by S. H. Jucha
“Not much preparation time,” Alex commented sourly.
“I’ve always thought your spur-of-the-moment style of problem management was superb,” Renée replied, with a winning smile, as she triggered the salon’s door aside.
Ude and Nata entered the salon, and Renée patted a place beside her on the couch. Nata dutifully sat down in a rather tense position, hands between her knees. Ude took up station between Alex’s chair and Renée’s couch and locked his avatar. Hermione had recently serviced the avatar, and he was feeling rejuvenated.
Alex regarded the clones, who’d suffered so much hardship. Ude was smiling, and Nata wasn’t.
“I’ve chosen to send an Elvian drone to Mickey rather than investigate it on Omnia,” Alex said. “The drone will be aboard a freighter, which will require a Trident as escort. The ships will enter alliance space at Pyre. This is the home world of the Honora Belle colonists. There’s a Jatouche medical station at Pyre. Ude, do you want a ride?”
“Absolutely,” Ude replied, staring happily at Nata.
Alex watched Nata from the corner of his eye. She relaxed. Her friend was going to be repaired.
“How much does this cost?” Ude asked. “I don’t know if I’ve saved enough credits.”
“There is no cost for you, Ude. Not for the trip, and not for the repairs,” Renée explained. “The Jatouche and the Pyreans have a close bond. The Jatouche rehabilitate any damaged humans for free.”
Tears formed in Ude’s eyes, but he managed to blink them away.
“Would you like to go too, Lieutenant?” Alex asked gently. He’d deliberately referred to Nata by her officer’s status.
For a brief moment, Nata seemed to be excited, and then she returned to her reserved position. Eyeing Alex warily, she asked, “What Trident will accompany the freighter?”
Before Alex could form his answer, Ude started laughing. That made Nata angry, and Ude laughed harder.
“Oh, that’s clever, Alex,” Ude finally coughed out.
“Why should I return to the Intrepid?” Nata challenged.
“Why not?” Alex returned. “Isn’t that your ship, Lieutenant?”
“That would be true if I remained in service to Omnia Ships,” Nata threatened, which ended Ude’s chuckling.
“Well, as a lieutenant, your cabin offers free passage,” Alex replied. Immediately, after he made his remark, he realized it was a mistake. Holding up his hands to interrupt Nata’s retort, which by the expression on her face would have been a hot one, he added, “What if we could reverse your standing among the Intrepid’s crew?”
Nata’s head jerked back. “What? How?” she managed to get out.
“Renée has an idea,” Alex said, sweeping a hand toward his partner.
Alex replied. His thought carried his enthusiasm, and Renée’s response was rather impolite.
“One moment,” Alex said to his guests, and then he linked Renée to Étienne’s call.
Étienne explained.
<Étienne, you’ll need to manage one more transfer,> Renée sent.
Renée added.
The call ended, and Alex regarded Ude and Nata. “Seems there’s been a change in plans,” he said. “Ude, you’ll be aboard a Trident, but it will be Captain Alain de Long’s ship. Lieutenant, the captain has requested your transfer to his ship, and it’s been approved. Does that suit you?”
“Absolutely, as Ude would say,” Nata replied, offering the first genuine smile Alex had seen from her during their conversation.
“One other pilot will transfer aboard Captain de Long’s Trident,” Alex said. “Renée, what was that name?”
Renée smiled at Alex’s pretense. With implants, names were not forgotten, especially not by Alex.
Nata chuckled, “Petra,” she said.
Ude, who’d been frowning, was suddenly speechless except for the single utterance of “Oh.”
“I can overrule the captain, Ude, if you find the transfer objectionable,” Alex said. “It’ll be a long transit, and I wouldn’t want you uncomfortable.”
Nata covered her mouth to hide her grin.
“No, no,” Ude managed to stutter. “I wouldn’t want to do anything to harm someone’s career opportunities. I think Lieutenant Havard would make an excellent fighter pilot. She has the right attitude.”
“Strong-willed, would you say?” Alex asked.
At that point, Nata could no longer contain herself, and she burst out laughing.
