The Navigator 2: We the People (3 page)

"Damn, I need to get them out of there. I'm pretty sure Jared is still alive in there as well. If I can reprogram the computer to jump the station out of here, I'll still have to finish the mission." Joe sighed. "Okay, I may have to call on you for assistance getting the computer to accept the plot. I'm going to get the hostages to safety first, then worry about the station and Jared."

'
Just remember, if you 'send' them, it might puncture the warp field and none of you will survive.
' She paused again. '
You know Becka is in love with you, right?
'

Joe smiled. "Yeah, she's made no attempt at all to hide her feelings. I just hope I don't hurt her, she is a really sweet girl." He changed the subject. "Okay boys and girls, don't try this at home!"

He shifted his vision over to 'hyperspace mode' and pictured the whole pod moving into the cargo hold. In his mind, he was vaguely aware of the control computer interfacing the pods control systems and 'flying' the pod into the hold. When he shifted his vision back to normal, the pod slowly tilted to one side as the artificial gravity in the bay affected it. Joe put a hand out to the bulkhead to steady himself; the jump had made him a little dizzy. He was going to need a really good night's sleep when all this was over.

"I got the pod in the bay, but trying to move; walk around and stuff in here is like walking in mud," Joe told Cassie.

'
I would think so, I'm surprised you can move at all. Just a theory, but either time or space had to have gotten a random value in the equation; if they were both zero I don't think you would be able to move at all,
' Cassie replied. '
Did you happen to notice what it was like when you did the site to site jump?
'

"No, I didn't," Joe said as he tried to manually open the hatch on the pod. "Give me a second or two and we'll test the theory. When I tried to rotate the pod outside, it wouldn't move even though the computer said the thrusters fired. When I jumped into the bay, I used the thrusters to move the pod and it moved, so your theory is promising."

He got the door open, stepped outside and looked around. "Doc Symms is going to be mad at me, I think I might have crushed some of his equipment." The pod had come to rest on the one of the short stacks of boxes they had unloaded, crushing them. One of the inner bulkheads was also dented from the impact with the pod.

'
He'll get over it, I'm sure,
' Cassie replied.

"Okay, now to test your theory…" Joe said, shifted his vision again and stepped to the hatch leading into the station. There was no resistance to his movement at all. "Good call, if I use short jumps, I can move around without the struggle."

'
Yeah, well, be careful, we have no idea what kind of toll it's taking on you, nor what it's doing to the warp field of the station,
' Cassie warned.

Opening the hatch, Joe stepped through it and stopped. "I don't suppose anyone told you where the hostages were being held did they?"

'
Not actually, no. Becka did picture an older part of the station. I think it was one of the original residence sections,
' Cassie replied. '
Head to your right.
'

Joe followed Cassie’s instructions and kept track of where he was on the map he had memorized. However, before he arrived in the section they believed the hostages were in, Joe found them by the escape pod bay.

"Major! What the hell's going on?" Luke asked.

He had six people with him, another male and four females. Two of them were very young and looked like they had been beaten very badly. The man was in pretty bad shape and did not look very happy at all.

"Jared tried to make the station jump back to Earth, Tokyo to be precise. I stopped him, but in doing so got the station caught in hyperspace. Now we're going to get these folks back to my escape pod, then figure out how to undo what I did," Joe replied. "Oh, Jared is still alive in here somewhere too."

Luke indicated the man sitting on the floor. "He's one of Jared's. He objected to my freeing the hostages." He nodded to the two tired looking women. "They are two Navigators that we freed when we found the girls. Gillian and Heather this is my commander, Major Joseph Anderson."

Joe smiled and nodded at the two women. Luke indicated the two badly beaten girls. "These two are Carne and Jessica. Two normal girls that Jared was holding against the behaviors of their brothers on BC IV. That fucking animal has been... Well, I think you can tell what he's been doing to them. There were others, but we got them out in Gary's pod."

Joe knelt next to the two girls. "Your brothers are safe; we made sure they were protected before we came out here. Now it's your turn, let's get you folks out of here."

"Fuck you!" the man said. "The Prime is going to kill you; all of you!"

"Really?" Joe replied. He shifted his vision and opened a jump point under man. He immediately fell through it and disappeared. "You first."

"What the…" Luke said and the women tried to jump back.

"Luke, I'm sure you've heard the whole lecture on how Navigators can do what it is we do right?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, but…" Luke began.

Joe interrupted him. "It isn't the only thing some of us can do. We've been hiding it because we don't want people to fear us and we really don't want to be dissected to see how it works. This is a really big secret, Luke. One I am trusting you with. All of the Navigators lives depend on you keeping it for the time being. Do you understand?"

Luke was thoughtful for a few moments and slowly nodded. "Yeah, I understand. I swear I'll keep your secret."

Joe nodded to him. "Well, with luck, it won't be secret for long; I have a plan to take care of the issue once and for all. First we need to get out of this mess."

"How, exactly, did we get trapped in hyperspace, Major?" The woman introduced as Heather asked.

"When Jared set the station to jump, he did so from its position between the two stars. He had the destination set for the surface of Earth; specifically, Tokyo Japan. I have no idea how he got the computer to accept the plot, but he did. When I opened it, the course was already locked in and I didn't have time to recalculate anything. I deleted the destination portion of the equation thinking it would simply keep the station traveling through hyperspace indefinitely. It looks like what happened was that we made the jump, but haven't moved. This has caused a rupture in hyperspace between the stars, which is in turn causing them to become unstable. It's creating a quantum singularity. If we drop back to real space here we'll be killed almost instantly by the radiation and gravity from the two stars.

