Duty, Honour, Love

Jane sat on her bed waiting for Mark to return she was becoming worried. She kept glancing to his bed wondering what was keeping him. She sensed someone approaching she looked up to see Daisy walking towards her a frown on her face. She went cold on seeing her fearing that it was bad news.

“Ma’am,” Daisy said snapping a salute. Despite Mark saying they were all the same Navy discipline was too ingrained.

“Daisy,” Jane replied getting off the bed. She had stationed Daisy at the door to report to her straight away if the captain returned. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t see the door herself. It just gave Daisy something to do they all needed some sort activity. She was still mulling over Mark’s suggestion to find themselves tasks to occupy their minds.

“Ma’am the Confed Lieutenant wants to talk to you urgently.”

It had been a tight journey walking home neither able to speak the other’s language.

“Tell her I’ll speak to her in the morning.” Jane was in no mood to talk to the Confed Lieutenant.

“She did say it was urgent and she looks worried.”

Jane’s immediate thought was for Mark. “Is it about the captain?”

“She didn’t say I do reckon she’d say if it was?”

Jane didn’t have anything else to ask she just gestured to Daisy. Luckily she hadn’t changed out of her uniform. She hurried to the door surprised when the Confed guards waved her through. It only increased her worry. One of the guards went to stop Daisy.

“I need her to translate,” Jane snapped at them. She didn’t say anything about trusting the Confeds to say her words accurately.

The guard dropped his arm and let Daisy through. Jane and Daisy crossed the deserted parking lot to the sidewalk opposite. Lieutenant Dareia waited for them on the other side.

“You better have a good explanation for this disturbance,” Jane snarled.

Unfortunately Jane’s anger was lost in Daisy’s translation.

Dareia was aware of Jane’s anger but that wasn’t why she was here. “There’s been a murder at the White Mountain Research Station and one of your crew is implicated.”

Daisy gasped shocked and turned to translate for Jane.

“What did she say?” Jane was shocked as much as Daisy was when she’d translated Dareia’s words. She fully understood the implications of what was happening.

“A murder?” Daisy said.

“Has the captain been informed?” Jane asked having to wait for Daisy’s translation.

“No,” Dareia replied. She was becoming annoyed by the delay having to wait for Daisy before she heard the question she already knew the answer to.

“We’ll need to tell the captain,” Daisy stated.

“Where is Captain Stillway?” Jane asked Dareia suspiciously.

Daisy translated.

It was easy to pick that out from Jane’s mind. “We can deal with this. No need to involve our captains.” Dareia had again to wait while Daisy translated it only added to her frustration.

The roar of a shuttle landing put paid to Jane’s next question. It looked like a standard shuttle from the outside and older model if Jane’s guess wasn’t far off. On the side closest to them it had the blood drop symbol the Confederacy used for medical transport unlike the Red Cross on Imperial ones. Jane recognised it as one of those that had transported their wounded to hospital. They waited for the dust to clear before the door opened. Kathleen Morin exited dressed in a orange responder suit.

“Kathleen,” Dareia said without enthusiasm. It made her uncomfortable to not be able to read her mind. She knew from Karasena’s report she was in Terran Intelligence. And try as she might however hard she tried she couldn’t break through the mental barriers the other woman had erected.

“Lieutenants,” Kathleen replied knowing that Dareia was a telepath. She glanced at the younger woman at Jane’s side. Daisy she’d got that from the info she’d gleamed from Olivia. “Daisy best you get yourself back to the hall. I’ll translate for Lieutenant Walberg.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jane snapped. As much as she hated it she knew that Kathleen was right. She always had a soft spot for the younger crew like Daisy. This wasn’t something she’d want her involved in.

“I’m going with you, someone has to pilot the shuttle. I’m also the chief coroner so you’ll need my input on this.”

Again Kathleen’s answer made sense to Jane.

“We have to get to the bottom of this?” Dareia added.

Kathleen translated from her.

Jane only nodded she hadn’t been able to query Dareia on the details of whom and where. “I get that.”

“Good, I’ve had the prelims you peruse them on the way.”

“Prelims?” Jane said.

“Preliminary reports and there are things that don’t add up.”

“What?” Jane stared at Kathleen.

“We can discuss this on the shuttle.” Kathleen said and gestured to the shuttle’s open door.

The interior of the shuttle wasn’t anything Jane had expected. She stood in the opening and stared at her surroundings trying to take it all in. The passenger compartment had been expanded into the storage bays. The wall had been removed that separated the cockpit from the passenger compartment. There were only two seats with armrests, the rest of the space on the floor was occupied by two metal cabinets. To Jane’s eyes they looked like coffins. A second set was on the back wall. Along the walls were boxes each with a blood drop symbol. Jane assumed they carried medical supplies and equipment. At the back flanking the coffins, That was what Jane thought of them as, were two doors. One to a kitchenette the other to a bathroom. At least she’d not have to spend the journey with crossed legs. She hadn’t had the chance to go before she’d been hustled aboard. Jane could see that this shuttle had been modified and wasn’t space capable. A hand on her back propelled her gently into the shuttle.

“Strap yourselves in,” Kathleen said lowering her hand only to raise it again. “The info is on the ‘pad’ on the seat.” She pushed past to sit in the pilot’s seat. There was a second seat next to her for the co-pilot/navigator.

“I’ll sit with you,” Jane volunteered. She felt uneasy being seated with Dareia she was unsure why. The T’Arni had done nothing to her even helping her go back to the hall the way she had done. Jane would have liked to be friendly but her past prevented her from doing so.

“No,” Kathleen responded. “I don’t want distractions it gets choppy in the mountains and I need all the concentration I can.”

Visions of them crashing into mountains came to her mind. She shuddered at the thought and went to sit with Dareia.

“This is going to be a very long trip,” she said thinking Dareia wouldn’t understand her.

Dareia agreed that if she had to listen to Jane’s mind the whole trip it would be a long journey.

A rumble ran through the shuttle as Kathleen powered the engines. It grew louder as they changed from vertical to horizontal.

Dareia was surprised by Jane’s reaction to flight. She would have thought Jane would be ok she did join the Navy albeit to escape her parents the reasons still shrouded in her thoughts. She was ok in the depths of space but here near the ground her mind was on the shuttle crashing. The turmoil in Jane’s mind brought a well of sympathy to Dareia but as it was she couldn’t communicate this to Jane. A sudden jolt brought the thought to the fore.

“Storm ahead,” Kathleen shouted from the cockpit. “It’s going to get turbulent.”

It only increased Jane’s fears. The shuttle jerked again and Jane gripped the armrest of her seat hard her fingers touching Dareia’s. The shuttle jerked again something primal latched on to Dareia’s mind and she tried to withdraw as she was pulled into a whirling vortex of emotions.