“Elective, meaning we don’t have to answer,” Slick said.
“I’ll answer,” Minh said before Lieutenant Commander Moda could reply. “No, I don’t think they used the appropriate countermeasures. That barrier weapon was heavy-handed for the threat, and I’ll bet half my pay that those Eden ships had an uplink to a hypertransmitter somewhere that sent readings to the nearest Order ship. Your commanders should have sent the destroyers they had on standby in to flank while your station’s missile batteries tore everything else to shreds.”
Slick regarded Minh-Chu with mild surprise. “Don’t hold back, now.”
“She asked,” Minh said with a shrug. “That was the Eden fleet checking defences. I’d be surprised if those ships were anything more than antiques.”
“Thank you very much, Wing Commander,” replied Lieutenant Commander Moda. “You’ll find your payment with your lead fighters in lock boxes secured with the agreed upon combinations.”
They were nearly outside of the room when Minh-Chu gave into an impulse to say something that seemed to be hovering overhead for the entire briefing. “You’re going to need to hire more pilots.”
Lieutenant Commander Moda stopped and said, “Pardon me, Sir?”
“If your government has friends in higher places, they should start making calls and bringing help in. The war is almost here, and you won’t be able to fight it with the ships you have in this solar system, even if you spend everything you have on outsourcing.”
“Do you have information you haven’t shared?” Lieutenant Commander Moda asked.
“No, but I’ve seen two wars start in my lifetime, and this will be number three,” Minh replied. He turned back towards the doorway, through which he could see the faces of his pilots. Some were ashen white, others were concerned, while Joyboy seemed unbothered by anything he’d overheard.
“Which wars?” asked Lieutenant Commander Moda. “Sir! Which wars?”
Minh didn’t bother turning around but answered. “The All-Con conflict, and the Vindyne liberation.”
“Why isn’t that in the record?”
“Because I’d rather tell stories that have a happy ending, and both left millions in the cold.”
The door closed behind them, and Slick stopped Minh-Chu. “What’s going on?” he asked in a whisper. “You’ve been in a bad mood for days and now I know it has nothing to do with Paula dogging you whenever you make landfall.”
“Let’s start with the pilots that shouldn’t be here,” Minh said levelly. “A third of our wing would make passable transit pilots, but they’re not ready for combat. You and I both know they’re only here because we’re trying to earn as much as we can, running extra patrols using filler. We have to cut back on our patrols so we can use our best pilots every time.”
“Pardon me, Sir,” interjected Quiz, a thin young man who was a little shorter than Ronin and nothing but skin and bones. “I bagged one of those ‘bots, I know, but I could still use experience. How am I supposed to get that if I’m grounded?”
“I give you credit for knowing you’re one of the pilots I was talking about,” Minh-Chu said. “We’ll rig a computer to host simulations for you and the other greens. You’re going to spend some time in sims, and you’ll spend as much time with the physical training group.”
“What?” Quiz replied. “Physical training?”
Ronin sighed and looked at Slick.
“If you want to fly,” Slick said. “You’re going to have to train our way. It’s our fault for putting you up here too early. Enjoy flying your ship back to Tamber, it could be the last time you see the inside of a cockpit for a while.”
“Hell, no!” Quiz shouted. “I get my first kill and you pull me? Is this your way of telling us you want all the kill pay for yourselves? We’re just goddamn decoys?”
“Don’t get me started on what’s wrong with your kill,” Ronin replied. “If we keep you in the pilot’s seat, you’re going to get yourself or others killed. I’ll prevent that however I can, so you’re grounded. If you can’t live with that, then maybe you can qualify for transit, I hear we’re low on shuttle pilots,” Minh-Chu finished with an upraised eyebrow.
Slick stepped in just as Quiz was about to forcefully retort. “Cool off on your way to the launch bay,” he said. “You’re dismissed.”
“Let’s make that trip,” Joyboy said to the pilots. “Come on.”
