Far Mantis

by Jim Henderson

  Ximon patted the main console. “Well, good job. Have fun settling in. Thanks, everyone.”

  Ximon then went about other duties, but not everyone else did. Peter stayed the entire time and monitored Mantis’ status. Raiza checked in several times and Elsbeth checked in at least once. Ximon and Raiza were at dinner when Mantis reported the successful completion of her testing and that her old instance was now shadowing her new instance. He was a somewhat relieved but not at all surprised. Everyone on the crew had been working to ensure everything went smoothly. Ximon believed this was more out of ‘friendship’ than out of self-preservation.

  Later that evening, as Raiza and Ximon were strolling around town, Ximon got a message. It was from Commander (CDR) Jantzi and KSF Operations saying, “LCDR Sabo, we understand that you’re still in-system and we have a job, or a series of jobs, we’d like to discuss with you. Please, let me know whether you’re interested. If you are, let’s try to meet or talk tomorrow. I think you’ll find it interesting.”

  Ximon appreciated that Jantzi had messaged instead of called. Once they got back to the ship, Ximon messaged back, “Commander, I’m interested enough to want to discuss it. I’m fairly free tomorrow, so send me a proposed time and I’ll try to make it happen.”

  The truth of the matter was that Ximon had no real plans for the next day except to check on Mantis, peruse ScoutLink for potential jobs, and possibly do some more shopping with Raiza. He and Raiza were enjoying buying various games and items for their house and, frankly, Ximon liked being seen with what he considered to be the most beautiful woman on the planet on his arm.

  A couple hours later Jantzi replied with a meeting request for 0900 at KSF Ops.

  Ximon briefly pondered what this series of jobs might be. Based on past experience, it could be anything from exploration, to diplomacy, cargo hauling, or piracy prevention. He drifted contentedly off to sleep in Raiza’s arms. Unlike sleeping with a human, Raiza didn’t toss and turn in the night and she could adjust her temperature so being by her didn’t make him overheat. Unless he sought her out, she would usually rest there silently for a few hours, letting her internal cleanup processes run. Once he was fully asleep, she would usually sneak out to do some work.

  In the morning, Ximon called Elsbeth to let her know that he might have a line on a job. She was still in bed and seemed less than enthusiastic about being awakened early. Ximon made himself presentable, put on his unofficial Mantis flight suit uniform and prepared to go. He asked Raiza to go with him so he could enjoy her company and so they could shop afterwards. Though it wasn’t far, he also decided to take the ship’s air raft instead of getting a robocab. This was primarily for the pleasure of flying and driving, but it would also be useful for their shopping afterward.

  They left and enjoyed the trip until they were at ground level about a mile from KSF headquarters. At that point, the engines started making loud, coughing sounds, and the air raft jostled and pitched forward. Ximon almost crashed into the control panel in front of him as different alarms blared from the console. He gripped the arms of his chair tightly as the air raft sank roughly to the ground and came to a dead stop. Ximon did some basic checks and Raiza got detailed diagnostics from the air raft’s computer. Everything they looked at suggested that the air raft’s main grav motor had died and it looked serious. No attempts to clear the errors or reset the system helped and they ultimately gave up.

  Without a way to fix the grav motor, they simply walked the last mile to KSF headquarters since it was a nice day. Along the way, Ximon called Elsbeth and said, “Elsbeth, that air raft just died on us at the coordinates I’ve sent you. We’re going to Ops about this job. If you can drag yourself out of bed, please go check it out and see what’s up with it.”

  She was quite clearly still in bed, so her main response was to simply groan loudly and dramatically with some kind of mumbled, “Yeah, okay.”

  When Ximon and Raiza got to KSF Operations, Ximon checked in with the automated reception system and then they had a seat and waited. CDR Jantzi came out a couple minutes later. He extended his hand to Ximon. “Good to see you. I trust you’re doing well.”

  Ximon said, “Yes, Commander, quite well. Thanks.”

  Jantzi then turned his attention to Raiza and gently shook her hand. “Always a pleasure to see you Raiza. Will you be joining us or would you prefer to wait elsewhere?”

  Raiza turned to Ximon. “Ximon, I’m content either way.”

  Ximon appeared to be pondering it when Jantzi cut in, “Come, Raiza, please join us. You’ll brighten up the place.”

