Black Dawn (5 page)

“Each of you now has an account. As income comes in, it will
be divided according to rank and performance. All food, uniforms, and
equipment will be supplied by the Fleet.”

Coy worked hard not t
o glance at Butler. “As of now, it is one
ship. As of now, you are the crew. That is all I know...Anything else?”
There were a few more queries pertaining mostly to duties, ship functions and equipment. When there appeared to be no more immediate
questions, Coy nodded to Butler and stepped aside.

Commander Butler stood and faced the others. “Today you
will be given regulations manuals, ship schematics and Fleet procedures. Read them. Study them. Sleep with them. There
will
be a
test....And only I know when.

“This is a large ship and a small crew. We have the luxury of
being comfortable and the burden of maintaining it. Pulling your own
weight is your basic job description.

“There are two gyms, officer’s and crew. Don’t mix them up.
Officers also have the option of dining in their quarters. All crew will
take their meals in the Crew Mess. All officers are housed on Deck D,
everyone else on Deck E. Decks A, C and F will not be used for now.
Life support will not be on in those places. If you go exploring, don’t
expect a rescue squad to bail you out.

“You have six hours before we leave dock in which to learn
your way around. Duties will commence as soon as we break orbit.
Sgt. Schiff has the schedules for training, Byars has one for physicals.
No exceptions for either. Your daily duty roster will be continuously
updated. Check your console last thing at night and first thing in the
morning.”

He stepped back. On cue, Schiff stood stiffly. “Attention!”
They all stood. Most stood correctly. One or two were still a
little bewildered. Coy came forward and inspected them, smiling a
little at the memory of its first crew -- how long ago? A lifetime, at
least. Would these people ever come to mean what those had? And
what would it do if they did?
“Dismissed,” it said. Everyone filed out, those who did not
have military background imitating the stride of those who did.
The senior officers remained at Coy’s side, watching them.
“Well,” Bon grinned, “Here we go.”
Butler gave a dramatic sigh. “I don’t know about a couple of
these guys, Skipper. You really think they can make it?”
“ I do.”
“And what if you’re wrong? What if they get blown away trying to play hero?”
“We’re not playing, Commander,” it told him gravely, and
walked away.

In the months that followed the BlackFleet crew was put
through a grueling training process. Physical endurance was pushed to
the limit and a little beyond. Even Coy was surprised at Schiff’s skills
in martial arts and weaponry. And he was insistent that everyone else
master them as well. On top of that, they had safety drills, battle armor drills, medical emergency drills, technical repair drills, shuttle
drills, rescue scenarios and battle simulations.

More than one trainee was seen dragging themselves to their
quarters for a few precious hours of rest, mumbling about mutiny and
murder. In the end, twenty stuck it out.

Donald came to Lamont and Butler one morning.
Without a
word he dropped his wrist com on the floor at their feet. He then secluded himself in his quarters until their next stop. Sweggert, Knepp
and Rebel tried to talk to him over the door com, but he answered no
one.

Nathon came to the hatch when Donald left and also turned in
his com. He looked Lamont in the eye with great difficulty. “Make no
mistake, Skipper. I know what I’m losing out on. But I just can’t cut
it. I’m sorry I let you down.”

Coy watched them leave silently, trying to decide if it were
disappointed that they were giving up, or relieved that they were going
to stay alive.

Lamont watched the events in engineering from the communications station up on the bridge. Bon had been particularly merciless in
the last training exercise and now six hands were flying over their engineering consoles in an attempt to keep the
Raven’s
fusion reactors
from ‘blowing up’.

The engineers had caught the problem and corrected it in
minutes. But these were troopers sweating over the switches. And
considering that fact, Coy was pleased that they had even noticed the
booby trap -- let alone had a clue as to how to fix it. Sgt. Schiff must
have truly put the fear of something into them when it came to studying specs.

There was a throat clearing over by the door and Bon wandered over to join Schiff and Butler who were watching as well. He
moved quietly so as not to disturb the “techs”.
“So,” Butler opened in a low voice, “are we dead yet?”
“Not yet. They’re getting it.”
“In time to stay alive?”
Schiff frowned at his skepticism, but said nothing.
“Give them a chance, Ken. If Lamont hadn’t thought...”
An alarm interrupted, filling the room with its raucous death

warning. The trainees frantically hit switches, and routed information
on the panel, in an attempt to activate the emergency fail safes in the
brief interval of time now left to them by the exercise. Two minutes
later, a buzzer sounded that time was up. The panel in front of them
simply read “boom”. A chorus of groans went up from the troopers.
Sweggert flopped back in his station chair in disgust. Pierce and
Vennefron froze for a second, then turned to Bon in defeat. After a
moment, Randy Sweggert reached over and silenced the panel.

