Kujes used the replicator to build two pieces of equipment; the first was a small industrial furnace. Small by the standards of a proper shipyard and even compared to the one here before the attack. It was still a large construct, almost twenty meters in length, by ten in diameter. To that, he had an attachment made and connected: a variable metalform extruder. Put together, the teams could now feed salvaged materials in, and shaped metal would come out, trusses, plates, whatever was needed. The furnace would also separate various metals and materials so as not to combine into strange alloys or create weaknesses in the plates or trusses. It took about eighteen hours to get the furnace and extruder up and running, but once it was, the building efforts really got moving.
During the time of assembly, those not working on the device were hard at work policing up usable scrap to throw in. They used all of the heavy cruiser’s shuttles and then a large number of Hecatian techs and their grav sleds diverted from their assigned duties to help. This caused an uproar among the work supervisors, who started screaming over the comms about their schedules being torn apart.
After an hour, the first of the new trusses began forming into a floating pile just off to the side of the extruder. Once several dozen were available, Kujes and most of his team, as well as twenty of the constructor bots, grabbed up girders and started putting them together. The girders were welded together to form cubes, which from there would be secured to the spire, which when closed up, each cube would make a compartment one hundred meters square in size. Before completing anything, Kujes conferred with the work supervisors, just to confirm the design, though he had no intention of changing anything at that point.
Kujes was smart enough to flatter, wheedle and otherwise cajole them into approving his designs; the bug had been doing this sort of work for a while, and he knew how to get results. Four one hundred meter-sized cubes were attached to the spire, and when the plates came out, they too were welded on. In little over a day and a half, the first level of the station, which was little more than an empty box, was finished.
“Things are shaping up nicely, my Lord,” Kujes said, once the last of the boxes was closed up. “They just have to cut doors into the metal, and then they can use the area to land their shuttles and grav sleds. Power generators, seals, life support, interior bulkheads and a simple airlock and they’ll have a place to service their ships, even take some rest time without having to fly back down to the planet.”
“Excellent work, Chief Engineer,” Verrikoth said, pleased. “That iz a good sstart for them, and with Cierre heading outssysstem, they can expect at leasst one additional sshipment of goodz to assisst in the rebuild.” He bobbed his antennae. “But that iz about two monthsss from now.”
The chief waggled his own antennae. “Yes, my Lord, but unless we’re staying longer, that’s a concern for the locals now.”
The Warlord thought about it for all of a second. “Again, very good work, Chief Engineer. Make ssure all your gear iz ssecured. We will be departing the ssysstem in a few hourz.”
Verrikoth watched him go and then activated the desk console, bringing up his status displays. He pressed a few controls, checking on the quartermaster’s progress. While the engineers were busy outside, he’d instructed the zheen to get in touch with the locals and put in for a replenishment order for food. The quartermaster was an extremely capable bug, good at scrounging and able to stretch a New Dublin pound incredibly far. Verrikoth didn’t care about the zheen’s methods, so long as he got results and didn’t cause problems for his warlord. The quartermaster could take a shuttle down and land in the parking area of a local market for all he cared.
A comm indicator began to blink blue, and he pressed it. “Yess?”
“Killix, my Lord. Incoming message for you from the surface. It’s Governor Eztinos.”
“Put him through.” The screen shifted, and a window opened, showing the man’s fleshy face. Verrikoth fought down a wave of revulsion at seeing him and spoke genially. “How can I help you, Governor?”
The human frowned. “Well, Captain, once again, we, the people of Hecate, are in need of your assistance.”
“In what way?” He was proud of how level he’d managed to keep his voice.
“We, and by that I mean the governing council as well as myself, want you to leave that destroyer here to assist with system defense. I know it’s too much to ask that you and your heavy cruiser stay, but right now Hecate is all but defenseless.”
