Leung
Pathfinder
28 June
"We can't do it that way, Neil. We've gone over this a hundred times. We can't kill anyone," Commander Teach said to the young astrogation officer. "We have to maintain the moral high ground."
As usual, I let Teach take the lead. He always seemed to have a better handle on the kid than I could ever hope for. Usually, I just wanted to beat the kid senseless and leave him in an alley somewhere, but we were far too committed to indulge myself that way.
It sure would be nice, though.
"We need to be sure that he can't stop us. Some of the crew will follow him. You've seen how some of them are with him. And Chowdhury scares me," Lamont said with a shiver. "If she thinks there is a chance to 'save' him she will move heaven and earth to do it. He needs to be beyond saving. All we need to do is make it look like an accident."
I shook my head. They had been having this same argument every day for the last three weeks. "Neil, we have made our plan. It is already in motion. We will have control of the ship the day after tomorrow. We set him down on A3 and that is the end of it. Most won't even know anything has happened."
"You don't really believe that, do you? He hardly ever leaves the bridge now, so the bridge crew will know. They won't keep it quiet unless they are all gone, too," he said with that condescending sneer that colored all of his interactions with others, officer or crew. Sometimes, I really hate this snot, I thought to myself.
I looked around Teach's quarters again as I silently counted to ten. I was struck once more by how empty it always looked. When I reached ten, I moved on to twenty. It didn't help. I still wanted to kill them both. Okay, maybe just hurt them some.
Teach and Lamont had just come off duty on the bridge and Lamont was all worked up about some imagined slight that he had gotten from the captain. "Just tell me that you got the communication logs cleared of those incoming transmissions," I said, trying to head off another tirade. "If Brighton or Chowdhury see those, we're done for."
Teach cut in, "I don't know why they had to risk another communication at this late date. They didn't actually change our meeting, or give us anything new."
I responded, "They just wanted reassurance that we were still on schedule, I think."
"Yeah, they're clear," Lamont said, answering the original question, then seemed to hesitate. He peered up with his face turned half away. "I'm not sure that they're completely clean, though," he added in a near mumble.
"What does that mean?" Teach exploded.
"He caught me with a course correction while I was trying to clean the log, and I had to dump the whole thing. It's gone but I don't know whether there are other traces." He sounded like a little kid trying to get his explanation out in a rush so that he could get it over with.
"For crying out loud, Neil, you said that you could pull this off without a trace."
"I sure didn't get any help from you up there, did I?" Lamont said, standing and leaning into Teach's glare. "You could have at least pulled his attention off of me for a few minutes. You know that those files can only be accessed from the bridge, so you also knew I had to be busy with them when he started shouting. This is just as much your fault as mine."
"That is enough!" I yelled, to head off the testosterone buildup I could see developing. "The walls aren't that thick here. Keep it down. Do you want Chowdhury down here to see what's going on?"
They both stopped in mid-yell and turned to look at me. They were both emotional and volatile. This was the reason that they had each been amenable to my plan. It also made them each a royal pain to work with. If I had my preference, I would have shoved them both out the airlock and moved on without a second thought, but I truly had no choice. I needed both of them to make this work.
It was fairly easy to motivate Teach with the promise of finally getting out from under Brighton's shadow, and the kid didn't need any extra motivation once he thought Brighton had demeaned him.
"That is enough," I repeated in a quieter tone. "Sit down, both of you, and let's figure out where to go from here. It doesn't matter how we got here, let's deal with it."
"We can't kill anyone. Nobody," Teach repeated, as if the last few minutes of conversation and confrontation had never taken place.
"That is a given," I said. "But Neil is right, too. We need to find a way to neutralize him."
"And we already know the best way to do that," Lamont said with determination as he stood and left the compartment.
I followed him to the door and turned back to Teach. "It looks like we're not going to get anything decided right now. I've got to check Engineering. Get some rest. We still have two days to figure things out. I'll see if I can talk to Neil after he cools off." With that, I turned and left also.
Once in my office in Engineering, I started checking logs. At least, that is what I intended to do. While Lamont was right, the logs could only be edited from the bridge, I had access to view them from my office. When I went to do that, the computer would not let me in. No denial, no message, just--no logs.
Brighton was on to us. He had to be. There was no other explanation for him locking me out of the system. I could probably expect a visit from Chowdhury any minute.
