Far From Home: The Complete Series (11 page)

“This is when we arrived at the black hole. We were trapped the moment we got there. Now you can see us slipping into the centre …”

The assembled officers watched in silence as the
Defiant
was reeled into the eye of the black hole as if caught on a fishing line. The Draxx ship wasn’t far behind.

“So how did we get from there to here?” Greene asked her.

Rayne held up a hand. “Sorry sir, but I’m just getting to that.”

“I stand corrected,” Greene said with a cheeky smirk. King shot him a look, and he sobered instantly.

“Believe it or not, the
Defiant
did actually record astrological data after entering the black hole. But it shut down after a few seconds when the ship lost all power. However, from that, and using some complex algorithms, we don’t have time to go into right now, we have managed to unravel the mystery of our journey here. It took us a while to sort out, because a journey of trillions and trillions of light years happened in less than a handful of seconds.”

They all gasped at the sound of trillions and trillions. Now, without Rayne or Boi continuing their presentation, they all knew the truth. They truly
were
far from home.

Very far.

Rayne manipulated the display once again to show their lightning fast journey through not just space, but entire galaxies. Even though King showed a steel reserve in front of the others, she felt her stomach pop and a butterfly begin to flutter in her chest.

“My God …” Meryl Gunn exclaimed.

The little red dot slowed to a stop just beyond a vast nebula, the same cloud of ionised gases in which they drifted now. Then, moments later, the purple indicator of the Draxx ship appeared to the left of them.

“Strangely enough, we lost power within a second of leaving the singularity,” Rayne said.

King held up her hand. “Let’s just slow down there a minute, Ensign. Explain how we could go into a singularity one side, and emerge the other. And see if you can explain how it can send us so far out.”

“Well, nobody knows for sure. But if we’re reading the data correctly, the singularity acted as a kind of tunnel through the fabric of space-time. So we literally entered one end of the tunnel, and were spat out the other,” Rayne said.

“So our exit vector … is it still there?” King asked.

Rayne shook her head. “No. It must have closed the minute we came through. I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that will reopen at a later date, either.”

King looked at the others. Their faces told her they were just as shell-shocked by this information as she was.

“Ensign …
just how far out are we?
” she asked her.

Rayne looked at Boi, who urged her on. She swallowed.

“At maximum cruising speed it would take us several million years to go home,” she said. “I’m sorry Captain, but we’re stranded for good.”

* * *

After, King thanked Boi and Rayne for their hard work and told them to go and get some shuteye. However she wasn’t sure how easy that was going to be, considering what they’d learned.

Commander Greene waited for everyone else to file out. When the door finally slid closed and he had her to himself he let out a deep sigh.

“Penny for your thoughts, Del?” Jessica asked him. She sat down opposite and looked at him intently.

“Yeah …” he said, then shook his head. He looked down at his hands, clasped together on the desktop, as if they held within them the immensity of their situation. “Damn.”

“I know,” King said.

Greene looked up. “Do you think we’ll be okay?”

Jessica looked away. On the far wall, facing opposite the display screen, a large bay window offered a stunning view of the nebula. An alien place in alien space.

Inside her chest she felt a pang of loneliness that surprised her. “I hope so,” she said. “I hope so.”

5.

Ensign Ken Dunham handed over the reins to Ensign Yamato at the end of his shift, and explained the progress that had been made so far in getting them back up to speed. The munitions section looked totally different to how it had days before.

“Where’s Swogger?” Yamato asked him before he could walk away.

“You know, you’re not the first person who’s asked me that today,” Dunham said.

Understanding dawned in Yamato’s face. “Ah. Well, he looked like he was in a bad way, you know … when it happened.”

Dunham nodded. He knew what he meant by ‘when it happened.’ Of course he was referring to the explosion, and the death of Captain Singh.

“Have you seen him about recently?” Dunham asked him.

“Nope. Only the day after the accident. He was in the service tunnels, drunk as a skunk. I thought I’d leave him to it,” Yamato explained.

“Yeah, well. I guess I better check in on him. He can’t stay like this forever. We could do with the help down here. I can’t keep covering for him,” Dunham said. He thanked Yamato and left.

