by gerald hall
“I figured that is why you had some issues with the authorities in several star systems, Alec. You don’t seem to be the type to simply break the law in order to harm anyone.” Rita pleasantly replied, her avatar smiling and winking.
“It will be even better for us when we are able to set up our own base. Then we will not have to deal with corrupt port quartermasters demanding bribes for access that they are supposed to provide for free any longer.”
“You’re right, Darling. But first, you are going to have to hire some additional personnel, gain access to some battlers and cargo shuttles then finally obtain more supplies. Then we will be prepared to go out into the great black to find a new home that is free of difficult, crooked and generally unreliable bureaucrats.”
“Don’t worry, Rita. I fully intend on doing all of that. Of course, your help will be invaluable in accomplishing all of this.”
“I thought that you would never ask.” Rita’s avatar on the viewscreen broadly smiled before unleashing a hearty laugh.
“But first, we need to see about that cargo that Mister Wisp wants us to take to Tau Ceti.”
“You go ahead and take care of his cargo, Darling. I’ll see about the rest of it.” Alacrity’s AI joyfully replied.
Rita then immediately began searching through the many data networks to find everything that Alec would need. The sophisticated AI would find the most suitable and affordable assets possible far more quickly than any human being could. This search would resume when Alacrity would arrive at Tau Ceti while Alec took care of other matters personally.
Chapter Two:
Tau Ceti Orbital Station.
Tau Ceti Four
September 5, 2320
Alec Martinson briskly walked through the station air lock’s inner door after his jump tender had docked with the station a few minutes earlier. The former naval officer, salvage hunter, merchant and occasional smuggler was now working on beginning a new career. But first, he had to take care of some business here with the local Earth representatives, now that Alec had gotten his latest acquisition flightworthy and the man from Kepler had provided the promised retainer. Alec had found the offered contract to be fair when he reviewed it. So he signed the contract and immediately received payment before leaving Titan Station.
As quickly as he could, Alec moved to the spin-induced gravity sections of the station. That was where all of the habitation modules, business areas and government offices were located. Alec left his ship, the jump tender Alacrity, docked at one of the Zero-G docking ring clusters at the end of the station. A skeleton crew stayed aboard and continued to work on various systems while her captain conducted business in the station. The eight cargo modules that Alacrity had brought with her from Titan Station also provided a healthy addition to Alec’s credit balance as well.
Alacrity started off life as a Terrance-class commercial vessel, shuttling cargo and passengers along the shipping lanes aboard her eight docking collars for nearly eighty years. When the Blue Star Lines retired Alacrity, she was bound for the breaking yards near Alpha Centuri.
That was where Alec Martinson found her and bought Alacrity to give her a new lease on life. He spent every spare credit that he possessed and borrowed even more to refit the old jump tender. Alec scrounged up salvaged components from at least a dozen different orbital breaking yards to put Alacrity back into operation.
But while Alacrity looked essentially the same on the outside with her squat, quasi-dumbbell shape, she was a far different beast on the inside. To start with, her maneuvering drives now had many military components that gave the old jump tender at least a fifty percent greater speed in normal space than before. Most of her vital areas were now protected by salvaged armor panels that had been hidden just inside of her outer skin.
Alacrity was now fairly well armed also due to Alec’s efforts. While her weapons were at least two generations behind what the latest Alliance warships carried, she still had quite a punch for a conventional jump tender. Perhaps more importantly, Alacrity’s weapons were all hidden behind false hull plating or mounted in concealed pop-up turrets. The element of surprise would perhaps be Alacrity’s greatest weapon.
Like her weapons, Alacrity had been retrofitted with a variety of old military sensors that had largely been picked up at the scrapyard. Even so, the newly fitted sensor suite gave the jump tender a greatly enhanced situational awareness of the space around her. Alec had also managed to purchase a handful of state of the art sensor components to give his new command far sharper eyes than even the old military gear would have allowed. Alacrity also used the best commercial AI control system available for civilian use. The price that Alec paid for a genuine Libertad AI were an investment that he felt was well worth every credit. Libertad made the finest AI software in all of human-colonized space. It was also the most difficult to obtain AI software in all of human-colonized space as well. Libertad didn’t allow just anyone to possess their AI software. Alec was only just beginning to understand why that was the case.
But having a jump tender was only part of the equation, because most space combat did not involve the jump tenders, even the purpose-built military designs. The real fighting was left to the craft that the tenders transported on their docking collars. These larger, more specialized combat versions of the shuttles were known as ‘battlers’. The battlers could carry far more weaponry, armor and far more powerful maneuver drives since they did not require the mass of the interstellar jump drive that ships like Alacrity used to travel between the stars.
For this, Alec had to go do some recruiting in addition to talking with an old friend of his from the Earth Fleet. Alec’s friend was not able to directly provide him with any battlers, but he was able to suggest where to look.
After making a few inquiries, and sending out information over the massive space station’s internal data network, Alec had some success. There were several responses to Alec’s advertisement that ranged from being patently inadequate to utterly overpriced.
