“Transition complete,” Doctor Sorenson reported with just the slightest hint of relief in her voice.
Cameron immediately switched the view screen back on, revealing a sea of asteroids of varying sizes. Nathan couldn’t help but marvel at the view. He had never seen an asteroid field, and by his understanding, this one was far more dense than most. The field of stars before them had an unusual twinkling quality, as the numerous asteroids too distant to see with the naked eye passed in front of stars, causing them to blink off and on. His gaze was fixed on the screen for at least a full minute, so long that Cameron was beginning to wonder what he was staring at.
“Anything on sensors?” he finally asked Ensign Yosef.
“No Sir, just rocks.”
Nathan wasn’t sure he could believe it, not after the previous two jumps. “What? No Jung patrols? No mammoth Takaran warships? No rebel hoards?”
Cameron just gave him a sideways glance, unimpressed by the timing of his sarcasm.
“I’m just checking,” he defended.
Jalea exclaimed something in her native language, astonished at what she had just witnessed.
“How is this possible?” she finally asked in English, her eyes wide.
“I really don’t know,” Nathan admitted. “But lucky for us, it is.”
“Captain, suggest we start a plot of all the nearest asteroids?” Cameron suggested. “Just to be on the safe side.”
“Good idea.” he agreed.
“Just so you are aware, Captain,” Doctor Sorenson interrupted, “the transition system’s energy banks are now down to less than ten percent.”
“And that’s bad?” he asked. There was still so much he didn’t know about this new system.
“It will take at least a few hours to charge the energy banks enough to execute even a short transition. That’s assuming we’re able to run our reactor at one hundred percent the entire time.”
“Understood, Doctor. When time permits, I think we’re going to need a full briefing on the capabilities and limitations of your, what did you call it?”
“Hyperluminal Transition System.”
Nathan mumbled it to himself, giving up halfway through the name. “You know what? Let’s keep calling it a Jump Drive for now.”
“That’s not exactly accurate,” she protested.
“Maybe not, but it’s a lot easier to say. Besides, that other one will never catch on,” Nathan added as he opened a comm channel to engineering. “Engineering, Bridge.”
“Yes! Go ahead,” Vladimir responded, sounding more than a bit annoyed at being bothered again.
“Can you run the primary reactor for the jump drive at one hundred percent?”
“What is this, jump drive?” he asked, having not heard of it before now.
“Doctor Sorenson’s little project?”
“Of course, I should’ve known.” Nathan could hear the change in the tone of Vladimir’s voice. “Yes, this I can do. But please, for no longer than is necessary.”
“Understood,” Nathan acknowledged, switching off the comm.
“Captain,” Ensign Yosef warned, “if the Takarans come looking for us, that reactor is going to be like big sign pointing out our location, regardless of all these asteroids.”
“How long does it take to shut down an antimatter reactor?” he asked Cameron, embarrassed that he didn’t know.
“Ten to fifteen minutes, I think.”
“Actually,” Doctor Sorenson interjected, “we rewrote the shutdown procedure to satisfy our abort protocols. We can have the reactor off line in about three minutes, and the core would no longer be emanating any discernible energy output within seconds of starting the abort process.”
“Excellent, problem solved then.” He turned to Ensign Yosef, “If you pick-up any signs of a Takaran ship, don’t go through us, just tell Doctor Sorenson and she’ll shutdown the reactor. Okay?” Nathan looked at each of them to make sure everyone understood their part.
“Nathan,” Cameron said in a hushed tone, “I think our jump drive has made quite an impression on the locals.” Cameron looked toward Jalea, who was now standing by the port exit in the back corner of the bridge facing away from them as she excitedly conversed with Marak over her personal communicator. It was obvious that the jump had taken her completely by surprise. Nathan could understand how she felt, as a few short hours ago even he had not known such a thing existed.
“You think this is going to be a problem?” he asked Cameron.
“I don’t know, but I think it certainly has the potential to become one.”
Nathan thought about it, wondering how it would affect their relationship with these people. Would they insist that they share the jump drive technology with them? Would they try to take it by force? How would they use it? If they were engaged in a rebellion against superior numbers, then this would certainly give them a tactical advantage. And how far would they be willing to go to obtain this advantage.
“Maybe we should make sure all of our weapons lockers are properly secured. And make sure the jump drives are still under guard as well.”
Cameron nodded her agreement, then walked over to the ensign handling communications, quietly passing the instructions to be put into motion.
“Captain!” Ensign Yosef called, alarm in her voice. “I found one! An asteroid with a trajectory that shows a ninety-eight percent collision probability.”
“How big?”
“Big enough, Sir.”
“You see? I knew it!” Nathan exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration. “I knew it was too good to be true!”
“How long do we have?” Cameron asked the ensign.
“Estimate impact in forty minutes.”
Cameron turned to Nathan, who was looking like he had reached his limit in crisis-management for the day. “Okay,” she offered, trying to offer support. “Let’s just work the problem.”
