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Chapter 1
Chapter 1 (continued)
Hunter awoke on a bed in what appeared to be a medical centre. He felt groggy from the remainder of the anesthetic in his system. He began to sit up when one of the staff wandered over and asked him to lean back.
He sat back and listened as the nurse paged Lynia Sands.
He was unsure what could have happened to require medical attention, but knew that Lynia was trying to gain his trust, so the reason would be forthcoming.
Hunter looked around the room. The room held only 2 beds, but it appeared that there has been no expense spared when it came down to the facilities on offer. He had been used to the prison’s basic medical facilities, and wasn’t even sure if all of it was medical equipment.
Lynia entered the room as he was contemplating getting a closer look at some one of the displays next to his bed. She was carrying a box with the Melltech logo and colouring.
“Welcome aboard the Pioneer.” Lynia handed him the box. “The removal of your penal tagging was a success. Also, I figured you’d want some clothes to wear as I take you to your room.”
Deliberately, Hunter shed the gown and dressed in front of Lynia. If she was shocked or offended, it did not show. Hunter was disappointed in the lack of response, but he considered it further and realised that Lynia was not one to be easily ruffled.
“So we are here, and I don’t really have any answers. I have agreed to work for you, but I have no idea what I am doing here, or what you expect of me.”
“Primarily you are here because I want you here.” Lynia began. “I want someone here I can trust.”
“And you feel you can trust me.”
“Not yet, but I am a great judge of character.” Lynia deliberately looked in his eyes, looking for a response. Hunter breathed out through his nose, dismissing the comment.
“So basically you have been brought on board as an engineer and pilot, but your duties will be to assist me and be my 2nd.”
“What exactly does that involve?” Hunter was dubious about the plans for him.
“Everything and anything. Jessica Talin is the lead on this project, everyone answers to her. You will answer to me and her.” Lynia explained in a matter-of-fact tone. “I am the company liaison, and responsible for this endeavour, but the reins are held by Jess. I need you to know what I know and be me when I am not here.”
“That’s a lot of trust you are placing in an ex-criminal.”
Lynia stopped walking and cast an unreadable look at Hunter.
“Look, lets not pretend anymore, what you are not, is a criminal. You are an intellegent, resourceful and clever individual, who has demonstrated a knowledge of how to handle himself and others in unconventional situations. I need someone with your skill set to work with me and help achieve my goals. You can either work with me or go back to your cell. So tell me now, are you in or out?”
Hunter paused, he knew he didn’t really have a choice, working on a project like this was more than he could hope to do with his life after prison, but he didn’t want Lynia thinking he wouldn’t consider it an option.
“I’m in.”
“Good.” Lynia replied. “This conversation would have been much more difficult had it been after your exoneration tomorrow.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
After Brune had been escorted to his room, put away his possessions in an orderly fashion, and had reviewed the security documentation for the seventh time, he decided to take a walk around the Pioneer.
He noted that the rooms were luscious for his tastes, there were plenty of comforts he had no interest in before, but moving into the corridors, they had a more utilitarian appearance. It seemed that every part of the corridor was line with removable panels, guessing at the corridor height, he figured the top and bottom panels to each be 1 metre squared with the centre panel being the left over half a metre in height. The whole ship bore the Melltech corporate colours of blue and green.
Strictly speaking, there was no reason to be confined to his room, but with official tours and introductions the next day, there was no need to walk around the ship either, so when he heard a woman’s voice he stopped just out of sight of the couple in the hallway.
“I know we didn’t exactly get off on the right foot, but I need us to work well together. We need to trust each other.” The female stated. They stopped outside of one of the quarters.
“It seems that you have all the information you could want on me, and I know virtually nothing about you. It would be completely different if I had had a look at all of your personal records?” The woman programmed the mans ID pin, the same as had been done for Brune’s door by Romald earlier.
“Fair enough .”She stated. “I had your possessions placed into your room. I will come get you around oh-seven-hundred and show you to the galley. Sleep well.”
The man looked to say something, but stopped, nodded and went into the room. The woman moved her hand to secure the room, but then chose not to. She walked to the room to the immediate left entered and locked the door behind her.
Brune moved out into the hallway and continued walking. He had spent enough time between planets to understand the basic layout of most ships, he wandered around confirming for himself where the various compartments were. He considered it a tactical flaw that all ships basically followed the same design, but never being in a situation to make a change, he never spoke his mind on the matter.
He considered where he wanted to explore for a moment, but determined that the places that would interest him, would not only be off limits to him at this time of night, but he would be seeing them all the following day. He turned back the way he had come.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Kari Mell hurried around the corner and straight into the tall man. She nearly dropped to the floor, winded, while he showed no sign they had even collided.
She had been in her own world, wrapping her head around the various aspects of the massive feat of engineering she was now a part of. When she first learned of the project, she had worked hard to earn her way onto the team, deeply disappointed at not being selected in the first round of staff working on the project, she had worked hard to get up to speed on current developments and ensure that she would be breaking new ground on the project and not one of the grunts doing the heavy lifting.
“I am so sorry.” She sputtered. “I was miles away.”
