Chapter 6

B deck was the veritable heart of the ship, containing among other rooms, the bridge, combat information center, armory, ready rooms, meeting rooms, science center and at opposite ends, the Captain’s and First Officers’s quarters. Above was A deck, which included an observation room where the only natural view of space could be seen because no other windows existed on the ship. There was a berthing station for loading and unloading cargo and hooking up to spaceports. Beside that was an external crew airlock with a large area containing tools and dedicated void suits. The modular combat pods took up a large portion of A deck, with access corridors running down either side and automated point defense rooms at either end of the ship. Those rooms were mainly for housing the ammunition and operation systems for the topside Point defenses, never manned and briefly service checked daily. The ship was enveloped in a Triplex alloy armor. The top layer was designed to dissipate energy weapons while the middle and bottom layers were designed to absorb kinetic impacts. A further layer of armor divided A and B decks, whose primary function was to offer additional protection to the crew in case of any catastrophic damage from the weapon pods. D deck also shared an extra layer of armor to protect against catastrophic damage to the underside.

Jack walked up to the door with the illuminated sign that read Bridge and stepped in when the doors slid sideways into the walls. The bridge was a cramped place containing many stations, including the helm, navigation, comms, watch officer and Captains’ station. Each one had an adjustable seat but there were so many interfaces that the crew usually stood to interact with them. The exception was in a combat situation where seating offered stability.

Jack saw a figure step away from the watch officer station and exhaled slowly.

“Officer Coralane.” Proculus Scaro said with little enthusiasm.

“First Officer Scaro.” Jack reached out to shake his hand, feeling the overly firm handshake in return.

“Decided to come back, huh?” Proculus casually glanced at his time piece on his belt.

“Figured you’d be getting bored by now, First Officer.” Jack subconsciously noted the time check Proculus had just performed, making him think he was late. The Sol standard clock over the comms station read 23:57 and he relaxed a little.

“Hm,” Proculus snorted dismissively. “Remember the protocol on timing? If you are not five minutes early, you are late.”

“Uh, understood.” Jack bit his lower lip. Assholes in viewport may be closer than they appear.

“Reason for late arrival?”

“A little laundry snafu, nothing to fret about.”

Proculus regarded him sternly for a moment before speaking. “I’ll give you this one, as you’re likely a bit slack from your extended leave. Don’t let it happen again, understood?”

“Understood.” Jack replied. Fuck off.

“Alright, listen up. Autonav is set, leave the navstation alone unless there is an emergency. Void transponder is active and automated distress system is on alert, should it be needed. Do not touch the comms station unless the Vnavtex activates, then make adjustments if necessary. Stay out of the captain’s chair. I should not need to tell you why.”

“Why?” Jack slipped out. Oops.

“Do not fuck around.” Proculus snapped. “It is the captain’s chair, no-one else takes that seat.”

“I won’t sit in the seat, First Officer.” Jack tried to sound serious. Fuck yeah, I will.

“Do not let me catch you doing so.” Proculus regarded him seriously. “We still follow a level of traditional conduct, despite your every waking effort to clown that up. Moving on, comet missiles are programmed for auto launch. Point defense systems are in guard mode. There should be no need for either unless you fuck up. Any questions so far?”

“No sir.” Can I take ‘Who is an overbearing fuckbag for one hundred please?’

“Follow me.”

Jack followed him to a vertical display a few paces away, outlining their position heading y- or below the Artema system. Planets orbited their parent stars on the X axis, representing a flat plane. Starships jumped into a system from ‘above’ the plane and jumped out from ‘below’ the plane. This was necessary to avoid a collision with an object in the void at superluminal speed as the ‘jump’ did not actually remove the ship from normal space. Computers linked to the superlum engines automatically plotted a jump path, based on data received from local broadcasting and void transponders to form a safe path to avoid ship to ship collisions. Incidents did occur however, more frequently in the past before a standard jump procedure was laid out.

“As you can see, we have two other vessels behind us within one Au. (Astronomical unit). If something goes wrong, we have available aid. Their frequencies are broadcasting on the navrelay. Do not get into one of your ‘Jack-ass’ moments and toy with them. The Astral Feather has grown in reputation since you have been away. I will not tolerate losing that, clear?” Jack nodded. “Astrodrives are running at full capacity. They will begin reducing throttle approximately fifteen minutes before jump point. Any questions?”

“No, got it, First Officer.” Jack replied.

“Helm is being relieved. All systems are running nominal, course is set on y - bearing. At 02:00 the superlum drives are set to engage. Jump course is set for Calldan. Speed at one light year per hour. Arrival time at Calldan is estimated for 11:00 hours Sol.”

Jack repeated the information. “Helm has been relieved, all systems running nominal, course set on y- bearing. Superlum drives set to jump at 02:00 Sol. Jump course set for Calldan at one light year per hour. Arrival at Calldan estimated for 11:00 hours Sol.”

