Duty, Honour, Love

Mark returned to the Hall unsure what to do next. Karasena’s revelation about Lieutenant Dareia had stunned him. But unfortunately for him he understood her reasons. He would have done the same in her shoes. In fact he would have done exactly the same. It explained why she’d been so generous in her treatment of his crew. She had apologised for that in a passionate way the sex had been great. Whatever he thought about her motives she really did care for him as he did for her.

A man, one of his crew waited at the doors as he entered the Hall. He was of medium height with wavy reddish-brown hair. The Orinoco’s Petty Officer everyone called him PO.

“PO?” Mark said to him.

“Sir!” PO saluted.

“What are you doing here?” Frankly Mark was surprised that the guards let him this close to the entrance. He supposed that was down to Dareia and her telepathy. She was the one that warned Karasena about three of his crew. Three of the crew she’d asked him to reassign to White Mountain. The ones that tried to escape which was pointless because they couldn’t get off this planet.

“Waiting for you sir!”

“Why?”

“The LT’s orders.”

“Waiting long?” he asked. He felt guilty at leaving the crew in Jane’s hands for so long.

“About half an hour. Well since she returned but she’s asleep at the moment.” PO jerked his thumb towards the back of the Hall.

“Returned?”

“Yes sir?”

“Please we can dispense with the ‘Sir’ here. And I can’t keep referring to you as Petty Officer?”

PO smiled. “It’s kinda ironic I’m a Petty Officer but my real name is Patrick O’Reilly hence PO I kinda like it like that.”

Mark could see the logic of it. “I see, what did Jane want to see me about?” He wondered where she’d been she didn’t speak Galactic.

“The murder, she and the Confed lieutenant went to investigate it?”

“Murder?” Mark said shocked. “And why wasn’t I informed.” Come to think of it Karasena had said nothing. He trusted her enough despite her lie about Dareia that she would have told him. Duty came first for the both of them.

“Lieutenants Walberg and Dareia said they’d deal with it.”

“And did they?” Mark asked.

“Yes but it’s complicated. It’s best to let the LT tell you herself.”

“Ok.” Mark glanced to the bed where Jane lay.

“Oh yeah one last thing the LT said. Unless the world was on fire or the raiders were coming not to disturb her.” PO mimicked a shudder.

“And I don’t see Strong?” Mark said changing the subject.

“They’re out dismantling the point defence guns from the Ori.”

“They are?”

“Strong, Jaye, Loader Cain and some alien from the Confeds.”

“Alien?”

“An Ezaran or something like that.”

“We’re all aliens to the Confeds remember that?” Mark told PO.

“Yes sir!” PO saluted smartly. “Sorry sir!”

PO handed a datapad, Mark couldn’t remember seeing him with it. Then he’d hardly been paying attention. “These are the assignments you asked for. The Confeds were generous in letting us to have a couple of these datapads. They’ve been a godsend so far.”

“Assignments?” Mark asked and grimaced he had to stop the one word questions.

“Yes sir they just need your approval.”

Mark scrolled through the lists there were more here that he had expected. “More likely unpaid slavery?” he thought to himself. “I’ll match our skills to the lists.”

PO made a polite cough. “Sir, Sharon’s already done that. It just needs your thumb print.”

Mark pressed his thumb against the indicated square on the datapad. “Done?” He handed the datapad back to PO.

“Thanks sir!”

“Please don’t keep calling me sir?” Mark said to PO hoping it would stop him calling him ‘sir’.

“I can’t do that sir Navy’s in my blood. I just can’t be that flippant and not be Navy.”

Mark sighed he wasn’t going to win that argument. “So be it.” With that he headed to the washrooms, bed was his next objective. Karasena had kept him up all night. She seemed to be making up for lost time since she was exiled. He hated what had been done to her but he was powerless to do anything about that. All he could do was be her support, someone she could turn to, someone who loved her.

Jane lay in her bed a few metres away desperately trying to sleep but failing miserably. The murmuring in her head too much of a distraction. She’d put her hands over her ears but that hadn’t helped. It was as if the noise was directly connected to her brain.

“Can’t sleep?” Dareia asked her mind to mind. She wasn’t here she was about forty kilometres away but it was like she was next to her on the bed.

“Yeah just too much?” Jane admitted.

“Others’ voices,” Dareia stated knowingly.

“I’m trying to block it out but nothing is working?”

“Hands over your ears does not work. I know I tried it when my telepathy awoke.”

“How did you know I’d done that? Oh the link do you know everything I think?”

“I do and that it’s my own experience. It’s why Karasena lets me sleep in a converted storeroom far enough way so don’t hear other’s minds.”

“That’s nice,” she said bitterly, Jane hadn’t meant to bitch. “I’ve got nowhere to go?”

“You could always come sleep with me,” Dareia replied followed by a long silence. “I’m sorry,” she apologised. “I hadn’t meant to say it like that.”

Jane considered her words, unintentional as they were they left a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Despite everything she wanted it to be so. Jane the real ‘Jane’ often shared with her holding and protecting the younger woman. If it hadn’t been for Jane she’d be found and returned to a place she didn’t want to be or dead. “No you phased that right.”

There was another long silence. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Mark woke after a couple of hours of sleep. He got out of bed and yawned. Jane was already up and looked over to him her eyes seemed to be hanging out of her head it appeared she had less sleep that he had and that concerned him.

“Captain,” Jane said formally. “Can we talk in private?”

They went into the back room where they prepared food. That was if they had food to process. Ration packs took no time to prepare. Here also were the industrial sized washer dyers.

“This about the murder and why you chose not to inform me sooner?” Mark asked Jane.

“Dareia’s idea,” Jane said. She had been so insistent they could handle it but what happened was a mess.

“You do know Dareia is a telepath?”

“Yeah I found that the hard way.”

Mark regarded Jane carefully there was something different about her that he couldn’t put his finger on. “What do you mean by that?”

Jane took a deep breath. “I had a panic attack.”

Mark was well aware of her panic attacks when it came to shuttle travel. “I thought you said you were getting over that?” The last time they’d taken a shuttle together that was in space and she’d been fine about it then?

“I was lying to you and to myself. I can only apologise for that.” Jane knew it was an irrational fear but it was a fear.

“Go on,” Mark said.

“Anyway I panicked and my mind latched onto a safe place. Which was Dareia’s mind.” Janes blushed knowing she had two listeners Dareia and Mark. “I’m a kind of a telepath as well.” She looked at Mark he wasn’t saying anything just waiting and not judging. “Apparently I was a latent telepath and I didn’t know it?”

Mark stared at her. “Hold on a sec you’re a what?”

“Telepath, Dareia says I’m what is called a Kinetic. I don’t know what I’ve become?”

“Can you read minds?”

Jane shook her head. “Only Dareia can do that. All I get is fuzzy very out of focus images.”

Mark regarded her thoughtfully. “We can deal with this later. Let’s get back to the murder. Why did you not inform me as soon as you knew?”

“I thought I could handle the situation. We had Kathleen Morin with us. It turned out more complicated than anticipated.” She elaborated on that.

When she finished Mark was no clearer to understanding it.