“Okay, that's strange though, everything else I've run into is on a scale of ten or one hundred,” replied the brown haired woman sitting on the Captain's desk. She was half turned towards the door.
They were both dressed in black vacsuits, not quite as well armoured as the one the watch officer was wearing. The material looked perfectly flexible and fitted to their forms, only two to five millimetres thick. They were sealed all the way up to the neck, leaving only their heads exposed.
“One thousand lumens is about the right starting point for a room like this.” Commented Angelo. “I usually set cockpit lighting down to four hundred, keeps the instrumentation nice and clear.”
“You're Angelo Vercelli,” The younger woman said, dropping from the desk to stand up straight, her knee high combat boots clomped against the deck. She offered her hand. “I'm Stephanie Vega, First Officer here on the Triton. ”
Angelo shook her hand. “This is my second in command, Paula Mendle.”
Stephanie went on to shake her hand, then looked to Jane and Nathan. After introductions were made all around, she sat back down on the edge of Captain Valance's desk.
“It's been a very long day for everyone, so I'll get to the point.” Captain Valance started. “ Triton needs you, I need you. We're in bad shape and automation is failing across the ship.”
“That's probably our fault, Captain. We disconnected the power in engineering as soon as we boarded,” Jane said with a nod. “Under orders.”
“I understand, but that's not the primary cause. When the former Captain put the automation in place he had to disable all the internal security to make it workable. Now that we've started bringing some of that back on line it's interfering with the automation.”
“How long has this ship been automated for?” Asked Nathan.
“Almost forty years from what I've been able to see in the logs.” Stephanie said. “They ran the ship with a crew of about one hundred.”
“That's a lot of automation.”
“Aye, no wonder you're having trouble taking control,” Angelo agreed.
“So you see our problem. We need organized teams in place to start working on the critical systems, exploring the ship and establishing a chain of command.”
“Have you ever commanded a ship this size before, if you don't mind me asking sir?” Asked Jane.
“Have you heard of the First Light?” Captain Valance asked, looking across the group.
Angelo looked startled for a moment then took a closer look at the Captain with a smile slowly spreading across his face. “I thought I recognized you. Captain Jonas Valent. I always wondered what happened at Starfree Port.”
“Could you fill us in a little old timer?” Paula asked peevishly.
“Right. The First Light was a Freeground ship. An old carrier with an ergranian steel hull and a third of the armaments she was made to carry. They sent her out with a green captain and some kind of special crew from what anyone could determine. Under the command of their Captain, Jonas Valent, they managed to take out a carrier twenty times her size called the Overlord II before running off to repair at a nearby station. After she finished repairs, they took out another carrier and a few destroyers single handed and turned up at Starfree Port. Not long after that she just disappeared. Just a few weeks ago was re-dubbed the Sunspire and put back into service. There's a whole documentary on this now, but I remember the holocast of your tousle with that Triad Consortium Carrier and the four or five Vindyne destroyers. Man did they want you after that. What happened? I'm itching to know.”
Captain Valance soaked in every word of Angelo's retelling, trying not to look surprised at someone else knowing more about his past than he did then nodded solemnly when he was finished. “I went into hiding. I can get into the rest of that some other time. What's important now is that we get things in line, make the ship safe and ready.”
“Aye sir, after what you did with that ship, I'm with you.” Angelo said without reservation.
“My platoon will take care of your boat for as long as you're willing to take the fight to Regent Galactic.” Jane said with a smile.
“Thank you. I'm putting you in charge of all the Aucharian soldiers aboard, coordinate with my First Officer and Chief Engineer, Liam Grady.” Captain Valance told Jane with a smile. “Your objectives are to ensure the peace is maintained and that no one strays into the sealed sections of the ship. Help with the repairs if you have time, but limiting access should be more important for now.”
“Yes sir.”
“Angelo, I'd like your team to start clearing the hangars. Put anything not in use in storage and get them ready for incoming ships. I don't know what we can expect out here, or what we'll need other than clear space. If you could inventory what we have that would be good too, but it's not top priority.”
“Aye sir. I'll get my people together and we'll start in hangar two.”
“Thank you again, for the purpose of clarity I'm designating Jane as Security Chief, and Angelo as Deck Chief. Welcome to the Triton. ” Captain Valance said with a smile. It was reciprocated by everyone in the room except for Paula, who didn't look quite as sour as she did when she first entered the room.
The new crew members left, leaving Jake and Stephanie alone in the room again. “Lucky,” Captain Valance said quietly. “We're very lucky.”
“That platoon is responsible for getting the Verant operational again. That's pretty good work for a destroyer with a slagged front half.”
“Notice how they didn't say anything about the Minister?”
Stephanie thought for a moment. “You're right. I guess they like government about as much as anyone.”
“That helps. He'll be a perfect pawn.”
“What for sir?”
“Regent Galactic. I'm expecting them any minute now. If we don't have to use him when we meet up with Regent, I plan on using him next time we meet up with the Aucharians.”
Stephanie smiled at him. “I'm surprised at how lost he seemed, like he'd never been on this side of a desk.”
“Politicians, they earn their rank through popularity, not qualification. I doubt he actually did anything resembling hard service.”
Stephanie's smile subsided and she looked out the window to the distant planet.
“What's on your mind,” Jake asked gently.
“Being First Officer. On the Samson it means something completely different. I look at manuals more than anything and outside of security I have no idea what I'm doing. I shudder at the mention of engineering, that whole section of the status display is a mystery to me. I don't even know what DERA system is and we have eight of them. They take up a tenth of the ship.”
“They're diverse energy reactor assemblies and can turn almost any material or force of nature into raw power or use high yield fusion if you have the right staff. The three Wheeler was using were set to run on dense materials like uranium. Cheap but dirty and inefficient.”
“See? All I really know about uranium is that you're not supposed to handle the stuff outside a suit.”
“Stephanie, you've been working with me for what, four years?”
“Coming up on five, sir.”
“It's your decision making process I want in that chair. Everything else you'll learn through questioning and experience. Just do what I do when I don't know something, ask, delegate and make sure whoever you left in charge is making the right choices.”
“If commanding a ship like this were that easy I would have seen a few more of them out here. As it is, I've only seen maybe half a dozen military carriers in my life.”
“You'll have second chair on this one if you stick with it,” Captain Valance said invitingly. “Give it some time, use it as an opportunity to learn, lean on the people you trust.” He stood and put her hand on her shoulder. “At the core of it all, you're First Officer because I trust you.”