Chapter 188: Chapter 188

"What do you mean stop him?" I asked warily. "That was a fully armed and armoured military base, there's not much the Demeter can do against something like that."

Jenny reminded me, "You said the outpost was operating at eleven percent efficiency. I doubt any of Loke's defences are functional, not after all this time. I've reviewed the scanner logs you sent, he didn't even power up a single laser turret while he was pulling in what he believed to be a functional Confederation scout ship. I'm sure he was actually bluffing just as much as you were."

My eyes widened slightly as I realized she might be right. I remembered thinking at the time that the AI sounded like he was trying to hide some anxiety in his voice when he contacted us over the comm.

On the other hand Jenny's explanation left me with more questions. "What does Confederation mean in this context? I'm guessing it has something to do with 'confed'? He used that word a couple times when I was speaking with him in person."

Our AI nodded, "The Confederation is what the coalition of worlds who attacked Korantis-12 called themselves at the time. Four centuries ago they were the enemy of my people. We sometimes referred to them as 'confeds' or 'confed forces'."

Sarah chimed in at that point with another question, "In Amanda's message it seemed like Loke was the name of the asteroid base, but the way you've been talking just now it sounded like that's the AI's name too?"

"The outpost's full designation is Interdiction Outpost Loke," Jenny replied. "And it was customary for the primary AI of a ship or base to share the name of their assigned position. So Loke is both the base and the AI. It was the same with my former ship, the vessel and my sister AI were both called Kára. That tradition did not extend to secondary or Re/Gen AIs sharing the assignment, although their names occasionally followed other patterns or traditions."

Our cute engineer frowned, "Wait does that mean you already had a name, before I started calling you Jenny? Why didn't you say something?"

Our AI blushed slightly, "I did, yes. I was happy to accept your suggestion though Sarah, as it helped me feel accepted as part of the Demeter's crew."

"All of us started out with different names," she added sadly. "Yourself, Amanda, Rebecca, even Gabe as we came to learn. So it seemed fitting that I should take on a new name as well, when you all invited me to join the crew."

Rebecca looked guilty as she apologized, "Sorry I never thought to ask about that Jenny. I'm glad you're happy with how things turned out though."

"Moving on," the boss continued, "Our plan is to stay here until the Artemis is repaired. Then we'll send her on that diplomatic mission to Korantis-12, while the rest of us go and pay your wayward AI a visit."

I still wasn't comfortable letting my little sister fly the Artemis solo, but I let that go for the moment. Instead I looked back to our AI again and asked, "How do you plan on helping Loke exactly? What do you figure the Demeter can do for him? And what did you mean about maybe having to stop him?"

Jenny sighed, "Everything you described Amanda tells me that Loke is still fighting the war, all these years later. He's damaged, barely operational, but he's still following his last orders. And those orders were to disrupt Confederation shipping."

"His position in the Gorath asteroid field gives him pretty good coverage of the trade routes past Regulon-4," Rebecca pointed out. "That includes the main shipping lane between Rolandan-2 and Ecclestone's World."

That left me confused again, "Loke's base is over four hundred years old. If he was an actual danger to shipping then wouldn't there be word of random attacks?"

Sarah wrapped her arm around me and pulled me into another side-hug as she replied, "That's the thing cutie, there's been hostile activity all along. The Hammersmith was his most recent victim."

"I thought that was a mine?" I asked as I looked to Rebecca. "You and Tamsin both said that's been going on for ages, stray mines turn up every other year."

The boss nodded, "It was definitely a mine. Everyone assumed there must be hundreds of them drifting around the sector since the war ended, but after we got your FTL Jenny looked into it and found some holes in that theory. The pattern and position of shipwrecks makes a lot more sense when you realize somebody's been releasing new mines in that location at a rate of one every one to one and a half years."

Jenny looked and sounded sad as she elaborated, "I believe that was Loke's mission. And based on the information you shared in your FTL, he's still working to carry it out. I need to convince him to stop, that the war is long over. I'd also very much like to see if we can restore the Re/Gen unit there. And I'd like to know what became of my sister from the Kára. I'm hopeful that she can be restored as well."

