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The Meeting - Part Twenty
Heliopause
24.03.2268
Alpha Centauri System
76 A.U. from Alpha Centauri B Dupuis had received the call to meet the
Captain in his office almost immediately after he heard the sounds of the
Linear Displacement drive ramp up and engage. He was learning to recognize Redoubt's
different sounds, and the familiar sound of the LDS drive brought a sense of
relief. He was still edgy after the recent sounds of emergency klaxons and fast
manoeuvres he had heard during combat. His heart had nearly stopped when he heard
the emergency Brace! Brace! Brace sound it's warning. Lying strapped on
his bunk while the ship fought a space battle was the most helpless he had ever
felt in his life. Even though the inertial dampening field was excellent, every
jolt he felt as the ship deflected enemy fire made him wince as if it would be
the last sensation he felt. He was exhausted from the sustained rush of
adrenaline and fear. The only comfort he derived during the battle was in his
thoughts of Corinna. He was realizing what a mistake he had made letting her go
to pursue his career. The fear of death had stripped away his ambition, leaving
only the resolve to get her back in his life somehow. If he survived this
mission, he would find a way to contact her at that research facility. He
played out the whole joyous reunion in his mind as the ship dodged and rolled
through combat. Those thoughts faded as he double-timed it along the main axial
corridor to the Captain's suite in the ComSec.
He passed a repair crew bustling on their way to
the next priority job. Before long, he stood panting outside the open door of
the Captain's office. Ferris sat at the end of the small table in his cramped
office doubling for the moment as a conference room. He had the same worn look
of stress and sleep deprivation seen on most of the faces there. Lieutenant
Dupuis joined the members of the bridge crew, sitting opposite Lieutenant
Commander Skarsgaard against the bulkhead wall. Under the bright light of the
room, their eyes were sunken and they all seemed more pallid. The lighting
also made the colours showing through the translucent skin of the Chief
Engineer more disturbing than ever. He wore a pained expression on his face,
and a glisten of perspiration showed on his lip. They waited in silence until
Colonel Carr arrived, a full twelve minutes after the meeting had been called.
It seemed like an eternity.
"Ah, there you are Colonel. Thank you for
joining us," said Ferris; his anger barely contained. He pointed to the last
seat available. "We have very little time so I'm going to go through this very
quickly. We have a new situation to digest, which seems to be changing by the
minute. I have been given the gift of specialists for this so-called mission,
and its time I consult your expertise." He looked around the table at somber
faces. "Here's how it's going to work: I'm going to provide the sitrep. Then
I'm going to ask questions. I want answers to those questions in as quick and
focused a way as possible. Rank means nothing at this table. This is life or
death. We have no time for bullshit of any kind. I want answers and ideas, and
I want them fast. Our comrades in arms are in the process of hunting us.
They're probably setting up blockades at the L-points in this system as we
speak. Here goes:
"We were sent on a mission to hunt a spy ship
that has been accused of treason. I personally found the evidence against them
thin, but orders are orders. Since we have a 'capture' option I was going to
strongly support that option and discourage anything else. As a result of an
engineering mishap, we missed our scheduled jump by a few minutes. This mishap
appears to have saved our necks, because most of our escort was eradicated by
an ambush of pirate vessels, paid to destroy anything coming out of the point at
precisely that time. Obviously, we were the target. Regular Navy SecPat vessels
of the region were conspicuously absent. The pirates thought they had done
their work, and were picking over the carcasses when we showed up with the Crusader
and surprised them. Fortunately for us, and in spite of certain
unauthorized independent actions, we prevailed," he looked directly at Colonel
Carr with a cold glare that was matched by a bored look from Carr. "It turns
out that there were other vessels way off at the limits of our sensor range
during that exchange, and they left quickly after we destroyed the attackers.
Before we knew it, we were jumped again, this time by our own people believing
that we have gone rogue. Someone paid those pirates; someone gave those Navy
vessels orders to attack us, leading them to believe that we were responsible
for the recent disaster at Tau Ceti. Once again, we survived, but at great
cost. The Crusader wasn't as lucky.
