Pathfinder
28 June
When I realized that it was my watch, I took a careful survey of my surroundings. Elle Williams had the helm under the somewhat dubious guidance of Ensign Monica Samuels. While Ms. Samuels was technically "Officer of the Deck", I retained all control and was the only rated bridge officer on this watch. Ms. Samuels was learning quickly and would likely receive a favorable review at the conclusion of this deployment. While her conduct was not exemplary, it certainly was above standard. Seeing that everything was operating smoothly, I returned to my investigation.
I had concluded that there were only six people on the ship who had the knowledge and expertise to have modified the logs. Disabling the command privileges of the officers concerned only took a few moments. I moved to the astrogation console to take care of that task, and to continue my investigation. While I would never have suspected Edward Teach of any complicity in the falsifying of records, I was forced, by regulations, to disable his privileges also. Any other action would have been unthinkable. I would not circumvent regulations for friendship and Eddie would not expect me to do so.
With their codes locked out, those officers could still move freely through the ship and operate any equipment and have access to all areas, but the computer would no longer accept any changes from them, nor give them access to any programs or logs. This function was completely separate from the so called piracy protocols designed to protect the ship from outsiders. The code lockouts could only be put into place by the captain or the first officer by inputting the proper codes, while the piracy protocols could be executed by any officer from any of the bridge stations by pushing a single "capped" button after the system was activated. As I moved to the astrogation console, I uncapped that button and began to activate the system, just in case.
I doubted that I would need it, but with the evidence I was uncovering, it paid to give myself that option. I did not know who the guilty party or parties might be, or what their intentions were. Who knew what information the conspirators had been trying to hide? If they, whoever "they" were, had something planned, then it could hit at any time now that we had jumped into the Antoc system. And the most obvious thing that they would be planning was to help themselves to a now proven prototype ship. The potential rewards could be staggering. Any of the other spacegoing Families would pay handsomely for such a coup. It was even possible that one of the other Families would use the ship to begin their own reach into space. This was the eventuality that Admiral Cosina had warned me about when he gave me command of this ship. Major Chowdhury and I had tried to cover all of the possibilities that we could envision, but with the completion of the jump, most scenarios had changed.
The Families were something of a recent development in the history of the world. Wealth has always gone hand in hand with control in most political states. Sometimes the control is open and overt, as in most monarchies, and sometimes it is less evident but no less real. The history of the current Families Government has elements of both. Although they no longer operate from behind the scenes, that is how they began. The term 'Families' was something of a misnomer in that they were in fact corporations with little or no familial relationship to each other or to the other Family groups. The seventeen current Families control nearly 95 percent of the world's wealth, but they began as small, self-contained enclaves within the confines of established nations. After a century of competing with their mother countries, they organized a loose confederation called the Family Ruling Council. Dieter Rial, the first Chairman of the Family Ruling Council had been ruthless and tolerated no compromise with the other governments. Within a century, they were the de facto rulers of the world, accomplishing with money what no dictator had been able to accomplish by force of arms. Many territorial nations still existed, but they held only a shadow of their former prominence.
While the Warner Family is one of the four wealthiest families, it has exerted very little in the way of governing power within the Ruling Council, preferring to concentrate on economic and scientific expansion instead. The Warner, Portales, Sterling, and Fermi Families, in truth, controlled all of the planets outside of the Sol system. The Forrest, Norcross, DaGama and Seligman Families were making some headway into space but were forced to play catch up to those who were already established. If some of these Families could gain access to any JP without having to control the gateway system, they would be able to colonize at will and support those rogue colonies with ease.
If another Family was trying to jumpstart their own expansion capabilities, the addition of Pathfinder would be a monumental advancement to those ends.
Major Chowdhury and I had discussed the possibility of someone attempting to take Pathfinder. We had evaluated the existing protocols for their effectiveness in defending against emergencies such as this particular scenario.
It is also true that emergencies could happen on ships in space at any time. That is why there are plans in place to help us work through those situations and not be required to make all decisions cold. It is also why the piracy protocols were put into place. The Warner Family wanted to protect its shipping from pirates by making sure that there were fail-safes in place to disable the ship and thus deny the pirates of their prize. While they don't always work as planned, at least there is a plan in place.