First he tried Swogger’s quarters, but there was no answer. Then he went to the service tunnels that ran through the ship, between decks. They were really no more than a crawl space but when you reached a junction they were about three metres across. Enough space to sit on your own and get drunk without anyone noticing.

It didn’t take him long to find Swogger. He crawled from the tunnel closest Swogger’s quarters, towards the front of the ship. As he approached the first junction, he heard Swogger’s mumbled voice echoing down the tunnel.

Right
, he thought.

“Lieutenant,” he called.

There was no answer, but the mumbling stopped.

“Lieutenant?” he called again. He kept crawling forward. “Are you okay?”

“Get lost!” Swogger yelled down at him. Now when Dunham looked up, he could see the Lieutenant staring at him. He looked a state. “Don’t come up here!”

Dunham stopped. “Sir, you can’t stay up here. If we have an overload somewhere -“

“Gah!” Swogger spat. “Leave me be!”

“Sir -” Dunham said.

“I’ll come out when I’m good and ready, boy. Now get lost!”

Dunham shook his head. There was no way Swogger was going to let him through to the junction. It might end up in some kind of fight, given the way he was shouting at him. He started to crawl backwards, reversing back down the tunnel.

Now what do I do?
he thought, frustrated.
I can’t call security. It’d be bad for Swogger. They guy is just in a bad way.

They’d lost a lot of people. And Swogger had been there when the Captain died with them. Now he struggled to cope.

But getting others involved won’t help the situation. It’ll just make it worse for him,
Dunham thought.
Maybe if I leave him to it, he’ll snap out of it eventually. Catch him when he’s back in his quarters, sober. Have a chat.

As he exited the tunnel and was back on one of the corridors, he decided that was the best course of action. He was confident it’d all blow over eventually. The guy was just traumatised, and drowning his sorrows a bit.

In the meantime, Dunham would hold the fort. He was sure they could keep Swogger’s problem from drawing the attention of the senior officers. By the time he pulled himself out of it, nobody would know it ever happened.

* * *

Lieutenant Lisa Chang was tired but happily so. The training of the newbie’s on the bridge had gone exceptionally well, on all accounts. She’d selected them herself, and they took to the training like they were raised for it.

“How’s it going?” a voice asked her.

Chang turned around to find Captain King stood on the bridge, observing. How long King had been there, Chang wasn’t sure. She stood up and saluted. King returned the gesture.

“Exactly as planned, Captain. We’ve got a good team here,” she said.

King shot Chang a sly wink that made her smile. “Good to hear, Lieutenant,” she said. “I expect no less.”

Chang watched as King made a brief tour of the individual stations, and the respective trainees sat at each one. She spoke to each for a few minutes before moving onto the next. When she’d finished making the rounds, she came to stand next to Chang.

“They seem okay,” she whispered.

Chang nodded. “A good bunch, Captain.”

King looked her over. “You look tired, Lieutenant. When do you hand over?”

“Another hour, sir,” Chang said. “Looking forward to some rack time.”

King nodded. “Well, be sure you get it. You’ve earned it.”

The Captain straightened her tunic, shot Chang a salute. “Carry on, Lieutenant.”

“Aye Captain,” Chang said.

She watched the Captain leave the bridge, and felt the atmosphere around her relax a bit. The trainees’ shoulders all seemed to curve at the same time.

“Don’t slouch about you lot, sit up straight,” she ordered with obvious relish. And then to the sound of multiple groans: “Let’s go back through the basics
one more time …”

* * *

King spent the rest of the day assisting with repairs, then in the evening found her way to the mess hall to grab a long-overdue coffee and perhaps something to eat. She bumped into Commander Greene again, also taking a break. He had Chief Gunn with him.

“All right?” she asked them both, taking a seat at the same table.

“Yeah. Keeping myself busy. How’s the repairs on deck five?” Greene asked her.

Jessica took a swallow of coffee to wash down her bite of sandwich.

“Okay. They’re getting there,” she said.

