Spinward Fringe Broadcasts 1 and 2

by Randolph Lalonde

  His quarters consisted of a locker, a lower bunk, and a trunk at the end of the bed. There were six bunks crammed into the small cabin and a man to each. He was thankful that the fellow who slept above him, a large man who smelled like engine degreaser, worked on the opposite shift. He had only met him the one time while he was settling in.

  Having served on an ore hauler, he was used to a noisy ship, so the quiet of the Samson was a little unnerving. It was an ugly, heavily modified ship that looked more like an insect with its engine pods, the maxjack grappler and cargo train hookups at the back. He couldn't believe how well maintained the ship was on the inside. It was all unpainted decking and grating everywhere with low lighting to save power, but mechanically he had never been on such a ship.

  The near silence in most areas was still unnerving. There were twenty eight aboard but he hadn't seen anyone for hours. Not since he had started servicing the starboard inertial dampening system. At first he didn't understand how he could work on them while they were in hyperspace, but then he took a look at the electrical diagram. There was a backup for the backups, so if he took something offline another part of the system would compensate seamlessly.

  He finally figured out how to move the core inertial director he was working on. It was a bulky, square component connected to secondary power in at least three ways. Half of its casing was removed already so there was room for the modifications that had been made. Finn shook his head and crawled between the bulkheads, laying on one side with his arms over his head so he could fit and reach the component. As he had seen, it looked like if he moved the whole director box up, then away from him, down and forward it should just pop right out.

  It took four tries. There was a latch behind that locked the whole component in place that he hadn't seen until he was under it. After that it came right out into the hallway. It took him several minutes to extract himself from the cramped space, then he just stood there looking at the part for a moment. "What the hell happened to this thing? There's a reserve capacitor and God knows what else," he muttered to himself.

  "Looks like Captain built a whole backup control circuit inta it. Look there, it's a wireless receiver," Frost pointed out. He was chewing a greenish meal bar.

  "It's attached to a very old processing unit."

  "Doesn't need much of a brain to relay commands."

  "True, I have to admit; it's ugly, but ingenious. There's a primary and two backup systems built into this little unit and I couldn't see it ever completely breaking down."

  "Then whys it out on the deck all in the open like?"

  "Oh, a status panel on the bridge said it was running hot by eleven degrees."

  "That'd be the capacitor kit built right up against the bottom of the casin' I'd imagine."

  "Yup." Finn carefully picked up the unit and turned it over so he could see the capacitor kit, a small, heavy box built right up against the inertial director unit. It was painted black at one point in time, but you could barely tell from the dented and scratched casing. "This thing looks older than I am."

  "Probably is. Does it hold a charge?"

  He scanned it and nodded. "Enough to keep this unit powered for five or six days if the mains go out. I bet if I add a little insulation right between the director and capacitor casings it'll stop overheating." He put the unit down, being careful not to disconnect any of the cables leading back into the crawlspace, and started to remove the capacitor casing. "Does the Captain modify a lot of the ship systems?"

  Frost laughed for a minute, nodding. "He built this rig from a hull and a pile o' parts in the cargo hold, if you believe the stories. He was an engineer for some military outfit."

  "How long have you been aboard?"

  "Little over three years. Started as a gunner."

  "What do you do now?"

  "Tactical, not because I was a good gunner, but because I run that maxjack like no one he's found."

  "Those big clamps right?"

  "Well, that's part of it, there's also automated plasma cutters, pry arms, a fortified airlock and other stuff ye should just hope ye never hafta repair. Ever seen one work before?"

  "Nope, this is my first tour as a mercenary. All I know is that we go after people who are running away from the law or owe our clients credits."

  "You mean lots o' credits. Captain doesn't go after debts under a hundred thousand unless he gets to keep whatever he finds. Bounties since I've been aboard are mostly for serious crime and we do almost everythin' else. He's no slaver though. Anyway, a maxjack grapples onto another ship then uses cutters and that hard airlock ta bust through a door or make a new one. It's a hell of a show, pirate's dream."

