Chapter 171: Chapter One Hundred Sixty Part 2

As Bradford walked down the hill, he kept chuckling to himself. The sight of Roch would let him feel wonder and joy for months! The fact that he had finally been able to get one over him, was nothing. But to see him finally punished, that was everything! For so long he had tried and failed to see him punished for what he had done, but here he was. For years he had tried and failed, the scum taunting him about it all the while. Roch seemed to have been blessed, and he had to admit that he had started to lose hope. His battle just seemed pointless, all his contacts on both sides of the line did nothing to help. But after all those failings, he had seen that monster be put in chains!

As he reached the bottom, he looked at Duncan who stared back at him.

“SIR, thank you so much! It’s wonderful to know that sooner or later, Karama does hit the worst scum!” Bradford said with a grin as he held out his hand to Duncan.

Duncan took it with his free hand and sighed as he looked down. “That one is a threat to everyone here. I kill threats. That’s all there is to it. That’s all.”

“Still, let me thank you! But how much should we tell the others in there?” Bradford asked. Knowledge was power and currency as far as he was concerned.

“We are sitting on top of what might be an engine! But a panic is the last thing we want,” Duncan muttered in disgust. “And if we ask them for help, we need to say something! I mean how else will they know they can do what we need. The wrong bit of code could set off the engine after all!”

It was all Bradford could do to keep from grinning. The fact that the old man was finally starting to think like Bradford was something that he could use. If he plays the right cards, then that might mean he could get Duncan to work for him. Of course, he would say it was him advising Duncan. And if someone higher up came along? Then he could have Duncan introduce him and try to ‘help’ him. “Of course. Of course. But we can tell them we found a wreck under us. We need help to get in. And that we don’t know where it was made.”

Duncan looked at him for a few moments, a strange look in his eyes. “Makes sense, that could work. We just need to keep ourselves alive. And that shield up there will help. We’re safe outside, now we have to make ourselves safe inside. I’ll give them a speech, telling them what we found. It’s the best of a bad situation, and that will be enough.”

Bradford didn’t know what was bothering Duncan, but he didn’t care for once. The fact that normally Bradford would want to know everything, that was asleep for now. He almost wanted to whistle as he walked into the capsule and looked around. So far it seemed that that most of the passengers had traded in their finery for basic work suits. They looked fine, but he wondered why the spares had arms that shadow of blue.

He looked at Duncan who gestured to him. Bradford had to smile. Another wonderful stage for him to perform on.

“Friends! Could you please lend me your ears for a bit?” Bradford called out, projecting his voice so everyone could hear him. As the people all turned to look at him, he forced down his smile. As some moved towards him, he put on his ‘campaign grin’ and started to talk. “Now I know how just the other day we all talked, but something’s come up. I won’t bore you all with the details but there’s a wreck under us! Some kind of thing that’s made of hull plates! Our good chief Duncan is worried, so the crew is trying to dig it out! Well, at least a place to break into it at least.”

“How big and what kind of plates? What grade are they?” A female voice from the right.

Bradford blinked and looked at Duncan who moved next to him.

“Seems that someone knows a bit about space construction. I’ll handle this,” Duncan muttered.

Bradford bowed his head, hiding a smirk for a second. “Please do.”

Duncan looked at him for a moment before calling out loudly. “We would need a sample of the material and a workshop to find that out. Now we talked about breaking in, but I’m hoping to find an airlock! But since we don’t know who made it, we need help to get in! That’s where you all come in! Now I’m sure that some of you have the skills to help. I invite anyone that wants to help, just follow our directions and we’ll make it through this!”

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As Bradford looked around, he saw Kenny Gormilis about to step forward but then stopped. It was all that Bradford could hope that the fool was seeing that Bradford wanted him to stay down. That one would do the best for Bradford if he stayed where he was. He needed eyes and ears amongst the Passengers, and that one had no combat experience. So it was best that he stayed here in the capsule.

“I’ll help.”

“I worked in decoding during the last war. Didn’t break any on my own but I helped crack the doe.”

Bradford blinked as two women stepped forward.

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Dalila looked at Vivian out of the corner of her eyes. She had hoped that she could get close to Bradford and maybe get that data. But now with that woman along.

“You were in decoding during the war? So you didn’t have a Nano record then? Well, who were you? One of the Nebula Nerds or the Growling Gooks?” Duncan asked bluntly.

Dalila looked at him, blinking in confusion. That lasted for about a minute before she realized what we were doing. “Neither, we were called the Strom Hiders. Joined up before the first battle. I was working on a refinement of the FTL comms and my project was folded into decoding the Ancients ‘radio’. Never got beyond a few ideas about their letters through.”

