Sparrow’s shuttle had launched. Chloe was ready to shut down the Whittington, the Captain’s finger was no doubt on the button that Chloe had rigged up in her cabin, under her sink. Amir had told his marines an hour ago what was about to go down. As expected, whether out of loyalty to the Captain or purely a desire to return home one day had all accepted it and so the remaining Marines and himself were all pressed to the walls of the central lift shaft, on deck 19 where the policing unit’s armoury was located. They would storm in as soon as the Captain had started talking and secure the policing unit’s armoury.
Hopefully it wouldn't come to anything beyond a guard job, Amir thought, but the Lieutenant in charge of them was, as he, Chloe and the Captain had discussed, just the kind of idiot who would mutiny. One of the strange realities of how the Navy was structured was that officers commanded strategic functions on the ship - comms, weapons (the Master of Arms was only responsible for their upkeep), navigation & cartography, communications and scanning, policing and justice, logistics and, of course, the Marines. Warrants commanded all the technical functions, where detailed and advanced training was needed, except comms and scanning which was deemed so strategically important that a small group of Officers went through the humiliation of technical education needed to command that division; the Captain had been one of them given her technical skills.
He wished right now it was all the other way round. The ratings, all being drawn from the Corporation’s vast general populace would at least see that short term this was something they just needed to go along with (although once back in Corporation space all bets were off in his view). Lieutenant Henty, who commanded the policing division, meanwhile, looked just the sort who had that blind adherence to order and rules that was common amongst the lesser Honourable houses, whose position was more threatened by disorder.
Amir checked his rifle one more time; they’d be using night sticks hopefully in the main but each marine was fully armed nevertheless. It was getting close now, he motioned to the two of his marines closest to the lift door to get set up to manually open them. They were just waiting for the signal now.
Then it came over the internal comms in the raspy voice of Lieutenant Commander Desai: “All hands! All hands! Beat to Quarters. Beat to Quarters.”
“Come on, that’s us,” Amir shouted, the door was forced open and out streamed the Marines,
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Sparrow sat on the flight deck of the shuttle, they had just successfully launched and were now waiting for the Captain’s announcement. In the meantime though she was watching Harri pull a big duffel out of the shuttle’s storage locker and into the main cabin.
“What is that Harri?” she asked.
“Clothes, I snuck out of my old belongings,” Harriet grinned, “I mean we’re stuck here for months, you don’t want to be wearing the same two flight suits all that time; besides dressing up will be fun.”
“Dressing up is fun?” Sparrow queried, never having thought much about the garments she wore except when preparing for one of her invites to the Captain’s table - although that was mainly tweaking her dress uniform.
Harri dug through her bag flinging clothes left, right and centre as she searched. Finally she threw a bundle in Sparrow’s direction. “Here, try these ones - everything’s going to be a bit long on you but we can adjust things later - anyway I think these will look cute on you.”
Harri had picked out a pair of black tights, a red skirt, that must have been short on Harri but would be mid length on her, a white t-shirt with some sort of logo on it and a faux leather jacket. Sparrow looked at them for a second and thought to herself it wasn’t going to do any harm. She unzipped her flight suit and stepped out of it. She looked up just in time to see a beet red Harri hastily turn away.
“Seriously, warn someone next time before you strip off,” came Harri’s flustered voice.
“Sorry Harri,” Sparrow mumbled.
“It’s fine, just let me know when you’ve dressed ok?”
A couple of minutes of fumbling later, mainly with the tights, Sparrow was dressed. The skirt, as she predicted, brushed her knees but the t-shirt was a bit too short, exposing a small bit of her midriff (how short had it been on Harri she thought and then blushed at the picture forming in her mind), the jacket felt a bit restricting and heavy however.
“Finished,” she announced, “how do I look?”
Harri snapped around and looked her up and down and smiled. “You look hot,” she grinned, “I thought a rocker look might work on you?”
“Rocker?”
