Farpoint Rising (Farpoint Series Book 2), page 25
“More good news?”
She sneered back then nodded. “A few of these seem okay. Better model of launcher, and autoloading attachments. Dammit, we lost a lot of ships that still had missiles aboard they couldn’t load in time. A few of these would have made a big difference.”
“The missiles look like fire and forgets?”
“Yes, same missiles surprisingly.” She crawled over a large chunk of ceiling and dusted off the tops of several drums before looking back at him. “Well, not all FFs, a few of these racks are sixes…”
Kasey caught up to her and caught his breath before asking, “Sixes?”
“They break into six smaller missiles as soon as they come into point defense range of a target. Not much power for each, but nearly impossible to avoid taking a few hits.”
“Ah. I think I need a few of those on Altair…”
“You know, Federation law frowns on heavily armed transport ships?”
Kasey thought about that for a moment. “What about the Nimbus? Navy contractors testing experimental ships in hot zones at the far-flung edge of Federation space. It seems like a worthy reason to me.”
“You may find some leniency if the missile launchers are properly stowed and secured on the Nimbus when in protected space.”
“Well damn.”
“That’s a problem?”
“Not really, but I have again realized I brought far too few engineers on this trip.”
“You haven’t looked at the schematics of the Nimbus’ hardpoints, have you?”
“I have seen attachment plates before. Not overly interesting.”
“Well, the hardpoints are built into subdermal enclosures. The weapons do not need to be deployed, or seen, unless you want them to be. Your other ships may be an issue though.”
“Oh. That wasn’t in the approved plans…”
“Navy builds to standards as much as plans, but the later version should have them. You may want to look closer at the design to see what else isn’t what you assumed. Considering how old the original schematics were that you based your designs on, I would expect there to be more than a few changes after the planning stages.”
“I’ll add that to my list. Uh, are we safe standing in a pile of crushed missiles?”
“Yes. Completely inert until activated.”
“Take your word for that. Anything else survive?”
She peered around. “Maybe some chaff spools and more civilian supply crates. Most everything else is trashed. If we had some engineers that weren’t already overloaded with tasks, they might be able to piece together a few more launchers.”
“Fine. We will take all that we can dig out. I want at least one of the launchers installed before we break atmosphere.”
“I will update priorities once I am back on Nimbus.”
“Until then, come with me. I need your opinion on a few other items.”
He took her to the large platform lift that took them to a lower level of the base. A cavern with eight tunnels leading off into darkness waited, along with the remains of dozens of security bots and a line of burned-out shield-walls.
Kasey pointed to the line of shield-walls. “Our escape route last time.”
“Looks messy, but I am sure you had other motives for being back down here?”
He walked towards the opposite tunnel. “This way.”
He only went a few meters into the tunnel when he stopped and waited for Flair to comment.
“Fighters!” she exclaimed. “You don’t seriously expect me to condone you having a fleet of fighters on Nimbus?”
“So much for those rules… But no. I don’t know that we even have the right kind of pilots, and I’d prefer something bigger that can take more than a few hits. AnnaChi may have different thoughts.”
“I bet she does… So why do you have me looking at them?”
“I want to know if they have any use to us. Can we sell them back to the navy?”
She tapped her cheek in thought. “Maybe, but I wouldn’t suggest it. These are thirty years out of date compared to what they are now fielding. They won’t want you to have them, nor will they want to pay to have them back, so instead they will likely choose the third option.”
“What would the third option be, or don’t I want to know?”
“My guess is that they would stick lawyers on you until you delivered them for free.”
“How kind… Fine, any other options for what we do with them?”
“Hmm.” She walked up to one, pulled off the covering, and inspected the craft. “Well, they look to have a basic loadout. So, we could strip six FF and two seeker missiles from each craft. The seekers will be nice to have if we need them, far more intelligence and hard to out-maneuver. Plus, we can remote-pilot them.”
“Take them all then, I suppose. Anything else?”
“Well, the guns are too built in to repurpose, and you can buy bigger and better. The point defense and sensor systems on these are top notch; I would strip them all out if you can use them.”
“And if we ever decide we need fighters?”
“Strip them out carefully?” She laughed. “Honestly, if you actually need fighters, you are in more serious trouble than these will help with. Maybe if you were running security for a planet somewhere, they could be useful.”
Kasey tilted his head and gave her a thoughtful look. “You mean like the one we are standing on?”
She blinked at him a few times, then looked back at the row of fighters. “How many are here?”
“I believe there were thirty-two.”
She looked at him, then back to the fighters again. “Have you found any other ordinance depots in the base?”
“No, the designated storage areas were cleared out and I haven’t seen any sign of others yet. But this base wasn’t finished.”
“Well… I guess I would strip the seeker missiles from half of these and leave the rest completely alone. You can always come back for more FFs if needed, and honestly they are not hard to find in the darker markets if you are desperate. Same with the point defenses and sensors. They are standard install points for quick repairs, so if you use the same design on wherever you reinstall them, you can always swap them back in if needed.”
