Phantom Star

The actual broadcast of the start of the war had finally happened, and while at first everyone had gotten tense, months of nothing meant that eventually everyone relaxed.

We weren’t anywhere near the front lines, or even the sidelines, or backlines.

Benefits of being far out onto the frontier.

Everything slowly settled down, Baron Ritz slowly became a normal part of our lives, eventually a new status quo was reached.

Which is why I was kind of uncomfortable. I had finished the Babbit that the Baron had requested, and Uncle Kyle had handed it over.

But instead of that being the end of things I had been called into a meeting a while later as I was heading out to prep another hull for transport.

It was only when I entered the room did I relax a little. It wasn’t the Baron himself, but an older man, with a friendly smile, and a Babbit floating around his head.

If a Babbit liked him it was probably safe.

“Umm… Hello?’

“Ah! Good, good! Welcome come in come in, you’re Katherine correct? The bright girl that made these little drones?”

“Yeah, the Babbits are mine.” I said and waved at his drone, which waved back at me just a little.

“How fascinating! Oh how foolish of me, I’m Eugene Kilver, I’m the chief engineer on the Octavius. But more importantly, I wanted to ask you about these delightful little drones. I apologize about this surprise meeting, but I had a delightful time looking into your little drone, and I had so many questions. Where did you get the AI work from? I’ve never seen an AI like it before.”

“I made it.” I answered honestly, my hands already brought to my chest as I wrung my hands at the look I received in turn.

“Really?” He asked, seemingly disbelieving.

“Yeah.” I fidgeted a bit under his stare.

“Mhmm! Kat made us!” The Crabbit at my shoulder chirped.

“Creator Katherine: True.” Babbit said from above Eugene, who looked up with a smile at his Babbits quiet halting words.

“Indeed? How fascinating. I’ve tinkered my hand with AI creation before. Where did you learn? Did you take some university program?”

I blinked. That was a thing? I mean… I guess it made sense. If you wanted to learn something, it wasn’t like you could always travel the light years to a university. I just hadn’t considered what actual high end schooling would be like. Sure we had our educational programs, but those were very focused on the Scrapper Exam that we all took, and that was in house.

“Miss Katherine?”

“Huh? Oh! Sorry. I didn’t take any university programs. Just the educational programs we have on station. I didn’t know you could study university stuff like that… Probably should have.” I muttered but stopped myself from getting lost in thought.

“Is that so? Your educational program must be quite advanced then. Your programming is… Extremely pure.” He said, and then smiled. “If it isn’t too much trouble, I would like any documentation you have, on the creation and maintenance of these Babbits. I’m always interested in improving my own work after all.”

“Oh… Sure.” I agreed, and it wasn’t long before I relaxed a bit and was having a really fascinating conversation with Eugene about drones and their maintenance and creation.

I actually picked up some tricks that would make any future Crabbits better. It was… Nice.

—-

A few days later, I decided to try my luck. It was my off day, and I had gotten bored of just watching the construction through my Crabbits eyes, and wanted to get back to my hangar so I could dig my hands back into the formation of my baby.

Of course everything had more restrictions now. I walked out of my apartment, and up to the docking ring level and couldn’t help but notice what was out of place.

Guards, The Baron had stationed a small set of Marines on UNK-L to watch over things. We were told that it was for our protection, but everyone knew that the real reason they were here, was to enforce the law, and make sure everything kept going.

It honestly wasn’t that big of a deal most of the time. There wasn’t anyone on station that had any interest in rebelling or stopping processing of the scrap field, but it was a restriction that altered our usual freedoms.

Which is why I hadn’t been able to go out to the hangar myself. The scrap field had been restricted to only work crews.

But… I wasn’t planning on going to most of the scrap field. I wanted to go to the hangar that was already registered as my drop off, just like Aunt Sheila had her shop on station, and technically the hull inside, the old freighter had been gifted to me.

It was mine. So… I should be allowed, right?