“As in rock music - the genre that hasn’t really changed in five centuries - not that that’s a bad thing. You could totally fit into one of their crowd like that.”
“I see,” Sparrow said, a bit confused.
“Now it’s my turn,” Harri smiled, “turn around ok”
“Sure thing,” Sparrow smiled back, turning around, curious to see what Harri would pick out. She waited a long time and suddenly became aware of soft sobbing. Immediately she whipped around to see Harri looking down at herself quietly crying. She was dressed in a light green floral patterned dress that loosely hung down to her knees. Above though was the source of the problem, as clearly visible between the two thin straps were the burn scars that patchworked Harri’s chest. Without thinking she crossed the cabin and embraced Harri in a tight hug. “It’s ok, it’s ok,” she repeated, stroking her back lightly.
“Ugh,” Harri grimaced as she tried to suppress her sobs, “it’s just that this was my favourite summer dress you know and I can never wear it again without looking like some sort of hideously scarred freak.”
“You’re not a freak, you’re a hero, you got those scars protecting all of us when no one would have blamed you for running away, you shouldn’t be ashamed of them,” Sparrow whispered quietly up into her friends ear, before locking gazes with her earnest eyes and adding, “besides you’re still the most beautiful person I’ve ever met.”
“Thanks, that means a lot,” Harri replied sheepishly. Her cheeks had flushed red again, Sparrow noticed.
“You’re welcome,” Sparrow replied cheerily.
“I think I’m going to change into something else for now though.”
“Ok, I’m sure whatever you pick is going to look wonderful.”
“We’ll see,” Harri replied hesitantly.
When Sparrow next turned round her friend was wearing some tight looking stiff blue trousers, she would later learn were called jeans, and a baggy hooded top with a print of an eagle across the chest.
“Ta da,” Harri replied sheepishly.
“You look really cute and relaxed,” she replied after a few seconds appraising her friend’s outfit.
“Yay lounge wear,” Harri smiled weekly, “you know back in my old life I’d never be permitted, nor let myself, leave the house wearing anything like this or wear it when we had guests.”
“Really? Why not?”
“Ah well the Honourable Lady Ellis, daughter of one of the great houses, father a leading Alderman and then Lord Mayor, could never possibly be anything else but the most elegant lady in the room. God, it was exhausting.”
“Well I think you’re still the most elegant lady in the room.”
“Thanks Sparrow but given you only started wearing clothes a few months ago I’m not sure you’re the best judge. Besides as I said, you look really good dressed like that, you’d definitely give me a run for my money, even if I was in a ball gown.”
All Sparrow knew in response to that is that she wanted to hug her friend again. Physical contact was still something she was working out but she felt deep inside her that this is what she wanted to do. So she rushed over to Harri and squeezed her tightly around the waist. Harri started and let out a small squeak that made Sparrow grin and look up at the other girl. Harri looked down into her eyes with a questioning look on her face, slowly Harri wrapped her own arms around Sparrow’s shoulders and they stood there for a while, holding each other; Sparrow’s head resting on Harri’s chest listening to her heartbeat.
Honestly, Sparrow felt she could stay like this until she fell asleep and Harri showed no signs of wanting to break their embrace either. Suddenly over the tannoy came: “All hands! All hands! Beat to Quarters. Beat to Quarters.” The girls leapt apart, flushed and flustered but both grinning.
“That’s our cue, are you ready?” Harri asked.
“So long as you’re with me,” Sparrow replied meekly as she rushed back to her seat on the flight deck. Harri joined her on the tactical desk and raised the shuttle's small shield array and checked that the in-system drive was ready to kick in and that the slip drive was fully charged.
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On the main engineering deck Chloe was nervously pacing around a console bank; she had done everything she could to prepare. She’d stuffed today’s detail with the techs she knew were personally loyal to her. She’d stashed a crate of weapons, gifted from Amir, into a storage locker. She’d rigged the emergency bulkheads to come down and seal off the deck at the press of a button on her pad. Still she felt the sweat trickling down her neck.
