Wolf's Run: The Chase of War (Star Wolf Sqaudron Book 2)
Page 57
The pirate could have really used a stiff drink but that would have to wait. Sleeping was also an issue and he had to strap himself in his chair and just put up with the rotations as exhaustion took him over or sleep as he floated. He woke up choking once with a beeping sounding in his ear and realized that he needed to switch out his oxygen cartridge. Fumbling around he just managed to replace it before he passed out.
Reaching the minefield, he waited for death still unsure if his trick had worked? He hadn’t heard any chatter on the communication’s system about the large piece of junk escaping the salvage yard. No ships had come or left so no dangerous object warnings were broadcasted.
Entering the minefield nothing happened. Once more the mines had been deactivated to allow the large piece of space debris to pass through and get caught up in the star’s gravitational pull. He smiled and nodded his head thinking that it was all going as planned though he still had several days of travel but the worse was almost over.
Once he exited the minefield, he let the ship follow its natural course closing in on the system’s sun and the gravity well nearby. Tumbling along he approached the bender point as a ship suddenly appeared from the area of the gravity well. It was a Karduan Vanguard sloop. Though a smaller warship it was still a ship that seemed twenty times larger than his ancient mail hauler.
Activating his comm. system, he listened in as the Karduan ship signaled the base asking for permission to approach the station and requesting repairs. It was a Blue ship and didn’t know that the station was now under the control of the Earth Confederation.
Alexander was tempted to contact them and warn them off while hoping for a rescue but he didn’t. If the Confederation forces didn’t get the sloop they would probably send some ships after it to destroy it. Instead he decided to stick to his plan and let the Karduan ship help him by distracting the attention of station’s personnel.
His other fear was that the Karduan ship might have a little target practice with his tumbling piece of space junk. It was not unheard of for ship captains, both Human and Blue to blast large space debris into very small pieces of space debris just for the fun of it and as training for their gunnery crews.
Thankfully, they passed him by with no sign of even noticing him. Passing through the deactivated minefield the Vanguard sloop was greeted by two of the system’s sentry ships - a destroyer escort and a light cruiser and was ordered to promptly surrender which they did.
When his mailer hauler now named Bob II, started being pulled closer to the sun by its gravity he activated his ship’s archaic engine and hoped that all of his repairs and maintenance had helped. A second later his lone fusion engine flare to life and his bender drive’s monitor was indicating that it would be ready to bend in ten minutes.
Waiting those few minutes he continued to tumble for what seemed like an eternity. A green light appeared on his console and he quickly engaged his maneuver drive and thrusters, stopping his tumble and leveling his ship off. In another minute he found himself in position to bend. Plotting his course with the aid of the ship’s old navigation computer, he hoped no one would follow after him as he would need time to refuel on the other side and make another bend.
As he piloted the mail hauler into the gravity well he polarized his hull and activated his bender drive all the while humming to himself. Just before he was sucked into the bend and would escape his isolation and forced imprisonment he softy sang the song he’d been humming.
“For I am a Pirate King! And it is, it is a glorious thing, to be a Pirate King!”
A moment later Captain Peter Alexander aka Alexander the Great disappeared from the system and had made good his escape.
The Knights of the Order of Saint Michael
(The Order of Saint Michael’s Sword)
The Michaelites’ Rules of Conduct
Forgive but don’t forget
Seek knowledge throughout your life
Train daily
Pray daily
Meditate daily
Look for the good in men and women
Fight evil when you find it
Judge others by their deeds not their words
Learn from your mistakes
Trust in God’s will
Embrace Love
Always trust your instincts
Never Despair
Michaelite Saying –
“If you sense evil you must confront it.”
“If you find evil you must fight it.”
“If you know evil you must destroy it.”
