Each faceplate had identifiers showing which rack unit it was for, so she couldn't get them confused. Once she had the right ones, she returned to the bridge.
She powered off the comm system again. This time, it was simpler since she wasn't actually disconnecting anything, just sliding each rack unit out on its rails and leaving it plugged in. On each unit, she detached the StellaMil faceplate and replaced it with the matching StellaSystem faceplate. Once they were all changed out and the rack units were locked back in place, she brought up the comm system power. As it started up, the system now claimed to be a StellaSystem100! The boot sequence was now a complete match for the StellaSystem manual. None of the StellaMil modules were even mentioned.
Just for curiosity, she checked for the military features, but they didn't show – until she used her captain's override, and then a new menu appeared, giving her access to them. When she ended the override and reopened it, the restricted features were hidden again.
She understood how this could happen, from a technical standpoint. The faceplates weren't just plastic facades. Each one was actually an interface module that connected to the rack unit and provided status lights and some basic controls. They obviously had identifying information encoded in them that told the system which faceplate was attached.
Anailu figured the swap worked because when Stella Corporation got the StellaMil 100 certified for the military, they just removed the military-specific features and re-branded them as StellaSystems for civilian use. Keeping the certification made the system more desirable for purchase by planetary governments and large commercial concerns.
The next thing she had to was a full diagnostic of the comm system, so she set that up, though she opted out of the tests that required transmitting, for now.
The diagnostic would take some time, so while she waited, she worked her way through the ship, looking for things to clean up. Not all the people from the University had cleaned up after themselves. As she cleaned, she considered what to do about the StellaMil modules. Since the system was so good at pretending to be a StellaSystem, she had to consider the possibility of just leaving them in place permanently. After considering it for a while, she decided to put off the decision. Like the life support system, the shields, or the little bit of extra fuel usage, this was an issue that didn't matter very much for now.
She also decided that she didn't enjoy housekeeping. As soon as she could afford it, she wanted to buy a cleaning bot. It was another thing to add to her list of “Stuff I want that I can't afford yet.”
When she'd finished cleaning, Anailu returned to the bridge. The diagnostic eventually finished, giving the comm system a clean bill of health – at least, of StellaSystem health. Even the diagnostics gave no hint of any extra capabilities.
All the encryption keys had been cleared, so she had the system generate new keys. Eventually, she would register those with traffic control, and then visit them in person to verify the keys so she could use them for transactions.
All that was left was to bring the system fully online. First, she linked the ship's systems to her comm. Then she connected to both the regional traffic control and the satellite comm network with no problems. Her new system could establish a tightbeam link to all the “visible” public comm satellites, which the cheap system couldn't do at all.
She'd pretty much etiquetted herself out with studying over the last week.
The dinner party will be enough etiquette for today.
She was hesitant to call Naomi early. She might have creative ideas of how to spend the extra time, and Anailu was afraid those ideas would involve clothes, hair, or makeup.
Finally, she realized the best choice was to go down to Engineering and start disassembling the StellaSystem units. She would pull the modules, trash the burned out parts, and stow the functional parts as spares. It was delicate work, so she didn't think about anything else until the ship's proximity alert pinged. Sure enough, it was Naomi arriving at the pad with her own trunk in tow.
Anailu stowed the rack unit she was working on and went forward to greet Naomi.
Chapter 19: The Baroness Soldeen Appears
Once Naomi's trunk was settled in one of the crew cabins, they took off for the Lightness. As they flew, Naomi lounged in the seat of the co-pilot's position, but she immediately slid the seat back, leaned back, and stretched her feet out. Anailu asked her if she was going to start getting ready.
Naomi replied, “Nope, you made me wait to see yours, so you gotta wait to see mine.”
Anailu could only roll her eyes in response.
They landed at the Torrell base. Since the dinner was at the Torrells' house, they would only have to cross the yard at the appointed time.
