Jeff and the others hurried away.
Johnny stood with his fists balled up on his hips. “So we’re going all out on the Rogers, huh?”
Mace nodded. “I think its our best move. Just wish we could take the wormhole generator too.”
Johnny said, “What’s the problem with leaving it on here?”
Mace replied, “This ship is too big. We have limited gatrellium. With a wormhole that will fit the Rogers we could make three times as many jumps.”
Johnny thought for a moment. “Stark will supposedly be taking possession of gatrellium from the mines they captured with that last planet. He has no use for it. Maybe we can talk him out of some. If we do a mission that’s to his benefit, he might just give us what we want.”
Mace frowned. “I wouldn’t count on it. But it won’t hurt to ask.”
Johnny looked around the bridge. “I wonder how much of this ship is just wasted space.”
Mace asked, “Is there a point to that statement?”
Johnny pulled a diagram of the Dauntless up above his arm pad. “I’m just saying, maybe we could cut out about half this ship. Make it smaller. Turn it into nothing more than a gate ship. If we could bring its forward diameter down to the size of the Rogers, you’d have that efficient wormhole generator you want. It would just be as a second ship. We jump somewhere, the gate ship parks and waits while we go do our thing. We come back to it and jump home.”
Mace smiled as he put his hand on Johnny’s shoulder. “That’s not half bad. Go see Gnaga. The two of you can work on that. And bring Jane in on it. You could use the extra time with your wife.”
Johnny grinned. “Excellent idea. We’ll fight like cats and dogs over any designs, but that tends to yield a better product in the end. I can’t tell you how often we squabbled over the features of that RV before we had it built.”
Mace laughed. “I miss the RV: it was one badass rig. Head back and get started on that.”
The week that followed saw three high-power cannon heads removed from the Dauntless and installed on the Rogers. The newly modified forward cannons were put through a series of tests. Results showed the integration to be a success, with each cannon yielding a 289 percent power output as compared to a standard cannon. Plans were made to do the same to two aft cannons.
Mace joined Johnny, Jane, and Gnaga in the conference room where a chopped up diagram of the Dauntless showed on the holo-wall display.
Johnny stood in front of the wall, pointing. “I say we move this section over here.”
Jane replied, “Too big an effort. Would take us forever to rewire that whole thing. We don’t really need it. I say we scrap it altogether.”
Johnny shook his head. “That’s the crew quarters. They have to have somewhere to shower and sleep.”
Jane walked up to the diagram. “So we convert this area to quarters. We can put two or three showers in here. Remember, this ship will only have a crew of seven at most. With three shifts that’s twenty-one of us. The bunks should never have more than seven in them at a time.”
Johnny winced. “Not much privacy with that setup.”
Jane replied, “We’re in space. There’s no room for privacy. We need this ship as small as we can make it. The bunkrooms and showers have to go.”
Johnny relented. “Fine. I was thinking along the lines of a little personal privacy, you know, where a guy and his wife could possibly be intimate.”
Jane laughed. “You men all have a one-track mind. The Rogers doesn’t have private bunks. And that hasn’t been a problem. So give it up.”
Johnny pointed a finger at the section as it floated in front of him. With a quick flash, the section disappeared.
Mace asked, “How we looking?”
Jane replied, “Other than Johnny wanting to turn this into a cruise ship, it’s going well. We have three sections left to squeeze into the design. If we can make them fit within this outlined cylinder we should be all set.”
Mace looked over the diagram. “Why not just stack the three on the front and be done with it?”
Jane shook her head. “Bridge is up front. All the sensor feeds are bundled right here. We screw those up by moving them around and we lose the benefits of having them at all.”
Mace looked over the diagram. “The sensors are the same on all these ships. The shuttles, the Rogers, that Dauntless, they all have the same.”
Mace pointed, “So why don’t we scrap the bridge, and move these three sections into its place?”
Johnny chuckled. “And just how would we drive this thing after that?”
