> "GHN SenateBeat reporter Tamurlayne Kesh joins us from the Atrium of the Senate with an update to a story we've been following. Tami?"
>
> "Gerin, today the Chair of the Select Subcommittee on Spacelane Navigation, Senator Lo-Cass of the Lantillian Sector announced a crackdown on the piracy and smuggling that have plagued the Mid Rim portion of The Slice for years, and which has seen a dramatic increase in recent months. The senator's office released the outline of the committee's nine-point plan, which begins with the appointment of a commission to study the issues and recommend a plan to address them. The statement read in part, 'with the formation of this commission, the Senate has taken a bold step forward in combating the scourge of piracy and smuggling that threatens peaceful commerce and puts dangerous drugs and weapons on our streets.' Gerin?"
>
> "Tami, what can you tell us about this new form of Spice that led Senator Lo-Cass to take this action?"
>
> "As you and our viewers know, Gerin, Lo-Cass's womb spouse, who also served as the senator's Chief of Staff, was murdered five months ago. The grisly crime reportedly included what authorities described as 'manual decapitation' of the victim. The alleged perpetrator is awaiting trial, but his defense advocate has stated that her client lacks the physical strength to rip a being's head from its body, as has been alleged. Experts warn that this new Spice variant is highly addictive, but caution that reports of users experiencing spontaneous psychotic rages and demonstrating extraordinary strength have yet to be verified. Despite that, reports of similar crimes have been on the rise since this new Spice, known as Breeze, hit the streets a little over a year ago.
>
> "Reporting from the Senate Atrium, this is Tamurlayne Kesh. Back to you, Gerin."
-Gerin Dinnat and Tamurlayne Kesh
Galactic HoloNews "New Day Republic" broadcast
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41:03:11 GrS
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Taz rented space in a self-service maintenance bay and arranged to have the Skipjack moved there. After breakfast he and Rei began a detailed examination of the ship.
At a hair over thirty-three meters, it was half again as long as its very distant cousin, Allegra's Heart. Just past the ramp were four rectangular outlines in reflective orange tape on the deck plates. Large block letters inside each spelled out: Emergency Escape.
"Life pods?"
"Most likely," agreed Reiko.
They headed to the cockpit. Taz slid into the pilot's seat and grasped the control yoke. It was similar to the one on Allegra. He was glad for that; the learning curve wouldn't be too steep. For a newer pilot like him, that was a big plus.
He threw the hyperspace motivator levers just to feel the weight of the metal in his hands. A thrill went through him. My own ship. Well, ours. "You think she'll like it?"
Reiko sat beside him and began running a systems check. She activated the ship's computer and pulled up the maintenance records. "Lyra? Yeah, I think she will." She smiled at his look of delight. "The two of you seem to be doing well."
"We are. I just wish... she'd be honest with herself."
"She spent years feeling angry and isolated, then we plucked her away from everything she knew. She's still getting her feet under her. You just need to give her time, Taz. You know how she feels about you, right?"
Taz frowned. "I think so. She won't say it, though."
"She's afraid," Rei quietly offered.
"Afraid?" His heart thudded hard against his ribcage.
"Of how good you make her feel." She glanced at him. "Don't tell her I told you."
Taz gave her a thoughtful look. "Thanks, Rei-grasha." He leaned back, studying the bank of switches and knobs above the seats. "I can be patient, I think."
"I know you can," Reiko said sweetly. "Love is like that."
Taz felt his cheeks burn. "You, Reiko Hudson, have the soul of an imbinish."
"Hey, don't call me an old woman!"
"A wise woman," Taz corrected with a grin.
"Wise, wizened," Rei dismissed the distinction while she ran more diagnostics. "Still means old."
"Well, Filvians do like to layer meanings into their vocabulary, don't they?" They shared a chuckle. Taz ran his hands over the panels that looked as though they hadn't seen much use. "Gotta say, she's in decent shape. How old do you think she is?"
Reiko tapped at the keyboard. "According to the logs her primary systems were initialized about ten years ago. She's practically brand new."
"Not much wear," Taz agreed. "Maybe she just sat in a berth somewhere."
