The first twelve hours
#2 of The Serenity
Here is the second part to The Serenity. Hope you enjoy my little Sci Fi series.
Our ship was in chaos, engineering crews were battling failing systems throughout the ship. Casualty reports were streaming in from Medical. I paced back and forth across the bridge, it had been hours since we had made the jump. The Solomon was detached from the Serenity. The risk of the power core going critical was too high to risk further damage to our ship. Two volunteers were aboard the vessel trying to stabilize it.
"You need to eat," Vince said through my ear piece. "No time for that right now," I said calmly. Once again looking out the bow view port at the vast sea of stars. After the jump I took command of the fleet. Putting what resources we had towards saving as many lives and as much goods as we could. I had Marines scouring the ship for injured. A group of them had been ordered to the bridge to take the wounded to Medical.
Leaving me alone to my thoughts and the steady flow of information and requests from the fleet. During the jump the causeways, which extended the lift shafts so that travel between fleet vessels and the serenity was an easy process, had been retracted. Most of them were still functional, the one that went to the Intrepid was damaged so the only way to reach that ship was by shuttle.
The main mess hall had been converted into a secondary Medical Bay. With staff from all ships working tirelessly in it. Our main goal was to get long range scanners back up and running. We were in no shape to repel an enemy attack. Not knowing what lurked beyond our sight was troubling to say the least. The bridge door slid open and the second shift bridge crew walked in to take over for those who were injured.
A german shepard took the helm, while a dalmatian maned the weapons terminal. I didn't know who they were, we didn't share the same shift so it hadn't been important until this point. I sat back down in my the Captain's chair and took a deep breath. A fruit bat stood next to me, "Sir, I'm Gilles Smith, night shift Analytical."
I looked up at him, "So you're the second shift version of me. Familiar with my system?" He looked at the terminal and then back to me. "You designed the whole thing yourself. Using a sort of bio mind to store and transfer information. I am familiar with the concept, the interface is user friendly as well. You designed it that way."
The way he said it was full of admiration for what I had done. Years of research and hours upon hours of labor had gone into it. "Take your station, Vince doesn't need much. He is pretty self sufficient so your duty shift will be uneventful. You may read, or browse through any information at your access level." I told him before returning my thoughts to the outside world.
"I'm Maxxy Sir," the dalmatian said looking my way. I looked at him, "Weapons status Maxxy?" He returned his attention to his terminal. Looking over the systems quickly. "Phase cannons are online, missile systems are down. Particle cannons are down as well." He said calmly. "Reggie Micheals," the Navigator said while examining his partially destroyed station.
The rabbit started to pull apart the terminal. Taking the initiative to repair it himself. "Oliver Cantwell," the Pilot said looking back at me. I turned to look at the Second Officer and Flight Control Officer. The FC was a lizard, bearded dragon. While the SO was a white lion. "You're in command?" The older lion asked looking at me.
His rank was superior to mine, but at the moment that fact was meaningless. "I took command seconds after the jump. The fleet is organized thanks to me and we are on the road to sorting out this mess." I said pointing out the facts to him while not moving from the chair. "You're a Lieutenant, command falls to me in the event both the Captain and First Officer are unable to act."
I straightened up in the chair and locked my eyes with his. "Your point is noted, take your station and do what's expected of you Second Officer. Or I will have you thrown in the brig for insubordination." He tensed, glaring at me. I could see the anger building in him. "You cant do that, you don't have the status."
"Maxy, if I told you to throw the Second Officer in the brig, would you follow that order?" I asked looking over at him. "Of course Sir, you have command of the fleet." He said adding to my case. The other lion took a step forward but the rest of the bridge crew readied themselves. His rank didn't mean anything to them. The whole fleet knew who was maintaining order. That was the only badge I needed to continue to run the show.
He growled and sat down at his station, not looking at the terminal. "We have your back Sir," Oliver said returning to his inspection of the helm controls. I relaxed in my seat and waited for more news to come my way. "We have counted almost one hundred total dead. The relays that exploded all form a path." Gilles said pointing at the schematic of the ship that was pulled up on his screen.
"It was due to an overload in the jump drive. The energy burst sent a pulse through the lines, the relays then exploded. The jump itself was altered by this, and that result caused stress to the Nano Fiber hulls of our ships," Vince added to the briefing. I smiled at the bat, he had invested his time into figuring out how it happened.
