Chapter 199: Chapter 199

It turned out we didn't really have much in the way of plans, mostly because the boss wanted to stick around incase Tamsin wrapped up her analysis early.

That evening Rebecca took Sarah and I out for a fancy dinner in the city. She invited Cammie and Jenna too, but they both decided to stay with the ship and keep Jenny company. And since it was just the three of us we ended up visiting one of the nightclubs too, even though we hadn't really dressed for the occasion.

Then the following morning Cammie and Jenna took the grav-sled into the city for a couple hours, while my girlfriends and I had a nice lazy morning in bed. When we did finally get up I made brunch for the three of us, then just as we were finishing up Jenny let us know Tamsin was on her way over to meet with the boss.

Rebecca brought her friend up to join us in the mess, and it was clear from the look on the ravenette's face that she had a lot on her mind.

"So," Tamsin stated as she looked across the table at the boss, "Where the hell did you find that gear?"

Rebecca raised an eyebrow, "Is there something wrong with it?"

The young mechanic shook her head, "Not at all. Apart from the damaged units I mean. The undamaged ones are good. In fact that's the problem Rebecca. They're too good."

"What's that mean exactly?" I asked.

Tamsin sighed, "For one thing they're all very compact. The beam lasers are about a third smaller than anything I've seen with comparable specs. Same with the pulse lasers, they're at least twenty-five percent smaller than I'd have expected. And the point defence lasers are half the usual size."

Sarah nodded, "We noticed that too. So are they a low power version? I'm assuming you were able to test fire them."

The shipyard owner shook her head, "They're not low powered. This is what I mean about being too good. They're just as powerful as standard full-sized units, but they run at higher efficiency."

"The beam lasers are about thirty percent more efficient than standard," she continued, "And the pulse lasers are at least forty percent more efficient. The point defence unit is about sixty percent more powerful than a standard PDLS, and based on the my test numbers it's probably good for twice the range too."

She almost sounded exasperated as she sighed again, "The only thing that's even remotely normal is the sensor array, and even that's a step above what we normally see around here."

"So I have to ask," she said as she fixed her gaze on the boss again, "Where did that gear come from? Because I could honestly believe it came off an advanced Rolandan military test ship. And if that's the case, just having it here puts me in a serious bind."

Rebecca shook her head, "I can promise you Tamsin none of that hardware's from Rolandan-2. I'm still not eager to talk about where it came from, but..."

Our engineer interjected, "Is that going to pose a problem? Do you need to know the exact origin of the equipment in order to buy it?"

Tamsin sighed, "We'd only need that kind of information in the event of an audit. Or if there's a surprise government inspection while it's on the premises waiting for a buyer."

"So what's that mean for the cargo?" the boss asked. "Will you take it? Or is it too hot? Are we going to be stuck with some unsellable salvage?"

Sarah pointed out, "If we can't sell it I'm positive we could use some of that stuff ourself. We could swap out the beam laser on the fighter for one of these upgraded units. And the pulse laser turrets are small enough, we could swap out the single pulse laser on the fighter for one of the dual pulse turrets."

"And I already told you I'd love to outfit the Demeter with some of those advanced PDLS units," she added. "Even if we can sell the rest I'd love to fit out this ship with some of them. And put a couple on the Artemis as well."

Rebecca gestured for our girlfriend to settle down, while she focused on her friend again. "What's the word Tamsin? Will you take this gear or not?"

The ravenette mechanic had a thoughtful look on her face, but she was quiet for another few seconds. Then she finally shook her head, "Sorry Rebecca. I can't risk it, I can't have that hanging around the shipyard while we look for a buyer. There'd be too many questions, with answers that could get us in trouble. It could lead to trouble for you as well."

"That doesn't mean you're stuck with them though," she added quickly. "Can you give me a day or two? If you're not in a hurry I can try and make some alternative arrangements. I know a couple people who might be interested, I just need time to reach out to them. And if I can find a buyer who'll take them right away then they won't have to sit around here. In that case I'll be able to take the lot off your hands, so neither of us are stuck with unsellable goods."

Hearing that left me with a question. "Are we in any danger keeping that stuff in our hold while we wait here?"

Tamsin shook her head, "If that equipment came from some Rolandan-2 military consignment then I'd be advising you to get it off this planet ASAP, but since that's not the case you're not in any danger. You're all offworlders and your cargo comes from offworld too, so you're not breaking any rules here."

"It's a problem for the shipyard because we've got certain responsibilities when it comes to paperwork and maintaining our operating licenses," she added. "That's why it's an issue for me."

