Dremiks (30 page)

“Price.”

“Ma’am.”

“You have made so many new friends!”

“I’m a charming guy.”

“Well, if you’re always going to be bringing your rowdy parties home, we’re going to have to curtail your social calendar.”

“Aw, mum!” He actually chuckled. “You’re going to slip to port and drag the stern when that bay opens.”

“No shit.”

“Just making my pilot aware of the environment, like a good second-seater.”

She grimaced as the escorts veered closer to the hull.

“Your new friends are very hands-on, Lieutenant.”

His voice was tense when he answered. “I see them. If they get much closer…”

“The shimmy created by the bay opening will slam us into them. I know.” She checked the radar. Dremikian ships hovered above the
Hudson
, at the bow, and amidships. Only the stern and the area beneath the ship, where the gravity well projected, remained clear. Concern creased her brow.

She called the captain on his private channel. “Sir, the addition of those escorts changed this maneuver from mildly strenuous to incredibly dangerous. Do we really need to do this?”

“They don’t want us landing on Dremiks, Commander. The Dremikians would prefer we never even
see
the planet. They wanted me to stay as their
guest
while we work-out
alternate arrangements.
You can do this, O’Connell. Get us on-board and get to that planet.”

“Roger that.” She clicked back to the lieutenant’s channel. “Price you’re going to be coming in hot. Have the captain help with the reverse thrusters during switch-over.”

Price muttered “Oh shit.” He turned to the tense man beside him. “Sir, you need to help me. I’ve got to get us in the bay, right now, and that means going full throttle. I need you to fire the reverse thrusters the minute we’re in the bay.”

The captain’s eyebrow arched. “Because?”

Jaw clenched in concentration, Price couldn’t spare a moment to look back at his commanding officer. “Because if you don’t we’re going to punch right though the bulkhead. She’s got to put the
Hudson
in a full stop to get away from those escorts. If the ship shimmies while surrounded by those little craft…”

“It will be like a rampaging elephant in a vineyard.”

“Just so, sir.”

Lieutenant Guttmann leaned forward from his position in the jump seat. “She can’t just stop on a dime. Inertia alone will keep the ship moving.”

“Sit back and strap in!” Price barked the command. He didn’t have time to explain his actions. The hull of the
Hudson
loomed large through the front windshield. Price lifted his hands from the controls long enough to flex his fingers. With a grimace at the captain, he touched the keypads again.

Every stomach dropped as the lander lurched downward. Price worked to align the nose of the smaller craft with the landing bay. They stayed far enough back to maintain steerage, but close enough to dart in the moment the doors opened.

O’Connell bit her lip. She sounded the collision alarm. Chief Turner murmured through her ear piece to let her know the engines were ready. The
Hudson
rocketed forward. Their nominal escorts matched the larger ship’s speed. O’Connell slid her fingers down the screen, throwing the engines into full reverse.

“Now!”

In the lander bay, Chi smacked the locking mechanism to the off position. The massive doors slid away. As all of the air in the bay was sucked outward, the nose of the
Hudson
slid half a degree to port. The trailing Dremikian ship on that side passed within three meters before veering away in panic.

The lander surged into the bay. Captain Hill applied the reverse thrusters. Lieutenant Price threw the switches for inter-atmosphere flight so the lander could briefly hover before touching down. The bay doors slid shut. The
Hudson
dropped down and rolled to port. The lander’s starboard engine showed a heat warning. Price shrugged and shut both engines off. The craft dropped to the deck with a reverberating clang.

“Oops.”

The captain didn’t acknowledge the lieutenant’s comment. He rested his head on the seat back and closed his eyes. From the back of the lander, Fortunas said: “Ow”. Price laughed. The captain, eyes still closed, cracked one of his rare smiles. When the lights in the bay flashed green, both of the men in the front of the lander released their seat restraints.

“Price get to the bridge. Guttmann make a note to strip these engines down for heat repairs, but right now I want you in engineering.” He stood, facing the back of the lander. “Doctors, my apologies for our abrupt departure. I will have more information for you soon.”

