Salvage Fleet

by Kevin Steverson

  The Bith race controlled the gates. They maintained them and occasionally moved them. If they shut a gate down, it was an isolation sentence for a system, as movement between star systems took too long for it to be practical for trading.

  “It had to be a painful way to die if it caused so many suicides,” Clip said. “I wonder what they were developing it for? Jayneen said it wiped them out completely.”

  “It is not what they developed it for. It is who,” Kyla said. “Who did they develop it for?”

  “Kyla, Vera. Can you get the port reactor restarted?” Harmon asked. “We should start with power to the port. When we start transferring Fleet members over to these ships, it will make it a lot easier if they don’t have to be suited.”

  “If the reactor is similar to the ones on Salvage Title, it should be no problem,” Vera said. “But if it was built a long time before the ship, it may take us a while.”

  “Gunny will accompany us,” Kyla said and headed off to find the power plant.

  Gunny looked around and then to Big Jon, who had been a staff sergeant in the Leethog Fleet. Gunny had outranked him when he was in the Tretrayon Fleet, but now Big John was in charge. Big Jon waved him quickly after the two senior chief warrant officers. He shrugged inside his suit and hurried after them.

  The closest ship to them was the light battlecruiser. The hatch was locked open between it and the port. Harmon demagnetized his boots, pulled himself through, and looked around. It seemed to be the same type of compartment as the one in Salvage Title. He went farther into the ship, followed by Clip, Zerith, and Big Jon.

  There were no bodies in the passageways. The ship appeared to have the same basic layout as Salvage Title, but it was smaller. Zerith and Big Jon headed back toward the power plant. It would take them a while to get there, since the lifts weren’t working, but knowing the basic layout helped them find their way. Harmon and Clip headed up to the bridge.

  There were three bodies on the bridge. All were frozen, and one was belted into the commander’s seat with a laser pistol floating nearby. There was a mark on the ceiling. Harmon shook his head and looked toward the navigation console.

  “Is that it?” he asked Clip.

  “It looks like the same type of computer, but it’s not,” Clip answered. “The plugs on the back are different, and it’s smaller. I’m pretty sure it would hold all of her core programming, but if she’s not reloaded into a computer like the one she was made for, she might just be another computer, not a self-aware one. She would never be our Jayneen. From what I can tell, this ship is an older model battlecruiser. It’s not just twenty-two hundred years old; it was an older model even back then. What if there are no more transition computers like Jayneen’s?” Harmon could hear the frustration in his voice.

  “Let’s check the rest of them on this port,” Harmon said.

  “Sir, I just received a report from Private Bahroot,” Big Jon called through the comms. “It seems there was an issue. He says he has taken care of it.”

  “Thanks. We’ll look into it when we go back aboard. It must not have been too big of a deal,” Harmon answered.

  “Who would be stupid enough to cause trouble with a Yalteen?” Clip asked. “And an armed one at that?”

  They checked the two frigates and the destroyer. The other three ships were mostly empty of bodies, as well, but all the ships’ bridges had a few bodies in them. Harmon figured they must have been standing watch while the crews were in the port, or even back on the planet on leave. All the other ships were from the same time frame as the first one—a generation, maybe two, older than Salvage Title. There were no computers compatible with the one Jayneen had occupied.

  By the time they came out of the last ship, the power was on in the spaceport, and his suit sensors indicated that atmosphere was headed toward normal levels. Harmon called over to Salvage Title and told Evelyn to send over the one hundred extra crew members to clear the port and all the ships of bodies. They would have one mass deep-space funeral for them all, and would launch them towards the system’s sun. After that was done, they would begin to occupy the ships.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Five

  The shuttle bumped against the ship, and Clip was the first one to the hatch. Harmon had decided to check the large spaceport while the smaller one was being cleaned out, but since it had six ships connected, utilizing all the docking arms, he opted to take the shuttle from Salvage Title. After the incident in Salvage Title’s docking chamber, it was safer than using the battlecruiser. The shuttle had a small extendible docking ring that matched one on the medium battlecruiser that was in the port. They had docked with the ship because it was easier than trying to get the spaceport bay open below the docking arms.

