Rell tried to sit straight... and seized up, when the pain hit. No. Lying back was better right now. The new command seat was comfortable. But he couldn't see the third console on the right like this... "Earl, how long until we reach the field?"
His first mate turned around and took a sip from his flask. He pointed to a panel that Rell couldn't see. "Wea jus' about there, capn. Nother minute or so. Got some range scans o' some gas pockets already. An' we found one o' the wrecks. S' where'd should be. The other's ... not here. Bu' the field dsn't look like it should. Asteroid drift charts are off kilter. Looks like smthin' big came through n' pushed em 'round."
Rell sighed. This wasn't what he had hoped for but it was to be expected. The drift charts they had were a few days old by this point. He reached for his comm unit and winced. He'd really have to put it somewhere else. Its hook on his jacket was right above one of the surgery scars. Rell longed for some painkillers. But no. He couldn't think quite right when he took those. And this was too important to leave to someone else. He unhooked the comm unit and hit the channel to the Tamed Kerberos. "Are your tractor beams ready?" Nearly incoherent mumbling, a few angry shouts and either crying or laughter could be heard from the tiny speaker. "I said.."
"We have got them ready, captain! Just say the word and we will fire them up! Are we clear to go?"
Ah yes. Alexander. The boy sounded more eager than usual, which, given the circumstances, was understandable. After all, the payment for this contract would be of major help for his home system.
He was growing into his new role. Though he wasn't ready to be a full transport captain.
Not yet, at least.
He must have mumbled some of his thoughts, as the comm gave a slightly confused reply.
"Not yet? What do you mean?"
Rell mentally braced himself and sat up despite the pain.
It was go time.
"I mean we aren't clear to go just yet. Set the gravity field generators two... no, three levels above their recommended limit. Ask Josh, he's a good engineer and knows how to make them tick hard without breaking. We might need more power than we thought. Also, one of the vessels is missing. Break from formation and use the scanners to create new drift charts. Compare them to what they should look like and see if any of the rocks moved as if something big pushed them away."
Even before he had finished speaking, the old liner broke formation and headed into the field. The boy really needed to learn to give confirmation.
Rell looked over at the previously obscured console. "Earl, send me the status of the first wreck. I assume you've made some scans already?"
It had been a few hours since they'd arrived. The Kerberos had found the other wreck. It was nearby but had drifted right between multiple gas clouds, where the scanners had trouble getting clear readings. They would have to work carefully. If they moved the husk too quickly, the gas could ignite and cause further damage. The first wreck had been moved to a more stable location already. Two Salvagers were keeping it in a relative position and the away teams had started hooking in the cables. They were ever careful to not get in the way of the gravity warping tractor beams that could so easily snap bones when used at such high output levels. The structural integrity of the wreck needed some improvements before it could be jumped, but its overall conditions wasn't bad, considering that it seemed to have sustained a direct hit from a capital ship mortar. Some pieces of its primary engine were simply gone. Rell now understood why the Bretonian government was willing to hand them over to the Zoners. Had he been granted salvage right, he would have stripped the wrecks and used the rest for manifolds. Anything else was extremely costly.
But this wasn't his claim and this wasn't about money. This was about Munich.
"Capn, we cn make this one work. Dunno 'bout the other.."
"It doesn't matter what we know." Rell didn't like to interrupt his first mate, but at times, the drunk forgot about keeping morale up. "The research group wants these ships moved. We'll get them moving, even if we have to tie them to the Harrow's hull."
Two hours later, the first wreck was partially reinforced. Rell was going through the detailed scans. Much of the internal structure was untouched. The mortar had hit a few critical systems. The reactor was gone, as were many of the decks that used to surround it. Still, this was more than a simple shell. The outer hull needed serious repairs but much of its inner structures could be refurbished. They were comparatively stable and held the ship together. It wouldn't withstand the jump like this, but the good Mr. Lawrence had promised the Congress something to help with that. They apparently had some new shield generators that could be projected onto another vessel. But that wasn't Rell's job. His job was to make sure that the wrecks could be moved in the first place. "Earl, send me the new reports on the husk."
