Tennokiken Voyagers: Five
"I'm not quite sure where to begin," Kelly said quietly, the blonde's green eyes focused out a viewport, "I've got a lot of questions."
The two women sat in the Captain's mess, a small room that was just off the main mess hall. While the Venture wasn't the largest vessel in the fleet, certain traditions in shipbuilding were still maintained. So along with all the military equipment a few luxuries were maintained, such as the Captain's mess, a crew lounge and other features.
"I don't know all the story myself," Isis acknowledged, the artificial being looking towards where Kelly stood fondly, "but I'll try."
"The last time I saw you," Kelly hesitated as she went over to sit across from Isis, her expression pained, "we had just shut you down because of the cascade failure..."
Isis nodded, picking up a coffee cup. "I remember that time," she said softly, "especially you, Mother. You watched over me, took care of me, not like the other ones."
"Yes, well...," Kelly blushed.
"According to records I accessed after I was revived, after my shutdown I was put into storage while several factions within Fleet fought over me," Isis said calmly. "After nearly a year it was decided to ship me to the Science Academy, in the hopes they might be able to determine what went wrong. It was at that time I first encountered Siobhan," she smiled.
Kelly raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"
"Apparently Shane and Sylvie felt that it was rather urgent that they get Siobhan away from Fleet medical," Isis said, "so they... appropriated a Fleet transport to get them all out of there. The one I was on, as it turns out."
"Appropriated," Kelly smirked, "you mean stole." She shook her head and said with a frown, "I wonder why I didn't hear about it?"
"I would suspect Fleet didn't want to publicize a officer absconding with one of their vessels," Isis said dryly. She sat back, "They discovered me in the ship's storage bay and to keep Siobhan busy they gave her me to work on."
"And she found out what I did wrong and fixed you?" Kelly asked softly.
Isis shook her head firmly, "You didn't do anything wrong!" At Kelly's startled look she continued, "Siobhan found evidence of sabotage."
"What?" Kelly jerked up in surprise.
Isis nodded. "Siobhan found a module that had been implanted in my core," she said simply, "clearly an add-on, that she discovered had triggered the cascade failures. One she removed it she did a full restart and brought me back on-line."
Kelly got up from her seat, pacing the small room, "It makes a certain kind of sense." She ran a hand through her blonde hair, "I was pressured to activate you as soon as possible, probably because whomever wanted to have the failure happen quickly." She clenched a fist and punched a bulkhead, "Damn it, I should have known!"
Isis jumped to her feet, grasping the now bleeding hand. "You did everything you could Mother," she cradled the injured hand, "I'm certain of it."
Over on the bridge Rio smiled slightly, "Lieutenant Wisner, I'd like you to meet our guests Shane and Sylvie."
"Sir, ma'am," Dan shook both of their hands then turned to Rio questioningly, "Are you here to relieve me, Ma'am?"
"Not quite yet," Rio said. She dropped her voice to add, "The Captain's asked me to nurse-maid there two for a bit."
"Hi there," Lucille beamed, the light brown haired woman nodding to them from her communication's station.
Both Ensign Ai and Eiko introduced themselves from the tactical and navigation stations, the officers taking in the oddly dressed guests. The black jumpsuits were simply designed, carrying a skull and crossbones emblem on the shoulder as well as being marked with a brightly colored strip just below it, Shane's red and Sylvie's blue.
"Are those rank insignia?" Ai asked curiously.
"It relates to the departments we're attached to," Shane shrugged, "red is command and security, blue is for medical and sciences and gold is engineering."
"Not a bad idea," Rio admitted, adjusting her royal blue Fleet uniform.
"Siobhan swiped it from an old holodrama," Sylvie confided with a grin.
Rio smiled slightly as she remembered something. She looked over at Dan, "Apparently Shane here is the best pilot in the sector."
Dan raised an eyebrow, "That's quite a boast."
"My captain's been known to exaggerate," Shane said dryly.
"Maybe we can arrange a little contest," Rio said with a mischievous gleam to her eyes, "to find out who is the best."
Dan and Shane exchanged a long glance at that, both men almost instantly realizing that they were going to be in trouble.
Over in the mess hall Jesse and Siobhan sat in reasonable privacy, cups of steaming coffee sitting in front of them. Siobhan picked it up with her left hand, the cybernetics visible as she took a drink. She sighed happily, "You remembered how I like it."
"I wouldn't forget," Jesse said softly, her dark blonde hair falling into her eyes. She took a drink of her own coffee, "How could you disappear like that?" She looked up from her cup, tears glistening in her eyes, "I thought you died!"
"I'm sorry about that," Siobhan said softly, the woman dressed in black placing her right hand on Jesse's own, "but I couldn't tell you, not when it could have gotten you hurt." She paused before adding, "Or even killed."
