Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11

by Randolph Lalonde

  New Trouble

  * * *

  “So, we got out of there relatively unscathed,” Finn said as he stood over the small compartment that held their wormhole generator system. “No damage to our forward projection system, and we’ve got shields, most of our weapon systems, most of the damage to our armour is easy to patch.”

  Jake, Minh-Chu and Remmy filled the small section of the device bay. “All good news,” Jake said. “So, what brings us to the business end of the ship?”

  “It’s the repairs to the wormhole generator,” Finn said, gesturing to a set of cables running into the ceiling connecting the wormhole generator to the main power systems. They were covered in extra tubing Jake was having difficulty placing, but it wasn’t the kind of thing he saw used for high powered systems. “One of those hits on the aft section slagged the power cables made for this kind of power feed, and the ones I had to replace them don’t have the tolerance they need. They’re all right for now, while the power is flowing nice and steady to the matrix so we’ll stay in the wormhole as long as we have power. I used cooling tubes from the food storage system, so we don’t have refrigeration anymore, but I maxed them out to cool the lines feeding power to the wormhole matrix.”

  “So that’s what those are,” Jake said. “I couldn’t place them. What happens when we have to open of adjust the trajectory or a wormhole?”

  “These lines will be past tolerance,” Finn explained, pointing to the cables connecting their wormhole generator to the power. “Even if we expose them to hard vacuum, they will probably melt. If not the next time, the time after that.”

  “Are they actually reliable now?” Minh-Chu asked. “While we’re in wormhole transit?”

  “They shouldn’t melt, but these cables weren’t made for this, they’re great for getting power to secondary systems. Shouldn’t doesn’t mean couldn’t though,” Finn explained.

  “What about pulling cable from one of the turrets?” Jake asked.

  “Same cables,” Finn said. “So, yeah, if we melt these down, we have a few more chances, but will it get us home? I think I got lucky with these, they’re holding up during transit.”

  “How bad is the power spike when we open a new wormhole?” Minh-Chu said.

  “About a factor of nine,” Jake replied. “Power draw goes up nine times what they’re pulling now.”

  “More like ten point eight, but at that level, there’s not much of a difference,” Finn replied. “It’s a good system, but it’s made to run with these amazing, rare components that the Solar Forge can print all day long. The problem is, the rest of the galaxy hasn’t caught up. The cables we need exist near the power cores of big starships, or planetary defence arrays.”

  Jake thought about the cable running to the turrets and other lines that were the same grade aboard. They’re be pulling their own teeth to get home. The lines running to one turret might be able to provide enough material for two jumps if they melted them each time. “What are the chances that these cables melt, we replace them with new ones, and those ones melt down before we can form another wormhole.”

  “I was going to bring that up last,” Finn said.

  “So, another jump might not even work?” Remmy asked. “Dark, man.”

  “There’s a ten percent chance if we’re taking a short jump, give or take,” Finn said.

  “I’m going to talk to my co-pilot,” Minh-Chu said. He stepped outside, his expression stormy.

  Jake knew they were still far from home. The math in his head didn’t add up. If they burned cables out every second small jump, they would run out about seven tenths of the way there. “What about sending a distress signal through a pinhole; high compression but very narrow,” he already knew the answer by the time he finished asking the question.

  “It would definitely cost us one of our jumps if it worked,” Finn said.

  “They’re looking for us now,” Remmy said. “We can’t sit still and realistically expect for one of our own ships to get to us in time, can we? Even with dimension drive tech?”

  “It would take a couple days to get here,” Jake said. “We could find somewhere to power down and wait, like an asteroid field, maybe land, or hide in a junk drift.” The idea didn’t seem right to Jake.

