by Dean Henegar
Giving a shot at researching on his own, Slater started with the targeting scanner. He inspected the components that were installed in the compartment he had set aside for it. Scanners weren’t his area of expertise, but some of the components bore a resemblance to tech from the early twenty-first century. This would be a critical area of upgrade for his ship, but it would unfortunately have to rely on the derelict’s slow upgrade process to complete.
The laser cannon was a different story. The weapon was a bit unfamiliar; human ships of his time didn’t generate enough power to make the weapons feasible. Railguns were the standard shipboard weapon and had performed well in their first encounter against the kobolds. It seemed that energy weapons were favored by the various alien races, so focusing on kinetic-energy solutions just might give him an edge in combat. The downside was that he would need to expend salvage to create the ammunition. His weapons would also be of limited effectiveness until he could develop a more powerful scanner array to act as a targeting system.
Slater pulled up the research node that was working on ship’s weapons, level 1. The current laser turret design popped up and he began to adjust the schematic the research node had started on. He replaced the existing components with those he remembered from his old ship’s railgun. Slater wasn’t an engineer, but he was very familiar with the weapons on his ship. As he pictured each component and what it did, the processing power of the research node supplemented his knowledge and filled in any gaps. Slater lost himself in his work. After a bit of tinkering, he thought he might have a working model. He ordered the drones to scrap the existing laser cannon and replace it with his new design. The research category changed as he gave the command to switch out the weapon, his core advising him of the new addition.
The ship’s weapons research tree has been upgraded to add railguns.
He now had access to both laser and railgun designs. The railgun he had created was primitive but packed a lot more punch than the laser. It cost the same amount of salvage and core power as the laser cannon, and it looked like each round of ammo consumed a salvage point per shot. The additional salvage cost wasn’t enough to dissuade him from building it. As a bonus, the rate of fire was also better than that of the laser. The railgun needed time to recharge its capacitors between shots, but he should be able to get more than one round downrange before a ship was able to board him. The newly upgraded research tree also allowed him to create the smaller point-defense versions of both lasers and railguns. The overall process proceeded much more quickly than the usual upgrade trees, even if it did require his complete attention.
Slater jumped back into the engineering station and began to try re-creating basic shield generator tech. It turned out that his limited knowledge was enough to unlock the shield generator research tree. The level 0 version of the shield was weak and resembled the primitive shield arrays placed on human vessels when they first began to leave the solar system. The shields would deflect debris away from the Franklin and might dilute some of the energy from a laser weapon, but not much else. It was better than nothing, though, so he spent the 150 salvage and the one core power required to build it. He ordered it built in the open compartment between his core and the new med bay. The only remaining free compartment was the one used to house his prisoner. Slater tasked the research node in the engineering console to start working on upgrades to the shields. His personal knowledge was tapped out, and he felt that he could no longer assist in directly researching shield tech.
When he finished working on the ship’s upgrades, the rest of the humans had woken up and were going about their morning routines. From the looks on their faces, Slater could tell that they were all trying to deal with their loss and the possibility that they might never return home. As their captain, Slater felt an obligation to do something to lift their spirits but wasn’t sure what he could do at this time. Perhaps another round of Slaterdome would help.
The clothing and body armor upgrade completed while he was working with the other upgrades. The research unlocked metal helmets as well as a primitive form of body armor that consisted of metal plates sewn into the fabric. More research was going to be needed before they were effective.
Proximity alert: unknown vessel is approaching.
Slater pulled his view out into space so he could see what his limited sensors were detecting. Drifting slowly past the Franklin was the front half of a destroyed vessel. As the debris slowly spun, he noticed a smaller vessel attached to the larger one. Both ships were dark and appeared abandoned. The name of the larger vessel came into view. The ship had been a human one: the SS Tuxpam.
— 3 —
“Lieutenant, we have what looks like a destroyed human vessel drifting near us. Can you tell me anything about this one?” Slater asked Lieutenant Camden.
He linked his sensor feed to the humans. Doctor Cheng was still with Illissa and pointed to her screen and back to the prisoner, asking if he wanted to include her in the feed.
“Very well, Doctor. The prisoner can view the feed with you,” Slater told her.
“Captain, that’s definitely the front half of a medium-capacity cargo hauler,” Camden advised. “The design for most of our ships has been standardized, and that one is perhaps one of the more common jump-capable ships we’ve produced. The name and where we likely are makes me think it’s a South American Coalition ship. I think the little ship attached to it is a gnomish raiding vessel. We’ll need to be careful since they usually travel in packs and will have an unarmed mothership they dock with.”
“Both ships are dead with no thrust and minimal emergency power,” Slater said. “Limited life support is showing on some sections of the Tuxpam. The gnomish ship is totally dead. No readings on anything. We really need salvage, so I’ll get the positioning thruster working so we can dock with them.” He needed to expand his ship, and the salvage value that the two ships represented would provide more than enough to get things rolling.
“Do you want my team to sweep the ships?” Camden asked.