  "I could imagine. Did the Captain build it himself?"

  "Nope, he said he got it from a scrap yard. He's made improvements, sure, but mostly he had to make sure the rest of this old cargo hauler could handle the stress and impact it goes through when the maxjack is doing what it was made for, crackin' hulls."

  "This was a cargo hauler?"

  "At some point in time, aye. Makes sense that you don't recognize it though, with all the armour platin' and extra manoeuvrin' thrusters."

  "Not to mention the rail cannons and EMP turret."

  "Yup, there's nothin' else like her. Customized past designation and rock hard. A lot like her Captain."

  "He seems that way. How long has he had this ship?"

  "Last time someone asked him he said he was hatched here. At first I didn't believe it. Since then I've seen enough to know it's been awhile. This ship is as much part of him as his right arm. No one knows it like him, no one could run her like him."

  "Well, I can see he already thought of my solution. There's already insulation between the capacitor kit and the main director box, it's just been worn through," Finn said as he pulled what was left of the grey-blue insulation layer. "It just needed replacing."

  "Well, if you're thinkin' like the Captain while servicin' his ship, it'll be hard ta go wrong. You're doin' better than the last man standin' in your place already."

  "What happened to him, anyway?"

  "He bought a ship the Captain picked up on a job. Makin' his own way somewhere now. Didn't take long, he only lasted five months. Pretty normal for repair crews ta go through members though."

  "Well, if the whole ship's like this then I could see why. Without the proper training someone couldn't last at this. Everything's done a certain way, it's all made to work a long time. Bad workmanship shows when the Captain rebuilt the ship himself."

  "Yup, last Chief Engineer we had discovered that the hard way. Haven't had an official replacement since."

  "What happened?" Finn asked as he started putting the whole inertial director back together.

  "Well, that's a sore point with some of the crew, so you'll have ta keep this to yourself. His name was Nokilla, good fella really, smart. He was lazy though, and kept the repair crews running hard so he didn't have to get his hands dirty. There was this one recovery that almost went bad. We took a lot of hits from this ship who thought they could get away from us because they had a plasma cannon and a beam or two. We got 'em anyway, but got shaken up real good. Lost a couple repair guys and a lot of grunts. Only way to get the ship back in shape was to get everyone in on the repairs, Nokilla included. I remember it like yesterday. A whole section of our main starboard power relay was hit, you can still see it if ye look."

  "I think I did, that whole section of the inner hull is a different colour."

  "Aye, ya have me and Torres to thank for that, we patched that hole. We couldn't run the new cables for power though. I might have a pretty good idea of how that stuff works but I'm no specialist. So Nokilla had ta do it. Well, he rushed through so he could move onto the next job and was just finishin' up. He added a few power distributors to the circuits so he didn't have to manually hard wire any of the main lines, knowin' that he would be short on other work that needed doin' closer to the engines. One of the repair guys, well this one was a girl, c
alled him on it when she saw what he was doing. She knew that without those power distributors a part of the engine would have ta be wired without a backup line or safeties.”

  Finn shook his head and whistled. "Wow, one thing goes wrong and you could start a fire or blow a whole line of thrusters without distributors. Besides, used in the wrong place they'll just heat up and slow everything down."

  "Right, so Nokilla passes her off and tells her to keep her nose out of his business. She stomps off, pissed like it was all personal, an' just stops dead as she rounds the corner. There's Captain, standing right within earshot. She can't move, he's fumin'."

  "Oh crap, he didn't hear the whole thing did he?"

  "He musta. He just politely as pie steps around her and walks right up beside Nokilla. He looks over the mess he's made and just asks; 'Do we have more distributors?' Chief tells him; 'I'll get them from somewhere Captain.' Captain looks over ta the repair girl, I think her name was Limerick, real nice young thing, and asks; 'Do we have any more in stores?' an' she says; 'we don't'.

