Chapter 2

Leaning against the wall in the corridor outside the crew hangar entrance, Spurius Canio waited patiently for Jack and the Captain to exit.

“Jack, my boy.” He said warmly as he took Jack in a bear hug.

“Spu-ack ... urius.” Jack managed as the giant of a man grasped him tightly.

Spurius was built like an ox, heavy features adorned his face as warm green eyes met Lucania’s, giving her a quick wink as he released his prisoner. He was the second tallest member of the crew, beat only by a little as the canid looking Lexocanus, Nyka, took home first place. His skin was rough, which spoke of a long life working on heavy machinery or starships. A grizzled beard helped cover some minor scars on his cheeks and jaw. His face also carried a large nose that had been broken more than once, possibly by a slipped tool.

“Spurius” Jack patted the big man’s chest with a hand. “How’ve you been?”

“Good Jack, been good. You pee yourself?”

“Yeah,” Jack grinned.

“Oh, good to know. I just hugged you like that.”

“You did.”

“Good.” Spurius nodded.

“Still a man of many words.” Jack remarked.

“Yup,” Spurius bumped Jack’s shoulder with a giant fist and spoke seriously. “You good?”

“I’m good.” Jack replied.

“Was that a Scapa you rode in on?”

“It was.”

“Smooth operating?” Spurius asked.

“It’s runnin not too bad.”

“I have some experience with Scapas. Need a tune up?”

Jack felt a bit of relief hearing those words. “The compressor leaks. The Lidar needs to be properly calibrated. 20mm compression cannon ammo is dry, if you can take care of any of that, well, that’d be great.”

“I’ll see what I can do and put it on your tab,” Spurius patted him on the shoulder as he walked past and entered the hangar deck.

“He doing ok?” Jack asked Lucinia as they started down the corridor. “I mean, he never speaks much, but that was rather less than usual.”

“Lost his wife to the Lumivirus seven months back. He’s been distant ever since. Asked us to keep it from you until you got back. I think he did not want it to interfere with what you were going through.”

“Ah, fuck,” Jack scratched the back of his head. “It wouldn’t have, but I understand the intent. I’ll pay him a better visit later.”

“Just be mindful how you approach it.” She said quietly and he nodded in agreement.

Lumivirus, Jack thought. That creeping death that makes the afflicted suffer from rapid onset tumors and growths within the epidermal organ. Death is slow and painful as the body is buried under the weight of the tumors. It was seen mostly in shipyard workers who build the last components of the superluminal drives that League starships use for faster than light travel. A heavy price to pay for the ability to reach far distant colonies in an acceptable time frame.

“How much of the ship do you remember?” Lucinia asked as they started down the corridor.

“Five years on board left me a with a pretty good retention.” Jack noted. “I haven’t forgotten anything. Only thing would be if there were any changes?”

“There have been a few small alterations. So, for safety’s sake, I’ll give you a rundown anyway. Every deck has two emergency stations in each corridor. One near the fore and one near the aft sections of the ship, same place as when you were here. At those stations you will find medical supplies, oxygen supplies and major firefighting equipment with new foam spray hoses. Each deck has two life pods, same ten-person occupancy models you were trained on. Over each door there are new fire blankets stationed, with a better rating than those old ones we had. You will see in the corridors there are more portable fire foamers than you may recall, as well as breach welders. After the ship was hit by drones on our last contract, I doubled up on certain safety equipment.”

“They actually made it to the ship?” Jack was in disbelief.

“They had stealth pods and ECCM. Point defense never reacted to them and comet rockets didn’t launch until they had made a pass. Luckily, they only caused some minor damage to the armor plating.”

“That’s pretty expensive hardware for remote automated drones from pirates.” Jack frowned. “Especially since most drones are disposable if they are intercepted by counter piracy vessels like this. Do they have any relation to the ones we may be facing?”

“Not that I’m aware of, but it does feel like something bigger is at play.” Lucinia was silent for a moment. “I’ll need you to look over the hardware we salvaged at some point. As someone qualified in electronics warfare, I need you to look into ways to counter those drones.”

“Alright,” Jack nodded and grinned. “Back for a day and you already need my brilliance?”

Lucinia struck his hip gently with the side of her fist. “Your ‘brilliance’ is a pretty good asset for our future, so don’t go bumping your head too many times jumping around, please, Second Officer.”

“Got my old position back, huh?”

“I was serious when I said it’d be open for you when you got back.”

“Am I taking someone’s promotion away?” Jack asked a bit uncomfortably.

“No, “Lucinia reassured him. “Myself, Proculus and a couple others split up your duties.”

“Fair enough.” Jack replied, then smiled and spoke a bit fast. “Took that many of you, huh?”

“Had to take turns on the monkey bars, you know how it is.”

“Always that one that climbs to the top and can’t get down...” Jack replied as he began following her down the hall. “Was that your brother?”

“Please, you two, please try to get along...” Lucinia eyed him with false pleading.

“I do try ... occasionally.” Jack shrugged.

“Maybe try more occasionally.” Lucinia replied.

They walked down the corridor to a stairwell and went up level two floors to the amenities deck. Below them was the crew deck where living quarters and some basic services were located. On the amenities deck, Jack could see an improved medical center from when he was last on board. What was once not much more than a glorified supply closet, the medical center now had a transparent plexiglass wall looking into a small seating area with a desk. He saw a hall running towards the ships portside with multiple doors on either side, suggesting room for several patients should the need arise.

“Renovated the medical center.” Jack noted.” Pretty significantly at that.”

“Yes.” Lucinia walked up to the door and turned to face Jack “After a couple of lengthy talks with Doctor Lytton, we felt it was prudent to increase the centers capability in case of a mass casualty scenario. The plexiglass wall can quickly be disassembled to make room for high volume or utilizing the corridor space for casualty collection. After the Kaxapox incident, many ships increased medical capability due to the loss of life on board the T.L.W. Serengeti, just from a single infected crewman returning from shore leave.”

“I heard something about that while I was away,” Jack nodded “Wicked little virus, that.”

“Yes.”

“What, you don’t want us all puking blood and blasting diarrhea all over the corridors?” Jack joked.

Lucinia looked at him speechless for a moment and scratched her head. “Are you sure you’re ok for duty?”

“Have you ever had to worry about that?” Jack said.

“Yes.” She said right as he said. “Don’t answer.”

“I am going to turn you over to the doctor,” Lucinia said a bit seriously and opened the door. “We have new protocols for taking on new hires and for those returning from shore leave.”