Jesse narrowed her eyes, her voice dropping to a whisper as she said, "So it was an attempt on your life, the accident at Drydock."
"No accident," Siobhan said grimly, "that was just the cover story. I was hurt trying to disarm an explosive device that was planted near the fusion core."
"Donovan," Jesse growled out angrily, only to be surprised by a gentle shake of Siobhan's head. "But she hated you," Jesse blurted.
"It was too obvious," Siobhan said grimly, " Victoria Donovan may be a back stabber, but you rarely know she's putting the knife in until it's too late." She sat back with a sigh, "I think I was targeted because of irregularities I spotted in parts and equipment invoices."
"Someone tried to kill you for that?" Jesse blinked.
"When you consider it was weapons shipments and battleship parts," Siobhan said calmly, "it might be more understandable."
"That's why you needed to get out of Fleet medical so fast," Jesse was nodding slightly, "you didn't know who had taken a shot at you or if they'd try again." She looked over at the metal hand, then up towards Siobhan's cybereye, "But why...?"
Siobhan took another drink of her coffee, putting the cup down. "I have the bad luck to be part of the small percentage of the population that can't use regeneration technologies," she said softly, "so we had to go looking for another solution."
"I'm sorry," Jesse sighed, "I didn't know."
"I didn't tell you," Siobhan corrected her, "because I knew you would have worked yourself twice as had trying to keep me out of trouble."
"You know me too well," Jesse chuckled softly.
Siobhan got up out of her chair with a liquid grace, pulling Jesse up to enclose her in a gentle hug. "You have no idea how good it is to have my best fried back," she said softly.
Jesse winced, though Siobhan didn't see it as she echoed, "Best friend."
The door to the Captain's mess slid open, Kelly and Isis emerging together. Siobhan reluctantly released Jesse to turn towards the approaching Captain. "So how are things between you and my tactical officer?" she asked.
"Good," Kelly said. She hesitated, then met Siobhan's eyes to say, "I understand I owe you my thanks for the restoration of Isis."
"You're welcome," Siobhan just nodded, but a slight smile teased her lips.
"Let's get our people together," Kelly said calmly, "I understand you have a space station you wanted us to visit."
Tennokiken Voyagers: Six
Kelly settled down into her command chair, the blonde watching the image in the bridge's main viewscreen as the shuttle docked with the Revenge. "Dan, did you get the insertion coordinates?" the blonde captain asked, not taking her eyes away from the view.
"Programmed into the helm," Dan agreed. The brown haired ship's navigator looked over at Rio beside him, silently asking her a question.
"When we emerge," Rio said from her seat at the tactical station, "can we have weapons ready?" The black haired woman quickly added in explanation, "Just in case the raiders have found Siobhan's station, of course."
"Or in case Siobhan is pulling a fast one," Lucille calmly noted. The communication's officer smiled to herself slightly, her light brown hair pulled up under one of her many battered hats, "You're consistent, anyway."
The Revenge began to move, shifting it's position as it prepared to go into hyperspace. "Keep the weapons down," Kelly said firmly, "but scanners on long range. If there is a surprise when we emerge, we'll have a chance to spot it."
"Got it," Rio agreed.
Jesse frowned slightly at that, but she didn't say anything. The light brown, nearly blonde young woman knew that Siobhan wouldn't betray the Fleet, it just wasn't in her nature. Still, the others didn't know Siobhan like she did, so she could certainly understand their being cautious. 'I just hope it doesn't last,' Jesse thought.
There was a shifting distortion all around the Revenge as it accessed the fabric of space-time, then shifted from this reality into the other realm of hyperspace. "Let's not keep them waiting," Kelly said after a moment.
"Right," Jesse spoke up softly, monitoring the engine room closely from her station, "Drives are all operating normally."
Dan pressed a few keys on the navigation station, the oval ship moved forward smoothly, resembling a thick metallic plate with an opening at the back for the vessel's drive exhaust. Placed around the outer edge of the Venture were various weapons modules, communications systems, and beneath the hull plating itself were the shield emitters. Along the bottom of the Venture were hatches, designed to deploy landing vessels and other transport.
The Venture moved smoothly, lining up to an almost invisible distortion in the fabric of space left by the Revenge's passage. There was an odd feeling on the bridge as the engine's functions shifted slightly. Deep within the ship a unique energy field was being generated, one that was designed to interact with the singularity now before them.
"Go," Kelly said crisply.
The Venture shot forward as Dan and Jessie each activated their systems. They intersected with the distortion, reality itself shifted all around them, there was a sudden dropping sensation and they were moving through hyperspace, traveling at several times the speed of light.
"Picking up the wake of the Revenge just ahead of us," Rio reported with a scowl, "it's far more powerful than a ship of it's size should produce."
