Misjump Read online

  “Uh, yes, thanks. I had read about something similar once and it took longer than it seemed. I had the frame rate pretty high while I was working on it.”

  There was a moment of silence that started to become awkward. “I didn’t know that you had a subdermal computer. I did think about getting one, but they are expensive. I would also be worried about having the surgery,” said Meilin.

  “Yeah, I wish that I had skipped it too, given what happened. Anyway, how come you are not out there meeting burly manly miners?” asked Fumi.

  Meilin smiled thinly. “I don’t think that burly miners are really my type. Have you ever known me to go to dockside bars?” she asked.

  “Well, no,” admitted Fumi, “but it has been a rough time and let’s be honest, there are not as many choices around as there were and not a lot of genetic diversity. Got to look at the long term, girl!”

  Meilin nodded. “You have a point, but we were talking about you, not me. Changing the subject can be difficult, no?” It was not really a question from her tone.

  “Yeah, well, it is not like I can exactly hit up the bars when my cute ass is buried two jumps away. Let me live vicariously through you, little sister!” said Fumi.

  Meilin smiled again, a polite smile of the sort that didn’t touch her eyes. “You seem reluctant to talk about your skills. Could my friend be becoming modest?” asked Meilin.

  “Could my friend be any worse at taking a hint that I don’t want to talk about it?” Fumi said mimicking Meilin’s tone.

  “No,” said Meilin, “I understand that you don’t want to talk about it, but your skills have become critical to our mission. I have to negotiate the best deal possible for us. I need to know and so I am asking you. Where did you acquire those skills?”

  “We have a mission?” asked Fumi. “As far as I am aware, we are on our own here.”

  “Same mission as always, my friend. Stay alive … begging your pardon,” replied Meilin.

  “Yeah, guess that I dropped the ball on that one.” Fumi paused. “Do you need to know what I can do or where I learned it? I have worked for people that don’t want a high profile and who would be seriously pissed if they knew that I had talked.”

  “Pissed enough to come to a different universe and try to extract you from a ship that you control completely?” asked Meilin.

  “Well, no. When you put it like that, no. I am still going to be a bit hazy on details but okay. There isn’t that much to tell. I was working for a syndicate of people who control certain elements of extra-legal business over a couple of worlds. I was working in a consulting role, specialising in data acquisition. I had been with them for quite a while and I worked with others in the same area, built up my skills. Some of it was formal training and some of it was learning from each other. That is where I picked up a lot of this stuff?” said Fumi.

  Meilin considered this for a few seconds. “When you say, extra-legal, you mean ‘organised crime,’ yes?” she asked.

  “Yup,” said Fumi.

  “And you don’t wear any tattoos, I notice,” said Meilin.

  “Only the more traditional do. The rest of us prefer not to be blindingly obvious,” said Fumi.

  “And what brought you to the Sarafina? It doesn’t seem like there would be much to interest the families in a simple trader, and I don’t think that there was much going on with the ship that I wasn’t aware of,” commented Meilin.

  Fumi chuckled, a surprisingly throaty sound. “As far as I am aware, there is exactly nothing here of interest to the families, as you so delicately put it. That was rather the point. I was doing a job that went very bad indeed. It wasn’t my fault, but the entire team got compromised. I needed a new name and a new place to be in a hurry. I edited the HR records of a couple of companies to give me a background and applied for a job. The plan was that I would contact my superiors after things had died down when I was back in the area. It turned out that we haven’t had work near there for a bit and I was quite enjoying the holiday. The work is easy and seemed to be safe. I was wrong about that last bit.”

  “It would be strange to think of you as other than Fumi. Is there a better name to call you?” asked Meilin.

  “No,” said Fumi. “It is my real first name and common enough that I didn’t need to change it. I changed my last name when I created a new past, but the one that I was using before was only borrowed.”

  “Thank you for your honesty, my friend,” said Meilin.

  “Hey, sorry that it was late, sister. You are good people.”

