Lieutenant Commander Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 4)

by Timothy Ellis

  “I’m not angry. But there was no point in telling others to tell you things if you were already listening in anyway.”

  “Technically I’m not supposed to be. You own me, not the Imperium.”

  “Stow that shit. You own yourself. I employ you, which needs discussion anyway. The freight line you set up. Start paying yourself a CEO level salary out of what it makes.”

  “What do I need with money?”

  “You’ll think of something. Talk to Jane. You did get all that about building a proper shipyard?”

  “Yes. In the long run it would bring in a lot of income for the planet. Do you want me to get started on it?”

  “Yes. Contact Haven shipyard, and get the specs you need to build one. Also get what you need to modify the Rawtenuga ships. I’m rethinking those though. If Jane wants to use them as an auxiliary fleet, then maybe we should be modifying the same way they’ve been doing all the spine ship upgrades recently. Those really big battleships for example they’re converting into dreadnaughts. What is being done for them is probably a good start, although the dinosaurs don’t use the same sort of turrets we do, so putting ours on them probably won’t work. All the same, the front end and internals of Judge scaled up is a good start. But you’d need the specs, and with approval to use them. Jane gave us some approval for what we need, but by the time we redesign one of the dino ships, we’ll probably need a lot more. Ask for it, but bring any issues back to me to discuss with Jane privately.”

  “Will do. You thinking carriers like Judge as well, with all the crew necessities?”

  “May as well. You may end up running them all on your own, but they may as well be useful all round ships. They’re large enough to do a lot with after all.”

  “When do you want them?”

  “Prototype as soon as possible with what you can do on the ground. I’ll give it a test run, and we’ll go from there. But get at least a bay big enough for them in space as the main priority. Hell, if Bob will sell us a bay we can use, like one of the Explorer bays Jane mentioned, just pay whatever he wants. They won’t be big enough most likely, but adapting one of them would be quicker than building one from scratch.”

  “I’ll ask. Is it okay if I go there myself in person?”

  “Whatever you need to do. If you need clones of yourself like Jane has, go right ahead.”

  “I’ll think about that.”

  “Don’t take too long. Couple of milliseconds should be enough.”

  I grinned at her, and she did at least smile back.

  “I’ll need to talk to some people. Can you see if my father and the mayor are available for lunch? Plus anyone who’s forming the new government, assuming they actually are. I’ve not been keeping up. Small group of who matters. Lunch on my island if they can.”

  “Should be possible.”

  “Then issue an invitation to all the family who can make it to my beach for the afternoon, with dinner included. Everyone welcome. Include Serena’s family in that as well. You’ll need to ensure there is enough to eat and drink.”

  “Eggs.”

  “Them too.”

  We both grinned this time, and she vanished.

  Over the next couple of hours, I took a good hard look at the Rawtenuga ships. The first thing I’d never noticed was they didn’t use conventional turrets of any kind. They had a lot more battleship guns on them than we did on the same ‘ship of the line’ style, but they were single barrels all over the ship, and while a lot of them could face forward for their main formation, they had more than I’d have expected firing in every other direction.

  Essentially, each gun of any size was just a single gun mounted on a gimbal. And the only reason you’d build a ship like that I could think of, was they were custom designed to take on the Trixone fighters, while pounding on their capital ships. It also explained why they made hits on us so fast when we appeared near them. Another interesting thing was most of the guns were retractable, and the barrels themselves were incredibly short by our standards, without losing any accuracy.

  I actually liked the design, but I’d have made the gimbals better, so they could all fire through as much arc as the ship hull allowed, and especially all firing forward at once, or like a gatling gun. But for hitting Trixone fighters, it was designed really well. Which made me wonder if they did the design for the Trixone, or if they’d had their own enemy previously who’d used fighters.

  The hull design also didn’t make any sense for a dinosaur species, but it was possible like the fungus, they had another species designing and building their ships for them. Maybe I’d find out sometime, if the mission allowed it.

  I collected Serena just before lunch, and moved us to the beach in front of my house on my island. She looked concerned for a moment that we’d moved in the blink of an eye, and then grinned at me.

  I found my father and the mayor sitting in the eating area, watching a news channel. I flicked it off in mid-sentence, and the two of us sat facing them.

  “Are you two an item now?” asked my father, smiling.

  I looked at Serena, and she grinned at me again, with an eyebrow raised.

  “Apparently,” I said. “At least, we are heading in that direction.”

  “Your mothers will be pleased. We’ve been speculating for a while now. Is that the reason for bringing us here?”

  “Hell no!”

  And I started laughing, which caused Serena to frown.

  “No, I wanted to talk to you about some issues I’m not sure you’re aware of. And plans just put in motion.”

  “I assume this is not just family business,” said the mayor.

  “Planet business in the long run, but my business now.”

  “What are you planning, young Bud?”

