ISOP Snippet 2

Okay, sitrep:
Rea just emailed me and said she should have the manuscript back to me sometime tomorrow. Cool.

Spider tank:
So, I found the model on Thingiverse and couldn't resist making it. Here is the original:
https://karanak.deviantart.com/art/MBT-Firewalker-187160519

Here is my version:

  For the most part I had fun with it. The basket, not so much. I added a few little bits of my own. The spotlight and antenna. There are magnets in the turret and main gun so I can pose them if I wish.
The diorama base is made up of bits from Thingiverse and Myminifactory. The model isn't attached to it so I can repose it if I wish.

Sorry my camera in my phone sucks sometimes.

  After printing the model parts and diorama I used the hot acetone method on most of the parts to harden them and get rid of most of the print lines. Unfortunately, the process blurs some of the nice crisp lines and edges in the model. Oh well.
   It is now taking up a lot of room in my curio cabinet with the T-rex skeleton I did looming over it. :)

  I'm working on a couple side projects too, off and on. One of them has turned into a monster. Some of the projects I've tabled since last year have popped up too. I'll post those later. On to the snippet!


Still in chapter 1:

Deidra looked over her shoulder to where the skipper was sitting and looking at a tablet, and then back to her own station. As a bridge officer and department head, she had her hands full as both the ship's navigator and chief helmsman. And, on the side, she was also a shuttle pilot she reminded herself. Even after months of it, she was still dealing with the double duty. Sure, Io did a lot of the calculating for her and suggested routes, but she also missed Lessa. She occasionally leaned on the other woman when she could get a signal through to Fortuity.

She, Io, and Lessa tended to congregate and discuss the star map at every opportunity. Despite the captured database and the intel Vanessa had accumulated, they still didn't have a clear route. They knew some star systems were still there, and others might be, but they didn't have detailed data. Not the level of detail they wanted at any rate.

Fortuity had been a tramp Clydesdale class freighter. Her database had been corrupted by viruses, much like Io 11's had for years. That was why her data was patchy and they barely trusted it. The ship's navigational database had information for about forty jumps but all in the low octaves of alpha band. That didn't help them much when they traveled in the faster beta and gamma bands.

She pulled up the map again and then rubbed her brow with one hand as she scrolled through the intelligence reports with the various cover-your-ass probabilities of what areas were still there and which were dead and gone.

{#}^{#}

Fortuity

Captain Lessa ran her hands over the captain's chair again. She still hadn't had it rebuilt, though she kept meaning to. There was always something else that needed to be done, some other priority that took precedence. Her fingertips picked at the frayed riggers tape on one armrest and then she reached up to touch the pillow taped to the headrest.

The chair was much like the ship, a work in progress, so was her crew. She had learned a lot since she'd taken the hot seat. Fortuity was her chance to shine, and she was eager to prove herself.

The problem was; the old ship required a deft hand on the bridge as well as in engineering. She had some good people, but she had some very green people with them. The captain picked up a few people to man the ships from time to time, but she had learned they needed to pick the right people. Some of the people they'd picked up had just wanted a working passage and had jumped ship once they'd landed somewhere they liked.

A few hadn't worked out at all, and they'd been dumped on the next available planet with just about everyone thinking good riddance.

She frowned thoughtfully as she considered the problem. It was a delicate balance. She and the captain were more open to families, aliens, Neos, and men but only barely. She knew the captain still preferred women, and if they were in dire straits then they had no place to negotiate. Vanessa called them her “stray kittens."

Her lips pursed as she realized she had been one such stray kitten. And she also realized she kept deferring to the captain when she herself was one. She could take Fortuity off anytime the mood struck her.

But, they were a team. Also, the big Clydesdale was helpless against the pirates that infested space. She was designed to haul bulk freight from point A to point B; she wasn't really suited for the life of a free trader. For the moment, her ship was a roving warehouse for Io 11 to stockpile goods.

That thought made her sit back and feel the pillow behind her head. She wondered briefly what was going to happen when they maxed out their cargo-carrying capacity. Would they dig up an empty star system again and stockpile it? Just how much goods did they need? Sometimes she wondered about Vanessa. The older woman loved a bargain and kept buying stuff even when there was no purpose to it. Or, at least no purpose she saw she thought.

“Jump exit coming up in fifteen minutes,” the helmsman warned, breaking her out of her woolgathering.

She sat up straight and then checked the navigational way points. She nodded and then ran her eyes over the ship's systems as they finished the last translation into the lowest octave of Alpha band.

{#}^{#}

Io 11 & Fortuity

Io 11 took the lead as the two ships jumped into the P35d4409 empty star system. The star system was a crossroads with four jump points. One led to a dead-end but another led to a chain of jumps that led to a planetary system. The fourth jump, the one they were headed for, took them further into the sector and to another planetary system. It took a few minutes to update their sublight navigational charts and plot a course. Once they were clear of the jump point and underway, the plot began to settle down.

Within an hour of their departure, CIC picked up the ion trail of another ship's recent passage. The decay ratio told them it had been within fifty-five hours, which meant the ship should still be in the star system. However, she wasn't showing up on gravitics.

When the ship didn't show up on sensors, the captain ordered an active scan. Emily realized the ship had gone into stealth and was lurking there, somewhere out ahead of them. She informed the captain who had apparently come to the same conclusion.

“If she's got stealth this good, she almost has to be a warship of some sort,” she warned. “That means it is most likely a pirate,” she warned.

Zoya nodded. The obvious concern was that it was a pirate. “They know we are here and went into stealth before our flash dissipated.”

“And by now they know we're two ships traveling in company.”

“Yes, but one isn't armed.”

“They don't know that. Comm, hail them,” the captain ordered. “Transmit our IFF on an omni directional broadcast. Let's either warn them off or draw them in.”

They received a response back twenty minutes later. It was an IFF. They were surprised to find it was from a navy light cruiser, the North Hampton class Chic'ch'll.

Io picked up on the IFF transmission and checked her database. She had received an updated war book database during their stop in Syntia's World. “The information matches, Captain,” she stated, showing the snippet of data in a window on the captain's screen.

The captain looked down and studied the information and then grunted. “They are a bit far out,” she said.

“They are the first patrol of the sector, ma'am,” Io stated.

“Ah.”

“I for one am glad to see them. With them around, the pirates must be headed out,” Zoya murmured.

Deidra frowned and then nodded. “I was going to say there goes the neighborhood but you are right,” she said.

“As you were,” the captain scolded gently.

“Aye aye, ma'am,” the girls said softly as they went back to their duties.

“Comm, record a message. “This is the Io 11 and the starship Fortuity to Chic'ch'll. If you'd like to chat, or trade information, let us know.” She made a hand sign over her throat to indicate that was it.

“Good copy,” Zoya said.

“Then send it,” the captain ordered.

“Something tells me they'll want to do more than talk,” Io replied dryly.

{#}^{#}