The First Mate

2001 short story by Jonathan Hicks

Thirty-six years after Episode IV – A New Hope

I had to wipe my hand on my flight suit several times to get the sweat off. I was trying to suppress my nervousness but this entire ship, and its crew, made me feel that way.

The captain had been in his bunkroom for the better part of a day. He had demanded total solitude whilst he tried to figure out our current problem, and as far as problems go this was a big one.

Our starship had been blasting about the cosmos for the better part of four days when we had run into a Ki-Ki patrol just within the Bordon Space Lane. It was only a small gunboat with a double fighter patrol but we decided not to get involved. As we were re-plotting a course out of there, a flash as one of the fighters exploded blinded us.

Two ships belonging to the Order of Minds, those mad telepaths from the Ki-Ki Sector, had decided to spring a surprise attack on the Ki-Ki vessels. Since our ship was hunting down both Mind and Janite ships we decided to get involved.

Which was when four Janite ships arrived, dropping out of hyperspace to aid the Mind ships. They opened up and the other fighter erupted into flame.

Which was when another Ki-Ki patrol arrived, in the form of one of their Vodon class warships and full fighter coverage.

Which was when we decided to bug the freck out of there.

You see, we’re not in this ship to fight the war. Although we’re pretty much sided with the Setnin Sector in all this (which is strange, considering that the captain and the two main members of his crew are from the Ki-Ki Sector) we have another mission. The Janites and the Minds, both outcasts from their respective Setnin and Ki-Ki Sectors, have banded together to create as many problems for the two warring sectors as possible, dragging out the conflict and creating tension on all sides. For some reason, to be honest I’m not totally sure of the details; the two crewmembers that serve under the captain have some kind of grudge against both Minds and Janites.

So here we were, hunting down and neutralising as many of their ships as possible. When I say neutralising, what I mean is that we take the Endeavour (that’s the name of our ship) and blow away as many of their vessels as possible. The Endeavour is well built for that kind of thing – it’s actually a big scout ship, with two fighters that fit nicely into the hull, with a dropship and a small scout vessel in the forward section. So when we go into a fight, one ship becomes four combat ships and a troop transport. It’s the last thing the enemy expects.

The captain, Lovo, isn’t a combat orientated man but he takes control of the fights and pretty much brings us through. He doesn’t like what he’s doing but he has some kind of loyalty to the two twin brothers, Corri and Yedda, who seem intent on bringing down the Janite/Mind alliance all by themselves. They fly the two fighters whenever we go into combat and seem to be pretty good at it. They’re a strange mismatch of friends. From what I’ve gleaned, and remember that I haven’t been on the ship long and the three of them keep their details pretty much to themselves, the captain is an ex-smuggler, like me, and the two brothers are sons of a noble family. Strange mix.

But the thing that spooks me, that makes me tremble every time I think about it, is the girl.

The twins have a sister. She is probably the most beautiful thing in existence, as far as the human perspective is concerned, with long flowing golden hair and a perfectly round face. She doesn’t talk – for the two months I’ve been on the Endeavour she’s never talked – but she seems to suck in every detail of what’s going on about her. When you look at her you can see something working behind her eyes, something so intelligent it’s beyond comprehension, and she looks straight back into you. She also picks up and influences on the mood of the moment. If she’s sad, you’re sad, if she’s happy, you feel happy. It’s the strangest thing.

There are other crewmembers; about a dozen of us working throughout the ship doing the support stuff but since the death of the First Mate, and since my promotion to that position, things have been tense. It’s not often the captain loses a crewman and he and the First Mate were good friends. The girl has picked up his sadness and she’s passed it on to the rest of the crew. Things have been intense. Very intense.

So our current position isn’t helping matters.

We were the only ship left out of the group that got into the fight. For a while the Minds and Janites had the upper hand, blasting away at both the Ki-Ki ships and us. As soon as the twins got into the fighters the tables turned – ten minutes and eight explosions later we were the last vessel intact.

The last dying Janite vessel had cast the last of it’s proton torpedoes at us and had scored a lucky hit. Systems shorted, shields dropped, weapons systems shut down. The captain lost control and we bounced off the carcass of the Vodon class warship, increasing the severity of our situation. Life support shut down for a few terrifying minutes but we managed to get minimal power to it. It was all we could do to get the twins docked again and even that bled precious energy that was seeping from the core.

It took a further two hours to get the ship stable. Threatened with depressurisation and bulkhead collapse we worked with a passion to get the basic repairs done.

