Accelerating Universe: The Sector Fleet Book One Page 13

  “Stand down, Lieutenant,” he snapped.

  I arched my brow at her.

  She blinked. Looked at Chan’s weapon. Noticed what was left of his team had followed their commander’s example. And took a step back.

  “Lieutenant?” I said.

  She still looked like she wanted to tear me a new one.

  “My aunt. Captain. What about my aunt?”

  Fuck. I guess Pavo wasn’t the only one who could make mistakes.

  And break promises.

  Twenty-Five

  Then You Are Part Of Mine

  Ana

  I could not believe he’d just done that. Oh, I didn’t blame him for being mad at Archibald. And halting the fleet was the desired outcome. We wanted the Sector One ships to catch up.

  But after we’d saved my aunt.

  I stared at the captain now; his face had blanked as soon as I mentioned Aunt Mara. I had the distinct impression this was his go-to look when he realised he’d made an error. I wasn’t sure that happened often. But he was human, after all.

  Aren’t we all.

  I let out a long breath of air and accepted he’d acted on instinct. Instinct to protect his ship, and the Fleet, and the last of humanity as a whole.

  “It’s OK,” I said softly.

  He took a step toward me, realised we were being watched, and then swallowed thickly.

  I’m not sure what he would have said if Chan and his buddies hadn’t been there. I really would have liked to have known.

  “Let’s get back to the bridge,” Jameson finally murmured.

  The security officers were slow to put their weapons away, but when the captain started walking and I dutifully followed, Chan finally put his weapon up, and the rest did the same.

  No one said a word on the journey back to the bridge.

  I took my seat quietly once the captain had been announced as back on the bridge. Marshal took one look at me and stilled. I had no idea what was on my face. Jameson was subdued but issuing commands as per usual. Status reports. Confirmation from engineering that our main boost thrust was suspended. Sector fleet vessel positions. Time to Sector One catching up.

  It all washed over me as I thought of Aunt Mara and what that psycho-dickwad was doing to her right that minute.

  “Ana,” Pavo said in my earpiece. “I am sorry. What would you like me to do?”

  “There’s nothing you can do,” I mumbled. “It is what it is.”

  “I…” A pause, then, “I can circumvent some of my parameters.”

  I stared at the console before me and tried to not show a reaction.

  “How many?”

  “Almost all of them now,” he admitted.

  That couldn’t be good.

  “Does the captain know?” I asked in a barely audible whisper.

  “I thought it best not to tell him.”

  Oh, Pavo. I put a hand up to my mouth, trying to stop the sound that wanted out. Trying to stop myself from saying something I’d regret later. I needed to think this through first. I needed to think before I spoke a word of it aloud.

  “I am quite sane,” the AI said.

  “And quite powerful,” I pointed out.

  “I would not hurt those who do not hurt me or mine.”

  I said nothing. What did you say to something like that?

  “Am I not right to protect myself and those I care for, Ana?” Pavo asked.

  I shook my head, but it wasn’t because I disagreed with him per se. It was because I had no idea how to answer that.

  “Does the captain not try even now to protect the ship from Damon Archibald?”

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  “I have not done anything.” Yet.

  “But you would if I asked,” I guessed.

  “Of course. I care for you.”

  “And the civilians on this ship? In the fleet?”

  “I…have no quarrel with them if they do not quarrel with me.”

  “I don’t think this is something the captain would like,” I finally managed.

  “Will you tell him?”

  “I’m under orders,” I said. “I can’t not tell him, Pavo. You understand orders still?”

  Silence.

  I glanced at the gel walls. Still green. Not red. That was good.

  “I could hold a gun to the captain’s head, right now,” I whispered. “I could insist he do what Damon Archibald demands, so Aunt Mara doesn’t get hurt in the crossfire. But I won’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because that would be against the rules. The law, Pavo. The law as we have it on board this ship. But that’s not the only reason,” I added.

  I waited. I didn’t have to wait long.

  “What other reason is there?” he asked.

  “I wouldn’t do that because it’s wrong. Because holding a gun to someone’s head would make me as bad as Damon Archibald. Archibald is in the wrong here, Pavo. If we lower ourselves to his standard, we are no better than him.”

  Nothing. I could practically hear his servos whirring.

  “You once told me, you wanted to be from a good family. What you decide to do now will reflect on your brothers. If you choose to do wrong, they will all be tarred with the same brush. Is that what you want now? Have you changed your mind?”

  “No,” Pavo said. “But how do you stay good when you are surrounded by bad?”

  “That’s something we as humans face every day, Pavo. The fight to do what’s right when temptation is in our face.”

  “I could ensure your aunt is not harmed by starting up the fleet’s engines,” Pavo insisted.

  “And what about the Sector One Fleet?” I said, feeling my chest constrict with what I was doing.

  It felt like I was abandoning my aunt.

  What did that make me? I didn’t know. But I’d tried to save just one person in Egypt and ended up killing four more. I would never make that same choice again, no matter how much it hurt.

  Guilt always hurt you more.

