Jon and Deatra stood in engineering looking at a hologram hovering over a table. Mike and several technicians were talking quietly among themselves on the opposite side of the table. Mike dismissed them from the small office as they finished their conversation and turned back to Jon. He glanced over at Deatra briefly and then back to Jon.
"We need to speak in private Jon," Mike said.
Jon furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, they were alone. "I don't understand we're alone," Jon said.
Mike nodded at Deatra. "If you'll excuse us Princess," Mike said.
"What?" Jon said. "She can stay."
Mike shook his head, "No, we really need to speak in private."
Deatra looked at Mike with a careful expression as Jon spoke, "Mike, it doesn't matter if she's here or not. I tell her pretty much everything going on."
"That may be the case," Mike said. He sat down in a chair and leaned back. "However, I'm not discussing anything that I want to say to you in private in front of her."
Jon face colored slightly, Mike was being unreasonable. Jon didn't see a need for Deatra to have to leave the room. What was so private that Deatra couldn't be around?
Jon started to speak, but Deatra interrupted him, "It's ok, I would like to go back to our room anyway. I'm a bit tired and would like to rest."
Jon looked over at her. "You don't have too," Jon said. He turned slightly to look at Mike as if saying this is final. Mike just put his hands behind his head watching them both as he waited.
Deatra reached up and cupped the side of Jon's face as she smiled. "I know I don't, but I really am tired. The past twenty hours have really drained me. On top of that I have already given you all the help I can on our current situation," Deatra said.
"Ok, I'll see you after we're done here," Jon said. He leaned in and gave her a brief kiss before she turned and left the room.
After the door shut Jon spun on Mike. "That was completely uncalled for," Jon said. The anger was pouring off him and made Mike flinch.
"Was it?" Mike said. He kept his voice steady even though he was a bit scared on the inside.
"YOU know it was!" Jon said. "How dare you insult her? You not only insulted her, you insult me! She will soon be my wife and I have the utmost trust in her!"
Mike stood up and leaned over the table, both fists planted on the table top. He worked hard to not only control his fear but his anger too. "Jon that's the problem," Mike said.
"What?" Jon said.
"I'm not going to go completely into it right now as we have more pressing matters to deal with. However, you met her about a month ago, give or take a week. You have given her access to every section of the station and ships. There's not really anywhere she can't go," Mike said.
"Yeah, so?" Jon said.
"That's the problem," Mike said. "We don't know her. Some of us don't trust her and won't trust her in so short of time."
"You don't understand," Jon said. "The bond I share with her let me know her true intent. If she had any other motives for being here I would know about them. She truly just wants to help."
"You're right," Mike said. "That is something I don't understand and probably never will unless it happens to me. That doesn't make us just instantly trust her though. We've been screwed enough and now we're a bit leery of getting screwed again."
"Do you trust me?" Jon said. He had pretty much calmed down and had taken a seat.
Mike, who had also retaken his seat, looked at Jon a bit of confusion on his face. "Of course," Mike said.
"Then trust me when I say she is a friend and ally," Jon said.
Mike sighed as he spoke, "It's not that simple Jon."
"Why not?" Jon said.
"We know she has telepathic abilities and frankly we're a bit worried she might be manipulating you," Mike said.
Jon laughed as he spoke, "I think I would know if she was."
"Would you?" Mike said. "Would you really know for sure you're being manipulated?"
"Well, I would hope people would notice it and bring it to my attention," Jon said.
"Hello," Mike said. "What do you think I'm doing right now? I'm not saying she is doing anything to you. Just that we have concerns with how much you trust her in so short of a time span."
Jon blinked as he sat back and considered what Mike was saying.
"Listen Jon," Mike said. "Mainly, we're concerned about how she is at every important meeting we have and how she follows you around everywhere. You have basically pushed her on us and not given us time to get to know her. That seems a bit fishy to us."
