Chapter Eight
I'm really sorry for the wait! I have no excuse for not getting this chapter out sooner! I'll keep this short, thanks to Chris and Tom, and to all those who've helped me the past few days. Legal, don't read if you're too young, this story is complete fiction and implies nothing about any of the characters involved.
"I want to discuss your plans for our guests."
"Perhaps Justin would be better outside?"
"No, Justin will be fine here. He has every right to hear this!" Owen snapped back, taking a seat, Justin doing the same.
"Very well. What exactly do you want to discuss?"
"I don't want my memories taken away." Justin said quickly.
"Well, you don't have any choice. End of discussion."
"You're not going to do this to me! You've never let me love anything, you let my mum die, you were never there for me as a kid, you just handed me off, and now you want to take away the one person I have ever loved!" Owen suddenly shouted across the table.
"You're dismissed."
"I said you're not going to do this to me!"
"You are dismissed Mr. Coombs, I advice you take your leave!" The director said, this time far more forcefully however.
"I'm not going anywhere! You're not going to take Justin away from me like you've taken everything else away!"
"HOW DARE YOU! People would kill to be in the position you're in, you have everything you could ever want!" The director shouted, loosing his composure for a second.
"I want something you can't give me, I want someone I love!" Owen shouted back, before slamming his fists down onto the desk.
"Oh please! You met each other a few days ago, talked to each other for a few hours. You know we cannot allow knowledge of this facility to leak out.
The memory erasure will proceed as planned. You are dismissed gentlemen, I will not repeat myself again."
"You bastard! You don't give a damn about me!" Owen said, throwing his chair towards his father as he stood up in a fit of rage. A small opaque shield quickly appeared around him though, and it bounced off.
"Mr Coombs, you will leave now, or you will be in front of a disciplinary hearing!" He shouted. Owen knew when to quit however, and walked out the room, Justin following him.
"That could have gone better." Justin said quietly walking down the corridor.
"It could. We'll proceed with plan B. You won't remember a thing, about any of this, about me, anything. It's just a case of you trusting you. The video file has already been sent to your computer, I've got a copy of the note, as have you."
"Come on, we've not got long now. How about we just spend some time together?"
"Yeah, let's get down to your or my room." Owen said, stepping into the elevator. As soon as the doors opened on the ground deck, two security men were standing outside.
"Mr Timberlake, accompany me please sir, your colleagues have already been transfered."
"Where do you wish to take him?"
"The main medical facility sir."
"Unacceptable."
"I'm afraid these orders supercede your authority, please follow me." The security officer said, forcibly grabbing Justin by the arm and down the corridor. Owen just stood helpless as they took him down. He took off down the corridor to follow them, but was stopped by another security officer.
"I'm afraid I can't allow you any further sir." He said, strongly restraining Owen as Justin was lead into another elevator and off to medical. The security released his grip, and Owen stormed off to the command deck. Without evening waiting for authorisation he walked right into the director's office, behind his desk and grabbed him out his chair by the collar.
"You bastard." He said, before going to hit him. He was stopped easily however by the director.
"Mr Coombs, you are over the line. You do not get emotionally attached to your case. Leave now, before I have you thrown in the brig for insubordination." Owen just stormed off out the office, his anger controlling his actions. He walked into another elevator. "Computer, medical facility."
"Authorisation denied. You do not have sufficient security clearance." Owen walked out hte lift and over to the stair well, if the lifts wouldn't go there he'd just walk, or more precisely, run. He entered the corridor and ran down towards the medical centre. He stepped right through the door and looked around. He saw them, all five, lying unconscious on five beds, as before MRI like machines positioned over their heads. A doctor quickly walked out of the room and looked at Owen.
"Perhaps it would be best if you left sir?"
"Yes, perhaps it would. I'm not one for doing the best things for me right now though." Owen said harshly, as he stared at them, all helpless. "Have you performed the memory erasure yet?"
"No, we've not even started. We're just about to start scanning of the current memory engrams, before suppressing them and introducing new ones to fill in the gaps."
"Wake him."
"No sir."
"I SAID WAKE HIM." Owen shouted, storming through the door into the examination room. "Will you wake him or will I have to do it?"
"Leave now sir. I'll call security."
"You do that Doctor. Now, do you wake him or do I?"
"Sir, don't do this. You're acting irrationally. Think about what you're doing!"
