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  They entered the flight deck and Kate directed Petra to the command seat. ‘Run through the systems and ask any questions you need.’

  All Freebooter vessels were designed to a standard so that the main operations and controls were similar; meaning a minimum amount of time was needed to orientate any new flight officer. Although the Yacht had a number of different systems that she hadn’t seen before, it took only ten minutes for Petra to announce she was ready to start the evaluation.

  She initialised the guidance and drive systems, brought the main reactor on line and opened the hangar door. These were shaped like the Yacht and slid seamlessly back into the top of the hull. The yacht was no small shuttle at one hundred metres in length and almost the same wide, the hangar took up a large section of the upper hull of Condor.

  Petra lifted the yacht off and brought it out to hover about one hundred metres above Condor. Now she could appreciate the true beauty of the larger ship. She smiled and turned to Kate ‘First impressions can be a bitch.’ Both laughed and Kate gave Petra the initial flight plan.

  The assessment was comprised of a number of navigational changes, flight profiles and emergency drills. Once these were completed, they pointed the nose up and headed out of the atmosphere. Here was more work, and a little fun — a short displacement hop and a couple of runs over the weapons range — this took only forty five minutes. Kate was constantly recording Petra’s operation of the ship, quietly impressed with her new boss’s skills.

  ‘That wraps up the main test, now let’s see you dock with Zephyr.’

  Petra quickly located the transponder and locked onto it. They approached from the planet-side and manoeuvred to within twenty metres when suddenly alarms started going crazy. Quickly and efficiently, Petra cleared the alarms, held her position and interrogated the ships systems, clearing the dock control failure simulation that Kate had initiated, quickly and efficiently.

  ‘Well done, Commander.’ Kate congratulated her. ‘I don’t think even the Captain could have sorted that out so well.’

  Petra nodded and again contacted Zephyr for docking authority. Once this was given, she expertly mated with the docking ring on the underside of the freighter. Although docking was a standard manoeuvre for certification, in this case it made an excellent cover to bring their guest aboard.

  Two people came through the airlock, the mysterious guest and the docking officer who needed to confirm the docking record. Once he was finished he left, secured the airlock and gave them permission to depart. The return to Argos was much quicker and fifteen minutes later they were back in the hangar.

  ‘It’s amazing the way this ship handles the atmosphere,’ Petra began, ‘There was no flare, no heating… nothing. It’s as if the atmosphere doesn’t exist.’ Every other ship she had piloted before had to be carefully manoeuvred into the atmosphere — too steep and it could burn up, too shallow and it could bounce off. Petra had deliberately used a steep entry angle but there had been no heat problems on this ship’s skin.

  Kate smiled, ‘We have an absorption field. On re-entry approach, the sensors automatically set up a field just a few millimetres off the hull surface. It responds exactly to any surface changes such as when we manoeuvre but it absorbs the heat from atmospheric friction and converts it into energy which is then fed into a storage battery. Hence no heat problems and no need for expensive and bulky ablative skin coating. Our engineering company has already licenced it to Abracorp, and I believe they have built it into one of their newest ships.’

  Petra and Kate stayed on the bridge to complete the shutdown procedure and flight evaluation. At the same time, Aaron came aboard, collected his guest and left, almost unnoticed. With the formalities complete, they left the yacht and headed for the wardroom; Aaron was already there when they arrived.

  ‘How was the flight?’ he asked as they entered.

  Kate was the first to answer. ‘Excellent, she passed with flying colours; should be a great addition to the flight crew.’

  Petra was a bit more reserved. ‘It was a good flight but I would like more time to get accustomed to her; she certainly is an interesting yacht. You collected your guest, I see.’ She looked at Aaron.

  ‘Yes. He’s had a couple of taxing weeks and wanted to rest up. He asked me to thank you two for collecting him. By the way, your new uniforms and your go-bag have arrived; they were put in your cabin.’ Aaron was interrupted by an Ensign.

