by Dietmar Wehr
Hoch smiled. “That would be fine if I owned the ship, but I don’t.”
Now it was Toolman’s turn to smile. “We thought of that. Suppose Ceridian Station sent a message back to URS saying that the Prosperity Colony is no longer capable of making it back to Earth on its own and that it’s taking up valuable hangar bay space. Then we send them a list of what’s wrong with the ship, plus an ultimatum that unless they send a ship with enough parts and technicians to fix it by a certain date, one that will not give them a lot of time by the way, we’ll seize the ship to cover hangar fees and lost revenues. Do you think they’ll scramble to send a repair ship or just write her off, keeping in mind that if they repair her, they’ll have to hand her back over to you to use?”
“Oh, that’s devious, Toolman. I’d be very surprised if Traeger decides to recover the ship. But if they give up all claim to it, then it’ll belong to the station. What does that mean for my trading profits percentage?”
Toolman shook his head. “No worries. Your 20% is safe. You fulfilled your part of the bargain by delivering the Graphene. If URS gives her up, we might be able to get her back into service sooner than would have been the case with the new ship.”
“Well, then, what are we waiting for?” asked Hoch. As soon as he finished his meal, he accompanied Toolman back to the Admin Offices and watched him send the FTL message to Earth. The reply came back surprisingly quickly. Hoch and Toolman read it as the text message scrolled across the wall-mounted screen.
URS CEO TRAEGER TO CERIDIAN STATION. URS REFUSES TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY FEES INCURRED BY CAPTAIN RACHEENGEL. THAT PIECE OF CRAP FORMERLY KNOWN AS PROSPERITY COLONY IS NOW YOURS TO DO WITH AS YOU WISH. TELL CAPTAIN RACHEENGEL THAT I HOPE HE STAYS STRANDED THERE UNTIL HELL FREEZES OVER. MESSAGE ENDS.
Toolman gave Hoch a high five. “My boys and girls and I will get started on that piece of crap right away. Since you’ll be piloting her, we’ll let you decide what to name her. I’m assuming that it won’t be Prosperity or Leper Colony?”
Hoch chuckled. “Definitely not the first. Leper Colony does have a certain shock effect, but I may think of something else. What kind of time frame are we looking at now?”
Toolman shrugged. “If there are no surprises when we take the old girl apart, then I’d say a couple of weeks, but don’t hold me to that.”
“A couple of weeks at least, eh? What kinds of things do you people do on this station for fun?”
“Ha! We’re engineers, Hoch. We build stuff for fun when we’re not building stuff for work, but we’ll find something to keep you occupied.”
Chapter Three:
Upgrading the ship actually took another 24 days. It seemed much longer to Hoch, but at least it gave him a chance to see everything Toolman and his people had done to the ship, which still didn’t have a new name. Hoch now had a very good idea of what the ship could do, as well as what it could take in terms of stress. When Toolman showed him the weapons they intended to equip her with, Hoch grinned from ear to ear. The ship would have a railgun in a turret just like Whirlwind, but this railgun would have the ability to fire more than just slugs of metal. It would also be equipped with larger shells that had an explosive tip, not nearly as damaging as a missile armed with a chemical explosive warhead, but dangerous nevertheless. The real surprise, though, was the substitute for Whirlwind’s two missile launchers. In theory, Ceridian might have been able to build a missile with the less powerful of the two warheads, but the accuracy would not have been close to what the URS-supplied missiles could do, and a Lithium-plasma tactical nuke was way beyond the capabilities of Toolman and his people. What they could build was a laser turret that was just powerful enough to be able to defend the ship against incoming missiles. That meant Hoch would be able to use the railgun offensively all the time without having to switch it to anti-missile mode to defend the ship.
When she was ready, Toolman and Hoch did an external inspection around the ship while Toolman sang her praises. “She’s got the engines that we built for the new ship. Her acceleration will max out the inertial dampeners, which means she can even outrun a Space Force light cruiser. Structural integrity has been almost doubled, with the Graphene, for minimal additional weight. Her avionics are not quite up to Whirlwind’s standard, but they’re a damn sight better than what she had before. Sorry we couldn’t duplicate Whirlwind’s ECM suite, but based on what you’ve told me, it didn’t do much good anyway. Her auto-pilot is first rate. You can pre-program an entire trip including docking, cargo transfer, undocking and a return trip.” That was something that Keko could have done anyway, but Hoch had not revealed her abilities to Toolman or anyone else. “We also added a secret compartment in the cargo space just like on Whirlwind. It’s not quite as big, but it does have the same kind of DNA security lockout.” He stopped walking and sighed. “There’s one area where this ship doesn’t even come close to Whirlwind, and that’s the crew compartment. Sprucing it up to make it look nice is something that we can do in the future, but in the interests of getting this ship operational as soon as possible, we didn’t spend any time on crew compartment aesthetics. What we did do was make sure everything in the compartment works the way it should, and the lighting in there is not quite so garish, but that’s it.”
