Clidepp Requital (21 page)

"You're relieved, Lt. Caruthers," Sydnee said as she entered the bridge. "Please resume your duties at the helm. Then take us up and off this planet. Keep us in the umbra and try to avoid any military ships in orbit."

It was with relief that Sydnee sank into the comfort of the commander's chair, only to realize she was still wearing her armor and couldn't actually enjoy the comfort of the chair. But there was no time to change right now, so she sat stiffly, watching her bridge crew as they performed their duties with speed and expertise. Every muscle in her body was tense, and that sensation was exacerbated by having to sit in the armor. She really needed a little downtime and looked forward to entering Light-9790 and a month of easy flight.

The tac officer was at his console and ready if Sydnee ordered any action. After learning that the weapon counts on his console were accurate, she had briefed him completely. He knew that if he targeted a ship with either missiles or lasers, he would indeed be inflicting damage. Sydnee certainly didn't want to start a war and would use weapons only as a last resort.

As the
Justice
lifted from the surface of the lake and rose into the night sky using just its oh-gee engines, it was possible to see clusters of lights far off in the direction of the package's home. No doubt the authorities were combing the area for any clues that identified the persons responsible for assaulting the house.

The ship climbed quickly through the atmosphere, and as it approached the thermosphere, Sydnee gave the order to build the envelope.

"Building, envelope, Captain," Caruthers said from the helm as he touched the contact spot that would build the envelope. After a second he touched that spot again. Then again a second later. "No response from the envelope generator, Captain."

Sydnee sat up a little straighter. "Engineering, confirm."

Lieutenant Barron touched several spots on his console before saying, "Confirmed, Captain. The envelope generator is offline and nonresponsive."

"Damn," Sydnee muttered under her breath. "Navigation, find us a really remote place to set down. A warm place would be preferable because our engineers will have to work outside the ship."

"Aye, Captain. Searching. There's a tiny island in the lower temperate zone that's reportedly uninhabited."

"Send the coordinates to the helm."

"Sending."

"I have them Captain," Caruthers said. "Changing course."

The ship stopped its ascent and began to drop back towards the planet. Once beyond the land mass of the continent where the package lived, they overflew water for thirty-two minutes before slowing to circle what looked like a tropical island. Caruthers set the ship down in a small clearing that was hidden from the water by rows of trees. "We're down, Captain."

"Okay, let's find out what our status is. Navigation, do the reports mention dangerous flora or fauna on this island?"

"There's nothing in the database, Captain. Literally. So there may be dangers here. The good news is that it's so remote it's unlikely any person will spot us, except from above."

"Okay. Engineering, see if you can figure out what's going on with the envelope generator. Don't venture outside without a Marine fire team in armor."

"I don't have armor, Captain."

"I realize that. Remaining on the hull at all times will minimize any risk."

"Aye, Captain."

Sydnee immediately contacted Kelly MacDonald from her chair on the bridge.

"MacDonald," Sydnee heard on her CT.

"Kel, this is Syd. Would you have four of your people in full armor take up positions outside the ship while the engineers try to correct a problem? They should be armed with laser rifles and pistols. We're not expecting trouble, but we don't know what kind of indigenous life forms we might encounter."

"I'll have a fire team outside in five minutes, Syd."

"Thanks, Kel. Marcola out."

"Five minutes before anyone ventures outside," Sydnee announced to the bridge crew.

The engineer at the console relayed the message to the other engineer, CPO Luscome, who was down in the Engineering area, also trying to identify the problem.

"Captain, may I speak to you in private now?" Blade said to her right and slightly behind her. She hadn't even known he'd come onto the bridge.

She turned slightly, looked at him for a second, then said, "In my office," as she climbed out of the command chair. "Lt. Caruthers, you have the bridge." With the ship sitting on the ground, there was nothing to be done at the helm, so Olivetti didn't move to the helm console when Caruthers went to the command chair. It was protocol to always have a clear order of command established even though Caruthers would probably not be called upon to issue any orders.

~ February 12
^th
, 2286 ~

As the doors closed behind the Major, Sydnee turned to face him. She had been dreading this moment but tried to maintain as impassive an expression as possible.

Blade, his face a mottled red, spoke first, with anger and accusation in his voice. "Captain, you are solely responsible for the failure of this mission. If you had followed my orders and picked us up when ordered to do so, we wouldn't presently be in this situation."

Sydnee knew she must remain perfectly calm to keep the situation from getting worse. "Major, your retrieval from the roof was only delayed by a mere fifteen minutes, and I made arrangements to have that done before I broke off in an effort to save my Marines."

"They're not
your
Marines, Captain. Let me remind you, you're Space Command. They're
my
Marines."

"As captain of this ship, everyone on board is my responsibility. That includes you, Major. I was no more going to desert those people than I would have deserted you."

"They were lost to us. The package was the most important thing, and he was almost lost because of your recklessness. You ordered your people not to raise the
Justice
from the bottom of the lake, thereby preventing me and my team from getting to safety."

"The package was never in any danger of being lost, Major. And you were perfectly safe once Lt. Weems picked you up. No one was going to get at you while you were inside the MAT. I wasn't going to simply desert any of
our
people without making every possible effort to recover them from that situation. I don't give up quite so easily."

"Are you accusing me of cowardice in the face of the enemy?"

Sydnee's impassive expression and calm voice seemed to be making the Major even angrier.

"I haven't accused you of anything. Rather, it seems to be the other way around."

"Captain, I'm the superior officer here, and I formally notify you that I'm taking command of this vessel under the articles of seniority as established by the Galactic Alliance Uniform Code of Military Operations."

