He nodded and tapped his ear, making sure she understood he didn’t want to answer the question that she wanted to ask. At least not over an open comm.
“Copy. Can you tell me where we’re going?”
“Deep. Five hundred parsecs, give or take.”
She let out a hissing whistle. “Beyond the edge?”
He grinned. “That’s why we're taking two ships and traveling together. I’ll explain more when you get to Phrygian Center.”
She stood up. “Fine I’ll round up the children if I can, and one way or the other, I’ll be pushed back and moving in a few hours.”
“Keep it down low for now. Fly safe.” The screen went dark, and she stared at the wall for almost a minute. She’d known Ethan for several years and had seldom seen him act quite so… out of focus.
“It’s got to be a woman,” she muttered. The idea didn’t bother her since they weren’t exclusive even when they were intimate, but he definitely had that foggy look she’d seen on him before.
The door to the corridor vanished and Kaycee stormed in looking like she was on the edge of hurling lightning bolts around the room, since she couldn’t slam a door that ceased to exist when it opened.
Nuko almost thought about escaping to her room, but realized she needed to find out what was going on, despite Kaycee’s rage giving her the desire to be anywhere else. “You saved me having to find you,” she said, avoiding the direct approach.
“At least I’d have been easier to find than Elias,” she snarled. “I’ve been looking for him since breakfast.”
Everyone was on the grid in the Institute so the inability to find someone, didn’t make sense. “You did think to just hit him on the comm?”
The glare that harpooned her removed any desire to ask again. It also let her know the floodgate of rage was about to explode.
“I spend a week here, and they finally give me an answer.” She threw herself down in the chair in front of the console and slammed her fist down on the surface.
“We’ve only been here five days,” Nuko corrected, “but apparently you didn’t get the lean you hoped for. Did they tell you why?”
“They said there’s no way the STI will authorize me to have Tier-One Shan Takhu tech outside coalition space.” She slammed the console again. “What the frak are they talking about? It’s got to be someone in the food chain above me that doesn’t want me continuing my work.”
“Maybe not,” Nuko said, sitting back down on the sofa. “Ethan just told me we have a job that will take us past the edge of Coalition territory.”
She blinked in surprise. “When?”
“A few minutes ago. He said he’d just picked up the run.”
Kaycee frowned. “They told me they wouldn't approve the lease over three hours ago. I’ve been looking for Elias to tell him since just after firstmeal.”
“He’d just finished the meeting with the client,” Nuko confirmed.
“Even if they were watching him for some reason, how did they know this morning?”
“That’s something to wonder on.”
“Maybe we should let Ethan know,” Kaycee suggested.
Nuko shrugged. “I don’t know if there’s anything to let him know. It could be a coincidence, but maybe it’s better if we just get a little distance on the situation first. He wants us to meet him at 65 Cybele and we can let him know then.”
“Where?” She wrinkled her forehead as she puzzled over the enigma.
“It’s a small maintenance facility in the outer asteroids. Phrygian Center is down low on everybody’s screen. Between his choice of rendezvous locations, and what you just said, I think the less we say over the comm the better.”
“Please don’t tell me we’re starting off a new run with problems straight out of the dock?”
“It would be a change to know we’re in trouble before we start,” Nuko said, laughing. She stood up and walked over the console to tap into the internal locator grid. “I’ll get dressed and then let’s find Elias so we can get some black under our feet.”
Chapter Six
The middeck lounge on the Olympus Dawn was useful for many things, including holding meetings. Quinn loved any excuse to cook a sit-down meal for the crew, and so he’d set up the tables in a circle and had thrown together a buffet style thirdmeal so they could eat while they discussed their plans.
Ammo sat beside Ethan. She had heavy bruising from her unplanned dance session at Phobos Landing and she still seemed exceedingly uncomfortable. Every time she moved, she grunted. Kaycee had looked her over before they came to the table and had to admit that Marti had done a good job of patching her back together.