"I am Doctor, now wake him."
"No." Owen walked over to the table next to the bed and looked around. Nothing he recognised was available, and he couldn't just use any old thing he set his eyes on. He slammed his fists down on the metal table, causing it to bend slightly. Glancing around, he pressed the button, causing Justin to slid out from the scanner. Owen moved his face down to Justin's level, and planted a small kiss on his forehead, holding his hand for a few seconds before leaving the medical lab. He couldn't believe his Dad could do this to him, especially after he knew how he felt. Then to move it forwards! Thank God they'd recorded the message, at least that might be able to persuade him. The main question now was how he was going to get to see Justin again. Undoubtedly he'd be reassigned from watching them, that would be given to someone else. The best possibility was one he'd rather not do, but right now it seemed the only way to go.
Two days later:
"Slipstream in five, four, three, two, one, zero." The countdown came across the Jupiter station and the flagship. The ship suddenly appeared to accelerate, leaving a ghosting trail for a few metres, before it disappeared as a run of blue energy discharges ran down the length of the station, along with the same flash of white light remaining afterwards, before it gradually shortened and closed.
"Sir, we've exited slipstream. We're not at the jump station."
"What, where are we?"
"Scanning. Sensors are attempting to calculate our position."
"There's no receiving device?"
"No sir, we're just resting in deep space. Nearest star 14 light years. Based on available data we're about 4000 light years from our point of arrival. Somehow the slipstream was diverted here."
"How did we reintegrate?"
"Unknown, we didn't do it. Someone else diverted the slipstream and made sure we correctly reintegrated."
"Set condition red. Raise shields, power up weapons, scan the area for any signs of recent activity."
"All hands, general quarters, all hands to general quarters. This is not a drill, this is not a drill." The voice of the computer system came over the intercom.
"Sir, we've got a comet, four million kilometres, we've got energy readings coming from the surface. It's moving slowly in our direction"
"Lay in a course, full thrusters."
"Very good sir." The sudden acceleration of the ship could be felt as the main engines fired up, but most of the force was dissipated by the dampening field. "Displaying comet on screen." The image of the supposed comet appeared on the main viewscreen, but instead of a comet, they saw a large spherical vessel, no vapour trail, now just sitting stationary."
"What is it?"
"It's a vessel, not matching any known configuration."
"Hail them."
"No response on any frequencies. Sir, we're coming to a full stop."
"Why?"
"Our thrusters just powered down, engineering report they lost power."
"Shields and weapons?"
"Still op... they've just powered down. Sir, we're being scanned."
"Get me shields and weapons on line immediately."
"Engineering is on it. Sir, our computer core is being accessed, it looks like everything is being transferred."
"Power it down!"
"Too late, it looks like they've taken the whole database, they've scanned the whole computer unit and taken all data. Sir, they're powering up some kind of discharge device. It's firing."
"All hands, brace for impact!"
"Sir, we've arrived at jump relay station one. All systems report normal, the jump went smoothly."
"Very good, charge the coils, let's get us on our way." The captain said, not recalling the incident.
Owen was pacing up and down the quarters. Justin and the rest had been taken home in the night 24 hrs ago, and he'd been locked up in the brig for his insubordination. Now he was let out, he needed to figure out what to do, and only one thing occurred to him. He headed out his room, and upto the director's office. He pressed the buzzer and waited a few seconds.
"Enter." Owen walked in and stood to attention.
"At ease, please take a seat."
"Sir, I wish to hand in my formal resignation." Owen said, pushing a piece of paper onto the desk. The director opened the envelope and read the letter, before putting it down onto the desk.
"Requests for resignations are very rare, and they will only ever be allowed in extenuating circumstances before your full term is up. The reasons you have given in your letter, to pursue alternative career aspects, and to live a normal life, quite frankly aren't good enough. Your reason to leave is to attempt to start up a relationship with Justin Timberlake yes?" Owen remained expressionless, and offered no answer. "He doesn't remember you, he has no idea who you are. I doubt without the resources of this organisation you'd even be able to get to him. Me letting you resign to go into a possible relationship would constitute a massive security risk. You could, inadvertently, reveal high risk material."
"You know I'd never do that."
"No, I don't know that for certain. These people are still important to us, they are under surveillance, this time fully covert."
"You have my formal resignation. Are you going to accept it or not?"
