The Cygnus //read only for meow

[Adam_Spire]

Omega -49
High orbit around Gran Canaria
1230 hours

The cabin maintained a steady illumination from the embedded wall lights only disjointed from the flicker of light from the sizable crack on the communications screen. The old Zoner tech could survive absolute zero temperatures, power surges, power failures, capacitor break downs, and decompression explosions, but apparently not a coffee mug tossed at average velocity.

Adam Spire had hoped that the universe, in its vast expanse, would over time, make more sense. He had inwardly wished he knew nothing of old Sol history, the Alliance and Coalition war that sent mankind into the stars. Wondering if he had just stayed in that repair port in Colorado and lived a simple life, everything would just make sense. Yet he watched all the same mistakes, all the old grudges, all the chaos, and so little sense to be found. His mind raced with quip of history that he was becoming; a small voice in the dark, or arrogant shout to be ignored, he couldn't choose. The distorted and cracked comm monitor seemed to be a better representation of his situation than any words could describe. His data pad, still linked to the communications center of the Cygnus, continued its acquisition of incoming transmissions directed to him. They would get nothing but static. He had thought at any moment the klaxons would sound off, a collision warning, or incoming fire, but nothing happened. He leaned over into his open palm, thinking the days when exchanging taunts and weapons fire with pirates made every victory a sound one, a righteous one. Giving another futile glance at the inoperable communications monitor, he finally concluded to himself that things could have gone better.

Leaning back in the chain gave no new insight, no more sudden bright ideas, no answers. What made it worse for him was he was no longer in this alone. The time away from Rheinland didn't heal any old wounds or bring unity to a fractured world he had all but escaped from.

This wasn't the end, not yet.

No sooner did Adam sit back in his chair than a knock at the metallic door echo into his cabin. Unlatched and already ajar, the unremarkable barrier slowly pivoted, on its frictionless mount, into the cabin. Jake Hudson stood with his knuckle awkwardly in the same position he hit the door with, nearly motionless as the higher illumination from the corridor brought more light into the cabin.
“Gota hull breach in here too?” With the resounding impact of ceramic against an inflexible screen, it was bound to get someone’s attention. Jake was the last person Adam wanted to talk to, or see, or hear, yet in true irony, Adam realized others didn't want to hear him either. Without an answer Jake brought himself into the cabin, his arms held to his side with an expression on his face, more befitting a comedy actor on an old stage than a pilot on a carrier. Jake Hudson still wore his polished West Point graduation uniform with its spotless white cloth, the firm collar and the polished buttons. The whole thing was a parody of the man who wore it. Jake, never having a shred of respect for the history the uniform represented or the honor it bestowed, yet Jake wore it perfectly. Within the moment, Adam felt more out of place with what he had done than the contradiction that just walked into his cabin, and saw the broken screen.

“I could have told you trying to find love on the Net would only bring you heartache.” Jake let no moment to blurt our a comment, helpful or not.

The second attempt at humor hit Adam if all but disarming his depressive state to let out an equally terse response.
“I just told the remaining Zoner hierarchy to go screw themselves.” Details were never important to Jake. The endless political jargon, the facts, fiction, and in between would all just boil down to another joke or yawn from Hudson. It was enough to give the abridged version.

“Well." Jake continued on as he leaned against the cabins door frame. "I’ll go tell Hans to plot a course off to a brand new system to find who else is left in the universe to piss off. Presuming this ship can make it anywhere.”

The emergence of the ship’s status allowed Adam to focus on something other than his failed diplomacy skills. Turning his chair to face towards Jake, he managed to take a breath in, trying to compose himself enough to continue.

“What’s wrong with the ship now?”

“Well, let’s see. It’s a Carrier not carrying much. It's in less than happy space, going no where. Oh and we’re dying. All the rest of us on the ship. You know, the crew. Oxygen is starting to smell funny, food tastes metallic, ship is making noises in places it shouldn’t, Commander eighty is brooding in his tower of lights, oh and I think I got something stuck in my teeth."

Adam’s composure was unable to shield himself from the barrage of wit that Jake had unleashed. His hands pushed the chair back from him as he stood up with his fists clenched and his face twisted with a mix of seething anger and un-compromised frustration.
“God damn it Jake shut the hell up!”