  Captain didn't say anything, he just grabs Nokilla by the collar and hauls his ass down the hallway like some sack of meat. At one point Captain pulled his gun so the Chief wasn't arguing until he saw the starboard airlock. I was standin' right there, gettin' suited up for another trip out to help with patchin' the hull and the Captain tells me; 'Open it.' I'm not the arguin' kind, 'specially when he's got his gun out, so I do and in goes Nokilla. Captain closes the inner door and shoots the controls then says; 'If you can fix this from in there and let yourself back in, I'll let you stay aboard until we get to the next port.' Well, Nokilla just stared for a minute then he opened the control panel on his side. He must have been more rattled than anyone thought, 'cause the next thing we see is this spark from our side of the controls and the outer doors open. Sucked him right out into space, no helmet, nothin, guy wasn't even smart enough to strap himself in or get into an emergency suit."

  "You're kidding!"

  "Nope, Nokilla's prolly still driftin' around out there."

  "I've heard of people getting spaced before, but I've never met someone who actually did it."

  "Well, that's our Captain. He doesn't lose his temper often, but lazy cusses like Nokie and folk who endanger the ship'll send him over the edge every time."

  "Has he done it to anyone else?" Finn asked in a whisper.

  "He hasn't had to, everyone knows what happened ta Nokie. He's left people in port before if they can't follow the ways of the ship, sure, but that's different. You've still got air, you're somewhere and you can prolly find another crew to sign with."

  Finn looked at the inertial director, double checking his workmanship.

  "Hey, look at that, it looks exactly like it did when ye found it," Frost said as he picked up a mechanical scanner and checked it. "Temperature's down twenty four degrees, looks like you did a hell of a job."

  "I just matched what the Captain did before."

  "You'll do just fine as long as you keep doin' everythin' that way. I'll see ye 'round kid, Captain prolly wants me on the bridge," Frost said as he handed the small scanner tool to Finn.

  Frost wiped his hands off on the back of his loose fitting vacsuit and rounded a corner, nearly bumping into Captain Valance. The lighting was always a little dim, as though to hide the bare cables and piping along the walls. The panels that hid them were long gone, whether as a result of some kind of damage or because they caused a major inconvenience during repair no one but the Captain knew.

  He nodded at Frost, who had fallen in step at his left hand side. "Nokilla story again?"

  "Yup, kid's eyes were the size of pie plates."

  "You know I really thought he'd be able to find his way in, even if he had to suit up, go outside and come in through a working hatch."

  "I hear ya, but it's still a good story to tell the newbies. Keeps 'em in line right from the start."

  The Bridge

  The Samson emerged from hyperspace and expelled its waste gases in a flaring dispersal cloud. For a moment it looked like the ship had luminous white wings before the debris scattered in all directions. The tarnished brown and dark grey hull of mix matched panels and armour plating glinted under the light shed by the distant blue sun of the Thadd solar system.

  Inside the snub nosed bridge section at the front of the ship Captain Jake Valance piloted the vessel personally. He glanced towards the transparent steel window by reflex then back down at the console. Originally the bridge featured a large window at the front but over time armour took priority and with the addition of plating there was nothing but a four centimetre high, meter wide slit left. The bridge was dark, most of the light came from the flat control panels or safety lights lining the inverted U shaped walkway.

  “Why aren't we connected to Navnet? I'm not alligian, I can't sense gravitational shifts and magnetic fields with my mind. We need a trajectory.”

  “The Port control system says our subscription has expired,” replied a dark haired young woman from beside him. She was scrolling through a holographic list of prices and news announcements that was contaminated by dozens of advertisements. On the panel underneath it the subscription terms were listed. “They say you'll have to pay the last four months and the next two if you want access to the Navnet.”

  “God damned crooks, why the hell do we have to pay every month for network access? We've been here maybe twice since I signed on three years ago, bloody pointless,” Frost complained as he scanned the area watching for ships that could cause trouble.