Almost a standard day later we were still drifting amidst the hulks and debris of the ships that we had helped to destroy. We had no engine power or thruster control, and the hyperdrive unit wouldn’t respond although we couldn’t find anything wrong with it at all.

So, Captain Lovo was locked away in his bunkroom whilst he considered our situation and the twins wandered the ship, checking on the progress of the work but not really aiding in the repairs. Our chief engineer had a hope that he might be able to re-route a conduit to the primary ignition manifold and hopefully fire the main engine, and had set up the jury-rig under the captain’s instructions. We had hoped for a good result and I was to inform the captain as soon as the test-fire had been completed.

Which was why I was pressing the door buzzer with sweaty palms.

The door slid open almost immediately and the captain confronted me. He must have been wandering the room collecting his thoughts, as his hair was dishevelled, his shirt creased, and his eyes dark and sunken under the artificial light. Behind him I could see pads and flimsies stacked neatly on his desk, showing what appeared to be schematics and technical readouts of the Endeavour.

   “How did it go, Dodge?” was his short, curt question. I didn’t even have chance to enquire as to how he was feeling.

   “Power feed bled too much to create a sufficient surge for main engine start up,” I said in a small voice. “He’s going to try to take power from the weapons systems to top it up…”

   “Won’t work,” the captain shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, his eyes screwed shut. He always did that when he had to think hard. “Too much raw power. The cable won’t hold the charge.” He waved back to the pads and other paraphernalia on his desk. “I’ve already checked it out.”

I had an idea, expressed vocally by some of the other crew, but I wasn’t sure whether I should say anything. Lovo and the twins were dead set against losing to the Minds or the Janites and my musings on the subject of our being stranded… well, he might have found it offensive. I had been nudged and winked at as I had headed up to the bunk deck to mention the current train of thought that had swept the crewmen, so not only was I loathe to mention it I was also expected to mention it. Besides, it was getting to the point where I was willing to do anything, say anything, to get off this dying ship.

I cleared my suddenly dry throat.

   “Captain, I… some of the crew were wondering whether it would be better to put power back into systems and send a distress signal, captain, sir.”

To my utter amazement the Captain nodded.

   “Send word to the chief engineer and tell the bridge to start transmitting as soon as we have power. Send the signal towards the centre of the Setnin Sector only – I don’t want to be surprised by anyone who’s not too fond of us.” His face changed from one of thought to one of amusement. “Didn’t have the guts to ask me that and now you’re surprised that I agreed with it, yeah?”

I agreed dumbly.

   “Sorry, Captain.”

   “Forget it. Get the signal sent but don’t tell the triplets.”

I began to walk away but the Captain’s words confused me.

   “Sir, don’t you mean twins?”

A shadow crossed his face and he looked at the deck plates and then back at me.

   “I know what I mean. Get it done.”

The argument that erupted on the bridge when the twins (or triplets; I’m not quite sure what the captain was trying to say when he called them that) found out about the distress signal was loud and, might I add, almost violent.

The stress and strain of the previous two days adrift had obviously taken their toll and emotions were frayed. We must have drifted out of the Bordon Space Lane as no other traffic came across our hyperspace shadow and was forced out of light speed, but the chances of the ship that found us belonging to an enemy were literally seventy-five percent. These odds can be quite disconcerting, coupled with the fact that the Endeavour only had three days worth of life left in her, with fractures along the hull and power systems losing energy. She was bleeding to death.

When the sensors picked up an approaching ship at sub-light velocity we were elated. Any ship was better than no ship at this stage. The twins were pleased but confused as to how the ship had found us, considering we had obviously drifted off the space lane and were simply in the middle of nowhere.

So Captain Lovo told them. He explained the distress signal, and the fact that he had decided not to tell anyone because he knew that some were against and some were for sending out a signal that might attract our enemies. He had already outlined an escape plan using the vessel’s life pods but had overlooked mentioning the fact that we were broadcasting our position.

The argument had ended as it always did, with Corri trying to calm the volatile Yedda down and Lovo simply stating that he was the Captain and he did what he thought was best. The twins would argue back that it was their family that were killed, not his, and Lovo would shout back that if he hadn’t helped them in the first place then they’d all be dead and the Minds would have their sister. They cried out that they didn’t ask for his help, Lovo shouted back, that’s right, they didn’t, his adopted cousin did and he didn’t break promises.

