“All right. Fine. Then I’m going to sleep for a while longer. Unless you need me to stay up here a while longer?” She looked at Tamara questioningly.
“No, Mairi. Thank you for your concern.” Tamara gave her a small smile. “I’m fine now, really.”
“You’re a liar, is what you are. But I’m going to nap for a little while longer. Wake me up an hour before we get there.”
Tamara nodded, a bit too vigorously. “I will. I promise.”
Giving the other woman a suspicious look, Mairi went back into the cargo area and laid back down. Tamara blew out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Mairi was very determined and if Tamara had given up the pilot’s couch, there was a very good chance she might have turned the shuttle around and flew back to the Grania Estelle. They’d come too far to turn back now. And Tamara hadn’t lied. They truly did need the asteroid and its materials.
Tamara turned back to her displays and twisting her mouth to a grimace, began searching for a proper rock to haul back.
Chapter 6
“So what exactly are we looking for?” Mairi asked. “You’ve been rather tight-lipped about the whole thing.”
Tamara nodded in apology. “Yeah, I have been. Well, the best thing would be an ice ball, so that we can use it to feed the reactor. The other minerals are certainly necessary, but fuel is the most critical.”
“Okay, so we look for water.” Mairi was nodding. “How hard can that be?”
Tamara chuckled. “Very, with the sensors on this clunker. But, all is not lost!” she said grandiosely.
Mairi was shaking her head. “What?”
Tamara pointed. “That. It’s a very nice sized carbonaceous chondrite.”
The other woman’s eyes glazed over. “A what?” she asked tiredly.
“It’s a big rock made of some organic chemicals, but more importantly, water.” She maneuvered the shuttle around so that they could capture it with the tractor. “Usually we can find up to about twenty two percent of its chemical matrix is water. Ooh, good. It’s a beauty. A good two hundred and sixty-four metric tons. That will work out nicely.” The shuttle flipped around, end over end, until the aft section was only a few dozen meters from the rock.
“Activating tractor,” Mairi said, flipping a switch. There was a slight shiver through the deck of the shuttle. “Got it. Okay, we’re latched on. How do you know these things?”
“I’m setting course back to the ship. It’s going to take most of our fuel to get back there.” She engaged the thrusters. The inertial compensators kicked in, trying to nullify the g-forces that the propulsion system was putting out. “Gotta get this big thing moving,” Tamara muttered. Slowly, the shuttle began to manhandle the rock, tugging it back in the direction from whence they came. “There we go, getting some speed now.” She glanced at the other woman. “As to how I know, I learned from other spacers and when I was in the military. There were a lot of things to learn.”
Twenty minutes later, they were on a steady course for the Grania Estelle. “All right, your turn.” Tamara pulled herself out of the pilot’s couch. Mairi nodded and easily slid into her place. Tamara eyed the other woman as she familiarized herself with the pilot’s controls. “You shouldn’t need to do anything until we get much closer. Can you handle this bird?”
Mairi grinned up at her. “Was that a proposal?”
Tamara nodded tiredly. “Very cute. I’m serious. Can you fly this thing?”
“I’ve flown a shuttle a few times. Not this particular one, mind you.” She glanced around nodding slowly. “But I’ve got this. And if there are any problems, I’ll get you straightaway. Go. Sleep. You need it.”
Tamara sighed, knowing she had to, but still slightly concerned about this woman driving the shuttle while she slept. Going into the cargo compartment, she laid down on the bunk, and closed her eyes. She was instantly asleep.
“All right! Try it now. Easy!” Quesh immediately warned. “Whoever breaks my engine gets strangled!” He checked the displays. “All right. Nice and steady. We’re going to start out real slow. Bring the engine from idle to zero point two power. I want a trickle of power. Do not ham fist the controls, you get me? Starkey, I’m talking to you now.”
“Yes, Chief,” the man replied, his hands on the controls.
“Bridge. Engine one is up and running. We are moving now, but I’m only bringing it up to point zero two power.”