  “Easy Frost. I agree but we don't have a choice. Put our hazard marker on. We'll hold this pattern until I pay us up. Take the controls Ashley,” the Captain directed quietly.

  “Yes sir,” she had long black hair and dark eyes that were a stark contrast to her pale skin. They slid their reclined control chairs out of their stations and switched seats. Her hands deftly unlocked the console and she took the manual controls, following the drifting course set by her Captain a moment before. “You recalibrated while I wasn't looking and brought the new port stabilizers online. Feels like I'm driving a flying carpet.”

  “Ah, it was the new lad, he's finishin' all the mechanical work 'round here like he's in for a bonus,” Frost chuckled. “He'll learn.”

  “With fees like this, we'll have to finish this quickly.” Captain Valance said as he entered a credit number and paid the high network subscription fee. “Remind me to switch to a different transponder the next time we come anywhere near this system, it would be cheaper to start a whole new subscription.”

  “Aye sir.”

  “And suddenly I can see. Navnet's up,” Ashley smiled widely as the holographic display in front of her started giving her detailed information about every ship's destination and available pre-plotted courses through the mess of port traffic. There were thousands of ships in orbit all coming and going.

  “The last solid lead we had on the Ferret Three said she was supposed to pick up a priority shipment today at the St. Kitts Port.”

  “Ooh, the tropical section. I might just get some sun this trip,” Ashley said as she selected and reserved a safe trajectory leading to the planet side port. “Course plotted, waiting for the word to start in.”

  “Okay, we have a landing platform marked. Go ahead.”

  “Aye sir, fresh fruit and sunshine here I come,” she said as she rotated the ship and fired the main engines, starting the Samson on its course towards the massive blue and green planet.

  “I'll take deck plating and artificial air any day. Never know what kind of diseases are brewing on a world like that,” Frost grumbled. “No contact from anyone who might want us slagged sir. We won't have to look over our shoulder more n' normal.”

  “Good, I was hoping this trip would be uneventful,” Captain Valance said as he finished entering in the information required by port control.

  “Can I go planetside with you and the boys sir? Please?” Ashley begged exaggeratedly as she flew the s
hip between two massive cargo haulers. One was ten kilometres long, the other stretched over fifteen with all their compartments lined up behind them. She spoke with a slight lisp that most of the crew found endearing, especially when she forgot she had it during a moment of excitement.

  “Depends on whether or not the Ferret is where she's supposed to be. Her Captain has a reputation and I don't want our best pilot shot up.”

  “I'll wear my bikini the whole time,” she teased.

  Frost turned right around in his seat to face the Captain, who was focusing on the copilot's station. “Can she come along sir? Please?”

  “I'll check with Port Control on our way in, see if the Ferret is where we want her. No promises.”

  “Aye aye sir,” Ashley replied as the planet loomed larger on the pilot's station.

  “Everyone strap in, we're going atmospheric,” Captain Valance announced ship wide. “Retracting engine pods.” He continued as he flipped a number of switches at the small co-pilot's station. The eight engines held away from the ship by fifty meter long arms stretching to the right, left, top and bottom from the main body of the ship retracted so the arms were only ten meters long.

  “I don't know why ye warn the crew, with the inertial dampener and gravity systems aboard we've never had a bump,” Frost said as he continued to check the tactical display for known ships.

  Captain Valance ignored him and double checked Ashley's course.

  “Here we go, one hollow meteor headed landward,” Ashley muttered as the ship began to enter the atmosphere.

  The ship shook and the inertial dampeners whined as they tried to adjust to the new gravitational dynamics and turbulence. Captain Valance reached over to the pilot's station and flipped a switch. “You forgot to change modes again,” The ship stopped shaking as the dampening systems switched to atmospheric mode.

  “Sorry sir.”

  “That's all right, you should have seen the last pilot. He nearly rammed-”