The away crews of the Cypher and the Grapple had given the other wreck that nickname and Rell thought it to be fitting. From what he read, they were hard at work on the other vessel, despite the explosive gasses nearby. The second wreck couldn't be moved without reinforcing it first. The damage was simply too great. From the outside, it looked structurally sound, barely showing any damage. But that was only the first glance. The insides were torn out. Multiple torpedos must have breached the outer hull simultaneously. Or maybe someone brought a few bombs aboard the destroyer. Whatever it was, it took out some of the decks entirely, leaving only scap filled pockets of space. The damage was most severe where the bridge, engineering and the crew quarters had been. As if someone had known where to strike... Whatever. The war was over. When the reactor finally went, it took out most of the engine channels with it. Some of the damage was recent, though. It looked like some munitions went up a couple of days ago. That explained why the ship wasn't where it should be. They would need to use internal struts and external cables to keep the husk together.
Rell leaned back. He was tired. Oh so tired. He had ignored the pain but now it was creeping back in, taking up his thoughts, making him dizzy.
If he stayed here, he'd only be in the way.
"Earl, I need a break. Wake me if anything important happens. And have someone look after aunt Marie. This is too important to let her interrupt it." Rell forced himself out of his seat, grabbed the crutches and stumbled into his nearby quarters.
It was time for some painkillers and a nap...
FEED SAVED
DRIVE CMXVI FULL; SWITCHING TO DRIVE CMXVII
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
The delegate on Genesis' behalf, was assembling the team at Ames.
All the vessels that Martin requested to go were ready, all except one: his personal project. That was the first time that the vessel was ever built, and the engineers were having a hard time understanding how to finish it, and Martin was not there. His location, as always, was classified, so the engineers could not even reach him.
One thing they did not understand was how to actually mount the new mechanical arm, as the new blueprints were sketchy about it. They required new connections to the powercell, in order to transfer all necessary power.
The delegate had no clue how to make it work, nor was his job making it work, so he didn't care too much. "How much is it going to take to make it work? We cannot be late there." Then one of the engineers, with a tablet in his hand, trying to multitask, came to him. "It shouldn't take too much. We've almost completed the connections, all we're going to do is calibrate the power releases and then all the sensors.
However, I must remember you, that this vessel, is remotely controlled." He took a breath and turned to the repair ship. "We'll be constantly monitoring it, as we have no ideas how it'll perform. We did not run any simulations, so this is new territory.Oh, and one thing. All the vessels that come with you have a subspatial beacon, to increase the signal to the pilot here on Ames, but in case we lose control, you'll have to reroute the remote controls to your vessels. But here's the catch, for the moment you'll be able to only have control over a vessel."
The delegate, frustrated looks at his vessel: "So what you are saying, is that if I want to control this ship, I need to basically turn off mine?"
The engineer, nods to the delegate, who was clearly very frustrated by this, so he hoped that they didn't lose control, and he then started to go back to his ship, where he found the crew he was flying with."We are going in ten minutes, it'll take some time."
The fighter wings entered the New London system, aswell as the repair vessels. "Alpha team completed the jump.", said one of the pilots. "Beta team aswell completed the jump", the second pilot confirmed.
"Gamma team, standing in position for extraction", the captain of the Corvette was in position, as Martin said to the junkers.
After a few minutes of radio silence, the delegate started to give indications to the teams:"Alpha and Beta, you already know what to do. The repair vessels will first go with Alpha team to the first wreck, and help put it on the moves. Beta, protect the second wreck at all costs. If you need assistance, let us know. Gamma, stand your position, if all plays right, we'll be over soon enough, or at least I hope."
After the indications, the vessels started moving towards Cumbria, where the wrecks were located, and hopefully Junkers already arrived there.
"We are near the field, sir."
The pilots were in a tight formation, to protect the repair vessels from any attacks, as they were the main objective of those operations.
"Break the formation. And head directly to the wrecks. Junker Salvagers should be already on site, waiting for us.", said the delegate, which was still frustrated about what the engineer said before. He could not help it but to think about the risk that he's going to run into if he takes control over the repair ship, but he had faith in his pilots.
As the formation was broken, on the delegate's scanner, the Junker vessels appeared. "Team Alpha almost at the extraction point. Beta?"
"We are not seeing them, sir. We'll keep looking."