Slater didn’t want to risk his humans when he could send his own MOBS. “No, I believe I will send a construction drone initially to check out the ships. Do you still have one of your recon drones you can send over? I could use an extra pair of eyes inside when we board.”
“I think Private Long has one of our spares up and running. I can have it follow your drone as it explores the wreck,” Camden advised.
“Captain, why did all the bilge rats get an upgrade but Mr. Bitey didn’t?” Private Long asked.
“Lock it up, Private Long! Captain Slater has better things to worry about than your pet rat,” Lieutenant Camden chided.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Camden. You can let Private Long know that, if he wants, I can have Mr. Bitey recycled and one of the new rats printed up for him,” Slater added, enjoying the look of shock on Private Long’s face.
With the discussion about rat reprocessing complete, Long set about preparing one of the flying disc drones to accompany Slater’s construction bot. Slater changed his focus to the outside of the ship and began slowly applying power to the thruster, moving toward and matching the rotation of the Tuxpam. Thankfully, the ships were drifting slowly; otherwise, the weak positioning thruster on the Franklin would have a difficult or perhaps impossible time catching up.
The docking collar on the Tuxpam was occupied by the gnomish ship, and the other—and much larger—cargo hatch was missing, along with a large hunk of the vessel. Slater kept pace with the ships as he began to design and create a universal docking collar. Due to his familiarity with the design and the time he spent troubleshooting problems with them on damage-control drills, he was able to re-create a version that worked with his derelict. The universal collars were simple affairs, consisting of a flexible material that could create a seal with an irregular surface while maintaining a strong grip on the attached vessel. It took a few minutes, but the drones were soon printing a docking collar and mounting it onto the boarding hatch.
Once the docking collar was complete, Slater docked his ship on the opposite side of the Tuxpam as the gnomish vessel. Now the only problem was getting into the vessel. He was positioned over a section of the ship that still had limited life support, and he spent several minutes making sure the docking collar was properly sealed. It wouldn’t do to have an atmosphere leak kill any survivors on board. While he was comfortable with his existing crew, save for Illissa, he was a bit torn about incorporating any more. The humans had accepted him as one of their own: a human in mind if not in body. Would any newcomers be as accepting?
Shaking off his fears, Slater verified that the connection was good and ordered his drones to begin cutting their way into the Tuxpam. His drones had little trouble breaching the ship’s hull, using any salvage they obtained to create a new airlock. A half dozen drones were then sent through the docking collar to begin exploring the vessel.
With Private Long’s small flying drone trailing right behind, Slater had his drones clamber into the dead ship. Lights on both drones blazed, pushing back the darkness that was only broken by a few emergency lights giving off an anemic glow. They had entered into a passageway that led to the bridge. Scorch marks from energy weapons colored the walls of the corridor, and flakes of paint were missing where bullets had hit. The drones moved toward the bridge, their passage revealing more signs of a hard-fought battle.
During the fight, the armored hatch leading to the bridge had been melted down in a manner Slater hadn’t seen before. Perhaps some gnomish invention had been tried out here, one he would love to duplicate. The bridge was abandoned. There were bloodstains everywhere, but no bodies were present. Piles of refuse were strangely strewn about the compartment, but Slater was excited to see that several of the ship’s systems looked to be operational. Hopefully he could copy their functions over to his own vessel.
With a flash of teeth and claws, the drone he had been observing through was destroyed. Pushing his view toward another, Slater was treated to the view of bilge rats swarming from the refuse and assaulting the remaining construction drones. Private Long deftly maneuvered the flying drone above the melee while Slater’s drones began a feeble defense against their attackers. Before the last drone went down, a score of the creatures had streamed out from the pile of debris scattered about the bridge. Once the last of the drones was destroyed, the bilge rats became more and more agitated. They were nosing about the drones, trying to nibble off bits and obviously frustrated that the constructs were not flesh and blood.
The flying drone hovered safely above the bilge rats, which initially tried to leap up and grab the offending unit. Upon closer examination, Slater could see that the bilge rats were all emaciated, having eaten everything that was left on the ship. The bodies of the crew would have kept them going for some time, and the rats’ hearty systems could even consume the bones of another living creature. Unable to find a new food source, the rats dropped to the deck in a torpor, their bodies trying to conserve what little energy they still possessed.
“Sir, you want me to take the team over and clear those things out?” Lieutenant Camden inquired.
“No, Lieutenant, we don’t know if more of the things are hiding around the ship, and I don’t want to risk you or the others if we don’t have to. I’ll print up a couple teams of kobolds to take care of them,” Slater replied. Once the teams were ready, eight kobolds led by a pair of taskmasters boarded the Tuxpam. With Long piloting the recon drone, Slater had a good view of the proceedings. While he couldn’t control his MOBS directly, the taskmasters were able to perform simple actions, like seeking and destroying any enemies on board.
