"Get with it." Gandy pointed at the grass. "This building isn't going to construct itself."
"Tawn? You heard the boss. Let's get this party started."
The slug and the stump got to work. Three hours later the base for the building's foundation was set. A mixer was loaded with bag after bag of concrete materials, materials acquired from a truce colony. Near the end of the day, Bannis Morgan was standing next to Gandy as they looked over the work being finished.
"Glad that's not me toting those bags."
"They've been looking forward to it," Gandy replied. "Part of their effort to get themselves back in shape."
Bannis nodded. "Not something I have to worry about anymore."
"How's the hip?"
"The injected one feels great, no stiffness or pain. I'll be heading back in there in about an hour for an evaluation. If that serum works as well on the other joints, we could make a fortune just selling it alone."
Gandy looked around. "All these advances and we don't live any longer than when we first came through those wormholes. And we have most of the same ailments as before. You'd think our medicine would have improved in that time."
"It has in some areas. What you have to remember is we've been fighting a war for nearly two thousand years. Our science research, what little we've been afforded the time or resources to do, has gone toward that effort. Living for five hundred years is not gonna do you much good if you're a slave."
"The Earthers aren't slaves."
Bannis shook his head. "No. But they don't have the freedoms we enjoy. You think any group of Earthers would have ever been able to accomplish what's been done here?"
"That's an impossible question to answer. Had you asked me the same about any Domers or Biomarines a year ago I would have told you the same. No. How we fell into this place is not something that's repeatable."
"Maybe not. But the likelihood of an Earther crew falling into this situation is far less than for what happened. They just don't have the means available to them. If they don't follow precise orders they get arrested or offed. Not how I want to live my life, and the very reason we've fought so hard in this war."
Bannis stepped forward. "Gruberg, Freely, over here."
The Biomarines walked to the old man.
"You won't need to mix anything for the slab. See those wide beam lasers over there?"
"Yes."
"Take your bags of concrete and spread them evenly over this interior surface. Take the lasers and heat the dirt until it's molten. The concrete will mix itself and leave a hardened base for our flooring. Once you're done with this whole area, that same beam can be used to burn off the uneven surface, leaving you with a flat base underneath. It’ll be as hard and smooth as any poured surface you could make. And you'll be done a lot sooner."
As the duo got to work, Bannis made his way back to the scan room for an evaluation. Several minutes later, data showed the antibody buildup had been significantly reduced. Bannis’ second hip was injected and he was sent back to the supply hut to rest.
Harris walked in two hours later, covered in soot. "You didn't say how dirty that job was."
Bannis shrugged. "Would that have made a difference?"
Harris chuckled as he took a wipe to clean around his mouth and eyes. "Guess not. The floor is finished by the way. Just needs to be blown off."
"Good." The old man attempted to push himself up in his chair. "Next we start on the walls. Those are meter-wide, ten-meter high strips in those stacks. You'll be attaching a modular frame to each. Once you stand two up next to each other, you bond them to the floor and tack them together with a welder. After that, we have supports, trusses, and the roof."
"Sounds like fun. Mind if I shower first?"
"Please do. Once we have the roof on, Mr. Boleman here will be following up with a spray-on bonding sealer. Those walls and that roof will be just as sturdy as if they were one solid piece."
"And then?"
"And then we move in the equipment."
"How long before we're actually manufacturing a ship?"
"Same schedule as before. We're five days into this. Thirty-seven to go. And that depends on you two muscleheads being able to deliver the labor we need out here. You've got another week until we have the bots available to help."
Harris chuckled. "Seems we're doing this backward. Must be some menial tasks we're capable of while those bots do the heavy work."
Bannis shook his head. "Nope. We're using the resources we have in the best possible manner."
"Look at it this way," said Gandy. "You wanted to get back in shape. This project is perfect for doing that."
Harris squinted an eye and tilted his head as he looked at Gandy. "I know someone else who could use some muscle. I believe it wasn't long ago they were whining about not going into battle. Seems they should be doing everything they could to better prepare themselves for that eventuality. You know, the Denzee could be waiting just outside our boson space with a massive fleet. If that's the case, watching from the sidelines may not be an option."
Gandy lowered his head. "Can't help that I have the body of a stick-figure, Mr. Gruberg. We don't all have your genetics."
Harris chuckled. "You may be naturally skinny, but that's still a choice. Beef doesn't grow on trees, but it will on you if you decide to let it."
"Don't believe I've ever heard that phrase," said Bannis.
"Well, it's mine. Means if he's just gonna plant himself in one spot and complain, he's gonna remain a stick. When you get Reggie back, or whatever you want to call it, have them put you on a training regimen. Heck, I might even request that for myself out of Idiot."
Tawn entered the hut. "Shower's empty."
Harris turned. "Good. Think I got soot in my... well, whatever. I'll be back in ten."
The dust-covered Biomarine hustled out of the room.
Tawn sat at the table. "What were we discussing?"
"My bony arms and legs," Gandy replied.
Tawn smirked. "We can take care of that. Just start packing away the MREs designated to us. They have about 50 percent more calories. That'll put some meat on those bones."
