“Nope. After the pummelling it took to stop that thing repairs would take months. You should see him though. All the slaves are trying to get his ear and tell him how they can help on Triton. A few are asking when he can take them home, but most want to serve. Some even want to go back to the Palamo to help strip her for parts.”
“He's not going to?”
Minh shook his head. “He said what he found in her hold is more important so the Clever Dream is going to start ferrying the cargo across. Ashley and I have been put on the roster tomorrow with our navigators to lead recovery crews just in case the ships we've captured don't fill us up. There are three more ships in the Palamo he's taking and a couple adrift he's marked for Chief Vercelli to look at.”
“If I weren't taking care of the station I'd go along with you. I think we'll find an ally here if we give them a hand and considering how well hidden this place is I think it could be a good fit for us. If we give them limited use of our fabrication systems we might have a long term safe port here.”
“Smart and beautiful, what a package,” Minh winked.
“Charmer. What's up with you and Paula, anyway?”
“Just a late dinner before I pass out for a few hours.”
“What if she follows you back to your quarters?” Ayan grinned wryly, dimples playing on her cheeks.
Minh waved her insinuation off. “I don't think it's anything like that, she probably just wants to get to know the new Wing Commander. Maybe berate me a little more for wrecking an Uriel.”
“Doubtful, but you delude yourself however you must. Have fun.”
“How are you and Jake getting along?”
Ayan's attention was drawn by a bulk express car moving through a transparent steel tube leading up into the rest of the ship. Jake was inside, even from across the bay he was instantly recognizable. He was looking right at her, she looked back to Minh, who didn't notice the express car behind him. “Little steps back and forth,” she replied quietly.
Chapter 12
Jake couldn't help but look down through the transparent metal wall of the express car as it rose between hangars one and two. Minh and Ayan were down there. He looked at how at ease Minh was while speaking with her. She was more difficult to read. The armoured hood, with its overlapping plate strips was drawn down, he could see only a few locks of her curly blonde hair, but her face was hidden.
She was standing like a soldier, shoulders squared with hips, aware and ready. He could have sworn she looked up at him as the lift accelerated upwards towards the main body of the ship but from such a distance it was difficult to tell. I hope not. Considering what she's going into I'd rather she wasn't distracted. I have to apologize again. I can't let things lay as they are. He thought to himself, sure he'd follow through despite the knot that tightened in his stomach at the very thought. He didn't apologize often, but then he didn't blurt out the worst possible thing at the worst possible moment either.
He checked his Command and control unit for Ayan and Minh's operational status even though he knew exactly what was going on. He'd already reviewed Ayan's short negotiation with the Station Forewoman. It was difficult not to be irritated, angry at her for agreeing to go in unarmed. Having a squad of soldiers ready in a ship hundreds of meters away wasn't a very effective backup plan either.
He looked up Minh again and was surprised to see Paula's outline join him on the Crewcast location map, then astonished as he watched them go off together. I hope he knows what he's getting into. Hell, I don't even know what he's getting into. For all I know she's a lot of fun one on one. He couldn't help but smile at himself at the thought of Minh and Paula hyper at the same time in the same place. Oh, this is trouble.
“Sir,” said one of the slave refugees from the Palamo.
He recognized him immediately, it was the one he'd saved just in time. He was the first to be entered into the transfer roster from the Palamo to the Triton. The young woman he'd been with was beside him, her hand in his. “David, right?”
“Yes sir. I'm wondering if I could request a position aboard, permanently.”
Jake looked down at the pair's wrists to ensure that they'd already received one of the provisional communication and monitoring bracelets that his security officers were passing out. David had fitted his comm unit tightly, in the flexible wrist band style while his companion, Nerine, had set hers to hang like a loose, stiff bracelet. They both had a netted embarkation bag with a tube with a standard vacsuit and a box with emergency rations.
The fabrication deck had come through with flying colours as they generated all kinds of essentials for their new passengers in short order. The comm bands were Jake's indication that David and his companion had been through the basic orientation, so David's question came as a surprise. The rest of the passengers, a couple security guards tasked with guiding groups of refugees to the general aft berthing and eighty or so refugees were all watching him, waiting to see how he handled David's quiet request. “It'll take a couple of days for us to find places for everyone who wants to stay.”
“I think I speak for most everyone when I say that we're staying. It's been a long time for most of us since we got fair room and board for a days' work and if the rumours are true we'll stay because of what you're doing out here.”
Jake didn't know what to say. All eyes were on him, there were so many expectations behind nervous stares that implied a delicate thread of new hope.
“You used to hunt people down but now you free slaves and get people help,” Nerine stated. “The feeds on Enreega kept replaying your speech until the Eden Fleet came.”
He'd never seen anyone look so small. David was a broad shouldered man, Nerine was a young woman who seemed like the type who could gather attention and take it in stride but as they stood there, hand in hand, looking so uncertain they could have been lost children. “I do what I can.” He put his hands on their shoulders. “Right now I have room for every freed slave and I'll try to find a port for anyone who doesn't want to stay. I can't afford to pay any of you cash right now, but, like my people told you, I can give you a bunk, food, somewhere to work and a cause if you're looking for one.”
David glanced at Jake's reassuring hand before asking; “But what do you do exactly? Where is this ship headed?” He cleared his throat and added; “with all due respect, Captain.”
Jake smiled wanly and nodded. The question was unexpected, the answer was something he was just becoming certain of himself. “We're going after the Order of Eden however we can without getting scrapped. This is a ship crewed by refugees,” he stopped for a moment, letting go of the pair and looking across the crowd in the bulk express car. “Refugees who've become revolutionists.”
Jake glanced up at one of the security guards. He stared back at him with a grin from within his armoured hood. It was one of the soldiers who had defected from the Aucharian military when Enreega was taken by Regent Galactic. So many of them had remained aboard, enough to provide Stephanie with her own militia of trained people. They were the backbone of the common crew and in all the reports since he'd had them aboard not one of them complained about accommodations or not being paid immediately. There had been a couple of fights between them and the gunnery crew, but both departments were restless during long hyperspace journeys or when the ship was down for repairs and training. “Take good care of these people,” Jake said to him.