"Could be." Reiko scrolled through the display. "If she's an experimental model she might not have even flown that much." She screwed up her mouth, looking quizzical. "I wonder how she got here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well this is a tax auction, right?"
"Plus bankruptcies, forfeitures, and second-hand sales."
"Companies like CEC build all kinds of prototypes that never make it into production. Usually they're just scrapped or put into storage and forgotten. They don't sell them and I doubt CEC's defaulting on tax payments."
"Good point. Stolen?"
"Maybe. Or someone at CEC got their hands on it some other way." Reiko smiled. "She's a mystery ship!"
Taz grinned back and flipped some switches, reviewing the systems. "Commercial-grade comms but there's an encryption module, even a HoloNet transceiver." He manipulated more controls. "Fabritech long-range sensors and a decent targeting system, though I'll bet the sensor clusters and ranging lasers need to be aligned."
Reiko activated the servo-turret controls. "Turbolasers on top... They're Incom models," she noted, her eyebrows going up. "Not really legal for a civilian ship. Funny they didn't mention that in the auction listing."
"Maybe they didn't know... or they did know and they didn't want to scare off any buyers. After all once the deal's done, the legal issues belong to the new owner."
"The cryo system's been upgraded so the fire rate should be better than stock, but they'll draw a ton of power."
"How much?"
"Probably the entire output of one reactor?" she guessed. "Enough to blow the power buses if you're not careful." She paged through more screens. "Looks like whoever installed them had the same thought. There's a baffle circuit that limits output to sixty percent of maximum. That would make them about as powerful as Allegra's primary guns, with lots of extra kick if you need it."
"Sounds useful as long as we don't get caught up in a detailed inspection."
"You'd be looking at a big fine, even prison time." She shot him a worried look. "What do you want to do?"
"We could replace them. Or get her registered with the DSF auxiliary fleet like Allegra," Taz proffered, scratching his cheek.
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Rei nodded agreement. "We'll need Kalli's help for that, so it'll have to wait until we hook up with Allegra."
Taz made a lopsided grin. "Guess we'll just have to keep off the Republic's sensors until then." He slaved the turret to his control yoke and moved it around. Parallel grids drawn in amber appeared against a red field on the targeting display. "The traverse rate is good."
Rei moved the grips on her control column and frowned. "The ventral turret has a pair of CoMar ion cannons but it's not responding. I'll need to take a look at that."
"Are the guns active?"
Reiko nodded. "They need to be charged, but the diagnostics check out."
"Two multi-purpose launchers under our feet." He tapped the floor plates with his boot. "One missile's loaded in each but the magazines can hold more." Taz went to the station behind the co-pilot. "Hmm, just gunnery controls here."
"Oh, that's an easy fix. I can set up that station like Allegra, with sensor and engineering controls."
He checked the wall panel next to the jump seat. "Life support, main computer, and circuit bank over here." Taz smiled at her over his shoulder. "Enjoying yourself, aren't you?"
She answered with an eager nod. "There aren't a lot of things I like more than digging into a ship's systems, especially an odd one like the Skipjack, here. What's a skipjack, anyway?"
"Hell if I know. Gotta come up with a better name."
"You don't like it?"
Taz shrugged. "I don't not like it but it feels like it's... missing something. What did you call the ship? When we saw it yesterday, I mean."
"A chimera."
"That's it," he said, snapping his fingers. "The Chimera." Taz scratched his chin. "Or maybe Chimera Skipjack."
"Skipjack Chimera?" Rei returned.
"Oh that's better, Rei-grasha." Taz took the BoSS datapad from its docking slot on the panel between the pilot and co-pilot stations. The stark black and white logo of the Bureau of Ships and Services appeared on the screen, then dissolved to show the list of entries. He tapped Registration, then filled out the new name. When it prompted him for payment, he swiped his KTS line-of-credit chip over the sensor. "There. Skipjack Chimera it is." Taz replaced the pad in its slot and gave Reiko a big grin.
"Want to check out the holds?"
