END of LINE: Humanities Last Stand - part 3 (19 page)

"Thank you Jon Connell. I will always treasure this. Now I have something for you she told him and pulled him toward a nearby viewport. Moving over to the large view port Phillie pointed outside to where a sleek ex-military carrier floated in space. The Lexon II sun gleaming brightly off of its pristine silver hull with a broad black stripe alone its side where the gun turrets were. “There she is Jon, your Mercury. She's a real beauty isn't she?”

“Yes Phillie, she is everything you said she was. How does she run?” Jon wanted to know.

“She flies like a small pleasure craft. Sometimes it seems that if I think hard enough she understands and just goes to the place I'm thinking about.”
Phillie stood by Jon's side proudly staring out at the ship she had chosen for him. The long smooth lines of the ship gave her the appearance of a high
powered plasma rifle made ready to fire. The ship had six engine pods mounted at the rear and two more on each side for a total of ten FTL drives. Phillie
had made several changes to the propulsion systems and the large vessel now was able to fly at speeds never considered when she was designed. Maneuvering
her in a tight system still required her to be flown slowly, but in open space she was the fastest ship in her class. Only the small pleasure yachts of the
Royal Family were faster. The weapons systems all operated from a central control station located behind the command bridge and needed two crewmen to
handle them. Phillie had modified those so that each gun battery could be fired all at once or one at a time and she had changed their targeting arrays so
they no longer fired at the same target. Now each gun could fire independently at different targets. To really take advantage of all her changes required
more than two weapons specialists, but so far they'd been able to ward off any attackers with just the two men at the weapons.

“Wrenches, I don't know what to say. She's beautiful! Are the others this good looking?” Jon asked.

“I had all of them painted in the company colors Jon, but each ship is different. Yours has things the others don't. Like those four extra drives. I can
punch the slip through to Haven from here in just four hours now instead of two weeks. The others still take two weeks, but that's much faster than anyone
else and its been bringing us a lot of the express cargo. These ex-navy boats are faster than any of the other cargo transports. We may need even more ships in another year to be able to cover the added demand. Once people learn that we can do the slip in under three weeks, everyone will want us to handle their freight.”

“All the new ships are that fast?” Jon asked.

“Yeah, the Navy engines are fast as they are, but I juiced up all of their drives. Like I said, this one is special.”

“Let's go see her insides.” Jon nearly begged he was so excited over his new ship. Here floating just outside the view port was the dream of freedom he'd
had since he was a teenage youngling learning the duties of an adult FTL pilot while dealing with the torment of the bullies at school taunting him
everyday. “How are we refueling them since I ordered that the company stop using the service here?”

“Right this way Butcher.” Phillie told him as she led him to the dock's connection tube and into his ship. “Each of them makes at least one trip to Haven
where we take on enough crystals to last us almost a full cycle. The ships are all making much better than average fuel consumption numbers with the engine
modifications.” she explained as they walked through the connecting tube.

The tube was connected to an airlock just to the rear of the main hangar and Jon was spellbound at the shear size of the open cargo space. The hangar ran
for the full length of the ship and with the doors open on both sides it was little more than a tunnel starting at the port side flank and going clear
across to the starboard side. It was so big that there were several electric carts lined against a wall used by the crew to get from one point to another
in the bay that currently was loaded with crates of goods destined for the Haven markets. They rode together in one of the carts to the forward portion of
the bay toward a bank of elevators located in the middle of the bay along the forward bulkhead.

“WOW, Wrenches, this is much bigger than I imagined.” Jon exclaimed.

“She is a beast Boss. Plus someone forgot to off load a couple of fighters before selling her to me. We've got four of the new xray single seaters stowed
away up near the launch tubes. Wait until you see the staterooms up top. This baby must have been designed for an Admiral. Everything is top end. The
relief chambers even have gold fixtures up where the officer's quarters were.” Phillie informed him. “Of course I'll have to make a small secret passageway between two of them after you pick the one you want for yourself.”

“Why do we need a passageway?”

“In case we ever have a certain Royal guest passenger, remember?”

“Yes, but by that time I hope she'll be able to openly walk into my stateroom without anyone being shocked.” Jon confided in her. “Phillie, I gave her my
house colors, have you heard of or seen her wearing them?”

