CHAPTER 35

DEBRIEF

Lancaster Base - A week later

The Kanto docked at one of the claw like docking arms of the space station orbiting Veil. The crew left the ship and walked down the passageway to the core of the station when a military aide in uniform came up to meet them.

The aide saluted to Sam, and she returned the salute.

‘Captain Geer, welcome aboard. I’m Lt Prya, I’ve prepared quarters for you all prior to your return to Earth.’

‘What’s the status of the Horatio?’

‘Captain Nelson Leavitt was dispatched to the second system shortly after the scout left. He’s still en route to it, but since the scout spotted the Horatio, we think it’s unlikely that there will be anything of interest to be found. UPN intelligence would like to speak with you as soon as you have rested.’

Sam shook her head. ‘We’ll go now. Rest can come later. We had enough time on our ship to sit around and do nothing.’

‘Yes Ma’am, if you’ll come this way.’

Lt Prya turned to lead them down the hall.

‘We’ve arranged transit for your mother down to Veil. Her shuttle will arrive in a few hours.’

‘Thank you Lt Prya.’

They came to an open area that branched off to multiple passageways, and Prya cut across the space to the door on the far side.

The door opened, and the crew was ushered into a briefing room. Ayla went to follow, but the Lieutenant raised his hand. ‘No Ma’am, military personnel only.’

Sam stepped back to the door. ‘She has vital first hand experience in this event Lt Prya, I suggest you let her in.’

The young man looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Good point Captain. Okay Miss Geer, come in.’

Ayla walked into the room and took a seat. Samantha sat down next to her. The rest of the crew was already seated.

‘One moment please,’ the Lieutenant said as he moved to a control near the back of the room. He entered a command and the wall nearest him came to life with an image on screen.

There was a man in an admiral’s uniform, he had short black hair with streaks of grey at the temples. His hawkish and sharp face surveyed the room.

His eyes lingered on Ayla, ‘Miss Geer, I was hoping you’d be present.’

Sam glanced at Lt Prya who was looking fixedly at the control panel on the wall.

‘Admiral Tolmin, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to talk to you,’ Ayla said tapping her head, ‘And I still remember last time.’

‘Of course. Captain Geer, UPN intelligence is very interested in what happened to you and your crew. We have a partial report from Captain Zao, but were hoping to hear from you. The last thing we need during the war is a rouge AI running amok in the outer territories.’

‘He’s been running amok for close to forty years,’ Ayla said, ‘we just stumbled on one of his bases.’

Tomlin cocked his head to one side. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘This Guardian is XO-33 the Guardian of my colony ship that was almost destroyed close to forty years ago.’

‘The same?’

‘We had a chat. He called me family.’

Tomlin straightened up and looked intently at Ayla.

‘Family?’

‘Yes, he said I was the closest thing to a sister. He said this right before purging most of his memory files and surrendering to us.’

‘We need to go after Exo as soon as possible Admiral, he is a danger to the whole of human kind,’ Samantha said.

‘We don’t know where to look Captain,’ Admiral Tolmin said, ‘the Horatio is en route to the only other lead we have.’

The Admiral looked off to one side for a moment, and looked back to Samantha. ‘Captain Geer, there is one thing I’d like to talk to you about. The Linkal pilot you ran into.’

‘Shirp,’ Victor said, interrupting.

‘Yes, Shirp. You said he mentioned that he was there looking for the Great Mind.’

Samantha nodded. ‘That’s correct. We think they know what Guardians are.’

‘That’s troubling to say the least. It means they have a much better idea of our capabilities than we thought.’

‘Is that what’s important right now?’ John blurted out.

Sam looked over at him, he was sitting up straight and glaring right at the Admiral.

‘I have to keep track of the biggest threats to humanity. That’s what Intelligence does,’ Tomlin said with an edge in his voice.

‘One of our crew is missing. We need to find him. We need to find him as soon as we can.’

‘I appreciate the concern Lt Commander Macce, but the fact remains we don’t know where to look. Now we’ll just have to wait and se-’

John slammed the table with his fist. ‘That’s not good enough!’

‘John!’ Samantha snapped, ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

John pounded the table again but more slowly, in the dim light Sam could just make out his shoulders shaking. Then she heard the heavy breathing coming from him.

The room was quiet save for the shuddering breath coming from John.

‘It should have been me…’ he whispered bitterly.

Jing, sitting next to him, stood up and put his arm around his shoulder. Sam felt a lump in her throat and her eyes burning. John was saying what she had been thinking for the last week.

Another weak strike against the table. ‘It should have been me. I should have volunteered. It was my duty.’

‘No John, it was mine,’ Sam replied quietly.

John looked up slowly. ‘You were in radio silence. I was in command. It was my duty.’

‘You heard Exo, Daniel never would have lived to make it back here,’ Victor offered.

John shook his head. ‘We don’t know that. All we had was his word on it. We’re just lying to ourselves so we don’t feel as bad. But it’s not working, I feel terrible.’

