Star Traders (Corporate Marines Book 3)

by Tom Germann

  “It sounds like a lot of information, and it is, but you can always go back and review through the sims later to make sure you understand.

  “The most interesting information is always the pirate attacks. When I was on Earth, I saw lots of drama and horror shows about the space pirates and their evil plans. Really, they mostly seemed like they were funny boogeymen. There are no pirate attacks on Earth. The invasion happened so long ago that it almost isn’t real to me. I have seen the footage, the museum and the monuments like everyone else has, but it just never seemed real to me.

  “Then I came out here to space and everything changed. I believe that the aliens are out here, and whoever they were, they are still out there in the dark, waiting for something.

  “So when the pirate briefs start, everyone pays a lot of attention. It has been almost two years since the last reported pirate attack happened on any facility out in space. Twenty-plus years since anything happened in the Sol System.

  “Our militaries and the Marines are too much for any of them out there. They know we would track them down and kill them all, take their ships, and destroy whatever site they are using in space. That is how you deal with pirates.

  “There are always rumors, though, out in space that the pirates are out there somewhere, building up, capturing more and more ships, getting ready to carry out some big offensive operation and capture something huge. They always seem to have knowledge of ancient and terrible technologies from civilizations that died out centuries before we went to space. When they man these ancient weapons, then they are going to have the firepower to take over and control an entire solar system.

  “Usually the story is that the Kah-Choo Empire met them long ago, and that is why they worked so hard to get control of three solar systems. Even though they are still struggling to fully master all three, they have such large resources and such a huge population base that the pirates could not safely take them on and would have to choose one of the single star systems entities out there.

  “I don’t know if I believe the stories I have heard, but I always feel deep down inside that there is so much out there we do not know about. There has to be more, and it will be different. Hopefully good, but it could be bad. All I really know is that I am going to be one of those people out there, and I am going to see what comes next.

  “I am going to help make it right, and take humanity out to the stars like the rest of the people running these routes.

  “Humanity is going to take its place out among the stars. We just need to be brave enough to succeed.”

  Derek paused for a second and smiled, then continued.

  “I know that I sound almost fanatical about the whole space-travel thing. I am. Everyone who goes to space that stays out there is a fanatic. It’s natural wanderlust that affects all of us. To be one of the first few to see a new star or planet. Every mining facility offers a new planet.

  “I think, for the first few generations, most of us that are willing to go out there and stay out there are those in whom wanderlust is a family gene. As more and more of us go, then more will follow.”

  Derek is frozen for a second with a big grin on his face before he fades out and everything fades to black.

  His voice starts up again as different pictures of a star ship from different angles slowly flow across the screen.

  “Bulk Trader Hull Two Dash Four Delta, aka Mama Pig. The crew and most of the hands that meet us when we come calling call her Mama Pig because she is big and long and ugly. She does not move very fast and really, she handles about the same as if you were trying to ride a big sow. She would just flop over and lie there. Her strength is that, like a mama pig, she is really fat and can carry a lot, so when all the little piglets come over to feed, they can all cram up against her and eat. No one has to go hungry. That’s exactly what she is like to all the habitats, mines and the colony. She brings them their cargo that keeps them alive and lets them grow.

  “After the Pig loads up in Sol System—and that is usually out by Saturn to keep us out of the busier space lanes and away from all the space junk that still floats around—she will then head out-system, carrying personnel for rotation out to one of the many projects, foodstuffs, scientific or mining equipment, and more colonists, all the way over to consumer goods for the people who are out of system, for up to a year.

  “You have to understand that in the Sol System, everything is only a week or two away from mass-transit and going outside and breathing fresh air, walking on dirt barefoot, and feeling natural sun on your skin and the wind through your hair.

  “Out there in the depths, you may be in a relatively small orbiting satellite with five to forty people conducting scientific research or system scans to help gather enough information to see if it makes economic sense to develop a star system. You could be breathing the same recycled air and living in your little cubby for six months, slowly getting ground away by no real sunlight or wind. Going to the hydroponic section of one of those orbital satellites doesn’t really do much as they don’t have enough space or ‘plant power’ to overcome the stench that those cans have. The recyclers are still working to stay up on such small stations. There is no going outside unless they are on ExtraVehicular Activity or EVA as it is usually called, and all that outside time is purely work. Today, sims allow people an out while they just sit in their cubby, but you shouldn’t be disconnected from the rest of the people on station as it starts to cause problems when people don’t interact. No matter what, by the time they leave at the end of a long tour, they are, putting it nicely, grumpy. Alcohol never even makes it onboard the satellites because of the potential high stresses all members there could be under. The workout facilities onboard are usually pretty small as well, but they are still the highest end product out here.