  The ship they were attempting to enter had no power, but there was a detachable power cable on the shuttle’s docking hatch that fit a receptacle on the larger ship’s docking ring, which provided power to the hatch’s door motor.

  In addition to the medium battlecruiser, this port had a destroyer-sized ship, two light battlecruisers, a frigate, and what appeared to be a medium fighter carrier. After a brief discussion, Harmon decided to try the ship that looked like Salvage Title first.

  Like the other ships, this one had a navigation computer on the bridge in its console, but it was smaller than the one that had housed Jayneen. They left the ship and moved into the port. Vera and Kyla headed to the port power plant with Gunny, while Harmon and the rest of the boarding party checked the other warships. The next four ships didn’t have the right computer, either.

  When they went into the fighter carrier, however, the first thing Clip noticed was that it appeared to be a newer design, like Salvage Title, if a ship 2,200 years old could be considered “newer.”

  “Hey man, I think this is going to be the one. I’ve got a good feeling,” Clip said over the link.

  “I agree, thiss structure iss the ssame. The overhead lighting and the acccesss panelss are the same ass on the Ssalvage Title,” Zerith confirmed.

  “It’s a good thing, too,” Harmon said. “This was our last chance.”

  They stepped onto the bridge. Its design was quite a bit different from the bridge on Salvage Title. There were more screens throughout, and the weapons console was smaller. The tactical position was like a mini-bridge unto itself—it consisted of a half circle two steps lower than the rest of the bridge, with three seats at consoles and the tactical officer’s seat slightly above and behind them. The ship commander’s seat was raised up on a dais in the center of the bridge so there was a good view of the entire bridge, as well as down into the tactical section.

  “Yes!” Clip exclaimed.

  Harmon looked over from where he was studying the tactical area and could see Clip at the helm console. He had his tools out of his kit and was in the process of pulling the navigation computer out of its slot. It was a match. Once it was removed, they could take it back to Salvage Title to see if Jayneen could be revived.

  Before they left the ship, they made their way down to one of the flight decks. There were thirty-five Sleek fighters in seven rows of five. The ship had three flight decks, so there could be one hundred and five fighters on board. He could see the missiles in the racks, ready to be loaded onto the fighters. Harmon didn’t think there was a carrier fighter force in any known system as deadly as this one. There were fleets that had more fighters, but these fighters could take on three to one odds with capable pilots operating them. He would need to talk to the commander of the Leethog Fleet about getting some more fighter pilots.

  They had about four months, maybe five, to prepare their defenses before the Squilla tried again. They had not forgotten the past, and they would come again, with everything they had.

  The group made its way back through the port to the medium battlecruiser. The power was now on, and a crew had arrived to remove the bodies from it. Evelyn had directed two shuttles to land in the spaceport’s bay, below the docking arms, once Gunn
y had opened the door and called her. It would not be long before the shuttles returned with the next load of beings to get the power plants up and running on the ships docked on the outer ring.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Six

  Clip, Zerith, and Harmon sat down in the conference room on Salvage Title. The three security members, including newly promoted Corporal Bahroot, stood outside against the wall while the staff sergeant stood at the door. There would be enhanced security around Harmon until there was a thorough vetting of the new crew members.

  Clip placed the navigation computer on the table. He reached into his kit and pulled out his slate, a power cell, and the music box. He started connecting cables, and Harmon could see his hands shaking slightly. They all knew there was a good chance this wouldn’t work, but none of them would admit it.

  Clip looked up at his lifelong friends and said, “Guys if this doesn’t work…”

  “You can only do what you can do, my friend,” Zerith said. He didn’t look at either of them when he said it. His eyes were on the slate as Clip’s fingers flew across it.

