Farpoint Rising (Farpoint Series Book 2), page 23
Kasey nodded. “Well, I am intrigued. How exactly does she plan on using this ship for prospecting?”
“Ah, well that part is kind of brilliant. She wants to load a four-man team with bards into each bay and set one down at each site to be prospected as a temporary base for that team. The ship itself will act as mothership as well as a field lab where she will work, coordinate the teams, and move the mobile bases around as needed.”
AnnaChi smiled. “I could think of a few more interesting uses for a ship like that.”
Kasey had a good idea what AnnaChi’s uses would entail. “Would any of those uses benefit the business?”
“Well… No. Not unless we get into trouble.”
Kasey looked at them both as he gave the idea some thought. It was a sound idea, and the versatile ship could be an asset to the company. It could even solve a few issues he had been worrying over with their prospecting plans.
“Okay, well firstly, I very much doubt that Sariyn really wants or needs a ship of her own. If she seriously does, we can try and work that out. Let me talk to her and see what she is after and go from there. If the company retains the ship, AnnaChi can put together some alternative plans for it and maybe we can have a multi-purpose vessel. Flair, how bad of shape is that ship in?”
“If what the boys are saying are true, it won’t hold air, needs new thrusters, and has taken some other damage. Looks to have been in a fight, dragged back here as salvage, and then left to sit.”
“Hold on, a fight? That would have been before we even knew of the Cassian being here?”
“Well, that’s the other thing—based on the yard logs, it was assumed this ship was used for smuggling and got into some self-invited trouble… They even located several hidden compartments, but that’s not really unusual. We will have to look at the damage more closely to see if it was Cassian or not. Hardly matters at this point, it’s all salvage now.”
“Have we found any replacement thrusters that would work for it?”
“Nothing pretty, but they felt they could piece together something that would make her fly again.”
“Okay, let me talk with her. But you are right, we will take it as salvage either way. Any other ships there?” he asked hopefully.
“No, sorry. Which means we will need to keep using your ships for our operations unless you procure more somehow.”
He nodded and frowned. “That’s fine for now, I suppose. If we can keep the pirate’s ship once Fran’s team is done inspecting it, then we should be okay for this run. Anything else?”
Flair looked at her feet and shook her head. “Just that I need to apologize to Isaac. I jumped to conclusions. Assumed he somehow took the ship. I also should have planned better for our security. I just never thought anyone would be stupid enough to brave that storm. Well, except for you, of course.”
“I think Kasey here has finally learned his lesson about the storm. Wait till you see the damage Altair took from the storm this time,” AnnaChi provided.
“Yeah,” Kasey grimaced, “well, you are not alone in the apologies department. I was not sure myself until he saved my ass up there. He’s as solid as they come. I promised not to offer him a position before we made port at Belrothi, but we really need him to stay. I am not sure how he held himself together for so long on Lithose, but if he has issues, he hides them well.”
“We all got our issues even if they don’t show. He either deals with them very well, or he is ignoring them. You are right to give him time, but keep in mind that he has been through an emotional hell we cannot begin to understand. Don’t make the mistake in thinking that he is fine—he’s not. He won’t be for a while. He will need to talk to someone eventually, and it will be our job to make sure someone is there when he is ready.”
“I see… You know, a good portion of our staff will be from this system, and a few from Lithose too. The colony lost so many and survived so much. I didn’t even think of having a professional on the Nimbus for the crew’s needs.”
“Well, it’s not too late to add the role. We will send an update to the available positions once we leave Lithose. Even so, we deal with similar situations in the navy all the time. In several cases, we had to use stasis pods for sailors until we could get them to proper facilities, and a few simply needed a break from the service, like Jate.”
“Alright, make it happen. Now, let’s get to planning our incursion back into Faraday Base.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Kasey finished inspecting the repairs to the Altair and sealed the bay.
It was a robust and useful ship. He had grown fonder of it lately, yet it just was not the same as the Lodestar or AnnaChi’s Cintian. He stopped at Lodestar’s bay and frowned. He hadn’t flown her once on this trip. He was comfortable with Flair using her when needed, yet wished he could have switched places. Altair was just too damn practical.
A ship-wide announcement shook him from his thoughts. The Nimbus was finally taking off for the journey to Faraday Base.
With a heavy sigh, he closed the hatchway.
“Nova, is Sariyn out and about anywhere? I don’t want to interrupt her if she is busy.”
“Sariyn is in Bay H8 and does not appear to be overly busy.”
“Thanks. How is the correlation rebuild going?”
It had taken several attempts, but Griff had been able to establish a connection between the matrices and bring the main matrix back online, with the clone acting as a control layer. Nova had been trying to save as much of herself as she could ever since.
“The rebuild has proven more complex than I postulated. My clone needs to take control more than I would like, but it is necessary. I believe, in human terms, I am feeling very lost. My processes are overlapping areas of memories they should not be. This is causing me to become confused at times. I am deeply concerned I will not be able to reintegrate my clone once I am fully repaired. I am sorry that I have let you down, Kasey.”