“I understand and agree with that setting of priorities. Like you said, we can spruce her up at a later date. When can I take her out?”
Toolman grinned like a schoolboy. “As soon as you can get your gear on board.”
“Okay! What kind of cargo will I have to start with?”
Toolman’s grin disappeared. “Hm, yeah, that’s a problem. As you know, we don’t export much. We have a little gold, about 12 Troy ounces. It’s not much I know, but it’s all we’ve got.”
Hoch nodded in sympathy. “I had a hunch we’d be scrambling for working capital. I’ll take her back to Dresden, buy some brandy, sell it on Earth, and maybe do that again a couple more times. That should boost working capital nicely.”
Toolman looked at him with a look of disbelief. “You really want to risk tangling with Traeger’s hatchet man, Hoch? He’s bound to be there in the neighborhood by now.”
“I think it’ll only be a matter of time before Traeger’s new enforcer finds me whether I go to Dresden or not. He won’t be expecting me back there this quickly, and certainly not with this ship as it is now. I don’t want to have to move around constantly looking over my shoulder. I’d rather get it over with now. If Traeger wants to play with fire, I’ll accommodate him.” Hoch blinked as he and Keko had a quick exchange of thoughts. “I know what name to give this ship.” Toolman looked at him and waited. “Angelfire,” said Hoch holding up his tattooed right hand.
“Oh, I like it, Hoch! Want us to paint that name on the hull?”
Hoch laughed. “Why not, and in big flaming red letters too if you can manage it.”
Toolman patted him on the shoulder. “You got it. Give us a couple more hours, and we’ll have the name on her.”
When Hoch and Angelfire arrived back in the Dresden star system, Keko immediately noticed that something was different.
[The station is not broadcasting the standard space traffic updates that it used to do, Hoch.]
“Ha. Any idea why they would stop? Almost all stations broadcast that information so ships know who’s nearby and what their vectors are.”
[I can come up with two possible reasons. The first would be a malfunction of some kind. The second would be that the station doesn’t want incoming ships to know where another ship or ships are. That would be counter-productive given their desire to minimize accidental collision and piracy.]
“Is our transponder online?”
[Not yet. As per your previous instructions, the transponder is shut down unless you tell me to turn it on.]
“Very good. How soon will we be close enough for you to tap into the station’s network?”
[Not for another hour and ten minutes at least.]
“Okay, the
n let’s maintain this velocity until you’re hooked in, and then I want the ship to slow down to a minimal velocity while we figure out what the hell is going on.”
That hour and ten minutes were difficult for Hoch to endure. He very much wanted to send a message to Eriko, letting her know that he was back, but this star system was now likely to be a dangerous place if Traeger’s new enforcer was present, and maintaining the element of surprise was an advantage that he wasn’t prepared to give up so quickly.
[I’m into the station network, Hoch, although the lag time at this distance is making penetration difficult. What I can tell you already is that this station is no longer under the control of the eight families who were running it when you were here last. Six days ago, a ship, the Orobouros, docked and disembarked 34 armed persons who took control of the station by force. The controlling families were evacuated down to the planet’s surface in order to boost production of the brandy. I’m scanning all recorded video and audio surveillance data to see if I can find out what happened to Eriko.]
Hoch smacked his right fist into his left palm. He was certain that URS was behind this takeover. If Eriko and her family were down on the surface, Angelfire would try to land and liberate them, and maybe others too depending on how good the security was down there.
[I have more information now, Hoch. The leader of the armed faction told the heads of the families that hostages would be taken back to Earth to ensure their co-operation. I have the names of the hostages. Eriko is one of them. I’m trying to identify the others.]
There was a pause. Hoch tried to keep his thoughts under control since Keko was monitoring them, and he didn’t want to distract her from her data search.
[Every family had to provide a hostage. All but one of the hostages are female, ranging in age from 8 to 27. The one exception is a 12-year old boy. I have just come across a video recording that I think you should see.]
The largest of the small screens in the cockpit came to life. It showed two armed men standing by one of the docking bays. One of the men was clearly an officer, identified by the insignia on his collar. He looked at the other man and said, “Traeger wants us to deliver the females to his personal estate. I got the impression that he wants to entertain them himself personally.” Both men laughed. “Too bad only four of them are legal age,” said the other man. The officer snorted. “As if that mattered to Traeger. I think he actually prefers them underage. Their parents think he’ll let them go in a year or two.” The officer shook his head. “They’ll never see their daughters or son again alive, that’s what I hear. He’ll use them and then discard them.” The recording ended.
“DAMN THAT PIECE OF SCUM!” Hoch tried not to imagine what Eriko and the other females might be going through right now. His rage was already enough to make his heart race and his breathing quicken. Allowing his emotions to determine his next move would almost certainly end in disaster for him and the hostages. He knew that, but damn, it was hard to suppress his anger. Although it was difficult to think straight, there was one question he wanted to know the answer to right away.
“Is Orobouros still docked, Keko?”
[Negative, Hoch. She undocked 89 hours ago. There are no other ships docked at the station now.]