But a couple of contenders did get a second look, especially after Rita did her own investigation via the data networks. Alec returned to the Zero-G docking modules to find out more about these possibilities. The first candidate walked out of his battered-looking battler, wearing grease-stained coveralls that Alec was all too familiar with. The swarthy looking, heavy-set, bearded man was named Colin Sampson and was perhaps half the age of the vessel that he owned. But it was quickly obvious to Alec that the man knew every part of his vessel intimately.
“Mister Sampson, I’m very pleased to meet you. I’m Alec Martinson, the captain of the jump tender Alacrity. I got your response to my advertisement and wanted to learn more about you and your vessel.”
“Thank you, Sir. I have done a lot of work with the various colonial naval forces over the past couple of decades. Mostly, I was involved in helping them recover damaged ships though occasionally I ended up getting involved in a fight myself. You can be sure that I know how to fix things, fly ships and what the right end of a missile tube is all about.”
“Very good, Mister Sampson. What can you tell me about your ship here?”
“My ship’s named the Orca. That’s her original name too. Some folks think that it is bad luck to rename a ship, you know. She’s a forty-thousand ton Class 6 heavy battler, Narwhal-class. I salvaged her myself a couple of years ago.” Colin proudly answered.
“That’s a pretty old boat, Mister Sampson. Earth stopped building Narwhal’s fifty years ago. Yours looks at least twenty years older than that.”
“I know. But don’t let her scarred hide fool you. The Terrans built them pretty solid back then, Sir. My ship had apparently been taken out with an unlucky shot to her power plant during a fight with the Lu’non along the border. With that gone, the surviving crew had to abandon ship because her life support was failing. I guess that either the crew was lost or no one thought to come back after the fight to pick her back up for repairs.
But I found her wh
ile doing some salvage based on intelligence that I received about that particular battle. I then hired a jump tender to bring her here for me to fix her up.”
“I certainly hope that her luck has improved since her last battle. Alright, so how is your Orca armed now?”
“I am proud to say that she can take on anything short of a capital ship by herself. She’s armed with four capital missile tubes, six charged particle beam projectors, eight point defense Gatling guns and a spinal mount mass driver.
Four of the point defense systems had originally been laser-based weapons, but they all had been pretty badly damaged when I found her. It was a lot easier to replace the lasers with additional Gatling guns so that they could take advantage of the existing fire control software that the other guns used. The point defense cannons are still damned effective at killing missiles as well as hammering the external hull of an enemy ship when you are fighting at close quarters.
My crew and I have upgraded everything else from their original tech. All of Orca’s armor has either been replaced or refurbished too.”
“I’ll have to take a close look at her first before I decide. We will definitely need a heavy hitter where we will be going.” Alec replied with a cautious squint in his eyes.
“No problem, Sir. I know that you will like what you find when you look at my ship.”
“We shall see tomorrow when I come by to look her and your crew over, Mister Sampson.”
The final candidate was a lot younger than Orca’s captain, possibly less than half Colin’s age. The slender young woman with boyish looking, short brown hair was both intense and remarkably nervous when Alec met her at the entrance to the docking collar airlock.
“Hello, Captain Martinson. I’m Tessa Hart. I would like to offer this battler for service with you along with myself as her captain. Her name is the ‘Hart’s Challenge.”
“I’m pleased to meet you, Ms. Hart. Your proposal intrigued me, I must say. I didn’t realize that you were so young though.”
“I may be young, but I know this ship like no one else can. You see, I grew up with this battler. In fact, she used to belong to my father. Unfortunately, he passed away a few months ago. He had originally wanted my brother to command her. But Constantine died in combat in the service of Earth Fleet just a couple of months before our father died.
My mother still believes to this day that Constantine’s death broke my father’s heart.” Tessa said, grimly fighting back tears of her own at the loss of both her brother and father so close together.
“Are you sure that you are capable of commanding a battler in combat? Going right into the teeth of enemy fire is one hell of a way to fight, but that is exactly what is expected of a battler, her captain and her crew.” Alec asked.
“Sir, I know all of this already. But, this ship is my world. I know how to pilot and command her, I assure you, Captain. I also already have an experienced crew that I trust completely and who will follow my orders to the letter.
My mother doesn’t want anything more to do with war or the military, especially after my brother died. She doesn’t know that I am talking to you either. She was planning on selling the ‘Challenge’, in fact. But I’m not about to let that happen. It’s too much a part of my life.”
Tessa looked straight into Alec’s eyes as she spoke. She was nervous, but there was a passion in her voice and her words that Alec found himself drawn to. He initially thought that he would have to turn the young woman down. But instead, he found himself asking.
“Tell me about ‘Hart’s Challenge’, Tessa.”
The young woman then explained that the ‘Challenge’ was a Class-4 battler of the Longbow-class. It was more than ten thousand tons lighter than the Colin Sampson’s Orca, but at least thirty years more recent in her design. Because of their advanced sensors and high speed, Longbows were often used as scouts or in the anti-fighter role.
