Running With Argentine (35 page)

Aboard
the Roosevelt

"So the
Captain wants us to spend tomorrow figuring out how well we can actually
control the ship," Mandi mused.

"Yep," Sami replied. "I'll get to wear my
interface all day long and there isn't anything you can do about it," she
said and immediately blew a raspberry at Mandi.

Mandi laughed… "You've been wearing it all day! I just
asked you to take it off so we could talk… You can go without it for an hour,
can't you?"

"I can talk much better with it on," Sami said stubbornly.

"No you can't. Honestly Sami, you're off in dreamland
half the time anyway; when you're wearing that thing you're almost
impossible!" she said with a grin.

Sami threw a pillow at her… "So what did you want to
talk about?"

"Oh, I don't know," Mandi said unconvincingly.
"I just wondered what your thoughts were about what we should do after
tomorrow…"

"Doesn't that depend on how well we can control the
ship?"

"Maybe, but Sami you tell me… Are you having any
trouble?"

"No! It's wonderful," she said with a huge smile.

"Yeah, and I'm willing to bet it will be the same for
most everyone else too… So, I'm simply saying we’ll probably have a lot of
options."

"Options? Like what?"

"Well… There's nothing that says we have to sell the
ship…"

Sami didn't say anything…

And then, "That's not the plan. We're just trying to
get away and earn enough credits that we can settle down to a normal life
somewhere."

"That's their plan, Sami," Mandi said gently.
"Are you really telling me that you're willing to give up astrogation? Do you
really want to settle down on some remote moonlet and live a
normal
life?"

"No! I'm not going to… I mean, I'll still find
jobs…"

Mandi was shaking her head…

"Sami, I'm sure that Argentine would support you in
whatever life you choose, but if you continue astrogating you'll be saying
goodbye to him."

"I could still go see him between gigs," she said
defiantly.

"Of course you could, but it wouldn't be very often
and… Is that what you really want? I know you see him kind of as a father… Do
you really want to be away from him that much?"

Sami swallowed hard and didn't say anything.

"Listen Sami, what if you didn't have to give up
either?"

ΔΔΔ

"Don't you
think it's time we had a conversation?" Mandi asked.

Doctor Amaya turned around and leaned back against one of
the counters in the hospital…

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"You're implying that there is some reason we should
want to know each other… Why is that?"

"No," Mandi said. "I mean, yes… I guess I am.
After all, we're two independent women that are relative outsiders to this
crew…"

"So what?"

"So, maybe we might find it beneficial to stick
together…"

"Stick together against whom?"

"You're really not going to make this easy, are
you?"

"Nope… Look, I really don't have anything against
you," she said as she started fiddling with some medical equipment.
"But you're a little bit of a manipulator and a game player; I don't want
to have anything to do with that.

"I'm just glad to have gotten away from Trinity… I'm
happy with that and I don't want to rock the boat."

"It must've been terrible there," Mandi said in an
honestly sympathetic voice.

"You have no idea."

"Did you leave anyone behind?"

"No… Yes. You mean the thousands of people like me that
the Lords used and abused? Yeah, I left them all behind. I got out and they
didn't… But I can't help that."

"What if you could?"

"Could what?"

"Could help them? What if you could make a difference?
The Lords can't stay in power forever. Surely there are good people there that
could take over if they just had the chance?"

"No offense, but I've been in blood up to my elbows
patching together so-called resistance fighters. As long as the Lords have the
weapons, and as long as the Asperian Military protects them, nothing's going to
change."

The silence stretched out until Mandi finally said,
"You know, a powerful ship like this could change the equation…"

"I told you," Doctor Amaya said sternly. "I
don't want anything to do with your schemes…"

ΔΔΔ

"I had no
idea she was hurting so badly," Mandi said.

"What are you talking about?" the lieutenant asked
warily.

She'd just happened to walk into the mess when he was
sitting down for a cup of coffee…

"The doctor… She's in a lot of pain."

"What happened?" he said half standing…

Mandi held her hands out and said, "No, no… Nothing’s
happened. I just meant that her experience on Trinity has left her with a lot
of pain."

"What do you know about it?" Lieutenant Stark
narrowed his eyes and asked.

"Nothing, really. It's just some of the things she
said… I know that leaving all those people behind on Trinity… Not being able to
help the resistance… I can just tell it weighs on her.

"Can't you?"

