"Incoming hail, Kordun," my AI said.
We weren't completely out of the woods. The cruisers could overtake the Adela Chen and if they decided to go hostile we'd suffer significant losses.
I accepted the hail.
"Captain Hoffen, you're making a big mistake. You don't want to be an enemy of the Oberrhein nation and your actions today amount to an act of war."
"The only hostile action I've seen is your attempt to illegally seize one of my ships and threaten me and my crew," I said.
"We were only interested in an inspection to provide assistance to a ship that appeared to be in distress. You've overreacted," he said.
"Please accept my apology in that case. We are not intimately familiar with the local regulations. We are, however, sailing under the Nuage flag, so if you'd like to file a complaint with them, I'm sure they'd be willing to provide redress."
There was a long pause that made me think there was a discussion occurring that we weren't privy to.
"You are new to this system, so I'll give you a pass this time, Captain. Next time, I'll not be so forgiving."
"Roger that. Hoffen out."
SETTLING IN
In order to keep up with Mom we had to enter hard-burn, though neither Hotspur nor the Adela Chen struggled. After an hour of no pursuit from the Oberrhein cruisers she relented and reduced her acceleration enough that we could communicate.
"You all okay?" Mom asked.
"No shots fired. I think we're good," I said. "And that was some pretty hot-stick sailing back there. Same with you, Ada. Without those maneuvers, I believe things would have turned out differently."
"Any idea what that was about?" Tabby asked.
Nick answered, "I think it was just what it looked like. They were looking to plunder the barge and didn't expect us to show up."
"Even so, we're poorly matched for two cruisers, even small ones. If they'd wanted it bad enough, I think they could have forced the issue," I said.
"Registering our ships with Nuage saved us," he replied. "Oberrhein and Nuage have a trade agreement and from what I can see, it's been a bloody path getting to that point."
"If they keep that crap up, it's going to be a bloody path with us too. And, I don't intend to be the one bleeding," Tabby said.
"Nothing we can do about it now," I said. "Nick, what about Jack? I'm guessing he got left behind on Léger. I'm sure I could get back there and pick him up."
"Not necessary. Lena offered him a job in her diner and he wanted to stay," Nick said.
"Okay, let me come up with a burn plan that gives us some deviation, just in case anyone's following us," I said.
A navigation plan popped up on my vid-screen from Ada. It had a slight dog-leg that would take us ten thousand kilometers out of our way. I put a time code on it so we could all sync and sent it to the other ships.
"See you all in a couple of days," I said.
A moment later we transitioned to hard-burn. We were five days from the Descartes belt.
I sat back in my chair - a little despondent about the turn of events. Back on Mars, Tipperary had felt like such a good idea, full of possibility and adventure. Much of that shiny, new feeling had been scraped off before we'd even started. I wondered what Mom and Dad were thinking.
Having sailed for weeks to get to Tipperary, a five day journey seemed like a drop in the bucket and I was glad to finally be on the same ship with Tabby again.
"Can you take the helm, Tabbs?" I asked.
"Copy that," she said.
I opened the grav-box and lifted a sleepy Filbert out. He chirped, not liking to be awakened, but I cradled him and smoothed his fur and he grew content. I sat at Nick's now vacant workstation chair, next to Marny.
"What's up, Cap?" she asked.
"Sorry about splitting you and Nick up. I didn't have a lot of time to think and I wanted to have you on the turrets," I said.
"It was a good call. I've missed having you on board," she said.
I leaned back and put my feet up on the console. Filbert jumped down, awake and ready to explore. He rubbed up against Marny's leg and gave a pitiful yowl. I looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Little rat's figured out I have an access panel to the tween deck under my station," she said.
"And what? He wants you to open it?" I asked.
"Aye. He believes there is evil to be vanquished," she said dramatically. She slid a panel in front of her legs open and unsealed a small pass-through hatch in the floor. Filbert gracefully jumped into the dark space.
