- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair
I looked at the display and read it. Grav Deck #1 Secured, Grav Deck #2 secured.
This was the final check before the fusion drive would be lit. Every hold had been cleared, and nearly all non-essential personnel had been removed from the ship (I was still onboard, and very much among the non-essential personnel).
I had managed to convince the Elder to let me remain onboard when the main engines fired. Now, the time is here.
I took a deep breath, and turned to find Elder James sitting at the command chair. "Grav decks secured."
He nodded once at me before pressing the button to activate the intercomm. His voice began to echo across the entire ship."This is Captain James Cromwell. All personnel are to immediately secure themselves for one-G burn."
He released that button and pressed another. "This is Cromwell to Engineering. Please confirm that the main drives are ready for activation."
There was a moment of silence before the reply came. "This is Engineering. You are clear to initiate burn."
Elder James turned towards the helmsman who nodded once in affirmation. The Helmsman's voice echoed through the room. "Initiating burn in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0"
The moment the word zero echoed across the ship I was immediately pressed into my chair. For several seconds the force pressing me into the chair increased before it very quickly seemed to stabilize. Suddenly I felt no different than if I was standing on the ground.
I waited for the Helmsman to give the clear. After nearly five minutes he finally spoke. "We are at a stable one-G of acceleration. Everyone is free to move should it be necessary."
Elder James nodded over to a person stationed at another terminal. "Bring up the external view please."
Immediately, the Tri-vid display brought up the external sight of Nekhara "below" us (we were accelerating away from the world, so it seemed like an apt directional substitute).
The Elder nodded and once more opened up comms to Engineering. "Lieutenant Sarti. You have command of the ship while I am gone."
The response was quick. "Understood, sir."
The Elder unbuckled himself from the chair and stood up. "Arthur, you're with me."
I carefully unbuckled my seat belt and followed the Elder to the elevator. The door closed, and the Elder selected to button for Deck #23 where the Ring Transporter had been moved. We were still within range of the transporter on the world, so we would be going back that way. If anything went wrong, a pair of Tel'taks had been stationed onboard in case of an emergency.
From there, it was a short trip via the ring transporter, and then through the Stargate. I'd just barely had enough time for this whole trip. I had to get back to work on the Raptors.
- - -
POV: James Cromwell
As it turned out, two days was not nearly enough time to prepare for negotiations. Ma'chello had struggled significantly with finding representatives for all of Dendred. People had been crawling out of the woodworks for months now, and while it had been obvious from the start that initial population estimates had heavily underestimated the actual number, the current census of the world had now reached almost 600,000, a twelve fold increase of the initial estimates.
While I was happy for Ma'chello and the Dendredans who had discovered that so many of their people survived, it was also causing massive issues with paperwork.
It wasn't quite as bad for me, but trying to find a set of people who could represent both the villagers and the newly revived crew was not a simple task.
I had helped raise most of the second and third generation of the village, and those who had been among the initial members all knew and trusted me. The same could not be said for the crew of the Manassas.
I had changed as a person over the past thirty years. I had not been a good commanding officer, during the war, or during the exodus. Much of the crew only begrudgingly followed me, only a rare few actually trusted me.
That had all changed now; they didn't know how I'd react and I knew it left a lot of them ill at ease. So, I had to find someone that they did respect. Considering that my entire command was the black sheep of the SLDF, there was only really one person I could go to, the one outsider among us.
As I entered the SLS Claymore's bridge, I was surprised to find the place devoid of people. Considering how busy the place had been the last two times I'd been here, I was expecting to find people rushing from place to place.
Next, I checked the Major's quarters. After knocking a couple of times, a groggy looking major opened the door just enough to stick his head out and stared at me for several moments. "What?"
I looked at him. "I need to discuss some things."
He looked at me impassively for another few moments before opening the door the rest of the way and gesturing for me to enter.
The room was lightly furnished, a simple bed, a desk, with three rather comfy chairs. The walls were devoid of any decorations, though his desk did have several rocks, the origin of which I was unable to determine.
The Major took a seat behind his desk and gestured for me to do the same. I quickly sat down and a moment of silence passed as I considered how to begin.
"The crew… they don't know what to expect from me." I began rather hesitantly. I knew as much, but acknowledging it out loud was different.
The Major nodded, "You weren't exactly a good commanding officer. All of them remember what happened at Camp Somerset, not to mention the things you did over Terra."
I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the ceiling. That wasn't what I had been referring to, but the Major made a good point. "Kerensky should have had me court marshalled. Would have saved us all a great deal of time."
