Reunion

by Greg Mutton

  ‘Excellent! Family is everything. It would be an honour to accompany you.’

  ‘It’s settled then,’ Grainger spoke and turned to his aide. ‘James, can you assist the Admiral to gather his luggage? Captain Abraham and I have a few details to sort out.’

  With that, the Admiral rose and walked to the door, ‘Make no mistake, old friends… there are forces out there that will do anything to stop me.’ He looked at both men, smiled weakly and left the room.

  ‘Thank you Aaron. I have some idea of the information, so believe me when I tell you that his getting to Earth is critical to the future… theirs and ours.’ Grainger paused to allow this to sink in. ‘While there can be no official recognition of this venture, I do have some leeway and some funds available…’

  ‘Don’t worry… this will be a private trip,’ Aaron said with absolute conviction. ‘No contract, no payment. I owe that man a lot, so this will help repay some of the debt. I’ll ensure he gets there in one piece. By the way,’ he added, ‘how is Grace?’ Aaron changed the subject.

  Grace, the Prime’s wife, had taken a great interest in Aaron when he first arrived on Argos. As a newbie, he had needed assistance coming to grips with the differences in culture and in Freebooter society. Grace had been there to help — arranging for Aaron to be billeted at their house and helping him learn Freebooter social etiquette. Aaron also believed, fondly, that Grace had been working with Sonia Abraham to try and bring the two brothers back together.

  ‘She’s fine… gone to Caprica to visit friends,’ Grainger replied. ‘I’ll pass on your greeting. Oh, and just one more thing,’ he asked. ‘I believe you are now short a first officer?’

  ‘Yes, almost forgot that with all these other developments. Steve has just started his own operation and will be heading off tonight… damn!’

  Aaron had come to rely on his second in command a great deal and they had been a good team. When Steve Harris had come to him with his proposal, Aaron had agreed immediately and together they had formed another company with Steve as the major shareholder and CEO. Now, with Condor flight-ready, Steve had left the ship and was setting out on his first trip as an independent Freebooter trader.

  Grainger looked up from his desk. ‘Well, I might have a candidate for you. First rate pilot, degrees in engineering and quantum physics; top of the class in astrogation, currently working as a trainer at our new academy and… has capital too! Interested?’

  ‘Sounds good… when can I meet him?’ Aaron asked.

  Grainger chuckled and emphasised, ‘She is in the outer office.’ With that he pressed a button on his ancient intercom, ‘Commander, will you please come in.’

  Aaron stood and turned towards the door as the Commander entered — and was visibly shocked at who stood before them.

  ‘Commander,’ he greeted the newcomer, hesitantly.

  ‘Captain,’ she replied, momentarily off guard when she saw who she was meeting.

  Grainger, baffled by this curious exchange, asked. ‘Do you two know each other?’

  It was the Commander who answered. ‘Yes and no. We ran into each other last night and got talking… though we haven’t even been formally introduced.’ Her green eyes flashed Aaron an amused look.

  ‘Well, let me rectify that,’ Grainger continued, ‘Captain Aaron Abraham this is Commander Petra Mannix.’

  Aaron moved forward and extended his hand, ‘Pleased to formally meet you, Commander. The Prime tells me you are interested in a berth on Condor.’

  ‘A berth is one way of putting it.’ She smiled cheekily, raised one eyebrow and turned back to the Prime. ‘Thank you for the introduction sir.’

  Grainger nodded and gestured for them to sit. ‘Aaron, James has transmitted the commander’s CV to you but if you want, I can have him bring it in here.’

  ‘No need Allen… your recommendation is good enough for me.’ He turned to Petra. ‘Why my little operation, surely there are a number of more prestigious commissions available?’

  Before she could answer James interrupted. ‘Captain, your guest is ready to leave. He will travel in a different shuttle, one with less conspicuous markings,’ his reference being to the blue and silver markings of the official vehicles. ‘He will wait on Zephyr.’ He turned and left the room.

