Randolph Lalonde - Resurrection

“Oh, just a switch that tells our inertial dampeners to compensate for movement and gravity differently. On this ship they're so sensitive that they could burn out after a couple hours if we don't tell them we're near a big source of gravity.”

“That's not normal?”

“No, but then again, have you ever felt this ship shake?”

“Never more than a slight vibration.”

“That's because I had to rebuild most of the system when I first started aboard the Samson and I decided to do it right.” Jake flipped several switches in front of Stephanie. “Just retracting the engine pods,” he said casually as they started into the atmosphere and the light shield blacked out the small transparent slit in the front of the cockpit.

A few seconds later they had completed atmospheric entry and Jake momentarily locked his controls as he leaned over and pressed several points on the control panel in front of his nervous copilot. She was watching everything and touching nothing.

“You know, I could just get out of your way,” she said, leaning back.

“Nope, just pay attention. My First Officer has to know how to fly the ship,” He said as he released his controls again and started the Samson into a gentle glide towards St. Kitt's main tower and the platform marked for them.

“You're going to teach me to fly? Seriously?”

“Well, I was hoping Ash could help, if she stays.”

“I'm pretty sure she's staying. Her and Silver had a huge fight this morning before he left. I couldn't help but overhear. Their cabin's right beside mine.”

“I was hoping that wasn't serious. She knew Silver slept with half the women on the ship.”

“Well, she stood up for you. That was the other thing they fought about.”

“Did you check on her?”

“She's pretty broken up.”

“We'll give her time. I'm sure the beach will help though. I plan on taking a few days leave here. We haven't taken more than a day at a time off the ship in months.”

“I don't know about her but I could use a swim.”

Captain Valance hit the deceleration thrusters and started switching to vertical flight mode as he deployed the landing gear. The tower and landing platform got larger and larger until he gently set the ship down.

“I think you were a pilot in a former life. I've never seen a softer landing, and quick too.”

“Either that or a simulation addict,” he checked his arm unit and pushed the pilot's seat out of the console. “I have about five minutes to meet the Local Chairperson for St. Kitts and whoever wants to talk to me from the military.”

“I'm not going with you?”

“Stay with the ship, I'm sure I'll be all right. Besides, I'm wearing my new armour. If anything I don't like starts going down, I'll just disappear.”

“As your first officer shouldn't I say something about that thing giving you radiation sickness?”

“There, you said something. Besides, it only leaks radiation when all the stealth systems are active.”

“That makes me feel so much better.”

“Funny, Frost stopped worrying about me five minutes after I promoted him back in the day.”

“I'm not Frost.”

“You've only been first officer for four minutes. See you in a few hours. Tell me if anything catches fire or explodes but only if you can't put it out or fix it yourself,” Captain Valance said as he made his way off the bridge.

Half way to the gangway he nearly ran into Ashley as she came out of a side passage. He caught her by the shoulders. Her eyes and cheeks were red and puffy, combined with a downcast expression that she tried to lighten at seeing him, he couldn't help but feel for her.

He took her into a great big hug and she took a deep breath, sighed and relaxed in his arms. “It'll be all right,” He reassured quietly. There were only two other times when he had held her. She nearly crushed him when he sold her freedom to her for one hundred credits and the other time was when he told her she was the lead pilot.

“I know,” she replied shakily.

“I have to go meet some people. You know, kiss some hands and shake some babies.” He whispered.

She chuckled and let him go. “I think it's shake some hands and kiss some babies.”

“I guess it is,” Jake said, smiling and nodding at her as she wiped her nose and eyes.

“Who you're going to see?”

“The Chairperson and a few other people, I'll be back in a couple hours.”

“Okay, just don't forget; shaking and kissing, not kissing and shaking.” she reminded, shaking her finger at him.

He made his way to the gangway and down it as Ashley watched him leave. She shook her head and continued to the bridge. Stephanie was standing behind the pilot's chair, her hands on the head rest as she leaned forward, looking at the controls closely. “So I was just kidding around with the Captain,” Ashley said as she walked in and plopped herself into the command chair. Stephanie was startled at the sound of her voice and spun around.

“Don't do that!”

“Some boarding person you are, snook right up on ya.”

“I'm First Officer now. All permanent like,” she said with a smile.

Ashley jumped out of the chair and hugged the taller woman. “You're not leaving!” She squealed.

“Nope. I have to see if this new attitude the Captain has lasts.”

“I know, it's like night and day, so different.”

“He's different all right. Like he had a psychotic break different.” Stephanie said.

“Only it's like he broke and got better. I wonder what it'll be like, him talking to the press.”

“There's press out there? He works fast.”

“He didn't tell you? He has to talk to press people and the Chairperson.”

“I knew about the Chairperson.”

Ashley let go of Steph and turned on the forward sensors. She brought up the Captain walking towards the airlock leading into the tower and focused in.

“We're spying on Captain now?”

“I always spy on Captain,” Ashley said with a smile. “Saved his butt once too. Caught someone sneaking up on him.”

“I remember that, we woke some vagrant up. He was sleeping in a crate near our landing zone.”

“Oh, I didn't know it was just a bum.”

“Yup, he was a well armed vagrant with a nice long pipe. Hey, it looks like there's a pretty big crowd on the other side of the doors.”

“Scanners are picking up about twenty people. I'll try to extrapolate a holo image,” Ashley said as she worked the control panel.

“Draw the focus out a bit.”

A moment later she got it and could see a semi circle of reporters surrounding Captain Valance. She turned the image so they could see his face. “Wow, just like that he looks like he's made of stone again,” Ashley said.

“I think that's just how he looks when he's surprised. I wish we could hear what he's saying.”

“I'll see if we can pick it up on the local Newsnet.” Ashley said as she checked the basic communications panel that was built into the pilot's station. After a few moments the sound came up.

“-of the cargo train?”

“From what I could determine, the purpose of the cargo train was to transport slaves to scientific testing facilities owned by Regent Galactic before it was hijacked.” Answered Captain Valent.

“Are you a member of the Thadd defence force or a hidden military sub sect?”

“The Samson, her crew and I are not in any way affiliated with the Thadd system. They were only kind enough to provide emergency assistance since our cargo hauler is not equipped to do so.”

Several questions came at him at once then, it was hard to pick out which one he decided to answer after listening for a few seconds.

“I'm not willing to discuss my past or any criminal charges that may have been dismissed or pardoned in other sectors,” he answered.