Fourth Vector Ch. 02

"Someone will see you. Someone will . . . see me," she whispered, her breathing still seized up from the blunt force of the rifle butt.

"I'm afraid not, ma'am. You see, you were the last one to be captured here. Unfortunately, most of your crew is also under guard now too. We're in complete control of theTiger," said Reyes cheerfully.

They passed a mess hall and stopped to allow Vicky to look inside. All she could see were the eyes of over forty crew members as they fixed on her. They were backed against one side of the wall and under guard by two men with NT-11s as well. Vicky recognized them as former inmates of the brig as well, and before that, sailors assigned to weapons division.

"How did you . . .?" she asked quietly.

"You should really pay more attention to the morale on your ship, ma'am," said Reyes with a laugh. "It wasn't that hard to convince a few sailors that we'd rather stay alive than die. Isn't that right, Jarvis?"

Jarvis grunted as they took her to another empty room not far from the bridge. Emerging into the room, Vicky looked up and grimaced as soon as she saw the other division officer heads similarly restrained nearby. All of them had their hands immobilized and mouths covered to prevent talking.

"We're just going to put you right here next to Lt. Xavier," said Reyes as he slumped her down next to the other officer. Vicky looked into Brian's eyes only to find the same panic as she felt contained within them.

As both Reyes and Jarvis prepared her hands to be further restrained, another man came into view. One that had only recently been transferred to her ship. "Oh no," whimpered Vicky right before the tape went over her mouth.

"Oh yes, Lootenant Commander," said the Occitanian with a smile. "Thank zee for giving me command of zee ship!"

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It was just after dawn the next morning as Jack found himself walking along the ship's railing on his usual routine to the bridge. Having taken in the sunrise for the morning, it was time to check in with the officers before retiring back to his chambers to put the finishing touches on a speech to the crew.

He had promised Vicky last night that he would say something to the crew of theTiger, as well as theDestiny andValiant, knowing full well how restless they had been with the journey so far. Jack had stayed up half the night getting the first part of it together and making sure it sounded just right before surrendering to sleep. This morning, he wanted to polish it up and hopefully allay the fears of the men on board.

There weren't many men out at this time of day and only Twitch clicked along behind him, their boots making an audible sound on their way to the ship's bridge. As they climbed up into the bridge, Jack was amazed to see the Lt. Commander already running over the morning report.

"It's about time you showed up for work," said Abigail with a smirking grin.

Jack chuckled to himself. "I didn't know anyone was waiting on me!"

"Is that how our relationship is going to be, Jack? Always waiting on you?" She winked and turned her attention back to the report in front of her.

He sat down in the seat beside her. "No rest for the weary, I see. Well, good morning to you too, Abigail."

She giggled and leaned into him. "Good morning. I always enjoy seeing you so riled up. It's so easy to do and yet so fun."

Jack pursed his lips. "Glad I can be your source of entertainment. Do you have anything I need to know about or should I just do my dancing monkey act now?"

Abigail's mouth opened in surprise. "You have a dancing monkey act?"

They both began to laugh. "You're in some mood this morning," said Jack.

She looked back in his direction. "You're right about that. I'm probably just horny."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Is that right?"

She shrugged in response.

"You picked the wrong time to be horny at the very start of the day."

"What, Jack? You don't like a vigorous romp right as the sun comes up?" Her dark eyes sparkled with mischief.

"You're starting to remind of yo—"

Jack stopped short, realizing he was about to say your sister. Abigail looked at him with anticipating eyes, her mouth open in a half smirk.

"—of someone I used to date," he ended without too much awkwardness.

Abigail giggled and then fixed him with a knowing look. "Oh, I bet I do!"

As he felt the heat begin to rush into his cheeks, he was saved by the appearance of two more officers on the bridge. Abigail straightening up at their appearance and her smile noticeably dipped.

"Morning, Stephanie. Morning, Kyle," said Jack cheerfully, glad to be out of that conversation and forced to turn more towards business.

"Good morning, sir. Ma'am," said Kyle, nodding to them both. Without any more words, he sat down at his station and began to work.

"Morning to you both, too," said Stephanie. "What's this I hear about vigorous romps?"