Then she heard the signal “All hands! All hands! Beat to Quarters. Beat to Quarters.” Two minutes now to explain to the engineering detail what was about to happen and win them over. Perfect. She pressed the button to seal the deck. Immediately her detail all looked up to see what’s going on.
“Chief!” someone shouted.
“Alright, alright, listen up, this is serious.” She scanned the room to make sure everyone was paying attention. She knew the Captain had disabled internal monitoring about three hours ago, as Sparrow and Harriet made their way towards the shuttle bay.
“The Captain is about to make an announcement. It’s an announcement that is going to make a lot of people potentially very angry and it’s something I have been keeping secret along with the Captain and those directly involved for a number of months now. I can only hope you understand why.
“First thing to say is that there is no pilot in the pod. In fact the pod has been completely inoperable since the first attack on us.” She watched the shock spread across the room. “How did we survive our dives since then? Truth is, I extracted the pilot and since then she has been using manual controls to navigate the slip. The first time, no one knew she could do that - that was when her shuttle saved everyone from the second attack. On the third attack that was her again - and I should emphasise there’s nothing a human or modified human could have done in the slip to cause the anomaly that flung us here.
“Now I know many of you are going to be worried and angry, to come into contact with a modified human is a potential death sentence - believe me I know. However, think of it this way. I may have extracted her from the pod as I wasn’t prepared to let anyone die if I could help it during the first attack. That was a selfish act on my part but one I still believe was right. Now we’re stuck out here we have a stark choice - a slow death on the thousand year crawl back on in-system drives, a quick death if we try to dive without a pilot, or a chance of getting home and surviving into retirement if we carry on as we have been with the pilot controlling the ship manually and,” she said this bit more loudly, “we can all keep our mouths shut. Forever.”
She looked around at her shocked engineering crew and the variety of expressions on their faces, she was relieved to see nearly all looked worried rather than angry.
“Look it’s not a situation I ever wanted to be in or put you in but this is just how the cards have fallen for all of us.”
“Is there going to be trouble chief?”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Could be,” she replied, pointedly staring at the sealed blast doors, “but even if there is a mutiny and they were successful - they’d only have the same choices to make.”
“There’s no way the admiralty won’t find out as soon as we are home, they’ll surely pull the internal monitoring?”
“Disabled. I hacked it myself and the Captain switched it off three hours ago.”
“How?”
“Because I’m really fucking good, that’s how,” Chloe laughed. “So this is difficult and I’m going to shock you even more in a second but I need to know now. Are you with me or are you against me? If you’re against me,” she sighed, “well I won’t put up a fight.”
Slowly at first but with a quickening paste the detail looked around at each other. Finally, the CPO, one of the ratings she trusted most, turned to her and said simply: “Aye, we’re with you Chief.”
Good, thought Chloe as she flicked the switch on the console she had rigged to disable all non-essential systems.
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The bridge was plunged into darkness for a few seconds until emergency lighting strips suddenly kicked into life. Well there was no turning back now, Olivia thought.
“Captain, everything’s gone down apart from life support and agriculture,” a Lieutenant shouted from the tactical desk.
Olivia ignored her and picked up the internal tannoy.
“This is the Captain speaking, Commander Olivia Hernandez, what I’ve got to say next is serious and concerns all of you. During the first attack on the ship our pod was irrevocably damaged. Chief Engineer Liu took the decision to recover and extract the pilot; at the time this was purely a personal ethical choice by Ms Liu but for reasons I will explain an important one. What we found out during the second attack was that the pilot was still able to successfully navigate the slip using manual controls. It was this that allowed us to escape the third attack and now if we want any chance of getting back home we will have to rely on this ability to get home. Currently as the ship has no manual controls,” except Chloe’s hidden ones, “dives have to be conducted with one of the slip capable shuttles which rather than slaved to us, we will be slaved to it for future jumps; until we can retrofit manual controls onto the quarterdeck.
