Phantom Star

“Pass me that, would you?” I asked, pointing and the Crabbit chirped as it brought forth the tool I needed.

It was easy to forget that tools could drift off in the depths of space.

I was on the hull of one of the ships that had been given to me, peeling shield emitters out of the hulk.

It was a simple repetitive task that I could have left for the scrappers who would have done the same thing, or even the Crabbit.

But I needed to do something with my hands.

That and the depths of space gave me all the solitude I needed to simply stop thinking.

I hefted one of the emitter strips. The section was forty or fifty emitters, each of them about a foot across and connected together. I finished rolling up the strip and the Crabbit I was with grabbed the bundle and flew it away.

That was the last of them. I rolled over so I wasn’t on my knees and just put my ass to the cold ship and looked out.

The ships were all around me, shuttles flying around as they took parts that had been scrapped back to the station.

I could switch to the open comm channel and listen in to all the voices that would be chattering away.

No doubt Aunt Sheila’d be cussing out someone for not doing it right, while Great Uncle Kyle would cut in every few minutes with updated orders for some work groups.

But I was alone and I wanted that right now. My Comm was firmly off. The Crabbit on my shoulder would alert me if there was an emergency message.

I had killed people.

I hadn’t been able to resist slipping into the hulls to see the damage. To see the corpses floating around. Many of them turned into smears on the walls, or worse.

They would have killed me, I knew that. Pirates weren’t kind. They were hunted by nearly everyone so to be a pirate was to accept that you weren’t like other humans anymore. Mom’s voice in my ear reminding me that I did what I had to, didn’t make the surge of discomfort go away.

And I had killed them. I shook it off, and rose back to my feet, a few bouncing steps and I was off. I’d find another shield emitter section on another ship and peel it off. The more of them I found, the better. I might actually get some working shields for the Phantom Star.

My poor ship. She was scarred and damaged after the battle. The Crabbit were doing their best to do minor repairs, but I needed time to get enough nanopaste I would need to repair the armor.

But then I needed to strip these ships, and get the shield emitters. Or pull out the Iris Drives riddled throughout the ships. Every Iris Drive I could get my hand on was another step closer to maybe making an even bigger Diamond Drive.

With a bigger Diamond Drive, I could finally finish the Phantom, and have more than just a main gun, but I needed to do repairs first in case the pirates came back.

As I floated through space for a moment I slumped. The work felt endless, and I was pretty much doing it alone with just the Crabbit. Everyone on the station was super busy, and I didn't really want to ask for help either.

The Octavius was claiming any mechanics that weren’t stripping ships to help. So it was just me and the Crabbits, and the Phantom Star which I needed to prepare for potentially another fight. The pirates' assault had failed, they had fled, but if they realized how badly the Octavius was damaged, they might get enough nerve to try again.

So here I was taking some alone time trying to fix my ship, and not think about all the blood I now had on my hands.

I wiped my hands on my coveralls and kept going. Another strip of emitters needed to be peeled off and sent over to the Phantom.

Always more work to do.

—--

“Go ahead and send some power through.” I called to the Crabbit at the control console.

“Unlimited Power!” It cried out, which… I mean, that wasn’t wrong but wasn’t the right time to say that. I’d have to talk to them about that… Wait the only place they would have heard that line is from me… Shoot. Need to watch the old references a bit more.

Slowly the status screen on the Tab connected to my shitty captain's chair updated, and a bubble started forming around the Phantom.

Outside the viewport space rippled as the Shield manifested, before going back to normal as it returned to invisibility.

But it held.

“Any problems?”

“Starboard B2 emitter has failures! No good, no good!”

“Okay, we’ll go check them out after. Run me through the tests.” I called out and nodded as the Crabbit restarted the shield just to see if there were any other failures.

I stood up with a groan and headed out of the bridge, down the ladder and into the main floor, then I headed down a ways towards quarters in the center of the ship, and then climbed down another emergency ladder, this one was much longer until finally I hit the bottom of the cargo bay.

“How’s it coming?” I called out looking over the cargo bay where a chunk of debris, almost entirely armored hull, was floating freely.

“80 percent!” I got shouted back and I nodded. Below the massive chunk of armor were multiple Nanopaste vats. I had an idea for where I was going to place the vats to hook them into the repair system that would spray Nanopaste onto sections of armor when it was needed, but while the sprayers were working, there just wasn’t enough space in the little hidey hole to make this much nanopaste.

A bit of a design issue I hadn’t considered. So it was all out here in the hangar.

The nanopaste below the scrap bubbled as the Crabbit guided another section of the hull into the paste where it would be eaten and used to create more paste.

