“If they do get through they'll have to deal with everyone in engineering, and there's no way they set up down there without arming themselves.”
“Ah, so what are you doing?”
Larry's lips drew into a thin, tight smile as he nodded to himself. “Can't wait to see me go back out there?”
“No, I'm just wondering.”
Ashley refocused one of her console displays on a wormhole that appeared momentarily in the dust cloud, it disappeared as quickly as it came up on the passive scanners. She hoped the Captain and everyone else was right behind. Someone had to save them.
“I knew this would happen. Listen, I'm the same Larry you met only there's a side of me you didn't know about. I'm sure there are plenty of things you haven't told everyone about yourself.”
Ashley kept her voice calm and soothing for Zoe's benefit. In reality she'd never been so nervous; “Okay, I'll get used to it,” she offered as a placation.
“Ashley, I could be the most important friend you have on the ship. I know you have the Captain's ear, and he made you Master at the Helm, but you don't see how often they cut you out. It's been happening more over the last two weeks. The Freeground crew have just taken over with the Captain's blessing, and they haven't consulted you on anything.”
“I handle the pilot rotation on the bridge, help people navigate the training system, review qualifiers and fly the ship.”
“But do you really get to make the decisions a Master At The Helm should be? You should be consulted before destinations are chosen, when modifications are made to propulsion and flight control, and whenever something changes the way this ship moves, or where it's going. That's what a Master At The Helm is for; to help the Captain guide the ship from port to port and keep the ship on a safe course.”
“But we're not in a part of the galaxy I know, and I'm new to command. If Captain trusts the people from his home station, then I'll trust them too. Besides, Stephanie is still Security Chief and our Engineering Chief isn't from Freeground either.”
“All right, but that's besides the point. What I'm saying is that there may come a time when you need someone who knows the ship better than anyone, can get you anywhere without people noticing, or can make something happen for you. That person is me. Your discretion comes at a price, I wouldn't ask you to keep my secret if I didn't have something to offer in return.”
The thought hadn't occurred to Ashley. If they made it through the crisis she might have real power over the most dangerous person on the ship. The image of soldiers being killed in front of her returned, and, as though sensing how unnerving the memory of it was, Zoe roused from her light sleep and looked up at her. Ashley soothed the toddler, stroking her finely furred face until she put her head back down. “I don't want you to hurt anyone else. Find another way to show security who the West Keepers are so they can deal with them their own way or I'll make sure they find out about you.”
Larry looked genuinely surprised and stopped working on his side of the table. He stared at her silently for a long moment.
The communication portion of Ashley's console came to life as Minh-Chu's head appeared holographically over the table. “This is Ronin. Can anyone over there hear me?”
“That's the Freeground emergency frequency, I've been trying to get in ever since Jason came aboard,” Larry said. “Minh is using it unencrypted.”
“What do I do?” Zoe sat up in Ashley's lap and smiled at Minh's face.
“Reply, but don't tell them I'm here. I'll block myself from the transmission.”
Ashley took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Here goes,” she said to Zoe, who looked up at her, pointing to Minh's image. “Ronin? This is Ashley Lamport.”
“Ask him if he realizes he's broadcasting in the open,” Larry whispered.
“Ashley? They put you on comms?”
“I'm kinda doing a lot of things right now. Do you know you're in the open?”
“You mean, transmitting in the open? Right, I didn't know who was left over there, so I didn't have a choice.” Minh looked away for a moment, his image flickering violently. When it returned to normal Ashley’s communications terminal displayed a long, rapidly changing number. “There, we’re encrypted. Who's your little friend?”
“Zoe, she’s my copilot today. We found a safe spot and I'm getting the pilot's controls running.”
“Can you send me a ship status report?”
“Um, maybe?”
“It's the green and gold circular image on the comm screen.”
“Oh, I've been using that to check the ship myself.”
Zoe beat Ashley to it, smacking it with her slender hand.
“Whoa, she's bright, isn't she?”
“Oh yeah. I'm going to lock my controls though, just in case she gets a little adventurous,” Ashley said, bouncing Zoe in her lap. “Things aren't good here though. The whole ship's under attack from the inside. I don't think there are many safe places left.”
“I can see, but the ship above you is under attack too. This is a mess,” Minh said, shaking his head.
“How far behind is everyone else?” Ashley asked, hopeful.
“I'm it for now, but after seeing this I think Jake will muster up and get everyone out here as soon as they can.”
“This is Jason. I'm re-encrypting this channel with a biometric access gate.”
Ashley didn't know the serious minded communications and computer genius, but was relieved to see him. The sight was welcome, especially after discovering that help was much further off than she hoped.
“What's going on Jason?”
“Frost is leading the main assault against the destroyer docked to the dorsal mooring point, and I was leading a team to the bridge, but we're getting pushed back. They have some kind of sonic scanning technology in place that's seeing right through our cloaksuits, and we don't have the people to push through with force. I'm glad Frost is doing better. He's already shut down their hangar bay and he's moved into their ship.”
“Do you have a backup plan?” Minh asked.
“Oz took care of that, but he was killed while creating a diversion on the Triton’s bridge. I'm trying to get back to put the plan back into motion, but there's a lot of territory between me and the dorsal mooring point. Ashley, this report says that you were woken up when someone interfered with you in the infirmary. Who was it? What happened? There's no security footage.”
“Tell him you don't know, the soldiers were dead when you came to,” Larry whispered. The communications terminal was blocking any sound from his side of the room, a function she'd never seen the computer perform before.
“Um, the soldiers were dead when I came to. I used a ventilation shaft to get to a safer spot.”
“You found me knocked out in the next room and treated me with emergency nanobots,” Larry added.
“Larry’s here too,” Ashley blurted. “Somewhere, getting food maybe.”
“Nice going. I need you to replace a pilot who was with Oz. I've been in touch with Chief Grady, and he can give us a wormhole using the emitters we have left, so plot a course and as soon as we manage to shake two of the ships docked with us, get us moving. We'll take care of the rest.”
“How are you going to decouple the enemy ships?” She asked, looking at the port and starboard mooring points again. There was a destroyer firmly clamped to each side, and the sensors there reported that emergency welds were in place, holding them fast.
“Don't worry about it,” Jason insisted. “Minh, where is the Captain?”
“We landed on Tamber, it's under Carthan control. They're neutral enough, but I wouldn't call them friendly.”
“Good enough, forward the coordinates to their secondary arrival area to Ashley.”