He was sweating to the fact that the other team couldn't find the second wreck, as if they couldn't bring it back, Martin would have gotten mad. For some reason, he wanted badly those wrecks, badly enough to get them in such a bad condition, and that's why his delegate was so skeptic about this operation, as he has read the status of the vessels. But orders are orders, that's what he kept saying to himself.
After he snapped out of his thoughts, he realized that he reached the Junker vessels:"Good day fellow Junkers. We're sorry for the delay, but we are here with the repair ships ready to deal with the transportation of the wrecks. I'm sending you our damage report, does it match with yours? If yes where do we want to start?"
Luckily while he was contacting the junkers, the Beta team reached out: "We finally found them, apparently the wreck drifted apart in a gas cloud, but we should be fine."
Rell awoke in darkness. The pain was back. The medication had run its course and he felt refreshed. He wished he could take another dose.
After a quick wash, during which he read the latest reports on the wrecks, Rell put on a new set of clothes. This jacket had a pocket for the comm unit. Grabbing it would take a bit longer than usual, but having less pressure on his scars was worth a few seconds of his time. He took the crutches and went back to the bridge. "Anything new, Earl?"
"Ye cap'n. The Zoners're almos hear now."
It seemed like his first mate was less drunk than before. Or he was trying to act as if he was sober. Either way, the slur was less noticable. "Okay, got it." Rell opened a comm channel to the leading GRG| ship.
The conversation had taken about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour. Rell had briefed them on the current state of the wrecks. The first wreck was fully reinfoced and could be moved at impulse speed. Once the Zoners would add their technological marvel, going up to cruise mode was very likely to work. But he was sceptical about using the trade lanes. They had taken damage during the war and weren't quite as stable as they used to be. Still, it was worth a shot. If the new shield was as powerful as Mr. Lawrence had promised, then they might still manage it.
Work on the vessel near the gas clouds was progressing nicely. The damage was about as bad as the first surveys had showed. Rell had quietly hoped for a nice surprise. But sadly, the scans had been accurate. They would have to improve the structural integrity of the husk a lot before it could be brought to impulse speed. Still, it was almost ready to be moved away from the gas clouds. That would make things much easier and safer for the away teams. They had asked for additional materials. The Tamed Kerberos had taken care of that. If they kept this up, the second wreck could be moved by the time they'd be done transporting the first.
"Okay. Earl, tell Mikhael to bring our generator to three levels above recommended output." While the first mate was typing up short form comms for the engine room, Rell opened a channel to the Zoners. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are practically done with the first wreck. The structural reinforcements on that one are finished. Using our ships here, we can move it at impulse. It's your turn to make it stable enough for cruise." Rell leaned back and winced. It was almost go time.
FEED SAVED
DRIVE CMXVI FULL; SWITCHING TO DRIVE CMXVIII
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
The junkers briefed GRG's delegate, explaining their report, which was exactly like the one they had.
So at that point there was nothing left to do but to start working on the first wreck that was found, as it would take less to repair and move.
"Repair vessels, start with helping the junkers in reinforcing the hull of the first vessel. We need to first stabilize it then we need to shield it, like Mr. Lawrence said. This operation needs to be done as fast as possible, so the crayterians don't wait for us too much."
At that point, the two repair vessels, contacted the junkers, to organize on how to work on the hull's stabilization, so they can be fast and efficient, because time was important.
In the meantime, the junkers started to work on the second wreck aswell, as they brought enough vessels to do so, but the wreck's condition was very bad. It was barely holding in one piece, but it was not something that was impossible to fix.
After some work on the vessel, the structural reinforcement was completed, and the junkers awaited for our technology to kick in.
"Now it's the prototype's turn.Do you read?"
"Loud and clear. We are proceeding to start shielding the vessels."
The delegate was hoping that the remote control was still working properly because that other option was not tempting for him at all. So the vessel started to place a few shield generators around, in order to make it possible to survive a jump between systems.
After more than a half of hour, the delegate got word that the shielding was correctly place around the wreck. Then he opened the channel with the Junkers."We are done here. as the generators are still a prototype, they do not cover too much area, so our pilot needed to place more of them than expected."
Then he turns to the console. "The generators will be active in, three, two, one..." and suddendly they saw some powerful lights on the wreck. And then he started to check the statistics of the generators. "All generators are stable and working properly. They will hold, and hopefully we have no surprises." Then he took a small break to turn back to the front. "Whenever you want, fellow junker colleagues."
