Duty, Honour, Love

Karasena was impressed not only with Mark and his crew but with the ship to take that much damage and carry on that was no mean feat.

Mark continued. “We limped from jump to jump every time we exited that damn ship was there.”

A though occurred to Karasena considering what she was having Dee do for her. “Could they have been tepes?” she asked using the Confederacy slang word for telepaths.

Mark hadn’t considered that possibility he had just concentrated on keeping the ship and crew together. “You could be right,” he admitted. “ That would account for it to be ahead of us every jump. Those bastards we toying with us.” His words were angry.

Karasena felt guilty she was using Dee to do the same.

A thought passed though his mind. He hadn’t thought about it until now. “For some reason they were herding us towards the Commonwealth.”

She nodded thoughtfully. The Orsini would attack anything that entered their territory, which was why the wars in the disputed territories were so vicious. There it wasn’t the whole of the Commonwealth just a few of the weaker Orsini clans trying to grab planets belonging to the Confederacy. Hyren-Shai, Anoxi and Praxi to name a few of the more recent ones. The worlds there were gift worlds given to the T’Arni after the wars of the Ancients that freed them from the Rhosani. She shivered inside the Rhosani was the worst thing that had happened to the T’Arni they would never be their slaves again. “And of course the Orsini would use it as an excuse to attack Terran worlds.”

“That was my thought,” Mark replied his mouth a thin angry line.

“How did you escape if they were harassing you?”

“That’s where I’m unsure. We thought we were goners.”

“Goners?” Karasena hadn’t heard the word before.

Mark gave her a look and sighed. “I’ll explain later. As to what I was saying they had us in their sights and looked it as if they were going for a kill. Suddenly what I can only call a hole in space opened up and swallowed us.”

Karasena frowned Dee hadn’t mentioned that but it would go some way to explain how the Orinoco reached Erikino. The distances they have travelled in the time frame would be impossible for even the fastest of ships. She watched Mark closely he still had no idea how far he had travelled. This sort of information was pure gold to the Confederacy and the war.

“Jane theorised that it was a wormhole in space,” he told her.

“Wormhole?” another word Karasena was unfamiliar with.

“I’m not sure but whatever it was it was something the aliens hadn’t anticipated.” He drew a deep breath. “It sucked us in and there was no way we could escape.” He fingered his lucky charm thankfully he hadn’t be forced to give that up like their comms units. The loss of their comms units wasn’t that big a deal they didn’t work anyway. “The next thing we knew is that we exited here. I had to ration food and water because we didn’t know when or even if we would get re-supplied.”

“It must have been a terrible time.” Karasena said sympathetically.

“I just relieved that is all over and we made it through,” he replied with genuine feeling.

Just hearing the relief in his voice made her happy but still questions to had to be asked. “Why didn’t you abandon your ship when you had the chance?”

“I had considered that but that would mean I would have to leave my wounded behind. It would have been a death sentence for those I left behind I just couldn’t do it.”

Karasena’s estimation of Mark went up. “Wasn’t it risky to land knowing that you could not take off again?”

“We detected a beacon.”

“Beacon? Oh you mean a relay.”

“In the Empire a beacon means a habitable system. When we picked up a second beacon we knew there was a chance there was an inhabited world. Landing was our best option since no one answered our distress beacon.”

“We did register your distress beacon and even tried contacting you. And we have no ships to investigate.”

“With our comms down we never heard you.” He gave her a look. “I would have thought a populated world like this would have a number of ships, traders and such like?”

“Possibly if we were on a commercial route but here out near the Core the only ships that come here are free traders and infrequently at that. It’s good that we are self-sufficient we’ve got to make do with what we have.”

“And our presence is putting a strain on your resources?” What she was saying actually made sense to him if they were as remote as they were. From what he could remember the Core was off limits to all races. The Empire had sent a number of expeditions over the years and none had returned.

“We have a contingency plan but your presence wouldn’t even put a dent in that.”

Mark was thoughtful. “Looks like we’re both doing the best we can under the circumstances.”

Karasena turned off her recording. “Thank you for your co-operation Captain Stillway,” she said formally although she didn’t want to be that formal but she had to remain professional even when she wanted to be friendly. “I won’t take up any more of your time.”

“Thank you,” Mark replied.

She escorted Mark back down the stairs and into the hall. She turned and regarded his face wishing that he wasn’t so tall in relation to her. “Good bye Captain Stillway.”

“Good bye Karasena,” he responded his voice low.

It sent warm feeling through her but with more than a little regret she hated what she was going to say. “There is one more thing I must ask?” She felt herself go cold seeing the hurt in his eyes he must have known something was wrong. “I’ve been informed that some of your crew are plotting to cause trouble?”

“Oh?” Mark sounded suspicious and that hurt her more.

“We think?” That was Dee’s suggestion and not hers. She must have read something from their thoughts to suggest her plan was the best thing for all. “That a change of scene would calm them?”

“What do you mean by that!” Mark demanded. “They are still my crew and any discipline is my right!”

“There is a Terran research station up north,” she omitted telling him how far north White Mountain was.

“Ok?” he conceded reluctantly.

“Wouldn’t it be better for them to be there, the researchers have their families with them. With the war I can’t have my forces so spread out and someone needs to run protection for them?” that last bit was a lie more to herself than to placate Mark.

“I’ll consider it!” he said abruptly and walked away.

For a moment Karasena wanted to run after him and apologise but that would weaken her position in front of her own soldiers. Mark regretted his tone of voice he should have known nothing came without a cost and this was the price. Then again with the troublemakers gone the others would settle down. All he had to do was wait for Jane to return and run it through her. It was going to be a long wait until she returned.