Chapter 2

Once the eight new mining pods were loaded, I headed out to refuel and resupply, including buying more androids. I also intended to have a better shield generator installed. Since my round trips were much faster than those of other ships, I used much less fuel and could go longer before needing to refuel. Unlike a ship that had to ration fuel for a six-month or longer round trip, my trips had each been three months or so, and had included extra exploration.

Knowing that, I had a second power source installed by a company that specialized in the installations. The new power source was dedicated to the new shield I had installed. I left the original shield in place to provide an extra layer of protection and adjusted the new shield so it formed just inside the old shield. The old shield would absorb the initial impact of an attack if pirates hit unexpectedly. If it failed, the stronger secondary shield should provide me enough time to counter-attack or run.

The work on the ship took two days to complete. The entire time, I had the compartment with the wormhole generator closed and locked, with two androids guarding it.

While the company worked on my ship, I stayed in one of the empty holds working on my next project. Rail guns were hardly a new idea but had been discontinued in favor of newer high-tech weapons. Before now, no rail gun had ever breached even the weakest shield, although projectiles in the range of two hundred kilograms or more had damaged ships just from the impact against the ship’s shield. Unfortunately, the targeted ship’s automated defenses were almost always able to destroy any projectiles that large, blasting them into much smaller pieces that were not a danger to the ship’s shield.

Thinking about the issue, I had wondered about creating a special projectile, one capable of carrying an electrical charge. In essence, what I did was use a twenty-five-kilogram supercapacitor encased in a thick composite shell to make it invisible to scanners. Plus, it was only a half a meter in diameter.

I was able to buy a nearly new railgun from a salvage yard, one simple to repair and reassemble. I installed it below the opening holding the lasers. What took the longest was hooking up all the capacitors necessary to fire the rail gun, testing them, and repairing or replacing the bad capacitors.

I didn’t finish the rail gun until we had set up another eight mining pods and were almost done exploring yet another arc of the Scutum-Centaurus arm, a task that took nine weeks. We tested the rail gun by using a twenty-five-kilogram chunk of rock. Both it and the small asteroid we targeted had shattered into thousands of smaller pieces.

Now, all I had to do was test the new ammunition. To do so, I’d either need to use the Navy’s testing range or buy a small used ship and test it against that ship’s shield. Since I didn’t want the Navy to know yet, that limited me to one possibility. Which sucked because I had hoped to buy a new, larger ship when I sold my cargo this time. A larger ship would let me carry more mining pods, as well as more ingots to sell when I returned from each trip.

“Captain, my sensors show three ships closing rapidly,” Alexis warned after we exited the wormhole and were on the way to Ahnjuk. The Hawnalt Sector had enough traffic that I had chosen to end my jump well outside of the system where the planet Ahnjuk was.

“Are they Navy ships?” I asked, even though I’d already felt the danger before Alexis warned me.

“Negative, Captain, none of the ships has an active transponder,” she replied.

No transponder definitely meant they were pirate ships.

“Reverse the directionality of the firing sequence for the rail gun so it fires astern and charge the capacitors for it. Then charge two of the new rounds for the rail gun. When all three ships are in range of our lasers, but before we’re in range of theirs, fire at all three ships so they are hit simultaneously. Target two of the ships with the lasers and the third one with the rail gun,” I ordered as I ran to the bridge.

Actually, I was hopping and stumbling my way to the bridge because I had grabbed an evac suit and was pulling it on. I was also hoping that my untested rounds for the rail gun worked.

“Firing rail gun in five seconds,” Alexis warned. I felt the vibration a few seconds later when the rail gun fired, cycled, and reloaded. “Firing lasers,” she informed me just as I made it into my captain’s seat. I looked up at the stern viewing screen just in time to see a spectacular electrical display when the new ammunition impacted the trailing pirate’s shield. The other two ships suddenly had holes appear where the laser had hit, venting the atmosphere and contents of the ship.

“All three ships have been disabled. The two hit by the lasers are on minimum power and the third ship has no power,” she informed me.

“Carefully approach the closest ship, ready to fire again if it charges any weapons or if it powers up. Prepare a squad of androids to board the ship,” I ordered.

