“So can you make the Empress come around more often? I like it when she’s here.” Kitty says, reminding me more and more of a teenager every time she speaks.
“You and I both know I can make her do anything,” I reply, welcoming the distraction from the materiel bills for the moon bases I’m reviewing. Actually, one’s a dwarf planet that has frozen hydrocarbon snow. Imagine being able to scoop fuel off the ground. “Besides, she has work and projects to do. If she’s not messaging you back, she’s definitely in a project or working for the Matrix.”
“She works for the Matrix?! That’s soo cool!” Oh, Andromeda, what have I done.
“Maybe don’t spread that around? It was probably a secret.”
“Don’t worry, I know many secrets, but unlike you I can keep them.”
Listen here you little shit, is what I want to say, but think better of it. She would probably like to see how many times I would say it after that. If she weren’t so annoying, I might actually like her.
Oh, I am definitely going to tell her that.
Damnit Kip!! His tittering laughter echoes in my brain.
Back to work, Mik, need to get this approved and back to Darcy. The building structure with basic utilities was only 50k for one with a hangar with one floor above ground and four below. Barracks for 50, staterooms and offices, machining space, and all of that included. Furnishings, equipment, air and water production facilities, and gravity plates walked in 200k credits. I almost have an aneurysm at the price of the air and water production enchantments, but they are making it out of thin aether. It all looks great, too good to be true, honestly, until I see the list of possible antennae, shuttles, and recreation facilities that are available.
The list of electronic warfare mods to our communications array is absolutely mind boggling. I didn’t know what even half of them were designed to do, even after Rickman explained it to me. He recommended that the very least we should have is a long-range relay, a distributed receiver and a shield energy synch modulator.
It brings me to the crew quarters yet again today to ask him about it.
“I’m sorry Sergeant, but I’ve got antennae and shuttles left to get through. I send ahead the other stuff so that they can get started, but Darcy says a few of these options need to be set with the building.”
“Yes, the distributed receiver needs more power, ground cables and a more robust server room than are in the basic model, otherwise, the rest of the addons would be fine, assuming you don’t want to be able to blow up someone else’s comms gear from half a system away.”
“I’m going to say no on offensive capabilities for now.”
He nods, “Well, the distributed array will let us mimic a larger dish for sending and receiving transmissions. Which allows us to hear farther.”
“Which doesn’t do much for us in developing threats, as much of that signal will take six hours to get here.”
“Normally, yes. However, with the aether-based shield synch modulator, we can bypass energy shields to access the shipboard ansible as an FLT comms relay and get our signals that way.”
“I don’t hear any downsides to this, Sergeant, what am I missing.”
He sighs, probably frustrated that I don’t speak communications suites. “It’s very pricey, it doesn’t work well against ships with powerful or complex shielding such as diplomatic transports or military vessels, and finally, it can’t intercept point to point communications that use anything at or above the visible light spectrum and IR is iffy.”
Is it wrong that that sounds perfect? “Thanks for the info, and your time.” I turn and leave back to the forward spaces. Converting my though process to shuttles is quick, as they interest me and I have a lot more experience with them. Darcy listed everything from atmospheric transport to ‘ask the Empress’ versions of warp shuttles. Will not be doing the last one, because there is no need for a shuttle that capable to service this station. I do like the idea of having one warp capable shuttle for Darcy and Rob to hop around in, so I send a note to Penny to see if she’d repurposed my old shuttle yet. In the end I settle on ground to space shuttles with aether-based vortex thrusters and base level energy shields for debris and re-entry.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Feeling proud of myself for completing a complex task that I didn’t want to do, I find a little square of chocolate, made from cocoa grown on Elysium. It’s a burst of flavor and aether that can only be rivaled by the Galaxy Fruit grown by the V’tek Collective.
I met with the Representative Individual V’tek’clor a few years ago on an investigation on why the Collective took hostile action on Apple Jack. They came in their big biotech ship, forcibly evacuated like twenty farms burned the vegetation to the ground and baked the land for five days to ensure absolutely every trace of their stolen trees and the tech to keep them alive was eradicated. I later found out that they tilled the land afterward and seeded it with microorganisms from land nearby and rebuilt the houses they destroyed. Apparently what the thieves and smugglers stole from them is widely regarded as an act of War. Penny had told them to ‘avoid killing any Users and I don’t have a problem with it.’