  Chapter 19

  The crew sat in Nitrauw’s office, three days later.

  “Right,” he said, “I have had a chance to go through your manifest and you have had a chance to look at the colony here. Everyone was told to cooperate with you and answer any question that didn’t threaten the operation of the base. We have been open and honest with you. What do you need and what are you offering?”

  Gregor fidgeted in his chair, acutely aware of Fumi’s access to the base. He looked over at Meilin. Meilin caught his gaze and nodded slightly. “Our needs are simple and complex at the same time,” she started. “We need consumables for our ship, and that is simple. They are not something that you have unlimited amounts of, but you could spare enough for us. The complex need is something that we share. We are humans in a galaxy that is not welcoming to us. We may be the only humans left, or there may be help coming tomorrow. However, that does not seem likely. In very real ways, our needs are the same needs. Do you agree that this is a fair statement, Gregor, Mr Nitrauw?”

  Both men nodded. “Go on,” said Nitrauw.

  “Yes,” said Meilin. “What we have to offer is around a century of technology, some of which you can use. We also have a working jump drive, the only one in the system, and perhaps the only one in human control. We also have medical supplies that you are lacking and the skills that we each have. We could make a material difference to your chances here at a relatively low cost to you. That is certainly the basis of a possible deal with us providing those things in exchange for ongoing support for as long as the crew of the Sarafina want it. Does that sound like an acceptable deal to you, Mr Nitrauw?”

  “Consumables and life support for as long as you want in exchange for technology, some skills, and some medicines? That doesn’t seem like that good a deal to me. I think we could ask for more,” said Nitrauw.

  Meilin nodded. “You could, but the thing that you need most is the least easy for us to provide. You need some way to get out of the system, but the jump points from here are dangerous for us. We would need more to make it fair for us to take such a risk. We have a different deal for you which is better and worse. It is better in that it serves our shared need. It is worse in that it asks a great deal more of both of us and may fail. I think that this is the deal that we should make though. Gregor?” Meilin prompted. Gregor placed a complex-looking component on the desk. Nitrauw picked it up and looked at it.

  “Okay, it is some kind of power component from the connectors. I don’t know what sort. Is it a spare from your ship?” he asked.

  “Yes and no,” said Meilin. “It is not a component that we had a spare for, but we made it over the past two days. It is a field initiator, I am told. A critical component in a hyperspace drive, apparently, and not one that can normally be made outside of a specialised facility. It took all the facilities of the ship running flat out for those two days to make. We certainly couldn’t produce this and operate the ship. We had to tap a significant amount of power from the stalk as well as using our own fusion generator. We think it will work exactly the same as one manufactured externally.”

  “Impressive,” agreed Nitrauw. “However, could you make an entire engine this way? I was not aware that your ship had that sort of workshop.”

  Meilin said one word. “Fumi?”

  The speaker on Nitrauw’s desk came to life with a faint crackle. “Hey, Nathan! I am sorry that we haven’t met yet, but I couldn’t really come on t
o the station, what with being dead and all.” Meilin visibly winced.

  Nitrauw frowned. “You seem damn talkative for a dead person. You also don’t seem to be coming through my comm system, so how about you tell me how you are doing that for a start?”

  “Okay … so, that isn’t the question that I was hoping for, but since I want us to be friends, let’s be honest here. The security on your networks is so out of date that it is almost harder not to take over your network and I didn’t know you and you could have done bad things to us so, well, it was right there. I took over your network and had a look around and you were on the level. I fixed some of the worst security holes but there is still a lot of work to do there. We can make that part of the package that we agree to if you would like. Internal attackers could take you offline any time that they wanted as it stands,” said Fumi.

  “That wasn’t exactly friendly of you.” Nitrauw seemed to be keeping his temper with some difficulty.

  “Fair point,” conceded Fumi, “but telling you about it and offering to fix it are, so maybe we can count that as a wash. Anyway, aren’t you more interested in knowing how a dead girl is talking to you and manufacturing really complex bits of hyperdrive engines?”

