END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (47 page)

“High One, I must also tell you,” Tiaz almost cried. “Phillie worries that he may never again accept the love anyone can offer. She speaks of his great
pain as if it were a living thing inside him.”

“We must find the way to make him love again.” Satrina told Tiaz. “I will not come all this way just to lose him.”

While they had a team of their best Engineers going over every inch of the Fildom trying to make the battered wreck space worthy, Jon took the time to
workout with his teams. It was a long, slow, painful process, but he was finally beginning to see some improvement. Today he was involved in a game that
one of the crew had found among the many data disks already stored on Leviathan when they found her. It involved a small ball shaped like an oval that they
had found at the bottom of one of the many boxes of athletic gear left behind when the ship had taken its last voyage. The game involved two teams who
lined up facing each other. Then when the ball was handed to one of the players, both teams attacked in an effort to knock the ball from the other teams
possession

Jon and Jarrieal both enjoyed the game and could often be found in the large room together simply throwing the ball between themselves. Once the ball was
thrown, each would run toward the other and try to prevent the one with the ball from reaching a goal line. This was exactly what they were doing today
when slowly more of the crew began to take up sides and join in the game. They had seemingly given up on having any kind of orderly teams as more
crewmembers joined. Now it had turned into a free for all of the males trying to take the ball and each one score a point for themselves.

Phillie had found a place where she could watch from above and not be seen. Today she had led Tiaz, Gala and Satrina to watch also. During one period when
most of the players had captured Jon and attempted to drag him down, his tunic rode up over his shoulders.

“When did he get that?” all three of the secret spectators asked as they pointed to the image of a multicolored dragon on his back.

“The ship gave it to him.” Phillie told them. “There's lots of things on this ship that only he can use. The swords, his special shuttle. Somehow this ship
knows him.”

“Its beautiful.” Satrina said with a tear in her voice. “It reminds me of the Connell colors he gave me when we mated.”

“They are still yours child.” Gala comforted the Princess. “They will always be your colors. My son will find his way back to you in due time. This is just
more proof that the legends are true. The King will always need his Lexonian mate.”

Just then a loud scream of pain erupted from the floor below them and several of the players rushed to where Jon was laying on the floor. The females
watched in horror as Jon's crewmates lifted him and gently placed him in his wheelchair before pushing him from the room.

“Only if the idiot lives long enough once I finish with him!” Phillie called. “Go back to your quarters.”

Jon used his wheelchair to get from his stateroom to the conference room for the meeting and he rolled in to find every one of his department leaders
already there except Phillie. “Does anyone know where our Chief Engineer is?” he asked.

“She said to tell you she wasn't coming to this meeting Jon.” Jar told him. “Said she hasn't had time yet to examine those ships we brought her on our last
mission and she wanted to have her evaluation of them finished before giving you a report.” Jar thought about what he suspected before he said, “Something
has her very upset Boss. I think she's still mad at you over that game the other day.”

“Did you do something to get her mad Jar? I know I've been behaving. I haven't gotten into a single battle in weeks.” Jon kidded with his friend knowing
already that his latest injury, while minor, during their game probably had gotten Phillie upset. “Very well, tell her I'll expect that report by last meal
and I'll meet with her in my stateroom later about it, you're welcome to come along Jar.” Jon told him and accepted his simple nod as acceptance of his
invitation to meet later.

How do you all feel about taking our new passengers from the cargo vessel into Lexon II for repairs? Did Phillie say it would be alright for Defiance to
tow it in or do we have to carry it there in Leviathan?” Jon asked.

“It can be towed, but she thinks it will be better if we deliver it ourselves. Thankfully it had already delivered its last cargo, so that's one less thing
to worry about. The guys flying the cargo shuttles seemed to think it was going to breakup at any minute while they were loading those harvested crops from
the surface. Some of the Farmers said that if they didn't need to get the crops loaded and delivered before they went bad, they would have refused to load
that ship.” Jar told him.

“Gentle folk. I need to know what you all know about our ship. If we have to take Leviathan into battle, is she ready to fight?” Jon asked the group.

“She's extremely old sir. No one is certain of her exact build date, but if the legends are true, she's been in space for over ten thousand cycles.
However, she is still sound. She will stand up to anything that is thrown at her. Remember, she was built to fight the machine race sir. She is as strong
as a mountain.” one of the males told him.

“Aside from the Umin weapons we found which so far only you can operate, all of her offensive and defensive weapons work beyond anything we currently have
in our entire Navy. The one weapon none of us can learn how to use is the one called the Planet Killer. There's something about it that needs five females
and a special ring to operate. Wrenches said she was trying to overcome the Umin coding so more of our people can operate things like those Dragon Ships
and the plasma rifles for the troops. She'll be able to tell you more on that.” another of the heads told him.

“Medical is up and running. We're learning more and more about the Umin devises there, like the tubes. They heal everything if a person is left in there
long enough, but we've learned how to program in special tasks. Take your back, we now know that if it is set to work only on your back, we can have you
fully functional in a day or two.” Healer Hukor told him. “I was hoping to schedule you to give it a try soon.”

“I'll think about it Healer. I'd like to be back to normal again. This chair and those frames are making me crazy!” Jon joked.

“Just stop by and I'll take your case personally, sir”

“Thank you.” Jon told him before looking to the ship's Captain.

“We've updated all the star charts for planetary drift and corrected a few discrepancies in the locations of some of the rim worlds. Places like Canari
that never wanted to be found are now accurately listed and we can jump in either already in orbit or far out from any planet in any system. It depends on
if we want to get in their face or if we want to
sneak
in. The size of this ship makes it hard to do very much sneaking.”

