"Starfire?" She raised her wrist to answer him through the comlink on her wrist.
"Raan, how is she?"
"She's lost a lot of blood, but she's going to be okay. Del's pumping a substitute in her and he's cleaned her up. The beam didn't pass through anything vital. I figure she must have been diving to the floor as she was hit and that's what saved her." Three glasses raised and clinked together in celebration and Raan's voice could be heard through Starfire's link. "Pour one for me, I'll be right there!" He returned within minutes, took his drink and sat down by Starfire with a grateful sigh.
"She's sleeping now," he said. "Del's given her something to knock her out for a bit."
"Get him down here, then," said Tranter. "I want to try and decode these messages."
"There's something else I want him to do as well," began Hal. "The General left a message for Erion. Apparently Delta Ten has data about the new Federation.
"Let's get these messages decoded first." Tranter waved an impatient hand across a crystal display built into his seat. "I want to know if we've been compromised here." A stream of symbols flashed across the screen, accompanied by intermittent bleeps.
"We'll never decipher that," stated Starfire, the sudden computer expert. "It's well and truly coded."
"I can see that," retorted Tranter. He stopped the recording and tried again slowing the information down. Delta Ten entered the room at this point and stood in front of the screen, digesting the information.
"Sir," he began at length, "I believe I might be able to help if I can communicate directly with your computers."
"Can you do that?" asked Tranter.
"Of course he can," put in Starfire, who didn't have a clue whether he could or not. "Let him get on with it." The android twisted one of his finger tips and it hinged downward. A small rod slid forward and he inserted this into the terminal direct input port. A few seconds later he broke the link and turned to face them.
"It appears that the sender has been working undercover for three months, supplying information gleaned from you, Mr Tranter. Origin co-ordinates of the so called 'Cantina' was the prime objective and the last message promises a speedy conclusion to that end."
"Jemmi and me; we've been friends for years," mused Tranter. He snapped his fingers. "Hey though, she did go on vacation to Auria a few months back. You know, see her family, do shopping and shit. That's when she bought me the Robo Butler. I didn't think anything of it at the time but she could have met someone, been hired."
"Or blackmailed maybe," put in Starfire.
"Hell whatever," began Raan. "She didn't get that information from her ship so your secret's safe."
"Thank the stars I never took her to the Cantina. The Feds would have just loved to find out it was in an asteroid field."
"Asteroid field?" said Starfire and Raan together.
"Long story," began Tranter, "and that's only the half of it." He suddenly turned to Hal, "What did you do with the transmitter. It's not still on the Hopper is it?"
"We disabled it but it was still attached to the navigation equipment. I wanted to get straight back here so I just kind of yanked it off. Figured you could put the wiring straight later. It should still be in my pack." Tranter gave a sigh of relief.
"At least that fraggin' trolley didn't get it then. After dinner, we'll go take a look at it," said Tranter. "See if we can work out where it came from."
"Sir, if I am no longer needed, I would like to look in on Major Erion." said Delta Ten.
"Tell you what," answered Tranter, "we'll all look in on Erion." She was pale, but smiling, sitting propped up on the medicouch and still attached by wires and tubes to the computer.
"How do you feel?" asked Starfire.
"Better now these things are out of the way," she answered, lifting her arm so that Delta Ten could remove a tube from her wrist. "This plastiskin is great stuff but ooohh it itches."
"Don't scratch!" snapped Raan, batting her hand away.
"Can I get up?" asked Erion, turning large pleading eyes towards the unaffected Delta Ten.
"Only if you rest quietly," he answered. "The wound was deep but the plastiskin has taken well and I don't want it to work loose and become infected."
"I'll be careful." Del pulled back the sheets and she slid her legs over the side of the bunk and stood up carefully. She gazed around at the concerned faces and grinned, "I think I'll be able to manage to dress myself." The hint taken, they waited outside for her to appear, immaculate in a silk trouser suit that drew admiring glances.