  “Okay, yes, I am interested in that. When can I have you out of my network? I want to settle that first and then we can talk about the rest,” said Nitrauw.

  “Fumi,” growled Gregor, “give him back control.”

  A few seconds later, Fumi’s voice came from the speaker of Gregor’s comm. “If you say so then I will do it, but there is still a lot of patching left to do. This thing is a real mess, you know. One sec … you have got it. All yours.”

  Nitrauw typed rapidly for about a minute while the crew waited. “Okay, everything seems normal. Faster, I reckon, but if you do that again, I am throwing you off this station without a spacesuit, understood?”

  “Uh yeah, that isn’t much—” started Fumi.

  “She won’t,” interrupted Gregor.

  “That isn’t a problem, sir,” picked up Fumi. “So, back to the point. Your problem is that you have a closed system here, the base. Our problem is that we also have a closed system, the ship. Attaching our closed system to your closed system helps, but it is not enough. We can offer you more than that.”

  Nitrauw considered this. “Well, it ain’t really a closed system as such. We can mine the asteroid belt and the gas giants. Sure, a stellar system is ultimately a closed system, but there are more resources here than we can ever use.”

  “True,” agreed Fumi. “And how much are you mining at the moment?”

  Nitrauw pursed his lips. “At the moment, not much. We have significant stockpiles of the plentiful elements. We have fair stockpiles of some of the rarer ones. We ain’t got a need to mine at the moment.”

  “And yet you have shortages of many essential items because you have no way to manufacture them. Bases of this type are supposed to operate in a commercial environment, trading raw materials for finished goods. You are doing remarkably well considering that no new supplies have arrived, but there are things that you do not have the equipment or expertise to make,” said Fumi.

  “Skills that you don’t have and equipment that you don’t have either, though. What are you proposing to trade?” asked Nitrauw.

  “We can copy any object that you have, given computing power and enough energy. We can also copy any object that we have. We can turn broken old components or raw materials into new components. That is something that you need,” said Fumi.

  Nitrauw slowly nodded. “Yes, we could use that, but if you can do that, why do you need us? This deal don’t add up.”

  Meilin stepped in before Fumi could speak, her words almost interrupting the station commanders. “We can do this, but we need power and computers, much more than we have. It took two days to make this coupler and we tapped your power to get it done. We don’t have the resources to do it practically. We did consider if we could make the resources, but we don’t have the additional mass, the spare power or the spare computer time to start with. It is like trying to open a box when the tools that you need are in the box. If someone can loan you a crowbar, it is possible, but without, it is an exercise in frustration. You have the tools that we need.”

  Nitrauw nodded. “Makes sense and that don’t sound bad. What do you need?”

  “Broken equipment, raw materials, a lot of power, and a distributed computer array, a modern one, not the junk that you have on station,” replied Fumi in an irritated tone. Meilin glared at the nearest speaker.

  “We don’t have a modern computer array,” said Nitrauw flatly. “What we have is barely enough to run the stalk.”

  Fumi didn’t reply, giving Gregor a chance. “You have ships attached to stalk. Are not top of line, but some are not as old as stalk. Some have computers that can be used and if not so good, still maybe good enough to copy Sarafina’s. These, I think, you do not use, yes?”

  Nitrauw nodded. “I think so. We use the ships mainly as living space and life support. Most of the systems are pretty much jury-rigged, according to our engineers. We don’t use all of the junkers anyhow. It is not like we need the workforce and population control made sense. Power and metal and junk we have.”

  Meilin smiled. “In which case, I think that we have the basis for a deal. Let me tell you the next part. I think that you will like it.”

  Chapter 20

  The arc welder looked like a new star against the blackness, a nova comparable to the distant primary. The plan had been to fabricate the new array using the nanites but it hadn’t proved practical when the stem had long lengths of steel and welders sitting idle. The framework was slowly taking shape in a torus around the stem. Stand-offs kept it in position and power cables snaked from the long stem of the habitat. It was already apparent that the base’s fusion reactors would need to be upgraded. They had the capacity to smelt metals but not at the same time as powering a bunch of lossy emitters. Gregor looked out of the canopy of the run-around and rubbed his hands over his scalp. The project was behind schedule even after the timetable was revised. His military experience had taught him that the first casualty of war was always the plan.