While Longbows lacked a heavy, long-range punch of a spinal mass driver, they were very swift vessels that were capable of chasing down anything lighter than a fighter and dealing heavy damage to most any ship that they could encounter. Longbows were armed with a full array of point-defense lasers, but their primary weapons were multiple twenty-tube one-shot pods attached to her external hull. These pods fired dense salvoes of long-range guided missiles at a target. The missile pods were supplemented by banks of unguided high-explosive cluster weapons known as DFM’s or Dead Fire Clusters that acted like king-sized shotguns for point-blank fire.
Anyone commanding a Longbow had to have a spine made of pure tungsten to get in close to an adversary in order to fire cluster munitions after expending her own long long-range missile pods. But the appearance of a well-handled Longbow would often strike terror in an enemy commander because of the sheer amount of damage that she could inflict in a very short period of time.
But a Longbow captain still had to close with the enemy to fight the decisive battle because so much of her firepower was invested in one-shot weapons. The extremely limited combat endurance of a Longbow was always her greatest drawback. She had to get her licks in quickly because in a drawn out battle, a Longbow could easily run out of ammunition and be left virtually defenseless as a result.
For a pirate, facing a Longbow was usually a death sentence. This also made Tessa one of the top picks for the sort of missions that Alec knew that he was taking on.
“A Longbow could be very useful to me indeed, in spite of its shortcomings.” Alec thought to himself. But, would Tessa Hart be able to handle being a captain at the bleeding edge of the spear?
In the end, Alec really had no choice. He needed that second battler if he was going to be able to offer the services that he promised. Tessa had made it very clear that she would accept whatever contract terms that Alec offered, fortunately. Rita’s enthusiastic approval of Tessa made the final decision unanimous.
“Tessa. I have decided to accept your offer. Welcome aboard. I will contact you when it is time for ‘Hart’s Challenge’ to dock with Alacrity for the voyage out.”
“Thank you, Sir.” She replied with a smile. There was still a little underlying nervousness and a hint of sadness behind that smile. The first battle will change everything for her though, Alec knew.
Alec returned to Alacrity soon after his meeting with Tessa. The jump tender had been operating with little more than a skeleton crew ever since the finish of her refitting. Fortunately, Alec had Rita to help out with the operation of Alacrity.
“Hello, Rita. How are things with ships systems?” Alec asked as he walked onto Alacrity’s bridge.
“Welcome back, All systems are nominal, Captain Martinson. I trust that you had a good day today.” Alacrity’s Libertad-built AI replied with a soft contralto voice.
“I did. I also hired those two battler captains that you recommended. I still have certain reservations about Colin Sampson, mostly concerning his ship.”
“I understand, Alec. But he is still the top spacecraft salvage expert within this entire quadrant of the Orion Arm. I know that Colin has had job offers from over a dozen different shipyards to work for them in the past month alone. He will be a key asset in building and maintaining the force that you are going to require for the mission.”
“Yes, I know. But if he insists on getting into combat with that antique, we may lose him far sooner than we can afford. I need his skills salvaging ships and training other technicians to do what he is so good at far more than I need him shooting at things at this point.” An exasperated Alec complained.
“Alec, I believe that Captain Sampson will serve us well in both areas. The size of his Narwhal is a significant advantage in its own right in a fight, regardless of its age. If we keep Colin happy with his involvement with some of your operations, he will go into his other job with the kind of enthusiasm that we desperately need. He does still love working on ships. But it is obvious that Captain Sampson needs the excitement of battle on occasion to fulfill other personal needs as well. Working wit
h us will give him that. He wins and so do we.” Rita assured the privateer commander.
“Well, I suppose that is still very good to know. I will certainly try to provide Colin with the excitement that he craves, but hopefully in small enough doses that he survives to work on our ships afterwards. Tessa Hart is certainly everything that you told me about and significantly more. She is exceptionally driven to succeed. She will do whatever we ask of her. Her battler is a little small, but otherwise ideal for our purposes. We need to be able to chase down our quarry and neutralize the pirates and other enemy warships that we are going after.”
“I was able to read Tessa’s physical signs from listening to her while you interviewed her. I could hear her breathing, her heartbeat, even the inflections of her voice. I believe that you are completely correct about Tessa. She showed absolute confidence in what she was saying to you with no hints of deception at all. She is also completely committed to doing anything necessary to prove herself. If her skills are anywhere close to those of her late father, then she would be a worthy asset in any ship that she commanded.
Between Colin and Tessa, I am confident that you will quickly obtain additional battlers and qualified crews to man them. Such additions will then significantly increase the capabilities of your new organization, Alec. You just have to be a little patient. That’s all.”
“Of course, you’re right. Thank you, Rita. Things are just getting very interesting, I must say. But I believe that things are looking up for us.”
“I am very pleased to hear that, Captain. You are overdue for some very good days, I think. But I am sure that you want to avoid ‘interesting times’ as in the old Chinese curse.”
“Very true. But, we are going to still have a lot of very busy and challenging days for us all, even if our situation is improving, Rita.”
“But I’m sure that we will make it through them all, Captain.” The AI replied, using a sultry voice that would have most men melting like hot butter.