For Pathfinder, the protocols were much more involved than they were on other ships. They disabled the astrogation computer, cut contact to engineering, severed power to the engines, and locked out all computer access to anyone without bridge officer's codes.
The purpose was to make the ship unmanageable to the pirates. They were supposed to move on to easier prey. This was sometimes hard on the crews who received the brunt of the frustrated pirates' attention, but the pirates soon learned to avoid Warner ships.
While viciousness had never really been a part of my nature, I felt that I needed to do something extra to protect my ship. The thought of criminals in control of Pathfinder nearly sent me into a rage. The conspirators, if they were indeed crew, might find a way to disable the piracy protocols and a backup would be necessary. The protocols could be disabled either by me or any combination of three bridge officers working together. I accessed the astrogation controls and added a personal lockout. This was keyed to my personal codes and only I could disable it. To that lockout, I added other measures.
First, I set the lifeboats to be ejected if the protocols were activated. These would be the only method that the conspirators would have to move large groups off of the ship. Next, I set the astrogation computer to overload and burn out if someone managed to regain computer control and tried to alter the course settings that were established in the memory lockout file. I slaved all of these precautions to the protocol button so that they would be activated automatically with the standard protocols. I could not do as good a job of disabling the ship as the protocols, but it would certainly fry the astrogation computer and sever all command functions.
I had barely finished double-checking my work when the bridge doors swung open and two crewmen jumped through holding pistols. I did not hesitate. I slapped the protocol button to my right and began the sequence that would set in motion the extra precautions. The Navy-designed piracy protocols performed as intended and the system went dead at my command. The bridge watch came out of their seats at the sudden intrusion. Then, my best friend came in behind Kasdorf and Morrison, holding a pistol and directing the actions of the crewmen.
Disbelief warred with fury and betrayal inside me and I fought to keep all three from my face. I stood by the chair I had just been occupying and his eyes turned to me. There was no friendship in them now. There was only anger and intensity.
"Everyone sit back down," he said, just as the ship was rocked by the small explosions that indicated that the lifeboats had ejected on schedule.
He stood there and looked at me. Indecision showed plainly on his face. He had not expected the explosions and was unsure both of their importance and what his response should be.
"I said to sit down, Captain," he repeated finally, and waved his gun at my watch crew. They all resumed their seats, but I could not bring myself to respond in any way to his orders. I just folded my arms across my chest and continued to try to figure a way out of this for myself and my crew. At this point, there was no way out of this for my friend.
"What was that noise?" he asked me as he moved over to stand in front of me. The intensity in his eyes was more pronounced up close. Equally noticeable was the smell of fear and desperation that surrounded him. My anger kept me from answering him. If I said the things that were in my mind at this point, it would provoke him into actions that could not be taken back. He was clearly on the edge.
Having received no answer from me, he turned to my bridge crew. "I am taking command of this ship. All officers and crew who wish to stay on the ship will be welcomed and receive the respect and treatment that they deserve. I will no longer allow the kind of abuse and harassment that has been the norm under the previous command," he said.
Anger welled up inside me at his words. Who was this person standing in front of me? It was evident that this was not my friend. Our friendship had been a sham, a charade. I saw the thrill in his face as he realized that he had wounded me deeply, and my hand struck out and attempted to remove the smugness from his face. He staggered back a step and I realized what I had done. I was risking the lives of all my crew for momentary satisfaction. I stepped back to the AO console. Maybe I could protect my crew by drawing the attention more fully to myself. Once I reached the chair I turned to the others on the bridge.
"Take no immediate action. Do as you're instructed. Loyal members of the crew will no doubt be here soon to collect these misguided lunatics," I said to the three watch standers at their controls. They seemed to relax as they received their instructions, but Teach seemed to swell with rage as I took an active role against him for the second time. I had pulled the command back from him and, as I had planned, refocused his attention on me. His next words clearly indicated that he had guessed my intentions.
"You are no longer in a position to give any orders on my bridge, Willy," he said, using the nickname that my mother had used.
"Ms. Williams, you will set a course to Antoc-A3," he said to the helmswoman. She never made any response. I had tried to shield her and the others, and she was bringing that attention back onto herself. Surely she could see how truly close to the edge he was. She was putting her life in danger for no reason. The controls were now locked and she would be unable to follow his order. The show of defiance was completely unnecessary.
