“You know it took you nearly fourteen hours to get here?” Captain Lawrence asked, taking in a mouthful of whiskey. The glass he was drinking from was cracked and the Admiral’s quarters had been in better shape the last time he was in them. In fact, the Actium as a whole had looked much better the last time he was aboard.
“Well, even with your intel it was an ugly fight. We’re still only at seventy percent engine capacity. We were able to limp here, but we’re going to need some serious time in dock to get ourselves back up to fighting strength.” Pierce poured himself a share of the whiskey into a coffee mug with a significant chip missing near the handle.
“I’m glad you could make use of it. How bad is the fleet looking?”
“We took heavy losses—lost a little more than half of the first wave. The only consolation we’ve got is that the enemy took an even bigger hit. We managed to knock out all of their orbital docks as well as most of their heavy combatants. Once their capital ships started dropping, the smaller ships pulled out. Trying to live to fight another day.”
Lawrence leaned forward, “What the hell happened to the first wave? We had no indication they were ready to fire and then they just lit you guys up.”
“Yeah… that.” Pierce took a long sip. “To be honest, we don’t exactly know. Obviously we haven’t had a whole lot of time to look over the data, but so far we’ve noticed irregularities in the sensor readings. It looks like they were putting out some kind of false sensor data on a loop, to mask the fact that they were powering up. Our sensors aren’t tuned to pick up such minor repeating patterns. We’ll know more as soon. It wouldn’t hurt if we had your sensor readings as well.”
“You’re welcome to them, though I can’t say how helpful they’ll be.”
“We’d still like them. At any rate, it looks like your mission is over. You should head to the fleet yard with us. We can get your ship patched up and offload the marines. I’d wager you’re pretty anxious to get rid of Ramirez.”
“I’ll certainly take you up on the patch job, but I’ve been giving a little thought to the mission.” A sly grin began to appear on Lawrence’s face.
Pierce looked up from his drink, casually trying to hide his curiosity, “What do you mean?”
“The way I see it, the old mission isn’t really practical any more. They’re already on to us. Having said that, I’m sure that you can make use of an independent freighter like the Absolution, and we could certainly use the money. It might also be prudent to leave the marines on board. After all, we are still at war.”
“Very true, though I thought you couldn’t stand Ramirez.”
“Oh I do, don’t misunderstand me; but the kid isn’t all bad. He was right about coming to bail you out. Maybe getting stuck on a freighter for a while longer will teach him some humility.”
Pierce smiled and quietly chuckled. “I doubt Ramirez will learn humility any time soon, but you’re more than welcome to try to teach him. And you’re right, I do have a few tasks in mind that a freighter like the Absolution would be well suited for. We can talk about them when we get to the fleet yard.
For now, why don’t I just pour you another glass, and maybe catch up on the last few years?”
Lawrence set his glass on the table and sat back on the couch. “Sounds good to me; just don’t be stingy with the whiskey.”
Therefore I Geek 