Running With Argentine (38 page)

Aboard
the Roosevelt

"And you
didn't think that was something we might want to know about?" Doctor Amaya
asked sarcastically.

She'd been the first in the stunned room to speak after his
revelatory pronouncements.

The lieutenant had earlier confirmed to Argentine that a
number of applicants, especially from recently arrived ships, were carrying
rumors of massive disasters up spiral.

They had nothing specific; it was mostly just loss of
contact with friends, loved ones and business associates. But one thing they
all agreed on, anyone who traveled up spiral wasn't coming back…

Argentine, to his credit, had taken only a few minutes to
come to a decision. He'd issued an emergency recall; everyone, including the
new-hires, had two hours to return to the ship.

The Roosevelt would be leaving orbit immediately.

He had instructed Sami and Barry to retrace their steps down
spiral, and once they were in Dreamspace he had, reluctantly, called for this
meeting.

They'd all been together for over an hour and the Officer's
Mess was near capacity. It now held the entire one hundred and fifty odd
members of the Roosevelt's crew…

"That will be enough of that!" Lieutenant Stark
boomed with authority. "The Captain is telling us what we need to know,
when we need to know it.

"I'll remind everyone that it would've been easy to
leave many of us behind, especially the recent hires. We all owe the captain a
debt of gratitude, and will repay it by being respectful and following his
orders!"

Argentine was actually surprised, and grateful, that the
crew accepted the lieutenant's rebuke as well as they did. Except for a few
muttered grumbles here or there, they remained mostly silent…

"As I was saying," Argentine continued. "This
ship was originally designed to identify, study and possibly even thwart the
extinction events."

Argentine let his gaze roam over the crowd. Without
exception, all eyes were upon him…

"As some of you have already guessed, we are not the
original crew of the ship. We are not obligated to fulfill its mission."

This brought a fair amount of mumbling from the crowd. Some
of it was born of relief, others… concern?

"Even if we wanted to…" Argentine raised his voice
slightly until the crowd quieted… "We don't have the scientific personnel
to even begin to understand what we're facing. We do, however, have a fast ship
that can let us stay ahead of it.

"You can be assured that your immediate survival is not
in question.

"To ensure our long-term survival, however, I need each
of you to take your tutorials seriously and learn your jobs. If you do that, I
will commit to not keeping you in the dark and share what we learn about our
situation as soon as is feasible."

ΔΔΔ

"If you
ever withhold critical information like that from me again, I'll break your
arm."

The lieutenant had said it calmly, quietly and without
emotion… And Argentine knew he meant every word of it.

"You should've told us," the chief said in
response to his look.

Even Sami was slowly nodding her head.

Argentine knew they were right. He hadn't really believed
it, hadn't
wanted
to believe it…

Besides, the odds were overwhelmingly in their favor that
they'd never have to face it in their lifetime. It wasn't that he'd planned on
never
telling them, he just hadn't realized that there was any sense of urgency for
it.

The bottom line, though, was that he'd lost their trust. It
was something that he was only now realizing the full value of…

"You're right," he said to the core officers
gathered in his day cabin. "There is no excuse and I'm not going to make
any. I made a bad decision. Believe it or not, I do feel that we’re all in this
together."

He paused and gave silent thanks that Mandi didn't choose
that moment to come out with one of her patented sarcastic quips…

"I can't change the past, but I'll reiterate the
commitment I made in the Officer's Mess… As much is possible, and unless it
poses a danger to the ship, I'll keep all of you in the loop. And even if I
don't have the right to ask it, I will expect the same from all of you."

He made it a point to look everyone in the eye and hold
their gaze for a moment. Everyone met his gaze…

Some gave him a quick nod in reply; some held it and either
frowned or smiled.

To his surprise, Mandi had nodded in agreement.

The lieutenant, however, gave no reaction whatsoever.

ΔΔΔ

"You can
never do that again," he said.

Doctor Amaya remained silent and felt her cheeks flush.

She knew he was right, but didn't want to acknowledge it.
Especially to the likes of this…
warrior
in front of her.

"I know you've never served on a ship before," the
lieutenant continued calmly. "And I know when there were just a few of us
we kept everything very informal… But with a large crew, authority and
discipline must be maintained – and that includes giving respect to those that
outrank you."

“Oh, yes…" she heard herself say. "March to the
drumbeat, salute and all that… Y
es sir
, captain… I've listened to
hundreds of people say those things – usually right before I'm stitching them
up or trying to keep their intestines from falling out onto the floor."

