Convoy (The Shelby Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “Why? Because we want a better future? A better one for almost everyone?”

  “Almost everyone?” Ariadne demanded; eyes narrowed as she latched onto that last qualifier.

  “Of course,” Shelby said, smiling a feral smile. “I didn't say a nice one for the pirates,” she said with a show of teeth. Fred stared at her, then snorted softly.

  That got the Tauren leader to goggle at her in surprise and then to shake her head and laugh. Fred joined in with the laughter.

  “I like this woman; she's got balls,” the old cow cackled, slapping her knee.

  “Thanks. I think,” Shelby replied dryly.

  “So, you can take some time to think over our proposal. Please take it to your other leaders and get their say so they won't complain about being left out of the process,” Mister Muggs said smoothly.

  Shelby nodded. That was very wise, she thought.

  “You really have thought this out, haven't you?” Ariadne asked in wonder.

  “Yes,” Shelby replied. “I want to warn you though; there is payment both ways. By that I mean by joining the Federation you will have to pay taxes to help support everything we do, plus you will be bound by the constitution. As far as taxes are concerned, we'll try to keep it even, but you will see growth so that growth in your economy will more than offset the taxes. It will start slow, but then pick up as word spreads and as your population grows. When word gets out, you'll see trade really pick up. Especially when we start doing free inspections and minor repairs,” she said.

  The Tauren blinked. “Free …”

  “It is a service to merchant ships from the navy,” Mister Muggs interjected. “The basic service is highly successful in making shipping safer and faster, even if the navy just does a computer tune-up and gives the crew a list of what needs to be fixed. The ships can barter to get an overhaul too.”

  All eyes turned to Shelby. “You'll be offering that here?” the Tauren asked.

  “Eventually,” Shelby replied with a nod. “We won't be building ships here though. Not for a long time,” she warned.

  “Building …?” the Tauren said, clearly stunned by the concept.

  “There are several shipyards now building ships in Rho,” Fred interjected smoothly. “In fact, most of the ships in our little fleet were recently built,” he said proudly. He showed the Taurens a video presentation of Pyrax and Antigua. The Taurens were fascinated with the before and after comparisons. It was clear how prosperous they were. “Now, think how they are now … and how they will be ten, twenty or so years from now. We're just getting started there. We'd be just getting started here as well, but in five years you could see all sorts of growth.”

  That got the natives in an uproar, Shelby thought as she took a sip of her coffee to let them get it out of their system. When they wound down, she saw Ariadne shake her head in wonder.

  “Well! Don't that beat all!” she said, looking at N'll and Clickz'x'x. The bugs indicated agreement. She held up the tablet and waved it. “We'll take your advice and talk about this. Thank you for giving us time. I'll get this back to you when I'm finished.”

  “Of course. Please don't put it off too long. If we have to, we'll go somewhere else if necessary,” Shelby warned. “And you can keep the tablet. It has that video as well as others, plus a sample of news on it.” she said with an airy wave of her hand. The tablet had been scrubbed of anything of military value before they'd loaded the OS, proposal, and Fred's video pitches, fliers, and other files.

  “No worries. I think some will hem and haw about the nitty gritty details, and some will say that we're making ourselves a bigger target for the pirates. But I think if you are true to your word it is too good to pass up. We're on a string here, barely holding on. If you can help there as you have, we'd much appreciate it.”

  “We'll see what we can do,” Shelby murmured. “I do have one request.”

  “Oh?”

  “We have a news team on board. They requested an interview.”

  “A news crew?” Ariadne asked, blinking at her.

  “Knox News asked and received permission to send a news crew with us. They'll be reporting the news through the couriers we send back until the ansible is setup. They'll also be setting up a sector desk here, which means they'll also be negotiating for space and such here. I did promise to build them a studio,” Shelby said with a grimace. She shrugged after a moment. “We can work on that later I suppose. But they did ask to do an interview with you. They might ask you about your thoughts on joining the Federation … but also your thoughts on the plague.”

  “Plague? Did you say plague?” Ariadne asked. The bugs stilled.

  “Yes,” Shelby said gravely. “We've confirmed that the pirates have moved into a deadlier phase of conquest. They are spreading biological weapons to eliminate all species other than their own. It is a scorched-earth policy of genocide.”

  “All … what about the admiral?” N'll asked, speaking up in the meeting for the first time.

  “Admiral? Admiral Irons by now knows about it, and undoubtedly they are sending help. Fortunately, our medics have figured out a cure …”

  “Not him, the pirate admiral. Admiral Ishmael. Does he know about this? What species are we talking about?”

  “Any species not human,” Shelby stated, glancing at Fred. He shrugged slightly.

  “That doesn't make sense,” N'll said thoughtfully. “He's not human, so why would he be a party to that?”

  “Excuse me? This admiral isn't human?” Fred interjected. “Who is he?”

  “Vice Admiral Ishmael. He is a mean and nasty customer from what I heard. He's a Neo; I don't know the specific species. His ship, the Black Death, passes through here from time to time,” Clickz'x'x stated. “I do not know if your ships will be able to stand up to it. That ship is quite massive and travels with other pirate warships.”

