Chapter 8

The WOS sailed past us and was shortly followed by the disabled Hunter missile. I thought quickly and decided on the spot.

“Bonnie, match course and speed. Let’s recover our missile.”

“You got it, Love.”

The maneuver took only a few moments, and soon, the ship’s tractor beam brought the hunter missile back into the ‘My Love.’

Sue finally managed to reach a chair and strap herself in. Although her pride may have been bruised, her body was.

“Captain, I don’t think we have time to mess around with salvage.”

“Fong, would you explain to her that a WOS is the fastest ship in the known galaxies? We are going to board it. Once we are in control, we will have her at her destination several days before she needs to arrive.”

Sue looked impressed as Fong explained it to her.

Bonnie stuttered, “But I like the ‘My Love.”

“So rename the ‘Rogue Rouge’ to the ‘My Love II’.”

It took ten more cycles before our ship’s tractors were locked on the Rouge.

After we assumed control of the WOS’s bridge, I shocked everyone by ordering us to jump back to Lackey station.

The trip back was uneventful, and the reception could have been warmer. The Admiral was cussing up a storm as soon as he knew we were back. Bonnie was getting miffed at him. Finally, I could take no more and said so.

“Admiral, you failed to give us the correct orders to carry out.”

‘What are you talking about?’ his mind screamed back at me.

‘Simple. This was not a diplomatic mission.”

‘What are you talking about?’

We were docked at Lackey station when I relayed the actual mission to him. We did so under complete military lockdown. There would be no spies this time, or so I thought.

Captain’s log:

The ‘Rouge’ was renamed the ‘My Love II’. And the ‘My Love’ was placed into storage. It took eighteen hours for my modifications to be made to the WOS. I blew the bank account on it. The Ambassador had also twisted the Admiral’s arm some.

Soon, the WOS was equipped with a military operating system AI, a new escape pod, and twelve anti-matter ECM Hunters. All seven laser ports now boasted the type 10 Minnies, and the cargo hold was filled with heat absorption units. The dockyard manager couldn’t believe he managed to fit twenty of the units into the cargo bay. The final upgrade was to max out the shields absolutely.

By the time all was said and done, the ‘My Love II’ was the second fastest ship in the known universe and had a complete twenty cycle’s worth of heat absorption available almost instantly.

The ship could out-fight and out-perform anything short of the Ictheris itself. And that ship couldn’t even do that without the Fong AI loaded.