“Now I know many of you will be worried and angry. That’s understandable but I’d like you all to consider two things. First, without slip capability we are thousands of years from even the nearest Corporation without. Second, I am Master of this Ship. I have a responsibility to all of you to get you home safe if I can; and because of that my word is law here. These are your orders: first, once systems are put back on line, you will carry out your regular duties as normal; second, any physical attacks or intimidation of the pilot or Ms Liu and anyone in their details will be summarily dealt with by me, XO Desai,” she looked pointedly at her XO who looked around the deck before finally giving her a nod, “or Mr Choudary. The minimum sentence will be to spend the rest of the voyage in the brig; the maximum sentence will be death.”
“To get away with this, this is a secret we all will have to keep for the rest of our lives. Don’t think for a minute you can barter this information for your comfort, freedom or even your life back in Corporation space, or indeed any part of civilised space, because you can’t. I had hoped initially to keep this a secret from you so there was no risk of someone jeopardising the lives of everyone with careless talk. I realise now that was wrong, you deserve to know the truth of our situation, and you are all smart and resourceful people - you would have figured out the truth before too long and then the rumours would have spread. So you need to know, we’re all risking our lives for the chance to see home again. You, me, Chief Engineer Liu, even the pilot herself. It’s that simple. You can accept my words or you cannot but just know the options available aren’t going to change.
“Now finally, the pilot’s identity is not something I can hide either. Our pilot’s chosen name, for those of you who have met her via projection, is Sparrow. However, she is enlisted as Warrant Officer Class 2 Rita MacCleod, who I am sure many of you know already. From today I am restoring Ms MacCleod, Sparrow, to her original rank as Warrant Officer Class 1, when not required as pilot she will continue with her duties about the ship as an environmental systems technical specialist. I expect her to be accorded all the respect, rights and privileges of her rank, especially as the senior Warrant on board.
“That is all,” she added finally as she put down the handset. She shot her eyes around the room at the nervous looking Lieutenants, Midshipmen and ratings on the quarterdeck.
“Are you with me,” she asked nervously, “if I can’t carry you it’s already all over isn’t it.”
After what seemed like an age, Desai spoke up. “I’m with you Captain. This is just the sort of shit you would pull on all of us but we’ve all been through a lot together. I trust you’ll get us out of this mess just like all the other times.” This seemed to settle the bridge crew.
“Ms Liu,” she said, picking up the tannoy handset again, “get the bloody lights back on.”
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Amir was waiting around the corner from the armoury when he heard Lieutenant Henty arrive, with a retinue in tow. He heard him order his marines to stand aside and decided it was time to intervene.
“I’m sorry Lieutenant but they’ve been ordered to not let anyone access this armoury; seems like it’s probably not the best time to have assault rifles all over the place,” ignoring the fact that he and his marines all had their assault rifles on their backs.
“Whose orders?” The Lieutenant said darkly.
“Oh mine,” Amir said bluntly, “did you know, and it’s a funny fact, but after the Captain and XO in terms of seniority I’m the next ranking officer on this ship. Long service and all that?”
“No I didn’t, Mr Choudary,” he said pointedly.
“Well I wouldn’t have expected you to have really. Not really my style to get involved in shipboard matters. I mean I’m just an old soldier really, I don’t know much apart from how to point a rifle at someone and pull the trigger right. Now, the thing you should bear in mind, Lieutenant, is that, after 35 years of boarding ships and repelling boarders, pointing a rifle at someone and pulling the trigger is something I’ve become really quite good at,” he paused. “Now that I’ve given you some time for all that to sink in, I’m afraid, much to my personal distaste, that regrettably I, as the senior officer, have to order you and your friends here to return to your stations.”
“And if we don’t?” the Lieutenant sneered.