"I can understand that," Jon said. "I never really gave it much thought. No one around us has even really said anything about that."
"Your command staff was a bit afraid to bring it up to you. If you were being controlled we were afraid of what would happen if we said anything," Mike said. "As far as those people around you. They're mostly Eutharans and if there was something going on do you think they would betray their princess or help her?"
"You know I never thought about that," Jon said.
Mike nodded, "You've isolated yourself a bit from us and it's had us worried."
Jon nodded as he thought about what Mike was saying. Was Deatra controlling him to some extent or did it just look that way?
"Look," Mike said. "Give us time to accept her. If we ask to talk in private respect that choice. If you go back and tell her about the meeting that is your call and there's not a lot we can do about that. I'm not going to ask you to stop bringing her along with you everywhere, because that's your choice and I might do that same thing if it was me."
Jon nodded as he spoke, "I can do that."
"I want her, from a security stand point, restricted from R&D and all military grade hardware," Mike said. "Mark feels the same way and asked me to toss in the last bit. Brad wants her restricted from sensitive engineering sections."
"Hrm," Jon said.
"By restricted we mean scheduled visits with appropriate Human security," Mike said. "It gives us time to put up sensitive materials and secure vital sections."
"I can swing that," Jon said. "I think I understand what you're saying."
Mike nodded, "I mean she comes into an off limits section and brings her, uncleared, guards with her and suddenly we have eight to ten people in a section that shouldn't be there. Ask yourself this, you might trust her and that trust might be founded, but how well do you know those guards? Is it possible for any of them to be spies? If you answer yes to that last question then you understand our position."
"They're all handpicked," Jon said.
"Handpicked based on their records with the Eutharan Empire not with their records with the ADF," Mike said. "Very few, if any, have had any service with the ADF. Yet your guards stand with you on the bridge of the Atlantis and in the Control Center of Ghost Station. It's all about security and the safety of the people working for the ADF."
Jon nodded, "I never thought of it that way." Then Jon grinned. "Maybe I should make you head of security."
Mike laughed as he spoke, "No, most of this came from Mark and I'm just his messenger. He and Oojoung has been shadowing the Royal Guards and even probing deep into their backgrounds."
"Really?" Jon said. The look of surprise told Mike he truly didn't know about it.
Mike nodded.
"I guess that explains why Oojoung has been assigning training exercises to us," Jon said. "Sneaky little bastard. Why didn't they just come let me know what they were doing?"
Mike gave Jon one of those looks, the kind that say, did you really just ask me that?
It took a second for Jon to realize what he had just said before he responded, "Never mind." Thoughts spun his mind as he tried to put it all together. "Do people really not trust me that much?"
"We worry about you," Mike said. "As I've said, we just didn't know how to approach you about this situation."
Jon nodded, "I understand."
"I knew you would," Mike said. "As far as this discussion and its topics go. Well, that is up to you to decide what to do with. You can just make the changes and go from there or we can have a meeting. I think if you started making changes and said nothing people would see and react and become more open. Inviting us over for dinner would go a long way towards us getting to know Deatra."
"I was thinking about that," Jon said. "Dinner once a week at my place for all command staff would be good."
Mike smiled.
"That is if we get out of here before the field collapses," Jon said. His eyes returned to the hologram floating above the table.
There were three large red spots on the diagram of the ship. The largest was in Engineering where the fold engine was. The other two were in the Main Bridge and Main Computer Core.
"Well this is what I wanted to speak to you about," Mike said. "We were sabotaged."
"Sabotaged?" Jon said. His head whipped towards Mike.
"Yeah," Mike said. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing." Mike stood up and pointed to three spots near the large red dots. "They placed charges in these areas and programmed them to go off in certain conditions. We picked up Pansoete residue and found some of the casings."
"Pansoete, isn't that Eutharan chemical?" Jon said.
