13 Degrees of Separation (90 page)

The Commander nodded, looking at the Captain. “All part of
the contract. Normally we just offer a health and safety inspection.”

“What's that?”

“Check the systems, clean the software, and give you a
complete list of what's repairable, how, and what parts you need.”

“Ah.” The Captain thought that over and then nodded.
Sometimes just having an independent list of what was wrong was a big help.
People tended to be blinded to their own mistakes or to their own systems
sometimes. He was surprised his crew had readily agreed to letting a foreign
group on the ship at all though. He'd been prepared to argue but the chief had
been all for it.

It might have been all the stories swirling around the
sector right now. The Navy was back, they were helping people. Stories of this
'Admiral Irons' were also all over the sector. Since he was responsible for the
tide of change and the resurrection of the Navy, it wasn't a surprise that they
were following in his footsteps. A bit humbling, he wasn't sure what all the
charity was about, but he wasn't going to complain about it. They were going to
add to the legend, he knew that. His people would be talking about it at every
planet they visited.

He cocked his head. That explained why the Navy wanted to
downplay the yard. They would probably get rid of any sensor readings of the
ships he saw in the system too. And of course the defenses at the jump points.
Slowly he nodded in understanding.

“Also a basic tune up. We're finding that just doing that
helps a ship immensely,” Logan said to the Veraxin, not noticing the Captain's
epiphany moment.

“Good,” the Captain rumbled.

“There isn't a lot here,” Veraxin said. “Just over two
hundred tons.”

Logan smiled. “Trust me, we can use all we can get. The
more the merrier.” He turned to see work crews of bots and organics in suits
busy passing goods back and forth. He nodded. MM didn't have a lot, two hundred
tons added up to one of their smaller cargo holds, but it was enough knowing
Irons. John knew what they lacked, he'd focus his efforts on the critical items
on that list if possible. Enough to help them limp along with their building projects.
He had already put in orders to dust off Kittyhawk and get her back on
schedule. Some of the components MM had brought in were critical fighter parts.
With them they could now stock the fighter Fortresses and the escort carrier.

“Do you have a flight plan beyond Pyrax?”

The Captain shrugged. “I was tempted to go north to
Agnosta, but we usually turn south to Seti alpha 4. From all the stories I've
heard of pirates around B452c I'm not keen about running into them.”

Logan nodded. He didn't mention that the admiral had left
satellites in the empty system while on Destiny. He needed to get a ship there
to strip their beacons but right now he had other priorities. “The only way a
ship could catch you is by waiting in ambush or dumb bad luck.”

The Captain puffed out a breath. What the Commander said
was true, a pirate waiting to pounce could get them, if they didn't have time
to turn around and run. Or plain dumb bad luck, running into a pirate as they
exited hyper right on the point. “Either way, I don't want to chance it. Seti
Alpha 4 hasn't had any piracy in over a decade. With you folks here minding the
only other way in and out of the system, I think it's safe to go in that
direction.”

“Safer than going north or east at least,” the Veraxin
chittered.

“True.”

“Well, I'll let the cargo crews deal with this. I know your
people have some leave time, I put in for the bars to give them a drink on the
house and I know doctor Thornby's staff are giving them each free basic
physicals.”

“That's mighty kind of you all,” the Captain said.

Logan made a brushing motion. “The physicals are required
now on the station, everyone coming and going gets them, it's part of her
health and welfare check up system she instituted.”

“Ah.”

“Beer is on me. One to a customer, once they get it, that
will end. I've got a list of your crew, so no one can mess it up or take
advantage of it. Call it another thank you from me personally,” Logan said with
a smile. “I know spacers, getting out of the ship for a while is worth it.”

“True,” the Veraxin replied. “I'm still working on lining
up additional cargo though,” he chittered.

“Working with your purser?”

“Yes. Do you have some leads?”

“I'll talk to the doc. She wanted to send some medical
supplies to the hospital that is under construction in Seti Alpha 4.”

“Hospital?” the Captain asked in surprise. “A Navy one?”

Logan shook his head. “No, not one of ours. The ship the
admiral came in on, the Io 11 dropped off a medic they had um... borrowed from
there. They paid him in a couple hundred tons of medical equipment and
supplies. He's set up quite a hospital. We've had a few ships pass through from
there in the past couple of years, they let us know how he's doing. We've sent
him one care package, and I know doc is keeping in touch.”

The Captain nodded. “Ah.”

“Yeah. It's always wise to help the doctors, you never know
when you'll need their services,” Logan replied wryly. Both civilians nodded in
return.

“Anyway, give me a call when you get your flight plan
sorted out. I'll call doc, see what she's got available and then we can talk
terms. Deal?” he asked looking from one to the other.

“Sure,” the Captain said slowly.

Logan smiled again. “And no, I don't expect it to be free.
We pay our freight. That's not a problem, we want the economy to grow. So don't
worry about that. We pay up front too.”

“That's good to know,” the Veraxin replied diplomatically.
Logan shook hands with the Captain, then bowed to the Veraxin. The Veraxin
chittered and gave a second level bow of respect. Logan turned and left.

“A remarkable human,” the Veraxin said.

“Yeah,” the Captain said, looking at the hatch. He turned
to see the Navy crew. Most had already left, the cargo bay had been cleaned out
in record time. They were professional, quick, and surgically clean. He liked
that. “It's nice to meet someone off the ship who knows what they're doing,”
the Captain said. He turned to the Veraxin. “Get me a cargo,” he ordered.

“Working on it,” the Veraxin replied, waving a tablet.
“Passengers?”

The Captain grimaced. “We've got two cabins available.
We'll see. If they're as good as they say, life support wont' be a problem.”