More and more was being constructed, hopefully enough to repair the armor and more.

Nodding at that, I turned to the other object resting in the hangar.

A Medium Iris Drive.

The power output of that Drive was around my Diamond Drive, it alone could basically power the Phantom, and get us moving. Unfortunately I would need another six medium sized drives to make it into another Diamond Drive. A bigger, much more powerful Diamond Drive.

But while that was the goal, it was an unfortunate fact that I wasn’t anywhere near that for now.

Instead I was going to trade it for more supplies for the Phantom, of course that doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to use it to massively upgrade the Phantom while I was at it.

The current Diamond Drive that was powering the Phantom was made up of seven Small Iris Drives. The sort of drives that would normally power small equipment. Space suits, the Crabbit, for instance, were powered by Small Drives.

The shuttles we flew around with were powered by Small Drives, but that was mostly because we weren’t rich enough to afford high end shuttles with a bit more power.

Luckily in space a small amount of motion was all that was really needed to get around.

Seven Small Drives in a Diamond, was a bit stronger than a Medium Drive, but the Diamond Drive was basically exponential with the power sources.

There were more sizes of Drive. Light Iris Drives were a step up from small, something usually used for High powered Shuttles, or if a Sector used Fighter craft.

They were well outside any hope of me purchasing one normally. If someone had a Light Drive, then they had the ability to Warp at least a shuttle out of a sector. If you could travel, then you were already pretty rich.

But, a Medium Drive was far more valuable than even seven Light Drives.

“Alright! Let’s take it with us, be careful with it.” I reminded the Crabbit who cheered as two of them grabbed onto one side of the Drive and then we were off, through the ship and out the station dock.

I licked my lips as when I walked onto the station, I gathered a lot of attention.

A Medium Drive was something well outside the wealth of a normal person. At least to any of us scrappers.

So carrying it onto the station behind me was a definite attention grabber.

I felt myself hunch over at the looks of surprise but instead of letting it tear me down I took a breath and kept moving.

There, not far from the airlock was Uncle Kyle, and a woman. “Captain Katherine. I am Operations Officer Artemis Bluvok. I will be your contact today.” She greeted me instantly, in her smart navy uniform, and even a cute little hat.

It made me feel underdressed as I was still just in my suit coveralls, covered in grease and whatever.

“Nice to meet you.” I greeted back a bit weakly.

“And I’ll be assisting this deal, as a member of the family.” Great Uncle Kyle added and I smiled at him. When I had pulled the Medium Drive out of the wreck it had been… Tense.

The military wanted it, and expected me to basically hand it over. Which I had every intention of, but there was the fact that the Baron had given me the hulls.

So here we were. Trading something that was always going to belong to the Military to the Military.

Only I was going to get something in return.

“Very well, as you know the Kenish Navy expects this Medium Iris Drive to be turned over to us as per the Military Defense Act.”

“Yes, and Katherine intends to do so… For a fair trade value, including of course, the reduction in price due to the ongoing war.” Uncle Kyle offered with a smile that made me want to chuckle at how sweet it was.

Fake, but sweet.

“And the Baron has agreed to hear out your request. Understand that Military equipment is at a premium.”

“Seven Light Iris Drives, of the same performance.” I said, before anything else. “That should be well within the price range for a medium drive.” I said firmly. I couldn’t possibly agree to anything less than that.

“That’s it? A downgrade?” Uncle Kyle asked me quietly, coming up on my side to whisper into my ear.

I just gave him a firm nod. “I don’t want to cause a fuss and I know how valuable a Medium Drive can be at this time… Oh, and I wouldn’t mind a few bits and bobs as well. I have a list!” I called out, and pulled out my Tab, grabbing the file and sending it over to her own Tab with a twist of my wrist like I was flicking the file to her.

Artemis hadn’t shown any emotion at my request, simply hearing me out and letting Uncle Kyle speak to me, but she pulled up her Tab and looked through the file.

“An odd selection.” She finally said and I just shrugged.

“It’s what I would like.”

“I don’t see any issues here, except for the Military Grade Shield Emitters. With the Octavius damaged, every strip will be needed for our own repair.”

“I don’t need a strip.” I said, only after I was sure she was done talking. “Just one. I suppose it could even be a blown out emitter… Or two… No better to be three in that case.”

“A blown out Emitter, Katherine?” Uncle Kyle asked, looking confused and I just shrugged.

“I have a project that I need either one working one, or a few broken ones that I could fix back up.”