Mace smiled. “We take a shuttle, strip off the drives and fasten it to the front. There’s your bridge, there’s your sensors, there’s your finished design.”
Gnaga looked it over. “I believe that to be an adequate solution, Mr. Hardy. And an elegant design.”
Johnny laughed. “An elegant design? This ship is gonna look like an abomination from the outside.”
Jane said, “What? You afraid the other species are going to laugh at us?”
Johnny grinned. “No, I think it’s a good solution. Just think it’s funny.”
Gnaga moved the sections in question into place. A diagram of a shuttle was added and the drive system deleted. When the shuttle bridge and sensors were set against the forward section of the dauntless, several algorithms were run. One performed a structural analysis, pinpointing welds and where reinforcing components would be needed. A second routed power, and a third environmentals.
Johnny stood back. “You know, other than that puny little shuttle head on the front, it’s not such a bad looking ship.”
Jane giggled. “So the other aliens won’t laugh?”
Johnny smiled. “Still wish we could have done something about those rooms.”
Gnaga said, “This design has an added benefit, Mr. Hardy. The bridge of a shuttle has two crewmen, possibly only one. The prior bridge required five. If we reduce the bunking needs for those three, I believe we can add the privacy Mr. Tretcher seeks.”
Johnny looked over at Jane sticking out his tongue.
Jane frowned. “Real mature.”
Mace said, “OK, with the design set, how do we make this happen? What’s our estimate to complete?”
Gnaga punched away on his arm pad. “Nine months, twelve days.”
Mace crossed his arms. “Nine months? Any way to speed that up?”
Gnaga nodded. “With a repair dock I believe this could be accomplished in two weeks.”
Mace stroked his beard. “A repair dock, huh? I just happen to know where we might get one.”
Jane said, “Last time we tried it cost us Jasper.”
Mace replied, “Last time we weren’t prepared. The Rogers, and the shuttle, are both capable of handling anything they throw at us.”
Mace walked toward the doorway, stopped, and turned. “I say we go make plans to get ourselves a repair dock. Who’s with me?”
Two days later, the stolen repair dock arrived at a location out in empty space. The Dauntless was pulled into the bay and the terrified Mawga crew given the design modifications that were to be made.
Johnny stood on the bridge of the dock, looking out over the ongoing construction as Mawga dock workers scurried about.
Mace came over the comm. “Progress looks good.”
Johnny nodded. “These guys mean business when it comes to running this dock. I’m impressed.”
Mace asked, “Any problems?”
Johnny replied, “None. They just seem happy to be doing the work. My only concern is what happens when they go back.”
Mace said, “Maybe we keep them.”
Johnny frowned. “That’s over two thousand mouths to feed. We can’t afford to pull that from our stockpile. We’d be out of food a month after their own supplies ran dry.”
Mace asked, “How much supply do they have?”
“Three weeks, according to Gnaga. Enough to finish our ship, but that’s all.”
Mace
thought for a moment. “I have an idea. Tell me what you think. I’ll take the shuttle in and talk to Stark. We could have him deliver the food to whatever location we like. I’m sure his supplies would be limited, but it would buy us some time.”
Johnny said, “Stark’s a good negotiator, right?”
Mace nodded. “He is.”
“And the repair dock was promised to him, right?”
Mace replied, “It was.”
Johnny scratched his head. “Well, why don’t we turn it over to Stark when we’re done? He could just keep it out here and supply it as normal. If the Mawga or the Union ask what he’s doing with it he could just tell them to piss off. It’s his asset and not their business how he makes use of it. So long as his cruisers are still going through to fight for the Union, I don’t see them putting up much of a fuss over a repair dock.”
Mace stroked his beard. “Not a bad idea. And he might be interested in building something like the Rogers for himself. He’ll need reactors and transducers, but I’m sure he could figure out where to get a few of those for himself.”
Mace laughed. “You know, when you get the lot of us together, sometimes we actually have half a brain.”
Johnny smiled. “I like to think at least three quarters.”