“Understood,” the Captain replied. “Chief, I understand we’re going to have to step down the reactor.”
“Because of the fuel constraints, yes, Captain. We’ve only been operating at about twenty-three percent of max anyway, but I’m going to have to bring it down to ten percent.” He nodded as the engine came on line, pushing its power level very gently to point zero two.
“How long can we maintain that level?” the Captain asked. He sounded worried.
Quesh couldn’t see him, they were on voice only, but he knew. “About sixteen hours with present fuel levels. And that’s if we’re on life support only. If we run the engines too, we’ll be out in four.”
“Then shut the engines down!” the captain almost bellowed.
The Parkani sighed, waving to his crew to stop. Starkey cancelled the engine power up sequence. “Captain, I can shut down the engines, but then we’ll just die out here. We need to get at least moving in the direction of the moon, if we’re going to have any chance to survive.”
“So you’re cutting our survival time by twelve hours?” The Captain found himself getting angry with his chief engineer.
Quesh was about to roar back at his captain, when someone in the background on the bridge spoke up. “Wait one, Chief,” the Captain ordered. And then muted the line on his end.
The Parkani stood there, fuming while his crews stood there, waiting for his go ahead. “All right Chief. Go ahead and do your engine burn. But only use the fuel amount you indicated before.”
The Chief frowned. “If I might ask, Captain, why the change?”
“Moxie’s just signaled. She’s on her way back with a big rock that apparently is full of water, so we can replenish our reserves and keep the reactor going for a couple more weeks.”
That girl. “Good news, Captain. All right, we’re ready down here. Tell the helm zero point two only on the engines. We just need enough thrust to overcome inertia and get us moving in the right direction. After we get the fuel, then we can do a supplementary burn.”
“Understood, Chief.”
Quesh watched his data feeds and after a slight shiver through the hull, the ship started to move. It was an agonizing snail’s pace, but they were moving under their own power again. At this speed it would take about five weeks to get to the inhabitable world in system, but at least there was some progress. Once the fuel came in, they could do better.
The arrival of the shuttle was to a heroes’ welcome. Tamara could hear the cheers over the comm as she very delicately delivered the rock to cargo bay two. Quesh had decided that two was a better choice, and the cargo workers had shifted everything over to that bay instead. It just barely fit through the cargo doors, and she was trying very hard not to let it touch the deck.
“Why?”
Tamara chuckled as she eased a little more thruster. “Because it’ll rip through the deck. All right, deck crews, get in there and secure it. Then we can start carving it up.”
Ka’Xarian came back over the circuit. “Thanks, you did your job, Tamara, we got it.”
“You sure?”
“One of my favorite playthings is the plasma cutter, little girl,” he said, a slight tinge of amused hum in his voice. She laughed.
“Copy that, Xar. I’m going to park this baby here because this shuttle is bingo fuel. We need a refill.”
As she settled the bulky shuttle down on the deck, with only a very slight bump, a team of four people in EVA suits entered bay two, armed with steel cables and p-tongs. They strapped the big rock in place, one each on the top and bottom, th
ree evenly spaced across the middle. The tech at the control panel at the inside of the bay closed and secured the doors, airing up the huge compartment, but made sure to leave the gravity off. The last thing they needed was the big rock smashing through the deck of the cargo bay.
As the fuel tanks began to fill with water, the morale of the crew continued to rise. The breached tanks had been repaired, and Quesh had been able to bring the reactor back up to fifteen percent. The repairs continued apace, Tamara and her team as well as Ka’Xarian and his working on repairing some of the cracks in the hull trusses as well as in the hull plating itself. It involved cutting out the damaged pieces entirely and welding and bolting back in place the new pieces. They weren’t able to do many, there were many demands on the replicator’s time.
Tamara and Pip, this time, went out and brought back another rock with the shuttle. This time it was one composed of various different metals, among those gold and platinum. “Why gold?” the Captain had asked when Tamara had reported back. “Aside from some use in electronics and heat shielding, we don’t need very much.”
