CHAPTER 10 UP, UP AND AWAY
I raced back to the ship in the morning because this was the day we finally took off! I parked the hover bike and checked on Rose and then went straight to the bridge. It was very different from what I remembered. It also looked like a normal human bridge with screens and stations. I still needed to activate technogenesis to interact with everything but in my excitement I forgot to let the crew know we were taking off. MD commed me and asked if the engines were cycling up for a take off? Yes, yes. I brushed the query aside. It would have been wise to have him here in case I needed help but I was a kid in a candy store right now. The forward display switched to an outside view and the grav engines kicked in and the ship gracefully lifted off the ground. All lights green and the ship accelerated toward the upper atmosphere. I could not feel any movement but streaking along the view screens made it a surreal experience. Two yellow icons flashed on the screen high above us. The ship was tracking two shuttles, one appeared in bound and the other appeared outbound. A red light was flashing on a terminal and I was not sure what it was and had to ask MD. It was someone trying to comm the Prometheus. Shoot I did not have the knowledge and it took me a few minutes to open the channel, “This is passenger shuttle, Bryant-6, please identify yourself and your intentions unidentified craft coming to orbit.” Crap something was wrong. I thought we registered the ship. As the messages from the shuttle got more anxious I was able to get MD to activate our IF marker that had been registered.
“This is the cruiser Prometheus, Captain Jed Knight commanding,” I said aloud. I felt awesome and took a central seat that seemed to be larger than the others and centrally located on the bridge. “I am not hostile and on my way to Barstow to pick up some raw materials.” When they didn't respond it took me a few more minutes to find out how to send messages and I opened the video interface as well. I repeated myself to the young pilot on the screen.
“Sheriff Knight? I was not aware you had a such an impressive ship! Where did you come from, no cruisers have been reported in system for months.” The older man in the gray uniform stated in a slightly surprised tone. I didn't want to create trouble for myself so I thought out my response carefully or at least hoped I had a good enough story to believe.
“The Prometheus landed a few months ago for repairs in secret. I was just able to complete the repairs and now I am getting her back into space. I didn't want to revel her presence in case someone got the bright idea to salvage her when I was not around.” Not bad for quick thinking I thought. The shuttle pilot took some time to digest my statement. I thought it sounded plausible at least? He came back eventually, “Captain Knight, your ship is being asked to head to the Barstow and you are being asked to meet with President Bryant when you arrive.” Damn this did not sound good at all. My first worry was they were going to try and seize the vessel. I acknowledged the request and headed through the atmosphere. My navigation skills were pretty horrid and it took me an hour to figure the course. Eventually I just pointed the ship at the planet and went to full thrust and kept making minor adjustments with the planet approaching on the screen. I was surprised to find it took only an hour to get there. I almost overshot the planet and had to break quite hard and enter an orbit. The red comm light had been flashing but I had been focused on not crashing into the planet.
A message was being repeated, “This is the SDF, please move your ship the following orbit,” coordinates were supplied that I could just put into computer. I also noticed the two orbital stations on my display in yellow. I entered the orbit and complied. A comm from the planet had an older man with disshelved hair on the display. When he noticed me he spoke, “Sheriff Knight, nice to finally talk. My name is President Atticus Bryant. I was only awoken an hour ago and was not expecting you to get here so quickly. I am still reviewing the reports of the sudden appearance of your cruiser. It is an impressive vessel. An old Canadian cruiser that has obviously seen some engine upgrades. I was not aware you had such a vessel. I would like to meet with you about you utilizing your vessel in this system.” So this was his play.
“Ah yes. Sorry this vessel is currently owned and operated by the Black Phoenix Corporation. I am just the captain.” I was happy that I had kept personal and management blacked out from searches of Black Phoenix so he couldn't know I was the only person in the corporation. “The corporation is planning to start some minor industry that should benefit everyone in this system.” The president didn't seem too upset with the news. I was starting to think I would not be backstabbed.
“Sheriff Knight, you have done much for everyone in this system. Crime is down 70% on Bruin IV and you are a celebrity among the civilians.” He knew my status as a celebrity was a political mechanism he had created. “I hope we can work together to ensure the prosperity and safety of the Capsulite system.” He was trying to rope me in to something so I figured I would get ahead of it.
“Mr President I would be more than willing to help defend the Capsulite system as long as my cruiser is in the system. All I would expect in return is the maintenance of my cruiser and the salaries of my crew of 52.” I didn't like lying but I knew 52 was about half the normal crew complement of this type of cruiser. I was not opposed but I hoped the cost would dissuade him. A normally loaded out Canadian cruiser cost 30,000 credits a month to maintain and the crew another 7,000 credits on top of that. I sent him a false itemized list for the rental and made the total come to an even 40,000 credits a month. The president went into discussion with some advisors on screen going over the itemized list. He eventually excused himself to review the list.
