Chapter 26
John Doe
He hadn't slept particularly well, but come 0600 in the morning, he'd received an urgent message from the bridge crew. So tugging on his uniform, deliberately avoiding looking at his tired reflection in the shiny finish of the elevator door, John stepped out as soon as the doors opened with a ping.
As he walked onto his bridge, his XO got up from the command chair and nodded his way.
‘I would not have disturbed you,’ Chado said quickly.
John put up a hand. He knew the stakes. If Chado had bothered calling John to the bridge, then it was urgent.
‘We have received a priority one communique from Orion Major,’ Chado shifted past John and made a hand signal. Instantly the holo emitters in front of John's chair sprang to life, and a picture of a floating blue orb appeared a second later.
Picture perfect, John found himself yawning. ‘Okay,’ he managed, ‘we aren't scheduled to visit Orion Major. Are you sure this isn't someone else's problem?’
It was a joking questions, and at least it got a snigger form Foster, but Chado - as always - replied with a stony glance.
‘It is our problem. Because Rear Admiral Fletcher has made it our problem.’
John's mouth tugged down into a frown. ‘Fletcher, Fletcher, I know that name,’ he leaned forward in his chair, a distracted look on his face as he tried to remember.
‘Heads up the Union Forces Research Division,’ Foster answered from his chair.
John clicked his fingers. Then his expression soured. ‘So what the hell does he want with us?’
‘He has requested we rendezvous with him immediately on Orion Major,’ Chado replied quickly.
‘And did the Admiral say why? Our orders are to head straight to the Rim from here—’ John began.
‘He has pulled rank,’ Chado interrupted.
‘So this is not a request then,’ John shifted back in his chair, crossed his arms, and stared out at the floating blue orb of Orion Major before him.
Orion Minor might have been a hell hole of a backwater planet, but its twin was anything but. Orion Major was a hub of trade and research. A beautiful blue crystal of a planet completely swamped with floating cities. The view was incredible, the streets were clean, and there wasn't a slum in sight.
‘This better be good to delay our mission,’ John mumbled.
‘Apparently the Admiral is confident that he has something that will assist us in our travels through the Rim,’ Chado clarified as he made a new hand gesture and the picture of Orion Major flipped out of view. In its place the image of a woman appeared instead.
John's eyebrows descended in a snap.
Blond, with sparkling blue eyes, and a lithe, slim form, she was incredibly beautiful by human standards. She was dressed in a blue, high-cut tunic that John could recognize as being the height of fashion, even though the closet he ever came to looking stylish was when he was running around in sleek black armor.
Foster coughed pointedly. ‘Wow, okay, I like this mission already.’
John shook his head slightly. ‘So tell me, what exactly does this woman have to do with us and the Admiral?’
‘She is part of the Aurora Program,’ Chado answered with a growl.
John could have joined in. He sat up straighter in his chair, his cheeks draining of blood and paling in a snap. ‘You can't be serious. They're not going to lump us with one of those. They are untested—’ he began. Then he stopped. Because he was preaching to the converted here; every member of his crew would know what the Aurora Program was, and they all shared John's misgivings.
It was meant to be the Union's last hope. If they couldn't figure out the power source of the Old Ones, then maybe they could bring one back to life to ask them.
The Old Ones had disappeared 100,000 years ago, and no member of any of their races had been seen since. They were all dead, all gone, and their secrets had been taken with them.
The Aurora Program had farmed information from Old Tech databases and scanned every single device the Union had hold of.
The point had been to produce an implant that could provide a wearer with the ability to interact directly with Old Tech.
The Old Ones, after all, had not used their devices directly; they had not manipulated them with gross physical movements, everything had come from the mind. They had interfaced directly with everything they had ever built. The premise and entire hope of the Aurora Program was that if an implant could be produced to allow someone to interface with Old Tech, they could use it to turn the stuff back on. And if not, delve deeper into its secrets.
There was also an influential, if crazy theory out there, that Old Tech was somehow sustained by mental energy. If that was the case, then someone with one of these implants could re-energize a device simply through their thoughts.
John did not believe it for a second. He thought the whole program was a waste of money. An astounding waste of money. Because the funds it commanded from the Union would be better placed reducing the class gap; bringing the slums into the light.
Crossing his arms tighter in front of his chest, John narrowed his eyes as he stared at that image of the beautiful woman in front of him.
‘Her name is Evelyn,’ Chado continued.
‘Just Evelyn?’ John asked with a frown.
‘Just Evelyn,’ Chado replied. ‘She has the latest version of the Aurora implant.’
Oh great.
John knew what was coming next.
‘Admiral Fletcher has assigned her to our vessel. She will accompany us into the Rim. We will be directly responsible for her safety.’ Chado reeled off the facts.
John wanted to go back to bed and try to wake up. Because this had to be a dream. A particularly bad one.
There would be no way John could get out of this. Even if he kicked up a stink and went to the top brass, he would not be able to fix this.
‘I guess we should alter course,’ he managed through a frustrated breath that lingered in his chest as he tightened his arms further. ‘Looks like our mission to the Rim just turned into babysitting.’
John knew he wasn't being entirely fair; though he had a problem with the Aurora Program, that was no reason to extend his ill will to that woman, Evelyn. But neither could he fight the feeling that told him this would all end in tears.
