Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.14

Chapter 14

Circling

“Resurgence to Bly’s Rest,” Nellie double-checked her position on the sensors. “In position for launch.”

“Roger that, Captain,” Vey responded. “We show you in position. Clear to launch on your command.”

“Roger, Rest. Resurgence out.” Nellie clicked off the comm line and checked the cargo bay cameras. 

Paren was scuttling back and forth, fussing over the two diamond-shaped objects about the size of a car filling the space. One was secured above the other, which lay on tracks and ready to launch into space. Even with the supplies from the facility and their own stores, there was only enough material for six of these things, but Paren insisted it would be enough to start with.

“Paren, we are in position,” Nellie called over her shoulder.

“Five minutes!” Paren called. “I just want to change one last thing!”

“Paren!” Nellie complained.

“Four minutes!” Paren whined. “Come on!”

“Four minutes,” Nellie agreed and tapped her finger irritatedly against the controls. Paren was dashing around, moving from one panel to another and digging around inside. 

Was she nuts to put the defense of all those people down to one slightly worrying teenage genius? 

At three minutes and fifty-nine seconds, Paren yelled she was done and scrambled up the wall and onto the roof.

“Use a ladder!” Nellie yelled.

“I have magnetic feet!” Paren giggled as she came through the hatch, hanging from the ceiling. “Why would I—” Her feet hit a bit of non-magnetic alloy, and she crashed to the floor. “Ow!” She complained.

“That’s why,” Nellie said with a wince. “Do you have any idea how little of this ship is magnetic?”

“Yeah, well,” Paren complained. “All the ships in the sectors have to have magnetic-friendly hulls, as standard!”

“Yeah, we aren’t in the sectors,” Nellie offered. “Strap in, will you?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Paren did the complicated little dance needed to get her four legs arranged in such a way she could use a chair.

“Launching!” Nellie called over the comm as the flight deck sealed and the bay opened, sending the fruits of Paren’s work out into the void.

“Connecting to satellite,” Vey called. “Connected. Sending initiation codes.”

The external camera showed the eight faces of the diamond expand, moving out as a complex series of lights flashed in a dizzying pattern.

“It’s alive!” Paren squealed in joy.

“Paren!” Nellie snapped. 

“Just an expression!” Paren waved her off. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

The upper and lower half of the satellite rotated and split apart, revealing a central spindle as a shield shimmered for a second before stabilizing. 

“Receiving response,” Vey added. “Confirmed, the satellite is functional.”

“Running a weapons test,” Paren said as she moved her hands in a complex pattern, moving things only she could see via her implant. 

“Wait, are you running that on remote?” Nellie asked. 

“Of course, I built it, duh,” Paren smiled. “Got a target, asteroid debris, firing.”

“Wait,” Nellie slammed the shields on the Resurgence to full just before a flash ran from the tip of the diamond to the central spindle, where it was met by three smaller flashes before a beam of energy showed on sensors a fraction of a second before the viewport darkened as a bright line of yellow energy shot off into space. The beam was only active for a fraction of a second.

“Target destroyed,” Vey called. “Weapons test complete.”

“Acknowledged,” Paren beamed. “Initiate orbit.”

“Orbital pathing sent to the satellite,” Vey replied. 

Outside the viewport, the satellite collapsed again, then a single thruster on the base fired, and micro thrusters kicked it into the proper alignment as it shot away.

“Well done,” Nellie said. “Now we just need to do that five more times.”

“Vey, mark that as ODA-One, please,” Paren asked. 

“Done,” Vey called back, “Confirmed orbital alignment.”

“Perfect,” Paren sighed happily and leaned back in the chair. 

“Thanks, Vey. We’re headed for the second position,” Nellie flipped the Resurgence on its axis and headed for the next launch position. 

The big problem with defense in a 3-Dimensional battlefield, Nellie had discovered, was the sheer amount of angles you could be hit from. In short, anything less than a sphere of satellites would leave them open to attack from an unexpected angle. Paren had simply shrugged and said that only applied if your defenses were stationary, and if they were, you deserved to get hit. 

Space was, as always, the problem. Any satellite that could move required drives to move it at any real speed, which took space away from the weapons and shields you could load onto it. Given their limited supplies, even increasing the size of the satellites by ten percent would have left them with one less satellite. The problem was solved by having the satellites establish a rapid orbit around the Bly’s Rest, which they could do with minimal thrusters and one small drive. That ensured that there would always be at least one satellite capable of firing at any angle or that one who could would be along in seconds. 

It wasn’t perfect, but it was a pretty elegant solution to the problem.

Luckily, they were very practiced at making the most of what they had on hand.

Fortunately, most people didn’t think of things in 3 dimensions. People were simply used to thinking of things like they were on a planet or similar. Even people who lived in space often did so on stations and similar environments. It took a lot of practice to break that thought pattern consciously.

