Vyx carefully disabled the security system that would detonate in the entrance airlock if anyone attempted to break in, and opened the cargo bay door. He left the second system activated; the one that would destroy much of the bridge if anyone tampered with the controls there, and sat down to wait for the arms delivery. The two guards took up positions outside, from where they could watch the transaction. Their presence was obvious enough so that the delivery people would see them, but close to available cover if trouble started. And they'd still have a good field of fire.
Gutz and half a dozen others arrived right on time. The weapons were contained in three large 'oh-gee' vans, and Vyx examined each piece as it was unloaded from the truck and carried over to the ship. After the last piece was examined, Vyx handed the draft to Gutz, and the delivery people departed in a gust of opposed gravity waves. The security guards helped Vyx load the crates into the ship, and then received payment for their services. He stayed aboard after they left, and recorded the serial numbers from each weapon by holding it up to the light where his left eye could see it clearly.
Before leaving, he reset the security system that would detonate if anyone tried to break in to retrieve the weapons, then ordered a taxi that would take him to his hotel. Once back in his room, he inserted the recording wafer into his transmitter and sent the information to Space Command. He would have to stay here until a reply came back, a six-day wait, at least.
* * *
Jenetta gave the engineering staff a full month to study the new Temporal Envelope generator and crawl through the spotlessly clean bowels of the Colorado. On SC warships, the Envelope generator retracts into a heavily armored repository on the top of the ship when not in use. The docking collar gave the engineers a pressurized space dock in which to work, allowing them to disassemble entire sections of the generator for examination. And there wasn't a wiring panel in the ship that wasn't pulled apart and studied in their search for flaws. At the end of the thirty days, Jenetta sat down with Lieutenant Commander Cameron to discuss his findings.
"What do you think, Bill?"
"I hate to admit it, but we couldn't find a single problem. At least nothing that disagreed with the specifications, even though I don't completely understand why they did some things the way they did them. But they're in agreement with the manuals in the computer."
"What didn't you understand?" Jenetta asked.
"A lot of small things. For example, I'm confused over the way they're regulating the antimatter flow with the vacuum restrictors. They have the anti-hydrogen stream being varied according to the rate of particle deceleration in the secondary containment chamber. It doesn't make sense to me that they would tie these two system functions together, and they don't give an explanation or reason in the manual. There are a number of things like that, functions that are inconsistent with my knowledge of FTL equipment design and operation."
"I'm sure the designers had good reason for the changes. Can you ask someone back at the design labs to explain the design inconsistencies?"
"I've sent several queries, but I haven't received a single response yet."
"Other than your confusion over the design of the new engine, do you know of any reason why we shouldn't start space trials?"
"No," he mumbled, almost irritably. "As I said, everything is within spec." Brightening a little, he said, "I'd like to accompany the first trial so that I can monitor things."
"Sure, Bill. You're the chief engineer so you'll make the assignments for the engineering team. Don't bring all your top people though. We don't want to leave the Prometheus without any senior engineers if something was to happen."
Cameron stared at Jenetta with a strange expression on his face. "You're not making me feel any better about this, Jen."
Jenetta grinned widely. "You're just nervous because it's new technology that you're unfamiliar with."
"I'm nervous because the engine dynamics defy many of the principals of FTL engines, as I understand them."
"Look at it this way, Bill. This ship is supposed to travel twice as fast as any other ship its size. Right?"
"Uh, yeah," he said guardedly.
"Then it seems to me that things would have to work a little differently to accomplish that."
"Yes, ma'am," he said grinning, "but I don't have to like it until I understand it."
Two days later, the Prometheus dropped out of FTL speed just long enough to launch the Colorado. A minimal crew of thirty-two had been selected for this first trip, with sixteen of them being engineering crewmen. Jenetta would act as the commanding officer, and the first test would last for ten days, unless a major problem developed. The Colorado was to travel on a course parallel to that of the Prometheus, one kilometer off the larboard side. The scout ship would accelerate to Light-37 and hold that speed for one hour, increasing the speed by Light-37 each hour thereafter until it reached Light-407. It would then maintain that speed for the remainder of the trial. The Colorado would remain in constant telemetric communication with Prometheus, relaying engine and ship sensor data as quickly as it was collected.
* * *
Since Vyx no longer had to hide from Rivemwilth's bodyguards, and it would take months or maybe years before any of the Tsgardi could arrive from their home planet, if they were even coming to avenge Recozzi, Vyx began to hang out around the city instead of holing up in his hotel room while he waited for new orders. As the days passed he became accepted as a regular at several taverns. The taverns he patronized didn't close at dark, but the number of patrons dropped significantly in the later hours. Only a small group of taverns stayed open until midnight, and a couple actually stayed open all night as there were no laws prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol at any hour on any day of the week. The early closures were simply a matter of economics. There just wasn't enough business for more taverns to remain open throughout the night.
