Far From Home: The Complete Series (10 page)

To get through this, they will need to accept that I’m in charge, and that I’ll do my very best to keep them safe and well.

Secretly her decision to Jump without coordinates dogged her.

There was no other choice,
she told herself.
You can’t second-guess something you had no control over. It was either Jump or die. We jumped.

King knew there’d be crew who’d resent her for making such a decision. Regardless of the fact that in her shoes they would have been forced to make the same choices.

The joy of making the right choice … and the guilt of making the wrong one. They’re both yours,
she thought.

“Talk about the short end of the straw,” she said aloud as she climbed the ladder to the deck above. She was thankful there was nobody about to hear her.

* * *

Regardless of everything that had happened, and
was happening
, the repair teams aboard the
Defiant
were doing their very best to get the old girl back in shape.

The decks exposed to the vacuum remained sealed off for the time being, but when King visited munitions she found it looked vastly different to before. All of the debris had been removed, and the hull breaches dealt with. The fire-damage was isolated and repaired, and she could see where whole new panels had been installed in the place of old burned-out ones.

“How we doing?” she asked as she surveyed the repair teams efforts. An Ensign shot her a quick salute.

“Yeah, fine Captain. In another six hours we should have all tubes operational again,” he said.

“Good,” King said. “You must have worked around the clock.”

“Can’t leave the old girl defenceless,” he said.

“Well, you should be proud of yourselves. Where is Lieutenant Swogger? Is he around?” she asked, looking about.

“The Lieutenant has gone for some rack time,” the Ensign said. “To be honest, sir, I don’t think he’s stopped since the explosion.”

King nodded. “Understandable. Very good. I’ll catch up with him later.”

She walked away and passed the spot where Singh had died in her arms. A tightness wrapped its arms about her chest, but the sensation passed the minute she walked into the corridor outside. She’d allow herself time to grieve, but not now.

* * *

Some of the ship’s corridors were in worse shape than others. She passed through several that were virtually untouched by the battles they’d been through. Others were still littered with debris, fallen circuitry, broken piping. She stepped over a pool of dried blood on the deck of one corridor, her mind instantly flashing back to Singh and then to Del when he’d been thrown across the bridge during the initial battle with Sepix.

Several crew saluted her as she made her way to the engineering section. She wasn’t surprised to find Chief Gunn there. “Have you even slept, Chief?”

Gunn turned around, gave a sloppy salute. Jessica didn’t mind.

“I got a few hours,” she said.

King rolled her eyes. “Yeah right.”

The Chief directed two crewmen as they replaced a section of piping.

“Easy fellas. Remember, we don’t have spares,” she said.

“How’s it going down here?” King asked.

“Oh, okay. We’re getting there. The damage looks worse than it is. I’d say that we’re in worse shape structurally than we are internally. You’ve seen the decks that have been sealed off?” Gunn said.

King nodded.

“They’re the big jobs. We’re not going to be able to save all of those decks, Captain. There isn’t the replacement material for it. It might be a case of us repairing the hull plating to half of them and leaving the rest open to space,” Gunn said.

“Wow, that bad?” King asked.

“If we were in dock, I wouldn’t even worry about it. But we just don’t have the material to go around,” Gunn said.

“Okay, noted. Listen, Chief, I wanted to say that I know it got a little heated at times. Don’t take it personally,” King said.

“Not a problem,” Gunn said.

“Well, thanks for all your hard work, Chief,” King said. She looked around. “You’re doing a fine job.”

The two crewmen fumbled with the replacement, and the Chief snapped.

“I said be careful! Don’t you two listen? I could do that repair on my own!”

Jessica laughed. “Chief, I’ll leave you to it. See you at the meeting.”

The Chief waved her off, now too engrossed in making sure the two men didn’t make a mess of a repair a woman could do single-handed.

* * *

She went to the mess hall and grabbed a coffee. The room was empty save for one other and as Jessica filled her cup she tried to place the woman’s name.

“Morning,” Jessica said as she sat down at the other end of the table.

