The Tale of the S.S. Audacity

[Leo]

"Hairline fractures?" I repeated.

"Yes, all over the frame of the old girl. She doesn't have much left in her Hal. She's wearing down. Her bones are broken. The backbone of her alone won't stand many more jumps. It's almost broken. If you try and jump out of Delta, I'm about 90% sure you'll snap the frame right down the center." replied the mechanic. "There's no way we can repair it either, the damage is just to extensive. The old girl's been through about as many battles as an old Rheinland battleship from the GMG-RM war in about half the time. It was bound to happen Hal."

"So, she's retired then. The pride of my family finally gets to rest."

"Sorry Hal. I can't risk having this thing jumping out of Delta and breaking it's back. You could die in the end trying to do so again."

I sat down on the bench overlooking the old girl, the Audacity, sitting in drydock, mechanics swarming over the hull and repairing what damage they could find. The mechanic came and sat down beside me.

"How long have we known one another Chuck?" I asked.

"Well, since middle school I believe. My parents left Kusari and became Zoners." he replied.

"When I meet you, my grandfather commanded the Audacity. He had so many stories of how he battled the Nomads, all the close call's he's had. You remember him, he came to class one day for one of my show and tell's when I was at the Freeport in Theta...This old girl has seen things many people of Sirius could never dream about. You're telling me that there is absolutly no way in hell this ship can ever jump again."

He looked down at the floor and back up.

"Not with conventional methods. Any other way the Zoner leaders wouldn't like very much, it's one of their ships after all. If we were to change anything about the design, they'd have a fit. The old girl has just been beaten on for too long. It wasn't what it was designed for to begin with. The ship wasn't meant to handle battle. It was meant to be a mobile freeport. The Audacity just, overtime, became a scout ship."

I stayed quiet and looked at the ship that had been handed down my family line since my great-grandfather. The ship was huge and beautiful. It's design was remarkable. A crew compliment of over 3,000, able to grow it's own food, use water and refilter it to be reused. It was a mobile planet, capable of staying in deep space for years. And now, the old girl was dying, her bones broken...but I knew she still had a lot of fight left in her. I know she wouldn't want to stay floating in drydock for the remainder of her years.

I spoke of Audacity as if she were real, because she was real. The ship, to me and my family, was a living thing. Capable of remarkable things. People had lived and died on that ship, they had children while on that ship, and now she was forced to stay in drydock forever? I think not.

"Chuck. Find any alternative way to keep the Audacity capable of doing her job. She's not giving up yet. She still has fight in her, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let anything happen to my family." I said clenching my teeth.

"Your family?" he replied.

"The Audacity is apart of my family Chuck, and we're going to find a way to keep her in the fight."

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