The guard was right beside him, running wild eyed as they rounded the corner. The Triton rocked slightly, and they slowed to a stop. Grace and her medical team caught up to them. “Good work sir. That was close,” she congratulated.
Jonas struggled to catch his breath, leaning down with his hands on his knees. “Just lucky you scanned him,” he wiped some of Wheeler's residue from his neck and jaw with his hand, still trying to catch his breath. “Guess I should take up jogging again.”
“Looks like. You really moved though,” Grace said with a smile, patting him on the shoulder. “I think you just scored a few points with the crew.”
“I'm not your Captain, just his slower brother,” Jonas said, looking up with a smile. The hallway spun, and he lost his footing and fell to the deck.
“Whoa there,” Grace said as she and another medical technician knelt down. “Just rest here while-” She stopped as she started scanning him. Her fingers worked on her wrist unit quickly as she scanned through the readings.
“What, what is it?”
“You have implants in both your femurs. I'm seeing the same chemical process that started with Wheeler in you.”
Jonas shivered and his eyes went wide. “Oh that can't be good.”
“Come on, let's get you into stasis,” Grace instructed, helping him up.
“How far is it?” he asked.
“Four decks down.”
“Too far, besides, even in stasis, if this is a chemical reaction there's no telling for sure that you could slow it down enough.” He felt his heart beating so hard it felt like it was about to burst out of his chest.
Jonas tried to stand but Grace caught his elbow. “Come with us sir. In deep stasis there's no movement.”
He twitched his sidearm out of it's holster and levelled it at her. “I'll pull the trigger to save the crew,” Jonas said hurriedly.
She let him go.
He got to his feet and with all his strength he ran around the corner and down the hall, dropping his sidearm, taking off his gun belt and long coat. “Bridge, Jonas here.” He said as he opened the inner airlock door.
“Nice save, we didn't take any damage, but if Wheeler had gone off in the brig it would have killed everyone in the upper berthing,” Stephanie congratulated.
“Oh, we're not out of the woods yet,” Jonas said as he sealed his vacsuit and closed the hatch behind him. “Is Alice there?”
“She's just going over the bridge systems with me. This girl's a natural.”
“Hi Jonas,” she chimed in, he could hear her smile.
Grace and her medical team caught up to him and stopped to watch him hit the quick release on the outer door. He was thrust out into space along with the air filling the freshly pressurized airlock. Jonas took a breath and let himself tumble away. “Ignore everything else and listen to me, okay?”
“Okaaay.” she said slowly, warily.
He was relieved that no one on the bridge realized he had ejected himself in nothing but his vacsuit. “I need to know that no matter what happens you understand that you've been my best friend. I couldn't have dreamt of anyone else I would want to share all the little details with.”
“Jonas? They say you're outside the ship, that-” there was panic in her voice.
“Never mind that. If you need anything, someone to trust, someone to walk you through this, just look to Jake. He doesn't care what you are, where you come from, I can tell, just from the time I spent with him, I can tell that he's as much me as he needs to be and is capable of so much more. I told him how you were born and he didn't so much as flinch.”
“Jonas, tell me this isn't happening, please?” she said through tears.
“It's okay, just tell Ayan she kept me warm while I was all bottled up. She was there, the whole time. They couldn't get their way because she was there.” His body began to twitch as he rotated slowly. The Triton came into view. “Make sure she knows, Alice.”
“I will,” she promised.
He could feel his heart beating spastically, his arms and legs curled inwards. “That's a beautiful ship, if I had just a bit more time I'd make the galaxy free again.” A massive twitch sent his body into a painful spasm. It subsided after a moment and he tried to catch his breath. “Do everything I couldn't Jake.” Pressure built in his head, he squeezed his eyes shut and saw red. “I'm so proud of you both,” he managed as he forced himself to exhale. When he opened his eyes it was to complete blackness. Then he was gone.
Solace and Icons
The bottle was half empty. The amber liquid wet the sides as he leaned it one way then the other and back in the dim light. I didn't know him for an hour but I feel like I've lost the only friend I've ever had. Jake thought to himself. The only lights on were the muted white and yellow spots in the middle of the tables and the ones running behind the bar and where the floor met the wall. Just enough to see your way around the tables and chairs.
He had reviewed the footage from the brig after leading Alice to the bed in his ready room. She insisted he just leave her alone to rest. He left her alone for a few minutes and when he quietly checked on her she was asleep. The strangest reaction to grief he'd seen, but he would be there for her, regardless of how she grieved.
He went downstairs to his ready room office and listened to Wheeler's dying testimony, about his betrayal of Jonas, the manufacture of Ayan and everything else had given him the deepest desire to be alone. We're all on strings. If we weren't manufactured we're attached to some company or government that can just pull on a line and force us into doing God knows what. Even all the way out here, I bet one transmission could send the whole crew into hysterics.
He drank the last of the scotch in his glass and poured another belt. “Make the galaxy free again,” he said to himself. “What an idea. At full officer mercenary wages this ship would run me dry in a year. If only we weren't all tied down by cash.”
“We don't have to be,” Stephanie said from behind.
She had been uncharacteristically quiet, or he wasn't paying enough attention. Stephanie sat down beside him and set down Jonas' long coat and his sidearm with gun belt down beside the white scarf he had left on the bar before. “Of course we do. A crew works, they get paid, they keep working.”
“You offered them peanuts before and not many of them left. We have half the military and they're sending requests to the bridge to have more picked up. The word's out that the Triton is taking trained people on, and I wouldn't be surprised if we had more applicants than we could handle when we reach port.”
“Every single one of them will want to be paid, and frankly, I don't want to see what happens when the money runs out. I can't back that kind of crew if privateering stops paying or if I can't find us someone else willing to legitimize us.”
“Why would we need to be legitimized? What's the point of having a letter of marque when we can process or sell most anything we capture? I shouldn't have to tell you, especially not you this but when a ship like the Triton drifts into harbour everyone notices. This ship gives us the clout to capture, salvage and sell whatever the hell we want and even if half the tech on this ship is junk we have more than enough equipment to do everything ourselves. So if you're worried about paying the crew, all you have to do is put them to work and just being active out here will provide.”
“She's right Captain, an' a lot of us won't be after much in way of pay while livin' here. Pay 'em half then dock materializer fees. Should keep usage under control an' anyone from materializin' heavy metals, sucking up power like it's free,” Frost added from the doorway. He walked across the room and got behind the bar, immediately rooting around for loose bottles. “Watch is all set. Tracked down a few of Wheeler's bridge crew and told them you wanted 'em on. Most of them were hidin' in their racks, tryin' ta get some sleep after weeks of bein' over worked, they didn't mind takin' a quiet bridge shift. Grace helped, nice girl, that one.”