by Chris Hechtl
One of the other pranks had been funnier; someone had created a skeleton out of paper and put it on a head. That had made the rounds for a while. He personally liked the image of it standing in a stall as if peeing with a bemused sailor in the other stall.
It sucked that there wasn't a single warship for them to easily salvage. The pirates had been smart and careful about that, either taking them with them or destroying them or cutting them into wrecks. So much for that. What was left was too big for them to easily salvage or was going to take too much time.
Apparently the brass wanted everything in the star system though, so they were going to be there a while. He'd wondered why and one of the chiefs had mentioned it was good for the economy so he'd shrugged it off. It wasn't his call anyway.
He checked the wiring and then groaned. It was a rat's nest; someone had just yanked equipment out without marking anything.
“This is going to take me a while,” he muttered as he fished out his tester and got busy.
<()>^<()>
Cynthia grinned. It was a tired grin, but a real one. Prometheus had just wrapped up the bulk of the repairs on their first customer. The bulk freighter had her hyperdrive installed, nodes replaced, new hyper sensors, and a new power plant. Everything worked, and she had passed her interior inspections. They were already working on the second and third ship while the first was above them working in a temporary slip to fine tune her systems.
She had a skeleton crew on board. The ship had only a small cargo; it wasn't for a lack of a cargo so much as she didn't want to spend the time to load the ship. Besides, they had plenty of other freighters to fill cargo with. And a lot of time to do so. If all went well she'd leave the slip, provision, and then jump for the capital within three days.
There were only the twelve warship hulls or components in the boneyard; they had already confirmed that. And, an inspection of every rock and platform by robots had found just about every scrap of material. Not one item of military value had been left behind by the pirates. Lightening Strike was hoping they'd find something by reversing the tracts the pickets had seen and plotted but she very much had her doubts. Oh, they turned up a rock from time to time but they were usually empty. And the one rock that had been stuffed with elaborate traps had turned out to be a dud.
She was still considering patting herself on the back another round when the alarms went off. “What is it?”
“An alert from perimeter control. Puglia has picked up a ship at the Tau-R6101 jump point.”
“Understood. Keep me posted.”
“Aye aye, ma’am.”
<()>^<()>
Puglia was situated halfway between the Tau-R6101 and Black Hills jump point, just above the Pele jump point so she was closest to the scene. The destroyer came in fat, dumb, and happy, apparently assuming that everything was normal.
It wasn't until she was still in the kill box six hours later when the destroyer's crew realized something odd was going on and her transmissions weren't being returned.
By that time, the light cruiser had managed to get close enough to assume command of the weapon platforms and missile pods artfully arranged around the jump point. A single graser round across the bow had the ship scurrying to run. A second as she'd tried to turn had them cutting their engines.
“This is the Federation naval ship Puglia to pirate vessel. Stay put and power down your weapons, drives, and shields. Do not make any attempt to flee or resist. A boarding party will be aboard shortly,” the captain intoned. He couldn't help but smile at his XO. “Did I get it right?”
The XO gave him an A-OK hand sign. He snorted.
“Let Prometheus know we might have another customer for them in a couple of days,” the captain stated.
<()>^<()>
Cynthia woke at the soft alarm. “What is it?” she asked wearily, sitting up straight. It wasn't a klaxon, so she didn't let her implants flood her system with a sleep killer. She might be able to go back to bed if she was lucky and it was minor.
“Ma'am, Puglia has the ship in custody. No damage reported. They are sending over a boarding party now. They wanted to let us know we have a quote 'fresh customer,'“ Lieutenant Prometheus stated.
“D'ats great. Keep me posted,” she said sleepily as she flopped back into bed. She let herself drift almost immediately.
<()>^<()>
Ayumu heard about the encounter but he was more focused on a water issue in their latest project. Word was he might get pulled to work on the tin can when they finished demo on the freighter.
The plumbing in the latest project he'd been assigned to had been corroded. Apparently, someone had tried to mix different types of metal piping with old plastic. The plastic had been brittle, and they'd taped it.
Reservoirs had been made out of ancient plastic. They'd cracked and become brittle over the years to the point where they'd been glued, taped, and patched together. The entire system had to be ripped out, which was where his team came in. They'd done it and gotten all sorts of crap dumped on them in the process.
Along the way he picked up some choice bits of new vocabulary from the chief. Also, information about the systems and how to avoid the problems they'd found. A lot of it had come down to routine maintenance preventing a small problem from becoming a big one that could endanger the ship.
They had to do the complete tear out while documenting what they found to give the ship architect something to work from. He'd passed several life support classes but hearing the chief snarl about how water needed PH and mineral balancing to keep it from corroding the inside of pipes by stripping out the missing electrons and materials had him trying to fight from smiling.
He was less amused by the smell of his coveralls when he was finished. It was only when he saw a couple of people making way for him that he realized he was carrying a potent pong. His implants had apparently shut off his sense of smell to keep him alert. Well, that and they'd been wearing rebreathers for part of the job.
