Jethro: First to Fight (85 page)

“Agreed. And we'd like your continuous
input in the shipyard,” Taylor said.

“I'll do my best.”

“We all will. Or try to.”

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

Analyzing the enemy wreckage they
discovered that two of the corvettes were new built. They were Frankenstein
creations, with grafted on commercial grade hyper drives and engines, but the
frames were new, copied from a corvette frame. As was the life support and some
of the electronics, though they were civilian grade. A few bits were from
cannibalized ships but not many.

“It's a sobering thought. If they can
commit something like this, you're sure it's new?”

“Yes. Yes the frame was built less than
four years ago,” the tech replied with a grim nod.

“If they can commit something like this
here now....”

“There's no telling what they can do. Or
what they have tucked away or in the pipeline. They aren't just salvaging
ships. There is a level of innovation we didn't anticipate.”

“You mean that they're making their
own.”

“Yes, and since they're willing and able
to send them out this far from their home system... That more than anything else
scares me.”

“It could be an isolated incident.
Testing them in the field.”

“Or they could be ships that they used
as prototypes to get the manufacturing steps down and that they don't need any
more. Ships that they don't need anymore because they're making more. Making
better ones. The problem is we don't
know
. We need
intel
. Badly.”

“We need the Admiral,” Firefly sighed.
The techs and officers nodded as one.

“It seems we're all on the same page.
Pity we don't know where he is,” Mayweather sighed. She rubbed her brow and
closed her eyes in frustration.

“It's not just the two corvettes ma'am.
Sir,” the tech said, nodding to the officers. “It's also the gunships. I
noticed they're all the same make. Knock offs of a Terran Hunter Killer.
All
of them. Now either someone got their hands on a depot, or...”

“Or they built them. Why not? After all,
gunships are parasite craft, they don't need a hyperdrive. They don't need a
large drive, shields, or reactor either,” the XO said, shaking her head.
“Damn.”

The Captain frowned. “What I don't
understand is, how could they build ships at all? I thought the lock outs
prevented it?”

“Only if they used replicators. It
doesn't take a replicator to weld ma'am,” the tech said.

“But...”

“Metal ma'am. Metal can be formed and shaped
in any number of ways. You can cast it, you can make sheets or blocks and then
shape it in a mill. You can cut it with a laser, and then use a press to form
it that way too.”

“Oh? A press?”

“A hydraulic press. The press can be
used as a stamping mill to stamp out parts, or could have dies in them to do
press breaks for angles. Here,” he said, going over to a bulkhead.

“That's not really necessary... okay,”
the XO said with a sigh, stopping herself as he pulled a bulkhead panel off and
carried it over. He turned it so they could see it.

“See here?” he said, pointing to the
edges. “See the ninety degree bend? A press break. The shape? Throw it in a
stamping mill before hand or through a pair of rollers.” He ran an appreciative
hand over the piece of metal. “You don't have to use a replicator. Sometimes
the old ways work just fine.”

“And joining the pieces?” the Captain
asked.

“Spot welds to tack it together. If you
need a more serious bond, screws, or glue, or a full weld. A serious weld can
be stronger than the metal pieces it joins together.”

“Okay, but you're talking about steel,
but that's not steel,” Shelby said, indicating the panel.

The tech looked at it. “So?” he asked
looking at her. “You can use steel, aluminum, zinc, or an alloy. Or even plastic.
It doesn't matter ma'am. Not for something as miscellaneous as this.”

“What about power? You know a reactor?
Or a hyperdrive? Weapons?”

“Some pieces can be made like this,
sure,” the tech said, going back and returning the bulkhead panel. He used the
palm of his hand to slam it in place and then jiggled it to make sure it was
secure. “But remember the civilian grade mentioned earlier? Booty.”

“Oh? OH!” the Captain said, eyes
suddenly wide. “So that's what they've been doing with it all!”

Shelby crossed her arms, frowning.
“That's right. The pirates have been stealing everything not nailed down.
Obviously they've been shipping it back to Horath, and now we know they have
been putting it all to use. They built what they could, then installed what
they couldn't. It's diabolical.”

“It's not fair,” the Captain grumbled.

“If you aren't cheating...” Shelby said,
leaving the rest hanging. She smiled.

“Right. Not trying hard enough,” the
Captain said, gathering herself. She tugged on the hem of her jacket. “Not good.”

“Right.”

“No, I'm thinking about...” she watched
her audience turn expectantly to her. “About the numbers they have. Just how
many of these ships have they built? And if they were willing to use them
here... what does that mean elsewhere?”

Slowly Shelby's eyes widened. Firefly
nodded grimly, as did the Warners. “No, not good indeed,” Taylor murmured. His
wife looked at him. So did Hishina. “And if these are small ships, what else
have they been building? Anything larger say?” His wife shivered, reaching for
him and taking his virtual hand in hers.

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

They broke for a rest break, the
organics picked at a light lunch then stared off as a heavy weight fell upon
their shoulders. “I wonder,” Shelby said softly.

“What?”

“Nelson was right about the steel, I
hadn't thought of it. Simple nickel steel would work for casings and a lot of
things. And alloys, definitely a possibility. Using a milling machine? The
press break? A stamping press?” She shook her head. “You could go a long ways
making parts that way. We have a press in our machine shop here on Firefly. Now
multiply that a couple thousand times in a factory? Break it down into assembly
steps?”

“True.” The Captain said. “Frightening
but true. But still, it won't work for everything.”

“No, but it will go a long ways to fill
in the gaps.”

“True.”

“Can we do the same in Pyrax? Or here? I
mean, dad's doing something like that with the orbital forts and the stations
and everything...”