Her head still hummed from the drink the night before. She’d have to chase Del up on exactly what it was.

Something alien,
she thought.

The young woman looked up and smiled. “Morning, Captain.”

She held a data tablet in one hand, and a forkful of scrambled eggs in the other.

Now Jessica remembered who she was. “You’re Selena Walker, aren’t you? Lisa’s roommate?”

“Yes sir,” Selena said. “I mean, Ma’am.”

King held up a hand. “Honestly, either is fine.”

She took note of the absence of a uniform. She knew that although Selena held the rank of Yeoman, it was a formality. She was one of only a handful of civilians allowed on board. You had to have specialised expertise to be granted a position of study aboard a Union starship.

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember your area,” Jessica said.

“History and life sciences, sir,” she said. She leaned forward, looked around to make sure they really were alone in the mess hall. “Forgive me for asking, but is it true we have Hawk Nowlan aboard? The Hawk Nowlan? How is that even
possible
?”

Jessica sipped her coffee. “Yes, we do. We’re not yet entirely clear on how or why, but it’s him all right.”

“Wow,” Selena said.

Jessica put her cup down. “As a matter of fact, you could help me with something.”

“Go on,” Selena said.

“I’m going to be tied up for quite a while today, as you can imagine. I need someone to chaperone Nowlan, show him around. Get him acquainted with the ship, that sort of thing. Would you be interested?”

“Sure!” Selena said.

“I mean, you’re into history. He’s a legend. Living, breathing history. I was just thinking it would be a good fit,” Jessica explained.

“No, totally. Thanks,” Selena said. “Where is he staying?”

“In the Ambassadors’ quarters for the time being. You could go there when you’ve finished breakfast if you like,” Jessica said.

Selena rushed a forkful of eggs into her mouth, wiped her lips with a napkin and got up. “No time like the present.”

She grabbed her data tablet and with that she was off. Jessica shook her head and laughed.

As she sipped her coffee she thought about the meeting. Her stomach tied itself in a knot with dread because she knew the kind of truths that would be revealed, and in a way she had no desire to hear them.

Before heading to the conference room, she found the nearest comm. unit and flipped a switch.

“Bridge, this is the Captain,” she said.

“Captain, Lieutenant Haller. Night watch.”

“Morning Lieutenant. I’m about to go into my meeting with the senior staff. Unless it’s an emergency I don’t want to be interrupted for anything. You have the ship,” Jessica said.

“Aye sir.”

“Maintain a constant vigil for Draxx ships, Lieutenant. Don’t let your guard down.”

“I won’t, Captain.”

She closed the channel and continued on to the conference room.

Here we go,
she thought.

4.

Captain King cleared her throat as she took her place at the head of the oval conference table in the middle of the room. The design of the room left the Captain slightly elevated above the others, so that wherever they sat they could still see her.

“Good morning. I realize some of you haven’t slept, so we’ll try to keep this brief,” she said. She looked down the table, suddenly aware of the empty seat that should’ve had Lieutenant Swogger in it. Obviously he had no plans to make an appearance. She decided to question Greene about the matter afterward.

“In either case I promise you all extra bunk time afterward,” she quipped.

A few tired chuckles rose from the group, then silence again.

Jessica turned to the enormous display screen behind her. At the flick of a switch the lights in the room dimmed slightly to accommodate the holographic projection behind her. It didn’t offer immersive 3D, but it did allow her to show a bit more detail. She called up a model of the
Defiant,
and used the movement of her hands to manipulate it as she spoke.

“This is our most current model of the
Defiant
, showing the areas of damage and stress. Let’s start with the skin.”

She zoomed in, displaying a close-up of the outer hull. There were holes all over, parts where the metal was blackened and tortured from the fire fights recently. Some of the hull damage was critical, as if ripped wide open by monster claws.

The department heads jotted notes onto tablets for future reference.

She moved onto areas inside the ship. ” … and that takes us to Engineering. I believe we’re now up to speed with the majority of repairs, aren’t we Chief?”