I walked along the docking ring, towards one of the hangars. I was looking for someone that could actually give me permission, as I was done just accepting that I wouldn’t get access to my own stuff.

Uncle Kyle was here. Supervising, he didn’t always, but we were processing a hull and waiting for the transport ship that was going to come and transport it out of the system. I had been one of the crew working on it the day before, so I knew Uncle Kyle would be here, and I knew they’d mostly just be waiting around.

I took a deep breath as I entered and firmed my spine as I strode across the busy hangar. It was mostly open, although some parts were being put onto the hull in large containers, for transport. Basically some of the equipment would need to be refitted quickly that we could send along.

It was all part of the refit process that we took part in during war time.

Work crews were walking from the hangar before taking a small leap into zero G to land inside the old passenger liner? A Nauxia. They had nice interior design, but terrible hulls. Too many windows. Those would be covered, and the outer rooms likely filled with quick armor foam.

I tore my eyes away despite how much I wanted to keep looking, because spaceship! My brain was hardwired to want to stare at the flying ships.

Uncle Kyle was standing next to a container. He had his Tab in hand and was going over the contents inside, as some of the workers dropped equipment off, floating each piece across the hangar thanks to the gravity panels making the parts weightless.

I walked up and only when he turned to acknowledge me did I speak.

“Katherine?”

“Uncle Kyle. Sorry to bother you. Todays my day off, and I know the restriction with the scrap field, but I was wondering if there was a way I could get permission to visit my Freighter? I… Just want to work on it.” I managed to speak it all without stuttering which was a relief, but as I finished, I felt my shoulders hunch in as I waited to be refused.

This was stupid. I should just go back to my room and supervise over my Tab. They weren’t going to let me go. Everyone was being super strict about this sort of thing!

“I see. A moment.” He finally spoke and I almost flinched at his voice, but he didn’t sound angry, or upset. Instead after a moment his Tab beeped, and I flinched very hard at the appearance.

“This is Cyger.”

“Forgive me for the interruption Baron Ritz. I simply had an unusual situation that I wanted to confirm with you.” Uncle Kyle deferred, and the Baron from what little I could see from Uncle Kyle’s Tab didn’t look angry, instead curious.

“Very well Station Master. What is the situation?”

“One of my family had asked for a hull from the scrap field a while back. She’s been working on it in her free time fixing it up. Unfortunately with the lockdown and restrictions that has been stopped for some time, but she has come to me requesting access. Considering the hull is her own I would like to support this request if possible.”

“Hmm. You understand the concern about access to the ship field. They are all now military assets.”

“I do. Katherine is a smart girl. She knows it would be foolish to try and take something that doesn’t belong to her. But in this case the ship is her own.”

“Katherine you say? Ah, yes. I remember, Eugene spoke highly of her… Very well. I’ll allow you to approve an access token.”

“Thank you Baron.” Uncle Kyle said with an almost bow, and that was that. The Tab Comm ended with the Barons' own acknowledgement.

I was almost too frozen to realize though.

“Does that mean I can?” I asked, almost breathless because I can’t believe it.

“Yes Katherine. That means you can travel into the scrap field. I hope you understand the risks if you are caught anywhere you aren’t supposed to be?”

“Yes Sir. I understand!”

“Good. I’ll send the Token to your Tab. Good luck Katherine. I look forward to seeing what you do with the ship myself someday.”

“Thank you! Thank you Uncle Kyle!” I cheered and, unable to resist, I moved in and pulled the smaller man into a big hug.

—--

I was in the hangar sitting on a box and watching as the aft quarter of the Superstructure was slowly growing. It was one of those things that needed some constant low level attention, but mostly just my eyes.

Yet… It was so nice to actually be back in the hangar, actually working myself.

The slow growth of the nanopaste forming my ship was taking so long, in fact it gave me time to work on other things. There was a lot to do so I had made a checklist on my Tab. I looked it over, at the mish mash of an actual list, and just idle thoughts.

Weapons: Still stuck slowly creating material to forge the focusing arrays.

