Free Fleet Box Set 1

by Michael Chatfield

  “We have an agreement with them to repay some of their purchases with materials of certain element groups. We also have an overriding agreement that if we ask for more, they will supply us with everything they can, up to capacity, for market price,” Rick supplied.

  “In-system or fleet-wide pricing?”

  “Fleet-wide. They’re going to be happy miners!” he said as I nodded.

  “I hope so. Now, getting others to follow them will be your job.” I looked pointedly to Rick.

  “Just taking all the fun outta da job!” he said in a fake Italian accent.

  I couldn’t help but grin at the cult fiction flick’s line. “Now, marriage annulments and such, how’s that going?”

  “As of a week ago, when we announced it, we haven’t had any major issues. Most have been sorted at the lowest commander level,” Kim said.

  I nodded. “Very well then. Anything else?”

  “Any idea on when we’ll be able to allow leave passes to Earth for more than humans?” Henry asked.

  “You know I’ve been working on it, but the people of Earth are still scared shitless of aliens. Do you just wanna get your people together and get them to call up places they know?”

  “Could work.” Henry shrugged as he sat back.

  “Reporters,” Rick said.

  Both I and Henry winced at the word. I was pretty sure Krom would’ve just walked through a wall to stop hearing the word if he was inside the meeting.

  “Yes?” I asked.

  “Are we still not going to have any of them aboard the station or ships?”

  “I don’t want them near any weapon platforms or the like,” I replied.

  “With the new personal quarters, which is acting as an entertainment complex, we could keep them in there. Have them based in Commando quarters that aren’t used, only let them see the ships from a distance, maybe even show them a shuttle if they behave,” Rick said, as if he were giving the reporters a cookie instead of showing them a transport system generations ahead of what Earth had been able to do at the beginning of all this.

  “I really don’t—”

  “I know you don’t like them. Heck, I’m not a fan of them myself. Though, if we want to humanize ourselves and get people out to Earth, we need to show them just what the heck’s going on. Some people are even saying that we’re the Syndicate, that the PDF was really the PDF,” he said in a tone that made it clear what he thought of such people’s mental capacities.

  “Guarantees for the refugee policing situation and I’ll allow reporters on board, under your watch.”

  Rick let out some air, shaking his head for a few seconds. “Suuuuure,” he said, his tone unsure as he shrugged. “Worth a shot. Don’t worry, I know everywhere you hang out! I’ll make sure they get the interview of their lives.”

  The other people in the room had looks of amusement or interest as they looked to me.

  “And here I was thinking you’d take it easy on your poor old commander.”

  “Hey, you’re younger than me there, bucko!”

  My moping face split into a grin as I shook my head. “Anything else?” I asked, still with a grin on my face.

  “The kids,” Rick said. The room became somber.

  “They’re ours. We’ll look after them as such. We’ll educate them on the basics of space travel, give them citizenship of the fleet, which gives them citizenship of whatever planets fall under our protection. We have some people looking after them but we need nannies and support. I’m nowhere near qualified for all of that, but I know we can get an education program set up. We need people to fill the roles of caregivers.”

  “I’ll put it on the forums,” Rick said.

  “All of them,” I said, looking off at nothing as I talked. “Send the offer to every planet. If they’re brought up with caregivers of every race, they’ll be better adjusted,” I said with a nod.

  “They’ve been accelerated into adulthood, as we were,” In Sook said.

  “Set up defense classes. Teach them to use their strength for good,” I said.

  Henry raised his hand. “Sir, I know this is going to sound insensitive, but why don’t we just put them in adoptive care on Earth?”

  “Couple of reasons. These are our kids. They’re going to have to deal with issues we’ve dealt with and they’re in a group of people who are in the same situation as them. They can help one another. Put them in homes, and people won’t know how to deal with the issues that could come with these kids. They’ll also be seen as freaks, two-year-olds looking like adults,” I said.

  “Though the first group is at the mental age of a fourteen-year-old, the second ten, and the third six. By two, they’ll have the bodies of adults, and the minds of them. What are we going to do? Keep treating them as kids?” Henry asked.

