32. Lifelines

Days turned to weeks. The tipping point for the Giant rapidly closing in. Perseus Train was the first one secured to the stern of the Giant. Two half of the cargo train, now pulling softly, tiptoeing away from the moon, pulling a spider’s line behind with its enormous loot.

Soon dozens of other ships were holding onto the Giant. Its stern growing tendrils and grabbing onto the flies. Size fortunately does not matter much in space. At least less than weight and propulsion ratios.

With ion drives ready to go, confidence in the plan rose sharply. Vince and his crew’s example inspiring many to volunteer. At one point they had to turn down further ships, as they were running out of space where to hook them up. Besides, still tens of thousands needed food and medical supplies. Water and oxygen weren’t an issue, actually Giant started to export some of its reserves so shipped in supplies can be focused. And some small ships were ready to pull, but needed water and oxygen for the crews.

Most of the mining equipment was committed to the cause too, straining the experienced controllers of the Steiger to their limits. During normal asteroid breakdown operations, their workload stretched out over time, first breaking down the rocks in space, moving to on board processing then ship the ore out. Here they were doing all at once, ship in, ship out, and control the drones and all manned ships in local space.

Vince tended to take time with each of them, just pairing up on leading a new ship in, or during the process of departure of cargo ships, mostly filled with stabilized patients and one or two nurses caring for them.

Lately he had less time to be involved. Daily conference call with the admiralty and president’s office took up his evenings. The invite was for 45 minutes. Never finished that early. Last week he had two meals during the event. Then a genius politician had the idea to stream these in public.

They had no substance before, definitely had none after. Most of the time went away with people believing in their own importance hijacking the show with irrelevant questions. He only liked the ten minutes of status reports. At least that was filled with mostly facts despite how embellished they were in presentation. Though he saw all those data points on his control views aboard the Steiger. He never thought how professional these borderlands miners were, yet he was glad for their help with every cell of his body. Supposed the insurance company will pay for their lost revenue too, but more likely they got some higher ups on the colonies scoring public relations points. See, the colonies help out of their pure heart.

His mind jumped between topics, unable to concentrate on the daily reports, yet in ten minutes it was his round to summarize in public. He almost hoped for any event, any excuse to get out of these calls. He almost got his wish.

• “Captain, all ships finished with securing tow cables. Ion drives ready to be fired up.”
• “Great news, Hugh, tell them to take a well earned sleep. In ten hours, we will do the first coordinated tests.”

At least today’s summary wrote itself. During the usual boring call, Victoria came in with good news too. Their modifications seem to hold and Irondome will arrive in mere days. Instead of the entire month left from original estimates. Vince felt the ease, the calmness in the air. This was his telling sign, when to pay extra attention. This is the time when most will lower their guard and catastrophe hits. In deep space, he saw this too many times happening to seasoned crew.

The conference still ongoing with a blue suit talking head monologuing away on passenger rights. The alarms blew into his speech until Vince muted his microphone.

• “What is it? Report.”
• “We have contact on radar, no transponders, may be pirates.”
• “That is what we needed. Bendeghuse, come in.”

The silence after the alarms were muted too was deafening. No response from the federal cutter.

• “They must be seeing it too. Track the new contacts and the Bendeghuse. Bendeghuse, this is Steiger, come in, A.S.A.P.!”
• “I have an idea.” — Hugh unmuted the conference call and shouted to interrupt the politicians — “Bendeghuse, contacts, reply on second channel, immediately.” — Vince stared at him unable to talk.
• “With your permission, sir. Excuse me, our captain encourages initiative.” — muted the conference call again, while the screens showed the tensioned faces, talking fast, yet the exaggerated feelings looked like mime for Vince without the voices.
• “Nothing to excuse for, well done, Hugh!”
• “The contacts move fast, they are heading toward the docks.”
• “How many of them? Can you identify?”
• “Picking up four, one larger, can’t identify, we are far for visuals, and they emit sensor scrambling. They pass near Perseus soon, if they can take a look.”
• “Raise the contacts with the usual message.”
• “Why, sir…”
• “Well, either we misidentified them, or at least hide the fact that we know they are different. So far they did not threaten anyone.”
• “True. Sir, Bendeghuse isn’t approaching them.”