"We now sit at the very edge of
the system while repairs are nearing completion. We're down to a handful of
disruptors, even fewer seekers, and one REM missile. If we have to fight again,
it's going to be a short one either way. If we want to go anywhere, we have to
move out soon, or they'll have this system locked up and we'll be stuck here.
We were supposed to go to Tau Ceti, but I have a feeling more unpleasantness
awaits us there, so that direction is not an option, in my view. Mr. Dupuis."
Dupuis started in his seat, not
expecting to be called upon so directly. "Uh, yes sir?"
"Let's talk about the mission
first. We're supposed to contact the Wolf-In-The-Fold. How do you
suggest we do that, now that things have.changed?"
There was a silence at the table
and a panicked moment during which Dupuis felt like getting up and running. He
might have if he weren't hemmed in on either side by McMichael and Ravindran.
He bit his lip. "I don't know."
"What?" Ferris asked with
incredulity.
"I don't know. Sir."
"I said forget rank. What would
you suggest we try?"
"Captain, I don't know what to
tell you. I have no idea where or how to find the Wolf-In-The-Fold. You
have the same information as I do about last contact. Your guesses would be as
valuable as mine. The.have we really been declared rogue?"
"Yes, the last combat manoeuvres you felt were part
of an exchange with ships of our own forces. We destroyed four of our own
vessels in that battle. If we weren't rogue before, it'll sure as shit look
like we are now," Ferris replied curtly. "You were saying?"
Dupuis seemed a shade paler than
he had a moment before. "The only thing I can think of would be to say that
looking in Tau Ceti is a waste of time. It always was a waste of time,
even before this all turned to.before things changed. I honestly don't even
think the Wolf-In-The-Fold is the problem it's being made out to be, and
we certainly aren't going to find them if they don't want to be found. Listen:
for months now we've been pretty sure that the Crack-In-The-World group
used the Tau Ceti system as their main base of operations, and we haven't been
able to find them. We've only spotted them twice, and the last time we did was
a disaster, and they wanted us to find them. It's a big system. Finding
a single ship, experienced in covert techniques will be next to impossible.
Sir."
". 'it's a big system',"
Ferris said nodding. "I'm having a hard time believing my ears. You're our
intelligence officer and that's the best you can do: 'I don't know' and
'it's a big system'? We're often out here for weeks at a time finding
and fighting Indie ships, without the benefit of your 'intelligence' data. We
do better than that with sensors that can only detect targets to about two
thousand Kilometres. Perhaps you can tell me why you are aboard this vessel."
"Captain, I don't mean any
disrespect. I'm.I'm just trying to give you straight up answers. I was included
on this mission to keep me out of a political witch-hunt brewing back at Naval
HQ. I came up with a conclusion that was very unpopular with the brass. No one
seems to want to believe that there's another.oh never mind. Look, I'm an
intelligence analyst. Most people think that everything we learn about
the enemy comes from our 'spies'. But only about ten, maybe twenty percent of
useful intelligence data comes from the work of covert operatives. The bulk of
it comes from open sources; L-point activity, shipping manifests, traffic
patterns, financial transactions, that sort of thing. The trick is to assemble
it into useful patterns we can read. That's the kind of thing I was
trained to do. My expertise as an intelligence data analyst never really had
much bearing on the task of tracking a single ship in space. We spent months
assembling data and modeling scenarios before we could confidently put the
Indie fleet in a given place at a given time. Even then, it took a critical
report to give us the specifics. I wish I could be more helpful, but in all
honesty, I think my being on board this vessel is a mistake."
"I'm inclined to agree with you,
Mr. Dupuis. We need a plan, not explanations for why we don't have a plan. And
frankly, if you're not an asset, you're a liability," Ferris looked next at
Ravindran. "Rav, it looks like we get no help from our intel specialist, and
from where I sit the mission is moot, anyway. Survival is the game, now.
Suggestions?"
"If you ask me, we don't know
enough to formulate a plan. What we need is information. We need good
intelligence. Who paid those pirates? Who ordered our own ships to attack us?