“Well then sadly, naval regulations are very clear on the punishment for failing to obey the orders of a senior officer during an alert situation - and I think you’ll find we’ve already beaten to quarters.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” the visibly angry Lieutenant now started to say before Amir cut him off again.
“I’ve dealt with mutinies before Lieutenant and let me remind you here I am alive and well and where are they: dead floating out in the void somewhere.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s a fact,” Amir shrugged. “So what do you fellows reckon? Make your peace and follow my orders or disobey and face the consequences of that choice.” Sensing the end approaching either way, Amir swung his weapon off his back so it sat casually in his hands.
“You can’t be serious. The Captain is clearly out of her mind and needs to be removed and that abomination is going to be walking around the ship,” the Lieutenant shouted.
“That abomination saved all our lives. Twice. That’s more than enough in my book to earn the right to life,” Amir shouted back. “So stand down Lieutenant or Allah help me I’ll put a bullet between your eyes.” He shouldered his weapon and behind him his two marines on the door did likewise, meanwhile the rest of his unit emerged from their hiding places in the neighbouring compartments to block each exit. “It doesn’t have to end this way Lieutenant,” Amir lightened his tone again, “we can all walk away from this. I get to keep my hands clean and you get a whole career of trying to work out how to screw me over through naval bureaucracy. Just follow my orders.”
“You won’t get away with this,” the Lieutenant said, visibly deflating.
“You may well be right, but if we don’t we’re all deadmen one way or the other, no? It is as the Captain said no matter what you might think or do the reality of the situation won’t change. Our only chance of getting home is for Sparrow to pilot us through the slip there. Her pod is damaged and its construction and repair is covered by the State Secrets Act; not even the Captain or Ms Liu know anything about its construction and how to repair it. And your other choices are slow starvation cruising on in-system drive and not even making it a lightyear closer to home or being dashed to pieces in the slip trying to pilot on AI.
“Right go on, get out of here,” he said after letting that sink in.
The police ‘detail’ turned tail and slowly passed through the gap his marines had opened up to allow them through.
“Good work chaps,” he said addressing his marines, “that was a tense situation but you all kept your cool. It doesn’t feel good turning a gun on a ship mate, believe me I know, but we’re Marines, we get the job done no matter the circumstances.”
“First and last Sir,” an old sergeant agreed.
“Aye first and last,” he sighed, feeling himself start to deflate now, “someone get me the quarterdeck.”
A young private brought him over a handset from the communications panel.
“Thanks,” Amir acknowledged before speaking into the handset, “Captain, this is the Captain of Marines. I can confirm I have possession of all tactical weapons on board. I will shortly reconcile these under guard in the Marine’s armoury. We have had some visitors but they’ve been politely sent back to their stations.”
“Very good Mr Choudary,” the Captain’s voice came through the speaker, “carry on as you see fit.”
“Yes sir,” he replied with a slight smile forming on his face.
Then hanging up the headset he shouted: “Right I want someone to pull everyone on the police roster’s files,” he smiled openly at his marines, “by the end of the day they’re all going to be reassigned to other duties and we’re going to take over internal security on board. I’ll work out a duty roster this evening; you’re not going to be popular but you need to stick together. I’m also open to suggestions of trustworthy other crew members who would make good Marines - just let me know before this evening.”
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In the darkness of her cabin later that night, Olivia sat at her desk, her pistol laid next to the stack of tablets she was now reviewing. Amir had been busy; he had reassigned every crew member in the policing unit to other divisions. Lieutenant Henty was assigned to the quarterdeck, so you can keep a close eye on him Amir had noted, as the new navigational officer. The current navigation lead Lieutenant was reassigned to the empty command of point defences and shielding. There was also a list of ten ratings who he wanted for himself as new Marines. She ratified both requests - they would arrive on the crew members' tablets ready for the first shift tomorrow.