"Where did you get that?" asked Starfire. "It looks like pure Valasian silk."
"From a Valasian Princess called Elkrist," answered Erion. "And don't worry, I have one for you too." She smiled wickedly, "a size bigger of course." Starfire ignored the jibe.
"What Princess? Who's Elkrist?"
"I'll tell you all about it over dinner," said Erion. "I have a proposition to put to you all."
"And we have one to put to you," answered Starfire, thinking about the ship. They took meals from the food dispenser and arranged themselves around the central table. The atmosphere was subdued and the cheerful banter that usually abounded during mealtimes was absent. Erion began by describing the people she had met, starting with Thirty Seven and ending with Gant.
"Since the Coup, this whole system is in chaos," began Starfire. "I've been trying to find out what's going on but the Police have taken over the Galaxy News Network. According to them, General Dubois and Commander Nooran were behind a plot to take over the Federation. This guy Roland is being hailed as the saviour of the Galaxy. There have been changes at the top of the tree in the Police and the Marines and a lot of officers have been arrested. It doesn't look good for anyone loyal to your father, Erion.
"Gant has a lot of information," began Tranter, "but I doubt he'll share it unless you join the Alliance."
"We have to do something," said Starfire. "We can't stay here forever."
"What about if we all go over to this Cantina and talk this all out?" suggested Raan. "We need to know what's going on out there before we make any sort of decision."
"Will you take us to the Cantina again tomorrow Hal?" asked Erion.
"Sure," he answered. "I gotta go there myself anyway."
Chapter 16
For the second time in less than two days a party from Tranter's base set off for the Cantina. After a long debate, on their immediate future, they had discounted Raan's suggestion of robbing all the Federation banks, despite a spirited but flawed proposal. In the relative calm after their recent adventures, it was beginning to dawn on them that they had no other options and Erion, Raan and Starfire had decided to join forces and buy the new ship. Hal flatly refused to be drawn into the discussion, Raan saw it as a great new adventure, Erion decided it was necessary but Starfire was daunted by the prospect.
While she was supremely confident of her piloting capabilities, this venture seemed like a huge leap into the unknown. The Academy had been a testing ground for her and she had risen above the racial taunts of the other students and inherent prejudices of the instructors to become one of their highest rated pilots. If anything, it made her even more determined to succeed and she excelled in close quarter combat fighting purely so she could hand out a bit of payback. Her one-time instructor, Commander Nikal had seen something in her and taken her on as his pilot when she graduated and he was called back into active duty. It hadn't gone down at all well with anyone else, but Nik insisted and always said he'd never regretted his decision. He treated her with kindness and respect and she had come to rely on his judgement and guidance more than she liked to admit. She wished he was here to ask what she should do and decided to rely on her instincts.
Although Captain Raan played the fool most of the time and came over as superficial and immature, Starfire could see flashes of Nik in him. Somehow, she knew he was trustworthy and honourable and decided to go along with the plan. So the ship was theirs.
They gathered
by a small port to look at it where it was berthed on the end of a gantry. It was attached to the pilot section aircar access, just behind the cockpit and appeared to be an outdated class five corvette. It was large, sleek, and as it could also fly in atmosphere and under water, it was aerodynamically shaped and tapered sharply towards the nose. The raised crew section was placed roughly one third along the superstructure of the corvette and had slanting, direct viewing windows that looked out over the front missile bay. According to Tranter, the front bay had been stripped of most of the missile launchers to make a medium sized cargo hold. Two forward facing missile launchers and a fair few missiles remained on loadable sledges to ensure their protection if needed. Living quarters and the medicentre were housed under the pilot section and a large cargo hold was at the rear.