"I will debate the matter. Until that time, you will remain on the complex, with no outside contact. You'll have your answer within 12 hours. Dismissed."
"Yes sir!" Owen said, standing to attention, before turning to walk out the room. The past 24 hours had allowed Owen time to think about his actions. Yes, he was acting irrationally, but he still considered his response to be justified, if a little too excessive. One thing he knew, he wanted Justin back. By now, Justin would have read the email, possibly found the note he put in his pocket if they hadn't taken it out. Now, it was just a matter of waiting to see if he would be allowed to leave the ISC, and pursue his outside career. He could speak 3 Earth languages, he knew quantum physics, could program in six different computer languages. Needless to say, he was employable.
Now, he was just going to catch some sleep until he was called back to the director's office. He quickly dosed off into a dream filled sleep. As usual, he couldn't recall most of them, and the little bits he could remember made no sense.
"Mr Coombs, please report to the office of the director." The voice of the computer woke Owen, four hours having passed since he left the office. He quickly straightened himself up, before walking upto the office. He waited outside the door for almost two minutes before the finally opened, and he walked in, sitting as indicated to do so.
"Mr. Coombs, I have discussed the request for your resignation with Mr Paul Johnson, the co-director, as well as with some members of the board. You're request for resignation at this point is denied." The director said, before pausing a second. "However, we are willing to grant you a temporary leave of absence, for the period of two months. After this time, if you still wish to resign, your request will be reconsidered. Your leave of absence is effective immediately, and will terminate in sizty days. At that time, you will return to this facility, and we will discuss how you would like to proceed."
"Thank you sir."
"Don't thank me, I'm working according to protocol Mr Coombs. Consider yourself cleared of all duties. Any request to entry to the organisation before the end of your leave of absence terminates will be denied except in exceptional circumstances. Take everything you need with you. A car has been arranged for you at the New York office."
"Very good sir."
"Dismissed, and good luck." The director said, softening his tone a little for the final two words. Owen nodded, before walking out the office, a smile gracing his face.
Owen walked out of the doors of the New York ISC facility, seeing his car parked just outside the doors. He walked over and pulled the door open, a car waiting with a driver to take him down to the airport. The journey was in silence, Owen being handed a plane ticket to Orlando Itl Airport. The only words spoken were by the driver, telling him a car had been arranged for him at the airport. By now it was late afternoon, and the flight was due to depart in about an hour. The one case was checked in, along with his carry on case, and by the time he'd reached the gate, boarding had started.
The flight itself was uneventful, but Owen's mind was far from that. The whole flight he was trying to plan his course of actions. By the time he'd got out the airport, it would be about 9pm, too late to go that night, so he'd book a hotel and go the following morning. The question was, how to approach Justin. Perhaps he should call him from the hotel? He just didn't know how to proceed.
The driver at New York had given him directions to where his car was parked, and after ten minutes of wondering round, he found the parking space. A British Racing Green Aston Martin DB7 Vantage was in the space, at least his father had class when it came to choosing cars. Owen left the airport and drove round aimlessly for half an hour, as he was thinking about how to proceed. Finally he pulled into a the car park of the Marriott hotel near the airport, and booked a room for the night. It was just a small simple room, bed, tv, bathroom. Owen unpacked a change of clothes, and fished out his mobile phone from the case. He turned it on, hesitant at dialing in Justin's number, which he'd looked up before he left the ISC complex. After just staring at the phone for five minutes, he entered the number and hit ok.
Justin Randall Timberlake was sitting in front of his computer screen in his `office' to use the term liberally. One thing in particular was taking his attention, the 8mb movie file he found in his email when he arrived back home. At first he was confused, then scared, and now just plane dumbstruck.
How could he be sending a file to himself? It was him, talking from a place he didn't recognise, with a guy hovering in the background behind his shoulder. When he first read the text, before opening the movie file, he presumed it was some kind of prank, but this was himself talking to him, telling him about how he had his memories erased, and about this guy, the one standing over his shoulder, Owen. He just didn't know what to think. What he did know, was the this Owen person was supposed to be contacting him soon. At that moment the phone next to his computer rang.
"Hello?" Justin said picking it up.
"Hi Justin. You don't really know me, but I know you. My name's Owen Coombs."
"You're the guy off the video?"
"One and only."
"Ok, what the hell is going on here!" Justin said.
