“Those alien bastards!” The lieutenant commander exclaimed. “Without a government, our command structure is...”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance with that.” Uzahne said and leaned into the camera's view.
“Delegate Uzahne!” The woman on the screen gasped. “You weren't supposed to arrive for another two months!”
“I was appointed to the government and came here to assume my position as soon as I could.” Uzahne said. “Ahaen and Sheph are here as well.”
“Thank the Goddess!” The woman on the screen visibly relaxed.
“Is there any kind of warship docked to the station or under repairs?” Uzahne asked.
“Not anymore.” The woman said. “Everything was commissioned and sent out to fight.” She said. “Even all of the reserve personnel were called into service to...” She stopped talking and took a deep breath. “It's all gone.”
“Is there anything nearby that...”
“No.” The woman said. “I told you. It's all gone.”
“How is that possible?” I asked. “Wouldn't something have been left?”
“I have the whole battle recorded if you want to see it.” The woman said. “I had a ringside seat and I'm telling you, everything was damaged or destroyed. Both our fleet and the enemy's.”
“Send us the data.” Uzahne said. “Also, is there anywhere on the station where we can set up?”
“We've got plenty of empty offices here, so you're welcome to them.” The woman said. “It'll be nice to have someone in authority to take over for me.”
“You're the senior officer on the station?” The lieutenant commander asked, surprised. “You're only a captain!”
“I told you that they sent everyone.” The captain said and held up her hand to show us that it was just a basic claw and not a hand at all. “I was exempt because I'm not fully functional.”
“What happened?” Uzahne asked.
“We ran out of high end spare parts during the battle before this one and I was assigned to a desk.” The captain said and chuckled. “Lucky me, huh?”
“You're alive, captain.” Uzahne said. “We'll be over to keep you company as soon as we can.” She said. “What dock should we use?”
“I'll light it up for you.” The captain said and a docking ring lit up as well as a few guiding lights.
“The back of the station is almost completely undamaged.” Rhubin commented and turned the ship to fly it over to the dock.
“I'd like to say that was by design; but, I think we were just lucky.” The captain of the station said. “Our defenses were pretty strong and barely anything got through, until they focused on planetary bombardment and we had to defend that as well.”
“At the cost of yourselves.” The lieutenant commander said, and she nodded.
“It didn't cripple us as much as we let on, and it also didn't make much difference.”
“It made a world of difference.” Uzahne said.
“What do you mean?” The captain of the station asked.
“It let you remain viable until now, and we can send out rescue parties for any survivors.” Uzahne said. “Get the search and rescue crews to meet us and we'll send you all the data this ship has gathered about the debris field.”
“You came through the debris field?!?” The captain of the station exclaimed. “Are you crazy?”
“We jumped into the system on the other side of it, so we didn't have much choice.” Rhubin said. “We tried sitting still for a while and that didn't work out so well.”
“Then your data will be invaluable to the SAR operations.” The captain said. “I'll have the large meeting room prepped immediately.” She said and cut the connection.
Rhubin eased the ship to the docking ring and mated the main hatch with it. There was a clang sound as the docking clamps locked and he smiled. “We're docked.”
“Lieutenant Commander, if you would lead the way.” Uzahne said.
He turned and looked at me for a moment, then stepped around me.
“He really doesn't like you, Hunter.” Rhubin said.
“That's because he hated having to acknowledge that Hunter had command authority over him, despite not being in his chain of command.” Uzahne said and I stepped back to allow her to pass. She didn't walk by, however. “Thank you for not pressing charges about us trying to steal the shuttle.”
“I'm glad I decided that, since you're now the new government of the system.” I said, and her eyes widened. “You do realize that the three of you are the entirety of the government now, don't you?”
Uzahne took several breaths and closed her eyes. “It... it's just us.”
“You inherited a star system that's been ravaged by war.” I said and smiled. “Congratulations.”
Uzahne opened her eyes and looked at me. “I want you to help with the search and rescue.”
“Why?” I asked. “I'm not qualified to...”
“You performed the only one here so far, and you knew exactly where to go. You didn't have to search or fumble around wasting time looking into empty compartments.” Uzahne said. “Seeing through walls in these situations is an asset that I do not want to lose.”
“It would take me forever to search through hundreds of ships alone.” I said. “Plus, we passed a lot of wrecks and the only one I found anyone on was the last one.”
“How much?” Uzahne asked.
“For what?”
“I want to rent your ship and services to haul cargo to the wrecks.” Uzahne said with a smile. “A search crew, power packs, supplies, and spare spacesuits for anyone you find.”
“We'll need the other four spacesuits back from the other survivors.”