Greene nodded. “Good. The secondary shift are getting by all right up on the bridge.”

“I know, I popped up there a little while ago,” King said with a shrug. “Chang is supervising. We just can’t spare anyone else. We need them all on the repairs.”

“I know. It’s good experience for them though,” Greene said. “Keeps ‘em on their toes. A bit of graft won’t do ‘em any harm.”

Jessica remembered something. “Oh, Commander. I meant to ask you about Lieutenant Swogger.”

Greene frowned. “Munitions?”

“Yeah. He was absent from the meeting, and I’ve forgot to mention it afterward.”

“I’ll track him down,” Greene said.

“How about you Chief? Everything okay?” Jessica asked her.

Gunn blew over her hot chocolate before taking a sip from it.

“Much as before. I think we’re in good shape, considering the state of the
Defiant
when we arrived here. All credit to the crew, they’ve put the work in,” Gunn said.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you sound proud …” Jessica said with a sly grin.

Gunn elbowed Greene in the side. “Of course, I’ve had this big lummox helping me all day. I’d like to say he’s been useful, but it’s been like babysitting, I tell ya.”

Greene cut a wedge of cake with a fork, popped it in his mouth then proceeded to talk with his mouth full. “Next time I won’t offer my services.”

Gunn rolled her eyes and then shot Jessica a wink.

“You know, we’re gonna have to deal with Captain Nowlan,” Greene cut in.

“What do you mean?” King asked. “His debrief?”

“We need him to bring
us
up to scratch as much as
he
needs to be, you know?” Greene said.

King agreed with him. The meeting had been so depressing; she’d just wanted to lose herself in some physical work. Something meaningful. But she knew all too well that she’d intentionally put off the imminent conversation with Hawk.

“And there’s something else,” Greene said. He forked himself another load of cake. “We need to figure out where he’s gonna fit in.”

Jessica absorbed this. “Yes I see what you’re getting at. Well, I’m sure we can cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, I’ll go and have a talk with Nowlan tomorrow morning. See what he has to say.”

“I can do it if you want,” Greene offered.

King got up, patted him on the shoulder. “Nope you’re doing enough. I’ll deal with this. Besides, I think the Chief has some sewage pipes need a good cleaning, and I’ve just promoted you to Top Scrubber.”

She got up and left before he could say anything in retaliation, and as she left the mess hall she could hear Meryl Gunn’s deep laughter.

6.

The next morning King went to the Ambassador’s quarters. She waited for Nowlan to come to the door and greeted him with a smile. He didn’t look half as awake and lively as she did.

“Morning,” he said, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm. “Sorry.”

“Rough night?” King asked him.

Nowlan stepped aside to allow her into the quarters. The door slid shut behind her.

“Got a bit drunk,” he said. “Celebratin’ my
celebrity
status with some of the crew.”

Jessica grinned. “Well if I’m being truthful, I can’t say I blame you. It seems the whole ship is talking about you right now.”

She wondered how Selena Walker had got on with him. Perhaps she’d been part of the ‘celebrations’ the night before …

“Thank yuh kindly,” Nowlan said. “So, uh, what do I owe the pleasure of such an early visit?”

King sat down. “We need to have a chat. I think it’s safe to say, given our present status, that you’re not going to get an official de-brief from anyone else,” she said.

“Gotta agree with you there,” Nowlan said. “I heard about what came up in the meetin’. To tell yuh the truth, that’s when I grabbed the nearest bottle and started drinkin’.”

King didn’t tell him that she, too, felt like she had sorrows to drown.

“We’re far from home, Captain Nowlan. And I want us to get any preliminary information out of the way,” she said.

“Well, yeah, ‘cause I gotta few questions of my own,” he said.

King nodded. “All in good time. So … why don’t we fix up some coffee, and get this out of the way?”

She got up, walked to a unit in the far wall and conjured up two hot coffees with cream and sugar. Nowlan accepted his gratefully and took a sip off the top straight away. “Ah, thanks.”

“I know it’s early but I have a pretty full day, and I wanted to be able to give you my undivided attention. That and I’m burning to find out how you got here.”