CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Ground Control! Terra Ground Control, this is Commander Rylae Westiel of the UCST Corsari. Please respond!”
“This is Terra Ground Control. Welcome back, Corsari. Please provide arrival estimate.”
“Ground Control! Emergency docking situation! We have reached as far as our directions can bring us and require docking assistance from your end. We no longer have the proper crew to dock!”
“Understood, Commander. We are contacting the Admiralty now to have science specialists expedited to this location. Are you able to keep communications open?”
“I believe so, Ground Control. Thank you! There are very few of us left up here!”
“We copy that, Corsari. Can you describe your situation? We will transmit an emergency message to the Admiralty.”
“We were sent to stop a war on a goblin world. We were unsuccessful, and many crew members were lost, including Captain Gravelhand and Admiral Shockpaw. I am currently the commanding officer with only around 10% of my crew. As soon as we are connected, I will be able to transmit a report before we reach Terra.”
“Understood, Commander. Emergency protocols have been authorized. We’ll have you down here as soon as we can. Keep this communication open!”
“We will. Nub… can you please keep talking with Ground Control? Ground Control, Lieutenant JG Nub Sickshade is our communications theorist. He’ll work with you to keep this connection open.”
I leave the Science office and close the door behind me, breathing a heavy sigh. It’s difficult to project that much drama in my voice! It sounds like he bought it, though, so step one of this mutli-step messed-up conglomeration of a plan is complete. Just need to wait for everything to be connected now.
The door opens again, and Tanna exits. Once the door closes, she grabs me in a hug. “Good job, girl! I almost even believed that we were in serious trouble out here!”
I smile. “Thanks. I needed that reassurance. But get back in there and make sure Nub has the proper lies in order! I need you keeping an eye on that!”
She snaps to attention, salutes, and goes back inside. I sag against the wall and think. Now that we’re in it, I need to keep it going.
The door opens again, and Nub steps out. Once the door closes, he talks quickly. “The second connection is open. It’ll take them awhile still to get the specialists in, so they won’t see it if you can make your call quickly. Let me know when you’re done.” I nod, and he goes back in.
Pulling out my communicator, I press the charm. “Adamar Aldamiel. Audio only.” The connection takes a minute to connect, but eventually I get a reply.
“This is Adamar speaking. Who is calling?”
“Dad! It’s Rylae! I need you to find privacy right now! It’s urgent!”
“Rylae? Hold on.” I hear some shuffling and something slam closed, then his voice again. “Rylae, I’m alone. What’s going on? You’re supposed to be off-world! Is Tanna okay?”
I lay out the quick version of the scenario to him – most everyone is fine, pretending to be dead, goblin warlord infiltrator in the Admiralty, luring him out, have to let Mom know my report is falsified, this is the only trustworthy way to communicate.
A second passes, then I hear him take a deep breath. “Understood. I’ll wake Maeralya and give her the details. You and Tanna are okay, though, right?”
I smile. “We’re both fine, Dad. Honest. But we have to lay this trap and it’s going to make a lot of noise. Mom needs to know it’s just noise.”
“I’ll make the call now. Be careful with both of my girls! Neither of you is allowed to get hurt!”
“I promise. Thanks, Dad.”
I tap the charm to disconnect the call, then walk back into the Science office. “Nub? Ground Control? What’s our status?”
Nub turns to me and I make a slashing motion across my neck. He nods and begins undoing the second connection spell. I look up at the scry window to see two glowing lines reaching out of it. The one on the right starts flickering, then disappears as Ground Control responds. “Commander, we’ve received confirmation that emergency docking specialists are on the way, estimated two minutes. We’ll get you mapped and on your way as soon as we can.”
“Excellent. Thank you, Ground Control! But, before determining our mapping, we need a router connection. Right now, this report is more important than we are!”
A short pause, then a reply. “Understood, Commander. The emergency adepts have arrived. I’ll explain to them about your needs and we’ll see what we can connect for you. Hold tight one moment.”