  “At least on a mining outpost it feels more like a habitat. The overall size is much bigger, and on the interior, there are more facilities as those usually house between sixty and four hundred, depending on the age of the site and the level of development. There are normally shifts of workers, and even time off where, under AI supervision, it is possible to have an alcoholic drink. There are a lot of limitations on alcohol and everything else for safety reasons, and any sort of recreational drug use? Not going to happen. There has been one death because of alcohol usage at a mining facility to date. Most of the currently operating mines have an atmosphere. Now, that atmosphere may be corrosive, but along with gravity, it means that you can usually go outside of the dome. It is common practice to rotate personnel so that everyone gets a chance to get out at least once, even pure support personnel. The biggest facility out there even has a small canteen, coffee shop, convenience store run by a company employee. The prices are pretty good too. The other facilities provided for the workers are even better as there is a lot more space. So if someone wants to go to the hydroponic section, there are normally setups with fish as well, and with the extra space and a few holo projectors, it almost makes it feel like a greenhouse back Earth-side. Your workout areas are normally bigger, and they likely have courts for games, and a few have set up enough cleared space that there are running tracks. People will still be cautious because a potential dome breach is serious and could kill everyone, but with multiple domes and top-of-the-line safety gear it is much more probable that a major dome breach can be fixed and the site can remain functional.

  “Finally, there is our one real colony on that distant little planet so far out. Now, the atmosphere is close to what we need for humans, but not quite. Also, there is a lot of background radiation. The race that lived there destroyed themselves in a big war, just as they were getting to a technology level where they could really move out into space and then discover the star drive. Aggressive alien species either make it and carry on to space, or they wipe themselves out in huge wars where the background radiation wipes out survivors in a generation or two. The planet was irradiated almost two thousand
years ago, and the radiation is almost manageable by humans now. The colony outpost they set up still has to be under domes, and some basic terraforming is going on. Now, the Mars terraform project will take generations, maybe into the hundreds of years, if technology does not improve. The world we found has a badly damaged ecosystem that we can probably transform.

  “All the people there working to terraform another planet for humans to colonize? Well, they know they can do it. In a way, they have it the hardest because they are on a planet where the aliens failed and destroyed themselves. They see that every day in the chemical storms and radiation zones. They also are on a planet that has a slightly heavier gravity than Earth and has water and land masses. The domes they work in are not as big as a mining colony, but there are more of them and they can go outside in protective gear and there is an atmosphere. Humans survived and prospered where those aliens didn’t. The few ruins that are left will tell future searchers what came. But for those of us who have gone to space, we care more about the future than the past.

  “Who connects these different groups together over all the light years? We do, and so do other star ship crews like us. There are only a few star ships as they are so expensive to build and operate. Mama Pig costs the total output of all the mining habitats for almost three months. Now some of the smaller scout or courier models cost nowhere near as much, but they are smaller and only have small crew complements. They are scout and courier boats, not heavy haulers, so their lift capacity is minimal. None of those outfits would survive for long if we were not there.

  “Even with pictures and a description, it is really hard for people to grasp how big it is, and what the Mama Pig really looks like.

  “When you think of the Mama Pig, think big. If you have never seen a picture of her, let me paint one for you. She is a hollowed-out chunk of metal that was an asteroid once. It was carefully heated up and then ballooned out so that she grew. She is not a circle, but more like an egg shape. The wide bottom of the egg is the back, and the pointed smaller end is the front. Directly at the back of the ship are nine large engines. Further out around the edge are another eighteen smaller directional engines that are used for fine-tuning in space. She is one of the biggest ships in existence that Earth has. The Kah-Choo Empire does have more and bigger ships. They have spent generations working those ships up and use them for the planetary colonization they specialize in.

  “Mama Pig has two personnel shuttles that can deliver in atmosphere. There are two bulk landers, industrial-size shuttles that can also go in atmosphere to pick up large, heavy loads for transport up. They all mount to the outside of the ship for transit and are securely locked down, physically and magnetically.

  “The outside is covered in sensors as the crew and control areas are all inside. The old science-fiction image of a ship with just a few sensor domes on a sleek hull is just that: fiction. There is a lot of junk in space and micro-meteorite impacts are common, so the outside of any ship hull is actually hideous. They are covered with sensor domes so that if any series of sensors goes down, there are dozens more ready to pick up from the interruption.

  “One of the jobs of crews at stops on the way is to go out and replace damaged units. In transit, we will rebuild the damaged sensors and just keep switching them out.

  “There are two personnel entrances that can take passengers off the shuttles. Now it may be necessary to go out onto the surface of the ship for work. It is also possible that something could go wrong and someone on the hull would need to come back in quickly. There are an extra four small airlocks that are just for use by ship crew in case of emergency. They are not big, but they are there in case they are needed.

  “There is one large hatch to get loads in and stowed on the inside. That large hatch is big enough for the biggest lander to dock against and direct transfer cargo loads. That hatch is actually a plug that is pushed into place and secured from outside. It sounds strange, but it works really well and removes the need for a complex door-opening system. After all, the more complex the system, the easier it is for it to break down.