After two hours he came back on screen. I was just beginning to lose patience. “Captain Knight your proposal has been approved. My staff also let me know you recently purchased the two lost mining ships. Will you be getting them repaired? Do you have a replicator on board? We have not been able to produce vessels much larger than a shuttle since arriving, lacking the ability to construct the proper construction factories. We may be able to do some future business?” I had him locked up. His staff had figured out what I was doing with the raw materials and buying the hulks. “I am also transmitting your information and ship IF to captain Jericho. He is in command of our corvette and currently on patrol.” I also received the corvette’s IF and a green icon showed up on my screen, it was about 6 hours away but was making progress toward Barstow. It had obviously been recalled with my appearance. “The mutal defense agreement has been sent to your ship.” I stumbled through finding it in the comm relay station and then signed it and returned it. I had some brief small talk with the president before closing the vid screen. I had come out ahead in my mind. As long as no one decided to attack this system. I moved over to the orbital warehouse to pick up the raw materials I purchased. The transfer went smoothly with Lina standing guard in the bay and supervising our ships droid moving the material to storage throughout the ship. We had some mining ship parts already piling up in the cargo bay as well. It looked like chaos in my view from the bridge vid screen. The ten men that Athena had selected from applications to crew the two mining ships also came on board. MD restricted their access to one of the bunk rooms, the dining facility and sanctuary deck. Detaching from the orbital we flared up the engines and headed out toward the mining hulks orbiting a moon in the outer system.
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Five hours later a gas giant with a bunch of moons came into view. I located the moon with the coordinates I had been supplied. I realized I would not have had much success getting here. I needed to hire a navigator or learn the skill soon. I left the details and maneuvering to MD to get the refit of the mining hulks started. MD sent me an update saying it would take four weeks to complete the parts and install them on the mining ships. He also let me know he had to manufacture two constructor bots to add to the crew and install the newly manufactured parts. All good I guess. My orbital depot was on schedule but it looked like I would not bringing in any metals for at least a month.
The next two weeks I spent helping with the rebuild, helping Rose and socializing with the miners on sanctuary deck. The rebuild was fun although I was not too much help. The two bots were doing most of the much more efficiently than I ever could and I only got in the way. I received a free skill book for zero-g and some experience for 24 hours spent in zero gravity. Rose was coming along and she was spending free time on the bridge observing the constructor bots and going over schematics and taking notes. But she was not sharing much of what she was doing with me. I could just tell she was very happy. The crews for my mining ship were in heaven and couldn't believe sanctuary deck. They seemed like a good bunch, seven men and three women. They pretty much begged me every day to see the rest of the ship but I held firm under security concerns. Fortunately the beauty of sanctuary deck and the excellent food prepared by Ellie were enough to distract them and they never pushed further.
The first mining ship was ready for a crew after the two weeks. A had the miners select the best five amongst them and a captain. My asteroid field was an 18 hour trip. The captain informed me they would need fourteen days to collect a full load as they were heading out. The mining ships work by carefully breaking up an asteroid and collecting the pieces into a furnace with separated out the valuable metals and consolidating the remaining slag. The slag was extruded out like toothpaste from a tube until the ship crew cut it. The goal was to minimize the amount a free floating object in space and only transport valuable cargo. A good crew could ‘spool’ the slag into balls. The problem came having the slag attached to the ship made it difficult to maneuver. Each mining ship generated a positive margin of 5000 credits for an average load. It was expensive to maintain the ship and pay the crew so if a mining ship was inactive you were losing credits. I had to contract cargo shuttles to come out and pick up harvested metals to be delivered to my depot in orbit above Bruin IV. You also could sometimes find a rare vein and get a large payout but that was rare. Most asteroid fields were already prescanned so those large payouts would be buried deep beneath a scanners range in my asteroid field. Seeing the mining ship blasting away from the bridge I smiled.
It took sixteen more days to finish the second mining ship. It was the more heavily damaged of the two and the constructor bots had to reweld some of the structure before starting installation of components. The remaining 5 miners moved to the ship and I went with them just to check it out. The ship was pretty cramped. Most ceilings were only a little over two meters high. Each crew had a personal compartment just big enough to hold a bed. There was a communal bathroom. A rec room was 4m x 6m x 4m and also served for meals and cooking. The bridge was also small big enough for three people at most. The mining bridge and furnace control room was the only other functional room. The remaining part of the ship was stuffed with everything else needed to mine and repair the equipment. The best part is the place was sparkling new with light gray panels. After my 15 second tour I wished the crew well and went back to my ship appreciating the large open spaces.
The first load was headed back to Bruin IV and we engaged the engines to beat the cargo shuttle there. We arrived 12 hours before they came in orbit to begin the transfer. I was on the bridge and wanted to watch the transfer. Rose approached me on the bridge and I turned to take her in. She had been added to the crew a few days ago but was still absorbed in tablet working or something. She now held that tablet out to me. I took it silently and paged through what she gave me. She had completely redesigned the mining ship. I was confused, the specs were only slightly better then the current mining ship, the crew space and quarters were double the size, all the components were upgraded, the materials needed to build slightly less but on the last page of the tablet it came together. This ship could be built modularly in the Prometheus’ replicator. We wouldn't need the large hull to refit. I checked the build time four weeks. The materials needed could be harvested in roughly the same amount of time by my current two ships.
Thinking I slated the construction of two more mining ships and bought plans for a small passenger shuttle that could hold 14 people. I had Rose working on making the shuttle modular as well and planed to build a half dozen. We started working on the first new mining shuttle when I was called to duty.