Phantom Star: Chapter 32

It took two weeks to get all the salvage out of my hold, get my missiles and new equipment installed, and do a check on my systems.

Honestly the Shield Emitters were fine, but I still felt more comfortable after doing a check. 

I spent some time looking for a quick job just to get us moving again, the Phantom Star was off. Pulling away from UNK-L To the emotional goodbyes once again.

The three of us all sat around the new mess table. It wasn’t really the best, and I wanted to try and stop somewhere to replace the metal table with something more homey. A big wood table would be best. 

“So once we pick up the cargo pod, and drop off we’ll be good to find some more jobs as we go. I figure we do take some time to get used to how things work. Hammond will make sure there isn’t any trouble, and Sin, you can help us keep track of things. I’m thinking we do spend some time in each sector we hit before jumping to the next job. Get some flight time with all of us, and more importantly, do some pirate hunting as we go.”

Hammond let out a humming noise as he seemed to approve, and Sin shrugged. 

“Sure. Send me what system we’re heading to next, and I’ll see if I can pull up some data on pirates in the area. The Net has a lot of information if you know where to look.”

“Excellent!” I cheered, smiling happily at the fact that it was all coming together. My little crew was growing and with each additional skill set more things were in reach. 

I flicked my Tab at her, sending her the job information. “Nothing fancy here, and we have some time before we need to secure the package, so let’s check the pickup and drop off system?”

“Can do Captain.” She muttered her Tab already out and plinking away, we were still within range of UNK-L To get net access.

I really needed to make my own access point soon. It would give me a serious advantage. Shaking off the thought I added it to my list but I still had a lot of things to work on.

“Hammond. Go over the weapons we picked up, we should all have something a bit heavier than blasters just in case of any trouble.” I ordered and he nodded looking pleased at the idea of getting his hand on the crates of guns we’d recovered.

“Then let’s talk about the next thing. Jobs. Right now the work in the Duchy is fine, but the war is still going on, and at some point I do want to travel outside the Duchy to see what else is out there.”

“Not the Dominion.” Hammond grumbled, and I smiled at him.

“No, probably not the Dominion. The Republic wouldn’t be hard to find jobs in though.” I said simply and Hammonds face looked like he bit into a lemon for a moment as he shifted to eating his lunch.

I noticed Sin seeing the look grow a smirk on her face.

“Problems with the ‘Public still Gramps?”

“Bastards all of them.” He grunted. “Not as terrible as the Dominion though.” He admitted with obvious difficulty.

If the Dominion was to the north of the Kenish Duchy, then the Fillian Republic was to the east, closer to the galactic heart. 

I snorted. The fact that Earth was considered the Heart, and not the actual center of the galaxy, was just one of those weird cultural things.

Regardless, they were a bit more advanced than the Kenish, but not by much, and it wouldn’t be hard to fly over and start taking transport jobs there until I either became a citizen, or something.

“I’ll work on my setup… That comm array you installed is a lot more powerful than what I’m used to. I’ll need to make some changes to get everything working right.” Sin added, and I smiled at how quickly she’d got on board. 

I honestly expected more issues from the former pirate woman, but she was surprisingly quick to get to work.

Maybe because she’d basically been a prisoner on her last ship…

Well I shook that dark thought off and decided to focus more on making sure she knew she was part of my crew now!

That and finish preparing everything in case of trouble. I had a lot more weapons now, but Tactical still needed more training to handle when and how to fire missiles.

“Alright. I’ll be working on some upgrades all over. Let me know if you need anything?” I reminded them and Hammond nodded while Sin sort of just waved her hand at me, as she continued to eat disinterestedly. 

—--

Considering the missile racks were now installed and functional, and we were in subspace which meant I wasn’t able to do a lot of work on the Phantom Star. Other issues became my focus.

First I owed my friends some time.

“Brrrrrr!” She rumbled out, purposefully making the noise as she zoomed around the workshop floor.

“Aww. I want!”

“No me!”

Quite a few Crabbits were floating around the room watching as their first sister got the full wheel upgrades. I’d been having the Nanopaste make batches of the modified legs at a slow pace and basically not installing them just yet.

I didn’t want the Crabbits to bully each other depending on who had them and who didn’t.

“Do you have to make the noise?” I asked the one racing around the room.

“Yeah!” She chirped before resuming her race track circuit around the room until she took a corner too fast and smacked into the wall.

Thankfully the wheels weren’t that fast, and she just righted herself and then resumed driving around.

