Chapter 5

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up By Nathan

Reviewed by Hotpoint.

06 Sep 3046

New Circe system

Zenith Jump point

The Styx materialized with little warning at the jump point. It had left LGR 2345 a few weeks ago. They announced their presence both through their IFF transponder and through a prearranged code that referenced their mission.

The radio waves raced out at the speed of light, so it reached the transfer relay only about ninety seconds after the Styx had entered the system. In times of peace it would have taken longer. Traffic control on The Station would have been content to wait for a signal at light speed. These were not those time., however.

A Raptor launched out of one of the small craft bays from The Station. Just after clearing to a safe distance, plus a little more. The 50ton craft disappeared, only to reappear a second or two later in low orbit around New Circe. It relayed to higher command that the Transport/Salvage ship had returned home with a full load of "something".

The Hard Hat had her orders pre-written. As soon as the Styx had returned to this system and the all-clear was given, personnel and machinery came boiling out of hatches. They began the laborious process of freeing the Hard Hat and the Scout from the connections they had used to keep them together during transport.

It was very quick work to release the bonds that held the two JumpShips together. It took longer to deal with the mess that was caused by the unhooking. Before the ships would be able to safely part the small cloud of debris created by their disconnection would need to be cleared.

Cables were retreated and repacked into the small cargo area of the Styx. They were simply solar sail cables that could easily be re-used. Clamps and belts that were used to secure more delicate bits of the Scout were returned to the Hard Hat for use in later salvage operations. Lastly, a cleanup crew swept the space around the two ships for other loose materials, lest they be turned into deadly projectiles by the force of a drive firing.

Just as the Tramp was about to fire its station keeping drives, so that the two spacecraft could be separated, something appeared in the restricted area between them. Operations ground to a halt immediately.

The Radio operator spun in their chair to pass the alert.

"Sir," the operator said, "we are being contacted by a Raptor courier. They have orders for you, and they would like to physically relay them. They also said that they have someone who wants to have a meeting in your office. They say It is urgent but there is no farther information. They are in the posted exclusion zone."

Robert was irritated at the interruption. Whoever it was had better have a damned good reason for delaying operations. Still, he thought, they might have one. Better to hear them out.

"Communications tell them to come on in," he said. "We will halt all operations until the Raptor is in the Small Craft bay. I will meet them in the briefing cabin. Please pass that along, to the Raptor."

He paused. "When the Raptor is in the bay let the Hard Hat know that we can start again. Whoever it is can wait to leave until we have finished separation."

He floated up from his command chair and headed to the rotating artificial gravity deck. They had been in space for weeks, and as much as he loved free-fall, he would be back in a gravity well soon. While he waited, he planned to do a little time on the hamster wheel.

A short time later Robert sat at the conference table in the briefing room as the Raptor's passenger entered the room. Commander Xi strode through the door with purpose.

"I thought it might be you," said Robert. "Please, have a seat. I am finishing up the download for your taxi to take back." Robert barely looked up from the computer screen he was working with.

The Commander of the Clan Wolverine External supply office took a seat in the second of the three chairs in the room.

"You are early," she said. "How was the shakedown run? I know you already downloaded your first reports. I am sure someone on my staff is reading them and going through them, with a fine-tooth comb, but I would like a verbal report as well. Can you give me the rundown now?"

From any other commander such a request might be mildly disrespectful, but Robert and Xi had enough history for him to understand her concern. She had sent him out with the Themis and had trusted him for an evaluation, even if she had never actually told him as such. Robert put his screen on pause and locked eyes with his one and true Boss.

"The drills with the Themis did not go as well as I had hoped at first. We barely saw them after the very first drill and after-action review. I have a copy of the AAR and the raw sensor data for when you have time."

He shrugged. "I had hoped to do some leadership development on the mission, but it did not work out that way." he hadn't said much, but he had said enough. Xi's eyes narrowed slightly at the implication.

"The good news, he said, "is that we got a lot of data on the jumps back. We were able to load them up and do some tests. The simulations say we can carry a little over 300,000 tons and still make thirty light years per jump with the Colonial drive. It will burn a little less than twice the fuel per jump than what we do under a 'normal' load."

Robert accessed a different file on his computer. After looking it over for a moment he started talking again. "We kept the jumps down to only twenty light years on the colonial drives, both going out and coming back to New Circe, each hour. With more testing we might find out that we can carry even more strapped to our hull.

He smiled. "It would be nice if we could find an abandoned Olympus station somewhere. We could have a real recharging and support base out here after all of these years. A deep space charging point would be very handy."

He returned to the topic at hand. "Both drives held up well. The engineers want to strip both of them down before we take the next run. They want to re-do most of the post refit computer-based tests again. I think it's a good idea if we have time."

Commander Xi nodded her head, but her face was like stone. "I will need that report, and any other relevant information, before I leave. I want to pass those reports along to Admiral Franks to have his people review them."

"By the way it is good you're back early. I want the crews released for a fourteen-day R-and-R as soon as the ships are handed over to the maintenance crews. I will have an engineering team come out to the jump point to expedite things. I will see if I can get them on one of the Colonial Heavy Haulers first thing tomorrow morning."

