Hammond sat on a chair with his drink and motioned for Stone to continue.
“He wasn’t always like that.” Stone said. “When I first met him, we both were in the marines. He was happily married, had a lovely wife and kid. Because of the war, we were sent to defend a colony at the moons of Elcidar. She of course wanted to remain close to him so he arranged for his family to join him.”
Stone paused for a moment deep in thought.
“They called themselves the Lords of Chaos.” Stone said. “They were pirates operating out of a gas giant in the solar system of Elcidar. The gas giant was perfect for their pirate fleet as it hid their base from any scans by the imperial fleet. They descended on the colony in our absence and destroyed it. His wife, his child, both gone in the fires and explosions. So you can understand, although you might not agree with him, he will destroy pirates if given the opportunity.”
“What happened to the pirates?”
Stone sighed.
“We were ordered by our superiors not to go after them. It was a tricky time in the war. Everyone wanted peace. The politicians were willing to lay down arms. Jewel had commissioned the pirates as part of their forces. As such we were ordered to stand down while we were still digging the graves of family and friends. We could not. The pirates got what was coming to them. Rawlins and I were lucky and were able to walk away.”
“And the pirates were destroyed?” Hammond asked.
“Rawlins will kill pirates the first chance he gets.” Stone said. “I will watch his back while he does it.”
“So when he killed them today, you’re going to do nothing?” Hammond asked.
“I will drink some more of this whiskey with him, reflect on old times, and let him cry on my shoulder.” Stone said. “The pirates would have done worse if they had half a chance. What would you do?”
“Morally I’d hope that I would do what was right.” Hammond said.
“Then you’re a better man than I am.” Stone said.
Stone got up.
“I need to get the jump set up for returning to hyperspace.”
“One question captain.” Hammond asked. “Why do you continually need to plot a new jump course to Jewel, why can’t we use the same course we originally plotted?”
“Do you know anything about hyperspace?” Stone asked. When the lieutenant replied to the negative Stone thought for a moment then continued. “Alright back to the very basics. Pretend that normal space is two dimensional rather than three dimensional. Additionally normal space is wrapped around the outside of a sphere like a football. If I want to move from one solar system to another I can move along the outside of the sphere which will take a long time. Hyperspace is the air in the football. To move from one spot to another spot you boost as far into the sphere as you require and, if you have the angle set correctly, you will return to normal space at the right coordinates.”
“It sounds easier than I thought.” Hammond said.
“Trigonometry in four dimensions.” Stone replied. “I’ve simplified the explanation a little.”
*
“What do you mean he ordered you to put down your guns?” Stan asked.
“He’s telling the truth.” Lea said. “The Lieutenant had turned his comms on to warn us, so I sneaked up behind the pirate. I was just behind them when the Lieutenant gave the order.”
“But how did the Lieutenant know you were there?” Someone asked.
“Eyes on the back of his head.” Stan said. “I always said that the Lieutenant was scary but no one believed me.”
“No one believes you about anything.” Lea said. “But you’re right, the Lieutenant scares me too.”
“So everyone drops their weapons?” Stan said.
“The Lieutenant had to order them twice.” Lea said.
“We could see you sneaking up behind the pirate but, if the pirate had turned, that would have been it.”
“Then you sliced his throat?” Stan asked. “The Lieutenant’s not the only one who is scary.”
“But that’s not the best part.” Lea said. “He said ‘great job Lea’ or something, I didn’t hear but he was so cool and collected. Then he bent down and searched the pirate and stole his wallet.”
“Seriously?” Stan asked. “You’re just winding us up?”
“No, seriously.” Lea replied. “Everyone else had already gone. We went into the kitchen after that and he ordered the bridge hatch to be barricaded to stop them escaping.”
“They could starve to death in there.”
“They’re not going to get a chance to starve to death.” Stan said. “I sat next to Rivan in the pinnace on the return trip. He whispered to the Lieutenant about what Rawlins had done.”
“I was in the engineering the whole time, all he did was dismantle the engine parts.”
“Not the whole time.” Stan said. “At the end he sent us all out to take the last compressor to the pinnace. According to what Rivan told the Lieutenant, Rawlins went crazy and started to smash the heat exchange on the ship. The pirates will die of the cold long before they starve to death.”
“What did the Lieutenant say?” Lea asked.
“What could he say?” Stan replied. “We are deep in space, far outside the jurisdiction of anyone except the imperial fleet, and you know what the imperial fleet would do to pirates if they ever caught them. Nothing he could do.”
“He just washed his hands of all responsibility?” Lea asked.