Despite Ude’s embarrassment, he did manage a self-effacing grin.
36: Transfers
The Tripper decelerated and took up station at the asteroid, where the drones floated. Due to another aging piece of equipment, the ship arrived long hours after the Our People.
Attitude jets had failed to fire, and the Tripper’s crew spent time tracing the problem to a faulty compressor line. They hadn’t a spare and requested one from another freighter. That freighter was a class three, and the new line didn’t fit, which necessitated that the connections be machined to specifications.
“Is
it true that we might get a new freighter?” Jackie was asked, as they worked on the air leak.
Jackie stopped and eyed the crew, who were New Terran women. Oscar, Kara’s partner, had preferred hiring women. He said that he could trust them more than men. While Kara didn’t necessarily agree, Oscar was in charge of employee selection for their company, and he did make great choices.
“It’s true,” Jackie replied. “But here’s the problem, and it’s a big one. We’ll load a dangerous alien drone aboard, which we must transport to alliance space. It’ll probably be the Tripper’s final long haul. Everything counts on us successfully delivering this drone. If Alex wants this ship taken to Mickey, you know it’s a critical job. We do it right, we earn additional credits and a new freighter. We do it wrong, and we’ll probably be stranded on some planet and looking for work. Am I understood?”
Jackie received a chorus of affirmatives, and the crew focused on repairing the line and turning the freighter.
When the freighter finally took up station, Kara communicated with Hector, who designated the bays that were to receive the Tripper’s remaining food stock containers.
Essentially, the freighter consisted of a bow section that housed the bridge, the crew’s quarters, and support facilities. Stretched behind the bow were five body sections. Six modules wrapped around each section. Engines were attached to the aft end, looking like an afterthought.
Crew reached the engines by traversing a long tube that ran from the bow and through the body sections to the engine maintenance compartment.
A module near the bow contained the freighter’s skip loaders. Jackie was a load expert, and, as Oscar’s first hire, she’d been responsible for training every crew member.
The crew donned environment suits and accessed the loader module from the central tube. When they were ensconced in their loaders, Jackie signaled Kara. Then the horizontally levered hatch swung slowly open.
As the crew, riding their loaders, exited the module, Jackie eyed the controller’s container report. It detailed the number and types of containers stored by body section and module number.
From the bridge, Kara triggered that module’s massive hatch, and the loaders crawled under the freighter.
Meanwhile, Hector rotated the Our People to bring the first bay to be filled close to the freighter. Then he eased the giant ship as near to the Tripper as he calculated was safe.
While waiting to pick up a load, a crew member sent,
Cordelia had made a good choice in selecting the Tripper. The freighter was lightly loaded, and the crew finished the unloading in less than a workday.
The Tripper’s food stocks were constantly requested by the Tridents, which didn’t have much room for storage. The freighter would take up station near a command, and the maneuverable Tridents would rendezvous with the freighter.
The Trident captains admired the manner in which Kara and her crew handled their jobs. Many compliments worked their way up the chain of commands to reach Cordelia’s virtual ears, which is why the SADE chose the Tripper to transfer the Elvian drone.
When the Tripper’s crew finished unloading the freighter, Kara gave the crew downtime aboard the Our People.
Then SADEs and humans swarmed the Tripper. They operated on the freighter’s body to complete Cordelia’s plan for housing the drone and providing Mickey with a complete engineering lab.
* * * * *
Petra Havard entered the admiral’s salon, came to attention, and saluted.
“Pack your gear, Lieutenant,” Ellie said. “You’re being transferred. You’ve freighter escort duty.”
“Your pardon, Admiral, I don’t understand,” Petra replied. “I’m qualified as a traveler pilot.”
“Your duty is aboard a Trident, Lieutenant,” Ellie replied. “You’ll be one of the Trident’s four fighter pilots.”
Petra grinned in reply, but that quickly faded. “How long is the duty, Admiral, if I might ask?” she inquired.
“It’s a long transit, Lieutenant. I would estimate an annual before you return.” Ellie replied offhand. During the entire time, except for returning a quick salute, she’d continued to work, focusing on her monitor.
