Title: Rescue Run

Author: Lady Rheena

Genres: Alternate Universe, Action/Adventure, Romance

Rating: R

Disclaimer: If you recognise it from a fandom, I probably don't own it. That includes the world of The Matrix, all its characters and the concepts it entails. The idea of the Fleet and the Planetary Coalition are technically my own, but you'll probably recognise bits and pieces from various sci-fi media.

Chapter notes: Okay, I lied again. Lock is fun, Sparks is more fun, and the whole of the Logos crew together are like a party on my muse.

Part 8- Captain and Company

Dena remained sitting and staring at the front of the room long after the council had departed. She had glanced briefly over at the other table, where Sparks was having a rather heated one-sided debate with a blank-faced Ghost and Niobe was speaking to Lock. That interaction intrigued Dena somewhat and she strained her ears to eavesdrop on their conversation.

'You know, if someone had told me yesterday that I'd have heard what I just heard coming out of your mouth, I'd have laughed in their face,' Niobe was saying to the commander. 'You really believe in her, don't you?'

'It's not a question of belief, Niobe,' Lock countered easily. 'She doesn't come to me with ideas and dreams. She comes with schematics and flight plans. I told you once that I don't care about dreams or ideals, I care about keeping this city and everyone in it safe from those machines. This is the best way yet I've heard of doing it.'

'Well you've surprised me, Jason, and that's no lie. In fact you've done more than surprise me. You've impressed me.' Without further comment Niobe walked over to where Dena was sitting.

'That was some hard-sell, Captain.'

Dena looked up at her and smiled.

'You know, somehow a plain thank you seems a little lacking.'

'I said you can have my ship for this thing,' Niobe said. 'But that's on one condition- you keep my baby safe up there, you hear me? After seeing what you did to that last crate you landed- if landed's the word- you're lucky I'm letting you within a hundred miles of the Logos.'

'Actually I was wondering if you'd like to come along and keep an eye on her yourself,' Dena said without batting an eyelid. 'I'll need a copilot. Someone who can navigate that maze of tunnels out there, get to the surface so I can get her into orbit.' At an incredulous stare she grinned. 'Commander Lock tells me you're the best pilot on this rock. Since he's never seen me in action in a Makauly fighter I'll forgive him that for now, but his word's good enough for me and you'll sure know your own ship better than I do.'

'You want me to fly her to the surface so you can take her orbital?' Niobe folded her arms and ran her tongue around the inside of her bottom lip thoughtfully. 'That's one hell of an offer, Captain.'

'It's going to be one hell of a ride.'

'That I can believe.' She glanced back at her crew, one half of which was still engaged in a heated monologue at the other half, who looked somewhere between bored and mildly amused. Dena rose and came around the table to stand beside her.

'So what're they good for, besides the Odd Couple impersonations?'

'Ghost's a gunner. Best I've ever seen.'

'There's not going to be much to shoot at in orbit.'

'He runs copilot for me sometimes. Knows how I work, can anticipate my moves on a run. Plus he knows how the squids think. How to avoid them, not just shoot them down. Sparks…he's our operator on hacks. He's fast, smart, a little neurotic. And he knows every circuit on the Logos inside out.' Niobe's gaze slid sideways to meet Dena's, a new slyness to it. 'How much of a crew are we going to need?'

'I'd say about four,' Dena replied in a similar vein, and was rewarded with a furtive smile.

'So will they be worth bringing along?'

'If they know the ship. And your word's good enough for me, Captain.'

Niobe winked at her and moved off.

'I'll get right on it.'

The next morning Dena had to paused at the bottom of the Logos' hatchway and grin to herself at the three-way shouting match that was going on. She'd already guessed at the somewhat informal structure of the chain of command in Zion, but this just took the biscuit.

'Are out of your goddamned mind? Not only are you giving her the ship, you're going with her to get your brains sucked out by her little green man-eating buddies from planet Mars!'

'Humanity achieved space travel before the war and nothing bad ever came of it.'

'Oh yeah, like nothing bad ever came of AI either- remember that one?'

'This is completely different.'

'How is it different? Okay, so she's from space. That's great. And now she's stuck here. I bleed for her, I really do. But for some reason I don't feel the need to jump on the bandwagon with everyone else after this goddamned lunatic-' at this point Dena actually came up onto the main deck and the entire tirade ceased as neatly as if a switch had been flipped. Niobe and Ghost both looked as though they were struggling not to laugh, and Sparks was absently rubbing the back of his neck as he examined a dangling power coupling, affecting an air of total innocence.

