Convoy (The Shelby Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  All that came to a stop when the picket at the Tau-1929 jump point sent out a flash tachyon alert of ships that had just jumped into the star system.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  Four familiar ships returned to the inner star system after broadcasting their IFF and passing the picket at the Tau-1929 jump point. Strike from the Dark led the quartet across the solar system. Three days later the ships set anchor lights near the naval complex and sent over shuttles to the naval base. The four captains reported aboard the naval base to report to the commodore.

  Shelby was still of two minds about taking up residence in the naval base permanently. She still loved being a captain but managing the various bases and dealing with the political issues was taking up more and more of her time. If she handed Prometheus over to Cynthia, it wouldn't be fair to her XO since she'd be juggling three jobs instead of the two she was currently trying to handle. But she was going to need to do something; she'd already poached two of the junior officers from Prometheus's ranks and several of her senior staff was agitating for a change in scenery.

  “I'm glad to see you back and safe and sound. Pity you didn't nail them, but you did good work catching that prize ship and liberating it,” Shelby said after the group of officers had assembled in her office.

  “You've been busy, ma'am. I'm impressed,” Captain Loggins said.

  “Agreed. Most impressive,” Captain Corbin observed.

  “So have you. Nothing else to add to your report?” Shelby asked. Captain Loggins looked at Captain Corbin.

  “No luck, ma'am,” Captain Corbin reported with a shake of his head. “They moved on to Tortuga and from there we don't know.”

  “Damn.” Shelby said with feeling. She inhaled and then exhaled slowly. “Next time,” she said. She wasn't certain if she should be grateful the chase hadn't lasted longer than it had.

  “We could jump to Tortuga … scout it, ma'am,” Captain Corbin suggested.

  Shelby shook her head. “No, we'll stand pat for the moment; I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest.”

  The Neochimp nodded slowly. “Aye aye, ma’am.”

  “And don't even go there with scouting it. I don't want to tip our hand that we know it is there,” Shelby warned, raising a finger.

  The Neochimp put his hands up in surrender as he chuffed. “Wouldn't dream of it. Besides, that's not my department. I'd be left out.” He pointed his thumb to the human captain.

  “True,” Shelby replied with a nod as she looked from Captain Corbin to Captain Loggins and then back. She had an idea, but she wasn't comfortable leaving the capital unguarded to try it. She knew she had to take risks if they were going to win the sector, but that didn't necessarily mean taking unnecessary or foolish risks.

  “We did chat with the various governors in each of the star systems we visited. Samos and Delos are still as divided as ever,” Captain Corbin said with a shake of his head. “You sent a relief mission out? We picked up the message traffic in the buoys,” he said.

  “Indeed we did. Unfortunately, I can't scrape up any additional medics at this time, though I wish I could. From what Dancer brought back to us, that part might be covered soon though,” she said.

  “That's a relief, ma'am,” Captain Loggins said.

  “Yes, it is. Okay, so, I'm still going over your latest downloads obviously. I know the senior staff will have their hands full processing it for some time. They'll make up a list of questions to put to you and your staffs as they go. If you can think of any nitty gritty detail, no matter how small, please cough it up to them,” Shelby said. “As far as your crews, we'll arrange liberty for them, though I admit we're sadly lacking in facilities in that regard. We'll get there eventually, but for the moment, we're not there yet, nor are the natives,” she said.

  “Understood, ma'am. Just getting the downtime to decompress is nice,” Captain Corbin rumbled. The other captains signaled mute agreement.

  “I personally like to catch up by binge watching something or reading a book, but that's me. We have a lot of space in the bases; I suppose people can set up volleyball or other rec games if they so desire. They need to be careful though; we're light on medical personnel,” Shelby said.

  “We'll tell them to keep the general mayhem to a minimum, ma'am,” Captain Loggins murmured.

  Shelby snorted. “You do that. Again,” she rose from behind her desk. “Welcome back all of you. I'm sorry you didn't get what you and we wanted, but you did bring back a potentially game-changing piece of intelligence. Good work,” she said, shaking their hands or appendages.

  “Thank you, ma'am.”

  “Enjoy your time off, you earned it,” Shelby said by way of dismissal.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  “Must be nice to have all the keys to this,” Governor Ariadne observed as she turned away from the holo display of the star system.

  “It is nice to have the right tools to do the job. But we don't have all the keys here unfortunately,” Shelby said. She was still working on establishing what she would consider a comfortable relationship with the Tauren female. Sometimes the female was accommodating; other times she was neutral or hostile. She had wondered if hormones were involved. She'd tried to get a handle on the Tauren menstrual cycle and to see if the female was in her species equivalent of menopause, but she couldn't gauge the female's age.

  “You could have fooled me,” the Tauren snuffled.

  “As a star system governor of the Federation, you are entitled to government implants including key sets. It's more complicated than just getting them installed, but they are something to look forward to. If you can wrangle enough votes to join the Federation that is,” the human said.

  “We're still on the fence,” the Tauren said, uncommitted. “You've proven a lot; I'll grant you that. You've also held up your end of the bargain. But we still don't know if you can stand up to the pirates.”