Anailu was done first, so she sat in the lounge to wait for Naomi to finish. When she came out, Anailu was reminded of the Naomi from the tea, but more so. Naomi was wearing an expensive looking black gown with gold embroidery down the sides. She had a furry wrap over top of it all. “What do you think? It's no Dodato, but it's a good name.”
Anailu wasn't sure what to say, except “It's very pretty.”
“Thanks! It's your fault I have to wear these stilettos, though. I need them to even try to match up to your long-legged height.”
They rode the lift down to the main deck, but as Anailu left the lift to head for the ramp, Naomi stopped her. “Hold on, Anailu. I'm not going down that ramp in these heels. The freight lift would be safe, but is there a classier way we could disembark?”
Anailu stepped back into the elevator. “Sorry, I don't wear heels, so I didn't think about that. The ramp does has a stair mode, but perhaps we'll just take a passenger lift down.”
As the lift descended out of the hull, down to ground level, Anailu added, “Actually, the regular Doves could be built with a large passenger lift in the forward half of the ship. There was even an option for a 'grand entry' module. It was an entire section that would drop down, with two lifts and a grand staircase.”
Anailu thought they'd just walk across to the house, but instead, Mr Torrell had one of his limousines waiting by the landing pad. As they rode to the house, Naomi said, “Now don't freak out, but they'll be calling me 'Baroness Soldeen.' Also, I'd rather you didn't call me Naomi. I want you to pretend that I'm a friend that's on a short visit to Doran.”
“That's – what? Is that a fictional title?”
Naomi looked a little embarrassed. “No, it's a real title that's been passed down in my family, but it's a pre-Imperial title from a place that doesn't exist anymore. The important thing for me is that if anyone looks it up, they won't find an immediate connection to me or my family, without some serious digging. I'd rather stay just Naomi Weatherby for the rest of my time here.”
“So I call you 'Lady Soldeen' tonight?”
“Not that formal, just 'Soldeen,' since you are my friend.”
“Right, I should have figured that out. What if someone wants to know more about you? What should I say?”
“Just tell them that Lady Soldeen is a very private person. If they want to know, they should ask me directly.”
“OK, that's easy. So why aren't you Naomi Weatherby tonight?”
“Oh, that was Mrs. Torrell. After she invited me to dinner, she was talking about wanting a guest of honor that's not just one of the locals, since most of Miss Prithers' students already know everyone she might choose. So, I let her know that I would be willing to take that role, if she wished. They agreed to my conditions of privacy.”
“So it's a conspiracy, then, eh?”
“Hee hee! Yep. Also, we're here.”
The bubbly Naomi that Anailu was used to had escaped for that moment, but “Lady Soldeen” was back immediately. Still friendly, but more controlled and definitely more proper.
They got out of the limousine, went up the red carpet and inside, going first to the ladies' reception room to shed their outerwear – Naomi, her wrap; and Anailu, her cloak. It seemed like a waste to wear something ju
st because you were outside for thirty seconds, but that was the current style for formal occasions.
Then they went to the drawing room, and as they arrived by the door, they were each announced as they went in, first “The Baroness of Soldeen,” then “Captain Xindar.”
Mrs. Torrell, in greeting Anailu, was very complimentary about her new uniform, calling it, “lovely.” That was good news for her contract, because Anailu had figured out that Mrs. Torrell, not Mr. Torrell, was the judge for the social part of it.
Since it was a small group, and everyone was prompt, they didn't spend long in the drawing room. When dinner was announced, Anailu discovered that her escort was to be a young man – almost a boy, really – and that she was seated to Mr. Torrell's left while 'Lady Soldeen' was to his right, as the guest of honor.