I look to Nub, and he gives me a thumbs-up gesture to let me know the connection was destroyed, so the emergency adepts shouldn’t see it. One minute turns into two, then five, then ten. I’m about to get really impatient when the voice comes back. “Corsari, your connection to a router is established. Please attempt to send your report now. We’ll need to break that connection to complete the mapping.”
I tap a few commands in the terminal next to me and wait. After a minute, the report closes. “Ground Control, it appears to have sent. Can you verify mana flow through the connection?”
Another short silence, then “Mana flow confirmed, Commander. It appears your report has been sent to the High Admiral Council. We’ll begin dismantling this connection and building a new mapping connection now. While they’re working, I need to ask you more details of your situation so we know how to properly respond when you dock. Can you give me an estimate of your remaining crew?”
“Of course. There are fifty-seven of us remaining. All of our battalion and security officers have been killed. The only remaining senior officers…” I add a slightly disturbing giggle that makes me sound a little messed up by the situation. I worked hard on this giggle! “The only remaining senior officers are myself, Commander Aldamiel, and Lieutenant Commander Foulmuck. All female. Our remaining crew members were all lucky enough to be off-shift during the assault, or working in places like Engineering which were passed by the assault team. We have no caregiver emergencies – LC Foulmuck is our caregiver, so she was able to keep us going.”
“Understood, Commander. I’m sorry to hear about your trouble. It sounds like it was bad. I’m going to have a trauma team meet you at the ship so your crew can be evaluated properly. They’ll take everyone to Admiralty City Hospital.”
Perfect. I was hoping for that! Just had to make sure I sounded like we’ve all been through hell. Sometimes it’s nice knowing how all the protocols work so I can use them to our advantage!
“Thank you, Ground Control! I’ll prepare my crew to go with the trauma team as soon as we dock. Have the adepts provided a rough estimate of our arrival time? And what time is it there, right now? I forgot to modify the ship’s clocks.” That’s a total lie. I not only modified the clocks, but with math help from Aelon and Zaxn’s physics magic, we were able to figure out exactly what time it is in Admiralty City. We even held position for a few hours before opening communication with Ground Control.
“Commander, it’s currently hour 26 in Admiralty City. Rather late in the evening. It’s a shame about your timing, or we could have had Admirals available to meet you immediately as well.”
Yeah. Such a shame. Such a perfect, well-planned and organized shame.
“Dragons be damned! Um. Sorry, Ground Control. I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s no problem, Commander. No Purists here tonight, and you’ve had it rough. You can damn anything you want.”
That brings an honest chuckle out. “Thanks, Ground Control. I needed that laugh.”
“Glad to help, Commander. It looks like the adepts have found you in the starfield, and have triggered the mapping spell. We’ll wait for our navcalc to spit out a response and read you directions and an arrival estimate.”
It’s awesome being prepared when you have to lie through your teeth. We a
lready have this data as well, so it’s no surprise when the response comes back, “Commander, you should be able to arrive in four hours, nineteen minutes. We’re going to read you the directions and course changes now. Are you ready?”
I glance at Tanna, who nods. She’s the ‘ensign’ who’s taking the notations and validating them against the directions we already have. Then I look to Nub, who also nods. He’s technically ‘in charge’ of this process as far as Ground Control is concerned. “We’re ready, Ground Control. Nub and an ensign are standing by. I’ll prepare my crew. Thank you for your assistance!”
Leaving the room, I head to Cap’s office to give him the update and sort out the final details of the plan.
««»»
Admiral Mom actually came to the ship with the trauma team! That’s a bonus point in our direction. One of the tricky parts was going to be explaining to the trauma team that I had to stay on the ship while the rest of my crew was taken to the hospital. I had a decently contrived reason, but it still might not have worked. Thankfully, Mom and Tanna were able to talk privately for a minute (because Mom was ‘overjoyed that her daughter came home through this terrible ordeal’) and she received more direct details than I was able to give Adamar, so she knows I need to stay here while Tanna takes ‘command’ of the ‘remaining crew’.