Nathan looked back at Cameron. Although she had been as shaken as the rest of them after the encounter with the Takaran warship, she was back to her old self again-cold and calculating.
“You’re right,” he admitted. “Work the problem.” Nathan raised his hands and locked his fingers behind his head, trying to think of a way to avoid the collision. “We can’t jump, and we’ve got no maneuvering or propulsion.” He looked at Ensign Yosef. “I’m assuming it’s too big to blow apart with rail guns, correct?” Ensign Yosef simply nodded, saying nothing. “No matter, they’re not working anyway,” he reminded himself.
“Torpedo? Maybe one of the nuclear ones?” Cameron offered.
“We already shot all four forward tubes, and the auto-loaders aren’t installed yet. I doubt we could get them loaded in time.”
“I don’t think a nuke would make much difference with this one, Sir,” Ensign Yosef reluctantly admitted.
“That big, huh?” Nathan asked rhetorically. He looked back to Cameron. “Got any ideas?”
Cameron simply shrugged. “Maybe you can blow something up again,” she suggested, half-heartedly.
“Don’t tempt me,” he warned. “I haven’t ruled that one out yet.”
“Well, how far do we need to move to avoid the collision?” Cameron asked, making her way back to Ensign Yosef.
“One moment.” Ensign Yosef began running the calculations. After a few moments, she answered. “Not that much. If we could just speed up or slow down by as little as a few hundred meters per second, we’d just miss it. But we would have to do it before we get too close to the asteroid, or it’s gravity will pull us in.”
“Well how do we do that without propulsion?” Nathan asked.
“Captain?” Jalea interrupted. “You need to move ship?”
“Uh, yes. Why?”
“We can do this, I think.”
“How?” Cameron inquired.
“With our ships. This we do, many times. When we capture ships. Or to bring broken ships home.”
“A tow?” Nathan wondered aloud. “But your ships are not that big.”
“But they are very strong,” she assured him. “Marak agrees, this can be done.”
“Have you ever towed a ship this big before?”
“No,” she admitted. “But a first time, there must be for everything.”
“I don’t know about this, Nathan,” Cameron warned.
“Would you rather I blow up the stern docking thruster pods?”
Within minutes of receiving their orders from Marak, the four rebel ships had made their way out of the hangar bay and back into space. The Aurora, like any other ship in the fleet, had numerous hard points located on her hull. Normally used for mooring purposes, these points had direct attachment to the underlying frame of the ship, and would be more than strong enough for the tow operation.
The rebel ships were equipped with powerful grappling claws designed to grab a ship and punch through her hull if necessary. In this case, the rebel ships simply grabbed hold of a mooring point, and then started standing off from the ship, reeling out their tow lines as they moved away.
Nathan stood behind his previous station at the helm, gazing out the view screen that surrounded the front third of the bridge. By now, they could see the approaching asteroid. It had started out as no more than a speck against the blackness, but within minutes had grown to fill half the screen. Three of the rebel ships were in position with their tow lines running from their top side down to the ship. Each ship was at least a few hundred meters away, angling out at about forty-five degrees from the Aurora, and were keeping their tow lines taught with weak but steady thrust while they waited for the last ship to get into position.
“The last ship is moving into position now, sir,” Ensign Yosef reported.
“How much time,” he asked.
“We’ve got five minutes to get up to speed before we’re too close to escape its gravity well, sir.”
Nathan turned to Jalea. “You know, they all have to burn in unison for this to work.”
“Controls for one ship, will control all ships,” she explained.
Nathan understood what she meant. Fleet tugs used a similar method, slaving the flight controls for all tugs into the bridge of the ship being pulled, thereby using the tugs like they were external propulsion pods. It had been one of the simulations he had been required to pass during his flight training, and it had been a difficult one to master. Luckily, in this case, someone else would be doing the piloting.
“Prepare yourself,” Jalea warned as the voice on her communicator completed what sounded like a countdown, albeit in another language. Nathan could hear the voices of the rebel pilots as they chattered back and forth over Jalea’s communicator. The countdown ended with the last word being spoken louder and more urgently than the ones proceeding it.
On the view screen, The main engines of the two visible rebel ships began to glow a faint amber. As he heard the voice of the lead rebel pilot over Jalea’s communicator, he could tell that he was announcing his increases in thrust. They watched as the rebel engines thrust ports faded from amber to yellow as their levels increased. As the thrust levels increased, so did the stress level in the lead pilot’s voice.
“Three minutes,” Ensign Yosef announced.
The main thrust ports on the rebel ships again changed, going from yellow to a brilliant bluish white. The lead pilot’s voice was now yelling.
“They are at full power,” Jalea announced.
“Jesus,” Cameron exclaimed. “She wasn’t kidding about those little buggers being strong. Look at the amount of thrust they’re putting out.”
“Two minutes to impact,” Ensign Yosef updated.
The asteroid was now filling more than half the upper side of the main view screen, its horizon sinking farther and farther down the screen on its way to the floor. The lead pilot’s voice yelled another announcement, and the rebels engines became pure white, expanding their radius somewhat and taking on a blinding brilliance.
