“We're astrophysicists. I'm wondering if you could do us a favour?”
“What can I do?” Stephanie asked.
“This ship has a long range sensor array, do you think we could get access to it sometime?”
“I'll talk to the Captain. I'm sure he'll give you time with it once things calm down a bit. I'm Chief Vega, by the way.”
“I know, the hologram of you saving Gunnery Chief Frost is out, everyone saw it.”
Stephanie was surprised but smiled after a moment. “I haven't seen it.”
“Most people are pretty impressed, I just like having guards around who don't interfere with anything we're doing. Some have stayed behind to help after their shifts. Keep it up,” Linda said before moving off.
Ashley finished sending her message and checked the time. “I have to be on the bridge in fifteen,” she looked excited, like she could break into dance at any second.
“Think you could concentrate while waiting for the Doc to get back to you?”
“I'll have to, I have a whole shift ahead of me. Oh God I hope he can help.”
“I hope so too. Everyone liked Finn,” Stephanie agreed. “Just take it easy if he gets put back together again, take it slow. You don't want to rebound off this one.”
Ashley bounced on her heels and nodded. “Yup. I gotta go,” she hugged Stephanie briefly and they both set off for the forward lift.
The Tour
Captain Valance walked through Hangar One looking at the piles of big and small parts. The largest of which was the majority portion of a two hundred ninety meter long hauler that looked like it had been torn apart on one rear quarter when its hyperspace emitters failed. It was a good pick for salvage, if that's what he were interested in, but there was an oppressively foul smell coming from it. They never bothered to remove the dead. He shook his head and moved on. What kind of ship was Wheeler running? He asked himself, not for the first time.
The sitting room in the Captain's quarters was a wreck. He had to seal it during the gathering the night before so no one could see it. There were bottles everywhere, even a broken one that looked like it had been stepped on. Old clothes, a half disassembled small engine of some kind, entertainment cards, a game board torn in half, and other oddities were strewn across the stained and disused furniture. He couldn't wait until Liam could make time to get a team working on bringing the cleaning and general maintenance bots back on line. He'd set a pair of them onto the official Captain's quarters and just walk away for a week.
Not a priority. He thought to himself as he looked at three fighters piled in a pyramid. The top one was turned upside down so its cockpit canopy was squeezed between the two on the bottom. So many things still aren't a priority. The ship's calming down, smaller grievances will start crossing my command panel, and I'll be saying that more and more. I can hear myself now; 'I'm sorry ma'am, strawberries from the materializer will never taste like the real thing, I can't spare maintenance people to recalibrate your unit. Again, it's just not a priority.'
Assistant Deck Chief Paula Mendle came through one of the double doors leading to the hanger to hanger walkway. “Good morning Captain, you shouldn't be here. It isn't safe,” she said with finality.
“I want this entire deck cleared today,” he ordered, ignoring her comment. Her tone was a constant source of irritation.
“I'll have to find out what the Chief's plans are first,” she rebutted.
“Do you have Hanger Two set for a few ships to land?”
“We have five hundred square meters sir.”
“How big is the entry?”
“Just over twenty.”
“Not enough, I want everything that doesn't start as is pushed out into space or into a mass recycler by the end of the day. Everything you keep must be stowed at the back of the hangar or in long term storage.”
“The mass recycler on this flight deck doesn't work,” Paula contested, putting her hands on her hips.
“Then it all goes, set it adrift and if we need the raw materials for recycling drag parts back in,” Captain Valance answered, turning towards her. They faced off, looking down a roughly cleared aisle between the waste parts and hulks of ships. “That's an order, Assistant Chief.”
“Chief Vercelli won't like it,” she said with a scowl.
“Then he can make his concerns known to me. Do we have a problem?”
Paula just scowled at him.
“Speak freely, because at this point I'm wondering if we shouldn't leave you out at the next port. Anyone who doesn't pay attention to what's going on, doesn't listen, is dangerous.”
“Where do you get off telling us how to run a flight deck? How to keep a hangar?”
“No need to answer that sir, I'll take care of this,” Angelo said from the walkway doors.
“I want him to answer. A week ago we were serving on a deck that knew what to do with us. Just left us to do our work the right way,” Paula shouted at him. “Now we're here, and he thinks he knows everything.”
“You're wrong. The Captain here expects me to make the right decisions, asks me about why I go about things a certain way all the time, but when he gives an order it's for a reason, it's for the good of the entire ship. How convenient it is for us doesn't make a difference,” Angelo answered in a mild tone.
“He's right, Assistant Chief. There's another reason why you should just take my order as law, aside from the fact that I'm your Captain. Sometimes you don't get to know why an order's given, you don't have the rank to find out and it's even better at times that you don't ever learn more than you have to.”
“This isn't a military ship! We deserve to know what's going on, we're all volunteers! Or at least we may as well be for the chump fodder we're getting paid!”
“If that's the way you're thinking, then find an emergency shuttle with a hyperdrive and get off my deck,” Captain Valance said flatly. “If you haven't noticed, everyone here, even the civilians, know this ship is out here to fight Regent Galactic, maybe even the Eden Fleet, and they're doing their part. The few who aren't in line are squared away in the brig.”
“We're just one ship, what's the point?” Paula asked, looking from Angelo to the Captain.
Jake turned to Chief Angelo Vercelli. “You know the options here. Straighten her out, check her into the brig, or send her off on her own. Until then, get this hangar clear.”
“Aye sir,” Chief Vercelli replied.
“Don't just ignore me!” Paula screamed.
“Hey!” Captain Valance rounded on her, furious. “If you're making sense, using that impressive brain of yours, and following orders, you'll have my respect and a place on my crew. If you start shouting and screaming, ignoring what's right in front of you and questioning your senior officers, I'll cut you out. You won't be welcome in my chain of command and I'll put you off the ship.” He turned on his heel and strode to the nearest lift.
A Short Walk Over A Great Distance
Stephanie took her second look at the main Gunnery Deck. The floor was polished to gleaming, the rail cannon turrets were arranged in ready rows, hanging half way down to the deck leaving a three meter clearance for anything to move under them. Along one wall was a neat row of armoured combat suits, standing a meter and a half each with their reinforced exoskeleton, armoured plating and fully articulated arms, hands and legs. There was high durability display surfaces on the shoulders, cuffs and chests of all of them to output damage, rank and other information. The armour segments, supports and hardened joints were alternatively painted blue, white or left polished silver. Their short, oval heads were armoured sensor suites, transmitters and were heavily constructed so lifters could pull and move the suits from above.
A few crew members were inspecting the armour while four of her security guards watched the cargo sized express car and the main doors to the deck. They were following standing orders, keep watch over every major entrance and wherever there were large gatherings of crew members. She had enough people to be hyper vigilant, and her security staff needed something to do. So aside from running a quarter of them through simulations at a time, they made sure everyone else was on the ship for the right reasons, going where they needed to be, and staying away from dangerous or sensitive areas.