"Alright. Earl, scan the wreck from the outside. Then compare the results to our structural surveillance scanners."
"Sure capn, gimme a minute thou. Stuff's weiad."
The GRG|'s tech was interesting to say the least. From what Rell saw, it would keep the wreck in one piece. The integrity itself didn't go up, but there were far less vibrations. The shielding seemed to keep everything inside it comparatively still while also preventing lesser impacts entirely. This could work. But first, they would need to check if the tractor beams could still move the vessel. He opened a comm channel to the engine room and gave a few commands before grabbing his crutches and forcing himself up.
"Capn, wha..?"
The question hang in the air. Rell was sick of not pulling his weight. He patted the concerned looking pilot on the shoulder. "Out."
Despite the pain, Rell felt good. It finally was his turn at the controls again. This was his job. He was responsible. But it also had to be his ass on the line if things went wrong. He opened a voice channel to the engine room. "Mikhael, we're about to start. Link the dummy relays up now." After a short reply, sounds of scuffling and a barked confirmation, he pushed a few buttons, made some last adjustment and pulled a small but relevant circuit breaker.
The tractor beam fired. A power surge went through the ship, knocking out a few lights here and there. The coffee machine in the next room sounded like it tried to brew fifty cups at once. Someone would have to clean that up later. The panel showed that dummy relay circuits I through V, as well as VII and IX had been fried. Good. That was 4 less than expected and they still had a few dozen in place. The wreck started to drift towards the frigate. He opened a channel to the other Junkers. After a brief moment of consideration, he added the GRG| vessels to the comm. "This is Rell Harrow. It's working. Quickly now!" With that, three other salvagers activated their equipment. The wreck shifted slightly as it was caught in the artificial gravity well. "Okay. Tamed Kerberos, Dignified Beast, get into formation and stay behind us. Keep your generators primed and ready, in case we need to suddenly descelerate the wreck. The rest stays here and continues work on the husk. If you lose too many dummy circuits, take the whole set offline and replace it completely. Repairs take too long. Just slot in new sets. I'll pay for them if need be." His shoulder seized up as he tried to reach for the flight controls. A heavy but gentle hand grabbed his wrist.
"Capn, 's 'nuff now. We go' 't from hea."
Rell sighed. Earl was right. He took his crutches and moved back to the command chair. "Accelerate until we reach impulse speed and do a last set of scans. If everything is alright, coordinate with the others and get us up to cruise." He sat down and tried to relax his shoulder.
A while later, they reached the nearest trade lane ring. Desceleration had worked wonderfully. They would bring the wreck to the Manchester gate via New London and Cover. People there had been informed about the convoy, or so he hoped. But first, they'd need to wait here. Luckily, they only had to sit still for a few minutes. A hand full of fighters and two bombers left the lane. Their scouts had arrived. One of them pinged the Harrow.
"The route is clear! No known threats from here to Neverland! Over!"
Rell adjusted his comms to only include the Congress vessels. Whoever this person was, their overly cheery tone annoyed him already. "Good to hear, pilot. Please move ahead. Have someone patrol near the most common interception points. Pay any pirates to leave us alone or, even better, to leave the system for a while. Things are too fragile here already. If anyone shoots at the wreck, the whole thing might just fall to pieces. And we can't leave Ingolstadt hanging. Harrow out." And with that, it was time to begin the third most risky phase. After some more adjustments to the comm, Rell sat up. "Okay. The route is clear. We will now begin the trade lane sequence. Frigate captains, link up at least four additional sets and bring the tractor beam generators one level higher. Scale the used output to 3.5 above recommended and be ready to adjust as necessary. To the liners, set your generators to the same level, keep output at 2.5 and activate. We have to keep this thing stable but if it leaves the lane, we have to be able to slow it quickly without breaking too much. Zoner vessels, please stand by in case we need help. Your equipment isn't overclocked, but it might just make the necessary difference if thigns go awry. Rell out." And with that, their journey through the New London system continued.
It had been a few hours since. The lane transitions had worked surprisingly well. Whatever the Zoners were doing with those shields, it was working. His hopes for the husk they left with the repair crews were rising. Before him loomed the Manchester Jump Gate and the second most risky part of the journey. It was time to see if the wreck could survive a jump across multiple light years. If it could brave a gate, it might make it through a hole. "Zoner vessels, we are ready to proceed."
