Evangeline Anastasia McDowell

[Bazza]

Entry#: 033
Date: 25 - 10 - 817 AS @ 08:55 SUT
Title: Alsatia the tow truck.

I managed to find what I needed on Freeport 14. Some heavy-duty chains and remote servo rockets. Set me back a few credits but in the end I think it turned out cheaper than going the lifter route anyway...

I fired up the welder I had stashed on board and made some mounting points for the chains on both the Alsatia and Maelstrom. I also welded the servo rockets to the ship so it could be given some basic controllability whilst being towed. Quite a neat piece of kit those rockets. They take standardised H-Fuel canisters the same as used just about everywhere in house space. We loaded them up with some of the fuel we had on board and were ready to go.

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With Kana in the Railgun and Fumika in Biribiri to observe we set off for the jumphole back to Alberta. The Alsatia had lost what little pickup it had with an extra couple thousand tonnes behind it. But, nothing broke, so it was an overall success. The ship very slowly reached cruise speed and I kept my eyes on the scanners looking out for obstacles. Trying to stop in a hurry, even with all the rockets, would only end in tears...

A couple hours passed, and we neared the jumphole coordinates. I shut down the Alsatia's engines and fired up the reverse thrusters on the Maelstrom. It took some time, but we did wipe off the speed without incident.

The jumphole would be the real test of my welding ability. Their occasionally violent nature can destroy even the best made vessels and turn them into little more than a cloud of radioactive dark matter.

With breath held in and sphincter status at Tightly Clenched we barrelled into the wormhole.

Luckily for us the whole event was rather mundane. Both ships entered the Alberta system unharmed and the chains were holding up.

We set off for the jumphole that would return us to civilised space in the form of the Ontario system. All in all it proved to be an exceptionally routine flight with nothing worth or suitable for reporting. Half way through the trip I recalled the two escorts and sent the lovebirds to bed before retiring from captaincy myself, giving the helm to Misaka who had been sleeping since we departed.

I awoke to the cat pawing at my face and nibbling on my ears. It took me a few moments to realise we didn't have a cat and Misaka had forgotten what happened the last time she did that. Oh well, something to keep me entertained later.

The reason she had woken me up was we had reached the jumpgate to California. So with my half-naked and half-asleep self dragged into the cabin we sent the access codes and jumped into California.

Jumpgates, in our situation, were perfectly safe to use, because of their very gradual "pickup". Tradelanes.... not so much. The way they worked, they'd pull the Alsatia and Maelstrom with easily enough force to tear everything apart. This is where the servos would come in to play. Line the ship up with the tradelane and edge it into the ring. Then the tradelane would take care of the rest. Chase after it down the lane and hope it doesn't collect anything on the way out.

I got out in the Railgun and using the utility arms took the chains off the ships. I stood by and watched while Misaka controlled the rockets and located the ship in front of the lane. As expected, the ring picked it up and flung it out of radar range in minutes. We both chased after it.

We caught up with it gently idling nearby the jumpgate to Cortez. After a quick check on fuel levels we relocated it to the mouth of the lane to Los Angeles high orbit. That would be another problem. The Alsatia had ample power to keep both ships in orbit but it was another variable in an already heavily-laden situation.

It dawned on me how completely dodgey all this was and I couldn't help laughing. If only the laneracers from home could see this. I remember quite a few times back in the day, towing home broken ships just like this. Granted they weren't quite as big, however.

We arrived at Los Angeles, I expertly reattached the tow chains and we set off across the horizon, past LA's gravity well to the next link in the tradelane network. I followed the same procedure as previous and we found ourselves in the shadows of Planet Mojave in under an hour.

The rest of the day was spent repeating the same thing over and over, occasionally stopping to swap out the H-Fuel canisters. We reached the New York system without incident until we reached West Point Military Academy. The lane to Norfolk was sending out a "disabled lane" message, and told us to use an alternate route.

"Well bugger this" echoed down the staircase into the innards of the ship as I took off following the alignment of the lane.

The problem of sleep crept up behind us. We couldn't land anywhere the way we were. Misaka was snoring away in the living quarters and I was about ready to join her. Fatigue started to set in and I knew I'd probably end up falling asleep at the helm shortly.

That, however was quickly despatched when the radar picked up what was likely the cause of the failed lane. Two Outcast gunships. I figured I was in for trouble, what with one of their allies' own battleships being ferried around behind me. I disengaged cruise and fired up the servos to bring me to a stop as quickly as the convoy could manage. I didn't fancy trying to run, that would most likely end in death.

On queue the raiders opened the radio channel. They identified themselves as "Blue" and "Jimbo". Contradictory to most of the Outcast population of Liberty they seemed to be fairly level-headed and reasonable. I explained to them what was happening, how the ship had gotten into a fight and that I was responsible for getting it fixed at Vieques shipyard.

My reply was unexpectedly pleasant. To cut a long story short I was offered an armed escort to my destination, and one of them actually proposed to buy the ship off me when I'd fixed it.

With the pirates in formation I set off again towards the jumpgate to Texas. The Navy, however, had other ideas. A cruiser had responded to the tradelane beacon and was on an intercept course for the convoy. The two gunships broke off and engaged it, leaving me to slink off into space. Got no idea what happened to them.

The remainder of the flight to Puerto Rico was rather quiet. After leaving the tradelanes I took the opportunity to grab some much needed sleep whilst Misaka took the helm. I awoke, again, to being nibbled on. We had reached the jumphole to the Puerto Rico system. We unhooked the Maelstrom and pushed it into the wormhole before chasing after it. We reattached it on the other side and hopped over to Vieques. Some more fancy manoeuvres put the ship into dry dock. We made it!

Got a lot of work ahead of us now. Should probably finish this entry up before breakfast arrives. Hopefully it has something real in it.

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