“You are going to have confrontations with other humans over taking positions that they are not getting because you are so new. You will have to deal with this; you too, Turek. You need to deal with this, and at the same time I want you training in all of the free time you have. From now on, you’re going to be trained up as commandos on speed courses run by commando commanders on your ships. At the same time, you will be going over ship operations and different systems. Wake-Up is going to be your new best friend, gentlemen.”
Neither of them responded, still shocked as I continued.
“You two are going to be my golden boys, the ones who will show the others that they can get a position if they work hard enough and prove themselves. Do not think that you’re getting a free pass. Your second-in-command will have orders to take over if necessary. Do not make them have to use those orders.” I looked at them with imploring eyes before I took a bite of kimchi.
“I want you to prove that the Free Fleet is home to anyone who wants it. There’s going to be a lot of people annoyed with you getting command over them. You’re going to need to show them that you are ship commander material. I’m betting on you two in a big way.”
Bregend and Turek’s eyes lit up, looking at the grins that sprouted around the room.
“Could I pick one? I want the Vandershlot class battle cruiser in berth fourteen. The engines on that thing are revolutionary—they have reverse plasmid-ion couplers!” Bregend said. Everyone stopped looking at me and looked to him in surprise. Noticing the stares, he looked to the food that had arrived in front of him and played with it.
“I was reading,” he said gruffly, waiting for the insults. It reminded me of the child that he was under his enhanced musculature and size. Hell, on paper, he was twelve years old and would be captain of a ship with enough power to destroy the moon.
“Well, you certainly seem like the man for the job.” I laughed as the others broke into grins.
“Couldn’t agree with you more, Commanders. If you ever want to learn about anything engineering, I’d be happy to help!” Eddie said happily from the entrance into the small restaurant.
“Could I, really?” Bregend stopped playing with his food, interest on his face as he looked at the chief engineer.
“Certainly. I’m always happy to help someone who isn’t a slacker know more about engineering—as long as they’re willing to put in some work in return,” Eddie said.
“Certainly, Chief!” Bregend turned to me excitedly. “I’d rather like to have the Esvelt class battle cruiser under construction in berth fifty-nine. I know that she’s a wreck right now, but she’s a battle horse. She’s slower than the Vandershlot with more armor. She has less weapons, though they’re twice or three times the power, matching the medium mounts on the Resilient.”
“For now, we have to work with what we’ve got, not what we might have.” I smiled happily. You certainly shouldn’t judge a book by the cover.
I turned to Monk and Cheerleader. “Monk, I will place you in charge of the station as I leave. Cheerleader, you will take a fleet of fifteen ships with your own commanders in charge of your ships.” I held up my hand to forestall complaints.
“Until we can get back to Earth, this will be our home. We need patrols to clear the surrounding area and make it safe for other races to once again take to space. If we can get trade running again without fear of piracy, then we can have goods coming through the system to keep our projects going and keep our fleet in space. It will bring us together if in nothing more than mutual interest in trade. That is the basis for alliances. We will need as many people supporting us as possible for us to win against the Syndicate.”
“What will you do, Commander?”
“I’m going to get Iron Bok Soo back and the people we left on Chaleel. As well as free the people of that planet.” I grabbed some more kimchi, eating it over the bowl of rice before scooping that into my mouth too. Others nodded before beginning to eat the food in front of them and talk in their groups. I looked over them, grinning. My family’s gotten a little bigger.
“Strange to think that we’re possibly some of the first humans to ever eat kimchi in space. Well, synthesized as hell kimchi,” I said afterward.
“You never think in a straight line, do you, sir?” Henry said as he dug into his steak.
I happily joined in eating as we all sat, just talking about our experiences and our military stories. I had forgotten a life when I had talked about anything else.
We were able to talk, eat, walk, and think freely, instead of worry about officers or thinking about the unpredictable galaxy outside of our station.
“Commander!” a woman yelled. Her battle suit declared her a medic. She was obviously not pleased as she stomped in the room, everyone looking to her. “I have been looking everywhere on this station to find you and tell you that your hand is ready for re-attachment,” she said, obviously flustered from what had been kilometers of searching.
“Are you coming?” she said, annoyance on her face as I sat back, shocked. She sighed, pulling her hair back as she realized she was the center of attention in the mess and that all of the leaders of the Free Fleet, including myself, were sitting at the table.
“Oh, umm.” She looked scared, tired and embarrassed, so much so I thought she might cry.
“My bad,” I said with a reassuring smile. “Do you want some food first and then you can tow me off to get the old sucker stuck back on?”
“I umm...” Her confidence was gone now.
“Clear a seat for the young...miss?”
“Abigail,” she supplied.
“Abigail. Now dig in, there’s more than enough.” I grinned as the others moved to make room. She stepped up to the open place timidly as one by one the others introduced themselves and we were quickly back to talking, eating, and joking.
“Looks like you won’t need that hook I was building,” Eddie said with a sigh as I caught his grin.
