Running With Argentine (37 page)

Aboard
the Roosevelt

Almost every
hour of the following week revealed some new surprise.

Argentine had ordered the ship to maintain sub light status
and to remain in the same region of space, relatively speaking. He wanted the
bridge personnel, which was almost everyone, to undergo the same
familiarization routine as any new ship would on its shakedown cruise.

Still, that left plenty of time for new discoveries…

The Roosevelt carried a small fleet of what can only be
described as military shuttles. Perhaps
fleet
was too strong a word,
they had found seven of them on the starboard side hanger deck, but there was
strong evidence that the ship could manufacture more.

Each shuttle could carry a pilot and a copilot and then had
room for either a small amount of cargo or six passengers. But they were armed
and had obviously been designed both for space operations as well as extreme
aerodynamic maneuvering.

Argentine was relieved to learn that the ship could
manufacture its own food!

The hydroponics and agricultural bays, as well as the newly
discovered protein vats, were all intended for variety and as a supplement, but
the ship was fully capable of providing a nutrient slush that was almost
palatable.

The fact that it could be manufactured as a drink, a
nutrient bar, or a type of porridge helped… a little.

To Argentine's frustration, however, they still knew nothing
about the upper section of the ship. No matter how hard they looked, no one
seemed to have access…

The chief and the lieutenant were both sitting with
Argentine in a small conference room immediately aft of the bridge. It actually
had a private corridor connecting it to the Captain's suite.

Argentine surmised that it had probably served as the
Captain's day cabin. At any rate, that's what he was using it for…

"Well, someone on the ship has to have had access to
that upper section," the chief said for the third time. "And I'm
thinking that someone would've been the Captain."

"Look, Chief… Not knowing what we have there bugs me
too, and it's not like I haven't tried to query the ship. But I haven't had the
time to try and delve deep into the ship's stored personalities.

"Paula simply has no idea and either can't or hasn't
bothered to try and find out, and Captain Ramires' personality has been…
Difficult."

Which was a huge understatement, but Argentine didn't want
to raise any undue alarms… And he wasn't ready to reveal what he'd learned from
Captain Ramires' messages. As a matter of fact, he hadn't yet told anyone about
the ship's true mission…

"I think we need to focus," he continued. "On
what we want to do with the ship and how we want to go about doing it."

"Are we reconsidering our decision to turn it over for
a reward?" the lieutenant asked without emotion.

"No, at least I don't think so. I've got my own plans
that include a cabin and a mountain lake… Personally, I really don't want to
lose sight of that.

"It's just that, recently, Sami has started voicing
some concerns and I wondered if the both of you still felt the same?"

"She is an amazing ship," muttered the chief.
"Rory and I could spend a decade here and still not be caught up on all
her technology… But no. We want to stick to the plan – especially now that we
realize just how big our nest egg could be."

When Argentine turned his attention to the Lieutenant he
responded, "My position hasn't changed; I still want to cash out and start
a new life somewhere. No offense gentlemen, but the day we all part ways and
never see each other again couldn't come too soon for me.

"Still, as long as we have the ship we can be assured
that that day
will
come. There might be a few things we could accomplish
first before we hand her over… If we decide we want to, that is."

"Like what?"

"I was thinking it might not be a bad idea to get a
little payback on the Lords of Trinity," he clarified. "Maybe right
the wrongs of social injustice… That type of thing."

"Now you're sounding like that redhead," the chief
declared. "She won't come out and say it, but she wants us to take on the
Asperian military and put the Secret Societies back in their place."

"She does?"

"She keeps going on about how their freedoms are slowly
being eroded, about how the military is taking on more and more control. She
even used the word tyranny!

"She doesn't know the first thing about tyranny,"
the chief continued while shaking his head. "If she'd ever lived in the
People's Republic she'd think Asperia was a paradise and be grateful for every
minute of it!"

After a brief silence, Argentine heard himself say…

"Be that as it may, Chief. Every tyranny has its
beginnings. I'm not sure it's wrong not to want Asperia to turn into the
People's Republic…"

No one had an answer to that.