FEED SAVED
DRIVE CMXVI FULL; SWITCHING TO DRIVE CMXIX
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
He was very anxious, regarding this technology. Testing it on field like this, with such important cargo, was not something we has expecting. But it wasn't beyond his abilities; if Martin sent him there, it meant something.
So as the junkers started to move the vessels, he opened a comm with the fighter wings. "Enter in formation. Protect the cargo at all costs."
And after that, the Nyxes surrounded the Cruiser, so they can avoid any attacks from pirates alike.
Trade lane after tradelane, the shielding seemed to keep up. The technology seemed to work perfectly, for a prototype, as all values are stable. The delegate however was still thinking about what the engineers on Ames said to him, so he was keeping a constant eye on the console.
Arrived at the Jump Gate to Manchester, he hailed the Corvettes.
"We are approaching the Jump Gate. Are you in position?"
"Yes, sir. We are ready for extraction. The route seems clear."
Hearing that relieved him. So at that point he opened a channel with the Junkers.
"We got the confirmation from our patrol that route is clear we can proceed with the jumping sequence. We will go first, so that we'll secure the jump gate from any possible threats."
So at that point, the vessels started to jump one by one, until the frigates had to jump with the wreck. He was closely monitoring the shielding during the jump, as surprises could come along the way. But, luckily, they held without overclocking the generators. And he was hoping that it was not necessary to overclock it.
As they got out, he hailed the corvettes, to inform them that the jump was completed.
"Shall we move to the jumphole? Our Corvettes await for us."
So they all started to move again in formation, till they reached the jumphole.
Arrived there, the delegate, hailed the junkers "We are returning to the second wreck, in case they need assistance. The Corvettes should provide enough protection till Sabah Shipyard, where the Crayterians will take care of the wreck."
So then he set a waypoint to the New London Jumpgate, so he could return to the second wreck, which was in a very bad shape.
Rell leaned back. The journey had been pleasantly uneventful.
After much work and at the cost of a few more dummy circuits, the first wreck had finally arrived at the shipyard.
The people there seemed competent and quite pleasant, even if some of them had a bit of a perfectionist streak.
He had given them all of their scan data, including what they had about the husk.
Much, much later, the Harrow finally arrived in New London again, only to find that the number of Congress vessels there had increased.
Shortly after they had left for Coronado, a few pirates had decided that a fleet of old liners and away teams working in the vacuum of space would make good target practive.
According to the logs he was sent, they were driven away eventually, but not before landing a torpedo hit on an unshielded hull. The vessel in question had left for repairs and some replacement turrets.
Luckily, the Congress wasn't short on hands. Others took its place.
All in all, work was proceeding nicely. He had expected more complications.
The husk had remained untouched in the attack and had been moved to a safe location.
It was ready for transport and the Wreckers would be able to help with stabilizing its trajectory, even if they couldn't overclock their tractor beams and pull it by themselves.
A wave of pain washed over him as he reached for his comms.
"Okay, GRG| vessels. We are ready. The reinforcements are done. We installed eight primary support pillars in each of the hollows inside the wreck.
It will hold. It actually is more stable now than the first wreck was, thanks to the materials brought by our friends here."
He waved his hand towards one of the Wreckers, only to realize that the comm didn't have a visual component.
Slightly miffed that he couldn't put on at least a bit of a show, Rell continued.
"The hull's physical structure is as sound as we can get it without making irreversable modifications. Please do your thing."
FEED SAVED
DRIVE CMXX FULL; SWITCHING TO DRIVE CMXX
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
As they were starting to arrive to the second wreck, they saw that some pirates were trying to take advantage of the lonely vessels, so it was perfect return timing.
They were a few bomber class vessels, armed with torpedoes. But they didn't last long.
The pirates have started shooting the Junker liners which were doing repairs on the wreck so the torpedoes were starting to go their way. So the escorts did all they could to intercept all missiles, but unfortunately one got past, and hit directly an unshielded Junker liner.
Not too long after the pirates were destroyed by the escorts.Then the delegate opens a channel.
"I hope the crew of the hit vessel is alright."
They replied that nobody was hurt, but the ship needed repairs, so they were given an exchange liner.