Whose ships were out there watching to see the outcomes of the battles? Unfortunately,
we don't have time to go around looking for answers to questions; not while
we're being hunted and blockaded by our own fleet. So more than intel, right
now we need time and distance in order to consider the options. We need to pick
a direction, and fast."
Dupuis watched the Captain look
at the WEPs officer with respect. The woman was definitely a clear tactical
thinker. "Agreed. Our most important objective right now is to prove that we
haven't gone rogue, and in order to do that, we need to stay alive and collect
information. The question becomes: Where will we find the information that's
going to help us? You've already heard how easy it is to stay hidden within a
given system if you don't want to be found. But ships need fuel and supplies; crews
need rest. We can't run around this system forever. Colonel," Ferris turned his
gaze to Colonel Carr "the routes back to Sol, and to Midway are most likely
blocked by now. Which of the others would you recommend?
Captain Ferris touched the screen
of his pad and a display of the stellar map appeared on the surface of the
table, rotating and zooming in to the Alpha Centauri system. Colonel Carr
looked at it a moment, then pointed at the system as he spoke. "Even though the
L-4 point in this system is closer, making it an easier or at least quicker
escape route, I would caution against heading to Midway. Those systems are now
dominated by the Independents, and as you can see only offer a dead end. No, I
think your best bet would be Proxima Centauri or Epsilon Indi, as long as you
don't get forced in the direction of Delta Pavonis. I suggest we use the
Matisse L4, behind Matisse's Folly.it will be the least likely to be covered
yet by any patrols."
Ferris nodded. "Very good. I
agree. What about you two?" he looked at Skarsgaard and McMichael. "The real
question at hand is where can we go that will help us to find the answers, and
the proof we need to demonstrate our innocence?"
Skarsgaard shrugged, "I still
think we should try for Tau Ceti. The mission."
"The mission is FUBAR, Chief!"
McMichael yelled. "We've been on mission for a matter of hours, and
already we've been attacked by mercenaries, we've been declared rogue by our
own Navy, we lost four escort vessels, we've been forced to destroy our own
ships in self defense, and our intel specialist tells us we probably had no
hope of ever finding that spy ship in the first place."
"And we've been sabotaged!"
Ferris added.
"Sabotaged?" McMichael asked.
"What sabotage? Do you mean the missed jump?"
"It was probably done while we
were docked," Ferris nodded. "One of our engineers detected and fixed it
immediately. His repair was the reason why we didn't make the jump.it probably
saved our lives. The problem wouldn't have stopped us from jumping, but it
would have crippled us pretty quick in a fight."
"Why didn't I hear about this
sooner?" Colonel Carr joined in, suddenly quite upset.
"Because we've been pretty busy
since we got here!" Ferris replied. "Because I'm not certain the saboteur isn't
aboard, what with all these new people. Besides, none of this helps us choose a
course of action. Ravindran, you said we needed to get some good intelligence.
Which direction offers us the best opportunity for that?"
She shook her head, still puzzled
at the turn of events. "I'm not certain. I just wish I could have gotten a
better track on those strange contacts we spotted during the battle. They might
have provided some indication of course if I had been able to spend more time
tracking them."
"Captain, if there is a security
threat on this vessel," Carr burst in, "I expect to be apprised of it in full!
The completion of this mission depends on it. There are measures my people can
take that could prevent any further."
Ferris held up his hand to cut
the Colonel off. "Rav, you might be on to something. It might be worth looking
back over the sensor logs. Those ambushes required some real time data, which
means that whomever is behind these attacks is using some kind of spotter. We
need to know more about that possibility. Colonel Carr, I agree that your
marines may yet prove to be important to the security of this ship, but I alone
will decide when to call for and implement those measures. I will let you know
when that decision is made."
Ferris looked as if he were deep
in thought. He turned off the display and gathered himself up, signaling the
end of the meeting. "We may have some other options to consider before choosing
our next direction. Rav, I want you to go through the sensor logs in as much
detail as you can and try to get more information on those mystery contacts. I
get the feeling they're important. Mac, I want you to plot high-speed course
options for the remaining possibilities, and ready yourself for a fast run
through the gauntlet. I expect it'll be just like at Arcadia, but I want to
make it through whichever L-point we choose as quickly as possible, so be ready
for the word. Once you've worked out the routes, I want you give Rav a hand
with the sensor logs. Mr. Skarsgaard, repairs should be complete presently. I want
you to double-check everything to make sure we have no more mechanical mishaps.
