
And she did…
ΔΔΔ
Argentine didn't want to transfer all of the food stocks off of the Pelican until they'd figured out where their semi-permanent quarters were going to be.
The area they were bunking down in now wasn't especially close to anything they'd so far discovered, and with Paula's passing… Well, there didn't seem to be any reason to stay.
For breakfast they ate what was left of the rations they’d brought over the night before. This elicited a few grumbles from Mandi, and Argentine realized this was the first time he had ever heard Barry take her side on anything.
The doctor was already up and about by the time they'd made their way back to the hospital section.
The plan was to get the senior officers interfaced with the system and then to spend the day carefully exploring their command and control abilities.
The rest of the crew would continue searching the ship.
The first thing Doctor Amaya greeted them with was, "I found the morgue. Or, at least I think it's a morgue. I'd have thought it would be larger for a ship this size, but it will work well enough."
When nobody said anything she said, "Hey! You can't just leave Paula's body in her room! Somebody needs to go get her."
Argentine looked at Nicu…
"Yes, Captain!" He said with one of those funny salutes he'd seen his father use. "I will take care of it!"
"You're going to need that," the doctor said, pointing to a body bag that was draped over a console.
Nicu grabbed it and a friend, and they raced out of the room.
"Okay everyone, let's get the show on the road," Argentine said while rubbing his hands together.
The core officer group walked into the neural mapping room.
"Okay, Captain. I need your interface."
Argentine handed Sami the golden circlet and walked over to the bed.
"Go ahead and lie down," she said. "I'll try to be quick, but I've never done this before."
Both the chief and Argentine started speaking at the same time…
"Don't worry about how long it takes," Argentine said. "Just get it right."
She nodded and turned back to the console.
In a surprisingly short amount of time she said, "Okay, that's it. I've got the data."
"We’re done?" he asked. "I didn't feel a thing."
She motioned him back over and held the golden circlet out in front of her. When he reached for it, she pulled it back…
"No," she giggled. "I want to be the one to crown you."
With a smile, Argentine knelt down in front of her.
She placed the tiara on his head and said… "I don't really know what to say, so… Consider yourself crowned."
He stood back up still with a smile on his face and heard Sami suggest that he take a seat.
He was glad he’d listened…
In a moment, his mind… Expanded, kind of. There was really no other way to explain it. He knew that he knew so many things about this ship, but when he tried to remember something specific… The knowledge evaded him.
He distantly heard Sami say, "Something's wrong."