“What are they doing?” Nathan yelled.
“Their engines are burning much more than normal,” Jalea exclaimed. There was more yelling over the communicator, but this time from some of the other pilots.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Engines very hot now,” Jalea explained.
“They can’t keep that burn rate up for long,” Cameron warned.
“Sir!” Ensign Yosef interrupted. “Our velocity is climbing! It’s working!”
Nathan could hear more excited voices over Jalea’s communicator, as the rebel pilots realized they were starting to move.
“Impact in…,” Ensign Yosef suddenly stopped mid sentence, watching her sensor display as it updated. “We’re going to miss it, Sir!” she announced, obvious relief in her voice.
“Tell them to reduce their engines before they rip themselves apart!” Nathan ordered.
Jalea began yelling instructions into her communicator. An inquiry came back from the lead pilot.
“Captain, the pilot wants to know if you would like them to go a little longer, maybe help you away from rocks?”
“What do you think, Cam?” Nathan asked.
“This field is pretty big sir. They’d have to get us a lot of velocity to clear it in anything less than a few days.”
“That’s okay, Jalea,” Nathan apologized. “Please ask them to turn off their engines.”
“As you wish.”
Having avoided yet another catastrophe, Nathan hoped they might finally have a chance to regroup. It was the first time since they left the orbit of Jupiter that there wasn’t some immediate calamity about to befall them.
He had watched the entire towing operation standing behind the helm station. And now with the immediate threat averted, he dropped into the captain’s command chair without even realizing the significance of where he sat.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Cameron warned, turning her chair to face him. “We still have a lot of work to do.”
Nathan leaned forward in the command chair, his elbows resting on his knees. He couldn’t help but feel that he should know what she was talking about, but at the moment, all he could think about was that he was incredibly thirsty.
“We’re going to need to put together some sort of a damage report, at least of the most critical stuff,” she explained. She paused for a moment, her tone becoming more serious. “And we need to get an idea of how many people we lost today,” she added. “Or more importantly, who we’ve got left to run the ship.”
Nathan thought about what she was saying. How many people we lost today. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. Most of the crew had only been on board for a few weeks, himself included. He had only known a handful of them by name. The idea that now he never would know them just didn’t seem possible. Every one of them knew that a life in the fleet came with risks. But he was quite sure that none of them, himself included, had expected this much risk, this soon.
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I was in medical earlier.” The memory of it was still fresh in his mind. “I was there, you know, when he died.” It bothered Nathan to speak of it. He hadn’t known Captain Roberts for very long. And what little interaction had occurred had been strictly professional. But Nathan couldn’t help but feel that he had lost someone that would’ve been very important to him, had he survived.
“I kind of figured,” she admitted.
“You know, right before he died, he said, ‘get the ship home.’ More specifically, to get the ‘jump drive’ home, that it was their ‘only chance’.”
“By ‘their’, he meant ‘Earth’, right?” Although the captain’s meaning had been obvious, Cameron didn’t care for ambiguity.
“I’m pretty sure.” Nathan looked down for a moment, thinking. He had a terrible feeling that there was something more going on than any of them realized, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. And until he figured it all out, he wasn’t sure who he could trust.
But he also knew that if he was going to get them home, he would need help. He had accepted the responsibility of command, passed to him by his captain. But inside, he knew he wasn’t ready for it. There was so much he still didn’t know. So he was going to have to trust someone. But other than Vladimir, Cameron was the only other person on board that he really knew. In fact, they had spent so much time together in the simulator over the past two weeks, he probably knew Cameron better than he knew Vladimir. So if he was going to trust anyone, he might as well start with her.
Nathan sat back up, recomposing himself before continuing. “Listen, if we’re going to get through this and get home, we need to get organized. I’m going to need an executive officer.”
“Who did you have in mind?”
Nathan raised his head to look at her, a slight smile forming at the corner of his mouth.
Cameron suddenly realized his intent, sitting up straight in shock. “Oh, get serious.”
“You’re the most qualified person I know, Cam.”
“I’m the only person you know, except for Vladimir. And there’s no way I’m letting him become XO.”
“Then you’ll do it?”
“On one condition. I get to object whenever I want.”
“Like I could stop you?” he smiled.
Cameron smiled back. “Not in a million years,” she laughed.
“Then it’s a deal?” Nathan held out his hand to shake on it.
“Yeah,” she reluctantly agreed, taking his hand. “It’s a deal.”
“Great. Besides, I need Vlad in engineering anyway.”
“You’re an ass,” she exclaimed, tossing his hand aside.
“Well, since you’re XO now, I guess it falls on you to determine the condition of our ship and her crew. Feel free to grab whoever you need to help.”
“Yes Sir,” she answered, mocking a salute.
“But don’t be gone too long, I need to go down to medical and get my leg treated. And I want to go by engineering to see how Vlad is doing with our guests.”
