Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

In the present time…

G il Fleming was doing an inspection tour of the Nebula Zephyr , stem to stern, all decks. He was accompanied by the Second Officer and a yeoman, who took prodigious notes on everything the captain said needed to be done. Overall he was quite satisfied. He ran a tight ship and his officers, selected for the most part by him, were top notch. Their departments, from the kitchen under Chef Stephanie to the cargo hold under Owen Embersson were efficient, with high crew morale and satisfactory adherence to CLC Line's rules and the general regulations imposed by the Sectors Interstellar Commerce Commission.

The tour ended with the engines, on the lowest level of the ship. Chief Engineer Takkei ran a tight operation, with constant training going on. He and his officers managed the sometimes cranky engines perfectly, squeezing whatever speed and power out of the four modules the captain needed at any given time. Takkei was a Space Navy veteran with an outstanding record so Gil would have expected nothing less. After complimenting the Chief on his department, Gil dismissed his retinue and proceeded to Level 10 on the gravlift by himself.

No one was allowed to access Level 10, aside from the captain. On extremely rare occasions Maeve had invited a few of his crew to meet here, when there was a dangerous mission being planned. For being a luxury cruise liner they'd certainly had their share of excitement and problems. Precisely why Gil maintained a Security group of former Special Forces operators on board. He believed in being prepared for anything which might threaten his ship or his passengers.

Walking through the empty corridor which led to the heart of Level 10, Gil steeled himself for the conversation to come. When he arrived at the room where Maeve allowed guests he walked to the center and faced the far wall. The huge black box in which her cortex was housed lay behind the bulkhead. Gil hadn't seen it—her—since the day the Mellureans escorted the unit aboard the ship before she was commissioned and took her first trip into interstellar space.

He saw no point in dissembling. "I'm leaving tonight."

Her voice was pleading. "Take me with you."

"We've been through this," he said wearily, although he'd known she'd argue. This discussion was the last in a long series of heated conversations about his plans. "It's not possible."

"You can't go without backup. You need me." Now she was defiant.

"It's not the same as taking the old Galatea into enemy territory in response to a distress call when you and I were the only sentients aboard," Gil said. "I can't take this ship with over 8000 souls and millions of tons of valuable cargo off into the hinterlands on my personal mission. Be reasonable. And besides what I need to do can only be done by one man, alone. We've been over this ad nauseum. I'm grateful for the bits of intel you were able to pull for me off the interstellar dark web and your old contacts in the military. The assistance was critical. At least now I have a specific place to start my search."

Maeve was silent.

Gil had no desire to string this leave taking out.

"Wish me luck? I won't be gone any longer than I have to be and I'm relying on you to keep things shipshape here on the Nebula Zephyr . My Executive Officer is a good man?—"

"At passenger relations," she said stubbornly.

"And Third Officer Aureli will move up temporarily to become the XO while I'm gone. I know you share my confidence in him and his abilities. It'll be all right, Maeve."

"Nothing will be all right without you here," she said. "I need you."

Anger washed through Gil, caught between a rock and a hard place. "Right now my brother needs me more. You know what he means to me. I wasn't able to do anything for my daughter all those years ago—I won't leave my only living relative in the wind to die. My family has to come first." He decided he was done talking and he pivoted on his heel and headed for the exit. She was never going to see reason on this decision of his and while he understood her point of view was rooted in her loving concern for him, he knew what he was doing was the only choice he could make.

Maeve remained silent until he was on his last few steps before entering the gravlft. "Be careful," she said. "Good luck and hurry back to me."

"I won't be able to send any updates," Gil reminded her. "I'm going to be deeply undercover. So don't worry about me—I know what I'm doing."

As he rose in the antigrav stream he heard a repressed sob and a whispered "I love you" through the subaural com but Gil bit his lip and said nothing. He wouldn't change his mind and prolonging the moment wouldn't help. He'd still leave. He trusted Maeve not to do anything to interfere with his departure in a few hours. She'd keep her ship safe and running properly in his absence.