Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework (39 page)

“We can’t afford it. We owe the Carthans,
Patrizia Salustri, and we need more money than ever if we want to
get the Triton in any kind of shape. We even need more people, so
you have to start doing what you promised: taking it from the
Order.”

Minh-Chu approached her from the side and
took a step back as soon as he caught a glimpse of her expression.
“Whoa, what did I just step in on?”

“I’m ordering Captain Valent to call his
crew back and depart as scheduled,” Ayan said.

“It’s a day,” Minh said with a shrug. “Most
of the people around here worked through their last day off,
this’ll make up for it. Besides, we need a little time to sort
things out now that we’ve got the Triton back.”

Ayan’s frustration was beginning to heat
into anger. “We don’t have the Triton, Minh. We have a beaten hulk
that probably won’t be safe for months, and it won’t be in full
fighting shape for years. We have an expensive construction project
that we haven’t judged objectively because we’re afraid of even
considering the idea that letting it go might be best for everyone.
That’s not even the immediate problem. We need to fund ourselves,
to find equipment that isn’t even for sale, we need more qualified
people, and we need ships.”

She turned to Jake, who was staring at her
with his arms crossed. “We need you to get to work, Captain. You
put me in charge when we got here, and now I’m giving you an order:
lift off and show us what you can do, or stop giving speeches about
piracy and war.”

Ayan turned and pushed Jenny out of the way
as she strode for her shuttle. “Get me to the Medical Centre. I’m
just burning to find out how the Carthans plan to waste my time
now.”

* * *

“Charging frames twelve to fourteen!”
shouted a mechanic from underneath the Warlord. The message was
repeated on proximity radio, and dozens of people sealed their
vacsuits in response. Jake and Minh didn’t bother, they were
outside of the danger radius, but they watched from the broad
opening in the hangar door.

“Are you going to listen to her?” Minh-Chu
asked.

“I’d rather take a day,” Jake said. The
middle section of the Warlord’s hull was hooked up to over a
hundred power feeds, and it was wrapped in a vacuum seal.
Technicians checked the seal one last time before charging the
outer hull. “There’s too much going on. We just decided to start
transferring to the Triton tomorrow, and a few of our crew could
use a day on firm ground without working their asses off.”

“I think it's grief,” Minh said. “Her logic
pilot is fully engaged.” He flinched as a powerful hum filled the
air. The lights in the hangar dimmed and finally went out as the
Warlord’s ergranian hull was charged and was turned into a hardened
surface, along with a metallic slurry under the vacuum wrap.

“Logic pilot?” Jake asked as the charging
stopped.

“Making the logical decisions and running
through her day like an AI-free robot,” Minh said.

Mechanics started running scans on the
middle of the Warlord from every direction. Jake didn’t bother
scanning from a distance; they’d know whether the work on the hull
was complete in a moment. “That’s dead on, I think. I want to be
there when she needs me,” Jake said. “But she’s right. We started
hiring at the gate today, we’re going to need everything from ships
to cash to food. Most of the materializers we brought down with us
from the Triton are burned out or broken down, and no one has
parts.”

“Manage to grab any of the working ones for
the Warlord?” Minh-Chu asked.

“One, but it’s on its last legs. Finn can
machine parts, but the raw materials are just like everything else
we need for machines from the Triton – rare and expensive.”

“Speaking of which, is Ashley coming with us
for the Warlord’s maiden voyage?”

“Nice,” Jake said, smiling for the first
time that day. “She’s still on the Triton with Oz. She’s signed up
as the Warlord’s pilot, so she’ll be aboard. You square things with
Paula?”

“No,” Minh replied. “Why?”

“Because she’s coming this way,” Jake
said.

A surge of cheering echoed across the hangar
as the technicians, mechanics, and labourers celebrated the
completion of the Warlord’s outer hull. Shamus Frost slid down a
catwalk ladder near the front of the hangar and started walking
towards Jake, grinning from ear to ear. “Can’t believe we managed
it,” he said. “The Warlord’s got all his armour, and it’s almost as
pure as the stuff we grew it from. Maybe a point three percent
difference. Took twice as long as it would have if we were in
orbital dry dock, but you work with what you have.”