He was tempted to strip in the gangway and wad the coverall up and get it to the laundry but held off when he saw the skipper making her way through the ship. He made a hole for her but she coughed and held her hand over her nose. “Sort that out,” she growled as she walked by.
“Aye aye, ma’am.”
“And next time get a shower before you come on board,” she said.
“That's the problem, ma'am, I got a bit more than we bargained for,” he said wryly as he shook his head. She stopped, thought better of it when she inhaled, coughed and then shook her head and continued on her way.
<()>^<()>
Tau-1252 New Tau Metropolis
Shelby shook her head as she read the report and mandate from the Admiralty in Antigua.
She whistled softly after reading the all commands alert. “Damn!” she said, setting the tablet down. It was one thing to read the dry orders, quite another to find out what had been the driving force behind their necessity.
Piecing that together had been an interesting bit of deductive work for Boni. Especially since she'd had to pry it out of news reports and Enki.
“I know,” Boni stated. “I wondered if that was why I got bumped to JG.”
“No, you earned it,” Shelby stated loyally. She saw her A.I. bob a curtsey but ignored it. “I hope you and I don't have a problem?” Finding out that the A.I. was not happy with the navy was a surprising thing. She knew Captain Firefly had issues but finding out it was this widespread was dangerous and a bit scary.
It seemed though that most of the complaints stemmed from the Bekians though. And the major conflict was their prejudices against A.I. and their political games back in Rho.
Boni snorted. “No problem, ma'am, except you like to clean the gunk between your toes while I'm awake,” she teased. Shelby chuckled. “Fortunately, your command only has two flag officers, and therefore only two personal A.I. at this time. There are no other complaints from the other A.I. at this time.”
“Good,” Shelby repli
ed. “Keep me posted.”
“I will. And I have the retraining packet in your inbox too.”
Shelby sighed. “Why is it when someone else screws up the rest of us get pummeled to death to make sure we don't make the same mistake? Some of us are smarter than that!” she lamented.
“Some. Sometimes. But the brass wants the lessons driven home.”
“More like rammed. Okay, I'll take a gander at it.”
“More than skim, ma'am, you have to sign off on each section and even take a quiz.”
“Joy.”
<()>^<()>
Abdul grinned as another tin can was kicked out of the yard for her builder's trials. Still not much of a ceremony but he was glad to see they were at least acknowledging the ship's launch.
He understood why the brass had thought destroyers were the way to go in Tau. They were the multipurpose greyhounds of the fleet, fast and swift. The Arboth class was more like a pitbull or a Dilgarth though, a fast workhorse of the navy but one you didn't want to tangle with unless you were in a bigger ship.
They were being supplanted by the CEV and cruisers though. Hell, the latest talk had the CEVs even supplanting the cruisers! The brass had downloaded the latest version of the Kittyhawk, the Mark III from the convoys and the ansible before they'd laid the first keel. Apparently, the admiral's father had had a hand in the design process during his time in Bek or in Antigua. He'd put his best people on the line, and they were working miracles to get the ship out of the slip on schedule.
The brass had sent two dozen hyperdrives and components for Admiral Logan in the two mercy missions. She'd sent four to Tortuga. He'd installed fifteen in the ships they'd launched. That left five, which would normally make him nervous, but he'd gotten word that Admiral Logan was getting some sort of key upgrade to make more when a courier arrived from Rho in a few months. He was pretty sure she was looking forward to it almost as much as he was.
<()>^<()>
Shelby smiled as the destroyer drifted out of the slip. They hadn't had much of a ceremony, just a reading of her builder's plaque and orders as the skipper took command, but that was fine. She still had a ways to go before she was fully commissioned.
Boni had managed to squeeze the hour in for her to be available to hold the ceremony, such as it was. She'd been in the industrial center uploading the daily keys, so it wasn't like she wasn't distracted by paperwork. And it felt good to finally acknowledge a ship's launch and the hard work her people were putting in to make it so.
She was a bit wary though of the Knox News remote. The drone had been allowed to fly alongside the ship while under the control of a navy pilot. Knox News wanted their own footage of the launch.
Rachel had become neutral of her. Something was still going on with corporate. She hadn't reminded the woman of the lease for the nice shiny studio complex she'd had built for them. She wasn't certain she should or not.
Whatever was going on with corporate, she didn't need the flack. Hopefully, it was sorted out soon.
Chapter 42
In hyperspace to Long Sands
Captain Zeb read the latest ship's log and then logged that he'd read it. Zeng He was coming along nicely; his ship was moving swiftly but carefully through the dead star systems up the chain to their ultimate destination. He was using recon drones to scan each star system but the dead star systems were hard to scan. So far they'd lost one recon drone in Tau-R1344. It might have hit something on the ballistic part of its course through what was left of the system.
At each exiting jump point, he had left a messenger buoy for Remarkable with the logs, data on the star system, and their hyper logs. The logs wouldn't do the task force any good, but they could compare their own logs with Zeng He's and come up with a better jump course the for their next time.