“I undersstand, Governor,” the zheen replied, smoothly. “I sshare your concernz, but I am afraid my sshipss are committed to Trullium. However,” he said, holding up a hand to forestall the inevitable protest, “once I get there, I will look into ssending sshipss back here to bolsster your defenssez. Until you can get your own war vesselz up and running, of course.” He let his mouthparts rub together, seeing the man recoil in disgust, quickly hidden. “You undersstand, of coursse, I will have to assess the ssituation at Trullium first, but resst assured, I will be ssending warsshipss to Hecate.”
The man sucked in a breath and let it out. He almost sounded like a balloon deflating as he breathed out. “Well, if that’s the best you can do…”
Verrikoth attempted to look contrite, but based on the man’s facial expressions and furtive side to side glances, he was sure he had failed. “Yess, I am afraid sso. But I am confident your own forcez wil be back up to sstrength in no time.” Eztinos didn’t look convinced, in fact he now looked as though he’d bitten into something sour and couldn’t spit it out. But he just nodded, let out a grunt and then cut the connection.
The Warlord chittered to himself. He pressed a control. “Bridge, this is Tyler,” came the response.
“Commander, what iz our sstatuss?”
“We are ready to move at your order, my Lord.” The man was calm and collected, ready to move. “Engineering teams are back aboard and all but one of the shuttles are secured.”
“Very well. Food sstorez?”
Tyler grimaced. “Transferred over from Nemesis, my Lord. Both ships have more than enough to make Trullium with what we have with a healthy cushion. But it will get very lean if we are going on a longer journey, my Lord.”
“Undersstood. The quartermasster iz working to get a replenishment from the localz.”
The commander brightened. “Oh, that’s excellent. I didn’t realize we were staying long enough for that.”
“Another day, no more. I know he iz more than capable of getting the ssuppliez we need in that time. I have thiss feeling we need to get back to Trullium.” He let out a huff. “I’ve been away too long.”
((--[][]--))
The young ones were not so young anymore; something Verrikoth was very happy to see. The ysh’kai were now apprenticing with the engineering teams, and Chief Kujes was administering engineering classes each day. The worker drones were learning at a steep rate and soon would be ready to officially join the teams and even stand watches.
Verrikoth found himself a bit reticent at that prospect, but both Chief Kujes, the Xai’ryn and the ysh’kai themselves assured him they could do the work. They would always be supervised, especially for any repairs or problems that would inevitably crop up. They were confident, so the Warlord forced himself to be calm and stay out of it.
Wandering to the cargo bay, he watched the drei’kai wrestling and fighting. The dozen purple-carapaced creatures rolled and jumped and pounced on one another, all hissing clicking. It was all a game for them, but he knew that if he gave the order, or if they came under attack, those playful games would end. They would tear their enemies apart without a second’s hesitation.
He went into the bay, and the play ceased. All of them raised their heads, antennae waggling crazily in all directions. Simultaneously, all twelve bolted from their positions and raced over on their eight-legged loping gait to their sire. All of them were purring and buzzing, bumping and pushing each other to get close to him.
Verrikoth chittered with parental amusement and
reached out his hands. He was sure to touch each of them on their necks or the backs of their thoraxes, eliciting more purrs.
“Yess, yess, it iz good to ssee you all,” he told them, once he gave the last drone a reassuring pat. So different from their ysh’kai kin, or the virile males or even the Xai’ryn. These zheen are almost like feral animals compared to all the others. “Don’t worry; we will eat in a little while. I’ll come back and we will all feasst together.” There was a chorus of excited hissing at this, and he joined in with them. “Go, go play,” he told them. Without hesitation, all twelve bounded away, and the games began again.
He watched hem fondly for a few minutes, fighting frown a slight stab of envy at the simplicity of their worldview. They played, fought, ate and waited for orders. No politics or logistics, no worrying about looming shadows, only the here and now. One last look and he turned and departed.
((--[][]--))
“The eggz all ssettled?” Verrikoth asked as he approached the Xai’ryn in her compartments a few minutes later.
