[1 Month later.]
As the shuttle left Miranda’s Hope station I looked back at its broken state. Our engineers managed to bring the station back up to an operational state right before my parents made me the head of the expansion department. In time the station would be brought back to its proper state, but work on the big carrier had to come first.
By combining the secret food stash my parents had built up over the years with the food General Thalia had prepared for the operation, we gained two precious months. One month was used to retrofit the big carrier into a mothership, which was relatively easy to do luckily as it had barely taken any damage during the battle. The other half would be used for the journey, leaving us with enough food for our trip to Pragia and back to Rafar without having to resort to rationing.
Many preparations had to be made during this month, but we managed to do it.
I could feel the shuttle’s landing gear deploy. Stepping out of the vehicle I saw the insides of the hangar bay of our new mothership the Indomitable. A tired-looking Talis greeted me. “Greetings, Captain Jason.” I nodded back with a smile “Greetings to you too Talis, how are you holding up?” She showed a tired smile. “The entire resource department now practically lives inside of our offices thanks to the amount of work that idea of yours has generated.” I grinned while raising an eyebrow. “So how many people invested?” Though she was tired her eyes still shone with excitement. “Estimates range around sixty to seventy-five percent of the entire population has invested. The department has noted however that most of our investors took out a loan.” I furrowed my brows. “So if we don’t succeed people will lose their savings.” Talis nodded. “Which gives us even more reason to succeed, with this extra capital we will be able to buy more goods from Pragia than expected.” I scratched my chin. “Talis I want you to Increase our food budget, we need all the food we can get our hands on from our friends at Pragia.”
Pragia isn’t that remarkable of a planet, however, it’s the only nearby system that is both able and willing to export any substantial amount of food. It was a good thing my parents had established good relations with them all those years ago. Food is the one thing Pragia has in abundance, as their world is blessed with farmland and plentiful oceans but lacks many minerals. With the dissolution of the trade alliance, they were quite willing to accept our new trade offer, they even threw in quite a few discounts to both compensate us for the amount of risk we were taking and to show us goodwill. It’s a good thing they don’t know about our corp failures though.
So now not only Rafar but also Pragia was counting on us. Failure meant a slow painful death for Rafar. But on the other end if this mission succeeded we would be able to buy time to not only recover but to also grow beyond our current sorry state.
We finished our talk and as we did Talis split off and headed off to the residence of our traders, diplomats, and other crew departments that are vital to establish future trade operations with Pragia. I soon made it to the bridge.
“Captain’s on deck!” Reported one of the soldiers as I came in, the bridge crew immediately stood up in salute. “At ease.” I ordered, and everyone went back to their assigned post. I looked over my shoulder at Belleran, who had now become the new head of my royal guard, and a reliable friend. Over the last month, he and a few other volunteers were trained and vetted extensively by Xander to achieve in his words “The minimum level.” For the first time in over seven years, I had my own royal guards again.
A young woman with freckles and brown curled hair walked up to me, she wore the new expansion department uniform, which held streaks of red, grey, and a few strands of yellow with the expansion department's risen fist emblem. “Ummm, my, my lord.” she stammered. “Hello Amanda. Still nervous?” She took a breath. “Well, it’s way easier talking to your prince when you're too worried about dying in space. And then after all of that, you suddenly get promoted to his second in command!” She looked like one of Rafar’s Warry Fish, where her head was constantly looking around for danger. “You’ll do fine Amanda,” I assured her. “Besides I’m a captain here not a royal.” Amanda gave me a shaky smile that did not inspire confidence. I sighed. Only so much you can do in a month I suppose.
I steeled my expression and walked over to my command post. “This is Command to all stations, report in.” Various channels began responding.
“This is Emanual from Communications. Command we hear you loud and clear and are ready to deliver your orders.”
“This is Chief Engineer Henry from Engineering and Maintenance, all systems are green and we are ready to work!”
“This is Security Chief Wigun from the Barracks, weapons are loaded and we’re ready to serve!”
“This is Military Commander Forick from the hangar, all combat craft are prepped and ready for launch.”
“This is Head researcher Elijah from Research & Development, all staff is ready to innovate.”
“This is Head Doctor Sarrah from Medical, we stand ready to treat all that ails us.”
“This is Quartermaster Bagrund from Logistics, all goods and crew are accounted for. We’re ready to make the big bucks.”
“This is Head Diplomat Talis from Foreign Relations, we stand ready to deliver the good word.”
Now that everyone was ready for takeoff I ordered Emanual to begin the short broadcast.
“Today marks the first of many voyages to come between us and our allies on Pragia. Together with my brothers and sisters on board the Indomitable we will open the way forward towards a new path of growth for us all.”