Vyx didn't receive a message with new orders for almost ten days, then scowled and muttered an epithet when he read them. He was ordered to remain at the Gollasko Colony and observe the movements of criminals, particularly Rivemwilth, until further orders were received. His jaw dropped as he continued reading the message and learned that the current Frontier Zone was about to become regulated Galactic Alliance space. He was told to keep this in strictest confidence, and that the news would be broadcast when the GAC resolution was formally proposed and adopted.
* * *
Four days into the ten-day trial run, the crew of the Colorado was exhausted, most of them having spent long hours in the constant monitoring of every function of the ship. The engineering staff had been kept busy adjusting and re-calibrating equipment, and in some cases, repairing it.
Jenetta went looking for Lieutenant Commander Cameron at the end of her watch on the fourth day and found him seated at a computer console in Engineering with his head resting on his chest as he tried to keep his eyes open and focused on the monitor.
"Bill, you look terrible. How much sleep did you get last night?"
"I managed to get a few hours in when I dozed off here at the console. I'm still trying to understand the process although I can't fault the performance of the engines. I wish everything else was performing as well. We've maintained a steady speed of Light-407 since the first day. You know, Jen, this design will revolutionize travel in Space Command ships. The drive system requires substantially less energy, so smaller power plants won't be the hindrance to faster envelope generation that they've been in the past. From what I can see, our older ships can be retrofit for minimal cost since the basic temporal generator design is the same on all military ships. Every ship in the fleet should be capable of our speed."
"That's great, but right now you need some more sleep. I want you to go to your quarters and stay there for at least eight hours. And no using your computer while you're there." Jenetta smiled. "That's an order, Commander."
Lieutenant Commander Cameron looked up at her and grinned. "Aye, Captain, I'm going."
> Jenetta patted him on the shoulder and left, returning to her own quarters. She needed some sleep also, but first she needed to exercise her cats. They had been cooped up in her quarters since coming aboard. She changed into her sweats, then led the cats to the flight bay where they all ran for more than a half hour before returning to Jenetta's quarters. After a quick shower she climbed into bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep while the cats stretched out and slept beside her bed.
At the end of the ten-day test, the two ships dropped to sub-light speeds and Lt. Kerrey effortlessly maneuvered the Colorado into the special docking collar on the Prometheus. The engines had performed flawlessly, but there had been various equipment failures elsewhere throughout the ship. The malfunctions were the sort always found in new ships with all new equipment. Some were due to improper installation and others were just the result of component failure during an initial burn-in period. The Prometheus' storerooms were adequately stocked with everything they would need to repair the systems aboard the Colorado, and Jenetta approved access by the entire engineering staff so that the repairs could be handled more expeditiously. There would be another trial run in a month's time, once all the collected data had been reviewed and the repairs completed.
As soon as the ship was secure, Jenetta took her cats to her quarters and then reported to the bridge. The captain was in his briefing room, and she walked to his doors and waited for them to open. As she came to an easy attention in font of the captain's desk, she said, "Commander Carver reporting back, sir."
"Hi, Jen. Sit down. How did it go? I've read your daily reports, of course."
"As I said in my reports, the test was very successful, sir. We had various problems, but they were to be expected, and nothing to be alarmed over. I think that Lieutenant Commander Cameron has actually begun to like the new drive system."
The captain smiled. "That's something, I guess. Chief engineers rarely like anything radically new. They have to tinker with it for a while and maybe take it apart and put it back together a couple of times before they can convince themselves that it really is better."
"Yes sir, but he still has some reservations. It would have been better if the shipyard had given him some hands on training time during your layover there."
"The design is so new that they haven't developed any training programs or materials. This thing with moving the borders is forcing everyone to cut corners. We just have to hope that safety isn't compromised. The shipyard wanted to keep the Colorado for ninety more days and really test it, but they had to start work on new ships and begin retrofitting the decommissioned ships for active duty. Once we received new orders dispatching us to the Frontier Zone, they either had to release it to us, or see it sit around for a few years until we got back. So it fell to us to conduct the space trials after they certified that the new design passed the initial tests. I've been forwarding all your reports and operational data to them."
"Lieutenant Cameron feels that older ships can be retrofit with the new design so that all our ships will be able to achieve the Colorado's top speed."
"That would be great," Gavin said. "The battleships would no longer have to slow down to accommodate the less powerful ships in a task force."
"The engineering staff will be working on the Colorado during the next few weeks and we'll have another space trial when the work is done. I think that I'll let Commander Eaton take it out next time, if you approve, sir."
"That's fine. He's a good officer and the experience will be good for him. We'll be nearby if there's a problem with the ship."
"Yes sir."
"Do you feel ready to resume your duties as Second Watch Commander, or do you need a day to get re-acclimated?"
"I'm ready now, sir."
"Fine, inform Lieutenant Commander Sharpe that he'll return to first watch tomorrow morning as my senior bridge officer."
"Yes sir."
"I'll see you at 1600 hours. Dismissed."