“Either those or replacements.” Rhubin said. “The shuttle's empty right now.”
“I'll give you ten.” Uzahne said.
“You don't even know if they have ten spares.” I said, and she chuckled.
“I have an entire star system full of wrecked starships.” Uzahne said. “I will give you expressed written permission to scavenge what you need.” She said. “If you can bring your ship back up to full operating capacity with those resources at your disposal, be my guest.”
Luxea caught her breath and Rhubin looked like he was shaking with excitement.
“Luxea, you're the expert on this.” I said without looking at her. “What's the hazard pay for delivering cargo and retrieval?”
“It's... Hunter, you... are you really going to do this?” Luxea asked.
“Well, I doubt that we'll be allowed to just roam around without government approval.” I said, and Uzahne nodded. “Plus, I'm tired of being accused of not caring about what happens to people that I can't help and not wanting to risk the people on the ship for the chance to try and save people that could already be dead.”
“Hunter, that's not...” Uzahne and Luxea both started to say, then stopped to let the other speak.
“Yeah.” I said and looked at them. “This is the fastest ship in the universe and it's not equipped for rescue operations.”
“It can be.” Uzahne said.
“What?”
“Give me a day of service working with the search and rescue.” Uzahne said. “I'll have the dock workers update the ship so you can do SAR operations without putting yourself or your crew in danger.”
“There's no way you can update the ship with that kind of equipment.” I said. “It's too small to handle the power requirements needed for it.”
“Then I'll give you another ship that can.” Uzahne said.
“Now, wait just a minute.” Rhubin said. “What would we do with two ships?”
“Expand your business. Hire more people. Anything you want.” Uzahne said. “Please, Hunter. I need your help.”
I looked at Rhubin, at Luxea, then at Uzahne. “I don't need another ship right now.”
Uzahne opened her mouth, I assumed to make another offer, so I held a hand up to stop her.
“I'll take the salvage rights and the multiple shipping cargo jobs that Luxea is going to charge you a lot for.” I said. “I also want a dedicated credit computer installed to handle everything for her.”
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“Consider it done.” Uzahne said. “Anything else?”
“I need an Order chip reader.” I said, and she gasped.
“Hunter, I... you can't seriously...”
“I'm sure there's an Order church or even a full compound here.” I said, and she averted her eyes. “It shouldn't be that big of a deal to get one, is it?”
“Only official Order representatives are authorized to use them.” Uzahne said. “It would be useless to you.”
“Then get me the representative, too.” I said, and she stared at me. “I don't mean it like that.” I said, and she relaxed. “It'll only be for a couple of minutes.”
“I... I can try, but... you know what dealing with them is like.” Uzahne said.
“I'll accept a maybe for that part.” I said and held a hand out for her to shake.
“That's all?” Uzahne asked and glanced at my hand and then at my face. “I just gained control of an entire star system and you could ask for anything you want.”
“Yeah, I really could.” I said.
Uzahne looked at my hand again and back at my face, then she smiled and took my hand. She walked out of the cockpit and met with the other delegates, or rather the other government officials.
“I think I understand why you didn't want to ask for more.” Rhubin said.
“Perhaps.” I said and for some reason, I felt like I needed to follow Uzahne. “I'll be right back.”
“Hunter, what...” Luxea started to say, and I ignored her and ran. The main hatch was already opened and I saw Melanie being carried out on a stretcher by the two men.
“Hi, Hunter!” Melanie exclaimed loudly and waved at me.
“Hi.” I said and touched her hand as I ran by and she giggled. Uzahne, Ahaen, and Sheph were halfway down the hallway already, with the lieutenant commander beside them and the other woman behind him. I saw the sliding doors at the end of the hall open, and a group of six men in uniforms that matched the survivors stepped out of the lift. I felt the Presence waver around the second person from the right, and I assumed the man was lying with his actions.
He's pretending to be welcoming! I thought. “Stop!” I said and activated Presence Run.
Uzahne and the others stopped walking and turned to face me, and the man reacted to my shout and them looking away. He popped open his holster and drew his weapon, then pulled the trigger just as I stepped in front of Uzahne. The laser bolt crossed the short distance instantly and hit the chest of my armor before I could catch it with a Presence Hand.
Surprisingly, the laser bolt made a hissing sound and bounced off one of the metal pieces, hit a metal piece on my arm with a similar sound, then deflected into the wall. The electric field around my armor dropped considerably for a moment, then it went back to glowing slightly blue. The people with the man turned on him and started to wrestle with him.