Anailu learned that her sixteen year old escort was the son of one of the hoteliers here in the Lightness. She also quickly discovered that although his parents apparently wanted him to follow in their footsteps, he was more interested in becoming a spacer. He was very interested in hearing about Anailu's experiences as a junior crewman, so much so that when the time came for the “turning of the table,” when conversation would switch from one neighbor to the other, Anailu had to cut him off from more questions and gently let him know that the young lady to his left was waiting for him to speak with her. With that accomplished, she was able to speak with Mr. Torrell. She learned that he was born and raised on Doran, but had moved to Teurna, the capitol, as a young man, where he had met Mrs. Torrell and eventually, the two of them had returned to Doran and started their family and eventually their safari business.
She was amazed at how good the meal was. So far, she hadn't had a bad dish or even a repeat dish from Chef Cabirla. She also managed to survive the dinner without any major mistakes, at least that she was aware of.
When it was time to finish, Anailu was pleased that she was the one who Mrs. Torrell looked to. At Mrs. Torrell's nod, they both stood up simultaneously, formally signaling everyone else to stand as well, marking the end of the meal.
When the gentlemen rejoined the ladies in the drawing room, Anailu's young seating-partner stopped by to thank her for the dinner conversation, but he spent most of his time afterward speaking to the young lady who had been seated to his left. Anailu ended up talking to a fruit farmer from an outlying island. He and his wife were taking instruction from Miss Prithers to allow them to be comfortable in the new social circles they were joining thanks to their newly-earned wealth.
She noticed there were plenty of people who wanted to speak to Lady Soldeen. Anailu kept an eye on her because she planned to leave whenever Lady Soldeen made her exit. It was silly enough for a car to drive from the house and cross the yard to the ship. If they went back to the ship separately, it would be twice as silly. In good time, Lady Soldeen did so. Anailu got up as well, gave her thanks to Mrs. Torrell, and they both went out, retrieving their outerwear on the way.
Back at the ship, Naomi gave her a quick hug and said she had done great. Then they each turned in for the night.
In the morning, over breakfast in the lounge, they talked about the people they'd met at the dinner. Naomi said she'd had a lot of fun.
Anailu had been planning to fly Naomi back to the University, but she wouldn't hear of it. “No, don't you waste fuel flying halfway across the planet just for me, when you're coming right back here. I'll get back OK.”
Naomi had reserved a seat on a flight back to the City, so after breakfast, she got her luggage and they said their goodbyes.
Anailu thanked Naomi for all her help. “I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, Naomi. All the practicing helped so much – and then Dodato! I can't imagine what would have happened to me!”
Naomi shrugged. “What are friends for? But you helped me, too, you know. I finally figured out why I hate social functions back home, but I've had so much fun with them here. Back home, every social function had ramifications for my family; political, financial – always heavy responsibility stuff, you know? But here, they really are just social functions, and I actually enjoy them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that information, but I 'm glad I figured it out. Thanks for that, Anailu.”
They said their goodbyes, and Naomi headed out. One of Mrs. Torrell's staff gave her a ride to the airport.
Chapter 20: Anailu's First Safari
At lunchtime, Miss Prithers called to inform Anailu that she'd passed the test. With that concern lifted, Anailu spent the rest of the weekend on general maintenance and learning more about her new comm system. It was very sophisticated, including even crazy stuff like remote control links, allowing you to fly the ship from your comm. She made sure that was locked off. It seemed like a nice trick, but to Anailu, it felt more like a way to help someone steal her ship, especially since her comm didn't have high-grade security to match her new ship's comms.
On Monday morning, the safari staff came aboard, to load up the Dove and to prepare the galley. When the doctor came aboard, he was pleased with the medbay. Anailu's passengers for this trip would be some of the safari staff and some of the tourists' staff.
When the guests arrived late Monday afternoon, everything was ready. Since the Dove could go much faster than his main airship, both ships departed at the same time, but the Queen flew ahead. This allowed the staff to start setting up the first night's camp before the main ship arrived. Since most of the tourists, their staff, and the safari staff were staying aboard the two ships, the setup was mostly some recreational pavilions and several campfires. The campsite was near the Arch Falls, but this site was above them on the shoulder of a mountain, overlooking the large plateau to the west, above the falls. There was a beautiful view from the top of a cliff at the edge of the campsite out over both a lake directly below and the flat plain of the plateau.
