by Dean Henegar
Research Allocation:
Orc: 20%
Laser Weapons: 20%
Combat Drones: 20%
Automated Internal Defenses: 20%
Signal Booster: 20%
The only new item he added was some research into combat drones. The little battle drones that the humans used were effective, and something similar would give him another option for combat MOBS. Having the flexibility to build MOBS based on either biomass or salvage could be a lifesaver if one of those resources became scarce. He continued with the orc research and would then add gnomes to the mix as well; he had received more than enough examples of their physiology to work with. Being able to create MOBS of all the different races was going to be a key part of the plan he was developing—and it was time to let his human crew know what he had in mind.
Slater summoned Lieutenant Camden, Doctor Cheng, Illissa, Gabriella, and Captain Guzman to the newly completed bridge to discuss their next step. Illissa had been slowly introduced to the new arrivals, and though she got a few strange looks, there hadn’t been any problems. Slater thought it might have been due to the fact that humans hadn’t encountered any elves yet; the race was one of the few that hadn’t assaulted them. Diaz and a few of the other crew avoided Illissa, giving her angry looks. It appeared as though it would take more time for some of the new humans to integrate.
The bridge itself was large, having a dozen crew stations with sophisticated interface consoles. The captain’s chair was a bit higher than the others and more ornate, as would befit the station of his appointed captain. Of course, Slater would always be in overall command of his beloved Franklin; all the control consoles could be locked out with a thought, giving him absolute authority over his ship.
“Okay, folks, I think it’s time we plan our next steps. We need to plot our course out of this system and back to human space. In addition, we need to finalize our design for the expanded Franklin. The resources we gathered will give us a destroyer-sized vessel with plenty of raw materials left over. While we could bump the ship up to a basic light cruiser design, it would leave our reserves of salvage severely depleted. Any thoughts as to which destroyer design we should use?” Slater asked while pulling up the various ships he had in his database. He pushed the data to what he was beginning to think of his command crew, who perused the various options on the consoles in front of them.
“Well, Captain Slater, I’ve seen a few of these in action, and the various destroyer designs are often quite specialized for different tasks in the fleet,” Captain Guzman began. “I think we can safely eliminate specialized point-defense variants and the like. As far as an all-around solid design that can handle itself in various circumstances, I would suggest either the American Fletcher-class or the Russian Ognevoy-class design. My own SAC destroyer designs are configured for fleet point-defense and chasing down smaller craft, not for slugfests with other ships of similar size.”
The others of Slater’s command crew perused the designs and came to the consensus that these two variants would be good for what they needed.
Looking at both, Slater saw they were similar in design theory, with a good blend of missile and gun mounts, decent armor for their size, and fast acceleration while still maintaining good agility. Of the two, he was leaning toward the Fletcher class, impressed with its powerful point-defense setup, which contained a dozen mounts. The Ognevoy was no slouch in the point-defense department, either, and sported eight mounts. Not to mention, it had a powerful missile arrangement. A look at the interior deck plans for the Fletcher won Slater over; its layout was more efficient and contained better-designed internal defenses. Russian doctrine for defense against boarders was more focused on having a larger marine detachment, while the Fletcher had better locations for automated defenses—something that would fit well with his strategy.
“I think we’ll go with the Fletcher class, if there are no objections. I like the overall design, and there won’t need to be as many modifications to the original, which will help us get the ship built out more quickly. As you may have all noticed here on our new bridge, these control consoles are fully operational and ready to be used. Captain Guzman, do you have enough people to create a functional bridge crew?” Slater asked.
“I agree with your design choice and would be proud to crew the Franklin with my people. Most of my bridge crew were among those that survived, and I can bring any of the other crew up to speed quickly, which will fill any other holes we might have. I also have a pair of my marines that I was going to offer to support Lieutenant Camden’s troops. I’m not a ground combat expert, and he will lead them far more efficiently than I can,” Captain Guzman offered.
“Thank you, Captain. I’ll also be setting aside one of the new compartments as a research center. I will install the most powerful computers I can build and will need everyone’s help in researching our tech upgrades. We’ve found that others can help refine my designs, saving me a great deal of research time, which is our greatest bottleneck currently. There are several things we need, but many upgrades are being left by the wayside in favor of more urgent items. Any time your people can spend there would be a benefit to us all. I would also like you and your folks to help me work on some designs for mining equipment and ore-detection devices, Gabriella. If we find ourselves running out of resources, we may have to mine our own.”
“Not a problem, Captain Slater,” Gabriella replied. “I’ll make sure that my people know that time in the research center is considered a mandatory part of everyone’s watch. If you can set up a list of what you might need, we can see who has some knowledge in that field. We’ll also suggest research items that you may have missed. My folks would be glad to participate and help. It’s the least we can do for the . . . person who rescued us.” She sounded hesitant about what exactly to call Slater but was trying to treat him as a person and not some strange creature.