  ‘Captain,’ the Prime stood and walked to the large window on the south wall of the room and beckoned Aaron to follow. ‘I think you could use the Commander on this trip. Anyhow, it gives you a good cover for being here today. Why not use this as a sort of job interview. See how she performs and then decide?’

  ‘Yeah, not a bad idea,’ Aaron replied. His smile was broad and not unnoticed by Grainger.

  ‘Well,’ Grainger started, ‘maybe you two should get back to the ship, sort of familiarise the Commander with the umm… intricacies of your operation?’

  ‘Yes. I agree,’ he turned towards Mannix, ‘Ready Commander?’

  He took the Prime’s hand. Grainger suddenly grew serious. ‘Be careful. I cannot emphasise the gravity of the situation strongly enough… be very careful.’

  He turned toward Petra, ‘Looks like you have a trial trip. Congratulations Commander, I cannot thank you enough for the time you have devoted to the academy. It will be hard to replace you, but I have a feeling this will prove to be an excellent move. Good luck.’

  The door opened and James beckoned them to follow him.

  ‘Your shuttle is ready, Captain.’ James looked at Petra, ‘Do you need to collect your gear from the academy, Commander?’

  ‘Thank you, but no, she replied, ‘I’ll have it sent over tonight.’

  ‘Packed already?’ Aaron asked, ‘Very confident.’

  ‘Not really Sir,’ there was an assured note to her voice, ‘I travel light and always have a go bag ready, just in case…’ Petra led the way up the steps into the shuttle where they settled into the soft leather seats, facing each other. James went to the flight deck, took the pilot’s position and closed the door.

  ‘By the way, I really enjoyed dinner last night,’ Aaron said.

  ‘So did I… thank you,’ she replied, ‘maybe it was fate?’ She smiled and sat back in the seat. ‘By the way, how do you know the Prime? You seem to be on very good terms.’

  Aaron thought before replying. ‘I have known Allen Grainger for nearly forty years. He took me under his wing when I arrived. I may be an Abraham but I was a new born in Freebooter terms. He gave me a job—even gave me a place to stay at his home till I got settled. After his son was killed his wife, Grace, sort of took me on as a project and has been looking after me ever since. I owe them a great deal and am probably closer to them than I am to my own family. But this situation is really testing all I believe in. How much did he tell you about why I was here?’

  ‘Not much,’ Petra admitted, ‘just that you are taking some off world official on an unofficial trip. No more than that and the fact that you need a new first officer.’

  ‘Well, let’s handle the second bit first, yes… I do need a new first officer. Steve Harris and Greg Lewis, my previous number two, have just bought into their own ship; actually, we have formed a new partnership with my old ship, Albatross. They are already prepping for their first trip and should leave tonight. My third officer will be a good number two, but she’s not ready for a number one ticket, just yet, so the need is real. As for our guest … well … let’s just say he is an old friend who is accompanying me to an Abraham family function.’

  ‘But I thought that you were estranged from your family?’ She asked. The feud between the two Abraham brothers was well known and everyone made sure they kept a good distance from any involvement.

  ‘It may be time to mend things. Besides, it should make for an interesting trip in any case.’ Then Aaron lightened the mood a bit. ‘I could do with a drink… let’s see what’s in the bar.’

  He poured two stiff measures of scotch and returned, handing one to Petra. Both settled back into their seat to enjoy their drink. They sat in s
ilence for a few minutes. Aaron’s throat was dry and he had knots in his stomach, but he decided silence was a virtue; at least until he figured out what was wrong with him.

  Petra held her glass up, ‘Captain, thank you for giving me this opportunity, I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t regret it.’

  Those green eyes seemed to bore into Aaron’s soul, seeing right through him as he raised his glass, ‘Welcome aboard, Number One.’ He smiled as they touched glasses; Petra returned his smile.

  4

  The shuttle landed on the external apron of the dock complex, Aaron and Petra bid James farewell and walked through the open door.

  Waiting just inside was Katherine Albrecht, currently third officer on Condor — she smiled and greeted them. ‘Welcome back, Captain.’

