BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 23
 

The run to Galileo Founding on Ganymede took two days. During that period, Elias Tivnan wrestled with a difficult decision. He had consulted with Sander Brees a few hours before, and the lion had agreed with Pala Lon’s assessment of how she would be treated.

  “If there was a planet and race that was hated more thoroughly than the PA feels about Kastan, I’ve never heard about it,” the lion told Elias over the vidscreen communication. “Too many planets are still hot that they’re sitting on the richest Siilv deposits in known space, and won’t share. Then when you consider that there’s not many that didn’t lose someone or know someone that died during the debacle, not to mention that they pasted Mainor…I can’t really say that I wouldn’t consider putting a bullet or twenty into her myself, son.”

  Elias sighed. “Sandy, I can’t hand her over to the authorities if I have the slightest doubt about her being treated fairly. That’s not what we’re about! We’re the ones that are supposed to be setting the example, setting the standard and up holding it up for the rest of the PA!” He lapsed into a fury of swearing that was vehement enough to cause Sander Brees to flinch.

  “You’ve been hanging around Stram waaaay too much.”

  Elias slumped in his chair and looked sullenly at his superior. “I can’t hand her over, Sandy. Not unless I have a guarantee that Pala will be treated fairly.”

  After a long moment, the lion shook his head. “You know I can’t make that guarantee, son. Once you turn her over, it’s out of both our hands.” The lion looked at Elias with a hard stare. “This is one of those command decisions that I was telling you about, son. It’s never easy, and never will be. But you’re the Captain, and your word is final on that ship.”

  “That’s not really a big help,” the fox complained.

  “No. It’s not. But you will choose what to do, and I’ll support you because I trust you. Does that help?”

  “I suppose it will have to do.” Elias signed off and sat back in his chair.

  “Captain, we’re on final for Galileo Founding. Thought you might want to know,” Saul’s voice said over the intercom in the fox’s cabin.-

  Looking at his wrist watch, Elias realized he’d been mulling over his decision for almost two hours. With a firm set to his jaw, he pushed away from the deactivated console and headed to the bridge. As soon as he approached, the jaguar started to get up from the pilot’s position, but Elias put a hand on his shoulder to stop him, then slid into the navigator’s seat.

  “You have the con, Saul. Take us in,” the fox ordered his First Officer. Without waiting for a reply, Elias transferred landing coordinates to the pilot’s console and copied them onto the forward viewport.

  Without the slightest hesitation, Saul took the Guiding Angel in for a landing. A pressurized docking bay had been available and Saul took the Guiding Angel into the protected berth with deft, smooth precision. There was a slight jolt as the ship settled on its caterpillar tracked landing struts in the cavernous bay, and the jaguar, grinning to himself, began to shut down the necessary systems. Before he could unbuckle his restraints, Elias turned to his second.

  “Saul,” he said in a quiet voice, “call the rest of the crew to the rec deck. I’ll see everyone there in fifteen minutes.”

  It was standard for his Captain to give a post landing debriefing to the crew, but there was something troubled in the fox’s manner that Saul sensed. He wasn’t about to bring it up, though, knowing better by now. Whatever it was that was eating at the Captain would be revealed soon enough. Despite the raised eyebrow, Saul nodded. “Aye, Boss.”

  Even as he made his way to the lift, Elias knew what his decision was regarding the Kastan Pala Lon. As soon as the lift panels parted, he stepped onto the rec deck and headed for the coffee urn that was gurgling merrily in the final phases of brewing. His oldest friend was in the galley tending to something, looking up for a moment to give Elias a smile before turning back to her work.

  “You look like hell, Elias,” the panda said with her head in an induction oven. She pulled out a tray of pastries and set them on a cooling rack before taking off her oven mitts. “Why do I get the feeling you are going to be dropping the boom on us?”

  “Because I’m getting ready to drop the boom on all of you,” Elias said flatly as he stirred cream and sugar into his coffee mug.

  Melise simply grunted an inarticulate ‘Hmmm,” and went back to puttering around her galley as the others of the crew came up to the deck in ones and twos.

  Elias waited patiently for everyone to get something to drink, filch a pastry, then find a spot to sit or stand before he spoke.

  “Why did you join the SPF?” he asked the assembled crew. Elias was met with quizzical looks, confusion and bafflement. “Answer me. Why did you all join the SPF?”

  Various answers were muttered that fell along the lines of ‘serving others’, ‘to help’, ‘being part of something that mattered’, and the like.