  ‘Captain, you have a call on the secure system.’ He saluted and waited for directions.

  ‘Good, I’ll take it in the Ready Room.’ He turned to Kate. ‘Can you show the Commander to her quarters? I’ll check back with both of you later.’ He didn’t wait for an answer as he followed the Ensign into the passageway.

  Aaron entered the Ready Room from the passageway and moved quickly to his desk, accessing his console. He looked directly at the screen as a thin blue light scanned his right eye. His biometrics confirmed; the console came to life; looking back at him was Allen Grainger.

  Captain, I have some information for you. The following conversation was both enlightening and concerning; Grainger’s parting comment strangely cryptic. Don’t jump unless absolutely essential. Good luck! And then the connection terminated. Aaron could only assume he meant the new jump drive, which was going to cut things fine if he couldn’t use it. He stood and stepped onto the bridge. Ensign Anderson was at his engineering station.

  ‘How soon can we get underway Ensign?’ Aaron asked.

  ‘Now, Sir, if you wish,’ he answered.

  Colin Anderson was the duty engineering officer and had been overseeing the preparation of Condor for space. He was fairly young at thirty five standard years and was one of the company’s better recruits. A brilliant engineer, he continually surprised his chief — Lieutenant Dianna Holland — with his ideas, many of which had been incorporated into Condor’s systems.

  ‘Good. Can you contact the senior officers and ask them to meet me in the ready room in ten minutes?’ Aaron didn’t wait for an answer as he left the bridge. Time to get into uniform and become the Captain again, he thought as he entered the pod and addressed the control panel. ‘Accommodation, Deck One.’ The pod doors closed and it quickly transported him to his destination.

  Accommodation Deck One only had three berths: the Captains suite; two guest suites; and the private observation lounge. He walked to his door, and was scanned again before he could enter the room.

  Welcome back, Captain. The voice seemed to have a sarcastic edge to it. You seem to have disconnected your link.

  Shit! Aaron consciously re-established the connection. One of the technologies Freebooters had gained from their association with the Eldoran Federation was the origin of the voice he now heard. While all starships ran bio-chemical computers, the Eldorans had traded a new technology — a bio-chemical computer very similar to a human brain. Condor was the first ship to have the system actively installed and Aaron was the first Freebooter connected to it; giving him an edge in most things. The ship could now think; it could constantly monitor its own health as well as being able to communicate directly with the Captain. Aaron had been deemed as suitable and an interface had been installed into his cerebral cortex; now he was, in effect, part of the ship and it was part of him.

  Being the first ‘lab rat’ was interesting as he was constantly breaking new ground, but so far it had proved very worthwhile. Initially, he had found some difficulty with the operation but on the advice of one of the Med Techs who were overseeing his integration, he had decided to give the brain an identity, naming it George.

  So George, what’s the goss? His thoughts instantly transmitted to the brain.

  You seem on edge, George started, even though your endorphin levels are somewhat elevated. I take it your trip ashore was eventful? the voice still had a sarcastic edge.

  Now to business, our guest is resting comfortably and I have taken the liberty of monitoring his medical requirements. He was in a degree of pain and
distress so I adjusted the atmospheric mix to encourage sleep.

  Our new First Officer has completed her assessment, a very interesting addition to the crew.

  The senior officers have gathered in the ready room so I have arranged for the usual refreshments. And your uniform is ready. At those words, the wardrobe door opened and the uniform slid out on its rack. Aaron quickly dressed and headed for the door.

  ‘Keep an eye on our guest and inform me when he wakes,’ he said as he left.

  Aaron entered the ready room and the assembled officers stood and saluted.

  ‘As you were,’ he moved to the coffee pot and poured himself a mug, taking a sip of the steaming liquid he continued. ‘First order of business is to introduce our new first officer, Commander Petra Mannix. Welcome to the team, Petra.’ He paused as the assembled crew introduced themselves to her.