Jake smiled.

“I must have had the gun to my head dozens of times. Faced one impossible task after another and lived through them all. Built up everything and watched it all just burn to a damn pile. I’ve lost too much and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do now. Alright?!”

It was the absolute last thing Adam wanted to say to anyone, let alone to Jake. Be he was the only target of opportunity.

“Damn it Jake, I’ve stood up to men and figures who could have made me vanish from existence, went from welding plates on to starflyers to being the cause of private little wars. I fought for months to get this hulking ship, then got it the hell out of the Omicron systems before all hell broke out. Now, I have a no port of harbor left to go. I have no idea where Marshal is. Jim hasn’t contacted me in weeks, and we’re stuck out here in ever growing hostile space.”

Adam didn't realize that every time he glanced away, Jake would play the smallest violin, between his fingers then snap his index finger to his forehead to feign some form of attention. Pulling himself off the door frame, he took a step out of the cabin, and into the corridor. With his hand on the cabin door, he swung it slightly back and forth before trying to regain traction in the conversation.

“Well, look on the bright side. The Rhein and Liberty aren’t at war any more. I’ve heard their current alert status is at mostly miffed to somewhat aggravated. That only means Liberty is spinning this as a another triumph, despite losing, like, half of everything. And still we can’t get a good sports channel through the comms. "

Adam turned to his desk, picking up the data pad and proceeded to leave his cabin. Taking a glance at the small display, he placed the pad's corner to his chest and looked back to Jake.

"Hate to ruin it for you but the teams with the most points win and yea, I heard that on the Net. Rheinland has a new Chancellor as well. She sounds legitimate, but so did the last three. I thought the speech was good at least. I cannot imagine what could have changed within the Zoner government to just have them do a one-eighty on me."

With his motions headding out of the cabin, Jake dragged himself along, letting go of the door's frame and taking a step back to look down the other side of the corridor. Adam grabbed the collapsible door handle to his cabin and pulled it until the magnetic locks caught on. With a light click, he heard the seal take its hold and a light showing the door had been locked.

"See this is why you suck in a fighter, you never focus on one thing at a time. And yea I remember that Zoner thing. I remember not being here and thinking I'd be stuck being obnoxious to the Brit and not to you, but here I am. So I can't make one last stop at planet Grand something?"

Adam wasn't completely sure if Jake was joking about that last part but decided to address it anyway.

"No, they may think it's me and shoot you down. It's hard enough we're on board a half working carrier, the Zoners giving us ultimatums and no help. I can't ask Rheinland for help. I'm sure the powers that be would make a political nightmare out of it. Bretioina is failing to halt the Gallic invasion, the Corsairs are making a come back, Kusari is too far away. We literally have no options I can think of yet. "

They both started walking down the corridor towards the elevator access. Adam searched through a variety of different screens on his data pad, nothing sparking a point of interest. Jake trailed a good foot steps behind him, adjusting his collar.

"Man, what the hell did you expect? You have houses humping each other over, you have the bad guys acting like the good guys, you placed yourself and this fine crew in cryo tubes for three years and expect things to be right as rain? Hell Commander eighty did that for how long and yea. For a guy that spouts off history like you do you didn't take a tip from that old page? And where are you going if we have no where to go?"

Adam walked in a more focused pace, trying to stay one step of the situation he found himself in, one step away from a total failure.
"I need to get to astrometrics and talk to Oris. We cant stay in this system and we need to know where to point this ship before the thrusters start falling off the hull."

"Speaking of thrusters, did I tell you I nearly blew the thrusters off Rorry's prototype cloak cruiser? He couldn't touch me and I left him with one hell of a repair bill . That was the best."

Adam pressed a display button on the top corner of his data pad to put it into a sleep mode. With the way power was in low supply, he started to become conscience of every bit.

"I took some sway of delight in it the first three time you said it. I think this makes it twenty seven now."

"Are you really keeping count?"

Adam looked at his datapad, pressing a few icons to return it to life and nodding his head. "Yes and twenty seven."

Adam slowed and gave a remarkable glance back to Jake, pointing his data pad at him. Jake had seen that expression an number of times and wasn't the slightest concerned with what ever was about to be said.

