First Command (22 page)

      
Kelly shut his holographic viewer down and made a note to Chief Blankenship to have diagnostics run on all sensors to make sure they were all at peak efficiency.
 
He didn’t want to be blind going in to solve this mystery.
 
He also made a note to requisition a few extra sensor pods.
 
You can never have too much knowledge.

* * * * *

      
Sally arrived at the spaceport just in time to make the shuttle up to the space station.
 
Pete had gotten her a pass, with the help of Steven Maynard, which allowed her access to the station for just such forays as these.
 
She used the flight time to go through her pantry list and organize what she would need off this container ship.

      
She had storage at the restaurant for quite a few months worth of foodstuffs.
 
She also pulled up her wine cellar list to see which wines she needed.
 
Maybe this ship would have a few containers of food she could rummage through.
 
Pete had only bid and won on the ship’s larder, but if no one was looking and there were good quality stores in a cargo container, who would know that they weren’t part of the ship’s food stores.
 
She tried to pull up a ship’s manifest to see what the cargo was.

      
The shuttle entered the station and Sally craned her neck to peer out the port, to see if she could make out the ship.
 
It must have been on the other side.
 
She couldn’t see anything but ships in the process of dismantling and reconfiguration.

      
The shuttle docked, and Sally got up with the rest of the passengers to debark.
 
This was Sally’s tenth time to the station and she no longer marveled at the facility inside the hollow metal moon of Barataria.
 
She just plodded her way around the outer ring tunnel until she came to dock C27.
 
She notified space station control that she had authorization to inventory and remove the food stocks and requested two grav sleds for what she would be removing.
 
The airlock cycled, opening the way for her, and she was notified that her sleds were on the way.

      
Sally entered and proceeded to the galley.
 
Most modern ships were all laid out similarly, so she had no trouble finding her way.
 
In moments, she was standing in the galley.
 
She inspected the ready storage and plugged her pocket tablet into the galley terminal to read out what was in the long-term storage.

      
Jackpot!
 
The Andromeda Clipper was at the beginning of its cruise and was fully stocked.
 
A quick survey of the ready stores locker showed that the inventory from the galley terminal was correct.
 
She notified station control to send two more grav sleds.
 
Wonder of wonders, they also had a full store of spices.
 
She was in heaven.
 
She sent a message to Pete to enquire about the Andromeda Clipper’s cook.
 
She could always use an extra hand.

      
Sally wandered down a passageway and found the long-term storage compartment, opened the hatch and made a quick tour inside.
 
Again the galley inventory and what Sally found inside matched.
 
The captain ran a taut ship.
 
She normally found a degree of pilfering, but everything here was exactly as it should be.

      
She was just about to turn and leave when she heard a scraping sound.
 
Her first thought was that there was some creature in the compartment, but spaceships didn’t have vermin like the sailing vessels of old.
 
She listened and heard it again.
 
It seemed to be coming from above.
 
She backed out of the compartment and sealed the hatch behind her.
 
As she turned to move back to the galley, a vent grate dropped from the ceiling in front of her.

      
A pair of legs dropped down followed by hips and a waist.
 
A well-built young black man dropped down and hung from his hands.
 
He saw her and his eyes went wide.
 
He tried to scramble back up in the grate opening, but lost his grip.
 
He fell off-center and landed squarely on his back.
 
He lay there gasping for air, the wind knocked out of him.

      
Sally walked over to the gasping Russell Obwobwo, looked down, and said, “You must be the missing crewman.
 
I’d heard there was a discrepancy in the crew log.
 
Don’t try to get up.
 
You’ll get your breath back in a few minutes.”

      
He looked up at her and just continued gasping for air like a fish out of water.
 
As she said, his breath slowly came back to him.

      
He slowly sat up, rubbing his back and ribs.

      
She asked, “Is anything broken?”

      
He looked up at her and said, “No, just bruised, I think.
 
Aren’t you going to turn me in?”

      
She smiled.
 
“Of course.
 
You can’t hide here forever.
 
They’re going to unload everything that’s useable and then dismantle her for parts.
 
You’ll only have life support for another week, and then they open her up to space.
 
I wouldn’t be doing you any favors leaving you here.”

      
She pulled out her pocket terminal and he said, “Wait, just give me a chance to sneak out of here.”

      
“You can’t.
 
You haven’t got a chip.
 
We all have chips implanted in our necks, right here.”
 
The somewhat pleasant looking woman pointed at where her Adam’s apple would be, if she had one.
 
“You wouldn’t get past the next dock before the alarms went off.
 
The guards would be on you in a flash and they’d be none too gentle with you.
 
Let me call them and you surrender real peaceful like.
 
It’s the best thing for you.”

      
His shoulders slumped and he asked, “What’ll happen to me?
 
Will they kill me?”

      
“No, young man, they probably won’t kill you.
 
They have need of strong young men such as you.
 
