by John Short
Jon contacted BBITCo as soon as he was allowed and inquired about the new ships. The report had great news. Each one was performing above their expected quotas while flying faster and on less fuel than anyone predicted. That's Phillie's work, Jon thought remembering the feisty little female Engineer he had hired when no one else would give her a chance. He put through a request for Mercury to meet him at Lexon Station provided it had a cargo already loaded for Haven, otherwise he'd take any of the new ships home. The response that Mercury would be waiting for him had him just a tad nervous on the slip back from the training camp to the station. He wanted to see what his money had bought and he wanted to stand on her bridge. After all the Mercury was to be HIS ship. Jarriel noticed Jon's jumpy state and asked about it only to be told by him, 'all will be revealed once we get to Lexon II Station'.
The rest of the report was the usual business stuff. The new ships started turning a profit the first day they left the surplus yard under BBITCo registration. The Haven FTL shuttles were bringing in a little more than normal thanks to the removal of the thief in the Comptroller's office and the mining operations were finding new sources of the powerful blue power crystals that were in high demand through out the known galaxy. One crystal could power a colony for a full cycle before it needed to be replaced. The only place where there were any issues was out on the rim worlds where pirates attacked at will. So far the new carriers were holding their own, but each of them had done battle against the pirates at least once already in their short careers. It had been Jon's good thinking to request that they be fully armed and ready for combat at the time of their purchase. Each of their captains reported that without the powerful military grade weapons and shields they might have lost the ships to the pirates. Having the weapons had left the pirates in space as bits of cosmic dust.
Tagged onto the end of the message was a single line about the incident on the old Pluto and the explosive charge planted on her hull. The station video had caught the refueling ship discharging a single person in a pressure suit who had carried the charge to the ship and rapidly bolted it in place between the engines where a normal scan could not locate it. Deeper investigation had discovered the male's name responsible to attaching the device. Enforcers on Lexon II had found his body several days later hidden in an alley in the poorest section of the city. He had died from a massive drug overdose. The Company wanted to know how Jon wanted the issue handled. Jon messaged back that he never wanted that company to refuel his ships again even if that meant that they had to carry extra crystals on every trip. The video of the incident was to be archived in his personal files in case there were any questions about why his ships were no longer using the fueling services at Lexon Station. He told them that he was headed for Lexon II Station and that he would personally deal with the company managers when he got there. Then, three days later, the military transport docked at Lexon Station and Jon said good-bye to his team and wished them well on their leaves. After which he turned and headed off to visit Jamie's Place for a decent meal. Wearing in his newly issued dress white uniform with its unique headgear and dragon unit shoulder patch with his sword at his side, he made a very impressive figure as he entered the small eatery/bar and was greeted by Jasnine.
“I see you've come back to visit us Warrior.” she said. “For you today we have a special. Your menu selection is on us. Take any seat you like, order anything you want and its on the house. Phillie has told us all about the good things you have done for her and for others who needed someone to give them a chance.”
“Thank you Jasnine.” Jon replied. “You've grown since I was here last. Is your father well?”
“Oh yes Warrior Connell. I've reached the age of adulthood and my father is doing well thanks.” she told him.
Jon nodded to the girl and while his eyes adjusted to the darkened room he noticed that the place now had a BBITCo logo hanging above the bar. He was certain that he had never authorized the company to purchase a bar. That logo must somehow be Phillie's doing.
“Hello there Young Warrior!” Jon heard the unmistakable voice of Phillie's good friend Kelesro. “We've all missed you around here. Phillie comes in every time she can, but she never has any news from you. Thank you for giving her that job. I've never seen her so contented as she is now.”
“I didn't give her anything Kelesro. She's earned everything herself. That female is the best Flight Engineer we've ever hired.” Jon assured the tall thin blue female. “Not only does she oversee all of our long range FTL ships, she has increased the output of all of them. You should hear all of my top company officials raving about how good she is.” Jon walked over to the same table he and Phillie had sat at the first time he had come to Jamie's Place and took a seat. “Can I get another of those Nocturnal Boar sandwiches please and a nice cold Cook's Original beer?”
“Only if you agree to let me sit with you during your meal. I want all the gossip on your training. People here that know Phillie all love what you've done for her. That's why your logo hangs at the bar!” she smiled.
“I'll let you sit anywhere you please except on my head.” Jon joked with her.
“Oh gee, I was so hoping to have you tickle my thighs with that hair cut they gave you.” she laughed as she headed to the kitchen to place his order. Jon leaned back, closed his eyes and just rested for the first time in months. Here there were no screaming trainers, no pretend missions designed to make the trainees screw up and pretend to kill themselves. Nothing but the quiet peace of a humble bar tucked into a back tube-way of a space station. Until...
“BUTCHER!” came the joyful scream from the front door. Jon opened his eyes to see Phillie charging towards him. “They told me you would be on the Station but I never expected to find you here!” she exclaimed as she sat across from him. “You're my passenger for Haven?”
“Your passenger?” Jon asked.