Vince running low on patience, unmuted the conference call again:

• “Enough! Priorities, people! We need the on site federal ships, stop the bickering here and do your job.”
• “With all due respect, Captain Pier, you are not in the command chain. Bendeghuse still needs to deliver its report.” — said the cabinet spokesperson, sitting right next to the president, putting both on screen while the exchange was ongoing.
• “Then as responsible captain in the sector, Bendeghuse, you are ordered to investigate the contacts. And cut the d…mn stream.” — Victoria’s voice faltered for a moment as the public broadcast cut off.
• “You are not yet on site, until…”
• “We are three days away, strictly by star charts, we are in the sector. Bendeghuse, respect the chain of command, and remember your responsibility. This call is done, Irondome out.”
• “We need a press release after this…” — but no-one left in the call to hear her.
• “Captain, you just told off the president’s team.” — Vince was struggling how to explain his gratitude in the private line.
• “I should have done it way earlier. This masquerade went on too far, federal ships abandoning their duty, what a world we live in…” — their usual one on one calls, rarely managed to get hold of each other, yet whenever they did talk, felt like old pragmatic friends. Efficient. — “Captain Pier, Vince, while Bendeghuse filed a report and it is classified, you should know at least this. They lost the track of the pirate ships.”
• “So they were identified?”
• “Yes, two stolen small craft, another well known smuggler and a cargo runner. All belong to the Swordfish now.”
• “Suppose military intelligence says so. How the hell they lost track? The contacts did not reappear on radar…”
• “They are inside, docked, beyond the still radioactive sightseeing yachts. And Bendeghuse rejected further commands to pursue.”
• “They rejected?”
• “Well, they can, if the captain has grounds it is too risky without anything to gain. And for now, I agree with him. But he messed up by not stopping them before entering.”
• “Do you have any idea what they want? Or the intelligence says anything?”
• “No clue. Intelligence is too quiet, they had no suggestions, even on direct ask.”
• “Is that unusual?”
• “Not if they know the real reason.”
• “In hours we will be exposed during a really important test of the fleet. Well, most of the ships are exposed being chained to the Giant.”
• “I know. And we can be there for another two days. Bendeghuse has a standing order to stop them when they leave, in a safe distance from the fleet. Or intervene if they interfere with any civilian or military activities.”
• “Hope it will be enough. You know, we will have to try the real thing before you arrive. The point of no turning back is almost here.”
• “Thanks for reminding… Hey, good luck for the test!”
• “Thanks, Victoria.”

Maria and Eddy sound asleep, they returned to the stern section of Perseus Train with Greg, while the bow sections was waiting for Vince. His place was there during the trial run and the consequent efforts. His last round on the Steiger, he was still spending half an hour with a cadet in engineering to realign and calibrate the aft sensors. Daily maintenance done right can save lives and teaching his operations skills felt right for Vince.

• “Even though you have good intentions, they need to learn on their own too.”
• “Captain Cadaver, didn’t notice you. What do you mean?”
• “Saw you with the crew. You are too deep in everything, and have not enough attention on the big picture. It is gonna cost you.”
• “Still not following. They need the shared experiences.”
• “No doubt. But all task has their time. Aren’t you worried of those unknown contacts? What are they up to? What problems they can cause and how to prepare, prevent or react?”
• “Those are strategic questions.”
• “Exactly.”
• “Colonies and Earth trusted me because of my intentions and values.”
• “Because both knew to use you strategically.”
• “It sounds so, sinister.”
• “It does. But it is just real-politics. We are just caught between the opportunists and the idealists.”
• “Which one are you?” — Vince got only a wide grin as Cadaver strolled down the corridor.

Read the story leading up to now:

Giant of the Stars

Fictional story of a luxury starliner’s catastrophy