The Xai’ryn straightened a bit and then hissed at him, clicking furiously. Looking past her large form, Verrikoth could see rows of eggs, each ovoid about half a meter in length and slightly less in circumference. All of the precious eggs were coated with a thick, slimy ichor, secreted by the Xai’ryn to both help keep the eggs warm and moist, but also to speed the development of the little ones within.
“Of course they are,” she snapped, finally managing to get her temper (and the swearing) under control. She let out a long, stuttering buzz. “It took so very much out of me this time.” She glanced back at the eggs, all fifty-three of them.
Not knowing how to respond, he simply said, “You did well.”
She glared at him but did not reply. Her skin and carapace had a rosy tint, but it wasn’t from arousal or excitement, it showed her utter exhaustion.
“You sshould resst, Xai’ryn,” he told her. “We have thirteen dayz in hyperspace before we arrive in Trullium. Once there you can go down to the planet. You would be more comfortable.”
She clicked her mandibles twice. “Trying to abandon me on some desolate world?”
He wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. In her rather weakened and vulnerable state, perhaps she wasn’t sure. “Hardly desssolate,” he scoffed. “Trullium iz the capital world for my realm. Heavily populated, heavy industry, and they were working on the orbital real estate when I left to fight the Republic two yearz ago.” He paused. “And it iz quite beautiful in itss way.”
She let out a short buzz. “Don’t tell me you are about to start reciting poetry.”
“Of course not,” he replied. “I am a warrior, not a bard. I work for a living.”
She sighed. “You certainly travel enough. It would be good to get out of this metal box. The virtual displays help me forget I’m in here sometimes, but it has been years since I’ve breathed real air. That lab had nothing but the recycled stuff.”
Verrikoth nodded. “I know how you feel. I’ve only made sshort vizzitss planetside, but they have been refresshing. You will feel better. And, if you are agreeable, we can talk to the sscienfitic community on Trullium. We can ssee if there iz anything that can be done for ssome of the more extreme ‘enhancementss’ thoze humanz did to you.”
She watched him for a long moment, trying to determine if he was jesting, being deliberately cruel, or if he was genuine in his offer. Eventually, she must have decided to believe him because her antennae drooped. “You understand how humiliating this is… for me?”
He nodded. “I do. Ssay the word and I will never ssay another word about it.” His whole tone of voice, body language, everything was rigid. He wanted her to see that he was completely serious about this.
“I…” She stopped, at a loss for words. “I will consider this. I will decide when we get to Trullium. But do not hound me about it.”
He raised his hands, as if in surrender. “Of coursse not. I will not bring it up again.” He stretched his hands out to the sides. “Oh, I’ve been away from home for too long. It will be good to ssee things there, and to ssee how my Regent haz been running thingz in my absence.”
She perked up a bit. “Regent?”
He nodded, his antennae swirling. “Duchess Karyna Krystellian, part of the planetary nobility. Sshe forged a partnersship with me quite a few decadez ago when I ssolved a particularly thorny problem for her.”
“And that problem being?”
“Her elder ssibling was Duchess. I eliminated her and placed the sscepter of nobility in Karyna’s hand. She waz mosst grateful, grateful enough to rule in my absence, and to be the vassal I wanted.”
“She is aware that she is the junior partner?”
Verrikoth sighed, crossing his arms over his thorax. “I’ve only had to remind her once that sshe was the lesser one in our partnership. I perssonally eliminated her ssecond daughter when sshe attempted to ousst me from power twelve yearz ago. I promissed her that I would do the ssame to her, her eldesst, and her three younger cubz if she did not bow to me.” He chittered this time. “I have had no further problemz from her.”
The Xai’ryn laughed herself. “If she truly understands and believes that promise then she is a smart female. Not a zheen, I take it?”
“No, a zheen female would have forced me to kill her,” Verrikoth replied. “Sshe iz a Sseverite.”