  “To uphold the law and protect life,” Sonja said, softly at first, then with greater volume. “I joined to protect life,” the spaniel said with conviction in her voice.

  “You can phrase it different ways,” Randal said, nodding to the female canine, “but that sums it up. Folk out there need us to protect them against the dangers that lurk in the dark between the stars.”

  “Nicely put, Randy,” Lena said giving the wolf a one armed hug and smile.

  Elias simply looked at the wolf and the others. “Law. Order. Grand concepts, and something we all believe in. We believe in it with all of our being, or we wouldn’t be here, would we.” It was a statement and not a question. All of the crew nodded or voiced agreement. “So what if we knew that something might happen, something that was a violation of the law we swore…swore an oath on…to uphold. A conflict of orders, written or unwritten, that went against everything that we stand for. What should we do?” Again Elias looked at each of them. “Do we follow orders, or do we side with the law?”

  “Law,” Melise and Sonja said at the same time.

  Stram nodded. “Orders be hanged, Cap’n. If it’s going to be a violation of the law or what we know to be right, we do what’s right. Now, mind tellin’ us what in the twelve hells is goin’ on?”

  Elias sighed and his head dropped for a moment before he straightened and regarded the assembled crew. “Pala Lon will not get a fair trial. Not with the PA Judicial Council. All of you know this. There is far too much enmity against her people. I, and each of you, know that this is a violation of Planetary Alignment law. It violates the very charter of the SPF. So what do we do? Do we follow our mandate and turn her over? Mind you, doing so is as good as a death sentence, no matter what happens during her trial, if she even makes it that far. It’ll be the same as if each one of us put a bullet in her head. Or do we do what we know is right, and violate orders, which could cost all of you your commissions within the SPF, possibly a year or so in a penal colony, and get me either locked away, or shot for sedition against the PA Council.”

  “But…but she’s a pirate!” Rutger exclaimed.

  Elias nodded. “Yes. She is. Of that I agree. And pirates receive zero tolerance. But I’m out here, and so are all of you, on the sharp end to bring justice to those that prey on the members of the PA, not to arbitrarily hand out execution orders. I cannot, in good conscious or faith, turn her in, knowing what will happen to her.”

  “So let her stay on the ship,” Cerise said.

  The rest of the crew looked at the vixen as if she’d just slapped all of them.

  “What?” Treena asked in disbelief. “Stay on the ship? Are you out of your mind? Her species is insane! They’re all psychotic!”

  “And that’s how a judge and jury would see her, and nothing else,” Lemuel said, the tiger mulling over the situation. “I can see your problem, Captain,” the Doctor said to Elias. “She needs to be protected and punished at the same time. Protected from those we protect…punished for her crimes.” He shook his head. “Keeping her on the ship would enable her to help out with our mission, but I would say that that is quite a risky proposition.”

  “More than risky,” Odette said, the bear crossing her arms and frowning. “It’s bloody dangerous.” She growled in frustration as she considered the alternative and became displeased with her own conclusions. “Damn! Why does the hard stuff always fall on us? Just once I’d like something simple and easy.”

  “If it were easy, we wouldn’t be here,” Sonja told the bear, looking just as unhappy.

  “Heh! That’s the truth,” Saul added.

  “I will not make this choice without input from all of you,” Elias told them, not looking away from the sour looks that were cast his way. “This isn’t a democracy. You all know that. But this is more than just shipboard business. This affects all of your lives. From now until your last breath. So here we are, walking on the razor’s edge. On one side is doing what we were sent out to do, though there may be aspects that aren’t as clear as any of us thought. On the other is doing what is right, with all of the disastrous possibilities that option holds.

  “I will give all of you the next couple of hours to think about this, and let me know whether she stays or goes. I don’t want to know who chose what or why. So here’s what we’re going to do. I will leave a container here. Put your answer on a piece of paper and leave it in the container.” Elias grabbed a pitcher from the galley stores and set it in the middle of the main table. “A simple yes or no, or if you don’t want to write down your answer put a red or green mark on it. Red she goes, green she stays.”

  Elias took a deep breath and stood up straight. “I want your answers at the end of that two hours. Crew dismissed.”

  The fox watched as everyone filed out, silent and locked in their own thoughts and not discussing the choice in front of them. Cerise gave her mate a compassionate look, but followed the others into the lift. Once the deck was cleared, Elias sank in on himself. He already knew what his choice was, and wasn’t sure if it was what he should be doing. Not with so many other lives in the balance. Making his way to a chair, he sank down into it and buried his face in his hands.