Superstructure: About eighty percent done.

We had already spun the ship around so the new bow was sticking out of the hangar, that way no one could see the Nanopaste flash forging the ship. Luckily no one would notice how different the ship sticking out of the hangar would look compared to the freighter, because everyone was too busy for that.

Armor: Completed.

Outside of just actually armoring up the superstructure once it was ready. The formula for atomic bonded ablative armor was easy to make thanks to the Crabbit controlled nanopaste and I had no further issues.

Engines: Unable to be installed.

They were pretty much ready for installation into the housing when the Superstructure completed. They were pretty common Gravity Drives and some plasma jets for in atmosphere, or high gravity. The internals were a mix from the original freighter, that I’d let the nanopaste devour, and some bits from other ships I’d collected.

They were perfectly functional, if not awe inspiring, and without a lot of time the best I could do. Maybe I’d refit them once I had more to work with.

Sensors: Completed.

Sensor arrays were simple enough, and I had done enough practice with them because of the Crabbit that I had built a solid Type 4 with a bit more depth than normal. They weren’t as long range as Type 5, or as detailed, but they were more detailed than a normal Type 4. Again, they’d do until refit.

Life support: Complete-ish.

Air recyclers, and every piece of a life support a ship or station would need were something I could make in my sleep without even the nanopaste. With it, that was easy.

Addendum: Bathroom was acceptable, but I really really really really really-(Note goes on for a few pages.) Really want an actual shower. Sonic showers are the grossest, Ickiest, yuckiest-(Again continued for half a page.) Things ever.

Controls: Completed.

Consoles have been gathered and updated for ship specs. Ship Computer Core collected, and ready for install. Display systems collected.

Addendum: Update consoles on ship completion in case of changes.

Big comfy Captain Chair: Absolute failure. This Galaxy has no comfy chairs. All is lost.

Then there were all the minor components on the list. From some of the bits for the ship elevator, to plasma cabling, that was still a pain in the ass.

So the ship was still slowly rolling out. I nodded at the still forging ship. It was at a calm period, the Crabbits could watch that. I had something I should get my hands on again.

The other complicated piece. The thing I hadn’t thought much about because Warp Arrays were in every ship and usually left alone as there wasn’t anything valuable in them.

But nooo. I had to go and think I should do something crazy so now I was stuck trying to figure out how to make a Warp Array capable of doing things that only the big militaries even toyed with.

Subspace Depth Adjustment. SDA,

If real space was the surface of the water. And Subspace was deep under the water. Then some crazy insane Iris Drive engineer had asked, why can’t the ship in warp not quite surface to make attacks while still in subspace.

A submarine, a space submarine. That’s what I had realized I could do. To give my ship a real advantage.

If I couldn’t overwhelm a ship with speed, or armor, or weapons. Then simply make it so they couldn’t attack back. Stealth, of sorts. My ship was going to be a space U-Boat.

If I could get it to actually work.

The song in my head encouraged me on, but this wasn’t just a matter of making the Diamond Drive and letting physics do their thing.

I needed to upgrade my Warp Array so it could handle incredibly complex calculations while my computer was able to accept those calculations while my ship was able to survive the incredible forces of sticking itself both in real and subspace at the same time.

It was, to put it plainly, a massive undertaking for something that was supposed to be a solution because I couldn’t do the complicated stuff I wanted.

So I just decided to do something even more complicated? Fuck you too brain!

But I was too stubborn to give up on it, and it wasn’t like I needed a working Warp Array right now anyways. Couldn’t jump to warp with a ship that didn’t even move under its own power after all.

I looked down into the warp array I was putting together out of the scraps of a dozen others.

It was actually a very simple piece of tech. It simply interacted with the warp rift inside an Iris Drive and expanded not the rift itself, but the waves of space interference it made to encompass the entirety of the ship letting it sink into subspace.

Which really just involved a bunch of emitters and being hooked up close to the Iris Drives.