The face of Admiral Tolmin took in the emotional crew. ‘It’s clear you’ve all taken this very hard. I want you to know I do take this seriously. In light of the fact that we will have to wait for more information from the Horatio, I will grant you all six months shore leave. We can continue this conversation later.’

The line went dead, Lt Prya stood up from his seat and looked around. ‘Well I guess you all get shore leave. I can arrange you all transit to wherever you want to go.’

Sam held up her hand to silence Prya and looked directly at John. ‘John, if this is on anyone, it’s on me. You don’t need to beat yourself up about this.’

Jing gave his back a sympathetic pat. ‘We were all there. No one takes all the blame for this.’

‘How can you all be so calm?’ he shouted, ‘Dan is gone and we have no idea where!’

‘We’re soldiers, this happens,’ Victor said.

John stood up from his seat. ‘I’m not. I never was. I was just a fantastic pilot that the UPN thought would make a good officer. Looks like they were wrong. I can fly, but I’m no officer. I can’t handle this.’

Sam stood up slowly. ‘John, it’s okay. We’re all upset. We’ll find Dan.’

‘Weren’t you listening? We have no idea where to look! None! As soon as that scout ship spotted the Horatio it changed course and ran. We’ll never track it. He’s gone.’ He said the last word as though it was a curse, spitting it out between clenched teeth.

‘John, that’s enough,’ Sam said firmly, ‘If we fall apart now, we’ll never find him.’

‘We never will!’

‘Never say never.’

John took a shuddering breath and looked at the table. Jing kept a tense arms length away from him. Victor and Ise watched in silence. John’s shoulders slumped forward and he let out a long sigh.

He shook his head slowly. ‘I can’t. I can’t do this. I’m done.’

He stepped back from the table and walked slowly around it. Sam stepped back and moved for the door.

‘What are you saying John?’

‘I’m resigning.’

‘You can’t!’ she moved to block the door, but a hand gripped her wrist firmly. She turned around with a flash of anger, only to see Ayla was the one who was holding her. Ayla just shook her head sadly. Sam stopped and stood still.

‘John, where will you go?’

John stopped, his back turned to her.

‘Home.’

He walked again.

‘Where’s home?’ Sam asked.

He stopped again.

‘I don’t know,’ he said, his voice trembling.

He walked out the door and out of sight.

Sam stood still for an uncomfortably long time. Ayla stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder. Sam turned around and faced her mother.

‘What do I do? What happened?’

Ayla smiled weakly. ‘Time off might not be a bad idea. Come with me back to Veil.’

Sam nodded slowly. ‘Maybe you’re right. We need to wait for the Horatio’s report, anyway.’

Ise stood up. ‘I take it we are done here?’

Sam looked at her and nodded. ‘Seems like it.’

Victor and Jing both stood up.

‘Time off sounds nice,’ Victor said, ‘I can go see my cousin Philip. Lt Pyra, can you get me passage to Arkan in the sigma sector?’

‘Of course Lt Hale. No problem. Chief Fan, Advocate Ise, do you have chosen places you’d like to go?’

Ise shook her head. ‘If it’s all the same to everyone, I’ll head back to Earth with the captured Exo core. I’d like to try to pick it apart,’ her face became cold, ‘it would give me closure.’

Jing nodded. ‘I will head back to Earth too. I’m with Ise I don’t think I’ll get much rest with a problem like a rouge Guardian core just waiting to be cracked open just sitting around tempting me.’

Sam smiled sadly. ‘All right you two, but try not to work too hard. We’ll be back together again before you know it and going after Dan.’

‘I’ll arrange transit for everyone.’ Lt Prya said, walking out of the room.

The crew filed out. Victor stopped next to Sam and gave her shoulder a squeeze. ‘We’ll be back together in no time. Ise and Jing will crack Exo wide open.’

Sam chuckled. ‘Probably.’

Victor gave a quick nod and walked out the door.

Ise and Jing stopped next to her. Ise was the one to speak first, ‘Captain, don’t blame yourself. We were in a very hard place. Nothing we could have done.’

‘I could have shot Exo’s core.’

‘Daniel might not have lived.’

Samantha sighed. ‘I know.’

‘I’ll find him. Even if I have to rip his program apart bit by bit.’

‘I don’t envy him,’ Samantha said.’

‘No one hurts my family,’ Ise said coolly.

She left, leaving Jing, Sam, and Ayla standing next to each other.

‘Uh, captain. I just want you to know I’ve always respected you. That hasn’t changed. I’m still with you. We’ll get our crew back,’ the corner of Jing’s mouth turned up in a grin, ‘Including John.’

‘I think he just needs time to cool.’

‘I’m sure that’ll help. We will keep in touch. If we find anything interesting from our little Exo, we will let you know.’

‘Thanks Jing, and good luck.’

Jing left the room, following Ise.

Samantha turned to her mother.

‘Shall we go?’

‘Home again one more time, and it’s not even Christmas,’ Ayla said dryly.

‘All right you, I know I don’t visit often. Now you’ve got me for six months, we’ll see how you deal with it,’ Sam replied teasingly.