by Ryk Brown
“Why?”
Josh pointed at the tall, broad-shouldered man walking toward the Seiiki.
“Who’s that?” Dalen asked.
“The man who’s gonna show you how dumb you are,” Marcus said.
“Relax,” Nathan said, as he slid down the forward ladder behind them. “He’s just going to help us fix a few things around here.” Nathan patted Dalen on the shoulder as he walked past him. “We’re not tossing you out the airlock just yet, Dalen.”
“Gee, thanks, Cap’n,” Dalen replied sarcastically.
“Vlad,” Nathan called to his friend, as Vladimir ascended the cargo ramp. “I’m glad you agreed to join us,” he added, as he shook his friend’s hand vigorously.
“Nothing could have stopped me,” Vladimir replied, a broad smile on his face.
“I was afraid Cameron wasn’t going to let you go.”
“I have a very competent engineering staff,” Vladimir boasted. “They will do fine without me.”
“Good to know.” Nathan turned to his crew. “You already know Josh and Marcus. This young man, however, is Dalen Voss, the Seiiki’s chief mechanic, bottle washer, and all-around good kid. Dalen, this is my old friend Commander Vladimir Kamenetskiy, the Aurora’s chief of engineering, and likely the best engineer and all-around Mister Fix-it I have ever known.”
“All true,” Vladimir agreed. “But you forgot best looking.” He reached out to shake Dalen’s hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mister Voss.”
“Likewise, Commander,” Dalen replied.
“Please, this is not a military ship. Call me Vladimir.”
“Dalen,” the young mechanic responded.
Vladimir looked at Nathan, smiling. “It will be good to serve together again. I have missed you.”
“Let’s not get mushy around the crew,” Nathan suggested, joking with his old friend. “Besides, we need to get busy. We’re scheduled to depart in a few hours, and there’s a few things we’d like to get squared away before departure.”
“Da, da, da.” Vladimir looked back at Dalen. “Maybe you can show me what your biggest problems are?”
“Starting with ones that can’t be serviced en route,” Nathan reminded him.
“Sure thing,” Dalen agreed. “Follow me,” he added, heading down the cargo ramp.
Vladimir looked back at Nathan. “I guess I’ll get started, then.”
“Thanks, Vlad,” Nathan replied, as his friend turned to follow Dalen back down the cargo ramp.
Marcus watched them step off the ramp and disappear to starboard. “This is gonna be fun to watch,” he said, moving to follow them.
Josh followed Marcus, passing Nathan on his way out.
“Where are you going?” Nathan wondered.
“To help them,” Josh said, turning around to walk backwards down the ramp. “Besides, I could use some entertainment as well.”
* * *
Deliza stood on the Glendanon’s cargo deck, watching as Burgean technicians removed the white plastic wrapping from around the mini jump sub.
The aft half of the ship’s massive cargo bay had finally been sealed off and pressurized, thanks to the tireless efforts of Captain Gullen’s crew, and a handful of refugee volunteers from Burgess. They still needed to build a large transfer airlock at her bow, but that would have to come later, once they found a place for the refugees to live. For now, the entire front half of the ship still needed to be decompressed to allow smaller vessels to come and go, which was a slow process at best.
Two boxcars had gone to the Elsyn system to retrieve the Ghatazhak’s stashed cargo pods, one of which contained the small jump sub that General Telles and Jessica had used to escape the Jung homeworld seven years ago. Now, it would be her job to inspect it and determine if it was mission-ready, and if not, how to make it so.
The first thing she noticed as they peeled away the plastic, form-fitting cover, was that two of the jump sub’s six jump emitters appeared damaged. Although it would take further inspection to verify her suspicions, she was fairly certain that they had blown during Jessica’s escape jump from Nor-Patri. She had seen similar failures during Ranni Enterprise’s development of their corporate jump shuttle, when testing in rainy weather. Water trapped in the cracks of the emitter housings had frozen at the moment of jump, for reasons they had never determined. Because of that, they had developed self-heating emitters to prevent icing.
She tapped her first service note into her data pad. Install heated emitters.
A technician popped the hatch and stuck his head inside. A moment later he pulled his head out again, a disgusted look on his face.
Her second note. Clean inside.
“Got a bit of damage to the nose, here,” a technician called from the front of the jump sub. “Should be able to patch it up.”
Repair and reinforce nose, was her third note.
Deliza stepped up to the side of the jump sub and plugged a cable from her data pad into a systems port on the side of the sub. Seeing the diagnostic data pour in, she was crestfallen. “We have a lot of work to do,” she sighed.
* * *
“These power conduits are all wrong,” Vladimir insisted, pointing to the thick lines running from the mini fusion reactors in the back of what was now referred to as the Seiiki’s ‘gun deck’, to the plasma cannon turrets on either side. “The heat dissipation wrap is completely inadequate. If you fired these weapons at full power for more than a few minutes, both gunners would be cooked. A few more minutes, and the deck would melt.”
“What do we do?” Dalen asked, dumbfounded.