“Out of the way! You're only endangering yourselves, dammit!” I exclaimed and made five Presence Hands, grabbed the five people between me and the assailant, then pulled them down the hallway. I ran forward and drew my Light sword with one hand as I activated it, which startled the man and he jumped back. I turned my hand to use a back swing and cut his laser pistol in half as I used a Presence Hand to grab the man by the neck and picked him up.
I used my swing momentum to turn myself around in a complete circle and swung the Light sword in a wide arc, then stopped with it right at the man's throat as I faced him and held the Light sword with both hands.
“Don't kill him!” Uzahne shouted and ran over to me. It took her a few moments, and the men I had dragged down the hallway were up on their feet already. “Hunter, we need him alive.”
I sighed and deactivated my Light sword, then absorbed all the Presence Hands I had created. The man dropped to the floor of the hallway, and I looked him over with Detect Presence. I used two Presence Hands to empty all of his pockets and to get the knife out of his boot. I dumped all the things onto the floor, and everyone looked down at it all.
“He's not supposed to have that access key.” One of the men he came out of the lift with said and hit a button on his wrist communicator. “Captain, we need to send a search team to engineering right away.”
“What for?” The captain's voice said from his wrist.
“Hoskins just tried to kill the heads of the new government and he has an engineering passkey.”
“Secure him and bring him to the meeting.” The captain said, and two of the men handcuffed Hoskins and picked him up. “I'll send two search teams and we'll check for tampering.”
“Hunter, can you help with that?” Uzahne asked.
“I wouldn't know what to look for.” I said.
“But, just being able to...”
“I would be asking them constantly what things were and would only slow them down.” I said.
“All right.” Uzahne said and looked at the men taking Hoskins into the lift. “Please escort us to the meeting.”
“I think I should.” I said. “On the next lift.”
Uzahne visibly relaxed and we waited for the lift to come back with two of the men. They greeted Uzahne, Ahaen, and Sheph properly, then we all got into the lift and went to the floor with the command center. We were escorted into the meeting room and met the captain of the station and the rescue teams. When asked for what they wanted, the first thing Uzahine asked for was to have a credit computer installed on my ship.
“That's a really odd request.” The captain of the station said. “Usually people ask for rooms to rest or food to eat.”
Uzahne chuckled. “We've had plenty of food and enough rest to last us for a while.” She said. “It's part of the cost to have Hunter help with the rescue operations.”
“I see.” The captain said and looked at me. “Your searching skills must be quite valuable to justify such a cost.”
“You're getting off cheap, actually.” I said, and she raised her eyebrows at me. “I turned her down when she offered me another ship.”
“She...” The captain stopped talking and looked at Uzahne, then saw the surprise on Ahaen's and Sheph's faces. “Then yes, I'll have a maintenance crew sent immediately.”
“Thank you, captain.” Uzahne said and looked at the table. “Is this table holoprojector capable?” The captain nodded and Uzahne looked at me. “Hunter, if you would be so kind?”
I raised my wrist communicator and hit the button. “Luzea, send over the debris field data we have.”
Nothing happened for a moment, then the lights dimmed in the room and the holotable came to life as the entire debris field appeared in the center of it.
“By the Goddess.” One of the women from a search team whispered. “It's enormous.”
“It's also getting bigger.” One of the uniforms said and started typing. “Every hour the mass spreads out. In a few days, you won't be able to jump anywhere into the system without hearing a collision warning.”
“We need to clear those wrecks as soon as possible and either send them into close orbit of the star to get them away from the planets or put them on a far enough orbit away from the star to clear the jump coordinates.” The captain said and looked at the search and rescue teams. “Make sure you take enough remote booster rockets with you to handle the task.”
“Can they be detached?” I asked, and everyone looked at me with a question on their faces. “You would only need a couple sets if you could attach them temporarily, get the wrecks moving, then detach them and move on.”
“That's a great idea!” One of the search team members said. “If we do that, we can get everything moving faster and won't need to keep coming back for spare parts!”
“We can relegate a search craft for only doing that.” Someone else said. “If we use magnetic locks on the boosters, it should hold them in place long enough to get even some of the larger masses moving.”
“As long as we can calculate the right trajectories, we can disengage the magnetic locks and recover the boosters, then move on!” Another woman said.
The talking devolved quickly into the specifics, and I stood there and waited until the sound died down.
“I've been hired to ship cargo, mainly supplies and equipment, out to the wrecks.” I said, and everyone looked at me. “That also includes rescue teams.”
“I'm sure a fast courier could be useful.” The captain said.
“It's one of the fastest ships in the universe.” I said, without a trace of boasting in my voice. “We came here from the Dizahl System in only three weeks, and we didn't rush.”
“Wh-what?” One of the SAR members said. “That's not possible!”
“The Wave doesn't exaggerate.” I said.
