The Complete Intrepid Saga: Books 1 - 4: Aeon 14 Novels
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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 onstation,” 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 felt a sense of pity for the ship well up in her. Ninety years alone, no sensors, no input, just her thoughts…it was a wonder she was still sane.
Tanis replied.
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, light it up.”
“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; making the first of two FTL hops.
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 aching 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.
Sera’s avatar cast her a dirty look in her mind, but let it drop.
BOLLAM’S WORLD
STELLAR DATE: 07.20.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Andromeda’s Pinnace, EK Belt
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
Joe lay in his bunk, eyes closed, imagining that he was back on the Intrepid, at home with Tanis, enjoying a lazy morning in bed before spending some time in the garden.
Maybe they would be in their final days before arriving at New Eden, the ship awake and buzzing outside, everyone glad for finally arriving at their final destination. Maybe their child would be born, a small girl, rushing into the room, jumping onto the bed and making a ruckus.
He took a long breath and opened his eyes.
That would never be. The Intrepid would never travel to New Eden—it may never travel anywhere, because there was nowhere to go.
“Joe,” Jessica’s voice came over the audible comm. “I’ve managed to make a Link to a relay buoy at the edge of the system. There’s a twenty light-minute delay, but I have a standard packet they sent out with approach vectors, stations, and stuff.”
And stuff… Joe couldn’t help feel some amusement at how different Jessica was from Tanis. Both were career service women, both practically built out of duty, but still as different from one another as night and day.
He imagined for a second what it would be like to be with Jessica, how different life would be. He shook his head and chuckled, it certainly wouldn’t be for him.
Tanis was his anchor, his strength—not that he needed to lean on her that way now, but she had been a rock for him during those early days on the Intrepid. He had felt so out of his depth, worried that they were going to cut him from the mission because he couldn’t get things under control.
Then she came in, full of command and purpose—knowing just what to do.
She always knew what to do.
“I’m on my way,” he messaged back to Jessica. “Give me a second to get presentable.”
“No rush, the data is still coming in,” Jessica replied.
“Gotcha,” Joe said and stepped into the ultrasonic san, letting its waves pull dirt and detritus from his skin. He stepped out feeling only superficially refreshed, and pulled a shipsuit on before running a hand through his hair.
“Good enough,” he said to himself as he shifted his thinking from the past and his feelings of loss, to focus on the work ahead. It was something he had seen Tanis do hundreds of times; she did it so naturally. For him it
took a bit more effort to compartmentalize his feelings.
The pinnace was small; it could crew seven, but with just the two of them on board it felt empty—though he preferred it that way at present. The walk to the cockpit took just a minute and he entered to see Jessica bent over the main holo tank, studying the Bollam’s World system.
Her silver hair fell around her face and when she raised her head to look at him, her lavender-colored brow was furrowed.
“This is one weird system,” she said and beckoned him to the tank. “And it’s not just their name...who calls their whole system Bollam’s World?”
“Beats me,” Joe shrugged. “What’s weird other than the name?”
“Check it out,” Jessica gestured and the holo display rose up and filled the cockpit. “There’s this massive…I don’t know what to call it. It’s not a jovian, or a brown dwarf, but it’s too big for a planet, that’s for sure.”
Joe looked at the large blue-green planet, labeled Aurora, that Jessica was pointing at. The data packet didn’t have detailed specifications—other than a warning not to venture within one AU of its surface—but it was plain to see that it had over three time’s Jupiter’s diameter, and, based on its orbit and rotation, at least ten times its mass.
Worlds such as this one shouldn’t exist. Even if a planet massed more than Jupiter, it would not get physically larger. Instead—being a gas giant—the gas would compress under its own gravity and it would remain the same size. Unless the world were to become so massive that it began to fuse hydrogen; then convection would expand it.
Aurora’s size indicated that it should be light and airy, like Saturn. However, its mass meant it should be slightly smaller than Jupiter—yet it was neither.
“That’s…that’s pretty weird,” Joe said with a nod. “What about stations and inhabited worlds?”
“The star’s practically a Sol-clone,” Jessica said. “But its young, just over half a billion years or so. The place is full of hot stuff with a lot of spin to it.”
“Two terrestrial worlds there,” Joe pointed to the third and fourth planets, named Dublin and Bollam on the holo. “No rings and just a few elevators. Looks like a third is being terraformed around that other jovian, the sixth planet out.”