  The hatch opened and Noah Lucas stepped inside. “Hey, Captain, Chief, Remmy,” he said. “There’s a system I know well, we could probably make it there in a few jumps the same size we just made. The math says we’d be there in a couple days. There’s an Order presence, for sure. I was pretty sure they were setting up a brood world on Iora. There are a lot of stations in that system though, most of them corrupted by the Holocaust Virus, but you guys have some kind of cure. There’s a shipyard there too, so, yeah, there could be some Order around, but there’s a lot of junk drifting around, a bunch of stations that they didn’t bother taking according to what Liara was able to bring up. They leave the infected ships alone because they give them extra defence.”

  “Let’s take a look,” Jake said. “Thank you, Finn, great work down here,” he said over his shoulder as he left.

  “Thank you, Captain. Why’d he call us by rank and you by your name?” Finn asked Remmy as the other two left.

  “We hit it off over my database of ancient Earth anime,” Remmy said. The compartment door closed and Jake didn’t catch the rest of the conversation.

  “Like I said, I know Iora,” Carnie explained as he led the way to the small bridge. “I spent a long time stuck there. I heard a lot about the stations hanging in space between the worlds in that system from the guys in the circus troop, but I haven’t visited any of them. Liara probably already knows more.”

  “I’m still decrypting some of it,” she said as they arrived in the tiny bridge. Everyone took their seats - Noah beside Minh-Chu in the co-pilot’s seat, Jake at the technical operations and tactical station, and Liara spoke from the communications station - she went on, bringing up a hologram of Iora, a blue and green planet. “We have the key for what we downloaded, and we have the data from the raid, it’s just taking a while because there’s a lot of it. The point is that our information is fresh, only a few hours old in some cases, but no older than two days at the most. Iora is off limits,” she said, pointing at an older base ship that looked like a thick rectangle with a groove up the middle. “These carriers are mobile ship yards, they can repair two destroyers at a time. The fleet that accompanies them are about fifty ships deep not including smaller classes.”

  “So, no going near that,” Minh-Chu said. “Unless we want to surrender.”

  “What Noah mentioned about the stations and Kinaine Shipyards is dead-on though. They’re not monitored. The Order has made sure that everything there is infected by the Holocaust Virus, which we can cure in less than a minute by broadcasting the antivirus. If we need another ship, I bet that’s where I’d find it, but you’d be the expert, Captain.”

  Jake looked at the recent scans. There were a few foreign destroyers, frigates and many long range scout craft orbiting the shipyards and the stations. If they didn’t have the key to defeating the Holocaust Virus, then they would have no chance. They did, and that made everything easier, but not risk-free. “That one, on the edge of the solar system,” Jake pointed. “We have current data on it?”

  “We do,” Liara said, focusing in on it and putting it on everyone’s holographic display. “Five ships patrolling around the station close by, two destroyers further out.”

  “Two of those Aucharian corvettes are the perfect size for our crew, and it should be manageable to take them,” Jake said. “They’re in good condition, too.”

  “Sounds like we have a plan to put together,” Minh-Chu said.

  “Start plotting short jumps,” Jake said. “Looks like we’ll be ship-jacking.”

  Thirty-Four

  Two Days In Peace

  * * *

  Ayan practically glowed when she was with baby Laura. Alice visited the nursery whenever she could, which was often
during her two days off. Laura spent much of her waking time in Ayan’s arms, and they were bonding quickly.

  The sight of Ayan holding the newborn when she appeared as a hologram in design, logistics, strategic and other meetings was greeted with a lot of ooh’s, aah’s and coos at first, but it became a fairly common thing before long. Oz cracked Alice’s favourite joke on the matter, asking; “Has someone made sure Laura’s taken the secrecy oath?”

  When Alice was visiting the nursery and she didn’t have to help Ayan the nurses would put another orphan in Alice’s arms. To her relief, Theodore was her constant companion, and the nurses used him whenever they could too, since he had high level child care programming. He always seemed happy to help.