“He said he would take it up with the Captain.” Stan said.
“Not that the Captain would be likely to do anything to Rawlins.” Lea said.
“I always said he was scary.” Stan said.
“You think everyone is scary.” Lea said. “But let’s not do anything to irritate Rawlins for the rest of this trip. It’s a long and very cold walk home.”
*
“If you slide the compressor unit towards me bottom first, I can crawl backwards and let the compressor drop into position.” Rawlins said.
The main engine for their ship was a similar model of engine as the pirate ship. However the location of the compressor was buried deep inside the engine. Rawlins crawled backwards through the metal ducts of the engine dragging the compressor. He had previously dragged the compressor in head first, then realised that he couldn’t turn the compressor to fit in properly. He had pushed the compressor out and was trying again.
“That’s it, feet first.” Rawlins said.
“Stop for a second.” Rivan said. “There’s a wire caught in the floor. I just need a second to free it.”
He worked at the wire for a few moments then asked Rawlins to push the compressor towards him to free it.
“That’s it now.” Rivan said. “Pull it now.”
The compressor let out a thin screech almost as if it was in pain as it was pushed and dragged into position. After several minutes of manoeuvring the machine, it fell into place with a solid thump. The side bore several scratches from the fight to get it into position.
Rivan sat back, his head barely touching the duct ceiling, as he watched Rawlins at work. Although the temperature here under the main body of the engine was very hot, the engineer had barely broken a sweat. His thick fingers, clumsy with a glass, were delicately threading the wiring into place.
“Pass me the spanner.” Rawlins rumbled.
Rivan picked up the spanner, adjusted it to the correct size, and passed it over.
“Is that everything?” Rivan asked.
“I hope so.” Rawlins replied. “The feedback from the overheated engines damaged our compressors. We have replaced the coolant and some of the pipes. All we need to do now is run a quick test.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“You and Hart can get out and push.” Rawlins said. “The Captain will be ordering the jump back into hyperspace in the next few minutes so we don’t have time to test it now. We can test it once we arrive in Jewel space. I’ll strip it properly when we arrive at the space st
ation.”
At that moment Rawlins’s comm chirped.
“Engineering.”
“Five minute countdown to the jump.” Stone said. “Jump engines to standby.”
“I am currently working on the main engines Captain.” Rawlins said. “A few more minutes please.”
“Call me when you’re ready.” Stone said.
Rawlins readjusted the spanner slightly then used it to tighten the link to the compressor.
“The Captain will be striding up and down the bridge now waiting for us.” Rawlins said. “He never has the patience to sit still.”
A few more moments and Rawlins passed the spanner back with a sigh.
“That’s it then, you grab the tool bag and let’s get out of here.” Rawlins said.
He twisted slightly to turn around and started to crawl out of the duct tunnel.
Hart was waiting for them when they emerged, staring anxiously into the tunnel.
“Hart, Rivan, I want you both to start monitoring this station.” Rawlins said. “I want you to do exactly the same as we did previously when we first jumped into hyperspace. Understood?”
Rawlins waited for them both to nod before he unlocked the console on the station.
“This is the pressure for each of the engines and here is the temperature.” Rawlins said. “I want you to call out the changes as they happen.”
He unlocked the hatch on the floor of the engine room and swung the hatch open. Climbing down into the lower engine room was hard on his arms. It had been a long day and, he had to face it, he was getting old. A clipboard was hanging from the bulkhead wall, he grabbed it and keyed it to life using his thumbprint.
Rawlins pressed a button on the engine panel and watched the lights spring to life.
“Tell me when the pressure of each engine reaches thirty.” Rawlins called.
He moved to each of the four engines and pressed two buttons on each then waited.
“Thirty, first engine.”
“Thirty, second engine.”
“Thirty, third engine.”
“Thirty, fourth engine.”
At each call, Rawlins pressed another two buttons on the panel to lock the values in. The pressure on the console matched the pressure on the gauges in front of him.
He checked the clipboard for the next instruction. He knew the sequence of instructions by heart but, starting a jump engine was not the place to skip instructions.
“Temperature?”
“Holding at two thousand Kelvin for all four engines.”
That agreed with his list. Rawlins continued working through the list of instructions until finished. He then pressed the start button. As usual he held his breath until the lights confirmed everything was in standby mode. All engineers are superstitious at heart, he was perhaps more than some.
He keyed his comms.
“Jump engines are on standby Captain.” Rawlins said.
“Five minute countdown to the jump.”
“Five minutes, aye Captain.” Rawlins said.
He punched in a sequence of buttons on each of the engines then climbed the ladder and closed the hatch.