After everyone had filled their plates and taken their places at the table, Ethan sat back and watched them for almost a minute. They were a good crew, and he felt damned lucky to have them.
So far, he hadn’t explained all of the job specifications to anyone, and this would be their first official fleet briefing. He almost laughed at the realization that even though he only had two ships, it still qualified as a fleet in a legal sense. He was sure that Marti would record the proceedings for the corporate record, and he almost felt the need to call the meeting formally to order. Instead, he cleared his throat and waited as they all fell silent.
“I’m going to go over the entire job specs so we’re all on the same timeline. I’m sure you’ll have questions as we go through it, but let’s just say this will be the most complex single run we’ve ever snagged.”
Everyone nodded, and the silence hung for several seconds as he pulled out a small stack of thinpads and set them on the table beside his plate. He tapped the screen on the top one and stared at it. “What we’ll be doing is hauling a science outpost to the edge of the Eastern Veil Nebula in the Cygnus loop.”
“That’s a long way out there,” Kaycee asked. “Beyond the edge, yes?”
He nodded. “We’re looking at about 1560 light years.”
Elias whistled. “What the hell is so interesting out there?
“I’m with him, who needs a science station that far out?” Angel asked. She stood up to walk back over to the buffet table and reload her plate of food. She must not have gotten enough on her first pass. Or she was putting it in her pouch for later.
“It’s a supernova remnant, but other than that, I didn’t ask about what they are researching. I imagine if you wanted to dig into the manifest you might figure out what they’re doing.” Ethan tossed one of the thinpads to Elias.
Kaycee leaned in and read over his shoulder as he scanned down the document. “Who’s Starcorp Development?”
“Starcorp Development, Limited is a mid-sized engineering consulting company based in Robinson and Bradbury, Mars.” Marti sat beside the table but called up the company’s financial records and filing documents on the wallscreen. “Our client, Kai Wentworth, is listed as Senior Project Advisor to the management board.”
Kaycee turned her attention to the financials while Elias stayed glued to the manifest.
“Consulting? I wonder who’s paying their bills?” She glanced around the table. “They could be a front for someone.”
“This is a frak-ton of gear. And it looks to cover at least a dozen disciplines,” Elias added.
“Does that make it a problem?” Ethan asked.
He shook his head. “Not that I can see, it’s just that I’d expect a supernova expedition to be heavy on the astrophysics, and not so much life sciences.”
“Maybe they’re looking at how a supernova might affect biology?” Ammo offered.
“That’s possible,” Kaycee said without looking away from the screen. “I don’t know if anyone’s done that kind of study before.”
“Aren’t there several supernova fragments closer?” Nuko asked. Her face showed almost as much skepticism as Kaycee’s.
“There are twenty-one charted remnant nebula in the Cygnus Sector within the boundaries of Coalition Space,” Marti supplied. A map of the Cygnus sector appeare
d beside the financials that Kaycee was still studying. “However, scientists believe the Cygnus Loop to be less than 10,000 years old. Relatively speaking the supernova that caused it is a recent event, and therefore may be of specific value.”
“That might make sense if they’re looking to do an environmental impact assessment of an ionization filament on an indigenous ecosystem,” Rene said.
“That would be an important work in determining what a supernova might do to an existing inhabited world.” Kaycee nodded. “STI would heavily supervise that kind of thing under normal circumstances. No matter who’s behind it, I’d be interested in seeing what might come out of that kind of study.”
Elias frowned. “It might be of some legal concern that they aren’t under a university. Contaminating an existing biosphere could be considered criminal without certified academics behind it.”
“That’s all fascinating and such, but none of us are qualified to second-say her science decisions. Or her legal status for that matter,” Ethan said. “I’m sure you all will have plenty of time to discuss the finer details with her people on the way out there.”