"Yes sir." Jenetta stood, turned, and left the briefing room. Walking to her office, she called up her computer messages to see what problems had accumulated in her absence. As the list appeared, she saw that Commander Eaton had done a pretty good job as acting first officer, and she wouldn't have to spend a week handling a myriad of small troubles, but she did spend the hours until her watch clearing up the few problems that remained unresolved.
* * *
The Prometheus' engineering staff performed another complete analysis of the Colorado's systems and equipment during the weeks after the first space trial, while the Prometheus' crew slipped into the normal routines found on any long voyage. Long range sensors would occasionally pick up a distant ship, and under normal circumstances the Prometheus would have investigated, but this wasn't a normal patrol so they didn't even hail them.
Near the end of their second month in space, the Prometheus received numerous news broadcasts that announced the adoption of the resolution extending Alliance borders by a hundred parsecs and converted the former frontier into regulated Alliance space. Those criminals that hadn't already gotten the word would now be scurrying to reach the redefined Frontier Zone. The Prometheus was still almost two months from the point where it would cross into the previous Frontier Zone.
Jenetta received messages on a regular basis from her parents, brothers, and sisters, and had plenty of time to respond. She could almost predict which day of the week she would hear from which sibling or parent. She usually sent a single message to both her parents, but they responded separately. Her mother usually gave her the local gossip while her father talked about how politics were affecting the Space Command bureaucracy. Jenetta was surprised when she received a message from her mom on a Wednesday because she normally heard from her on Saturday.
"Hi honey. I just had to call and tell you the news. Your father is returning to active duty with Space Command. Isn't that wonderful? They put out a call for retired former line officers who were still younger than seventy-five-years-old. Dad called immediately and was promised one of the older cruisers that will be re-commissioned after a retrofit. He's been running around like a schoolboy since then. I'm so happy for him. I think that he was tired of playing golf everyday but didn't know what else to do with himself. Now that he's seen what retirement is like, perhaps he'll stay in Space Command until he reaches the new mandatory retirement age. He might even get that star that he wanted once. I always told him that he was much too young to retire. I knew that he wouldn't be happy playing golf every day for sixty years or more. He acted as if we were living hundreds of years ago when people only lived to seventy or eighty instead of a normal hundred-thirty-five.
"I know that you communicate regularly with your brothers and sisters but just in case you haven't heard, everyone is healthy and happy. Billy, Richie, Andy, Christa, and Eliza are all headed to the new space territory, like you. Only Jimmy's ship is staying on its routine patrol of the deca-section around 8667-2351, and he's upset with missing all the excitement, but Dad says that patrol duty there is just as important as out where you are.
"Marisa finally moved out of that tiny apartment and into the house that she and Richie picked out after they married last year. She had to wait until the former owners completed construction of their new house, and then there was a lot of remodeling and redecorating to be done. But it's finally completed, and it turned out simply gorgeous. She has such wonderful taste, and a real flair for decorating. It's too bad you can't be here for the housewarming party, but even Richie can't make it.
"Oops, there's the timer so I have to go. Take care of your self, dear. I love you."
The image on the screen winked out, and Jenetta immediately recorded a message to her father, welcoming him back to the fleet and congratulating him on his appointment as a cruiser captain. After routing the message to the outgoing queue, Jenetta walked to the Colorado's docking bay where preparations were underway for the start of the second space trial. Bill Cameron was there, conversing with a couple of his people. Aft
er completing his conversation, he joined Jenetta where she was standing.
"Almost ready to depart, Commander," he said. "My chief assistant, Lieutenant Grassley, will head up the engineering team this trip. I think that we solved most of the problems with our last trip."
"Okay, Bill. If anything happens we'll be right alongside, like last time."
Jenetta boarded the smaller ship and walked to the bridge where Commander Eaton stood with his helmsman and navigator, discussing the equipment. Tim Eaton stopped talking and turned to Jenetta as she approached.
"Almost ready to get underway, Tim?"
"Yes, ma'am. We'll be ready to separate at 1100 hours as scheduled."
"Good. I'll inform the Captain that we should drop out of light at 1045. Have a good trip. I'll see you in thirty days."
"Yes, ma'am," Tim said smiling. "We won't be far away if you need us."
"Enjoy your first command, Captain."
"Thank you, ma'am. I've been looking forward to it."
Jenetta smiled and left the ship. An officer's first command was always special and marked a point of passage, even if you were just a kilometer from your regular post. Jenetta thought nostalgically about her first time as a ship's captain when she had been asked to assume control of the freighter Vordoth after it had been attacked by Raiders.
At 1045 hours the Prometheus dropped out of FTL speed. When the Colorado confirmed that the ship was sealed and that the air in the docking collar had been evacuated to containment tanks, the collar seals retracted and the docking clamps were released, allowing the ship to float free of the Prometheus. In several minutes the smaller ship had moved to a kilometer off the larboard side and then both ships accelerated to Light-412. They would travel together as a pair for the next thirty days as the crew of the Colorado monitored every bit of equipment on the ship and transmitted the live information to the Prometheus' computer.
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