Ronin and Slick waited for the group to leave via the elevator. “I hope that’s the last pilot we take in from Patrizia Salustri. That’s one thing checked off your list,” Slick said. “What else is bothering you?”
“I think what we have to do next won’t help our popularity with the Carthans, Nathan,” Minh-Chu replied. “We can’t come back to Skydock.”
“You’re thinking this is a target now,” Slick said.
Minh-Chu nodded. They started walking to the elevator and pushed the call button. “The next time Skydock comes under attack, it’ll be from long range. There won’t be anything we can do about it except get killed in the crossfire.”
“That’s what I’d do if I were the Order,” Slick said. “Or they’ll avoid the base until they could come at it from planet side, from behind. Either way, we won’t be any use to them patrolling these sectors.”
“Exactly,” Minh-Chu said. “So, we launch and return to our own slips, take the lower rate of pay.”
“Commander McPatrick won’t like it, that’s a big hit and a lot of busy work on the ground.”
“Don’t worry about Oz, I’ll talk to him,” Minh-Chu said. The elevator arrived and they stepped inside. There were two maintenance workers within. They looked and smelled like they had just finished crawling through a sewer line.
Minh-Chu did his best not to retch as the fragrance made itself at home in his mouth and nose before he had a chance to seal the hood of his vacsuit.
“I’m just finding it hard to swallow that we’re going to war on a galactic scale,” Slick said.
“Knowing much of the history myself, I can’t see how it can be prevented. I only hope it’s short,” Minh-Chu said.
“Any words of comfort, Confucius?” asked Slick.
Minh-Chu chuckled then sighed. “About war? Nothing comforting.”
“But something,” Slick pressed.
“Something.”
“So?”
“You don’t want to hear it,” Minh-Chu said.
Slick nodded and let the silence grow as thick as the smell. The man knew Minh-Chu too well. He couldn’t keep the thought he tried to keep from airing to himself after being called to share. Not for more than a few minutes, anyway. “War calls many, and rewards few.”
The doors opened, and Slick said, “You’re right, that’s no comfort at all.”
Chapter 8
Enforcer 1109
There was no supervision by the Carthan government aboard Enforcer 1109 as the ship was pillaged for essential components. There was no need. The second most frustrating thing to Jake about the operation was that they were incapable of taking many of the larger, more important systems from the ship and installing them into their settlement below.
The most frustrating thing was that he had to spend several days as a normal worker, unable to issue commands or directions to other crewmembers while he was mixing in aboard. The effort to hide amongst the crew was working; no one had been attacked in all the weeks since they landed on Tamber, but it was getting harder by the day.
The half-lit, hundreds of meters long main hangar was busy. Over half of the available manpower from their settlement was working there, and Jake had been watching, making sure that there were no surveillance devices or crewmembers he couldn’t account for. Someone was dragging half a self-contained shield generator, trailing cables behind and letting one end scrape along the deck. Before he could jump to their aid, another crewmember picked up the rear end.
“Going to chance it today, Captain?” Frost asked over a secure proximity radio channel.
“Ayan will have your head if she finds out, though,” Frost replied. “And she will find out.”
Frost was in a loader suit, undistinguishable from the other suits they had operating on the massive hangar. The software in the machine was set to correct for his limp so it was the only way he could reasonably hide.
They managed to get two emergency generators running aboard the Command Enforcer 1109, but it wasn’t enough to make it useful. However, it was more than they needed for the five weeks they would spend stripping the vessel of much needed machinery, essential comforts, personal weaponry, and housing. There was enough portable living space for three thousand.
There were also intact ships – fighters, two forty two meter long patrol craft, nine heavy shuttles, and several smaller repair and personnel shuttles that the old Enforcer crew called ‘Mice’ that could carry six people.
The eighteen meter long armoured transport behind Jake lifted off, on its way down to their settlement on Tamber. “I’m getting tired of hiding,” he told Frost. “But I’m not so pissed at this situation that I’m ready to kill the plan. We’re hidden because we’re protecting the people who might get caught in the crossfire if someone tries to make a capture.”