But what the delegate saw later is that, the prototype repair vessel, was caught in the blast, so the subspatial beacon was crippled. The Ames team in fact was trying to reach him to inform him of this.
"The subspatial beacon is crippled, and you do not have the tools to repair it. Even if you had them, it would take a lot to repair them. Easiest way is to swap to manual controls."
As the engineer was speaking, the delegate was shocked. He knew that this risk existed, but he didn't think that it would actually happen.
"Very well, switching to manual controls."
Then he took a small break and changed channel for the escorts.
"Listen, closed formation around my vessel. I'll be cutting off the controls of my ship to control the Repair Vessel."
After some time, he managed to take over the vessel, while the Junkers contacted them and confirming that they finished basic repairs of the vessel.So he opened a channel with them.
"Uhm, so. Small setback." He made a small pause there to take a breath. "So our friends we destroyed here, crippled the subspatial beacon of the prototype, so I have taken control of it, but I needed to use the console of my ship, so now I'm without control over my vessel. However I'll complete this, with the guidance of the engineers, but it'll take a bit more. Hoping you won't mind."
So that's when he switched channel and started to do as the engineer said.
Not too long after, the shielding was completely placed. The delegate finally switched back the controls to his vessels, and asked the engineers to send a transport to get the prototype out of there. He was relieved as this was a very hard job, especially having to sacrifice his own commands for the sake of the job.
"The shielding is fully placed, the last part is yours. Our escorts will assist you till you arrive to Sabah, and I'll have to await the transport to come and get the prototype. When the job is done, feel free to contact Mr.Lawrence to inform him, so we can keep our part of the bargain."
After a small pause to give the orders to the escorts, he returned on the channel with the junkers.
"It was a pleasure working with you, ladies and gentlemen. Hopefully this is not the last time."
"Oh, I'm sure of that. Get home safely. We will bring this vessel to Coronado."
It would be a shame if they did all this and ended without a contractee. Rell truly hoped that nothing happened to the guy. Ah well. They were almost done.
The GRG|'s shielding seemed stable, the structural integrity of the husk was within acceptable levels and Rell had found a decent position to rest his shoulder in.
"Okay, everyone, we are done here. Get into position. After that last attack, I want two Wreckers with us. You are there to make sure that we don't get attacked. Also keep your tractor beams at normal capacity, in case we somehow lose control over the husk's inertia." Rell thought for a moment. Yes, it would work this way. it had to.
"Three frigate captains, take position near the husk's bow. The harrow will take care of the upper port. The four of us take the vessel through the lanes, gates and holes.
Tamed Kerberos, I want you and two other liners at the stern. You help with manouvering at impulse and cruise speed. Don't enter the trade lane with us. Once we are at the rings, go ahead and wait for us to help with slowing the husk down and keeping the torque in check."
Preperations took a few minutes. After some bickering, all ships were in position. It was time for the second journey. The dummy circuits had been replaced and the tractor beams were ready. The shielding was active and stable. Everything was ready.
Everything, except for him. Rell couldn't take the helm, not with this ongoing pain. Earl would have to take command again in a few minutes.
He made a mental note to schedule another surgery. If things didn't improve after that, Cybernetics would be his last option.
"Okay, everyone. Begin building up impulse speed, ten units over three seconds. Remain at maximum for six seconds. After that, enable cruise. Report any problems immediately, even ones you can fix. Go!"
And with that, they were off. The Junker Congress was on its way to Coronado, to finally hand over the second cruiser wreck.
It had taken them quite some time to finish their work. Rell hoped that help for Ingolstadt would not come too late.
But that was for others to work on. Once he was back, he'd have the doctors cut him open again.
Despite the treatment, his muscles hadn't recovering as they should. Something was wrong.
But that was for the medical staff to find out and fix. First, he had to do his job. Rell leaned back, winced and took a nap while his crew went through the motions.
He only awoke when they finished their last jump. His crew had done it. Safe for a slightly confused freelancer, there had been no interruptions.
Rell noted down a million credits for everyone aboard the Harrow and sent payments to the other captions. They would be at Sabah soon enough.
He dozed off again. It always paid to give people a nice surprise every now and again, especially for a job well done.
FEED SAVED
DRIVE CMXX FULL; RECORDING CONCLUDED
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
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