The emergency tubes, which Frost was looking over, were racked up at forty five degree angles and lowered into the deck when they were full or in storage. He had them drawn all the way out so he could make sure the repair team had done their job and repaired the seals on two of them. They were right above his bunk. “I'm makin' sure these things aren't goin' ta bust open and leak stasis fluid all over my face while I'm sleepin', what're you doing here?”
“That's just it, I have no idea,” Burke replied in an agitated whisper. “Captain has us chasing down a ship that's eight times our mass and can slag us in seconds. Is he really driftin' over to her? What's he been drinkin'?”
“Plan's changed, we're lockin' onta her now.”
“What? What do you mean locking on?”
“We're comin' right up from behind an' then we're going to follow her cargo train inta the blind spot an' latch on right as we're gettin' to the ship proper.”
“Now I know everyone's lost their minds. What are we going to do then? Punch a hole in their hull and try to board her? They've got at least two hundred souls aboard.”
“Nope, we're goin' ta stay an' make trouble from the outside. The plan is to distract 'em.”
“What? That doesn't even make sense.”
Frost nodded to himself, satisfied that the pods had been repaired and activated the control that would put them back into storage. “We've been runnin' together what now, eight years?”
“Yup, a little more.”
“This is the craziest thing I've done, hell, I haven't heard of anything more spun.”
“Then why the hell are we doing it?”
“Ye've been out boarding with Captain before, haven't ye?”
“I have, but that was different. Different like not crazy. I understand why Ashley is going along with this, Captain bought her outright and set her loose on his ship to get her out of trouble, and her friends, which is half the ship, and even Silver who's sharin' her bunk, but why the hell are you goin' along?”
“Because he's never let me down. Even when he screws everythin' up an' we're about ta get wrecked or shot inta nothin' he manages ta turn it around or at least give us a runnin' chance. We don't always make it out with the guys we go in with, but that's the biz.”
“That doesn't mean this is the right way to go about this, hell, why are we going after this at all?”
“Someone's doin' wrong to thousands of people and we're gettin' paid to fix it.”
“Oh, so we're all fixin to be heroes now! What does it matter all the way out here? They could build a God damned statue you could see from orbit on whatever colony you like after we save their dirt turnin' asses. Won't change the fact that it'll just be in the ground after a few hundred years, maybe sooner. Just like us. We get good while we're here and being here is all there is until we're not here anymore. I don't plan on dyin any time soon and no way am I changin' that plan for someone else. I'll live longer than I have a right to if I can. This kind of gamble isn't my way.”
“So what, mutiny? Is that what you're askin me to join in on?”
“Why not? I'm sick and tired of him stalkin' around the ship, givin' orders and not telling us much of anythin' like he's better than us.”
“I am better than you Carl,” the Captain's voice echoed up the metal grating stairs.
Carl Burke turned around slowly, his hand resting on his sidearm, his face turning red.
Captain Valance didn't make a sound as he continued to the top step. He was dressed in an armoured black vacsuit no one had seen before. It was covered in thin strips of overlapping flexible plating and obviously had sound dampeners built in. Over top he wore his black long coat and he didn't say anything until he stepped out of the stairway and onto the deck. His expression was as neutral and as hard as granite. “Going to shoot me now Carl?” He asked calmly.
Carl's hand twitched away from his weapon. “Just sayin' maybe we deserve to know more about what's going on, why this is so important. Aside from the pay, I mean.”
Frost didn't move, he just watched from a couple meters away as Captain Valance slowly closed the distance between him and Carl Burke. “That's not what I heard. You said I thought I was better than everyone on this ship. Now, I can't answer to being better than everyone, but I know I'm better than you. Head and shoulders, balls to bones better than you.”
Carl stared into Jake Valance's eyes, willing himself not to look anywhere else. Just into those cool, unflinching hard eyes. He was the older of the two by at least twenty years. Somehow Jake's eyes had a century more.
“What are we going to do about that?” Jake asked quietly.
Carl Burke felt a drop of sweat run down his upper spine. He shivered and got angry enough to open his dry mouth. “Where the hell are you from? You decide for us all, where to go, what jobs to take and we don't know you from nowhere. I looked, no record, just that security vid of you getn' hatched from some stasis pod.”
Jake's expression darkened. “That's a secure file.”
“From a trained comms man? I can crack anythin' on this ship.”
“You're out of line. Next port, you're off,” Jake said quietly.
“Can't take someone findin' somethin' out on ya?”
There was a long pause as the two men just looked at each other. “Do you have anything to protect other than yourself in this life?” Jake asked quietly.
“What?” Carl's voice cracked a little.
Jake took a step forward, forcing Carl to take two steps back. “Is there anything, anyone you'd give your life to protect?” He asked, starting to raise his voice.
Carl just stared at him uneasily, at a loss for words.
“I do!” Jake shouted. He was furious. “Every God damned member of this crew thinks they've signed on for an adventure, or to work a hard life for bigger pay. They're really here because they were desperate enough to accept a job offer in a pub or from a port bulletin from someone who promises that it'll be hard but there will be cash. I take chances with everyone here. Some don't make it. The Samson wastes people. They burn out, they get grey fifty years younger than they should. If they live long enough, if they stay long enough and can't afford to retire. In just five years I've crewed two haulers four times over with people who just couldn't do what we do anymore.
Now we're taking risks, big ones because some of the crew are starting to burn out again. So I give myself the hardest job, to clear the worst of the hazards before I bring anyone else close enough to get slagged. Maybe a few of the crew will retire after this take, but it's dangerous. Oh it's more dangerous than anyone here can imagine! But I'm better than you remember?” Jake snatched the collar of Carl's vacsuit and twisted the thick fabric into his balled fist, pulling him up off his feet. “Oh, you have no idea how much better than you I am and that's why this is going to work,” Jake said in a clear, loud, measured tone.
He knew other people had come to watch. Through the grating that separated the stasis area from the forward hold, from the staircase where Ashley and Stephanie had come up to see why the Captain was shouting for the first time in years.
He activated a control in his left glove with a twitch of his hand and disappeared completely. Everyone stared on in astonishment as Carl Burke was held up in the air by an unseen hand. His eyes went wide in disbelief.
“You're relieved Burke. You won't see anything from this trip. Someone put his ass in the brig until we can dump him off at the next port,” Jakes disembodied voice ordered as Carl was dropped back down to his feet.
Hyperspace Day 3
It was a puzzle and he wasn't interested in asking for the answer. He had to find it on his own. There was a listing on the weapons systems panel called Big Surprise. There were no operational details, no specifications, but there was a location. That's why Finn found himself in the bowels of the ship, right under the port side capacitor series and long term energy storage. The room was built with a long eight meter door, was just a little shorter than a meter and a half, and reported full by internal sensors. He put his vacsuit helmet and gloves on and walked into the room, sealing the hatch behind him.