Chapter 17

The captain arrived on the bridge right before Price. Both men buckled into their seats.

“Nice flying you two. Commander, please take us into orbit above the planet Dremiks.”

She leaned her head until her right ear touched her right shoulder, trying to stretch the knotted muscles in her neck. With a quick, pointed, glance at Price, the pilot moved her hands on the screen. “Our escorts, sir?”

“Are welcome to join us. I don’t believe they will instigate aggressive action. Keep in mind, though, that are effectively holding the chancellor and vice chancellor hostage. I do believe you can avoid any mishaps, Commander.” His comment was more of a challenge than a statement of confidence.

This time the look O’Connell gave her co-pilot was more pointed. She was dying to know what had the captain so agitated and willing to break the rules—
all
of the rules, apparently. Price shrugged, either unwilling or unable to give her any clues.

At their current positions in their orbital tracks, Rhyse Station and Dremiks were only three hours travel time apart, assuming the
Hudson
traveled at her max speed.

“Continue communications black-out, sir?”

The captain thought about that for a minute. “For the moment. They’ll be screaming for us to return, and I don’t feel like debating with them. Maximum speed, Commander. I want us there now.”

“ETA two hours fifty-seven minutes, sir.” Price checked his data. “Dremiks is currently in aphelion, which shortens our travel time. We can begin collecting sensor readings now. Basic infrared and radar readouts.”

“Proceed.” Unable to sit still, the captain sprang from his seat. “O’Connell you still have the watch and the con. Page me with regular updates.” The rest of the bridge crew noted that their captain didn’t bother to explain where he was going. He stalked to the lift with a stony expression.

As soon as the lift doors slid shut, a collective sigh slipped from everyone’s lips.

“On task, people. Robertson maintain communications blackout. Start the programs running for data analysis and make sure Fortunas is aware.” Maggie turned her head to stare at her co-pilot. “Assuming we brought him back?”

Price was still busy typing in commands to bring the
Hudson’s
sensor arrays on-line. “Fortunas and Ruger, yes.” He starting rapidly typing a message on the panel in front of him. The message appeared on a small screen on the portion of controls that stretched between their two seats.

Dremikians separated party right after intros. Trell and VC Hill stayed with diplomats. Doctors + us to other room.

“Robertson, why am I not getting radar returns from the moon Najif?” O’Connell kept glancing between the typed narrative from Price and the bridge controls.

Somewhat testily, the ensign replied, “There’s some sort of interference, ma’am. I’m working to filter it.”

What’s his problem?

Don’t know/care. They put you in a holding room?

No, had reception w/ medics, scientists, engineers. Very polite.

“Ma’am, there’s heavy magnetic and infrared disturbance in the approximate location of Dremiks.”

Price growled something under his breath. “Dremiks is in a known, fixed, orbit, Ensign. There’s nothing approximate about the location of an entire planet. Keep working on it and get Fortunas working the data as you were ordered.”

Captain comes up 15 min. in, looks like someone pissed in his beer, says to follow him. Has Fortunas acting like he’s sick. Ruger’s acting all concerned. Dremikians arguing the whole...

Price’s typed narrative was interrupted when he physically twisted in his seat to glare at Robertson, who was once again offering a suggestion. “We could launch a probe, ma’am?”

“Communications blackout, Ensign!”

“Easy, Price,” O’Connell whispered. “Ensign, a long range probe has to send back data to us, which it cannot do if we’re purposely blocking all communications. There’s also the small matter of us being surrounded by smaller ships that could be damaged by the probe or destroy the probe after we launch it. Probes are expensive. I will not be launching one just because of a bit of interference. Back to work, please. Get Chi up here to help you. He’s not needed in engineering if Guttmann is back down there.”

Any idea what has Cpt. so rattled?

All I know is what he told you. He is pissed. White knuckled rage. Snapped at all of us, even the docs.

They sat in silence, each staring at the controls but not really seeing the numbers and colored bars scrolling past. Price typed one more word before shifting in his seat and pretending to direct his attention to the radar returns.