  “Not going to lie—I haven’t thought that far ahead. We’re going to have to look into that,” I said.

  No one looked happy at that.

  “All of them are going to be like that. Stopping their treatments would send them into dangerous retrograde. They could die,” Rick said.

  These kids weren’t going to be given childhoods. Within the space of twenty-four months, they’d be the same as any other eighteen-year-old in cognitive ability and body.

  “We’ll take care of them. Part of looking after kids is adapting to them.” I could see in the others’ eyes that they, too, had accepted the responsibility of these children.

  “Anything else?” I asked.

  “Get some damned sleep! I swear, we’re becoming your mothers.” Rick’s face looked serious, but his tone was light and playful.

  “All right, I will.” Everyone looked to me with you better stares, and I put my hands up in hope of placating them.

  “Till later then.” Henry pushed away from the desk and stood.

  I did the same, stretching as I made for the door.

  Watch Commander Vashna was sitting in my chair as I emerged. She made to stand, but I waved her scaly hide back into it.

  “I’ve been ordered to nap, and as such, I will listen,” I said by way of explanation.

  “Then I hope they told you to take a long one,” Vashna said.

  “That’s my girl!” Rick said.

  I let a laugh out as Marleen quirked an eyebrow in his direction.

  “Marleen,” he finished somewhat seriously, pointing at her as if he’d meant to do that the entire time.

  Marleen laughed as she shook her head and turned back to her work. A few laughs could be heard.

  “Smooth, Rick,” I said, getting a well, crap shrug from him.

  Krom and Janice followed me down to my room.

  “So, I never asked, did you and Dave get annulled?” I asked as we exited the blast doors.

  “Nope.” She grinned as I looked at her. “Been through so much—dunno, kinda feel comfortable with the old sod now.”

  I smiled. “Good.”

  “I wish you humans were a little more subtle about your excitement with your partners. Your pheromones do reek on every ship and station,” Krom said.

  I hit his shoulder. “Just wait till you find the one. Then we’ll be the ones having to wear clothespins on our noses for your pheromone stink.”

  “Would be better if she released less, as to be better in battle,” he said solidly.

  “Oh, you are quite the romantic, aren’t you?” Janice rolled her eyes as I got to my room. “I think we’re going to have a talk about the finer points of women, dating, and getting to know one another. And pheromones are low on traits.”

  “Night,” I said, feeling a grin on my face as I left Krom to her mercy. I climbed onto my bed and had my battle suit run a cleanse as my body seemed to bleed off tension and unknown fatigue. It gave way to sadness and loss as faces came from the darkness to remind me of the company I kept in my sleep.

  ***

  Eddie hated this part of the ship, the bridge. Just a bunch of people pretending they have control over something. He mental
ly sighed as he walked through it and to the conference room that Salchar was in. Calerd let him in and he found Salchar working on a data pad and a holographic display. He looked through it, seeing Eddie.

  “What do you want that BC shell for?” he asked.

  No messing about, good man. Eddie pulled up a rough sketch on his data pad and gave it to Salchar. “I’m going to use it as extra armor,” Eddie said simply.

  “Okay, but this thing is going to be a pig with the engines.” Salchar looked at the sketches Eddie had sent him.

  Eddie came around as he flicked through a few pages. “It’s here somewhere,” he muttered as he found the new power and engine diagrams he’d scratched together. He put it in front of Salchar’s face.

  “This is a complete remodeling. You’re going to take two type-three power plants,” Salchar said as Eddie nodded appreciatively. Few people understood his doodlings.

  “Yes, which is why I want the EMP’ed BC. Her plants are cold but after a bit of overhauling, we can get them back online and fitted into the ship we’re going to be building around.”

  Salchar made noises of understanding, translating that to mean Electro-Magnetically-Pulsed Battle Cruiser. Acronyms were becoming common usage in the Free Fleet.

  “I see you’ve got the new weapons for it.” Salchar flicked to a page with numbers and materials and then looked to Eddie.