It was all old ground. Most of it I didn’t understand, I just sat their ready to spring in case it got physical. Yedda had a temper on him but from what I know he and Corri saw his parents murdered. Can’t blame him. But, from what I know about Lovo, he’d lost friends and given up his livelihood to help them, so it went both ways. It was a strange relationship the three men had. They argued a lot but they were loyal.

As for the girl… well, she just watched wide-eyed and upset. She had that expression that made you want to put an arm about her shoulders to comfort her, but I knew that if you so much as brushed against her in the corridor Yedda would knock your head off.

The ship came closer but as it did we could see that it wasn’t one ship but four. The lead vessel was large, about a hundred metres, with three smaller support craft about the size of stock heavy freighters. They had all bunched together to mask their sensor signal but now they were within visual range they parted and fanned out. The three other ships flew circular routes about us whilst the larger vessel closed in.

And what a vessel it was. It wasn’t Janite or Mind or even Ki-Ki, it was an unmarked and unheralded ship with so many weapons jutting from every section of its hull it looked like a hornwasp. It settled into close proximity and the hailing comm whistled.

The Captain stepped forward and pressed the receive switch on the comm. There was a hiss and the speaker crackled into life.

   “This is the Four of Staves group leader to unidentified ship, we have detected your distress call and are responding. What is your situation?”

   “This is the Endeavour. We’ve taken heavy hull and engine damage, losing energy and oxygen, main power is off-line as is hyperdrive and sub-systems. Are we glad to see you guys.”

   “Endeavour, we stand ready to assist. Permission to come aboard?”

   “Granted, Four of Staves. I’ll extend our docking umbilical.”

Although the crew and the Captain appeared relieved I noticed that the twin brothers were exchanging worried glances. They both looked over at their sister and, following their gaze, I could see why.

She was looking out at the vessel hanging next to us and her face was sad.

We, the Captain, the twins and I, waited patiently by the inner airlock hatch whilst the air cycling commenced and there was a clump as the umbilical was pressurised.

The heavy circular door hummed to life and retreated into both the ceiling and the floor, presenting a well-groomed man in an officer’s uniform I didn’t recognise. He was tall, about as tall as the Captain, and the dark grey uniform was cut precisely to hug against what I assumed to be a well-kept physique. He looked about our small reception committee and smiled. Behind him stood another officer and two armed men. They didn’t appear threatening, as their weapons were down and they carried what appeared to be medical supplies.

His face didn’t register as he looked on Lovo, but Lovo’s face dropped into one of extreme darkness. The twins didn’t notice his expression and stepped forward, Corri with his hand outstretched.

   “I’m Corri, this is my brother Yedda, and this is…”

   “Captain Lovo, formerly of the Recurring Dream. Yes, I know who you are. I’ve been looking for you all over this section of the Setnin Sector.” The officer took Corri’s hand and shook it firmly.

   “Looking for us?” Yedda said suspiciously. He withdrew his hand before the man had time to shake it.

   “Yes, looking. I’ve heard a lot about the Endeavour and her engagements. I’ve been seeking you out.”

   “And you are?” Yedda quickly put in.

Before the officer had chance to speak Captain Lovo opened his mouth, his upper lip curling as if he was snarling.

   “War Marshall Areed, mercenary military advisor,” he said with a drawl.

The twins looked at each other with non-understanding and then at Lovo and Areed independently.

   “You know him?” Corri asked after a long, uncomfortable pause. I had taken a small step back because I knew that look on the Captain’s face; it was the same look he masked himself with as we go into battle.

   “Yes, I know him. How are you, cousin?” The question was not asked in a sincere fashion but more in a sardonic hope that all was not well.

But the thing that threw me was the ‘cousin’ reference. These two men were related? I couldn’t see any family resemblance although both men were tall and well built. They regarded each other steadily.

   “I am well, thank you. I am between contracts but hope to resolve that situation soon. In fact, I’m hoping this meeting will be fruitful.” Areed didn’t advance into the Endeavour and stood just within the airlock. He was obviously old-fashioned, not entering a vessel until invited.

   “Contracts?” Corri asked.

   “Yes, contracts,” Areed nodded, “Since my termination of the Janos Contract I have gathered some men…”

It’s said many times but I’ve never actually felt it happen. They say that when anger fills a room, the room goes cold and that is what I felt at that moment. The temperature actually dropped. I found it difficult to believe that this War Marshall was standing on our ship declaring that he worked for the Janites. He was either the bravest man in the sector or he was suicidal. Or maybe he didn’t know whom it was he was talking to.

