Corsair Menace (Privateer Tales Book 12) Page 14

  "How will we bill for that?" Merrie asked.

  "Merrie, does not Liam own this company?" Amon, Merrie's ordinarily quiet husband asked.

  "She's right, Amon," Nick interjected. "Everyone at this table, except Hog, has a stake in Petersburg Station. The same is not true of Intrepid. It would be irresponsible if we were to consume resources without accounting for it. I've created a market projection using Abasi credits for material and finished goods cost. My objective was to create a market to entice York citizens to get interested in asteroid mining, but we should be able to use the same calculations for repairs."

  "Am I allowed to set up my own contracts for Petersburg? Or will you be handling this?" Merrie pushed.

  "What kind of contracts?" I asked.

  "Sheet steel is in high demand in Manetra and I have proposals related to armor glass and nano-steel out to several Zuri manufacturers. If everyone who has replied will sign a contract, I could fill orders for all our sheet stock within a week. The fact is, the Zuri market is under served."

  "How much stock do you have?"

  "Two thousand square meters in five mil rolls and another thousand in nine mil rolls. We have significantly less nano-steel and armor glass, as we tend to make those products based on orders instead of stocking it," she said.

  "Make the deals," Nick said. "I'd like to review anything bigger than fifty thousand credits."

  "You've mentioned recruiting miners before," Hog said. "There are several I can think of who might be interested. Are you ready to start talking to them?"

  "That's going to be a problem," Ortel said. "A miner needs to have their own equipment, but no one in York would have that. Where's the starting capital going to come from? We could loan out equipment, but that's not fair either. Wear and tear needs to be charged against revenues."

  "How much mining equipment do we have available to loan?" I asked.

  "Enough for three claims, assuming we keep enough for work at the station," he replied.

  "These are all details Katherine and I can work through," Mom said. "Unless you would like to be involved." Her tone of voice warned me that I was stepping into her business.

  "Nope. Not at all," I said. "My goal was to put mining behind me and that hasn't changed."

  "Good," she said. "I just received a comm from Katherine that Petersburg Station is in place in orbit. If the sky wasn’t cloudy, we’d be able to see it with limited magnification."

  "She's early," I said. "How is that possible?"

  Mom smiled and slightly tipped her head to the side. "Your calculations were made with first run data; there was an update I neglected to pass along. She has been in place for three hours, successfully deployed all station defenses, and if I am to take the message literally, has set a pot of tea on to boil in anticipation of our arrival."

  "I'll take that chili to go, then." I stood and walked over to the restaurant's service counter. "Can you have your team ready and on the platform in twenty minutes?"

  "We'll be ready," Mom said, smiling like I'd missed something.

  "You're ready now, aren't you?"

  "For twenty minutes." All she'd give me was a knowing waggle of her eyebrows.

  "How are we going to do this?" Ada asked as the five of us piled into the armored patrol vehicle we'd started using as our transportation between York and the compound.

  "Ada, would you sail Tuuq out to Petersburg after picking up Mom and crew?" I said. "Otherwise, I'd like everyone aboard Intrepid. I don't think she's going to appreciate lifting off from Zuri."

  "I will and you should have a little faith," Ada said. "The Abasi engineers did a good job of restoring function to the grav lift systems."

  "It was a hack," Nick said. "We're only getting forty percent transfer from engines to lift system. A bigger problem is that without our inertial systems, it's going to take us over three hours to get there without pasting everyone."

  "Darn it, Liam. Did you really have to burn out every system?" Ada asked. "I get not wanting to turn over technology to an alien government, but you nearly killed my girl."

  I wasn't about to answer the question since I already felt bad about my actions. It could be argued that the Abasi wouldn't have returned Intrepid to us if we'd left her intact when she was seized by Strix. It was a game of what-if and gotcha that I'd been replaying in my head for months and I was tired of it.

  "Oh, don't be glum." Ada said, recognizing my mood and wrapping an arm around my shoulders as we bumped along in the patroller. "I'm sure there's plenty of bilge work that needs doing."

