Free Fleet Box Set 1

by Michael Chatfield

  “These races have never met one another. Other than interacting with the Free Fleet, these other planets and solar systems could act as though the others just did not exist. I want you to report on the different systems, religions, really get into the different societies and pull them apart, get people thinking about the other races, not just their own. Hopefully, it will also give them ideas for trade, such as Earth making technology and Chaleel supplying foodstuffs now that Earth’s been messed up. Or a trade with the Kuruvians for rare elements and mining assistance,” Rick said.

  “You’re trying to link them together in such a way that they care if the other is attacked. That way, they will help the Free Fleet grow.”

  “Essentially, yes. You saw that we need people to fight this war, people we don’t currently have. Now, this might sound pretty dictatorial, as most political leaders called us,” Rick said.

  Salchar’s expression soured.

  Rick ignored Salchar. “But as of now, the Free Fleet is the only force that these five races have in hope of protecting them against the Syndicate. Yet we’re not tyrannical, no matter what people have said, and we’re trying to incorporate everyone into our Fleet so we have a fair system where no race is put ahead of another.”

  “Yet that’s you saying it.” Evelyn sat back. Her natural reporting skills made her a devil’s advocate, even if she approved of what the Free Fleet was doing, regardless of what the political leaders were saying, as well as their news networks. After being part of a system where each individual was cared for, she knew that the Free Fleet was the best thing that Earth had going for it. Though, she wasn’t going to say that.

  “That’s why we want you to do the reporting, a third party to look at not only the races but the Free Fleet. We want you to see what issues we have, how we’re different and similar to other militaries,” Rick said, his look imploring.

  “Yet not in a way that would reveal any military secrets,” Salchar added.

  Evelyn found herself nodding and biting her lip in thought. “What about me sneaking aboard and all that?” she asked hesitantly.

  Salchar’s eyes sparked. “Evelyn, what you did was deceitful and pulled people away from their jobs that might save people one day. We’re going to have to learn how to trust one another, so no more lying or messing with people.”

  Don’t do this and you’re out, she silently added. “You have my word.”

  Salchar seemed to weigh her before looking satisfied.

  “We’ve got some time, so think on the job,” Rick said.

  “Well, she’s all yours. The next shuttle is in three hours,” Salchar said as Rick stood.

  “Well, shall we then? I’m due to meet my wife for some food in the mess. I bet that running around tired you out,” he said as Evelyn stood.

  She had little choice, and if they were keeping her hostage, they were by far the best mannered hostage takers she’d met thus far.

  Rick made sure she looked at the back wall again as a woman who looked as if she lifted shuttles for fun met them with crossed arms.

  “You going to lollygag around all day?” She tapped her foot.

  “Well, I was—”

  “No excuses,” she said.

  “But!”

  “None.” Her face split into a grin and Rick kissed her.

  “Hello, dear. This is Evelyn Sparks. She was the one who made the video.”

  “Highlighted the third-tier gunnery on the port side’s ineptitude. Off by a full three degrees on that rail gun round!” She huffed as she pumped Evelyn’s hand.

  “Uh, I’m sorry.”

  “Not your fault at all. Thank you for pointing it out. Having it all over Earth will make them the better for it,” she said with a conspiratorial grin.

  Evelyn found herself smiling at the intense woman.

  “Well, my beautiful ladies, shall we get some food?” Rick said with a grin as Marleen turned and crooked an eyebrow at him. He kept up his smile as Marleen laughed, holding Rick’s hand as they began walking.

  “Coming, Evelyn? I do love to see the Commandos playing hide-and-seek, but it seems it tires them out a bit,” Rick said.

  Evelyn followed the two. It took her a few minutes to work up the courage to speak. “So, how did you two meet?”

  “Well, I was waiting in the squad pod when this dolt came from the ceiling yelling Geronimooooo.” Marleen simulated the falling. “Seems he lost his few remaining brain cells.” Marleen winked at Evelyn as Rick squinted at her, a grin on his face.