   “The Janites…” Yedda began to say but he swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “You work… worked… for them?” He clenched one hand into a fist and pointed at himself and Corri with the other. “Do you know who we are?”

   “Well, yes, of course I do,” Areed answered, seemingly surprised by the question. “You’re Yedda and Corri Familee from Chinngard. You were fugitives on the run from both Janites and Minds, now you’re trying to take some kind of revenge on them for what they did to your home. I’ve been seeking you out so that I could help you with your quest. I know something about Janite tactics, and something of Mind ones, too. You see, I was the tactician who devised the Janite assault plan on your home planet of Chinngard.”

There were metaphorical icicles hanging from the walls and ceiling at this point. I think the two Familee twins were shocked more than anything, with wide eyes and partly opened mouths, and Lovo, well, he just shook his head knowingly. He obviously knew what Areed was like.

   “Did you expect me to hide this fact?” Areed asked bluntly.

The twins started to talk but they couldn’t find the words.

   “I’m a hired tactical advisor, gentleman, I’m paid to make those kind of plans. I didn’t see faces or names on my screens, I saw numbers and statistics, so don’t take it personally.”

Corri had a mask of shock so intense I thought his eyes were going to fall from their sockets. “But… our family…”

   “I had no hand in the poisoning of your parents or friends. I’m a soldier, not an assassin. Nor did I instruct any of the Janite troops to kill your brother. They are overzealous troops who are difficult to control. Not an easy contract to fulfil, in retrospect.” Areed sucked a lip in thought and then shrugged. “Paid well, that’s for sure.”

Now, at any other time you would expect the twins to go crazy. Dive at the man, wrestle him to the ground, beat the life out of him, shoot him in the head… but they did none of those things. They simply stared at him, dumbfounded, shocked… they simply could not believe that this man, who had planned and executed the attack on their home planet, was standing in front of them and talking so plainly and matter-of-factly about it.

   “I terminated my contract after the Janites were forced off Chinngard. I know the Emperor-Priest was upset about the loss of the world but we had no choice but to retreat. I’m afraid, Lovo, that your adopted cousin Arkin was killed during that battle, by the Prime Lord Atheus.”

Lovo hung his head and shook it, closing his eyes and pressing his lips into a thin line. The twins looked at each other in amazement. “He did survive the invasion,” Corri whispered.

Areed continued. “I hung around for a while until the Minds approached with their idea for a collaboration with the Janites, and, after reviewing the Mind strength and tactical plans,” he emphasized this point and paused for a second, “I decided that I could not party with them. Their targets included civilian and non-military; like I said, I’m a soldier.”

   “That didn’t stop you bombing our home,” Yedda said with a simple expression fury.

Areed shrugged. “It was a command centre and an area of troop concentration. It made perfect tactical sense.”

   “There were civilians there!”

   “I don’t mix civilians with high concentrations of troops. That’s what we call collateral risk. The mistake was yours, not mine.”

Yedda was incensed. I stepped forward, as did Lovo, in case things got physical.

   “It was our home! We had gardens and courts, and riddabeast pastures…”

Areed continued the sentence for him. “And orbital defence cannons, energy shielding, three and a half thousand ground troops, two battalions of repulsortanks… don’t tell me it was a ‘haven of peace’, boy. Your father placed his best around his House and made you a target.” Areed’s face suddenly hardened.

   “My father was great man!” Yedda cried out.

   “Your father didn’t know how to run a planet so he joined the Ki-Ki Sector so that others would do it for him. His tactical advisors were useless and he was nothing but a figurehead for a failing House who was out of favour with the Prime Lord. I’m sure he was a wonderful father. I know he was a terrible leader.”

   “He was the perfect leader!”

   “And now he’s dead and his army is destroyed. Figure that one out.”

   “Enough, Areed!” Lovo shouted. “You’ve made your point!”

But it was too late. Yedda, red and fuming, leaped forward with his fist held high. He roared so high his voice broke, the tears running down his cheeks. By the time Lovo and I got to him he had already thrown his punch at the War Marshall.

Areed sidestepped, caught Yedda’s wrist and twisted it, and then stepped back. Yedda spun off his own momentum, turned and fell to his rump. Areed pressed his thumb into the palm of Yedda’s hand and wrapped his fingers about the back of his wrist and pushed his hand back. Yedda squirmed and grimaced with the pain.