His ship was fast in hyper; they were pushing the high gamma band. Twice they'd managed to get into delta band but couldn't sustain it more than a single shift. And of course the closer they got to a destroyed star system the more turbulence and therefore the more danger they encountered. They made plenty of time in the long stretch, but they had to drop down early to navigate the first and last quarter of every jump.
But, they were getting there; that was the main thing.
He was curious about Long Sands. The world was reputed to be a mostly desert world. With so many enemy convoys passing through recently, was there anything left? He hoped that the natives had managed to hide and wait the pirates out though he doubted it.
Just one more thing to pay the pirates for he thought coldly as his antenna danced.
<()>^<()>
Tau-R1344
Captain Rogers grinned as his XO ran the op force. The other captains were finding it a little tougher than they anticipated. That was good. Like many captains he practiced the adage to train harder than the real thing so they didn't get any nasty surprises. Training made sure it became routine, and it looked easy even though it wasn't.
The Remarkable task force was making good time, but they could be doing better. But he didn't want to push Zeng He any harder than he needed to do so. He was trying to keep the light cruiser's lead to less than two to three weeks or so.
Downloading the message buoy from the light cruiser gave them a timeline on the ship's passage. And the hyper data was greatly appreciated. They could no doubt use it for the return journey as well as any future runs to Dead Man's Hand.
He was fairly certain despite the force he had it wouldn't be the only trip. If they played their cards right though, they might get a big chunk of the enemy. It all depended upon how much of them were willing to stand and fight what they saw as an inferior force.
In … seventeen more weeks they'd find out one way or another.
<()>^<()>
Tau-1229
First Lieutenant Wes McArthy nodded as the Xiphos made her final jump preparations. The new ship captain was still a bit nervous about being in the hot seat full time, but he had logged time before as XO on Pensacola. That had helped to take some of the glamour out of the job. The skipper had assured him it just took time for the seasoning to kick in and for it to feel more normal.
He hoped so at any rate.
He still couldn't believe that Tortuga shoot. They'd won against a much tougher crowd, and the skipper had made it look easy. A lot of people were saying the skipper was destined for bigger and better things, definitely a star. It was only a matter of time.
He'd let Governor Lor talk him into extending Xiphos’s layover in the star system for another week beyond what he'd projected. They had to make up the time in hyper. Well, part of the time, they'd shaved fourteen hours from the projected trip time from the capital to Delos in hyper.
Delos … why couldn't they just have one damn inhabited planet? Samos was still the thorn in everyone's side. Governor Lor hadn't been shy about complaining about his counterpart on the other world. He'd even jokingly said he'd love to borrow Xiphos and go over to the planet for a visit to Governor Farnsworth.
How that old man could still be in office … Wes shook his head.
Well, they were running behind. Until they made up that time, he couldn't justify another prolonged layover … even if it had allowed them to spell the corvette's crew to let them have a couple days of liberty themselves.
His ship was slated for four patrols. It was up to his discretion if he wanted to push things past X3301. The problem was the further he went the longer it took to get back. He really needed to keep a close eye on Asterion IX. He'd heard about their recent visitor, and he admired the governor's chutzpa for pulling that sort of bluff.
He would have loved to have Xiphos there to put some teeth behind it though and not just because he wanted to earn his spurs. Every pirate they took out was one less to harass, murder, and torture the poor sods in the sector. And maybe, just maybe if they could get rid of the parasites, the sector would flourish once more.
That was the general hope at any rate.
<()>^<()>
Asterion IX
Commodore Richards nodded in approval as her convoy arrived at the Lebynthos jump point in the Asterion IX star system. They were coming along nicely despite the delay in Lebynthos.
Within an hour of their arrival, the skipper brought word that Félicité and Canterbury had been there recently and had moved on. Helen was glad that the two ships were on track if a bit slow. She had a chuckle at herself over that thought. Of course they were slow; they were in old pirate ships that badly needed an overhaul!
Her amusement ended when another file was brought to her attention; a pirate ship, the destroyer Choker, had visited the world as well. Fortunately, Governor Iapyx had managed to bluff them into retreating without coming into orbit.
He'd played a dangerous game but had won … this time.
The report from Icaria came in as they crossed the star system, and she paid her respects to the governor. The vaccines were holding; there hadn't been any further outbreaks in a year. That was good. The government was in tatters though, and what remained wasn't currently interested in joining the Federation.
The cruiser had returned just after Félicité and Canterbury had departed. She had the ship resupplied and then sent it on ahead to scout X3301 and Cenarius.
<()>^<()>
Sierra Keys
Janice was heartily relieved that Sierra Keys didn't have the plague. It meant the convoy could work on vaccinating and inoculating the population and training their medics rather than on a crash medical relief program. It also gave her people time to rest and relax and show the flag.
She couldn't stress the intense relief over the news that the plagues hadn't reached that far.
If Sybil Harper scouting further south also found no sign of the plague, she was tempted to come about and return to the western route rather than finish the entire string. She shouldn't though, just because one world didn't have it yet didn't mean it might not eventually migrate there.