The lieutenant didn't respond and Mandi switched the
subject…

"So, what do you plan on doing once you get your nest
egg?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"No reason; I'm just curious. Everyone seems to have
plans of some type or other. The captain wants to settle down in some cabin by
a lake and forget the universe. I heard Barry say something about wanting to
become a professional light sail racer…

"What about you, Lieutenant? What are your plans?"

After a moment he said, "My plans are to keep all my
options open. Making definite plans has a way of leading to
disappointment."

"Ouch! So cynical. Don't you have dreams? Things that
you want to do?"

"If I did, do you really think I'd share them with you?
We only met not that long ago and the majority of the things that come out of
your mouth haven't been true… No offense Mandi, but you're not exactly the type
of person I would confide in."

"Okay, okay…" She said holding her hands up.
"Excuse me for trying to be friendly. I’ll go find someone else to talk
to."

She got up and exited the mess. As soon as she turned the
corner a confident grin appeared on her face.

Aboard
the Roosevelt

"Finally!"
Argentine heard the voice in his head say. “Now you can actually hear me!”

Still lying in his bunk he opened his eyes to see the young
girl sitting on the bed beside him.

"No, don't get up," she said. "If you'll keep
your mind relaxed we can communicate like this."

Argentine settled back into his bed.

"I've been waiting for you to wear the tiara when you
sleep," she explained.

"So you weren’t a dream… You’re Paula Silva," he
said softly.

"You figured it out!" she said with a big smile.
"She told me you were smart."

"Who told you?"

"Sami. Well, actually… They both did. Mandi mentioned
something like that too."

"She did?"

"So, have you figured out what you're going to do with
our Roosevelt?"

"Wait a minute… Paula, how are we having this
conversation? You’re…"

"Dead?" she laughed. "Yes Captain, you're
technically right… Although I know several philosophers that might argue the
point with you. The Roosevelt is a very special ship in a lot of different
ways…

"We have the ability at death to upload our
consciousness into the ship. You wouldn't believe the virtual world I live
in!"

Her expression turned somewhat sad…

"It's a little bit lonely though… There aren't near as
many of us in here is were supposed to be. But I've got my father back!"
she suddenly said with excitement.

"Paula, I don't understand," Argentine said,
feeling a little overwhelmed.

"Do you remember when I… Passed away?"

"Yes…" he said hesitantly.

"Where was I?"

"You were sleeping on an examination table in the
hospital."

"In the neural mapping room at the hospital," she
reminded him. "The ship's computer detected that my biology was failing
and asked me if I wanted to upload my consciousness… What would you do?"

"So, you're really still alive?"

"I think that's still technically a point of debate,
but since it feels that way to me I choose to believe that yes, I'm alive. I
think that's the important thing, don't you?"

Argentine couldn't argue with that.

"If you live in the computer, how is it that I can see
you?"

"You're not seeing me, silly. You're seeing a hologram
of me. Or rather, a hologram of the way the ship last remembers me.

"I actually prefer the younger look, don't you?"

"So the rest of the crew, they’re in there with
you?" he asked.

Her face grew dour again…

"No, mostly it’s just people like my dad that passed
away before we lost the ship. The majority of the crew was brought planet-side
when they were hijacked. There was no way for them to upload…"

"What about the officers that stayed with the
ship?" Argentine asked.

"Some of them are here," she said. "But most
of them didn't make it to the neural mapping room."

Argentine had a sudden thought…

"Paula, can you run the ship? Will the ship take orders
from you or your… Friends?"

"We're supposed to advise only, but without an official
crew… Who knows?"

"Paula, this is very important… Can they help us run
the ship?"

"That's a complicated question, Captain. Most of the
old-timers, the people like my dad… they passed away centuries ago. They've
kind of lost interest in your world."

When Argentine furrowed his brow she hurriedly explained…

"You have to understand, time in here passes so much
faster than it does for you… These people have spent the equivalent of
thousands of years here. You just have no idea…"

That brought Argentine up short. What would it be like to
survive for thousands of years? Would his priorities be the same at the end of
it? Probably not…

"What about the officers that died when the ship was
lost? Did any of them manage to… Upload themselves?"

Paula nodded emphatically, like only a sixteen-year-old
could…

"Yes, several of them did. And you're in luck, Captain.
They have a very strong sense of purpose. As a matter of fact they know I'm
talking with you now."

"What about the Captain, Paula? I could really use his
help!"