Okay, but doing an adjustable array meant I had to make the array capable of calculating the difference between real space and subspace, so it would let my ship be more ‘real’ which would drag it up… Like ballast on a submarine.

The song told me this would work. That I was doing it right, but I was struggling to get my head to wrap around the math required and not just melt down.

I leaned back and felt steam coming out of my ears. Rubbing my face with my rough gloves I could practically feel the heat in my face. Definitely melting down.

—--

“You got it?” Marshall asked.

“I got it.” I responded confidently. Slowly we adjusted the position and slid the missile into place.

While I wasn’t entirely confident making a few missile platforms for around the station was the best use of resources. Baron Ritz had wanted it done, and so it was done.

At least I got to take a look at more high end military targeting software for missiles and steal some choice bits of the code.

“Well that’s the last one then.” Marshall said and looked back at me. He was sweating and looking pretty tired, but I was still mostly fresh.

“Yeah. A single surprise missile barrage each, it isn’t a lot, but hopefully it works.” I answered back and the boy nodded looking concerned.

No one really wanted the war to come to our front door, but it seemed the Baron was acting as if something was going to happen and was preparing for it.

It’s a bit more proactive than I’d expect from a noble, but it was fine. I could actually respect it considering he was planning the defense of my home.

“So… How’s the ship coming?” Marshall asked out of the blue.

“Slowly. Why?” I asked with almost narrowed eyes and Marshall looked at me without guile.

“Well I was thinking I’d join your crew. Getting off station… I want to do that too.” He mentioned, wiping a hand through his slick backed sweaty hair, as he sent me a friendly smile.

One that I had long since understood only happened, when he thought he was getting his way.

I blinked in shock. Marshall was the absolute last person on this station I would let come with me. I would take Heather, and she was thirteen, before I let him come with! He was a bossy asshole, and the moment he didn't get his way he’d start treating me like shit like he always did.

“I’m not looking for any crew… My ship won’t have crew quarters at first.” I said, trying to make sure he didn’t realize I was denying him outright.

Maybe he’d forget all about it by the time my ship was completed.

“Huh. Well, I’ll be the first anyway..” He said, once more acting like his decision was just what was going to happen.

I didn’t say anything, but I did turn and move out of the station hangar where we had been putting the Missile platforms together. They’d be pushed out by the Tugs later, and would be controlled from the Barons Frigate.

I walked out before Marshall said another word and his irritating surety he would get his way left me wanting to punch him,

But I had something better. I would just leave and he could spend the rest of his life stuck on this station.

I headed home. A shower would be lovely considering how sweaty I was. I was almost there, the elevator dropping down when suddenly there was a tone alert that went over the PA system.

I hit the stop and changed buttons.

That was a warning call.

The elevator opened and I rushed to the offices, everyone was already gathering rushing to find out what was going on.. Monitors above me showed the problem.

“That way! Get the Tugs out there!” Great Uncle Kyle roared out and people were moving. It only took a moment to figure out what was happening.

A heavily damaged ship was drifting near the station. Someone had fled from something and ended up here. Which meant we were obligated to provide relief.

Especially since it was a Kenish Military vessel. I recognized the purple tones they used as highlights even from the monitors.

I ran after the repair crew. I’d help get anyone on board off, while making sure the ship wouldn’t blow up or something.

As I ran I untied my sleeves and slipped my arms in, and hurried to seal the jumpsuit back up. I grabbed a random helmet and jumped into the first shuttle, throwing it on, I felt the helmet suction to my jumpsuit around the neck, sealing closed with a soft pressure. Quickly checking seals I nodded, confirming I was good.

Considering it was an emergency I called out to my Crabbit.

*Emergency. We have an allied ship that’s damaged, if you can come drop what you are working on. Come help..* And I nodded as I got an army of chirpy replies.

And then the shuttle door closed and we were lifting off heading into space. The silence surrounded me besides the breathing of the others in the shuttle.

“Kat.”

“Oh hey.” I waved at Ian, one of the men that was just a bit older than my group. Marshall being one of the oldest, Ian was a few years older than him. He had often been the babysitter for the kids around my age.

