by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from Voyage of the Wanderlust. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead.
In order to address the full crew as much as possible at one time, Captain Carroway led the way to the shielded barracks door with Commander Chestnut following her. The squirrel looked noticeably curious about how the Norwegian Forest cat would handle this.
Captain Carroway placed a paw on the control panel beside the door, causing it to slide open, still shielded by shimmering quantum energy. Standing in front of the opened, shielded door, the Norwegian Forest cat tapped her paw against the comm-pin on the breast of her uniform, opening a communications channel to the bridge of The Wanderlust. Then before any of the Anti-Ra officers, still locked in the barracks room could say anything, Captain Carroway meowed, “This is Captain Carroway of The Wanderlust speaking. I will be holding an all-paws officer meeting on the bridge momentarily, please be prepared for an unusual announcement about a complete restructuring of The Wanderlust’s onboard hierarchy.”
Captain Carroway tapped her paw against the comm-pin on her breast again, closing the channel to the bridge. Her three officers on the bridge would be very confused, but their confusion wouldn’t last long. And the goodwill she was hopefully buying with the Anti-Ra right now would be worth it. She already had the loyalty of her union officers. She needed to persuade the Anti-Ra officers to follow her too.
Inside the barracks room, all three of the Anti-Ra officers had stood up and crowded around the shielded doorway. They were peering at their captain — their former captain, now their commander — with agape, aghast confusion and curiosity.
“What the hell is going on?” the Lupinian officer barked. Half-Lupinian, Captain Carroway remembered. This one was T’lia Diaz, a brilliant engineer and former union officer.
“Hi,” Captain Carroway responded. “I’m going to lower the force shield on this doorway, and then the three of you are going to follow me and my first officer — Commander Chestnut — to the bridge of your new ship.”
Diaz barked a laugh. The Morphican, Werik, stood behind her, cowering like he was struggling against a strong impulse to run away and hide. Not that there was anywhere in the barracks room to hide.
Risqua, however, squawked, “Our new ship?” The reptile-bird made it sound like the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “And what in the name of the Unhatched are you wearing, captain?”
“Commander,” the golden-mantled squirrel corrected his officer. “You will address me as Commander Chestnut now, and I strongly recommend that you follow this cat’s direction.”
Captain Carroway noticed that Commander Chestnut didn’t refer to her directions as ‘orders.’ This squirrel was very precise with his words. It was also kind of impressive how deftly he’d announced his decreased relative rank at the same time as speaking with confidence and authority that made it clear: he was still their superior officer, even if he had ceded his captaincy to a stranger.
All three of the Anti-Ra officers in the shielded barracks room looked taken aback. Captain Carroway was definitely impressed with the powerful yet flexible authority this squirrel held over his crew. Maybe this harebrained scheme would work after all. If it did, it would only be because of the tiny squirrel standing at her side.
Captain Carroway placed her paw again on the controls for the barracks door. She lowered the force shield.
The canine woman took a faltering half step forward. She looked like she’d been bracing herself for a fight, but now that the force shield had been taken down willingly, she didn’t know what to do with her pent up aggression. Behind her, Werik was still holding Commander Chestnut’s spirit tree, cradling it like an infant, but now, Risqua was also holding a spirit tree, presumably Maple’s. The tree she was holding had emerald green pine needles and teeny-tiny pine cones growing from its branches. It was planted in another beautiful glazed pot. She’d wrapped her wing-like arms around the pot like the tree growing from it was the most precious object in the entire universe. More precious than a mere infant. More essential.
T’lia Diaz stepped out of the barracks room with her tall, bat-like ears splayed widely and her head held low, eyes narrowed with suspicion, as if she expected the force shield to snap back into place as she crossed the threshold and stun her. Werik and Risqua followed, less cautious because they had someone to follow, carrying the two spirit trees in their glazed pots.
“Would you like to leave the spirit trees here?” Captain Carroway asked, gesturing back inside the barracks room that was now empty since everyone was crowded into the central corridor of The Wanderlust.
“No,” T’lia Diaz snapped.
But Commander Chestnut chittered gently but firmly, “Actually, that sounds like a good idea. Werik, please put my tree down safely on that bureau beside the cot over there.” He pointed back into the barracks room with a small paw.
