by T. R. Harris
“I need my whole team. They won’t all fit in the ET. And we need a non-military vessel, one that won’t attract too much attention.”
“Then get a ship from general assignment. I give you permission.”
“Gee, thanks. It’s good to see we’re still on the same side.”
“You arrogant son-of-bitch,” Hill growled. “It’s either your way or no way, is that it? What makes you think you’re so much smarter than the rest of us?”
Adam could think of a small colony of mutant brain cells in his head for starters. But he kept that information to himself.
“Fine, I get it. Just find the Klin and report back to Formil. Aye aye, sir.”
Adam gave Hill a cock-eyed salute and then turned on his heal and left.
Even though he had the go-ahead for his mission, there was more to the diplomat’s acceptance of Adam’s mission than he admitted. Adam had hinted in his report that the starting point for the search could very well be a trap. Hill hadn’t mentioned that. If Adam and his people were captured, it would be foolish to count on any help from the Expansion, or even the Union for that matter. Their demise would fit nicely into Hill’s plans. They would no longer be around to interfere with the Council’s plans.
Of course, Adam wasn’t in the business of making life easier for those who pissed him off. In fact, he often went out of his way to be the thorn-in-the-side of anyone who made him mad. And at the moment, Adam Cain was as mad as a hornet.
4
He conveyed the news to the team by way of his ATD, and then had to listen to several minutes of bitching and moaning in his mind from multiple sources. Even Copernicus chimed in, evidently having mastered the rudimentary skill of telepathic communication using his ATD.
Next, he took the elevator to the ground floor of the huge government building and caught a transport to the far side of the commercial spaceport on the south end of the Temple Complex. This was where the office for general assignment transports was located. The building was old and in ill-repair, just the type of place you’d expect to find a disgruntled bureaucrat ready to take out her frustrations on anyone who approached the counter. It was Adam’s turn in the barrel.
“I’m Adam Cain. I’m here to requisition a long-range starship.”
The female alien on the other side of the counter was impossibly slender with near-translucent skin, making it appear bluish under the harsh overhead lighting. She was old, Adam guessed, based on the abundance of wrinkles on her face. Of course, this could be how all the members of her species looked. He’d never seen her kind before.
“I have no ships to requisition,” the alien declared. “All are being used for system defense or evacuation purposes on other planets. Come back in a six days; I might have something then.”
“I can’t wait six days. Don’t you have anything at all?”
“What ships I do have in inventory are already reserved.”
“But I’m Adam Cain. Surely you’ve heard of me. This is important.”
“I have heard the name, although I suspect you are not him.”
Adam’s jaw fell open. “Why not?”
“The alien is much bigger than you.”
Adam had run across this before. It seemed that the larger the legend, the larger the creature had to be.
“But I am Adam Cain. The mission I’m about to embark on is of the utmost importance, involving the security of the entire galaxy. Is there no way you can bump one of the reserved vessels and give it to me.”
“No,” the female snapped. Her tone said it all. There would be no bumping taking place today.
“Yet…,” the clerk began, “there are a number of vessels in storage at the Solic-Min moon.”
“What’s that?”
“It is the primary moon of the planet Andos within the system; the gas giant.”
“Yes, I know the planet Andos. But what is this storage facility?”
“It is not a facility, but a cluster of old and derelict vessels in orbit. They are used primarily as a source of spare parts. I will call up the inventory.”
A viewable monitor came to life on the wall next to Adam, and he watched as the pictures and data on dozens of ships scrolled by. The clerk was right. These vessels were nothing more than scrap, lingering in orbit above a large, ice-covered moon. Adam had to laugh; this would have been mechanic-porn for Kaylor and Jym. They made their living culling together derelict starships and making them operational again. As a matter of fact, so did Copernicus Smith.
“Stop!” Adam said as a ship scrolled by. The clerk reversed the feed, stopping at the indicated vessel.
It was a large freighter, easily five hundred feet long and with two huge humps along the aft section of the hull housing the gravity generators. It wasn’t pretty, but it would provide the perfect cover for his operation.
The skinny alien read the survey report. “Only one of the NX-41 generators is operational. The vessel has been certified air-tight, with basic electronics intact. Transponder registered to the Morlain Confederation—expired. You must know that moving a vessel that big on one generator would be extremely slow. Yet looking at your options, you do not have many with more potential.”
“I’ll take her,” Adam said. “Can you provide me with updated registration?”
“I can. The fee is nine hundred Juirean credits.”
“But this is an official government-sanctioned mission.”
“And I represent the government. The fee must be paid before you will be allowed to move the vessel.”
Adam was sure the sour look he gave the bureaucrat was lost in translation. But at least he had a ship.
Fortunately, the trip from Formil to the moon Solic-Min only took less than an hour in the Juirean ET starship. Unfortunately, all seven members of the team had to squeeze into the small crew pod designed for only two. Luckily, the two creatures it was designed for were the seven-foot-tall Juireans, which helped a little.