“Well, if I lose it or the other one again, I’ll be sure to try it out. Though I’m looking forward to having the old one back in place. Feels damn strange without it.”
I Need to Find a New Hiding Place
She found me on the observation deck. I’d been up for a few weeks now and still hadn’t seen her. I was looking at the asteroid that was to become the shipyard. While the observatory looked as if it was looking out onto direct space, it was like the bridge on the warships. I was actually looking at multiple view screens attached to sensors on Parnmal’s exterior through two hundred meters of rock. The view screens sensed when I was focusing on something and zoomed in on it. It had taken a few times to get used to it, but now I was using it to study the asteroid that was to become my shipyard. I watched, mesmerized, as shuttles moved materials from the station to the rock while an army of drones were setting the groundwork and putting together the basic structures of the first extractors and processing facility.
The processing facility was going to be made from a smaller asteroid. Three corvettes had been requisitioned to pull it close to the station as gun crews used it for target practice. Their powerful weapons carved it into shape. The processing facility would take a month to be ready, but it would be able to move from asteroid to asteroid, processing materials instead of having to build a new processor each time.
Extractors were very easy things to make. A production line was in the works that would be able to pump out hundreds of them a week, from the size of a garbage can to that of a double-decker bus. For now, we were fixing any broken extractors we could find, or blasting smaller asteroids apart. I swore I’d never seen the gun chiefs and their crews so happy.
All of these materials were taken to ships with processing facilities or into the station. We had a steady trickle of raw metals but the processing facilities were the biggest issue. They weren’t big enough to process everything we brought in.
I was going to have to slow the target practice until the processing facility was operational, and then qui
ckly build more of them. I turned my mind to other thoughts of the mass of production happening around Parnmal.
Felix was in the full swing of things with three asteroids already picked out within our defensive field of fire for processing and use as parts of our space dock. Monk was working with him as he was quickly assuming command of the station. He’d been doing the rounds without his armor. He liked being in it as Cheerleader and I did, but it was better to appear out of armor once in a while. He’d seem to have taken up residency within the gunnery rim, his wife Caroline running things in command. I’d only met her briefly, but she had a good head on her shoulders, and she was forcing Monk to take control. We’d had a few talks and she’d made it clear how she was going to get Monk into the commander’s seat of the station, by asking or forcing. I grinned at the thought as I felt the floor thumping. A Mecha approached.
I, like Monk, had been out of my armor more to look more at ease. Now that ease turned to anxiousness as I was acutely aware of the lack of armor and servo-assisted power at my disposal. The thumps through the floor told me Yasu wasn’t similarly unarmored and made me feel as if she wasn’t so trusting.
I turned my view to some other asteroids being dragged in; I’d heard rumors that Monk was already planning to expand the massive station by lumping more asteroids to the existing structure. Again, I hadn’t talked to him about it, waiting for him to come to me.
He needed to know I had confidence in him to do the job I’d given him and I was happy to get the work of Parnmal station off my plate.
Eddie was whipping up a storm in engineering. Now with the slow trickle of raw materials from our mining exploits, he was able to get the Resilient back up to fighting trim. It had revealed the Kuruvians’ competitive streak as crews raced to bring their ships back to life. Most of them were still running by way of a liberal coating of space tape and spit it seemed, though the new parts were having a slow but constant effect.
Even with the haphazard way the pirates had ran and used the Resilient, it was one of the better ships and would only need a further week till it was acceptable to Eddie to take her out. Some of the other ships wouldn’t be cleared until they’d spent some time in the dock. On one of the destroyers, the captain had run the engines so far past maximum they had needed to be ripped out and reinstalled. Another battle cruiser had split support struts, which could mean the ship collapsing if it entered or exited a wormhole.
I was commander of fifty-two ships. All of which needed extensive repairs in one way or another. Eight of them couldn’t move in their current condition. Five needed to be in a shipyard for massive overhauling, so much fixing that more than one Kuruvian had asked they be scrapped and cannibalized for other ships. I was close to giving them the three worst, but only in immediate need; otherwise, they would be the last to be fixed.
Fifteen of our best ships were on patrol with Cheerleader, as of yesterday one commanded by Turek, who was learning rather quickly what he needed to as a captain. Parnmal was the center of seven wormhole accessible systems. So Cheerleader and her group were to go out three or so systems, cataloging everything and then return, reporting in before going out again. Cheerleader was in complete control of her fleet. If she thought diverting course was best, she could. We needed information on the surrounding area and this was the best way to do it. It would be weeks until they returned and I was already feeling their loss.
Another twelve ships made up my personal fleet as the remaining twelve were found to have more problems than even their own engineering crews knew of when they were finally able to inspect their ships fully. All of them needed a month in a dock at least, most looking like three months.
I might have a fleet, but it was beaten, bashed, and barely staying afloat in most cases—but still it was mine.