Nellie had been lucky enough to have Lucy, who had never learned bad habits, suggest new angles from which to attack.

Now, just in case whoever might attack the station also thought in three dimensions, they would be covered. 

Launching the entire Orbital Defense Array took three trips and almost a whole day, but Nellie felt a massive amount of relief once they were all online. With the station defended enough to at least make an attacker think twice, Nellie could focus on finding somewhere to get more raw materials from. There was a reasonably large asteroid belt on the outskirts of the system, but she did not want to risk taking the Bly that far from the station until they knew what Brenda and her people were planning or the station had enough firepower to keep them at bay. 

Since they had promised not to mine on the small moon, their next logical choice was the mostly volcanic planet below. 

The entire place was a primordial nightmare of toxic gasses, lava flows, eruptions, and worse. What passed for water down there was acidic enough to eat through a Centrum unit in minutes if they fell in it, so a little care was definitely in order. 

The good thing was that the constant eruptions left metals and minerals lying about near the surface pretty much everywhere, and Lucy thought there was one small area of the largest continent that was nestled in a sweet spot far enough from fault lines and volcanos that they could actually mine there without risking being flattened at any second.

True, it was a baking hot and treacherous stretch of black, featureless sand, but it was still the garden spot of the world in question. Once a day, for several hours, it was close enough to the station that the Battle Shuttle could make it back in case of emergency, and the Bly could take a position between the planet and the station that would make it able to respond to either in minutes. 

In short, it was their best shot. 

They were preparing to mount an expedition to begin mining when they got a hail from the colony.

It seemed the council, complete with their new member, would like a word with Nellie at her earliest convenience. 

“Well, this will be fun,” Nellie said sourly as they headed for the Bly.

===<<<>>>===

“Bly’s Revenge, this is Colonial Control,” A voice came over the comm channel as the Bly approached the colony in high orbit. “Please note, you are approaching restricted airspace; please change course immediately.”

“Colonial Control, Bly’s Revenge, did you say restricted airspace?” Nellie asked.

“Correct, Bly’s Revenge. I repeat, change course immediately.” The voice sounded stuffy but seemed actually to mean it.

“Roger that, Colonial Control,” Nellie gestured to Baz, who altered course away from the colony. “Since when is there restricted airspace here?”

The controller's voice was smug: “The area was claimed by the Colonial Republic, as ratified by the Colonial Council yesterday.”

“Understood, Colonial Control. Now, how exactly am I supposed to meet the Council as they requested?” Nellie asked with a slight smile. “Since I am not allowed to fly in?”

The silence on the other end of the line spoke volumes. 

Baz was chuckling to himself by the time a response came back. 

“Colonial Control to Bly. You may have permission to land a shuttle.” Control seemed to have lost a little of his stuffiness, but not much. 

“How kind, Colonial Control,” Nellie said with a smile. “Am I to understand that I am considered hostile if I am unable even to fly my ship near your Colony?”

“The airspace is restricted to ALL ships, Captain,” Colonial Control hedged.

“Including Last Chances?” Nellie asked.

“Last Chances is a Colonial Republic ship,” Control came back.

“Which just leaves this ship, the only other ship in the system,” Nellie noted. “Very well, Colonial Control. I will remain on board my ship, and we can have this meeting over holo-conference.” Nellie said with a sigh, “Please notify your council. I am ready whenever they are.”

“Received, Bly’s Revenge. Hold position and do not leave orbit.” Colonial Control ordered. 

“Cheeky fuck,” Baz muttered once Nellie had cut the line.

“Let’s see where this goes,” Nellie said, already feeling like this was going to be a headache. “Show them we can play nice as well as nasty.”

They were kept waiting for almost three hours, which would have been irritating if they hadn’t spent the time planning for their visit to the volcanic planet in greater detail. By the time the signal came to connect the holo-call, Nellie had almost forgotten they were waiting.

Almost.

The center of the bridge shimmered and vanished, and a slightly transparent image of an oval table appeared, with several people Nellie recognized around it. Nellie took her spot by sitting in the Captain’s Chair, which relayed a holo version of her to the people below. 

“Hello, everyone,” Nellie said by way of opening communications, “Brenda, glad you made it back.”

“I see you’ve been pushing my brother around a bit,” Brenda grinned. “Naughty.”

“If I had to tell him not to attack innocent people, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Nellie smiled back. “I just wanted to avoid any ‘accidental’ incidents among the other colonists.”

“Well, accidents happen,” Brenda shrugged.

“Not if people are careful,” Nellie countered. “After all, accidents can get people killed.”

Brenda grinned. “I like you.”

“Enough!” Duke huffed. “Nellie, thank you for contacting us, although I did hope you would come in person.”

“Kind of difficult to do that when I am banned from the airspace of the ‘Colonial Republic,’ don’t you think?” Nellie asked.

“What?” Duke looked confused.

