by Chris Hechtl
“What do your contacts say?”
“That they are stalling,” the chief of staff reported. “They want the station to be abandoned. By cutting off a resupply, they insure it.”
“So that is why the commodore salvaged and sent back those ships. To get supplied with more people, fuel, and food without losing Ilmarinen,” Sven said. “Wanna bet if he had sent the ship back they would have stalled her too?” he demanded.
“No takers there I am afraid. I've pretty much confirmed that,” L'r'kk said, signaling first-degree anger and contempt.
“The question now becomes, what do we do about it?” Sven asked, looking from his boss to his true boss, the president.
“I think we need to get behind those ships. Draw the attention of the public to them, and their so-called refit. If we want to open trade with Nuevo and the outer Federation, we need those ships functional and in space. Every moment they sit we're wasting time, and as our friends in the business community like to say, money.”
“Will Childress allow it?”
“Yes. The more important question is. Will he use them as the commodore intended?” L'r'kk demanded.
“What is that supposed to mean, sir?” Sven asked as he wrinkled his nose.
“Simple. Childress made promises to Fabian and his mother to run ships between A and B. What better ships than the liner and the freighter? And they'll of course get dibs on the cargo space first,” the Veraxin said in disgust.
“And conveniently forget about the commodore? That's cold,” Sven muttered.
“He probably assumes the commodore will eventually be forced to abandon his mission and come back here or a passing Pyrax ship will resupply them. I'm not sure what is passing through that bog of a mind of his. I don't think I want to know,” the Veraxin replied.
“You do. We need to know,” the president said simply.
The chief of staff swiveled his eyes to his boss and then signaled second degree agreement.
“If their plan works, it will kick-start businesses and the economy. That would be a nice uptick but not a big once since we're only talking about two ships,” Sven stated. “And remember, those ships will disrupt normal trade. They'll get hit by that, and we'll have ripple effect,” he warned.
“Get someone in treasury to look into that. We may need to anticipate it and soften the blow somehow, retraining or something,” the president ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Sven said, making a note.
“For now, we need to release glowing ideas about travel and trade in a series of press conferences, and also prime the pump with bloggers and economists to give the good admiral a hotfoot,” L'r'kk stated. “I'll talk to our friends in business and get them pushing from their end too. The same for the senate.”
“Good point,” the president stated.
~<><{<^>}><>~
Omar seethed as he read the latest missive from his mother. She flat-out ordered him to get behind the ships and push them through the yards. She wasn't the only one; she made it clear the other civilian backers were with her and were getting impatient.
He was aware that the administration was behind some of the push, but he decided to ignore it.
Apparently, something mentioned in the latest news cycle had touched them off and renewed interest in jumping back and forth to Bek B. They wanted the ships for local transport, which would ignore the need of resupply by the Harbor Station. That part he agreed with whole heartedly.
He felt a bit of malicious amusement about using the ships Horatio had intended to use to resupply him and his mission for his own purposes. Eventually Horatio would be forced to pull his people out of the stupid station and back on Ilmarinen to come back with their tails collectively between their legs. Or if he was stupid, he'd send the ship back expecting resupply that way, not knowing if the other two ships had made it. If he did that, he would trap himself … at least until a ship came in through the rapids.
And if it did, so what? If it did, the commodore was welcome to ride it home. Hopefully, he would.
According to Admiral Creator of Ship's latest report both ships were halfway through their overhaul. Sorting out the civilian hardware was a problem. And the occasional memo drawing his attention to how efficient even some of the civilian hardware was to their own was vexing to him. As if he needed to know that!
He had Admiral Hill check on the parts that had been sold. He'd been tempted to release the others to auction but instead had decided to warehouse them for parts for the two existing ships for the moment. According to Patty some of the parts had been resold when the buyers had realized they couldn't just be plugged in and used as is to make a sublight ship into a starship. He snorted at the very idea.
His family's company had snapped up a few of the parts. They had also snapped up a few of the companies that had bought the parts on credit … and in the process had overextended themselves to the point of near bankruptcy. He could well imagine his mother gloating over that. It explained why she and the others hadn't been such a pain in the ass about not getting a clean lock on all the hardware he thought.
Once the two ships were back up and running, he'd have them do “test” runs to Bek B. Once they established the pattern, he planned to “reluctantly” keep them running to and from Bek B to help the economy.
Let the commodore do something about that, he thought with a grin.
~<><{<^>}><>~
Commander Koba was furious, but was impotent about it, which infuriated her even more. Being relieved … well, not completely, no, the brass had something more humiliating in mind.
Harmony of Space and Second Chance were laid up for a refit after they had been unloaded. She'd been unhappy with what the navy had done with the cargo, but she'd reminded herself of the old saying, right way, wrong way, navy way. She had enjoyed some amusement when she had been transferred to Harmony to oversee the larger ship's refit. Lieutenant JG V'r'n'll had been promoted to full lieutenant and then had been transferred to a posting in one of the fortresses.