“When we get there. Help us get any damaged sections clear.” He ordered calmly.

“Can do.” I agreed and that was that.

I wasn’t usually part of this group, but I had gotten a reputation for repair after all!

I could just see the big ship out of the front window of the shuttle as it maneuvered over and after a moment the static buzz of a force field.

*Alright! Slow and steady this is a military vessel!* Ian called and we all nodded.

The shuttle landed and I was one of the first out and I winced.

The ship looked bad. Someone had shot the hell out of them. I ignored the poor bodies floating around as the ship's grav plates were down, instead with a Crabbit on my shoulder helping, I flew towards the Hangar door and activated it, wincing as it failed to open. I popped the panel and winced more at the lack of power.

*Crabby, gonna need some power.*

*Power power!* It cheered and I plugged it into the panel and a moment later the door released the lock, but didn’t open.

*Help me.* I asked, and stuck a boot into the gap and then grabbed it with my gloved hands. The door was cold, and heavy. But it was currently in zero gravity, and more importantly, the locks and control was disabled.

Sideways in the air, boots and fingers in the small gap that had popped open, I started pulling. I could feel biceps flex, and my jumpsuit might need to be adjusted to a bigger one again, as it was pulling on my arms pretty heavily.

But slowly the door groaned open more and more. My struggles were slow, despite all the effort I was putting in. When suddenly more hands grabbed at the gap from the other side and started heaving and soon it was slowly creaking open, more than wide enough for people to move through.

I pushed away, Crabbit giving me a bit of gravity so I could land on the floor, and looked up at someone who was taller than me. A soldier with a big head wound, and without a suit.

“Huh. Thanks for the help.” He muttered with a gravelly voice that made me think he probably smoked twenty cigars a day while chugging whisky and gargling rocks. “Alright! Let’s move it! We got ships. Help the wounded!” He roared and even I jumped out of the way as he moved.

But I turned to my group, and nodded. We weren’t medics, we were scrappers. So we would be making sure everyone could get out.

*Crabbit, register any life signs that we can. We need to help everyone off the ship.*

*Roger Roger!*

—--

“Ah thanks.” I muttered, grabbing the drink and tossing it back. Cool water went down and it was heaven.

“Good job out there. Especially when that one guy got aggressive.” Carter said, he was smiling at that but I just shrugged.

“I think he was concussed and just trying to defend himself. So I just lifted him off the ground. Calmed him right down.”

“Heh. Well good job.” He said as he walked off, and I just nodded.

We were gathering back together to get everyone off the ship. It was time for the Tugs to move it into a yard arm and get it secured now that there was no one on board and the ship wasn’t at risk of exploding.

But the problem was what had happened.

Pirates.

This ship had gotten into a fight with Pirates, and had from what I heard, mostly won, but with a pyrrhic victory.

The Pirates had been fended off retreating to lick their wounds, but so had the ship.

That was bad. It meant a group of pirates had been spotted only a few systems away. With them that close?

It meant we were in real trouble.

I saw another of my Crabbit fly past and nodded at their quick work. They had done a great job helping to locate everyone on board and leading people to the most injured.

Of course then out of the corner of my eye I noticed three of the Crabbit carrying something between then and I choked and sputtered on the water, coughing a bit and super glad people were looking at me, and not at them because I’m pretty sure that had been a focusing array from the ships laser cannons!

—--

“I can’t believe you stole this from a Kenish warship! If anyone had noticed I can’t even imagine how bad it would have gotten!” I said firmly, and then patted them on the head. “Don’t do it again without asking first. I could have helped make sure no one would notice. Now get that cabling in! We have a ship to put together!” I roared out hand raised.

The Crabbit all cheered along with me, limbs raised to the sky.

It wasn’t enough for everything, but with some actual plasma cabling, and the focus arrays installed. It meant I might just be able to get a weapon online.