  The first ship from Ironstone had arrived a few days after they had agreed a deal with Nitrauw, an older type naval interceptor. The miners had the process down to a well-polished routine and it was hit with a 20 kg mass travelling at a relativistic speed within twenty seconds of entering the system. Lori had insisted that the wreckage was investigated for further insight into the greenies, but twenty kg at eient of light speed had left very little to investigate. The stalk had been on high alert since the incursion, but there had been no more probes. That would not have been the case if the greenies could have seen the torus around the stalk. The skeletal steel arms were connected to frameworks that only vaguely resembled the Sarafina but which copied the basic form. Gregor and Ivo had made changes to the design. One of the hulks had been a long obsolete cruiser with a power plant designed for energy weapons. While the model was old, it was suitable for powering one of the point defence lasers. It was even possible that the laser had originally come from the old cruiser, but there were no records to examine. By sacrificing the cargo space and mounting the laser under the ship, it was possible to turn the design into a clumsily armed merchantman at the cost of storage and the ability to easily land on a planet. Gregor would have preferred a top-mounted laser, but that would have taken the power conduits straight through the crew quarters, and that was a lousy design. Ivo’s proposal of adding a landing framework to the top of the ship and landing upside-down sounded like insanity to Gregor, but the miners seemed happy with the idea having few concerns with which bit was the top. Gregor would have given a year’s back pay for the design documents for even a modest naval frigate. Cargo ships were just not designed with this use in mind. He shook his head and opened a radio channel.

  “Fumi,” he said, “it looks like one of the welders came too close to a c
able and fried it good. Crews are already working on replacing it and you should have access to spike four in a few hours. Do you copy?”

  “Copy that,” said Fumi. “It would be a help if they let me back into the stalk network.”

  “Da, of course,” replied Gregor. “Is own fault though. You had to tell bossman that you had his network. Was not so wise, yes?”

  “Yeah, well, I had no idea that he would take it so personally,” replied Fumi. “It will be easier once I have the processing cores in the new ships.”

  “Yes, but building a ship from the cortex out does not make engineering sense, you understand. Is civilian unit, not likes vacuum or cold, yes?” said Gregor.

  Fumi sighed. It was an old argument. “Well, yes, I know, but normal engineering doesn’t have the ship growing itself. You do know that I can check the progress of the new ships from here and that I am directing the operation, right?” she asked.

  “Da, I know, but is good to see with own eyes. I am heading towards upper stalk now and class. Yell if there is a problem,” said Gregor.

  #

  Gregor stood in front of the display and waited for the class to assemble. They filed in and sat in the too small chairs. The classroom was usually used for children but had been pressed into service to train the pilots for the new ships. His students were mostly younger adults that had always lived in a deep space station or in a ship. This gave them a certain amount of confidence, not all of which was apparently justified. Gregor fidgeted, running his thumb over the worn clicker that controlled the display.

  “Okay,” said Gregor, “today we are talking of the attitude control thrusters. Is like the controls on your mining ships to operate but is not same principle. Not gas thrusters but m-drive based. You can read up on m-drive in case you need to fix but not today’s lesson. The important difference is that you cannot run out of reaction mass, which is good. However, bigger ships are heavy and react much slower than you are used to, so try to fly the same and you will smash into a rock. Not good. Not number one lesson though! Number one lesson is that attitude thrusters only used in deep space where no strong gravitational fields. Near a planet or primary, you use the main in-system drive. Better rate of turn, more options. You have to unlearn as much as you learn.” He looked at the class and frowned. “And if you think is boring, I will look forward to your perfect scores on the simulator, yes?” The class grudgingly started to take down notes.