Worried.

That one word sat there on the screen. It wasn’t a question; it was a statement. A statement of uncertain emotion from a cocky, self-assured pilot made to a superior officer who embodied those exact same qualities.

***

“You’re not really experiencing chest pain, are you?”

“What?” Fortunas scratched at his scalp, which felt raw and tingly after the time he’d spent running his hand through his hair. “Mein Gott, woman, no. I told you I’m fine. The captain wanted us out of there, and I was the most convenient excuse.” She still looked concerned, bless her. “I assure you, Doctor, I’m in perfect health. I would prove it to you, but Mr. Robertson requires my help with this data. I suggest you concentrate on Marissa Hill and Captain Hill. I suspect one will need lacerations stitched, and the other might end up in labor.”

“Don’t even joke about such things. I want to know what is going on, but I’ll wait... for now.” She scowled at him before marching off.

Fortunas snapped his fingers at Clara, an action guaranteed to aggravate her under normal circumstances. She snorted and snatched his tablet from his hands. “You’re filtering it wrong. Let me work on it,” she groused.

“I don’t know why you ladies insist upon choosing me as a target for your anger.”

“Convenience. Hush now, I’m working.”

After another ten minutes of incomplete information from the
Hudson’s
sensors, Clara huffed her annoyance. “It’s no use. Something is garbling the signal.”

Fortunas blinked at her, twice. “Damn. I should have seen that.” He paged the bridge. “Commander can you focus the radar relay on S3?”

“Er… I can. I need the data on Dremiks, though.”

“Understood. I need to run a few baseline tests, if you don’t mind. S3 is at aphelion. The computer should be able to chart it for you.”

“Yes, thank-you, Doctor.” The dry tone of the commander’s response came across the channel very clearly. The brief pause while she redirected the ships systems to examine a different part of the solar system was followed by her muttered curses. “That answer your question?”

“It does, Commander.”

***

“You left my husband on an alien space station! How dare you tell me to calm down? Have you lost your damned mind, Brett? This is insane, even for you!”

Captain Hill rubbed the space between his eyebrows with one finger. “You’re going to break glass if your voice raises another octave, Marissa. And if you cause any more stress to your body or the child, Doctor Ruger will be in here berating me as well.”

Completely ignoring his advice, Marissa Hill continued to pace in front of his desk. “I like how you brought
her
back, but left the two most important people in your group!”

“As I have already told you, Ryan and Trell were in another room. I needed to return to the ship as quickly as possible.”

“Why? What is so damned important that you had to leave your own brother stranded?”

Ryan wouldn’t have hesitated to leave me, were the situations reversed. At least I intend to go pick him up, he’d leave me there for months just for laughs.

“Are you even listening? Brett!”

“Sit down!” He roared the command in his most intimidating military tone. He waited until she sat. “Something one of the Senior Councilors said to me leads me to believe that something is… I don’t know,
wrong
with the planet. She wanted us to stay at Rhyse station and negotiate an alternate settlement agreement.”

“They won’t let us land on Dremiks?” Marissa paled so suddenly that Brett half rose from his chair.

“Are you ok? Should I page the medical staff?” His com chip chirped at him. He looked an apology at his sister-in-law, but she was caught up in her own thoughts. “Captain here, go ahead Commander.” He listened to the pilot’s message. “I’ll be right there.” Walking around the corner of his desk, he helped Marissa out of the chair he had just ordered her into. “I would feel better if you went to the medical bay for a check-up.”

She yanked her arm from his grasp and glared at him coldly. “As if I give a damn about your feelings,
Captain
. Get my husband back.” She turned her back on him.

Brett dropped his head, briefly over-whelmed with regret, guilt, and disgust at himself. He sighed softly, schooled his features into sternness, and caught the lift to the bridge.

“What do you have for me, Commander?”

“We’ll be in telescopic range in ten minutes sir. At this time, I can only posit theories.”

“I’m becoming increasingly disgusted with unknowns, Commander.” He tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair. “Proceed.”