| Chapter 5 | Chapter |
To Bell the Belle - Chapter 6
Time: Day 3Location: Enchantress - The Rock
It was time to change the watches, Patrick was on the command deck ensuring that the watch turnover went smoothly. Not that he expected any problems but they were approximately one light hour away from the Abernathy bolt hole and so far there had been no sign of any Abernathy vessels in the system. From his position beside the coms/sensor operator's post he noticed that Carla had come onto the command deck.
"It's my shift, Norm," said Carla to the man sitting at the environmental systems console.
"There's no need for you to stand watch, Lady Abernathy," replied Norm. "You're the guest of the Captain. Stella should be along momentarily to relieve me."
"Guest I may be, but I'm no helpless mudfoot that doesn't know port from starboard and can't hold her meals in a zero gravity environment," snapped Carla. "I'm fully qualified to stand environmental systems watches. I've talked with Stella and she's agreed to let me stand her watch while she works on the water recyclers. Now what's the status of the CO2 scrubbers? Stella told me that they would require monitoring."
"As you wish my lady," said Norm as he arose from his seat.
"And it's Carla, Norm. Not Lady Abernathy or my lady. We Abernathys don't hold to formalities aboard our vessels like you Bellamys do.
"Yes my la ... err I mean Carla. The CO2 scrubbers are...."
Patrick tuned out the rest of the conversation. His crew was obviously not quite sure how to treat Carla He wasn't sure how to react to her presence aboard the Enchantress either. He had been surprised when she had asked to be allowed passage on the Enchantress rather than accompany the Hakucho. He wasn't sure if it was because she wanted to be in his company or if she simply wanted to keep an eye on him. There had been a time when he might have expected her to seek out his company, but then he had been the heir to House Bellamy. Now he was simply captain-owner of a single Four Freedoms class freighter. Still she had asked to accompany the Enchantress and she was making obvious efforts to fit in with the crew...
Any further musings he might have had on the subject were cut off by a call from the communications technician. "Captain," announced the communications technician, there was a look of surprise on her face. "We're being hailed by an unknown vessel" The look of puzzlement was abruptly replaced by a look of alarm. "She's identifying herself as the Andromeda Ascendant!"
A murmur of fear went through the command deck. Most of the crew members knew the stories of the ship, of how the captain had abandoned his crew and how it was supposedly cursed. And all of them had heard the news of how it had forced the ouster of the Sinti IV government. To find it waiting for them at what they thought was a secure location was frightening.
"How far are we from slipstream distance, Zekiel?" asked Patrick to the man sitting in the Enchantress' pilot station.
"Too far, Sir. If we try to run she'll chase us down like a direcat after a jackalope."
Patrick turned to the woman manning the weapons console. "Brynn, can we fight?"
The woman shook her head 'no.' "Not a chance, Ser. She's a 'igh Guard XMC. She could take out both us an' the 'akucho with 'er secondary batteries alone. She's got better 'en three times our combined missile capability an' 'en 'ere's 'er fighters. We'd be nothin more 'en target practice for 'er."
"Patrick," said Carla from her seat at the environmental systems console. "According to the vid reports we've seen Beka is the first officer of the Andromeda Ascendant. Maybe we're missing something here."
"What do you mean, Carla?" asked Patrick taking a few steps towards the environmental systems station so that he was standing close enough to reach out and touch her.
"I mean that we don't really know what happened 300 years ago." She tapped some commands into the control console. From his vantage point Patrick could see that she was evacuating the air out of the non critical spaces of the ship, a standard pre-battle safety precaution. "For all we know the story of the Captain abandoning his crew was propaganda put out by the Nietzscheans during the war. And do you really trust the vid reports? If the Prime Director of Sinti IV stubbed his toe while going to the head to relieve himself. the vids would report it as a near fatal accident. But we do know Beka. I have no idea how she ended up as first officer of a military vessel, but do you really think she would participate on a raid like the one reported in the vids. Saturation bombing of the spaceport and capital city?"
Patrick nodded his head in agreement. "We can't run and we can't fight. I guess the only thing left to do is talk." He turned to the communications technician. "Hester, where you able to determine if the Andromeda is within real time communication distance?"
I contacted the Hakucho immediately after I reported to you, Sir. We're five light seconds apart so we were able to get a decent cross fix. She's holding station near the asteroid."
"Excellent. Inform Captain Murakami that she is to drop back to a distance of three light hours from the asteroid while we close to within real time communications distance with the Andromeda. Should the Andromeda commence hostilities that will give them more time to attempt an escape into the slipstream. With luck she might make it. Then establish communications with the Andromeda. I want to let them know who we are and that I want to talk to Captain Valentine."
A moment later the communication tech replied "You're on, Sir"
Patrick stood before the main viewscreen and began to speak "This is Captain Owner Patrick Bellamy, House of..." He stopped he was no longer a member of any house. He took a breath to steady himself then continued. "Captain Owner Patrick Bellamy commanding the merchant vessel Enchantress. With me is Carla Abernathy, House of Abernathy. We would like to speak to Captain Owner Rebecca Valentine, House of Valentine, on a matter of Salvagers' Guild business."
| Chapter 5 | Chapter 7 |