She didn't know why she was being so obstinate about this.
The lieutenant was right; she should've known better.

In that same maddeningly even tone of his he said,
"There's a reason for it. There are a lot more new crewmembers than there
are of us. Ask yourself this,
What keeps them from deciding to take over the
ship?
"

The doctor looked up sharply…

"Discipline and respect for authority is what keeps
everyone in line. It's what keeps us safe. You've been a leader all your life,
Susan. All I'm asking is that you set the right example here.

"Our very survival may depend on it."

Once the lieutenant had left her office she couldn't help
but wondering…

How does he know my first name?

ΔΔΔ

"I think
it's all a bunch of crap!" Jewell declared.

"Keep your voice down!" her fellow new-hire
answered back. "You don't have any reason to complain; the ship’s headed
in the right direction and any record of your previous
bad luck
is
looking to be erased."

"Shut up, Benson," she said tiredly. "I told
you I don't ever want to talk about that again. But this… Do these jerks have
any idea what they're doing? This isn’t even their ship! They wear the uniforms
and act all high and mighty, but…"

"Yeah, well… We'll find out soon enough, I expect. In
the meantime, you need to keep your head down and your mouth shut. I don't want
you getting us into trouble like you did on Vesper VI."

Jewell snorted.

"I mean it," Benson reiterated. "Let's bide
our time until we have a better understanding of what’s going on here. Then, if
we see an opportunity…"

For the first time that day, Jewell smiled.

In
Orbit At Asperia

The night
before the Roosevelt was to enter the Asperian system Argentine again tried
something he dreaded…

Over the preceding week or so as they had retraced their
steps, Argentine had gone back and forth in his own mind… Was this really the
extinction event? Was such a thing really possible?

What if he was overreacting? What if this was something
relatively minor, like a war or something?

For a number of evenings he’d tried querying Paula, but as
eager as she was, she was little help. She simply didn't have the knowledge
base to answer his questions.

That didn't mean, however, that she hadn't given good
advice. Her one consistent suggestion was…
Talk to Captain Ramires
.

He had actually tried it on a number of occasions, but in
the Captain's calmest states he seemed disinterested; and when he was most
conversational he was angry and paranoid.

So far he had never, however, been lucid…

So here Argentine was, trying it again…

This time, when he reached out, Captain Ramires' holographic
projection materialized with him setting at the dining table, calmly reading a
data pad.

Captain Ramires
, Argentine said after mentally
clearing his throat.

To his surprise the Captain looked up and held his gaze…

I am Acting Captain Argentine, and I need your help.

Something happened
, mumbled Ramires with a confused
look on his face.
The mission…

Yes sir, your ship was boarded and your crew… was
retired. But I need to ask you about your mission. If you can access the ship's
logs you can see that something is happening. We're running away from…
Something. Systems are going dark behind us and I need to know… Is this what
you were looking for?

Is this really the extinction event?

Ramires looked him in the eye, and screamed…

ΔΔΔ

They killed
us!
Ramires exclaimed.
We were here to save them and they… My crew…
Those people don't deserve to live…

Captain Ramires,
Argentine pleaded.
You have to
help me. How do we fight this? What is it?

It's the wrath of God! Don't you see? It's the final
judgment and they deserve to burn… We all deserve to burn…

Does Paula deserve to burn?
Argentine asked in
frustration.
Does Paula Silva deserve to be judged?

Paula?
he responded.

Yes, Paula. You have to help me protect Paula. Surely you
people have some idea of what's causing the extinction? You must've had some
thoughts on how to fight it?

We never had the chance to fight it. Our own race turned
on us… We were never even given the chance to use the Halperin Protocol…
Humanity doesn't… deserve… to… live…

Captain Ramires screamed again.

ΔΔΔ

"System
traffic is heavier than the last time we were here, but other than that
everything seems smashing."

The last few weeks may have involved some sleepless nights
for Argentine, but his officers had slowly transformed the new-hires into
something that actually resembled a crew.

It was a good thing, too… They had just reached the Asperian
system and Argentine didn't want to waste any time.

He still wasn't sure how he’d been talked into it, and he
was 100% sure that Mandi had other hidden motives, but she had somehow talked
them into taking a large contingent of Asperian scientists on board…

"We need them," she had said.

"Bollocks!" was Barry's reply. "We only need
them if we intend to carry out the ship's original mission. And that's barmy!
We've reached no such decision."

"That's right!" Mandi insisted. "We haven't
reached any decision so stop trying to force us into one!"