  Evelyn didn’t know why, but she was already beginning to like the ridiculous pair. At first her questions were slow, and then she forgot where she was and fell into the role of a reporter, something that came to her naturally. She’d interviewed her father before he died, covering protests in Africa.

  Kids had thought her weird when she interviewed her teachers, usually sending them to the breaking point. The workplace would have been the same thing for her, but then VICE stepped in and she started reporting on everything possible. VICE was no longer a news organization, but the people who created it together kept in contact. If she was going on this ride, she could think of a few more people who could join her.

  Look at me, Dad, I’m interviewing kids who were trained by a PDF-impersonating Syndicate. Doesn’t get more bizarre, does it? she thought as she hung onto every word Rick and Marleen said.

  ***

  I looked across the conference table to Shrift as I sat down in my seat with a sigh. With everything going on, I needed to keep on top of not only the progress with my people, but also the engineering side. Without enough resources, including ships and Mechas, we were not going to win the war.

  “That went well,” Shrift said.

  I shrugged. “Hopefully she isn’t like the reporters who bug me for my comment on anything and everything, from fashion to my love life and my tactics.” I shook my head in despair to Shrift’s laughs.

  “So onto the progress reports?” Shrift asked.

  “Please.”

  “Felix, his research and development team, and Min Hae’s analysts have come up with some interesting designs. They’re testing them right now, but they could add significant firepower to our ships.”

  “Did they turn away from the plasma weaponry?” I asked, the levity of moments before gone.

  “Yes. They agreed that the technology is so energy intensive, while it is very effective, it would take out rail cannons that could do more damage to power a plasma cannon.”

  “Have you placed the order for the Gatling guns and other point defense systems?” I asked.

  “Eddie has put in the request to the yard. Silly has been looking into armor—he contacted a company that made tank armor on Earth. He should have a proposal to you soon for them to build reactive armor for our ships. It would be at much reduced cost if we could help sway the costs of getting into space and help with materials. It wouldn’t make sense to drop the amount of materials we would need to make those panels onto Earth, just to pull them back out again.”

  “Good. Keep me appraised of the situation,” I said, impressed with Silly’s initiative. Shrift must have picked up on my tone as his manipulators moved with pride. “I know that Eddie had plans for the hull from the last battle, as well as one of the operational battle cruisers. Have you been able to sway him into using that hull as the base and the cracked BC for whatever he needs?” I asked.

  “Yes and no. Yes, he’ll use them, but he wants to put all new systems into it.”

  I nodded. “Very well. I’ll want it in full fighting order, anyway. Once our current forces are fixed up, then I want to start getting the broken destroyers into the line. Then using whatever’s left to get me carriers, proper carriers. Min Hae and Felix are only able to make bastardized versions so far, but I want real ones.”

  Shrift nodded to my words as he made a note, talking as he did so. “Shall we continue with the extending of the dock?”

  “Yes, I want everything growing. Nan
cy is going to be key to us with our oncoming battles, and she won’t be much use to us without the materials she needs.” My face turned sour. It’s all damned numbers. If we could use the market, however, maybe make loans, then have them pay it off...

  “We’re going to need some accountants.”

  Shrift looked at me with clear confusion. “Accountants?”

  “We need some people to look into the financial workings of the Union or...Resilient?” I looked to the ceiling.

  “Yes?” she responded.

  “Would you be able to assimilate the information on the banking systems of the Union?” I asked, probably sounding a little hopeful.

  “Lare would probably be more interested in that. He likes numbers. At this stage, he’s basically a child AI, so he’s making way more connections than I ever could, though he needs more processing power. I do too.”

  I looked to Shrift.

  “I’ll get right on that,” he said and I saw him scroll to the top of the list and do just that.

  “Now, Resilient, could you have Lare have a look at Union laws, specifically the rules about loans?”

  “Certainly. He’s been looking for something new to do.”