As the speech ended I got a private message from Talis reading. “Nice speech cap, even if it was a bit stiff. But we will work on that.” I stifled a groan, the last month had not been kind to my sleep or sanity, but her lessons will be necessary for the coming days.
“This is Command to all stations, we will initiate FTL jump in five minutes, be ready.” The Command Center began buzzing with life as my command was relayed to the various stations onboard the ship.
“Jason, a question if I may.” Asked Belleran.
“Of course.”
“What was the point of the speech? Doesn’t everyone already know that this was going to happen?”
“Ahh, well thanks to Talis’s lessons I can answer. First, we want to improve the morale of everyone involved in this operation both on and off the ship. The loss of the trade convoy was a major blow to everyone, so now even more pressure and expectations are laid upon us to make up for that loss. We want to keep morale high to take off some of the pressure on all sides. The second point is to assure our new investors on both Rafar and Pragia that everything’s on schedule, that way we can create a reputation for being reliable which will help with our future endeavors.”
Belleran nodded in understanding. “Mm makes sense.”
“One minute left till FTL.” Amanda’s voice echoed over the comms.
Hmm, maybe I have time to check if the chip is finally done processing my new arm. I should chec-
I began hugging my seat for dear life as reality began to compress and fold into itself, my senses went dark, and colors across time and space coalesced into a living breathing artwork, live itself began racing towards what felt as both the beginning and ends of time as we sling hosted ourselves across the void.
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*****
Sighs of relief went off all around me as we entered back into real space, where reality had mended itself back together again.
Looking over my shoulder I saw Belleran trying to stand on shaking legs. “I’d advise against standing for a few more minutes, your body is still unsure whether you are alive or not.”
You could train for many things, but FTL travel has to be experienced.
While Belleran and most of the other crew were busy trying to get their grip on reality back I inspected something I had been holding off on for a while now.
“Display chip repair status.”
[Chip Repair progress at 50%]
[Adminstration system function - [TACTICAL OVERVIEW] - Unlocked]
[The [TACTICAL OVERVIEW] Function allows the user to know and visualize each position of his subordinates that have been designated as military assets in any given space.]
[New blueprints for the construction system unlocked]
A list of blueprints quickly displayed themselves, most were too old to be of any use to us, but three of them stood out to me. I gave my next command. “Amanda please let Elijah and the R&D team know that I and Chief Engineer Henry will be coming over in the next few minutes to discuss some of their ongoing projects.” Amanda nodded and began relaying the orders to the communications center, at least to the ones that weren’t pouring the contents of their stomachs out.
“Display arm synchronization progress.”
[Arm synchronization progress at 100%]
[Arm integration with A.V. system complete.]
[The arm has access to all 3 A.V. sub-systems. If modified the arm can be used to strengthen existing functions and unlock new ones. Currently, the arm can be used as a local comms center by expanding the strength and range of the A.V. network. NOTE: The efficiency and power of these abilities depend on the hardware capabilities of the cybernetic arm.]
I got out of my chair and began to walk out of the command center, only stopping when my Royal Guard implored me to stop. “My lord, I can’t let you go unguarded, ugh…” Croaked a sickly-looking Belleran. “Belleran you and the rest of the royal guards should report to Medical first. Besides I doubt there is anyone here trying to kill me, and if they were they are probably experiencing same the pleasantness that you are called FTL sickness. So I’ll be fine.” Belleran tried to protest again but promptly had to stop as bile began coming up his throat.
Boy, am I glad that it’s only this bad on the first jump. If an enemy had showed up at our destination we’d be dead before firing our first shot.
As I navigated through the Indomintables corridors I soon met up with Henry, who was held upright by his fiance Linda. “Linda always a pleasure.” She gave a short nod. “Likewise Captain Jason.” Henry managed to ask a question between fits of throwing up. “How is it that you’re both still fine? Ugh..” I smirked extra sweetly at him. “Because I used to go on diplomatic trips with my parents, so I’ve been through it before, now you too get to experience it.” Linda looked a bit worried. “I don’t feel any side effects.” I looked her over, she didn’t show any erratic behavior or other known FTLS symptoms. “For the time being I wouldn’t worry about it. However I still want you to report to medical after helping me bring this guy over to R&D. Though rare some people do experience side effects at a later time, so it’s better to have you there in case something happens.” I took the other side of Henry and we began moving again towards R&D.