“You have not let me down, and you know that. However, if you are holding back from repairs because you are worried about your clone, maybe you should start thinking of your clone as a sister instead of an extension of yourself. Two minds are usually better than one.”
“I… I see. I will contemplate this.”
The hesitation from the AI worried Kasey.
“What I am trying to say is that, whatever happens, it will be okay. We will be okay.”
“Thank you, Kasey.”
He found he had made it to bay H8 and steadied himself for his next conversation.
Entering the bay, Sariyn looked up sharply with surprise from the pad she was examining.
“Kasey! You scared me.”
“Not my intention. What are you looking at?”
“Flair found old schematics for this ship. It is far older than we thought. Hundreds of years older in fact. The thing has been rebuilt several times. Looking at the spec’s power requirements, it must have been extremely inefficient in its original form. Not my area, but that’s obvious. I can’t even identify what the original core system was.”
“Interesting. Anything left of those old systems?”
“Nothing I have been able to identify, but again, not my area. I am just, uh, getting ideas.”
“So, you still think you want to buy this relic from the company?”
“Well, yeah. I see a lot of potential in it. It is a near-perfect tender ship for prospecting teams and gives us mobile bases for the teams to use while grounded. But I will understand if that is not something you, or the company, want to do.”
“We have talked about it, and if that is what you really want, then I will push to make it happen. But I have to say, I don’t think that is what you want. At least not exactly.”
“Huh? I don’t follow.”
“I could be wrong—people are not exactly my area. But I feel like you are looking for something that ship is just a substitute for. I am not even sure that ship is a good investment for you. You could likely lose money on it just to keep it running. So, how about telling me what you are really looking for? Unless I am wrong…”
She was quiet for so long, Kasey thought she might be contemplating striking him for his gall.
Instead, she pulled out a stool to sit on and rubbed a hand across her shaved and tattooed head. “I’m not sure if you are right or wrong, but I suppose you have a point. I see everyone moving forward around me and I feel like I am just standing still. Darnie is heading up the mining branch of the company, you were just a pilot when we met and now you have a damn fleet and a flipping carrier to boot. You have been generous to give us ownership shares, but I am not sure where I really fit in.”
“I can’t imagine you not fitting in with the mining business.”
“Sure, but I am more than just a geologist, you know? It’s always been more of a hobby than a job. I don’t really need a job, ya know? I want more than that.”
“I do know. But I am curious about how owning this ship helps you fit in. Am I close in saying that you feel it would allow you to head up the majority of the prospecting business?”
He had never seen her nervous before, but he could see that cord struck now.
“No, I mean, maybe a little. Sorry, I am not trying to take over your prospecting business. I know that’s your and AnnaChi’s thing.”
“Well, yes and no. We do really enjoy the prospecting, but running teams of people is absolutely not what we want to do. We will be out there doing our own surveys, but the teams will be run by someone other than us.”
“Oh…”
“I know we haven’t established too many of the companies positions yet—but let me lay out for you what we have been thinking. Nova, bring up the latest designs for Sariyn’s lab area.”
“My lab?”
Kasey pointed to the wall behind her which lit up with three-dimensional representations of the engineering section of Nimbus. A sizable unused section was highlighted, and a room appeared in its place then slowly filled with all manner of equipment that had been salvaged so far.
“The lab,” Kasey nodded at the wall, “is around nine hundred square meters, which you can arrange and staff any way you see fit. This is not limited to just business usage. The Nimbus should be considered a home, not just work. Anything we have salvaged can be reallocated to this lab, and if you make a list of anything else you need and let Nova know of any high or low priorities, we will get them onto the requisitions lists.”
He let her take it all in, then continued. “We also want you to have direct oversight of all research aboard Nimbus, not just to be our head geophysicist. Keep this part to yourself for now, but you also need to know that if Isaac stays, he will have a mixed lab of robotics and other projects next to yours, although quite a bit smaller. He has quite a few experiments going on, and you will need to review and sign off on them all. I do not want the ship endangered, and I want you to make sure that does not happen. Along with that, you will hold a seat on the Nimbus executive team Flair is putting together, which is no different than what you have already been doing for Red Rock.” He gave her a few moments to digest it all before continuing. “Is there anything I have listed so far that you do not want to take responsibility for?”
“No, I can do all that.”
“Well then, here is the kicker—since you are interested in running the prospecting side of the business, it’s all yours to command. That includes this new ship’s crew, flight plans, all of it. You may have noticed that your lab is directly next to this bay’s cargo elevator? That is not an accident. The ship and this bay will be your responsibility, whether you own it or not, and the upper cargo bay will have a dedicated area for your usage here as well. Interested so far?”
“Hell yes, I am!”