  “How is he doing? Has he made any decisions?”

  “Not yet, though he’s interested in the Free Fleet and what it does. For now, he needs more computing power and to get his physical aspects fixed.”

  “That’s reasonable, though as he is not personnel of the fleet, then he will be one of the slower jobs, unfortunately.”

  “I understand. We need ships capable of defending our interests and our charges. Working on him would possibly not get us closer to either of those goals.”

  “Thank you for understanding.”

  “Do not worry about it,” she said. Her calming voice made sure I wouldn’t.

  I looked to Shrift. “So, what are our forces at right this minute?”

  “To the standard you would want, not including Boot’s forces: one battle cruiser, two cruisers, and seven corvettes. The destroyer will be fixed in a week; three for the corvettes and cruiser. The remaining two BCs, other than Eddie’s project, three weeks on top of that. Then the dreadnoughts. With your wanting to overhaul all of them except the cruisers, again triple the time.”

  I nodded my head. “Get it done.”

  “Very well.” He rose and checked his data pad. “See you around, James.”

  I grinned. “You can bet on it, Shrift. You decide where you want to be posted yet?”

  “Nope, still thinking on it.”

  I shook my head as he wandered out. He was holding the promise I’d given him like a get out of jail free card.

  As he left, I checked over the transfers that Monk was proposing to send to Nancy. Cheerleader was also requesting a few of her ships to be overhauled.

  I went through each of the ships, assessing their value and making a schedule for them to be fixed up. I reached the point where Parnmal’s own docks and yard would be built in a year’s time, by Monk’s estimate, before I stopped.

  “I also need to figure out a schedule to rotate people into Sol system and the others systems and keep patrols going on without a hitch.” I sighed to myself as I finished my tea. It was summer berry. Although it smelled nice, I never found it had the actual taste, something that I missed from Korea. Still, at least it smelled good and the taste was bearable.

  Overhaul

  Henry barely felt any strain as he used his Mecha to lift bulkhead paneling into place. Drones tacked it to the deck and ceiling quickly before moving on to seal it fully. Henry moved to the next panel, knowing the drones would be done by the time he had the second one in place.

  “Don’t you find it annoying that we have to fix the holes we put in these ships in the first place?” Rick asked and Henry grunted a laugh, pulling the panel into place. The drones darted around again as he waited a few seconds before going to the next one.

  “Takes a few seconds to take them down but hours to put it all back together,” Henry said and it was Rick’s turn to grunt in agreement.

  “Makes you almost want to use corridors, even though they are veritable death traps,” he said, somehow making light of it as Henry sighed. They’d been putting the ships back together, rotating crews and Commandos in and out so everyone got some training and rest.

  “More fun to use a sword than just walking. More wham-bam, thank-you, damn,” Yasu said.

  Henry laughed at this. “It does sound better that way.” He got to his next panel. The drones followed him like loyal dogs as they tacked the panel and he continued on.

  The work was menial and mind-numbing, but Rick’s anecdotes made the time go quickly. Min Hae and Felix were supposedly working on designing an army of drones with their teams as Silly and his people gave them feedback. The drones would be capable of putting the ships back together many times faster than Henry and his Commandos ever could. Henry just wished it was a reality already. Pulling down panels and then replacing them was a dull job, indeed.

  Henry’s mind wandered as he began to think on the ships that had already left to change out with Cheerleader’s people, who’d bring back another mixed bunch of newly minted Free Fleet personnel.

  It’s all rather exciting once you think of it, though it’s going to take a lot of damned time, Henry thought, as the Free Fleet was finally on a standing where it could grow instead of diminish.

  “Seems that Cheerleader’s pretty certain about there being life in system RX-4,” Rick said, breaking Henry from his thoughts.

  “Well, there were some readings from Parnmal,” Yasu said. “Seemed that they were looking for a civilization that used to be part of the Union. Looks like Cheerleader has the bug too. She was always damned determined and stubborn.” A note of respect was in her tone.