On the way there we encountered several crewmates, each with their own variety of FTL sickness. Most luckily were just throwing up their lunch, but there were a few who cradled themselves in a fetal position whilst rambling. I should give my regards to Doctor Muller later. “Should, should we help them?” Asked Linda. I shook my head. “Right now they are in a very volatile state. Until they somewhat recover their grasp on reality, there is no telling what they might when exposed to new stimuli.” She nodded and we moved on, eventually reaching R&D where most crewmates had since left for Medical from the looks of it. Linda left with a crewmate I called to escort her to Medical in case a side effect did happen on the way there.
“Ah Jason, a pleasure to see you again after such a long time.” Said Head Researcher Elijah, his familiar dreadlocks and relaxed attitude made him stand out from the usually stoic researcher crowd. I took his hand and shook it. “Likewise Elijah, I hope you like the new place I arranged for you and your team.” he smiled. “It is most excellent. You have me and my teams thanks for arranging it. The same goes for you and your team Henry, for finishing our facility on such a tight deadline.” Henry gave a quick thumbs up as he took some medicine to alleviate some of the sickness.
“Alright, then gentleman, with the pleasantries out of the way it is time to discuss work. Let’s start with the projects you’ve been working on and then we will move on to some new projects I have for the both of you. ”They both nodded. “First off what’s the status of the EMP cannon project?” Elijah fiddled with his lab coat and pushed up his glasses, which usually meant bad news. “Unfortunately the progress on downscaling the cannon for smaller ships is still quite slow. My team and I remain optimistic that it can be done, but we cannot say when.” I looked over at Henry who shook his head. “Engineering has been unable to provide much help to R&D on that front as we have been occupied with working on the ship’s many retrofitting operations, however, we did make sure that the EMP cannon is fully functional should we need it.”
“Okay, that’s good. Elijah, how is Project FROST coming along?” Elijah just sighed. “We’ve been working hard on that, however, the heating systems we are working on are still insufficient to support a mining colony on Ameria. And I’d take way too long for us to find a solution to it I’m afraid.” I grimaced. “Well I knew it was a long shot going in, but if progress is that bad then we have to switch priorities. Project Frost will be put on hold for now, instead, I want you to work on another project I have in the works called ASTRA.”
I sent over the details as I began explaining. “Project ASTRA or Autonomous, Space, Terrain, Resource, Acquisition is focused on turning the construction drones into a larger mining variant that we can use to extract ore from asteroids. The end goal will be to acquire the materials we need to repair Miranda station and then to grow our fleet and orbital defenses. Besides that, we will also be able to acquire fresh water if we’re lucky by mining the ice found in some asteroids.” at the mention of fresh water the two men’s eyes began looking serious and so I pushed on. “If you two can manage this I will personally see to it that you both get the first batch of fresh water.” They nodded. “Good, now onto the new projects I mentioned.”
Henry got excited. “Got any more goodies for us like those construction drones? Like a battlecruiser blueprint?” I shook my head with a sigh. “Even if I did I wouldn’t give them to you. You would wreak havoc on us all.” Henry looked affronted. “What? Jason, when was the last time I ever messed something up?” I raised an eyebrow. “There was that time you nearly blew yourself up because you wanted to give Linda a bike?” Henry began whistling innocently. “Hey, stuff happens. Sometimes it’s out of my control.” I gave him a straight look. “Most people don’t try to weaponize their toaster into a heat ray either.” Henry took a theatric pose as he covered his face with his hand. “Alas, most folks lack my spark of creativity!” Elijah snorted.
After a brief moment of more jokes, we got back on track. I sent over the new blueprints I got from the A.V. chip.
Henry’s eyes nearly burst out of his sockets.“Holy shit Jason. Are these schematics for an exo suit!?” Elijah looked confused. “I’m sorry but I don’t get it. What do you want us to do with this century’s old tech? Even our fixed-up atmospheric suits are better than this.” Henry turned to Elijah. “We can use this to make our own atmospheric suits! For a long time, we’ve been stuck with fixing up ones we could buy or scavenge, but with this, we now have a foundation to work off!”
I nodded “I don’t want anyone else on Rafar to nearly end up dead like my parents by using old suits, that there is something else I’ve been thinking about. During the pirate attack, they boarded Miranda station, back then we couldn’t risk pushing them back as aggressively without losing our own. If we had some of our own exo-war suits like those in the Union have then we could have ended the fight earlier, both on the station and on the ship we now occupy.”
Henry nodded thoughtfully.“Agreed, so I’m guessing these suits have to be mass-producible, any other requirement?” I thought about it. “If possible I want the suits to use a modular system, if we can use modules then we can repurpose the suits to be used in construction work, war, or anything else that we might require, whilst also being easily repairable by virtue of just replacing modules.” We went over some other stuff but soon called the meeting done.
The next two weeks flew by in a flurry of activity, and soon we exited from FTL into Pragian space.