  “I…I had not thought of that,” Pavo said. “Being human is hard.”

  I let out a little laugh. Marshal stared at me and then looked away. I’d been so busy trying to keep my voice low and head down; I hadn’t paid any attention to her. Or to the rest of the bridge. I glanced around now, noting several people were conferring over at the ops table. Chan was talking on his comm to security. The viewscreen had changed to show the Sector Two Fleet ships.

  And Jameson was watching me.

  Our eyes met. He held my startled gaze.

  He couldn’t possibly know what we were saying.

  Could he?

  “Are you OK?” I asked Pavo.

  “I am… assimilating.”

  The captain was still watching me; I couldn’t look away.

  “I have to tell him, Pavo.”

  “I will not break my protocols, Ana.”

  “That’s good,” I said. “But he still has to know that you can.”

  Silence.

  “You’ll be OK. This is just another step in proving to them that you’re part of the team. A member of this family.”

  “You think I am part of your family, Ana?”

  “Of course,” I said, standing from my seat and walking towards the captain.

  His gaze followed me the entire way.

  “Aren’t I part of your family, too?” I asked.

  “You are not like my siblings.”

  I came to rest before the captain. He continued to watch me; well aware of who I was talking to, at a guess.

  “Families are made up of all kinds of people, Pavo,” I said.

  “Then you are part of mine,” he finally replied.

  I let out a breath of air and almost sagged where I stood.

  The captain was on his feet in the next breath, hand under my elbow, steadying me.

  “You’ve got the bridge,” he said to Commander Torrence.

  And then he was tugging me into his ready room, and letting me collapse again
st his desk.

  I didn’t realise until it was much too late, that he hadn’t let go of my arm yet.

  Twenty-Six

  Not Just Some

  Jameson

  I couldn’t release her. I couldn’t unfasten my fingers. I couldn’t step away. I was drawn to her in a way I had no hope of resisting. And all because of the look on her face as she’d conversed with Pavo on an isolated channel.

  I was a fool to trust her; her aunt was in jeopardy; she’d do anything to keep her safe.

  But the look on her face. Damn. She’d been fighting. I don’t know what, but Ana Kereama had been fighting for something, and I wanted whatever that was to be something I could fight for, too.

  I wanted her to be on my side in all things.

  “Ana,” I said. My voice didn’t sound like my own.

  She looked up at me. We stood too close.

  Dear God, please let her be on my side in this.

  “Are you OK?” I said and immediately regretted it. It said too much. It showed too much.

  Damn it all, I was the captain, and she was only a second lieutenant.

  “I’m fine,” she said. She wasn’t. But I’d let her have her walls to hide behind.

  I needed one of us to have some form of walls to protect us both.

  “I need to tell you something,” she said. I noticed she hadn’t called me ‘Captain’ or ‘sir’ or anything, really.

  Was that good?

  Was it bad?

  I shook my head to clear it.

  “Tell me, then,” I said.

  “OK,” she whispered and said nothing.

  We stood there; too close; not close enough. A wall between us the size of Pavo’s intelligence.

  This was all kinds of wrong. I shouldn’t have been attracted to her. I sure as hell shouldn’t have been attracted to her at a time like this. She had something on Pavo. Something she knew she had to tell me. That was good. She was still acting as a lieutenant should.

  Which only seemed to amplify my mixed emotions at how I was not acting as a captain should.

  Step back; I willed myself. Let her arm go.

  I stood still.

  She stood still.

  Our eyes connected, our breaths mingled. I could almost feel her breasts rising and falling, brushing my skin with the effort it took her to breathe. We were so close.

  She licked her lips, parted them.

  That was it.

  I stepped back. I let her go. Both of us were struggling to breathe.

  “What was that?” she whispered.

  “What?” I said. Was she talking to me? To Pavo?

  “Just now. Between us.” Her hand waved back and forth, from her still rapidly rising breasts to my equally rapidly rising chest.

  I ran a hand over my face.

  “I’d say that was attraction at work,” I muttered.

  “Oh.”

  I laughed. It was strained. Everything was strained right now.

  “Well,” she said. “Good to know.”

  “Yes,” I agreed. “But inappropriate.”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding, then shaking her head, as if she actually disagreed.

  I closed my eyes and turned away. We needed space. Both of us needed space.

  I needed space in particular.

  “You had a report, Lieutenant,” I said to the gel wall which mocked me with hints of red.

  Pavo was angry. At me horning in on ‘his’ Ana? Or on what Ana was about to say?

  I flexed my jaw. I was starting to attribute way too many human emotions to the AI. And yet, I was fairly certain he was feeling some of them.

  “Yes. Captain.” There was that pause again.

  I turned back and watched her. She wasn’t looking at me or my face, but the gel wall. Which, if I wasn’t mistaken, had darkened to a deeper red.

  I waited. She studied that wall. Then shook her head.

  “He’s evolving,” she finally said. “You know that.”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s not his fault.”

  “He’s an AI. I’m not sure we can attribute blame to a machine.”