The Morphican man looked back over his shoulder at the barracks room like it was a trap he’d only narrowly escaped and was now being ordered to reenter. However, the tree in his arms belonged to Commander Chestnut, regardless of whatever nonsense was happening in terms of leadership hierarchy on this ship. So, Werik took the tree back inside and put it carefully down in the spot that Commander Chestnut had indicated.
“Thank you,” Commander Chestnut chittered. Then looking at Risqua, he added, “How about you put Maple’s tree next to mine? Spirit trees like to be together. It takes more than one tree to be a forest.”
The reptile-bird’s face around her beak crinkled with smile lines as she recognized one of Maple’s favorite sayings. “Okay,” Risqua agreed.
Captain Carroway didn’t understand all the careful nuances of how Commander Chestnut was manipulating his Anti-Ra officers into continuing to follow his command in spite of his foreign uniform marking him as a traitor to their shared cause, but she continued to be impressed. All three of his officers towered over him, but he was unquestionably their leader. They looked to him for guidance and security. And looking at him — a small golden-mantled squirrel in a Tri-Galactic Union uniform — they found what they were looking for.
Once both spirit trees were properly stowed in the barracks room, Captain Carroway took a risk. She turned her back on the four Anti-Ra officers and began walking down the corridor toward the bridge, swishing her tail behind her, hoping they would follow. Her ears twisted to the sides, listening until she heard footsteps padding down the corridor behind her. It made her a little nervous to turn her back on the Anti-Ra — mainly Diaz who could definitely take her down in a fight. But if she yowled, Ensign Lee would come running with his blazor ready. She had no doubts of that. The Papillon was an exemplary officer, and she could depend on him to have her back, even if she had ruined his life today. He would actually consider it a defense that she’d been following orders.
Maybe he shouldn’t. Maybe it wasn’t much of a defense. Captain Carroway felt like her entire worldview was distorting like a strip of plastic melting and contorting in the sun. Here she was, theoretically leading a crew of seven subordinates, but also, she was weighing in her mind what would happen if half of them got in either a physical brawl or all out fire fight with the other half. Very healthy. Definitely, very healthy. She wasn’t losing her mind at all.
Captain Carroway tried to push these thoughts from her mind, but one last question lodged in her brain: if a fight broke out between the two halves of their crew, which side would Commander Chestnut take?
Would the golden-mantled squirrel stick by her side, even though he’d only just met her? She thought he would, based on how he’d been acting, and she didn’t know why. It was a flattering thought, but it also just plain didn’t make sense.
As soon as Captain Carroway arrived on the bridge, she started speaking, mainly so that Ensign Lee and Mr. Melbourne would know better than to pull their blazors on the Anti-Ra officers.
“We have, all of us, found ourselves in a very unusual situation today,” Captain Carroway meowed as she finished walking to the front of the bridge. Once she was standing right in front of the wide viewscreen, she whirled around to look at her crew.
Diaz opened her muzzle like she had something snarky to say, but Commander Chestnut — who had walked beside Captain Carroway up to the front of the room — shot her a sharp look and the canine held her tongue.
“We aren’t just a long way from home,” Captain Carroway continued, tail still lashing behind her. She couldn’t seem to quiet down its movements. At least, her ears were standing tall. “We’re a long way from our home galaxy. I’ve been informed that traveling home could take weeks, months, or even — if we’re unlucky — years.”
Captain Carroway made a point of noticing Ensign Lee’s reaction to her words. No matter how well-behaved of an officer he was, if the Papillon had discovered something that disagreed with her words — a shortcut, perhaps — he would have looked like he wanted to interrupt her. Instead, the handsome young ensign just looked sad, his butterfly ears splayed widely in defeat.
Since Ensign Lee didn’t seem to have any good news for Captain Carroway, she continued with her speech: “We may have started today as two crews on two different ships with two entirely different and clashing missions. But being two crews won’t get us home. My new first officer here–” The Norwegian Forest cat gestured with a paw at the much smaller golden-mantled squirrel dwarfed beside her. “Commander Chestnut and I decided our chances are better together.”
Captain Carroway explained the nature of their plan to an increasingly surprised and dumbfounded-looking crew, including assigning the temporary rank of ensign to all of the Anti-Ra officers and Mr. Melbourne while field-promoting Barry Lee to lieutenant. That way, two of her officers would remain higher ranked than Chestnut’s subordinates. When she was finished, the reactions on her crew members’ faces were widely varied.