  Alice spent the rest of her time during her days off interviewing new people for the squad. Between her and Yawen, they managed to interview thirty people. Theodore took care of most of her needs so she could fill those in-between moments with the examination of the new Clever Dream so she’d know every detail of the ship. Knowing the technology was one thing, but every ship came with its own quirks and details right off the line.

  Those days off were a storm of activity for Alice that slowed down every time she visited the nursery, something she looked forward to. It was in one of the empty, private visiting rooms where Alice finished conducting an interview with Private Gerald Disher. He was one of the few medical technicians that was near the end of his training. He didn’t seem to be taking it very seriously. “You’d be the lead medical technician on a small but important ship,” Alice said.

  “Yeah, the Clever Dream, everyone’s heard about it. Biggest open secret in the fleet,” he replied, not looking at the holo-recorder, but at something or someone passing by. He was resting on the beach after finishing his second Surgical Tools Qualifier. He didn’t score as high as Alice would have liked, but he passed, showing a good understanding of the technical details. “You know, I’ve got three Captains talking to me today. I should have another call soon.”

  “I know. If you join my staff, you’ll see things that you wouldn’t anywhere else,” she said.

  “Like going on missions? I’d see action?” he asked.

  “Definitely. I’m not just looking for a ship doc, I’m looking for a squad member. You’d be part of a tight team.”

  “I don’t have any combat qualifications past my sidearm and basic strategy. I just took the required ones, you know. Didn’t think I’d see much action outside of the medbay.” He thought for a moment. “Real missions off ship, huh?”

  “Exactly. Special Operations teams like mine are going out there to make real change.”

  “Like? What have you done so far?” he asked.

  Alice hated that Disher had already turned the interview around so she felt like she was under the microscope. “I can’t talk about the particulars because you don’t have clearance yet.”

  “I’ve got another call,” he said. “See ya if you beat the other Captains out.” He cut the transmission.

  “I don’t think I’ll be recruiting you, Disher,” she muttered as she lowered her face into her hands.

  “Trouble?” Theodore asked as he entered the room.

  “Just interviewed the last available medical technician in the recruiting pool. I’m pretty sure he was sitting on a beach somewhere watching bikinis go by. It didn’t go well.”

  “I’m sorry,” Theo said. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask but I wanted to choose my moment carefully.”

  “Ask me anything,” Alice said.

  “All right. I’ve heard a rumour that you were the one who saved little Laura. That’s why your mother wanted to get you and your squad clear to visit early. Is it true?”

  “You’re not clear to know, but it may be true,” Alice replied. “It might not be.”

  “Admission and denial,” Theodore said. “If it were true, is that what Special Operations does?”

  “I can tell you that we are some of the most adaptable soldiers in the fleet. We go where they send us to perform tasks that require a high level of improvisation and quick decision making. We are qualified to save civilians, to destroy an Order installation and pretty much everything in between. If we’re not qualified to do something, then we’re expected to learn what we have to and make the attempt.”

  “That is extremely broad,” Theodore said. “You could have said; ‘we do everything,’ and it would have been the same response, essentially.”

  “So far, we don’t do windows,” she replied.

  Theodore laughed more than Alice expected. She had no idea where the reference came from, but he seemed to have a much deeper understanding, or he was overdoing the laughter. “I ask because I’ve seen what the Order does. I’ve seen what your unit can do to help people, I think, and I may have found a way to fit in. I spoke to a Fleet recruiter last night while you were sleeping, and I think I want to follow in Noah’s footsteps and join. I asked him if I could be eligible to join your team in a certain capacity and - after consulting a colleague - he returned and said it would be possible. I have an advantage, too.” He held up a high density data chip. The thin housing was only as long as the tip of a finger. “I could install this and become a fully qualified medical technician who knows everything about the physiology of nine races. I could only reliably treat five, but medicine is changing and advancing all the time.”

  “You would have to carry a suppression weapon. I know you can’t use lethal power,” Alice replied, immediately excited. She was off the sofa and on her feet in front of him in a second.