“....just before it goes completely black,” Butler finished. He
shook his head and walked out of engineering.
“Why don’t I just hit self-destruct at the beginning and save us
all a lot of trouble,” Randy sneered.
Schiff strode over to him and jerked him out of the chair .
“Get back to the gym and run laps until I say to stop,” he hissed, then
turned to the others. “Your comrade has just died in a hostile takeover.
It’s up to you two to save the rest of us.” He gave them a cold glare.
“I, for one, expect to live this time.” Turning to go, he gave a nod to
Bon.
The engineer stifled a smile and proceeded to set up another
exercise.
Lamont turned off the vid and waited, knowing what was coming.
Butler reached the command deck just as Devyu Aziza, hair
still damp from the gym, relieved Lamont at communications.
“Sweggert just blew the ship to pieces again,” the commander
announced. “We’re all floating debris.”
“I saw. What’s Bon’s opinion?”
“Skipper, the man was
smiling
. Like they were doing good!”
Lamont shrugged. “Perhaps they are. It’s his domain. He
knows what he’s seeing.” Coy made a quick tour of the stations,
manned and unmanned, then motioned for Ken to follow out into the
corridor. “Schiff said Rebel and Knepp were both shaping up great.
Potential officers there.”
“Officers over who?”
“Whom.”
Ken scowled. “Whatever. The issue is manpower. Not
grammar.”
Lamont paused and looked at him a moment at that. “Would
you like a cup of tea, Commander? It’s great for stress.”
“We’d better start serving it by the gallon, then,” Butler
growled, gave a half-hearted salute and turned back towards the bridge.
“There’s an old Earth saying,” Coy said to his back. “It’s always darkest....”
The hatch shut behind him.
“.....right before the dawn,” Coy finished thoughtfully to itself.

A shrill scream jerked Lamont awake. It lurched to a sitting
position and looked wildly around the dark room. But the only sound
breaking the silence was Coy’s own adrenaline fed heartbeat.

Coy raised its wrist and spoke into the com link that was always strapped there. “Lamont to Bridge.”
“Bridge. Go ahead, Captain.”
The voice sounded calm. The only emotion was perhaps surprise at the middle of the “night” call. In a second, Coy realized where
the scream had come from and felt like a fool.
The person on the other end was still waiting. But then, there
was no way for the bridge crew to know if this was an actual emergency, a drill, an inspection … or a bad dream.
“Status report,” Coy said in its best inspection voice.
“All quiet , sir. No reports since shift change. No incoming
communications. Cpl. Rebel is on Watch.”
“Very good. Carry on. Lamont out.”
As the adrenaline rush passed and Coy’s heart rate slowed to
normal, it tried to blot out the memory of the scream. Of the whole
nightmare. The same one that had been plaguing its sleep more and
more often these past few weeks.
Now that the initial flurry of activity surrounding owning a
ship and planning her future was settling into routine, the possibility of
actually leading a raid was becoming a reality.
Coy lay back against the pillows, tired, but unwilling to let
sleep, hence dreams, take it back to the scene of its greatest failure.
After a few minutes, it got up to make a gallon of tea.

Lamont fell heavily into the chair at the galley table the next
day and looked at the food sitting there on the tray. Nothing appeared
terribly appetizing, but it had been quite awhile since meals had been
anything but
nutri-bars, coffee and of course the occasional cup of tea. A real dinner was probably in order.