“We do have all those frames,” the Captain
murmured. “And unlike the Horathians, we can make some milspec parts. Not a
whole ship, but a lot of other things.”

“True.”

“Could we do that? Go the civilian
route? Make up for what we don't have with civilian parts? It's not milspec,
but it's something right?” Shelby asked, fists clenched.

The Captain set her fork down and then
dabbed at her chin with her linen napkin. After a moment she set it down on her
salad and then rested her hands together in front of her. “Some but not all.
And no, we still can't make hyperdrives or civilian power plants either. The
same restrictions apply. It's a far cry from making a cover plate to part of a
reactor and making the actual reactor components.”

“I agree.”

“Could Antigua do it?”

“Some I bet. No weapons, no milspec
parts, but I understand they can make some civilian grade parts. EPS conduit,
but we can do that ourselves, and milspec to boot.”

“I'm thinking of the factory station.
And the ground. They could make quite a bit.”

“Yes but your father can too.”

“Yes, but with two systems making parts,
say, oh, put those freighters to work running loads back and forth...”

“A trade?” the Captain asked, cocking
her head.

“Yeah. Why not?”

“Okay. And the gunship idea is a good
one. If they can do it, we can too. One of the things we can do is drive
components. We can find work arounds with the right motivation. And we've got
motivated people,” the Captain said, waving a hand.

“Gunships are deathtraps,” the XO said,
wrinkling her nose.

“Speaking for someone who's served on one,
I fully agree. But any port in the storm number one. Any platform will do right
now. And quantity, that's a big thing right now.”

“Hmm, orbital platforms. We could make
orbital forts here too... Ship in the weapons, maybe a fighter squadron...”
Shelby said, tapping her lips with her fingers.

“Very true,” the Captain agreed, sitting
back. She smiled politely as her steward cleared their plates. When he was gone
she frowned. “Who was it who said Quantity? Something about it having a
quality?” she asked, wrinkling her nose in thought.

“Ensign Tr'j'ck and Ensign Rator'll both
have said it a time or two. But the origin is Russian I believe. Something
famous. Stalin I think.”

“Thanks for the history lesson,” the
Captain said dryly. “Now you're going to have me wondering who it was and why
he said it.”

“You could always assign a midshipman to
look it up as homework,” the XO said with a teasing smile.

“Good idea,” the Captain replied,
grinning a little. She turned, looking at her virtual window to the station beyond.
“They need ships here. A lot of them. Not just small ships, ships like
Firefly.”

“Yes, yes they do Captain. I'm not sure
how they can handle bracing and mass...” Shelby waved a hand, putting the
thought aside.

“What bothers me is all the hulls in
Pyrax. Just sitting there,” the Captain said slowly.

“Oh? We'll get something going.”

“Not what I mean. I'm thinking about the
pirates. If they know they're there... and the facilities... if this was such a
juicy target, what about Pyrax?”

“Dad would never let them get their
hands on them. He'd blow them apart. Nuke the yard,” Shelby said automatically,
shaking her head.

“True. And that would be a waste,” the
Captain said, leaning forward and taking a sip of water from her cup. “We've
got to do what we can to make sure that doesn't happen.”

“Agreed,” Shelby replied vehemently.

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

Sergeant Riley, Ox, and two other Marine
apprentice armorers had their hands full servicing the armor and repairing the battle
damage. Riley picked up the enemy armor, there was enough for two suits, but
the rest was in his opinion, “junk”. It was fed to the recyclers.

Ensign Lake passed an order to Sergeant
Riley to download all the sensor records before he purged the suit's computer
memory. He had no intention of purging the memory, that was just silly, but he
did start on the download.

While the armorer interrogated the
armors for sensor records he inadvertently tripped a failsafe in Jethro's
armor. The armor came off the stand and started to thrash about, yanking the
USB cables out. Riley fell back on his ass, ducking as the thing swung about.
Ox caught a blow but managed to throw the suit off balance. It fell, then
dropped to all fours and rushed the hatch door. It slammed into it then
rebounded. It looked at the door, cocked it's head and then slapped at the
hatch control panel. Before the Tauren could act the hatch had opened and the
suit was gone.

“What the hell just happened?” Riley
asked, looking wide eyed at the Tauren.

“No idea,” the Tauren rumbled. He'd been
distracted by reading some of the e-mails between Riff, Gwen and himself. Now
he regretted his inattention.

“Let security know,” Riley said, getting
to his feet. “Security!” he snarled, opening an implant channel.

“I'll do one better, I'm calling
Sergeant Jethro,” Ox said.

Jethro was nearby when he got the call.
He had an uneasy feeling, like he wasn't himself. He wasn't sure why, now this.
“Say that again?” he said slowly just as he heard a clatter and then someone
squeal. He moved forward. He was nearby, on the same deck at least. He rounded
the corner and then paused. The suit was there on all fours, scanning a female
rating. “Hey!” Jethro called. The suit paused with its claws out to the woman
then turned its head to him.

“Yeah. Me. What are you doing?” he
demanded. He saw security MP's rushing to the scene. He waved them back. They
skidded to a halt and then stared in confusion. Jethro sent them a text to get
the girl out of there and secure the area. The Corporal in charge nodded. He
grabbed the woman by the arm and moved her out.

“Firefly!” Jethro called, looking at the
suit. He sent out an emergency e-mail to the AI and then hit repeat multiple
times as he slowly moved towards the suit.

“I wouldn't do that Sergeant,” the other
MP said.

“Fortunately you aren't me,” Jethro
said. He snapped his fingers when the suit turned to look at the human. “Hey,
hey, over here, on me,” he said. “Someone want to get Commander Firefly's
attention here?” he asked conversationally, moving closer to the suit
cautiously. He wasn't sure what was going on and didn't like not knowing.