Paula appeared to be choosing her words very carefully…

"That's… Kind of a problem," she said. "He's
here, but…"

"But what?"

"He was the very last survivor. By the time he made it
to the hospital section he was dying. He managed to crawl into the neural
mapping room, but he couldn't really get himself fully onto the table…"

"And…"

"And he was only partially uploaded," she said.
"So, he's kind of… Insane."

ΔΔΔ

Argentine had
no idea what to say about that. An insane Captain?

"Captain, I'm afraid we’re losing the connection.
You’re becoming too alert… Too awake."

"Paula, just tell me… Which other officers might be
available to advise us?"

"We'll need more time," she said with frustration.
"Wear the tiara again when you sleep tonight so we can talk more. You need
to understand about the mission!"

"The mission? Paula, right now I need to figure out how
to run this ship. Who might be able to advise us?"

"Commander Entebbe from engineering was able to upload…
Along with communications specialists Sanjay and Kiera.

"Temporal officer Samuelson also made it."

"Temporal officer?"

"Oh Captain, …have so… to… about…"

Aboard
the Roosevelt

"Okay,
everyone settle down and grab a seat," the chief said loudly to the room.
"We've got a lot to go over."

"Thank you chief," Argentine said as he allowed
his eyes to roam over the crew.

Marco was representing the Petulengro family but except for
that, everyone was gathered here in the Officer's Mess.

Even Gossip had made it; Doctor Amaya had rolled him in on
Paula's old wheelchair. Argentine was glad to see him and noticed that he was
literally sitting on the chair. He was much too big to fit
in
it so
someone had laid some kind of plank over the armrests and he was sitting on top
of that.

He also wasn't particularly surprised to see that Gossip was
wearing his own circlet interface.

After his conversation with Paula that morning, he'd let
everyone know what was going on and ordered them to spend the day testing out
their interface. He'd switched the emphasis from controlling the ship to
learning everything they could about her.

That's what tonight's meeting was about, to share what
everyone had learned.

In addition, he'd gone to the doctor and, between them,
figured out a way to relax himself back into a prolonged dream state without
drugging himself into oblivion.

Although it was a little hit or miss they'd managed to
succeed for hour-long stretches at a time.

What he'd learned from Paula was… Disturbing.

"Let's start by hearing from each of you. Chief? Do you
want to go first?"

The chief, never one to shy away from an audience, was
visibly enthusiastic as he started describing the engines and technical design
of the ships power plant structure.

Rory would jump in from time to time and they both had to be
constantly reminded to keep it less technical and more about the practical
abilities.…

"We haven't had your experience, Captain," he
summed up. "I never actually met this Commander Entebbe that you told us
about, but there are things about the ship – especially the power plant – that
I just seem to know. Rory's experiencing it too, although I don't think it's
quite as strong with him."

The chief went on to describe the first two types of engines
the ship carried: sub light and surf motors.

Everyone had been waiting for him to talk about the Temporal
Drive…

"I think it must be what we're all thinking it is,
Captain. You generate some kind of field that somehow manipulates the
space-time equation. But whether it's actually some kind of, uh…
Time
Machine
… I have no idea."

Argentine understood the chief's reluctance to say the
words. No one really believed it; no one wanted to believe it was true. Most of
them were still waiting for some other rational explanation to be put forth.

Unfortunately, what Argentine had to share was going to
dispel all those notions…

"So, I take it you've also had no contact with this
Officer Samuelson?"

"No," the chief said shaking his head. "And I
don't seem to have the same intuition about the temporal machinery as I do with
the other engines."

"Well, I've learned some things that might help fill in
the blanks," Argentine said for all to hear. "But I'll share my story
last."

"What about the rest of the ship, Chief?"
Lieutenant Stark asked.

"Yeah, I've had better luck there. In this Terran
League of theirs, apparently the lead engineer had responsibilities for the
ship structurally as well. I keep realizing I know things… For example, the
long structures that run laterally down the sides of the ship help generate the
field for the Temporal Drive.

"I can also confirm that this ship carries a heavy
industrial manufacturing ability along with a really advanced robotics
workshop."

"What about the upper section?" Argentine asked.

"We've had less success with that," he admitted.

"As you probably remember from when we first
approached, that top section is made up by a large cylindrical hull that
attaches to a huge latticed-worked section that contains three gigantic and
almost spherical structures.

"My best guess is that the spherical structures
represent massive cargo bays, but we don't know for sure because we can't get
to them."