“That’s the truth,” Jake replied.

He could hear Paula telling Minh: “I should
have seen it when we were still on the Triton, but I cared about
you too much.”

“Seen what?” Minh-Chu asked.

“That you’re just like every other man,
preferring slut over substance. You can have her! She’s the doll of
the fleet! How can I compete with that? I just wish you broke it
off with me earlier.”

“I did!” Minh-Chu replied. “You ignored
me!”

“Whatever! You better hope things work out
with miss curves-and-no-nerve though, because while you’re out
there, I’ll be down here telling all the women what kind of an
asshole you really are. I should have known better than to get
horizontal with an escaped mental patient!” she shouted the last so
loudly that it echoed.

Frost’s laughter almost matched in volume
and intensity. “Escaped mental patient?”

“Oh, and I’m pregnant,” Paula added.

Frost was surprised for a moment, then
laughed so hard he had to steady himself on Jake’s arm.

“It’s not mine, we never-“ Minh-Chu started
to argue.

“I know, It’s Jaime’s. I’m keeping it.”

“Joyboy?” Minh asked.

“Yeah! I’ve been cheating on you and you
never even noticed even though it’s right there on Crewcast!”

Jake was having a hard time keeping his
mirth under wraps as Frost looked like he was about to either fall
over or start hyperventilating or both. “Easy, there, Chief,” he
said with a chortle. He caught a glimpse of a thin smile growing
across Minh-Chu’s face. It was an expression Jake had seen only
when Minh was arguing with one of his sisters.

“I wish you and Joyboy the best of luck. I
hope you have quintuplets,” Minh said.

Paula stared at him agape for a long moment
then spun on her heel and marched back towards the launch area.

“Thank God I’m not serving on the Triton,”
Minh-Chu said. “She’ll need a few weeks to cool down.”

“Escaped mental patient?” Frost said, wiping
his eyes. “That’s a story I have got to hear.”

“When we’re in transit,” Jake said. “Change
of plans, we leave in two hours.”

Frost only looked mildly surprised as he
nodded. “Aye. Destination?”

“The Schengal System,” Jake replied.

“We’re not going after Edward?” Frost asked
in a whisper. “I thought we’d track him then take down a freighter
on our way out. Unless he’s bought his way out of the slums.”

“We need cash more than we need that
detour,” Jake said. “Besides, not even Jason has been able to link
him with Wheeler. It’ll keep until we know more. I doubt he can
trade his way out of the Low Zones.”

“Then cash it is,” Frost said. “But if he
stays in the Low Z too long, the streets might kill him before we
get there.”

“I’ll take that chance. If it were Wheeler,
Thurge, or Burke, it would be a different story.”

“Glad to hear it. Wish I had contacts here,
we’d already have Burke.”

“I’m passing my orders to Stephanie now,”
Jake said.

“What’s in the Schengal System?” Minh-Chu
asked.

“Someone we should meet up with if we’re
going to find out the major routes around here. It’s a good place
to test our switching transponder system and a few other things
too.”

“Sounds interesting,” Minh-Chu said.

“I hear it’s one of the strangest worlds in
the sector,” Jake replied. “But the good news is that it’s a Visi
planet.”

“Another mega-corp?” Minh asked.

“Nope, one of the more interesting races in
this sector. Humans aren’t much better than rim weasels to them,
but they like our commerce system. Captain Berkovitz has given them
my name, so we’ll be good to land there and do some business while
we look for a good mark. It’s a neutral port, should be
interesting.”

“The Order doesn’t have a big presence
there?” Minh asked.

Jake started walking towards the Warlord.
Technicians were removing the vacuum sealer from the middle of the
hull. It was coming down like a heavy tarpaulin bandage from the
gleaming grey metal. “They do, but they’re only allowed to have so
many ships in the area. The Visi don’t care much for religion, and
they have the firepower to make the Order think twice about
invading. They use void bombs.”

“Ah, that’ll keep anyone in line,” Minh-Chu
said.

One of the Warlord’s main gangways started
lowering slowly, the twenty one centimetres of armour becaming
visible as it passed down in front of them. “Clear!” shouted a
technician who looked around before hitting a release that let the
heavy ramp drop with a thunderous impact.

