FOW Snippet 6

 Last one.

Sitrep: Still no word from Goodlifeguide yet.

Despite my plan of my usual November and December off for holiday prep, I dived into Tauren Invasion. It is a rehash of the ground fighting in several locations plus prep and such from the Tauren-Federation war spanning the 5 books. There is a lot of material mixed into it too.

Anyway, I just did the second act yesterday, I was in my groove the past 2 days doing the entire act of 19 chapters in 2 days. (don't get cute, yes half of that was copy/paste) I'm still happy.

Oh, for you Bootstrap Colony fans out there, BSC3 has been sent to Rea the other day. Expect it out in December.

So, that being said, on to the snippet!

Chapter 6

 

Atlas XIV, Sigma Sector

 

Catherine Ramichov, vice admiral of the Horathian fleet and self-acclaimed pirate empress,  smiled as she read the report of the incoming ships. Her audacious raid on the enemy's stargate had helped her in many interesting ways. It had provided the antimatter fuel she desperately needed to revive and move the battle moon for one.

It had crippled the enemy's gate in the sector too. It had hit their morale and hopefully kicked off another political crisis for their administration to have to handle. And it had caused a massive uptick in morale in her own people.

More importantly, people saw it as a bold strike against a seemingly invincible foe. One she had orchestrated. The only thing that would have been better was if she'd led the raid herself.

Well, you can't have everything she thought with a mental shrug.

Her people were done feeling sorry for themselves. She wanted to renew their sense of purpose, to return them to basics. The idea of an empire was out. There was no way they could take the Federation head on and win. She knew that deep down. The best they could do was to raid and hide.

Which was where this massive battle moon came in. It was her base of operations, the ultimate Tortuga, the ultimate pirate nest. But for it to remain her capital, it had to be kept hidden.

Unfortunately for her, the enemy was getting a little too close to it for comfort. They were good at ferreting out any ion trail her people left. Eventually, she knew that they'd find the right trail to her base. She hoped to be long gone by then.

In order to do that though, it was up to someone else. She decided it was deep enough into the evening to seek her out.

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Newly minted Rear Admiral Elvira Varbossa stared at the report on her desk blankly. No matter how she looked it didn't change the things running around in her mind like flying pests.

"What's the problem?" a familiar contralto voice asked. She looked up to Catherine.

"It's just …" She paused to organize her thoughts. She was in her second trimester and got easily distracted. She was also emotional from the hormonal swings.

Catherine sashayed over to her and sat on the edge of her desk. A few of the papers moved or fell off the desk. Neither lady seemed to care. Elvira seemed to glow with her pregnancy. She was also off most of the meds. Doctor Nutell had added some hypnotic suggestions to help control her, but for the time being, they were not necessary.

They had ships under construction in the yard as well as the other projects. Admiral Hyman Preece had pulled Elivra off the yard projects to focus on the battle moon's repairs.

"Just what?" Catherine prompted gently. She could see the wheels turning in her lover's mind. She hoped that she wouldn't have to have Elvira adjusted again. She was coming along better now. She'd adapted and her depression had lifted with her workload increase and the pregnancy.

She always seemed happiest when she had a challenge in front of her, one that she could solve. It was when she had to face the bigger picture that she struggled. That was why Catherine was determined to keep Elvira focused on engineering as much as possible.

It did suck that she couldn't use her lover as a sounding board. Oh, she did in general but only vague comments about this subject or that, nothing detailed.

"Well, to be honest I didn't think we'd find the fuel. Getting it from the Federation …," Elvira shook her head in bemusement.

"I know, bold," Catherine said with a cheshire grin.

"Bold? Bold?!?" Elvira threw her head back and laughed. Her lover blinked at the reaction. "Bold?" she echoed again as she dashed a tear with the back of her hand a few seconds later. Catherine began to relax as she saw the humor in the reaction. She smiled indulgently and cocked her head.

"Got it out of your system?" Catherine asked as she offered a tissue.

Elvira took it and blew her nose. She snorted as she dabbed at the tip and then crumpled the paper up. "My father would have said beyond brass ones. Steel, hell, adamantium ones," she replied as she shook her head. "To go in there and steal …," she shook her head again.

Catherine smirked. "Well, we are pirates, stealing goes with the territory, right?"

Elvira snorted. "True." She waited a beat. "So, back to basics?"

Catherine nodded slightly. "Pretty much." It was why they were building cruisers. Ships with enough legs to get around but also to stand up to the Feds if necessary. But she'd put her foot down and had refused to build anything bigger than a battlecruiser.

"So," Elvira said as she crumpled the tissue up some more and tossed it in the trash. She ran her fingertips through her raven hair. It was silky and shined in the office light.

"So?" Catherine said as she crossed her arms. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Honestly? I don't know," Elvira admitted. "I liked going legit. But …," she shrugged, clearly uncomfortable about the topic change.

"Really?" Catherine said in a slightly disappointed tone of voice.

"It's not the pirate thing or the loss of life. I think it was smart; you set their gate project back by years according to the report while also stealing the antimatter. Two birds with one stone."

Catherine nodded but grimaced slightly. The idea had been to take the damn gate out. That hadn't happened but she'd take damaging it and slowing the Feds up. The antimatter made a great consolation prize.