“Hmm.” Artemis said back without emotion as she looked the list over. “I’ll forward the request to the Chief Engineer. I don’t see any problems with anything on this list. I believe most of it, the station has in stock, The Octavius will pay for the release of it to you.”

“Then Katherine and the Ferrous Family accept this trade.” Uncle Kyle offered formally and the woman returned his words with a salute, flat hand across her chest, and then sent towards me, and Uncle Kyle. The salute of the Kenish Navy.

“I will release the funds for the parts the station has in store. I expect you are able to manage the distribution?” She asked Uncle Kyle who nodded.

“Then in that case. The Light Iris Drives. They will be delivered shortly. Five from the Stations' stock, and two from the Octavius’s hold.”

“Very well. I’ll have them pulled out of the delivery that was being prepared to be sent?”

“That will be acceptable. I will make a notation that they will not be in the delivery. Captain Katherine. You are young, but your actions were commendable.” And to my surprise I received another salute. I sloppily returned it, wincing at how badly I felt I had done.

Artemis didn’t show any emotion on her cold face, simply nodded and walked away, with a few of the Octavius guards coming up. Each of them placing a Gravity grip onto the drive making it go weightless as they each took a side of it, and started taking it to the Octavius.

And then I slumped a bit, my shoulders heavy. I had done it.

Another step to improving the Phantom, if I could get the Light Drives set up in a Diamond Drive, then I should have all the power I need to finish the Phantom. That would take time though. I needed more material for that. Even with what I had scrapped from the destroyed ships.

“Katherine?”

“Oh! Yes Uncle Kyle?” I asked, at his quiet word pulling me out of my head.

“I will put my faith in you knowing what you’re doing. You’ve gotten this far, but please be careful. You might have a ship, but I’ve seen many captains lose their ships because of bad deals.” He gave me a long stare before nodding and walking away leaving me alone in the station's docking ring.

I took a deep breath and let it out.

Did I know what I was doing?

Probably not. I was aware enough to admit that, but… I would take the risk and put myself out into the universe, otherwise I should just shut up and stay on station the rest of my life.

I turned and headed to the Phantom. I still had more work to do.

—--

I watched as the Iris Drives floated into my hold. Each of the glowing square Drives were about the size of an ICE engine that I remembered from Earth. I could feel my palms itch to start working. To create a new Diamond Drive with the larger Iris Drives. The amount of power my Phantom would have…

I shook it off. In the end I just didn’t have the time. Basic functionality was more important than big upgrades. I reached out and let my gloved hand trail over the Iris Drive as it passed me by. The Crabbit were already putting them in sections of the hold that would hide them away until I was ready to use them.

I shook it off. I still had work to do, which was becoming a common refrain. The Phantom Star was a big ship, far too big for just one person. Maybe it was a mistake to make her so big, but… I loved her all the same. I’d take the extra work. No matter how much work it was.

And yet, as much work as I was doing physically repairing systems, there was another system I was giving even more attention.

Once the Iris Drives were in settled I headed out of the hold, climbing up the long ladder to the second floor, then heading through the large main room, and then aft. The engine room was where I was spending most of my time. At least any time I wasn’t helping the Crabbits with something they couldn’t do themselves.

The glow of the Diamond Drive, red and furious, with its threatening rumble was actually pretty relaxing white noise.

Sure I sometimes remembered I was basically sitting next to an angry experimental nuclear reactor, but it was safe… Ish.

I looked away from the angry tear in reality and back towards the device that was currently in multiple pieces. I sat down in front of it, and grabbed my Tab to do more coding.

The Phantom Stars Warp Array, the device that allowed the bubble of real space to surround a ship even as it dove into the discord of Subspace, was one of the most important parts on any ship. It was also surprisingly simple really.

The technology along with the Iris Drive was the most common piece of ship tech in the galaxy. It was simple to make, easy to program if you wanted, you could even pull the data from any other Warp Array, and be good.

Only, I wasn’t just using a standard Warp Array.

Mine was about four times as big, because it was made out of about five other Warp Arrays.

Mostly the internals, to increase it’s processing power, and data storage. Programming it was… Hard.

Within minutes of starting I felt like my ears were shooting out steam.

Even as I listened to the Song, it still helped, but didn’t solve it all for me.

“Crabbit? I need you to check this for me. Synchronize as much as you need. Main priority.” I added, and the shoulder Crabbit floated in until her chassis was touching my cheek. Her little grabber reached out as she faked reading through the coding.

She had been following along as I worked the whole time, but they had a cute habit of copying me, and I sometimes used my fingers when reading on a screen.

“Awww hard.”

“I know.” I said laughing at her obvious dislike. “But can you tell me if these numbers look right?” I pointed out.