“But laying in food stocks may be,” the Veraxin chittered.
“So I'll need some lead in time.”

“We'll do what we can,” the Captain replied with a nod.
“Plan on at least two,” he said and left.

...*...*...*...*...

Wendy Darling frowned as she looked over the numbers. The
spread sheet was her best way of getting a feel for the way things were going.
She had worried about coming to Pyrax, fuel would be horrendously expensive.
That fear had rung true... but the quality had surprised her.

She'd been given a selection of fuel as the ship was
overhauled. According to the chief they were doing a complete tear down of the
fusion reactor, he'd been leery about it but they'd easily restarted it when
they were finished. The plasma conduit leaks had all been patched or replaced.
They were working on the various sub systems now.

The crew that had rebuilt the fusion reactor had shown the
chief the wear from using unrefined hydrogen fuel. They didn't really have a
choice, many colony worlds just had water from a local stream. A few like New
Texas and Epsilon filtered it, but not by a lot, or at least not enough to
really make a difference until now.

She'd been surprised that Gaston had offered them distilled
water. It had been a little more expensive than the straight water, but she'd
gone with it since they'd gotten that deal for the Irons contract. She'd had
the refueling crew do random tests, all of the tests had panned out as distilled
water.

The chief's predecessors had set up an electrolysis system
for the ship, they ran electricity from the ship's power grid through the water
and separated it into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen went into their life
support or was used as fuel for the sublight engine. The hydrogen was
compressed and stored, and eventually fed to the fusion reactor.

But now they had a lot more options. Anvil had always had
basic distilled water or hydrogen, but now the Navy was giving them not only
deuterium, something she'd only heard about, but also Helium 3. That had the
chief dancing a jig and smirking so it must be good. She had looked him up to
get the story straight on this stuff. It was her job to make sure the ship
didn't get ripped off after all.

“Can we really use this?” she asked, wrinkling her nose as
the Peter the chief waxed poetic about the new fuel.

“Are you kidding?” the chief asked, all smiles. He hooked a
thumb in his broad belt. He'd picked the belt up on New Texas, with all the
hide there leather was incredibly cheap. They did all sorts of things there,
and the inlay was just gorgeous. “With deuterium our reactor will be ten times
more fuel efficient. With the helium 3? We'll be near spec for the first time
in I dunno how long.”

“That good?”

“That great!” he said, grinning.

“And it's free?” the purser asked. “They didn't have you
sign anything?”

“We signed for delivery. All part of the contract. The only
problem I'm having is we've had to flush the hydrogen we've got to tank up on
the deuterium.”

“Really.”

“Yeah. But it's okay, they bought it off us. So we don't
need to use the electrolysis system either, and the hydrogen sale is going on
our account.”

“It is?”

The chief pointed to her tablet as it refreshed. She
frowned looking down at it. She tapped at the new entry and blinked. “I see it
is,” she murmured.

“I heard a couple of the crew are getting some medical work
done doc couldn't handle. Baren's finally getting that tooth taken care of.
Carol dragged him over to the dentist by the ear.”

Wendy snorted softly. “That figures.”

“And they found a cancerous colon tumor in Jennifer, and
Luthan had a chitten infection in his hind quarters that has bothered him for
years. All fixed.”

“Really?” Wendy asked absently, still studying the figures.
There had to be a rat somewhere.

“Yeah, um, is the Captain going to spring for implants?”

“Implants?” that got the purser's attention. She looked up
and frowned. “No one said anything about implants. What are you talking about
Rogers? Are you pulling my leg?”

The chief shrugged. “Heard about it when I had my physical.
Basic ident implants, or more advanced stuff. It's expensive though.”

“Well, we can't afford much.”

“I'd like to get some of it. We've got a couple pieces of
equipment that were designed to interface through an implant.”

“Um... let me talk to the Captain about it.”

“Sure Wendy, no problem.”

“Peter, go play with your spanners, she sighed. “I'm glad
the crew is busy on Anvil, and I'm glad you sold the hydrogen. They're spending
a lot on leave,” she said scowling.

Pete snorted. “Not my problem,” he said walking off
whistling.

...*...*...*...*...

 “How are things going?” the Captain asked. Wendy wasn't in
a good mood, her daughter Jane had taken time on Anvil. All the crew were given
down time, shore leave in other words. They'd been in the system two weeks,
enough time for everyone to get their fill. He'd gotten reports that some of
the crew had gotten medical treatment. He was glad for that. Two of the crew
including Rose Worth had gotten basic implants, that was surprising.

He'd heard the griping from Wendy. Jane had found out about
the Anvil college and wanted to attend. She looked like a yokel with the
cowgirl hat on. Her head swiveled about like a tourist. But unfortunately they
weren't going to be in the system long enough, nor did they have the credits to
pay for her education. Jane was crushed, something Wendy was also not happy
about.

Sometimes one had to loosen the apron strings. It meant
taking chances, but sometimes that was the only way for the kids to learn,
grow, and go out on their own. He remembered fondly the tour he'd had of Anvil.
Giving Jane a chance was worth it.

Apparently the young woman had been exploring the Navy,
looking into the reserves. Her mother didn't quite know about that particular
new interest yet. Jane had to make a decision soon, the MM would be leaving as
soon as the repairs were complete. According to the Lieutenant engineer
assigned to them that would be in 6 days.

“We're fine. Hull is going to be buttoned up in two days.”

“Ship systems?”

“All Major systems have had an overhaul. We're up to 90
percent or better across the board sir. In some cases close to one hundred.”
Pete reported with a grin. He was exhausted and looked it, red eyes, slack
face. He hadn't shaved in a couple of shifts but he was happy.