Abigail nearly broke down in laughter as Jack tried to avert his gaze. "God help me," he muttered under his breath.

"Well, I was just asking our commander here if he was a fan of getting busy as soon as he wakes up," said Abigail with absolutely no shame.

"Is that right?" said Stephanie. "Now I'm kind of mad I didn't come up here a little earlier to get the beginning of this conversation."

"Beginning of what conversation?" came another feminine voice from the door. Jack looked up to see Anna making her way into the bridge. Things were just going from bad to worse.

"The conversation about whether Jack likes the ol' morning glory or not," said Stephanie.

Anna grinned wickedly. "You mean the other kind of breakfast sausage, hmm?"

"Or perhaps breakfast tacos in his case," said Stephanie.

"Maybe a breakfast burrito."

"Okay, enough," said Jack with a heavy laugh. "I don't know how we all got off on this tangent, but let's remember where we are."

The three women looked at each other and then began to giggle further. Jack looked over to Kyle to see even he wore an innocent smirk at the conversation. There seemed to be no escaping this one and for a moment, Jack considered taking his headquarters back to theValiant.

"All right, let's start with the morning briefing," said Jack, looking over to Kyle first. "Weapons division up first. Anything to report?"

"It was quiet last night. No infractions and everyone showed up for their station on time. Clean report," said Kyle.

"Excellent," replied Jack. "How about engineering?"

Anna smiled at Jack before responding. "Quiet as well, sir. We're still having problems with the separator drum of boiler three, but it's been largely under control. Something we can have fixed next time we're at port."

Jack nodded. "Great job, thank you, Anna. Which now brings us to operations division."

"I had two sailors released from our brig this morning. You may recognize the names of Walker and Pollock? They were the two mess cooks who got in a fight several days ago. They're back on the roster," said Stephanie. "No other disturbances."

"Sounds like it was a quiet night. Have we gotten the reports from theValiant and theTiger yet this morning?" asked Jack.

Stephanie hopped up and checked another section of the ship that contained a row of folders. "Hmm, I have the report from theValiant here. According to Lt. Commander Ravencross, nothing to report aside from a small leak on deck four but he has it under control. No infractions over the night. Clear."

"And theTiger? What's the report from Lt. Commander Carter?" asked Jack.

Stephanie shuffled around the several assembled folders for a moment until a confused look appeared on her face. "I don't see it, sir. That's really strange. She's usually really prompt with her morning report."

Jack furrowed his brow. "Maybe she's running behind this morning. No matter. Give me the radio and I'll ask her for a live report right now."

Abigail grabbed the command radio and passed it over to Jack. Clearing his throat, he spoke into the device. "Come in, Vicky. It's Jack."

He waited several moments for her to respond. The rest of the crew seemed to watch him as it became clear that she wasn't going to respond. After about a minute, Jack tried again. "Vicky, are you there? Come in please, Vicky."

Nothing but silence came from the radio. Jack stood up from his command chair and grabbed a pair of binoculars. Something about this didn't feel right. Vicky was never late and usually kept her radio on her at all times. Standing against the starboard window on the bridge, he gazed out to look at theTiger cruising a few hundred yards away. Jack scanned the entire deck of the ship, his eyes noticing something peculiar right away.

"There's nobody on the deck. I can't see a single sailor," said Jack. "It's like the entire ship is still below deck."

Abigail got up and slipped by his side. "That's so strange. You'd think someone would be out right now." She scanned the ship as well and saw nothing.

Jack tried one more time into the radio only to hear the sounds of white noise in return. "Something is wrong. Lt. Buckner, I need you to go get Major Vaughn right away."

"Aye, sir!" said Twitch as he quickly disappeared out of the bridge.

"I'm going to switch the frequency to the one for the officers," said Jack. "We'll cast a wider net that way." He flipped the toggle on the radio and then brought it back to his lips. "This is Commander Jack Easterbrook of Task Force 21. Come in, destroyerTiger. I'm requesting an officer to respond back immediately."

Abigail looked at him with questioning eyes as they waited for a response. Several moments passed by as the line remained dead.

"What could possible have happened, Jack?" Abigail whispered to him.

"I don't know. But we need to get someone over to that ship right now."