“I know you gave them to her. She told me about it when you had me inspect her luggage for that explosive device on the old Pluto.” Phillie told him. “If
she has worn them in public yet though I have not heard. I've been rather busy with my duties on the new ships. Haven't had much time to watch any news vids. Let's head on up to the command bridge. Do you want to fly her home?”

“Oh yes. I'd love to fly her.” Jon was as happy as a youngling who had just been given a desperately desired present. “Everything down here looks so new!”

“The whole ship looks like this. Jon, she is the most beautiful ship I've ever flown. Everything on or in her has a purpose for being here and it all
works!”

The elevator opened onto the command bridge and the sight had Jon standing slack jawed at the mass of computer banks and workstations that surrounded a
central command chair. “ATTENTION ON DECK!” Phillie yelled out. “Admiral Connell is onboard his flagship and will take command for the trip to Haven.”
Phillie informed the bridge crew. “The ship is yours Admiral.” she said and then saluted by placing her fist over her heart and bowing to Jon.

Returning the salute Jon told her, “Very well Captain Phillmma, I have command.” Jon saw the look of complete shock and surprised anger at his use of her
new rank of Captain. He knew that she'd have to learn to accept it, just like he'd have to learn to be the Admiral of his own fleet of battle ready cargo
vessels.

In a matter of minutes Jon had contacted Station Control and been given his disconnect permissions and flight course away from Lexon Station to make the
slip to Haven. In a matter of minutes the ship was clear of the station and proceeding to its assigned spot on the slipway entry when Jon received a call
from Engineering. It was Wrenches, “FTL is online and ready to activate at your command Admiral.”

“Understood Wrenches” Jon replied. Glancing at the pilot seated at the controls directly in front of the command chair, “Take us to Haven Ensign, best
possible speed.” he ordered.

“Aye, Admiral.” and that's when the view screen went blank as the stars blurred due to the speed of the Mercury. Exactly three and a half hours later the
Mercury blasted out of the slipway into Haven space and slowed to the maximum allowed in the system as it headed directly for the orbiting station ahead of
them. Jon contacted Haven control, “Haven, this is the Mercury requesting docking clearance and BBITCo. transfer shuttles to off load cargo.”

“You just left Lexon space. How did you get here that fast?” a confused controller asked.

“Its the new engine design that this ship has thanks to our brilliant Flight Engineer, Captain Phillmma.” Jon told the man and in doing so made her new
rank official. She was now a Captain in the BBITCo fleet and a certified FTL pilot to boot. Her FTL certs were a matter of record, now her rank would be
also. Having taken care of the ship, he announced to the crew, “Attention everyone. I've gone over the reports on your performance and I see nothing but
good things. To express my gratitude for your work, everyone onboard this ship will receive a ten percent raise in pay effective now. Well done people.
Keep it up and you'll be the highest paid crew in the known galaxy. Connell out.” Jon closed down the ship wide COM but the sounds of the crew shouting and
yelling as they celebrated their raise could be heard throughout the vessel anyway. Just the applause of the bridge crew was deafening. Phillie had come
through for him in every way and even surprised him by boosting his engines and hiring a dedicated crew to man his ship. He sat back in the large
comfortable command chair and smiled as the Mercury raced toward Haven Station and his quiet home in the mountains.

Three weeks into his two month leave his com badge interrupted his nap. Meetings had kept him busy everyday since he'd gotten home, but he'd managed to clear his schedule today. He had spent the morning hiking the forests near his home and enjoying the peace of the mountain even though the place felt empty now without Rina here with him. “Connell here, go ahead”

“Hi Butcher. What are you doing?” Zeprik's happy voice came through.

“I'm sun bathing naked in my yard. Why?”

“I was thinking I'd stop by to see that fabled house you own.

“Come ahead. I was wondering if you'd come by. When will you be here?”

“How about in an hour?”

“Sounds good to me. I'll open a bottle of that nasty Lexon wine you claim to like so much.”

“Great, see you then. Can I bring someone with me?”

“I suppose, do I need more of the wine or will beer work?”