Besides, Ceal Byars would be checking around to see if her
commander was eating right.
“Is this a private party, or can anyone join?”
Lamont looked up to see Ken and Ceal hovering, trays in
hand. Coy waved a hand at the empty seats around the table, inviting
them to sit.
Ceal eyed Coy’s plate approvingly. “I’m glad to see that.”
Without replying, Coy took a bite and forced it down.
Ignoring their interplay, Butler gazed around the large mess
hall, peopled at present with only a handful of BlackFleet crew. He
opened his mouth, but Coy cut across whatever remarks he was about
to make.
“I know we’re down to 20 people and I don’t feel like any
‘
why don’t we increase the size of the fleet’
arguments today.”
“You’re making assumptions,” Butler put on a frown. “How
do you know that’s what I was going to say?”
Lamont cocked its head in unspoken question.
“Well, okay, so it was. But still....”
“Case closed.”
Butler made some frustrated sounds. He took a breath and let it
out slowly. “Make me understand.”
Coy collected its thoughts for a time. “I...I don’t know that I
can lead more than what we have.” It pushed the tray away, leaned on
the table and sighed. When it spoke again, Coy’s voice was low. “I
don’t know that I can lead anyone.”
Ceal and Ken looked at each other in amazement. This was
not the ongoing feud Butler had expected. This was deep and real.
And a little scary.
“You can’t lead us?” Ken choked out. “Then what in blazes
are we doing here?”
Coy’s head came up and its eyes met Butlers. “To heal....we
have to help others heal.”
“I thought it was to be heroes.”
Inwardly, Coy chastised itself for bringing it up. But not answering was not going to help. The damage was done. Another saying came to mind about closing the barn doors too late. Whatever a
barn was.
“And what,” Ken asked carefully, “did you mean about not
being able? I’ve seen you training these guys. I’ve seen them grow.
Just what is it you don’t think you can do?”
Coy shook its head. “I don’t know. Maybe it will be okay.
Just...just always have contingencies. I’m not above doing really stupid things.”
Butler cleared his throat. “This is all very comforting, Captain. Would you please tell me what the hell you’re talking about?’
Lamont glanced around the room. “Not here.” It stood and
walked out of the galley. Two crew members just entering snapped to
attention and saluted. Lamont absently returned the gesture and continued on. With a shrug and an ‘after you’, Butler and Byars followed.
Coy led them to its cabin. In the corridor, waiting for them
was Bon, having been summoned by Lamont enroute. Without comment, Coy opened the door and went in.
Bon frowned at the other two. “What’s up?”
Butler gave an elaborate shrug. “I’m hoping to find out myself.”
Once in the cabin, they followed Coy over to the couch area.
Coy itself stood, back to them , gazing at the wall. After a minute, it
turned and nodded at Bon, who, along with the others, had settled back
against the cushions. “We were discussing my ability to lead this
unit....” it began.
“
We
were doing nothing of the kind,” Butler objected. “
You
were discussing....”
“All right,
I
was,” Coy admitted. “I realized that although I
required everyone to tell me their story, I’ve never told anyone mine.”
“And you think somehow this story will disqualify you?” Ken
said, a bit impatiently. “Whatever happened to the creed of the Fleet?
Second chances, and all that?”
“Ken, shut up for a minute,” Ceal told him.
He shut his mouth, crossed his arms, and looked at Coy expectantly.
Lamont took a breath and began. “I was a captain in
Corbet’s
Commandos .
A pretty typical bunch of mercs. I was glad to be a soldier. I was literally made to… ,” it paused and glanced at Ceal before
continuing , “…even though the jobs we took were pretty safe, boring
little jobs. Then we stopped on.....we stopped at an asteroid mine to resupply. Some of the miners came to the Admiral in secret and begged
we help them get out. Their lives were no better than slavery. Horrible conditions.” It shook its head in memory. “But the Admiral said
no. We, Commodore Aubry and I , tried to talk him into it, but he
wouldn’t budge. He never liked getting his hands dirty....Anyway, they
came back to us later, right before we left the asteroid. They were so
desperate....I smuggled them onboard my ship and dropped them off at
the next transit portal station we came to.” Coy paused again.
“I assume there’s more to it,” Ken said, in what was for him, a
patient tone.
Coy looked at the stars. “There were a lot more than the ones I
got off. So I went back....and this time I got caught. We were pinned
down by the mine security. I don’t know what all they did there, but
they had some
pretty tough weapons for security guards. I thought it was all over.
The miners panicked. Some of them tried to go back. The guards
mowed them down. Just then Commodore Aubry shows up to save
our tails. He was standing next to me laughing, saying , ‘ I knew you
were going to do something like this someday, Kid’ when he got hit by
