Empire's Legacy

Chapter 6: The Present and the Dead

Amy yelped and leaped backwards into the lift, slamming hard against Grey as he lunged forward. The body rolled to the right until the doorframe forced it to stop, leaving the corpse posed at an unpleasant, twisted angle.

Amy and Grey stood at the back of the lift and stared down at the unexpected discovery. At last Grey said,

"I don't think that's what the Welcome Program had in mind when it said 'enjoy your stay'." He leaned forward as far as he could without stepping towards the body. "I see skin. If this guy's been dead for two hundred years, shouldn't he be dust by now? Ashes? Atoms, floating in the proverbial wind?"

Amy smacked his arm. "A little respect," she said. "Snark isn't going to get us anywhere."

Grey edged nearer and crouched down beside the man, gingerly lifting the hand draped across the left lapel. "Well, the Welcome Program got one thing right." He looked up. "Can't say we weren't greeted by Captain Alexander." Sitting back on his heels, he fixed Amy with an intent look. "You want to explain why there's a dead person on a ship that's supposed to be abandoned?"

"Grey? Doc?"

Grey tapped his comm. "Go ahead, Taz."

"Yeah, so, funny story. Punch line involves three dead guys and a really antsy salvage man."

"I don't like this," Grey said to Amy, and then, "We've got one too, Taz. Tell Benji to keep breathing until we figure out what's going on."

"Roger that, Skipper. We'll have a look around and see what we can find."

Amy stepped over the corpse and onto the bridge. "There's more in here."

The lift opened on the back of an egg-shaped bridge, onto a clear platform on which stood the captain's chair and two streamlined consoles; the column of blue and orange postings by the lift indicated one should stop here for navigation and helm control. Directly below, visible beneath the platform and accessible via a set of spiral stairs near the lift, was the weapons platform; the stairs continued up through the central platform to an upper one containing ship's operations.

The number of corpses on the bridge reinforced the fact that the Waratah was not, contrary to expectation, empty after all, although it appeared that the bridge, at least, had been operated by a skeleton crew in the Waratah's last days. The weapons platform was abandoned, but a body was slumped over helm control, one hand dangling over the edge of the console, fingers just brushing the deck. Another body lay on the operations platform with its cheek pressed into the deck, several steps away from the main console; Amy glanced up as she crossed the central platform and flinched when she found herself looking up into a staring eye.

"Because this isn't creepy as all get out," Grey said, stepping up behind Amy. "Any thoughts?"

"Yeah," she said. "There are not supposed to be dead people on my ship."

"No shit. Ramina, you still there?"

"I see you've found an emergency despite my warning." De Sara sounded less than amused. "I take it this means you'd like me to suit up."

"Please do. Bring a med pack—I don't know what the facilities are like on this ship."

"It's a science research vessel, Grey," Amy said. "Her facilities are bound to be state of the art. Beyond what we're used to."

Ignoring her, Grey repeated, "Bring a med pack, Ramina." He stared at the helmsman for a moment and then added, "I'll meet you in the medical bay with one of the bodies."

"Copy that. See you soon."

"What are you doing?"

Amy looked up from the navigation console. "Trying to see where the Waratah was headed before she got trapped in the asteroid field. Looks like she was headed towards what are now the outliers..." She toggled through a series of starmaps. "These are amazing. Did you know that in '82, before the first hints of unrest, they were talking about developing the technology to build a bridge from one galaxy to the next? Edward Carter was a visionary."

"I thought you were interested in the past, not the future."

She pulled her gaze from the maps and met his eyes, surprised. "I am. Edward Carter's dreams of a galaxy bridge are the past. I sure as hell don't see any of the Commission's scientists following in his footsteps." Her fingers traced over the constellations. "The past tells us things about our future, Grey. Why bother looking to the future when it's clear it's not going anywhere any time soon?"

Grey leaned a hip against a console and folded his arms. "You think we're stagnant."

"I think we're being crushed under a ruinous government with little interest in anything but power and furthering their own interests, and it's damnation for any who try to swim against the tide. You saw what happened to the rioters on Meridani."

"That was different. That was suicide."

"So you're telling me you're happy living in the present?" She pulled up another starchart. "That when you look to the future, you see sunshine and clear sailing for years to come, without an anchor in sight?"

He shifted his weight. "Sure."

"Bullshit."

Grey's brows lifted. "Excuse me?"

Amy gazed steadily at him. "I don't know what it is that's back there, Grey, that specter in your past, but I know it haunts your footsteps and I know it's at your door. It's there when you wake up in the morning and it's there when you go to bed at night. You see it in the mirror and out of the corner of your eye and it's never going to stop tying you to the past." A smile touched her lips. "It's in your eyes, just like it's in mine, just like it's in de Sara's and Benji's and Kate's. There's no moving forward, not really, no seeing that bright and beautiful future that could be, should be, might be, because all the reality that there is, is tied up somehow with the Commission, and there can't be a future without getting rid of them." She stared at him for a moment more, and then turned and began scrolling rapidly through navigation control's menu. "That's why I'm a historian, Grey. I'd rather look at a brighter past than consider a dismal future."

There was silence from behind her. Then: "Ramina will be waiting. Let us know if you leave the bridge."

Amy made a mock salute and kept her position at navigation until the lift doors closed behind Grey and the body of Captain Alexander. Then she slid to the deck with her back against the console and rested her arms on her knees. She stared across the bridge without seeing anything, her mind millions of miles away.