  “Well, we don’t want to give it secondhand crap, do we?” Eddie said, inspecting Salchar, who returned his data pad.

  “No, and I give you the go ahead, though it’s low priority, okay? You can do it after we’ve got to seventy percent among all ships here. As you know, we’ve got a weapon shipment coming in, which’ll help out.” Salchar put the pad down and turned to Eddie fully. “How are the factories doing?”

  “Good. We’ve cranked it up to a hundred and thirty percent production. Shrift thinks he can get it to a hundred and fifty easily, though we’re burning through our resources. We need miners.” Eddie’s initial pride turned into annoyance. There was always a hitch they ran into.

  “There’s a group of ex-Commandos out there. They’re just getting set up, though,” Salchar said, as if testing to see where Eddie would go with that information.

  “We’re going to need more, especially if we’re going to make this a permanent position,” Eddie grumbled.

  “Has Shrift talked to you about my ideas to move the station?”

  “Yeah, I got them. It’ll be easier for us to get resources to the place,” Eddie said. His nephew’s suggestion had been a good one.

  “I’m going to need someone to come up with a plan for changing Mars’ moons into bases and such.”

  Out of the bunch of five-year-olds I have to herd around? Eddie thought. Salchar crooked an eyebrow, and Eddie found out his thoughts hadn’t stayed private as he closed his mouth. A sparkle in Salchar’s eyes showed he found the statement more humorous than wrong.

  “Look, some of them are good, but most of them just want to know more. Working is secondary in all but a few,” Eddie said as Salchar nodded.

  “Well, they don’t need to be Kuruvian. If you feel they don’t work, we have people from multiple races. On that fact, it should be three days until people are allowed to be recruited into the Free Fleet as the Earth completes their side of the protection agreement.”

  “More idjits who don’t know a hammer from a wrench,” Eddie muttered darkly as Salchar grinned.

  “I’ve seen you use both for the same use once.”

  Eddie took on an appropriate look of shock. “I would never!” Though there was that lug bolt and the plasma conduit. Couldn’t fit a hammer in there. “Well, unless I couldn’t do it with anything else.”

  Salchar’s grin grew. “Okay, well, they’ll be all yours once they finish basic. For now, I just want someone thinking about how to get Mars, her moons, and Earth’s moon ready as a base. As well as others to look at turning Jupiter and Saturn into refining plants, ready to supply our ships with fuel.”

  “We’ll need to get working on mining and extracting the resources necessary to keep our repairs going,” Eddie suggested. Salchar’s grin made Eddie think the commander knew he couldn’t resist the job. Eddie was an engineer. If nothing else, he liked building things.

  “Very well, I think that’s all. I’ll leave it to you,” Salchar said.

  “I’ll get on it,” Eddie said in a resigned voice.

  “Thanks. Now, how’s the Resilient coming along?”

  “Quite fine.” Eddie couldn’t help but perk up as he was finally getting the work he’d planned to do on the old girl for years finally started. “We’ve got all of the small power plants installed and, with Shrift changing over to creating the type two or medium power plants, we’ll be getting those in within two months. With the small ones, I was able to rip up the fuel and waste lines and replace them, as well as fix original power lines instead of having to run them through secondary or tertiary lines.

  “Environmental’s being fixed up. Weapons systems are being replaced. Pretty much, in four months we’ll have everything done except the stuff we need a dock for.”

  Salchar quirked an eyebrow as Eddie continued.

  “Fixing up the girl’s structure, revamping Resilient’s own server room, replacing most of the armor and adding additional to it. Pack in more weaponry, upgrade the shield generators, get the main power plants installed, and replace the capacitors.”

  “It sounds like we’re rebuilding her more than anything.”

  “Not just rebuilding but upgrading.” Eddie grinned. “She’ll be a carrier buster! Give me eight months and no ship will be able to touch her, toe-to-toe.” Eddie looked hopefully to Salchar.

  “I’ll give you as much time as I can, though I don’t know if she’ll be that powerful. Felix and Min Hae have only found a few upgraded systems from the Union information caches the Syndicate had.”

