The Delkar Job Part VI
13 Mar 2017Jellicoe
"If you two have quite finished would you care to join me on the bridge?" At that moment Claude's voice felt like one of the sweetest sounds I had ever heard."You've taken the bridge?" I asked eagerly.
"Yep. Skirving and his men are under lock and key. We've got power back so you can dock the fighters, see you shortly." We re-entered the hangar both very glad to have avoided a spacewalk back to the ship to be greeted by Claude and Jock.
"Any casualties?" I asked.
"No." Claude replied. "Harry was right, Skirving ordered them to fight but nobody did."
"The power plant back online?" I looked to Jock.
"Aye but only running at 40%, and that's about as far as the good news goes, the hyper-drive's shot, we cannae jump."
"So we're going nowhere?" I asked. "Could we get a distress call through to Serabrov for a pick up?"
"Might be our best bet," Claude said grimly. "She'll Super-cruise but we'll never get through to Caillie without being spotted and we're in no state to fight."
"We can Super-cruise?" I asked Jock surprised.
"Aye, dinna ask me how that bomb should have blown the lot, must have been something Elvira did that saved it."
"Claude have you got a fix on our position?"
"We're about point eight of a light year out of Delkar. Even you can't be mad enough to make a run for Caillie?
I grinned. "No Caillie, Solati." I did a quick calculation. "If we're point eight of a light year from Delkar that leaves us what, two point nine out from Solati? Would the engines last out if we do the lot in Super-cruise?"
"No reason why not." Jock answered, then his craggy face broke into the closest it ever came to a smile. "First time I've ever been glad you fitted that big arse reserve fuel tank."
I went to see Skirving. He was confined to his quarters with Palmer the SRV mechanic guarding the door but he still stood to attention when I entered the room, a military man to the last.
"Why did you do it Dan?" I asked sadly.
"It was a direct order from a full admiral." I gave a grim smile, the same tired old line 'i was obeying orders' how many of humanity's greatest crimes have been committed by men who were only obeying orders?
"You must have known they were illegal orders Dan, what did she offer you?"
"My own command, a corvette. Most of my contemporaries have got their own ships, a few have got their own squadrons while I'm stuck rotting as third officer on an auxiliary boat." Despite himself there was anger and frustration in his voice.
"And that was worth betraying your shipmates? You know what Delkar Ltd are and you were just going to hand us over to them?"
"No!" He said with real feeling. "They were only going to take you to Sleer. It had to be secret and deniable though, that's why you weren't just grabbed in Nanomam."
"God forbid that a Federal citizen and officer should get due legal process." I said in a voice laden with sarcasm. "What does she want me for?"
"I don't know. Something to do with Craddock and these Children of Raxxla people she knows you're wrapped up with. She thinks you know something and she's determined to get it out of you. That's all I know."
"You know what you did amounts to mutiny while on active service? and that I'd be quite within my rights to convene a field court martial right here and now? You do know the penalty I presume?" His face paled, but he held himself impassive and nodded.
"It'd save Sleer a job. She left me in no doubt about the price of failure." I looked at him in near disbelief, how could two men serve together for so long yet misjudge each other so completely? I shook my head tiredly
"I have no stomach for killing a shipmate, even one who would have sold me to the devil herself. You'll be put ashore the next time we dock, what you do then is up to you."