Meanwhile the other lion just glared at us. I had looked through the manifest, his name was Walter Grimm. From the same world as myself, Idalus Prime. "Good job you two," I said to them and then turned my attention towards the other feline. "It's not that bad," I said calmly. He snorted and locked his eyes with mine.
"I will admit you took initiative by organizing things quickly and effectively. But you lack the experience needed to fill that seat." He relaxed a little and looked at his screen. "Once the First Officer is conscious we will talk about your behavior." I nodded my head slowly, "I wont stop you. But until he tells me otherwise, command is mine."
"Have you two sorted out the source of this issue?" I asked Gilles and Vince. The bat swiveled his chair to face me fully. "We found an anomaly in the jump drive itself. Post jump readings show that it wasn't functioning properly. The jump field it created was highly unstable and had it been altered further we would have all been crushed to nothing." Gilles told us.
"Sabotage?" I asked already knowing that the answer was true. "Yes, during your shut down motion trackers showed an unauthorized visit to the jump drive. No one was scheduled to be there and had the computer been up they would have been locked out." Gilles said returning his attention to the display screen. "Vince, show Gilles all the information we gathered about this intruder before we made the jump. Then broadcast the data packet to all fleet vessels."
"What's going on?" Walter asked rising from his seat. "You knew about this!" He roared angry once more. "We detected a few attempts to breach the computer system. Our investigation led us over to Federation Intelligence. Check your monitor, it's all there. Time stamped, and unaltered." He snorted, but looked at his screen. He relaxed again, seeing that the logs were all official.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Maxy asked. The entire bridge crew was looking at me now. "Would it have been wise to tell everyone that Federal Intelligence was poking around? They lock people up for less than that." Everyone was silent for several seconds. Gilles and Walter read their screens carefully.
"So the bastard is still on board?" Walter asked starting to tense up again. Finally angry for the right reason. "Not only that but there are three other Agents in the fleet as well." Vince said over the bridge com system. Their manifests was displayed on all the bridge screens. James Vaughn, a gorilla; Jesse Harrison, a raptor; and Eric Kershaw, a cheetah. Each listed with their actual names, as well as the ship each of their plants were stationed on.
"Open a channel to all fleet commanders, I want these three arrested and brought to our brig immediately," Walter said growling loudly. I smiled at him, letting Walter make the arrest order. He was angry, for the same reason we all were. Our lives could have been ended, all because of sabotage from Federation Intelligence. First a secret attack on an enemy home world, and now this.
The hidden games they were playing with us seemed hard to sort out. Walter and I walked down to the brig together. His respect for me had grown a little since our first meeting. "No games, promise me that and you have my support." Walter said catching me off guard when we made it to the last door between us and the brig. "No games, I promise. You have full access to everything I have. We can sort out a plan of action for what we will do once back home, when we get there."
The magnetically sealed doors slid open and we stepped inside. We were greeted by Sargent Gloth, the Romal looked like most would expect from a lizard race. Grey scales, with horns on their heads and red eyes. Very similar to other species of the reptilian variety. Only Romals were warm blooded, and could withstand harsh elemental conditions. He served as the Brig Officer, along with ten other members of the small Military Police Force we had onboard.
He bowed when we got close, both of us returning the gesture. He then motioned at the holding cells. "They were a tough lot to get in here. The dino woman took a chunk out of a crew member who was assisting in her arrest. And that one," he said motioning towards James Vaughn, "Snapped the neck of one of our own aboard the Titan."
I looked in at each one of them, while Walter paced back and forth doing the same. Only giving them second and third glances. He settled on Eric Kershaw, "That one. Bring him to interrogation and tell your man to hold nothing back. This traitor deserves no mercy." Gloth bowed his head again and two of his guards opened the cell, stun clubs in hand so they could beat the feline into submission.
Their electrified metal clubs connected with him several times. His attempts to fight back we overwhelmed and within seconds the angry guards had him down on the floor on his belly. "Don't break brother," Jesse told him. James just sat in his cell, paying no attention to what was going on in the cell next to his. The limp cheetah was drug from his cell and down into a room at the other side of the brig.
"Permission to leave the bridge for a while longer," Walter asked me. He wanted to stay and watch and I had no intention of denying him that. Not when I had earned some of the older male's respect. "Stay as long as you wish. You can report to your usual duty shift tomorrow." I told him starting to walk back out of the brig. "If one of ours did this, then you're all in violation of Federation Law," Jesse hissed as I passed her cell. I turned back and told Walter just before he opened the door to the interrogation room, "Three days and then airlock him."