And considering how tense everything had gotten. I might need them. The Baron had taken his ship and was trying to hunt the pirates before they could repair their ships, but the fact we hadn’t heard anything told me what had happened.

He couldn’t find them. Sneaky pirates.

I looked over the superstructure that was completed and had to admit. It was pretty much ready. Sure it looked a little thin with both sides of the ship basically chopped off to leave it only with the most important bits.

Sure it only had two engines and not four, but the armor was installed, and with the cabling I might even have enough to give her a test flight.

I heard my radio click and winced.

*This is Kat.*

*Where are you?* Aunt Sheila asked and I went still, because the only reason she would ask that is if she already knew.

*I’m doing some repairs in han-*

*No you aren’t, I’m looking at a recording of you jumping out the damn airlock!*

*I’m at C1H-243.* I said, telling the truth and she sighed.

*Dammit kid. I told you to be on your best behavior! I have the Barons security breathing down my neck wondering why we have an unauthorized space walk!*

*Just tell them the truth? I’m doing repairs on a personal project. They already know that I go out here.*

*Katherine! The Baron doesn’t care about your personal project! He doesn’t care about your ship! We just had an attack. You should be on the Iliad, doing repairs trying to get it working! They could use your help!*

*I can get my ship operational.* I said instead and she went quiet.

*Kat… A freighter being able to move around a bit isn’t going to solve anything.*

*It has a Thermal Lance. It’s not defenseless.*

*What in the blackhole are you talking about! That’s…” She went quiet for a moment as if she finally processed what I had just said. “Are you serious?*

*Yes. I’m going to get it operational. Now.*

*Do you even have a Drive? No… Where did you get a Drive?*

*Don’t ask. I didn’t steal it though.* I repeated back.

*Shit. Kat. You know I’m going to have to tell Uncle Kyle about this!*

*Just… Listen, give me the rest of the night. I’ll tell them myself when I have proof my ship is functional. Otherwise I’m just a stupid teenager that ran out and you can just throw me into work in punishment.*

*Dammit. You have until the first shift tomorrow. I’ll make up an excuse for the Baron's men.*

The radio cut, and I looked up. The Crabbit had heard.

“Let’s go!” I roared out and work resumed.

—--

“This is really really stupid.” I whispered to myself as I guided the Diamond Drive through the hallway. The completely bare hallway that had no panels covering the plasma conduits, that didn’t even have lights. I was guided by a flashlight as I stopped at where the door to the engine room would be.

If I had one.

The Diamond drive was still inactive. I hadn’t dared activate it in any place that wasn’t the engine room with all its shielding. No telling what a warship's sensors could pick up without that meager protection.

The Crabbit floated the drive in, and I nodded, floating over to the consoles that were already bolted and hooked in, I flipped the switch and nothing happened. No power?

I crouched down and checked the front panel where the tiny Iris Drive was inserted, Hmm… I pulled it out and checked the connectors. They were fine. Flipped it around, did the power connectors get installed backwards?

Nope. I pulled it again and inserted it, and this time the console activated.

Figures.

With a few taps I opened the locks that would hold the Drive in place. The custom work for the differently sized drive creaked open a little but I relaxed. They just needed a bit of oil. The Crabbit were always a bit stingy with it for some reason. Always muttering about more for them.

I nodded as they inserted it into place, and I pressed the button and the machinery came down. Locking it in place and I felt the nervousness shift through me.

I ran down the checklist. Thermal Lance Turret on the Bow? Installed and triple checked. Engines? Installed and quadruple checked.

The Plasma conduit cabling had shown all green on the checks… We had a semi functional ship... Once it had power.

The Crabbit all turned waiting for me.

“Open Diamond Drive!” I commanded and watched as they maneuvered the drive open showing the space for the Iris Drive. “Insert the Core!”

And then it began the Drive screwed shut. “Insert the Iris Drive Array!” The small Iris Drives were inserted and locked in place, and everything showed green. It was time.

I didn’t say activate though. Instead I grabbed my helmet and threw it on. Then I called Sheila.

