Running With Argentine (30 page)

Deep
Space

The chief
instinctively closed his eyes and looked away from the screen as it filled with
a blinding brightness.

He knew that if it hadn’t been programmed to automatically
filter intense light he might've been blinded; as an engineer he was intimately
familiar with the energy releases caused by matter annihilation…

"Report!" he called out to his bridge officers,
most of whom were rapidly blinking their eyes.

"She's gone!" Barry said incredulously.

"Who's gone, dammit?"

"The intruder… the Tarcarrian ship!" he clarified.

"What happened?" the chief asked as he turned to
Lieutenant Stark.

The lieutenant just shrugged and Sami said, "She didn't
skip; I can't detect any Dreamspace seepage."

"But I'm not finding any debris, either," Barry
added. "It's barmy, I know… But she is simply gone."

The chief gritted his teeth for a moment and then asked,
"What's the status of the Roosevelt?"

"She's fine… Power readings have returned to
normal."

"Damn…" the chief mumbled. And then louder,
"It's a good thing she recognized us as friendly. Apparently our ship can
protect herself."

"So that explains it…" Mandi said aloud.

"It explains why no one's ever found the ship. For the first
hundred years or so everyone and their brother, including governments, went
searching for it. The governments never reported any of their ships going
missing, but now that I think about it I guess they wouldn't… There were
reports of a few independent ships not coming back, but no one thought much of
it…"

The Lieutenant finally spoke up, "I think she's right.
It's entirely possible no one would ever find her adrift in deep space, but
then it's also possible that a number of them did. Now we know what happened to
them."

"Paula was the key," Sami said. "Without her,
we'd all be dead by now."

ΔΔΔ

"Chief,
I'm coming back now," Argentine's voice came over the bridge speaker.
"I want you and Lieutenant Stark to form a small team and be ready to head
back to the Roosevelt with me."

"We'll be ready… Can you tell us what you found?"

"I'll brief you when I get there," came the
response.

"Roger that… We've got some things to fill you in on
too…"

"You're not going to tell him about the other
ship?" Sami asked.

"He'll be here soon enough," said the chief.
"I imagine he's got enough on his mind at the moment.

"Now, Lieutenant. How about getting that team
ready?"

ΔΔΔ

Mandi and Sami
hadn't been too keen on the idea that he’d left Paula aboard the ship.

Argentine had assured them that she was resting comfortably
in her own bed and had insisted that she'd be fine; that she was just going to
rest there for however long it took him to grab the others and return… And he
was bringing both Sami and Mandi back with him, right?"

The two women had been somewhat mollified when they'd learned
that they would be in the next group to shuttle over and they were anxious to
get going. But first, Argentine had a hundred questions concerning the
Tarcarrian ship…

"Is there any chance at all that they had discovered
the ship before us?" he asked.

Marco and a couple of the others had stayed, but the rest of
the Petulengro family had left the bridge. Argentine had given up on the idea
of using his day cabin for these conversations; he'd simply have to repeat
everything discussed for everyone else anyway…

"Not bloody likely," Barry responded. "Except
for its flashing light response to us, that ship wasn’t emitting much of
anything – it wasn't even reflecting much starlight.

"If you ask me, that Tarcarrian ship tracked
us
and we led them here."

"Are you sure you can get back on board?" Mandi
asked for at least the third time.

"Yes. Paula walked back to the airlock with me and
basically introduced me to the ship. I had to go through the same
spit in
the cup - stare the camera in the eye
procedure that she'd gone through.

"I couldn't read what she was typing in, but apparently
the ship will recognize me as her guest."

Changing the subject Argentine said, "Chief, everyone
is going to need to carry hand lights and I think we should all be armed."

"Is there something we don't know?" the lieutenant
asked.

"No, I just have a gut feeling that we need to be very
cautious. I think the ship can be very dangerous to us if we’re not…"

He went on to explain that, except for Paula's cabin, the
ship was still on emergency lighting. Paula had also emphasized to him that the
ship was still running in autonomous Defensive Mode.

They were going to have to take this step by step; the last
thing he wanted was a bunch of crewmembers running willy-nilly through the
corridors of that ship…

"Like the Petulengros," muttered the chief.