The man wore a serious expression, the look on his face showed he was searching for what to say. Suddenly he snapped straight and stared ahead. “It was my fault ma’am.”
Kari realised the man knew her face, he was clearly military or ex-military. “At ease.”She coughed. “You don’t need to do that. I am not your commanding officer, not that they would let me command anyone around here.”
The man looked like he attempted to relax. so she continued. “Yes, I am from the Mell family. Yes, I am the great-grandaughter of David Mell. Yes, I am working on the ship. No, I don’t run the company. No, I don’t even have a say. Now that that is out of the way, I am Kari.”
The young woman smiled and offered her hand to the man in front of her and he shook it. She had been told many times that though she seem so awkward and fragile, she spoke in a way that made her seem fearless. Kari held the handshake and waited for the man to realise what she was waiting for.
“Brune.” He said eventually. “I am here as security under Romald Brackus.”
“Oh, yeah. I read something about having security on board the ship this time around. I can understand too, after the allegations for what had happened with the Frontier. I still don’t think it would be true, I mean all of the staff are screened and selected very carefully, and from what I hear Lynia is very scrutinous when it comes to people she works with.” Kari waited for Brune to comment. The large man remained still, standing in front of her awkwardly. He wanted to speak, but didn’t really have anything to contribute. Kari took this as a sign to continue talking. Leading Brune down the corridor in the direction she was travelling.
“I am really looking forward to the meeting tomorrow, I will get to see the rest of the command crew and we get a full tour of the ship. Though I have been in and out for weeks now, working since they made her airtight. Have you had a chance to meet anyone yet? Well besides me of course?. I suppose you would have at least met the head of security? I had seen him around a couple of times during construction, he has a weird hand thing.”
Kari knew she was rambling, she always did, she liked to fill the silence with noise, it always made things seems less awkward, but Brune seemed only interested in a polite way.
“Ok, I know I talk too much, but what about you?” Kari prompted.
“I am ex military. Most of my career I spent stationed on outer colonies, mostly defending against local fauna and eco-terrorists. I worked my way to Senior Chief Petty Officer, and got moved to Dalping City when my commanding officer of the last 30 years was transferred, to assist him with monitoring the protective forces here.” Brune stated in a matter of fact fashion.
“Wait, the last 30 years? Are you a…” Kari tried to think of the military slang word. “Meat popsicle?”
“No,” Brune replied, “I have only spent about 18 months in cryotransport. Before you ask, I am from a tank.”
Brune waited for the negative response he always got from civilians.
“Really?” Kari asked excitedly. “I have never met a tanker before? I know that you are on average 5% faster and stronger, but is there a real difference that you can tell?”
Brune was taken back. “Uh… no. It just seems normal to me. The only difference is how I get treated once people know.”
“That’s people. Always afraid of anything too different to what they are used to.” Kari stopped. “This is me. Will I see you at the meet and greet tomorrow?”
Brune nodded. “I am required to meet all senior staff.”
“Ok, I look forward to seeing you then.” Kari said placing her hand on Brunes arm.
Brune nodded, and Kari walked through her doorway. She saw Brune touching his arm where she placed her hand as the door closed behind her.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Judd Reign was late. He knew he would be late. On the flight he had hacked into the computer and run a diagnostic on the transport. He saw the flaw in the power cell bindings and new that he was 5 minutes from a failure.
That was 2 hours ago. The failure occurred before he could prevent it, and the safety overides were in place before he could do anything about it. In order to preserve the occupant, the safety overides kicked in and locked out computer access to the propulsion systems. This meant that Judd Reign could not alter the redundancies in any way to increase his speed.
Judd punched the panel in frustration. He was still 30 minutes from communication with the Pioneer. He was hoping to be able to get on ship, stop into his room to refresh and then review all the information on the new project he had been head hunted for.
He had previously tried to hack directly into Melltech to obtain schematics of the Pioneer before he was to arrive onsite. All that did was earn him a direct call from Lynia Sands advising him to be patient and that he would have full access once on the ship.
Judd had a few ideas of what he was going into. There was the promise of working on a new propulsion system. he knew that he would also be working with Jessica Talin, and he had been able to find information that her husband, Dan had been looking for a sponsor for his research into a new travel method.
Hence he was surprised that he was being brought in on this. Sure Judd knew he was an engineering wiz. There wasn’t a computer system, engine or piece of technology for that matter, that he could fix or optimise, but he wasn’t an inventer. He didn’t have the patience or temperament for repeated failures that work of this kind usually entreated.
“Come in transport designation Balthasar.”
Judd was startled from his revelrie. He flicked the coms to on. “Balthasar here.”
“Hi Balthasar, this is Romald Brackus. Miss Sands sent me to collect you in the Gaspar when you didn’t arrive ahead of schedule as she anticipated.”
“Glad to see you Gaspar. Miss Sands already knows me too well. I have a problem with powercell bindings. There is nothing to do except tow this ship back.” Judd resigned.
“Can do. I will pull up next to your docking port and you can transfer to this transport. It will give us a chance to get to know each other on the trip to the Pioneer.”
Judd prepared the docking sequence and waited to transfer.
Farreg 