It took another second or two to process all that, and when I did it left me with another question. I looked to Rebecca, but she'd already anticipated what I was going to say.

"We need to handle this ourselves Amanda," the tall redhead stated softly. "I know it's not our war, it's not our responsibility to clean up a mess they made for themselves four hundred years before any of us were born."

"Especially when we know none of the locals are interested in doing it themselves," she added. "Tamsin said it herself. Every time a big ship hits one those mines there's talk about dealing with the problem, but nobody's willing to put in the effort."

Rebecca sighed and slowly shook her head, "The other thing is we can't really tell any officials what we know without explaining how we know it. And that would mean exposing ourselves along with both Jenny and Jenna, unless we did it anonymously. Even at that, the best we could expect would be a military strike. Their goal would be the immediate and complete destruction of the base and the AI controlling it."

"I'd like to give Loke a chance to stand down," Jenny chimed in again. "I believe I can talk to him. Plus he knows me, we've spoken before. Opening communication shouldn't be a problem either, I know some of the authentication codes we used back then."

The boss suggested, "You've already bluffed your way in and out of there once Amanda. So if Jenny can't get through to the guy, then maybe you can pretend to be that major again. If nothing else, that might give us a chance to get us past his defences."

I could tell that idea made Jenny uncomfortable, and I wasn't exactly thrilled with it either. If I had to pretend to be Major Ruud again I'd probably need some coaching on what she was like or how she acted, and our AI already made it clear she didn't like discussing her former shipmates. Read full story at NoveI(F)ire.net

Rather than dwell on that thought any further I decided it was time to change the subject back to the other thing on my mind. I gave the captain another serious look and asked, "So about sending Nyssa off on this mission, my sister can handle level zero jumps by herself. Is that going to be enough, or are Gwen and Jace and the Deveronian government expecting something faster?"

Rebecca didn't even have to open her mouth, I could tell from the look on her face I wasn't going to like what she had to say. Sure enough she shook her head, "Sorry Amanda. If they follow the safest shipping routes, a level zero jump from here to Korantis-12 would take the Artemis more than twenty days. She could cut that in half by taking a short-cut through the Gorath field, but even that's pushing the schedule a little too far. Especially when she can't even get started until the repairs are finished."

"I can't imagine that will take more than three or four days," Sarah stated. "Ironically the buckled hull plates are probably going to take the most time, even though they're the simplest and cheapest things to fix."

That made me cringe slightly, considering that was the only damage I really didn't have any excuse for. If I'd waited another ten or fifteen seconds the bay doors would have been clear of the hull when I took us out.

There was nothing I could do about it now though, so instead I focused on the boss again and reminded her, "Nyssa doesn't have enough experience doing level one jump plots. I don't care what the schedule says or what kind of deadline we have. You simply cannot allow an inexperienced pilot to start making level one jumps on their own."

"That's not just risking Nyssa's life, but also Gwen's and Jace's lives too," I stated firmly. "And that's not just me being an overprotective big sister. I know you know this Rebecca, you said yourself the Marines expected plenty of training and practice jumps before letting you do it for real. It's not going to happen, and that's final."

The boss sighed as she nodded slowly, "Yeah I know Amanda. Maybe we can spend the next few days training your sister? We can use the Demeter to get her up to speed on level one jumps."

I grimaced, "She's not going to do it. She's been dying for shore leave for the last six days. If you tell her instead of getting some time off to go enjoy Rolandan-2 she has to spend that time stuck in the cockpit reviewing jump plots... Let's just say there's no way that ends well. She can be a real brat when she wants to, and I have a feeling I'd lose either my sister or my girlfriend before we got to day three."

"So why not give Nyssa two days of leave right now?" Sarah suggested. "Let her have some fun, clear her head, get it all out of her system? Then when she's back from leave you and the boss can sit her down for some intensive jump training. We know we're probably going to be here for four or five days anyhow, the Korantis mission can't start until those repairs are completed. This way Nyssa's happy, hopefully Amanda will be happy, and if the kid does well on the training then maybe Jump-1 is back on the table? If not, they settle for Jump-0. End of story."

I still had my concerns, but our cute engineer made some good points. And I knew Nyssa would be happy with it. Rebecca seemed to agree as well, but before she could say so our AI spoke up again.