“We voted, Duke,” a man said somewhat apologetically. “Yesterday.”

“I was not consulted!” Duke hissed. 

“I was,” Brenda grinned. 

“Gonna make trading with your colony a hassle,” Nellie noted. “Still, it’s your choice.”

“I think we can manage without your ship now that Brenda’s here,” a woman piped up. “You can either join the colony and put yourself and your ship under the control of this council or go your own way.” She smiled like a cat that had got the cream.

“I’m good on my own, thanks,” Nellie smiled back. “Well, if that is everything?”

The woman looked shocked, and a few whispers passed between the members of the council.

“We will send you details of our territorial claims,” A bald man stepped forward and tapped out a series of commands on a pad. “We would request they are honored.”

Nellie looked them over, seeing they had basically laid claim to half the moon but had so far carefully avoided the area the Clutch claimed. She noticed Duke talking animatedly and silently to the others. They had cut the sound, of course. 

“Fine,” Nellie said, interrupting what looked to be a raging argument. “I have no problem with that,” especially since that was the part that faced away from the station. “In return, I’d request you stay away from my allies on the planet and allow them to live uninterrupted.”

“Seriously,” Brenda laughed. “You’re just gonna swallow all those claims?”

“I honestly don’t care that much about the moon,” Nellie shrugged. “What do I want with territory?”

“Interesting,” Brenda sat back. “Yeah, fine, we’ll leave your savages alone.”

“Wait,” Duke interrupted before Nellie could end the meeting, “You should have some territory here, just as an embassy or meeting place.”

“Where do you suggest?” Nellie asked.

“How about this border region?” the bald man offered, showing a small section of land on the edge of their claimed territory. “Only an hour or so by atmospheric shuttle, perfect for a trading post.”

“Fine by me,” Nellie said with a shrug. 

“Good,” Duke smiled. “I’d rather we remained friends.”

“Me too, Duke.” Nellie smiled, “Best of luck with the Republic, and let me know if you need anything.”

“We will, and of course, we are here to help,” Duke smiled, and they signed off.

===<<<>>>===

Nancy waited for Duke and Brix to leave before speaking to the others.

Hadrian nodded once they were out of earshot and closed the door firmly.

“Well, that didn’t work,” Brenda laughed.

“I did not expect her to have so much restraint,” Nancy admitted. “She may have been cowed by your presence.”

“Not likely,” Brenda replied, “Her ship could tear mine to pieces, or at least it could before the upgrades.”

“You think you can take her?” Nancy asked.

“Honestly, no,” Brenda frowned and sat back. “I don’t trust the readings on that ship at all, but if they have even half what they claim to have, it would be her win nine times out of ten.”

“Then what do we do?” Nancy asked the others.

“I don’t see we need to do anything,” Warrick offered. The provocation was intended to drive her away from the colony for the foreseeable future. It may not have worked, but it also seems to have been unnecessary.”

“I agree,” Hadrian said firmly. “She didn’t even want territory here.”

“Why not?” Nancy asked with a frustrated noise. “Who wouldn’t want territory?”

“Someone who doesn’t intend to stay,” Brenda seemed to be thinking aloud. “From what Duke told me, she wasn’t even intending to come until he asked her repeatedly. Once the colony is on its feet, she’ll probably be moving on.”

“What about the natives?” Nancy asked. “We leave them alone?”

“Why not?” Brenda asked. “They don’t have anything we want. If that changes… well, by then, I will hopefully have another ship which will change things considerably.”

“Then it is decided,” Nancy said happily. “When do you think you will be able to start making trading runs?”

“Me?” Brenda laughed. “No chance.”

“But you did say your ship would assist the colony?” Hadrian noted.

“Yeah, once I acquire goods, I’ll trade with you. Assuming you have anything I want.” Brenda grinned. 

“How are we supposed to trade without a ship?” Warrick snapped.

“Your problem, mate,” Brenda sighed and stood up. “Not mine.”

She left them arguing and headed out and into the colony, her first officer falling into place beside her the moment she left the council chamber.

“Orders?” he asked. 

“Get the crew ready; we’re going to find somewhere to steal a ship from,” Brenda looked back at the council chamber. “If it’s shit, they can have it for a trader in exchange for a good chunk of this moon. If it’s good, we keep it.”

“Crew may be a problem,” he said politely, making sure it was clear he wasn’t arguing back.

“This place is full of spacers,” Brenda laughed. “We’ll start a recruiting campaign when we get back.”

“Understood,” He nodded and hurried off while Brenda strolled over and stared down the main street at the newly christened Marshall’s quarter. 

She smiled, wondering if they even knew how much trouble that Marshall Crush was going to cause.

It was funny as long as you knew it wasn’t your problem.

Chuckling merrily to herself, Brenda started to stroll back toward her ship, mind already full of the possibilities of a battle to come and loot to take.