  “That is … you've certainly given us a lot to think about,” Shelby murmured, thinking fast. Boni looked at her in concern. “I think it's been a mutual exchange there,” she said finally.

  “Definitely,” Ariadne said. “We need to know more about this plague,” she said firmly.

  “Understood,” Fred said with a nod. “We can have our lead medics talk with your medics and set up a vaccination program.”

  “Thank you,” Ariadne said. “I believe we do have a lot to talk about,” she said, looking at the others.

  “We can put you up in some quarters for some time or …”

  “I think we need to get this into everyone's hands so they can get up to speed,” Ariadne said, waving the tablet. “I think we'll have to take the tour some other time,” she said.

  “Not a problem,” Shelby said. “I'll be looking forward to it.”

  “As will I,” the Tauren said as she rose. “As will I.”

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  Fred shook his head after Cynthia had escorted the natives off to the boat bay. “I think you threw too much at them at one time. It is usually best to dole such things out in small doses, especially when it comes to bad news. I know you military types like it straight and to the point …”

  “Blunt Dad said. Set the playing field early,” Shelby said as they began to discuss how the negotiations went.

  “You hit them high, I'll hit them low or we'll switch,” Fred offered. “I'll work on them with the tax issue and Constitution. We can pull Lieutenant Black in to help there too.”

  “I'd rather we both hit them high, keep everything aboveboard and let the pirates or threat of the pirates hit them low,” Shelby said dryly. She was still considering the bombshells the other side had dropped on her.

  The Neochimp nodded thoughtfully as he turned her idea over and over in his head. “Wise.”

  “Go ahead and steal it if you like,” she offered with a small smile.

  “Oh, I will, don't think I won't,” he said with a grin. She chuckled.

  “I think the plague bothered them but so did wondering if we're up to thi
s Admiral Ishmael. Are you?” Fred asked, suddenly serious.

  “I was going to say yes, but from their brief description, I now have to wonder. I think the first thing we're going to do is get our people into their computers and get anything we've got on them and any other pirates. Their movement patterns, anyone they talked to … and interview everyone who has talked to them or seen one of their ships. I think Ensign Slatterly and Lieutenant Prometheus are going to have their hands full.”

  “To be expected, ma'am,” Lieutenant Prometheus stated. Fred looked up in surprise.

  Shelby ignored the civilian for the moment. “So you heard. Okay, did you get the intel to the ensign?” she asked.

  “Yes. I wish we had more to go on. There is no Black Death in the war book unfortunately,” the A.I. reported.

  “I thought I'd recognize the name and I didn't,” Shelby said. “So, something new they found or …?”

  “Most likely salvage that they never shared with the home planet,” the A.I. replied in agreement. “They are pirates after all; it is only natural for them to want to keep the best for themselves,” he observed.

  “True,” Shelby replied with a nod.

  “So, what do we do about it?” Fred asked.

  “Find out what it is. We'll go from there when we know more,” Shelby said firmly.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  Ensign Slatterly grimaced as she did her best to work on the Black Death and Admiral Ishmael lead. Obviously, she'd run a search for both names in her ONI database … with no results. From what the natives had let drop on the size of the ship, it had to be a battlecruiser or bigger. That was an ominous thing, and they did say that it traveled with an escort. Also not good.

  One way or another she had her work cut out for her. She was going to have to scramble to work on getting more information. Fortunately, the commodore had managed to convince the natives on the initial basing lease. She checked the video feed Knox News was broadcasting all over the ship and star system and then nodded. The signing was happening any minute, she thought with a nod. They finally had a home.

  She judged that the commodore would extend the hand of friendship to the star systems they'd just visited first. How far she was willing to go with picketing them and drawing down her own forces at the base though … she grimaced. It wasn't her job to worry about that thought but she couldn't help it. She also knew the warship captains were already bouncing to be let off the leash to explore and go hunting.

  The moment they did go hunting though … it would stir up a hornet's nest with the pirates. Eventually word would get back to the pirates on where they'd set up shop; she sucked in a breath just as the parties arrived in the room and shook hands. Yes, she didn't envy the commodore at all for the series of challenges she was going to have to face in the near future.

  The challenges they were all going to have to face, Fara reminded herself. Her thoughts about the large ship ended when CIC brought her a fresh and more immediate concern to untangle.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  Lieutenant Fix and her Spacebees, all five of them, set to work on rebuilding some of the colonies systems as part of the leasing agreement. According to the agreement that Mister Muggs and the commodore had signed, they had agreed to a complete refit of all of the colonies systems, vaccinations, medical care, help restructuring their educational systems, along with a one-year moratorium on taxes for a fifteen-year basing and mining lease. That seemed cheap to some, but the T'clock knew just overhauling the life support and elderly power systems in the colonies would make certain they wouldn't have any emergencies … or at least fewer of them, which would mean the navy wouldn't have to rush to the rescue as often.

  Besides, the natives had no idea how voracious the factory ships could be.