Realizing there would be passengers, raised both of Nuko’s eyebrows to full alert. She started to dive on that point, but he shook his head and she held off. “What matters to me is that she has a full load for two ships, and we need to make sure we’re tooled for the job.”
“What’s a full load?” she asked, holding out her hand for the thinpad that Elias was still scanning. Reluctantly he handed it over.
“Both ships will carry six containers. Eleven containers of paid cargo, plus one of logistic supplies for our use.”
“I’ve never pulled a load that size,” Nuko said, stopping in mid-scroll.
“It’s not that much different from hauling a shorter load. It’s all in how hard we have to watch field density decay in the coils,” Rene said.
“Yah, I know the theory,” she said. “But still working something that long isn’t easy.”
“I’m sure you can handle it.” Ethan grinned at her.
“I don’t know, I haven’t had much practice with a long one lately.” She shot him an evil eye. It was no secret among any of them that she and the captain were occasional bunk-buddies, so everyone snickered as she lanced his ego.
“That will limit our speed quite a bit,” Rene said, trying to ignore it as Ethan bled out on the table. “The field gets awfully thin at the back end of a train. That’s what caps the amount of cargo a Percheron class ship can carry.”
The captain nodded. “We’re talking 2000 hours outbound.”
“If we run hot all the way,” the engineer said. “Maybe the Elysium Sun can handle that, but that will keep the Olympus Dawn’s couplers screaming hot. Seventy-five percent of normal cruise for more than eighty days is optimistic, and sixty would be safer.”
“We’re talking 160 days before we get home?” Angel asked. She’d set her plate down but still stood behind her chair.
“Probably close to that,” he said. “The return leg will be faster, but we’ve got unloading on the far end to deal with. They will set down a base camp and get it all hooked into life support.”
“Alright that’s twice you mentioned something that implies organics in the load,” Nuko said. “Life support means we’ve got passengers.”
“Eighty-six, plus over a hundred in sleepers,” he confirmed.
“Are you sure they’re not setting up a colony?” Kaycee asked.
Elias nodded, pointing at the thinpad that Nuko held. “That’s a lot of gear for a lab.”
“It’s a self-contained—”
“This doesn’t work,” Nuko said. “My shipmaster’s license is only for hard goods and necessary crew only, and you can’t carry more than forty in this ship. Your life support won’t handle that many bodies, even with a container of supplies.”
“I covered that with the client,” he said. “I will carry all the passengers on the Dawn. The plan is that they’ll run the life support in their habitat module. It’s self-contained with an independent grid, so as long as they don’t spend too much time up front in the ship, we should be fine.”
“We’re sure this is on the right side of the law?” Kaycee asked. Elias nodded sharing her skepticism.
“Marti did the back work to make sure this was square on the deck,” he said. “We checked the specs end to end, and nothing crosses any legal line.”
“So why are we at Cybele?” the doctor challenged. “Nuko says this place has a marginal reputation and if this is where we’re picking up the load I’d be concerned about the entire job.”
“We’re not picking up any of it here,” he said, feeling a need to push back at her tone. “Most of it is at Cygnus Hub Four and the rest is at Ceres Alpha Six. And we’ll load in the passengers at the Phobos Landing Docks in the Twin Cities.”
“Then why here?” Elias repeated Kaycee’s question, without so much attitude.
“Before we make a run beyond the edge, I want to get some work done on the kit for both ships. Phrygian Center was the only repair facility that could get us in on short notice.”
“We’re going to upgrade the sensors,” Rene said. He’d been the one to suggest the upgrades once he knew where they were going. “And we’ll install heavier repelling lasers while we’re at it.”
Kaycee opened her mouth to protest but Ethan cut her off. “A thousand light years outside of the coalition we don’t know what we might run into, but we can count on the fact that if there’s any kind of law, it’s what we carry with us.”
Ethan glanced at Nuko. Heavier guns caught her attention and her eyes asked if that was all they’d be adding in armament. He cocked his head slightly to the side to let her know there would be more discussion once they were alone.