“Yeah,” Frost replied with a sigh. “So you’ve said more times n’ I can count, lad. It doesn’t bother you at all that the Samson’s hull is getting her finishing touches tomorrow? Whole new hull on a redesign you and your old crew hammered out.”
Jake picked up a crate ready to be loaded into a small shuttle behind him and began walking it up the rear ramp. The standard muscle augmentation in his suit creaked. He’d used that suit so much that the enhancement systems were showing real wear and tear. “You had a hand in it too,” Jake told Frost. The sealed hood and darkened faceplate kept anyone from overhearing what he was saying. “Ever see a hybrid-organic hull grown onto a ship before?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“Then maybe we should both take a day and work down there instead of up here,” Jake said. “This scavenger duty is busy work, Leland March could probably do it. I want to get back down there today if I can. Besides, your old gunnery deck crew has this all set.”
“I hear ya,” Frost replied. “Not like there’s any complicated work left to do aboard this gutted beast. Your old friend Everin is going to have a problem with us shirking his big plan to keep us scattered and hidden.”
Jake bristled at the mention of Jason Everin - the man had changed, and it wasn’t to his liking. “Between you and me, Jason's head is too big. Ayan’s given him too much control.”
“Can’t disagree,” Frost replied. “I’m waiting for him to screw up, because it’ll be in grand fashion, and we’ll have to pick up the pieces.” He paused a moment before adding, “Between you and me.”
“How do you think that’ll go down?” Jake asked. “His big screw up.”
“Not sure, but he’s moving us around like we’re pieces on an old game board, drawing up new petitions for the Carthans every couple days, and trying to run this operation too clean,” Frost said. “If he doesn’t screw one of us over by mistake, or get the Carthans irritated enough to kick us off their rock, or insult a crime lord by being snobbish, then I’ll be surprised.”
“You’re thinking you’d do better?” Jake asked.
“No, I think you’d do better,” Frost replied. “That’s why I keep askin’ when you’re going to go bare-faced and start running the show again. Ayan’s fine, got all the right training, but her team’s got holes. Seems to me, she’s the only one with the stones to go nose to nose with a Carthan Fleet Warden and not flinch. Everyone else in her little diplomatic party are just thinkers. You have to get something she doesn’t have to watch over running, maybe get a couple crews organised so we can start pirating and earning, like you were saying the other night.”
“We’ll see,” Jake replied. He watched the loading crew on the expansive, dimly lit hangar going about the business of moving the bundled and crated salvage to the shuttles. It looked like a leisurely pace to him, and it wasn’t what he wanted to see. “We’ve got six hours to finish flying everything we want from this boat down to Tamber before the Carthans take possession. Pass the word to your old gunnery crew; there’s extra liberty for them if they finish on time. If they don’t, I’ll make sure they lose a week’s pay.”
“Aye, aye,” Frost said. “I still think things would move along faster if they saw your lovely face, Captain.”
“Frost…” Jake said, a warning in his tone.
“Hail, mighty Captain Valance,” Minh announced over a private channel as his fighter was lifted into the hangar by an elevation pad.
“It’s more like knuckle-dragger number twenty eight, right now,” Jake replied. “What brings you to vulture-town?”
“Ah, Ronin’s here,” Frost discerned from Jake’s side of the conversation. He couldn’t hear Minh, thanks to the private channel communication protocol instated by Jason. They were only able to speak to one person at a time unless they were using their disguiser. “He’s probably bearing another message from your lady below. Ask him if he’s got anything from Steph.”
“I will, but he won’t,” Jake replied. He didn’t understand Frost and Stephanie Vega’s relationship, but he didn’t think about it much. It was as if they were taking a vacation from each other, especially over the last two weeks when Frost and Jake were living aboard the Enforcer.
