Chapter 12

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Chapter 12: They only ask the impossible

"Are they insane? Do they have any idea what they're asking for?"

Commander Ramsey tried to hide a smile. I'm sure all these thoughts had already occurred to him.

"How far into this have we gotten? You told them this isn't going to happen, right?"

Ramsey shrugged. "They're pretty insistent. They've helped us, and they sent you their 'token of friendship,' whatever that means. They say we owe them."

"That may be, but I don't think stealing an Oolian Cruiser is really going to balance the scales."

"Oh, I just assumed they were suicidal and wanted to drag us down with them," Ramsey said, shrugging.

I looked to Jenna and Sam. "What do you two think? Is this even remotely feasible?"

"Sir, I've never studied the Oolian schematics with an eye toward capture," Jenna admitted, looking a bit disappointed in herself for not anticipating this situation.

I finally took a seat at the head of the long table, and looked at all of them. "You've all been talking with the rebels. I'm looking for opinions and options here."

Ms. Arnold spoke up. "It would be impossible for us to match an Oolian ship on a military level. We would need a deception."

"Absolutely," I agreed. "Did you have something in mind?"

Her eyes moved upward as she thought about it. Then, she looked back at me. "I could easily fake an automated distress beacon. Do some recon, find an Oolian ship to lure, and position both ships to look as if they were rendered inoperable by a battle. The Koraxians would have to make their end look legitimate, but with the damage we have I know I could make a distress call convincing. They'd come up on us for search, rescue, and salvage."

"And then we could catch them by surprise," Jenna added. "Like we did at the staging area. But we don't have nearly enough manpower to take over a Cruiser, even if we got aboard."

"Aren't Oolian ships automated to an absurd degree?" Ramsey asked. "We may not need to physically control the ship. If we could take over some of their internal systems, use that to get full control of the ship."

"Right," I said, "but those ships have crews in the four-to-five thousand range. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to be party to mass-murdering our allies."

"It might be enough to incapacitate them," Sam said. "You know, using Commander Ramsey's idea. Knock them out somehow."

"I think we need a physician's input on this," I announced. I tapped the intercom activator on the table. "Doctor al-Salam, you're needed in the bridge conference room immediately." I leaned back in my chair. "Hopefully, she can shed some light on our problem here. But we're all on the same page, right? We take control of the ship on our terms. The rebels do not get it until the Oolians are safely removed. I don't care if we have to cram them into every bulkhead compartment aboard the Protector. From what little I know of the Koraxians, they have a hard-on for killing Oolians, so we cannot let them get control of the situation. They may be our nominal allies, but they may not hesitate to slaughter Oolians, given the chance." Jack would have been so proud of me, knowing I'd actually read the files he sent and absorbed their data. Then again, he would also have smacked me upside the head for even considering this ridiculous plan. But I was nothing if not ambitious, and I liked a challenge.

Shortly, Doctor Carina al-Salam walked in, dressed in her usual attire--white smock, black hair tied behind her head, and a no-nonsense expression on her face. She didn't fool me, though: I knew she was a fox. A stone cold fox. "I hope this is important," she said as she folded her arms. Didn't even bother to sit down.

"We have a little problem," I began, leading all the way up to the good part: "We need a way to incapacitate about five thousand Oolians using only the systems available on an Oolian Cruiser."

"Sir, if you are asking me for assistance with an act that amounts to biological warfare, I must inform you that I am obligated to remove you from command and place you under arrest for violating sections..."

Yeah, so she trailed off quoting some regulations and treaties, and I more or less tuned her out. I nodded absently as she rattled on and on, and when she was done, I disregarded almost everything she said.

"Doctor, we have no interest in the Oolians. We want their ship. The details are complicated. Suffice it to say, we are way out behind enemy lines, cut off from the chain of command, with a crippled ship. The Koraxian rebels are our only friends out here. We don't have much choice but to do their bidding, considering how much they've done for us so far."

She sighed, clearly uncomfortable with the situation and dissatisfied with my explanation. She also knew she had no recourse. "I could simply refuse to help you, sir."

"You could, but then I might forget to notify you in the event we all have to abandon ship--a very likely occurrence at this point, I might add."

She knew it was an empty threat, but I think she finally saw my point. "If you can access their environmental systems, I have little doubt their ships are equipped with various sedative gases. They could be sedated quickly and safely."

"How long is 'quickly'? Seconds count here," Jenna said.

"Two minutes is the best I could promise. Their physiology has limits, too. We can't put them out too quickly or they may react adversely. I'm not convinced some of them won't be harmed by this process in the first place."

"Then I will give you control over their environmental systems. I want you on the bridge when we do this. Do whatever you need to do--vital sign monitoring, whatever. I will place their lives in your capable hands."

"Fine. I'm still not thrilled with this course of action, though. I will enter in my records that I did all this under duress."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Doc. I wish your conscience was the only thing we had to worry about right now."

Next, we related our plans to the rebels. They seemed agreeable, although Rydia said some disappointment was registered when we explained we wouldn't be killing the Oolians, or letting them do it for us. But we all agreed to proceed further with repairs, add some cosmetic damage to fool the Oolians, and then I had some assignments for the rest:

"Jenna, Sam, I want you two poring over all the data we have on Oolian Cruisers. Read between the lines. Find any weakness that will let us control their ship. We need to take down their engines, communications, and weapons. Once they're dead in the water, we can hijack their atmosphere and let the Doctor here work her magic. And Rydia, I want our communications with the rebels scrambled and hidden as much as possible. I don't want any indications appearing to the Oolians that we're working with the Koraxians. They could easily get the wrong idea and things could go very badly for us if word got out. And I mean 'us' in terms of the human race, not just us here on the ship. Everyone understand?"

They all nodded. We all had our objectives. Mine? My job was to mine my parents for information, and find a way to keep this plan from becoming an unrecoverable clusterfuck. If the Oolians caught wind of anything out of the ordinary, they might sooner blow us out of the heavens. And then I'd never get to use up my paid leave. The thought of that just pissed me the hell off.

So, I got to work.