If you are finished with your treat and a recount of your sphincter making a diamond, you are being messaged by the Captain of Kismet.
“Kitty, can this be a video conference?”
“Yep. You want it overlayed on the viewport?” She replies. Is my ship trying out new tones of voice? Interesting.
“Please and thanks.”
“Good afternoon, Captain. To what do I owe this pleasure?” I ask, still lounging in my pilot’s chair.
“Your communique regarding the security forces for the research stations were not very descriptive. The signal jammer you included is deployable, not portable, and it takes at least three, preferably five people to set it up.”
“Oh, that is an excellent reason for a call. Then I need to borrow five people and the deployable device for like two and a half weeks. I’ll come to you, obviously.”
His expression blanks for a moment, obviously processing something. I bet it’s how underdeveloped my plan is.
“You mean to say, you are going to pick up four Marines per station, five Navy personnel plus equipment to add to the eleven people already on your fighter?”
Is that unrealistic? “Uh, I was only thinking two or at most three Marines per station, eight hour watches with Sergeant reviewing flagged signal traffic from my fighter. Kitty, how many bunks do we have onboard?”
“Twenty, Marshal. We are outfitted for an additional fifteen with cots in the hold.”
“We could load the gear onto a shuttle and dock and lock it to the hull. Then the five extra people can decide where they want to sleep. Any problems, Captain.”
“We only deployed with two shuttles to load your fighter as well. It will limit our capabilities, specifically for interdictions whilst having people ashore, but for three weeks, we can manage.” I’ve come to recognize the distasteful grimace he wears when I’m giving him an order he should follow. The Empress put us in a weird spot for who should listen to whom when, so I respect the sense of duty the man has.
“Excellent. We’ll be there in a few hours with the intent of leaving after breakfast tomorrow.”
“A point of query for this deployment, do you expect honors when you arrive?”
Involuntary disgust hits me, “Eew, no. I expect accommodation and consideration. I do not want people to stop what they’re doing or anything stupid when I arrive.”
His face changes again, though I can’t place the emotion. I like to have a good read on people, but even after ten years, people’s emotions and motivations are more complex than I have the effort to figure them out. Much the shame as it makes me a terrible socialite.
With a goodbye, he cuts the link and I groan into the cockpit. “You’d think that with a position like Marshal, I would learn to tolerate people more.”
“Maybe some grit and some age lines and people would respect you more.” Kitty says and I know she’s right.
“That’s what I don’t get. I’ve been around this sector for ten years, doing this job and I’ve built a reputation for mostly slapping smugglers on the wrist and wallet and killing pirates. Most of the respect jumps out of the window when they meet me. And the Captain, I know he respects the Empress, despite her looks and demeanor, but why not me?”
“Both of those questions are not difficult ones.” Kitty states, seeming to pause before going into explain mode. I wave her on to continue. “Mick Solari has a reputation. Your reputation with a traditionally male name might lead people to a weathered lawman. Then someone that looks androgenous at best shows up looking as though they’re in their mid twenties? That’s a recipe for confusion. It could be useful if you use surprise to your advantage, but you likely have done that in the past.”
“Ugh, I know. But how do I reconcile that with who I am? Don’t answer that. Do answer the Captain thing.” I slump farther and shove my hands into my pockets.
“He was a Lieutenant on the bridge of Mab during the fleet engagement with the Herrat. He saw the Empress turn the tide with a fighter and big magic. You don’t throw your aether around, and your abilities aren’t on record. There are rumors of healing skills and gun skills, but that’s it.”
I smile at that. Good, I don’t want people knowing that I can absorb Talents and Skills. My tier 2 upgrade tweaked my Jack of All Track to Adaptive Survivalist and changed my universe with the absorptive Talent.
“Was that your way of low-key asking about my Track, little Kitty?”
“Ugh, no. I was telling you why you’re not feared and respected. I can see why people don’t like dealing with you.”
Uh, what? Did I say something?
She’s trying to learn more about you and you embarrassed her.
Teenager in ship form. Keep that in your head Mik, teenager in ship form. I do want her to like me, but the only two people I know that like me because of who I am, not in spite of it, are Penny and Camile.