Twitch burst through the door of the bridge a moment later with Major Vaughn following to his rear. Greg offered a crisp salute to Jack before noting the look of distress in all of their faces.

"What seems to be going on?"

"There's no communication with theTiger right now. Our attempts to reach the officers of the ship have come up with nothing. We can't see anybody on the deck," said Jack. "I need you to send a team of men over there and find out what's going on. You can use one of our boats to get over. Just have them bring their rifles. Something just doesn't feel right about this."

"We're on it right now, Jack," answered Greg. Greg reached for the radio at his own waist and began to issue orders. "Send a fire team from B Company. Have them meet us at the starboard stern in five minutes."

"Come on, let's meet them at the boats," said Jack as he, Abigail, and Greg moved out of the bridge and descended to the deck. They reached the stern of the ship a minute later, and Jack looked back out to theTiger again. There was still nobody in sight. In fact, it appeared to have lost some speed. The destroyer was now falling back from the task force.

In what felt like an excruciating long time, the fire team from B Company arrived at their location and a boat was lowered into the water after the four members slipped inside. The Marines fired up the motor and soon the small craft was bopping its way over to theTiger.

Jack watched their progress with hopeful eyes as they made their way over to the lagging destroyer. It took them several minutes just to get about halfway to the ship when all of a sudden, Jack heard the most spine-tingling sound coming from the command radio. Someone was laughing on the frequency.

"Who is this. Identify yourself," ordered Jack into the radio.

"'Ello, Commander Easterbrook," said a heavily-accented voice.

Jack's heart nearly seized up and he watched Abigail go pale in the face. "Who is this?"

The voice chuckled. "Who I am iz an excellent question. Until about a week ago, I used to serve on the pride of the Occitanian navy. The heavy cruiser,Témérité, was my home. These days, I'm more of a drifter than anything, picking my ships as I go."

Before Jack could respond, he looked over at Greg. "Turn those men around. Turn them around right now!"

Greg began to issue orders to the men while the voice over the radio continued. "I greatly appreciate you letting me have command of one of zee ships. What a pity about that little boat of Marines you have coming my way though."

Greg roared into the radio. "Double time, get back to the ship!"

The so far quiet morning was then disturbed by the sounds of rapid gunfire. Jack quickly scanned the ship to find the destroyer's port side machine guns blasting and he followed their firing to see them lighting up the small boat of Marines. One of them was hit instantly as the rest of them ducked for cover. Soon the small craft was littered with holes and it began to sink into the water around it.

"You son of bitch. Those are fucking Marines you just killed," Jack roared into the radio.

"And to think, Commander, I'm just getting started," replied the Occitanian.

Jack watched as the boat slipped below the waves leaving the Marines bobbing in the water. They were still about a hundred yards out but they were completely weighed down with full gear.

"We need to get those men before they go under," Jack ordered as the crew began to pull down another boat. Greg raised his hand to interject almost immediately.

"No, Jack. Let them swim. I have a feeling they'd fire on another boat in the water and besides, those Marines can swim even with seventy-five pounds of gear on their backs."

Jack looked back out to the water and scanned the floating Marines with his binoculars. Two of them didn't appear to be in any further distress and looked to be swimming back to theDestiny, while towing the bodies of their deceased comrades.

"I promise you that you're going to pay for that. I'm going to personally make you pay for the Marines you just killed," said Jack into the radio.

"Now, now, Commander. No need to be hostile. Zee just needed to see that I meant business."

"What have you done with the crew? Where's the crew of the ship?" Jack asked.

"Why, they are under guard, of course. What do you think I am, Commander? Some kind of animal?"

So many questions swirled in Jack's brain that he didn't know which one to go with next. How did the Occitanian come to be in control of the ship? Was it the same one that was thrown in theTiger's brig? If so, how did he escape and how did he overpower the crew? There were just too many questions without any good answers. Instead, Jack asked the simplest question he could think of.

"What is it that you want? Why are you doing this?"

The voice chuckled again. "I see now we are getting somewhere! I'm a simple man, Commander. I like zhe simple pleasures of life. Gold, women, and staying alive. Because of you, I'd never get to experience those three things ever again so I decided to take matters into my own hands."