Xi had a slight smile on her face. "I have had them on standby since the fourth of September. Just on the off chance, that you might be a few days early. I am glad I did. They will take care of those jump engines and that transport can take you and your crews back planet-side. The Colonial transport will handle it much quicker than a DropShip. You should be back on solid ground tomorrow.

She gave a tired shrug. "I worry about that, you know. I do not know how long we are going to keep high value items out at the end of such a long support chain. Being able to work closer to a planet safely is going to becoming the new normal for space operation. Space combat is about to get a lot closer to planets. We'll have to get some real traffic control and defense set up there."

She stared off into space for a moment. After the brief deviation from the topic she returned to the task at hand.

"What else do you need?" she asked.

Robert let his hand move across the screen of his computer, and without looking up he decided to drop another proverbial manhole cover.

"I would forward to Admiral Franks a note that Jules is not very happy about Benedict either. As in, he will not talk about the man at all. Not even to me. That will not last. You know he will not jump the chain of command, but if he is asked directly you know he will tell people what he thinks, even if happens to be over dinner with his daughter."

Robert was tired of spending brain power on anything related to the Titan's commander. He decided to change the topic.

"Now to get to the more relevant subject. Here is what I think we need to make our next step more successful. First off, we will need about double the amount of anchor points fixed on the outer hull. If we were going after anything bigger than that Scout class JumpShip we would have been out of luck. We had to stop every day and spend about a dozen hours just to check and adjust the tie down lines. I think we would have been here three days ago if we had not had to keep doing that. Our checks after the first day indicated far more stress than we had originally calculated.

Robert sat down this screen and looked at his boss. "I know we will be out way too far to use it. but a mobile HPG would be nice. I was thinking we could put in listen mode to eavesdrop on those ComStar nuts. They might not be a problem now, but I would be they will be in the future, and it anyone stand a chance of blowing our cover it will be them.

He grinned at her sheepishly. "I know the stuff is in short supply, but is there any way we can get some gravity plating in the living areas of the JumpShip? I know all too well that I am going soft in my old age. But not having to do so much PT in the hamster wheel? Now, that would be nice.

He shuddered. "I keep thinking about the last trip. We were gone almost three years each way. With only the gravity deck and one or two stops at the waypoint planets to feel the pull of Mother Nature was hard going sometimes. Not only did it slow us down, but it hurt like crazy getting used to one g again."

Robert shook his head, his face taking on an expression of wonder. "How did we do it and not kill ourselves or each other? "

Commander Xi blinked her eyes rapidly before she said anything. For a moment Robert thought she might answer his last question.

"Hmm," said Xi. "I had not thought about deploying a HPG system in listen mode. And I don't think anyone else had either. I will have to kick that one upstairs and see if they have already re-tasked the one that I know used to be in storage down on Boyar base."

She pulled out one of the two noteputor she now carried all of the time and tapped a few keys with her finger tips.

"I will get with the engineers and pass along your note on the anchor points.

She smiled wryly before continuing. "Yes, you are getting soft in your old age. That is if you cannot handle sleeping in zero g anymore."

They both had a chuckle before she went on.

"You are still a tough old man, and you are not getting any Colonial gravity plates. There is no way in Hades, as the Colonials say. None of those plates is going anywhere near the Inner Sphere. I will take care of getting a tanker to come out here and refill your Tylium tanks, while everyone is on R and R."

Robert hit his forehead with this palm.

"I knew I was forgetting something," he added. "None of the systems we will be stopping in have been surveyed yet for Tylium deposits, have they? The Titan Carrier was doing that, or I should say that this is what they reported to me they were doing."

He had another thought.

"'Can we get…?" He started.

Robert looked down, moving his hand over his noteputor until he found what he was looking for.

"I think it is called a DRADIS system," he said. "Maybe one of the larger, shipboard sets. I do not think the ones that the Raptors carry will have long enough effective range to be very useful. We will also need to have a full set of qualified operators for continuous daily operations. We could do a few surveys along our routes of travel if we had the right equipment."

He looked Xi in the eyes to show her that he was not joking. "They will have to really know what they are doing. This operation may depend on them finding the right deposits."

Xi nodded in understanding and agreement.

"Doing some preliminary surveys on those systems would be a good idea and could bring back some good information. We had not considered equipping the Styx with that equipment, but perhaps we should have.

She tapped some notes into her device. "I do not know if it is possible to find the system and have it installed before you have to start your next mission. Operators for such a system are an additional problem. At the moment all of the qualified personnel are Colonials, and they are still restricted from travel to the Inner Sphere."

She was silent for a while She was thinking hard, and Robert could tell. He did not interrupt her, waiting for her to speak again.

"Agreed Captain," she said. "Installation of the system is a current violation of regulations, but I agree than it would significantly add to your chance of success. I will see what I can do, but I do not know if it's workable to get the system installed before you must depart. If it is not, then we will see if we can add it to the list of possible upgrades for a later time."

Some of the stiff formality left Xi. From that point onward, the meeting between the two officers became far more congenial. Xi was able to catch Robert up on what had happened in Wolverine space while he was gone, and for a while they were just two friendly colleagues catching up on old times.

Kerensky, Robert thought, I have missed this.