"At least he has a choice about it. You think we'll ever be done chasing evil?" I asked.
"Nay. There will always be those who fill the vacuum of space with their greed and ambition. Mind you it's a small group, but their ability to muck it up for the rest of us is the stuff of legends. I have to admit that I'm impressed with how quickly you flushed them out, though.
"Yeah, real impressive," I said.
"Nothing to be glum about. Good to have 'em out in the open. It'll save us from wringing our hands about being polite later," she said.
I laughed. The image of Marny wringing her hands, worrying about what someone thought of her, struck me as funny. "Okay. Enough moping then. Coffee?"
"Not for me. I've got a date on the track unless you need me to take a watch," she said.
I cut the next two and a half days into even, four-hour watch schedules. It was easy to fall into a familiar pattern of watches, exercise, cards and sleeping. I wasn't overly fond of a three person watch, as it guaranteed that Tabby and I had to split sleeping shifts with each other. But for such a small duration we could survive.
As was our tradition, we paused at the mid-point of our journey. Technically, we could simply flip over and fire up the engines again, but Marny wasn't having any of that. One thing she enjoyed was hosting a feast. We were far enough into the journey that we were short on fresh food, but that hardly slowed her down. She pulled item after item out of the freezer and worked with the minimal tools in our galley.
Tabby and I set the table, poured wine, and generally did whatever Marny instructed. Her timing was excellent as Mom and Dad walked in at just the moment she was placing a large pan of lasagna on the table. Nick and Ada followed shortly behind.
After hugs and greetings, we took our places at the table. I always felt nostalgic when we got together, thinking of how often we'd repeated this particular ritual. So much had changed and really so much hadn't. One change I was especially thankful for was that Tabby was on this journey, too.
For her coup de grâce, Marny served chocolate cupcakes with frosting. It wasn't the first time she'd picked this particular dessert and I hoped it wouldn't be her last. There was something about chocolate and coffee that I especially enjoyed.
"What's the first order of business once we arrive?" I asked of the table. I knew Big Pete was ready to get going and would have a list ten meters long of tasks to be accomplished.
"Silver and I have located our home asteroid so we'll be digging our habitation dome in," Pete answered.
"Do you always do that?" Ada asked. "I thought habitation domes were made to be set up on the surface."
"I'd recommend it for any structure. It's more work, but these new claims are going to have a lot of rookies working them. Breakaway debris will be commonplace and you need to be protected," he said.
"We're moving the big co-op asteroid to its new home," Nick said. "We'll need your help with that, Ada."
She nodded her understanding.
"I thought Liam and Tabby might clear cannon emplacements. Marny and I will set up Sterra's Gift as a temporary control room," Nick said. "Since it will take Ada a solid week to move that asteroid, we should have all three cannons online and be ready to start clearing the ore shelf once she arrives."
We continued to talk about the details of the operation, but most of it was rehashing or fine tuning. Finally, it was time to start the final sixty hour deceleration burn to the Descartes aster
oid field.
***
"Area is clear, Cap," Marny reported. Hotspur had arrived an hour before the other two ships to make sure we'd be in good shape.
"Tabby, you want to take us to our claim and check out the co-op rock?" I asked.
It was the largest asteroid on my claim, which I considered to be just as much Tabby's as my own and I wanted a good look at it.
"Copy that," she said. Tabby accelerated and gracefully wove us through an unclaimed section of the belt.
"The light is crazy," I said to no one in particular. Descartes occupied the same solar position as Mars did in the Sol system, but the Tipperary star was twenty percent brighter and had a whiter light than our Sun. The end result was more light and heat than we were used to, even on Mars.
"Should be good for hydroponics," Marny said. "I think Nick bought plans for a hot-house."
"That sounds like Nick. Did he bring along any seeds?" I asked. It was the one thing you couldn't replicate on anything we could afford.