"I need muscle."
Tawn glanced over at the MREs. "Don't we all. Mr. Morgan, I understand the supports are next?"
"Yep. We have a hundred to be mounted and bonded to the floor. After that it's trusses, which you'll have to assemble some scaffolding for."
Tawn turned for the door. "I'll get started with the assembly."
By the end of the day the trusses were up. The Biomarines worked late into the night attaching the roof plating. With only two hours remaining before the morning light, the last panel went in place.
Harris climbed down the scaffold. "Six hours ahead of schedule. Time for a long break."
Tawn hit the floor. "Let's take these down first so we can start moving gear in when we come back."
Harris sighed. "Really?"
"Ten minutes and we're done. Come on, don't pretend to be a regular."
Harris chuckled. "Now that was just hurtful."
The scaffold in question was down and stowed in six minutes. Their rest was well earned.
— Chapter 8 —
* * *
By mid-day the Biomarines were again hard at work bringing in equipment and bonding it into place, the largest piece being the smelter for the Denzee armor. Harris sat when the last section of exterior plating went in place.
"I hope this thing is permanent. I’d rather not move that again during my lifetime."
Bannis looked over the assembly. "You did good work. We get the power supply hooked up and we can start melting the butter."
"The butter?"
"The materials for the Denzee armor. My engineers called it butter after they saw the first melt."
"How long for the smelter to heat up?"
"Minutes. You see that ceramic block out there?"
"The white one?"
"Yep. We have to cut that in half and then use that precision grin
ding equipment to grind out the two halves for the mold. After that, we can pour into it as many times as we want. Six hours of cooling and we have a hull that's ready to be milled out."
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad. Why's it gonna take us five weeks?"
"The systems that go in it. With that single smelter and mold we could turn out three to four hull blanks a day. The drive, the wormhole generator, those are the pieces with the longer lead times. And remember, five weeks gets us to the first assembly. We have a long way to go to make parts for the ship a day we're looking for."
Tawn stopped behind them. "You two just gonna yak all day? We have a schedule to keep."
Harris stood. "Such a taskmaster."
Farker trotted in, sitting on his haunches as an image of Alex appeared over his back. "Tawn, Harris, I was scanning the truce worlds for the remaining materials on our needs list. A Denzee ship has been spotted moving through them. The Viochan V colony reported the sighting just over an hour ago."
"We sure the info is accurate?"
"Only a single report. The wording of the report stated that it might be Denzee. There has been no further confirmation."
Harris sighed. "Let's go check it out. If true, this is horrific news."
Harris stopped at the hatch going up into the Bangor. "Mr. Morgan, you finished the Earth history lesson. Shouldn't you be getting a scan done on level five?"
"Already done. I'll be getting an assistant once the bots are finished up with the lab."
"Shouldn't you be spending time with the virtual assistant? That time is how you train it to be like you."
"Would prefer to do that live."
"Not kicking you off this flight, but I would think getting familiar with your assistant would be a priority, as that has to be done before you're allowed into the lab. And with your background, that lab is a place you'll want access to."
Bannis sighed. "Fine. I'll go sit in the chair. I can see when I'm not wanted."
Harris turned to Gandy. "That goes for the rest of you too. We have too many things that need doing for all of us to go on this joyride. Keep working the tasks you have on your agendas. We should be back with answers shortly."
Tawn hopped in behind her partner and the hatch closed. "Don't think they liked that. I have things to do too. Why didn't you tell me to stay?"
"If I had Idiot along with me I would have, but I might need someone to bounce ideas off if a situation occurs."
Tawn chuckled. "A second Idiot for a situation?"
Harris nodded. "Cinch up that belt, please."
He opened a comm to Alex. "Do a system sweep for us. See if there's any other chatter about a Denzee ship showing up anywhere."
"That sweep is in progress. At the moment the Viochan sighting is the only occurrence. I will have a complete report in about fifteen minutes."
Harris nodded as the Bangor lifted from the ground. "We'll check back then."
Tawn looked at the rear camera image as the ship sped upward. "That building went up fast for just having the two of us working on it."
"The wonders of prefab and a solid design. Would have liked to have had a couple dozen Bios out there with us. We would have been finished the same day."
Tawn let out a long breath. "Hope this is a false alarm. We aren't remotely ready to take on the Denzee."
"We have more ships of our own than ever."
"And the Earthers only have a hundred fifty total. They don't have the ships to waste as shields."
"True. Sad thing is, without DDI interference we would have a dozen of those Legion ships ready. Along with a couple shields for each. They hit us at the exact wrong time."
Tawn nodded. "They have all our tech now too."
"That might not be a bad thing. Maybe we still have an admiral or two with enough pull to get a few ships upgraded."
A jump was made to the Viochan system. Nav sensors showed no Denzee ships in the area. A comm to the authorities at the colony revealed a statement that said an unidentified ship had briefly showed on their sensors. A comment added to the report turned out to be a question: Was it possibly Denzee? The question was asked because of the speed at which the unidentified ship had moved out of the system.
The Bangor was turned back toward Midelon and the return jump made. Minutes later, they were landing on the grass outside the bunker.