“Good, the position comes with an additional two percent interest in the prospecting division as long as you are working for the company directly. Your other choice is to purchase the ship from the salvage division and see if you can do better via contract work with the company. We can work on a contract that works out anywhere in between, but that’s our general thoughts on it. The question is, do you really want to buy this ship?”
“It was never about money, but what limitations would I have with the ship belonging to the company?”
“Good question. If the company owns it, then we can use it as needed for other operations like salvage, supply runs, even potential security operations as needed, as with any of our ships. All maintenance, fuel, supplies, etc. would be handled by the company as well, but you would have a lot of input to that effect. AnnaChi will likely have several variants of the bard loadouts for it as well.”
“You know, it’s a small ship, so we have room to spare in this bay.” She gestured around the area designed for a much larger ship. “We could outfit this area to hot-swap the detachable bays as needed. Given time and resources, we could deploy a lot more than the four initial bays into the field.”
“That could be very useful indeed. I will want you to work with the engineering crew to have an efficient system designed for this bay after we have the ship in working order. But for now, talk to the cargo team and have them partition areas off for both your lab’s storage needs and plenty of room where the detachable bays, or mobile bases, can be loaded, stored, and moved to the lift quickly. We can dedicate a few stevedores to handle the heavy lifting until a better system is in place. How does that sound?”
“Okay, you have convinced me. Keep the ship with the company. You’re right, it is not what I really wanted. But I will take the position.”
“Excellent! Have the cargo team set anything aside that you need from our stores. I need you to get this ship ready for service in about a month. I recommend running some team training on the lightweight bards and stabilizers if we have time on Belrothi. Talk with AnnaChi about the bards; she has been planning more upgrades for them. Not sure if they will be ready for the first mission or not—I am not even sure how many we have but I know she brought back a load from somewhere.”
“We currently have seventy-three salvaged bards and similar all-terrain vehicles in the lower cargo hold,” Nova interjected.
“Well, it seems we do indeed have plenty.” Kasey closed his eyes tightly for a moment. “We really should have brought more engineers along for this initial trip.”
Sariyn laughed. “I will get to planning. Thank you, Kasey.”
“Hey, thank you.” He pulled the hatchway open and looked back. “What are you going to name that thing?”
“Oh, seemed kind of obvious to me.” She pointed to a tattoo on her arm. “Jumping Spider.”
“Really? Well, it does seem fitting. Jumping Spider it is. Now, get her ready for business.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Beams of light flared across the nearly obscured opening carved into the steep mountainside.
Kasey stood at the forefront of the Nimbus bridge, glaring into the large screen as if it were an actual window out the front of the ship. The Nimbus hovered barely a hundred meters from the opening, but little could be seen through the blizzard conditions covering the area.
“This is as close as we dare,” Jate called out from the helm.
“Give me a different spectrum on this please,” Kasey asked, “I need a view inside if we can.”
The screen flashed through a dozen enhanced image settings, stopping on a thermal-enhanced overlay that showed deep into base’s hangar. Nothing moved. Heat levels increased further in, but nothing unexpected.
Kasey sat at a terminal and linked it to the command ring he wore. They had been trying to connect to the base since the Nimbus had entered the ten-kilometers frequency range the ring was supposed to be in tune with, but nothing had appeared. The base should have also responded to comm request using the ring’s access codes, but not a single query had been returned.
He looked back at Flair in the command chair. “Either the base’s comms are down, or it is ignoring us.”
She looked to one of the stations. “Comms, do we have any signals from that base at all?”
“Nothing for comms, but I am detecting a few spikes in the EMF spectrum. Likely machinery or bots.”
Flair shrugged at Kasey. “You said the security bots were actively engaging you when you left. That means they were receiving orders from the base’s system. Something must have happened to that system after you left.”
“Right, the bots were blasting us until we left that hangar. Now that I think about it, at the time, we had expected the base to launch missiles or something at us once we cleared that entrance, but it didn’t. We assumed their standing orders kept that from happening, but they didn’t seem to have an issue trying to kill us when we were inside.”
“Hmm. That makes no sense, they really should have fired on you. External defenses are unlikely to have been offline or damaged. They are made to withstand orbital bombardments. Do we have a location on any of its hardpoints?”
A few moments passed as the crew worked furiously at their consoles looking to answer the question.
“Nothing?” she asked again.
“If I may, Captain?”
“Yes, Miss Mayflower?”
“I contacted Mr. Soeda on our problem, and he has a theory.”
“Okay, and what does Isaac theorize?”
“He believes the security bots are each redundantly connected to each other via a wide-frequency signal. They have their own network that lets them work together more quickly. He says it is used on bots with high-risk jobs.”
“Okay, so similar to our mimic interfaces then?”
“Right, and short range. In any case, he feels the security bots could have been relaying commands through this short-range network even if the main base comms were down.”
“Thank you, Miss Mayflower. Alright, lets proceed on that assumption. Kasey, do you still want to be part of the initial team?”