"We still need more crew," Lieutenant Stark
eventually said.

"What?" Argentine responded to the non sequitur.

"No matter what direction we go, we can't safely
operate like this. We've got barely enough people to man the critical bridge
stations, and everyone has to sleep sometime.

"Even if we headed directly to Asperia and immediately
entered into negotiations to turn the ship over, we'd be in no position to keep
them from boarding us and just taking it. And you’d better believe once the word
gets out that we have a temporal drive… Everyone and their brother will come
gunning for us. And they won't be nice about it.

"No matter what we decide to do… Turn her over or right
some wrongs first… We’re going to need more people."

"And as much as I hate to say it," the chief
added. "We're going to need the time to train them too. Which means we're
going to need to get our food situation squared away – there's no way in
Jezebel’s black hole that my diet is going to be made up entirely of that glop."

"Okay," Argentine responded. "Where are we
going to find them? I don't think it makes any difference if we’re trying to
hand the ship over or recruit new crew, if we make orbit at Asperia we're in
just as much jeopardy either way.

"And you do realize," he continued. "That the
more crew we take on, the smaller our share of the prize money will be…"

"That doesn't have to be a problem," the
Lieutenant interjected. "We hire the new crew on at normal wages. I’d
guess that most spacers would jump at the chance to crew a ship like
this."

"And we can head up spiral to find them," the
chief added. "Let's get far enough away from the Asperian sphere that no
one knows anything about the legend of the Roosevelt. With any luck, no one
will realize how undermanned and vulnerable we really are."

We now have a plan,
Argentine thought to himself.
There's a solid reason that we can't just hand the ship over and cash out
immediately.

He should be frustrated; cashing out and finding that cabin
is
exactly
what he wanted to do.

What surprised him, though, was the relief he felt.

If he told them about the ship's true mission, if he told
them about the extinction events… What would they want to do then?

There was every likelihood that they, and any children they
might have, could live out their entire lives before it came. If they chose
this path, his tranquil life around a mountain lake would finally become a
reality.

But what if everyone went and got all noble?

It was insane to think that as untrained and ignorant as
they were about the situation, that they could have any hope of carrying out
the Roosevelt's mission...

Would they see it that way, though?

It really wasn't anything that had to be decided right now,
he realized. Regardless of what they decided, heading up spiral and recruiting
new crew was the immediate priority.

There wasn't any reason to burden everyone with what he
knew… was there?

Aboard
the Roosevelt

"Stop
pulling at your uniform..."

"It's tight!" Sami replied.

"No, it's not. It fits the way it was designed to, so
stop tugging at it," Mandi said again.

"I feel like I'm covered in shrink-wrap."

One pleasant surprise had been the discovery that all of the
Roosevelt's uniforms were self-fitting. Something about the fabric allowed it
to stretch into whatever shape was needed and then, presumably from the heat of
the body, shrink into a comfortable form fit.

Well, at least comfortable for some…

"You're used to wearing those almost one-size-fits-all
sacks that your People's Republic called uniforms. Honestly, they were the
sloppiest things I've ever seen."

"I just feel… Brazen," Sami muttered.

Mandi laughed…

"Believe me, Sami… You don't look provocative. Men and
women are different and there's nothing wrong with those differences being
apparent in your clothing. I promise you there are a million places in the
spiral arm that would think you're dressed for church.

"So, lighten up. Besides, you actually look good!"

Argentine hadn't given any orders regarding the uniforms.
One day, the chief had shown up on the bridge with the new look.

The Petulengros had immediately followed suit, and everyone
else soon followed.

Mandi changed the subject…

"What do you think of the new additions?" she
asked.

"What's not to like?" Sami responded. "We're
only taking the best of the best from all the interviews, and then moving on to
the next planet. I think we’re getting some good people.

"Why? Are you thinking differently?"