“Hmm. Error… Error? Error…. Error?” I listened as she went through a few iterations of that before I tapped her lightly. “Ah. Fix?” She offered out and a small update was offered through the Tab.

I looked it over, closing my eyes and letting the Song flow through my mind, there was a disruption, a high pitched squeal like bad brakes. I opened my eyes.

My hand was guided to the part of the code that was wrong and I quickly pulled it apart. Deeper and deeper I dove into this section. The code was ridiculously complex. I had needed the Crabbits help to even have a hope of getting it right in time, but I was constantly fixing and editing the code to try and get it working.

“Uuuu.” My Crabbit whined and I tore my eyes away from the code and smiled at her.

“It’s okay. I messed it up too. We’ll keep working on it.”

“Error.” It promptly informed me, and I couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

“This is really complex stuff. It’s more complicated than even your own code… I’m not even sure I can do it.”

“You can! Kat is Kat! Creator!”

I had been smashing my head into this code for a while. Even before the pirates, and still… I wasn’t sure if I would ever get it actually working.

But… “Thanks Crabbit. I appreciate the support.” I told her, patting her on the head a bit before looking at the code on my Tab again. I needed this working. It was too important to give up, it was my secret trick. My Trap Card. My hope for the future. Something that would save me if the worst happened.

I turned back to the code. To the densely packed data that grew infinitely more complex the longer I worked on it. Without the Song guiding me… I’d never be able to do this. It’s just too much.

But, I had the Song in my ear, and a Crabbit at my side, and that was enough.

It would be ready in case something happened. I’d make sure of it.

—--

The days passed in a blur as I fixed one thing, only to move onto the next. Install this shield part, only to need to update the power cables to handle the new load.

I was digging through a pile of shield emitters, trying to get the broken modules fixed, so I could improve my shield coverage when I was interrupted.

“Warning! Warning!” Rang out from the Crabbit and I sucked in a hasty breath.

I opened my mouth to ask if they were sure, but they were Crabbit of course they were sure.

The Pirates again? But why?

No, I knew why. They knew the Octavius was damaged. Likely badly. They sensed blood in the water, and were going to try and jump on their meal before it was too late.

“Incoming message!”

The second call from my shoulder Crabbit knocked me out of my frozen state.

I was the Captain. This was my ship, and even if… Even if I had to kill, I had to do something. I couldn’t just not do something…

Right?

Breathe in, breathe out. “Put it through.”

*Captain Katherine, this is Baron Ritz.* I blinked at the familiar voice, and one I didn’t expect.

“Yes Baron?”

*The Pirates are moving in, but the Octavius is in no condition to meet them, our engines are still offline.. I can act as a bulwark for the station, and the static defenses we installed will help, but I regret to inform you that you will be the only active ship for this engagement.*

I swallowed.

Yeah.

Yeah that’s what I was afraid of.

*Captain?*

“I’m here.” I whispered, and there was quiet on the line for a moment.

*I understand that this is not what you wanted to hear, but I have good news. My tactical officer will be in constant contact with your ship. The Octavius will be using all of our Electronic Warfare suite to assist you. You will have the satellite defenses ready to assist, and the best minds of the Kenish Duchy at your back.*

“I’m not worried about the assistance, but enemy action.” I said a bit bluntly, maybe a bit too hotly in fact. I shook it off, I had to calm down. “I’ll do what I can.”

*Understood. I have full faith in our victory. The Pirates have already lost once, another engagement that shows any sign of weakness on their part, and they will break again for good. For the honor of the Duchy!* He offered to me, and the line was cut.

Great.

Sure.

“Activate the nanopaste dispensers! If it fails and eats the entire ship at least I won’t have to worry about the pirates!” I called out and got up. Time to get to work.

—--

Baron Cyger Ritz

“Baron, we have movement from the Phantom Star.” Artemis informed him, calm as ever.

“Then she is a braver girl than half the damn Navy.” Hamlin grumbled with his normal navy miene. The life long naval man had a gruff way about him, but also a truth to his words that Cyger had appreciated over the years.

“And we will do our best to ensure this isn’t some martyrdom. Eugene, have you performed a miracle?”

“Unfortunately not Baron.” Eugene said sadly. Artemis flicked a message to him and he checked his Tab.

Engines were still basically dead. The ship simply couldn’t handle moving right now with the internal damage. Too much thrust and the entire ship would rip apart. Shield Emitters were still functional, and most of the weapons were still active.

“We’ll act as a defense for her then. If that’s all we can do.” He decided and ordered out.

