FORGIVENESS

TWENTYSIX

"Captain Harkness?"

"Yes Captain Hart?"

The two men were hunched intently over bridge consoles learning what they could, as fast as they were able, about their new ship.

"Along with the graviton shields and ablative armor that Wil mentioned earlier, it would appear this vessel has highly advanced cloaking capabilities as well as several other forms of stealth technology that I've never encountered before."

Jack turned and looked at John's profile curiously, waiting for him to continue; he was not disappointed.

"In reality I don't think it matters much what the ship looks like on the outside. For all intents and purposes she can become invisible to most, if not all, of the EM spectrum." John paused and grinned, "But wait, there's more, because she evidently has holographic cloaking as well, and this is so cool, Jack…"

John glanced sidelong at Jack and saw the Captain grimace. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I being insensitive?" he asked glibly.

Jack scowled. "No, it's okay, John," he replied not a little facetiously. "The pain and suffering this ship caused me in the past is now over and done with. Go ahead and call her the greatest thing since sliced bread, it won't bother me. I'm moving on. Moving ahead. Getting on with my life..."

Shaking his head, John Hart continued as if there'd been no interlude. "Right, there's holographic cloaking and other sophisticated forms of smart optical camouflage. In fact, if I were a betting man…" Jack snickered, knowing full well John was capable of wagering away his own mother if the situation called for it, "I'd venture what we were seeing on the outside of the ship doesn't even exist except in our minds." He shrugged, "And in the imagination of the ship. In other words…"

"In other words," Jack interrupted him, "it wasn't real." The Captain nodded at John thoughtfully. "You're right, that is cool. And it answers at least one important question. But it also gives me an idea for a plan."

"And that is?"

"Well, we need to move in closer to get a better idea of what's going on out there. It sounds like the cloaking will let us peer through the window without being seen. The more quality time we have to figure out what we need to do next, the better, as far as I'm concerned. I wasn't looking forward to walking up naked and knocking on the front door."

John shrugged. "There is always something to be said for full-frontal nudity."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, did I say full-frontal nudity?" John smiled. "I meant directness… that there's always something to be said for directness."

Jack grinned for a moment but then turned serious again. "Yeah, I know. And I'd normally agree with you that directness has its advantages. But something tells me that in this particular case… maybe not so much."

"Fair enough. So what's next?"

"I'd recommend you give the order, Captain."

John proffered a two finger salute, "Aye-aye Captain! Grasshopper, commence silent running, and prepare to bring us into spitting distance of yonder beachhead."

Jack pulled a face, "Spitting distance? Yonder beachhead?"

John smiled charmingly, "Well, she is Wil's ship after all."

"Ah, rightly said," Jack nodded.

"Make it so!" John ordered.

Out of habit Jack threw out his arms and grabbed for the console. To his shock anchoring himself wasn't necessary. For a moment there was a slight swooshing sound, and a number of the monitors blinked a few times before rendering quite different images than they were displaying previously.

The Captain sheepishly brought his arms back to his sides. "Wow," he said. "Is that it?"

John spun round in his chair and looked at the display in front of him, and then he looked over at Jack, amazement on his face. "It would appear that's it."

Jack stood, went to one of the larger display screens and whistled softly. "It's big," he said in a hushed voice. "It's roughly spherical, although slightly oblate, and has an equatorial diameter of about 140,000 kilometers. My God, John, it's nearly the size of Jupiter! It's like the fucking Death Star."

"Say what?"

"Never mind. The exterior surface is primarily liquid metallic hydrogen, but there's something beneath the hydrogen – a hollow interior core. The whole mess is rotating, probably to generate gravity. I would guess that interior core is the business end of this behemoth. The core seems to contain some sort of atmosphere, except not the kind of atmosphere you and I would be very comfortable in – it's mostly methane, ammonia, ethane, sulfur and some silicon-based compounds. The internal temperatures and pressures are not very conducive to better living either. Damn it…"

"Huh?"

"We're going to have to EVA."

"Yeah, sorry about that Jack. Get over it. Do you think there's any chance we've been detected?"

"Well, we're still alive aren't we? So I'd say no."

"What about space monsters?"

Jack shook his head, "I'm not seeing any life signs being identified, but I'm not sure whatever could survive in those conditions would even show up as alive on these monitors."

John rose from his chair, "Time to kick the tires and light the fires?"

Jack nodded pensively but did not move. "What's the matter?" John asked him.

"I'm wondering how in the hell we're going to take out something this big."

"And I'll answer you by asking how can we not take it out? Think of all the firepower this ship has, Jack! And just you wait until you see what's inside the armory lockers! Oh, I've got some good ideas already…" John's eyes were luminescent. "And knowing you, you'll undoubtedly come up with even better ones. Come on partner, let's get going!"

"Right," said Jack as he followed John out the door. "Lock and load."

The fact that the Captain didn't sound super-enthusiastic did not bother John Hart in the least.