I also want you to work on IFF options. See if you can hack an alteration of
our identification signal. If we can borrow an ID tag for long enough to get
through an L-point, it might make the difference between survival and
destruction. Colonel Carr and Lieutenant Dupuis, I'd like a word with you after
this meeting. The rest of you: Dismissed."
Dupuis waited while the rest
squeezed out from their places and exited the cramped room. The three of them
sat in silence, while Ferris waited for the sound of the airlock hatch to close
and seal behind the retreating bridge officers. Once he was certain the others
were gone, he turned to Carr. "Colonel, it seems unlikely that we will be able
to pursue this mission as assigned, and as such, I am questioning the utility
of a marine contingent on board this vessel. Your strategic and tactical
expertise is obvious, and would probably help our cause, but I see no need for
you to become a part of this mess. Your module has independent LDS capacity.
I'll put it to you directly: Do you wish to remain with us, or do you wish to
detach and return to the Navy on your own?"
Carr must have given some thought
to the matter already. His answer was a measured one. "Captain, I have never
returned to base without having completed a mission. I have no intention of
doing so now. You may have abandoned your mission after encountering a
little adversity, but I have not. I intend to complete my mission, and I
intend to make sure your actions don't prevent me from doing so. You have been
accused of treason and declared rogue. For the moment, I'm giving you the
benefit of the doubt, as I've seen nothing to support such allegations, and
there has been nothing in the form of due process. But if I learn that you did
in fact have anything to do with the disaster at Tau Ceti, or have in any way
assisted the enemy, I'll execute you myself and complete the mission. For the
time being, I'll support you in your efforts to find alternatives. Our existing
mission parameters require some.adaptation. But I will not allow you to
abandon our ultimate mission. Whether it's the Wolf-In-The-Fold, or you,
we have a real security risk out there, somewhere, and it's my job to rein them
in. I have no intention of running home."
"Very well, Colonel. I appreciate
your.vote of confidence. In truth, I was hoping you would leave and take some
baggage with you," Ferris nodded in the direction of Dupuis. "But I could use
all the help I can get. If you're going to stay, we need to get one thing very
clear: you are not to take any action with your accommodation module without my
direct orders. That means you don't detach without my order, you don't fire
your weapon, you don't do anything, without a specific order from me. Do
you understand?"
"I understand your request, and
will take it under advisement," Carr answered, as he stood to leave.
"It wasn't a request, Colonel, As
Captain of." but Carr was already out of the room and walking down the corridor.
Ferris, now alone with Dupuis, looked decidedly unhappy. "Looks like we're
stuck with each other, Lieutenant." There was a pause while Ferris considered
something. "Why do you really think you were included on this mission?"
"Vice Admiral Wexler gave me my
orders right after the Tau Ceti debriefing. He said that they were looking for
a scapegoat to hang that mess on, and he wanted to protect me from the
political fallout, so I was to do some field work, as he called it."
"Why would he care? I mean, why
would he be so protective, even magnanimous toward you?"
"No reason I can think of, now. I'm starting to
think he set us all up for some reason, but I can't figure out why. I'm usually
pretty good at seeing the patterns, and getting a handle on the different
angles, but not this time. Maybe because my own skin is involved."
"That makes two of us, but we'd
better figure things out fast," said Ferris as much to himself as to Dupuis.
"What was it you concluded that was so unpopular?"
"My analyses pointed very
strongly to the presence of a third faction in this war.a very quiet one,"
Dupuis said.
