Chapter 5 - Telling All

“So you are telling me that you ‘possibly’ let this marauding group of killers have access to our route, manifest, crew status and names of our passengers?   And you did this for some 20 kilos of Metal Residue?”  The Captain said in a very cold tone.  “Yes Sir, Ma’am, I mean no Ma’am .. I mean .. it wasn't like that, Sir.”  I whispered looking down at the decking between her feet.  “Speak up crewman and look at me when you talk to me” The Captains cold voice got even icier.  “Explain” she followed after a very short pause.

 

I could feel myself turning solid crimson as I looked up at her face and told her everything that happened again, with the exception of telling all the delightful details of the feel good physical part.  She stood and looked at me as she started to turn saying “Stay right there” pointing at the deck, then left her ready room.  I felt like I would be sick and even though I was trembling inside I locked my arms at my side standing at Attention waiting for whatever would come next.

The Captain was gone for almost 15 minutes and when she returned the First Officer, the Senior Engineer and the Head of Security were with her.  The First Officer is an older man that speaks softly and always seems to be very calm.  He stood beside the Captain with his arms behind his back looking at me very carefully.  The Head of Security came through the door and moved to the right and immediately stood at Attention then slowly seemed to relax into something that resembled a very tense At Ease posture.  The Senior Engineer was the last to enter and I noticed something under his arm that looked familiar, my makeshift terminal.  In his other hand was the bag I got on Athena Space Station to make bringing the Metal Residue back a little less difficult.

The First Officer held out his hand and said “Crewman your card please”.  I pulled it from my hip pocket and handed it to him with shaking hands.  I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I knew for certain they were about to put me out an airlock.  He looked at me with no emotion on his face.  As the First Officer crossed the room to the conference table the Senior Engineer sat the bag obviously containing my things on the long table beside the ancient display I had cobbled together.

The Captain sat down at head of the table and asked her Officers to sit, as well.  Then she turned to face me and said “OK crewman from the beginning tell us exactly how you came to meet this terrorist”.  I stood there at Attention trying to hold back my tears but as I began to tell them how it all happened I could feel the tears start to flow down my cheeks.  When I got to the part where Mitch shook my hand and introduced himself, the First Officer asked me “Crewman how long have you been in this region of Space?”  I answered “3 months .. almost, Sir”.  He then said “Proceed”.  I went on telling them about the whole thing and how when I got back to the ship I tried between shifts to find him on all the people registries I could connect to.  Then the Senior Engineer interrupted me and asked “On this piece of scrap?”  I nodded my head.  

The Captain said “Speak up crewman answer the Engineers question”.  “Yes Sir on that.  It came out of …” I tried to say.  But he cut me off and said “I know what it came out of.  So, you got it to work did you?”  I blinked my eyes and more tears poured down my cheeks.  “Yes Sir” I said meekly.  The old Engineer grunted and waved his hand at me to go on.  I told them about finding the broken helmet and stripping out the comm unit so I could talk to the terminal.  And that I ran all my searches again and again but finally gave up on the registries and tried something else, after it finally dawned on me that his name probably wasn't Mitch Lander.  

The Captain asked me what kind of search I did to eventually discover his identity.  I described what I did and the old Engineer started to almost smile.  He looked up at me and said “That was a pretty interesting approach .. a lot like burning the haystack to find the needle.  Must have taken a while to execute on this old piece of junk.”  “Yes Sir it took a while” I sniffed and tried to look straight ahead to avoid his piercing stare.  “Go on then” He said.

 

I told them about the 10,000 or so images I looked through one by one until I found him.  And that I found everything I could on him and his mates as soon as I figured out who he was and that he had more than likely used me to get information and that when I had recovered from the shock of what I had done I ran to Command as fast as I could run. 

The Security Officer stopped me and asked in his deep baritone voice “Crewman, have you been in contact with this individual since you've returned to the ship?”  “No sir” I said, quickly, my eyes widening somewhat more than usual.  “I couldn't find a way to do that Sir ..  and .. and after I found out who he and his mates are I ..” I closed my mouth and visibly shuddered at the thought of my punishment being even harsher if I had talked with him.  The First Officer asked “What did you find out about him and his mates, as you say?”  I pointed to the terminal and said “I wrote a short synopsis of what I found in my journal Sir.”  “Show me” the First Officer and the Security Officer got up and stood behind the old Engineer.  I walked around the table and picked up the scavenged headset and told the terminal to display the last entry of my journal.

The First Officer read my short synopsis out loud.  When he finished he turned to the Captain and said “Missing a few details but fairly accurate”.  The Security Officer nodded and went to stand by the door again.  The Captain stared at me with her cold blue eyes and reached for the comm unit on the table and said “Quartermaster to my ready room”.  “Aye Sir” was his quick reply.

