That's what it was called according to the Triton blueprints and guides, the Mission Theatre. Finn hadn't seen it yet. Like most of the crew he hadn't seen the vast majority of the ship. There were still two squads of Stephanie's security people exploring twelve hours a day, every day, and they had come to be called the clearing crew.
There were four entrances to the large auditorium, one in each direction. Two of them led from main corridors on the command deck while the others let out three decks beneath. There were briefing rooms and side chambers attached and from what he had heard most of them hadn't been used in decades.
He wouldn't be privy to most of the meetings that occurred there anyway, and as he walked down to his seat in the third row from the bottom of the large space he couldn't help but think about the one under way in the main conference room behind the dais. Something serious was about to happen and he was both anxious and excited.
All the qualified pilots who had a fighter assigned to them were there, the Lieutenants from the security, gunnery, the flight deck and all other crews as well as any other highly skilled specialists. He took a seat beside Angela, one of the lead maintenance workers. “Hey Finn, you were invited to this party too?”
Finn nodded and enjoyed the thickly padded seat, amazed at seeing over three hundred crew members all sitting, waiting in the tiered seating. To his amazement the place was less than a quarter full. “I guess that's why they call this part of the ship the Command Section. It takes up more than just a deck.”
“You got that right. I was down there last night repairing the holoprojector, it can send images to every part of the room,” Angela said, pointing to the flat, black circle of flooring at the bottom of the chamber. “It just needed recalibration so it was pretty easy.”
“Most systems on this ship are pretty easy to fix, it's made to last.”
“Says the engineer,” Angela teased. “You probably didn't even have to look at the schematic to figure out how to hot wire the main emitter array.”
“You're right, but I did anyway. I just wish building a new emitter array will be as easy as frying the old one.”
“Speaking of which, are you getting in on the fab training Chief Grady's setting up?”
“Fabrication training? I don't have time, he's got me too busy. Where is he anyway? I thought he'd be here filling us in by now.”
“He's probably still in pre-briefing like all the other Chiefs and senior officers.”
“Have you heard anything about what this is all about?”
“I was about to ask you the same question. You outrank me, remember?” Angela smiled, pointing at the one and a half slashes on the wrist of her vacsuit.
“Right, I forget because Chief doesn't put me in with most of the maintenance staff.”
“We noticed, he keeps sending you off to the most interesting parts of the ship to work on those high tech systems we maintenance grunts don't get to see.”
“I'm sorry, but if it makes you feel any better, he usually sends me into those systems. Sometimes I think he has it in for me, like yesterday I was actually between the power cells I cross wired a few hours later.”
“Weren't they live?”
“Yup, but with no qualified bots online I had to rebuild the secondary switching box myself. I was upside down for almost three hours with barely enough room to breathe.”
“Now you'll have to do it all over again.”
“Worse, all the machinery will have to be removed and replaced, all eleven and a half tons of it. I'll make sure you're on the team.”
“Gee, thanks sir.”
“Well, if you want to get promoted…” Finn shrugged.
“Yeah, a little more pay would be nice, not that we get to spend much.”
“There's always the Botanical Gallery, there are businesses setting up down there I hear.”
“Yeah, I'm on the hairstylist's waiting list, she's booked a week and a half ahead. I'm not complaining though, they finally got most of us out of bunks. I'm sharing quarters with Gabby, we each get our own room so it's nice. Still have to go to mess or observation to eat though.”
“I was lucky to get my own quarters, still don't know many people on the ship though, I could have used a week in the bunks for that.”
“You're not missing anything, trust me.”
“Looks like things are about to get started, here they come. Wow, looks like the rumours are true; I don't see Frost but Lildell is there. I guess the rumour that he walked after Steph, er, Chief Vega broke up with him is true.”
“Damn. I'm going to have to avoid Oota Galoona completely. You're so lucky, you get all the best dirt first.”
“And my sources will remain anonymous. I thought most of the gunners hung out at the Pilot's Den.”
“Not since Frost dragged that guy out by his collar and nearly froze him to death next door in the unused quarters there.”
“Ah.”
The pair watched as Deck Chief Vercelli, Engineering Chief Grady, Security Chief Vega, Gunnery Lieutenant Lildell, Commander Everin, Master Of The Helm Ashley Lamport, Commander Price and their immediate subordinates were led by Standing Captain Alice Valent to the seats surrounding the high port side podium. As Captain Valent settled at the podium all of the senior staff members quietly sat down.
A QUIET PLEASE sign appeared on the backs of all the seats and silence settled across the circular space like a wave. Everyone who was on their feet sat down and the crew looked at their calm Chiefs expectantly.