‘I guess I better have a chat to Admiral Fletcher. I'll take it in the conference room.’ With that John pushed himself up. He walked right through the holo emitters, the perfect image of the woman rippling around him as he moved straight through her.
‘Aye sir,’ Foster answered.
When John had finally finished his conversation with the Admiral, his mood had not improved any.
They were going to pick Evelyn up on Orion Major, then – just as Chado had warned – take her to the Rim. The Admiral had stressed at least five times through the conversation that Evelyn was considered of extremely high value and that he would be holding John directly responsible for her safety.
John had held his tongue. If Evelyn was so sodding important, then the Admiral could look after her himself. Sending her on a mission to the Rim was intrinsically dangerous. From the pirates to the Factions to the mine belts, Evelyn would not be going on holiday here. And no matter how good John and his crew were, they wouldn't be able to ensure her safety.
But the Admiral had not wanted to hear it, and though John didn't always have the correct level of respect for his superiors, on this occasion he had held his tongue.
Walking back onto the bridge, John knew his expression was a surly one.
‘Look on the bright side,’ Foster turned in his chair, one of his trademark grins spreading his lips wide, ‘at least she's prettier than you, sir.’
John raised an eyebrow. A true, dignified, proper commander would have pulled Foster up on that.
John was none of those things.
But he was effective. And that was what mattered most. Pomp and circumstance were for the guys
who didn't have the universe to save.
‘Plus, from memory, you quite like Orion Major. The floating cities remind you of home, right?’ Parka walked in from the elevator, fixing John with a keen look.
‘I was born in the slums of Earth,’ John replied with a short laugh.
‘I know,’ Parka uncrossed her arms and nodded. ‘I know that. But look how far you've come. Climbed all the way to the top of the tower,’ she mumbled.
John got the joke. For a boy from the slums, nothing reminded him so much of home as worlds that didn't have them. The clean floating cities of Orion Major were so far from where John had come from that he had confided to Parka on several occasions he couldn't help but remember Earth.
‘So what are you doing on the bridge?’ he finally mumbled.
‘Telling you that the fluctuations in the engine's output have not stopped,’ she crossed her arms. Parka was not human, she belonged to a stout but strong race of green, thick-skinned aliens. Her arms were muscled and ended in ten-digit hands.
Right now all of her fingers tapped against her arms.
‘Sorry, fluctuations?’ John shifted his head up as he looked at her properly for the first time.
‘I have not yet informed the Commander,’ Chado interrupted from behind him.
‘I forgot. You conked out in your quarters after your little adventure on Orion Minor. Well this is me telling you now that ever since we left port on Minor, the engine has been fluctuating.’ Parka instantly raised a hand. ‘Nothing major, nothing critical. But something is draining our systems.’
‘Some kind of leak in the relays?’ John asked as he couldn't help but yawn again.
‘I didn't realize you were an engineer. And no. We've checked the relays. It might be a problem in the fields stabilizing the core. Or maybe the bulkhead in that section has a crack or something. We won't know until we shut down the core, and we can’t do that until we're in space dock. So I'm kind of happy to hear we're heading to Orion Major,’ Parka leaned past John and fixed her rapidly-blinking purple eyes on the hologram of Evelyn. ‘And cheer up, John; Foster is right; it's going to be so much nicer to have someone prettier than you on board.’
John let Parka's comment slide.
‘I'll keep you appraised of the engine core. But there's something else you need to know,’ Parka continued.
‘More bad news?’ he got there first.
‘I'm not entirely convinced of that. I'm ready to write it off as feedback from that transport beam that went haywire. Or maybe it was too much interference caused by that gas leak in the hangar bay—’
‘What is it?’ he tried to speed her up.
‘There were several fluctuations in our security systems before we left dock on Minor. Nothing too big.’ She made a face. ‘And like I said, it could have been the gas or the feedback, or both.’
John tapped his fingers against his leg. ‘Play it safe. When we dock on Orion Major, flush it out. Go system to system, if you have to, but find out if anyone accessed it.’
She nodded her head. ‘I do love it when you get over cautious.’
‘Thank me later when we head into the Rim. It would be a real pity if we found we had a saboteur on board when we face up against the pirate fleet.’
Parka snorted, and it was a thoroughly undignified sound. ‘I wouldn't go that far, John, I think your imagination is getting the better of you. Maybe the prospect of meeting dear Evelyn over there is confusing you,’ Parka said through a smile.
To her race, life was about romance. You weren't fulfilling your function as a living breathing being unless you were spending it with somebody else. He'd been to her home world once upon a time, and it was an experience he'd never forget.
Her race were free about their emotions and their desires.
But regardless of Parka's culture, that comment had been out of line. ‘That's enough,’ he said in a low, warning voice.
She nodded her head sharply, though she didn't erase the sparkle in her eye as she turned her gaze back to Evelyn. ‘I will keep you informed, Commander.’
With that she walked out of the room.
Latching a hand on his shoulder, digging his fingers into the muscle and bone, John turned back to the front of the bridge.
His eyes were drawn to the perfect of image of Evelyn.
She wasn't his type, was she? John tended to like his women with pluck. Plus, Admiral Fletcher would probably kill him if anything were to happen between John and Evelyn.
Then again, some things in this universe were worth dying over.