“Yeah, when they told me I could buy four ships, I figured I'd need a whole new crew and since you are planning to Captain the Mercury when you get out, I didn't want to hire a Captain for her only to have to release him in a few cycles. People I hire, stay hired.”
“So, I guess you've been taking charge.”
“Yes. What's a captain do anyway but stand around and give orders? I can order people around just fine from the engine rooms.” she giggled. “Seriously, these new ships almost fly themselves. Besides, we're going to be getting a bunch of military brass soon anyway.”
“What?” Jon asked as his surprise came through in his voice.
“Yeah, the Peacekeepers hired us for a full cycle as some kind of undercover boat for one of those super secret missions they love to do, but everyone knows all about anyway because they always do something that tells the whole galaxy what they're up to. Beforehand.” Phillie expounded the extent of her military knowledge in that one sentence.
“Phillie, why specifically did you buy Nova class carriers instead of some other style of ship, say a destroyer?” Jon asked. He had not told her anything about what type of ships to buy. Just to get them from the Military surplus yard and have them combat ready. He remembered suggesting a carrier or a freighter, but he’d never given her any definite orders to buy a certain type of ship.
“I got those ships because the price was right. I got four almost new carriers that had made only four slips between them. The one I got for you had never slipped before I took her out of the yards. Each of them were fully armed with plenty of cargo space for only one hundred twenty five million credits each. That was way below the budget the main office gave me to work with. Each one has a small ship to ground shuttle that can double as a cargo carrier for smaller deliveries. They all have functioning transportation platforms for loading and off loading cargoes. Not to mention two full rows of twin turret cannons along each side. Seemed like the perfect boats for us.” she told Jon.
“Are you sure you're alright doing double duty on mine? Are you even FTL certified? I don't want you to wear yourself out trying to do tw
o jobs.” Jon sounded worried and he truly was. Phillie was the first female besides his heart-mother who had ever treated him like anything other than something to be avoided. He did not want to lose her because she tried to do too much.
“Yes Sweet Cheeks, I'm certified.” she told him. “They never would have let me take her out of the yard if I wasn't. Don't worry Jon. I'll be fine. I'm loving it”
“Well at least let me give you the rank to go with the job. I'll tell them to start giving you the Captain's rate.” Jon told her.
“I'll take that!” She smiled.
Kelesro brought out Jon's food and set it in front of him, accidentally brushing his hand with her own as she did. “Phillie! See who has come to visit us.”
“I saw that.” Phillie remarked. “I need to go to the female relief chamber. Can you bring me my usual please?”
“And would that be the nice cup of the rare human coffee or the thirty glasses of Lexonian ale?”
“The ale of course.” Phillie joked as she stood and headed to the back where she entered the hallway that led to the relief chambers. She waited by the office door for her friend to appear.
“Tell me what you think Kelesro. Are we past the worst of it yet?” Phillie asked.
“No child. If anything he is more delicate now than before. He has allowed himself to be exposed. Did his mate finally claim him? I sense her essence strongly all over the male.”
“In every way except their actual mating. He has even given her his house colors.” Phillie told her friend.
“Then we must continue to beseech the Goddess for him. I sense that he has let his walls crack. If he should be hurt, he will heal those cracks, but the scars will go deep and become heavy with grief. You know that scars are always stronger than the flesh around them. Why in the universe did they not mate?”
“They had good reason. For them it is not as easy as it would be for us.” Phillie told Kelesro.
“What's so difficult? Do they not know which parts belong where?”
“No silly female. Its not what, its who. Jon Connell's mate is Crown Princess Satrina!” she harshly whispered. “He fears she will be cast out by her family should he take her and then be killed in the coming time of his contract with the Peacekeepers. That would leave her all alone as he has been alone his whole life. She fears the loss of her father and brother's love. She must have her father's blessings before she is free to wear his colors. You should see his colors Kelesro! They are the most beautiful of all the house colors! Satrina has one entire travel bag filled with them. I was allowed to see them. That male owns every house color in all space only they are more vibrant, more intense, more than even you have ever seen!”
“Alright, hurry then and get back to him. I will bring you something to eat and you two can catch up before you take him to see your new toys.” Kelesro told her and they quickly went about each carrying out their tasks. “Did you polish the gun barrels for him?” she called over her shoulder before the office door swung shut in Phillie's face.
Jon and Phillie sat for over an hour enjoying a quiet meal and a few beers before. At one point Kelerso came to their table and sat with them long enough to join them in a beer before she left to attend to her duties. Phillie said it was time to head over to the ship but Jon wanted to stop at the service companiy's office first. Along the way Jon found himself enjoying the looks they were getting from the other females they passed. Many of the fancy females seemed to be wondering why a man dressed in the full dress whites complete with the ceremonial sword of a Peacekeeper would be walking and talking with a lowly female Engineer. They had no idea that the sword was real and the small medal on his chest identified him as a master. To the ones who made their thoughts public, Jon often stopped and told them, “I'm pleased to be walking with my friend. When people like you thought I was nothing more than some too tall freak of nature, she became my friend. She proudly walked these very tubes on my arm before I earned my fancy uniform. Now, I'd proudly walk into a Royal reception with Phillmma on my arm. Me in my uniform and she in the finest gown credits can buy. Remember her name, one day she will be known across the system as the best Flight Engineer in space and the second most beautiful female to have graced the Royal Court!”