  ‘Thanks, Kate,’ he responded, ‘this is Commander Mannix, she will be joining us as First Officer for this trip. Petra, meet Kate Albrecht, our new Second Officer.’

  Kate was slightly taken aback. ‘Thank you sir,’ she said, and she turned to Petra, extending her hand, in greeting. ‘Welcome aboard, ma’am. Do you have any luggage?’

  ‘It’ll be coming over later today.’ Petra replied.

  Aaron had that distant look that signified his communicator was working. ‘Kate…we have a special guest coming on this trip and discretion must be high, if you get my drift?’

  Kate smiled, ‘No worries Captain.’

  Aaron looked at both of his officers, ‘I think it’d be good if you could show our new number one how the yacht operates, check her piloting skills and bring her up to speed on our way of doing things.’

  While all trade ships carried a number of shuttle craft to handle crew transfers and planetary operations, Aaron had his personal yacht for official duties.

  ‘An excellent idea, let’s go!’ Kate was always ready to have a run in Aaron’s favourite toy. ‘I think you’ll enjoy this Commander.

  The three entered a transport pod, selected their dock number and settled into the seats. Two minutes later the pod stopped at the dock assigned to Condor. They left the pod and walked over to the viewing window. What greeted them was not what Petra expected. Sitting in the dock space was, she thought, one of the ugliest ships she had ever seen. There before her was Condor, eight hundred and twenty metres long and almost as wide from wing tip to wing tip. Extending in front was the bridge and command area attached to the main body by a short tubular section that moulded itself into the central bulbous body — Petra assumed this was the main living and working quarters.

  The wings drooped down towards the centre of the body line, curving back until they returned to the main structure; from here a delta shaped, horizontal tail extended aft, where usually the engineering and drive sections were housed, based on current starship design.

  Condor was nothing like current design — from a structural or architectural view. Petra’s initial thoughts were fairly correct except that most of the body was a large modular hold area that could be restructured into many different configurations simply by changing modules.

  The bridge was where she thought, as was main accommodation: engineering was immediately behind this and took up the front of the main body; drive systems were housed in the top of the body; displacement field generators in the wings.

  Power generation was by antimatter reactors, with secondary energy harvesting of stellar sources, such as solar radiation, handled by the skin of the ship. This could supply all of the energy needed for life support and essentially made Condor one large life boat. Weapon systems were housed in various locations in the main body and wing area, each having its own power supply and control system.

  ‘Not so fast.’ Aaron knew how much Kate loved to take the yacht out. ‘We need to file a flight plan first… come to the office.’

  He turned and led them towards the administration section of the dock; as he entered the receptionist addressed him. ‘Captain Abraham, welcome back. The Proctor asked if you could give him a few minutes.’

  ‘Of course, can you tell him I’ll see him in thirty minutes?’ Aaron asked.

  The receptionist nodded and entered the information to The Proctor’s message board. ‘All arranged, Sir,’ she confirmed.

  Aaron’s office was not overly large, considering he was the major shareholder and CEO of the company. He rarely used it — preferring to spend his time trading —hence The Proctor, whose job it was to actually run the company administration. A myriad of responsibilities fell on the Proctor, Henry N’Gabo, including all day to day details, legal and H.R., and the thousand and one other duties it took to run a multi-planetary organisation.

  ‘Lieutenant,’ he turned back to Albrecht, Aaron was now in command mode, ‘you will need to file a flight plan for all the usual atmospheric checks plus orbital assessments. Also, you need to clear the Commander for docking, so arrange to dock with Zephyr… she is still in orbit. Personnel will need all the records in order to clear her for our shuttles. When you dock with Zephyr, you will collect our guest and bring him directly to the Condor. Understood?’

  ‘Understood Sir,’ Albrecht replied.

  Aaron looked from Petra to Kate and gave them his sternest Captain look, ‘Discretion is of the utmost importance from now on, is that clear?’

  ‘Yes Sir.’ Both replied almost in unison.

  ‘Good, you two better get going, you have a good three hours flying to get all that done,’ he added. They both saluted and left the office as Henry walked in.