Jenny Taub was enlisted as a pilot and the shuttle was taken back to Earth. Stark was contacted and a deal made. When the shuttle had returned, Mace walked onto the bridge. Jordan Crawford was relieved, heading off for a bite of food.
Hans Mueller said, “Mr. Hardy, we should have a fourth triple-power cannon coming online tomorrow. Jeff had two of the localized storage wells removed and added to each gun. We wanted three, but two was all we had room for. We can now fire the first round of that triple cannon with only a half-second delay. Subsequent shots will take a second-and-a-half to recharge. Jeff thinks that time will shorten when the new reactors come online.”
Mace asked, “How many reactors was he able to add?”
Hans replied, “Another eight. If we manage to get into a few moderate fights, we could burn through our hydrogen storage in about two months. We were talking of the possibility of discardable external tanks.”
Mace pointed. “I think I might have an idea for that. With our new gate ship, we could pull the tanks behind it. It won’t be going into any fights.”
Hans nodded. “Excellent idea, Mr. Hardy. I’ll make that suggestion to Gnaga next time I speak with him.”
Mace sat in the captain’s chair with a smile.
Johnny turned from the comm station. “You look like the cat that ate the canary.”
Mace replied, “Was just thinking about all we’ve been able to accomplish. In a few days we might have the gate ship we need to hit the Mawga food supplies at Barika. After that we could possibly focus on a run to rescue the harvest embryos and the Humans being born there.”
Johnny said, “I thought Geerok told us those embryos wouldn’t be ready for birth until they hit thirteen months?”
“Good point. He did. I suppose we would have to time a raid for after that.”
Johnny frowned. “Five million newborns… how we planning on moving them?”
Mace shrugged. “We’re gonna have to figure that one out when we get there.”
Johnny tilted his head. “That smile wouldn’t also have something to do with your ride to Earth with miss Taub would it?”
Mace replied, “It might. She’s a good conversationalist. Mr. Crawford was right about her storytelling. Very entertaining.”
Johnny leaned forward. “Yeah, well, you might want to get your butt in gear on that relationship. I’ve seen her in the dining hall with Mr. Crawford. They looked pretty chummy.”
Mace sighed. “I’m really not comfortable talking about this in front of everyone.”
Johnny shook his head. “Fine. Just thought you might want to know. She headed back to the drive room?”
Mace replied, “No. Heading down to get something to eat.”
Johnny raised his hands. “Augh! See, he’s making the move. I’m telling you. Move it or lose it.”
Mace settled back in his chair. “If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. So please just give it a rest.”
Johnny turned around with a scowl, mumbling under his breath.
In the days that followed, the gate ship was ready for its first flight test. Jenny Taub and Jordan Crawford were selected to lead the crew as Johnny looked on in disgust. The test flights showed all systems, except for the wormhole generator, were functioning as expected.
Mace opened a comm. “Take her out to maximum sensor range. As soon as you come to a stop, open a comm portal back to here. That will be our first and only test of that generator. We don’t have the gatrellium to be wasting on any other openings before we go on an actual mission. We should have all the feedback we need from that comm portal test to tell us whether or not this will work.”
Johnny said, “Have we given her a name? Maybe the Crummy or the Daffodil in keeping with tradition?”
Mace smiled. “I was thinking the Enterprise.”
Johnny huffed. “Now that’s original.”
Mace replied, “It’s a good name with a long history of honorable ships that held it.”
Johnny waved. “Bah. You might as well call it the Bronco or the Mustang then. Those have a long honorable history too.”
Mace sighed. “You have a suggestion?”
Johnny thought. “We might call her the Collins, in honor of Jasper.”
Mace shook his head. “We already have a shuttle named the Collins. If you don’t like my name, at least have a decent alternative ready. Did you have a name for the RV?”
Johnny chuckled. “Gertrude. It was supposed to be an unsuspecting name. And Jane said it felt like a Gertrude.”
Mace nodded. “Gertrude it is.”