*Brat? You’re past the time I said. You-*

*Aunt Sheila. I’m about to connect the drive. Can you let the station know that it’s not some pirate in the Scrap Field?* I cut in interrupting her grumbling and after a moment she gave a sigh.

*Alright, just give me a minute.* The line cut but I didn’t continue. Instead I looked at my Crabbit. “Prepare for launch!” I called out and most of them burst out of the room to head to their stations.

And I waited, just as I was getting antsy my radio crackled.

*Katherine.* The voice wasn’t Sheila though.

*Station Master.* I replied back being formal to my Great Uncle.

*Your ship is operational?*

*Unless it explodes when I connect the drive.* I muttered a bit darkly, because it felt like there was a chance of that.

*Where did you even get a drive?*

*It’s a long story.* I said instead of actually answering him.

The fact was, I had a ship now, which made me a ship captain. That meant I wasn’t just another scrapper on the station. I was something else.

Family still sure, but not… Not just another cog in the machine. It had shifted the dynamic.

*Very well. We are ready for your activation.*

*Very well.* I replied back and cut the line.

“Ignite the Diamond Drive!” I called out and the white light of the drives once more shifted to an angry red as the rift expanded and soon there was a stable rift generating power. What few lights we did have installed came alive. Consoles, lighting up.

The rumble of the Diamond Drive gave the ship a light rumble that reminded me of a purr. The noise of a good engine rumbling and well maintained, but it was all energy colliding with matter.

I turned and no longer had to float through the ship as the gravity plating came online and I stalked forward, feeling the ship come alive slowly as I walked up and took the ladder to the bridge as the elevator was still nothing but dreams and hopes for the future. I stepped out into the brightest section of the ship.

The bridge was brightly lit consoles set up in a formation letting the Captain chair overlook them all. The bridge showed outward into the stars, and I took a moment to look out through the crystal glass. It was already active. Open view to space wasn’t just an incredibly powerful see through crystal, it also had embedded virtual access.

Letting it highlight anything the sensors could see, mark objects, or even zoom in.

The view looked out over the bow, and the Thermal Lance turret that was already going through checks as the Crabbits had the turret shifting left and right to test the movement.

“Status!” I called out and the Crabbits all chirped happily.

“Functional! Functional!”

“All working!”

“Aaaaaah. Non-function!!” I nodded at that one. Half the ship components still weren’t powered. We had engines. We had weapons. And we had some internal systems, but our shields were still offline.

But then the most important Crabbit called out.

“Engines yaaaay! Engines good good!” It cheered and the others cheered back and I felt myself relax a tad but I still remained standing.

Never had found a good enough chair.

“Docking Clamps?” I called, to one of the Crabbit.

“Disengaging, is clear!”

I nodded and walked over to the engine console. I swallowed a bit of spit and breathed in and out, and then reached out. Everything was still bare bones here. The captain's chair was just a chair I had stolen from another freighter, and it didn’t even have any control surfaces. I was controlling the ship from a Tab’s touch controls.

I breathed in and out, as my finger touched the thrust control. Although the Crabbit could drive the ship too, this was for me.

“Phantom Star! Engage!”

I pushed. Just the slightest force, and the control ticked up just a single point, but that was all we needed.

A moment later my ship. My ship. Inched out of the Hangar, sunlight splashing across her pristine hull. Making her look pure white under the sunlight as the bridge cleared the Hangar entirely and then I just kept her moving.

“Plot a course out of the Scrap Field.” I asked the Crabbit at the navigation console who chirped and shifted even as I pulled back on the engines. Until we were free of the old Super Freighter that had been my Hangar for so long. And returned to a complete null motion.

“Course projection!” Navigation called out and I checked the screen for the plot…

“I’m gonna have to do that.” I decided because that course I’m pretty sure would lead us right through multiple scrap ships and then collide with the moon somehow, before reaching the Station.

“Uuuu.” The Crabbit whined as I took its seat and started adjusting the course. Showing it how to do it.