Her transfer and the refits she had approved of, though she felt a tad guilty about not getting reloaded and headed back to B-102c to resupply the station and Ilmarinen. She had expected to take on a crew and then go to the station and had harbored ideas of being the new skipper if the brass didn't want her back on Ilmarinen. When nothing came about initially, she'd thought that was how things were going to work so she'd settled in with a bit of relief.
The relief hadn't lasted long. She'd had wanted to take some of her accumulated leave but had declined in favor of staying with “her” ship. When additional crew had started to arrive, she'd been grateful. Officers were also a plus, though there had been only one other navigator to replace her civilian one.
But her relief had quickly ended when Captain Rajid Seramunga, an avid supporter of Admiral Childress, had shown up without notice and had read himself into the ship's log as commanding officer during the graveyard shift while she'd been in her rack. By the time her crew had let her know what was going on, it had been over. And the new skipper had scolded her for not being there when he'd read himself in.
She'd packed her bags, expecting reassignment, but none had come. When she inquired with BuPers, she got kicked around for awhile before someone informed her that she was to remain on Harmony as her XO.
She fumed when the new captain belittled her in front of the morning bridge watch, then informed her and them that Harmony and Second Chance would be used not to resupply the station but to ferry cargo and passengers to and from Bek B.
That announcement came a few hours before their first passengers arrived. The commander was dismayed to find that most were civilians. She recognized a few; they were managers of industrial corporations. A few were corporate stooges who regularly moved back and forth between Bek A and B to represent their corporate masters.
Oh, there were a few officers, but they were all high ranking ones. She had to put on a side party each time and had to rush about making certain that th
eir cabins and facilities were appropriate for their high ranks.
It was only when they were underway to the hyper limit that she realized she'd been essentially demoted to babysitter. Babysitter, waiter, and whipping boy for the captain and flag officers.
Chapter 52
With extra hands on board and more experience from her core crew, Sweet Revenge returned to B-102c to a hero’s welcome after eleven weeks in the seventh octave of Beta band. It was the highest Horatio was willing to push the class 1 hyperdrive. Fortunately, the rebuild ship and her crew were up for the load.
“You just like me because I've got fresh food and plenty of fuel and water,” he teased when Commander Decoure mentioned the cheering. His retort hit the news and started a second cheer among the station as well as Ilmarinen.
While Sweet Revenge transited across the star system, Horatio downloaded the latest news from the station's communications department. It didn't take him long to get himself caught up in the news.
He started with the local news. He skimmed the logs; most of them were situation normal reports from Captain Clayton and Commander Decoure. Good. They had made little progress on the other derelict ships. That was fine. Now that he had resources to resupply both the ship and station, and a means to get more, they would make up for lost time.
Obviously, there hadn't been any sightings of the two ships they had sent to Bek. From the comments on the news blog, a lot of people were concerned that they even made it to Bek. There was speculation that they hadn't and a growing movement to send Ilmarinen to see if one or both ships had been disabled and left in one of the empty star systems along the way to Bek.
Horatio was wary about that, but now that they had Sweet Revenge he could sign off on it. If the ships had made it, most likely Admiral Childress had kept them there to force the station to be abandoned he thought. He wouldn't put it past the man, he thought acidly.
The other bit of news that affected them was that Justica, the transport from Pyrax had gotten to B101a1 and was in the rapids. They were going to take it slow, limiting the ship's speed to the alpha bands to play it safe. “Better to be safe than sorry,” Horatio agreed with a nod.
He ran the numbers on his database table. If they didn't run into a problem, based on what he saw there, their ETA was within a week to ten days. Most likely they would pick up some time near the end … if the rapids played nice.
Somehow he doubted it.
Apparently, Admiral Irons had made it official. Pyrax was now producing only carriers, support ships, cruisers, and destroyers. The battle line capital ships were to be produced in Antigua. He nodded at that news, though shipping the ships to Antigua to receive their compliment of craft seemed silly. Apparently, someone had figured out shipping the finished craft as well as the last of the materials to fit the ships out to full operational status to Pyrax was better. Good, he thought with a nod of approval.
He hated sitting out of the war. He didn't feel like he was contributing, which sucked.
There were other bits of news, like that the Ssilli world had been found. That was definitely good news of the first order. Aquarius was still coming to grips with the Federation. It would take a lot of time and most likely political stroking before they were ready to commit to the Federation and its cause after the pirate's visit.
He wasn't surprised at how fast the Federation was expanding now that it had its feet under it. Admiral Irons had played it smart and sent scouts and diplomatic missions to the remaining star systems in the western hemisphere of the sector. Some were willing to join, though there were a few like New Dublin that had issues to be sorted out.
He was surprised by the notation that Shelby had been promoted again before her departure. He understood why she had been promoted to captain senior grade when he noted the size of the force under her. His daughter was going to have her hands full, he thought.
Destria was a mess according to the reports. It was so bad they'd called in additional reinforcements. “Nasty business,” he murmured. At least Protodon and Hidoshi's World had settled down he noted.