“Coms is far above anything we've had before sir. I can almost listen in on private messages between two lovers across the galaxy if I'm bored with my
regular duties or I can narrow our transmissions down to just our own away ships without anyone listening in. In other words Sir, once Engineering finishes
the upgrades to your ship, if you are across the galaxy at Haven with Defiance and we are out here beyond the rim, I can send a message directly to you and
have your reply in seconds, not days or weeks as is the norm for all other ship's coms. We'll almost talk in real time across the whole galaxy sir.” The
communications officer explained.

“That will come in handy for some of the missions we'll be going on where we leave Leviathan far out of the fight and take just Defiance in.” Jon noted.
“Thank you, please keep me updated on the progress of upgrades to Defiance's coms. We’ll have to arrange to have the Novas stop by for upgrades to their
COM routines. I want all my ships to have instant communications, not just the ones in the security branch.”

“I'll find out the rest from Wrenches later, now how about tactical? Do we have pilots training to fly all those nice pretty attack shuttles and fighter
craft we found?” Jon asked Jarrieal.

“I'm still searching for the right candidates for the fighters sir. Those guys tend to go on to flying nice comfortable passenger liners or private
pleasure craft after they get discharged. I'm thinking of starting up a cross training program for our shuttle pilots and then just assign the best to the
fighters. Are you interested in trying one on for size?” Jarrieal asked. When Jon shook his head no, he continued his report. “I currently have all of the
shuttles covered. The guys who fly attack can also fly cargo, so that's a break for us. My problem here Boss is I'm trying to hire nothing but ex-military
that we can trust without making it obvious to everyone that we are recruiting a private navy. Which is basically what we are doing.”

“I know Jar, but I agree we only want the best pilots we can get.” Jon commented.

“Ground troops are itching for a fight sir” his new troop commander told him.” I've even started building that group of specialized troops you asked for.
Give me another month and they will be able to walk into the King's Palace, kill their target, then leave before anyone knows they were even there.”

“Will they also be able to get me intel without giving themselves away?” Jon asked.

“Oh yes sir. I've already started them on that. I've got some of the best in the business at scanning computers and drawing out the things we want to know
without anyone being the wiser. That Carney kid we picked up on Haven is a real wizard with the computers. If you go down there you can't miss him. He's
the guy wearing pink. Says it’s his house colors. Claims to be a direct descendant of the first Dean Carney who helped your ancestor destroy those
machines. He was mated just before we hired him and his mate is a real beauty, especially in that pink color. She's a real asset down there in the Data
Center too. That female can break any code we've come across so far.”

“Coms, I want you working with them on this. Give them all the transmission time they need.” Jon ordered and accepted the COM officer's nod as his
agreement.

“I have some things now I want you to start working on. Both of you stay, everyone else is released.” When the room had cleared except for the two men Jon
had asked to stay, he had them sit closer to him and then laid out his plans. “Beloij, I want you to break this group of computer guys away from your
regular troops. They are to become our new intelligence service. Appoint someone over them to be responsible to give reports at these meetings. Also, break
the Special Troops into their own division. They will work with the computer guys to help find the stuff that's not in the computers. If that means we have
to kidnap some crime boss and beat him half to death to get the information we want, that's what they are going to be doing. I need you to concentrate on
getting our ground troops in top shape. I don't ever want to send in troops who are not ready for whatever comes at them from small hand weapons to heavy
cannons including little old females with walking sticks.” he kidded. “I want the criminals to fear us more than they do the crime bosses.

“It will be done by the end of the day sir.” the troop Commander told him.

“Good, have your selected leader for this new group report to me later today in my stateroom. Coms, will you be able to set up a place for the computer
team to work and not clutter up the bridge while they scan the transmissions?”

“On this ship sir? You have to be kidding. They can have any room or rooms they need.” the Coms Officer said.

“We should also let them see if any of the stuff on either of the two captured Destroyers will be any use to them.” the ground commander said, “Maybe some
better computers and the bigger screens.”

Let them go over and see,” Jon told him. “Just don't let them take anything that Wrenches might need for her experiments. She has an idea she wants to
test, which is why we brought those ships back instead of just blowing them and their engines to bits. Next, I'd like to train our own network of
planet-based spies.

Someone is behind all the pirate's activities and I think its the same people who tried to kill our passengers as we were leaving Hiliost 5. One of the
attackers said something about a Boss King. That's the same name I've been hearing a lot lately. Then when we picked up our next passenger, the Captain of
that ship said that Boss King had plans for her that involved having her drugged. Apparently, to her credit, she is a fighter and she prevented them
harming her in any way. So gentle males, here is your first assignment as the two people currently in charge of gathering intel. I want to know who Boss
King is, what part he plays in recent events, where I can find him and who is pulling his strings. No criminal plans this kind of operation across planets
and the slipways without someone above them telling them what to do. Let me know as soon as you have anything on him we can use. Plan our future operations
around using Leviathan as a base that we can rely on for combat support. Maybe Phillie can fix those other two Destroyers to be our gunships along with
Defiance. I've changed my mind about stealing them. I think we can use them for our own purposes.”

“We'll get started right away sir.”

Once out of the conference room the Coms officer turned to the ground troop Commander and said, “I think we just started our own planet, not just some
antique spaceship.”

“I do believe you're right about that, maybe even our own galaxy. I like the whole idea.” the Commander smiled.

“So do I. I've had enough of the Central Committee and their politics. Seems the more they say they are doing for us, the more gets done for them. Send
your spymaster up to see me,” he laughed, as the two males took different paths back to their work areas.

Jon gave them a few minutes to leave before he slowly rolled himself down to medical. May as well give the tube another try. The first time seemed to help,
if the Healer could target his most pressing injury instead of trying to fix his hangnail, maybe he could stop the terrible pain in his back.