"Also, please don't call Hans that again. The man was a product of his time and he only fought in the last decade of the war. Trust me, we have plenty to worry about other than you making him, question me, as to why you're still here."

Jake let out a stored up laugh, giving a wave to inwardly dismiss the chide.

"I just think he's jealousy that when my ratings were the highest I canceled the show and his went on to obscurity. I mean, he still wears a uniform that belongs in a museum, kina like he does."

Adam already had a well prepared answer for Jake and responded the moment he heard a pause.
"People deserve a second chance Jake. Hans is no different and he's got me this far. If I remember you had a deck full of second chances, starting with Torin not giving you over to the authorities when he could of."

Adam's hand ran over a series of console images by the elevator, something any analog switch would have done just the same, but for the sake of space, weight and mass, every part of a ship this size was taken into consideration. The hum of the elevator motioned closer to the door, giving Jake time to respond.

"Yea, remind him that I did save his butt from the Rouges by distracting them so he could run from them."

Adam again, turned to Jake with a mixture of authority and a bit of aggravation.

"You mean the Rouges that were coming to rescue you from the rest of your life for back stabbing their friends? I call that one even Jake."

Jake said nothing, running his hand through his hair as the elevator door opened up, giving them time to walk right in. The Elevator gave a low chime a few seconds later before closing and shunting its power to an upward motion. Adam turned to look at Jake, not looking back, and finally found it possible to smile. Within a few seconds the door opened to a deck three levels above the crew deck into a more open corridor. As they both exited the lift, the two came up to a larger door that looked like it could withstand a direct impact of a few Cerberus impacts. Apparently the designers felt it necessary to spare the weight and mass for this particular room. Adam waved his data pad in front of a transparent sensor, a light changed color and the doors opened into the Astrometrics room. Though the title was used to synchronize the navigations displays to all current positions of objects in the surrounding space, the equipment linked to every main component of the ship. This part of the ship had more of a spacious underground bunker feel to it. Seven others including the Ops specilist Oris Enoch ran the majority of the operations here though it was clear they were under staffed.

"Oris, we need to find another port of harbor but not in sight of any House patrols or Zoner trade routes."
Enoch had a rather plain uniform on, one accustomed to the original Zoner crew that wore them years ago. They seemed fitting to use as function seemed more important than fashion. Oris straightened himself out and tossed his hands in the air."

"What the hell happened? I thought we were docking at Gran Canaria?"

Jake nodded, pointing towards Oris. "That was the name of the planet, thanks."

Adam didn't find the mind to answer Jake but rather moved over to the large navigation display table mounted in the middle of the room.

"We were, but there is a bit of a dispute over the claim of ownership of this carrier the OSI was not willing to bend on."
Oris kept his hands up in a total bewilderment of the current situation and apparently couldn't get past the initial change in plans.

"Wait wait wait. We had to go through exceptional hell to get this ship, to secure it, to alter programming codes, to yank out every damn overt security violation the Zoners thought was important. And now we can't even land?"

Adam mentally went through the litany of explanations he had already thought of but knew if they were to get out of this situation, every moment counted.
"We're on our own."

There were a few moments of painful silence from those in the room. Everyone heard what was their current predicament and seemed to be waiting on Oris' next move.

"Oris listen to me. We need to leave this system soon, as within the hour. The Zoners I contacted are not going to just let us hold out in orbit before they start calling in for ships to force us to disembark. I need options. Please."

Oris let his arms down, falling to the display table, giving him a few moments to compose himself. He gave a look to officers behind him and shook his head. His thumb pressed on the controls to bring up a larger visual of Omega forty-nine and surrounding systems.

"I'm presuming you haven't allied with the Corsairs or Coalition in the last hour. Damn Adam." Oris brought up multiple screens . "We have Londonderry's Foyle shipyard, but with the Molly's it's not an option to even go there. There was the Cayman system we entered into four years ago. May be a good place to hide but no telling what's there now. Omega forty seven has every "No," I could give you to enter that system. Everything else that is still reachable is hostile or too close to house space.

"What about Omega fifty? With the Hunter base there we could at least station ourselves behind the planet and..."

"Not going to be an option." Oris was already shifting to an enhanced section of the Omega forty-nine's upper quadrants and a series of blinking status screens. "Omega fifty's jump hole has either drifted or completely destabilized in this region. There is no way to get there without a powered Jump drive. Which we don't have. Also, if it's that difficult to get there, then there is about no chance we would be able to exit."