“Well, to be honest, I grabbed this one for the platinum and the other strategic minerals. But then I saw the gold and had an inspiration. I thought we might need something to trade to the locals when we get to Instow. We can turn it into coins or bricks to trade with.”
The Captain nodded slowly. “Good thinking. Normally we have to barter some things when we get here. I’d never thought to make coins or bullion.” His eyes brightened. “And since the metals out here are not mixed with the dirt and things of a planet, they’re pure. Pure metal. Yes. Yes, I think we might be able to work something out. Very good thinking, Moxie.”
“Thank you, Captain.” She smiled, but was already thinking about the next thing on the list. “I’ve been making lists for repairs. It’s pretty long.”
He nodded. “I can imagine. How bad?”
“Well, if you want this baby back to factory new, or as close as we can get her without a space dock, it’s pretty large.” She showed him her datapad.
His eyes bulged. “Wow. There’s over two hundred items on this list.”
Tamara shook her head. “No, Captain. Well, yes, but that’s just list A, the primary and critical list. The letters continue on, decreasing in priority as they go on. There’s something along the line of ten thousand or so items.”
Now the man gaped. “Fifteen thousand?”
She nodded again. “Yes. At least.”
“How the hell are we going to deal with that?” he despaired.
She laughed at him. “Yeah, it looks overwhelming. Can’t think of it that way. We just prioritize everything and chip away at it. One item at a time.”
The Captain looked at the A list again. “I see a new replicator and replicator replacement parts are very high on the list.”
“Yes. I’m slightly concerned at the strain we’re putting on it. I want to overhaul replicator one and then supplement it completely, since we’re now down a replicator.” She twisted her lips into a grimace. The loss of the second machine was a serious blow. True, it hadn’t been truly functional, but having only to overhaul it instead of a complete replacement would have taken far less time and fewer materials. But there was nothing for it now. They had to move forward.
“After that, we need to get the shields and reactor completely overhauled. We can’t be hanging around with no shields.”
He shuddered. “No, I should say not. But even working at breakneck pace, working everyone as hard as possible, I can’t justify sitting here in orbit of Instow until everything is done.”
She shook her head, waving one hand. “Of course not. I’d want to get sensors, minimal shields, at least one more engine and the hyperdrive back up. Other than that, I’d want to get some serious exterior work on the hull done and the boat bay. Everything else we can work on in hyperspace. Though I do think grabbing a few more rocks to fill up the holds would be a good idea.”
“I agree. I was going to suggest that, actually.”
“What about replacements?”
He started. “Replacements? You mean crew?” She nodded. “I’m sure we can get some here at Instow. But I don’t know if I’m comfortable bringing on that many people all at once.” He took a long breath. “But I know we can’t operate with almost half the crew out of action, what with the dead and the wounded.” He nodded to himself. “I’ll look into it, see what can be done.”
Tamara nodded in understanding. With so many dead or wounded, they were down to forty-two crew that could actually do their jobs. And with a good number of the engineering crew among the dead and wounded, they needed as much help as possible. The cargo division were busy doing anything they could to help, whether that was fetch-and-carry duties or easy jobs that required little supervision. But even still, that wasn’t anywhere near enough. Grania Estelle had already been undermanned when Tamara had come aboard, normally, a ship this size would carry a crew more than twice its former size. But now, with so few actually able to perform their tasks, the captain would be naturally hesitant to bring in too many at once. Discipline would be difficult to maintain with so many new crewmen, more than a few unused to working in space, unused to duties on a star ship, even if it was a cargo ship rather than a fighting vessel. So, he would be cautious, bringing in new hands in small groups, perhaps only ten or so at a time. And while they would certainly help, it would take time to train up these new people, which would slow repairs and even normal operations until a new routine could be established. But there was nothing for it. It was something that the current crew would simply have to live with.
“Thank you, Captain. But if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.”
He nodded. “Of course. If I haven’t said it already…” He hesitated. “I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done. If not for you, we’d be in far worse shape.”
