by M. D. Cooper
Tanis and Smithers worked out the final aspects of the contract while Cargo took a car back to Sabrina with S&H’s implementation coordinator and head engineer.
When Tanis arrived back at the ship a few hours later, the dockside was strewn with old components and crates full of new ones. The minute she stepped through the lock, Tanis was accosted by Cheeky.
“I don’t care what Thompson says, you’re amazing,” the pilot said. “I can’t believe you got them to agree to your entire list.”
“Think they’ll actually be able to meet the two-day deadline?” Tanis asked.
“They will or we take their installation team with us. There’s no way we’re gonna leave the captain longer than that.”
“I got them to provide us with a full antimatter fueling as well, and with the increase power on the shielding systems, we should be able to accelerate much faster.”
“I’d better check the tuning on our AP nozzle, then. We may need to upgrade that.”
“Over plan. We have unlimited credit.”
Cheeky rubbed her hands together. “I may not be able to contain myself.”
Tanis laughed and let Cheeky get back to her glee over the upgrades. As she passed the galley, she overheard Thompson and Nance arguing with Flaherty.
“I don’t care what her motivations are. She has no right to just take over the ship with the captain gone. Cargo is practically letting her run the show, and who knows if Sera’s still alive anymore?” Nance’s voice rose to an unpleasant pitch and Tanis stopped before she walked past the doorway, not wanting to eavesdrop, but too curious to back away.
She really needed to know how the crew felt about her. If there were even half a chance that they’d turn on her, she’d walk off the ship right now and buy transportation to Bollam’s World. The information she had for the Intrepid was too important to lose just because of some pissing contest about who got to be in charge of the rescue mission.
“She’s right,” Thompson said. “I don’t know why Sera ever even dealt with The Mark. Look where it’s gotten her now.”
“You need to relax,” Flaherty said. “Tanis isn’t the problem. Getting Sera back from Rebecca is all that matters. Tanis is trying to help. Without her, we may as well just write the captain off because we have no way of assaulting a fortified station.”
“You don’t know that. We should have squeezed that Drind guy more. Did you know that she convinced Cargo to let him go? They even gave him a reference so he could find work on the station here,” Nance said.
“That was a good tactical plan. He is now indebted to us and less likely to cause us any trouble. Keeping him would have been a problem. His loyalties aren’t clear enough to have him around in a battle. If things go poorly, he could turn on us at a critical point.” Flaherty’s voice remained calm and steady.
“So, you’re admitting things could go poorly!” Nance said.
“It would be foolish of me to assume otherwise,” Flaherty said. “I may not be a major from the Terran Space Force, but I’ve seen my share of battle, and I know that one liability will offset a dozen good men. We are well rid of Drind no matter what possible uses for him you can imagine.”
Nance didn’t have a response for that right away. There was the clinking of cutlery on plates for a few minutes before she spoke up. “It’s possible that I’m taking my frustrations out on her, and I’ll keep that in mind. But I still don’t like the way she just takes charge, it’s not her place.”
Flaherty chuckled. “She has no choice. It’s who she is. You don’t advance as an officer in the navy unless you have a good head on your shoulders and know how to use it. She sees a situation that needs her expertise and she takes charge.”
“You can defend her all you want,” Thompson said. “It’s not making me like her any better.”
“You don’t have to like her,” Flaherty said with deadly calm. “You just have to not mess things up when it comes to rescuing the captain. If you do, you’ll have me to worry about.”
Tanis didn’t wait to hear more. She slipped back down the ladder and took a different route to the bridge that didn’t pass the galley. She hoped that Flaherty’s calm could offset some of the more volatile crewmembers, or this was going to be the worst rescue of all time.
READY AND ABLE
STELLAR DATE: 07.17.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina, PeterSil EK Belt Mining Platform
REGION: Silstrand System, Silstrand Alliance Space
Two days later, Sabrina was fully decked out in the best S&H had to offer. Tanis had even wrangled a full charge on the SC batteries, and added mines to the defensive countermeasure system. Cargo filed the final disembarking entries with the PeterSil platform and they undocked for the tug to take them out.
On the bridge, Cargo sat in the captain’s chair; his expression was one of grim determination, but underneath, Tanis could see more than a little trepidation.
Tanis replied.
Tanis shifted in her seat; the hard chair did not conform to her body; she was served another reminder how out of her time she was.
“Easy now, girl,” Cargo’s deep tones resonated through the bridge. “We’ll be on our way soon enough.”
Tanis chuckled and shared an amused look with Cheeky.
“Farewell and good hunting,” the tug pilot gave her final farewell as she released grapple.
“A good day to you, too,” Tanis replied from the comm console.
“Oh, it will be. You’re the last haul for me today, and it’s a holiday weekend on-station,” the tug pilot replied.
“See you next time, Amy,” Cheeky said. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
The tug pilot laughed in response. “Cheeky, I won’t do half the things you do do.”
They gave the final sign-off and Cheeky laughed.
“She said do-do.”
“Ah, Cheeky,” Tanis sighed. “You’d make any captain in the service proud, but you wouldn’t last a day.”
Cheeky switched on the grav drive and set Sabrina on her course.