'Good morning, Captain Reese,' Niobe said pleasantly.

'Good morning to you, Captain Niobe,' Dena replied, equally pleasant. 'You know my old flight instructor at the Academy used to tell me that if you treat your ship like a lady she'll always bring you home.' She gave Sparks a dry look. 'If you treat this ship how you treat the ladies you know, buddy, it's a wonder you've still got a full set of functioning limbs.'

Niobe laughed and waved a hand at the oriental man.

'Captain Reese, this is Ghost, first mate and gunner. Lieutenant Charming here is Sparks, our operator.'

Ghost had a firm but brief handshake. Sparks just gave her a glare.

'We've met,' he said in a stony tone, then pointed an accusatory finger at her. 'I knew I should have just drop-kicked you down the lift shaft the second I saw you poking around the pads. I knew it!'

'Deadbolt gave her the run of the dock yesterday, Sparks,' Ghost intoned pedantically. 'You'd have only gotten yourself thrown in the stockade.'

'Yeah, well that'd be better than this.'

Dena rolled her eyes.

'Well, did you put the proposal to your crew, Captain Niobe?'

'That was what the shouting was about,' Niobe said with a small smile.

'And?' Dena asked.

'Chance to go orbital?' Ghost said. 'You can count me in.' She laughed.

'Oh, you're a gunner all right. They're the same everywhere. What about you, Sparky?'

He gave her a filthy look and a derisive snort.

'I think that was a no,' Niobe said helpfully.

'We're still going to need an operator,' Ghost pointed out.

'That we are.' Niobe cocked her head slightly and Dena kept quiet, seeing two experts about to set a bait. 'I suppose we'll need a volunteer from another ship.'

'What about Jinks from the Fernando?' Ghost suggested. 'He's fast. And he'd be crazy enough to-'

'Jinks?' Sparks exploded. 'That pod-born, pencil-necked, wet-eared, wet-bedded little shit?' He started towards Ghost, waving a finger in front of the smaller man's nose. 'You let that scummy little bastard anywhere near my circuit boards and I will string you up-'

'They ain't your circuit boards any more, mister,' Niobe put in neatly. 'Unless you want to keep 'em, of course, in which case your circuit boards are going orbital and they sure ain't waiting for you.'

He hesitated and then narrowed one eye at her in a near-comical squint of annoyance that Dena found very amusing indeed.

'You know, Niobe, blackmail's a nasty word.'

'I happen to think blackmail's a great word,' Niobe replied nonchalantly. 'Right up there with gullible.'

'Fine. Whatever.' He looked elsewhere, but the scowl vanished and was replaced instead with an expression of mild anger that bordered on disgust. Niobe grinned at Dena.

'Okay, so we got a crew. And an operator. Now what?'

'Now we start playing mechanic.' Dena pulled open the scale plans of the Logos she'd appropriated multiple copies of and, with Ghost's assistance, laid the one of the main level out on the deck. 'I'm afraid you might shed some tears if you're the sentimental type, because for a start we're mostly gutting her interior. All this-' she waved a hand to indicate the ectochairs and coding screens '-all the hacking equipment, the core, everything, has to go. Most of this deck is going to be housing the energy storage cells and believe me those babies aren't small. We're going to be stripping the engine room of the electro-cells for the repulsor-pads and replacing it with a new energy converter that can give us the juice we need to get through the ionosphere. The cargo bay is going to be air tanks and more cell storage. Outside the pads are coming off and we're going to do some pretty unspeakable things to get nacelles out of 'em, that'll give this baby her lift. After that we coat her top to tail in hull sealant, the recipe for which I handed to the Commander and I have his assurances that plenty of bodies will be cooking up for us. And on top of all that, we got this to think about.' Straightening up again, Dena pulled out the magnetic chrono she'd set and slapped it onto a central bulkhead where it was clearly visible.

'What's that?' Sparks asked.

'Time limit,' Niobe said quietly. Dena nodded.

'We got a two day launch window just over seven months from now. If we don't make orbit within that forty-eight hour period we'll miss the Prospector and that's game over. There's no way, even from orbit, to contact Phobos base or anywhere else there's people. There isn't a transmitter on this planet that could do it.'

There was a long pause. Then Niobe crouched down and began to inspect the notations Dena had made on the schematics spread over the deck.

'So I guess we'd better be ready when that forty-eight hour period comes up,' she said in a tone that brooked no argument. Then one finger jabbed out towards the engine room and a note there. 'Now tell me about this energy converter of yours…'