  I punched Ada lightly on the shoulder as she climbed out the back of the vehicle. "Be safe, Ada. We'll see you on Petersburg."

  "Will do," she said.

  We’d worked diligently to get Intrepid ready for liftoff for the last two weeks. It was depressing to set foot in the ship, as she'd gone from perfectly maintained to nearly unusable. As it turned out — unknown to Ada — the septic field’s gray and black water systems hadn't been targeted by any of the wrath I had Jonathan release. It was one of the very few systems that remained in good working order.

  I pushed open the hatch to the bridge and latched it open with a strap I'd improvised. My chair sat dead-center on a slightly elevated platform at the back of the bridge. Cruelly, my imagination reminded me of the once fully operational holo display that had been available. I was reduced to my suit's HUD as I took my place on the chair.

  "Let's start systems check," I said as Marny, Tabby and Nick took their stations on the bridge. A single, meter-wide vid screen glowed on the forward bulkhead, which had once been completely covered with an integrated display.

  As each of us worked through our assignments, both expected and unexpected failures presented themselves and we worked through them. It wasn't a certainty that Intrepid's gravity systems would generate enough repulsion to put us outside of Zuri's pull.

  "Incoming comm, Ada Chen," my AI announced.

  "Put it on bridge public address," I replied.

  "Hiyas Intrepid. We're just lifting off now," Ada said. "See you in a few hours. And Liam, take it easy on my girl."

  "Copy that, Ada. Safe travels." I closed comms.

  We worked for another hour as Nick and I traveled back and forth to the engine room, manually checking statuses that appeared faulty. Finally, we had exhausted the systems checklist and I sat back in the chair, not feeling particularly great about the exercise.

  "Nick, your call. We good to go?" I asked.

  "Mechanically, we're good, Liam. She's not going to handle like you want, but we've made good progress. Just take it slow."

  "Cap, I have it on good authority that Captain LeGrande has real coffee aboard Petersburg," Marny said.

  That perked me up. "You think?"

  "According to Ortel, Petersburg has an entire deck dedicated to botanicals and they have twenty mature coffee plants straight from Earth. Play your cards right and I'll bet we can convince Curtis Long to plant an entire hillside of those beans back behind the bungalow. She has cocoa plants, too."

  I knew that Marny was trying to take my mind off Intrepid's problems. The fact was, it worked. "Cocoa?"

  "Chocolate," Marny answered.

  "Let's get this bird in the air," I said. "Nick, give me helm control."

  "All yours."

  "Cue David Bowie's Space Oddity over public address."

  "Seriously?" Tabby asked, groaning.

  A man's reedy voice sang forlornly.

  Ground control to Major Tom …

  Ground control to Major Tom

  Chapter 11

  Petersburg Station

  “She’s rough, Liam,” Tabby said as I spooled up Intrepid’s four massive engines. I was redirecting all the engine power to energize the gravity repulsor system that was reporting sixty percent efficiency. Intrepid wasn’t that comfortable with planet-side travel to begin with and in her current shape, we were cutting it close to the margins.

  There were about a million things
wrong on Intrepid. Foremost, there was a complete lack of inertial systems, which was causing everything to shake profusely. The engine’s roar couldn’t quite drown out the distant sounds of unsecured items crashing to the deck as we clawed our way past the first hundred meters.

  “Hang on,” I said as I worked to keep a level ascent.

  There was some good news; after a few minutes, the shaking did start to abate. There had to be a deep, technological reason, but I was just grateful for the reduction.

  The climb seemed to take forever, but we finally emerged from atmospheric layers and we switched from a pure repulsive lift to using our engines for their primary function.

  “All hands,” I started, so that Roby and Sempre who were sitting one room over in the gunner’s nest would hear me. “We’re switching to primary drive system. Our inertial systems are inoperable so you’ll want to face forward. Expect up to 2g in acceleration.”

  “Nick, bring main engines online,” I said.

  “In three… two… one….” He counted me down.