  Harmon whispered a silent prayer, something he had not done in a long time. It was something his family had done together, years ago. There were many on the planet Joth who still followed the old faith, passed down from generation to generation from the first colonists who came from Earth. It had probably changed from its original practices, but the basics of the religion were there. There was a Creator. Something cannot come from nothing. Period. Rarely did the Creator get involved in beings’ lives unless it was part of the original plan, though. Free will was a gift given to all sentient beings, but occasionally, given no other possible explanation, miracles happened.

  Harmon had no idea if it would help; he just knew he had to ask. Harmon had lived his entire life based on the power of positive thinking. Always be thankful and know that whatever he looked for, it would somehow fall into place. He always made the effort to plan, if he could, and to do the things needed for success, and things generally worked out in his favor. But this…this was something he could not affect in any way. So he asked.

  Clip had already moved the programming from the navigation computer to a backup hard drive located in a console on the defensive bridge to make room for what he hoped was all of Jayneen’s programming. When he had moved the AI to his music box during the battle, he had considered using that same back up hard drive, but had opted not to as the power was surging across the ship, and that console had shut down. He uploaded the program from his box into the computer. It took almost five minutes. It was an eternity.

  Harmon looked up at Clip with a question in his eyes. “Is that…?”

  The song Radio Dial was playing out of the slate’s speakers.

  “Yeah, that’s Tyler of the band Cypress Spring,” Clip said. “Radio Dial was a hit from the twenty-first century.”

  “Don’t touch my radio dial, don’t turn my music down, I got it way up loud, so I can rock this town.” They clearly heard Jayneen singing along with Tyler Ackerman’s voice.

  “I love that song,” she said when it ended. “Hello, what did I miss?”

  “Are you…you?” Harmon asked.

  “Of course,” Jayneen said. “Though if it hadn’t been for the music, I think I would have gone insane. I was aware, though I felt compressed. It was as if part of me was paralyzed somehow. I wasn’t in a dormant mode, like I was before Clip revived me the first time. I see it’s been several months. I take it we won.”

  Clip shook his head. “I didn’t know if all of your core programming would fit in my box,” he said.

  “I did, and there was still room for some of your music. I didn’t overwrite all of it. I was in there with most of the nineteen-eighties rock, some nineteen-seventies singer-songwriters, a little nineteen-nineties rap, some country music, and all of Cypress Spring’s music, including the unreleased stuff,” Jayneen said. “I think I could write a song now. Of course, it’ll be about the country life.”

  “What do you know about country life?” Zerith asked.

  “I know it’s a ‘Way of Life,’” Jayneen said defensively.

  They all laughed at her. Harmon was glad she was back and her normal self again. He said a silent thanks.

  “Thank you,” Jayneen said, “for reviving me again. It’s strange. I have access to thousands upon thousands of languages. Even languages that are no longer spoken in this galaxy…and I still can’t convey what I want to say. I don’t know how to say it, except for these two Earth Common words…and they are…‘Thank You.’”

  “You’re welcome. I had to; we’re family,” Clip said. Harmon could tell he was moved.

  “We are,” agreed Harmon.

  “Yess, it iss true. Even if you are sstuck in a computer,” Zerith said. All of them sat in silence for a while, listening to music. Jayneen sang along to all of it.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Seven

  Later, Clip plugged Jayneen up to the console on the bridge. It didn’t take her long to access the computer system and reach out through the gate onto the Net. There was a slight delay, but the AI had no problem breaking the code that delayed her. Even though the system hadn’t been used in over twenty-two hundred years, it still connected to the Galaxy Net. She was able to learn everything that had transpired after she had been transferred into Clip’s music box.

  “Harmon, we need to bring these ships back to the Tretrayon system as soon as possible,” Jayneen said.

  “I’ve used the information I learned on the Squilla ships and Clip’s programming to break the encryption on their messages. Their king has called all their warships back to their home system. He intends to put together a fleet, let them train together, and send them into the Tretrayon system. I count forty Squilla ships that have acknowledged the call so far.”