  So, Jantzi led them to a small conference room. There was no one else in any of the room’s eight blue chairs. Other than a projector, the only other thing in the room was a tray of coffee and water.

  “We’ve got water and coffee over here if you’re interested,” Jantzi said as he got himself a water and sat.

  Ximon grabbed a water as well, and he and Raiza sat.

  Jantzi dove right in, “Ximon, as I mentioned last night, we’ve got a series of jobs that we think you’re the right ship for. I see that you’re still in port and I’m told you’ve been perusing ScoutLink for jobs, so I take it you’re available. Plus, of course, you’re here.”

  It momentarily crossed Ximon’s mind that the KSF was monitoring him, but he pushed it away. Mantis, and to a lesser degree himself, were still KSF assets. Further, this might save him time trying to line up a bunch of jobs.

  Jantzi grinned at them and continued, “Anyway, we need you to reprise some parts of your last trip Rimward and go farther into the Vast. What we’d like you to do is pick up some additional equipment on Edorener to resupply and expand Alzroid’s station on Zased and then continue on past there. As you know, as you head Rimward past the Xalanan sector, star systems get sparse and you’ll be taxing your jump range. To extend that, we’d equip you with both expendable drop tanks and a fuel bladder. Between them they should allow you to do an extra jump of at least five light years.

  “You’re one of very few Republic ships that have explored much in that direction, and you’ve worked with Alzroid, so you’re the logical fit.”

  Ximon was non-committal and sounded a bit suspicious as he said, “We would certainly be capable, but you mentioned several jobs.”

  Jantzi continued, “Ah, so I did. We’ve had a Survey Frigate, the Eon Explorer, operating in that area and had several things lined up for her. Unfortunately, we must redeploy her to cover some higher priority taskings and that leaves some things undone. So, rather than send folks who don’t know the area, we’d like you to meet up with her and take her tasks.”

  “And what are those?”

  “Ah, Ximon, I believe she’s got several, but she tends to operate far from easy communications. So, she also has independent regional tasking authority. She has some tasks of which we don’t know all the details. So, we’d like you to leave as soon as you reasonably can and try to meet up with her. We expect her at Xalanan in eighteen to nineteen days and Edorener in thirty-one to thirty-three. So, try to catch her at Xalanan if you can and go from there. If you miss her there, you can catch here at Edorener.”

  “But what type of jobs are we talking about?” Ximon pressed, not wanting to agree without full understanding.

  Jantzi sighed, “Again, we don’t have a complete list, but several things involving the planets in that area. Her commander is Captain MacCorryn. I imagine you’ve run into her somewhere along the way. She’s good people.”

  Ximon had, in fact, run into her. He had served with her for about a year at KSF 7th Regional HQ. She had been skilled and competent, but troublesome and demanding to deal with. “Good people” wasn’t what came to Ximon’s mind—it was more like “witch.” However, he said more benignly, “We’ve crossed paths a time or two.”

  Jantzi smiled. “See, it’s getting easier all the time. What do you say? Will you take it? You will, of course, have discretion as to what assignments you accept from her.”
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  Ximon looked briefly at Raiza, but she just smiled back at him and said, “It would be good to see Alzroid and his team again.”

  Ximon continued, “Okay, we’ll take it, but it’ll probably take us a couple days to take off.”

  Jantzi, “That’s fine and we’ll need to get you those drop tanks and general supplies.”

  “Roger, Commander. We’ll watch for the details on getting that gear and go from there.”

  At that, moment Ximon looked down at his tablet, which was buzzing, and said, “Oh, never mind, I see that you already sent us those. I take it you were pretty confident we’d take the job.”

  Jantzi smiled. “Let’s just say I had a feeling you might.”

  As they arose and shook hands, Raiza said, “Thank you for your confidence, Commander, and thank you for inviting me to join the discussion.”

  Jantzi responded, “You’re always welcome. First, I doubt Ximon has any secrets from you. Second, I’m sure you’ll help him remember everything. Finally, you’re a pleasure to be around.”

  Raiza gave him a bright smile.

  Ximon nodded and said, “Commander,” before getting up and leaving with Raiza. Ximon breathed a sigh of relief to be done and started thinking of the planning they’d need to do.