"I think you tired to explain it on the video file. Basically you got involved with a very powerful organisation, who I work, or perhaps worked for. You had your memories of a week period erased and replaced with false ones, where myself, or my organisation never even featured."
"This is some kind of joke or something." Justin said half heartedly.
"You told me you would probably trust yourself in the video. Did you get the hand written note?"
"No."
"They must have removed it then. You wrote yourself a note, I've got a copy here. I think it would be best if we were to meet perhaps?"
"This is too fuckin' weird!" Justin said sharply. "I don't know what to think. Yeah, perhaps it might best if we were to meet."
"I can't tell you anything about why this happened, I can't even tell you it did, but too late on that one. I know this must be confusing and weird for you, I've never been in your shoes, but I can try to imagine. It's weird for me, I've known you for over a week now, we've talked, become friends, and possibly two days ago, more than that. I know this sounds strange, the thoughts probably crossed your mind about some deluded fan trying to get you into bed or kidnap you or something. You just have to trust me."
"Ok. Meet me tomorrow, where are you?"
"I'm staying at the Marriott."
"Ok, my mom's out the whole of tomorrow from 9, so I suppose it would be best for you to come here?"
"And safest? That's fine with me, I'll see you then."
"Don't you need my address?"
"I know where you live, and I will figure out how to get there I suppose, I've got a map. I'll see you tomorrow Justin. Have a good evening."
"You too." Justin said, hanging up the phone. He just sat there, stunned. Why did something like this have to happen to him! This couldn't be real, it must be some kind of trick, but on his monitor was a movie of him telling him to trust Owen. They could fake things like this though, couldn't they? This was perfect though; it was him, it was his voice, his face, his clothes. Tomorrow would tell.
As soon as Owen put down the phone his mind went into overdrive again. At least Justin had agreed to meet him, it could have gone far worse. It was clear he remembered nothing though, obviously they'd perfected the memory erasial technique since they tried it first time. Perhaps if they met they might remember something, that's what happened last time, they remembered a lot of what happened. One could be hopeful at least. Now however, all that Owen wanted was for tomorrow to roll round, so he went to bed.
Sleep brought little rest for either of the men, their night filled with restless, senseless images. By the time morning came around, neither felt as if they'd even slept. By 7am, Owen was ready to go, yet had at least two hours before he could leave. He decided it would be advantageous to plan his route, and so pulled out the map from his bag.
"Sir, sensors are detecting a spacial disturbance in the command deck!"
"General quarters."
"Intruder on the deck!" Someone shouted, as a figure appeared about 10 metres infront of the director's chair. Instantly a small flashwent off around him as a shield powered up where the intruder was standing. It just walked straight through it however, towards the director.
"Impressive." He said calmly, remaining in his seat as the figure approached him, signaling with his finger for the security officers who had drew weapons not to fire. "Who are you?"
"You are aware of who we are." The figure answered, but making no vocalisations.
"I was under the impression you were a myth." The director answered, or rather thought, adopting to the alien's telepathic method of communication.
"We are not a myth, we are quite real."
"What do you want?"
"You are aware of our existence from a link with a Kulmari. Starting almost a year ago, Kulmari ships started trying to attack us, and continually we have turned them away. We cannot harm them in anyway, they are too inferior to stand a chance. The Kulmari are to us as ants are to you."
"I must wonder where that places us. You still haven't answered my question."
"We have a proposition. We want you to remove the Kulmari annoyance for us."
"And how do you intend we do that?"
"Our assistance would be to make available to you the information you cannot access stored in the five people who you had in your complex."
"How do you know all this?"
"We diverted your flagship and accessed its computer banks. It was the easiest and least obtrusive way to learn everything we needed to know about you. We also caused your systems failure previously, to enable us to scan the Kulmari vessel in your orbit without risk of detection."
"You give us the information, and in return we destroy the Kulmari race? Such terms are unacceptable, we are not in the business of genocide, we are purely trying to defend ourselves. I will not sanction the annihilation of a race."
"We see. Such a response was anticipated and hoped for. As soon as the tides of war change between you and the Kulmari, they will seize attacking us and concentrate on their war with you. Most of their fleet will be destroyed, and they will no longer bother us. Although they cannot do any permenent damage to us, their continual incursions are a cause of severe annoyance, and result in us diverting resources from more urgent needs."
"You are the first born, the most evolved race in the Universe most likely.
Surely there is nothing that could be considered pressing to you?"