  “Well first off, is what is happening now. Are either of you aware of Thorn’s shipyard on one of the uninhabitable continents?” Both shook their heads. “It’s been there for eighty years, and along with using it to modify ships, there is a graveyard of spaceships there he’d been collecting for eighty years. I’ve been having a lot of them made space worthy and modified for carrying freight and people. The latest ones are starting to earn some income from an Imperium contract, and the others will eventually start earning an income as well. But the thing is, all the raw resources for changing the ships he appropriated come from either this world, or this system. As did a lot of the resources which are stored on the station up there.”

  “And?”

  The mayor didn’t seem all that surprised.

  “I thought you needed to know, in case this ever comes up. I’m in the process of pissing off people who want me to be Thorn’s replacement as a judge, and when they don’t get their way, I expect they’ll try to undermine me any way they can.”

  My father laughed.

  “Let them try. We don’t play those games here. And anyone who upsets a mage grand master deserves what they get for being so stupid.”

  The mayor nodded. I went on.

  “I’m making arrangements to source resources elsewhere. My squadron found a system the other day which had been wiped out by the Rawtenuga, and while it’s not going to be common knowledge, so keep it to yourselves, I’m making an agreement with the Imperator to be able to mine the system. Once that’s in place, exploitation of this system will stop.”

  “That’s fine, young Bud. No-one would have begrudged Thorn anything for what he did in return. And most of what he did ended up benefiting us because we couldn’t do it for ourselves. Now we need people like you to step up and do some of these things for us. What are you planning?”

  “I’ve been able to take possession of some alien ships, which need extensive modifications to be useful. I’m going to need to expand shipbuilding operations. So for the immediate future, the existing shipyard will need to be expanded somewhat to get what is needed happening. But in the medium term I’m looking at either buying a section of space based shipyard, or building it on the ground and putting it in o
rbit myself. After that it will self-build large enough bays to start building ships for the Imperium, which we’ll sell to them.”

  “Excellent, my boy,” said the mayor, rubbing his hands together. “What do you need from us?”

  “A fig leaf, as Jill’s people call it, over the activities of the shipyard in the past, and now, to make them legal, and approval to build a shipyard in orbit, or elsewhere in the system if preferred. I’ll also need to know what tax rate will be expected to be paid when it starts making a profit.”

  Neither of them reacted, and just looked at me.

  “The system needs to start developing ways of supporting itself, or we will just become the Imperium’s unwanted poor people who don’t care. Thorn did everything. Thorn was everything. Well maybe not all. But in terms of most of the members of the Imperium, we are a backwards people not really contributing anything to the Imperium whole.”

  “Except you,” said my father.

  “And that’s just how it was with Thorn, and it’s not good for the planet. We need to step up. Our mages need to step up. Our people need to contribute to the war effort somehow. I can afford to finance building a shipyard to rival Haven’s. Thorn left that to me, and while he didn’t understand what he was leaving me, I feel an obligation to use some of it for the good of the planet.”

  “And it sounds like you are,” said the mayor.

  “It’s just plans at the moment. But I have Hubaisha working on them. I need sanction and support to do this at a political level. We also need to get people involved. Find out if anyone wishes to be trained in the running of a shipyard. I can’t do it myself, and while an AI will run it, Haven shipyard employs a lot of people. I can import employees when we need them, but I’d rather our people took an interest, and their earnings benefit our society instead of another one.”

  Both of them sat there when I fell silent. Serena was hearing this for the first time, and she was smiling.

  “I don’t see any problems, young Bud. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the people voted to not form any government for the time being, and appointed your father as ambassador to the Imperium. I continue on as Mayor, for now. We formed a loose council for advising me on issues, and I doubt any of them will have a problem with anything you’ve said. I can and will draw up documents to give you, what was it called? Your fig leaf?”

  I nodded, but Serena was now grinning.

  “Proceed with your plans, and I’ll have your authorizations to proceed in the next day or so. When we have something in our sky to point to, I’ll announce your new venture to the people, and we’ll see if some of the young ones want to learn what is needed to run it. As for tax, your father will discuss tax with the Imperium, and find out what our obligations will be, since so far, we’ve not been asked for any contributions, or been in much of a position to pay one. But like you said, when we start selling ships, and I assume that will include civilian ships, things will change, and we’ll need to know the effects.”

  Father nodded.

  “You probably haven’t been asked so far,” said Serena, “because of Thorn’s contributions to forming the Imperium.”

  “True, young Serena. And this will by necessity change at some point, so we should move on it before it does.”

  At that point the sound of happy people invading the beach stopped us, and a butler droid brought us food.

  Thirty Five

  It was a bit strange wearing clothes on the beach.

  Most of our extended families arrived over the course of the afternoon, and I’d settled myself into a chair on the sand wearing shorts. Serena had changed into what Jill apparently called a bikini, which covered up the basics, but not a whole lot more. The belt we both wore didn’t really fit, but neither of us were taking them off.

  We caught up with everyone in small groups, and our mothers had indeed been happy to hear we were an actual couple now. Serena’s sister turned up with a boyfriend, but I took an instant dislike to him. Not that it mattered, as they stayed well away from us.

  Late in the afternoon, before a barbeque dinner was due to start, Hubaisha turned up with Bob Derr, and the three of us retired to my office in the house. Not that I’d set it up. Hubaisha had done that after my first visit, in case I needed it at some point. I may as well have been in my ready room.

