NOVEL NEXT Chapter 26: Cleaning House
To say that we got a lot of information from our prisoner would probably be considered a severe understatement. Amongst the things we learned was that the ship that had attacked us belonged to an entity called ‘The Empire’. Which was a kind of confederation of hundreds of star systems spread across a large part of the Milky Way. We had apparently unknowingly strolled into the outskirts of one of their new outposts, of which he also kindly provided the coordinates to, where this ship of theirs had been patrolling. They had spotted us on their systems and saw us as an easy prey, that’s why they had been so careless in their attack on our ship, which was helped by the fact that most of these soldiers had been relatively new recruits as well.
Our luck continued, since this guy was apparently one of the people who had been selected to maintain their stealth system. A question popped up in my mind as to why they would ever send their system engineers into combat like that but that wasn’t important for now. The important part was that Ellie had received enough technical details to crack their stealth system. I didn’t really understand much of what the soldier and Ellie communicated back to me, the only thing I really understood was that, while we could now detect these kinds of systems, replicating it would be practically impossible at this point in time.
So, generally, everything we learned was incredibly valuable information. We also didn’t need to enter their ship anymore, as we already knew everything we wanted to know, and now had a very reliable way of extracting even more information when need be. I was incredibly relieved that I wouldn’t have to put Luna and Grayson into harm's way anymore. But on the other hand, whatever we did now would probably really piss off a seriously big empire.
Ellie, yet again taking the role of supreme deity, thanked the enemy soldier for his cooperation. As I followed it up by having him taken out of the room and towards a very secure cell in the brig.
“Commander Lauren.” Jacky spoke to me. “What should we do now?”
“First of all, let’s get that ship loose from ours and blow it to smithereens.”
“But what about their empire? Wouldn’t that make them angrier?”
“We’ll try to get away from their border as fast as possible. Thanks to him, we know the approximate border of the nearby systems, so it shouldn’t be too tough to stay out of their reach. However, I do not see a way in which we can not destroy their ship. Right now, it would be too easy for them to follow us and relay our position. On top of that, for our crew, everyone's itching for payback. We can definitely not go for a raid inside of their territory, that’d be too risky. And to avoid our prisoners becoming a target and thus potentially losing valuable assets, it is, in my opinion, worth it to give them some good old-fashioned payback by blowing up the ship that’s caused us so much misery.”
Jacky nodded. “I understand, Commander, I support your decision.”
Jacky and I walked out of the room and found that Grayson and Luna were waiting for us outside.
“I heard we were no longer necessary.” Grayson asked. Ellie must’ve informed them while we were interrogating.
“Luckily enough.”
“Hmm, a part of me regrets not having the opportunity to get inside of that ship, though.”
“Are you volunteering to go by yourself, Grayson? Feel free to go and take a look.” I chuckled, so it was clear that it was meant as a joke.
“I think I’ll pass on that, Commander.”
“And what now, Commander?” Luna asked. She looked terribly relieved as well that she didn’t have to go anymore.
“Let’s head to the bridge.” I smiled. “Let’s finish this.”
Under guard of a couple of marines, who followed us out of their own initiative, the four of us headed towards the bridge. On the way, we already encountered multiple crew members who’d started to repair the damage, even though I had not given any order to do that. Amongst them there were some Dokazuuk too.
“You can tell your people to rest, Jacky.” I told him as we walked past the third one of his people.
“They would not listen even if I told them, Commander Lauren.” He replied. “We are an industrious people. This is a way for us to show our gratitude for saving us yet a second time.”
“It’s because you are on this ship that your people were put in harm's way, though.”
“If you hadn’t come to our planet, there wouldn’t be anyone left to have been put into harm’s way, Commander. And even if it were like that, most of us are still standing.”
This glass half-full attitude from Jacky was actually quite nice, it put a smile on my face. “I’m happy you think of it like that.”
“I’m sure your crew thinks the same of you too, Commander.”
One of the marines who was accompanying us nodded. “He’s right, Commander.” I could tell Luna was listening in on the conversation as well but she tried not to actively involve herself. The Sergeant continued. “You’ve put yourself in dangerous situations to save this ship, Commander. You are an example to us all. And from what I heard from some of the others, the XO is there to thank as well.”
“I… I didn’t do much…” Having been spoken to directly, Luna felt obliged to reply.
“Our Commander would not be standing here as she is now without you, Lieutenant-Commander.”
“Nor would we have been able to get this much information out of the prisoner without you.” I decided to add on to the compliment.
“I don’t know much about that.” The Sergeant laughed. “But if the Commander says that, it must be true.” He then looked at me more specifically. “About that, though, Commander, what did you learn from the prisoners.”
I smiled. “I’ll be sure to do a ship-wide briefing later on, Sergeant. Right now, let’s focus on the task at hand.”
“Yes, ma’am.” This Sergeant must have had courses on raising the morale management as well, because, on top of Jacky’s remarks, he had definitely managed to raise mine and Luna’s morale.
The entire bridge crew was already present when we arrived. I was glad to see that there were no missing faces amongst them. Although a couple of them did have bandages in different areas, at least they weren’t missing any limbs.
“Is everyone ready for some good old-fashioned payback?” I asked.
“Aye aye, Commander!” Zu yelled out.
“Alright.” I opened the ship’s communication channels. “Prepare to undock.” It took Ellie a couple of seconds before she managed to undock herself from the enemy ship.
“Systems fully restored, Commander. All bulkheads are closed.” Ellie notified me.
“Good.” I replied. “McAllister, get us some distance away from that ship if you would.”
“On it, Commander.” McAllister quickly got the ship moving out while our enemy kept quiet and sat still in space.
“I wonder if they have not enough crew to operate her anymore.” Zu was thinking out loud.
“That’s possible. We know we’ve got one of their system engineers, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re fucked.”
“Maybe we even got their Commander.” McAllister theorized.
“Did we?” I asked Ellie.
“We can’t say for sure, Commander. The enemy armors didn’t betray rank nor function.”
“Huh…” I shrugged. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter anymore. Please lock all weapons on the enemy vehicle.”
“Done and done, Commander.” Zu saluted, her eyes lit by a passionate fire. “Just waiting on the word to fire.”
“Let’s give it another minute, I wouldn’t want to be caught by the debris of that ship after we’ve blasted it to pieces.”
“Copy that.”
We looked at the screens and saw the enemy ship getting further and further away from us. Still not moving at all.
“Ellie, there are people still aboard that ship, right?”
“While we have enough information to spot these ships now, Commander, our scanners are not yet advanced enough to penetrate their hull completely. They are having a hard time as is.”
“Fair enough.” I shrugged once more.
“I think we are far enough out now, La… Commander.” Luna told me. “Let’s do this… for Sparks.” Her left hand trembled.
“For Sparks indeed.” I reached for her hand. She was surprised at first but after she blushed she let me take her hand in mine. I gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Fireworks, Commander?” Jacky spoke out as well.
I chuckled. “I guess you could say so.” I then looked over to the rest of the bridge crew. “Let’s give them hell. Fire all weapon systems.”
“You don’t need to tell me twice, Commander.” Zu started tapping her screen and immediately we heard the sound of our main guns firing and the torpedoes flying out of their torpedo tubes.
-As Jacky said…. let the fireworks begin.-