"Did you hear the order, Ms. Williams?"
"I heard some noise come out of your mouth, but I haven't heard any orders. Orders come from the captain," she said, with more emotion than I would have guessed at.
I was watching Teach closely, so I saw him begin to swing his pistol around. I moved to grab him before he could fire. I hadn't realized that one of the crewmen with Teach had moved around behind me until I felt the butt of his pistol explode into the back of my head. It hadn't been hard enough to knock me down, but he immediately followed it up by grabbing and holding me. To my ultimate regret, I was disoriented enough that I never even thought to make a grab for his gun. I was more concerned with Ms. Williams and I forever missed my best opportunity to halt this takeover before it really got started. I turned to find that she had thrown herself out of her chair and away from the trajectory of the darts. Edward had not fired again, even though she lay on the deck beside her chair staring daggers at him.
Teach turned to the crewman holding me and said, "Take them down to the shuttle bay. Put the captain on one of the lifeboats and don't let him talk to anyone."
"Aye-aye, sir."
Major Sheli Chowdhury had been with me off and on for a number of years, and I knew her to be a competent and thorough security officer as well as a highly dangerous physical opponent.
The crew clearly shared my opinion of the physical danger that she represented to them. As I exited the bridge, I watched as she was marched out of the port corridor and down the central passageway in front of me. She had both hands manacled behind her back. Trendle and Green were behind her with drawn pistols trained on her head. As she went by me, I could see that her uniform was covered in blood. Her only injury seemed to be a small cut on her forehead that was bleeding. As neither of her guards was marked in any way, I assumed that they were not her original captors. I had yet to see the day when Sheli got the worst of any confrontation that she was involved in.
They were followed by Young and Chandler carrying the unconscious form of Jill Burton. I could see that she had been shot, but I could not tell if she was living or dead from the brief look I had. Beacham and Jenkins followed them with weapons drawn. Both were covered in blood. These five continued across the main walkway toward sickbay.
Similar scenes were repeated as far as I could see along the corridor, as crew and officers were being herded down to the boat bay.
Tense, angry crewmen were very much in evidence as we entered the boat bay. I was pushed in first, followed by Morrison, who had become my personal guard. I was moved over to the extreme right near lifeboat nine in the aft section of the bay. Morrison tried to undog the seal on the access hatch, intending to stow me inside, but found that it would not unseal. It was only then that he noticed the red light on the side panel indicating that the pod was no longer there.
The bay was noisy and all the rest of the crewmen and officers were moved to starboard, near the closed hatchway to lifeboat ten. They were being kept completely away from me. It seemed to be three separate groups arrayed for battle, one group at each point of a triangle. I stood in my corner, rebellious crew were close to the main corridor door blocking all three exits, and the rest of the crew in the opposite corner. I was surprised to see how small the group was near lifeboat ten. As I watched, Elle Williams moved from that group toward me. There were murmurs among the pirates, but no one moved to block her way. Drew Le Vesconte followed her after a slight hesitation. Both moved to stand next to me and glared at their captors.
As the doors opened again to admit Teach, the room quieted slightly in anticipation. He surveyed the bay and singled out Dr. Ward from the other group. Ward looked disoriented and stunned as he moved hesitantly to stand near Teach. Eddie said something to him that I could not hear. They stood and looked at each other and Ward clearly answered. Teach looked stunned, and barked some orders to Simon Chin and Ward was escorted out into the starboard corridor.
As the assistant medical officer was accompanied out of the bay, Teach seemed to collect himself and turned to address the larger group. As he did so, more crewmen and officers were pushed into the bay to join the huddled group, nearly doubling its size.
"Respect is a hard thing to earn," he said in a voice that barely reached to where I stood. "It is also impossible to live without. For the last nine months we have been working as slaves to the ambition of a heartless captain without any proper respect, recognition, or acknowledgement. That ends now!" He stood and surveyed the group as if waiting for applause. None arrived. Many of the members of the large group were looking at the three of us across the bay from them.
"Soon you will be called upon to make one of the most important decisions of your lives. Brighton will soon be sent down to a nearby planet. He will have food and water enough to support life. Those who will not acknowledge me as rightful captain of the Pathfinder are welcome to join him there. You can stay here and be free of the tyrant or you are welcome to share his meager existence. You must choose now. Those of you foolish enough to reject my generosity, please join him now. If you wish to take part in this venture as free men, stay where you are."