"Yeah, the equivalent of C-4," Mike said. "My guess is the fold charge was programmed to go off the second we folded. The other two went off simultaneously and took out the AI and Main Con."
"Why take out the AI and Con?" Jon said.
"My best guess is that the Atlantis was taken out to hamper our repair capability," Mike said. "With her down the spider bots don't work very well if at all. There's also the emergency protocols built in for just this type of thing that would have allowed us to exit fold. She would have detected the explosion and before the Fold Drive went offline dropped us out. The Con was taken out for that same reason."
"Why didn't the secondary Con drop us out?" Jon said. "You would have thought they would have taken both systems out."
"It takes a few seconds for it to gain complete control," Mike said. "Long enough to get us stuck in Fold Space."
"Now according to Deatra and based on the rate of the field collapse," Mike said. He reached up and touched the hologram which caused a countdown to start. It read sixteen hours and thirty minutes and was counting down. "That is how much time we have to get the Fold Drive back online before we become stuck here forever."
"Can you do it?" Jon said.
"Maybe," Mike said. "We're working on it right now. I also have several people I trust sweeping Atlantis for more of the devices."
"Good," Jon said. "Have Terri build a small trusted group and join the search."
"She already is," Mike said. "They're sweeping the landing bays and munitions holds."
"How long until Atlantis is back online and operational?" Jon said.
"When we reach Ghost Station," Mike said. Jon frowned as Mike continued. "The explosion took out several key components and will require a small refit. It will take me about four hours to complete. If I had the parts I could do it now, but I wasn't stocked as this was supposed to be a shakedown cruise. There is good news though."
"Good," Jon said.
"The new armor is working as expected. The manual subroutines controlled by Tactical are running and it's sealing the breech," Mike said. "It will be another hour before it's complete though."
"Nice," Jon said. "But, that's bit useless right now."
"Not really," Mike said. "This same situation before the new armor would mean we would've been working in suits the entire time. That slows people down, a lot. The new armor will allow us to remove the suits in an hour and work freely."
Jon stood up as he spoke, "Ok, get to work and keep me apprised of our situation."
"Will do," Mike said as he followed Jon out of the room.
Jon stepped into his room and saw Deatra laying back on the couch reading. He smiled as she looked up at him and returned his smile. He sighed inside as he walked over and sat down next to her.
"So," Deatra said.
Jon leaned back into the couch as he spoke, "There are concerns from my command staff."
"About me?" Deatra said. She straightened up a bit and looked at Jon.
"Yes," Jon said.
"I can understand that," Deatra said. "It's hard to understand the Bond from and outside view point. How do you feel?"
"I," Jon said. He looked at Deatra and felt his heart thump in his chest. "I don't have a question about you..." He left the end hanging intentionally.
"However," Deatra said. "You have questions about the guards and maybe some of my hand maidens."
Jon nodded as he spoke, "How well do you know them?"
"My hand maidens have been with me for a long time," Deatra said. "Could they be spies? That I can't answer. Could I vouch for all of them? No. Can I vouch for some of them? Yes. The Royal Guards on the other hand I don't know. I can't vouch for any of them."
"One of the concerns brought to my attention is all of them are Eutharan," Jon said. "It makes people nervous."
"You have Human Guards as do I," Deatra said.
"One or two and then even they aren't full time," Jon said. "We tend to seclude ourselves away and the only time you are really seen is when I'm out and about."
"That's how this works," Deatra said.
"No," Jon said. "I think you misunderstand me. I mean we don't hold parties or events to allow people to get to know you. We don't invite people over for dinner or even just to relax and chit chat."
"Oh," Deatra said. "You know I never thought about that. Sam, Oojoung and Terri are around all the time so I never gave that a second thought."
Jon nodded as he stared at Deatra trying to fathom how she felt even though the bond was telling him she wasn't upset. "I want to set up a Captains' table in the mess hall and start eating there on a regular basis. It will give people exposure to you and me and allow the command staff to dine with us whenever they want," Jon said. "I also want to open our door to the command staff so they can just drop by anytime to visit."
