- Footbutt
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- Exalted Member
Patrick eyed the Lieutenant carefully. Deep down he knew he couldn't bring himself to fully trust the ONI spook, but if he could at the very least have Philip develop a level of respect for what the Colonial Administration Authority was doing on Verent then Patrick could ease some of the tension forming around Philip. "Good. That is all."
"Good day, Endres," he said with a nod. Philip stepped aside and started for the lift lobby a few sections over.
Patrick took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He didn't bother turning around to watch the Lieutenant go; he could hear the soft click of the man's boots long after he disappeared around the corner. He felt oddly at ease from his encounter with Philip. While shaky at first, he recovered and spoke with authority like he'd seen the Captain do many times before. He nodded satisfactorily to himself and turned to go.
But he paused in mid step to read the label on the door Philip had previous exited. Zero-G Equipment? Confused, Patrick ran his keycard through the reader and entered the dimly-lit room. Racks of various sizes lined the three walls in the narrow room, and as he stepped inside more lights flicked on to shine down on the rows of environmental suits and bulky repair tools. He traced his gaze over the entire room, wondering what it was that Philip had been doing in there. Maybe he is just doing an impartial ship inspection for ONI.
Stepping back into the small hallway and closing the door behind him, Patrick doubted that truly was the case.
*** *** *** *** *** ***
Security Officer Jacob Wilcox rechecked the power level on his shockstick for the third time that day and clamped it back onto his belt's holster. It wasn't that he was expecting trouble, but the repetitions came from a need to check the weapon's charge. Flicking the power toggle on and off was a nervous habit, and in previous occasions he found his shockstick unresponsive--a result of burning out the switch--right when he needed to use the weapon to subdue a combatant.
Settling himself, he kept an even pace down the portside corridor that hugged the outer hull of the ship. Farther up the stretch of grated floor and thick metal-plated walls he saw numerous, rounded protrusions at fifty meter intervals. At their apexes the convex shapes made the three meter-wide corridor into a narrow throughway, and it made Jacob curious of their purpose. While the long corridor was empty he couldn't help but feel somebody was watching him as he came to a stop at the first protrusion.
Jacob looked for a label or a datapad port, but found nothing with which to interface. Four large bolts held the giant cap-like structure to the hull and running down from the ceiling into the rounded objects were a trio of colored pipes: RED, BLUE, and BLACK. From his previous experience he knew that generally RED was power and BLUE was coolant, but he wasn't sure what BLACK was. He walked to the other side of the protrusion and finally found a small plate with the letters PDS inscribed into it. Ah, the Point Defense System.
He knew that the Spirit of Fire was getting a few upgrades but he didn't think the weapons systems would take priority over other, more obvious civilian needs. Jacob had heard that the CAA had not upgraded the 3rd generation Terra-Forming gear in an attempt to cut back costs, and yet they had nearly doubled their security team. At the same time, the UNSC had flipped the bill for adding more weaponry to the ship. It all was an odd handling of the resources. Is there something going on that they aren't telling us?
Jacob shrugged to himself and set off down the corridor, figuring the financial methods the CAA established were none of his business. Heading towards the bow, he marched down a short ramp and entered into the portion of the ship that made the Spirit of Fire a Phoenix-class colony vessel. On both sides of the ship, where the dorsal portion of the hull extended out, a number of giant Firebases remained docked to the Spirit of Fire until Captain Alexander ordered them down to the planet's surface. It was always impressive to see the modular structures hanging there, waiting to ride down into the atmosphere like some perched avian seeking out its prey. He stepped over to a T-junction with a small slit of a window and peered up at the underside of one of the Firebases, marveling at the engineering feat.
"Officer Wilcox?"
Jacob snapped his head around and found a pair of technicians walking towards him down a maintenance hallway that extended into the interior of the ship. He squinted his eyes, trying to focus on either person. "Yes?" he asked, his right hand dropping down to his shockstick.
The two techs came to halt in front of Jacob, the one on the left seeing his security weapon and pausing. The tech on the right gave him a wave. "Jacob, isn't it?"