“We wrap them with liquid cooling wraps, and pump the heated fluid to exchangers on the outside of the hull,” Vladimir stated. “Preferably in the ship’s slipstream, so they will be cooled if used in the atmosphere as well.”
“That means we have to cut more holes in the hull,” Dalen complained.
“Then that’s what we do,” Nathan said.
“Where are we going to get these wraps you’re talking about?” Marcus asked.
“We have plenty of them on board the Aurora,” Vladimir replied. “Two per side should be enough.”
“What about the heat exchangers?” Nathan wondered.
“We can manufacture them in a few hours using the Aurora’s fabricators. The most difficult part will be the hull. How many layers did you say?”
“Four,” Dalen replied. “Outer, inner, and two layers of shellite core.”
“Shellite core?” Vladimir asked, unfamiliar with the term.
“It’s a honeycomb structure made out of nano-tube stuff the Takarans came up with a couple decades back,” Nathan explained. “Very light, very strong, and good at absorbing kinetic energy. Full of tiny air pockets as well, so it’s a good insulator. You’ll find it on just about any ship built in the PC up until about ten years ago.”
“What do they use now?” Vladimir wondered.
“Some new stuff.” Nathan looked at Marcus. “Dolenite, or something?”
“Dolenzite,” Marcus corrected. “Expensive stuff. It’s used in all the Takaran military spacecraft.”
“How are we going to cut through the hull?” Dalen asked.
“What did you use to plug up the windows and make the structure around the turrets?” Vladimir inquired.
“Cargo pod hull skins,” Nathan replied.
“Seriously?”
“It’s what we had at the time.”
“You should keep that hatch closed during flight,” Vladimir warned.
“We do,” Nathan replied.
“And I’d automate these guns,” Vladimir suggested.
“That’s a bit trickier,” Dalen said.
“It would take quite a bit of cable routing to connec
t them to the ship’s sensors.”
“Why can’t you just install sensors on each gun, and put a targeting computer back here?” Vladimir suggested.
“We thought about that,” Dalen replied. “But we were afraid that the heat from the plasma generators would fry it.”
“But you weren’t worried about the people operating the guns?”
Nathan shrugged.
Vladimir sighed, scratching his head. “Maybe we can install plate shields?”
“Never heard of them,” Nathan admitted.
“They are new. They’re shields, just like on the Aurora, but much smaller. They were developed for the Reapers, and then adapted for the Eagles. They are small, double-layered shield sections that can be angled and moved.”
“How small?” Nathan wondered.
“Three to five meters, I believe,” Vladimir replied. “We could mount them to the sides of the turrets, so they would project shields on either side. That would offer some protection to your gunners, and to this entire deck. We would just have to adjust them to prevent the shields of one turret from interfering with the shields of the other.”
“How long is all this going to take?”
“A couple days, perhaps?”
“We’re scheduled to liftoff in six hours,” Nathan told him.
“How long will you be gone?”
“We’re not sure. A day or two, at least.”
“If we install the shield emitters now, as well as the heat exchangers, and run the cabling and fluid lines through a hole behind each turret, and seal it up, we can do the rest en route,” Vladimir suggested.
“Is Cameron going to let you come along?” Nathan wondered.
“She told me I was temporarily attached to your command,” Vladimir replied with a smile.
“Very well,” Nathan agreed. “Get started on the exterior stuff, and get everything else you need to finish up loaded into the cargo bay. But don’t forget to leave room. We’re bringing along Jessica and a Ghatazhak squad.”
“I’ll get a few of my men to start on the exchangers, and a couple hull techs started on the exterior openings,” Vladimir promised, heading for the door. “This will be fun!”
Nathan sighed as Vladimir disappeared through the hatch.
“Man’s got a funny idea of ‘fun’,” Marcus grumbled.
Dalen looked at the hull behind the port turret, then down at the power conduits that Vlad had been concerned about.
“Something wrong, Dalen?” Nathan wondered.
“How’s he gonna power those shields and fire the guns at full power? Surely that’s gonna increase the heat load, right?”
“If Vlad says it’ll work, it’ll work,” Nathan assured him.
“I sure hope you’re right,” Dalen replied, moving past Nathan, headed for the hatch. “I’d hate to be a gunner in here if it doesn’t.”
Nathan looked around and sighed. “Me too.”
* * *
“Sorry I’m late,” Nathan said, as he entered the Aurora’s command briefing room and took a seat at the opposite end of the table from Cameron. “I hope I didn’t miss anything.”
“We were just getting started,” Cameron assured him, turning her attention back to Deliza.
“As I was saying, the jump sub is in poor shape overall. We will have to replace its entire jump drive. Emitters, energy banks, field generator, the works. I’d recommend using the same system as the Eagles, but with a fixed-distance jump control computer designed to hold two jumps- insertion and escape. The impeller drive and underwater navigation systems are all in working order, as is the life-support system. I would recommend that we lose the fusion reactor, since it is too easy to detect, especially when they’re run above twenty percent.”