Gunn shifted in her seat. “Sort of. Yeah. I need a little more time to fully test some of the systems, but we should be back to normal. There’s been a lot to fix.”

King nodded. “Great. And where do we stand on spares and materials needed for repairs?”

“Okay at the minute, for the minor stuff. But we don’t have an inexhaustible supply. If we’re going to be away from base for a long stretch then we may have to bypass certain systems in the event that they malfunction. It’ll simply be a case of not being able to fix them. That’s my biggest concern.”

“Noted,” King said. “Apart from what I’ve mentioned here already, are there any other issues in your departments?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Then I think we’re agreed that our next priority is to get these other decks repaired and opened up, and the bodies of the deceased dealt with. The longer we leave it, the worse it will be for all of us,” Jessica said. “Commander, anything to add?”

Greene spoke up. “Yes Captain. I’m done making my list of the missing in action, and the deceased. Having cross-referenced what we have now with what we had prior to arriving at Starbase 6, we’ve lost a total of one hundred and ninety-six men and women. Most of those missing in action.”

“Left on the Starbase before it blew …” Gunn said quietly.

Jessica swallowed. The thought of so many men and women losing their lives in the course of duty sickened her in some deep-rooted way she’d have never willingly revealed to the rest of the crew. It made her think of that time in the Academy. The accident …

“I’ll talk with you about it after the meeting, Commander. We’ll make the necessary arrangements for a memorial service,” she said. Her throat felt suddenly dry. She turned back to the screen behind her, and the display changed to show an inventory of supplies. “Now for our next item of business. You’ll see here a complete listing of everything we have on board, from fresh foods, water, and medical supplies, to weaponry and some of the replacement parts and components the Chief mentioned earlier. Commander, I believe you’re more informed about this than I.”

Greene nodded and swapped places with her.

“The, uh, supply situation,” Greene said. “Well, I think that we have enough fresh food and water for another three months before relying solely on the replication systems.”

That was a relief to all in attendance, Jessica knew. The replicators were a vital part of the ship in that they could keep the crew fed and watered almost indefinitely. But they weren’t capable of creating more than basic meals, and no matter how you calibrated them, there was always an artificial aftertaste. It was old tech now, from the first years of the Human-Draxx war, and it still hadn’t been perfected.

“With any luck, we will either be back in known space, or we will locate a suitable source of food and water here … wherever we are. We’ve got about three months breathing room to get this sorted so I’m confident we’ll be all right,” Greene said.

“I’d like to add here, if I may, that medical supplies seem fine, all things considered,” Dr. Clayton offered. “I see very little need to worry in that regard.”

“Excellent. Thank you Doctor,” King said. “Commander, how about our weapons?”

“Well, I think we should be cautious and conservative where possible because once we run out, it’s gone for good. Especially if we’re stuck here for a long time.”

“Agreed,” Jessica said. “Thank you Commander.”

They swapped places again. This time she didn’t take the floor as before, but stood to the side. She nodded at the two quiet individuals lurking at the back. Ensigns Rayne and Boi made their way forward.

“Ensign Jack Boi, and Ensign Olivia Rayne,” King introduced them to the rest. “I’ve brought them along because they tell me they have something to share with everyone.”

They both looked nervous. Rayne took over the controls of the screen, and changed the display to show a huge star map.

“This was us prior to making the Jump,” Rayne explained. A bright red dot appeared on the map, moving slowly to the right. A purple dot followed close behind. “That’s the Draxx ship in purple.”

She waved her hands around and adjusted the screen to crop the image and show a 3D display of the two ships travelling through space. It was as if a camera had been there the whole time, filming it all. However, the sensor telemetry did just as good a job.

“This is where we ended up following the Jump. You can clearly see the erratic course of the
Defiant
in red,” Rayne said.

The image pulled back to show the two little dots and the vast expanse of the galaxy again. Then the red dot shot off, on a varying course spanning several star systems in moments. The purple dot followed close behind. They arrived at a large circular turbulence on the map that had a sign flashing next to it: SINGULARITY.