Adam made a slow loop around the derelict starship as most of the team pressed their faces against the round viewing canopy to get a look. Arieel could care less, but the rest of the team gawked at the vessel with emotions ranging from disappoint to excitement.
Starships don’t rust in space, but since the freighter was designed for surface landings, it was obvious that at some time in the past, this one had spent a lot of time planetside and exposed to the elements. It was almost a uniform ruddy orange in color, with some sections having been completely eaten away. The clerk had also said the ship was air-tight. She obviously meant that sections of the ship were so, because it was evident most of the freighter was open to the vacuum of space.
From the survey, Adam knew there were two small landing bays at the stern, with a large cargo bay between them. Along the hull going forward were eight smaller cargo holds, four to a side, with dedicated airlocks for each. Three of the outer pressure doors on these cargo bays were missing.
Adam steered the ET toward the forward section and hovered above the bridge, focusing a spotlight through the large, three-sided viewport. There was no power on and all he could see was the uniform grey of the cold interior.
“You said NX-41’s?” Jym asked, breaking the silence.
“Uh huh, but only one’s working.”
“Forty-ones are the most-common generators for a ship this size. We should be able to find another one within the shipyard.”
“On the surface, they require heavy machinery to move,” Copernicus added. “But in space, a small turbo-tractor should do. Freighters like this should have several tractors onboard.”
“If they have not already been scavenged,” Kaylor said.
“We’ll see,” Coop offered. “But like Jym said, there should be a few 41’s nearby. They’re not the type of generator you can use in a standard starship. They’re too big and bulky.”
“I’m glad you guys are enthusiastic about the challenges we face,” Adam said with humor in his voice. “Just remember, we don’t have a lot of time.”
5
Adam had already scanned the freighter with his ATD. The ship was as dead as a graveyard, so before anything could be done the batteries needed recharging.
The ET had a small, one person airlock in the back and Kaylor dressed in a spacesuit and squeezed his way out the exit hatch. He attached a power cable to a receptacle on the skin of the ET and then glided weightless to the access hatch at the rear of the huge ship. Using tools he carried with him, he manually cranked open the hatch and entered the airlock. Since there was no air inside, he simply cycled the next door open and entered one of the dual docking bays for the freighter.
Using the magnetics in his boots, he lumbered across the deck until he came to a power module hookup and plugged in the cable. He hovered in place as the batteries began to charge. It would take an hour just to get enough juice to open the docking bay door so the ET could be brought inside. After that, more systems would begin to come online until the one working generator could be jump-started, providing a surge of electricity throughout the derelict ship.
Three hours later, Adam exited the ET, which was now magnetically secured to the deck of the landing bay. All the team members would wear environment suits until they could assess the integrity of the various compartments. They fanned out, now able to use their ATDs to track power coursing throughout the vessel. Another two hours passed before they met up on the bridge, which was now pressurized and filled with stale smelling air.
Adam removed his helmet. The others followed suit.
“Okay, we have a lot of work to do and very little time. Coop?”
“There are four turbo-tractors aboard—each needing recharging—but they look to be operational. Kaylor and I will take a couple out once they’re charged and look for another NX-41 generator. Jym will be working on getting the other one operational to the point where we can have localized gravity aboard. We don’t want to engage all the internals until we get the beast-of-a-generator locked into place.”
“Good,” Adam replied. “Riyad and Sherri, I need you to do an interior survey of the hull integrity. Identify secure compartments and flag those that aren’t. Arieel and I will work on getting the bridge systems up and running, including diagnostics. I want to be on our way in three days, at the max.”
“Three days!” Copernicus exclaimed. “That’s asking a lot.”
Adam smiled and placed a hand on the shoulder of the starship repairman-slash-deep cover spy. “Hey, I have the best crew money can buy. We’ll get it done.”
“Did I miss something?” Jym asked. “I cannot remember the last time I was paid for helping you.”
“I’m holding your credits in escrow to keep you from spending them wildly. But just think, you’ll have a really nice retirement when all this is done.”
“If I live long enough to collect.”
It turned out that sixty percent of the internal compartments were air-tight and able to withstand pressurization. This included the galley and nineteen crew compartments. It seemed that in its prime, the freighter had only one- or two-man berthing compartments for the crew, not counting the officer’s quarters. It also had a top-of-the-line food processing system, or at least top-of-the-line for when the ship was operational. In its day, it would have been borderline luxurious to crew the freighter. But the ship was seventy standard years old, and according to the last log entry, hadn’t been in service for the last twenty. After spending five years on a planet just collecting dust and rust, she’d been forced into orbit and moved here. Fortunately, the deterioration ended once she reached the vacuum of space; however, the vessel had suffered the occasional micro-meteorite bombardment over the years that poked tiny holes in the hull. Forty of these punctures could be repaired, which would bring the structural integrity of the ship up to seventy-five percent. Adam was okay with that. None of the remaining twenty-five percent contained any mission-critical compartments.
