Captain’s Log March 13, 009 SDE:
The last few months have brought quite a bit of news our way. The sinking of the Maiden seems to have swung the war in our favor, in this quadrant anyway. Even out here, news of several Drifter victories have reached us. I’ve also heard rumors that the drifter fleet is reorganizing to retake lost territories. I suspect I’ll be finding out for sure about that soon enough. An admiral has arrived at Anchorage with a full fleet, including three of the few battleships the Drifters have. Quite the force for an admiral that has arrived to take charge of the destroyers we’ve been building for them.
Our scans have confirmed that they have our full augmented payment for those destroyers, but the thought that they are here to steal them did cross my mind. I’m going to keep my guard up just in case I’m wrong, but I have a suspicion that they plan to use Anchorage as a staging point for a full scale invasion of the Lodge or some other Raider holding. It’s not a bad plan, I’ve noticed myself how ideally located Anchorage is for a staging area. My fighter patrols based here have been striking raider supply lines for weeks. We’ve taken numerous freighters with their holds intact, each time enriching our coffers with tens of thousands of credits worth of vital materials. More recently we captured an intact raider drone carrier, one of several that were assigned to escort the freighters we have been ambushing.
Given how well we are positioned to hit their supply lines, launching a full scale assault from here wouldn’t be that hard. The destroyers we have been building for the Drifters would also be welcome escort ships. Speaking of them, Smith has been doing well at optimizing the design. Eliminating roadblocks and optimizing the module layout to speed up the construction of the Razorwings. I’m honestly impressed that she’d managed to speed trial her revised construction and testing in just two months. Usually such hulls take longer, but she’s managed to eliminate delays that modern shipyards back on Earth dealt with on the regular. Compared to the initial batch of fifteen we delivered for the Battle of Anchorage, she has managed to increase the slips and module bays to produce fifty ships in two months. Of course her rate is helped by the fact that the Drifters don’t make use of complex nano-materials like we do. Now there is an argument for building less complex hulls, but the resulting ship would be weaker. With so few of us, I’d rather build a high quality hull since we can’t man a large fleet. Making every ship vital to us. Even with that said, the number of hulls we’ve made so far is limited, but with the war the Drifters can use as many hulls as we can give them. As the slips expand we will be able to provide more ships, and the gains have proven helpful for us. Who knows they might commission us after the war to build cargo and mining ships. I’d much rather they risk their hides doing that than risk ours, they aren’t one misstep from extinction, we are.
__________________
Countryman cursed to himself as he dragged his leg behind him. It was a damn inconvenience, especially when he had things to do. Yet here he was with a malfunctioning useless leg that felt like dragging a lump of steel behind him and the other one wasn’t much better.
Turning the corner, a familiar voice inquired, “Jac? Are you okay?”
“Everything’s just perfect, but why aren’t you in your lab?”
She shifted a bit, “I was there, but then I realized I left important notes behind in your quarters.” She gave him a look, “And don’t think I didn’t notice you evading. What’s wrong with your leg?”
“Oh nothing much, just whatever deities behind our mutation problem decided I needed new genes related to rapid tissue regeneration and muscle density.” A twinge went up his leg, “and new nerves while they were at it.”
She blinked twice, “Wait? Did you just say you are growing a new leg?”
“Is that not what I said?” he sighed, “Well, almost a new leg, the new tissue is growing around the metal. Unfortunately for me, until it’s done settling in, my legs won’t be much use. Machinery doesn’t handle rapid and sudden changes like this very well.”
“Right so, um, Jac? Do you need help?”
He sighed, “I can manage, not my first time with a bum leg, doubt it will be the last either. Besides, the tissue growth will be done in three hours and twenty eight minutes.”
She frowned, “You can predict it that accurately?”
“Pretty easily, I do have a full sensor net down there.” He winced, “and new nerves.”
“Right, but are you sure you don’t need help?”
“I’m sure,” Countryman replied as he moved toward the lift.
She frowned, “Wouldn’t it be better to take a rest? Surely the meeting with the admiral can be...”
He turned, “I can’t take a rest. I need to do this.”
“Jac! Take a rest, we can manage without you for a few hours.”
Countryman sighed, “I don’t have time for an argument like this.”
“What’s wrong with taking a simple rest? We nearly lost you once, don’t go risking your health like this.”