"Sure," he answered. At the back of the cockpit he stopped beside a locker with a stout door. He pressed his thumb to the scanner panel and looked into the camera to record his biometrics. There was a confirmation beep and the door popped open. "Arms locker. Plenty of room, too."
"Sera-sha would have that filled up in a heartbeat," Reiko noted, grinning madly.
"She does like her guns," he agreed.
"Like you don't," quipped the engineer.
Taz couldn't do anything but smile and shrug his shoulders. On the opposite wall was a taller, unsecured locker with a pair of EVA suits and some repair tools. The suits were sized for a smaller humanoid, about Rei's size. Taz made a mental note to buy some new ones.
They walked out of the cockpit. A few meters down the tunnel were facing doors to the cargo holds. They opened onto a short set of steps. The spacious bays were roughly triangular, following the contour of the wedge-shaped hull. Matching panels on the wall and near the external bay door controlled a tractor beam and containment field.
Reiko smiled. "You'll be able to do cargo transfers in space."
"Or pull in salvages. Lyra'll like that."
Rei walked forward and rapped on the interlocking slats that formed the rolling cargo door. "These are quadranium. It's dense but tough. Expensive too." Reiko manipulated the switches and knobs. "The bay has full environmental controls—Pressure, temperature, even gravity." She pointed to fittings on the walls. "Those are for atmospheric gas canisters. You'd be able to transport livestock and provide habitable conditions for a pretty big range of species. We can't do that with Allegra unless we put a lot of work into her."
"Good to know. It expands our mission envelope."
They checked the opposite hold which was the mirror image of the starboard one, right down to the tractor and environmental controls. This one wasn't empty, though. Five standard one-meter cargo cubes littered the floor. Taz and Rei opened them and found all but one empty. It was full of packing cartons with colorful labels that read:
Simple Moments
Red Lantis Tea
Nujuv Importers
"Red lantis tea. Ever heard of it?"
"Can't say I have," Reiko answered. "What's it doing on an experimental freighter?"
Taz shrugged and pointed near the broad cargo door. "Maybe the same thing as those two speeder bikes?" A pair of the vehicles sat on the floor, folded into compact bundles about half the size of the cargo containers.
"Aratech two-seaters." Reiko pressed a blinking button and the bike transformed, its control pod unfolding with a loud hum while the control vanes extended into place.
Taz opened the other one, a surprised grin crowding his face. "What do you know, they're both operational." He grabbed the stabilizer struts and gave them a good shake to see if there was any play. Each one was tipped with a blaster muzzle. "I think the Empire used these before the Seventy-four-Zeds came along." He pressed the button to stow the speeder again.
"That's a nice bonus."
"Yeah, and something else I wouldn't have expected on an experimental ship. The vac-suits, heavy guns, these speeders, the tea... Somebody was using her."
Rei nodded, tight-lipped. "No way they were pirates or smugglers unless they were neat freaks."
They left the bay and continued aft into a common lounge that was dominated by a big table with seating for eight, and a sofa snug against the wall. A counter with four stools fronted the galley at the back. A big door opened into the engineering section and there were two double-bunk passenger berths that could squeeze in a third person on a small sofa.
Behind a door on the right they found the captain's cabin, It was nearly the size of the two passenger cabins combined, with a double bed and an en-suite refresher and toilet. There was even a long transparisteel skylight window under an armored shutter.
"Cozy," Taz approved.
"Lyra'll love it. She's a nester."
"A nester? Really?"
"Mm hmm."
"What makes you say that?"
Rei gave him a solicitous grin. "Women know these things about each other, Taz. She'll have it decorated before you know it."
He spent some time looking around while Rei checked one of the passenger cabins. Taz poked his head into the refresher, then looked over his shoulder wearing a huge smile. "Water shower!" he exclaimed.
"They're in the passenger berths too. Lucky!" Rei answered from across the lounge. Their shared heritage as desert-worlders meant they had a nearly genetic-level appreciation for such luxuries.
Taz stopped at the open medbay and made a thorough examination. It was was about the size of the one they'd installed on Allegra's Heart. "Looks pretty standard for non-emergent care." He scratched his chin. "I'll need to do something about that."
Reiko smiled at the medtech. "Want me to find another IM droid for you?"