The captain of the station looked at me from my head of hair and blast-shield covered eyes down to my armored boots. “Kitch, take your team and load up The Wave's available cargo space with rescue supplies, and your team is assigned to that ship for the foreseeable future.”
“You'll need to empty the cargo area of the delegate... that is, the officials of your government's luggage and supplies.” I said, and then smiled slightly. “The porters at the other station did it in only ten minutes.”
“We'll do it in seven!” The man I assumed was Kitch said.
“What about the computer installation?” I asked.
“Twenty minutes, if there's enough space to install it.” The woman beside him said, and I looked at her. “It's not that big; but, it does need access to...”
“I'm sure we can accommodate it.” I said and looked back at the captain. “Are we using the back of the station as a staging area?”
“It's almost completely undamaged, so we can work unimpeded there.” The captain said. “We'll open up one of the backup maintenance docks so the rescue ships can deliver the survivors and wounded without having to bother with hatches and airlocks.”
“I've split up most of my medical team to fly with the larger rescue crews and to keep any severely wounded people stable.” A man said. “I've kept a select few here on the station and prepped the medical bay for as many casualties as possible.”
“Good man.” The captain said and nodded. “Okay, people.” She said and sat forward in her chair. “Let's do this by the numbers. I want everyone to concentrate on the outer layer of wrecks that's closest to us. Once they are searched for survivors, mark them for the booster team and move on.” She looked at the people that had talked the loudest and had the best ideas for the boosters. “Harris, you and your team have booster duty for the first six hours.”
“That's all?” Harris asked, surprised.
“We are not going to work ourselves to exhaustion.” The captain stated emphatically. “Six hours, two hour break, then six more hours.” She said. “I won't authorize another work rotation, unless you can somehow find enough able-bodied people to work on the rescue crews from the survivors.”
“Oh, don't worry about that, captain.” Harris said and smiled. “Once people realize we're doing a full SAR operation and need all hands, they'll be fighting us for spots on our ships.”
“I hope so.” The captain said and stood up. “You know what I want and what needs to be done.” She said and looked at them all. “Now get out there and save our people. Dismissed.”
“Sir!” They all stood and saluted, then quickly left the room.
“I'd like to help.” One of the men I had rescued said.
“How's the woman you dropped off at the med-bay?” The captain asked.
“She'll be fine.” The other man said. “She's just overly happy from whatever the med-bot on the ship injected her with.”
The captain didn't say anything for a moment, then nodded. “Talk to Harris. He'll be eager to have another set of hands.”
“Thank you, sir.” The man saluted and left.
“I don't see an executive officer.” Lieutenant Commander Ansen said.
“Why? Do you want the job?” The captain asked.
“What's the pay like?” Anson asked with a smile, and the captain chuckled.
“I need someone in the secondary command center to keep all of these rescue runs straight and to keep track of the survivors.” The captain said.
“Yes, sir.” Anson said and saluted crisply, then left at a fast walk.
“You're handling this quite well.” Uzahne said.
“As are you and your associates.” The captain said. “Was there anything you would change?”
Uzahne shook her head, as did Ahaen and Sheph.
“We know to leave matters like this in your capable hands.” Uzahne said.
“All we need to do is accept the responsibility.” Ahaen said.
“We'll also handle the public relations part, assuming there's no one around to handle it already?” Sheph asked.
“We haven't had a chance to say anything at all to the citizens of the planet about what happened, so I'll leave that part in your capable hands.” The captain said. “I'd suggest not saying how bleak things look; but, it's up to you how much you want to keep from the public.”
“Don't keep anything from them.” I said, and the remaining people looked at me. “If you lie and they catch you at it, especially with how everything is right now, they'll never believe anything you say later.”
“I really don't think telling them that we have no fighting ships left is a good idea.” Ahaen said.
“I didn't say to volunteer information, I said not to lie.” I explained. “If someone asks if there are any ships left, tell the truth. Lots of rescue craft are working hard to get as many service personnel back to the station.”
“But... that's...”
“It's the truth.” I said and looked at the captain of the station. “How many maintenance workers do you have available?”
“A few hundred, and half of them are trying to clear the way to the front of the station.”
“Any chance they have access to weapons that can be retrofitted onto the rescue craft, or even just added on with its own computer and power?” I asked, and she just stared at me. “What?” I looked around and everyone was staring at me. “It's a good idea, isn't it?”
“It... we've never... an independent weapons system.” The captain took a deep breath, and another, then she smiled. “If you were an officer in our military, I would promote you immediately.”
“I'd rather have a couple of the smaller missile launchers and a few reloads.” I said with a grin, and she laughed.