"Jay, turn off the sail." Eds backs down. "Disembark ASAP, off-charts."
"Aye sir."
"This convo stays here, Commander!" Addie-Lit adds. "Out!"
I immediately leave. Once in the hallway, I pause for a second in sheer disbelief, but good sense prevails and carries me back down the corridor to the bridge where I retake my seat in stark silence on the bridge.
"Lito, turn off our sails, navboard plot up plan B route to Endeavors. No questions." I order to murmured "yessirs" with inquiring looks. I gesture knock it off, quick. I direct comm Medbay. "Twink or Ra-Ra? Stats?"
"We've got everyone locked down and stabilized for the most part, ready to move." Twink answers.
"Aye. All right, let's rock then." I say, seeing the course Trippy plotted on the screen and I remember just in time to jack back in and then switch on the light-cycle sequence to blue-blue-blue for impending push-off.
While waiting the regulated five minutes for all aboard to take-hold, I double-check Trippy's plot, add in a couple of diversionary maneuvers and order a starchart update since we're still in range of a CLUSA-point to use deeplink. Turning off the sail – that last signal to show your position approximate to all ships, stations, satellites nearby will increase the risk to ourselves and others. I've run off-sail on multiple occasions but these civs haven't. They're side-eying me like never before. They're going to complain loudly, justifiably, it's just a matter of time.
Right on the first five-minute mark, Eds and Addie-Lit enter the bridge and take seats with Addie-Lit sitting secondary security post with privileges I see, making good on her word. Rumor is that you do NOT cross her, at all. It's also rumored that she and Eds are an unlikely couple.
I sound the klaxon in one short burst and switch our light-cycle to red-red-red for imminent burn and ignite the gins. They didn't need warming up as they were on idle and nothing is in our pathway to distort our trajectory so, we can go immediate slide-run. I flick the light-cycle to blue-red-blue to indicate just that.
"Slide-run imminent, slide in five, take hold!" I announce over all-ship comm.
We immediately run the rest of our sequence for e-particle bombardment and angling with a couple of Core pulses to successfully hit our mark and transition to slide three minutes later, as always. Once all is steady on green, I switch the light-cycle to yellow-yellow-yellow.
Miraculously, the navboard is mum. They're also not in personal inline boards either, smart. Hopefully, these next five starhours will be uneventful. I decide to drop an update to GoSo's comm-node and for minimal distraction, I don't read any updates on the node. I just add that we intercepted Five and Six, what's left of them with Trader's Delight destroyed, Merchie's Nap dead in the water, that we're headed for Endeavors, ETA five starhours.
I need another conversation with Eds, that's for sure. What precisely does he have up his sleeves and gotten us into? I'm honestly shocked. But too, no one in Sibby is an innocent, haven't done anything saint either. We've ALL got a past we're paying for. I check on my correlation keyword search – no results. What's certain however is the fact that we're in hot water.
Fifteen real minutes into our slide however,
Eds wanna drop outta slide – Lito
Why? – me
Distress sig' from Pity Treaty – Lito, I see the co'ords roll over onto my boards
This just gets better and better, kay – me
Upscan charts? – Trippy
You bet, even if we need a double-back, no need of runnin' into some-else unexpected – me
Got it – navboard understanding
Capitalist has an excellent comp-sys suite however, I wanna make sure we don't hit any unexpected objects when we exit slide or boost any rocks down with us to hit anyone who happens to unfortunately be in our path. The upscan takes five well worth it minutes and once it confirms a clear path, I initiate gate-exit, light-cycle switch to red-red-red with a klaxon burst with immediate running of long and shortrange scans of this area. We drop in on the Mid-Inn region, not far from Chancer Station but still enroute for Endeavors, which is in the Rim's Edge region of the InnerRim.
Got Pity Treaty sig' – Trippy
Good, trimming up, initiate braking – me
Long and shortrange clear – Leeps
Speed dump, I got the comp – me
Gotta visual, putting them in brackets – Stick
I pop up the viewscreen on magnification for the bridge crew to show the Pity Treaty, Unit One's ship and a fellow Observer in much of the same condition we found Merchie's Nap in – trailing debris and atmosphere at a list. Lito gets them on the chop, we dump enough velocity to line up with them and dock since we've agreed to board them. Pity Treaty is dead in the water with imminent life support failure. They're also carrying extra civ crew, like us and with their compliment added to ours, it'll nearly max out Capitalist's max capacity. We should be ok as long as we don't add anyone else aboard and our next hop is Endeavors.
Again, we run docking maneuvers unassisted, once our speed is trimmed and our positions aligned to match Pity Treaty's and as expected, we pull it off successfully.
"Solid seal." Trippy announces.
"Pressurization complete in five." Leeps add. "Safe to move about."
"Good work." Eds says.
"They need to get that cargo off and over here." Addie-Lit says, amping up the bridge's mood in one stroke.
"That'll slow us down." Eds protests.
"We're gonna need supplies and bargaining chips or you've forgotten your end-game?" Addie-Lit stares icily at Eds.
"Lingering here to transfer cargo elevates the risk and you know it!" he stands.
"You're insisting on going to Endeavors despite it all is risky! Once there, THEN what?!?" Addie-Lit stands as well.
"In my office! Jay, go assist Twink and Ra-Ra!" Eds orders.