“The countdown is at four minutes.” Rivan said, studying the console.
“Thank you.” Rawlins said.
The engines were still marked standby until he pressed the button to surrender control to the bridge. He shooed Rivan from his seat and took his place. He studied the controls.
“Why do we have a five minute countdown?” Hart asked.
“We don’t really need it.” Rawlins said. “We only have four jump engines for a freighter this size. On the cruise ship we had twelve engines and I know a larger space train dragging dozens of trailing pods, they might have thirty jump engines to carry the ship into hyperspace. Imagine the chief engineer for that ship trying to run between each engine and get it prepared to synchronise exactly when they jump.”
Rawlins watched the countdown continue to fall. At the one minute mark it started to beep insistently. Rawlins typed a short command to cancel the sound.
“That’s just in case I’m away from the console for some reason.” Rawlins said.
Rawlins’s comm chirped loudly in the quiet.
“Engineering.”
“Give me a ten second countdown to the jump.” Stone said.
Rawlins pressed a button on his console releasing control of the jump engines.
“Ten, nine, eight ...” Rawlins said.
Over the comms he could hear Mercer as she said. ‘Jump engine online. I have steady power with zero fluctuations.’. He did a quick visual check on his own console.
“… seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero.”
Several lights flashed on the console and, at the same time, Rawlins felt a familiar jolt as the space ship jumped into hyperspace. Rawlins checked his console again. The jump was a success, the engines were running as expected.
“Confirm jump engines.”
“Temperature on the jump engines are within normal parameters Captain.”
“Thank you Rawlins.”
Rawlins closed the connection. Hart started to pour from a bottle of whiskey into three glasses. Rawlins had introduced them to the tradition of toasting the jump engines to celebrate the success. Or so Rawlins hoped, he liked quiet passages.
Chapter Fifteen
“What is it with this food?” Stan said. “I’m not going to eat any more of this miserable excuse for a lunch until someone tells me what it is and if it’s dead yet.”
James Rivan stared at his own plate. The stew was a mess of brown paste with dark brown lumps masquerading as meat. The Peace Officers treated him as an equal over the last few days since the pirate attack. They still stared at Hart with distaste. Hart didn’t help his own cause by preaching to the Peace Officers at every opportunity about the cruelty of capitalism. He now sat to the right of Rivan, stirring his food with a fork. He looked dejected.
“It’s definitely dead.” Rivan said aloud. “It tastes like it was cremated three years ago.”
The squad laughed aloud and one of the Peace Officers punched him none to gently on the arm.
“Has the Lieutenant mentioned yet what we’re going to be doing tomorrow when we arrive at Jewel?” Lea asked.
She sat down next to Rivan, the opposite side from Hart. Her leg felt very warm against his. Lea was cute, Rivan decided. She had that upturned nose that sculptors hated. Her eyes twinkled mischievously when they looked at Rivan. He stirred uncomfortably.
“He’s said nothing at all. He probably doesn’t know yet.” Stan said. “Or if he does, he’s not sharing with us grunts. Pass the bread someone.”
“Pass the bread.” Lea said to Rivan.
He stood reaching for the bread, his arm accidentally nudging hers.
“Sorry.” they both said together.
Rivan sat. His face was flushing though he wasn’t sure from what.
“Will you be standing guard as well?” Rivan asked.
Lea took a dainty bite from her bread before answering.
“We will all take turns standing guard at the outer hatches.” Lea said. “I’m not sure why the Lieutenant decided he needed two squads to guard the outer hatch and the two hold entrances.”
“Perhaps he wants you to act as bodyguards to Simmons if he goes down to the planet.” Rivan said.
“Did you hear what Simmons did when he heard we were under attack by the pirates?” Stan asked. “He screamed like a little girl then scurried back into his stateroom. As if that would save him.”
“Not all little girls scream.” Lea said. She stood up. “Unless you really want to find out?”
“We already know you’re not a little girl Lea.” Stan said. He winked across at Rivan. “As I’m sure you’ll find out.”
Rivan did not see Lea’s punch, she was so fast. He did see Stan collapsing back away from the table, blood spurting from his nose. The other Peace Officers jumped to their feet and moved around to check on Stan
who was stretched full length on the kitchen floor. Rivan jumped up as well. He hurried around the table but couldn’t get past the press of bodies to see if Stan was alright.
Rivan glanced back. Lea had left, disappeared without a word back to the sanctuary of Peace Officer territory. Hart was still sitting at the table, a self-satisfied smile on his face.
Piece of Nicias: A Sci-Fi Novel Page 10