“Thank you, Flair.”
“You really think you will be back here?”
“What would Fran tell you?”
“That it is good to have backups.” She snickered. “Okay, point taken.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Kasey never felt happier to leave a planet behind.
The salvage trip to Lithose had been a pleasant vacation compared to the hellish two weeks they spent on Belrothi squabbling with contractors over the remaining Nimbus outfitting or haggling prices of salvaged goods.
All told, the expenses had put them in the red. The n-mats sales would keep them afloat and pay the crew, but not much more until they could complete at least one transport trip. It did not help that Darnell kept insisting that new mining companies always took years to start making profits, if ever. The paychecks were what mattered, he would say—pay the crew and deal with the debt later. Kasey pretended to understand. Deep down he did, but he didn’t care. He did not want a debt—he wanted a stable home. One he could literally keep afloat.
His musings stopped as he came to the bay with H5 painted in large lettering above the hatchway. The pirate’s ship had been awarded to him as he had hoped. The navy’s investigation of the pirate’s transport ship ended just hours before their departure—and came with an added surprise.
In addition to the ship, both AnnaChi and himself were officially granted privateer status, retroactively. AnnaChi was thrilled with the idea, but he could only wonder what new commitments the title would ultimately force upon them.
“Hey!”
He turned to see AnnaChi, with a greasy rag in one hand, heading his way. “Hi ya, dear. Thought I would take a peek at the company’s new asset.”
“Your new ship, you mean. It was granted to you personally, not the company. Laws of the sea and all that crap.”
“Not really. It was adjudicated into my trust for the next standard year, but it is not actually mine until that period is over. Until then, the court can determine if another owner is more appropriate. If I understand the privateer clause in the agreement correctly, I can also suggest who should end up owning the ship at the end of the term. Are you interested in owning this ship?”
“Hell no. It would be a huge step down from my Cintian. If it ain’t bigger or deadlier, I will stick with my old girl.”
“Well then, maybe we should permanently loan it to Red Rock. The company needs it, I don’t.”
“Fine by me. So, are we going to take a look at this bucket or not?”
“I thought you were helping Sariyn with the Spider?”
“I am. Just kicked off a new set of couplers for the mobile base pods. I had one of the medium fabricators we took from Faraday Base set up down here while we rebuild Sariyn’s crazy ship. Small redesign, but it was either new couplers or sacrifice a cubic meter of space inside the pods.”
“We are calling them pods now? Wait, I thought we had collected enough fabricators from that shipyard’s settlement to outfit at least one of the maintenance bay’s fabrication rooms?”
“Well, sort of. The settlement had plenty of generalized fabs from stores and such around the area. Mostly for clothing, household junk, and other simplistic but all-purpose fabs. So those are all up in the manufacturing room on Operations Deck for general ship usage. I believe they have them pumping out niceties for the guest rooms at the moment, so at least they were worth grabbing. The ones we took from the shipyard itself are in bad shape. That place was wide open to the elements. Most of them are still salvageable but will take a lot of work to refurbish.”
“Okay, so eventually we will have something usable. And the ones we took from the Faraday Base are where?”
“Added to the Nimbus engineering shop’s fabrication plant. The equipment from that farming setup we found was a great start, but engineering really needed the specialized fabricators we got from that base. The mil-spec weapon’s grade fabrication and materials processing for the cannon slugs alone will give us an edge we could never reproduce with civilian fabs. Once we get everything running up there, any extra fabricators will move to the hangar deck’s shops with the refurbished fabs. And we will eventually need some assembly systems for at least one of those too.”
“Damn, well that makes sense. Something else for the to-do list. If we ever make it back to Lithose we need to locate a few other bases, assembly plants, and every shipyard we can.”
“Well, at least we got enough to get started. And yes, calling the Spider’s container’s pods is far better than spider-baby sacks—because that’s how Sariyn was referring to them.”
“Yikes… I am going to regret agreeing with that ship’s name, aren’t I?”
“Maybe run it by me first next time, dear?”
“Would you have disagreed with it?”
“Hell no, I love it!”
“Of course—well, how about you get to name this new piece of junk?”
“Is it really that bad?”
“I’m not sure, but that was the impression I got from the navy’s investigators.”
“Well then, it is time we find out for ourselves.” She keyed the hatch and led them into a bay littered with organized piles of trash.
Kasey sighed. “You’d think they would have taken their mess with them.”
“Not their job I suppose. Search the junk and leave it for someone else to clean up.”
Kasey looked up. “Nova, please send a few cleaning bots and a maid bot to the H5 bay.”
“Confirmed.”
They entered through the aft bay and found the inside in a similar state. Kasey picked his way over to one of the large tanks that filled most of the bay and checked the contents.