"Yessir!" I unjack off the boards and we all leave off the bridge together.
Eds and Addie-Lit start arguing even more so in the corridor like a disgruntled old couple so maybe there's truth to the rumor? Eds grabs me by the elbow and yanks me into the office with them before I can depart to follow his orders. Not again! I really haven't had time to process that last nova-hot conversation!
"Why do you want the cargo?!" Eds demands.
"Stupid question! What's more, we'd only need their cred-chips, you're carrying the rest!" Addie-Lit says.
"Blinded Nova's got our cargo, woman, we're runnin' on nuth!"
"All the more reason to transfer it over then if you plan on surviving all this, right?!" Addie-Lit has hands on hips, glaring at Eds.
"You're,"
"Excuse me, Captains. I hate to interrupt." I hold up my hands for them to remember my presence here and their heads swivel and lock on me.
"What?!?" they demand together.
"Why can't we go to Trip-C 'bout this?" I suggest.
"Excellent idea Commander!" Addie-Lit faces Eds.
"No!"
"Why?" I demand. "You're already disobeying orders, as a hypocrite mind you, when the order you need to disobey is this cold call, sir! Get Trip-C on the chop and tell 'em what's happening, especially if we lack auth on these ops! Eds, that's how you speak truth to power!"
"The fact you two fail to appreciate is that it doesn't matter! We're expendable! How're they gonna kill off 100 peeps on their Front Units and no one notice?! If we run, we're still dead! It'll change nothing! Not even the Revolution will fix our plight!"
Addie-Lit suddenly looks sharp at Eds. "What've you done?!"
"Nuth!"
Addie-Lit open palm slaps Eds in the face, again.
"Liar!"
"That's your last time hitting me!"
"Answer my question or it won't be my last time hitting you!"
"I'm not the only one who feels Sibby needs to be exposed and this op here is the prime evidence that we can !"
"Eds..." Addie-Lit shakes her head.
I'm stunned silent, myself. Again. What??
"I told you to leave those fools alone! All you've done is angled two different targets right on us! Do you really think they'll let a batch of disgruntled criminals given a second shot at life, to upend a well-oiled system in place for hundreds of years?! Think about this! Clearly! Slow down at the very least and let us survive one crisis at a time!"
"We can do this!"
"No. We. CAN'T! That's the one thing you don't ever do!" Addie-Lit grabs Eds by the face. "Babe, I know...look, I know what you want but you can't have it and I don't care WHAT Fitz and them have told you but they're dangling a carrot in front of you because they think you're a fool! We got enough goin' on right now with Front Command burnin' us! You consider that?! What's happened that they're burnin' us, huh? WAKE UP! I'm gonna facilitate this cargo transfer Eds, don't go off and do anything else stupid. Don't let 'em Jay, ev'one's lives aboard are counting on you!" and she leaves the office abruptly.
Eds attempts to leave but I block his path.
"Sir!"
"What?"
"You owe me an explanation!" I demand.
"I don't owe you noth'!"
"After she slapped you in the face twice, yes you do!"
Eds whirls around to face me, finger in my face. "I know orders and these cold call orders are legal!"
"What?!"
"That they're icin' folks is a rumor!"
"You really have lost your rabid mind...you've already acknowledged that Resolute has fired on two of our Units! How's that a rumor?! And apparently despite whatever you told Addie-Lit, you're still bent on running us there to meet our end! Three and Four changed their Eye sig's to run EarthSolwards, we should do the same, sir! Unless you got some other plan up your sleeves, we STILL should change our Eye sig's!"
Eds paces the office, head down and silent, hands on hips.
"Look, I get it. You don't wanna run from this because all it'll do is stall our real deaths. Which may be inescapable but while we're still alive, if our orders aren't sanct', it's a legal move to disobey and report into Trip-C on what's burnin' out here! They gotta be within fifteen klicks to kill our switches, you know that. Which is even more reason to not answer the cold call!"
Eds stops pacing and faces me. "You have NO idea what Farley ordered me to do!"
"Enlighten me." I hold my hands out.
Eds resumes pacing the office in silence, hands on hips, not appearing at all apt to do anything about whatever. I get a vibe sensation of his stubborn streak coming alive...then again, he suddenly stops pacing to face me.
"Guess I was feeling a bit suicidal there, disclosing before civs but you should know, it's a moot point anyway. Offer our crew the Eye sig' change. Command has ordered skill-sess for all of us to allegedly wipe these ops outta our minds."
"What?!"
"It's part of the sanction I bought us, for our lives, Jay." He places hands on my shoulders. "They want you to run it. Do I need to make it an order?"
"Yes make it an order!" I really don't believe him.
"You know... I just want better from you... You're hereby ordered by Front Command to run subskill sessions on all aboard with notations of individual compliance! You'll sucker the civs into it by having them jack into the system and those without implants you'll have report to medical. You said yourself Trippy's a more than capable kisser."
I mumble to myself but manage to vocalize, "I don't know what's worst. Voluntarily rollin' over to get iced or placating myself to roll over to get iced!"
"Watch it, Commander!" he steps closer to me. "It's already in ev'body loops by now anyway. I already got Twink on it anyway since he knows how to follow orders! Your compliance or not will be noted and you'll piss off any chance at Command for good! Get out and do what I asked you!"