Once the fifty-six ‘remaining’ crew members are loaded on landcraft, Mom brings me a notation board. “We’ll have all of your crew members evaluated tonight. I’ll be leading a conference in the morning with the High Admiral Council, who will expect you to attend.”
I scribble a signature on the notation board. “Thank you, Admiral Aldamiel. I’ll be in my quarters making sure I have all of the information.”
With a nod, she walks to the landcraft, and I watch them leave. I resist the urge to look around at the darkness of the docking area. I’m sure I’m being watched, but I have to play things right. I walk back inside, close the bay doors, and head to my quarters. Once there, I check my terminal. I had previously set a command to take note of every door opening and closing. It should give me all the warning I need.
I see a handful of door messages from the upper levels, from the ‘deceased’ crew who are all hiding in their quarters. The ‘lost’ senior officers are up there in spare quarters as well. All sharing, in fact – Cap, the Admiral, Aelon and Zaxn in one, while Gimmir, Simon and Lada are in another. I tried to give Lada her own quarters, but she insisted she could “hold off the sexual advances of two battalion worms”.
I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait before the hit squad comes for me. The waiting is the hardest part, really. I was in a similar scenario on Firefork, but with more running and less ‘waiting patiently’. A small beep from my terminal tells me it won’t be as long as I was worried about, though. The bay doors just opened. Before I can count to five, I get another beep telling me they closed.
I log off of the terminal and walk to the washroom. On the way, I knock twice on my wardrobe. Walking into the washroom, I grab the small item I left by my face cream and step back out.
Another minute or two passes while I wait. My door chime startles me. I was expecting him to just walk in! I walk to the door and touch the charm.
Seeing who’s there, I open my eyes wide. “Captain Darkmuck? Can I help you?”
The goblin smiles in a way I think he hopes is charming. “Commander Westiel. I’m glad to see you’re safe. When I heard the news of your troubles on Stenchstone, I wanted to check with you personally. I was worried about all of you when you left, but I had a feeling in my bones that you’d be the one to make it out alive if anyone did.”
I sigh and walk to my table, taking the chair farthest from the door and waving him to the other one. “I wasn’t so sure of that myself. We lost so many. Calgonnel died in front of me. Aelon and LC Darkmuck were lost distracting our captors while we ran. When you said there was an assassination plot, I had no idea it was going to be so deadly.”
He steps over and takes the chair. “Spazkin died?”
I nod. “He did. He sacrificed himself to save us during our capture. I’m not sure we would have made it out without him.”
A scowl crosses his face. “He always was an idiot. But sacrificing his life to save the only truly dangerous elf on the entire world? I should kill that whole side of the family for their incompetence.”
I hold back my smile. Thanks for that confirmation, Captain! I screw up my face like I’m confused and see if I can get just a little bit more out of him. “What?”
He stands, pulling a spellshooter from a holster on his belt. “You heard me. I went through a lot of trouble to kill that bastard king and the new lackey king he gave his crown to, and to set up the ambush which should have killed you. But, no, my wonderful brother had to have a stupid son who gets in the way. I was hoping that message would give the enforcers another false lead to play with, but no. He had to screw everything up instead. I hate having to do things myself.”
During his little rant, the door on my wardrobe slowly opened, and a small figure crept out behind him. As he’s saying his last line, a green hand comes down at his neck. Two seconds later, Captain Darkmuck falls on the floor, asleep. “That’s for trying to destroy my world, you armor-licking dragon humper.”
I smile at my rescuer and set the sleep dart I was holding on the table. “Thanks, Kesn! I’m glad you’re small enough to fit in my wardrobe!”
She stretches her neck. “Just barely. At least I wasn’t in there for very long. And I’m glad your seamstress keeps your clothes so clean! Not much air flow in there, you know?”
She sets the sleep dart she used on the Captain, along with the belt of remaining sleep darts that was still in my wardrobe, on my table as I grab my communicator to call Cap and Tanna.