Two massive fusion thrusters were set high up at the stern and were housed under an aileron with a slanting, pointed tail-fin. It rose up from the midway point and had a jointed movable section, to aid in atmospheric flight. Metal wings curved gracefully backwards and carried vectored thrust motors for vertical take off and landing. Painted in a dark grey that was almost black, it was covered in lines of shiny, brass rivets, which was the fashion in ship design a hundred years ago. Rivets had long since been replaced by laser welded seams, but the false rivets had been added to enhance the dated look, which was currently in vogue and suited the dart shaped vessel. Gun ports, aerial dishes and spiky assortments jutted out from various positions around the hull and contrived to enhance the vintage appearance. It was a pretty ship, graceful and elegant, but very old and out of date.
"Looks like a good, solid ship," said Raan, trying hard, but not quite succeeding, to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
"Don't be fooled by its looks," Tranter put in before Starfire could speak. "It might look like a 'five' on the outside, but she's a 'six' where it counts. He assured them that as well as being fast and manoeuvrable at sub light, it was extremely well armed on all quarters and could go to light one point six. They were impressed. "Upgraded engines," he explained, "and I took out most of the heavy Marine hardware. The cannons and missile launchers are new and lightweight and it's stripped down for a crew of six instead of twenty. Believe me," he pushed Starfire towards the aircar door, "she'll take you by surprise. Let's go take a look at her."
The aircar deposited them in a hexagonal hall. Three aircar doors and three internal hatches were placed alternately around the six walls and the centre was taken up with a circular hand rail where a spiral staircase dropped from a circular hole in the ceiling and disappeared downward. They all peered up it and down it but could see nothing but grey, round metal walls with bulkhead lights and red plastiform steps that disappeared into the gloom. The oval hatches and aircar doors were made from reinforced steel and surrounded by more false rivets. The steel checker-plate floor gave way to metal walls, which were painted in light grey. Each hatch carried a painted yellow rectangular number from one through six. They had entered at aircar door two and Tranter turned to hatch three, on its left.
It opened silently and Tranter led the way into the modified crew compartment. It too was shaped like a hexagon, with a large, sloping plasti-glass section in front of the pilot and co pilot station. Two narrower plasti-glass panels were in front of the navigation and science stations, placed on either side. They could see out over the front cargo hold, which sloped away in front of them and gave the pilot section a good, direct front and side view. The pilot and co pilot sat in front of the centre glass panel and there was a station at each side, in front of the side windows. One was for the science officer, whose job it was to monitor the ship and channel outputs from the engines to relevant services, such as life support, shields and speed.
The other section was for navigation and also doubled as a secondary pilot station if the need arose. On either side of the entrance hatch were the two gunnery sections. Originally intended for two operatives on each side, Tranter had modified them to take one operator each but he had included much more in the way of screens and computer input. A console ran around the room and displayed an array of screens, crystals, knobs and levers that would have baffled the uninitiated. Apart from the windows, which slanted from just above the crew and finished on the other side of the consoles, the walls and bulkheads were also covered with screens, levers, grilles and indicator lights. As if that wasn't enough, there was also a complicated set of levers and crystals above the heads of the pilot and co-pilot.
The floor was made of gleaming, non slip, chequered steel, and the edges of the console desk, the hatch and its surround were also steel, but satin finish. All the chairs sat on rails that glided under the consoles, or back to the centre of the six sided room. The gunnery consoles, situated on either side of the entrance hatch, had a large computer screen in front of the gunner with re-positional screens on either side, like a dressing table mirror. The three screens provided a three dimensional holographic display, beamed from the cameras of any of the chosen canons situated around the Grennig. The gunner could choose from a variety of shooting platforms, such as joy stick, bar or even a flat crystal keyboard. There was also a headset, which linked to the screens and aimed wherever the wearer was looking.
"Fraggin' Hell!" exclaimed Starfire. "This is impressive! You could have had us in mind when you built her Tran; she's just what we need." She glared suspiciously at him. "What happened to the original owners?"