"They can do that now," Deatra said.
"Yes, they can," Jon said. "We have just never extended the invitation and they are unsure if they can. They need to get to know you and I can't really blame them for being suspicious."
"I always wondered why more people didn't stop by," Deatra said. "Back home on Eutharan we would have people visiting all the time. I like the idea of eating in the mess hall; it would get me out more."
"It also lets people know you don't place yourself out of reach and if you're needed they can call on you," Jon said. "I'm going to make a few changes when we get back to the station. You might not like them, but I have to do it."
Deatra raised an eyebrow in question.
"I'm going to limit your access to certain areas without prior authorization to enter those areas," Jon said. "You will have to contact the department heads to gain access if you want it."
"I can live with that," Deatra said.
"Look, it's not that I don't trust you," Jon said. "It's I don't trust those around you because I don't know them. I actually recommend you do regular visits to these areas and get to know the command staff for each area. In a way it's the best of both worlds. They want to get to know you better and they want peace of mind, this gives them both. Once they get to know you and the guards they will relax and eventually let you know it's ok to come by without notification. While you're on these visits it's a good time to get to know some of the other crew too."
"Actually, that doesn't sound that bad," Deatra said. "I'm still welcome there, they just want to know when I'm going to show up and visit."
"Exactly, so they can make sure sensitive materials are out of eyesight," Jon said. "The second thing I want to do is mix the Royal Guards on all shifts. I want two of each race every shift acting as Royal Guards. We're also going to rotate personnel every two weeks so that they all start getting to know each other. We will have a pool of sixty four guards, sixteen of each race and they will be rotate and live in the same section."
"I don't know," Deatra said.
"It's not really up for debate," Jon said. "It's going to happen."
"What about the extra Eutharan Royal Guards?" Deatra said.
"I think we will have them assigned to Black Op as a promotion," Jon said. "I know a bunch of them want to join it. We'll still have then listed as Royal Guards so we can call them at a moment's notice."
"Oh, you're sneaky," Deatra said as she laughed. "I can live with that too."
"One more thing," Jon said.
"Yes?" Deatra said.
"I love you," Jon said. "Come on let's go to bed and get some sleep."
Deatra laughed as she got up, "Yeah right."
Jon slapped her lightly in the ass, making her jump and yep in surprise, as he got up.
Deatra whirled on him and growled, "Don't make me beat you!"
"Yeah, you and what army?" Jon said as he lunged at her.
Deatra spun back around and yelped as she dodged Jon grasp for her. She took off for the bedroom with Jon hot on her trail.
Twelve hours later a refreshed Jon stood on the Bridge of the Atlantis minus Deatra. Terri was sitting the newly restored Con and doing a last systems check as he holographic counterpart did the same. Mike was over at Engineering running over some last readings as they got ready to make their attempt to leave the void. The teams hadn't found any more of the small explosives and everything seemed all clear for the moment.
"I've been able to restore some of Atlantis' basic functions," Mike said. "Her emitter network is still offline so all we will have is audio and most of her main subroutines are offline."
"Atlantis?" Jon said.
'Yes, Captain?' Atlantis said.
"Nice to have you back," Jon said.
'Well, I'm not completely back, but yes it is nice to be back, ' Atlantis said.
Jon smiled as he said, "Yep, she's back."
"We're ready to bring the fold engine back online," Mike said. "Just as a warning there's no telling where we will exit, if we get out. We have been drifting a long time and were folding blind."
"Blind?" Jon said.
"Yeah," Terri said. "Navigational computers have nothing to lock on too. So, we're basically jumping with no heading."
"Um," Jon said.
"Trust me," Mike said. "It's the only way out. If we tried to put in coordinates they would just get rejected as the computer can't lock on to them."
"So, are you saying we could end up in the middle of a planet?" Jon said.