"So, we have to figure out a way to move the station and complete the jump. That will let the rupture close and the stars should return to normal," Joe replied.

"That fucking animal!" Heather said angrily. "He took my research and turned it into a fucking weapon!"

"Come on, let's get you folks back to my pod. You can tell me about it while we move," Joe said.

"Major, we can't," Luke said stopping him. "We can't move the girls like this. Whatever is resisting our movement hurts them if we try to move them."

"I was afraid of that," Joe said, looking down at the two girls. "You three start for the shuttle bay, I'll jump the girls to my pod."

"Why can't you just jump all of us?" Luke asked.

"Because we have no idea what it will do to him to try, Lieutenant," Gillian replied. "Even plotting regular navs takes a toll on us. Most of us don't really feel it for the first few, but eventually we wear down. The only other Navigator that had the ability to jump herself was Cassandra; the original Navigator. We only know that because she used it to escape the US government. No one has seen her since, and we have no idea if she even survived the attempt. Considering the mass of the pod, the Major has to be feeling fatigued already. If he pushes it too far, it'll put him into a coma like sleep for days."

Joe chuckled. "Here I thought it was just the fact that I haven't slept in two days!"

Gillian winced. "Major; be careful. You are in real danger here. The pod has a medical kit that contains a stimulant shot. I'd never recommend it under any other circumstances, but you might want to think about using it. When it wears off, it'll pretty much shut you down, but it'll keep you going for a couple of hours anyway."

Joe thanked the woman and as gently as he could, picked up Carne. The girl moaned in pain, but as soon as he had her in his arms, he made the jump. He misjudged the floor slightly and stumbled when they arrived. Keeping the jump open he placed her in a seat and strapped her in. He let the jump close and she groaned again.

He felt like groaning himself as a wave of exhaustion washed over him. He turned and got the medical kit. "Are you allergic to anything, Carne?"

"No Sir," the girl answered. Joe found what he wanted and filled a syringe. He gave her a pain killer, and smiled when she sighed. He found the emergency auto-injector with the stimulant and fired it into his leg. It took a second, but he felt the drug wash over him and banish the fatigue. He felt a little wired, but nothing he couldn't handle.

"There we go, better living through pharmacology! Now, let me go…" He began but noticed the girl was asleep. He checked her pulse and it was strong and regular. So he turned and jumped back to get Jessica. When he arrived, the girl was still on the floor where he'd left her, and he saw the other three at the far end of the hall making their labored way toward the shuttle bay. Luke was trying to help Gillian along as she was limping.

He got Jessica into a seat next to Carne and gave her the sedative as well. He climbed out of the pod then and headed for the nearest terminal just outside the large bay. He leaned against the wall and used the nano computer to access the Citadel.

:PriCom/>Request status hyperdrive engines.

:CtdlCom/>Hyperdrive active. Status: Nominal.

:PriCom/>Status current course plot.

:CtdlCom/>Course invalid. Plot contains insoluble equations. Correction required.

"It couldn't be that simple, could it?" Joe asked, reaching for Cassie.

'Not under normal circumstances, no. The computer had to have been tampered with to even get it to accept the original plot. The question is, in what way was it messed with?
' Cassie replied.

"I met a Navigator here named Heather. She said that Jared had taken her research and turned it into a weapon. I think she might have an idea what was done to enable this to happen," Joe replied. "She's one of those that was being detained."

'
You had to take a stim didn't you?
' Cassie asked sounding worried.

"Yeah, I did. You were right, these little jumps I make take their toll. However, one way or the other, this little drama will be over by the time it wears off. I'll come help you as soon as I can afterward, okay?" Joe explained.

'
That's fine, Joe. Just remember, no matter how you feel, that shot doesn't give you unlimited ability. What it does is keep you from feeling the effects of your body and mind trying to protect itself. All you've done is removed the natural safety mechanism. If you push too hard, it'll kill you,
' Cassie warned.

"Right, so no more amazing heroics unless there is no other way; got it," Joe replied. "I had to jump the two badly wounded girls to the pod, but the other three are working their way here on their own. I'll talk to Heather about this when she arrives."

:PriCom/>Request current location of Smalls, Jared.

:CtdlCom/>Smalls, Jared located in main control, lower level.

:PriCom/>List all admin access and above.

:CtdlCom/>Primary Admin Access; Anderson, Joseph - Senior Navigator, Major TDF - Active; Smalls, Jared - Senior Navigator - Suspended.

:CtdlCom/>Secondary Admin Access; Hargrave, Harold - Administrative Navigator - Active. Display Maintenance Admin access list? Y/n?

:PriCom/>Are any personnel present that are on the maintenance admin list?

:CtldCom/>Negative. Display Maintenance Admin Access List? Y/n?

:PriCom/>n. Suspend access for Hargrave, Harold effective immediate. Rescind all commands issued for last thirty days.

:CtdlCom/>Command accepted.

:PriCom/>Status of Smalls, Jared and Hargrave, Harold is now criminal at large. All rights and privileges are suspended.

:CtdlCom/>Command accepted. Smalls, Jared and Hargrave, Harold are now sequestered in the command section. Security will be notified upon arrival at destination. Course error, correction required.

"Well, I got Jared and his main flunky trapped in the command module and the computer has them listed as criminals. That should keep them busy for a bit," Joe said to Cassie. "Now I just need the others to get here so we can figure out how to get this tub out of here."

The group was exhausted when they made it to the hallway outside the cargo bay. Gillian was in tears from the pain and Luke was valiantly gritting his teeth to get the woman to the relative safety of the escape pod.