Military Ship Listings
Karduan:
KRS Repair ship (brig size - human classification Spider class)
KVG Vanguard (sloop/scout ship)
KDE Destroyer Escort (frigate)
KED Escort Destroyer (light cruiser/heavy frigate) (older replaced by KCD)
KCD Companion Destroyer (light cruiser – supports larger ship actions)
KSDS System Defense Ship (fire power of a heavy cruiser, no bender drives)
KD Destroyer (heavy cruiser/no spinal mount)
KBD Battle Destroyer (heavy cruiser/like newer armored cruiser w/spinal mount)
KSD Super Destroyer (battle cruiser w/spinal mount)
Confederation:
Brig (used for policing/customs)
Sloop (Gunfighter class - older class)
Corvette – meant to replace sloop and older Battle class frigates
Frigate (Battle class - older class)
Heavy Frigate (modern)
Light Cruiser
Shadow Cruiser – (Raven class) stealth light cruiser, spinal mount w/2 stealth fighters
Carrier classes - Escort Carrier (very old) 28 fighters, Auxiliary Carrier (older) 48 fighters, Modern Fleet Carrier 86 fighters and then Battle Carrier 100+ fighters.
Attack Cruiser (Corvette class) stealth, spinal mount w/6 star fighters
Heavy Cruiser (Hero class - older class was replaced by armored cruisers with spinal mounts)
Armored Cruiser/spinal mount
Battle Cruiser/spinal mount w/12 star fighters
Battle Carrier (Titan class 100 star fighters and Deity class 120 star fighters)
Other ships – system cutters, minesweepers, hospital ships, Recovery ship – (Behemoth Class).
Epilogue - Part Four - “The Ship”
The broken express class freighter’s auxiliary computer followed its programming and activated the ship’s remaining thrusters. The negative force slowly braked the ship’s momentum until it came to halt at the edge of the solar system. It was now safely away from the system’s gravity well, space traffic and the battlefield where it had been mauled.
Lt. Michael Collins, the Q-ship’s last captain had set the ship’s computer to bring the vessel to this point and then keep her here at stations keeping. Before he had left the ship he had also planned for her future repairs. Onboard his former ship, he had a complement of advanced repair droids and basic repair robots. Taking most of the repair units with him to his new command he hesitated before they were all loaded onto the Mover cargo shuttle. He would need them on the Nathaniel Green but maybe he could spare a few. So, before he left the battered ship he decided to leave some behind. They could operate on the ship’s battery power for a long time while they repaired her key systems, infrastructure and patched her hull.
Mike had once worked on Austro Prime’s orbital repair station doing just that programming robots to do work. He had helped with so many ship repair operations since then that he was sure he could get a job after the war in any ship yard or repair facility. Picking out three advanced repair droids he set them to automatic repair operations. They were smart and didn’t need to be told what to do. They would seek out damaged systems, repair them as much as they could or leave them to finish fixing later when they found or made new parts. They would also be able to do self maintenance on each other to keep their team operational.
Along with the advanced droids he left four basic repair robots. Th
ese units had to be programed each day with the tasks that they would need to perform. Instead of programming them, he slave-linked them to the droids to aid and assist them. This way they wouldn’t need to be programmed and instead would be the more advanced droids’ helpers and extra sets of hands. Several automated fabrication machines and 3-D parts printers were still operational in the ship’s machine shop and he hoped that the droids would be able to utilize them for most of the more intricate parts that they might need.
Lt. Collins had also taken time to have several sections of wrecked Karduan ships magnetically attached to the larger express freighter. He had hoped that the droids and robots could use any undamaged hull sections and salvageable parts in their efforts to repair the Randori.
It was all a long shot – would they have enough parts and hull sections to make the needed repairs? The ship had only one surviving bender and one fusion drive left, and both were badly damaged. Would the droids become damaged or run out of power before they could repair the engines? Most of all they needed time as time was what it would take to even partially restore the former Q-ship.
The droids and repair robots didn't know any of this. They set about their herculean task of fixing the damaged ship as if it was any other day of work while the system’s lone star shone unnoticed across the vast distance between them.
Close Communication’s Signal
(End of Book 2)