Ten minutes later, we docked with the first pirate ship. Eight androids entered the ship, ready for battle. Four more remained just inside the hatch ready to repel boarders if necessary. While my androids were not a trained fighting force, they could coordinate with each other. Not being as well armed or trained, the pirates would be no match for them. The surviving pirates were quickly defeated and less than ten minutes after entering the pirate ship, it was ours. Eleven of the twenty-eight pirates aboard had survived, for now. Two of my androids had minor battle damage. Aside from the pirates and their supplies, there was nothing of value aboard the ship.

When we checked the AI, it had been destroyed so there was no data left to let us know where the pirate base was. Our attack on the second pirate ship was similar, capturing fifteen wounded pirates and killing fifteen with only one slightly damaged android.

By the time we got to the third ship, all twenty-seven of the pirates aboard were already dead. There was no power in the ship when the androids boarded, hence no life support. It took nearly an hour before my androids located the problem. The electrical surge that shorted out the shield had also shorted out everything else aboard the ship. For an hour, they turned each of the breakers off one at a time. When they started turning them back on, I was surprised to find that nearly everything worked. The shield generator had been fried, but everything else seemed to be working. Unfortunately, the power surge had wiped the AI so we couldn’t extract any information from it.

I had a backup copy of Alexis’s programming sent over. An hour later, circuits had been reset and the replacement AI and the ship were functional. We towed one of the damaged pirate ships and the reactivated pirate ship towed the other. We plugged small, portable AIs into the system of the two ships where the AI had been destroyed. The small AI helped to operate enough of the ship’s systems that we could finally stop towing the two ships and let them operate under reduced power.

“Two more unidentified ships approaching from the port side,” Alexis warned nearly an hour after we were able to stop towing the two ships. Like the previous time, I’d felt the danger before Alexis alerted me. The knowledge that I’d sensed the danger left me feeling slightly out of sorts. I REALLY didn’t want to be another Lucky Jim.

“Can you target both ships at the same time with the rail gun?” I asked Alexis.

“Affirmative, Captain,” she responded.

“Have the three damaged ships continue towards Ahnjuk at the best speed of the slowest ship. Turn and face the pirates and fire the rail gun before we’re in their range. Also, target them with the lasers in case the rail gun doesn’t work,” I ordered.

“Firing rail gun in five seconds; lasers locked on and ready,” Alexis warned nearly a minute later. Once again, there was a small vibration as the rail gun fired, reloaded, and fired again. The viewing screen showed a depiction of our relative position to the pirate ships, where the two shots from the rail gun were in comparison to the two pirate ships, and the extreme limit of the pirate’s lasers, assuming they had Class V lasers.

Yet again, we were treated to a dramatic electrical show when the rounds hit the pirates’ shields. Once Alexis confirmed that both ships were unpowered, we hurried to the ships, arriving in time to save most of the pirates on the first ship we boarded. Once the boarding party was aboard and reported back, we rushed to the second ship but only managed to save six of the pirates aboard it. For now.

Both ships were in the same condition as the previous ship we had shorted out. Fortunately, all pirate ships carried shackles for any prisoners they captured and had two cargo holds that were set up to confine prisoners in. The androids that boarded the pirate ships also found four empty healing pods aboard each of the last two ships, and five aboard one of the first three ships. We secured the pirates with the most life-threatening wounds in the healing pods. The rest were stuffed into a cargo hold aboard one of the pirate ships where the androids could guard them.

Once we restored power to the two ships, copies of Alexis’s programming were used to reprogram the two blank AIs. After all the systems were tested, we caught up with the other three ships headed for Ahnjuk. I wondered how much I would earn selling the five damaged ships.

Most captains with their own ship who set up and service mining pods had their ship paid off and mining pods paid for in three or four years. Aside from fuel, maintenance, and supplies, everything they made after that was gravy. With the wormhole generator, even without a full load of ingots, I was already clearing more than any other captain I’d ever heard of.

Selling the ingots after I had two or three more loads of mining pods set up should keep me comfortably wealthy. I already had potential sites for nearly a thousand mines and couldn’t possibly maintain that many. I figured that I should start several mines for metals of lesser value, so I didn’t flood the market with high-value metals. Once I finished exploring, I expected to make one round trip every two months, a round trip that would take any other captain years to complete.