There was silence for a few moments. There had been a time – right after I had been demoted to Captain – that I had sworn to see the man in hell. "I suppose he did what he could to get rid of us. It's a miracle we survived the war."
The Major opened up a drawer and brought out a bottle of amber liquid and two glasses. With a practiced ease, he filled each glass a quarter full, before resealing the bottle and putting it away. Finally, he gently slid one of the glasses over to me before taking the other one and taking a light sip.
I stared at the glass for a few moments before doing the same. "Why are you here?" the Major asked.
I stared at my reflection in the glass for several long moments. "Considering that we're already beginning to move everyone to Kaelastrum, it's time that we form an official government of some type."
"Then what seems to be the problem?" I looked up at him to find that he had lifted an eyebrow as he stared at me.
"The crew don't trust me. I don't doubt that a lot of them believe I've gone native. Even before that I wasn't exactly good to any of them." I stared at the Major and took a sip of the beverage. Whiskey.
He smiled at me and I continued. "The crew needs a representative. Someone they can trust to have their interests in mind. I'm hoping to get you to be that voice."
The Major looked down at his drink. "I can do that, but you have a better option, you know that right?"
I grimaced. He continued, "Lieutenant Lewis would be the ideal candidate. The crew all likes him, and he's trustworthy."
I nodded lightly. "We both know he was one of Kerensky's. I'm not sure how he'll react when he finds out what's happened to the Exodus fleet."
The Major's face didn't waver. "I think you're misunderstanding why we followed Kerensky. If these… Clans… are really as bad as you claim, then I can promise you that every single person on this ship will choose to stay with you over them."
I looked away from the Major and back into my drink. I took another small sip and the major asked a question. "Why haven't you revived your vessel's command staff yet?"
I shuddered. "There were crewmembers in more immediate need of revival."
The Major looked at me. "I didn't know you were such a bad liar, Captain."
My mind had turned rather blank. I had spent years thinking about what I would say if I actually got to see him again. Now, that possibility was within reach. Why hadn't I just done it?
The room was silent, and I downed the rest of my whiskey in one go, placing the glass on the desk. The Major took another small sip before continuing. "If you want me there as part of the negotiations then I'll be there, but there is an easier way to get Star League citizens to follow you."
I stared at him for several long moments. "You think I should tell them about Arthur?"
"Damn right I do. This isn't the Inner Sphere. You don't have to worry about some Capellan using your back as a sheathe for their favorite blade. You seem to have forgotten this, but everyone here joined the Exodus of their own free will. The Camerons were the only people who ever had the ability to keep the Star League whole. This crew would follow a living Cameron into hell if they were asked." He took another sip to punctuate his words.
I let his words sink in, though I wasn't the one who needed to be convinced. "I'll have to ask Arthur."
The Major gulped down what was left of his drink. Grabbing my glass, he put them both away in his drawer before standing up. "Let me see you out."
I nodded and stood up and the Major closed the door behind me. I took a deep breath. Well, time to move some people to the front of the revival list.
- - -
POV: Ruth Mitchell,
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. It was covered in what I could only vaguely recognize as ancient egyptian hieroglyphs due to that one damn ancient history professor who had spent three entire weeks yapping about them in college.
As I sat up, the oddities continued to increase. I had been sitting in some sort of strange golden coffin. Not to say that it wasn't a very nice coffin, but I didn't think I was quite dead yet.
I turned to my left to find an old man entering the room. "Lieutenant Mitchell. Please exit the sarcophagus."
I stared blankly at him for several moments before I finally read his nametag; Cromwell.
… It took my brain several long seconds to reboot.
That couldn't be right. Cromwell was an old bastard, but he wasn't this old. A group of people wheeled in a stasis tube. Among them was the ship's chief doctor who looked at me and repeated the old man's words. "Lieutenant Mitchell. Please exit the sarcophagus."
I shrugged and carefully stepped out of the strange device. I had somehow failed to notice that the interior had been glowing, for one reason or another.
I stepped out of the way as the Doctor, that's right, her name was Lieutenant Moretti, removed a totally frozen corpse from the Stasis Tube and had it carefully placed into the device. As soon as the body had been placed, and everyone else was out of the way, the lid of the device snapped shut.
"Lieutenant Mitchell. You are currently suffering from the mind altering effects of the sarcophagus. You are excused from duty for the next five days."
I narrowed my eyes on her. "What?"
The doctor nodded. "Lieutenant, you have been dead for the past thirty years."
I stared at the woman. Was she fucking with me?