“Definitely the wine. See you in a little bit. Rik out”

Jon had not planned on any guests and had been enjoying the simple pleasure of nude sunbathing while far from any prying eyes spying on him. Now he had to
quickly go upstairs and take a shower, then dress in at least a pair of leggings and his boots. Then he went down to Satrina's stash of wines in his lower
level and brought up two bottles of the better wine, leaving Rina's special wines alone. Those were only for her.

He had just finished placing the wine in a quick cooler in his kitchen when the announcer chimed that someone was at the front door. Jon quickly went over
and opened the door only to find video equipment shoved in his face. “Jon Connell, this is VIDNET news. What can you tell us about BBITCo. parking a
warship in orbit around Haven?”

“Nothing, now get off my property.”

“The people have a right to know why you have that ship up there.”

“Go away!” Jon was suddenly angrier than he had been in cycles.

“We're not leaving until you tell us why there is a warship orbiting Haven?”

They would leave soon. Jon yelled out “TALGA! ATTACK!” then he slammed his door shut as he heard his pet tiger roar. The news people started screaming and
running for their hover craft. Jon chuckled to himself when he played back the home security video of the incident and saw one of the camera people fall on
his face into the pool in front of the house, soaking his expensive camera equipment in the knee deep water of the spraying fountain. He had trained his
tiger well. The animal never showed itself. It roared and made noises at the edge of the forest, but it stayed totally out of sight. “Good boy Talga.”
Talga will be getting extra milk today. Not thinking the station would ever air the piece, Jon quickly made a cut of the video feed to send to a
competitor’s station along with his own voice over.

“This is Jon Connell. The Mercury belongs to me. It is currently leased to BBITCo. under contract to haul legal cargo between Haven and Lexon II. It was a
military NOVA class Carrier, and while it still has its cannons, it does not have any attack craft onboard. I plan to use it to carry much needed supplies
out to the rim worlds. She may come under attack from the pirates out there, so she is ready to fight if she needs to. Her cannon are defensive in nature
and she poses no threat to the people of Haven. Now, never again send your snoops to my doorstep because next time my pet will attack and you'll be
cleaning up body parts instead of egos.”

He packaged the whole thing into a nice 60-second piece and sent it off to the editor of VIDNET's competitor. He wondered if the competitor would play it
or hold it to use against him or the other station at some point. He decided that he should start putting his plans for leaving Haven into action soon.
Except for the things still locked away downstairs there wasn't much reason to stay here any longer. He could transfer the stuff a little at a time up to
Mercury and have it all stored in his stateroom or in one of the many storage spaces built into the carrier that were not being used now that she was
refitted as a cargo vessel.

The announcer interrupted his thoughts again. Checking his security videos first this time, he saw a group of the Royal Guard waiting at his door. “What do
you want?” Jon called to them through the house coms.

“The Crown Prince demands entry. Open the door to your Prince.” the apparent leader of the guard demanded.

“I don't know any Prince, nor do I open my door to a bunch of over dressed snobs making demands. GO AWAY! No wait, I have a better idea. Strip down to your
underthings, then get lost! TALGA, ATTACK!” Jon demanded right back. Again he could hear his cat roaring and making noises, but something was different.
This time the cat wasn't acting as he had with the reporters and it was carefully approaching the waiting hovercraft, sniffing the air with each step. It
had recognized someone in that craft Jon thought.

Still not willing to open his house to a bunch of demanding Royal Guards Jon watched as they all turned on his tiger and advanced with their spears
lowered. Talga simply sat in front of the craft's doorway facing the guards and showing his sharp teeth in a threatening manner. That's when he heard the
one voice he had wanted to hear for months call out, “STOP!” Soon a tiny Lexie female with golden red hair braided down her back jumped out of the craft
and knelt down to throw her arms around the big cat's neck and hug it tightly. “Talga, I have missed you. Still the faithful friend aren't you?” she told
the tiger as it steadily purred against her face. Standing she scratched the tiger behind his ears and told him, “Go play before the guards hurt you.” Then
with a snort that only a large cat can make when it thinks an idea is funny, the huge black saber-tooth ran into the forest and disappeared. “Come brother.
There is much I need to tell you.”