As the kobold team approached the melted-down hatch leading to the bridge, the rats responded. Sniffing the air, they rose as one and charged toward the food source they could smell approaching. The taskmaster formed the kobolds into three ranks. The front rank of four kobolds knelt and aimed their rifles, while the second rank did the same while standing. In the back, the pair of taskmasters directed the fire toward the nearest threats. The kobolds banged out a volley of shots, keeping up a steady fire on the stream of rats emerging from the bridge. Half-starved bilge rats were no match for his MOBS; he had come a long way since his initial fights after becoming a derelict. Only a pair of the rats made it to the line of kneeling kobolds, who finished them off with their wrist blades. After no other threats emerged, the kobold boarding party followed Long’s drone throughout the sections of the ship that still held atmosphere.
The aft two-thirds of the Tuxpam—and many of the things Slater would have been interested in taking—had been shorn off. In addition to the bridge, the sensor array was mostly intact, and one of the cargo holds had escaped destruction. A single point-defense railgun mounted on the forward hull looked like it could be made operational after some minor repairs. The weapon was pointed toward the attached gnomish vessel, and Slater could see where its fire had punched holes in the attacker’s ship. One of the surviving compartments on the Tuxpam contained the crew quarters and a small mess hall. The door to this compartment had been gnawed through by the rats at some point, but there could be some surviving items of interest for him or his human crew. The rest of the ship was simply wreckage waiting to be salvaged.
Seeing no further threats, Slater recalled his kobolds and ordered over another group of drones. His kobolds took up defensive positions just past the boarding hatch in case anything else poked its head out. Watching the drone feed, Slater found it strange to be inside an alien ship. The passages were smaller than those on the human vessel; in general, gnomes were short creatures, from what the others had told him. Strangely, the gnomish vessel also showed signs of battle inside. Bloodstains and broken equipment were strewn about, but once again, no bodies were found. Oddly, there were no bilge rats on the depressurized gnomish ship.
“Lieutenant, what do you make about the lack of bodies? Could they have been vented into space during a hull breach?” Slater asked.
Camden studied the feed before replying. “I don’t think so. Look at all the debris floating around. That and anything not nailed down would have been vented as well if there was some kind of sudden decompression. It’s not like gnomes to remove the dead. They’re not like halflings, who will eat anything and everyone they come across. Somebody—or something—has removed the corpses, and I have no idea why. Is it possible to have your drones salvage some of the gear floating around? I’m spotting some lose rounds for my rifles and even a few ammo pouches among the debris.”
“Not a problem. I plan on stripping out some of the complete components and will also detail some of the drones to snag anything human-made and still functional for you. Looks like the crew compartment has lockers with some personal gear you might want, and the chow hall had some food synthesizers that might have some recipes that ours don’t, if their data survived the rats.”
The gnomish ship was small and didn’t reveal anything exciting; to him, it was just good salvage mass. He would try to glean some upgrade information from its small bow-mounted laser as well as information about its engines.
It took some time for him to get things organized and set the drones to work. Some were tasked with carefully removing still-functional components on the human ship while others began to break down the salvage. He specifically tasked five with replacing his primitive sensor setup with the sensor array from the Tuxpam, hoping the two were compatible. Another group was tasked with handling any data storage drives. He hoped they would reveal something that might prove useful in his research.
Slater was about to check on adding some new compartments to his ship when he sensed that the drones tasked with salvaging had stopped their work. For several minutes, he couldn’t figure out why. Then he began to feel different. It was like his entire body was itching at once. When he tried to focus on the cause, his attention was drawn down to his nanobots at the microscopic level.
Captain Slater fell into a trancelike state, watching the changes occurring t
o his ship as the final vestiges of the council’s control were removed. The changes were occurring faster than Illissa had suggested. There was no gradual shift away from the council’s restraints; they were all being lifted immediately. He zoomed in on his nanobots, watching as some pre-wired instruction encoded by the council caused the majority—but not all—of his nanobots to self-destruct. His mind began to change. The lists, levels, and prompts he had previously seen and used drifted away. The jump countdown was gone, along with his ability to jump using nanobots. Everything about him was under his own control once more. The feeling was liberating and at the same time terrifying.
“Captain Slater, are you there, sir?” Lieutenant Camden said. The voice of the soldier sounded muffled and distant.
“What are we going to do, Lieutenant? If the captain is somehow gone, how will we survive?” Doctor Cheng added, their voices becoming more distinct as he came back into his senses.
“I’m here. Sorry for that. Somehow, I’ve changed. The last of the council’s influence over me is gone. I’m free. Our ship is free. Everything happened all at once, and I wasn’t expecting that,” Slater said.
“It’s good to have you back, sir. You were out for so long we were concerned,” Camden advised.
“Just how long was I out for, Lieutenant? I didn’t have any concept of time while that was going on,” Slater asked.
“Nearly a week, sir. Most of your drones that were breaking down the ships suddenly stopped and marched back into the core room. Other than a few doing routine maintenance on our ship and the ones you had switch out the scanners, we’ve just been drifting along,” Cheng said.