“The Hiders. Had a friend that went there during the war. A nice ol bloke named Gh’rlic. How is the old boy?” Duncan asked as he raised an eyebrow.

Dalila looked at him and scowled. “If you know that one, you’d know their non-Ternary!”

“That they are! Sorry comrade, but I ran into a scammer who said he was a vet when he wasn’t. had to be sure!” Duncan said with a laugh.

She blinked in shock. After everything that she had experienced, the fact that she wasn’t shocked that someone did that almost stunned her.

“I hope you gave that one a proper traitor’s end!” Dalila said as her hands clenched.

Duncan only snorted and shook his head. “No, the captain wouldn’t let me space him.”

“Pity that. Liberals always get power,” Dalila said dryly.

But it was the chuckle from Duncan that told her this idea was wrong. “No, not really. More worried about being sued really. But enough getting your credits in order. Thank you for volunteering. Now you? What can you offer?”

Vivian looked at Duncan and saluted. “Former Master Sergeant Vivian, reporting sir. I was attached to the Sol Strikers during the war.”

Dalila looked at Vivian in shock. The Strikers were one of the units that specialized in holding the line. Their forces had broken the Ancient's robotic forces in most of the battles they were in. The only times they retreated was when they were out-maneuvered.

“A Striker here? Well, that’s interesting! Mind if I check the nano?” Duncan asked as he held out his hand. Vivian grabbed Duncan’s arm and they both had that stare people got when they were seeing internal messages.

“Well, I’ll be! You were one of the Comet Beasts? Heard from old Xuul lately?” Vivian asked with a grin.

Duncan only chuckled and shook his head. “No, but how was old Maimer? Your records show you talked with him a month back?”

Vivian only chuckled and shook her head. “Last I saw him that old Canine said he was a trainer at a camp! Hard to imagine am I right?”

Duncan laughed a little and shook his head. “Well thank you, both of you! Once we have a doorway, we’ll see what we can find out about what’s down there. For now, rest and prepare. And Folks, listen up! We’ve got a bumper crop of those pods from the other day. So expect one at dinner!”

As Dalila looked at Duncan as he turned to walk away, she looked at Vivian as she stood there. The fact that this one was a former soldier, that was surprising

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As Jessie looked down at the console, he tried to keep calm. The drain was still there and at the same frequency. But the worst thing about it was that it was getting longer. It was up to a two-second drain. He had already done a few calculations, if this continued then the drain would cause the shield to fall an hour before dawn! Then the whole forest would be able to just come in and eat everyone!

The more Jessie looked around, the more he grew concerned. He couldn’t see anything that could be striking the shield, and that was the worst. That meant that he had no idea why this was happening, and that was bad. For a moment he debated handling this on his own, but then he shook his head. That would be the actions of someone alone. For now, he wasn’t. He had a team and that meant that he could go for help.

With that decision made, he looked around and found Terra by the crater. He blinked as he saw people digging down. Something was happening, something that he had missed. And that was just another mark that he needed to get back to normal.

With a sigh, he walked over and tried to think of how to explain this to her. The fact that his nanites weren’t common would be a problem, but if he used one of his programs, that might work. It would expose one of his trumps, but he had more. And one that he hadn’t used since he came on board.

“…..keep up the search pattern from where Jones found the first one. I want to know everything about this thing as soon as possible. Keep the depth the same as before, but double the spacing. I want to know where this thing goes!” Terra said with force.

Jessie looked at her and shook his head, smiling a bit. He wasn’t surprised with how she was doing, he always thought she had potential. With a sigh, he shook his body. Time to put more pressure on her. “Terra, sorry to bother you.”

Terra went still and turned her head, blinking as she saw Jessie standing there. “Jessie, what is it? Is your arm okay? No danger or pain sweeping in?”

“The arm’s fine, but the shield is the trouble,” Jessie said as he looked at Terra.

Terra blinked, not expecting that. Her face went pale as the blood left it.

Jessie nodded, knowing that she would understand.

Terra swallowed as she looked around, coming to a decision fast. Looked at him and took a breath. “Show me.”

Five minutes later, Terra looked down at the monitor and called up the history. She saw the blips in slow motion and whistled as she looked up at the shield. After a few seconds, she spoke, shaking her head. “I see the problem, but I can’t see where it’s from.”

“Me too, and we have a setting sun in an hour. We could set up a watch, but will that even work on this side?” Jessie asked. This was one of the worst kinds of problems he had seen, a problem that they couldn’t see the answer to. Even worse, if they didn’t fix this problem, it might kill them all.