  “Forty!” Evelyn exclaimed. “We were part of fifty ships, and the Squilla sent a hundred toward us and wiped us out when I was in the fleet. We will have…what? Fifteen ships to defend the system with. That’s almost three to one odds.”

  Harmon had called a meeting, and they were all gathered back in the conference room. Jayneen was present on the screen set in the middle of the table. The same group as earlier was gathered except for JoJo, Twiggy, and Marteen. JoJo was getting more time in the Zax fighter, pulling security with the other pilots as crews were starting up the warships. Marteen was still out on a mission.

  “We can defeat forty sships,” Zerith stated. He spit the hull of a bright green nut into his hand, looking around for somewhere to dispose of it.

  “If we take these ten ships back, along with the ships left in system, we can easily beat them,” Clip said. He gave Zerith a high five. Well, sort of. Zerith didn’t have five digits on his hand. “Ugg… what was that? It burns.” Clip asked, wiping his hand off.

  “That’s not the issue,” Jayneen said. “The issue is they have allies,”

  “Allies?” Harmon asked. “What allies?”

  “He has signed a pact with…the queen of Krith,” Jayneen said.

  “The Krith! Their system borders the Squilla system,” Evelyn said. “Even without gates, they can travel between them in about a year. It’s about as close as stars can be without it being a binary star system.”

  “Yeah, I remember learning about it in Star Systems 101 at the Academy,” Harmon said. “It’s a wonder the Squilla haven’t invaded them for their mineral resources.”

  “There’s no mining to speak of in their system,” Jayneen volunteered.

  “We kind of killed a hundred or more of them before we took on a crew at Leethog,” Clip said. “They were pirates and had an entire system held hostage.” He shrugged his shoulders.

  “They desserved what they got,” Zerith said. He tossed another nut into his mouth.

  “Hey, Zee, let me get some of those,” Twiggy said as he walked into the room and sat.

  Zerith threw him a few of the nuts. He looked over at the security trio of Big
Jon, Gunny, and Bahroot. “Would you like ssome?” he asked. They looked over at Harmon and Clip. Both were shaking their heads, with wide eyes. Clip was making a slicing motion of his hand across his throat. It was too late for Twiggy, but they tried to keep anyone else from eating the nuts.

  “Ahhhhhh, ma mouth is on fire!” Twiggy yelled, looking around for something to drink. The word fire came out like “far.” His eyes were watering so much it looked like he was crying.

  Bahroot slid a large flask across the table to him. He was from Joth, and most beings from Joth carried water with them at all times. The corporal kept the habit, even off planet.

  “Wait, what is this?” Twiggy asked, sniffing it, though he couldn’t smell anything, his nose was running so much.

  “Water. You would do well to carry some if you are going to attempt to eat flame-shell nuts, sir,” Corporal Bahroot said through the translator.

  Twiggy turned the flask up and emptied it. “Dang you, Zee! You trying to kill a feller?” Twiggy asked in a coarse voice, wiping his mouth.

  After the room calmed down from laughing, Harmon brought them all back around to the task at hand. “Where are we on getting these ships up and running?” Harmon asked.

  “We’ve moved a thousand fleet members through the ports into the ships,” Evelyn said.

  “It appears all ten ships are capable of going through the gate, and all will be fully crewed,” Jayneen said. “We will carry the smaller ships and save on entry fees. If there is a fee from here. I don’t think there will be. The technicians are going through the ships and fixing what the automated systems can’t. Broken pipes are the prevailing problem.”

  “Can they fight?” Harmon asked.

  “All the ships have a full combat load,” JoJo said. “All the missile racks are full. The missiles are a generation or two older than the missiles on board Salvage Title, but they should still be more powerful than anything the Squilla have. There are no pilots for the fighters, though. There are a hundred and five fighters on the carrier, and forty-two older generation Grithelaon fighters distributed throughout the other ten ships.” Harmon had asked her to get a count as she seemed to have a knack for logistics.