“I can pretty much do everything from here,” she offered, feeling a bit guilty that she had forgotten that he was wounded and had probably been in pain the entire time. “If you prefer, you could go now?”
“Thanks, no. I just want to rest for a few minutes first. Besides, maybe you should at least take a quick break, get off the bridge, stretch your legs a bit.”
“I could use a trip to the head,” she admitted. Nathan could tell that she too welcomed even a short respite. Cameron stood up to leave. “I think I’ll do a quick walk around the main decks, get a feel for the general condition of things,” she decided. “I shouldn’t be too long, maybe an hour.”
“See if you can rustle me up some water, will ya?” he smiled.
“I’ll see what I can find,” she promised as she walked past. She felt herself instinctively about to place her hand on his shoulder, as a show of bonding and support as she passed, but stopped short of doing so. She still wasn’t sure how all of this was going to play out, and she wasn’t entirely comfortable giving him her full support just yet. Less than a week ago, they had been competing for the same spot at the helm. Had she gotten that position, it would’ve been her sitting in the command chair instead of Nathan Scott.
“Doctor Sorenson,” Nathan asked as he rose and stepped over to her station, “I know you’ve had a difficult day, probably more so than the rest of us. I just want you to know that I am very sorry about your father.”
“Thank you, Captain.” In all the commotion over the last few hours, she had not been given any time to mourn his passing. “I appreciate your concern. But I’ll be alright.” She paused for a moment before continuing, gathering her thoughts. “You know, ever since my mother died, this project was all that he had.”
“I’m sorry, Doctor. I didn’t know.”
“Please, call me Abigail,” she insisted. “Anyway, it was more than ten years ago.” She looked away from Nathan, her eyes welling up again despite her best efforts. “That’s why I joined this project. If I hadn’t, I probably would never have seen him. It consumed his every waking moment.” She wiped her eyes, a smile breaking through the sorrow as she looked up at Nathan. “He said that this technology would ‘change everything’.”
“At least he got to see it work for himself before he died,” Nathan offered.
Abigail just nodded, still trying to keep her emotions under control. “Funny thing is, I knew this project would kill him. But I always assumed he would work himself to death, in his lab.”
Nathan felt guilty for imposing upon her during such a difficult time, but he needed the skills that only she could provide. “Listen, Abigail, I hate to ask you for anything else. I mean, you’ve already saved our butts twice today. But I need to know what kind of condition your systems are in. I need to know what I can count on this ‘Hyperluminal Translator Thingy’ to do for us.” Nathan flashed the same smile that usually got him out of trouble with his mother.
“Just go ahead and call it a ‘Jump Drive’,” she conceded.
“You see? It is easier,” he bragged. “Anyway, maybe later you could fill me in on how this thing works, and what we can, and more importantly cannot do with it.”
“Yes, of course,” she agreed, nodding her head up and down several times as she sniffed. “Whatever needs to be done.”
“Great, thanks Abigail.” Nathan put a comforting hand on her shoulder as he turned toward the port entrance, where Jessica had just entered.
“Sir,” Jessica greeted him as she approached. “Now that all of the rebel ships have left, I have nothing left to guard. Marak and his two guys are still working in engineering, and I’ve got a couple guys watching Marak’s ship. So I came up here to see what I could do.”
Nathan had known that Jessica was strong the first night he had met her. But he had been more than impressed at how she had handled herself over the last few hours. More than anyone, she had met every challenge thrown at her head-on, without hesitation. More importantly, she had demonstrated excellent instincts. And that was something that you were born with-a lesson he had learned from Captain Roberts. Nathan had always been good at sizing people up quickly. That was a talent he had inherited from his father. And he knew that Jessica was someone he needed in his corner.
“In Special Operations school, they not only teach you about specialized combat and tactics, right? They also teach you about things like intelligence gathering and security, stuff like that?”
“Yes Sir. Spec-Ops are trained to go covert, to gather intel, hit hardened targets and the like. So it also requires a detailed understanding of security.” Jessica could go on about her highly specialized training for hours, as it was a great source of pride for her. But it suddenly occurred to her that there was probably a reason for his question. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m going to need someone to handle ship’s security, at least temporarily. I’ve got enough to think about, and you seem to have a knack for this sort of thing.”
“I appreciate the offer, Sir. But I’m not sure I’m ready,” she protested.
“More so than any of us,” he pointed out. “So, you’ll take the job?”
Jessica smiled at the idea of the extra responsibility. Even if it was only temporary, it would still look great on her service record.
“Yes Sir. Thank you, Sir,” she said as she snapped a salute.
“Great,” he exclaimed, returning her salute half-heartedly. “Then I’ve got a job for you,” he explained, gesturing to her to follow him.
They walked over to Jalea, who was helping Ensign Yosef try to figure out where they were in relation to Earth. It was turning out to be considerably more difficult than expected.
“Excuse me, Ensign,” Nathan apologized. “But we need to borrow Jalea for awhile.” Ensign Yosef nodded and returned to her work as Nathan led Jalea away, heading toward the back of the room.