"This is my ship, Major. You have no authority to take command while you're a passenger aboard my vessel. As you
are
a member of the GA Military Forces, there might even be a case made for attempted mutiny. And do you really think any of my people are going to follow your orders when they run contrary to my own?"

"I have sufficient forces behind me to make them follow my orders."

"Do you think the twenty-eight Marines whose lives I saved today, in direct violation of your order to abandon them, are going to follow you in a mutinous action? For that matter, how do your Special Ops people feel about you so quickly abandoning six fire teams operating under your orders? Do you believe you still have the full trust and confidence of your own team? Or are they wondering how quickly you will abandon them in a similar situation?"

"How my people feel is none of your concern. Do you surrender command of this ship to me?"

"No."

"Then I'll take it by force," Blade said, pulling his laser pistol out and pointing it at Sydnee.

"And just where do you think you're taking it?" Sydnee asked. She had noticed that Blade's index finger was on the guard, not the trigger. That probably meant he had no intention of firing the weapon.

"Back to GA space."

"How? The temporal generator is broken and we can't achieve FTL or we'd already be on our way back to GA space at Light-9790. All we have are oh-gee power, thrusters, and sub-light engines. The GA border is more than seven hundred seventy light-years from here. You don't really think we're going to get there with just sub-light power, do you?"

"I don't believe you. This is another one of your tricks."

"No tricks, Major. The ship is really broken, and my people are working to find the problem and correct it so we can go home. As I see it, we have the same objective— to get back to GA space. Your mission was a success, you have what we came for, and now it's my job to get us home. So you can either fire that weapon and severely harm your chances of ever getting off this planet, or put it away and get out of my office."

Blade's face had gotten even redder as he talked, but he was still in sufficient control that he recognized the truth when he heard it. He knew Marcola's people would never follow him willingly if he shot her, and she might be the best chance for their survival. He put the pistol back into his holster, turned, and left the office.

Sydnee took a deep breath and released it. In her personal and non-professional opinion, Blade was just one short step from going over the edge. She had decided that acting emotionless was the best way to defuse him for now, so she had maintained the impassive expression and even tone to her voice the entire time. Now she hoped she could keep things under control until they managed to get off the planet.

* * *

After hours of checking electronic systems aboard the
Justice
and finding nothing amiss, the engineers decided they had to check the electronics in the repository on the top of the ship where the temporal generator was protected from damage while not in use. The Marines rechecked the area beneath the ship and the surrounding jungle for any danger before the engineers were allowed to come out and perform their tests. When the Marines detected no signs of danger, they took up posts around the ship to maintain tight security.

Spaceship maintenance was not normally performed in a gravity environment dirt-side. In space, weightlessness was used to full advantage in concert with a simple propulsion harness. And there were any number of ways to access every part of the craft in a maintenance bay aboard ship, the usual being oh-gee carts. The carts were nothing like the small oh-gee sleds used by the Marines to ferry gear on missions. The SC carts looked like the rear area of a flatbed truck. About three meters wide and six meters in length with a flat surface that could easily support four engineers, they had small air propulsion jets for maneuvering and could rise as high as twenty meters. The Marine sleds had no propulsion and their altitude was limited to about a meters and a half. But since the
Justice
didn't have any of the oh-gee engineering carts on board, a small, remote-controlled tug used to assist with habitat docking and undocking in space was chosen as the best way to access the sail area of the ship.

MAT-One was detached from the ship so a collapsible bin stored in the MAT's hold beneath the passenger compartment could be unloaded and set up. The robotic tug then picked up the bin with the two engineers aboard and used oh-gee power to carry it up to the generator repository on top of the ship. Arriving topside at the repository, the engineers discovered the problem almost immediately.

"Captain," the engineering officer said via com, "We've solved the mystery."

"Don't keep me in suspense. What is it?"

"The repository is filled to the brim with water. No doubt some of the electronics in there have shorted out."

"Filled with water? How could that happen?"

"I'm assuming that the engineers who designed the cover mechanism were not aware the ship was intended to operate as a submersible. Since there's no water in space, there's normally no need to make it airtight."

"Can it be repaired?"

"We don't know yet. I just wanted to give you a status report. We have to bail the water out and attempt to dry the compartment, then begin disassembly of the generator and see what the situation is inside."

"Keep me apprised."

"Aye, Captain."

Sydnee took a deep breath and released it slowly. It was going to be light in a few hours. Presently, they were a black ship surrounded by blackness, but once the sun was up, they would be in a black ship surrounded by a sea of greens, yellows, reds, and beiges. They would be easily visible to any imagery satellite.

Lifting the cover to a small console in the right arm of her chair, she depressed a button that would allow her to address the entire crew, "Attention, this is the captain. The engineers have discovered that the temporal envelope repository filled with water while the ship was submerged in that mountain lake, and some of the electronics appear to have shorted out. They are attempting to repair the ship, but at this point, we don't know how long that will take. Lt. MacDonald, please report to the bridge. Carry on."

A few minutes later, MacDonald was at her right hand. "You need me, Captain?"

"It's going to be daylight in a few hours. Could you use your holo-projector technology to disguise the ship from outside observation?"

"Our holo-projectors are only intended to camouflage a fire team, not cover an area as large as this ship."

"Could we overlap the images? The area around us is heavily treed, so all we really need to do is break up the straight lines of the ship and conceal the black coloration as much as possible."

"That might work. I'll check the manifests to see how many units we have available. What we have are in the holds of the MATs. MAT-One is already detached because you needed access to the collapsible bin, but we'll also have to detach MAT-Two from the
Justice
so we can access its hold."

"Okay. Weems can unlink the second MAT and set it on the ground by the first so the holds will be accessible. The SO teams had a couple of holo-projectors. Round them up as well."