  On one, I nudged the primary thrust stick forward while watching our altitude and delta-v (change in vector) between Zuri and Intrepid. We initially fell back toward the planet, but I’d expected that, as we were no longer lifting. I nudged the stick again and felt the ship push forward as the chair cushion compressed against my back. The sensation reminded me more of driving in the armored patrol vehicle than sailing a space-borne vessel.

  We continued to accelerate forward, but were also still falling toward the planet. The latter was disturbing enough that I requested my AI to show a predicted path at current acceleration. The line on my HUD showed we were actually in a pinch if I didn’t speed things up. We were at 1.2g, but we could handle more, so I continued to accelerate past 1.4, 1.8, and 2.6.

  “Everything okay, Love?” Tabby asked when I passed 3g.

  My line was looking better, but my margin of escape was thin.

  “I switched from repulsors a little early,” I said, my head pinned to the seat behind me. “We’ll have a few more minutes of this.”

  At 4g, I held us there for a full minute before backing to 3g, which I held for a full five minutes. Finally, I pulled back to 1.5g where I planned to keep us for the ride out to Petersburg Station.

  “Incoming hail, Tuuq.”

  “Go ahead, Tuuq,” I replied.

  “Liam, we have two cutter class ships closing. We’re on burn to join up with Intrepid,” Ada said.

  “Copy,” I said. “Marny, do you have anything on sensors?”

  “Negative, Cap, too much interference,” Marny said.

  “Linking with Tuuq,” Nick added.

  The forward view screen popped to life with two ships on hard burn for Tuuq. My AI predicted they’d overtake the smaller ship just about the same time they came into our maximum weapons range.

  “Tabbs, gunnery nest,” I said. It was a contingency we’d already discussed. Intrepid’s ten turrets were not linked and required manual control if there was any hope of shooting an evading ship. Marny would need all the help she could get.

  “Roger,” Tabby said as she sprinted for the bridge’s exit.

  “Nick, what do we know about those ships?” I asked.

  “Transponders are returning a Genteresk designation,” he replied. It was interesting that after being identified as pirates by Abasi, the ships would fly their flag so openly. When they attacked us at the Tamu gate on our way to Abasi Prime, Genteresk ships had chosen to mask their transponders.

  “Hail Genteresk ships.”

  A chime indicated that the comm channel was open, but there was no audible response. If Intrepid had been running at fifty percent or better, I would have had no hesitation about engaging the cutters. Heck, I would have run them down because of the flag they were sailing under. Genteresk ships were specifically listed by Abasi as valid privateer prizes. As things stood, I wasn’t interested in getting into it with them.

  “Genteresk ships, break off pursuit of Loose Nuts cutter Tuuq or we’ll consider the action hostile,” I announced. “I repeat, your actions are hostile and you will be fired upon if you persist.”

  The comm channel closed without a response, but they continued their pursuit of Tuuq.

  “Ada, do you have anything else in the tank?” I asked. “It’s going to be close.”

  “No, Liam. We’re at emergency burn as it is and Tuuq isn’t very happy about it.”

  “Copy, Ada. We’ll pick it up on our side,” I said. “All hands, prepare for 4g burn in ten seconds.”

  The good news was both ships were headed in the same direction so we wouldn’t need to maneuver much. The bad news was that 4g was annoying. After a full minute of burn, we’d closed enough of the gap that I felt comfortable reducing acceleration to 2g.

  “There they go,” Marny said. After ten minutes of burn, it became clear we’d rendezvous with Tuuq well before the cutters could overtake our position.

  “What do you suppose they were doing in the neighborhood?” I asked as I reduced our burn to cruising speed.

  “Looking for us; no coincidences in space. I wonder how they knew we were off planet?” Nick was repeating a theme we’d come to understand. Space was a vast, wide-open area of nothing. If you got near another object, it was most likely because one of you intended for it happen.

  “Someone’s watching us,” Marny said. “Let’s stay in convoy. I wouldn’t mind having Tuuq’s sensor package for the rest of the trip.”

  “I read you, Marny,” Ada replied. “We’ll stay close.”