“Okay, next.” I called out finishing the second Crabbit as I set her on the ground and this one zoomed off, thankfully without the noises, but instead she aimed straight for her sister and crashed into her. The two tumbled around a bit making me wince, but then they were off, the new wheeled Crabbit chasing her sister ending in another crash…

These silly goobers! 

I shook it off and grabbed another Crabbit out of the air and began the process of removing her legs and installing the new ones.

With this the Crabbits would now be mobile even in the atmosphere although they’d still be stuck on certain levels of the ship as I still didn’t have the elevator completed…

Ugh. I think I had the right parts from the pirate scrap. I could use the system that opened its hold doors to work as an elevator motor… Probably.

“Uuuu.”

“Sorry.” I focused back on my limbless Crabbit and finished wiring in the new legs and then popping them into place, before they expanded and locked into their socket.

Then I attached the little wheel additions and put her down.

“Wee!” She cheered as she raced off, thankfully not joining the demolition derby, she instead raced out of the room.

Well, I hope Sin wasn’t on this level, she was about to have a guest.

Sin not being comfortable with the Crabbits was… A constant difficulty. I just had to hope time and closeness would get her to understand they were part of the crew and not a danger…

Well not a danger to anyone but themselves.

“Hey! You’re fixing those dents!” I told the wild Crabbit that was crashing everywhere.

“Aww.”

“You break it, you fix it!” I reminded her, and that finally got her to calm down. 

“Eee!” I heard a shriek echo through the ship and all the Crabbits shifted looking towards the door.

“Well, I think she found Sin.” I muttered and suddenly the wheeled Crabbits rushed out the door and some of the floating ones, but most looked from the door to me, and then ended up slumping.

Obviously the temptation of wheels was more interesting than finding out why Sin screamed.

“Alright, next!” I called out, ignoring the scream for now, as another Crabbit hurried into my lap.

I was just starting to detach her limbs when the noise of boots on paneling echoed out and Sin turned the corner holding a crabbit in her hands far in front of her obviously looking for me. She stopped, hesitating at the horde of Crabbit inside.

“Hey Sin.” I greeted her as I continued to work. 

“This… What is this!?”

“I gave the Crabbits wheel attachments for when we’re in atmosphere so they can get around a little easier.”

“Why is it sneaking into my room!?” She asked breathlessly and that caused me to frown. “It rolled over my foot while I was relaxing!”

“Because she’s a bad girl.” I said firmly and every Crabbit shifted almost as one to look at me. “Sneaking into someone's room without permission is Red!” I said as firmly as I could and the whole cloud of Crabbits took a move back at the word and shifted to look at the Crabbit in Sin’s hand…

Which might not be the best thing since Sin just saw them all look at her.

“Uuuu.” It whined realizing it messed up.

“Go ahead and set her down, Sin.” I said, and Sin did just that practically dropping her which was fine, she floated down to the ground.

“You know better. Cabins are private rooms unless it’s an emergency.”

“Uuuu… It was.” She tried to argue but I wasn’t having that. 

“Showing off your upgrades isn’t an emergency. You should have knocked. You know better.” I pointed at the corner. “Time out.”

“Uuuuuuuu.” She whined as she slowly wheeled over to the corner.

“Sorry about them. They just like to share, and you’re someone new.” I explained to Sin who was just looking around at the horde of Crabbits all around me, probably the most amount of them she’d seen in one space.

They did tend to wander around most of the time.

“Everything alright?” Hammond cut in from behind Sin, looking around confused.

“It’s fine!” Sin said, as she suddenly turned and walked away, the sound of her boots on the plating disappearing in a rush back to her room.

Hammond had looked like he was going to reach out and grab her as she went by but ended up hesitating as she disappeared.

Their relationship was still…

Sort of interesting? At least from my perspective. Sin definitely appreciated the save, and Hammond was… Regretful about his threats to her when she was younger, but both of them were pretty headstrong. Hammond constantly having to try and stop himself from correcting her or trying to treat her like a kid, while she still sort of just floated around his space as if not sure how to really interact with him.

I just did my best not to interfere for now. Their relationship was going to take some time to get used to each other again.

I opened my mouth to ask Hammond if he wanted to help with the Crabbits before remembering the big guy wasn’t really a mechanic.

“Putting wheels on the Crabbits so they can move around in atmosphere.” I explained instead and finished another.

He nodded as he watched the Crabbits race around his feet. 