Ferris looked at him carefully
for a minute, deep in thought. "I see," he said. "You aren't the first person
I've met that believes that. It does seem almost too hard to believe, but.the
more I think about it, the more sense it makes. Very well, Mr. Dupuis, maybe we
can find a way for you to be useful after all. Get yourself suited up for
bridge duty and report to the bridge in twenty minutes. You'll be assigned one of
the fold-down rumble seats at the back of the bridge. I'll want you to give me
best guesses, analyses, estimates, or hunches whenever I ask for them, on
whatever issue we find ourselves facing. You're an intelligence specialist:
it's time to start acting like one.even if it isn't your area of expertise.
I need every edge I can get. Get moving!"
"Aye, sir!" Dupuis saluted and
left quickly.
On returning to his cabin in the
port module, Dupuis encountered Skarsgaard in the suite changing clothes, and
looking for something in his room. Yves noticed him swallow a few yellow pills
in his palm, holding his eyes closed for a moment before relaxing his shoulders
and breathing more deeply. Finally, Skarsgaard opened his eyes and looked at
Dupuis.
"Since I have to oversee the rest
of the repairs, I'm going to be busy for awhile, so I thought I'd change, clean
up a little, and get some of the equipment I use." Skarsgaard said, as he
placed a more pieces of equipment in a utility tote.
Dupuis nodded, and turned to enter
his cabin from the common room. Before he left, though, he turned and asked,
"Does it hurt? I mean, does the thing with your skin cause you pain?"
Skarsgaard nodded. "You mean the
little pharmaceutical pick-me-up? The pills help. Funny. Almost no one ever
asks me what it feels like. They're usually too pre-occupied with what it looks
like."
"So, why did you do it?"
Skarsgaard looked down and smiled
a crooked smile. "A girl." He quickly held up his hand as if to ward off a
blow. "I know, I know. How stupid can you get, right? But I was young, and in
love, and she was.well, she was wild like nothing I'd ever seen before. She was
into the whole body decoration subculture, you know: covered in tattoos,
pierced everything. She was always going on about how amazing all this new
radical genetic stuff was. I thought I'd impress her into wanting to be only
with me, and did this." He gestured with one hand down the length of his
flight-suit covered body. "The irony of it all was that she took one look at me
afterward, and nearly lost it. It turns out she was more talk than action, and
nowhere near as wild as she led on. She ditched me and.I still look like this.
So I guess you could say it hurts me in more ways than you might imagine, but
the pills definitely help." He placed a few more latched equipment boxes in the
tote and added. "It's crazy how the very thing you choose to do to bring
someone closer can end up driving them away, isn't it?"
"I guess," Dupuis said. "In my
case, the problem is the opposite. I chose to do something for my career,
knowing it would end a relationship, and now that I have what I thought I
wanted, all I want is to have her back. How's that for stupidity?"
"Irony, stupidity.it's just the
way things go. We always seem to want what we can't have," Skarsgaard replied
as he zipped up the bag and headed for the door. "At least you can go back. I
mean you could go find her and try again."
"I'm considering it, but I'm not
sure anyone can really ever go back."
"Maybe so. But you can always
try. Anyway, I gotta get to work. See you later." And with that Skarsgaard was
gone. Dupuis found himself staring at a closed door. He left the cabin less
than four minutes later, feeling strangely exuberant dressed in the amber and
green flight suit of an active bridge officer.
Ferris found Allbright working on
a panel in the port pastie, not far from the assistance Chief's own
workstation. "Mr. Allbright. A word, if you please."
Allbright spun around in startled
surprise, almost dropping his tools as he did. "Oh, Captain. I didn't see you
coming." He placed his tools in the holder on the tray, wiped his hands on his
coverall, and stood to face Ferris. He'd been too edgy lately, he thought to
himself. He struggled to control the tremor in his hands. "What can I do for
you?"
"You can tell me more about what
happened before you came here. I'm interested in what you claim to have seen in
Epsilon Indi."
"Not claimed to have seen,
Captain. Saw! Plain and simple; with my own two eyes, and an entire bank of
sensors to boot."
Ferris nodded and looked over his
shoulder to make sure they were alone. "Go on. I need to know what you saw, and
what you recorded."