  “We're getting there then,” Shelby said with a nod.

  Discuss hiring people for station work. More and more natives were interested in the jobs the Federation forces were opening up. “It's nice to get the work and it's doing wonders for our economy. But I'm concerned about poaching our best people for your projects and leaving our own uncovered,” the Tauren mused.

  “True, that can be a legitimate problem. We're trying not to step on any toes, but if someone is genuinely interested in work and is willing to put in the effort …,” Shelby spread her hands. “A few had admitted they were bored or tired of being treated like crap. Others have been very interested in our education and medical services,” the commodore stated mildly.

  “Which makes it even harder for the individual colonies to compete,” Governor Ariadne said with a shake of her massive head. “I will admit we've got something of a population explosion going on. It is a concern though, making certain we'll have enough food and resources for them all,” She said.

  “You'll just have to fill up all those former abandoned colonies you folks are opening up,” Shelby said, spreading her hands apart in supplication.

  “Well, we can also build new ones. You people may never be finished with your part of the bargain at that rate,” the Tauren governor said with a snort of humor.

  Shelby sat back but didn't commit to an answer. New construction was not covered by the contract but she didn't want to bring it up at the moment.

  “Well, if you'd get your people to stop digging up lost colonies and opening them up and demanding we rebuild them, we'd be done,” Shelby retorted instead.

  Ariadne hooted in amusement.

  When she was finished, she shook her head again and dashed a tear with a finger. “Thank you, I needed that.”

  “No problem,” Shelby said dryly. “Are the colonies working on employee retention without arm twisting?”

  “I'm trying to get that across to some of them,” the Tauren said in a different tone of voice. “Some can only resort to threats and intimidation. To be fair they are desperate and may not have the r
esources to offer the people … or the people they want to retain are taking advantage of the situation.”

  “I can see that,” Shelby said mildly.

  “I think some are getting their fair share back after being taken advantage of for so many years.”

  “Well, the answer to that is education. If more people get the training, then you have less reliance on one person. So, say if that person leaves, has an accident, dies, or whatever, they have a backup.”

  The Tauren looked at her then slowly nodded. “Point. A good point,” she rumbled. “We've worked on it through an apprenticeship over the centuries. Mass education though …”

  “It is something to consider. Also something we can help you with,” Shelby replied with a nod.

  “Definitely something else to consider.”

  “I think, once the baby boomers get on their feet, hooves, whatever,” Shelby said with a brief thin smile. “And are given a proper education from a young age, they'll take your people to a new golden age.”

  “With your help of course.”

  “It's part of the reason we're here.”

  “Part of the reason?”

  “Well, as I mentioned before, we're also here to hunt pirates,” Shelby said with a grin.

  “You didn't do so well with your last mission,” the Tauren governor pointed out.

  “True, but that was just one mission. We are going to rearm them and give them some downtime. I'm debating on sending another group out on their own hunting expedition.”

  “Please do not stir up trouble.”

  “Trouble?” Shelby asked.

  “It has a way of finding its way back to us. Mark my words,” the Tauren said, holding one finger up. Shelby nodded slowly.

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  Shelby checked the latest progress report. She admitted fast tracking the mine production had thrown a monkey wrench in her ship construction schedules. Hopefully, once they got a few more natives on board with them and up to speed they would be able to make up for some lost time.

  She'd hit other snags in other areas too. Pensacola and her helpers had failed rather spectacularly when it came to inflating an asteroid. After the third failure, she'd been forced to shelve the project for the time being. Perhaps a smart A.I. was required to help? She wasn't certain what part of the formula was missing. They'd managed to do the job with just Firefly before … she shook her head.

  For the time being, Pensacola was working with her tin can consorts to drag large asteroids back to the capital area. There they used their energy weapons to drill into the rock to prep it for use as an orbital fortress. The waste material was collected by Pensacola's bussard collectors and then processed into usable material.

  She had at the moment tabled the academy project, though she had moved forward with outfitting a deck of the naval complex into a temporary training center for enlisted and contract personnel. Now they needed more people coming in to fully utilize it, she thought.

  That was where Sadie's idea came in. Her flag lieutenant had mentioned keen interest in a Tiger cruise. It wasn't necessary given that most of the dependents who had wanted to be on the mission had sailed out with them, but Boni had latched onto the idea as well and cleaned it up.

  Their collective pitch was a civilian cruise to entice some of the natives into interest in the navy and the Federation. Goodwill … there were various good reasons to do it, though Ensign Slatterly was against it for operational security reasons. Shelby could understand that, Fara was just doing her job as a paranoid spook.

  A compromise was in order then. How to handle that she wasn't certain. Obviously, some areas would be restricted and off limits. She decided to pitch that to the ensign and then look into which ship might work. A little sail from one civilian colony to another and then back would make some people interested … she realized she was repeating the same thought pattern and sat back.

  The problem was the manpower in the star system was finite. So was the manpower outside the star system with the damn plagues on the rampage, plus the pirates. Anyone who signed on with them was going to open themselves up to persecution and bombardment from the pirates. She unfortunately didn't have the hulls to picket them. At least, not yet, she reminded herself.

