Space Trippers Book 1: Trippin' (6 page)

Experimental power sources and non-tested engines can be somewhat tricky. But I suppose General Gorbok knew that before he sent her out."

“Are you saying that the General is knowingly sending out a completely unequipped vessel? Is this the same General who has been seen sneaking around the science wing of Tech-Labs?!” the Ensign cried, realizing what she was implying.

“That would be the one.” she agreed. “General `Warlord’ we call him. But don’t tell the Captain that, she is friends with him. He has been slinking around here for months trying to figure out a way to get his hands on this ship,” she informed him.

“Why do you suppose he would want a science vessel?” Sanic puzzled, trying to get a picture of the situation.

“It’s not really the ship as much as her capabilities.” Valesque responded thoughtfully, striving to make her suspicions plain. “This ship is loaded with new experimental gadgets. One of which you have already seen, the foursquare weapon’s system, located in the lower array disk and the four upper array arms. That system coupled with the dual oscillating shield would make this ship virtually impenetrable and therefore very much to be desired by the power hungry General.

That is of course, depending on its actually working or not. It has never really been successfully accomplished. This would be the first ship to be designed to handle it, if it handles it.” she concluded hurriedly, unsure of which way the final test would turn out.

“It seems he must not have known how incomplete the ship was then. Otherwise, he never would have sent it out. Especially not with Captain Fairbanks and our pilot, Lieutenant Baine." Sanic mused.

"What is so special about this Captain C. Fairbanks and the jockey Pilot?” she queried.

“Captain C. Fairbanks? I guess being a scientist, you would not know, but she is one of the top ranking military captains of all time. Except of course for her husband, who is right now out there getting a good beating in the war. But do you know who introduced them?” the Ensign asked, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes like a gossiping old woman. “General Gorbok, that’s who. So why would he want one of his most prized prodigies to be sent off to her death? It just doesn’t quite fit. So there must be another reason.”

“Well, I for one am not waiting around to find out!” Valesque exclaimed figuring she had already wasted enough time talking. “The General’s reasons aside I know what will happen to this ship, and if you are smart you will come with me, because I intend to get out of here! And if not all I can say is: Good bye, Good luck! And I hope to be off this ship before it happens.” she replied dispassionately, standing up and heading for the double, automatic doors.

He may not know a lot about Virrilians but he knew a lot more than she obviously did about ship relations and politics. He quickly grabbed up his gear, put on the anti-gravity disks he had shoved in his pockets and slid hastily after her.

"Wait," he called as he hurried to catch up to her, "what about the shields? And the Scuttle? The Captain isn't likely to just hand one over to you. Besides it would take two programmers to work it all out, one on board and one in the Scuttle."

"I think I could figure a way out." she replied curtly, after all she had designed it. And besides, only half of the shields were operational at the moment.

Sanic was not to be deterred. “Look,” he continued as they neared the exit, “you know nothing on this ship works and I know nothing on this ship works, so all we need to do is wait until the Captain realizes it and comes crawling to you for help, right? She would have to listen to you then. And if it doesn’t work . . . then, I will help you get your Scuttle craft and make it through the shields. Deal?” he asked seeing her skeptical look.

“Whatever, but I am out of here before we reach Corseccan space.” she warned, not about to be stuck on this death trap any longer than necessary. She would do just about anything to get her ship back in one piece, aside from dying.

“Agreed. We will get you off before then. Now,” he said proceeding with her down the hall, “since you are the brain behind this ship perhaps you could help me find my quarters, because I just can’t make any sense out of these papers.” he shrugged pathetically, handing her the small sketchily drawn map he had been carrying.

The young Engineer took it in her hand, pushing back her dark, shimmering locks before glancing up at him amused as she slowly turned the map over. “Come on.” she laughed at seeing him blush, leading him to the nearest Hydro-lift bay.