The boss nodded, "Alright Tamsin. We're not in a huge hurry to go anywhere right now, so as long as you don't mind the Demeter taking up one of your work bays I'm happy to hang around for another day or two while you try and make those arrangements."

Sarah jumped in at that point with a hopeful smile, "If we're going to be here a while longer, how about we see about installing a couple of those new PDLS units then? I'm not talking about replacing the exiting ones, these would be new additions to the ship. I'd still like to put a couple of them on the Artemis too, next time we get the chance." ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelFirｅ.net

"Let's find out what it'll cost before we go making any more plans," Rebecca stated. Then she asked her friend, "I suppose that means arranging another meeting with Helen?"

"Ms. Ortega's taking some time off, but I can handle that for you," Tamsin responded with a bit of a grimace. It was clear from her expression though that there was more going on. And it seemed just as obvious she wanted to talk about it.

The boss frowned, "I hope that's not our fault? I know Helen wasn't very happy yesterday when I said I wanted you to handle that sensitive cargo yourself."

"It's not that," the ravenette shook her head. Then she made a face and corrected herself, "It's not just that."

Finally she sighed, "Helen and I got into a bit of an argument last night, and she admitted there's some stuff that's been eating at her for a while. Personal stuff, mostly. Anyways she apologized afterwards for bringing it up, then decided to take some time off to try and clear the air between us."

My girlfriends and I all exchanged a worried glance. Then I asked softly, "Was any of it due to the way you've changed?"

"Yeah," Tamsin sighed again. "That's part of it. Maybe a big part."

"I can't believe how clueless I've been," she mumbled to herself, along with a self-deprecating laugh.

After a deep breath she elaborated, "It turns out Helen had a thing for me. For years. She never said anything, she kept it to herself because I was her boss. There was also the age difference, I was almost old enough to be her father. Not that that mattered to her. She'd been waiting almost ten years for the right moment to tell me, hoping all the while I'd finally figure it out on my own? Which unfortunately was never going to happen."

She added, "Don't get me wrong, Helen's great at her job. She's been keeping this place running for years, and maybe I got a little complacent about that? But I never had any romantic feelings for her. Maybe if I'd known how she felt, things might have turned out differently."

"Then I got sick and she thought she was going to lose me," the ravenette continued quietly. "And she did, too. Only instead of watching me die from that damn Aradelko's, she had to watch me get a whole new lease on life. I went from her boss who was old enough to be her dad, to an employee young enough to be her daughter. And that was the real sticking point, Helen's not attracted to other women."

Tamsin paused for a moment then apologized, "Sorry for dumping all that on you girls, it's not your problem. I suppose I just needed to get it off my chest."

Rebecca gave her friend a compassionate look as she replied, "That's ok. I'm here for you, any time you need to talk."

"Thanks old friend," the young mechanic replied with a sad smile.

After another second or two she got to her feet and said, "Anyways I'll put together an estimate for installing a couple of those PDLS units and send it over as soon as it's ready. Then I'll reach out to some folks I know might be interested in that cargo of yours."

"Thanks Tamsin," the boss said as she got up to see her friend out.

Once we were alone Sarah gave me a look and commented, "Wow. That had to be an awkward conversation. Between Helen and Tamsin I mean."

"Yeah," I grimaced. "I hope they're both going to be ok though."

"Same," my girlfriend agreed with me.

We let the subject drop before Rebecca returned, then the three of us ended up cuddling in the ship's lounge. That lasted for an hour or so, before Jenny joined us to let us know Tamsin sent over her estimate. The boss looked it over then agreed to install two of the new PDLS units, and it didn't take our cute engineer long to decide where to put them.

The Demeter's existing PDLS units already had pretty good coverage, but it wasn't perfect. One unit was mounted on top of the ship on the starboard side forward end, practically over Rebecca's cabin. That covered above the ship, to starboard, and ahead. The other unit was next to the aft-most port-side landing gear, and it protected the ship to stern, to port, and below.

Sarah wanted to place one of the new units on the forward end of the port beam, roughly between the decks. That would put it at floor level, just outside our cabin. It would fill in a small gap in the existing coverage, and provide a little extra firepower forward and to port. The other new unit would go in the opposite corner, just below the starboard main engine, and serve the same purpose. It would fill another small gap in the existing coverage, while providing additional aft and starboard protection.

With the decision made work began immediately, and those units were small enough that it wasn't expected to take very long to get them mounted and concealed under some movable hull panels.

There wasn't much else for us to do during that down-time, between waiting for Tamsin to find a buyer and having the Demeter worked on, so the following day we set out for another picnic in the nature reserve. Like Sarah said earlier, it seemed to be our new tradition for Rolandan-2. It was nice, but it hadn't actually been that long since our last visit. And unfortunately that made it feel a little repetitive.