The tourists arrived just in time for a casual sunset dinner in the pavilions. In the morning, they had their choice of various diversions. Some stayed with the ships; others went down to the lake for swimming, boating, or fishing. Still others went farther afield to the plains for hunting. The largest group took the scenic hike down beside the falls. Anailu was still a little nervous of the whole thing, so she stayed with her ship.
Late in the afternoon, the Queen shifted to the second campsite below the falls – the same place she'd visited with the Torrells before. The Torrell airship arrived once they'd collected the last of the guests returning from the lake and the plains. That evening, there was a formal dinner aboard the airship, which Anailu attended. At the table, she was placed between two gentlemen who liked the sound of their own voices so much that she barely had to speak. Anailu was happy with that.
The next day, they visited the Spires of Veelar, which were massive irregular stone spires. On the last day, they spent time exploring an iceberg. While they did land, both the Queen and the Torrell airship kept their CG generators active, hovering in place while touching the ground, just in case the iceberg decided to roll.
On Friday morning, they all returned to the Torrells' base and unloaded the passengers and cargo. Anailu was done by the afternoon.
Chapter 21: The Black Mountain
Anailu wasn't due back to the University until early Monday morning, so she decided to spend the weekend hunting for her parts. She saw that the closest small starport was at the town of Pandibon, in a mountain range between the Lightness and Doran City. The port was primarily to support the mining operations near the town.
Most of the Pandibon landing pads were next to refineries, but there were public pads by the town. She set down there. She had her choice of which one to use, since all the public pads were empty. Near the pads was a small bar catering to spacers called “The Black Mountain.” She went in to find the place empty except for a serving bot. After she came in, a man came out of a back room and stepped behind the bar. “Welcome to The Black Mountain. I'm Motul, the owner. What brings the owner of the only Dove on Doran to my humble place?”
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“Oh, um, you know about me?”
“Yeah, I saw the news about you getting her in the air. Good job, by the way.”
“Thanks! Then maybe you know that I need some specialized parts before I can get my ship out into the dark?”
“I think I remember something about that, yeah?”
“I've asked about it online, and I've called every business who might have them, but so far it's all gotten me nothing. So, I figured I would go out and talk to people. I'm hoping somebody remembers something they don't want to talk about online, or maybe they might have some parts they aren't selling online.”
“Surely somebody has already gone looking for them? I mean, a Dove in good condition is worth some serious creds.”
“If I can get her fixed up, I'm not going to sell her. I always dreamed of owning a Dove, and all I want to do is fly her. But yeah, everyone has searched around Doran City, because everyone thought she landed there. I think she landed somewhere else on Doran and was flown to the city after the parts were removed.”
“You know it's just as likely that someone just destroyed the parts, or just took them and left Doran?”
Anailu frowned and glared.
“Hey, I'm just pointing out the possibilities.”
“Yeah, I know that's possible. But if they really wanted to disable the ship permanently, why not just destroy it entirely? Why not just dump the ship somewhere no one will find it, like in the ocean? Why pay in advance to store it, powered, for ten years? I think that somebody planned to come back for it, which means they kept the parts. If they kept the parts, then the most likely place to keep them is here on Doran.”
“Wow, you're optimistic.”
“I bought a starship that can't go to the stars. So, yeah, I'm optimistic.”
He laughed. “Alright then. The bad news is, I've never heard talk of someone hoarding Telani ship parts. We usually only get bulk freighters here, but it's enough to need some port facilities, including a repair dock for the big ships. If you want, I can get you in touch with the lady in charge of repairs over there, but I don't think you'll hear much different from her. I was born here on Doran, so I'll try to remember if I've heard anything over the years. Stop by when you're done over there, and I'll let you know if I came up with anything.”
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