"They all seem competent enough. I'm just wondering
about their ideology…"

"You know, Mandi, there's no guarantee that Argentine
is going to want to help your people on Asperia."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," she replied.

"Really? Has he said something? I didn't think any decisions
had been made?"

"No, silly. No decisions have been made, but that
doesn't mean anything. Haven't you figured out by now that I tend to get my
way?" Mandi said with a somewhat evil grin. "Men really aren't all
that complicated; sometimes you just have to remind them of what they don't
know they really want…"

ΔΔΔ

"So why do
you want to serve on the Roosevelt?" Lieutenant Stark asked the applicant
in front of him.

"Are you kidding?" the young man replied.
"She's the most modern ship to come through here in… Forever! You're all
over the holovids; the news faxes can't stop showing images of your ship!"

This is exactly why we can’t afford to stay in one place
too long, the lieutenant thought to himself.

They'd picked up over a hundred and twenty experienced
spacers over the last fifty days. They’d gather another dozen here and then
move on to the next system.

They had decided that a complement of one hundred and eighty
would work for their purposes. He'd like it even better if they had another
forty or so that had some type of combat experience, but that didn't look like
it was going to be a problem; roughly a third of all the spacers that applied
met that criterion.

"And why do you want to serve on the Roosevelt?"
he asked the next applicant.

"I don't know that I do," was the reply.
"Where are you headed?"

As far as Lieutenant Stark was concerned, that response was
an immediate disqualification…

"We’ll be going wherever the Captain directs us,"
he responded. And he couldn't help but ask, "Why? Are you trying to get
some place in particular?"

"Get away, more like it," was the response.

"Are you on the run?"

"Yeah, you might say that. And if you were smart, you
would be too."

When the lieutenant didn't reply, the man went on…

"Look, if you're headed down spiral I'm all in. I've
got plenty of experience and a great record, but that's the only direction I'm going.
So, how about it?"

"I think we’ve filled all our positions," he
replied.

"Suit yourself," the man said. "But if you're
headed where I think you are you won't be coming back!"

And with that, the man stood up from the table and walked
off.

ΔΔΔ

"Captain
Argentine? Can we have a word?" Barry asked as soon as he and the chief
walked onto the bridge.

He and Sami had been engrossed in conversation at her
station. As Argentine took the captain's chair the chief made way for both of
them to gather around…

"What is it?" he asked, anxious to get back to his
conversation with the chief.

Barry glanced at Sami…

"We've been plotting our next few destinations,"
she explained. "There are a lot of options but the further we get up
spiral the more challenging it's getting."

Argentine was used to Sami's awkwardness, so he gave her a
little time to explain…

"We've been trying to target what, according to the
charts, would be the most heavily trafficked systems. If we're looking for
crew, we figured that these would be the best places to look for…"

"Yes, I get that," Argentine said kindly. "So
what's the problem?"

"The problem is they're the ones blacking out the
fastest," Barry butted in. "The more heavily trafficked a system is
supposed to be, the more bloody likely it is we're finding that nobody's heard
from them in a while."

Argentine exchanged glances with the chief.

"Sami, are you saying that the systems ahead of us are
going dark?"

When she nodded the chief said, "Dammit! We've stumbled
upon another war!"

"No, that's just it," insisted Barry. "Sami
has told me all about when the People's Republic imploded, about how it just
fell apart… But this isn't the same. It's all random! Different governments,
different spheres of influence… We've even heard reports of transmissions being
cut off in mid-sentence. And then, of course, there are the wonky rumors…"

"Rumors?"

"Yeah, it's barmy… Nothing reliable," Barry said
with a smile.

Sami jumped in immediately…

"Some are saying it's an interstellar plague!"

Barry gave a short condescending laugh… Or was it a nervous
laugh?

The chief was saying something to Barry but Argentine wasn't
registering a word of it.

This had to be a coincidence; there had to be a rational
explanation for this.

Just then, Lieutenant Stark walked onto the bridge…

"Captain, we need to talk…"