  They were still negotiating further on the star system joining the Federation; she'd caught some talk about building a sector capital space colony or space station, orbital fortresses, and the list went on and on. The good news was that the engineers could and would clone the civilian databases for the ONI spook the first chance they got. And all the goodwill they were generating in the vaccination program and rebuild would help them cement the star system into the Federation.

  They were off to a good start, finally, she thought as her shuttle landed on the pad for the first station. She had Gustav Eiffel for support, but her team was the first survey crew. They would make the lists and let the ship know what was needed, oversee the first steps, then once everything was running smoothly they'd move on to the next colony.

  Hopefully, the commodore wouldn't get them all done in the first year. She didn't want the natives to get cheeky and decide they changed their minds once the Federation held up their end of the bargain, the T'clock thought as she finished suiting up.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  Nearly three years of travel had led to this, Shelby thought as she watched the tugs and shuttles doing the dance across the star system as well as around her ship and the ships in the convoy. The delays in fighting the plague had hit her planned schedule harder than she liked. She expected the Beta convoy to arrive in the Trajin sector within another two months she thought as she stared at the plot.

  The engineers had worked hard to support the medics in each star system, but they'd been impatient to get the real job started. Now they had swung into action with a ferocity that was apparently breathtaking to the passengers and the natives. Their enthusiasm seemed contagious; already Shelby had received interest from the natives to either join the military or offers of services as civilian contractors.

  She'd take both. Hell, she'd take any help she thought, though they'd have to vet everyone carefully. Ensign Slatterly and the A.I. were going to have their hands full she thought briefly before she returned her attention to the base.

  Prometheus was at the heart of the base construction. There were four base complexes planned for Phase 1, the naval base, logistics stations, the shipyard, and the government station. The naval base would serve as the hub, the trade post where personnel, cargo, and such would move through. The logistics stations would house the gear that her industrial plant would produce plus the limited supplies the convoy had brought along with them. Already the first station, an inflatable habitat, had been built with a truss skeleton and the first massive container module. It would take at least a week to finish building the station's other modules so they could fully unload the cargo from the freighters. She'd already pulled all the gear off the exterior of the ships; it was attached to hard points on the truss frame or in use.

  The gunboats were currently docked to a long truss segment connected to the growing naval base nearby. The base would be a basic spindle design with docking rings at the equator and above and below it. A giant habitat module would be on top with fuel works below. Below that would be the fusion reactors to power the complex, though she would also have solar panels and heat exchangers to supplement her power needs.

  The small factory ship Gustav Eiffel was off rebuilding the native colonies just as Hephaestus 33 had done in Pyrax years ago. Helping the natives rebuild would allow them room to expand as well as give the navy a boost of goodwill. She had decided to pace the repairs out to the natives over time, though a few of their leaders hadn't been happy about that. She didn't want to get burned like Admiral Irons had in her home star system however.

  A few entrepreneurs had gone out to restart abandoned colonies. She wasn't certain what to make of that yet. One “lost” colony had been found, the colony had abandoned trade with the others when her last shuttle had died, instead cannibalizing it for parts and then going troglodyte. They'd asked for and accepted help from the Federation and seemed to be grateful to be able to rejoin the community at large.

  Eiffel's sister ship Thomas Savery had just finished building the unmanned chemical works orbital complex around the gas giant. Shelby had decided to anchor her base complexes around the second-most inner gas giant. The innermost had a hard radiation output that would have
been a pain to deal with on a constant basis. It also had a large gravitational field. The second gas giant out had almost the same helium-3 composition to collect but a quarter of the radiation. The gas refinery platform was in the atmosphere of the planet churning out fuel. The convoy needed it badly; they were burning through a lot of fuel even though most of the large ships were sitting in orbit unmoving.

  Thomas Savery would reload material from the tugs and then head out to begin working on fixed orbital smelter works nearby.

  Prometheus's efforts were divided between the four projects around her, plus side projects of her own. Cynthia and Lieutenant Talon had their hands full dealing with the logistics. The factory ships’ replicators had a voracious appetite for everything. When they ran low on some materials, they had to slack the pace on some projects until a fresh load came in from a tug … sometimes shifting priorities around to hit on working on other projects that they had material for. It was a constant struggle to keep the replicators fed. It would only get harder once the molecular furnaces and fixed infrastructure came online; they'd be added competition. At least until they and Prometheus could start building more tugs to help supply them.

  The yard was currently her lowest priority. It was unfortunate, but that was how it was. The main base had the highest priority despite Mister Mugg's occasional good natured ribbing about the government complex and Miss Trejo's reminder of Shelby's promise of building her a proper studio complex. Shelby shook her head. “One thing at a time people,” she murmured to herself as she turned back to the growing pile of paperwork that was threatening to make her electronic mailbox explode.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “And here I thought we'd been humming along. Now I see we've been coasting up until now,” Chief Sulistyo said with a shake of his shaggy head. He looked a bit disheveled because he was, lack of sleep and proper downtime tended to do that. Well, that and exposure to grease, oils, and other chemicals that got on one's hands and then occasionally made its way to one's fur.