  ‘Next, I have a guest on board — an old friend who I’m taking to Earth for a family function.’ There were a few stifled gasps at this; to hear that Aaron was going to an Abraham family function was astonishing. ‘Yes I know, this is a surprise but let’s get this put to bed. I am finally going home to hopefully mend the rift between my brother and myself. Now, as this is a private trip, there will be little or no opportunity for trade so we will treat this as a company R&R exercise. There will be shore leave for everyone, accommodation will be arranged and the tab picked up by the company.’ This time the smiles were very broad and open.

  ‘One issue is time. I need to be on Earth in three standard days so we will have to pick the pace up a bit. Dianna, is the old girl ready for three days at a displacement of 15 plus?’

  ‘Why so slow?’ her answer was filled with confidence.

  ‘Good. Navigator, please plot our course and file the flight plan. Oh, almost forgot, as both Steve and Greg have left we also need a new second officer,’ he stood and beckoned to Kate. ‘Lieutenant please stand.’ She stood, facing her captain. ‘Katherine Albrecht, I hereby remove the rank of Lieutenant from you and offer the rank of Lieutenant Commander as replacement, with all the responsibilities of said rank and that of second officer on Condor. That includes any benefits that accompany the position. Do you accept?’

  Kate stood to attention before the group and replied in the traditional manner. ‘Sir, I, Katherine Albrecht, accept the position and rank as described and will carry out any and all responsibilities required to the best of my abilities.’ Then she added light heartedly, ‘and any benefits will also be enthusiastically accepted.’

  Aaron moved in front of her and removed the Lieutenant insignia and replaced them with the one-winged eagle, the insignia of a Lieutenant Commander, to the cheers and applause of the senior officers.

  ‘Congratulations, Kate, you’ve earned this, and I’ll update personnel immediately.’ He smiled and moved back to let the rest come and offer their congratulations. ‘Ok people, we have work to do; I want to de-planet within the next two hours. Commander Albrecht, as our new second officer you’re now responsible for supplies. Do we have enough on board for this trip?’

  ‘Yes sir, we have the standard three months of supplies, which are being loaded as we speak; we will be fully stocked and ready on time.’ She turned and followed the others to the door, walking with purpose.

  As the assembled officers left, Aaron beckoned Petra, ‘Commander Mannix, a moment please?’

  He went back to the coffee pot and asked ‘Another?’

  ‘No thank you sir.’

  Aaron returned to the sitting area.

  ‘Please sit down. The formal stuff is over for now.’ He sat and she did likewise, opposite him. ‘As second in command you need a little more info on what we are doing,’ Aaron paused as he drank a little more coffee.

  ‘My guest is Admiral Dokad of the Krell Imperial Navy and he’s injured — there was an attempt on his life. The Prime has requested that I take him to Earth as he has certain information that he believes may be critical to the survival of the Coalition, the Empire and possibly even us. I’ve absolutely no idea what the information is but, as he’s an old friend, I’ve agreed to do this. Grainger also intimated that there could be certain dangers… unspecified… as the source of the attempt on the Admiral is unknown. It’s even possible that it was Krell in origin, so we need to be on our toes.’ He paused to let this sink in.

  ‘Also, as First Officer, you are my right hand and backstop. There are a number of things about this ship that are not generally known. We are equipped with much Eldoran technology including a new drive system. I won’t go into this now… better if you talk with Dianna… she and Colin know it backwards. We are also a fully functioning brain ship. Our standard neural network has been significantly upgraded and is connected to an artificial bio-chemical version of a human brain, to which I am also connected. I’ll release specific details to your personal console; please read the information, then we can discuss it.’

  He sat back and drained his mug.

  ‘Interesting, how deep does the connection go? Can the brain take you over?’ she asked, curious as to the implications.

  Aaron thought for a moment. ‘How deep? As deep as I allow it. I have control and can disconnect when I need to. Can it take over? I don’t actually know. There is a function where if I am incapacitated, it can actually assume certain command functions and it can defend the ship. In fact, that’s one of the prime functions, to protect the ship and those on her.