"Aye, Cap, he has a load of seeds," she said. Personally, I didn't care much for produce. Given sufficient bio-mass, I could replicate meal bars all day long.
Tabby slowed the ship as we approached the asteroid. While it wasn't anywhere near as big as Colony 40's giant iron egg, it was bigger than anything I'd ever mined.
"Hard for me to imagine we're going to move that anywhere," I said.
Tabby slowly sailed around the rock. We already had a good general survey of the claim, but were missing detailed surface scans that the ship was able to gather close up. The rock was roughly the shape of a short work boot, or it would be that shape once we leveled off the 'sole.' After that, we'd hollow out the 'heel' for a permanent control room and the 'ankle' for the habitat and a series of docking bays. To say we had big plans for this hunk of iron was an understatement.
"How long will it take to clear off the top of that thing?" Marny asked.
"Several months, I'd think," I said. "But, we won't do it all right away. We'll clear forty thousand square meters to give us enough room to stack a full load of unprocessed ore for the barge. There's a spot in the middle that's mostly flat already, so we'll start there. It should only take a couple of weeks."
"We should do a fly-by on the Licht and Carré claims," Tabby said.
"Sure, be nice to let 'em know we're in the area," I said.
We'd become friends with the Licht and Carré families and at least acquaintances with most of the rest of the expedition during the nightly banquets on Terminal One.
Tabby pulled the claim map up on her vid-screen and drew a navigation path that would take us on a tour of our immediate neighbors.
Open comm, Elsene Carré.
"Greetings, Liam Hoffen. It is good to hear from you. When you didn't rejoin the expedition the rumors started to fly. Is everyone safe and sound?" she asked.
"Greetings, Elsene. Roger that. Everyone is well. We're late because we had a stopover planned on Grünholz. We're just checking out the area, waiting for the rest of our company to arrive. Do you mind if we sail over your homestead?" I asked.
"Certainly. We'd love to see you. You should stop in for tea," she said.
"We can't at the moment. Mind if we take a raincheck?" I asked.
"Yes, that's fine," she said, sounding disappointed.
"I see their ship," Tabby said off-comm. She redirected Hotspur so we'd sail over the Carré's work site.
"We're sailing up on you now, you should see us just above the horizon of your ship," I said. I fired up our ship's powerful search lights.
Elsene was outside of their ship. A laser drill lay at her feet as she cleared a pad for a habitation dome. She waved as we sailed above her. Her husband, Queletin, and young daughter, Sevene, however, were nowhere to be found.
"We'll send a comm once we get settled. Let us know if you run into any problems," I said.
"Will do," she said.
The next claim over belonged to the Licht family. They had two claims, the other owned by their eldest son, Selig. The distance between the claims was enough that it took a few minutes to leave the Carré's.
Open comm, Frimunt Licht.
"Frimunt," he answered tersely. I wasn't sure which family member I should contact. Frimunt wasn't much for talking.
"Hi, Mr. Licht. Liam Hoffen here. Do you mind if we sail over your claim? We're just checking out the area," I said.
"Hello, Liam." His accent was thick enough that it sounded more like he'd said hah-low. "Yes, you are permitted."
I turned our search lights back on so they'd be able to see us approaching. Otherwise, Hotspur was difficult to see.
Unlike the Carré homestead, the Licht's was buzzing with activity. They'd chosen a large asteroid and I counted the arc of three laser drills firing deep in a man-made cavern. The motion of a grav-sled caught my attention as one of the younger twins, either Ulran or Merley, was flying it pell-mell at a large pile of unprocessed ore. They were digging out a location for their homestead and making excellent time of it.
The grav-sled driver paused after dropping off his load at the ore pile and spun around to locate us. His ability to immediately locate us suggested that we'd been spotted by another family member and the information had been shared.
"Comm request, Annalise Licht."
Accept comm.
"Hi, Mrs. Licht," I said.