After that my girlfriends and I spent another fun evening out in the city, and we made sure to be dressed appropriately so we wouldn't look out of place when we went dancing. Needless to say it was another late night, followed by a nice late morning, which led to a somewhat lazy day.

The good news came just as the three of us sat down to brunch, when Tamsin contacted us to let us know she'd found a buyer.

So we ate quickly, then hurried to get dressed in time to meet the young shipyard owner. She turned up just past noon, then she and Rebecca haggled a bit over the numbers. That didn't take too long, and a few hours after an agreement was reached another flat-bed grav-sled showed up with a couple strong young men to offload the goods.

The strange part was they brought a bunch of big grey tarpaulins with them. Those were used to individually wrap each turret before it left our hold, so the entire shipment was concealed as it was loaded onto their sled. And as soon as our main hold was empty and their grav-sled was full they took off to deliver the goods.

Tamsin was back again within the hour to deliver our pay for the salvage, less the cost of installing those two PDLS units and the various fees for fuel and so on. That was another relatively short meeting, and when it was done Rebecca took some time to sort out everyone's pay for the salvage job. Then after dinner she called a little staff meeting to go over the details with everyone.

"Now that we've wrapped up all our business here at the shipyard we've got a few options on what to do next," the boss began once everyone was settled.

She looked to Jenny as she continued, "The first one is we head straight back to the asteroid base so we can recover the other Re/Gen unit. Then while we're there we could start salvaging the base itself, since we didn't really touch it last time we were there."

After a slight pause Rebecca sighed, "Except now we know selling that stuff is going to be a problem, I'm honestly a little reluctant to put the extra time into getting more of it. It's potentially lucrative, but only if we can find the right buyer. And I'd rather not put any extra strain or pressure on Tamsin, or our relationship with the Freeborn Shipyard."

She paused again there to see if anyone had any comments or questions, but after a glance around the table I could tell everyone was just waiting for the boss to continue.

"It's a given that I'm going to be needed back at Deveron-8 or the Tullrohane sooner or later," she finally continued, "So I'm thinking we should pop over to the local spaceport and see if we can find some cargo that'll take us in that direction. If not the Deveron system then the Fuminja Cluster would be almost as good. Better still if we can book it for a level zero jump."

She explained, "Then we'd have plenty of time for a level one jump to the asteroid base, a couple days to extract the other Re/Gen capsule and get it into our secondary hold, then we continue on to the Fuminja Cluster at Jump-1 to get the cargo there on time."

"How's that sound?" Rebecca asked as she looked around the table again. She focused on our AI as she added, "I know it might mean delaying our return to the outpost by a couple more days, however long it takes to find a cargo."

Jenny nodded, "That makes perfect sense Captain. I appreciate that you're focused on recovering Idun's capsule, while also keeping the practicalities..."

Her voice trailed off for a moment as if she was suddenly distracted. Then she announced, "Sorry captain. We've just received an FTL addressed to you, from Lady Magniveen."

Rebecca asked, "Is it urgent? Or can it wait? You can go ahead and have a look at the contents Jenny, I can't imagine Gwen ever sending me anything personal."

The AI hesitated, "The missive isn't marked urgent, but Lady Magniveen does indicate that your highness's presence is requested on Deveron-8 as soon as you're able to attend. Apparently the local government wishes to speak with you about a diplomatic matter."

"Huh," the boss frowned. "I hope that doesn't mean there's some sort of conflict brewing between the Tullrohane and the Deveronians. I thought they were all getting along pretty well when we left."

Sarah agreed, "It sure seemed that way to me."

"As long as it's not my sister causing some kind of interplanetary incident," I grimaced. "And I'm only half joking about that."

Both of my girlfriends looked like they were trying not to smile, while Cammie and Jenna stayed quiet. And Jenny remained focused on the captain.

"Shall I send Lady Magniveen a response on your behalf?" the AI asked.

After a moment to think it over Rebecca nodded, "Thanks Jenny. Tell her we'll be on our way as soon as we're done here. I'm assuming she's expecting us to make it a level one jump, so please let her know we'll be there in under twelve hours."

"I'm sorry we're putting the other Re/Gen unit on the back-burner," she added with a sigh. "I promise we'll make that a priority once we've taken care of whatever Gwen's problem turns out to be."

Jenny replied with a wan smile, "Thank you captain, I appreciate that. And I've transmitted your response."

The boss looked around at the rest of us as she said, "Alright then. Let's wrap things up here, then see about getting this ship moving."