“What can you tell me about that ship?”
[I’ve scanned the recording of her docking and undocking. There are bulges in the hull that serve no obvious purpose and therefore are likely to be weapons of some kind, although I can’t determine what kind. She appears to be the new Skies The Limit, Hoch.]
Hoch nodded. That had been Traeger’s son’s ship, which Whirlwind had turned into a drifting wreck. The difference between the two was that Skies The Limit showed no outward signs of being armed while Orobouros did, and that suggested that she was more heavily armed, too much so to hide the fact.
“If she took the hostages, she’d be arriving there any time now, correct?” asked Hoch.
[Affirmative. Do we stay and rescue the families on the surface, maybe help them get the station back while Orobouros is away, or do we head for Earth?]
Hoch didn’t hesitate. “We head for Earth first and as fast as we possibly can. The station will have to wait.”
[Auto-pilot has been programmed and Angelfire is accelerating. ETA to Earth orbit is 86.5 hours.]
Hoch nodded as he unbuckled himself and left the cockpit. By the time he reached the galley for something to eat, he realized that his hands were shaking, but not from fear. They were shaking because of the adrenaline that was coursing through his system. It was the same kind of shaking that race horses sometimes experienced while they stood in the starting gate waiting for the race to begin. He suspected that the next 87 hours would be the longest of his life.
Chapter Four:
His suspicion turned out to be correct. The trip to Earth seemed to take twice as long as normal, but eventually Angelfire dropped out of hyperspace at a distance from the sun that was about equal to Jupiter’s orbit. Earth was almost on the far side of the system, but Angelfire was high above the system’s ecliptic—the hypothetical disk formed by the orbits of all the planets—and therefore able to head directly for Earth instead of having to detour around the sun. With the ship’s superior acceleration, the trip through normal space to Earth took less than 90 minutes. As usual, Keko had turned the ship’s transponder off before dropping out of hyperspace. Hoch was loath to turn it on, but if he tried to sneak the ship in and was caught by Earth Traffic Control radars, which was a virtual certainty, there would be all kinds of hell to pay.
“Might as well turn our transponder on, Keko.”
[Which one, Hoch? I see that Toolman and his boys were able to give this ship two false ID numbers and names. The choices are Leper Colony 2 or Star Runner. Apparently our speculation in the past about whether or not the Ceridian station could fiddle with transponder ID numbers was correct.]
“Sonofabitch, eh? That bugger never told me about this. Well I’m not going to pretend that this ship is Leper Colony 2. Toolman’s going to have to change that name when we get back there, so let’s go with Star Runner.”
[SR it is, and we are now squawking that ID. We can expect to get a message from ETC in roughly 34 minutes.]
The approach to Earth went smoothly. Earth Traffic Control did not challenge the transponder ID, and the ship slipped into a low orbit on schedule. Hoch watched the screen show what the ship was passing over.
[Traeger’s country estate is in the dark side now, Hoch.]
“Perfect. Program the auto-pilot for a low approach from the north-east. If I remember correctly, there’s a line of trees that will block line-of-sight between us and the estate until we get close. Then we’ll hop over the trees and set down as close to the estate as possible. I want you to hack into the estate network as soon as you can. Let me know when you’re in.”
[I do not understand why you insist on stating the obvious when you know that I would have done exactly that anyway, Hoch.]
“Sorry. I’m a little nervous is all. The adrenaline shakes are back. I better go get ready,” he said as he unbuckled himself and left the cockpit. It didn’t take him long to put the long, flat stunner device on his lower left arm so that it would be hidden by his sleeve. He added the two small tranquilizer dart guns, each one hidden where he could reach them quickly. He finished arming himself with the deadly and vicious-looking railgun pistol that Toolman and his boys had tinkered up in their spare time. The gun accelerated a finned dart to just under the speed of sound with almost no noise. Checking the weight, Hoch found it to be heavier than he would have liked, but it needed to be that massive in order to have sufficient battery power to fire ten darts. He put the holster and gun on, looked at himself in the mirror and shook his head in amusement. His stunner and the tranquilizer dart guns were non-lethal weapons to be used against people who didn’t deserve to die, but the railgun pistol was nothing less than a killing machine. Unless the target was lucky enough to be hit in an arm or leg where t
here were no organs, the finned dart would rip the surrounding organ tissue to shreds, resulting in massive bleeding.
“Where are we now, Keko?”
[Less than 100 klicks away and below one klick in altitude, Hoch.]
“Fine. Switch the lighting to red, please, so that my eyes can adjust to night vision.” Hoch made a mental note to buy a set of night vision goggles as soon as he could afford to do so.
[Switching to red.]
It took less time than he thought to reach the landing site. As the hatch opened and the steps unfolded, he could feel a blast of cool air. It was pleasantly refreshing, and he took a couple of deep breaths before stepping out onto the lowest step. He felt the ship lightly touch down and continued to the ground. As he quickly walked to the estate building, the only sounds he heard were those made by insects. There was no sound at all from the mansion, but there were lights. Clearly someone was home.