“We never ran it above ten,” Jessica argued.
“Which supports my recommendation,” Deliza pointed out. “You’re using a power source that is larger, heavier, and more complex than your mission parameters require. It also takes up additional space.”
“How are we going to power the systems?” Jessica asked.
“Ranni Enterprises developed a step-down system that allows our jump shuttles to pull power directly from the jump drive’s energy banks, as an emergency source of power. It would be a simple matter to adapt the technology to provide primary power to the jump sub’s other systems.”
“Won’t that limit its capabilities?” Jessica worried.
“Not if we add two more energy cells to the jump drive’s energy banks. Combined, they will take up one quarter of the space that the fusion reactor does, and will be forty-two percent lighter.”
“Will that give us enough room in the sub to carry more passengers or cargo?” General Telles inquired.
“We should be able to increase its passenger capacity back to its original design parameters of one pilot and four passengers.”
General Telles looked pleased. “That would make it useful for tactical insertion missions as well.”
“How long will it take to get the jump sub ready to go?” Nathan asked.
“A few days,” Deliza replied. “A week, at the most. The hull is still intact, although its nose requires a bit of repair, so it’s mostly just replacing systems.”
“Probably from our recovery,” Jessica commented. “It was a bit rough.”
“That explains the dent in the Seiiki’s forward cargo deck bulkhead,” Nathan said. “We never could get that completely true again.”
“I would strongly suggest that we give the jump sub at least a few test runs,” Deliza warned them.
“I’m sure we can find someplace that will suffice,” General Telles assured her.
“It would help if we could do the rebuild here, on the Aurora,” Deliza suggested to Cameron. “Your facilities are much better than those on the Glendanon. And your fabricators are more accessible.”
“Ours are busy fulfilling orders for the transfer airlock project on the Glendanon,” General Telles explained.
“Very well,” Cameron replied. “I’ll have you speak with Commander Kaplan. She’ll set you up with a workspace, and put your team up in guest quarters.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Deliza replied.
“How is the Seiiki progressing?” General Telles asked, turning to Nathan.
“Vlad has found a few things wrong, as expected. Thanks for loaning him to us, by the way,” Nathan said, looking at Cameron. “The most pressing issue is an overheating and shielding problem with our plasma turrets.”
“Can this be corrected prior to your departure?” General Telles wondered, checking the time display on the Aurora’s wall.
“They’re doing the exterior stuff first, so that they can do the rest en route. Syllium Orfee is just over two hundred light years from our present position, so it will take us a few hours to get there. That should be enough time to get the problem solved.”
“What else did he find?” General Telles wondered.
“A few other things. An imbalance in the shield generators that makes a weak spot between the port and starboard dorsal shields. A few power conduits that are too small for the load they’re carrying. A leaky air scrubber, low hydraulic pressure in the starboard aft gear assembly, and a bunch of other things. But they’re all relatively easy fixes.”
“You do have a dedicated engineer, don’t you?” Cameron asked.
“He’s more of a mechanic, really. He’s pretty good at fixing things, but, he’s no Vlad, if you know what I mean.”
“Anything else?”
“Well, he’s already thinking of how we can install plasma cannons in our wing-bodies. Stubby mark threes, I believe. We’d have to get in close to hit anything, though. But they’d make the Seiiki a fair match for any Dusahn gunboat. Maybe even a frigate,
if we got the jump on her.”
“I’m afraid the mark threes will have to wait until after we have secured the Mystic Empress,” General Telles said. “We cannot keep those people cooped up in cargo pods much longer.”
“Can we move some of them onto the Aurora?” Jessica suggested.
“You want to put them on a warship?” Cameron said, shocked. “You really think that’s wise? We get shot at, remember?”
“We all get shot at, Cam,” Jessica pointed out. “Even the Glendanon. At least the Aurora has a fighting chance.”
“No, she’s right,” Nathan interrupted. “Having them aboard will put additional stress on the ship, and would limit Cameron’s options while under fire. Besides, the Aurora is already operating shorthanded.”
“We’re already bringing over people temporarily for medical care,” Cameron pointed out. “That’s the best we can do, for now.”
“The Mystic is the best option,” General Telles insisted. “Let’s focus on securing her, first.”
“What happens if the Mystic’s captain doesn’t want to join us?” Nathan wondered.
“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” General Telles replied.
“But if it does?”
“That is why you are taking a squad of my men with you.”
“So, we’re going to take the Mystic Empress by force?”
“I doubt much force will be necessary,” Jessica pointed out. “It’s a cruise ship, remember?”
“I’m sure they’ve got some sort of security on board,” Nathan argued. He turned to General Telles. “I’m not so sure I’m comfortable with the idea of taking the Mystic by force, General.”
“Then I suggest you do your best to convince her captain to join us willingly, Captain,” General Telles replied calmly. “However, if he refuses, we will take her by force. We are fighting a war, after all.”
“Maybe we should bring his wife and child along with us?” Jessica said. “She might be helpful in convincing him.”