Jack and Joe

[Joe Manning 0]

The eery quiet of Zoalus was settling back over the region from which the recon team had been plucked at the last minute. The warring drones had ceased their laser barrages, one side or the other having either been neutralized or scattered back into the woods or the port city. The massive weapons platform that had rained additional fire down upon the machines had returned to its hangar beneath the city -- now no longer shielded -- and the ground-to-air turrets had retreated into their concealed niches. The victorious drones remained busy, dragging the lifeless husks of their defeated counterparts away from the battlefield to various nearby structures, there to disappear from any reckoning. Slowly, the field that had hosted this spontaneous battle returned to the mysterious state of stillness that pervaded the entire planet.

 

The team had been retrieved, all hands accounted for and undamaged, save for a bruised ego or two. They were aboard the Capricorn, the raiders' transporter having proven as valuable to the mission as Joe had guessed it might. Their situation was less critically dangerous. It was not completely secure, however. Despite the timely rescue, Capricorn's crew had counted among them the very same people who had strapped a bomb to Verbistul's warp core. This was the crew that's Captain had been beheaded by one of Qob's own. Tensions were running high on both sides, and already a murder victim was on the examining table.

 

Captain Maxwell's face appeared, with impatient agitation, on Qob's viewscreen. "Captain Manning, what is going on here? I received a message from my engineer aboard the Capricorn."

 

"Well, that's funny," Joe said. He had just finished the debriefing with the planet team before jumping into this conversation, one he had not been looking forward to. "Mr. Grotte is currently under the command of my science chief and should have relayed any messages through him. Experiences are telling me that your crew stands surprisingly unsteady on protocol." To that, he added a glance to the red eyed Verbistul engineer sitting at Qob's sensor terminal.

 

"One of my crew is dead, Manning!" Maxwell snapped back, his usually settled demeanor slipping. "And I was not informed until Grotte contacted me. What place does 'protocol' have in this conversation?"

 

"Now, Captain, my condolences go out to you or to anyone else on Verbistul who was close to Mr. Gable. Now I ask for your understanding in return. The situation on Capricorn is within my jurisdiction, as you know; the men you loaned us and the unfortunate death of one of them are my responsibility. It has been a hectic past hour, and I simply have not had the opportunity to bring you up to speed; but nor did I think it critical to burden you with a matter that it is my place to attend to. In short, leave this to us."

 

"Then do I have your assurance," Maxwell replied in a measured tone. "That the retribution that is in order for this heinous act is being planned by your crew?"

 

Without immediately answering, Joe reached into the front of his vest to retrieve his all-too-nearly-depleted flask of bourbon. He kept a searching gaze fixed on Maxwell as he removed the cap. "I understand your concerns about these raiders, Captain. I know it was your ship they tried to hijack. But I'm going to ask you nicely not to make such a rash suggestion a third time. I hasten to point out to you that no more than fifteen minutes after Gable's murder, Capricorn's Captain loaned us use of her transporters in a most timely fashion; several of my crew may owe him their lives."

 

"So the lives of your crew balance out the death of one of mine?" Maxwell asked coldly. "And you will continue playing nice with these terrorists because it suits you?"

 

Joe blinked and sipped at the flask, not showing his surprise at Maxwell's bluntness. "Would you have me hold Capricorn's entire crew accountable for what may be the deed of one individual? I have instructed my crew on the Capricorn -- and it is now nearly the entire crew -- to devote all of their attention to investigating this murder and digging out the culprit. I can give you my assurance that reparations will be made to you and yours, Captain -- whatever reparations might be called for. If this turns out to be the work of a command conspiracy headed by Captain Raj himself, the 'retribution' you're calling for might not be far off."

 

"And in such a case, your crew is in a terribly terribly precarious position, such a limited number of them surrounded by an experienced band of raiders on their own ship," Maxwell shook his head quickly. "I am going to instruct Mr. Grotte to bring the shuttle back here. It will return with a security team, headed by my security chief."

 

Joe shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Captain, I'm going to have to urge you to reconsider that. If we're dealing with some nut who's loyal to Capricorn's old Captain, giving him more bodies to target can only make the situation over there more volatile. To say nothing of how bad it will look to Captain Raj or any of his crew who are still undecided about our presence on their ship. My people can handle this, and they don't need the extra responsibility of looking out for more of your crew."

 

"I will assume the responsibility for this team, Captain. I am placing it, as well as Doctor Kea and Mr. Grotte, squarely under my security chief's command."

 

"Now, Captain, Xorax colony was very clear about the juris--"

 

"Over any crises that are related to the Zoalus expedition," Maxwell interrupted. "This relief effort is only tangentially related to the expedition, and is in fact drawing our attention and resources away from it. I'm not sure your jurisdiction is so overriding in this case, Captain. And with one of my crew dead and myself being left out of the loop, I do believe it is time for me to exert command a bit more firmly."

 

"Two teams working on the same objectives under separate commands is firm? This will only cause trouble," Joe warned.

 

"I think we are beyond the point of trouble being caused, Captain." Maxwell said. "My team will do whatever is necessary to uncover the assailants and to maintain calm aboard the Capricorn. As, I am sure, will yours. Maxwell out."

 

Joe sighed and finished off his flask. He briefly considered contacting Troy and instructing him to secure the shuttle against any departure attempt. But he was already maintaining an uneasy stalemate between two ships -- the Capricorn and the Lucky Hand -- whose Captains he could offer only a short supply of trust. Antagonizing Captain Maxwell would leave him in the middle of a four-way standoff with no one to count on for support -- a royal mess, in short.

 

Returning the flask to his vest pocket, he glanced over at the red-eyed engineer. "Hey, old man ... "

 

The engineer turned his chair, pointing his crooked brow and drawn lips at Joe.

 

"It seems to me that a signal being relayed from someone on Capricorn ... aaaaall the way around Zoalus ... to the Verbistul should have been noticed by even our decrepit old sensors. Yet no such anomaly was brought to my attention; go figure."

 

"The signal in question," the engineer replied in his vaguely sarcastic and annoyed tone. "Was a report from Mr. Grotte to Captain Maxwell. If you would like me to inform you of every single communique that is transmitted from one person to another in this star system, I would be more than happy to oblige. I warn you that it will make for a dry read and a fairly pointless exercise as most of these transmissions, like Mr. Grotte's, are routine intra-crew correspondence."

 

"There's nothing routine about a message between two ships, you little snot." He waved a dismissive hand in the engineer's direction. "Get back to work. And let me know if it happens again."