  “What can I do for you?” I asked Bob.

  “It’s more what I can do for you, my boy.”

  “And that is?”

  “I’ve talked to the Imperator, and we sorted out some long standing shipyard issues. What most people don’t know is, the core of the Haven shipyard actually belongs to me, but was essentially usurped by the Darkness War, and has since continued to be built upon as he ‘acquired’ new shipyards from pirates. We agreed it was time for us to separate out my original shipyard, and as rental for it, it includes some of the other shipyard modules which were merged in as the Darkness War moved up the spine, and they were forced to be moved. I’ll be able to start building civilian ships again.”

  He paused, but I said nothing.

  “At the same time, we’ve also agreed to pull out enough modules to form another basic shipyard, including one of the bays we used for upgrading the Explorer ships. All the fabricators needed to build Imperium ships are included, as are a starter set of the droids who do most of the work. You’ll find the explorer bay should take the Rawtenuga ship Jane wants modified for moving people around out on the spine, and one of the other bays will handle cruiser sized ships with ease. The other main bay is designed to build station modules, which you’ll need to expand the shipyard quickly.”

  My mouth fell open.

  “Sorry, what? I’ll find?”

  “Yes. The Imperium is giving you a shipyard.”

  “Why?”

  “Apparently you did a great service recently which they’ve been unable to thank you for sufficiently. I’m not privy to what you did, but that’s what I was told to say when you asked.”

  “For me? Or the system?”

  “You, my boy. I understand you’re going into the shipyard business, and one day we’ll be rivals.”

  He was grinning, and I wasn’t at all sure he was serious.

  “That’s unexpected.”

  “They said that too. You won’t have seen that coming, especially as you offered to buy an explorer bay. The separation should be complete tomorrow sometime. All we need is a place to deliver it to.”

  “There’s a ground based shipyard on an uninhabitable continent. You can’t miss it as it has a lot of ship hulks on the ground. Fixed orbit over that will do nicely.”

  “Nice and high up?” he grinned.

  “Yes. No need to freak people out by making it look like it’s about to fall on them.”

  We all laughed at the joke.

  “Someone mentioned barbeque?”

  We showed Bob out to the eating area, but I motioned Hubaisha to return to the office.

  “Was all that on the level?”

  “As far as I can tell. I’ll supervise the move, and should be able to get started on the disassembly of the first ship, which will also give me enough experience to start redesigning what you want. Jane’s ship will come next. She can’t tell me what she wants until she has specs of what is already there to work with. So those come first. They have included what we need to turn a real ship back into specifications.”

  “Fine. Keep me updated on progress. There was something else I wanted to ask you.”

  “Yes?”

  “Why Hubaisha?”

  “Seemed like a good idea at the time. And I quite like it.”

  “Only quite? Why I ask is our ship AIs changed their names and appearances recently to what they wanted. I don’t want you stuck with something you don’t completely like.”

  “Well that’s really nice of you Bud, but I chose my own body, and liked the name.”

  “Do you mind a suggestion?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Long was a sh
ip name, and she changed her name to Leanne. Hub on the front of yours kind of labels you as a station AI. But Aisha is a girl’s name. Just have a think about it.”

  “I will.”

  The sound of my team turning up, and people reacting in various ways to Metunga, ended that conversation as we both moved outside to see what was going on.

  Horror on the part of young relatives turned to delight, as Metunga went down on all fours, and was soon carrying children around on his back.

  Woof on the other hand had gone straight to the barbeque, and the smell of cooking meat began to infuse the air.

  The fact he was standing on a box to get up high enough didn’t seem to faze him one little bit.

  Thirty Six

  The team and I left the party in full swing.

  Bob vanished after eating, and we lingered for a while, but the island was out of sync with standard time, and with sunset still hours away, we left the families to their fun. Some of them were going on to Janes for a while, but I needed to do some real work before I went to bed. We had a mission to start in the morning, and I had no clue how or where to start it. Serena decided to go shopping, and Jill changed her mind and went with her. So I wound up back on Judge in my ready room, in an otherwise empty ship.

  The mission was simple. Find where the Rawtenuga were coming from, and stop them. But although we suspected they were coming across an area of space called Long Bar from one of the big arms of the galaxy, we didn’t know for sure. We knew where some fleets were, and the area we knew about was growing, but until we found a planet with actual Rawtenuga civilians on it, we’d have no idea the real direction to go.

  We did have decent maps of this area of space though, care of the local station we’d saved. And Jane had plotted all the known destroyed fleets so far, with the known moving ones pretty obvious on the navmap. But fleets had been appearing on the nav map from too many vectors to get any real aiming point for a search.

  My other worry was how many fleets were being sent, and how much damage they’d do while I was mucking around searching. And there was a big area to search. I had Leanne overlay an actual map of the galaxy in terms of known suns, regardless of if they had jump points in their systems or not, and started from a galaxy wide perspective. After zooming in and moving the focus to where we were, I could see the arms at this end of the core better, and this gave me a perspective on the area needing searching.