“Very well.” Proculus said and turned to leave.

Jack waited for him to leave, pretending to be busy studying the Navmap. When Proculus was gone, he let out a sigh and shook his head. “Alright,” He whispered to himself. “Now that the ball and chain has fucked off...”

Jack spun lazily around in the captain’s chair, yawning and thinking about slipping down to her quarters after he was relieved from watch. That was still over two hours away. He looked over the bridge a few times and took a sip from his cup of coffee. On larger vessels or military void ships there would be more than one person on watch, but on a contractor ship such as the Astral Feather it was more common for a single deck officer to be on duty. Financial constraints and overall crew availability often limited the amount of personnel on watch. In the void ship regulations however, a single watch person was all that was needed for safe navigation of this sized vessel.

Jack looked over the navstation and flipped on the viewscreen, being rewarded with an empty view of space before him. He didn’t really expect anything else, but it was a welcome break from the silent monotony. He had a good look around the ship’s exterior, switching cameras now and then to get a full view. The Artema star was visible behind them, appearing as the brightest dot in a spatter of stars. If they continued their current course, they would eventually enter the riptide nebula, a wavy blue-green collection of dust and ionized gases. Other than that, there was little to keep him occupied while he waited for his watch to end. He turned on the interstellar radio and kept the volume low, trying to find a station with good signal, something broadcasting from a close range. Artema had several popular stations and Jack settled on one he recognized.

“Well Casto, gonna be a hot one on Artema today.”

“Why is that, Jimmy?” Casto asked.

“Temps gonna hit the low to mid-thirties all through the middle belt. With the Falling Stars concert in Katayma tomorrow night, y’all better be hydrating.”

“Yes,” Casto said. “Get yourself a shade screen or two. Make sure, if you got skin that does not react well to sunlight, you slap that greasy slop all over yourself.”

“Count yourself lucky Casto. That fur you got does wonders to prevent them burns.”

“That it does, Jimmy. Does not help the body temp however.”

“Do Kakrin pant?” Jimmy asked.

“Only for certain reasons, Jimmy. I am sure a Terran can figure out why.”

“We probably can,” Jimmy laughed. “I saw this article last night, two Praeminians ran nude through the downtown core yesterday morning. It got me thinkin...”

“Oh no,” Casto laughed. “He’s thinkin folks.”

“More on that another time, but in all seriousness here, are you considered nude if you have full body fur?”

“Depends,” Casto replied. “If the fur covers the bits, no. However, League ethics set a level playing field on the definition of nude. If your race wears any sort of clothing, then you are considered nude if you do not.”

“So aquatic races, although nude, are not considered so. Is that what you’re telling me?” Jimmy asked.

“Yes,” Casto replied. “That is correct Jimmy.”

“So if I want to go to a nude colony, I have to go under the sea?”

“That might not be the nude you’re looking for.” Casto said back.

“Ah, oh, I guess it’s time to move on.”

“You are lucky that type of conversation is tolerated on this station,” Casto said.

“In other news,” Jimmy cleared his throat. “A Cordivain burned down half his garage by mistake. Said he tried to douse a smaller fire with a pail of what he thought was water. Turns out it was biodiesel. When asked why he couldn’t smell it, he said he had no sense of smell. When asked about the color, since biodiesel is a bit of a golden yellow, he said Cordivain don’t see in the same spectrum of color that Terrans do. It was a good thing the local fire service had a pair of Yisinthi. They responded fast enough with water packs to keep the flames from spreading until other units could respond to the blaze in proper.”

“Sure does make response times fast when you have a couple of crew from a race that flies.” Casto said.

“Sure does Casto.” Jimmy said.

A flashing screen on the navstation drew Jack’s attention and he noted that the astrodrive; so named as it pushed the ship forward at the speed of one astronomical unit per hour; was beginning to power down. This would give time for the onboard cooling system to return to optimal temperature before the superlum drive engaged. Space radiated heat quite slowly, despite being very cold when hidden from direct sunlight. This created the need for a cooling system to keep the ship from reaching lethal temperatures or sustaining damage to onboard systems. Both the astrodrive and superlum drive created immense heat that was pumped through a liquid ammonia pipe system. These ammonia-filled pipes were coiled through radiator panels that could be extended when the ship was stationary, or transferred into large coolant tanks when in transit or combat. The tanks could store a significant amount of heat, but they needed time to return to normal temperatures after combat or several superlum jumps.

Jack checked the cooling system display to confirm there were no irregularities and saw it was only at seventeen percent capacity, which meant it was running at expected levels. He kept watch on the navstation while the ships autopilot began calculating the jump to Calldan. The ship slowly came to near zero momentum and aligned itself towards Calldan using it’s small ion thrusters. He watched as the null gravity lattice around the superlum drives powered up. This lattice was an important part of the drive system, without it the crew would be exposed to such high levels of lateral g force that they would be turned into a protein rich paste at the back of the vessel. During dangerous operations the entire drive engine could be retracted inside an armored compartment on the vessel to keep it safe. This, however, increased heat generation and reduced efficiency, causing a delay in initiating a jump.