"Like anyone," Argentine said sternly.

"Paula’s cabin is actually an apartment and it’s large
enough for us to use as our base of operations… And besides, I know where it
is.

"Everyone needs to be aware that I didn't notice any
markings on the walls or doors; it would be incredibly easy to get lost on a
ship that big."

He turned to the lieutenant…

"I want you to give a briefing to everyone that's going
over in the next wave with us… Put the fear of God into them. Make sure
everyone understands that we’re taking this slowly. Step-by-step…

"Also, make sure everyone's got a personal
communicator. Rory will need to carry at least some of the pressure suits back
to the Pelican with him after he flies us over in the shuttle.

"Once we give the word, he can carry over a second
group."

"Are we all going aboard then?" Sami asked.

"No, not yet. Not until we can figure out a way to
pilot that ship."

"Who are you going to leave in charge of the
Pelican?" the chief wanted to know.

"For now, let's leave Rory in charge."

Argentine turned his attention to Marco…

"I need you to round up a handful of your people that
will promise to follow the lieutenant’s orders. Have them at his briefing and
they can go over in the first wave."

Marco nodded emphatically.

"Also, Marco… and this is important; make sure your
people that are staying behind behave themselves. Rory is in command while we’re
gone; make sure your people understand that."

"Not to worry, Captain. We will be the perfect soldiers
for you!"

"Hopefully we don't need soldiers… But I don't want
anyone getting hurt or unintentionally tripping some defensive trigger on that
ship. Understood?"

"Absolutely," he said while straightening up and
giving some kind of salute that Argentine had never seen before.

He couldn't help but notice out of the corner of his eye
that the lieutenant, who was always stoic and poker-faced, was grinning…

Aboard
the Roosevelt

When Argentine
and his team returned to Paula's cabin they found her sleeping comfortably on
her bed… Dressed in a strange uniform. She was also wearing a golden circlet
upon her head, much like a tiara.

Glancing around, Argentine saw the pressure suit crumpled in
a corner.

Sami and Mandi both immediately went to her bedside. Paula
opened her eyes and smiled.

Argentine couldn't be sure, but it seemed that decades of
age and worry had faded from her face.

"Thank you," she said softly. And then more
strongly, "Thank you so very much!"

Mandi returned the squeeze of her hand and for a brief
moment Argentine witnessed almost his entire crew smiling like sentimental
idiots.

"Ah," he said… hating to break the moment.
"We need to be sending out search teams so we can get an idea of the
layout of the ship. Paula, we really need to know everything you can remember…
Especially about the defensive mode the ship's in...

"How do we turn it off?"

"Of course, you're right Captain. If you girls will
help me to my parents room I'll see what I can learn from the ship."

Apparently, every bedroom had computer access. Paula felt
that since her mother had been a ship's officer she might have better luck
using her terminal. At least that was the theory…

In the meantime, Argentine authorized the lieutenant to take
one small group to explore the hall corridor in the direction of starboard, and
for the chief to take another small group and explore to port. They could go as
far as they wanted in a straight line, but were not to turn any corners – there
was no sense in getting lost.

At any rate, they were to meet back here within an hour.

Most everyone was in high spirits and they seemed very close
to accomplishing their goals…

Why then, did Argentine feel so uncomfortable?

ΔΔΔ

"Where did
you get the uniform?" Mandi asked softly.

The others had left her and Sami alone with Paula in her
family’s cabin.

She had let them seat her in front of a small desk and a
seemingly blank wall. Paula had laid her palms flat on the desk and a
holographic keyboard had appeared around them.

At the same moment, a portion of the wall in front of the
desk came alive.

"I'm home now, Mandi. Did you really think I wouldn't
want to wear my old clothes?"

"It's just that your uniform fits so well," Sami
interjected. "I can't wear the same things I wore when I was sixteen, and
that wasn't that many years ago for me!" she said with a small laugh.

Paula, focusing on the screen in front of her, responded
with a laugh of her own but said nothing further.

After a few moments, "Okay, that's kind of what I was
afraid of."