"I don't know, probably dead," Tranter shrugged. "Some guy turned up with it and told me he wanted an upgrade like the Rising Star. He didn't have no money so I bought the ship off him and had it transferred to me before I touched a rivet. He said he'd come back with the full amount and I said I'd hold it in reserve for a year. He never came back."
Starfire nodded and said, "Oh….. What's the Rising Star?"
"You'll find out soon enough, honey. Now, let's see how she handles eh?" He picked at some imaginary fluff on his flight suit and Starfire said,
"You haven't tested it in flight have you?"
"Trust me Star," he shoved her towards the pilot seat, "she flies like new."
"That's what I'm afraid of," muttered Starfire under her breath. She had seen a few maiden flights end in disaster when she was in her last year of pilot training. The engineers and design students were tasked with building and flying their own remote craft and some found out the hard way that what looked good on a computer did not necessarily fly well in space. She slid into the pilot seat with Raan at her left and they both studied their controls. Space ships, thought Starfire, were like washing machines. All a little bit different, but all basically the same. If you were a practised operator of either, you didn't really need the manual.
Erion sat at the navigation console, to the left of Raan, Tranter positioned himself to Starfire's right at the science station and Hal sat to his right at the gunnery section.
"This is where you would normally sit, Android," began Tranter, "but I want to be on hand for Lieutenant Starfire, just this once." Delta Ten bowed and seated himself on the other side of the entrance hatch at the empty gunnery post to Erion's left. They all studied the controls in front of them for a moment and Tranter pointed to an array of beautifully coloured crystals on the console in front of Starfire, "Okay, Lieutenant, take her out." Starfire waved her hand across a bright green crystal and there was a very slight tremor as the manoeuvring thrusters started up. Tranter pointed to a small crystal and Starfire touched it, briefly. There was a slight jolt and the ship broke free from the gantry and started to drift away from the station.
"Initiate main engine start up, Captain," Starfire placed bother her hands, palm downward over the crystals and moved them gently together. The big ship mimicked her movements and slowly weaved its way through the wrecks.
"Start up initiated, aye," answered Raan. As soon as they were in clear space, Raan looked towards his holographic display and nodded in satisfaction.
"Main engine start, please, Captain." Starfire had a s
et of identical dials that floated above her in a holographic display, and her gaze flicked from them to the set of glass crystals that rose out of the console in front of her.
"Aye, Lieutenant, main engine start in five… four… three..." Raan counted down to zero and Starfire flicked a casual finger over a tall, pale green crystal. The big ship shot forward and in less than ten seconds, Tranter's base was a tiny dot, shrinking to nothing in the distance.
"Speed point five, please Captain."
"Point five, aye," said Raan.
"Speed point five zero one confirmed," stated Delta Ten calmly.
"Point five zero one?" asked Tranter, leaning right over to study the controls in front of Starfire. It showed the speed as point five. "You sure?"
"Yes, Con Tranter."
"Huh, you're just a machine!" he muttered, "how do I know you ain't got it wrong?" Erion spun around in her seat and he caught her accusing eye. He raised his hands in mock surrender. "Needs a bit of tweaking, nothing more." He leaned towards her. "Oh, and while we're at it, disengage the navicom." Raan and Starfire looked at each other in bafflement, but Erion knew what was coming. She followed the order and smiled.
"Navigation computers disengaged, aye." Tranter smiled to himself as he listened to the crew use standard Marine responses. They seemed to feel more comfortable using their rank titles in the pilot section and he guessed it was years of training and habit. He didn't think they even knew they were doing it. Starfire's fingers danced over the multi coloured glass crystals on her console and she started to relax as she realised that the ship wasn't going to explode with them in it. She felt confident enough to wave her left hand over a crystal that seemed to look just like the others and a three dimensional deck plan appeared on the screen in front of her.
"There's enough room in the hold to carry some pretty extensive freight. Six good sized berths and a great crew lounge, gym and a separate diner. She flies well too; light and responsive. You built a good ship, Tranter."
Starfire at Traitors Gate Page 18