He scanned a few of the other headlines then shook his head. The storm of war was gathering strength. Things were going to get ugly soon he thought.
~<><{<^>}><>~
The eager Nuevo business people settled into their quarters and were at their prospective places of businesses within hours of their boarding the station.
There were seven main businesses in total: one family group of Neobears would manage a bar and night club; one group from a Nuevo corporation were there to set up a franchise chain of a famous Italian restaurant; one group was from a famous sandwich chain and would open up their franchise in the food court as well as run the small drink dispensary, cookie shop, ice cream parlor, and pretzel maker part time, material permitting; one group was to run the VR arcade; one group was to run a small commissary using mostly salvaged goods initially, the dentist and his assistant wife and daughter were geared up and ready to drill teeth; and there was one Satyre tailor with her two daughters. The Satyre's experience with powered equipment was limited to a sewing machine. She took on not only the dry cleaning and tailor shop but also the laundromat next door.
Chief Bailey and his overworked techs were promised all sorts of perks if they got the businesses up and running fast. He did his best to accommodate those he could since one, he was heartily tired of doing his own laundry, some of those stains just didn't want to come out, and two, he had seen Galiet's eyes light up at the sight of the Italian restaurant. Marinara didn't always agree with him, but he knew an opportunity to romance one of his ladies when he saw it. Besides, it would be a nice change from the replicator food they had been eating.
He wondered briefly if they would do take out, and then shrugged off such considerations for a later time. As long as the gas didn't trip him up at an inopportune time …
For the station master's part, Commander Decoure was bemused by their addition, but not by the rowdy army platoon. “They are going to be a security nightmare,” he stated. “They are going to be bored out of their tiny little minds the entire time they are here; you know that, right?” he demanded.
“My suggestion is to give them a tour, including the brig. Have a chat with their commanding officer as well as their noncoms and the bar owners to remind them to keep the general mayhem under control,” Horatio said helpfully. “Maybe they can use the VR arcade to run sims or help with KP as work parties. You'll figure something out,” he said.
“Gee, thanks, sir,” the Centillian replied dryly.
“Anything I can do to help and keep things lively,” Horatio replied with a grin.
~<><{<^>}><>~
The VR arcade was the “first” business to open. The five business leaders had a meeting with Commander Decoure to set up a business commission to air grievances and issues, pass new rules, and to orchestrate events to help draw in business. They immediately agreed to stagger their openings by a day or so each in order to celebrate each in turn.
They also hired on some of the army platoon to work part time in order for them to generate income and keep them busy.
~<><{<^>}><>~
“Sir, you are being paged by the ansible,” Lieutenant Olson said. He pointed to the commodore's open office door.
“Me? Paged?” Horatio asked, eyeing his flag lieutenant. Pietro nodded. “By who?”
“Admiral Irons, sir,” Pietro replied.
“Got it,” Horatio said. “Do not disturb,” he said as he entered his office and shut the door. He quickly went to his desk, took a seat, and then opened his HUD. He jacked into the communications network, noted the ansible was up and running. He signed into the ansible, then tapped out a quick. “I'm here,” into the ansible to transmit. It was shorter than typing “Commodore Horatio Logan reporting as ordered.”
He scanned the files as he waited for a response. There were a few changes, most noticeably someone had written a script to convert text speech into regular speech. It wasn't
perfect, but he appreciated the effort.
“Welcome back,” Admiral Irons stated, making him look up to the screen. “You've been missed, Horatio.”
“I didn't know you cared,” Horatio quipped. “I had to go. It wasn't so much sharing the risk after sending two ships off to an unknown fate as the lack of personnel who are qualified to handle the job. Captain Clayton has balked at giving me more. I can't say I blame him.
“Well, your personnel issues should lighten up shortly. Just as soon as Justica arrives.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I had Phil send along personnel to fill out some of the manning of the station as well as that ship you salvaged. The Sweet Revenge you call it?”
“Her original name is in T'clock.”
“Ah.”
“Well, I was planning on holding the transport for Yorgi, but as you know he didn't get there by the departure date. He dragged his feet a bit, and Moira didn't want to go so she set up a team to go in her place. That got expanded to a second team to go to Bek B and then Nuevo, then congress got involved,” Admiral Irons said.
Horatio frowned. Just from reading the text message he had a feeling the admiral's patience had been sorely tried.
“But they are on their way now?”
“Yes indeed.”
“Did Shelby get off okay?”
“Yes. And the eastern front has been launched, not without some political issues that had to be worked out. But both missions are in flight. We're assembling a mission to Sigma here in Antigua now. I've also got cruiser packs moving into the Sigma and Tau sectors. I'm not thrilled about sending them in less than division strength without support nearby, so that's slowing things up a bit.”
“Yeah, though it is interesting to see you taking a page from the pirates, sir,” Horatio stated. “Turning the tables on them.”
“Eh? Oh, yeah,” Admiral Irons replied. “I'm looking forward to your report. At least I think I am. Can you give me the gist now? I've got two more minutes before Cookie tracks me down.”