Chapter 32: As the Smoke Clears

February 26^th, 2279

On the way home to Kappa 3, the true cost of victory slowly became visible. Nasz was kept prisoner as Basil had a very good reason to get rid of her, not the sensible attempt at stopping him, but the near death of Mellir, who was only kept alive by further implants replacing his frontal cortex. Attempting to kill off another servant of the League was a serious crime, and the circumstances hadn’t fully called for it. Nasz needed a good lawyer and Mellir’s future hung in the balance, unclear what kind of man would wake up after surgery and stasis. Yet again, the Rubicon was without an XO, much to the dismay of Nocks, who was slated to assist in said surgery and by now also at her limit concerning almost everything and everyone and absolutely not in the mood to talk, so Perlas stepped up organizing what he could, which was not much, as Feterni was leading the repair teams. Doctor Boddins had to be released from medbay at some point and was now sitting across Basil in the captain’s ready room.

- Doctor.

- Captain.

- I assume you already sent the report on my stimulant use and I can expect to have to fake some tests back on the station?

- No, I have not.

Basil twitched and turned his head sideways, as if trying to hear the same sound waves twice.

- Why not?

- Because you then would remove me from this ship. Or some other captain would take over this ship. Both cases I cannot let happen.

Boddins looked at Basil as if the latter knew what he meant, but after a while, he realized Basil was just tired, worn-out by the battle and generally confused and likely coming off some hard stuff.

- See captain, now that all is out in the open, I will take over weaning you off your drugs. I demand access to your medcomp, the real access. I will involve Nocks in this. No more fake data.

- Why on Earth would you help me?

Interestingly, the phrase “why on Earth” was always translated to the homeworld of the listener, so it made sense to all of them, finding regular use, angering Ka’al who was wanted on his homeworld for treason and making Perlas smile, for he felt the warmth of Axxoe every time.

- If I leave this ship, there is no one left to keep you in check. Which will kill this crew I have come to hold dear. If you leave this ship, they will send another captain who will kill this crew I have come to hold dear by incompetence. We’re both trapped now, if we value our duties. You need a critical voice and I need to protect this crew. Do we have a deal?

And thus, the rare instance of a problem simply going away to simmer until another moment occurred. Basil agreed, trying not to show his happiness, for he would surely find a way to slip the odd extra stimulant into his brain undetected and / or make Boddins have an accident, maybe genetically modifying his eels to fight for their lives. Also, what Boddins hadn’t told the captain was the simple fact that after what Korolev told them all, the Rubicon was likely the only ship in the fleet with some semblance of knowledge of what was going on. And he needed to be there to avoid larger bloodshed if at all possible. But telling the captain that would make him his underling again, not his counterpart, so kept both teethed lines shut.

As Ton was keeping radio silence until their scheduled meeting and the Rubicon was limping home on much reduced speed, Basil decided to contact Cherry.

- Anyone there?

As he waited for an answer, he took stock of the situation. His priorities after the battle had been pretty straightforward, he had thought: First, he would have to repair the Rubicon somehow, and the few bits of HCC he had gotten from Ton were not only a drop in the bucket of what was now missing from his ship in part, they also turned out to be stolen from Kappa 3, as their composition was exactly the same as the ship, reinforcing that Ton has his long fingers in everything in the surrounding sectors and was the last and best ally Basil had. What Basil didn’t know was that they had been stolen whilst the Rubicon was preparing to launch, just before his meeting to take on the D-9. Ton had some of his men simply get some samples of what his old foefriend’s ship would be made of, should Basil ever come after Ton’s little empire of dirt. They had analyzed the material and found out what many before them had found out: There was no known trick, no shortcut. If one wanted to destroy the Rubicon, one needed very strong weapons to take off bit by bit of her armor. And enough time.

There had, however, also been great news for Basil on the very same subject. And it had made Basil feel really stupid when he complained to Perlas how hard it would be to repair the Rubicon and Perlas just looked at him through many, many eyes, usually never shy of an answer. Perlas had just seen his captain pull off a display that tricked the smartest AI in the fleet, but the man seemed stupid on some levels. Perlas used his favorite leg to scratch the back of his head and slowly explained to the captain that they had more than enough HCC. Not only had they recovered the parts that had been blown off by the explosion, the hangar gate trying to run as far away as possible from the troubled ship, they could also just skim the armor of the Rubicon down by a few centimeters using the Shrill, receiving literal tons of the material. Simply put, the Rubicon’s armor would lose 4 % thickness but the ship would be complete again. Basil didn’t like that specific number going down, but didn’t protest much, hoping to change topic soon.

More of a problem was their equipment, which needed many other materials. As Basil had received no answer from the Senate committee responsible for this “test”, he was not sure what would await him on Kappa 3, and what would be missing. He needed rare materials for the launchers, rare material for the mobile cloak emitters and a lot of aux generators, which could be synthesized in parts, but he needed the good ones.

Apart from repairing the ship, he needed another XO. Nocks had immediately disappeared to her quarters as soon as Nasz’s duties became available after the battle. Perlas had already declined several times, seeing his duties to the crew more indirect, and still a bit insecure about the rotten start he had with the crew. Basil had no other alternatives than to scout for an available commander on Kappa 3 again. There were three candidates available, a Fellian by the name of Astakk, who had previously served aboard the SFC Helinner, an older cruiser, not as outdated as the Santa María but still far off the gathering high-tech the Rubicon was. Basil also didn’t like him, as his file was full of glowing recommendations for efficient crew management, which meant he would be annoying his whole crew with micromanaging constantly, something that the now experienced specialists on the Rubicon didn’t need in Basil’s eyes. Then, there was a Commander Adano, who was soon to leave for the prison system in the Sirius system but had opened his profile for “any position” so Basil sent him an offer as a “torpedo impact tester” and was imminently blocked by the account of said Adano. Finally, there was a Catanian Commander – not Nasz, as she was still in the brig – but a Commander Sadiz Helth. He was available since he had overseen trade security in the area, a job made hellish by Ton’ efforts and insights thanks to Basil happily keeping him on his good side, and silently replaced by a more aggressive Sii officer. Basil was not in the mood for more Catanians, as Naubak, the only other Catanian aboard, was already looking at him angrily for incarcerating one of their own. In the end, Basil wrote a simple post on the bulletin board:
“XO needed for a medium cruiser. Interesting mission profiles. Must be able to adapt and strongly opposed to mutinies. Contact B@zil22.”

- That’s one of the dumbest posts I have ever read.

- Hi Cherry.

Their message had come in seconds after Basil hit “send” on his lazy attempt of finding a submissive XO, he figured, the Visser doctor was pain enough.