“What may I do for you, Captain?” Nathan noticed that Jalea’s pronunciation was getting a little better, as was her syntax. He had a feeling that she had spoken the language quite well at some point in her life, and that it would not be long before she became fluent once again.
“Earlier, you said that it would take some time for a message to get here? What did you mean by that?”
“When you escaped, the Takarans would send message to all ships. All ships must look for you, near them.”
“And it would take a couple of days for a message to reach the ships that are here, in this system.”
“Yes,” she confirmed, nodding.
“How the hell can they get messages between systems that fast?” Jessica was shocked at the news. If true, it created a new tactical twist that she would have to pay close attention to in the future.
“They have some sort of communications relay, a drone or a ship maybe. Apparently it can go over a hundred times the speed of light,” Nathan explained. “I was hoping you could learn a bit more about that, and anything else you can.”
“When message arrives, ships will look here first,” Jalea interrupted.
“Yeah, so would we,” Jessica agreed.
“Listen, Jalea, would you mind if Jessica asked you some more questions? We could really use some more information about the Takarans, the rebellion, and this whole system,” he explained. “It would really help us a lot.”
“Please, I must check with Marak on this,” she told him, pulling her communicator from her belt.
“Of course.”
Nathan and Jessica took a few steps away, moving closer to the entrance to the captain’s ready room to give Jalea a moment to confer with her commander.
“If they can get messages between systems within days instead of months or years, that gives them quite an advantage. Especially if these people cannot,” Jessica explained.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” he agreed.
“I wonder what else they have?” Jessica added.
“Captain?” Jalea had finished conferring with her commander. “Marak says I can do this, mostly. But some questions, maybe I cannot answer.”
“I think she means there are some things she is not allowed to tell us,” Jessica mumbled.
“Yeah, I got that,” he answered. “That should be fine,” he assured Jalea as he led her into the ready room. “I’m sure anything you can tell us will be very helpful. Let’s go in here where we can talk more privately,” he added, motioning her to follow Jessica into the ready room. “I’ll join you in a moment.”
Jalea followed Jessica into the captain’s ready room, as Nathan stepped over to the temporary communications station that had been configured at the port auxiliary station just in front of the port exit. “Ensign, connect me to engineering, please.” A moment later, Vladimir’s voice came bellowing across the comm speaker.
“Yes! Bridge, go ahead!”
“Vlad, I hate to tell you this, but you’ve only got twenty-four hours to get this ship ready for combat.”
“I’ll do my best, Nathan!” Whatever else Vladimir said after that was unintelligible to Nathan, as it was mostly in Russian. But Nathan was sure it wasn’t for polite company.
“I don’t think he’s happy,” Nathan decided.
“No, sir,” the ensign handling the communications station agreed.
The first thing that Nathan noticed as he walked into medical was that it was less chaotic. It was still full of patients, and there were still at least a dozen non-medical personnel helping to care for the wounded. But everyone had a place to recuperate and all appeared to be receiving proper care.
There had only been two doctors, two nurses, and one medical technologist on staff when they had departed Earth. For a crew of only one hundred, it had been more than enough. And unlike many other parts of the ship, the Aurora’s medical facility had been completed and fully stocked prior to departure.
Every member of the crew had basic emergency medical training while at the academy. Nathan himself had completed the course in his first year, but had never cared much for the simulations. He had always felt the requirement unnecessary. Every ship in the fleet had top-notch medical facilities and staff, a necessary luxury for ships that routinely spent several years away from home.
Despite it being less chaotic, the main treatment room was still a mess. There were bloody bandages and linens piled in every corner, and the floors were stained nearly everywhere you looked. There were even blood splatters across some of the walls where some of the more serious injuries had probably been treated. But those that were not directly involved in patient care were trying to help out by cleaning up the room as best they could. Nathan even noticed one of the civilian scientists from Doctor Sorenson’s team, the same one that he had helped in the corridor earlier, following people around with a data pad as she frantically tried to keep notes on every patient’s treatment for their medical records. It made Nathan feel good about the people on this ship. When everything fell apart, they had all come together to try and pull through, as a team. He couldn’t help but wonder if all the people of Earth would behave in the same fashion, should the Jung invade their home.
As Nathan made his way across the main treatment area, he could feel the stares of his shipmates. At first, it made him uncomfortable, as he didn’t understand why they were all looking at him. Then he realized that they were staring at him, because he was wearing captain’s bars on his collar. The very same bars that Captain Roberts had bestowed on him earlier in this very room, just before he surrendered to his injuries. These people were no longer his shipmates, Nathan realized. They were his crew. And they would be looking to him to get them out of this mess-to get them home.
A wave of nausea began to wash over him once more, and Nathan tried to quicken his pace without looking too obvious. Was it all the blood splattered about the room that was making him ill? Or was it simply the sudden realization of the enormity of his new responsibilities? Unable to think clearly, he headed for the same utility room where he had heaved up his breakfast an hour ago. At least in there, no one would be staring at him.
