‘Impressive ship,’ said Nexen, tucking into his third slice of tyri tost.
‘You’re only saying that because we have proper food, Commander,’ said Clammer, getting a wry smile in return.
‘When your main drive is back online, do you intend on finding my ship?’ Nexen mumbled through a mouthful of tost.
‘That will be up to Captain Yamaton,’ said Bache. ‘Although, the fact that it fired on us without provocation is considered a galactic crime, so my best guess is it will be pursued. Whether the GDA will give Yamaton permission to partake in that search, I don’t know. We are just a training vessel after all.’
‘They’d better,’ said Nexen. ‘My crew could still be in suspension on that ship and I want to be there to oversee the recovery.’
The three of them stood as Yamaton entered the mess and approached their table.
‘At ease, gentlemen,’ he said, signalling them to sit and taking the fourth chair himself. ‘The communications drone I sent has just returned and it seems GDA command don’t have any ships available anywhere near this sector for the time being.’
‘But we must pursue them, my crew are––’
The captain raised his hand to stop Nexen. ‘Patience, Commander, let me finish.’
Nexen sat back glaring.
‘Once operational again,’ Yamaton continued, ‘command have given me permission to locate and observe the combative vessel in stealth mode, remaining close by until backup arrives. We are only to engage if the vessel becomes a threat to other peaceful ships or sentient lifeforms.’
‘They’re a threat to my crew,’ blurted Nexen. ‘And they’re definitely sentient.’
‘If your crew are indeed still alive after all this time, Commander, then a day or two longer will make no difference to them. If it makes you feel any better, my aim, if we do have to engage, is to disable the ship and use my detachment of marines to board and secure the vessel.’
Nexen nodded and Bache noticed he seemed to relax a little. ‘Do you know where it is?’ Nexen asked.
‘Not exactly,’ admitted Yamaton. ‘But, its jump drive is quite, what’s the word?’ The captain glanced away for a moment before looking back. ‘Turbulent would probably be the best analogy. Its newly developed drive is obviously unrefined as it’s left a scar across the ether a first-year navigation recruit could follow.’
A junior officer wearing coveralls and engineering shoulder insignia stuck his head through the door and gave the captain a nod.
‘It seems we are operational again,’ said Yamaton, standing and turning towards the door. He glanced around the mess and looked back at Nexen. ‘Where’s your android by the way?’ he asked.
‘I ordered it to stay in my cabin,’ Nexen replied.
‘Just make sure it does,’ Yamaton muttered, nodding slowly. ‘We don’t want it mimicking its compatriots and reprogramming this ship, do we?’
He stopped again as he got to the door. ‘Come up to the bridge when you’re finished, I want to hear more about your ship,’ he said before finally disappearing.
A short time later Bache recognised the change in vibration and background hum throughout the ship. ‘We’re under way,’ he said.
‘I don’t know if I can tell him much about the ship,’ said Nexen. ‘I could hardly recognise it as the one I left.’
‘I’m sure there’ll be something that’ll be useful if we have to take that ship by force,’ said Clammer.
When they finished their meals, they made their way to the bridge, securely located in the centre of the vessel.
As they arrived, Yamaton pointed to seats off to one side against the bulkhead wall.
A large holographic image floated in the centre of the bridge, dominating the room. It showed several star clusters slowly moving and a bright white icon in the centre, chasing a faint red hazy line stretching away to infinity.
‘Looks like you’re going home,’ said Yamaton, once they were settled. ‘They seem to have set a course directly towards the Gattainian Cluster.’
‘Will we catch them before they get there?’ Nexen asked.
‘Not very likely,’ replied Yamaton. ‘Their jump drive may be noisy, but it seems to have just as much range as ours and they have a seven-hour head start.’
‘If they’re heading back to the mission’s origin, then it’ll be the Eritain system,’ said Nexen. ‘We were an unarmed deep space research vessel on our maiden voyage.’
‘What caused the crash on that moon?’ Yamaton asked.
‘We never found out,’ Nexen replied, ruefully. ‘The main power reactor developed an intermittent stutter and caused the interstice to fail, throwing us out into normal space and into the path of the moon.’
‘Was that a common fault with your reactors?’
‘Absolutely not, and ours was one of the latest designs too.’
‘Hmm,’ grunted Yamaton, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. ‘Any of those personality adapted androids in the engineering department, perhaps?’
‘The chief engineer had one, yes,’ said Nexen, his eyes opening wide as he realised what the captain was thinking. ‘You think the reactor fault was deliberate?’
‘Rogue androids are not an unknown phenomenon,’ said Yamaton. ‘It would explain the present scenario and, in my experience, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.’
Nexen stared at the faint red trail in the holomap again. ‘I wonder if my crew are still alive?’ he said, a downcast edge to his voice. ‘They could’ve just ejected the survival chambers.’
‘I don’t think they’ve done that,’ said Bache, joining the conversation. ‘If they’d done that inside the wormhole, then all those chambers would have appeared along with the two ships and all the regolith off the moon when we reversed the polarity. If they were doing it since then, we’d be seeing random chambers scattered along the present route.’
Nexen nodded.
‘They could’ve just turned them all off, three thousand years ago,’ he said.
‘Well, I’m going to proceed as if your crew are still alive on that ship,’ Yamaton announced. ‘A non-destructive capture is my intended goal if at all possible.’