We arrived in port early the next day. I had radioed the Navy just before we entered the system and they met us an hour later, taking charge of the bodies, the wounded, and the prisoners.

“How did you fight off five pirate ships at once?” the captain of the cruiser asked suspiciously.

“It was two separate groups. The first group was three ships, and the second attack was by two ships. I have no idea why two ships would attack four ships except that we were traveling slowly,” I replied.

“How did you defeat three ships?” he asked insistently.

“Using a rail gun and lasers,” I replied.

“I didn’t see any damage to your ship when we approached,” he commented questioningly.

“We were still outside of their range,” I told him.

“Fine, I built a Class VII laser,” I admitted as he continued to glare at me questioningly and knowing that he wasn’t going to give up questioning me until I explained how we could defeat two or three ships simultaneously.

“Built?” he asked contemptuously.

“Yeah,” I replied with a challenge in my voice. “Just like I built the wormhole generator the fucking Navy stole from me.”

That made him step back and look closer at me.

“I thought you looked familiar,” he said, the contempt now gone from his voice. “You’re going to sell the lasers to the Navy, right?” he asked.

“Not until I come up with a more powerful one,” I replied.

“What?” he nearly shouted.

“Right now, pirates don’t stand a chance against me. If I sell the laser to the Navy, within a year, every pirate ship will have them, just like they had Class V lasers even before the Navy finished outfitting their own ships. Captains of cargo ships are already outgunned. Giving pirates the Class VII laser will only make it worse.”

“You’re right, but I still don’t like it,” he growled.

“I don’t either,” I agreed. “Even though I’m still pissed off at the way the Navy handled everything, I’d sell them the laser if I wasn’t sure the pirates would have it within a year.”

That seemed to appease the Captain. At least a little.

I’d already arranged for spaces to dock the five pirate ships while I landed at the company wanting the platinum. They were excited that I had rhenium, and quickly reached an agreement with Tredax to purchase that, too. I still had to go to the Tredax branch office to sell the remaining ingots and to receive payment for the platinum and rhenium. The company that had accepted delivery of the platinum and rhenium had paid Tredax, not me. Tredax took their cut and electronically deposited my share.

From there, I headed for the spaceport and docked next to the five captured pirate ships. Two hours later, the items I had ordered began arriving. The first was forty-eight more androids, complete with body armor and better weapons. The second was ten more small AIs to use if I captured more pirate ships, although they were twice the size of what I had used so the damaged ships could limp into port. I bought two hundred pairs of manacles for use if I ran afoul of more pirates, in addition to the manacles I kept from the captured pirate ships.

I bought the parts I needed so I could build ten more Class VII lasers. Since a single shot seemed to be all that was necessary, I’d mount two new lasers on the port and starboard laser mounts, and two more fore and aft, replacing what was already there. Another was for the ship’s lower hull, and one to fire up.

I had the androids go through the five captured ships once more, carefully scanning for hidden compartments and removing the healing pods and manacles. They also took the three shuttles that were aboard. Those would allow us to send a team of armed androids to three ships at the same time if necessary. Once that was done, I contacted three companies that sold new and used ships. I explained that I wanted a new or almost new ship at least twice the size of my current ship, hoped to use the five captured ships as part of the down payment, and would pay cash for the rest.

One of the three sellers didn’t have anything in the size I wanted. The other two came out and looked at the five ships. I showed them that three of the ships only needed new shield generators and AIs. On the other two ships, the hole from the laser would need repairing as well as replacing the electrical wiring around where the hole was. They would need to replace the AI and some of the adjacent equipment that had been damaged when the pirates destroyed the AI.

I eventually reached a deal with the first dealer that arrived. He had a ship that would hold twenty mining pods as well as the three shuttles. I was surprised that, despite the damage, the five pirate ships had covered ninety percent of the cost of the almost-new ship. I paid the remainder in cash thanks to the two partial loads of ingots I’d sold.