“What’s that, Jake?” Minh asked, unable to hear Frost’s side of the conversation.
“Just Frost, asking if you’ve got something for him from Steph,” Jake replied.
“I do!” Minh declared. “She says; ‘hurry up.’”
“He’s got a message from her,” Jake told Frost.
“Oh-ho!” he replied.
“She says, ‘hurry up.’” Jake relayed.
“Ah, she misses me, just the right time to wrap this up and head home,” Frost said.
“You old softie,” Jake teased. “I’m going to talk to Minh here, catch up with you later.”
“Aye,” Frost said, closing his private channel.
“So, he’s happy,” Jake told Minh-Chu.
“I bet,” Minh said with a chuckle. “As far as I can tell, Steph’s itching to get social. She’s feeling a bit isolated. So are Finn, Agameg, and probably everyone else, except for Ashley.”
“Really?” Jake said. It was strange; he’d think that Ashley would be the most eager to stop hiding and start socialising again.
“Steph says she’s been really quiet,” Minh said. He sounded worried. “Like, depressed quiet.”
“Any idea what the problem is?”
“Stephanie figures that between the isolation and not being able to see Zoe, that orphan she rescued, it’s getting to her.”
“Another reason why Jason’s plan isn’t working out,” Jake said. “I’m going a little crazy myself.”
“Well, Ayan says ‘hi.’ She says she’s cleared her schedule tonight,” Minh said. “And if that’s code, I want details later.”
“I think it is,” Jake said. “But I won’t be over-sharing on the details.” He was eager to see Ayan again. They had just started getting to know each other, and they were becoming closer in all respects when Jason Everin came up with his plan for the Samson crew to go into hiding.
“But my vicarious life will be missing a chapter,” Minh replied.
“I thought I was living vicariously through you,” Jake replied. “If you think what I’m doing right now is more exciting, then you’re in real trouble. Besides, don’t you have someone waiting on your every landing?”
“Funny thing, I just broke it off with Paula,” Minh said.
“How did that go?” Jake asked. “God, I must be bored, I’m becoming a gossip.”
&
nbsp; “Welcome to the human race,” Minh teased. “We’re all gossips here, even if we deny it.”
“So, what happened with Paula?” Jake asked with a resigning sigh.
“Oh, yeah. I told her we had to break things off and she said; ‘I don’t believe you,’ gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked away.”
Jake laughed. “So you’re making a stop here to avoid her. You could have bounced that off our receiver as you did your usual flyby.”
“I wish that were the only reason,” Minh-Chu said. “The armour plate under my seat is cracked and I have to fix so I can go atmospheric.”
“I’ll give you a hand,” Jake said as he started heading towards Minh’s fighter. “I’m surprised there’s no backup for that.”
“That is the backup,” Minh replied. “The energy and hard shielding is all right, so I should be fine to enter atmo - and even our vacsuits can take the heat - but I’d rather have all systems go for reentry. Just call me paranoid. Safe, but paranoid.”
Jake walked onto the elevation platform and noticed a pigment-shift painting on the side of his aircraft. An image of Paula lounging under Minh-Chu’s callsign: RONIN, her modesty maintained only by smoke trailing from a recently fired gun in her hand. Jake stared at it a moment, stunned, then burst into a debilitating bout of laughter.
“What?” Minh asked, alarmed. He looked at the side of the fighter and hung his head. “Yeah, she bonded that on yesterday.”
“Well, she looks pretty good,” Jake said, taking a breath. “I hope you’ll be happy together!” He managed to say before he burst anew.
“But I-“ Minh began to offer lamely as he finished stepping down from the fighter.
Jake put his hand on his friend’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “If she’s so mad for you that she’s done this, there’ll be no shaking her off. I hope she’s got some redeeming traits we haven’t seen.”
“She can be nice in quiet moments, and she’s ambitious,” Minh said. “Doesn’t think people take her very seriously, though.”
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework Page 6