Lovo went for his pistol, as did Corri, but faster than even I could see Areed had drawn his pistol and held it level. The three men with him lifted their weapons, also. This didn’t stop Corri and Lovo from finishing their draw and lifting their own weapons. I had my own pistol out, too, which I aimed at Areed, then the other officer and then one of the troops with him. I didn’t know which one presented the greatest threat.

   “I think the point has been made now, Lovo,” Areed said. For the first time since we had met him his faced showed some signs of emotion, the emotion being apparent anger. He let go of Yedda’s wrist and lowered his weapon. “Put your guns away,” he said over his shoulder to his men who did so, albeit reluctantly. “I’d like to discuss the finer points of tactics and military leaders but we don’t have much time. There’s a Mind patrol somewhere around here so I don’t advise we stay.”

   “We’re going nowhere with you,” Yedda snapped, nursing his wrist and getting to his feet.

   “I’m not sure you have much of a choice. Besides, you’re not fighting a one-ship battle, now. Everybody’s looking for the Minds and Janites on both sides. That’s why you ran into a Ki-Ki Vodon class warship,” he motioned with his hand to indicate the wrecks of the starships outside, “they’ve been laying traps for them.”

We all looked at each other with concern then confusion. Yedda got to his feet under the watchful eye of Areed who regarded him steadily. “How do they know about the Mind and Janite collaboration?”

   “Because the Janites tried to stir up major trouble by hitting a Galactic Alliance transport. Nearly killed a Jedi Knight, or so I believe, and she uncovered the plot. So don’t think you’re… hold on, are you telling me you knew nothing of this?”

   “No, we didn’t,” Lovo said, shaking his head. “We’ve been on silent running for three months.”

   “That isn’t important,” Areed waved the fact away. “What is important is that I need a fresh contract and, considering that my work for the Janites is well known, no-one will hire me. So I need to accompany you, destroy some Mind and Janites to prove my intentions, and then we’ll go our separate ways.”

I jumped when Lovo actually laughed out loud. The laugh wasn’t forced or sarcastic, it was a honest-to-goodness belly laugh of humour. It seemed to be an honest reaction to Areed’s request.

   “You’re crazy,” Lovo said. “You blow up Chinngard, plot against us and now you want to work with us? Go to hell.”

Areed shrugged. “Very well,” he said, and turned to leave.

In retrospect, perhaps we were forced into it.

After all, if Areed had actually left us there we would have died. It was doubtful if there were any other friendly ships in the vicinity and Areed had equipment on his ship to carry out the necessary repairs so that we could get to a repair dock on Euphoria Station.

I honestly think that the twins were in shock and they were also desperate; after all, if they were left to die, how could they continue their revenge on the Minds and Janites?

And Lovo? Well, he was family to Areed. Besides, it seemed that Areed being there actually alleviated his responsibility to us all. He no longer made battle plans or conducted the battles. He followed Areed’s instructions, even calmed the twins down to make sure the plans went as Areed wanted them to. They hated him for his involvement in the downfall of their House. They needed him because he was a consummate professional and he was keeping them alive, helping them killing Janites and Minds.

That was the power of Areed. His command presence was so strong that you couldn’t help but follow his orders. His plans were surgical, decisive; I can honestly say that our kill ratio tripled whilst he was in charge. He knew where to strike, how to strike, knew both Mind and Janite formations and tactics, always managed to second guess them. He was the perfect leader.

But we all hated him.

Something I did notice, though, was that the Endeavour was always kept back from the major engagements, and there was always a gunship kept back to protect us. Areed took his job seriously but seemed to take our safety more seriously than that. I wondered why but never bought the subject up to the Captain. Things were tense enough without adding that kind of suspicion to the mix.

Perhaps, in his own way, Areed didn’t want risk Lovo or the remnants of the Familee family in battle. Perhaps he was trying to keep them safe.

Perhaps it was his way of apologising for what he had been involved in.

Yes, for many reasons we were forced into our partnership with him. He’d been tracking us but had only shown himself when we were vulnerable and were in no position to turn him down.

I guess he was a tactician in many respects. It’s strange how things turn out.

The First Mate

2001 short story by Jonathan Hicks

Thirty-six years after Episode IV – A New Hope

Histories – The story of the heroic Captain Lovo acting out his role as the protector of the Familee children.  Set during a time of great danger, this shows the importance of the Familee children, and the lengths to which Lovo would go to protect them.

Cast of Characters

Captain Lovo

Corri Familee

Yedda Familee

War Marshall Areed

Dodge