Chapter 7

"There's a crate for you Captain Todd," called the Storeman. "Just in on the freighter from Sol 3."

"Yeah, what?" I called out.

"Paint, anyway that's what it says on the manifest," he shouted across the storeroom.

Good, the matt black paint I had ordered had arrived and now, with the help of the Starbase's space dock, we can spray number 299 all over black.

"It really does work you know, Candy," said Lila who was supervising the re-spray. "You can hardly see it."

"Well, I hope so," she said, "This paint didn't come cheap."

"Come in, Captain," invited the commander of Starbase 22. "We have news in from Navy command. They are sending a support ship, the SS Shuttleworth."

"A support ship," I gasped. "What good is a support ship if we have marauding Phobo's on our hands?"

"No idea, Captain," he said with a shake of his old shoulders. "I'm just in charge here and the last one to know anything. Let's just wait and see what tomorrow brings."

"Bloody Navy going mad," I said, as I sipped my second cup of blend 54. "Sending a bloody support ship when there's fighting to be done."

"You never know, Captain, what she may bring with her," said a very naked Lila.

"How big is she?" asked an also very naked Candy from the other side of my bed.

"Oh, she's a big bugger, no doubt about it," I said thinking back to when I saw one at the spaceport. "Warp 3 top speed with thick shielding. These buggers often go where the fighting is the fiercest to re-arm and re-fuel the Starships."

"So what's she bringing us then?" asked Candy.

"Space torpedoes," said Captain Henry of the Shuttleworth.

"Shit, I remember them," I said. "Didn't we sow them all around Sol during the war."

"Yeah, caused us all sorts of problems back then," he chuckled. "We modified them somewhat since then, there're now smaller with a bigger bang. Warheads are now a plasma generator, almost as big a bang as a nuclear warhead."

"So, let me get this straight," I said. "We are going to sow these torpedoes all over the place."

"Yep, once we've programmed in the exact scanner frequencies those buggers are using, these jokers will identify them and attack them. Look, an all out war is out of the question right now, they're much too strong for us but if we can deny them the space to expand into, we might just push them onto the backfoot and when we do have the strength out here we can take them on."

"I suppose," I said reluctantly.

"Look, the Navy is building ships as fast as it can," he said thumping his desk. "Good strong ships, fast and heavily armed but it all takes time. It's down to us to slow things down, give the Navy time."

"I see," I said. "So, we have to sow these things is hostile space just to give the Navy fat arses time to build the fleet."

"That's right," he said with a big smile.

"So, how many of these torpedoes have you got?" I asked.

"Nearly 5000," he said. "I'm fully loaded with them."

"Fucking 'ell," I whistled. "So, you sow them and I'm to ride shotgun."

"That's about the size of it," he said. "We start off here."

He pointed on his star chart.

"And move in towards their home system," he said moving his finger over the chart. "There've worked out that a 1000 torpedoes in each system will do the trick."

"Those Phobos bastards aren't going to sit still and let us sow these things, you know," I said. "Word will get out and then they'll come for us, all guns blazing."

"Yes, I know," nodded the Captain, "that's why we have to sow them in sequence, then we can retreat into the systems we've already sown."

"We're mining the Phobo's space with homing torpedoes," I said explaining our job to the crew.

"Shit, they aren't going to like that," whistled Lila.

"No, and there're going to come after us," I said.

"Shit," repeated Candy. "I'd better go check on my engines, I'm a thinking we're going to need all the speed we can get."

"Good idea, love," said Lila. "Me, I'm going to check on my Cannon."

They left me alone with my thoughts and my blend number 54. I didn't like this, things were going to get rough.

We were 20 klicks ahead of Shuttleworth and, so far, we were half the way through the fourth system, with, as yet, no interference but it couldn't last.

"Pulses," yelled Lila, who had stood with her head in the scanner hood for hours.

"Red alert," I shouted. "Charge weapons, shielding on maximum."

"It's them," yelled Lila with just a touch of panic in her voice.

"Well, the torpedoes should lock on to them, given time," I said.

Trouble was we didn't have any time.

"There'll be going for the Shuttleworth," I said.