Petra was emotionally torn by the announcement. On the one hand, she had the opportunity to be relieved of shuttle duty and operate as a Trident’s fighter pilot. On the other hand, she’d wondered how Ude would reach alliance space. In her daydreams, she saw Ude waking from a Jatouche medical lab, completely repaired, and being greeted by her. She knew the odds of that happening were about zero, but it was a pleasant thought.
“Here are the details of your assignment, Lieutenant,” Ellie said, sending Petra a link. “A traveler will handle your transfer.”
“Yes, Admiral. Thank you for the opportunity,” Petra replied. She saluted and exited the salon.
In the corridor, Petra hurriedly linked to the controller and reviewed the details. The freighter was an old class four that had been converted from an intrasystem hauler.
“Ugh, ugly,” Petra commented quietly, after she’d reviewed the specifications on the Tripper.
Then she noticed that the Trident was captained by Alain de Long, which confused her. She couldn’t conceive of why an eminent senior captain would be making such a menial run.
Jumping back to the freighter’s details, Petra saw a link to another file. She selected it and opened Cordelia’s plans for the conversion.
“Wow,” Petra breathed softly. “That ship will transfer a drone.” She upgraded her opinion of the ancient hauler.
Petra’s transfer information didn’t offer any more clues about the freighter’s destination. So, she chose a bold approach.
Petra sent.
The thought that Admiral Cordelia had failed to include vital information in her orders gave Petra pause. Either this trip was meant to be minimally communicated or something odd was afoot.
Petra waited. She’d clearly asked a question, but she hadn’t received an answer.
That information told Petra that her latter thought was the more accurate.
Alain replied.
At that moment, Petra wondered how many individuals were linked to the captain. If Petra had guessed five to six, she’d have been shocked to learn it was ten times that many.
Alain sent.
Petra heard muffled laughter from around the corner. Then she heard someone shush an individual.
On the heels of those noises, Captain de Long confirmed the passengers’ names, and Petra’s shipmates exploded around the corner, clapping and cheering.
In the admiral’s quarters, Ellie closed her link. She smiled and returned to her work.
Renée closed her link, and she whispered, “Good fortune to you all.”
* * * * *
By the time the Arcus arrived on station, the adjacent mod
ules of the Tripper were halfway through their modifications.
“Lydia, it must be noted that I can’t offer you a preference about which drone to recall,” Vyztram said. “That isn’t possible. I directed the sixteen drones to protect a single harvest location. My directions included that the drones occupy a placement as close to the asteroid as possible. That was the extent of my communications with them.”
“You’re telling us that because you gave one set of directions to the sixteen drones that they must be communicated to as a unit,” Othello interpreted.
“That’s correct,” Vyztram replied.
“Please, exit the bay,” Lydia requested of the SADEs and the Elvian engineers.
When everyone was in the corridor, Lydia turned to Vyztram and said, “Recall the drones.”
Vyztram connected to the drone module and relayed the commands,
The fleets’ telemetry was focused on the Elvian harvest operations located on one particular asteroid. Ships prepared to record the launch of sixteen drones, which were expected to make directly for the Arcus.
Hector had requested a volunteer to pilot a traveler and attempt to intercept a drone. The SADE had calculated that there was a near impossibility of the pilot being successful, but the probability wasn’t zero. He received an instant response from one pilot. Others responded minutes later.
“What are you doing?” Neffess hissed at Nata, who was snatching her gear. She was the volunteer who Hector chose.
“This is the opportunity I’ve been hoping would come my way,” Nata replied. “I’m not sailing to Pyre, without making a statement to my fleet.”
“What’s your statement? Look at me! I’m the fool who’s eager to get killed,” Neffess retorted.
“Others volunteered. Why aren’t you arguing with them?” Nata asked.
“Those pilots aren’t my idiot pup mate,” Neffess shot back.
Nata didn’t respond. Instead, she exited the cabin and headed below. She didn’t try to outpace Neffess, who had refused to quit and strode beside her.