"I was servicing an FTL relay
unit out beyond the orbit of Old Man Panemito's parahelion in Epsilon Indi. Up
until a couple of weeks ago, that was my job. That unit had been acting up
already that month. As I approached I saw two contacts that shouldn't have been
there. I started recording and sent copies of the data over to my drone's
on-board CPU. The contacts didn't make sense, so I pinged 'em on active.
Suddenly they made even less sense, and they weren't very friendly. These were
PatComs, but different, and stealthy as hell. I recorded the whole approach,
encrypted it and I launched the drone. They had to be doing something they
shouldn't have been doing, 'cause they weren't interested in talking. They just
came toward me in an unfriendly way. I realized I was screwed, so I sent a full
spectrum test broadcast at maximum power through the relay, and it made pretty
much everything scream for a few seconds. They rammed me and ran like hell.
That's it. I got picked up, transferred to the spooks, recruited by Chen, and
here I stand trying to keep your ship running, despite all the interruptions."
Ferris smirked a little at the
dig. "Where's the drone with the recordings?"
Allbright smiled. "If only you
knew how many people have asked that question in the last couple of weeks.
Actually, it isn't far from where it all happened. There's another older model
FTL unit in the vicinity of the one I was repairing. It failed a few years ago,
so it was replaced but never removed or demolished. So it just sits there,
another inactive piece of space junk. I always figured it was left there as a
backup or for parts or something. Anyway, it was from the twelve-oh-two series,
so it has a fairly large storage bay for its own automated repair drone, which
was long since removed and put into service elsewhere. It just so happened that
the 'elsewhere' was with yours truly. All I did was to tell Sneezy to go
'home' and wait quietly for me."
"Could you direct us to the drone
and get us those recordings?"
"I guess. Why?"
Ferris sighed. Trying to get used
to non-Navy personnel and their conduct wasn't easy, but the whole situation
was demanding more adaptation than most could handle. "Because, Mr. Allbright,
we've been shadowed by vessels that defy any contact profile we know about. But
they smell an awful lot like these stealth ships you say you encountered. We'd
like to compare the little bit we have to whatever you were able to record. It
might help us find them, it might help us find out where they come from, or it
might help us by having more evidence to raise doubts about us being the
traitors everyone thinks we are. Either way, we are without a plan, and I need
to get this ship somewhere fast. Epsilon Indi might be our best bet."
"Sounds like as good a reason as
any, to me, Captain. Only there's one more thing I should mention."
".and that is?"
"We'd better hurry. Chen knows
where Sneezy is. She may already be there collecting the data from it."
"We'll leave immediately, then.
Epsilon Indi, it is! Send the coordinates for a waypoint directly from your
station to McMichael's on the bridge. Stand by to assist when we get there. In
the meantime, carry on, and.thank you."
Allbright turned back to his work
without acknowledging Ferris' gratitude. He couldn't stop thinking about where
to find something stiff to drink. Maybe the galley had some liquor. Maybe he'd
be able to find something in the medical suite. His hands started to shake
again. Ferris let protocol go and turned to return to the bridge. Before Ferris
got more than three steps away, Allbright said, over his shoulder, "Is it just
me, or are all the 'specialists' on board the Redoubt for this mission
linked in some way or another?"
Ferris turned and waited, then
asked the obvious prompting question. "Linked in what way, Mr. Allbright?"
Allbright closed up the panel and
turned back toward Ferris and shook his head. He ran a shaking hand slowly over
his graying head and licked his dry lips. He was suddenly acutely aware of how
badly he wanted a drink. "I'm not sure, but it seems more like someone has
assembled a collection of specific people on this ship and tried very hard to
destroy it. It's almost as if someone was trying to put all their problems, or
loose ends, or liabilities in one place for more efficient disposal. I just
can't figure what the common thing is that makes us all liabilities, and to
whom."
"Interesting thought, Mr.
Allbright. I'll consider it. In the meantime, please remain alert to any
other.anomalies."
This time Allbright saluted
smartly. "Aye, Captain."
".and try not to be so damned
sarcastic," added Ferris, as he left through the hatch to the bridge.
"I wasn't being sarcastic,"
Allbright muttered to himself as he gathered his tools and headed for his
command workstation.
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