I knew what we had to do. I grabbed some of my engineering mates and headed back to Teach's compartment. My Engineering crew was all in on our plan. They knew the score. That was one advantage of being the head of the department and able to screen and select my own crew.
I sent McIntire, Green, Trendle, and Morales to grab Sheli Chowdhury. Chowdhury was our security officer and she was extremely good at her job. Lamont was right to be scared of her. Truthfully, so was I. While not physically impressive at a slim 180 cm, she had a dominating, confident presence that radiated a lightly leashed menace. If anyone could disrupt our plan, she would. I began to wonder if four crewmen would be enough.
After warning Teach and leaving him two crewmen, we split up again. Teach headed to the bridge to take control there. I already had engineering under control so it was time to start rounding up those who were out of the loop. I sent Biltcliffe and Giannini to secure the aft weapons locker. Then I detailed Chin, Danis, Bezates and De Saumserez to start bringing all off-watch crew to the boat bay. Teach had said that he would take care of the forward weapons locker. Martin Terry I instructed to find Lamont and ask him to meet me in Engineering.
It wasn't supposed to go this way. The plan had been to neutralize Brighton quietly and then operate from a position of authority. Teach was second in command. If Brighton could not be found, the ship fell to Teach. But now we were scrambling. Brighton had the bridge. Teach would have to take control there by force. The cat would truly be out of the bag.
As I went, I was passed by three more of my engineering crew running by with pistols.
"Where are you going?" I yelled to Chandler.
"Chowdhury," was all she said, and she never stopped running. Neither did Young or Goesch. I wondered if she was running to help or running away. With Chowdhury involved, it could be either one.
What a mess, I thought.
Then it got worse.
I walked into Engineering, but Terry and Lamont were nowhere to be seen. The ship is not that large, I thought. It shouldn't have taken more than a few minutes to locate the wayward lieutenant and direct him here.
Then the floor shook, and I was thrown against the bulkhead. I shook away the cobwebs and instantly regretted my action. Pain flashed through my head and my hand came away bloody when I probed the source of the pain.
What a sorry mess.
That felt like the lifeboats launching. If Brighton was that far ahead of us, we were in serious trouble.
I went to Lamont's quarters to find him. No luck there. I kept moving forward along the starboard corridor until it branched back toward the central corridor to the bridge. I could hear a large party moving aft and Teach's voice could be heard shouting orders to all and sundry. I turned to follow the port corridor down the other side of the ship. Still no luck.
When he wasn't in Engineering, I had expected to see him in the middle of the action that he had been eagerly anticipating for so long, but the action had quieted and he still had not surfaced.
At the corridor junction, I ran into Terry, who admitted that he had not seen any trace of our missing lieutenant, either.
What a stinking, sorry mess.
As neither of us had checked the boat bay, we continued aft.
We entered to a strange scene. Teach was pacing back and forth in front of a large group that included all of the officers who were not a part of our cabal, except that skinny ensign, what's his name. Our five ensigns had only recently joined the ship's complement, and I still couldn't keep them straight. Teach was screaming and cursing and waving his pistol at everyone. Great.
I moved over behind him and tried to get his attention. He ignored everyone around him and, if anything, got more agitated. Finally, I told Terry and Danis to grab him and get the gun away from him. They did so and he immediately went back to his tirade as if he hadn't even noticed.
I took the gun and pocketed it. I detailed Terry and Chandler to watch him and I resumed my search for Lamont.
What a filthy, stinking, sorry mess.
I kept moving forward to the bridge. Lamont could be there inputting our new course. If Teach had Brighton under control, there was no sense continuing to move in the wrong direction.
The bridge was locked. I input my code and the doors opened. I re-locked it behind me and changed the codes. I didn't trust Teach to hold onto Brighton or any of the others, and for all I knew, Chowdhury could get loose and come for me.
I sat down at the helm amid flashing red lights. All of the panels were dead. I got up and went to the captain's chair and began to input the overrides. Nothing changed. I was still locked out, even from here.
Another jolt to the ship caused me to stumble as I moved over to the communications console. A side screen came alive, showing Vanguard launching. At least we still had some way to get him off of the ship, I thought to myself.
Maybe Teach's codes would still work. Perhaps Brighton had still trusted him enough to leave his codes alone. Not likely, the way our luck was running. If not, we would need codes from Teach, Lamont, and me to be able to get past the lockout.
What a bloody, filthy, stinking, sorry mess.
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