She smiled. “You’re quite welcome. But as I said before, it’s my butt on the line here too.”
His eyebrows went up. “You could get off here at Instow,” he offered, though he hoped she would not.
Thankfully, she shook her head. “Oh, no, Captain. I’m a spacer, born and bred. Cooling my heels on some dirtball isn’t my idea of a good time.” She then patted the bulkhead. “Besides, I’ve grown fond of the old girl. I’d like to see her restored to her old glory.”
“I’ve been aboard this ship my whole life,” the Captain told her. “She’s been slowly dying for so long. I was overjoyed and overwhelmed when I took command. I despaired when the previous captain gave me the full rundown on everything and I saw the true figures about all the systems. I am very glad you and Quesh and the others are here to help make her young and beautiful again.”
Tamara pinched her thumbs and forefingers together and made a mock curtsy with an imaginary ball gown. “What kind of woman would I be to leave another have to stand a wallflower at the ball?”
The Captain clapped her on the shoulder and threw back his head and laughed.
“We’re approaching orbit, Captain,” the pilot announced. Grania Estelle had been slowing gradually for seven hours now, approaching the moon in orbit of the gas giant, which the locals also called Instow, the only inhabitable piece of real estate in the star system. “We’ll be in standard orbiting position in nineteen minutes.”
“Thank you, helm. Keep an eye on things, let me know if there are any problems.” The Captain turned to the communications station. “Serinda, try to get in contact with the locals at Instow. If they don’t already know, please inform them of our imminent arrival.”
“Roger, Captain,” the young woman replied. Serinda was a young woman in her twenties with dark hair, who had the unique talent of attracting the attention of all the young men she met. Some few, like the Captain, the Doctor and Ka’Xarian, seemed to be immune to her natural charms. She pressed a few controls, opening a channel. “Instow Flight Control, this is the freighter Grania Estelle. We are looking to engage in trading in
your markets. We will be assuming standard orbit in seventeen minutes. Grania Estelle, out.” She glanced at the Captain, who nodded.
A minute later, a response came back, on audio only. “Whoever you are, please go away! We don’t have anything for you to take, the last people through here took everything!”
That brought everyone up short. Apparently they were not the only ones who had been targeted by the raiders. The Captain straightened in his chair. “Put me on.” Serinda tapped a control, then glanced over and nodded. “What is your situation down there, Instow Flight? We were attacked by raiders as well, just as soon as we came out of hyperspace. As such we’re in desperate need of some supplies and repairs as well. Perhaps we can help each other here. This isn’t our first time in this system, Instow Flight. You know us. If I could speak with your proconsul, I believe we can work something out to our mutual benefit.”
There was a long pause. “I’m afraid I can’t help you. We’re in desperate straits ourselves and we can’t be bothered with outsiders’ problems. Please, just go.”
“Like I said, maybe we can help each other,” the Captain tried again. “We have access to some replicator support up here.”
Another long pause. “I will confer with the proconsul. Do not attempt to land. Anyone from your ship who comes down to the planet will be arrested.” The line clicked off.
“Nice people,” George Miller muttered, loud enough to carry in the small bridge.
“They’re scared,” the Captain replied. He frowned. “Can’t say I blame them. I know we all were only a few days ago.” He grunted. “Still are a bit, actually.” He shifted position in his chair, resting his chin on his hand. “Nothing for it, well, for now anyway. Serinda, keep an ear out, if they call back, let me know immediately.” He got up and left the bridge.
“Yes… uh… Captain,” she stammered as the hatch closed behind him.
Quesh was standing at the main engineering console, in all of its spliced together madness, trying to take stock of the situation. Fuel levels were at about twenty-two percent with the water coming in from the shuttle’s asteroid run, which were certainly not good, but much better than they had been. There was still so much damage, even just to bring them back to where they were before the attack. His teams were exhausted, those that remained. He had only two-thirds of the personnel to do the same amount of work, more, actually, considering everyone was working twelve hour shifts.
Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 Page 14