Phillie had to pull him away from one overtly self righteous female who decided to start an argument with him in a public place.
“Listen to me Butcher. You can't be so intense with people all the time!” Phillie scolded him. “I've dealt with her kind my whole life. I've put that type in their place for many more cycles than I've even known you. Besides, you're spoiling all my fun!”
“I'm sorry Phillie,” Jon apologized. “I will not stand for anyone saying bad things about you. Not after everything you've done.”
Jon walked into the service company's office and demanded to speak with the person in charge. When a short fat male came out from behind a curtain Jon couldn't help but notice that he was wearing the dirtiest tunic he'd ever seen. Still he reminded himself that he was here on behalf of his company and wearing his uniform, so he spoke politely and calmly to the filthy male. "Good day sir. My name is Jon Connell. I am the owner of record of BITTCo. My purpose here is to inform you that my company will no longer be using your service. There was an incident on a recent flight that could have cost me a ship, crew and some very important passengers. The collected data showed your service tug putting a man on my ship's hull while fueling was taking place. That man placed a device on my hull that could have killed everyone on that ship. I will be sending the data log along with video proof to your corporate office later today."
Yeah, I know. We already got the notice from Haven that your ships didn't want us to service them. We still got plenty of ships to service, we don't need those antiques of yours clogging up our tugs." The offensive male replied.
"Let me hit him, just once. Please?" Phillie begged. Jon took her hand in his and marched her out of the office. "You should have let me hit him." She whimpered.
"Now, now. If I can't put the pompus females in their place, you can't hit the station's service officer. Besides, did you really want all that filth on you hand?" Jon smiled which started Phillie laughing. They walked along together until Jon stopped at a shop and bought a necklace from the dealer. Hanging from a silver chain was a tiny silver dragon with tiny green jewels for its eyes. "Phillie. I'd like you to have this." Jon said as he placed the chain around her neck. "Its not anything special, just something to remember me by while I'm out patrolling the rim."
"Thank you Jon Connell. I will always treasure this. Now I have something for you she told him and pulled him toward a nearby viewport. Moving over to the large view port Phillie pointed outside to where a sleek ex-military carrier floated in space. The Lexon II sun gleaming brightly off of its pristine silver hull with a broad black stripe alone its side where the gun turrets were. “There she is Jon, your Mercury. She's a real beauty isn't she?”
“Yes Phillie, she is everything you said she was. How does she run?” Jon wanted to know.
“She flies like a small pleasure craft. Sometimes it seems that if I think hard enough she understands and just goes to the place I'm thinking about.” Phillie stood by Jon's side proudly staring out at the ship she had chosen for him. The long smooth lines of the ship gave her the appearance of a high powered plasma rifle made ready to fire. The ship had six engine pods mounted at the rear and two more on each side for a total of ten FTL drives. Phillie had made several changes to the propulsion systems and the large vessel now was able to fly at speeds never considered when she was designed. Maneuvering her in a tight system still required her to be flown slowly, but in open space she was the fastest ship in her class. Only the small pleasure yachts of the Royal Family were faster. The weapons systems all operated from a central control station located behind the command bridge and needed two crewmen to handle them. Phillie had modified those so that each gun battery could be fired all at once or one at a time and she had changed their
targeting arrays so they no longer fired at the same target. Now each gun could fire independently at different targets. To really take advantage of all her changes required more than two weapons specialists, but so far they'd been able to ward off any attackers with just the two men at the weapons.
“Wrenches, I don't know what to say. She's beautiful! Are the others this good looking?” Jon asked.
“I had all of them painted in the company colors Jon, but each ship is different. Yours has things the others don't. Like those four extra drives. I can punch the slip through to Haven from here in just four hours now instead of two weeks. The others still take two weeks, but that's much faster than anyone else and its been bringing us a lot of the express cargo. These ex-navy boats are faster than any of the other cargo transports. We may need even more ships in another year to be able to cover the added demand. Once people learn that we can do the slip in under three weeks, everyone will want us to handle their freight.”
“All the new ships are that fast?” Jon asked.
“Yeah, the Navy engines are fast as they are, but I juiced up all of their drives. Like I said, this one is special.”
“Let's go see her insides.” Jon nearly begged he was so excited over his new ship. Here floating just outside the view port was the dream of freedom he'd had since he was a teenage youngling learning the duties of an adult FTL pilot while dealing with the torment of the bullies at school taunting him everyday. “How are we refueling them since I ordered that the company stop using the service here?”
“Right this way Butcher.” Phillie told him as she led him to the dock's connection tube and into his ship. “Each of them makes at least one trip to Haven where we take on enough crystals to last us almost a full cycle. The ships are all making much better than average fuel consumption numbers with the engine modifications.” she explained as they walked through the connecting tube.