Johnny frowned. “Not much of a name for a warship.”
Mace replied, “It’s not a warship. It’s a gate ship. And if Gertrude was good enough for an armored bus, it’s good enough for our gate ship.”
Johnny held up a hand. “Hey, what about the Derwood?”
Mace shook his head.
“Fine. Gertrude it is.”
Minutes later a comm came in from Jordan Crawford. “Mr. Hardy, all systems are showing green. We’re at maximum sensor range, so this comm is coming through a wormhole that should be open about two thousand kilometers from your position.”
Humphrey confirmed. “I detected a wormhole just before the comm came through, Mr. Hardy, at the distance Mr. Crawford says. Looks like we have a success.”
Mace said, “Mr. Crawford. Bring her back. And she has a new name. We decided on Gertrude. Was the name of the Tretchers’ RV back at Organ Cave. Since that ship will now be our bus ticket around this galaxy, I thought it fitting. Anyway, bring her home.”
Mace turned to face Liam. “Mr. Hobbs. I know you haven’t been involved with the dock much, but how about seeing to it that it gets moved to the coordinates I’m giving you. And have Jeff go over first and scrub the logs. I don’t want any written accounts of what we did or what was used to do it.”
Liam replied, “Glad to get out of the chair for a bit, Mr. Hardy. I’ll see to it that it’s taken care of properly.”
Johnny said, “So we have a wormhole ship… how long until we go on the food run to Barika?”
Mace leaned back. “As soon as the repair dock is away and the Gertrude fully stocked. I want all the extra food we can manage on there in case we somehow get trapped away from here. Once that’s taken care of, we can plan a run to Barika.”
Chapter 10
*
Jordan Crawford said, “Coordinates are in and the storage well is charging. Wormhole should be opening in fifteen seconds.”
Jenny added, “I’ll be passing you a scan once it’s open. After that, fall in just in front of us and we’ll follow you though.”
Mace said, “I have Geerok here with me. When we get to the other side You’ll only need s
tay where you are. If you’re detected, open a wormhole and leave. We’ll come back to that spot exactly ten days from now, and then every ten days after if needed, at this same time.”
Jordan replied, “Roger that, Mr. Hardy. And… we have wormhole initiation. Portal is open and expanding. Sensors show no sign of movement in this area heading toward that star. Opening is now full. We’ll follow you through.”
The Rogers slipped through the man-made rift in space-time. Once on the other side the Gertrude followed close behind. The wormhole generators shut down and the portal to the Barika system closed.
Humphrey said, “Sensors are all clear, Mr. Hardy.”
Liam followed. “Setting waypoints for a joint thirty-five degree angle approach from this position. We’ll be dropping down thirty-five degrees and angling to starboard thirty-five degrees. At the half way point to Barika VI we’ll head straight in. Computer puts an ETA of fourteen hours eleven minutes. I’m pushing the counter to the main wall.”
Mace said, “Mr. Crawford, Miss Taub. We’ll see you in a couple day’s time. Keep safe.”
Tres ran onto the bridge. “Vanessa’s having the babies!”
Congratulations went around the room as Mace stood, following Tres to the hallway. “Wow. Seems like this has been going on forever. I would have thought you would want to be in there with her.”
Tres replied, “I wanted to. She didn’t want me passing out. I think she might have just felt self-conscious about it all. I’d rather her be relaxed and happy as much as that is possible.”
Mace asked, “Who’s doing the delivery?”
Tres chuckled. “Believe it or not it’s Mr. Klept.”
Mace replied, “Klept? Really? What’s he know about Human birth?”
Tres replied, “He’s had a fascination with Vanessa’s pregnancy and they talk about it every time he’s in the dining hall. He doesn’t get excited about anything and I think that has a calming effect on her. Anyway, he studied the information we got from Geerok for the Mawga computer system. He says it was extensive. And now he’s in there with Mr. Heeb and Mr. Hooba for the delivery.”
HADRON Revelation Page 9