The maintenance worker knocked her hand aside and quickly crawled away. Grace deactivated the safety again and began to raise her arm.
“Don't!” Stephanie shouted.
It was too late, and as Grace almost had the sidearm levelled at Stephanie two shots rang out.
The pair of deadly bolts hit Grace in the forehead before she could finish pulling her trigger. The first weakened the protective layers of her vacsuit, the second penetrated straight through.
Lusts End and Wars Herald
The Captain had called him to his ready quarters, and having found his immediate second and third in command at long last, Shamus Frost left them in charge of their last training shift for the day. As he arrived on the bridge Captain Valance stood up and walked him straight into his ready room.
Jake sat down on the front edge of his desk as the door closed behind them. Shamus leaned against the wall. “Important business Captain?”
“I'm afraid so. You'll hear this soon enough, it's spreading across the ship, so it's best you hear it from me first. Grace is dead.”
Frost turned white. He didn't have much of a chance to form deep feelings for the woman, but she was a pleasure to spend time with, not to mention the first woman in ages to show any genuine interest. “How?” he asked in surprise.
“Security and Intelligence teams tracked a small encrypted transmission from your quarters at a time when one of the senior staff could vouch for your whereabouts. They looked a bit further into it and found footage of her leaving shortly after the transmission was sent. They also managed to find a recording from the room.”
“What did the message say?”
“She was informing Regent Galactic that we'd be taking the Triton to the Enreega system. She also divulged the status of the ship, the number of crew we have aboard, the names of most of our senior staff and everything she'd managed to learn about Alice and myself. When the security team went to the infirmary she was seen holding a scalpel up to an unsuspecting soldier's neck. They fell back and went after her in the hall. Grace killed one soldier, seriously injured another and managed to hold a mechanic hostage before the security team had to use lethal force.”
Shamus crossed his arms and looked down. He was quiet for a long moment before he asked; “who led the team?”
“Stephanie.”
“How long has she known about it?”
“They caught it this morning. She found out shortly after and brought it to me. I authorized it after seeing the evidence. I checked the footage from the shoot, there was nothing else she could do to stop Grace in time.”
“I believe ye.”
“We've known each other a long time Shamus, anything you have to say doesn't leave this office.”
Frost sighed and brought his head up to look at Captain Valance. “Nay, I've got my head on. It's a shame, but I barely knew her. On to better things, aye?”
Jake looked at him for a moment, the other man's expression was blank. “Aye,” he replied flatly. “Speaking of which, I've looked over the information your contact gave you. Normally I'd say there's too much there to falsify, but I have to ask, how reliable is your source?”
“He wouldn't do me wrong. Asides, he had no reason to when he passed it on. His andi had him half in pieces when I nicked it from the reader.”
“Well, there are a few targets that I've already marked out, I'm going to need you to lead one of the scouting teams in a couple of weeks, that is if you're staying.”
“Stayin' sir? The gunnery team roster's finally shaping up. I was just about to request permission to do some live firin' before we set off for Enreega,” he said, looking disappointed.
“Have you checked your account?”
“Not in awhile.”
Captain Valance looked as serious as the grave. “You're good to repay me. I deposited a fair value in your account for the intelligence. If you're going to settle your debt and move on, now would be a good time.”
Frost just looked at him for a moment, appearing only a fraction as surprised as he felt. “Captain, do ye want me aboard?”
“Only if you're here because you want to be. I don't like slaves Shamus, that includes indentured manpower.”
Frost collected his thoughts for a moment before going on. “Grandad said once before I left that I'd get tired of the void, hasn't happened yet. Got tired of chasin' the sweet takes though, didn't know what else I could do till I got aboard Triton. Now that I'm here, well,” he raised his arms and looked towards the aft upper decks of the ship. “Have you seen those guns? I mean, ye look at 'em and what they can do to a ship, they may as well be firin' tombstones! What kind of McFadden would I be if I turned away from 'em. My Grandad an' pa would shed a tear at the sight of so many heavy rail quads. I think I'll be stayin' on Captain,” He said with a final nod. “Losin' Grace is sudden, hard, but I'll be up there with my head on a swivel, nothin' will get past me.”
Captain Valance couldn't help but smile at him. “In that case, glad to have you, Gunnery Chief,” he shook Frost's hand firmly. The older fellow's palm was wider than his own, there was grit to his former First Officer.
“I'd better get up there. Lots of prep ta get to,” he said as he turned to leave.
“One thing.” Captain Valance said.
“Aye?”
“McFadden?”
“Oh, aye, that's my real last name Captain.”
“Ah, I'll keep it to myself.”
“Kind of you sir.”
Alice was half an hour early for her duty shift on the bridge. Command wasn't easy, but over the last few days the crew were getting used to her. Many of them called her Captain while she was on duty, which was somewhat accurate, but she knew the proper terms were Officer of the Deck, or Officer of the Watch, or First Officer, but she gave up trying to correct them after the first night.
The simulations she commanded the crew through were going increasingly well despite their increasing difficulty. Captain Valance was assigning simulations that would not only test the crew in general, but teach them that on a large close combat vessel there were many ways to find trouble, and death could happen in a seemingly random fashion. Someone in a torpedo room could die because someone in shield control or field mechanics wasn't watching the status of the energy shields in that area during a missile or beam strike.
Her ability to command the ship was always stretched, some of the simulations even included boarders attacking the ship from the inside, spies uprising and sabotaging systems. One simulation went terribly the first time, it started with her arriving on the bridge to find Jake and most of the staff there killed. Jacob had designed that one himself, and the mortality rate was over seventy percent by the end. The fact that the ship made it out, was able to escape even though it was brutally damaged, was the kind of thing that bolstered the crew's confidence in her.
As she walked from the main entrance and smiled at the few day shift crew who had come to know her Alice decided to find time to create a simulation of her own. She was sure she could do something different, create a truly unusual situation that would test everyone's skills.
From some of the books she had read and a few of the movies she'd watched having a parity in the crew, such as a night and a day crew could be a very bad thing. The crew could rally behind the second in command and mutiny under the wrong conditions. She didn't take it seriously since there was no chance of mutiny, this was Jacob Valance's ship, there was no doubt in her mind. Other than the Clever Dream there was no other ship she wanted to work on.
Ashley locked the helm controls and turned towards her as she started walking across the bridge. “He's been in there most of the day,” she said quietly, pointing her thumb towards the ready room.
Alice smiled and nodded as she continued on. She waited a moment before the door opened and she stepped inside.