The officers and crew seemed unsure what to do. I found the officers within the crowd and watched them. They had obviously been caught off guard by the events of the morning and I would once have been confident in their decisions, but I still felt thrown off balance by the defection of my best friend. To hear the words that he had spoken to the group was even more stunning than the sight of him striding onto the bridge with a pistol. The vehemence and spite evident in every word was totally out of character with the man I thought I knew.
I was watching Lt. Johnson as her face went through the emotions from shock to determination. She seemed about to make a move when she was pre-empted by the bosun, Master Chief Derrick Mackey, who took two steps toward Teach and spat on the deck plates at his feet. He continued to stare at the traitor as he moved purposefully to join me. He stood in front of me and snapped a parade ground salute. Nearly two thirds of the remaining people, led by Lt. Fyonna Johnson and Major Chowdhury, quickly followed him to join us. Only nine people were left in front of Teach.
Ensign Stuart Omundson's face was a mask of indecision. He should have known where his duty lay, but he seemed unable to see it. I was disappointed.
Ensign Samuels looked pleadingly at me. She did not move. It seemed that she wanted to join us but she could not consciously choose to sentence herself to our fate. I knew that she would not have the strength to survive the ordeal to come. I looked into her eyes and nodded my agreement with her decision. She seemed to collapse into herself and cried. Amber Sullivan was sitting near her on the deck with her wide eyes darting back and forth, but she also made no move to join our group. Then, just as suddenly, Samuels was moving toward us. She grabbed Sullivan and pulled her to her feet. They had quick words and both moved to our group.
The seven who remained behind were Ensign Omundson, CWO2 Brooke Fields, WO Hilary Calvi, Asst. Quartermaster Timothy Crowson, Electronics Technician Mark Goodwin, and Crewmen Sheila Semrad and Nick McGough.
Teach sent those seven to their quarters, under guard. He then approached our group. "Each of you crewmen will be allowed to return to your quarters to grab clothing and whatever personal items that you cannot live without. You will be guarded at all times. If you come to regret your rash decision, simply inform your guards that you wish to stay and you will be allowed to remain in your quarters. All officers, security and bridge crew will remain in the boat bay."
My nine loyal technicians and crewmen departed, guarded by Brandon, Trendle, and Green.
Loyalty was something that I had always taken for granted among the crew. It was one of the things that I liked best about both the WSN and Combined Fleet. You always knew that you were a team that depended on each other to survive. Some were more worthy than others, but you could count on all to be loyal and follow the orders that they were given. That belief had been one of many to suffer abuse during the course of the last few hours. Honor was not the universal attribute that I had believed it to be.
I thought of the officers and crew who would follow me into exile, those who would put their lives on the line for their honor. In addition to myself there were Leonard Ward, the assistant medical officer who had just returned to the boat bay and joined our group with carry sacks and medical boxes hanging all over his body; Lt. Johnson, the tall, slim helm officer who had looked positively regal as she had led the group in joining me against the pirates; solid Derrick Mackey, the bosun, who never wavered in the performance of his duty and who now bore many marks and scrapes that showed that he had not come willingly to the boat bay; Elle Williams, who had risked her life to obstruct the traitor Teach, even though there had been no need to do so; Jens Fujinami, the exobotanist, whose small frame and endless curiosity obviously hid a brave and determined man; four of our five ensigns: Jordan Hayes, Jherri Roberts, Josiah Mitchell, and Monica Samuels, who had overcome her fear to do what she knew was right; Eric Aichele, one of the Marines assigned to Pathfinder's security force; Amber Sullivan, an electronics tech who seemed to have been led like a puppy into our group; Drew Le Vesconte, our quartermaster; Steve Long, an engineering Warrant Officer; Claire Paul, a survey specialist; Kara George, assistant quartermaster; Tim O'Neill, the control systems tech from my watch; Clémence Queneau, our cartographer; Kieran Delacoeur and Ricardo Smith, ship's cooks; and finally Roberto Alcaraz, crewman 1c completed the assembled group. These were the men and women who were willing to trust me with their lives.