"All by yourself? You must be pretty talented then," said Jack, eager to have the man keep talking to allow him to think of a solution.

"You see, that's where we have much in common, Commander. I want to live as do many of your men. Men who think they are being sent on a suicide mission. Men who don't want to die in the Fourth Vector. With the assistance of your crew, we chose life, Commander! We chose not to die early deaths."

"Is that it then? You grabbed some of my crew and turned them against their own country just to save your own hide? What's to stop them from coming after you as soon as we're out of the picture?" asked Jack.

"That's simple, Commander. I'm going to give them command of the pride of the Javan Navy, of course."

Jack furrowed his brow as Abigail shot him a worried look. "Come again, Occitanian? What do you mean?"

"Oh, it's very simple, Commander. I want you to turn over your ship to me and my new crew. You can have theTiger back. Marvelous vessel—don't get me wrong—but I'm afraid if I sailed off just now with only this destroyer that you'd soon be on my tail just to blow me up in a day or so."

"You're completely right about that," grunted Jack.

"See? I've been around zee block a few times. So to prevent you from pulling a fast one on me, I want you to swap ships with me. Give me command of theDestiny and I will willingly return theTiger to you command. Then we part ways, and I don't have to worry about a tiny destroyer and light cruiser trying to sink me on my way back to Occitania."

"So that's it then? That's all you want? Command of theDestiny?"

"Precisely, Commander," came the reply from the radio. "I'm glad we understand each other."

"You have to be out of your fucking mind if you think I'm going to surrender control of this ship to you, Occitanian. I'd rather see this entire task force at the bottom of the ocean instead of at your hand."

The voice began to laugh once more. "I love the fight in you, Commander! Perhaps zee fame is well-earned, although I suspect it is not. I didn't expect you to go along with our little plan. Certainly the great Jack Easterbrook is no traitor to his country. But would your men be as loyal as you?"

Jack looked over to Abigail. She bit her lip and looked at the assembled ranks of sailors behind them. Most of them wore unreadable expressions.

"I'm now turning the frequency from the officers only channel to one that will reach all of the crews of your task force, Commander," said the Occitanian. Jack could now hear the voice coming not only from his radio, but echoing from several others in the small gathering of crew near the stern.

"And so I open up and offer to all the men of zheValiant and zheDestiny. You all face certain death in the Fourth Vector. Might I remind you that everyone who has ever attempted to enter the Vector has met with certain death. That will be all of you in just a short time unless you join with us. Your commanders and your country have given you a suicide mission! Join with us and we'll sail back to Occitania where you have my word that you'll be given fair treatment. It's a simple choice, sailors. Death or life? I know which one I choose. I know which choice the brave crew members of theTiger have chosen!"

The voice began to cackle again with laughter as Jack personally watched the faces of every sailor assembled. Most of them held uncertain looks, almost trying to distinguish if the Occitanian's offer was genuine or just some bluff. Most of them watched theTiger from the starboard railings, having come topside at the broadcasting of the message.

Jack watched both Abigail and Greg begin to back against the railing. Once he saw Abigail's hand start to drift to her service pistol, he grabbed it and prevented her from completing the motion.

"Don't," he hissed to her. "The men can't see you doubting them. You'll push the ones on the fence right over."

She gave him a look full of fear but ultimately nodded. Jack tried to make eye contact with every nearby sailor in some small attempt to show solidarity with their plight. The very thing they needed most was the trust of their commanding officer.

"I think that offer is fair, do you not, Commander?" asked the voice over the radio. "Your men have until noon to respond. Oh, and if I were you, I wouldn't think of trying to attack us. If you haven't noticed, our torpedo tubes are armed and our guns are focused right on the bridge of theDestiny. I'm not afraid to issue the same treatment to you that you did to my cruiser. You have four hours, Commander."

The radio went dead and stayed silent. Jack gestured to Greg and Abigail. "We need to get below deck to my command headquarters. I want those officers left on the bridge to join us there. Bring the ships to a stop and tell theValiant to do the same. Once both ships are stopped, issue a message to have the commanding division officers come over to our side. TheTiger shouldn't see it since they won't have a view of our port side. Make sure to tell Luke and his officers to stay within the silhouette of theDestiny to hide their approach. We need to get moving!"