The ship bumped slightly, then Jack felt a bit of vertigo for a moment as the ship went superluminal, catapulting them to many times the speed of light. The drive would be pushing them faster every minute, for the next twenty minutes, in order to achieve optimal light speed. From then on it would simply maintain speed until beginning retro motion as they neared the system they were traveling to.

For the next hour, Jack simply maintained an uneventful watch, keeping tabs over the operating systems to ensure there were no irregularities. A welcome break came when Third Officer Kejeh Kindbright and Chief Engineer Zakia Mzuzi entered the bridge.

“Hey Jack,” Zakia said with a smile, “Good to see you again.”

“Chief,” Jack took her in an embrace for a moment before stepping back to look her over. “Glad to see you too.”

Zakia had dark skin, jet black hair and deep green eyes. She was Jack’s height and her lean frame seemed to have lost twenty pounds since he last saw her. She wore her hair tied back in a single bun just above her neck. Work related injuries had caused some faint scarring to her strong looking hands. Kejeh stepped up beside Zakia and gave Jack a friendly nod.

“Welcome home, Jack.” Kejeh placed both hands gently on Jack’s shoulders.

Kejeh belonged to a leathery skinned reptilian race known as the Djardunsa. Because they were genderless, they often struggled with the concept of male and female. Kejeh was about five feet in height, thin, with a large fin on their head like a headsail. Large, purple, reptilian eyes watched with intent and rarely missed a detail. There was a flat mouth under a long snout. The webbing between their four fingers and toes made them relatively fast swimmers, a necessary survival trait on their swamp covered, tropical home world. A fin-like paddle at the end of a small tail, which was often held as an annoyance on land, added to their aquatic capability. Kejeh wore a uniform like Jack’s with slight modifications, except for the added presence of a plastic one-gallon liquid container worn on their back. Inside the container was a mixture of water and some minerals intended to keep Kejeh hydrated, as Djardunsa tended to lose hydration faster than most species when not in a humid environment.

“Good to see you again Kejeh.” Jack set his hands on Kejehs’ shoulders and nodded.

“Did you find success on your time off?” Kejeh gave his shoulders a gentle squeeze and let go.

“I did, some,” Jack nodded. “How about here? Everything been ok?”

“Had a couple of concerns,” Zakia said. “Ship was hit by drones.”

“I was informed,” Jack nodded. “Somewhat worrying.”

“More than somewhat, Jack,” Kejeh said. “From a safety aspect, there is discussion in upgrading the point defense systems to a better model.”

“E grades are the best we can do though,” Jack replied. “That doesn’t leave a lot of options, and all are kinetic based.”

“We have single module twelve-barrel systems,” Kejeh said as Zakia patted Jack and moved past him with an engineering satchel over her shoulder. “We can purchase sixteen-barrel systems.”

“Those are expensive,” Jack replied.

“Given the newfound threat to the ship, is there really a price on safety?” Kejeh said back.

“No,” Jack shook his head. “Have you talked with the captain?”

“Yes. I drew up a memo and sent it to her. Talks are ongoing. She does not intend to be cheap on our safety but purchasing said modules has not been forthcoming. Finding a civil defense market with those in stock has been fruitless.”

“She’ll keep looking, I’m sure of it.”

“I do not doubt that.” Kejeh nodded and gestured to where Zakia was headed. “With you on return now, perhaps you can look into safety measures too, given some of your background with Ewar training.”

“Sometimes it can be done simply with programs to the radar that allow it to identify certain stealth functions. Still hard to acquire any stealth drone that has a radar defeating physical design. Some betray their locations, however, by sending too many signals back and forth. Comet rockets are a better point defense at that. Got longer range than the pattern fire that kinetic point defense shoots out.”

“Whatever it takes Jack,” Kejeh patted his arm. “I just want to see the vessel as safe as can be.”

“I get that, being safety officer and all,” Jack nodded. “We’ll do what we can.”

Jack had felt the concern in Kejeh’s voice when they spoke. Kejeh had been in the deck department of several freighters that were attacked by drones and manned pirate craft. Since the pirates were after the cargo, most bulk freighters were designed to jettison their cargo so they could make a hasty escape. One group, however, had made a sport of disabling the actual freighters and leaving them to drift. Rescue could be slow, and occasionally, not at all. Kejeh had run into these groups at least twice that Jack was aware of. The Djardunsa came from one of the most dangerous home worlds in League space and were known for being quite emotionless. The animated tone in Kejeh’s voice made Jack a little on edge about how safe the ship really was, but he pushed it away. Jack and Kejeh joined Zakia at the maintenance panel at the back-left side of the bridge. Zakia removed the small panel on the systems AC unit that kept the bridge and most of its electronic systems from overheating.