Then, I spoke with the ship construction people at the spaceport and explained the work I wanted done on the new ship. I wanted two empty compartments clear through the center of the ship and just beneath the deck plates with a reversible rail gun in each compartment. Next, I wanted two compartments going side to side with a rail gun loaded into each compartment. Finally, I wanted a second, stronger shield generator, leaving the original operating so the ship had two shields.

The work would take eight weeks to complete since they had other jobs already waiting. I didn’t want to wait that long, but didn’t want to do the work myself. I could have done the work, but I could make far more money in the same time by dropping off more mining pods and bringing back another load of ingots. I paid the required deposit for the work and told them I’d be back in two or three months. Thinking ahead, I bought four more androids and all the parts necessary to build Class VII lasers for the newly purchased ship. I worked with the construction foreman for the new ship, and we chose a hold the work crews wouldn’t need to access. One of the androids guarded the hold so nobody could enter it. The other three removed all the Class III lasers and took them to the hold. They would build the new Class VII lasers, but would wait until after I took possession of the ship to reinstall them. Then, I’d sell or trash the Class III lasers.

With that, we left Ahnjuk aboard the Jump To It. Once we were clear of the system’s gravitational influence, we wormholed back to the area we’d explored and installed eight new mining pods. Since I already had ten platinum mines and eight rhenium mines, I chose sites for four gold mines and four iridium mines for this batch of pods, so I wouldn’t flood the market with platinum and rhenium.

This time, our exploration only took eight weeks. Partway through exploring the first part of the arc across the Scutum-Centaurus arm, we reached the far side of the arm. Rather than complete the arc, I chose to move closer to the core of the galaxy and jumped to the farthest point that our sensors had explored and then repeated the procedure, moving far enough away that our sensors barely reached the partial arc we had just explored. We explored back the opposite way, noting any potential sites for new mines.

“Captain, you should see this,” Alexis said as we neared the end of our exploration. I was in a cargo hold working on a shield generator using an idea I had to make it even stronger. Alexis projected a view of the planet into the hold.

“Holy shit,” I gasped when I saw large creatures that reminded me of dinosaurs.

“That’s not the best part, either,” she said, projecting data from the scan of the planet.

“Wait ... what?” I gasped.

I was even more surprised by the next view since it was from one of our shuttles just meters above the planet’s surface. Several androids were digging, using the powered hand tools they normally used to level sites for the mining pods. Two of them levered something out of a three-meter-wide hole they were digging. The sensor immediately identified it as a 9.65-kilogram diamond.

“Holy shit!” I gasped. “I wonder how much of it is useable.” The androids continued working and the second shuttle took more help to the surface. When the first eight diamonds were brought up to the ship, cleaned up, and scanned closely, I was even more shocked. Even though they were rough, four of the eight were flawless, clear diamonds between eight and twelve kilograms. After Alexis reviewed our data banks, she told me that the largest flawless diamond to date was less than .05 kilograms.

The scans of the three kimberlitic pipes here showed thousands of diamonds in the eight to twelve-kilogram range within fifty meters of the surface. I left two dozen of my new androids here, each armed with heavy weapons capable of dealing with any of the large animals if they ventured too close. Three of the androids could easily stand guard while the other twenty-one worked. When we brought everyone back aboard and left a day later, we already had forty-six diamonds between eight and twelve kilograms and fifty-seven diamonds in the four to eight-kilogram range. There were also eighty-three between two and four kilograms, nearly two hundred between one and two kilograms, and over five hundred smaller than one kilogram. Even a one kilogram diamond could theoretically produce 5,000 1-carat diamonds when cut.

We backtracked and picked up any ingots that were ready. By the time we finished collecting ingots, we had to load some ingots in the shuttles to have enough room. I left a crew of armed androids in each of the shuttles in case we met any pirates on the way home. Each shuttle had an extra AI that was programmed with a copy of Alexis’s programming, and fifty pairs of manacles.

This time I wormholed to the opposite side of the Hawnalt Sector, and headed for the planet Luboro and the main Tredax office. Once again, I had to end up quite some distance from my destination since areas of the sector closer to the planet were usually full of cargo ships, especially ships bringing ingots to and transporting goods and equipment from Tredax. Four hours after we entered the sector, Alexis called out a warning again. And yes, I’d already sensed the damn danger.