Of the personnel that had come in and out of the boat bay, four were still unaccounted for: Glenn Morales, Lt. Lamont, Crewman Brandon and Dr. Johnson, whom I assumed had remained in the sickbay tending to Burton.
When everyone had returned to the boat bay, Teach began the unlock sequence on the nearest lifeboat. The hatch stayed closed, and the indicator stayed red. The lifeboat was gone. Not believing the evidence of his eyes, he had his toadies check each of the other lifeboats. All of the lifeboats in the bay were gone. This was one of the first items on my modified protocol menu.
His reaction was very surprising. He stood there and ranted and raved at his crew, at my group, and at me, specifically. At one point, he had to be physically restrained by the crewmen standing next to him. Katie Lueng had a haunted look on her face as she pocketed the pistol that her engineering crewmen had taken away from him before he could do further damage. I knew that I should feel sorry for her but I could not bring myself to. She was stuck on a ship with an unstable commander by her own choice, but my loyal crew and I were about to die, either by the hand of that madman or consigned to a slow starving death later on, through no choice of our own.
Teach finally seemed to regain some control and sent crewmen to the remaining lifeboats fore and aft to check their status. Surely he knew what they would find. He stood as still as a statue lost in his own thoughts. It should be obvious to him that the only way off of the ship would be to put us on Vanguard. I had personally disabled the eject command on the survey craft. I hadn't known that it would come down to this, but it seemed a wise precaution to not sever all chance of getting people off the ship in an emergency. Vanguard was capable of jumping home on its own and would be our only chance at salvation. It would give us options beyond Antoc.
Finally he started issuing orders.
"Bezates, Danis," he called. "Get into Vanguard and disable the long range transmitter. Jettison the communication pods and pull enough batteries to disable the jump engines."
Anger was still my overwhelming emotion, but for the first time I began to see hope. I tried to remain quiet and stoic to keep from provoking any other irrational responses from the crew. Teach was mumbling to himself and pacing back and forth near the doorway. I didn't let the fact that he had been disarmed lead me to a false sense of security. He was still just as dangerous to us as he was before. A single word from him could still send us out the airlock to our deaths. The crew would follow his commands and only later think things out and understand the enormity of their mistake. I did not think we would be in a position to appreciate their remorse at that point.
The crewmen assigned to disable Vanguard returned quickly. They did not carry any batteries or equipment, so I assumed that they had simply sent it all out the launch's starboard airlock. The crew was marched at gunpoint to the deck hatch and down the ladder that led to Vanguard's port airlock. The gunmen soon returned for the officers and we were all secured behind the inner airlock door. Major Chowdhury spoke a few words to Aichele who was standing behind her and I saw the handcuff come loose on one wrist.
Teach stepped forward and offered one last time for anyone else to save themselves from the fate that awaited us.
"I need you to stay aboard. I'll be back for you," I said quietly to Samuels. Samuels stood and pulled Sullivan back out of the hatch without ever acknowledging my remark or looking back at her abandoned fellows. Aichele stood from his seat next to Chowdhury, and moved out of the hatch with his head down, as if in shame. I didn't know if sending Samuels out would be of any help in the long run, but at least I had saved two people from the ordeal to come. I vowed to come back for them if it took me the rest of my life to track them down.
Johnson yelled out derisively that Teach might as well shoot us now, if he was not going to provide some supplies. He rejected her entreaty.
Chowdhury complained that there was no protection from animals and no way to hunt without weapons. I could see her mind working, and I knew that she simply wanted a weapon to try to retake the ship. I was surprised when Teach had pistols brought. The gleam in Sheli's eyes had to be visible to all. I prepared to move to support her quickly if she were truly able to make an attempt. Teach took the pistols and turned to remove the power packs from the butts of each gun as he walked back down the corridor and then threw the pistols at the feet of the security officer where she stood just inside Vanguard's inner hatch. Not having seen him remove the power packs, she made the attempt that I had been expecting only to realize that they were dead as Teach laughed uproariously in her face.
The hatch slid shut on all of us. He took the power packs from his tunic pocket where he had put them and tossed them on the floor near the inner hatch and closed the outer hatch.
We were truly exiled from our ship. It was barely morning, 28 June, 2787. It was the worst day of my life.
I had lost my best friend and I had lost my ship.
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