They’ll probably put you to work in one of the mines or factories.
 
If you have a useful skill, they might use you somewhere else.”

      
He looked up at her with resignation on his face, “Well, if I’m going to be a prisoner, I might as well start with a full stomach.
 
Do the replicators have power?”

      
She looked at him as if he had just used a profanity.
 
“You’ll do no such thing.
 
Come here.
 
Sit.
 
Let me fix you something.
 
It’s the least I can do, seeing as I have to be the one to turn you in.”

      
She moved into the galley and got some pans heating, then rummaged through the stores until she found some steaks and vegetables.
 
She pan-fried a couple of steaks, whipped up some mashed potatoes, and boiled some Andelian beans.
 
In moments, she had plated two meals and set one in front of Russell.
 
The other was for her.
 
It was lunchtime, after all.

      
Russell and Sally ate their meals in silence.
 
When it was over, she ran the dishes and pans through the cleaner and called up station security.
 
Russell surrendered quietly.
 
Sally hated to do it, but it was the best for him.
 
She got security to let him help her load up the grav sleds and they all left the Andromeda Clipper together.
 
She wondered if Pete could be talked into another waiter or dishwasher.

* * * * *

      
Alistair decided he was not doing very much good where he was.
 
He decided to make better use of his time by patrolling the fringes of the star cluster.
 
He put his sensors on passive long-range survey mode and covered as much of the perimeter of the star cluster as the gravimetric pressure ebbs and flows would allow.
 
After a week, he had built up a much better star map of the field.
 
Patterns of energy readings resolved into likely areas to inspect more closely, once the scout ship arrived.
 
He found one area of the field that had readings much higher than the surrounding space.
 
That would be the first area he would recommend to Kelly.

      
He looked down at the cat lying on the console and said, “Looks like you will have to go into stasis for a while, Rojo.
 
I don’t think I’ll be able to drop you off at a kennel on any of the nearby worlds.
 
It will be just a longer than usual nap for you, old fellow.”
 
He rubbed Rojo’s head and watched the data flow.

      
While he was surveying the far reaches of the star field, a strange ship cruised by his former hiding place.
 
It was huge, bigger than a fleet carrier.
 
It was shaped like a pecan shell, painted black, and with eyes painted on both sides of the bow.
 
It turned out of the star cluster and headed toward Aldebaran.

* * * * *

      
Irina asked Terri to get her info on the amenities of the Nebula Queen, sister ship to the Galaxy Queen that they’d come out on.
 
Now that the pressure was off, she wanted to have some fun.
 
She felt magnanimous and offered to pay for Terri’s amenities, too.
 
Terri had been a good assistant and kept her from making an ass of herself quite a few times in the last year.
 
A couple of days into the voyage, she called the concierge desk and arranged Swedish massages for both of them.

      
At the spa, Irina and Terri left their clothes in a locker, showered, and donned fluffy cotton robes and slippers.
 
Irina asked for a masseur and Terri asked for a masseuse.
 
Irina felt so relaxed she had her clothes bagged and walked back to her cabin in the robe.
 
Terri followed her lead.
 
Irina wasn’t as slim and trim as her assistant, but she could still turn the heads of more mature men.

      
The two padded down the hall in their complimentary terry cloth slippers and had just reached Terri’s cabin when the engine sound changed and the lights went out.
 
Irina, knowing instinctively that this was a bad thing, pushed Terri into her room where the emergency lights were burning, and told her to get dressed.
 
Now!
 
The two women threw on clothes and prepared for whatever was coming.

* * * * *

      
Kelley, Connie and Chief Miller hopped on a man lift with the yard boss and went up to perform a final inspection of the tail gun nacelle repair.
 
The yard had fabricated a new nacelle, and replaced the destroyed rail gun with one fresh out of the shipping crate from the armament factory on Schirra.
 
They had replaced the rear view camera assembly completely.
 
All grazing fire damage to the hull had been sanded, filled, sanded, and painted.
 
Kelly was satisfied.
 
The yard boss brought up the form that transferred responsibility back to the captain, and Kelly thumbed his approval.

      
Vigilant was ready four days early.
 
Kelly wanted to give the crew liberty to blow off some steam before what looked to be a long cruise.
 
As he was about to announce liberty, he got a call from CDR Timmons to see him as soon as the ship was returned to his control and his ship was out of drydock.
 
Kelly prepared the ship for movement, and then requested permission to lift and move to Scout Force’s parking apron.
 
Permission was granted and Vigilant smoothly lifted out of the drydock and across the field to the Scout Force parking apron.
 
Once the ship was secure, he and Connie walked to CDR Timmons office.

      
CDR Timmons emphasized to them the political visibility of their mission, especially with increasing pressure from the Senate.
 
He told them to leave as soon as they were resupplied and good luck and good hunting.

      
“So much for liberty,” Kelly thought, as they returned to the Vigilant.