"What about the other Omegas and Omicrons?"

"We're talking about deep space Adam. We need a place to resupply repair and refit. Even if there was a willing planet, we could ferry supplies and materials up from there, but the one right below us was our plan. Now that's not an option. We'd need a fleet of ships to get us what we need the further we travel from any major system."

Adam lowered his head trying to wrack his mind for a solution. every option that placed the Cygnus and the crew in harms way. None of that was acceptable. Even a complete surrender would not be the best option considering the aggravated state of the Zoners. He wished his father were here with him and not in Rheinland space.

“In critical and baffling situations, it is always best to return to the first principle and simple action." Adam said out loud as he turned his head up to look back at Oris. With no clear defined course of action or direction, even Jake said nothing.

"We don't need a fleet of ships, just a few good ships. We don't need to solve everything just enough to keep us going.” Adam's attention was drawn to one of the hovering screens. Pressing his fingers along the windowed edge if brought up a full screen of the Omega forty-one system. The Omega forty one system with its neutron star and pulsating disk already preloaded several red text displays automatically popped up the moment the window became the main screen. "What about Omega forty one?"

Adam asked with the expression of a poker player having placed all he had left into his last hand. Oris shook his head and didn't bother to reposition the system map as the myriad of warning messages would only help to drive his point home.

"That would be a no go as well. With the Neutron star's constant barrage of radiation, a Corsair base and a Freeport. I thought you wanted to avoid the Zoners?"

There was disjointed thoughts on the matter and Oris still wasn't sure what options were open to him.
"Jake and I and other freelancers have been in this system many times to hide and dart across several jump holes. We even came through here with the Cygnus when we left the Omicrons."

Jake looked over one of the hanging monitors above the table monitor then looked over to Oris and Adam.
"Didn't the two main antenna relays get torn back to the flight deck when we did that?"

A series of muddles complaints continued around them, adding to the complex situation of any ship entering that region of space. Adam held his hand up to attempt to calm the swelling frustration to explain his thoughts.

"How far would we need to be to avoid the majority of the effects of the Neutron star?"
Oirs took a look at the system map and pointed to one sector and tapped three other points on the system map.

"At least forty nine thousand kilometers and then a bit further out where the debris field is most thin. It may be a good place to hide, but we couldn't get enough supplies from the Freeport even if the Zoners weren't looking for us."

"Freelancers." Adam grinned

"What about them?" Oris followed through with the obvious question.

"They will be the ones to ferry supplies to the Cygnus. We'll setup rendezvous locations at five points along a elliptical orbit in safety from the Neutron stars location. Used the Freeport's relay to communication outside of the system them make transactions that way."

"You're placing the safety and future of the Cygnus to people who have no loyalties but to who ever has the most credits to offer, which we have a low resource of."

Adam looked up to Jake as if already getting a plan in motion.

"Jake, you're going to need to be our life line. Do you think you can get to another freeport's comm relay in the Omicron sector? We'll use that to try to contact Jim."

"Can't I just give you the largest "hell no" in the universe and go back to sleep?"

"Jake, with David back in Liberty space, there is no one who can hack into a communications satellite, and make it back in one piece. Unless you can't do it?"

What ever attempt to bruise Jake's ego would normally bring him to admit he would gladly frappe it. Yet the continual chance to tick off others always struck the right cord with him. His hands ran through his hair seeing he was the only one able or barely willing to do the task in the first place. Looking back towards Adam he looked back up at the monitor and sighed.

"Yea sure, can't wait to run into the Order out there."

Adam had already walked away from the table monitor and pushed Hudson aside and ran towards one of many comm panel hanging from the ceiling. Shifting through different displays of the ship's decks to the bridge. With a quick tap, a side video monitor popped up a forward view the command crew with Commander Rheinhardt in the middle.

“Rheinheart. Does the Cygnus still have enough power and stability to navigate through a jump hole?”

“Jawohl ve still can. Ach ! But vere do you intend to take zhe Cygnus?”

“Our destination is Omega forty one. We're going to hold in that system until we can re supply. "

Commander Rheinheart shifted in his command chair and leaned forward before pressing a button on the chair's arm, focusing the view screen more him.