“You uh… Handling everything okay?” He finally spoke and I looked up confused.

“What?”

“The scare on the ship, you’re not really a soldier. Something I’ll need to remember, despite your looks. You okay?”

“Oh.”

My fingers stilled for a minute as I thought back to that. The sight of the pirate raising his pistol, and my own pistol aimed and on target, but just…

“I’m alive, so I’ll figure it out. I…” I hesitated, before just letting it out. “Could have shot the pirate, could have been safe, but I couldn't pull the trigger.”

“It’s not easy. Doing it face to face like that.” He rumbled a bit and rubbed at his hair. “I know some training that helps. Keeps green soldiers from hesitating as much.”

“Are you offering to run me through some combat training?”

“Don’t like pointing out issues without a solution, so I guess I am.”

I nodded, and once the Crabbit I was working on was done I looked up giving him my full focus. “Well, we have some time between. Is the Cargo hold big enough?”

“It’ll do.”

“Alright, let me finish up here, otherwise the Crabbit will riot… I don’t want to hesitate again.”

—---

“I - thought - this - was - combat -training!” I panted as I jogged around the hold over and over.

“It is. You’re plenty strong, but you don’t have any endurance. Run faster.” Hammond ordered and I whined and started running.

Who needed to run!? This was the future! But run I did, trailing behind me was an army of Crabbits driving in circles around the hold along with me.

It was cute especially when they crashed, because they still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of turning, so there were cute little pile ups of spinning wheels and upturned legs.

Of course while Hammond was giving me some training eventually Sin had come down and she was sitting on the ladder snacking while I raced around, panting and soaked in sweat.

“Don’t forget to do that going around in a circle thing again.” She called out mocking, and I sent her a look as I ran past her earning some snickering cackles.

“You should run too.” Hammond grumbled, but Sin just shook her head. 

“Not a chance. If I die because I can’t run long enough, then I’m dead and it’s not my problem anymore. I’m a computer specialist. I don’t fight.” She argued back, and there was that tension. Which I ignored as the Crabbits streamed past me, once more lapping me as they whirled around my feet. Luckily they did a good job of not getting underfoot.

“Keep up!”

“You can do it!”

“Yay! Speeeeed!”

“No Poweeeeeer!”

The Crabbits cheered as they whizzed by, and while running like this still sucked, at least I had some cute entertainment. 

“You should still do some exercise.” He grumbled, and Sin scoffed. 

“I don’t see you running.”

“Gene mods. It takes longer for me to lose muscle mass or density. No need for me to run around. Right now” He denied and Sin just shook her head. 

“Yeah well, I don’t have that, so I’m not doing it.”

“Do - I? Cause- running- sucks.”

“You don’t know?” Sin asked before Hammond could speak and I just shook my head as I made another lap.

“Never- asked.” I realized then that despite having the soldier mods, altering my biology, I actually didn’t know what those alterations were outside of the obvious. Sure I’d had check ups and stuff on UNK-L, and they probably knew, but I didn’t. Might be a good idea to get checked out at some point.

“Probably. It’s standard for Kenish soldier mods.”

“Great.” I gasped because I didn’t want to run anymore. Luckily despite my low athleticism, when it came to running endurance…

I just kept going. 

Whatever effects the mods had, it did give me pretty crazy endurance, because I’ve already done a ton of laps, and while I was tired, I wasn’t just shutting down. I was able to breathe and keep going.

“Alright, C’mere Captain.” I was ordered and I slumped as I jogged to stand in front of Hammond. 

“Take this.” He handed me a pistol and pointed at the wall. 

“Shoot.”

“What?”

“It’s basically a laser pointer. I set it to training mode. Now shoot.”

I did as ordered, taking a moment and firing. The thrum of a laser going off in my hands rumbled slightly and a dot appeared on the hold wall.

“Alright, adjust your stance like this. Again.”

So I did, again and again, and then I ran some more when my breathing evened out.

Torture! I was being tortured!

—--

I could still see the light of subspace play out on my eyelids as I sat slumped in my chair. 

“You could always just tell him no.”

“I could.” I decided to say in response, only after I worked up the energy. “But I want the training.”

“If you say so.” I opened my eyes to see Sin sitting at her station. She was tinkering with it, a headset of all things around her head as she played with settings. 

“Why the headset?”

“Oh I’m listening to music.” She tapped a button and her console suddenly started blaring out music that…

“It’s awful!”

“It’s the best band in the galaxy!”