"We are still at war, with a species similar to our own level of development, equally non-reliant on technology. Our race extends beyond this dimension, into hundreds of others. We are at war with a member of one of these other dimensions, who in their evolution remained war like, and never pacified unlike ourselves. We are only just able to defend ourselves, without needing the continual disturbance of the Kulmari."
"Very well, I agree to your terms."
"We will return to you shortly and provide you with the necessary knowledge to access the stored data."
"How long is shortly?"
"Within one of your days. Their are more urgent matters which need to be dealt with immediately." With that, the alien disappeared, only 8 seconds after it appeared in the first place. All eyes turned to the director.
"I think we may be seeing a sway in the direction the war is moving gentlemen."
Owen was in his car, driving down the I-4, following his pre-planned directions. With any luck, he'd be wanting the next exit. It took him another ten minutes of driving until finally he found the road he wanted, pulling onto the long road, houses set back, some of them behind large hedges. Owen found the number of the post outside, quickly braking and swinging round into the driveway. He slowly proceeded up the drive, to the large house, set back about 100 yards from the road, a small hedge row almost a yard high running along the front of the property.
He pulled his car infront of the large garage, stepping out the car and locking the doors. Glancing around, taking in his surroundings, his hands started to shake with nervousness. He quickly steadied them and set aside his fears, before walking towards the front door. As he went to knock, the door pulled open from the other side, Justin standing in the doorway, dressed in a pair of loose fitting cargo pants, and a white t-shirt.
"Hi, er..., Owen."
"Hi Justin."
"Is this as weird for you as it is for me?"
"Definitely! Just think, I remember meeting you, getting to know you. Here I am, you're standing in front of me, and only recognise me because you saw me in a video file standing behind you."
"Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. Do you want to come on?"
"Well, it's rather nice here on the doorstep." Owen said, laughing a little, Justin doing the same, as Owen followed Justin into the house.
"JC would normally be here, but he's gone out for two or three hours."
"No problem, I got on well with JC except for that time we first met and he pulled a gun on me."
"WHAT!" Justin said, turning round, a look of surprise and curiosity on his face.
"Well, you lot thought I was hiding something from you when I first introduced myself as an FBI agent, and JC pulled a gun on me, my gun to be precise. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the basics."
"That's almost funny." Justin said, as he sat down in the living room on the sofa, Owen doing the same.
"Oh yeah, I have this hand written note for you from you." Owen said, pulling out the piece of A4 lined paper from his pocket, handing it over. Justin read it through, before placing it down on the table. Owen picked it up and scribbled a little note on the back side. `Justin, we're prob under surveillance, can't say too much about stuff here.' Justin read it, and nodded.
"Want to go for a walk or something?" Justin said, thinking his car might be bugged. Owen knew his was, why else would his Dad go to so much trouble.
"Sure." Owen said, as he and Justin got up and walked outside. It was a beautiful day, clear skies, sun shining. After they'd walked almost 50 metres from the property, Justin spoke up again.
"I find it hard to believe I actually met you before."
"I thought for a while you might remember something, but it depends whether they actually replaced the engrams, or just suppressed them. That's what they did the first time round, for specific reasons, but they wouldn't have applied this time as much.
"So what exactly happened between us, you know, sort of..."
"Nothing like that. Hell, it wasn't till about an hour before they took you away that I had the nerve to admit how I felt, and then you did the same."
"Wow. How did we actually meet?"
"Well, I was assigned to you to protect you for a while, from who doesn't matter. You got taken off a plane, due to a bomb threat, and got to know me. You found me staying in the same hotel as you, had a big arguement, and got talking. That was a week ago just about."
"Ok. Weird I suppose. How old are you?"
"Just a little older than you, couple of months or so."
"Ok. You're British yes?"
"There's an interesting one, I have passports for half the damned countries in the world just about, but my Dad was English, and i have an English accent. I don't have a nationality like you do really, I am whatever nationality I need to be for the day, I work for whatever government agency is needed. When in Rome..."
Justin laughed a little, as they continued walking through the large grounds on the back of the property. "So, what do you want to do?"
"Well, this is what we did first time, talk. We talked about each other, our histories, ourselves."
"Ok then, how about you tell me, since apparently you already know all my story." The next hour almost was spent telling Justin his life story, excluding the more sensitive aspects, pretty much as has been told to him in the hotel room the previous week. Justin listened, making the odd comment, like before, on the similarities on their life styles in some respects. By the time Owen had finished, they'd walked round almost twice.