He eyed the questioner closer and saw tendrils of long black hair falling out from underneath the woman's cap. He then read her name badge and smiled. "Miss Ackerman. Fancy meeting you here." He cringed at his choice of words. What a lame thing to say. He torn his gaze off of her pleasing returned smile and glanced over at the other tech that now seemed to be less on edge. "Mr. Collins," he greeted.
The male technician nodded while keeping his eyes on Jacob's shockstick. "Expecting trouble?"
Jacob laughed, purposely let go of his weapon, and folded his arms across his chest. "No, just making the rounds." He looked back over at Harper. "What brings you two here?"
Collins snorted. "Earth Procurement screwed us over, big time. Now we've got to manually enter in the Firebases' manifests for each unit."
"Ah," he said, remembering his supervisor updating the Security Team on Frasure's clearance request. "Sounds . . . time-consuming."
"It is," Harper answered. "We're luck it was only the Firebases."
"Lucky?" Collins blurted out, his freckled face scrunching up under curly red hair. "Well, I don't want to be any longer than I have to, so I'm going to start on my first batch." He flashed his credentials, stepped past Jacob, and headed towards the first maintenance hatch along the inner wall of the corridor.
Harper sighed and pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I better get started too."
"Would you like an escort?" Jacob asked a little too loudly, suddenly feeling teenage awkwardness all over again.
She made a face somewhere between a frown and a smile. "I doubt the walk will be that hazardous."
"Well, you never know," he said lightly, trying to inject some humor into the moment. "This section of the ship can be pretty dark and scary."
Harper's expression finally morphed into a complete grin and she brushed past him, letting out a soft chuckle.
Jacob's brow furrowed, trying to interpret the woman's manner, but as she quickly stretched the distance between them down the corridor, he followed in her wake with a noisy, boot-clopping jog. He hurried past Collins, who was halfway through his maintenance hatch, and joined Harper at her left side. "You have to admit, the odds of us running into each other again are pretty slim."
Harper gave him a sideways glare. "So what, you think that means fate has brought us together?"
What? "What? No, not at all. I mean, with all the personnel on this ship, for us to bump into each other has to be pretty rare."
"So you're following me," she stated.
He met her stare evenly. "Or vice-versa."
With her left hand she gave his right forearm a squeeze. "You don't have to try so hard, Officer Wilcox," she said, adding a bit of playfulness to her tone.
Jacob felt heat rise in him and he shook his head. "Sorry." A simple grasp of the arm from an attractive woman could send his thoughts off to fantasies unhindered and he let himself go with Harper Ackerman. While she may not have realized how Jacob took her subtle gesture as a show of possible mutual affection, he did have enough sense to quell his desires. At least until I'm off duty.
Harper held on for a moment longer before releasing her grip and saying, "okay."
They walked in silence together for another few paces before Jacob turned to her. "So what brings you out to Verent?" he asked as a default question. It seemed to be the norm and standard to see why people joined up on colony missions and he wondered what she was doing aboard the Spirit of Fire as a caretaker for her niece. The warning to avoid Harper from Second Officer Philip was still in his mind, but he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
"Oh, nothing much, really. Just robbed a depository, stole a woman's identity, and forged my colonial papers to get a job on the Spirit of Fire. You?"
"Uh . . ." Jacob paused, trying to properly read the relaxed way she had stated the answer. Philip's mention of the Ackermans' "trouble past" flashed through his mind. "You are joking, right?"
She let out a lilting laugh that echoed down the corridor. "Of course." She leaned in and dropped her voice to a whisper. "I stole the colonial papers."
Jacob smiled and laughed nervously.
Harper shook her head. "I was always bad at making jokes." She cleared her throat and sighed deeply. "No, there's always a reason one leaves Earth behind to help colonize a planet." She leaned in again. "I'm part of the tech team that's going to stay planet-side."
"Oh," Jacob said, feeling some of the hopes he had for their relationship evaporate in his mind's eye. "I still have another two years on my contract for the Security Detail, so I'll be returning to Earth after this project is done." He looked down at his closed hands and forced them open when he realized she hadn't answered his question. "So that's your angle? Being a productive member of colonial society?"