Mr. Melbourne looked smug; the white tomcat knew he was getting a good deal out of this. Lt. Cmdr. Vossie looked exhausted and overwhelmed, his long ears drooping low. He looked like he thought whatever was happening with The Wanderlust’s crew — including his own sudden and surprising demotion from first officer — was simply not as important as the fact that his computer implant was still coated in a growing, pulsing glob of fungal flesh sitting on the console next to him instead of properly inserted in his brow. Whereas Ensign Lee — now Lt. Lee — looked terribly invested in the news he’d just heard; the Papillon’s ears kept flicking taller and then lower as his gaze moved from one to the next of his new crewmates, trying to size them all up. This couldn’t have been how he’d ever expected to receive a promotion. After her own problematic promotion, Captain Carroway felt a little bad about that, but it simply couldn’t be helped. They’d have to hold a rank ceremony for everyone later, when everything was better settled.
Captain Carroway had a much harder time reading the Anti-Ra members of her crew. She wasn’t closely familiar with either Avioran or Reptassan facial expressions, leaving her at a loss with Risqua, and in spite of his lack of any computer implants to control his emotions, Werik seemed to be a closed book, tightly in control of his reactions. The half-Lupinian, half-Xolo woman, however, wasn’t trying at all to hide her feelings. She was still glaring daggers right at Captain Carroway, as if the two of them were a circus sideshow and the canine was thinking about whether she could get away with murder as long as she claimed the knife she’d thrown into the Norwegian Forest cat’s throat had been a mistake. A mere slip of the paw, nothing more, certainly nothing intentional.
“Any questions?” Captain Carroway meowed pleasantly, refusing to let the canine’s glare bother her.
“I am not a Tri-Galactic Union officer,” T’lia Diaz barked, almost laughing at the lunacy of the speech she’d just listened to from this insane, brain-washed Norwegian Forest cat who’d tried to kill her this morning and had succeeded at killing her childhood friend, Wilder. It wasn’t funny. That wasn’t why she was almost laughing. But it was ridiculous, and her near laughter was a form of ridicule. “I haven’t been one in a long time.”
“You are today,” Commander Chestnut countered. The golden-mantled squirrel rocked forward on his toes, not so much to make himself look taller as simply to show how alert and invested he was in the conversation. “And every day going forward until we get home.”
Strangely, T’lia Diaz — now Ensign Diaz, Captain Carroway supposed — looked cowed by the squirrel’s admonition. The Norwegian Forest cat was going to have to pay close attention to this squirrel’s leadership style, because he clearly had some strategies that worked very well.
“That wasn’t really a question,” Captain Carroway meowed, taking back the reigns of the conversation and holding tight to her pleasant tone. “I can see there will be a lot for everyone on board to think about and process, so I’d like to wrap up the formalities here as soon as possible…” Thinking quickly, Captain Carroway decided on the best way to divide up the officers so that everyone would be mixed together; a few officers would stay onboard the bridge, just in case; and the most critical things would get taken care of. “For now, I’d like Ensign Werik to see to Lt. Cmdr. Vossie and offer whatever help he can. Ensign Melbourne–”
The white tomcat preened and straightened up in his seat at the sound of his new rank. He’d never been an ensign before, even though he’d spent years working his way through the Tri-Galactic Union Naval Academy aspiring to exactly that.
“–please scan our new officers and synthesize uniforms that will fit everyone, including new rank pins as appropriate.”
“You got it, Captain!” Ensign Melbourne meowed cheerfully, too eager to wait until his captain finished doling out orders to respond.
“Finally, I’d like Lt. Lee and Ensign Risqua to work together on putting together a flight plan.” Captain Carroway watched Risqua closely to see how she was taking her demotion from the first officer of The Last Chance to a mere ensign onboard The Wanderlust, but she really didn’t know how to read the reptile-bird’s feathered and scaly face.
“What about me?” Ensign Diaz barked, eyes narrowed with suspicion and possibly burning hatred.
“You’re with me and Commander Chestnut,” Captain Carroway meowed lightly. She wasn’t sure if the canine would be helpful to her and her new first officer right now. They really had things they needed to work out between them, without a random, angry officer in their way. But also, the canine engineer was simply too big and aggressive for the Norwegian Forest cat to feel comfortable yet letting her out of sight.
Continue on to Chapter 12…