"So, now you know pretty much all you knew about me a couple of days ago."
"Wow, this is so weird. I knew all of this, but I didn't, and now I do."
"Just let it sink in. I can't begin to understand how this must be like for you, but I'll do my best." The sound of the phone ringing from the house caused Owen to pause. They exchanged glances, and Owen nodded to Justin, who quickly ran into the house to get the phone. Owen followed behind him, and Justin was already talking when he reached the house.
"Yeah mom, I'm fine. I know, I was just walking about for some fresh air. Ok, so you'll be out for a little bit longer? I'll see ya later then, love ya, bye." Owen caught the one side of the conversation, filling in the blanks for the rest, obviously Lynn was delayed. Almost as soon as the phone was back down it started ringing again. Justin sighed, while Owen just chuckled a little.
"Hello? Hi JC. What, now? Well, I was going to just spend the day relaxing or something. Where did you want to go?" Justin glanced at Owen, looking for some help. Owen just shrugged in response, not knowing how to best advice Justin in what to do, it was his decision after all whether he stayed or went out.
"I'm sorry JC, but I can't really make it, I'm a little busy right now."
"Why?"
"It's kinda private."
"What, got a girl round of something?" JC said snikering.
"No, nothing like that! Just meeting up with an old friend who's in the area."
"Be careful ok?"
"Don't worry JC, see ya later. We can go out tonight or something if you like I guess?"
"We'll see Justin, bye for now." JC said, as he and Justin simultaneously put down the phone.
"Sorry about that, JC wondered if I wanted to go hang out with him, since I was here all alone."
"Where is he?"
"God knows, he just told me he had to go out for a while. He wondered if I wanted to go boating for the afternoon."
"I see -- yet you decided to stay here?"
"Yep." Justin said, smiling slightly.
"Do you remember anything of before?"
"No, I don't think so. Will I?"
"I honestly have no idea. They refused to tell me how they conducted the memory erasure process, different techniques have different outcomes, some are more effective than others. Only one is full proof though, and I know they didn't use that. Hopefully, in time, you'll remember some things, now you've been given some external stimuli."
"Tell ya what, how about we go out for the afternoon, go rent a boat or something. It's better than being couped up in here."
"It's entirely upto you."
"Come on then, let's go. Who's car do you want to take?"
"Doesn't matter."
"We'll go in yours then, never been in one before."
"Hop in then." Owen said, smiling as he jumped into the drivers side of the convertible, leaping over the closer door.
Edwards was pacing slowly along the back of the command deck, surveying his `kingdom' -- a world on the brink of dying, whose saviour had just put him on hold. Ten hours had passed since the mysterious encounter with the individual, and he had not uttered another word about it -- not until he knew more.
"Sir, we're detecting another spatial disturbance." Someone said, Edwards wasn't certain who, but he spun round, before he himself disappeared from the command deck.
"Welcome to our world Mr. Edwards."
"We were discussing the matters of the Kulmari `problem'"
"We were. We will provide you with the necessary technical knowledge to access the information which you seek."
"And?"
"Have patience. All comes to those who wait."
"And nothing comes to those who never act and purely sit waiting for ever."
"We have arranged for you to become acquianted with another race. They are primitive in their space travel and defensive capabilities, but more advanced than yourselves in medical technology, on par with the Kulmari. You will have the opportunity to become a friend, and in return, they will help you with your problem. Things will fall into place quite nicely."
"Very cryptic. You are not helping us directly?"
"No, we do not get involved in such matters, we have just made sure that certain things will occur for you to meet this race. You will know who they are."
"Timeframe?"
"Only a few hours."
"Is there no more information?"
"One of your ships will detect a small, sublight vessel, under attack by a Kulmari ship."
"Very well. Thank you for your assistance." Edwards replied, before he returned back to the command deck, all eyes on him, his absence being barely over a second.
"Do we have any ships for transit?"
"Yes, Victory is at alpha for about 2 more hours before the next jump."
"Very good sir."
"Get Mr. Paton to the command deck, he has command." He said, walking out to his office, collapsing into the chair.
Well, that's the end of chapter eight -- hopefully the wait won't be as bad for chapter nine. For those TOF readers, again, it should be out soon. Ad.