  Henry turned and watched them head down the passageway, ‘Steve’s replacement? Definitely better looking than him; is she any good?’

  ‘You can see for yourself… her CV is now on your message board,’ Aaron answered. While they were close friends, the duties of work meant that they had little time together these days. ‘How are Jacinta and the girls?’

  ‘Good thanks, wondering when they’ll see you again.’

  Henry sat down opposite Aaron’s desk. He was a big man — 200cm tall and heavily built — some could think he was running to fat but that would be their mistake. Henry was one of the fittest men Aaron had ever met and a desk job hadn’t changed that.

  Henry was of ancient African descent and carried his heritage with great pride. His hair was a mass of black curls and his dark eyes always conveyed happiness. In all, Aaron thought Henry to be the happiest person he had ever met; but this wasn’t evident today.

  ‘What’s going on Aaron?’ He fixed his gaze on his friend. ‘First I get some cryptic message about a trip to earth, with a request for discretion. Then I start getting strange requests about what you are doing with Grainger. Now, Condor is being fast tracked to launch.’

  ‘Nothing that you need to worry about… I’m going to Earth for an Abraham family function. My crew could do with a bit of R&R; they’ve been running pretty hard lately, so I thought this was a good opportunity.’ Aaron went to the sideboard, produced two glasses and poured them each a scotch.

  ‘Bullshit. Why this sudden need to go home? You have refused invitations for twenty years, to my knowledge. What are you up to?’ Henry never pulled any punches.

  Aaron handed him the glass and settled down behind his desk. He hoped that it would not be necessary to pull rank, but he was the boss.

  ‘There’s nothing to be concerned about… look, I’ve been thinking about the rift in my family for a long while. Every time I see you and your family, your brother and sister, your parents and your kids… I get to thinking about what I may have missed. Maybe I’m getting old. Hell I don’t know… I just think it may be time. Anyhow, Sonia sent the invite and I thought, why not?’ He stopped and took a swig of his drink.

  Henry considered what he had just heard. ‘I still say bullshit, but I know you too well to pry further… just don’t do anything foolish.’

  ‘Yes Father,’ Aaron retorted. ‘I’ll try and be good.’ Both men laughed.

  They finished their drinks and spent the next hour going over company business before Henry l
eft. Aaron still had another hour of work before he looked up from his monitors. It was getting dark, so he closed his console and headed for Condor.

  ***

  After leaving Aaron’s office, Kate and Petra went to Personnel to collect the documentation needed for a flight appraisal — a prerequisite for any new flight officer — and the documentation also vital for company records and insurance; this is where things stopped.

  Personnel officers can be a breed to themselves and these were no different. It took over half an hour to complete all the other documentation they required prior to authorising the flight evaluation. The delay continued as Petra was scanned for her uniforms and arrangements made for all her records to be sent from the academy. They also sent a stern message addressed to Captain Abraham reminding him of the correct procedure for starting a new employee.

  Finally, Petra and Kate managed to extricate themselves and headed double time for Condor. As they stood on the walkway to the upper entrance port, Petra stopped to evaluate the vessel before her.

  ‘This must be the ugliest thing I have ever seen,’ she commented. ‘What is that, just in front of the main body?’ She pointed to the almost petal-like structure.

  ‘That’s the forward sensor array. Don’t let the Captain hear you call his baby ugly, this is his pride and joy,’ Kate retorted.

  Petra shook her head. ‘Well they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’

  They boarded the ship and went directly to the hangar. The sign on the door read Captain’s Yacht authorised personnel only. As they entered, a sharp gasp from Petra told the story. What stood before them was a small version of the Condor but at this scale, Petra could appreciate the beauty of it.

  ‘Now I see….’ she whispered. She stood awestruck, looking at the gleaming silver-grey vessel before her.

  ‘We need to get going; we’re way behind time, thanks to the bureaucrats!’ Kate exclaimed, leading the way up the ramp. ‘She has capacity for ten, but really only needs one to fly her. She can maintain displacement factor of twelve for extended periods and can manage fifteen for short bursts. In space, she can run all day at point nine five light… and she can bite!’