Nathan again found himself hunched over the sink. Luckily, he had nothing left in his stomach to expel. But he still felt dizzy, and he definitely did not want to go back out there and face all those stares again. He had only just graduated the academy three weeks ago. And his command simulation scores had barely been passable. It had only been his natural instinct for flying that had landed him the helmsman position on the Aurora. And even then only by the grace of Captain Roberts, who for some strange reason saw potential in him. But what if he was wrong?
“Some captain,” he mumbled to himself.
“What’s that?”
Nathan turned to look behind him. Doctor Chen was sitting in the corner, just like the last time he had been in this room.
“Doctor Chen, we’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Nathan joked. “People will start to talk.” He flashed the same school boy smile again, only this time it was a little less charming and a bit more forced.
“You finally decide to let me take care of your leg?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Hop up on the counter,” she instructed, rising from her stool and coming toward him. “Let me take a look.”
Nathan used his good leg and both arms to boost himself up to sit on the counter, turning slightly to give her a better angle to his injured left calf. Doctor Chen was a little cleaner than before. She had changed out of her blood stained uniform and was wearing surgical attire. But despite her clean outfit, she still appeared emotionally exhausted.
“I noticed there’s fewer patients here now,” Nathan commented as she began to examine his leg.
“Yeah, well some of them didn’t make it.” She looked up at him, realizing that he hadn’t considered that possibility, as guilt washed over his face. “I’m sorry, that was a rather insensitive of me.” There was expediency in her manner as she cut away his torn pant leg in order to expose his wound. Nathan imagined that she had done this many times this morning. “Actually, a lot of them did make it,” she continued. “I sent the walking wounded back to their quarters to recuperate. A couple of the marines that survived were rated as combat medics, so I’ve got them running around keeping an eye on them for me. They can contact me through the comms over the med channels if they need something.”
“That’s pretty good thinking, Doc.”
“Not really,” she admitted as she finished applying the bandages that would cover his wound while the bonding agents worked their magic. “It’s standard disaster management. I learned it during my internship. Frees up beds for the more serious cases.”
“Any word on Doctor Thomas?”
“Still missing,” she told him as she finished his bandage.
“Well, I guess that makes you chief of medical for now.”
Doctor Chen said nothing in response as she finished bandaging his leg. Nathan could feel the tension, and knew it had been brought on by his last statement.
“Doc, you okay?”
Doctor Chen just looked at him for a moment. “No, I’m not,” she admitted. “I’m not okay. And I’m sure as hell not ready to be in charge. I’m only three weeks into my residency! I barely know what I’m doing half the time!”
“Hey, come on,” he urged, trying to reassure her. “Look at me? I’ve only been at the helm for a little over a week! And I’m suddenly the captain?”
“You don’t understand. All those people out there? They expect me to save them. Me.”
“Yeah, I saw those people out there, Doc. And you know what? I’m the one who got them injured in the first place! They’re out there because of what I did, because of the decisions I made! You wanna trade places?”
She stared at him again, finally asking, “Hand me the pneumo-ject from the cabinet behind you.”
“The what?”
She shook her head, a slight chuckle in her voice as she reached behind him to get the device herself. “You wanna trade?” she mocked as she loaded the pneumatic syringe. “I’ll do it, but only on one condition.”
“What’s that?” he asked, cringing as she injected the medication into his leg.
“Promise me it’s only temporary.”
“No problem,” he assured. “The minute we return I’m sure they’ll replace us all with more experienced officers.”
“Good, because I don’t want to be in charge any longer than I have to.”
Nathan wanted to tell her that he felt exactly the same way. But he had no idea where they were, or how long it would take them to get home. And the last thing the crew needed was to know that their captain didn’t want to be in command.
“Well, I think I should warn you that it might be a little longer than you think.” Nathan braced himself for her reaction, but got nothing more than a concerned look from her tired eyes.
“What are you talking about?”
“It may take some time for us to get back to Earth.”
“But they’ll come for us as soon as the fighting is over,” she surmised. “I mean, Jupiter is only a few hours out, even by our slowest ships, right?”
“Well, we’re not exactly orbiting Jupiter anymore,” Nathan admitted as she finished bandaging his leg. “Maybe you’d better sit down.”
Doctor Chen had taken the news of their situation, and the details of how they had gotten into trouble better than Nathan had expected. In the end, she had realized that despite her misgivings about her own abilities, she was the only person on board even remotely qualified to do the job. Nathan had thanked her for his treatment, and left her to tend to her numerous patients. As he left medical, he had a feeling that the petite, soft spoken Doctor was far stronger than she realized.
Getting to Engineering had been more challenging than Nathan had expected. Because of the size of the hangar bay, most of the corridors skirted around it, between the bay and the inner hull. Unlike medical, which had been located deeper inside the ship, these sections had taken a considerable beating. Most of them were still intact and passable. However Nathan had been forced to make a few detours to get around some of the more severely damaged sections. He wished that he had thought to go through the hangar bay instead of around it. Not only would it have been easier, but he also would’ve gotten to see the rebel ship that was still parked inside.