  ‘It’s still very early days with this technology and we’ll be testing for at least two years before we have anything like the data we need to decide what, if anything, we can do with it. At worst, we can hand it back to the Eldorans if we feel we can’t utilise it, or they can take it back if they feel we’re not ready for it. For now, look at the information; we can discuss it later; we have a ship to get moving.’ Aaron put his mug down and led Petra onto the bridge.

  5

  Back on Earth, JT and Sol spent a good three hours putting the new Hawke through its paces.

  They did some incredible atmospheric passes, pushing Mach 15, for extended periods and even at these speeds manoeuvrability was quick and precise. Sol was impressed. ‘This thing is bloody fantastic! Handles like nothing I have ever flown and with no heat problems.’

  ‘Yeah, it’s a new protection shield — an absorption field from an Argosan engineering operation. Abracorp has just signed a licence agreement and it’s going to be huge!’ JT replied excitedly. ‘Its function’s simple: it absorbs energy. In atmospheric configuration, as it is now, it separates the ship from the air around it at the molecular level. Just a few millimetres thick, but it allows all control surfaces to work normally and no friction issues. Even better, any heat generated is converted to energy which is stored on board; works the same with energy weapons.’ He was animated in a way Sol had never seen before.

  ‘Sounds like an ad for Abracorp,’ Sol needled. He smiled and handed control back to John who programmed the auto pilot so they could both sit back and relax. They descended to one hundred metres and flew nap of the Earth at just over three hundred kilometres per hour, allowing them to take in the scenery below. Their track took them south over the old inland city of Dubbo, once one of the most important rural centres in New South Wales, now it was almost totally gone. The countryside was looking particularly green and productive however, due mainly to intensive reclamation work carried out by Abracorp.

  Ahead, they could see the lights from the Orange complex.

  Orange had once been another of the major rural centres like Dubbo. Now, it was the premier university for agricultural studies on Earth and also close to the family compound at Lucknow. They flew over the university and turned east to the compound. They arrived at the landing field and the auto pilot executed a perfect landing. JT carried out the shutdown procedure, and secured the ship.

  ‘Come on Sol, we may as well get this over with.’ JT sounded resigned — he was dreading what may transpire this weekend.

  ‘Not looking forw
ard to tonight?’ Sol questioned. ‘I thought you’d be happy to get home at last.’

  ‘I am… I suppose,’ JT’s voice carried no conviction. ‘Just have my back, when my mother starts… OK?’

  ‘What? A big boy like you; a hero, a Four-Sun Captain no less, scared of his mummy?’ Sol teased.

  ‘You know my mother,’ JT retorted.

  ‘OK, point taken… I shall be your ever-vigilant wingman,’ he announced, slapping his friend on the back as they walked down the boarding ramp. ‘Just so long as you have some of that good Scotch you keep telling me about.’

  It‘s going to be a very long few weekend, JT thought.

  The Abraham compound was set on a hill overlooking the countryside. The house had been designed so that the main entrance was at the rear of the building with the front facing a one-hundred-hectare lake. The hangar/garage complex, where they were now, was further to the north at the rear, with a two hundred metre transport pod and walkway access to the main entrance. There were two other houses, one each side of the main building. To the west was Salina’s house, while David’s occupied the eastern side of the lake.

  After being trussed into the fighter for a few hours a walk was just what they needed, to straighten out the kinks in their bodies. They deposited Sol’s kit into the transport pod and sent it to the house.

  As they came to the top of the garage/hangar building, the main house shone like a jewel on the horizon, the ground and upper ground floors ablaze with light. The other two floors were different; the closer they got to the building the more eerie it looked with most of the upper windows dark and brooding.

  ‘This place always amazes me,’ Sol announced, ‘must have been fun growing up here.’

  Sol and JT had met when they attended the academy and while Sol had visited the house on many occasions, he still derived some perverse pleasure ribbing his friend about his family’s wealth.