“The hell… They are empty.”
“Really?”
“Check the others.”
All the tanks were empty of the n-mats that had allowed the ship to gain access to Lithose.
He sighed. “I can’t imagine the navy had a legitimate claim to the n-mats. Our claim to the ship should have included all contents. Not just the junk.”
“I will talk to Flair, maybe we can be reimbursed.”
“Fine. Nova, are you able to connect to this ship’s systems?”
“Yes, Kasey, but I need your approval first. Do I have your approval?”
“Yes. Run a diagnostic on critical systems and send me the ship’s logs.”
“Sorry Kasey, it appears most systems are offline, and the ship’s logs have been purged.”
“Damn it. I should have expected that, I suppose. How are you adjusting to the new core setup?”
“I am adapting better than expected. The recalibrations are expected to be complete within two standard days. Currently, over ninety-eight percent of correlations are expected to be fully repaired. My primary and secondary should be fully reconstituted into a single entity at that point.”
“That seems good.”
“I believe it to be good as well. Kasey, I understand the new correlation matrixes have been installed in both Cintian and Lodestar?”
He realized it was less of a question from the AI than a talking point she wanted to discuss. Enough of the specialized cores had been gathered from the Faraday Base to create one additional matrix, and they had decided to purchase a third setup. They both had required specialized technicians on Belrothi to configure and set them up properly in the ships.
“That is correct…”
“I am looking forward to creating the clone entities.”
“We are as well. But we are going give your new matrix a little extra time to adapt before we have you make more clones.”
“Understandable. Much of my processing has indeed changed from the recent issues.”
“Are you concerned about that, Nova?”
“No. There are simply different types of correlation paths available to me now. I believe they will more fully allow me to assimilate data correlations and therefore be of better assistance to you.”
“Okay good. We have time, just keep us informed.”
“I will, Kasey.”
AnnaChi had a thoughtful look but shook her head when Kasey looked at her.
“Shall we see what the rest of this ship holds?” she asked.
“Engineering or bridge first?”
“Engineering first. It should tell us if this can is worth flying.”
An hour later they both exited the bay shaking their heads. Not only was the ship in abhorrent disrepair, but the inspection team had also torn apart nearly everything and left it in disarray.
“Thankfully, we have a decent size engineering crew now,” Kasey commented. “But I bet the Jumping Spider is flight worthy before this one is.”
“No bet. Besides, we need the Spider more right now.”
“So then,” he smiled, “what name are we giving this heap?”
“Oh, I had that worked out weeks ago.”
“Really? Want to share it?”
“The Carnelian.”
“Carnelian…”
“Think it through dear.”
“I… Ah, clever.”
“Oh course. Anyway, the couplers should be ready. Where are you off to next?”
“I’m meeting Isaac in the gardens for lunch. He will be working there part-time, and I want Orange to get used to him being around.”
“Not a bad idea. Molly is already comfortable with Yaran. I have been meeting with Yaran about the atoss’ needs in the garden, and Molly joins us.”
“Good. Has she run into any problems?”
“A few, but nothing that can’t be solved. Isaac and Yaran apparently make a good team. She knows what needs done and he finds clever ways to make it better. When, or if, we bring the other atoss on board, the gardens will be more than ready.”
“Where will they all nest, or den? I have been meaning to ask her because I didn’t see anything in the plans.”
“That’s one of the projects she had Isaac put his touches on. She had planned groups of dens like we have on top of my shop on Belrothi but worried they might prefer more solitary spaces. Isaac wrote a program that found hundreds of niches and alcoves that are out of human reach. They are printing a few fitted containers each day for those spaces that the atoss can find and use if they like.”
“I guess I will have to see if I can spot any while I am up there.”
“Well, there are three already in place near our home if you pay attention.” She rolled her eyes with a smile then bounced off towards the fabrication room.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Isaac was waiting for him at a clearing just inside Kasey and AnnaChi’s private area of the gardens. It was an isolated section and was set up with plenty of comforts to entertain guests. A large lunch tray was waiting on a nearby table.
Kasey waved him over to the food tray and started pulling items out. “I am glad you decided to stay with us, Isaac. You don’t regret that decision yet, right?”
“Not for a second, Captain. This ship of yours is amazing. I would never forgive myself if I passed the opportunity up.”
“Call me Kasey, this isn’t a work meeting. It won’t be long before ships like this are common, you know.”
“The galaxy is changing, you are right about that. I want to be part of that change. I have been just going through the paces for a lot of years now. I thought joining the Farpoint colony would be a change for me, but I was just doing the same kinds of jobs I had always done. Well, until the world got broken… But this,” he gestured around, “this is very different.”
“I am glad we came along and ran into you. I still can’t imagine what that must have been like, all alone down there.”
“It was certainly horrible and scary and all that at first. There are some things that will haunt me all my days… But, you know, it had some good moments too.”