“I’d love to fly one of those big birds your military buddies have,” Cheeky said with a nod. “But all those rules aren’t my game. Now stealing one…that would be some fun.”
Tanis shook her head and smiled. Who knew what the future would hold.
“How’s she shaking out?” Cargo asked.
“Just fine,” Cheeky replied at the same time Sabrina sang,
Cargo let a small smile slip—perhaps the first since Sera’s abduction. “Is that your technical assessment, Sabrina?”
“Uh…great,” Cargo said.
Tanis’s heart ached for the ship. Ninety years alone, no sensors, no input, just her thoughts…it was a wonder she was still sane.
Tanis replied.
With an exasperated roll of her eyes, Tanis turned to her work, running preflight checks on the scan suite and making sure the boards showed green for the weapons systems. She couldn’t perform a full check of those systems until they were further out—the station was already more than a little nervous about the amount of firepower Sabrina now sported.
Their rush to get the upgrades installed, and the haste with which S&H actually performed the upgrades, caused the PeterSil platform to ask a few pointed questions. Tanis and Cargo had tried to convince them the weapons were for defense against pirates and that Sabrina would be leaving the Silstrand Alliance as soon as the installation was complete, but their assurances did little to win the authorities over—Sabrina didn’t exactly have a sterling reputation.
Ultimately, to ensure they met their end of the bargain, S&H stepped in and smoothed things over. Smithers pulled some strings to secure a letter of marquee for Sabrina—no small feat from what Tanis could tell. Once they had approval from the Alliance government for the weapons, the PeterSil platform backed down.
Given that S&H appeared to represent much of the platform’s revenue, Tanis found herself wondering how normal this sort of maneuvering really was.
“System STC has given us the green for AP,” Tanis said as the comm lit up.
“Acknowledged,” Cargo replied. “Cheeky, let’s hit it.”
“Aye, aye sir,” the pilot said with a mischievous grin.
One of the upgrades provided increased shielding around the ship’s small annihilation chamber. The rough math Tanis had drawn up showed that Sabrina could now accelerate at over twice her previous rate—yet, the fragile humans within would feel nearly none of that thrust.
Now Sabrina really did sing as the ship boosted at 500g on its outsystem vector.
Tanis appreciated Sabrina’s excitement, but kept her eyes on the pair of Silstrand Space Force corvettes that were shadowing them. The PeterSil platform may have approved their upgrades, and the local magistrate had provided their authorization to hunt pirates, but it seemed that the Alliance’s military wasn’t prepared to fully trust them.
Given what Tanis had witnessed thus far in the ninetieth century, she didn’t blame them.
Even with their silent guests, or perhaps because of it, their departure was smooth and uneventful. A scant five hours later, they made their transition into FTL at 0.29c, the first of two FTL hops.
Soon, they’d be able the put the rest of their new toys to use as well.
LYING LOW
STELLAR DATE: 07.17.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Regal Dawn, Interstellar Space
REGION: Rim-Ward of Gedri, Silstrand Alliance Space
Sera woke as she felt the ship transition out of FTL into regular space. Helen’s read-only tap into the wireless net revealed that the pirate ship was making vector adjustments before one more FTL jump, which would bring them to the Gedri system, a common haunt for pirates.
Back on Coburn Station—before all this had begun—Sera recalled hearing that the Silstrand Alliance government was coming under heavy fire for their poor policing policies—Padre’s attack on Trio probably added fuel to that fire.
Newscasts had reported that, with the upcoming election, the Alliance government was increasing patrols and providing many better-armed freighters with privateer marques, allowing them the spoils from any pirate ships they managed to disable and capture.
Those privateers also knew that Gedri was a common haunt for pirates.
There was a possibility that running into a patrol or privateer in Gedri would result in rescue, but it was just as possible that it would get her killed. What concerned her even more was the chance of the CriEn module being destroyed so close to Gedri Prime. Such an event could create a singularity that would eventually destroy the entire Silstrand Alliance.
So far, the ship hadn’t detected their presence. It would seem its internal sensors were not the best, or it wasn’t even looking, or the organic food in the hold was masking their presence. Being a pirate ship, Sera was certain that its sensors were the type that looked out more than in.
Sera found some salted nuts and crunched on them as quietly as possible. The nano in her body extracted sodium from her digestive system and mixed it with water, using the reaction to generate power for themselves and Helen; having an AI as powerful as Helen as well as extensive nano made for a salty diet.
Helen exclaimed.
Sera stood slowly, her body—still recovering from torture and the stims Helen had provided to keep her moving—ached everywhere after sitting still for nearly half an hour. Her right leg refused to move and she slapped it a few times to regain feeling.
“Whooaaaa…I forgot about what that would feel like,” she said aloud as her hypersensitive skin amplified the sensation.
Sera sighed.
Sera laughed softly.
Sera grunted as she popped the last fastener out and loosened the cover enough for a probe to slip in and disable any tamper detectors.
Sera lowered the cover to the ground and fed some nano through her finger onto the data conduit junction box inside. The tiny machines slipped through the seams in the box and created a port for one of the remaining probes.
Sera laughed softly.