"What? I'm not forcing anything…"

"Oh yes you are! Not picking up those scientists
ensures that we
can't
pursue the mission – you're trying to push us into
a corner where we have no options!"

"Are you having a laugh? I'm not pushing anything.
You've totally lost the plot…"

"Children!" Argentine intervened.

He then looked to the chief…

"She does have a point…"

"Oh rubbish…"

"No one else needs to be at risk, Captain," Mandi
concluded. "I'll be the one that goes and collects them."

"Sami, are we outrunning the event?" Argentine
asked.

"It's hard to tell, Captain. The chatter I pick up
sounds just like it did on the last planet; everyone knows the systems are
going dark, but they don't know why. There also seems to be some confusion
about whether it's all up spiral or not…

"If I had to guess I'd say we’re still well out in
front of it, but I don't think we’re gaining any ground."

“Mandi, how many of these scientists do you want to bring on
board?”

“Not many… say, a couple of hundred.”

"How long would it take you to get them aboard?"

She didn't hesitate, "After we reach orbit it will take
no more than a day, Captain. Thirty-six hours at the most, I swear."

"Sami, do we have that much time?"

Barry silently threw his hands into the air.

"Maybe… I just don't really have any way of
knowing," she responded. "I don't even know what it is or when it's
going to arrive! Is it a big alien ship? If that's the case it might show up at
any time without warning.

"On the other hand, if it is some kind of plague, I'm
assuming it would be transported here by an infected ship. That would give us a
little more leeway because it would take some time for the infection to
spread.”

"But you're not hearing any reports of aliens or
unusual illness in
this
system, right?"

"No… Not yet."

Argentine turned his attention to the chief…

“Chief, how long do you think our cover will hold up with
the authorities?”

Even though they now had enough crew to defend the ship,
Argentine had still been concerned with the Asperian reaction to having the
Roosevelt reappear in orbit above. So they’d identified themselves as the
P.R.S. Salamander, from the People’s Republic of Chezden. It wouldn’t hold up
forever, but since they weren’t planning on staying…

“Since we’re not going to be docking we’ve avoided the outer
system customs inspection,” the chief reasoned out loud. “But I can’t help but
think they’ll still be suspicious. My guess is that once we reach orbit it will
take them a day to decide on what they want to do and then, as long as we can hide
the fact that we’re bugging out quickly, they’ll start diplomatically
requesting more background info and the like. Honestly, I think they’ll be the
least of our worries.”

Marco spoke up, “And as we discussed, Captain. We’ve placed
a number of orders with high profile companies… all to be delivered in a week
or two. These are companies that my family knows to have close connections with
both the police and the military, so there will be no reason for them to expect
a short stay from us.”

Argentine took only a second to make his decision…

"Okay Mandi, get prepped. But you are not to go
planet-side; the station is far enough. If they won't meet you there then
forget them. And remember, if I put out a recall you'd better drop everything
and get back here fast, or I’ll leave your butt behind."

"That would be your loss," she said with unusual
sincerity.

"Sami, constant monitoring. I want to know the instant
you hear any suspicious reports."

"Frank?"

Argentine turned to the chief.

"If we’re going to spend a little time here
anyway," he said. "We'd probably ought to load up on foodstuffs,
seeds, and anything else we can think of."

After only a slight hesitation, Argentine nodded…

"Good thinking, Chief. Just remember what I said about
the recall."

"You got it."

"Captain, a few of my family… We have some errands of
our own."

"What is it you need Marco?"

Looking sheepish he said, "Ah Captain, do you really
want to know?"

Argentine closed his eyes and waved his permission.

He wasn't surprised when the lieutenant spoke up…

"Since we’re not really sure if our credits are going
to be worth anything after today…"

"What do you want to buy, Lieutenant?"

"There's a bunch of security equipment, weapons and the
like, that I can have delivered to the station within a matter of hours; it’ll
be waiting for us when we reach orbit. You never know, some of it might come in
real handy."

"Fine by me," Argentine agreed. "Can you
handle that and still keep tabs on all our people? I want to be able to break
orbit at a moment’s notice."

"Yeah, that's not a problem, but I do have a
suggestion…"

Argentine raised an eyebrow…

"Have Barry or someone monitor the social networks on
the station and the planet. Whatever is causing this doesn’t have to arrive to
cause us problems; if word gets out, things could get out of hand quickly – and
I wouldn't want our people getting cut off."

Argentine turned to Sami and saw her nod.

Looking at Barry he said, “Okay pilot, spiral us in-system
and make high obit at Asperia.”