He whirled back to her, “What’s wrong? I’ve already failed, not once but twice! I’m not going to fail humanity a third time. I was lucky with my last misstep but it could have easily ended us!”
“Twice!? When have you ever failed?”
He gestured around him, “The Enterprise was my brainchild, my project, every aspect of it. There was no reason for her to take so long to build, I should have delivered her sooner. If I’d done so, billions more may be alive today.”
She gave him a look, “How is that your fault? I was working on this project too. By that argument I should have finished the warp drive sooner, and in that light, we both failed.”
“It’s worse than that, when we left Earth I knowingly abandoned millions of potential survivors.”
“There wasn’t anything we could do for them, we couldn’t even verify if they existed, and forget landing; the plasma storms were too turbulent. Our shuttles couldn’t get through, and radiation levels were so high...”
“I know, I know, but still I left them behind.”
“Jac that was the past, and anyone with real fault in that is dead. They died with Earth.”
“Perhaps, but that second failure really is my fault. I got greedy, overconfident I misplayed my hand, and look what it got us. We nearly died and now we suffer random mutations on a daily basis.”
“Seriously!? That was four years ago and you are still worried about it?”
“Have you looked out a window? Have you seen what this has done to Rika, the other families, their children? Every time I see someone hurt by it, I’m reminded about how I failed.”
“You failed? Really? That wasn’t your decision alone, we all had a part to play there.”
“Yes we all had a part to play, but I am like a king and the Enterprise my kingdom. The council helps me manage it, sure, but the ultimate decision is mine. I chose to go after that cloaking device. I chose to endanger our mission. I should have ignored those freighters, if I had we wouldn’t have been engaged by three dreadnoughts, we wouldn’t have been swallowed by the storm.”
“You know what they say about hindsight. I’ve questioned myself sometimes about why I didn’t do something with my past experiments, but there was no way you could have known. The dreadnoughts were one thing, but the storm wasn’t something any of us saw coming. We all thought the risk was worth it, and it’s a bit late to be questioning what was already done. It happened. We must live with it, and if you kill yourself would you not be abandoning your duty?”
“For someone who’s always so clueless about people you can be surprisingly insightful at times.”
She giggled, “Well apparently you can teach an old girl new tricks and I’ve had someone trying to teach me for years. Some of those lessons finally clicked.”
“Does that mean I can count on you to finally stay decent?”
“Nope!” she replied with a straight face.
He sighed, “What am I ever going to do with you?”
She grabbed his arm, “Nothing, but you are going to rest. Greyman can handle the admiral.”
“But that might be seen...”
“You aren’t fit and he is your right hand man, they aren’t going to complain.”
_____________Greyman shifted on his feet as he watched the shuttle land. He wasn’t sure what to make of this being thrust on him so suddenly, but he couldn’t begrudge the captain for backing out on account of his health, or more accurately being forced to by Ruri. The little lady could be quite the firebrand when she wanted to. He knew she was the one who’d pursued Countryman in the first place, not the other way around.
The shuttle doors opened and guards snapped to attention, others shifting to points of ceremony to welcome the new arrival. After a moment, someone stepped out, her uniform looking quite striking with her green skin. She walked up towards him, and Greyman spoke. “Welcome aboard the Enterprise, Admiral Laikan. I am Commander Greyman.”
“Commander? I was under the impression your legendary captain would be greeting me.”
“He was very much planning to attend this meeting, but the captain is getting up there in years. His health had a sudden downturn and while I have not heard all the details, I’m assured it isn’t life-threatening. Unfortunately it's serious enough that he won’t be able to attend these discussions. Rest assured, as his second I am fully briefed on all the details of these discussions.”
“That’s nice to hear,” she said looking around, “Mind showing me the meeting room? We have much to discuss, some of it not listed in our prior discussions. I trust you are able to act fully in his stead?”
Greyman nodded and gestured to the doors behind him, “Certainly. This way, if you please.”
The woman followed along behind him and he led the way to the meeting room. A question on his mind. What else could they have to discuss? Greyman was wondering why they’d come with so many ships, but the captain hadn’t seemed overly concerned. They did have the full payment for the larger order of ships than initially requested that they’d prepared plus a fair bit of extra. Was it something about the extra? Damn it, why’d the captain have to withdraw like this? He wished he could have heard his thoughts on whatever was going on, the man could be quite insightful at times.