"Jesse?" Kelly asked calmly.
"When I worked with her I found Siobhan Ward to be a very good engineer," Jesse said to them calmly, a bit of admiration in her voice as she continued, "if it's at all possible to get additional performance out of an engine, she'd find a way to do it."
"Not that it's something you would ever do, of course," Lucille said to Jesse with an impish little smile on her face.
Jesse snorted softly in amusement. No ship's engineer followed the book religiously, they all tinkered with the engines a bit to get just a little more power out of them. Not to mention the other ship's primary systems...
"We won't be in transit long," Dan reported, "according to the data we received. We should be returning to normal space in less than half an hour."
"Thanks," Kelly smiled. she noticed Rio giving her a thoughtful look and nodded for the woman to leave her station, "Yes?"
"You haven't gone off shift for nearly half a day," Rio said quietly, "you might want to catch some sleep before we get to Siobhan's station."
"I'm fine," Kelly said, then stopped. Lack of sleep could slow an officer down, impede their judgment. She met Rio's concerned eyes and nodded. "Rio, you have the bridge," Kelly rose from her seat, "call me once the Revenge returns to normal space."
"Ma'am," Rio threw her a crisp salute as Kelly walked off the bridge.
Kelly shook her head, riding the lift for a few seconds before she reached her level. She strode down the corridor to her quarters, palmprint keying the door open. Inside it looked like the home of a scientist, not a commander, artifacts of various types scattered about. Textbooks partially read, papers, and many other items covered the main table that she passed to her bedroom.
'God, I am tired,' Kelly admitted to herself as she flopped down on the bed, uniform still on. 'Just a little nap,' she thought, already drifting off.
Rio sat in the command chair, her replacement Ai sitting in the tactical station. The woman checked the station carefully,. not assuming Rio had left things as normal and Rio smiled in approval. Ai did her job well, even with the smiles she was throwing Dan.
"Jesse," Rio looked over her shoulder to where the engineer sat, "what sort of capabilities do you think the Revenge has?"
"Tactically, you mean?" Jesse asked. She shook her head, "It's hard to say, considering the patchwork construction of the ship. I'd guess powerful energy batteries, and we saw missiles in use when they took on the raiders."
"That's about what I figured," Rio agreed. She smiled slightly, "I wasn't sure what sort of answer you'd give...."
"Rio," Lucille blurted, but Jesse held up a hand to stop her.
"Siobhan Ward is my friend," Jesse said evenly, "but I'm also an officer of the Fleet. I'll do my job professionally, you can count on that."
"Right," Rio nodded, meeting Jesse's eyes.
"If it comes to the point I can't do my job professionally," Jesse added, "I'll resign first."
"Hopefully we're all on the same side," Dan spoke up from the navigation station, "so that possibility won't come up."
Rio smiled wryly, "Hopefully."
"Nicely done," Ai whispered to Dan softly.
Dan blushed slightly, "Thanks."
Ai frowned as her station beeped softly and she bent down to check her sensor readings. "Possible reemergence into normal space," Ai reported.
"Confirming," Dan turned the more powerful navigation sensors to the job, nodding thoughtfully. "The Revenge had dropped into normal space," Dan reported.
"Prepare to bring us back into normal space," Rio ordered. She pressed a key on the command chair's arm, "Captain Miles to the bridge, Miles to the bridge."
Kelly jerked up on her bed, shaking her head. She reached for the inhaler beside her bed, putting it into her mouth then hitting the switch. A powerful stimulant vapor rushed into her mouth and right through her skin, racing through her blood stream into her brain.
'I hate that stuff,' Kelly thought as she rushed out of her quarters, straightening out her uniform and running a hand through her hair, 'but I can't risk drowsiness on the bridge.' She rode the lift up, tasking a few relaxing breaths, then arrived at the bridge her usual self.
Rio didn't wait for the order to come, she reported the situation as she got up out of the command chair, "We've detected the Revenge returning to normal space and we'll be dropping out of hyperspace in a few seconds."
"Understood," Kelly slipped into her seat, feeling the ship rumble as the drives shifted their function. Ai surrendered her space to Rio, giving Dan a fleeting smile as she left the bridge. 'Wonder when Dan will finally ask her out?' Kelly mused.
"Prepare to reenter normal space," Kelly said to the bridge calmly, "in five."
"Five.. four.." Jessie counted down at her engineering station as she continued the process of reconfiguring the ship's drives, "three.. two.." There was a subtle rumble in the hull, the entire ship shifting slightly beneath them.
"One!" Dan had his hands on the control surfaces as the stars finally reappeared outside the ship. He looked up at the viewscreen then froze, gazing in surprise at what awaited them.
"Is that... the space station?" Lucille whispered in surprise.
To be continued...