"Well, yeah, I guess so," Mike said.
"Guess so?" Jon said.
"A planet or a sun maybe," Mike said.
"A sun?!" Jon said. "Are you nuts?"
'Captain, ' Atlantis said. 'Chief Anspach is correct; it is the only way out.'
"Understood, I don't like it, but understood," Jon said. "Con, bring fold engine online and prepare to initiate on my mark. Tactical, set Condition Red throughout the ship. Com, get me ship wide."
"Aye Sir," Terri said. "Fold drive online and charging."
The lights changed to a dim red on the Bridge as tactical replied affirmative to the command.
"Ship wide open Sir," the Com officer said.
'Crew of the Atlantis, we're about to attempt to break free of the void we're stuck in. It might get a bit rough, signal green when your area is secure, ' Jon said.
Seconds later Tactical reported green across the board.
"Fold Drive charged," Terri said. "Ready to initiate fold on your mark."
Jon took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Engage," Jon said.
Nothing happened at first then Atlantis began to shake slightly. Slowly the vibration increased until Jon's teeth were chattering and he could stop them. Suddenly the entire ship went dark as her power failed briefly. Jon watched as the various stations began to reboot as the power came back online.
Jon stood up and stared at the blank Main Viewer. Slowly everyone stood up at stared at the main screen as it booted up. Mike reached down and hit a button on his display as the screen finished.
Stars sprung to life across the screen and everyone on the Bridge cheered with hugs all around.
"Nice job," Jon said. He was hugging Mike as he patted him on the back. Jon let Mike go and stepped back a grin on his face. "Tactical..." Jon started.
"Captain," the Com officer yelled.
"Yes?" Jon said. He turned towards the Com.
"Communications are back online and I'm in contact with Ghost Station. I'm sending them a report on our current situation," the Com officer said. "However, Sir we have an incoming communication."
"From who?" Jon said. It suddenly got quiet on the Bridge and people quickly took back up their stations.
"Unknown Sir," the Com officer said.
"Put it through," Jon said.
'Unknown vessel, you are ordered to hold position and identify yourself, ' a harsh voice said. It sounded like someone was gurgling a thick liquid as they spoke.
'That is the Castanians, ' Atlantis said.
"Who are they?" Jon said.
"Sir if I may," an Invaru officer said. He stood up from a station and turn to look at Jon.
"Go ahead," Jon said.
"The Castanians serve the Invaru Collective," the Invaru said. "They're mainly an industrial race and are known to be fierce fighters in their own right. We need to be very careful here as this area is on the opposite side on the Invaru from Ghost Station and there will be Invaru and Buranis patrols."
'He is correct, ' Atlantis said.
"Sir, I have five contacts closing rapidly. Unknown ship designs," the Tactical officer said.
"Well, let's not wait around," Jon said. "Terri get us out of here best speed. Plot a course back to Ghost Station and initiate Fold at earliest convenience."
Atlantis swung around and sped away from the approaching ships. The unknown ships continued to advance on her even when Terri pushed the Atlantis' engine to one hundred and ten percent.
"Fold drive is taking a long time to charge," Terri said.
"No, it's down, that's why it's not charging," Mike said. "I have engineers on it."
"I thought you had it fixed," Jon said.
"No," Mike said. "I told you it was a patch job and might hold together. Worse case would be we would have to do a few more repairs when we got out."
"Oh yeah," Jon said.
"Sir," the Tactical officer said. "They're still gaining."
"Time to intercept?" Jon said.
"Four minutes at current speeds," the Tactical officer said.
"Any more communications from them?" Jon said.
"Just the normal communication asking us to power down our engines," the Com officer said.
"Ok, bring us about," Jon said. "Prepare to engage, all weapons hot."
'Sir, ' Atlantis said. 'I have a better idea.'
"What is it?" Jon said.
'This is what we do... ' Atlantis said.