"We've just received a transmission from the shipyard," Jenny announced. "It's the estimate we've been waiting for. I've forwarded it to your terminal Rebecca."

The boss spun her chair around to have a look at the document. She nodded as her eyes flicked over the details, "Sarah was right as usual. Pending our approval of the estimate they'll start work first thing in the morning, and the Artemis will be ready to go four days from now."

"I'm on board with Sarah's plan," Rebecca added as she tapped out a reply, "So if that works for you Amanda then I'll go give Nyssa the good news as soon as I've sent Helen my approval."

After a deep breath I sighed once before replying, "Alright. I'm still not comfortable letting Nyssa go on a solo piloting mission, but hopefully Gwen and Jace will be able to keep her in line."

The boss finished her message then got to her feet and stated, "It's Gwen's mission. She'll be in charge. Nyssa's just the pilot, she'll be the Artemis' skipper but she won't be anyone's captain."

"That makes sense," I nodded.

Sarah and I stood up as well, then after Jenny confirmed the approval was successfully transmitted all four of us exited Rebecca's cabin. We headed back into the ship's mess, but instead of my sister and our guests we found Cammie and Jenna waiting for us there.

It wasn't hard to find Nyssa and Jace though, the two of them had moved into the little rec area off to the side. They were sitting across from each other at the small table with a couple drinks, playing some sort of card game. There was no sign of Gwen, but I assumed she'd retired to one of the cabins.

That thought suddenly left me wondering where Jace and Gwen were staying, since the only spare accommodations were the two bunks in the guest cabin. And I had a hard time imagining the young noblewoman diplomat being happy with that arrangement. I didn't have a chance to ask though, before someone else spoke up.

"Is it true y'all met another AI out there?" our catgirl mechanic blurted out. Her ears were angled forward and her tail flicked back and forth in excitement.

I couldn't help smiling at how eager she looked, "Yeah Cammie it's true. I didn't really get to talk with him that much though, at the time I was more concerned with getting Nyssa and I out of there. But from the sound of it we're going to get another chance to meet with him."

She nodded, "I sure hope so. I hope we can help him, and any other friends of Jenny's we find out there."

While Cam and I were talking Rebecca moved past us towards the little lounge area.

"Nyssa," the captain addressed my sister, "We've got a few things going on here that I wanted to talk to you about, but Amanda's convinced me to give you some shore leave first."

"Yes!" my sister practically jumped up out of her seat and turned around to face my girlfriend.

She looked as though she'd already forgotten about the card game as she asked, "So can I go now? And how long's my leave? Two days? Please say two days."

"Forty-eight hours," Rebecca agreed. "And yes, you can go now. Make sure you've got one of our commlinks with you though, just in case."

Nyssa let out a happy whoop as she scooped up her travel bag, but she didn't even get out of the lounge area before the boss spoke up again.

"Hang on there," our captain stated firmly. "You're not going alone. Jace, would you mind accompanying Nyssa? Maybe you can keep her from getting in too much trouble."

My eyebrows shot up as my ears twitched in surprise, and from the look on our guest's face he hadn't been expecting that either.

Jace finished his drink then got to his feet as he replied, "No ma'am, I don't mind at all. I just need a minute to grab my gear then I'm good to go."

"Perfect," Rebecca smiled. "I'll give you one of our commlinks as well, they're pre-set to our own encrypted frequency."

Meanwhile my sister protested, "What?! No! I don't need a chaperone! Especially not some guy I've barely even met!"

Unfortunately for Nyssa, my girlfriend wasn't budging on that decision. "You and Jace have leave together, or you don't get leave at all."

"You two are going to be working together once the Artemis' repairs are done," she added, "So you may as well get to know each other now. We'll see you both back here on the Demeter in forty-eight hours."

Sarah smiled at the two of them, "Have fun! But not too much fun."

Nyssa gave me a pleading look but I just shrugged, "You heard the captain. Try not to get yourself arrested. And more importantly, try not to get Jace arrested either."

Then with her travel bag in hand she stalked for the starboard ladderway, while Jace hurried to get his things out of the guest cabin.