She paused for a moment, then nodded. “You are correct. And I very much am interested in meeting this… Duchess.”
“I look forward to that meeting.”
Chapter 15
Jensen Tyler took a sip of coffee from a cup that had long gone cold. The trip to Trullium had gone relatively smoothly, no serious problems aboard Nemesis, but things were changing with the crew, and they were changes he was not sure he was comfortable with. The new crew from Caridosia was integrating well with Nemesis’s original crew, with only the occasional “attitude adjustment” that Tyler wasn’t supposed to know about. He wasn’t thrilled by that sort of belowdecks discipline, and he and the Chief had spoken at length about it, and the Chief clearly understood such things had better not be happening very often and without cause. This was a warship, not an underground dive bar.
It wasn’t a problem, per se, but the true issue was the zheen. They were everywhere. In every corridor of this ship, there were lithe and deadly warrior drones loping along, getting in the way, hissing and clicking at each other. The rest of the crew were afraid of these things and rightly so. They listened to no orders, but those of the Warlord or their broodmother and they seemed to think that anyone else was either a potential meal or a potential target. There was nothing anyone could do about them.
In addition, in nearly every compartment there were the spidery worker drones, working on consoles and or engineering components, thankfully under the watchful eyes of Chief Kujes and his engineers. And to top it all off, there was another, larger, brood of warriors and workers maturing in the broodmother’s berthing compartments. In a few more weeks, there would be fifty more of the things running wild all over his ship.
About the only good thing that could be said was that in only a few more days, the bulk of them, including the Xai’ryn, would be down on the surface of Trullium, living it up in the lap of luxury, making trouble for someone else.
He sighed. Food stores were getting low again. The zheen and especially all the babies just ate so much; they would have to lay in every extra provisions if they were to remain on board. He made a note to himself to put in an extra supply before getting underway again, in addition to their normal replenishment. They would probably spend a month here, let the Warlord get things settled and reestablish his ties, then they’d be off again.
The two ships in this task force came into sensor range of the planet Trullium. As Nemesis ran her extensive scanners over all the orbital real estate there, Tyler had to admit he was impressed with what he could see here.
He’d been off in Hecate getting the light cruiser Ganges up
and running when the Republic corvette Fury had arrived here in Trullium for a chat. In the ensuing fight, Fury was destroyed, but not before trashing several of the Warlord’s armed freighters and defensive satellites. Trullium was no major shipyard, but it did sport a maintenance and repair facility in orbit. Thankfully, Fury never got anywhere near that small facility, but it was really only big enough to refuel large ships and service anything corvette-sized or smaller. Still, the capital system of Lord Verrikoth’s realm needed some sort of space facility, and eventually, it would be expanded, though as far as Tyler was aware, there were no plans in the works for that. Of course, they had been away for almost two years; anything could have happened here in that time.
His comm panel beeped, and he pressed the control. “Yes?”
“Commander, we have two ships coming this way, they’re on an intercept,” Helk stated.
Tyler sighed, gulped down the rest of the coffee and stood. He adjusted his uniform jacket. “What ships?”
“Two frigate-sized ships, bearing the markings of the Warlord. But I’ve never seen these ships before.”
“Understood. Go to Condition Two; I’ll be up in a minute.” He cut the connection. Always something. Actually, if those are new defense ships, then this could only be to the good. Wonder where those ships came from?
“We are receiving hails from one of the frigates,” Killix reported a few moments later when Tyler stepped onto the bridge.
“Let’s hear it,” Tyler ordered and slipped into his command seat. A voice came over the speakers.
“This is Trullium Defense Frigate Moruchai to unknown vessels. You will identify and state your business here, or you will be fired upon.”
Tyler pressed a control. “This is Commander Jensen Tyler of the warship Nemesis to Trullium vessels. We are carrying the Warlord Verrikoth and his retinue back from Tyseus with news of victory over several pirate gangs that have been plaguing the Cluster.”
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