  Cynthia's missive about missing another deadline with the ship building … she frowned and then nodded. She'd have to sit down with her and the shipyard yard dogs and revise the schedule. “Boni, I'm going to need to sit down with Cynthia and the others to revise the build schedule. Obviously, we were a bit too ambitious given how I've been poaching them. So, let's fix that. I know she wants her people back, but we need those mines and missile pods.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I see you were looking up the tiger cruise as well,” the A.I. said.

  “I'm still on the fence to be honest. There is only so much we can get from the people here. But by all means, work on refining the project. Get with Ensign Slatterly and the ship's police. See if you can come up with areas that should be off limits. See if anyone has ideas on what would be good to get people interested in joining the service.”

  “A live fire exercise?”

  “Okay, with energy weapons maybe.”

  “Lieutenant Black mentioned liability if someone is hurt, also a black eye with the public,” the A.I. warned.

  “Also problems. Have him look into contracts to cover our ass then,” Shelby ordered.

  “Aye aye, ma’am.”

  “Good. Now …,” Shelby tipped her chair back and propped her feet up on the edge of the desk. “Long term we need to send the transports out with recruiters to star systems and see if we can pick up people interested in joining our cause,” she said slowly. “We can't offer the star systems defenses at this time, but maybe we can do a little bit to sweeten the pot?”

  “The plague is also a problem. Manpower everywhere will be an issue. Though some may want to leave for revenge or to get away from painful traumatic memories,” the A.I. reminded her.

  “Point, they'll need counseling,” Shelby grunted. “Damn it, no easy solution there either. They'll still need a lot of training.”

  “But getting them does put us on the path to that. And the convoy did distribute some tools in certain areas to help with long term educational goals,” the A.I. reminded her.

  “True. Okay, start the list of planets with them first …”

  ]][#]]]{OO}===}==>

  When Fred came home, he rolled his shoulders. “It's good to be home,” he said, looking around their apartment.

  “Home he says,” a familiar voice complained from the kitchen. He hesitated, but then decided to bite the bullet and face her rant head on. He found Phoebe in the kitchen working at something or other on a stool. “Still working on the interior decorating touches, love?” he asked, rubbing the small of her back where he knew she was probably sore from sitting on the stool as he gave her a peck.

  “No, I'm bored,” she complained, rolling her eyes as he sniffed around the kitchen. “There is nothing to do here, no shops here, no restaurants, no one in our class to hang out with ….” She waved a hand to indicate the place and then switched to her usual complaints about their quarters. “This place is like a cavern,” she grumbled. Even though stuffed with all the stuff she'd bought on the way there. Some of the stuff she'd picked out didn't quite coordinate right; they were from different worlds and such so they were not the right style. “I have to do all the cooking, and I am so tired of that!” she snarled, indicating the stove.

  “Sorry, honey,” he murmured.

  “When are we going to get a decent food replicator? Not that a food replicator can cook worth a damn but still! A change would be nice,” Phoebe complained.

  “Unfortunately, food replicators are in short supply. I think there is one in some of the galleys, but not in individual quarters,” Fred said.

  She stared at him as he poured himself a drink. “But …”

  “Yes, this is a government station, but no, we don't have the key
s to make replicators,” he said as he raised his glass to his lips. “Or at least, the commodore doesn't have them. Not food replicators at any rate,” he said as he took a sip of wine then set the glass down. The wine was a vintage his wife had picked up and had an aftertaste he didn't appreciate. “Not one of your better purchases, love,” he said, looking at the glass.

  “Pour it back in. I bought it at the wine tasting place. I'm afraid I might have been a bit tipsy at the time; they certainly got me to buy more than I'd intended,” Phoebe admitted. “But you’re changing the subject!” she said as she glowered at him.

  “Sorry,” he said, pouring the wine back into the bottle, then seating the cork back in place. He pounded it in with the flat of his hand. “There.”

  “What am I supposed to do? I'm not going to be a personal assistant aka secretary,” Phoebe growled.

  “Well,” Fred drawled as he put the bottle aside. “You could start your own business,” he said slowly as the thought occurred to him. She stared at him. “You know, do something you enjoy, something you can sink your teeth into,” he suggested. What he didn't admit was that the real idea of his suggestion was to keep her busy, give her a hobby, let her socially interact with others on a personal and professional basis so she could build contacts, all the while allowing their money go to constructive purposes.

  She blinked at him, apparently taken off balance by the idea. “Like what?”

  “Don't tell me you can't run a business,” he said. She just looked at him. He spread his hands. “Stick to something you know and love. Art? Hosting? Yoga instructor?” she rolled her eyes at him for suggesting that. He couldn't help but smirk. “Catering?” he added, indicating the kitchen. Her eyes narrowed. “Okay, not catering,” he said, realizing he'd hit a sore point. He should have remembered her complaint about cooking. He made a mental note to take her in his next visit to the native colonies.

  “Consulting … teaching, tutoring … interior decorating …” he ran through a series of ideas, a few caught her interest but not many. “Hmm … Hiring? What about a hiring agency? A Temp agency? We really need that now.”