  He had killed in combat, during the heat of the moment when facing those that would kill him if they could. It was the nature of the course he’d chosen for his life. This, however, was entirely different. The choice he made would send a sentient being, insane or not, psychotic or not, to certain death. Kastans in the Planetary Alignment didn’t stand a chance of impartial treatment, and wouldn’t for many years to come.

  If ever.

  Elias wouldn’t take the easy route and follow orders, even though it might cost him everything.

  He could always find work as a ship’s captain, navigator or pilot with his credentials and experience. What he wouldn’t be able to do, though, was tolerate the stain that he felt would be on his very soul if he chose wrong.

  The fox grabbed a roll of engineer’s tape and sealed the opening of the pitcher with several strips before cutting a small slit in the top with the knife that he always carried now. It had been a small gift from Cerise, and its curved blade was meant more for work than fighting, though it would serve well in that regard as well. The fine edge cut the tape almost effortlessly, and Elias took a small piece of paper and put a single word on it before slipping it into the cut he’d made in the jury-rigged ballot box. As it fluttered to the bottom, he felt as if a weight had been taken from him. In that moment, he knew that his choice was the right one, and he nodded silently to himself before leaving the recreation deck and headed to his cabin to wait the allotted two hours out.

***

  The rest of the crew lounged around the deck, avoiding each other’s eyes as Elias opened the pitcher cum ballot box. He looked at each of the pieces of paper, counting each answer on the small slips. When he was finished, the fox leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed the left side of his head to try and alleviate the headache that was threatening to make the rest of his day as miserable as possible. His fingers felt the raised ridge of scar tissue under the fur as if to remind him of the hazardous nature of his decision.

  “So it’s unanimous. Pala Lon stays,” Elias said, not looking up. “Randy, Sonja. Get your team together and transfer the others prisoners to the SPF office here. Make it seem as if we had to shoot the Kastan and jettison her body. Melise, you’re with me. Once the others are gone, we’ll inform Pala of the new situation.” The fox noted the feeling of relief that permeated the Recreation deck and nodded. “Let’s get to it, people.”

  The Ganymede SPF field office had a total of six officers, and all of them were on hand to assist with the prisoner transfer then helped get the Fynian Ambassador situated in quarters within Galileo Founding. The Ambassador paused at the edge of the airlock and turned to face Elias. The mackerel striped short haired feline smiled as he looked up at the fox. “Again, I thank you for coming to our rescue, Captain Tivnan,” Ambassador Thomas Ballan said as he took the fox’s hand. “I’ve made sure that my entire staff and the crew of the Virtue of Satori signed the confidentiality contracts, and have given them to your charming wife. Would you and she do me the honor of joining me later this evening for supper?”

  Elias smiled back, his mood far lighter than it had been earlier. “It would be my honor, Excellency. And I’m sure that Cerise would be thrilled. She has become very fond of your daughter. I believe I heard them making plans to assault the shopping district sometime in the next couple of days.”

  Ambassador Ballan groaned theatrically, placing a hand over his heart. “Thus the destruction of my credit account. It’s been a stressful enough trip without hearing that news!” Chuckling, the feline straightened. “Until tonight then, Captain.”

  The diplomatic entourage exited the ship, save the Ambassador’s daughter, who had to give Cerise one last hug. Porsha Ballan was fairly unique in that she had striped orange and gold fur, a coloration normally seen on males and very, very rarely females, with large bronze colored eyes she was fair and lovely. She gave Elias a small wave, but the look she directed at Saul Reese was anything but charmingly innocent, and Elias chuckled to see his Second swallow hard and develop a sudden nervous twitch to his right ear.

  “I think she’s sweet on you,” the fox said as the airlock cycled closed.

  “Yeah, about that…I think I’ll be spending a fair amount of time on the ship, Captain,” Saul said.

  “That might not be a good idea, Saul,” Cerise said, slipping her arm around her husband’s waist. “There really isn’t anywhere to run to and hide.”

  “True,” the jaguar agreed. “But I can lock myself in my cabin with my stunner.”

  Treena joined them, her look that she directed at the airlock challenging and hard. “Besides, this is my kitty,” the ocelot said as she took Saul’s hand. She then turned the same look up at the First Officer. “Right?”

  Saul nuzzled her ear. “Yes, sweetling. Very much so.”

  Elias smiled before becoming serious. “All right. Now that our guests are gone, let’s go talk to the newest addition to the crew.”

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.