He smiled at me, happy with the judgment. I looked the raptor straight in the eyes. "You will break, or you will die. Slowly if need be. As for your friend, we will find him and we will not be merciful." She spat at me and I looked at the saliva soaking into the chest of my uniform. "Let the Brig Officer know that these two aren't to be fed. Only the minimum water needed to keep them alive." I told one of the guards, receiving a bow before I walked back to the bridge.
Five hours into our journey and we had already made some progress. Scanners were back online and Captain Ivans said they had news about our location. I called a meeting in the Serenity's War Room for all fleet commanders. Ivans was a brown bear, and he sized me up once arriving to the meeting. Riker, a wolf; and two other Captains, Daniels, a tiger; and Higgens, an otter; did the same.
I could tell they didn't like the idea of someone ranks behind them leading the fleet. Lieutenant Harris, and the other commanders of the smaller gun ships didn't care because our rank was the same. To them this was a meeting of individuals. "First issue I want to address is my rank and how that affects your attitude towards me."
Captain Daniels sat forward in his seat, looking at me across the table. The tiger was twice my age and he looked it. "The issue with that is your lack of experience and how that reflects to the rest of the members of this fleet." He said calmly while folding his hands together. "I have no issue with it, he responded the same way I heard Admiral Pierce react during the uprising. We had ships going down left and right during that battle." Harris told them sitting up straight in his seat.
Captain Ivans furrowed his brow, "That is true. He reacted quickly and managed to pull us together after a disaster that was set to end us all. The Serenity is the Command ship for our fleet, and as it's Captain, he is in charge. Under the condition that he take the advice of the senior fleet members. Federation regulations aside, we need to know you're going to work with us."
I smiled at them all, looking each one in the eyes. "You have my word, this will be handled as a group Military effort. My call isn't going to be a huge impact, but my actions for the fleet will be." Lieutenant Verrick nodded at that statement, "Then it is agreed? We will run as a Democracy with the acting Commander serving us for the greater good." Everyone agreed to the terms and we got down to business.
The holo emitter in the center of the table displayed the stars in the area of space we were located in. "It took our Navigator some time, but the computer finally gave us a location. Four billion parsecs from Federation space. Roughly that distance, rounded to the nearest billion. Without the jump drive we have no hope of ever reaching home again." Captain Ivans told us.
I sat back in my chair, that was way further than what I had thought. "Our food supplies will only last us five years at the most." Captain Higgens said. I hadn't thought about food since the jump. It was twelve hours after that. "I think we can agree that all engineers that can be spared should be put to work on the jump drive," I told them getting several nods.
"The next question is, do we move the fleet or maintain our current position?" Captain Riker asked. The holographic image changed and zoomed in on our current position. "There are two habitable worlds nearby. We shouldn't rule out investigating them. Scans indicate no evidence of advanced weapons." Captain Ivans told us motioning at the planets in question as he spoke. Everyone thought for a moment about our next course of action.
"Vote on it," I told them happy to share some of the responsibility at this point. After a little debate it was decided that after the Solomon was fully salvaged we would set course for the closer of the two planets. "There is also the matter of the prisoners." Captain Daniels said before the meeting came to a close. "Alright Captain, what are your thoughts?" I asked him.
"It doesn't make much sense to me. One Agent sabotages our jump, while three others are hidden on our ships. There have been times before where one High Commander tried to edge out another. What were they hoping to gain from us?" He asked us. My tail swayed slowly as I thought about it all.
"You can ask them yourselves. The only condition is none of them are allowed to leave our brig. We already have one in interrogation. The other two may break. My concern is their missing friend. We should have the Marines go ship by ship, deck by deck checking for anyone not on the manifests." I told them. Ivans smiled at the idea. "I want to airlock him myself," he said slowly standing from his chair.
"If that covers everything we can go about our day. Next meeting will be in twenty three hours." I said and everyone started to get up to head back to their ships. Lieutenant Harris stayed back, letting everyone leave before turning to me. "That data packet was very interesting. What other secrets have you taken from places you shouldn't be poking around in?" He asked with a sly grin.
I looked at the fox, "I will grant full access to all commanders. I have nothing to hide at this point. Now I must be getting to Medical to check on my people." He gave a nod and then slipped out of the room without another word. I looked out the view port, we were in a strange new place. As much as I hated jump drives, I couldn't wait for it to be fixed so we could leave.