“The gravitational shifts and radiation in dat zysdem are tremendous! I do not recommend keeping the Cygnus too cloze to the event horizon for any length of zime. In addizion, there are fast number of Corzair batrols dat run through dat zystem daily.”

“ Commander, our navigator and Astrometrics think we can keep the Cygnus in an ecliptic orbit around the anomaly. One that will put us furthest away from the common routes to and from the jump holes within the system. Also, the distance from the Neutron Star gravity well should keep us safe from scanners. Our only concern is when we enter the system the Corsairs may show up. Do you think the Cygnus can repel hostiles if we need to?”

Rheinheart gave a quick overlook of the situation before giving a response.

"Spire, the Cygnus has few teeth left, enough to bite but not enough to rend. Ve could hold off ein pomber pair or ein gunpoat and her escort. Anything more and ve vill be unable to combat or defend akainst. We may be able to fire of turrets but strain on our guns vould and could cause total shield failure at inconvenient times. Are zhere no other alternatives? “

“This is the best one we have. We'll keep a watch down here and alert you if we find anything else that may be of a concern. “

"Alright Spire. Ve are undervay nov. Haffe ve any contact vithin Rheinland?"

“That still is a negative. But we're going to have Hudson make a run to Omicron Delta. He will hook into one of their Freeport Communication satellites and try to get IFFs and communications back with our guys if possible. There is a large convoy of ships heading to that system from Kusari for some reason and I think with all the activity, no one will pay attention to a small fighter.”

“Dat is ein lot of faith you are placing in dat man Spire. Vould it not pe eazier and guicker to have him make direct condact vithin Rheinland?”

Jake walked up behind Adam, looking at the comm monitor thinking in some way the old Rheinland commander didn't expect him to be in the room.

“Oh yea the direct approach, right. Like that time Rheinland flew right into a nebula and got their collective fleets beaten by a bunch of gas miners.”

Rheinheart only responded with a chilled expression on his face that would have left anyone under a normal Rheinland command fear a court marshal.

“Because we do not know the full status of what is going on in Rheinland, I cannot risk any of us making tracks that lead anyone back to the Cygnus. It's a lot more work, but again safer.”

“Vell I hope zhe dropout is up for ze task at hand. I vill inform you ven ve reach Omeka Forty One. Reinhardt out."

The concluding statement was of military precision. Getting in a last shot at Jake before preventing any direct verbal retaliation. Adam looked back to Jake who already had a look of irritation on his face.

“You didn't tell him that the Zoners wont be too happy with you taking their carrier, again. That gives us another issue to worry about.”
“I'll worry about the Zoners. If their politics are as screwed up as I think they are, we'll only have the OSI to worry about.”

Oris stood up from here he was, walking along side the table display towards the pair. “Don't put it past them to drop everything they are doing to come after us Adam. You've talked your way to get this ship years ago, but no one is up to listening any more. I'm picturing the Corsairs firing at our port and starboard, the Zoners at our Aft lobbing mortars at our engines, Pirates, excuse me, Freelancers, landing at our docks and stealing our equipment to say nothing of the SCRA offering to offer their humble assistance upon pain of death. If you don't give us some kind of miracle, Omega forty-one is going to be this ships grave.”

A few others in the background had already started receiving requests from different decks while sending stations to prepare for a jump sequence and possible combat. Adam walked over to Oris, nodding to his assessment of the forward situation before looking back to Jake.

“Hudson, get the Znero ready. You'll leave just before we exit this system. Just don't do anything crazy and please keep out of range of any Order ships.”

Jake turned and waked towards the larger door to the room, pressing a less intricate control switch, not needing a data pad to open. Not looking back, only looking towards the secondary door to the station

“Adam, they have had a kill-on-sight order on me for a long time now. If they really wanted to get me, they really could have a long time ago. Just hope I don't run into that chick again. Freaking insane woman." he said as the heavy door closed behind him.
Another historical quote fell into Adam's mind, looking back at the display of the Omega forty-one system. A virtual nightmare to enter into and a home to more issues left to be seen.

"May fortune favor the bold."

---

Sometimes, when all you want is to gain your freedom, you must be willing to risk it all.