Nathan worried about what he would find when he got to engineering. It was located at the uppermost edge of the amidships section, just forward of the massive propulsion section at their stern. The location had been chosen to facilitate quick changing of her reactor cores. But that left the area more vulnerable to attack. Captain Roberts had been aware of this weakness. During their battle with the Jung patrol ships, he had protected it by attacking head on, and later by rolling the ship to show their reinforced belly while passing over the enemy.
The smell of burnt electronics became noticeable as Nathan approached Engineering. Once he stepped through the main hatch it became almost overpowering. There were signs of burnt out panels and exploded consoles everywhere. Several of the damaged consoles had multiple data pads wired into them to act as temporary interfaces until they could be properly repaired. There were several expended fire suppression bottles laying about, along with a few pieces of burnt clothing. In the corners were piles of circuit boards so badly burnt that they could not be repaired.
A half dozen crewmen, most of them engineers or technical specialists, were busy trying to repair the most urgent systems. In the middle of it all was Vladimir, bigger than life, barking out orders to at least three different work teams simultaneously. In contrast to Doctor Chen, Vladimir appeared to be enjoying the challenge.
“Vlad!” Nathan called out as he came toward him. Vladimir spun around to see Nathan limping slightly on a bandaged leg and sporting bloody captains bars on his collar.
“Nathan!” he smiled. To Nathan’s surprise, Vladimir gave him a big hug. “I’m so glad you survived, my friend.” Before Nathan could speak, his friend turned and barked more commands to a nearby work team before continuing. “And you are a captain now?!”, he added, slapping Nathan on the back. “But still, I am not going to salute you.”
Nathan noticed one of the rebels scurry past carrying some type of wiring harness. “How are they doing?” he asked Vladimir, tilting his head toward the passing man. “Are they much help?”
“Yes! They are very good! Not as good as me, of course. But they seem to know their way with such things. It makes me wonder what they have in their ships,” he added under his breath.
“You think they might be more advanced than us?”
“Nathan, everyone is more advanced than us!” he exclaimed.
Nathan hadn’t thought about it before, but now he realized that Vladimir might be right. The people of Earth had only started getting back into space about thirty years ago. And there had been little research and development done beyond the technologies found in the Data Ark. With the threat of Jung invasion looming over them, there hadn’t been time. They had heard that a few of the fringe worlds had been less impacted by the plague. So it made sense that some of them could’ve developed more advanced technologies over the last millennia, while the people of Earth were rebuilding from the ground up.
“But with these people, I think it is sometimes yes, sometimes no.” Vladimir could see by Nathan’s expression that he was confused. “At some things, they are amazed, like they cannot believe what they are seeing. At others, they cannot believe we are still using them!” he laughed.
“How are the repairs going?” he asked, getting back to the reason for his visit.
“Oh, terrible! So many things not working! No engines, no maneuvering, only two good reactors. And as you can see, many consoles are badly damaged. It will take weeks to repair! But do not worry, Nathan. We will fix it. We will fix everything.
“How long until we have maneuvering again?”
“A few hours at the most. Main propulsion, I do not yet know. But soon, we will have all four reactors online, so we will have full power once more.
“Then do we have weapons?”
“Soon, soon,” Vladimir promised. “First rail guns, then torpedoes. Missile batteries, they must still be installed. But since we have no missiles to fire, it does not matter.”
“Well, the sooner you can get us moving, the better. I have to tell you, being a sitting duck out here makes me nervous.”
“Just try to keep us out of trouble for awhile, Nathan. That would be of great help.”
“I’ll do my best. But our intel says we’ve only got about a day at the outside.”
“Intel? What intel?”
“Our guests, they tell us the Takarans will come looking for us soon.”
“Who are these, ‘Takarans’?” Vladimir had spent the entire time in engineering, and still had no idea of what they had been through. All he knew was that he and his fellow engineers had been bounced around on three separate occasions. “What is going on, Nathan? Where are we?”
“I wish I knew. My best guess is somewhere out on the fringe.”
Vladimir looked at Nathan like he was crazy. “The fringe?…”
“…I know it sounds crazy…”
“…It is not possible!”
“It’s complicated…”
“…It’s got something to do with that evil doctor woman, yes?” Vladimir surmised.
Nathan again recounted the day’s events for the benefit of his friend. Vladimir took the news far better than Doctor Chen had. In fact, he seemed more excited about the existence of the Jump Drive than anything else. And it appeared that his new chief engineer was looking forward to the challenges ahead with absolute glee. It had not been the reaction Nathan had expected, but it had been a refreshing one.
“So how bad off are we?” Nathan asked Cameron as she followed him into his ready room. As he entered, he was suddenly struck by the starkness of the now empty room. It had been at least sparsely decorated when it had been occupied by Captain Roberts, but now it had been stripped of even those few mementos.
“I took the liberty of clearing out the captain’s belongings,” she explained, noticing his reaction. “I hope you don’t mind.”