Jake started walking up the gangway and was
confronted by the technician, an older woman with light grey eyes.
“Sorry about that, Sir, the lowering mechanism can’t handle the
full weight of the armour so we have to drop the gangway or it’ll
rip apart.”

“Plan on fixing that?” Jake asked.

“Aye, the very next thing on my list,” she
replied. “Parts are being machined now.”

“Good, carry on.”

“Yes, Sir,” she said, walking towards the
machine shop at the rear of the hangar.

“I’m glad I’m coming,” Minh said.

Jake couldn’t help but linger on the thought
of leaving Ayan so soon. She was an amazing woman, and could take
care of herself, but she just lost a long time friend. Laura was a
friend to him as well, the first of the First Light crew he'd met.
“I only wish we could spend more time here before we get this
started. There’s a hole in our ranks.”

Minh shook his head sympathetically. “I wish
I knew her better. Laura always seemed…” he thought for a moment
and sighed. “Jason must be hurting. If I knew him better or had
more time...”

“Oz plans on getting him up on the Triton. I
think that’ll be good for him,” Jake said. He looked over his
shoulder at the busy hangar. He could see the nature of the work
changing, from building to preparing for departure. “I wish Ayan
wasn’t right about this,” he said. “We need to start bringing the
goods in, and it begins with this ship.”

“How long until another ship is ready?”
Minh-Chu asked.

“We thought it would be at least three
weeks, but that’s before we got the Triton back. Oz was going to
captain the next one.”

“Was there a crew assigned?”

“Just the repair and refit crew. I was going
to leave the operational crew up to Oz. Now I have to find another
captain,” Jake said. “Agameg maybe, but I’ll probably have to fight
Oz for him when we get back.”

“He’s aboard for this trip?” Minh asked.

“Thankfully. But if we don’t leave soon, I’m
sure Oz will try to take him and Finn. Maybe it’s good that we’re
leaving." Jake looked at the inside of the main hold and shook his
head. The only thing that was in finished condition was the deck.
The Warlord was still the same throughout most of the ship; it
wouldn’t be an easy voyage. “Get someone to pick up Ashley. We need
her down here,” Jake said.

“I have two pilots available on the Triton.
We’ll have her down here in fifteen,” Minh replied.

“Good. Let’s break and get to work. We’ll
meet in the Mast Room in an hour and a half.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Minh-Chu replied.

Alaka, the largest of the nafalli, joined
the protective detail surrounding Ayan right before they lifted
off. She didn’t protest, but had a feeling that one of her personal
guards was trading half her protective detail for one of the
greatest warriors they had. It was a silent compromise; they were
only trying to keep her safe, but it was still irritating.

They passed three sky scrapers, all smoking
thickly as an active firefight continued within. The flashes from
gunfire could be seen through windows that weren’t smoking, and
there were even shots fired between buildings. “Gangs,” Liam Grady
said. “They’re fighting for control over sections of the city.
They’re the new landlords now that most of the owners have been
moved out of the solar system.”

“There won’t be much left if they keep that
up,” Victor said.

“According to the Stellarnet, that’s just
where the fighting is. Whoever wins will have control of a whole
district of Port Rush.”

“The Carthans should send a platoon in. That
would clear things up.”

“They’re too busy fighting off rioters,”
Liam said, pointing down towards the Port Rush General Hospital.
“It took hundreds of soldiers to take that building back, now
they’re holding it. No one knows why.”

Ayan looked down at the building and the
three levels of streets wrapped around it. There were thousands of
protestors, some of them fought with soldiers through the windows
of the building, throwing Molotov cocktails and firing small arms.
“Why?” she found herself asking.

“Some of them are probably gang members,
others are former Confederates who refused to leave and they’re
protesting the reassignment of property, and there are probably
some Nihilists in there for good measure.”

“Nihilists?” Jenny asked.

“They believe that, since all life in the
universe is going to end eventually anyway, that morality and life
itself are meaningless. They’ve picked up a few members since the
Holocaust Virus started making a mess of things,” Liam replied.
“They remind me of the anarchist movement of old, only less
creative.”