Gandy was waiting with his arms crossed. "Well?"
"An unknown ship was seen," Harris said. "It sped off at a fast pace so the question was asked if it could possibly be Denzee. For all we know, it was an upgraded Earther ship. Bax is having their entire fleet worked over."
"No images of it?"
"Not that they would reveal. I think it came in on the edge of their sensor field and left from there. All they got was the movement."
"If it was Earther, isn't that a violation of the truce?"
Harris chuckled. "Only if they get caught. With their new speed advantage, nobody is gonna come out and catch them. Wouldn't surprise me to hear about more of these sightings. And before you ask, yes, we'll be going out to check them all. If a Denzee ship or a fleet is spotted, I want to bring the colonel and his crews out here for staging a defense."
A comm came in from Alex: "Harris, I now have records of a second and a third sighting. The truce colonies of Blewitz and Theopolis have reported an incident where an unidentified ship entered their space, remained in position for forty-eight seconds, and sped away at a much higher than normal speed. No further identifying data was given."
Harris stepped up into the cabin and glanced back at Gandy. "Guess we'll be back shortly."
"I've analyzed the data of the three sightings," Alex continued. "The next logical colony would be Nesua II."
"Send me a list of the five that would follow that. Miss Freely, looks like we have a phantom to catch."
The Bangor lifted gently before shooting up through the atmosphere as a fireball. Once in free space a jump was made to Nesua, where a sighting was confirmed.
Harris punched in coordinates.
Tawn asked, "Where we going?"
"New York. Third on that list."
"Why there?"
"If they're following this list, I want to get ahead of them."
"Nice."
A jump was made and the authorities at the main colony of New York IV were questioned. The Bangor was the second ship of the day. The first, a cargo hauler, had come in twelve hours earlier. Harris pulled the Bangor to a stop.
"And what are we doing now?"
"Look at the time between those sightings. Fifteen, thirty, and fifteen. I'm betting they visited Jebwa during this time, only no one was there to report it. Then we have Nesua, where they've come and gone. Next would be Baggonesk, and then New York. Give them about three minutes and we should see a wormhole opening."
"And what if they're on the other side of the planet?"
"Then we have forty-three seconds to jump to their location, or at least within visual sensor range."
Tawn checked the diagnostics of the railgun systems. "Weapons all look good. Should I power up the rails?"
"Sure. Saves us a few seconds. Really hoping this is just Earthers out testing their new capabilities."
"Can't say I like the pattern. Doesn't make sense for a simple test. Looks more like an intel run."
Harris sat back in his chair. "I was just thinking, with the Earthers we always knew who we were fighting and what to expect. They might show up at any colony at any time, but we knew where they were coming from, and we knew where they were going when they left. With the Denzee... we're clueless. We're completely blind.
"And they have no interest in communicating. With the Earthers they'll at least talk to you. It might be to laugh in your face, but at least that's something. Next time at Eden we should hit Bax up for what comms they had with the Denzee before they attacked. Was there some negotiation that went sour? Did the Earthers attack them first?"
"Good idea... wait… wormhole opening at eightee
n million kilometers. Ship coming through. I have a visual. Who… or what… is that? Not like any we've seen."
Tawn pointed. "See this ridge? The Ratoons have that."
"Well, it's turning our way. And seeing as how we don't know what it's capable of, I think we need to leave."
"Let's make that jump, then. It's coming at us hard, faster than we can move!"
A wormhole opened and the Bangor slipped through to Midelon space.
Tawn gave Harris a worried look. "I hope that's not a sign of things to come. No fear and an even faster drive."
Harris looked over his nav display. "Another three seconds and we'd have missed our jump opportunity. They'd have been all over us."
Tawn brought up an image of the rogue ship on her display. "Plasma cannons down the sides. Missile tubes here and here. That look like some kind of modified disc on the front of that thing?"
Harris nodded. "It does."
A comm was opened to Alex. "We have nav data on the mystery ship," Harris announced. "Looks Denzee, although advanced maybe? Give us your best evaluation. If everything we saw is as bad as we think, our potential for survival as a species in this galaxy just went way down."
"Will have that evaluation available when you land."
Ten minutes later, the Bangor was settling on the grass.
Harris stepped out through the hatch. The others joined in as Tawn followed him into the bunker.
When they reached the fourth level, Harris stopped, poking his head into the room occupied by Bannis Morgan. "I guess this is as good a place as any. Alex, you have that eval?"
Bannis asked, "What's happening?"
"We got an image of the mystery ship."
The display switched to the aforementioned image. "It would appear to be Denzee, although perhaps modernized. The disc on its face is the same as on the larger Ratoons, only with fewer emitters. I would estimate only one-third the power. However, there are differences that I cannot identify."
"The ship is small in comparison," Harris said. "And I don't like the looks of that weapon at all. Faster recharge time maybe?"
"Perhaps."
"What'd you come up with speed-wise?"
"Acceleration is faster than other ships, at a minimum equaling our own. Recorded speed during this encounter reached 68 percent light-speed."
ARMS Beckland's Fall: (Book 5) Page 7