“I am really sorry about your ship.” Sanic said softly, trying to piece together what had happened and what a shock it was to her. “I am also sorry about your loss in your engineering team.” he continued trying to be of some comfort to her. He had meant to get to tell her that in person ever since he had witnessed the accident.

“Loss?” Valesque queried dazed. Could he mean Dr. Warner? “What loss?” she asked more urgently. Was that what had happened to him? Maybe he wasn’t the one who shot her?

“The hull worker who was soldering on the upper array arm. The one that fell to his death a few weeks ago. I was watching the work from the Tech-Labs park balcony when it happened. Since then I have wanted to tell you how sorry I was for your loss. And now it seems you have two of them.” the dark-haired boy said, wondering at her confusion.

“Someone working on the upper array arm?” she puzzled. “I don’t remember anyone on the upper array arm. Oh, wait a minute,” she continued, clutching her side in remembrance, “yes I do. I was on the arm, fixing a wiring short.”

“You?” he asked unbelievingly. “No, but, this person fell . . . .” he corrected.

“Yep,” she replied assuredly, “that was me.”

“Twenty stories?”

“Oh, yeah,” she agreed completely, nodding her head, somewhat embarrassed, “but it was more like twenty-two. I remember, it felt like a very long fall, at least twenty-two stories.”

“But, you are alive?!” he exclaimed, nearly pouncing on her in his surprise. “No one could have lived through that! Not twenty-two stories.”

“You obviously don’t know Virrilians.” Valesque laughed. “We are a very sturdy brood. I will admit, I had never been on a twenty-two storey drop before, and I got a few cracked ribs doing it, but I have survived worse. You would be amazed.”

“I already am.” he replied, somehow both fearing and respecting her more. “I guess I am going to have to do some research on Virrilians, huh? Since you will be on the crew and all, I like to know the equations I am working with.”

“Well, I am not crew, and I hopefully won’t be here very long. So I think you can put off studying Virrilians.” she replied optimistically.

Sanic was silent after this. He was not too thrilled with the prospect of her leaving and was busy contemplating how he could make the Captain see the condition of the ship without appearing insubordinate or mutinous.

Valesque did not notice his silence for she was busy with thoughts of her own as she led her new friend up to his assigned quarters, trying to remember why the cabin number sounded so familiar to her as they went. She checked her Vid-screen panel as they exited the Hydro-lift on the designated deck. Sure enough, there it was D-3 room 351. “Uh, I hate to tell you this, Sanic,” Valesque said apologetically, as they advanced down the corridor, “but I don’t think you will like your quarters.”

“What are you talking about?” he gushed, enjoying every nuance of Delta Deck 3's hall.

Each housing deck of the ship had been built with a large garden area in the center of the wide corridor with the housing entrances off to either side. Unlike the normal ship quarters, this one’s housing was not laid out in straight rows with sterile hallways but they were made to resemble urban planet-side neighborhoods. In the very center of each deck was the Emergency Shelter area and around this and up and down the generously wide corridor were various garden areas of faux plants and trees, each one representing a different culture's style or planet's fauna.

Each of the housing fronts was slightly different as well, giving them a more homey appearance, with windows facing out onto the hall with views of the gardens and any visitors, plus they could keep an eye on their children as they played 'outside' in the corridor.

The quarters were designed like regular houses, just all in a row, and even the smallest of them had two bedrooms. These decks were meant to be home for many people and families for long periods. With the gardens and park-like areas, the people could enjoy the 'outdoors' even when they may not get to be on actual ground for years.

“Look at this place!" Sanic said in pure wonder as he gazed at the corridor, feeling like he was outdoors in a quaint housing block. "I am sure I will love it.”

“Oh, I’m not so sure about that.” the Engineer cautioned, hating to ruin his fantasy.

Just then Sanic noticed someone approaching from the opposite direction and quickly walked ahead of Valesque so as not to embarrass her by being seen socializing with an ensign.