“For those of you who don't know, Captain Valance is currently on mission off the ship. I'm his First Officer and Acting Captain Alice Valent. For clarity I'm to be referred to as Captain or Ma'am until his return,” Alice started in an official tone. The amplifiers sent her voice to everyone's ears with near full equality. “You're all sitting in this room because you are responsible for other members of the crew, will be put in a position of responsibility, or are a qualified pilot ready for service. Four hours ago Triton emerged from hyperspace after doing a broad loop back to our starting point. There was no contact with Eden Fleet or Regent Galactic ships. During the Captain's mission he's discovered that Pandem and the surrounding solar system is in distress so we'll have to extract him. Our objectives in the near future will directly affect our chances of retrieving him from Pandem. Before Captain Valance went on a retrieval run he had completed planning for a set of missions based on verified intelligence. Considering our level of readiness and the high likelihood that the Eden Fleet has marked us and may be actively searching for us it is time to put one of those missions into play.”
Alice activated the main hologram projector from the slim black podium and the air in the center of the Mission Theatre was filled with the image of an armoured satellite pitted with energy emitters. “This is a Regent Galactic hypertransmitter equipped with thirty five micro wormhole generating emitter systems. Through intelligence acquired by Chief Frost and later verified by our intelligence team we know its exact location second by second. Theft of this device will give us the parts we need to rebuild our own emitter systems, the ability to retrieve Captain Valance and potentially codes to Regent Galactic's secure communications network. We will also be severely damaging their ability to effectively communicate for light years in all directions for weeks, months if we're lucky. Triton will not only steal this critical technology, but we'll take credit for it, broadcasting a call to arms to every corner of this sector and beyond using their own hypertransmitter. This was included in the original mission plan and I concur. It's important that Captain Jacob Valance's mission to inspire others by example continues.
Having said that, the fact that we have good intelligence and the best of intentions doesn't mean that this will be easy. The Regent Galactic Karaikal Shipyards are within striking distance of the hypertransmitter. The Twenty Third Fleet also has several destroyers on patrol. They're not the destroyers that we encountered in the Enreega system either. These are Regent Galactic Long Range Encounter Class ships,” she said as she switched the holographic view to display a full exterior schematic of the snub nosed vessel. Its squared central hull played host to four thick pylons that protruded for half its length at all sides. Each of the thick appendages had round, pitted beam emitters and double cannon turrets. “They're high energy, high speed destroyers with sixteen long range particle beam emitters, forty two paired gauss cannons and eight torpedo ports. Its compliment of weaponry is almost as impressive as its heavy energy shielding and hull plating. They're not as hard or resilient as the Triton and they're a sixth her mass, but in the Bhutan system they patrol in groups of three. Some of these patrols include a Suppressor Class Carrier.” As she spoke the image of the three tiered ship appeared. It looked like a jagged group of misaligned triangles layered atop each other.
Captain Valent went on. Her hand unconsciously adjusting her eye patch before she jerked it away as though suddenly realizing that she was fidgeting. “These each carry a squadron of fighters, gunships, boarding vessels and heavier mission ready craft. They are not as heavily armed as their escorts and their shielding is made to repel long range attacks so we'd have them in no time if we were to get close, but they can launch as many fighters at a time as we can and most likely operate with better efficiency since the crews are most likely more seasoned and better trained than any of you. Our fighters are more powerful then theirs, better armed, but we will be outnumbered at least five to one if one of those carriers is in range. If we get lucky and we only see three destroyers, our fighters will be outnumbered three to one.”
The holographic display changed to a view of the satellite in orbit around a terraformed moon. The dark side glimmered with the lights of several cities and the traffic linking them. “The hypertransmitter is in a high orbit around the Asom moon. Most vessels stay away from it in case it has to generate an emergency departure wormhole for nearby ships. As most of you know such a wormhole appearing in the middle of an object would rip it apart so we're not going to risk the Triton by entering its effective range. The satellite is unmanned and armed only with its wormhole emitters, which are enough to cause a major problem considering it can generate several hundred micro wormholes per second. Triton will arrive at a range of ninety kilometres from the satellite, between it and the moon. The Samson will pick it up after disabling it. The Triton will be blocking defensive craft from interfering, repelling planetary weapons fire and shielding our smaller mission vessels while they defend us from anything else coming our way. Our main rail cannon batteries will be facing away from the moon, so you fighter pilots won't be without support. After the Samson has docked with the satellite we will enter hyperspace and rendezvous not far from the Bhutan system so we can pick up our fighters and get underway. More details including who you will be responsible for during this mission will be provided to you by your Chiefs and Commanders.
Before you all break up into briefing rooms I'd like to give all of you one last chance to wash out. After this you're on the hook and you'll be at the very least stuck on the ship while we take this mission on. If you speak up now there's an emergency shuttle with your name on it and you can take your chances on a nearby neutral system.”
Everyone's heads turned as three pilots near the rear of the auditorium stood and quietly left the room. They had arrived together and been chattering loudly before the Captain began the briefing and not many of the onlookers were surprised.
Alice gave the crowd a moment longer and nodded before going on. “We're in it now,” she grinned. “Triton!”
“Deploy! Dominate! Disappear!” The sound of the reply was deafening.
“Finally, we're going to do some damage,” Angela grinned at Finn.
He watched Chief Grady stand and start making his way over to them and the rest of the high ranking maintenance and engineering crew. His expression was almost grave. “Tearing the center out of their communications network will be a serious blow but I get the feeling we'll have our work cut out for us.”