“I would love to dig into more research, especially if you can build us some computers to use. There is also the ongoing need for personal items for our crew as well as entertainment devices and other things that will help morale,” Doctor Cheng added. He was counting on her and Illissa participating in a big way for their research.
“Excellent. I will need everyone to gather in the rec room while I commence with the upgrades. I’ll also incorporate private cabins for everyone into the design. We’ll have more than enough space, and with our limited numbers, it would make everyone more comfortable to have private quarters to relax in when they’re off duty. We need to keep everyone on a mandatory shift. Keeping our people busy will give everyone a sense of purpose and improve our chances to make it home,” Slater offered.
“Captain Slater, there is one more important point to discuss before you begin the upgrade,” Guzman said, looking very serious.
“What is that?” Slater replied.
“I am a captain, as you know, and if I am to be assigned to help command this amazing vessel, we might run into some confusion as to who is in charge,” Captain Guzman said, motioning toward the captain’s chair that Slater had built.
Slater hadn’t thought about it much. Sure, they were both captains, but Slater had more than a century of seniority over Guzman. He felt a bit of dread that he might have misjudged Guzman and now the human was going to make a play to take over.
“Captain Slater, I propose to all the officers here that we give you the title of Commodore Slater until such a time as we return to human-controlled space. This is your ship, sir, and I don’t want anyone to think any differently,” Captain Guzman said with a smile. The others nodded as a weight lifted off Slater’s nonexistent chest. This wasn’t a power play by Guzman; it was a concession of authority that none of the crew could dispute. In Slater’s estimation, the man rose a few more notches. The others all agreed with Guzman’s suggestion.
“Congratulations, Commodore Slater. Let’s get everyone rounded up so you can start the upgrades. I don’t want us to stay drifting along for longer than n
ecessary,” Lieutenant Camden offered.
It didn’t take them long to sort everyone out and explain what was about to happen. The recently released prisoners were still a bit skittish but followed the commands of the others. Once everyone was in place, Slater made a final tweak or two to the new ship schematic and began the upgrade process.
To speed things along, he reprocessed his remaining kobolds—save for the squad guarding his core—and printed up a total of fifty drones. With that many drones working, the ship changed quickly. Its overall length would be doubled, giving him more room to store resources as well as additional compartments to house his crew and defenses. The ship was still a two-decked affair, with the zigzag main passageway through the upper deck allowing for choke points and defensive positions to be arranged efficiently.
The lower deck held the crew quarters midship with recreation and dining facilities positioned farther aft. At the bow of the lower deck, Slater placed a larger gun range, giving his human defenders an open killing ground if any invaders made it that far. Aft of the crew areas were his new reactors, which easily powered the needs of the upgraded vessel. Between the reactors and the propulsion systems, Slater placed his core room. As a precautionary measure, he wanted to be farther removed from the crew. Captain Guzman and Gabriella had proven trustworthy, but the others were still a mixed bag. Slater hadn’t forgotten the looks that Diaz had given him, nor did he fail to see the man pulling aside some of the others for private conversations. Slater hated to invade the privacy of the humans, but he would need to listen in the next time Diaz tried that.
The expanded ship design also gave him the chance to protect his core to a greater degree. There was no reason to leave himself exposed more than he needed. The council’s dictates held no sway over him, and there was no reason to give anyone access to his vulnerable core. In a bit of subterfuge, he left the new core room looking the same as it had been, replacing his glowing core with an armored metal housing containing open slots to show bits of light mimicking his core. The fake core was composed of simple lighting fixtures that gave off the same visible spectrum as he did. A reinforced plastic housing covering the lights should approximate his sturdy core exterior. The armored metal housing would hopefully throw off anyone wishing him harm, making them think that the armored housing comprised the extent of his new core defenses.
His actual core was placed in a sealed compartment under the deck of the core room. The position allowed any sophisticated intruders the chance to read his residual core energy signature, lending credence to the ruse that the fake core now housed above was actually him. The deck around him was as thickly armored as he dared; going too dense would give away to any scanners that something valuable was protected there. He felt bad about not telling anyone what he was doing, but what they didn’t know couldn’t be tortured out of them if they happened to be captured.
Beneath the lower deck was a small area that normally would be used for fuel and ammo storage on a destroyer. Slater was able to create reactor fuel on demand for his new power source via a pair of drones and a small stack of salvage. Modern reactors were very efficient, and the amount of material needed to power them would only be a small drain on Slater’s overall resources. Ammo for the railguns could also be created on demand, meaning there was only a small reserve for each weapon to use. This left quite a bit of space for salvage and, more importantly, for the Slaterdome.
Eventually, he would need to test out his new orc MOBS, and the show might provide some much-needed entertainment for his expanded crew. While he was thinking of this, the research completed for his current lines, giving him MOBS that were racially average. With the improved equipment he could provide them, Slater believed his orcs would now easily beat a comparably sized force of their real kin. He would be able to test them once the ship was complete. For now, he needed to maintain the swarm of construction drones he was controlling.
