Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 117: Enter the Anvil

The rest of them found a comfy place to sit while Jace started the elevator. It roared to life with several creaks before it began lifting. Jace then sent a message to the Anvil telling them that they were going up the elevator.

He then sat down at the makeshift table where the other had gathered. They had pulled out the cards again. "What are we playing here?" Jace asked as he sat down. Ulin began dealing out the cards.

"Poker, keep your aviators off. I do not want you cheating." Ulin answered, glaring at Jace who just shrugged while shaking his head.

"Are we betting or just playing?" Jace asked as he received his hand.

"Betting pudding cups. Jace you can front Vana a dozen." Tako answered. Causing Vana to frown.

"Pudding cups?" Vana asked looking at Jace for an answer.

"We have some of the tastiest pudding cups on our ship. It is a popular commodity and almost as popular to trade as smokes. So since none of us smoke we will use pudding cups as our currency. Ulin just wants to get hers back. I have an entire shelf filled with pudding cups in my room on the ship." Jace explained with a chuckle as he smiled innocently.

"Okay then…" Vana then glanced at her two cards before nodding. But behind her Jace could see her tail begin to swipe side to side quickly.

Jace bit his lip and glanced at the other two who were just as surprised. "Who is starting?"

"I will, let's start up slow at one cup." Ulin started and then glanced at Jace who matched it, then Tako also matched. Finally Vana raised it to five. Then the three flop cards were revealed, two of which were aces and Vana's tail began moving side to side much quicker. Ulin matched again, so did Jace and Tako folded. Vana then raised the bet by another five. Then the turn was revealed. A king, two aces, and two were all showing on the table.

Ulin folded this time then after some contemplation Jace folded as well. Revealing the eight and six he was holding.

Vana raised an eyebrow and then revealed her three and nine. "Someone needs to learn how to read people again." Vana told them with a smirk.

"You have got to be-"

"Hahahaha!" Jace began loudly laughing. "Oh this is going to be fun!" He looked up as the creaking of the elevator began. It connected the walls and the roof was now lifting up with them. After a few more minutes the metal began creaking again as it began lifting up into the ocean and water pressure began pushing against the walls and roof.

They played several more hands to distract themselves from the ominous creaking that they could hear as they rose. Eventually after an hour it shuddered and stopped for a moment before the roof began opening up and the elevator began lifting again. The bright shine of the morning sun shimmered off of the ocean.

Jace whistled as he set down his cards and walked to the edge of the elevator looking out over the view. It was an incredible view and they were only a few feet above the water. The sun made the sea have a red glow to it while it also outlined a few of the buildings and islands in the distance.

After a moment Jace memorized the image and then mentally sent the image to Salem through their connection. He could feel that for the last few days that Salem had been annoyed. Hopefully the image would help her out a bit.

"Jace, here is our ride." Jace could hear Tako call out from behind him.

Jace turned around just in time to see the Anvil's camouflage drop. The bulky rectangular ship looked like a bunch of rectangles stuck together.

The Anvil was a long rectangular shape with a rectangular at the rear for each of its main engines. Then on the top of the ship was another rectangular for its command and communications node. Finally at the front were another two rectangles coming off the bottom. They were the large hangar bays of the ship.

The Anvil lowered and stopped so its hangar bays were level with the elevator. Then it began slowly drawing closer to the elevator until it was next to it. Jace walked up to the entrance and nodded at Nina who was coming off of the hangar.

"Good mission boss?" Nina asked through her mental to text speech interface she had attached to her neck. The machine was the one currently making the noise.

"A complete mission." Jace answered as Tako and Ulin both quickly walked past them and onto the ship. Jace then turned to Vana, "this is Vana, the representative from Woltar." He then turned to the boxes. "Get everything on board and have Taylor make sure everything is okay before we start using it or taking it apart. Has she sent out the new shell for Chen?"

Nina looked over Vana as she answered. "She has just finished. We planned to drop it off with a transport ship since we are planetside. She fell asleep in her lab just a few minutes ago. What should I do with this one?" Nina nodded at Vana.

"Get her a room near mine, but pick up Taylor and put her in her own room. We do not want her drooling all over expensive equipment again in her sleep." Jace answered as he shuffled and adjusted the bag that was on his shoulder.

"Understood. By the way, the captain wanted to speak with you. Something about being an overachiever and making the Woltar intelligence community a bit too scared." Nina told him before she held out her hand to Vana. "This way if you would. Tell me, has man-whore known as Jace Steel already gotten to you." Those were the words he heard as she led Vana away, which made her blush.

Jace walked through the hangar until he arrived at a hallway then he took some stairs and walked down another hallway. Then he arrived at the repair bay where they were working on repairing a transport ship that seemed to have scorch marks covering it. Made him wonder what had happened, but there was a good chance it was Taylor's fault.

Their resident mechanical genius had built a reputation of testing new weapons without giving anyone any type of warning. Jace already knew it was probably giving their new captain a headache. For the moment it was fine since they did not have anything that needed repairs from a battle. But hopefully all the toys Jace brought would distract her for a while.

Jace eventually arrived at the elevators and took the one leading up to the bridge. It zoomed through the floors until it arrived at the command center. He walked out and quietly looked around. Most of the people were working quietly and diligently.

But standing in front of a hologram table was Captain Hammers. He growled as he talked to his ship's resident AI. Sitting nearby quietly was Cain whose tail slowly began wagging as Jace approached. "Fine, I just wish they would ask permission first."

"Sir!" Jace saluted when he arrived behind Captain Hammers. Announcing his arrival on the bridge. "I heard you wanted to speak with me."

The ship AI which had taken the form of a living flame momentarily blinked in and out of existence. A clear indicator of its amusement as Jace had learned eventually.

The captain growled and slowly turned around. "Did you know Spectre Jace I have two very big problems aboard my ship? Or rather two people who do not conform and stay in their lane?" The captain asked as he turned around showing his blood red eyes and the scar that covered part of his chin.

Jace hid his amusement as he stayed saulting, "I was not aware sir."

"You can stop saluting Spectre." The captain told him. Then he took a deep breath before he continued. "The first of my issues is an overzealous shock trooper engineer that does what she wants whenever she wants and does not ask permission. Whether it is accidentally destroying one of my transport spaceships or making modifications to my Anvil."

"Yes, well Taylor has always been quite unruly. It is why her parents forced her to join up when she was smart enough to immediately work at her family's company." Jace pointed out while he relaxed while looking as serious as possible despite his tropical shirt.

"She is also only one of my problems. My other problem is this annoying gnat who I cannot exert command over because he technically has a rank outside of the normal command structure." Captain Hammers growled out. "So tell me Spectre Jace, why am I annoyed?"

"Because I would not play the political game to your liking and instead blew up a building?" Jace asked while slowly looking away.

"Correct!" Captain Hammers yelled, "but if you knew that would make me angry then why did you do it?" This time Jace could faintly pick up the highspeed conversation between Cain and the Anvil's AI in the background.

But he had to ignore it as he thought of an answer, "because I am not a politician I am a soldier. If politicians want to play games they should go to other politicians. Besides, aren't you here to deal with the fallout of when I do stuff like this?"

Captain Hammers' face began turning red in anger.