By the end of the first day, internal gravity was active in the forward half of the ship, leaving only micro-effects reaching aft and to the engine compartments. Coop and Kaylor had found what appeared to be an operational NX-41 gravity generator in one of the nearby derelicts. They discovered that the problem wouldn’t be installing the huge piece of machinery within the freighter; rather it would be getting it out of its current location. It was embedded within the hull of an old military vessel, with added structural support beams to handle the ship’s mission parameters. It was also the reason grav-gens were less likely to fall into the hands of pirates and scavengers. They were just too damn big to move.
Jym had the operational generator aboard the freighter humming in less than five hours, at which point he moved to his next challenge.
Riyad and Adam stood in the starboard engine room, staring up at the towering bulk in front of them.
“The old generator has to be removed to make room for the new one,” said Jym, stating the obvious.
“And how exactly do we do that?” Adam asked.
“There are release bolts on the outside hull—about ninety of them,” Riyad answered, much to Adam’s surprise. He looked at his friend with a frown.
Riyad shrugged. “Flashbacks to my pirating days,” he said with his trademark smile. “We had to know how to grab what we could as fast as we could. Even still, generators were low on our list.”
“He is right,” Jym said. “The tie-down nuts must be removed and salvaged. I have located a number of tools left aboard that can accomplish the task, but it will involve all of us aboard to remove the outer panel in a reasonable time.”
“Coop and Kaylor are working on getting us a new generator,” Adam pointed out. “The five of us will have to do the job.”
Twenty minutes later, the five remaining team members were dressed in environment suits, with tethers attached to locking rings on the hull, a reciprocating wrench held by each—even Arieel. Sherri could handle herself around a spaceship, but this was all new to the Formilian. Adam got the impression she didn’t even know what a wrench was for. And why would she? She’d spent her entire life in the care of the Temple priests, never having to get her hands dirty.
Adam stepped up to her, his body held to the hull by the magnets in his boots.
“Place the female part over the male nut and bolt,” he instructed her.
“Yes, I understand the concept, but why the gender designations…oh I see.”
“Yeah, it makes sense, at least for most species.”
Arieel matched Adam’s smile through the lens of the helmet.
“The wrench will secure itself around the nut automatically. When the light turns yellow, press the button. There are weights inside that will counter the inertia of the motor. Just don’t change the angle of the wrench while it’s—”
Arieel already had the wrench cap over the bolt, with the yellow light glowing on the control handle. But then she tried to manually turn the unit using the handlebars. The internal counterweights were thrown off and the tool spun out of control. Arieel was thrown off the hull, the force strong enough to break the magnetics in her boots. Adam reached out to grab her but missed. She flew into space until the tether hooked to her utility belt stopped her from tumbling more than fifty feet from the ship.
Adam heard a deep-throated grunt as the cord pulled on her body.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes…I think,” was Arieel’s muted response. Then: “That was exciting!”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. But next time remember to keep the tool in place as the nut is removed. You could have really hurt yourself.”
“Something I will endeavor to prevent in the future.”
Adam smiled. “Good girl. That’s the spirit.”
“Could you now pull me back in? I’m not as adept at spacewalking as are the others…although I am anxious to learn.”
Adam obliged, and within minutes, he felt t
he vibration through the hull as the five of them began to remove the securing nuts. There were ninety-two in total, and two hours later they had them removed.
Riyad then piloted the Juirean ET ship from the docking bay and attached strong metal cables to the huge hull panel over the generator. Using air propellant rather than the more-powerful chem drive, he slowly pulled the section away, exposing the top of the dead generator. Jym had already removed the deck bolts to the generator, and after the cables were attached to the unit, Riyad pulled it from the ship.
He towed the fifty-foot tall mass of gray metal out a fair distance from the freighter and set it adrift, eventually fated to crash to the surface of the ice-covered moon below.
“All right, Kaylor. The opening’s been made.” Adam relayed through his ATD.
Copernicus and the alien were a hundred miles away, using the turbo-tractors to do a less than aesthetic operation on the hull of the other derelict warship. Huge sections of hull were being pulled back, their securing bolts attached to interior beams being ripped through the metal sheets.
“Almost there. Give us another hour and we’ll be heading back.”
“Excellent. The first round of drinks is on me.”
“Are there intoxicants aboard?” Kaylor asked, his interest piqued. “That would be excellent if that were true.”
It was.
As would be on the shopping list of any good merchant marine, there were indeed intoxicants programmed into the ship’s food processor. Another benefit of spending years in the cold and vacuum of space was that food stock and liquids didn’t spoil. Instead they froze solid, waiting for the time when they would be called upon again. Therefore, the huge freighter had a fully-stocked food locker and ample refreshments for the weary crew by the time they knocked off for the day.
The second gravity generator hovered outside the ship five hundred yards away, and after some rest and relaxation, the crew would nudge the unit into place and secure the outer hull panel.