In the meanwhile the First Officer scanned my card on a console near the conference table that displayed my ratings on a big screen on the wall.  The old Engineer looked up from the ancient terminal and nodded when he looked at my ratings.  

“Been busy looks like” the old Engineer said with a grunt.  His face was turned away from me so I’m not certain he was pleased or not with ratings that were presented.

The door opened and the Quartermaster entered the room at a brisk walk.  “At your service Captain” He said with an unusual flourish, unusual for him anyways.   The Captain turned in her chair and asked him to have a seat.  As he sat down his eyes scanned the room and finally landed on me.  He didn't say anything but I knew he was thinking the same as everyone else in the room. Throw her out the nearest airlock and be rid of the troublesome little idiot.

The Captain turned toward the Quartermaster and asked him “Does this crewman have anything in the ship stores at the moment.  The Quartermaster looked from her to me and answered “A few RK-5 welders, Sir, as near as I can remember”  “Would you be so kind as to give me an exact number Quartermaster?” the Captain asked politely.  The Quartermaster took out his pad and flipped through a few screens and asked me “Crewman Wasp is your name right?”  “Yes Sir” I answered swallowing a huge lump in my throat.  He fiddled with his pad for a few seconds and said “The crewman has 20 full TT RK-5s in stores and has withdrawn 3 within the last 8 hours.

The Captain turn back to me and said “Crewman, I know where you got the residue to make these RK’s but I don’t know where you got the other materials and I would especially like to know where you got the blueprint.”  I looked at the Captain and said in a shaking voice “I got the materials from a reseller on Arkadia on our last supply drop I paid for the materials with the ped I got for working on the refit  .. and the blueprint was a gift .. I .. I think.”  “Go ahead and tell her where it came from lass” said the old Engineer. 

Through tear blurred vision I saw the old Engineer sit back and cross his arms over his rather large tummy.  “I found the blueprint in a Limited Blueprint Book that was left between the containers I bunk behind.  The name in the back of the book is the Senior Engineers name, Sir” I croaked out almost choking on the last part.  I saw the First Officer cover his mouth as if he were about to cough but in his eyes I saw a small smile forming.  The Captain looked at her Senior Engineer without revealing her thoughts.  Then she turned to me and said “Crewman what do you think I should do with you?”

I was at a loss what to say.  I opened my mouth and all that came out was a little squeaking gasp followed by a weeping “Please.. don’t throw me .. out the airlock .. Ma’am .. please please please”.  Then I just sort of folded up and I scrunched down into the smallest possible form I could make sobbing into my arms that hugged my face to my knees.  In about 2 seconds I felt a large hand on my shoulder.  Looking down through my arms I saw the shiny boots the Head of Security wears.

“Stand up crewman” I heard the Captain say.  The Head of Security lifted me up and turned me to face the Captain.  He let go of me and I stood there hugging my chest tightly.  I’m sure I looked a mess.  She looked straight at me and said “I’m not going to throw you out of an airlock, crewman” She turned her gaze from the Senior Engineer and the Head of Security and continued “I will, however, restrict your time planet-side for short while and you will be issued a full TT RK-20 that you will keep in your locker in the NOW likely event we will be attacked by pirates”.

Then she turned to the Quartermaster and said “Please make sure she has proper access to the replacement RK-20s as needed, assign her a locker and change her quarters to the female berthing amidships.”  To the First Officer she said “Make note of her rank and promotion in the ships log as Qualified Crewman Rank 10 this date and time.”  Finally she turned to the Security Officer and said “Would you please escort the crewman to her quarters and help her with her belongings, except that” she pointed to the ancient terminal. To no one in particular she said “Someone get her a pad for god’s sake”.

 

Then she stood and in her command voice said “Dismissed”.

Go to--> Chapter 6- Rumors

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Disclaimer Part

None of the characters in this story / role play are real in the sense that this all takes place in a virtual world.  None of the events depicted are real, come on its in space on a huge Mothership.  Really?

The real parts are as follows:

The environment in which I do my role play is a game called Entropia Universe.  Which is made by Swedish company called MindArk.  MindArk has not authorized me to speak for them in any way nor do I intend to.  But I will tell you it is a very fun game and it truly is what you make it.

Entropia Universe is a free to play game with a real cash economy.

Here is a link to Entropia Universe - Planet Calypso

The Motherships do exist in the game and are owned and operated by individuals.  The fleets of ships that Wasp works on are all part of the Entropia Fleet Alliance.  These folks are pros at getting you across space in an efficient timely manner.  They offer routine scheduled flights every day of the week. 

Here is a link to the EFA Website –  Entropia Fleet Alliance 

Oh and when you aren't reading my blogger or even when you are listen in on  Atlas Haven Radio <-- click here for link.