  “While that stuff is good, there’s nothing like looking to other sources for information.” Eddie grinned as Salchar’s questioning look seemed to deepen. “Kuruvians, while known for our almost insane want to learn more, also connect it to our old knowledge. There’s groups all over the fleet that are looking at Earth and its information and adapting it to what we currently have. Like reactive armor, Gatling guns, removable armor, practices to cool or heat materials, information on physics, science, and such.”

  “Though humanity can’t get farther than the Moon.”

  “Oh, you could, though you’re so focused on challenging everyone over Earth that your people never moved past it. The constant wars have made you think of incredible ways to kill, protect, and heal,” Eddie said. “That might not be much help on the engineering front—well, for manufacturing and weapons, that is—but otherwise everything is made to hold onto land, support it and field a force capable of defending it. Now with all of the planets under the Free Fleet and the different mind-sets, we’re hitting what might be termed as a renaissance—the combination of all that coming together. We’re going to have more ideas than ever before.”

  Salchar looked excited. “I never thought of that, but it’s kind of awesome to see how people think alike, how it can be combined into something new and kinda awesome.”

  “It’s helping to plug some holes in what we knew. We were pretty much plug and play. Well, except for me and Shrift. Resilient taught us more, though her memory cores went into retrograde.” Retrograde was an AI’s equivalent of Alzheimer’s: the memory cores, overworked and not replaced, started becoming cluttered with unnecessary information and breaking down. They needed to be wiped and restarted, which meant losing not only the useless information, but some of the important information as well.

  “Has she helped add more information?”

  “She’s helped in a lot of ways, though she never ever teaches us more than what Shrift or I ever knew before the Syndicate, so we had to learn from there.”

  “Why didn’t she?”

  “I don’t know,” Ed
die said. “I think it might be because she didn’t want us to help the Syndicate if they found out about her, or how we now knew things they didn’t. Made sense to me—plus, we figured out quite a lot without her.”

  Salchar nodded appreciatively. “Maybe we should ask her. Well, Resilient, how about it? Got anything we can add that might help the fleet?”

  Resilient appeared. Eddie nodded to his friend and one of the very few people he counted as his peer. She nodded back as she bestowed a look that reminded Eddie of a mother being proud of her son’s discovery. “Yes, I do.”

  “Why didn’t you say so before?” Eddie asked.

  Salchar had an amused look on his face.

  “You didn’t ask,” she said and Salchar’s amusement grew.

  “Resilient, could you compile information from the Earth and about all the races, including the Syndicate, mixed with whatever else you might have? Give a copy to myself, Eddie, Shrift, and encode a copy for Felix and Min Hae.”

  Eddie looked to his data pad as a file appeared there, taking some time to load.

  “I have a basic correlation already. It will take a few hours to get it fully worked out,” Resilient said.

  Eddie looked at his data pad as if it were made of solid gold. “Union technologies as well as bastardized, mutated technologies from multiple races,” Eddie said in a hallowed tone as he took a seat and opened the file.

  “Yes, though the majority of the Union items cannot be made without facilities much more advanced than anything the Free Fleet has currently. Though in five to ten years it might be possible, with hard work, to get the Free Fleet to a position where it could create more ships of my class or even bigger.”

  “Ten years—pah,” Salchar said.

  Eddie looked at him, finding the commander’s eyes looking into his own.

  “With Chief Engineer Eddie, I think we can shave more than a few years off that time, and I don’t think we’ll just be making ships of your caliber, Resilient. With the technology overlap, I wouldn’t be surprised if we make ships that the Union didn’t think of but wished they had.”

  Eddie grinned as he felt the confidence in Salchar’s words, as well as the implied challenge. “Well, my boy, it looks like yah got a spark in ya yet. With a bit of roughing out those purty features of ’ors, I think we could make an engineer outta ya yet.” Eddie affected his deepest Southern drawl instead of the slight accent he had picked up from his infamous cowboy and Southern United States movies.