It had not occurred to Nathan that this task would need to be performed. And now that she had done it, he realized that it would not have been easy for him. For that small kindness, he was surprisingly grateful. “No, not at all,” he answered softly. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“What did you do with…”
“…I packed them safely away,” she assured him. “I’ll see that his family receives them when we get back.”
Nathan nodded his approval as he made his way across the small room and around the desk. “You can skip the engineering stuff, I already got that from Vlad.”
“Well, the bow took a beating. There are multiple hull breaches. Most are from weapons fire as we backed away from that Takaran warship. The biggest breach of course is from ramming them.”
“Not my fault,” he defended. “We were pretty much dead-stick at the time.”
“Yes, I was there,” she reminded him before continuing. “The forward section is going to be uninhabitable until the breaches are sealed and the hull is repaired. In port, that would take a few days. Out here?” she shrugged, indicating she had no idea.
“Maybe never,” Nathan admitted.
“Of course, most of the forward section is housing, and some recreational areas. But since we’re shorthanded, there should still be plenty of housing available aft of the forward bulkheads.”
“And what about crew?” he asked hesitantly. He knew he wasn’t going to like the answer.
Cameron took a deep breath before giving him the news. “Thirty-eight dead, forty-two injured.”
Nathan fell into his seat. “Thirty-eight? Oh my God,” he muttered. The first thought that crossed his mind was how many of those deaths had occurred after he assumed command. It was a small point, insignificant to those that had perished. But it meant everything to Nathan. “How many injured?”
“Forty-two,” she repeated. “But twenty of them are minor and can still man their posts.”
“So we’ve only got forty people to run this ship?”
“That’s it.” Cameron could see that Nathan was devastated by the news. But as bad as she felt for him, if he was going to be captain, he was going to have to get used to such news.
“We can’t run the ship with forty people, can we?” It didn’t seem possible to him, but he wasn’t sure.
“Technically, no. But there are several departments that either were not online yet, or are too damaged to be of any use right now, so we might be able to squeak by. But there are some areas that are going to present problems, especially if we have to go into battle again.”
Nathan looked at her, a confused look in his eye. He was still stuck on the number of crew he had lost and was not yet thinking clearly.
“We can fly the ship, and we can fight with her, but we won’t have anyone for damage control.”
“Maybe we can get some more help from these rebels?” Nathan suggested off the top of his head.
“Nathan, I’m not sure we should trust them too much just yet,” she warned. Like Jessica, she was far more suspicious of the rebel’s motives than Nathan seemed to be. And his eagerness to trust them worried her.
Nathan considered her warning. “Yeah, you could be right about that. I just don’t see that we have much choice given the circumstances. I mean, badly damaged, barely enough crew to fly the ship, and God knows how far away from home?”
“Oh, and low on consumables,” Cameron added.
“What?”
“Food? Water? We weren’t loaded for an extended voyage you know.”
“Oh, great. You see, that’s what I’m talking about. We’re gonna need friends out here if we’re gonna survive long enough to find a way home.”
“You’re right, I agree. I’m just not sure that these people are the type of friends we want, Nathan. That’s all I’m saying.”
“And on that we agree,” he conceded. “But until we’re presented with other options, we’re gonna have to utilize what we’ve got. And for now, that means these people.”
“Just be careful,” she warned him.
“Look, sooner or later, we’re gonna need to find safe harbor. I mean, we can’t very well conduct repairs while hiding out in an asteroid field. Once we find a populated world, we’re bound to find some other people and make some more friends. Hopefully ones that are not so quick to throw themselves into the jaws of death.”
“Make more friends, huh. That’s your plan?”
“Hey, we’ve gotta play to our strengths,” he smiled. “Now speaking of consumables, I think it would be wise if we tried to get everyone something to eat while it’s still quiet around here. Any ideas?”
“With all that’s happened, you’re thinking about food?”
“We’ve gotta eat, Cam. We don’t want the crew we have left passing out from low blood sugar, do we?”
Cameron knew he was right, as she herself was a bit hungry. “There’s about a hundred lunch kits down in the galley, along with the left-overs from breakfast. What would you like?”
“Surprise me.”
“I’ll get someone on it right away,” she promised as she turned to leave.
“And make sure everyone eats, even if they have to eat while they’re working.”
“Yes Sir.”
“And when the food comes, have Jalea come in. I think she and I need to talk.”
“Yes Sir,” she answered as she left. She wasn’t sure if she liked the idea of Nathan and Jalea meeting in private. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. She was sure that he wouldn’t intentionally do anything wrong. But she had already noticed that Nathan had a tendency to act on impulse, especially in conversation, instead of thinking things through first. And in the case of a conversation with Jalea, she was twice as concerned. She had noticed the way that Nathan had looked at the woman. Jalea had unusual eyes that seemed to catch your attention and hold it. Jessica had noticed it as well, and had also voiced her concerns about Nathan’s judgment in regards to Jalea and the rebels.