  “I’ve done that before. Be aware; I would have to take over twenty qualifiers and exams before I am the equivalent of a doctor, but I’m sure I’d pass. I can take them during downtime on the Clever Dream. I could also perform combat support duties on missions. Anything that doesn’t involve me pulling the trigger on a lethal weapon, I can do. I only have to join the Fleet, and then you can…”

  “No, doing it that way would put you in the recruiting pool, and that’s too much of a gamble. I can recruit you into my squad directly.”

  “You can do that?” he asked.

  “Yes, it’s a Special Operations perk. Normally I’d have to be a Commander to do it, but Special Operations can recruit the people they need with their consent.”

  “I give it, I give you my consent!” Theo said. “Oh, this is exciting.”

  “Welcome to my team,” Alice said as she brought up the right forms on her command and control unit. “You are our new medical technician.”

  Theodore opened the collar of his vacsuit and slipped the chip into an invisible break in his skin. “Modern medicine is fascinating,” he said a moment later. “I have all the knowledge of several experienced doctors and all the findings of the Core World Medical Association. Earth and Lorander medical technologies are loading now along with every preventative and curative practice known to them. I wonder if this is what having a large meal feels like?”

  The implications of having Theodore on her team as a medical technician and more were rolling through her mind. He would have a perfect memory, was built to emulate a human so he could use any of their equipment and protect himself the same way, and there were so many other good things to consider. The only negative was his inability to directly kill a sentient being, but she would find a way to work around it. “How much of your internal memory is that going to take?” Alice asked.

  “When I’ve downloaded the scientific studies I have on this chip. There’s another chip with the rest, so I’ll have a broad spectrum of knowledge to draw from - the last thing I’ll have to take on - I will have used one point eight percent of my internal memory. That’s quite a bit, really.”

  “You know everyone you met the other day at my place will find out you’re an android,” Alice said as she realized it.

  “I have no problem with that. It’s the Haven Government that decided that most mechanical citizens should have their true nature hidden. I don’t actually care, especia
lly since there isn’t much that can harm my core memory. Do you think they’ll care?”

  “Well, they’ll care, sure, but the squad will see it as a positive. They’ll like you even more because of it. I think most of them are pretty open minded.”

  “Then I can’t wait for them to know,” Theodore said.

  Thirty-Five

  Old Friends

  * * *

  Jumps that should have taken one day, took two. They were down to two turrets thanks to the need to use power cabling to replace what they melted down in attempts to open wormholes that failed. For their usual duties, the cables were more than enough, but under the higher requirements of the wormhole generator, any flaw that was insignificant before could lead to disaster. Running power in parallel was the only answer after a while, but some lines still burned out, and it cost them time to set up and resources.

  More than half of the Pursuers offensive systems were powered down. Jake was happy about one thing, however: they still had their shields and while they weren’t running the wormhole drive, they would have more power in reserve for them than before.

  Minh-Chu had been watching his old friend during their touch-and-go journey through wormholes. They only came up within scanning range of Order of Eden ships one more time, near the middle of their journey, and everyone feared that their trip was about to take a turn for the worst. Everyone except for Jacob Valent.

  Captain Valent, who wasn’t technically captain of the Pursuer at all, gathered information, consulted everyone he needed for options and opinions then created a plan that the crew followed. Minh-Chu realized that there was something to learn from him again in terms of pure command skill. He wasn’t perfect, but he made corrections quickly and shared his thinking with people when he had time.

  There was something else, something Minh-Chu saw when Jake wasn’t under pressure. Something of his old friend, Jonas, was very present in Jake. Jacob Valent was largely a stoic, and Minh-Chu liked him well enough, but there was a charm and youthfulness surfacing in Jake that even showed itself as sentimentality at times. An hour before they were set to emerge from the last wormhole that would take them to Patrol Station Nine, it was just Minh-Chu and Jake in the small, cockpit like bridge.