a plasma beam. One second he’s my only friend in the universe. The
next he’s a pile of ashes.”
Ken and Ceal remained attentive. Bon was looking at his
hands.
“By the time we got out of there and met up with the rest of
the fleet, I would’ve agreed to anything.”
“What did you agree to?” Ceal asked cautiously.
“The Admiral asked for my resignation. He could’ve hanged
me for mutiny.” Coy sat down at last. “There have been times I
wished he had.”
No one spoke for several minutes. Bon got up and went to the
large port behind Coy’s desk and looked out at space.
“So,” Coy broke the silence, “you see I’m not the hero I’ve
insisted everyone be. I directly disobeyed my CO. My crime was real.”
“Did you get the miners out?” Bon asked.
“Most of them. Not all.”
He turned around. “You’re right. Your admiral could’ve executed you. But he didn’t. Maybe you’re not as guilty as you think.”
Coy looked frustrated at their inability to understand. “I got
my only friend killed, because he followed me out there. I thought I
wanted command…I do want command …but I can’t…” It sighed.
“How can I ask you to trust me?”
“But you did ask.” Butler interjected, “And we agreed. And
here we are. And my opinion hasn’t changed. You lost your command because you did what you thought was right. Right, even when
not correct. Isn’t that the way it goes?”
Coy didn’t comment.
Ken looked to the other two. “Am I wrong here? Am I missing something?”
“Not as far as I’m concerned,” Ceal said. “Captain, you once
told me that as my commanding officer you would defend me against
my enemies if they ever caught up to me.” Coy nodded. “I don’t think
you comprehend what that means to me. I’ve never had someone on
my side like that before. I know a lot of the guys around here feel the
same. Technically, I’m still a minor back home. It was against the law
for me to even leave without permission. Does that mean I
shouldn’t....”
Coy stood up. “You don’t...”it began angrily.
“Don’t what?” Bon interrupted. “Hate you? No, we don’t.
You’re on your own there.”
Coy looked taken aback. “You think this is self pity?” it demanded.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know what it is.” Bon rubbed the
back of his head as he thought back. “I was tossed out of the service
for not following orders. Minor detail the orders were cruel and inhuman. It’s still mutiny. I could’ve been killed. But instead the charges
were swept under the rug and I was let go. Dishonor is a hard thing to
deal with on Harada . Or anywhere.” He looked back at Coy. “It’s
been years for me. I’ve had time.” He raised one brow. “That’s why
you made that bet wasn’t it? Some sort of self-punishment?”
“What bet?” Ken asked.
Bon remained looking at Coy. After several moments, it gave
in and turned back to Ceal and Ken
“I used myself for collateral in a high stakes card game.
That’s how I won the
Raven
.”
“You won the
Raven
in a…” Ken began, then realized what
Coy had said. “Wait. Bet
yourself
?!” he sputtered in disbelief. “To
be...I mean, to...”
“We’ve all lost part of our selves. But we’ve gained this
chance,” Ceal said quietly. “This was meant to be.”
Butler looked at her, and then at Bon. “You mean like ‘It’s
always darkest right before....”
He was interrupted by Coy’s wrist com. “Aziza to Lamont!”
“Lamont, go ahead.”
“Skipper, we’ve intercepted a transmission. It’s the Tenetian
consul on Melan. They say they have ten dignitaries held hostage on
the new Melan orbital Station. They assume terrorists. It was a recorded message, but the old guy sounds desperate. The message was
tightbeamed - probably to a Tenetian vessel but there’s nothing as
close as we are.”
Coy thought for only a second. “Send back: ‘Message received. Help enroute.’ On the same frequency.”
“Aye, aye.”
“Lamont out.” It turned to Butler. “Do we know anything
about Melan station?”
“I think so.” Butler went over to Coy’s vidcom and brought up all the
stations they had been collecting information about. “Some basics.
Building design. Some sketchy info about the governments. Tenetia is
a monarchy, I know that.”
Coy nodded. “Gather as much as you can. Full crew meeting
in the Starboard room.”
Butler was speaking into his own com even as he hurried from
the room. “Butler to All Ship. All crew to the Starboard briefing room.
All crew, starboard room. Vennefron, report to I &S ...”
Byars hurried out after him, on her way to prep her Sick Bay
for whatever was necessary. Bon hung back a moment. “It would
seem the time for discussion is past.”
Coy gave a short nod, but said nothing.
“Want a pep talk?”
“Such as?”
“Such as all the things you already know. How you’ve made
sure these guys were trained right. How you’re the best ship captain
I’ve seen, whether you see it or not. How everyone here is here because it is their desire to be here, doing this, with you.”
Coy looked him in the eye for a long moment. “Butler’s right,”
it told him finally.
“About what?”
“You are a bootlicker.”
Bon grinned, saluted and they both dashed out.