She knew the risk she was taking, she knew already there had been tense confrontations already in the crew between the majority of the crew who, whether out of pragmatism or loyalty to her, were holding the line and the small number of the openly angry and afraid. Amir had vastly reduced the risk of mutiny however by seizing control of all the assault weapons on board. Even if it had come to that, it was clear they didn’t have the numbers. The Warrants in charge of the technical divisions had been quick to affirm their personal loyalty to her. The Officers, more of a mixed bunch but it was clear that any waverers were for the moment following the lead of XO Desai.
Now that had been an interesting conversation. Of course he’d confronted her later that afternoon in her cabin. He was understandably furious, mainly though about not being in the loop, and his anger only abated when she got him to concede he would have made the same choices if he had been in command (not that he had the technical skills to see them through as she had). He was right though, he was her second in command and should have known what was going on. She was guilty of taking him for granted as an ageing campaigner who had thrown in the towel on any ambitions he might once have had. She realised now that was an unfair assessment of the man. His personality didn’t make him the most likeable of officers but he was a highly competent XO, a man who knew his abilities and perhaps his failings and had found a role that accommodated both; there was a lot of wisdom in that. She would bring him into the inner circle from now on.
She thought about the rest of the ‘inner circle’, the two girls on the shuttle for the time being who must be trepidatiously awaiting her assessment that it was safe for them to return. She wasn’t sure if anything would attach to Harriet. She knew it was well known now on the ship that they were close. She’d kept Harriet and Amir’s involvement out of it in her address; hopefully she had covered all their tracks well enough that it wouldn't come out they’d also been involved in rescuing the pilot.
Sparrow would need a private cabin, somewhere close to the Marine’s sleeping or training area so she could enjoy some passive protection. Luckily, she was back to her original rank, and technically the Watch Captain of a division that included only herself, Olivia could assign her a small cabin without difficulty as was her privilege of her rank. Normally that would be attached with an assignment to keep command of a neighbouring dorm but there was no actual requirement for this. She had debated getting one of Amir’s marine’s to stand guard but she decided singling the young pilot out anymore would only distance the crew from her when she needed them to love her.
She should speak to them, she figured, they would have no idea what had been happening on the ship and were probably worried sick. She should have contacted them earlier, she sighed. Firing up her comms panel on her desk she opened a channel. She was surprised to see the two girls sat on the flight deck, looking relatively relaxed and in a selection of what must have been Harriet’s civilian clothes. Christ, they’re just teenagers and I’ve put them at the centre of the maelstrom, she thought.
“Captain,” Sparrow replied as Harriet glared at her through the shuttle’s screen, “how is everything on ship?”
“Tense,” Olivia admitted, “but so far everything’s holding together.”
“That’s good,” Sparrow replied.
“So what is happening with us?” Harriet interrupted.
“Stay put for the time being, let the heat from the situation dissipate a bit. Prepare for our first dive. I want to do it soon, get the crew thinking about something else.”
“Understood Sir,” Sparrow acknowledged for both of them.
“We’ll have a celebration for you when we get back in my wardroom, you will both be invited of course. After the first dive I think.”
“That would be lovely, I’ll actually get to eat some of the delicious looking food this time,” Sparrow smiled.
“You know I’m not allowed in the Wardroom right?” Harriet sulkily interjected.
“I can exercise my discretion you know Killick,” the Captain smiled ignoring Harriet’s mood, “beside I have a slight ulterior motive. The people I’ll invite are the ones I trust most on board, the inner circle as Desai keeps on calling it.”
“I see,” Harriet said glumly, “better have some of Mr Choudary’s marines guarding the door then.”
“Yes already taken care of,” the Captain then turned to address Sparrow, “there’s one last thing I need to ask of you.”
“If it’s within my ability to do so I’ll do it,” Sparrow replied earnestly.
“Oh it’s certainly within your ability,” the Captain smiled, “I want you to record a message - in uniform I might add - introducing yourself to the crew. It’s important they get to know you if this is to work.”