  “The inside of Mama Pig is huge; it’s hollowed out, and all sorts of items can be squeezed in either special packaging modules or even loose. The inside of the ship has all sorts of latch points regularly spaced out around the inside of the hull. Normally all the modules are packed in and they are all different sizes and classes. We could carry a small seed colony with domes and all related stores, along with our normal items for a run, and that colony seed would be self-sufficient for a year. Now, if there are special stores to be bulk-loaded, some of the containers can be removed and then the bulk item, which should be okay to be in vacuum, can be secured within the open area.

  “Within the living area of the ship are several different sections. From the top down: The command area is the bridge and briefing rooms. This is a relatively small area where up to six people can operate. Normally there are three bridge crew members on at all times. You have the command officers that oversee the controls and monitor the ship’s status, and you have one of the navigators. The other stations in the control room can be used by an engineering officer to oversee the controls remotely, a backup station for a secondary navigator for training purposes, and a visitor’s station where different members of the crew can come up and see what’s going on. The idea is that we are a family. We all need to stay connected and see what each other does so that we know no one is slacking off or hiding things. Students are allowed up for one hour every two weeks for an overview of how the ship travels. I have been up there over a dozen times, and I’m getting used to it. The first time I went up, I could not stop staring at all the lights and readouts. At the back of the command room is a small conference room where section heads have daily meetings to update how work is going and talk about any complications that they may have run into or if they need specialized assistance from another department. It seems like a lot on a ship that spends two to three months in transit every time we head out. The idea, though, is to foster a strengthened idea of family and to eliminate the angst and fear that can take hold if you’re in deep space long enough. We are very tight-knit as a crew.

  “When you exit the command deck, if you turn left at the junction, you will head into Engineering. The old science-fiction movies never quite got it right. There are no big engine or reactor rooms. There are several engineering areas and a big control room. Really, it’s more of a monitoring room for all the engines mounted outside the ship, and all the control facilities monitoring the entire ship. There are several workshops just off the monitoring room for small projects. There is a high-risk lab with sealed compartments that use robotic arms also known as waldoes and they have some of the best shielding available. There is also a large-scale workshop with waldoes and a fabrication plant. With enough raw materials and time, you can build a personnel shuttle and replacement engines for the ship. Yes, that has been done in past, and will be done in the future as engines burn out or, more likely, interstellar debris shears one off.

  “Onboard the ship, there are several different departments. There is Command, which runs the ship and includes most of the ship’s officers. There is always command staff on the bridge, and they include navigation and communication specialists. Then, to keep the ship running there is Engineering, which includes all the engineering experts that maintain and help rebuild the ship systems. We have a small Sciences department, which includes botanists and some very specialized people that are always doing experiments and working on improving how systems work. We have shipmates, which are really the workers on the ship. That is not really the most accurate way to say it, but they help out everywhere and can do most jobs on board. Finally, there is the Safety department. They do all the safety training on the ship and also direct search-and-rescue. Some of those departments sound like they must be huge, but they aren’t. If you go to the Safety department, there is one full-time crewman and she will go to every department a
nd arrange for them to do training within their department, and sometimes to everyone on the ship. Those jobs can be very busy as there can be three different shifts and everyone needs to be trained.

  The total ship crew is rated at one hundred and forty trained personnel. Because of how difficult it can be to get qualified crew ready to sign up for over a year of service, the actual crew complement of the Mama Pig is less than it is supposed to be. This is not a problem for the ship, given the high level of automation and computer controls. In fact, for a shorter run, the ship could be run by a total crew of six.

  “Of course, while she can carry thousands of tons of cargo, the requirements for carrying humans are different and all living things need more space. If a full cargo of colonists was required, then for up to a six-month run it would be possible to house two thousand colonists with light support equipment.

  “It is also possible to ship a great deal more at shorter distances. The Mama Pig can be reconfigured in many ways for different tasks.

  “Shipboard drills and lessons are important in any wet or space navy. The crew will need to know how to react and carry on if something goes wrong. Therefore, we run regular drills and refresher training to make sure that our responses are automatic.

  “True star travel is still relatively new to the human species. In the Sol System, a fast ship can be out from the core worlds to one of the furthest stations in less than two weeks’ time. If something goes wrong in space in system, unless it destroys the ship outright, there is a good chance that most will survive as help is never far away.

  “When you head to deep space, you do not have that luxury. Safety systems exist with lots of redundancy. Even if you lose pressure and air on a ship or station due to a micro-meteor strike, the whole structure has automatic lockdowns, which should preserve up to 60 percent of the air in the structure. That air can be manually pumped with a lot of effort to other parts of the structure. So if you are in the cafeteria and there is still power, you can configure the system to pull good air out of the other pods and replace it with the bad air. No power? You have to hand-pump, and it is hard, but it can be done. There are also back-up oxygen tanks spread throughout the ship, and filtration systems. Is the command centre and communications centre completely destroyed? There are backup systems at different points in the ship so that you can activate a distress beacon.