Chapter 21

McCock went on,

"When I read it, there was a major competition for racing yachts, multicrew, space capable, not hypercapable, to be held off Griffen in three T-years. We will establish our reputation by winning, I hope, that prize. It will explain why there are parts of the yard closed off; it will give cover for when we are working on it; the yard's machinery will be available for us when needed; our mock ups won't look out of place and we can space test the yachts in plain sight. EW can still be inbuilt but out of sight in the hull. Tac Nav Com can be out in the open, but there will be no inside looks – what it does, not what does it. Weapons will have to be computer modeled, sorry Cowboy." Cowboy looked inwardly for a moment,

"That's not going to be that much of a problem now I ponder more. The hull, the power plant, the places to emplace the weapon – if you've got them for real then I can computer model anyway. There's not going to be new weapon systems are there?"

McCock reassured him,

"There might be new but they wont be unproven systems. My idea of binding one of those new nests into a pinnace wouldn't work?"

Cowboy laughingly answered,

"Not really, apart from inertia and momentum making manoeuvring a bit sticky, something this small, 1,000 tons? Won't have the surplus power for that targeting computer or the size to put it in – not unless you are going to make an unmanned drone and that will limit the range of the boat."

"Oh, frabous joy" raved Polack, "the design specs call for six hundred gravities. All that power. That beautiful big power plant with overpowered impellers. Joy. Joy."

McCock laughed,

"Don't get carried away. It's got to fit in one thousand tons AND THAT IS A MAXIMUM! Silas put the lower limit at six hundred but I think he is a bit optimistic. To get this done in the time, the systems have to be available now! The latest AND THE BEST! Start thinking about it. I'll take hull and I'm thinking of the Spaceyacht "Aurora" so get their specs and think "Aurora". I'll have to put it through the design pattern but I think that's the shape to work on. This thing has to be the fastest around."

Denny raised an eyebrow and cocked his head on one side,

"Where are we going to put our secure or secret or whatever work shop? This is going to need a lot of cubage and I can't see it in GmBH yard without being too visible to our customers. It needs to be somewhere where they shouldn't be going anyway. Is there another yard nearby preferably next door?"

Polack put a point,

"Better still a fleet underway repair ship but that would really draw the flies and we'd be expected to undertake salvage. We aren't trained for salvage; we can recover and tow but not salvage."

Denny rejoined.

"A mobile dock?"

Cowboy answered that one,

"They cost and there's very few available. A lighter, the hold would be big enough and we could moor it on the channel side and use the flivver airlock."

"Nah, I've got just the thing." Slow triumphantly smirked, "the wreck of the "Hebrides Trader". I had open channel on my suit the other day and I heard Aggy going on about it. Being as inquisitive as him, I took it further. Got MFH onto it, looked up the shipping register and got the Lloyd's assessors' report. What's a "Lloyds" anyway? Fact, we can get it for the demurrage, scrap yard will remove the bow for us and will seal that bulkhead – that's if we make the deal. The passenger, crew, and power areas are intact – and I mean intact, there's still the crockery for the Captain's table. Harbour master assures me that there is no damage in those holds and he thinks the hatches are functional. There wasn't any security on them and the looters just left them. The passenger, crew, engine room, bunkers were all encryption secured – Captain's card – would have needed cutters and that would have been seen.