Phantom Star: Chapter 30

“So… Captain?”

“Yes?”

“You always do this?” Sin called out and I just threw her a thumbs up from where I was laying under a chunk from the destroyed pirate ship. I was currently removing part of the ship's comm system.

Considering I needed to upgrade the Phantom’s Comms for Electronic Warfare, I might as well start here. 

“Alright!” I chirped as I had the Crabbits pull me out, and I was able to remove the comm system from the hull, watching as it started floating thanks to the Crabbits. “Well she’s a bit roughed up, but I can fix it. And upgrade it.” I decided, seeing the Antennae-like system with the long sensor panels sticking out from it as well. Where would be the best place to install? On top of the bridge?

No, that wasn’t any good. I still wanted to install some point defense systems that would overwatch the top of the ship. There was the frontal section just under the bridge that would work.

No better to split this into two actually. Or even three. I could upgrade the sensors with the sensor panels, and then add a bit more to the comm unit?

No better to keep the sensors with the comm so it would have a faster connection for the EW system.

“You really get lost in this stuff huh?”

I blinked as I realized that Sin was still there. 

“It’s what I like to do… Do you need something?” I finally asked her directly.

“Mostly just getting a feel for things.” She offered shaking her head. “I’ve mostly just been sitting on my ass and taking a nap for the last twelve. You got a work rotation, or something? Feels weird not to have something to do.”

“Not really.” I told her honestly. “But if you want something to do, you can give me a hand here. I’m grabbing sensor and comm parts from this to upgrade the ship.”

“This junk?” She asked, looking at me skeptically.

I looked at the antenna I was still half holding despite it being floating thanks to the Crabbits.

Sure it was a little busted up.

“This is good stuff. Only minimal damage, easily fixed, it’s solid. These sensor panels are actually pretty good. Not standard for sure.”

“Pretty sure those came off a Nebula scanner… Uh, the corps send them out into the murk to find patches of gasses they need.”

“That would do it. Yeah these are nice sensors, better than the stuff I have installed. I’m tempted to strip the sensors off and just do a minor Comm upgrade, but if you’re sticking around, it’ll be best to configure the whole thing as the EW array.”

“That’s a lot of system for just the electronic warfare suite.” She said, sounding confused at my response.

“Not really? The higher bandwidth and accuracy you have the more effective you’ll be.” I countered and she nodded, still looking a little confused. 

“I… I guess I’m just used to a more relaxed budget.”

I shrugged at her response. I don’t see how a budget had anything to do with this considering the parts were free, but I shrugged it off. Time to get to work fixing it up for the install. I’d have to wait until we left subspace to do it of course.

—--

I spent hours working, fixing the parts I found and happily prepping them for installation. Then once I had everything sorted for that I grabbed a string of shield emitters hefting the parts up in my arms straining a bit despite the Crabbits helped as I maneuvered the large roll of parts.

Sin disappeared suddenly when I called my helpers and I shrugged as she rushed off as I headed out of the hold with the Crabbits following after me.

I ran into Hammond as I moved through the mess, the man was bleary eyed, obviously just waking up as he stood in front of the drink maker, obviously getting some coffee.

“Morning!” I greeted and he nearly flinched as he looked at me with eyes that seemed confused for a while before he nodded and grumbled something.

I continued hauling the shield emitters to the workshop. Entering in and dropping the very heavy parts on the side beside my workbench. There wasn’t much else I could repair while in subspace, so it was time to do something else. 

I took a deep breath, no more half assed solutions. “You ready for this?” I asked, and the horde of Crabbits excitedly cheered all around me.

“Yes! We can do it! You can do it!”

“Mhmm! Captain can do it!”

“Yay! I want upgrades!” That last one was spinning in the air cheerfully enough it almost made me dizzy.

“Alright then, I’m going to need all of your help here.” I looked at the empty workbench, and opened myself to the song. As always this deep in subspace it sounded odd, but the Phantom Star was there. Her Metal undertone thanks to the Diamond Drive was muffled thanks to the bass line of a demanding march.