“It is quite a feat,” she said as I continued to look out at the work going on around Parnmal. I tried to hide my tensed muscles. I hadn’t seen her since I’d woken up without an arm a month and a half ago. I’d kept her busy with training those who had wished to remain commandos side by side with the Sarenmenti Special Forces and those who had been cleared of charges from the second group of human Mechas. There had been teething issues, which my veterans had quickly put an end to. The training began and ended with a daylong simulation of the fight for the station which had left the new humans and the Sarenmenti looking at my veteran commandos with the respect they deserved. I’d dropped into as many classes as I could, mostly to keep my skills up, choosing times she wouldn’t be around.
Otherwise, I’d been working on plans, putting out fires, and attending trials. It had been a horrible process, going through all of the crimes perpetrated by the humans who had been trained after my own people. We’d found out more information about them.
I still felt bile in my throat as I thought of some of the charges that had been laid, the pictures and video that had backed up the accusation. It was horrible to see how humans without rules, other than to attack another group of the same species or get pain treatment, acted against one another. I shook my head as I realized Yasu was glowering at me for not answering her.
“Yes, it is.” I kept my back to her, an itch between my shoulder blades as I wanted to do nothing more than turn around and see whether she had a weapon pointed at me.
“I heard that Bregend, the one who broke your ribs in a fight, was acquitted of his crimes and was offered a position on one of the battle cruisers?”
“Yes, and?”
“Why do you let your enemy live and give them a powerful weapon they can use against you?”
At the clear anger and annoyance in her voice, I turned, exasperated and annoyed.
“He is willing to learn, and that he’d put himself after his people deserves to be awarded, not shoved away and shunned. We need to help our people grow to their full potential. Someone who isn’t in the position that they are good in and productive at isn’t helpful, and could be overall detrimental to our progress.”
“Valid.” She looked out at space, less than a meter away. “Why did you try to kill me when we attacked the station? Do you despise me that much?” she said coldly, her eyes like the space I’d just been looking at, meeting mine as I flinched.
“Tried to kill you?” I asked, shock on my face as I studied her.
“You fired a plasma rifle at me, then tossed it where I’d been, causing the power cell to explode, and began slashing into the Mechas that hadn’t been killed by your two first attacks.”
I thought back to the bloody melee as I saw one suit turning and looking at me and the reinforcements pausing and staring. I brought my plasma rifle up, letting an angry burst go in the faceplate of the pirate behind them, burning through his armor. I kept spraying, killing any pirate within reach, throwing my weapon before I got close, grabbing the sword still over my shoulder. My left missing forearm turned plasmid sword led into the fight as I brought my other sword down in a slash, killing another pirate outright. The one behind him was already bringing her sword down at my head. I interposed my left arm, catching the blade with the remaining armor of the exoskeleton, turning the blade, which cut a burning slash through my face instead of through my brain. I felt the exoskeleton tug and then free as she cut off the remainder of my exoskeleton, cutting off my hand still in my gauntlet and the sword attached with space tape.
Enraged, I had brought my right sword up before she could recover, causing her to stumble back, bleeding from a gash in her main body cavity. I walked backward, telling my people to do the same as I called for the remaining pirates to surrender. I shook my head, clearing the memory as I looked to Yasu.
“I saved your life. The pirate behind you was lined up for a killing blow until I piled plasma into their face and the ones behind them and I just kept going.”
“Then why do you avoid me?” she said, completely disregarding what I said, her eyes still cold.
“I don’t want to annoy you, or get into these petty fights.” I sighed as I sat in a nearby
chair, feeling the weight of what I was doing on my shoulders. “If you are going to kill me, please do it now. I don’t want to have to watch out for assassins if I don’t need to. I have enough things to deal with without having that one on my plate as well,” I said wearily, looking at her as she turned to me.
“Do not worry. I won’t be the one to put a blade between your ribs.” Her body stiffened.
“That’s good. I have enough blades to look for,” I grumbled. My hand naturally gravitated to the holster on my thigh as I felt the comfortable weight there.
“What blades? You are surrounded by loyal followers.”
“I’m just waiting for one of them to renounce me as commander of this Free Fleet, which is nothing more in reality than that name. I have In Sook running patrols, but who knows what that’ll bring. It’ll be four months till she’s finished all of the wormhole points if everything goes to plan and she doesn’t find something. I could lose fifteen ships on that gamble as well as one of my handful of trusted people.”
“Handful?”
“We’ve had this talk before, Yasu. I’m a paranoid man, be it by my upbringing or by my gaming. I trust people to do what’s in their best interest. My hope is that their interests match with my own. I trust you to get back Stone Warrior and help to get home so you can see your father again and return to training. That, plus the fact of your word as a warrior makes me feel safe you won’t place a blade in my back. Yet. Hopefully it’ll be after my work is done.”
With that, I stood and walked to the hatchway.
“Where are you going?”
“To bed.”
“I thought you didn’t need sleep.”
“The drugs only keep me awake for a week and a half at a time before I need a few hours of downtime.”
“It might be those drugs that are stopping you seeing the truth. You’re no longer the insular gamer. You are a leader who trusts his people, as they trust you. You might have an inner group, but you’ve made everyone in the Free Fleet your family. I’ve seen the way you care for them.”
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