She turned in her chair to look at the two women…

"The ship has confirmed that I'm the last known surviving
crew member," she said with only a slight tremble in her voice.
"Command would normally fall to the highest ranked surviving officer… But
I was only a junior officer."

"So, what does that mean?" Mandi asked.

"It means I only have partial access and limited
authority," responded Paula. "And before you ask, dear… I don't know
what those limits are."

"There is, however, one bit of authority that I'm
certain I do have… Sami, I need to ask you a very important question…"

Sami and Mandi glanced nervously at each other…

"Will you," Paula continued. "Swear to never
use the powers, technology, or knowledge this ship possesses for anything but
the betterment of mankind?"

"Well, yes. Of course," Sami said, somewhat
surprised.

"No, I need you to say it all. Out loud. And I need you
to place your palms on my desk, just like I did…"

Sami moved beside Paul and placed her hands on the desk…

"Why am I doing this, Paula?"

"Just repeat after me, child…"

Sami did.

The computer screen filled itself with that strange language
and Paula, with renewed familiarity, typed several responses.

When they were done Paula sighed…

"Okay, Sami. You are now officially the Lead Astrogator
on the Terran League Ship Roosevelt.

ΔΔΔ

"Because
Paula was the senior surviving astrogation officer, she had the authority to
vet and appointment me as a ship's astrogation officer," Sami explained.

"Once she’d done that, it was simply a matter of her
explaining to the ship that I was senior to her."

"But why would she do that?" Argentine wondered.

Sami shook her head as Mandi spoke up…

"I think she realizes that she's just not up to it
anymore. I think maybe it's as simple as that."

Paula had returned to her bed for another nap and the three
of them were in the main living area of the cabin waiting for the others to
return.

"So what does it mean?" Argentine asked.
"What can you do? Do you need a pilot, or can you navigate the ship
through Dreamspace all by yourself?"

Sami was again slowly shaking her head…

"Captain, I really don't know. Paula said once we
located the bridge she would take me there and introduce me to the astrogation
computer. I'm assuming I’ll find out what I can do then."

Turning to Mandi, Argentine said, "And how do you feel
about this?"

"What do you mean?"

"You expect me to believe that you are content to sit
there and let your friend hand over control of the ship to someone other than
yourself?"

"Well… Okay, I was a little miffed at first. But the
bottom line is, I'm not an astrogator."

"But if we can get the ship to accept some officers, we
might be able to get her to accept others, right?" he prodded.

"The thought had crossed my mind…"

"And which officer’s slot did you have in mind for
yourself?"

Mandi glared back at him…

Argentine felt silly. He liked this redheaded woman in front
of him, and he didn't think she was evil or wished them harm in any way… Still,
she was ambitious and had spent her entire life following her own agenda.

Why would he expect anything different from her now?

"Mandi," Argentine said slowly. "You need to
understand that you're not the Captain of this ship."

Mandi pursed her lips and eventually said, "I think
Paula may have something to say about that."

She’d said it calmly and matter-of-factly, without emotion.

"Oh, Mandi…" Sami said.

"You need to understand," Argentine said just as
calmly. "That even if you gain the greatest access to the ship, this is
still my command. The crew will not follow you without my blessing… And if
you're going to be part of us you need to accept my authority too."

Mandi seemed at least a little surprised to see Sami nodding
her head vigorously.

Or maybe she was just chagrined that this part of her plan
had been exposed prematurely?

She exhaled heavily...

"Whatever you say, Captain. But you can't blame a girl
for trying."

After another moment of thought she said, "I'll make
you a deal… I won't do anything to actively subvert your authority, but if
Paula and/or the ship wants me to take command I won't fight that either."

"The ship?" Sami asked. "You really think the
ship will have an opinion?"

Mandi shrugged…

"I really don't know. Paula has said some things that
make me wonder…"

Argentine was just getting ready to explain that that kind
of deal wasn't acceptable when they were interrupted…

The lieutenant's team had returned and they came straight to
Argentine.

"Find anything?" he asked.

"The lieutenant raised an eyebrow and blew out a
breath…

"Yeah, we did."