Angel nodded. She’d caught his unspoken answer, too. “I think we should fill all the handler seats. We can grab strongarms who might not be what you’d want on a permanent posting, but it might be smart to be safe.”
He nodded. “I planned to have you and Quinn talk to the local Steward of the Handler’s Union and see if we can swing a six-month TDP for six or eight slots. We’ll be here a week getting the new gear mounted, so we’ve got time to do some recruiting.”
“Does this job pay well enough to afford this kind of front end?” Kaycee asked.
“Easily,” Quinn said. He still hovered near the buffet table as he listened to the conversation.
“Let me summarize your thinking so far, just to see if we’re anchored to the same reality,” Nuko said. Her tone made it obvious she wasn’t completely satisfied with what she’d heard, but she also wasn’t openly resisting either. “We’re talking a pair of super-jumbo trains, with close to 200 passengers. We’ll be crewed with at least eight new cargo handlers, plus a new copilot and a new medic under my command. And we’ll be going on a run over a thousand light years from nowhere?”
“Pretty much,” Ethan said.
“Don’t forget that I’m a newly qualified ship systems engineer, on a brand-new ship,” Elias added.
“And we don’t know anything about this outpost they’re setting up either,” Kaycee said.
“Exactly,” Ethan admitted.
“It should be fun, yes?” Ammo said, grimacing as she shifted in her chair. Or maybe as half the crew shot her dead with a volley of simultaneous assault level glares.
“You’re not making me feel fuzzy you know,” Nuko said as Quinn offered her a jar of something that looked like water, but apparently kicked like a mule. She gasped and coughed after gulping down a big swallow.
Chapter Seven
As soon as they purchased the second ship, they had taken the useless conference room on the command level of the Olympus Dawn and turned it into an office for Ethan. When Nuko and Rene had proposed it, he didn’t think he needed one, but once he started using the space, it served him well. It was still small, although with the conference table out, and only a desk and console along one wall, it was m
ore than adequate for a few chairs and small meetings.
Except when Quinn occupied the chair beside Angel. She was just over two meters tall and sturdy, but beside Quinn she looked positively petite. Together they made the room almost claustrophobic.
Ethan had been sitting and watching displays from both ships’ engineering rooms where work crews were making the modifications to cut into the power grid to install the upgrades. The work appeared to be progressing faster on the Olympus Dawn, but that was because Rene Pascalle was a name that put fear into mere mortal work crews. Or maybe it was that he stayed on top of everyone and made sure nothing was being done that wasn’t right on task. If nothing else, he was efficient.
“How’s the search swinging?” Ethan asked as his handlers both sat in silence for several seconds watching the screens with him. He assumed they were there to give him a progress report on finding some new muscle for the run.
“We won’t have any problem filling the spaces, if that’s what you’re asking,” Angel said.
“Especially not at the posting rate you put up,” Quinn added.
“Even with it being a long-term temporary rostering?”
“We’ve got plenty of interest,” he said.
“Too much in fact,” she said. “There are a lot of meatshield types that don’t make easy connections for getting a permanent gig. We’ve had over eight hundred post for the positions.”
Ethan whistled in surprise. “I didn’t think there’d be that many looking in a biscuit hole like this.”
Quinn leaned forward and set his elbows on his knees. The seat groaned under his shifting mass. “Think about it. Ships swing in fast, hauling marginal cargo and want to get in and out in zero time. They tie off, grab a squad of scabby base handlers, and they’re gone before they drain much light. A place like this is full of strongbacks because it is a down low dock.”
“Nice thing is, these kinds of muscle-monkeys don’t ask many questions about where we’re headed,” Angel added. “To them, the idea of six months of ass-time is a party run with three free ones per day and softer than average flopspace. Offer the kind of chit we’re putting up and they get cleaned up fast.”
Wings of Earth- Season One Page 66