"Please, Liam, call me Annalise. You make me feel old. And, you must stop in," she said.
"We can't right now. We've only just arrived and are waiting for our other ships. How about we touch base after we're settled?" I said.
"I'll keep you to that," she said.
I smiled, knowing she would.
"Are you all doing okay? It looks like you've made progress," I said.
"Frimunt said we've had a couple of equipment breaks and wondered if anyone had a Class C replicator available," she said.
"Our big replicator is over at Léger Nuage, but we've a significant parts supply. Can it wait? I can check our inventory if not," I said.
"Liam, we broke three P12 cap-spans. Must have gotten a bad batch," Selig Licht cut in. "We don't have much to trade right now and I'm hoping not to have to make a run back to Belirand. Their credit rates are bad and it'd be a waste of fuel."
It was tough luck. A miner could go an entire year without breaking a cap-span. The explosive charges wouldn't work without them. It was a real problem, as they couldn't clear the ore efficiently.
I punched up our inventory and saw that we had two full crates of cap-spans, and the P12s were by far the most common. They weren't inexpensive – about two hundred fifty credits each if you were in the Sol system. In Tipperary, I had no idea what we'd charge for them.
"I've got a load of P12s coming on Sterra's Gift. We can probably get 'em over to you in the next couple of hours, but I can't tell you what we want for 'em. That'll be Nick's headache. I'm sure we'll make you a good deal, though," I said.
"They're worth a lot if they save us a trip," he said.
"We'll be fair, don't worry. How many do you need?" I asked.
"We'd be interested in replacing all three of them," he said.
"Roger, that. I'll see if I can get Ada to run 'em over."
"Uh... That'd be great," Selig said. I could tell he was wondering if I was going to make a smart ass remark. But just hearing him stutter a little at hearing her name was all I needed.
"Cap. I've got Adela Chen on sensor and they're hailing us," Marny said.
"Selig. We need to go. Talk later," I said.
"Be safe. Licht out," he said and closed the comm.
Tabby and Marny had already worked out the location of the Adela Chen and Sterra's Gift and Tabby was accelerating through the asteroid field on an intercept course. I could hear Marny filling them in on the security status.
"Nick, you there?" I asked.
"Yup. What's up?" he asked.
"Where are we setting up the barge?"
We needed
to disconnect it from the Adela Chen so we could start moving the big asteroid over to its new permanent home.
"We'll set up next to where we're going to drop the co-op rock. We can use it as our base of operations. There's plenty of room to land Hotspur and Sterra's Gift and we can unload supplies," he said.
"Until we get one of the cannons operational, I'm going to want to keep Hotspur close to me and Tabby," I said.
"Agreed," he said.
"Ada, you up for making a delivery?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" she replied.
"Lichts need some P12s," I said. "I told Selig you'd drop 'em off once we got settled, you up for that?"
"Sure. I'd love to," she said.
***
Six long steel containers loaded with gear and a newish pod-jumper were the extent of Mom and Dad's equipment. They'd loaded the containers back on Mars and once we'd come to a stop, they hadn't wasted any time chaining the containers together and setting off for their new home. I knew from experience that Dad would be drilling holes into rock within the hour. He'd have a difficult time resting until they had their homestead protected by the iron laden shell of an asteroid.
"You ready for this?" I asked, looking at Tabby.
I suppose I was a chip off of the old man's block. I'd already grabbed a mining laser and explosive bags and was sailing them and Hotspur over to our first cannon emplacement.
"I thought you didn't want to be a miner," Tabby said.
"I don't."
"You sure seem to be enjoying this."
I hadn't used a laser drill in over a year, but it felt good in my hands. I'd always taken a measure of pride in being fast and accurate and it was easy to fall back into the comfortable pattern. We'd estimated it would take three hours to clear a shelf off of this fifty cubic meter rock and I wasn't about to miss my first deadline.
Buccaneers (Privateer Tales Book 8) Page 13