Chapter seven

     We exited zero space right in front of Tortuga and we were treated to the sight of the sprawling monstrosity that was the largest 'free' port in the galaxy.

     Nobody was sure how old Tortuga was, nobody was really sure when the damn thing was constructed or who was responsible for making it, hell nobody even knew if Tortuga was just a free floating amalgamation of several space stations or if there was an actual planet beneath the chaotic mess of blinking lights, mismatched thrusters, and metallic structures. The whole thing was massive and getting larger everyday since anybody who wanted to settle down would just add a new extension to the already massive structure. There were so many damn layers to the damn thing that no sensor could see what was really beneath the surface. Many expeditions had been launched to see what was at the center of Tortuga, none of them ever returned but instead of leaving what could be a potentially very hazardous location, the powers that be in Tortuga sealed all the entrances to what was generally known as 'the underworld' and continued on with their lives as if nothing happened. 

     "God, this thing gets uglier every time you see it, doesn't it? It is like the asshole of the entire galaxy where all the shit congregates."

     "I feel dirty just looking at that place."

     "We don't really have to land, do we captain?"

     "I wonder if the hooters bar has got a new waitress? We have been out in space for a while and I'm feeling the need for some companionship."

     Apart from the last comment from Twitch, which was promptly rewarded with a slap to the head by Sandy, everybody else in the ship started to grumble when they saw Tortuga, even the ships A.I. was badmouthing it with its new Scottish accent and excessively vulgar vocabulary. Luckily for everybody, except for Twitch, a refuel and resupply ship was waiting for us in orbit just like Finkelstein promised so we didn't even have to dock at one of the many available space stations to restock. We quickly took everything we needed and went back into zero space before anybody even noticed that we were there.

     I knew that we were in a rather precarious situation. The compendium wanted us to come to it, whether we went there willingly or being forced by someone else , it never specified. What that meant is that we were now a target for anybody who wanted that reward from the compendium. In other words we were the targets for everybody in the galaxy including every nation, corporation, criminal organization and random Joe with a ship. We needed to stay low and we needed to get to the compendium as quickly as possible. 

     "Sandy, what is our course?"

     Sandy sighed and looked at me with a tired expression on her face,"You tell me captain, the compendium is in the heart of sector thirteen. You know that the whole thing is a no-jump zone. The compendium has the whole surrounding space locked down with some unknown tech, anything trying to come out of zero space anywhere near that region is instantly atomized and scattered without a trace. We are obviously going to have to get there in normal space but the problem is that sector thirteen is surrounded by the federation on one side and the corporation on the other."

     As she spoke a star chart appeared on the main screen highlighting what she was saying. There was a small red circle that showed the home system of the compendium, surrounding it was a much larger circle highlighted in blue showing the no-jump zone that acted as a buffer zone between the case green region on the right that showed the territory of the Federation and the slightly smaller region on the left in bright yellow showing the territory of the so called Corporation of Prosperity or as it is more commonly known, the Corporation.

     Sandy continued to manipulate the hologram in front of her and the blue region was suddenly filled with small red dots.

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     "Those are the regions filled with anti-spacecraft mines leftover from the last time the federation and the corporation had a small tiff. Anything that is not S class will not survive a second in there and anything that is S class will be able to survive a little above a second. So captain, which way should I steer this boat?"

     I looked at the screen and I had to admit that it looked pretty depressing. Whichever way we went, it seemed like we were going to be destroyed or hunted down before we could even say the word compendium let alone make it there. We needed a plan of action so I zoomed in on the star chart and started to study the location of everything in the area. I quickly memorized everything and then I began to digest the large amount of information I had just consumed. Slowly a slight glimmer of an idea started to form in my head. I pressed a button and a picture of a room appeared before me. It was by far the largest room in the ship, even larger than the hangar bay and the engine room. Inside was a complete mess of electronic parts, strange metallic objects, and body parts some of them obviously human.

     "Hey professor, how are the new shields you've been working on? Are they operational yet?"

     After some shuffling and grunting, the slightly breathless and wheezy voice of the professor answered me through the intercom system, "mmmm....the new shields?...shields, shields,shields...ah, here they are. Hmmmm...well they are complete but they are faulty. They are powerful and better than anything out there but I can't get the energy oscillations to go down so they overload if energy beams of high intensity or a small object traveling at a sufficient velocity hits it."

     Sandy opened and closed her mouth several times finally closing her mouth without saying a word. Twitch on the other hand couldn't stay silent, "So they are shields that can't protect against plasma cannons or phaser weapons? What the hell is its use then?"

     "Ehm...I thought maybe we could use it to ram other ships?"

     This time Sandy couldn't help it and joined in,"You wanted to play bumper carts using the ship? Are you crazy?"

     The owner of the voice finally appeared on the screen, blinking owlishly with his eyes that had been magnified by his glasses that were thicker than the bottom of a whisky bottle, "That was the opinion of some of my psychiatrists, why do you ask?"

     I cleared my throat to get ever body's attention before the conversation could stray to the question of whether the professor was sane or nor.

     "Professor, you said that those shields were powerful? How powerful exactly?"

     The professor adjusted his glasses and started to mutter before he answered, "About a hundred and twenty five times stronger than anything in operation right now. As long as the oscillations remain stable, the ship can crash into a large asteroid and survive without a scratch."

     "Hmm...how long would the shields last under constant pressure?"

     "At full capacity? Two hours max."

     Sandy turned to me and raised her eyebrow skeptically, "You know that we can't use those shields to cross the minefield, right? The mines use both phaser blasts and shrapnel to shred ships, the professors shield can't handle either."

     I smiled at my crew and simply said four words, "I have a plan."

     The bridge of the ship was suddenly very silent. Tank, who was playing a game on one of the workstations looked up from his game with fear in his eyes before uttering in a small voice which strangely carried across the entire room,

     "Oh God! Not again! Not twice in one week!"