Slater could also now build a main gun patterned after the gnomish weapons on their small raider craft. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as his railguns, but it would serve the purpose he intended for it. Also, he could make a somewhat effective laser-based point-defense weapon. It gave him a wider array of options, as he had to assume at least some of his enemies would be working to counter standard human weapons. Of the impressive total of twelve mounts for point defense on his new vessel, he allocated four to laser-based weapons. They needed further research, however, and as they stood, they were significantly inferior to the small railguns he was currently using.
The new ship sported a total of three main batteries. They consisted of dual mount five-inch railguns, larger and more powerful than the three-inch version the Franklin currently used. His first two turrets were in a superfiring configuration, with the third turret mounted aft on the bottom of the hull. It gave good coverage and an impressive broadside for a vessel of his size. For the number-two mount, Slater switched out the dual-mounted railguns for a single-mount laser battery.
Research on combat drones had given him a decent approximation of the small spider drones the human soldiers used. It was agile and lightly armored, wielding a pistol-caliber weapon in a tiny turret on top. He needed more research to scale the little bots up in size; they needed to mount standard weapons instead of the small-caliber weapon of his current design. A few tweaks and another round of research should give him something that was much more deadly and could become a contender for the default MOBS for his vessel. The design also had the added benefit of granting slight improvements to his construction drones, as they shared many similar components.
The signal booster proved to be a good choice for his research efforts. Slater could now construct a device the size of a shoebox that could more than double his power range, enabling him to keep control over his MOBS at a greater distance. More research would help him increase the range, but for now, having some of his MOBS carry these into battle would enable him to maintain greater control over his forces when they boarded another vessel or space station.
Primitive tripwires and pit traps were now a thing of the past for Slater. His upgraded internal defenses allowed him to utilize modern weapons and targeting systems across his ship. Taking a moment to include them into his new ship design, Slater was able to power up several defensive weapons at various critical locations and chokepoints. While the power requirements didn’t allow him to fill every nook can cranny with automated defenses, he had more than enough to bolster his MOBS when it came time to repel boarders. He finished up a quick little side project that would be critical to their getting out of hostile territory alive before he finalized new research paths.
Research Allocation:
Gnomes: 20%
Laser Weapons: 20%
Combat Drones: 20%
Shields: 20%
Med Bay: 20%
— 13 —
By the time his newly upgraded ship was completed, only the boarding hatch area of the gnomish mothership remained to be processed, the rest of the ship having been consumed in the buildout of the new Franklin. His holds still contained a respectable amount of both salvage and biomass bricks but would be far from full once his drones finished breaking down the last of the mothership. It was time to set his crew free to explore their new ride.
“Captain Guzman, I’m glad to inform you that the new and improved Franklin is ready for her crew to explore,” Slater told the humans and one elf who were stuffed inside the now somewhat cramped recreation and dining room. As they all filed out to explore their new quarters and the new layout of the ship, the drones scuttled in to refit this last compartment now that it was empty.
“This is very nice, Commodore Slater. Thank you for including private rooms for everyone,” Gabriella said as she looked about her new quarters. The rooms were a bit cramped by normal standards, but shipboard quarters were not known for being spacious. Captain Guzman, as well as Lieutenant Camden, had slightly larger quarters since they had to facilitate small meetings from time to time.
“Yes, I figured that it would be the most efficient since that was what your crew was familiar with,” Slater replied.
“Bridge crew, report to your stations. I repeat, bridge crew, report to your stations,” Captain Guzman said over the 1MC, his voice echoing through the ship. Several of the crew began to hustle toward the bridge and sort themselves out at their assigned stations.
“We have all the necessary crew except for comms. Ensign Mendoza, who held that post, didn’t survive our initial fight with the gnomes. I’ve gotten one of the others to fill in. She’ll have to learn on the job, but between the rest of the crew, we should have her dialed in quickly. We’ll also set up a second watch led by Commander Diaz from the remaining crew. There will be a lot of cross-training going on, which will be necessary with our small ship’s complement,” the captain said as everyone examined the surprisingly familiar console controls.
“Excellent, I’m counting on you and your crew to handle normal ship ops while I focus on upgrading and improving our chance to escape back to human space,” Slater told them.
“Speaking of that, what is the plan, and what can the new Franklin do?” the captain asked.
Taking a moment to have his original crew and Illissa link into the bridge conversation, Slater explained their next moves. “The new ship is more capable than any destroyer in any race’s fleet. Our armor is thicker and of a better design, giving us the protection of a battlecruiser in the package of a destroyer. We have two dual mount five-inch railguns as well as a laser cannon for our main batteries. There are twelve new and improved point-defense turrets strategically placed about the ship. Our missile battery has four tubes, and we have a half dozen reloads for each. Our sensors and shields are better than they have been, giving us the chance to see potential foes long before they see us,” Slater said, proud of his improvements. “To top everything off, we have a human crew at the controls, and they know how to fight.”