Medical was chaotic, there were too few staff to see to all of those in serious need of aid. There were screams of pain, and the scent of blood was so thick and heavy that it filled the whole deck. All those with minor wounds were down the corridor in the mess hall. I walked over to a bed soaked with blood. The ferret in it was just pronounced dead from complications during surgery.
The doctor, a wolf looked at me. "This is for serious injuries only, down the hall is where you have to go," he told me as he started to walk away. There were dozens of patients, all waiting for treatment. "What do you need?" I asked following after him. He looked at me while he moved down to the next patient. A bull who was seriously burned.
I could smell his charred flesh, he had been given drugs since he wasn't conscious. "What I need is to be back at Tanith Moris. The Medical Station there could easily handle all of this. What I get is a mixed Medical crew from seventeen ships. Those smaller vessels don't even have any. Our combined staff is less than thirty, doctors and nurses combined." He said while waving a scanner over the bull slowly.
"You need people then, our Marines have Medics." I told him, getting a snort from the wolf. "Battlefield medicine and treating a patient aren't exactly the same thing. If you could spare them, the mess hall could use them. Then I could have everyone back in here where I need them." He told me pushing a cart towards the Medical cabinet. "Friendly fellow isn't he?" Vince asked through my ear piece.
"Stress will do that to you. I want every Medic we can spare to report to the mess hall. The rest of the Marines can continue the search." I told Vince while walking towards the mess hall to check on Ben. The leopard was laying across a cot, bandages around his head. He looked so peaceful laying there like that. I knew it was too chaotic to ask about his condition, so I gave his hand a firm squeeze and walked off to check on the other bridge crew members.
Sam was laying in a nearby cot. Groaning softly in pain. I knelt down next to him. "Don't worry, we will make it out of this mess." I said before he turned his head to look at me. "Who's in command?" He asked me between groans. I pointed at myself, "You're looking at the Fleet Commander. Don't worry, you can keep your old job."
"You? You cant run the fleet, you're just a Lieutenant." He said trying to sit up but failing to do so. I put a hand on his shoulder and gently held him down. "I'm doing a good job, ask anyone. You older guys are so set in your ways. Trust me, I can do this, and do it better than Admiral Pierce ever could." He panted softly and looked into my eyes.
"Is it true? That he's dead?" Sam asked me. I nodded my head slowly, "Yeah it's true. You missed an action filled twelve hours. Just rest, you will be back at your station before you know it." Sam shook his head, "I should be Captain." I placed a hand against his cheek. "You're not the first person to tell me that. The other Commanders agreed to it, provided I take their advice and do a good job. You should extend me the same conditions."
He pulled from my hand and looked at me confused. "You got voted in or something? What about the chain of command?" I leaned against his cot. "Starts with me now. Rest Mister Symons, that's an order." I said walking away from him slowly. The fight for my position had been a long one, but it was finally over. Once the ship was back in order I would give everyone time off.
Perhaps that nearby planet would be a suitable place for shore leave. I smiled to myself, spoiling my crew was one way to gain their favor. My actions today gained their respect. I looked out a view port at the ships attached to the Serenity. All accounted for except for one, an acceptable loss. All the fatalities, they were not acceptable losses. The morale of this fleet would be dealt a horrible blow by this. A blow that I had to find a way to heal.
I slowly made my way back to the bridge. The second shift crew was still there. They would have to pull a double shift. Reggie had finished the repairs to his station. It looked like a mess, but it was functional. "Repairs to the weapon systems haven't been started yet Captain," Maxxy said as soon as the door slid closed behind me. I nodded at the statement and sat back down in my chair.
"I'm aware of that Lieutenant, there are other systems that take priority at the moment." I looked over at the bearded dragon. "Flight Control, what's the status on the salvage operation?" I asked him settling into my chair. He turned his chair to face me. "The core is offline and has been brought aboard the Serenity." With the threat taken care of we could reattach the Solomon and start heading for the planet.
"Let's get the Solomon back into place on our hull. Navigation, plot course for a habitable world listed in the Intrepid's Navigation Computer. We leave as soon as the Solomon is in place." With both Officers either busy or in bed resting, I was in for a long shift. I looked up at the ceiling, it had been a very long twelve hours. I was pushing crews to their limits. It couldn't be helped. I just hoped that we would find some relief just around the next bend. My people deserved that much at least.
Thanks for reading, please vote, watch if you want to see more, comment below. And as always, thanks for the support.
^_^