  Finally, I reversed Intrepid’s engines on approach to Petersburg Station.

  “Petersburg Station, this is Commander Hoffen. I’m requesting positive acknowledgement of Loose Nuts Corporation and wish to register foreign ship, Tuuq,” Mom’s voice came over the comm from Tuuq. “And on behalf of the Zuri based crew, welcome to the Santaloo system.”

  “Commander Hoffen — Silver. So good to see you. It’s been a long journey.” The voice belonged to Katherine LeGrande. “Intrepid and Tuuq are reading friendly and you’re clear on approach.”

  “Captain LeGrande, Liam Hoffen. Welcome to our favorite corner of the universe. Do you mind if I request status on your current defensive capabilities? We had a little excitement this evening,” I said.

  “Greetings, Liam, of course,” she replied. “Transmitting now. We’re still in the process of deploying to full capacity.”

  A virtual, translucent sphere extended around Petersburg Station, reaching out ten kilometers. It was considerably less capacity than expected, but before I could ask the question, six additional green spheres illuminated. Long-range defenses would extend out to the expected seventy-five-kilometer reach.

  “Once station crew is aboard and settled,” LeGrande continued, “we’ll deploy our long-range capabilities.”

  “Katherine, we’re bringing Tuuq into dry-dock bay one and Intrepid into bay two,” Mom said.

  “We’ll meet you there.”

  “We?” Mom asked.

  “Believe it or not, you’re not our inaugural visitor, Silver,” LeGrande replied. “Code forty-two. Petersburg Station out.”

  “Code forty-two, Mom?” I asked.

  “All clear signal,” Mom replied.

  The station’s familiar short, boot shape was a welcome sight and my HUD indicated a path to what was identified as Bay-2. Unlike Bay-1 which was fully enclosed, I was to moor atop a long platform that was a combination of cleared rock and steel plating. As I zeroed out our delta-v with the station, magnetic cables fired from mooring posts that articulated from recesses in the station’s surface and Intrepid was tugged into position.

  “I didn’t see any other ships,” I said as we floated down the hallway toward the airlock. “You know anything about this, Nick?”

  He shook his head and blinked. “I really don’t.”

  The airlock showed green, meaning there was positive pressure on the other side. In the time it took us to organiz
e and exit the bridge, Petersburg had extended a three-meter-wide, pressurized gang plank to Intrepid.

  “Someone’s rolling out the red carpet,” Tabby said as we walked side by side down the spacious umbilical between station and ship.

  “Look at that,” I said, pointing at the glass that separated us from the station. I’d caught a glimpse of bright yellow and blue.

  “What’s he doing here?” Tabby asked, jumping to the same conclusion.

  I palmed open the station-side airlock.

  “Liam Hoffen!” A blue-furred, frog-headed alien who was only a meter tall squirted through the hatch before it could fully open and attached itself to me.

  I hugged the childlike creature as it clung to me. “Jester Ripples! What a fantastic surprise.”

  “I thought you would never arrive.” Jester Ripples jumped from me to Tabby and gave her the same unabashed treatment.

  A virtual sea of little blue aliens all bobbed up and down excitedly when I looked past Jester Ripples. At the edge of the pack stood a brown-skinned teenager with bright brown eyes, looking at me with a smile.

  “Anino?” I asked as I waded into the pile of aliens who apparently considered us all to be family as they climbed on, hugged and generally greeted every member of the crew.

  “Hoffen.” Anino nodded as I approached.

  I pulled the teenager into an embrace. The two of us had our differences, but it was something we could look past. Anino was truly a man in a boy’s body. He had survived several centuries thanks to extensive medical treatments, but in the end, he’d been forced to move his consciousness from one body to the next in order to survive. While we disagreed on approach, both of us recognized we were very much on the same side, especially where Jonathan was concerned.

  “Gaylon Brighton came into contact with the Kroerak cruiser in the Brea Fortul system."

  "What about Munay? I have a comm crystal for him," I said.

  "Mars Protectorate isn't saying much, but a source reports the crew of Gaylon Brighton is assumed captured or dead."