  Raiza summoned them a robocab. While they waited for it to arrive, Ximon called Elsbeth. “So, Elsbeth, have you been able to look at that air raft yet?”

  “No, Ximon! The only way I could have been there by now is if I went naked. Peter and I are on our way there now. However, I was able to pull some remote diagnostics and it doesn’t look good. I’ll let you know.”

  “Understood, we’re just leaving Ops now and are going to pick up a few things before we head back to Mantis. I’ll send you a summary of the job. We’ll probably leave in a couple days and will be gone for several months.”

  “Sure, whatever. I’ve been getting stir crazy. It’s time to go somewhere.”

  When Elsbeth called Ximon back hours later, he and Raiza were looking at some digital art screens.

  Ximon, “Yeah, what did you find?”

  Elsbeth said, “Well, it ain’t too good. One of the grav motors is pretty fried and the main thrust module is damaged. It probably took a hit from an electric burst when the grav motor went. I could probably adjust a few override settings and it would still fly, but you’d have no redundancy and the thing would be really slow and possibly unstable. So, you need to break down and spend some money on it.”

  “How much are we talking?”

  “Well, that depends. First, remember that a new one costs about five hundred thousand credits (KCr), so that’s always an option. If you don’t want to do that, we can have the grav motor replaced and thrust module repaired, but that’ll still cost about fifty to eighty KCr. If you want, we could probably get a rebuilt grav motor and save ten to twenty KCR. Or, if you want, you could have Peter and I try to do it. That’ll probably only cost you fifteen to twenty KCr, but we’d probably need to dedicate two to three weeks to it, working in a real repair shop. Since you said you’ve got a job for us, that’s probably off the table.”

  Elsbeth continued, “Now, of course, you could just put the thing in a storage shed or we could put it in the ship and fly around pretending we have a working air raft. If you do the latter, don’t expect me to get in it if we’re getting more than two feet off the ground.”

  Ximon groaned. “You’re killing me and driving me to the poor house at the same time.”

  “Don’t blame me, Ximon. I told you this thing was crap a year or so ago and you haven’t spent any money or attention on it. Not surprisingly, these kinds of things don’t just get better on their own.”

  “Okay, okay. Can we sit down and discuss this and the mission at dinner?”

  “Sure. Where are you taking us?”

  “Fine. Let’s meet at the Serenity Grill at five.”

  “Okay, we’ll come ready to eat…and drink.”

  Ximon and Raiza finished their shopping and headed back to the ship. In addition to a few galley supplies, Ximon had also gotten several things for his (and by extension Raiza’s) new hobby: gaming. Having been in the KSF for years, he had played a lot of different games over the years but hadn’t played many in recent years. Mantis supported dozens of games, but Ximon missed the tactile feel of physical games, in addition to playing some computer ones. So, he had gotten several decks of cards and a few card-based games. He’d also gotten a few other tabletop games. Since the crew tended to have a lot of downtime during jump, he wanted to have more entertainment options for himself, the crew, and any passengers they might be carrying.

  After a little relaxing, Ximon and Raiza got ready to go out for dinner. Raiza already looked stunning, but the ‘little black dress’ she put on left Ximon momentarily breathless. They arrived at Serenity Grill just before five and got a table. Elsbeth and Peter were a bit late, with Elsbeth mumbling something about ‘traffic’ though there was none to speak of.

  They all enjoyed a nice dinner. Well, Ximon and Elsbeth had a nice dinner while Raiza and Peter, being robots, made polite, desultory eating motions.

  After Ximon had ordered and eaten some appetizers, he was ready to chat. He linked Mantis in on his tablet so she could be involved. He then explained the mission and showed everyone the messages he’d gotten from Jantzi and Ops with what they had to haul.

  Peter was the first to speak. “Captain, the combination of the drop tanks and the equipment from Edorener will consume most of our free cargo space. It will fit, but I will have to do some additional calculations based on exact linear measurements before I can tell you how much space we will have left. It will leave little room for anything else if other missions call for it.”

  “Can we do anything to free up any space?”

  “Not of consequence without being imprudent. We currently have little but food and spares in cargo and it appears we will be travelling far from good lines of supply.”

  “Roger. I get it. Well, let’s get that stuff tomorrow and see what we’ve got.”