“They will likely gang up on the Phantom Star, before coming after us. They’ll know soon enough we’re dead in the water.” Hamlin grumbled.

“Can our static defenses turn the tide?”

“The Missile satellites are online and still hopefully hidden. The pirates jumped in outside of engagement range to eye us up.” Hamlin added the man already looking over the battlefield with a soldier's eyes.

“Then we assist with what we can.” Cyger spoke with authority and the bridge crew accepted and went to work.

He sat back and watched out into space, as everything happened. His crew would be best served by doing their work without interference.

That doesn’t mean he didn’t pull up the Tab to watch.

The Pirates came up to the solar south of UNK-L the station.

They were already starting to charge forward. Their ships burning hotly, plasma trailing them in a drive plume.

Filthy things. They were still using plasma rockets, and they had the audacity to damage his vessel.

When this was all over, he’d be keeping his escort craft close, damn the war requisition. This entire assignment had been a disaster from the start. At least if he had his escorts, he could go pirate hunting and do more than nothing!

He was a Baron, and even if this joke of a duty was meant to protect and humiliate him, he would do it. He would stand fast and protect this region as best as he could.

Truly, he had told the scrappers they were important, but if he failed, then the only one truly at a loss would be him. It would be used to embarrass him and little else.

Not that the additional hulls weren’t useful, but they weren’t integral.

He shook off his morose thoughts and turned to the battle.

“Eugene. How likely is her ship to hold up to the pirates attack?” He asked quietly to the man standing at his side. Eugene would be up here until the pirates grew close enough to threaten the Octavius.

“She added some shield emitters.” The Engineer offered, the old man’s voice told the truth of it though. Regret.

“I see.”

“Her armor is still damaged. She didn’t have time to fix everything. She was likely right to install the emitters, but when they pop her-Wait a minute.” Eugene stopped talking and Cyger glanced away from the field of stars because Eugene was rarely distracted with something unimportant.

“I’ll be damned to a Black Hole. Captain Katherine isn’t without her own tricks.” The Engineer finally added and turned to Cyger. Flicking a file over Cyger began looking it over before stilling.

“Nanopaste?” He asked, making sure not to gasp in shock at the data scrolling across the screen.

“Massive amounts of Nanopaste. Look, it’s actively repairing the damaged armor segments! The reason her armor was so strange! The Ablative function of her armor! It all makes sense now! That girl!” Eugene let out a howling chuckle and if it wasn’t disturbing the entire bridge Cyger might have allowed it.

“Eugene.” He spoke firmly and the older man stopped and coughed into his fist for a moment getting control of himself.

“Apologies My Lord. I was simply shocked. Captain Katherine has pulled an impressive trick. It explains much about the Phantom Star and its construction.”

“Then don’t leave me to wonder.”

“The amount of Nanopaste she is spraying over her ship right now? Far too much. She’s manufacturing it. Undoubtedly.”

“What? Is that even possible?” He asked, looking away from his own Tab towards the man.

“Oh yes. Insane, sure, but indeed possible, yes.” Eugene mumbled rubbing his chin as he was obviously deep in thought.

Cyger immediately realized what Eugene meant. Nanopaste was an incredibly valuable tool for ship repair and maintenance, but it was also volatile. It could go bad, or simply have a bad batch.

Computers were capable of bugs as always, and a bug in Nanopaste often had terrifying results.

“Foolish, and mad, both then.” Hamlin spoke, his gravelly voice actually sounding… Well it seems his old navy man was fond of the insane Captain. Cyger didn’t nod, but took the man's words to heart. For a Civilian to impress a naval officer was a rare feat.

Nanopaste was manufactured all over the Galaxy. Often with proprietary recipes, in high end labs on orbital stations designed to suppress the nanomachines in case of any bad batches.

Cyger knew how complex the process of nanomachine production was, there was only one production facility for it in the Kenish Duchy, and it was owned by Duke Kenish himself.

For a moment he considered just what it revealed about this odd woman. The Captain was proving far too valuable to let die in this ignoble backwater. Perhaps he could add her to his retinue? Put her on a new station, or even convert this old scrapper station to a nanopaste production facility? It would certainly earn him all the creds he would ever need.

The girl had built a ship, likely using Nanopaste to do it. Had hidden it from all eyes, designed an armor system using her production of Nanopaste. A peasant had the audacity to be this competent?

Well he would be following her career with great interest.

“Contact with the enemy.” Artemis spoke and he shifted his thoughts. Hamlin was already working, giving the Phantom Star data, while attacking the pirates computers and systems, hopefully… Hopefully it would be enough.

He had too many questions for this girl to let her die now.