Taz chuckled. "We'll see. I'd like to enclose the bay and add a bacta tank if I can find one."
"You can probably buy that from the merchants here."
"Yeah. Might have to use Lyra's credits." He glanced at the engineer, eyes pinched. "Where d'you think she got all that money from? She said it was savings from work but..."
"We haven't made anything like that kind of profit yet. You don't suppose she's secretly a wealthy heiress, do you? Or maybe she's leading a double life and she's a crime boss!"
Taz laughed with her. "I'm pretty sure she's not a gangster but she hasn't really said much about her family apart from Allegra and her parents."
"My father used to talk about how prestigious the Aargau bank is. Trusts are held there for important people, Taz."
"She's private about a lot of things," Taz admitted. "Sometimes I think she just wants to forget about that part of her life."
"Mmm... Maybe she's just focused on looking forward, not back."
"Maybe." He drew a breath and put on a smile. "Come on, let's check the rest of the ship."
Tunnels led away from the common area to the left and right. They'd come in from the starboard side so they went down the port tunnel. Instead of a docking ring and airlock they found a 6-seat escape pod. Taz looked inside the emergency craft. The padded wall panels and bench seats showed some wear, but everything looked in working order. "I suppose the ship doesn't need two docking rings."
"CEC made these modular so you could swap out the escape pod for another airlock and docking ring if you wanted."
Taz shrugged. "If we're taking charters they'll appreciate having it."
They walked back to the engineering section, crammed with machinery and consoles. Reiko scaled a ladder at the back and popped the hatch. "No airlock but there's a docking pylon and clamp up here. Maybe to carry a little shuttle or a ship's boat."
She slid back down the ladder, went to one of the panels, and started flipping switches. "The primaries are Girodyne vectored ion drives, but the two on top of the hull are GJ-Five turbines. They work in a vacuum but they're optimized for atmospheric flight. Strange choice, don't you think?" She manipulated the controls some more. "Hyperdrive looks good." A few more taps and she exclaimed, "Ooh, it's a class one!"
"What were you expecting?"
"For a one-off experimental ship? Class three or four, I guess." Reiko went to the hyperdrive which extended from the floor plates and had a mass of conduits that disappeared into the wall a meter above her head. She ran her hand along the pumps and pipes, looking perplexed.
"Something wrong?" Taz asked as he looked over the compact machine shop and repair bay. There was a droid charging station just to the side.
"I'm not sure." She peered at a piece of machinery that sat between the fuel lines and the drive systems. It had a spiral body that looked a little like a Fasemian snailcrab shell. "I don't think I've seen one of these before."
"What is it?"
"That's just it; I don't really know." She stretched up on her toes, shining her torch to see if she could find any kind of identifier, part number, or manufacturer.
Taz shrugged. "Maybe this ship is some kind of testbed for new tech the CEC big brains thought up?"
"That would explain the atmospheric engines and whatever this thing is." Reiko tapped the dense plasteel, eliciting a flat metallic noise. "With the fast hyperdrive and the other upgrades, it might have been somebody's vanity project, too."
Think it'll cause a problem?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. I'll study the schematics, see if I can figure out what it does." Reiko looked past the bulky hyperdrive to the starboard side of the compartment. "The machine shop's small but it looks like it has everything you'll need to make repairs underway."
"Everything except a top-flight engineer like you."
Reiko slapped his chest with the back of her hand. "I charge reasonable rates, you know."
They finished inspecting the engines after a half hour of contortions to get through the cramped internal accessways, then returned to the cockpit. Taz slid into the pilot's seat, flipped switches, and checked the readouts. "Most of the consumables are empty; hyperfuel, tibanna, nitrox, water," he started ticking off the items. "I'll have to see about getting resupplied. But first I'm going to check all the systems against the diagnostics and inspect the other maintenance spaces. After a few years in storage who knows what might be inside this thing?"
At the gunner's station Reiko laughed and rummaged in her tool pouch, finally pulling out a data stick. "I have all my work from Allegra. I'll get started reconfiguring this."
"Thanks, Rei-aktuu, you're a gem!"