On Heaven and Earth

[AdamantineFist]

[font=Courier New]Part Two
Tonight We Dine

[AdamantineFist]

[font=Palatino Linotype]Prison Station Mitchell, Alaska System

Havelock paced his room on board the prison station Mitchell. Thoughts flew through his mind as he pondered over the events of the past several months. Thoughts about loyalty; about trust. Thoughts about the mental state of his commanding officer, and of the true purpose of their mission here. Thoughts that could, if anyone caught wind of them, get his ass hauled into a court marshal, or worse. His attempts at gathering information about the full extent of the situation here had merely given him more questions. What were the doctors using the Nomad specimens for? Why were his ship’s weapons systems malfunctioning? And why, above all else, was the Vice-Admiral acting so strangely?

They had captured another Order pilot recently. Havelock had gone over the brig video logs thoroughly, and questioned the ship guards about the prisoner. The man seemed to be ranting on about the Liberty Navy doing something wrong, but had never bothered to elaborate on what their transgression was exactly. And, of course, since Havelock had ordered the guards to ignore the prisoner’s comments, he had no idea what the prisoner was talking about. Thinking back on the incident, Havelock regretted not questioning the prisoner. That would very likely have illuminated the whole matter.

In fact, Havelock began to pity the Order pilot which he had taken prisoner. If things were as bad as that pilot had said; as bad as he was beginning to fear, then…

Havelock tore himself away from that thought with a shudder. If things had gotten that bad...

His thoughts were interrupted by a ring from the door he marched up and opened it, and was greeted by the cheerful face of Ensign Smith.

“Yes, what is it, Ensign?” growled Havelock.

“Uh, you said you wanted me to go over the specs on the repairs we did yesterday, so I-“

“Yes, yes. Thank you for reminding me. I’ll be along in a second. Meet you in the docking bay,” replied Havelock.

Smith went off in the direction of the bay, and Havelock closed the door and slumped down on the chair in front of his desk. He ran his hand through his hair, thinking. The captain’s behaviour was worrying him, recently. He wasn’t having any outbursts any longer, and the doctors (not that Havelock trusted them) had said that he was fine now, but Patterson had been acting strange lately. The way he spoke… it wasn’t normal. Something was off, but Havelock couldn’t quite put his finger on the problem.

Ah well, he thought, I guess I’d better head over and see what sort of shape the ship’s in.

[AdamantineFist]

Havelock returned to his quarters, shut and locked his door, then slumped down on his chair with a sigh. The damage to the Twilight was worse than it had seemed at first. Part of the weapons control system was fried, and would have to be replaced. That would take time. It was fiddly work. Luckily, Smith claimed he had isolated the problems with the weapons systems with the help of some of the base technicians. He claimed it was due to some earlier battle damage that had gone unnoticed. Havelock was relieved to hear this, as hed been harbouring some rather dire suspicions.

He grumbled, and ran his fingers through his hair. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder out here, and those creepy green floating things he kept seeing out in space didnt make anything more normal looking. They had been bugging him for the last couple of months. Apparently, they were some sort of space-faring organism, much like algae. Odd looking things, that was for sure.

Putting thoughts of malfunctioning weapons, erratic Vice-Admirals, and alien organisms out of his head, he rose and retrieved a book to read. Reading always calmed him down after a long day. He sat down and started reading, losing himself in the novel

Some time later, he was startled by a bleep from his computer. Havelock looked up, put his book aside, and headed over to his console. It seemed there was a message for him. Oddly enough, it seemed to come from someone who identified themselves as A Concerned Friend, rather than using a Navy Milnet identification code. Bizarre. What a day, said Havelock in wonder, Curiouser and curiouser. Now, who the hell is this fellow?

Havelock's eyes widened in shock, for stranger still was the contents of the message