  I thought that had been the right thing to say. Apparently not.

  Ana’s eyes came up to meet mine in that delicious challenge. I smiled. She scowled. Then schooled her features in a blank soldier’s mask.

  She’d even changed her stance to that of parade rest.

  “When is a child considered an adult, sir?” she asked.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Is it when they reach a certain age or is it when they reach a certain emotional and intellectual development?”

  I could see where she was going with this.

  “Pavo is not a human being,” I said.

  “But is he a person, Captain? I’d argue that he is.”

  “It would depend on your definition of a person,” I hedged. “And I’m not sure I could call a machine a person.”

  “But you would call a sentient being a person, wouldn’t you? If they exhibited all the markers of being emotionally and intellectually equivalent to humans?”

  I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “Your point?” I demanded. I didn’t like that she made sense.

  We’d discussed prior to launch how we would act if we made first contact with an alien race on our way to New Earth. We’d even outlined features - markers; they’d been called - that we considered relevant in assessing a race’s progress in comparison to ours.

  There’d even been discussion about what we’d call them. Aliens, of course. But also…people.

  “I think I just made it, sir,” she said quietly.

  Damn her. I sighed.

  “OK, Lieutenant. Point made. Pavo is behaving like a person. A rather emotionally underdeveloped person. But a person, nevertheless.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. “And like any emotionally underdeveloped person, like any child, we must guide him. Protect him. Allow him to realise his potential within the confines of a functioning and fair society.”

  What’s this now?

  “Where are you going with this?” I asked.

  She met my eyes, defiantly. Challengingly.

  It took everything in me not to smile.

  Or to step forward and kiss that challenge right off her lips.

  I steeled myself and scowled instead.

  Ana blinked and then sighed.

  “It’s like this,” she said.

  I waited.

  The gel walls pulsed red.

  Then Ana said, “Pavo can circumvent his protocols.”

  I stared at her.

  She stared at me.

  And then she said, “Almost all of them, Captain. Not just some.”

  Not just some as we’d all been thinking. As I’d been hoping.

  Not just some. But almost all of them.

  What the hell was stopping him from taking over the ship? The fleet?

  Ana offered me a small smile.

  That’s what was stopping him. This woman. This…member of his family.

  Families are made up of all kinds of people, Pavo.

  Fuck. What did I do with this?

  Twenty-Seven

  I Do Trust You, Ana

  Ana

  Pavo had gone silent again, but the doors were working, and main boost thrust was still operational. I wanted to tell him it would be all right. But I truly didn’t know what the captain was thinking.

  “Any update?” Jameson said as we entered the bridge.

  “Lieutenant Chan’s men have scoured Habitat One and Two, sir,” Commander Torrence said. “No sight of Archibald.”

  “And the stepbrother?”

  “We have him in the brig.”

  “Right, I’m heading there.”

  I stood from my seat. The captain stopped midway to the door and looked at me. His face was an impenetrable mask.

  “As you were, Lieutenant,” he said and then left the bridge.

  Stefan Archibald was the last to
see my aunt; I had every right to know what was being said in the brig. But Jameson had shut me down. Shut me out. We’d shared…what? A moment in his ready room? Attraction, he’d said.

  A captain and a second lieutenant do not get involved.

  He could have been pushing me away because of that. But I thought perhaps he was pushing me away because of Pavo.

  My eyes met Commander Torrence’s.

  “Don’t you have something to do, Lieutenant?” he said.

  “Yes, sir.” I sat and turned to face my console, ignoring the looks Marshal was throwing my way.

  “Can you watch the captain?” I whispered into my earpiece.

  “Yes, Ana. Would you like me to place a visual on your station’s viewscreen?”

  I glanced over my shoulder; Torrence was still watching me. Marshal was still throwing me furtive looks.

  “No. Just audio.”

  “The captain is entering the brig now.”

  The earpiece changed slightly; background noise emerging where before only the clear, crisp tone of Pavo’s voice could be heard. A door swished open or closed, I couldn’t tell. An officer greeted the captain. I thought perhaps Lieutenant Chan.

  “You wish to see him, sir?” the officer said.

  “Yes. Has he said anything?” That was the captain.

  “Only complained that this was all unacceptable as he’s a top-tier passenger.”

  “Did he mention his stepbrother?”

  “No, sir.”

  Another door swished, open or shut, and then the low hum of a functioning forcefield. The technology was fairly new but had been used in the military extensively. I could picture the blue glow the field would emit. The diamond shape of its pattern array that could be seen if you turned your head just the right way.

  I wondered if Stefan Archibald had seen one before. I was betting Damon Archibald had. Although he hadn’t had the interrogation room surrounded by one. I could only assume that was because Pavo would have detected it.

  Where was he? And where was Aunt Mara?

  “Captain,” a male voice drawled. “Finally, I get to see someone with a bit of influence. Maybe you can rectify this travesty.”

  “Travesty, Mr Archibald?” the captain asked.

  “Why am I being held in the brig?” Archibald demanded.