"Egg on their navy's face is a third stone," she murmured.

Elvira blinked and then nodded. "Politics," she said. "I tend to forget that side of the equation," she admitted wryly.

"No surprise there since you are the techno nerd," Catherine replied with a teasing grin. "How about you leave me to the strategy and the politics and I leave you to play with your spanners?"

Elvira snorted.

"Come on, we make a good team that way," Catherine invited. "Remember?" she asked with an inviting lilt in her voice.

Elvira nodded and looked away. She bit her lip slightly.

"Hey, come on," Catherine used a finger to draw her lover's chin back to her so they could look at each other. "What gives?"

"It's … it's just the danger involved."

"We won."

"Did we? Sure, we won the battle. But we also pissed them off. They are going to be even more determined to find us. And they now have a fresh trail to follow."

Catherine's finger dropped. They stared into each other's eyes. She saw the shadows of concern and doubt in her lover's eyes. After a moment, she nodded. "That's true," she finally admitted as she looked up and away. "I can't help that. Without risk there is no reward," she said quietly.

Elvira bit her lip again.

"Which leads us back to you. The pressure is on you to perform. We need that hyperdrive back up and running."

Elvira rolled her eyes and sat back. "I knew it was coming back to me. That's the pressure side; it's coming back to me. I'm an engineer but this is …," she indicated the ship.

"If anyone can get this thing moving again, it's you," Catherine said.

"You have no idea how much is involved. Fuel was just one variable in a very complex equation. We've got to rebuild systems, fix stuff that we tore out as salvage, tune the force emitters on the outer shell …," she shook her head.

Catherine winced.

"Sensors, alignment of sensors … computer systems … who is going to run this tub?"

"Let me worry about that," Catherine said.

Elvira sighed. "Okay, I'll handle the hardware. Sure, fine."

"Hey, team remember?"

Elvira nodded after a moment.

"So … what do you need?"

"Well, we've been working on what we can. The systems to the northern quadrant were taken out by Commander Cho. He did a good job, he took them out carefully and documented everything."

Catherine nodded. Cho had been methodical but slow. Her father had gotten impatient and had ordered him replaced. Cho's replacement Captain Forest had taken a slash and burn approach to systems that the giant battle moon was no longer going to use.

The components had either been used to repair other parts of the station or as fodder for her manufacturing. She couldn't blame the captain, it wasn't like there were a lot of high quality material sources around the battle moon. In fact there were none, the moon had dropped out of hyperspace in deep space and had taken centuries to drift to her present position.

"Once we get the hyperdrive going we can get out of this crack. Hit the reset and really screwup their search pattern for us," Catherine said.

Elvira snorted. "We can only go so far," she warned.

Catherine frowned as she got up and went behind her lover and began to rub her shoulders to relax her. "What do you mean?" she asked after a moment.

"I ran the calculations. If we can get this tub moving at peak efficiency, we can move her about one to three hundred light years."

"Three hundred light years … so not into another sector?" Catherine left the idea of getting the battle moon into top condition aside for the moment. She knew that was a pipe dream. She was dismayed by the fuel needed though.

Elvira shook her head. "No. Not even close. And I said three hundred is the top end. It is more likely closer to one hundred light years. That's a one-shot jump, which I doubt we can do anyway since we'd be flying more or less blind. I can show you the numbers if you want."

"Email it to me. What about following the jump lines?" Catherine asked thoughtfully as she considered the problem. There was always a way; you just needed to work the problem. If you were stuck, you needed to take a step back, reassess, and then look at ways to solve the problem out of the box.

"Um …," Elvira's head was lowered, and she had begun to give in to her lover's minstrations. "What?"

"A conventional jump? Going through star systems?" Catherine prompted. "Shorter hops?"

"We can maybe get this ship in and out of hyperspace once. That is where the big fuel suck is going to hit us. Two-thirds of the fuel will go for just one entrance into hyperspace. The rest of the antimatter will help sustain systems until we can get the hyperspace collectors online. If we can get them online."

"If we can't?" Catherine prompted when Elvira fell silent.

"Eh? Oh, then it is going to be a very short trip," Elvira supplied.

"Oh."

"The hyperspace collectors won't get us far, just enough of a trickle charge to keep us in hyperspace for a while. Maybe cover 50 to 60 percent of the energy budget needed to sustain us in hyperspace. That is where the rest of the fuel will go, to propel us forward and to keep us in hyper as long as possible."

"Oh."

"If we took the conventional path, wouldn't that expose us to the enemy?"

"Ah, yeah. Crap," Catherine sighed softly. She'd thought of that but then disregarded the issue.

"Yeah. We'd eventually end up dead in space. A sitting duck."

"So … all on a roll of the dice," Catherine murmured. Her hands stilled as she held her lover's shoulders gently. Once they moved, they'd be out of fuel again … if they survived the experience. She'd then have to figure out how to get more.

She doubted that the Federation would be so obliging to allow her to raid them like that again.

"Pretty much. What was that line about risk and reward?" Elvira asked as she opened her eyes and turned to her lover.

"Oh shut up," Catherine chuckled as she gently squeezed Elvira's shoulders.

Elvira sniffed.

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