“It’s really not.” I groaned as the sound of boy bands singing filled my ears.

What is it with the future and boy bands?

“Headset back on!” I demanded and she smirked as she hit a button and the music disappeared. 

I sat back and considered my projects. Crabbits had gotten their upgrade, the two man portable shields were done, but only given some bare bones fire control testing. 

At least if the shields did fail, they were still solid shields and would give some protection.

I still wanted to ask the Baron for access to his personal shield.

Then there was the other upgrade for the Crabbits I’d been thinking about. The one that I didn’t discuss with them much, or bring up because I didn’t really want them to have ideas. The fact was weaponizing the Crabbits could quickly backfire. 

But…

Just like the wheel modules, I could do a new attachment, something that was limited, maybe only a few of them, and only in emergencies?

Aw who was I kidding, if I made them, the Crabbits would likely copy them regardless so it was a pandora's box.

In the end…

Did I trust my Crabbits more than I trusted the chance of someone shooting me, or did I believe in them?

When put like that the idea was straightforward enough. I just needed a new attachment. Didn’t want to replace their arms, so maybe a rear setup? Could have them shoot the lasers between their ears. Laser emitters were easy enough to angle.

I thought about it, and then shook it off, a rear pod would unbalance them. Maybe…

A permanent alteration? I could give them a larger casing, and install the laser just under their screen?

Hmm, I’ve been using just the same model of Crabbit for a while, was it a good idea to specialize them? That could cause issues with their synchronization…

But… It might also be good for them. They already developed some quirks thanks to the different hardware installs, so making them a bit more varied could help their development as much as it might make more quirks.

I pulled out my Tab. Let’s see. If I extended the casing here, I could easily fit in everything for a laser, and we had all sorts of weapons in the hold from the pirates. I’ll need to go through them to see what would be best to take apart for install, but for now… Here, that’s where I would put the emitter, and I’d need at least this much room, for the power pack… I guess the Crabbits would need some form of slots for the power pack… That would be it. I could start updating a lot of them, but control it through which of the little terrors got a charged pack to actually fire.

That way in an emergency I could just start passing out packs and send off my horde of laser drones. 

“Hehehe.” I chuckled evilly under my breath. Let’s see the pirates deal with that!

“What’s got you laughing?”

“Oh… Uh, nothing. You don’t want to know.” I said quickly, Sin would probably not handle arming the Crabbits, best to keep that a secret.

—--

“So David says, I’m sure it’s safe!” Sin adds, before taking a bite of her meal. 

I could see Hammond’s lips pressing together, and I could tell why.

During dinner I’d ask Sin what it had been like, being on a pirate ship. Mostly for interesting stories, but also, because I’d like to know my enemies a bit more, and where better to learn about pirates than from a former pirate.

“Anyway, the moment he said safe, the seal on the old tramp hauler cracked, and the entire docking port decompressed, sent him flying right out the ship. Funniest shit I’ve ever seen.” Sin cackled and I couldn’t help but break a smile myself, because that did sound funny.

“It’s dangerous. Shouldn’t laugh about something like that. I’ve seen people die from that.” Hammond grumbled, finally seemingly unable to resist interrupting.

“Oh please, you don’t care about David, he was a pirate, or did you forget Gramps?” Sin asked, almost hissing in irritation.

Ah, was the tension about to explode.

“Pirate or not… It’s not a fun way to die.”

“You decompressed the Huskarl, I know not all the idiots carried force fields.” She bit out a little harshly, and I winced. 

“That was more me.” I tried to cut in, as the tension was rising.

“I know. I’m throwing it in his face. I was trying to get away from them, remember? I knew it’d come to a fight.”

“Sinclair.”

“Fuck. Stop, just stop.” She snapped, pointing her fork at her grandfather. “I’m not a child, and I’m… I’m thankful you came, okay. I am, you got me out of shit I was stuck in, but that doesn’t mean you get to… Parent me.”

They both went silent as Sin winced at what she’d said, but I didn’t really know the context. 

Instead I just kept my head down and ate, with the same feeling as that one time I’d visited a friend and their parents had gotten into a fight right there at the dinner table.

“I failed you before. I was no good, still just a dumb grunt.”

“Hole above Gramps, it wasn’t you. Sure you’re drill instructor routine was shit, but I left because I wanted more than just dirt fields and stupid dirt boys.”

Hammond grumbled at the mention of boys which was kinda funny, but thankfully, the conversation ended there. It made for a quiet dinner, but quiet was better than tense.