  Elsbeth chimed in, “Well, let me tie this to our other issue. As we talked about, we’ve got to do something with that air raft and unless you decide to buy a new one, then whatever that ‘it’ is ain’t going to happen tomorrow. So, we could either put it in a shop here and leave it, or just put it in storage until we get back. That’ll leave us without an air raft, but we only occasionally need it. If we do that, it’d free up several tons of cargo space.”

  Raiza looked concerned. “Is it wise to operate far from home without an air raft?”

  Ximon said, “It’s not ideal. However, since Mantis is streamlined, we can usually do without it. Elsbeth, you may have hit on something—procrastination as a strategy!”

  “I wouldn’t call it that,” Elsbeth said, “just deferring a problem until there’s time for a proper solution.”

  “Whatever you call it. Let’s go with that. Do we have a schedule for getting that stuff tomorrow?”

  Peter spoke up again. “The tanks and fuel bladders will be delivered tomorrow at 1300. I will stand by to stow it. Doing so should take less than an hour.”

  Raiza then added, “I also have a delivery of food and other perishable supplies coming tomorrow morning, but that should all be stowed well before 1300.”

  Mantis spoke up from Ximon’s tablet, “All systems show ready. My transition system tests have been completed, and my old instances have been deactivated.”

  Elsbeth asked, “So, are we leaving the morning after tomorrow?”

  Ximon said, “I wanted to discuss this stuff with y’all first, but that’s what I was thinking. Shall we say 0800?”

  “Fine,” Elsbeth said, “but you’re cutting into my beauty sleep.”

  Ximon just rolled his eyes as usual, but then added, “So, getting back to the air raft. Elsbeth could you get it put into storage somewhere? We can deal with it when we get back.”

  “Sure. I’ll see if the Grand Pala
ce is available. Shouldn’t cost you more than two KCr a day…” she said with a grin. She went on, clearly amusing herself, “No, really, I’ll just store it in the slums and hope it gets stolen.”

  After they finished the rest of dinner, some light dessert, and several more drinks for Elsbeth, they all shared a robocab back to Mantis. A clearly drunk Elsbeth kept them laughing all the way. When they got to the ship, Peter picked her up to take her to their cabin so she could sleep it off.

  As he carried her down the hall she yelled, “See, he can’t keep his hands off of me.”

  The deliveries of supplies all went well the next day. Elsbeth got the air raft stored and then came back and did a few last-minute checks on Mantis. Ximon messaged Jantzi to let him know they’d be leaving the next morning.

  Jantzi replied, “Good luck. The equipment should be ready for you on Edorener. Reach out to Dr. Belarusk at the ARCC. You have his contact info.”

  They shared a quiet breakfast the next morning before Ximon headed to the bridge. The takeoff was uneventful as they quietly slipped into their designated departure lane and headed for a jump point. From the Tixaya system, they jumped to Onkala, Qusenai, and thence to Xalanan. They encountered nothing but a few routine freighters and another old KSF survey craft. With refueling stops, the trip took about eighteen days so Ximon wasn’t sure that the Eon Explorer would still be at Xalanan.

  When they came out of jump at Xalanan, Mantis made sure they were where they were supposed to be and weren’t about to hit anything. Ximon immediately looked for traffic related to the Eon Explorer or their planned meeting. Unfortunately, it was as he feared—Eon Explorer was gone, so the messages from her requested a meeting at Edorener in fourteen to fifteen days instead. That would be a bit tight, but Ximon thought they could make it. So, much to Elsbeth’s dismay, they didn’t visit the station at Xalanan. Instead, they only refueled and jumped, first to Zezaho and then to Edorener, hoping to make up lost time.

  During the jumps, Ximon got them into games several times. Sometimes it was just him and Raiza. A few times Mantis joined into a multi-player computer game, and several times he convinced Elsbeth and Peter to join them in a larger game. In one that they played for multiple hours on a few occasions, each played the role of an ancient adventurer, explored dark places, and fought strange monsters. They enjoyed this as a nice escape from their commonplace, humdrum lives flying around on a spaceship, visiting strange planets, encountering aliens, and occasionally getting shot at. Ximon had a great time and Elsbeth generally seemed to. It was less clear whether Raiza, Mantis, or Peter did, but they played faithfully and were quite good when they played logic games. Elsbeth wasn’t great at any strategic games, but she was dang lucky when they played cards.