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“Response Team One has been launched,” Ji-min Bin’s voice came through his system.
Brooks had been monitoring the launch from his office. He would get a call soon, he knew.
His door chimed, and he saw it was Jaya.
“Enter,” he said.
She came in and saluted. “Captain, I need to talk to you.”
Part of him wanted to ask if it was important; it was not likely to be as important as what he was waiting for. But he’d never known Jaya to engage in hyperbole. If she thought it was important, it surely was.
“Go ahead,” he told her.
“Ten minutes ago, I was approached by Dr. Logus,” she told him.
“Why?” Brooks asked.
“He told me of the situation that is occurring – with the patient aboard MS-29, and about your . . . proposed mission to the Terris system.”
Brooks studied the woman for a moment. Was she here to talk him out of it, he wondered.
No, he decided. If she agreed with Logus, she would not have come to him.
And he just did not believe she would side against him. Not as long as he was right.
“What did you tell him?” he asked her.
“That I trusted your decision. But I thought you should know that he-“
“Went behind my back to undermine me?” Brooks finished. “I thought he might, in some way.” He turned in his chair, his gaze going to the wall, but staring through it. He should have had the man escorted to his room, now that he thought about it more.
“You needed to know, Captain, but I do not believe it was a betrayal,” Jaya continued.
With an arched eyebrow, he looked back to her. “No?”
“You have not asked what he wished me to do,” she noted. “With respect, Captain, in the matter of the Terris expedition you are making a sound judgment, but on the matter of Dr. Logus you are viewing the man as an enemy when he is not.”
“You just told me he went behind my back to attempt to sway my Operations officer against me. If that’s not a betrayal, then what is?”
“He did not ask that of me, Captain. He could have ordered me to intercede, but that was not what he was asking. Instead, he asked me to talk to you – to help you see reason.”
Brooks suspected that even if ordered, Jaya would not have betrayed him. Unlike Logus, she understood duty – and sacrifice. “But you agree with me about the mission,” he said.
“I do. But I realized that I do still need to speak with you. You need to see reason about Dr. Logus.”
That caught Brooks off-guard.
He felt an anger rise up inside him, threatening to burst out. To shout at the woman to leave his office for this absurdity.
But he paused, thinking about what she said. He still felt angry, but he tried to work past it, to see through it. He wanted to find a fatal flaw in what she said, but-
He really did not like Dr. Logus.
“How do you think I have treated the doctor unfairly?” he asked.
“You failed to convince him, Captain,” Jaya replied. “Because I do not believe that you tried. You are persuasive; your reasoning sound. Dr. Logus is an intelligent man – I can see why, from his view, that he would have objected. But you should have won him to your side.”
It was hard to argue with praise, but he could not help but try. “I think you over-estimate me there,” he noted.
“Perhaps,” she replied. “But in the past, you helped me to see reason when I thought I never could again.”
That he could not argue with, and he suddenly felt much older than his years. “I’ll have to think on this, Jaya. Thank you . . . for coming to talk to me.”
The woman nodded, and gave him a salute. Rising to his feet, he returned it.
“Now, Captain, I understand that Apollonia Nor has been having some issues – with MS-29, and with Logus herself. Would it be all right if I talked to her?”
Brooks was again surprised. “If you believe you can help, then I welcome it. Just approach cautiously. Nor has had a lot of bad surprises in her life, and isn’t used to trusting.”
Jaya nodded sharply, and turned to leave.
As she left, Brooks sat down again to wait. Soon, the call from Verena would come, asking him just why he had sent his people to the forbidden Terris system.
Other Terrestrial 