  She’s come a long way from thinking that our underhanded tactics are dishonorable. Heck, I bet she’d do them, too, if she thought she could keep a few of us alive. Although Yasu was most definitely part of the Commandos and retained the rank of company commander, she was pretty much Henry’s filler. If he needed someone to take command of a group that was in disarray or he needed something done and his other commanders were busy, Yasu was always the one he went to. She was also the one who created the training program, overseeing Takahashi while he took the trainees through it. Together, they’d created the advanced physical and hand-to-hand training for the Commandos. The training was so intense it forced the trainees into peak physical condition.

  Great Commando to have when we’re doing this work a third of the time. For once, working for Salchar is boring. Henry couldn’t stop himself, letting a laugh go as he grinned to himself.

  “What was that?” Rick asked.

  “Did you ever imagine being bored under Salchar?” Henry chuckled.

  Rick paused for a second before he chuckled and shook his head.

  “No comment,” Yasu said as the two’s chuckles became laughter.

  ***

  Eddie was in no laughing mood as he was installing the Resilient’s new upgrades, from processors to cooling systems and memory cores.

  Although Earth wasn’t very advanced compared to the information that Resilient had shared from the Union, their computer systems were a different matter. Although their societies didn’t look to expand as it would make the capitalist society they lived in a very hard one to control, they did believe in making new and advanced systems to make life faster. So the Resilient was not just getting a small upgrade but a rather large one.

  “Vac! Davidson! I don’t care if you’re talking—just get the damned job done!” Eddie said as the two got to work, speaking quietly in hopes the all-hearing, all-seeing Eddie wouldn’t notice them.

  Eddie sighed. Kids and slackers. He groaned as his auto wrench finished bolting the massive memory bank into the floor. Eddie saw something out of the corner of his eye. He pulled his boot off and threw it in one motion.

  “Ow!”

  Damn Amart.
Eddie knew every engineer under him by the noises they let out when his boot connected with their backside. Eddie retracted his boot. “Amart! Check those bolts and the shock structure. You don’t just bolt and leave!”

  Amart turned and studied the structure for faults, jacking into it to make sure everything was fine.

  “Always check your work. Doesn’t make sense to—” Eddie threw the boot that had just come back to him. His aim had improved after he’d hit Retter in the face the first year he’d been chief. He’d never been quite the same after he fell off that catwalk because he wasn’t properly secured.

  “Shit!”

  “Maaaark! You’ve been staring at that cooling system for an hour. It’s not going to run away on you unless you try to mate with it.” Eddie picked up the boot that had come back to him.

  “Chief.” Mark closed up the cooling unit and moved on, looking more than a bit embarrassed.

  “Now, as I was saying, it doesn’t make sense to install it and not check it. Otherwise, we’ll be doing it in battle. Then you’ll have to answer to Commander Salchar.”

  Everyone put their heads down to work and conversations ceased.

  That’s better. Eddie checked the memory bank, running the start-up on it before moving on. Eddie knew his people were the best in the fleet, but that didn’t mean that he’d let them rest on their laurels. Being the best meant they had to maintain that status.

  So he was going to get the Resilient’s guts into fighting order before the yard rats got to it. Nine months was a nice estimate and all—if it wasn’t a ship run by Chief Engineer Eddie. Not going to have the commander of the Free Fleet with the worst-off ship in the fleet. Not on my watch!

  Eddie didn’t think that Salchar was some god as some of the personnel in the Free Fleet did, but he was quite exemplary, although just a human.

  Plus, Chief Fuddy on the new dreadnought was known for his ability to get things done. He should be, after being my protégé, Eddie thought darkly. Now it was protégé against master in a race to finish their dreadnought. Though Chief Fuddy had the added advantages of being in zero grav and having less damage from the battle, it was evened out with his thrown-together crew and the fact that the dreadnought was in terrible condition.