Valesque did not notice this however; she just stopped and started on some calibrations on the Vid-screen mini-computer she always carried at her waist.

“Well, hello there Mr. Sanic.” the Lieutenant called out upon catching sight of him. “I find you home at last. You know I have been by your quarters several times in the past few days but you just never seem to be at home.” Tim remarked playfully.

“You were looking for me?” Sanic asked, bewildered at the attention.

“Well, of course I was, Sanic, old buddy, old pal.” Tim replied, giving the younger man a friendly slap on the back. “After all, we're old friends, right?”

Actually, Tim would have been friends with anyone who seemed to have some sort of contact with the mysterious, moody woman he had run into over three days ago. He had wandered everywhere on the entire ship in the past three days trying to locate her, buttering up everyone he thought might have a lead.

He had finally figured Sanic as his only clue. Not that there were not other beautiful women on board, he just enjoyed the challenge that this one seemed to give. Besides, she had a strange eternal beauty about her that he could not quite place, and would not rest until he had.

“So,” Tim began, “I am finally off duty. It seems like I have been up there for days. I don't know about yours, but whoever designed my flight panels must have been a complete idiot! It has taken me every waking hour since we left space dock until now to figure out those controls. You know what I mean?” the Lieutenant complained, wondering as he finished why the Ensign looked so edgy.

"Well, actually I haven't been able to use any of my panels yet. But they look great." Sanic added in praise.

“Sanic.” came the calm feminine voice behind the Ensign, as Valesque interrupted the conversation.

Sanic was a bit flustered at her not having used his ranking title in front of the Lieutenant, thinking it might show a degrading intimacy on her part.

Tim gave Sanic a knowing look. “Ah, caught you entertaining, huh? I beg your pardon, Miss. Well, hello again, Beautiful.” the Lieutenant adjusted, shocked at the sight of her, as she came around in front of the Ensign.

Sanic flushed red at the inappropriateness of the meeting. “Uh, Lieutenant Baine, this is, uh,” Sanic glanced over at the Engineer helplessly, unsure of how to introduce her ranking title.

Valesque stepped forward confidently. "What is wrong with your panel, Lieutenant?" she asked bitterly, she did not handle criticism well.

"Nothing that a competent engineer and some major rebuilding couldn't fix." Tim smiled.

Valesque blinked at him coldly. "Those panels are a Virrilian design, made specifically for use by all known life forms. Perhaps you neglected to input your species..... whatever it is." she muttered under her breath.

"Ah, that explains it!" the Pilot exclaimed. "Virrilians are not the best engineers, actually they are not the best anything. Nice people though." he added, seeing her and the young Ensign get a bit upset.

"But you have to admit, they have lousy job skills. My last assignment was on the Corseccan boarder, ensuring that no unauthorized vessels came or went from the war zone. And I got to see quite a few of those Virrilian 'pilots'.

Virrilians are terrible fighter pilots if you ask me... well, I take that back, those 'rebel' pilots as the Virrilians called them were pretty good.... no, excellent pilots " he corrected himself, remembering.

"I never could understand why the main Virrilian force wanted to keep them out of Corseccan space. The 'Rebel' pilots never shot at the regular Virrilian forces; they were all on the same side as far as I could see. But those Virrilians tried to shoot down the 'rebels' with no mercy if they happened to catch them assisting in the war. Good thing they were such bad shots or it could have been a real blood bath. They actually tried to get me to do the same, but I refused, shooting down good fighters is not my style. Of course, that is probably how I ended up here." he laughed, shrugging at his lot. "But that isn't all that bad either." he added, giving Valesque a wink.

Valesque's eyes narrowed at the man before her. "Virrilians are as good if not better than any other race at any occupation. Maybe you should do a little more research before you go judging others! For instance, I don't see where a species that has not only continually fought amongst itself, but also killed off just about all animal and plant life as well as the very planet they inhabited has any cause to judge another species that is still on their first planet, and no where near depleting it!" she seethed.