"What do you mean by that?" the lieutenant asked.

"I mean that all the passages we found to the upper
section of the ship are closed off by locked hatches. And Captain, these aren't
like the door locks on your cabin door… These are
heavy
hatches."

This isn't what Argentine had wanted to hear. That upper
section of the ship was the one area he'd been able to learn absolutely nothing
about.

He turned to Lieutenant Stark…

"What about weapons and defense?"

"Well, I don't seem to find any intuition like the
chief is talking about so I have no idea how the weapons work, but I do seem to
have a dry knowledge of how to use them. Or at least how to turn them on or
off… To learn more, I think I'm going to have to play around with them."

"And defenses?"

"Yes."

"Yes and…"

"Yes, and I'll be damned if I know what they do. We've
already seen that the ship has some kind of automated defensive mode, and
I
think
we carry some kind of defensive shielding. But again, any knowledge
I'm getting from the interface is limited to turning it on or off."

This was
much
less than what Argentine had hoped for.
If they were to have any hope of operating this ship his people needed to be
more than trained monkeys flipping switches. Apparently though, the lower the
rank the less actual capacity the interfaces carried.

Barry was duly impressed with the piloting computer;
something about being
chuffed
and
smashing
…

He'd had to curb both his and Sami's enthusiasm but had
learned that, according to them, the ship's real technological advancement was
in its sensor capability.

"We’re still exploring it," Sami explained.
"But I've never dreamed of having this kind of range!"

"It's not just the range," Barry added. "The
quality of the input is extraordinary. I daresay that if we can figure out how
to use them
no one
will ever be sneaking up on us!"

Doctor Amaya added her report and seemed particularly
impressed by the ship's ability to compound pharmaceuticals.

Just when Argentine thought he'd taken everyone's report,
Marco raised his hand…

"I'm sorry Marco, were you able to discover
anything?"

"I know that myself and my family, we are not
officers," he started. "And I'm sure our interfacing with the ship's
computer is much less than all of yours… But I think I could direct the
lieutenant on where to find all the specifications about his weapons. And you
remember my third cousin, Nina? She can show you where to find all the data on
the sensor suites… And I'm pretty sure Nicu and his friends found all kinds of
info on the Temporal Drives – but it didn't make any sense to me when I saw
it."

The entire room was silent.

"How did you find all these things?" the chief
finally asked.

"My family, we want to be good crewmen… So we thought
it best to act like students. We've spent the day on the new crewmen
tutorials."

Eventually Argentine said, "Marco, if I ever exclude
your family again from the ship meetings you have my permission to correct
me."

Marco stood a little taller and smiled with pride.

ΔΔΔ

They were all
gathered on the bridge – including most of Marco's family.

Argentine briefly wondered if he'd ever get used to a bridge
this size…
Yeah, in a heartbeat,
he realized.

He was in the Captain's Chair on the raised platform and at
consoles immediately in front of him were Barry and Sami. Mandi had the
communications console to his left and Lieutenant Stark had the weapons console
to his right.

Behind him, in the theater seating, set Doctor Amaya and a
few of the others.

Rory and much of the Petulengro family were manning the many
consoles on the main floor of the bridge.

The main console of that lower section was immediately in
front of the captain's command deck and was manned by the chief. Presumably he
had authority over all of the stations on that level, which consisted of
everything from additional sensor support stations, to environmental control
monitoring, to internal ship communications, to just about everything else you
could think of and a whole bunch more they hadn't figured out yet.

Everyone had spent two days undergoing crew tutorials. Now,
they would put that newly learned information to use.

Or not.

It was one thing to study something, it was totally another
to put it into practice…

"All bridge stations on standby," Argentine gave
the pre-memorized command.

Someone behind him gasped…

All of the consoles on both levels of the bridge immediately
lit up.

"Prepare the ship for transit," he continued.

This time they all paused to stare… The immense dome above
them once again lit up with the unbelievable star scape of their surroundings.

"All stations, report status."

The lower level stations quietly reported their readiness to
the chief, while the upper level stations did the same for him.

Once that was complete he realized the moment was at hand…

"Pilot, give us some sub light acceleration."

"Yes sir, Captain. Where would you like to go?"

"For now, just take us that away," he said, pointing
at a general direction on the dome.

"Yes sir!" Barry responded… And then, "Ship
is responding; we are underway."

Argentine smiled. He had command of the most powerful ship
he’d ever known.