A silence flowed out of the bridge door as it opened, welcomed by the large group who had taken it over. They were well armed, courtesy of ransacked Miltech stations no doubt, and were strategically placed amongst the bridge crew.
However, it only took a moment to realise that these people weren’t just passengers or the occasional crew members. Half of the group were actual Miltech soldiers. It further explained how and why they were so decked out in Miltech gear.
They had the bridge locked down and it was only after the threat of killing everyone in there by purging the oxygen out of the room that allowed the main door to open to let us in.
Like so many other times, I wasn’t too sure whether there was any fact in the threat that Jeremy made. I assume they weren’t too sure either and that’s why they quickly opened the door after it was issued. Maybe it was a tactic of his, to keep everyone guessing what he was or wasn’t capable of doing. I was just grateful I wasn’t on the receiving end of them.
“Traitors,” Said Jeremy with a raised growl and trembling with anger.
“Harper. I’m surprised to see you at a cross roads up here,” he added as he clocked one of the soldiers as someone he knew.
“I’m not,” said Ro as she raised her rifle.
In an instant weapons were raised. With the bridge door closed and our backup on the other side, their ten beat our three.
Although most of the bridge crew had backgrounds in armed forces or similar, they winced in anticipation of a firefight.
“Why do this?” Asked Jeremy.
The corner of Harpers mouth raised into a grin like he was waiting for the ‘big reveal’.
“You know exactly how this came to be. You and the SecMajor are keeping everyone in the dark, even these two,” he said pointing to both Ro and I.
Jeremy awkwardly averted his eyes and shifted his head slightly down as I looked over at him. It was out of character and even started to make me wonder what was going on.
Jeremy raised his rifle and aimed it at Harper.
“No. Explain it to us all please.”
“Fletcher. The Dominus. They are the ones who—“
Harper was cut off by the sound of a rifle being cocked.
“I’ll stop you right fucking there,” said Jeremy, his voice raised and serious.
Harper didn’t utter another word. He knew that Jeremy wasn’t to be tested. He did, however, keep that annoying grin across his face.
When I thought about it, they all seemed to have grins, like they were overly confident in their positions in taking over Salvation. One of the soldiers even let out a sarcastic laugh before drawing attention over to me.
“Carter. They still haven’t let you have a real gun have they? It ain’t even got a trigger,” he said, with some others letting out some light laughter at the joke.
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He was referring to my pistol. The one that I picked up on Nuvora. Also the one that was crossed with Solari tech and didn’t require a trigger at all.
“Want to see a cool trick?” I asked.
Despite my best effort, I couldn’t help but feel the need to prove myself to be taken seriously. It seemed I was somewhat infamous throughout Salvation but not in a badass kind of way. More of a mocking kind of way, like It was a joke to them that I was in Miltech. That I didn’t deserve to be in it.
He let out a singular laugh, “sure, we’d all love to see one, wouldn’t we guys.”
He let out a dismissive scoff as I slowly tracked the sight of my pistol from his face, down his body before stopping on his leg.
“BANG,” I yelled abruptly, eliciting a jump scare from him and the surrounding group of people, while getting a laugh from Jeremy and Ro.
“Gotcha,” I added before I relaxed my posture, though still aiming at his leg.
A loud pop jumped through the bridge. This time it wasn’t me mimicking the sound of the pistol. It was the pistol. All I had to do was think with intent and the pistol did the work for me.
A yell of pain and confusion ensued as the smartass fell to the ground. For a fleeting moment it was the only noise from the bridge as everyone took a minute to take in what just happened.
“Woah what the fuck was that Carter,” said Harper with a sprinkle of fright, dropping down to look at the leg of the wounded soldier.
“Yeah what the fuck was that,” said Jeremy, quietly from the side of his mouth.
Captain Lee shot over a piercing glance. The type of glance that told you that something needed to be done to gain control of the situation.
In fact, it seemed like everyone in the whole bridge was shooting the same look. Like we were all just playing a game and I ruined it by popping the guy in the leg.
“Really? No fire fight after I just shot that guy in the leg?” I quipped.
Ro let out a contemplative hmph before aiming her sights at another pair of legs. A pair only just behind Harpers back as he was crouched over.
She had the same idea as me. That they were bluffing when it came down to it.
“Ro. Don’t do it,” whispered Jeremy.
Ro decided to ease her rifle down and by this point most of the mutineers had also eased up after the display of weapon tech they had no idea existed yet.
“Captain Lee. Where are we after that jump?” Asked Jeremy, breaking the tense silence on the bridge.
“On the outer edge of the Biterra System. It could take weeks until we get to Biterra’s orbit.”
Weeks. There was no way Harper and the rest mutinous leaders could promise a calm day let alone weeks. They had encited a rebellion and a ship-wide lockdown that they had no control over any more.
Jeremy huffed, choosing his next words carefully.
“Harper. We will return you and whoever else to Biterra when we’re able to, but for now, you need to relinquish control back to Captain Lee and the bridge crew.
“You also need to calm the shit storm you’ve stirred up across the ship, otherwise no one will make it.”
“Has the SecMajor agreed to this?”
“She’ll either accept it or will kill you all. But If you don’t leave this bridge she’ll definitely kill you,” threatened Jeremy.
Harper looked around, buying himself a few extra seconds to consider Jeremy’s words.
“The Mortifera is approaching Captain,” called out one of the bridge crew. “They are trying to establish comms.”
“What do you say Harper?”
Harper gave a reluctant nod of agreement, in the end he didn’t want to risk going against Jeremy or Henderson.
Jeremy quickly ordered the bridge crew to bring comms back online and to clear the Mortifera, and its new addition to the fleet for docking.
Harper looked a little uneasy when hearing that we had picked up another warship on our exit from Nuvora. Another parting gift from the General as we left.
“Okay now it’s time for you to start to reign in your little mutiny,” said Jeremy as he motioned Harper over to him.
They both made ship-wide announcements calling for calm now that an agreement had been made and that we were headed toward Biterra, allowing anyone who wanted to leave the opportunity to.
As Harper and his group began to leave the bridge, Jeremy turned back to us.
“I need a debrief with the Captain. You two make your way back down to Mortifera, it should be docked by the time you reach it.”
We weren’t sure how successful the call for calm would be until we made our way down the decks of Salvation to the bottom where the Mortifera would soon be docked again, but we were sure to find out soon enough as we left the bridge.