She’d grown well. Her song had changed with every part, every connection. She was an endurer now. A promise in my ear that no matter what she’d face she’d endure and keep going.

She was my home, my tool, and my mode of transportation.

“Bring me some nanopaste. I’ll need some high energy chords, and some of the Iris Drives from storage. Just bring everything and we’ll figure out what we need.” I called, and the Crabbits went at it, buzzing away cheerfully as I pulled up the shield emitter and grabbed a tool. 

I bent in and popped one of the emitters free, and then started disassembling it.

—--

The fact was I needed something that could be used in two very different environments. 

Personal shields were very rare out on the frontier, part of me wanted to ask the Baron when I saw him if I could disassemble his to find out how it worked.

Probably a bad idea… I’d do it anyway.

But for now, even if it would only work in space, I needed more than a shield that would blow up in one hit.

I knew it wouldn’t be the last time I faced space pirates, and I had nearly gotten shot. I really didn’t want to get shot, it was scary!

“Alright. That looks better.” I muttered as I pulled away from the wiring. 

I’d thought about keeping the shield module as something the Crabbits could just always have with them, but that ended up with the exploding issue. 

The emitters I had on hand to create shields were too big, the quality too low. 

Could I make my own emitters of higher quality and miniaturize them? Maybe if I wanted to spend a few years to manufacture, the equipment to manufacture them.

Just like the issue with the focusing arrays. If I spent the time to make the tools to make the tools to make the object I could make something better, but that was a lot of time, especially when I could just buy what I needed instead.

Well usually. The war made trying to buy war material a pain, something I was trying to avoid.

I looked it over. The song sounded good, made no sense for it not to. I’d gone over this thing over and over, and at the end of the day, I’d gone for rugged simplicity.

“Alright girls.” I called out, and the two Crabbits floated down and locked into the object on opposite ends, and it rose up.

Well even if it didn’t work I could still hide most of myself behind it.

I looked at the Iris Drives, stuck into the object. The Crabbits drives just didn’t have enough power on their own, so instead I’d made a completely separate module.

The sudden urge to turn it on struck me and I shook it off. 

“Okay let’s move to the hold, and see if it works.”

“Yay! Yes! We’ll be your guards now!” The two cheered at me, and I couldn’t help but smile at their happiness at getting their own special job.

“That’s right. I’ll rely on you two.”

“Eeee!”

“Aww.” I heard behind me and saw the other two of the former shield formation. I’d decided to only use two Crabbits instead of four for this, so I did feel bad. 

The Crabbits loved having their own job, it made them proud. They’d often puff up and tell others how important they were.

“Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten you two.” I told them and winked. Which cheered them up substantially.

After all, I’d need something to cover my back too.

I yawned as we headed out of the workshop and down into the hold, I didn’t see Hammond, or Sinclair but that was fine. Once we were down the Crabbits moved to where I pointed and then I nodded as I stood all the way on the other side of the hold.

“Activate!” I called out and ducked my head. 

Just because I was confident it would work, didn’t mean I was stupid.

I felt the buzz in my molars as energy filled the hold and I ducked down a bit lower just in case, but the crackle of air hitting the energy field continued without hyping up and I peaked my head up.

“Hey I think it worked.” I couldn’t help but say. A moment later from every corner of the hold Crabbits poked their heads out to look as well.

I guess when I’d gone for cover they’d done the same.

Then I looked at what I’d made.

It was… Well a shield. Six feet tall of shaped metal tapered towards the top and bottom, and sort of diamond shaped. 

It was a shield. A literal piece of metal shaped as a shield. Inset into the center on one side was a jury rigged shield emitter with the output set about four feet in front of the shield. That alone had taken hours to get right so it didn’t just burn out.

Then on the back side was a power pack with the glow of Iris Drives glittering. Mostly Tiny drives, but there was a small one inset as well.

That had only barely been enough power to keep the emitter going at a very low level, but I wasn’t dealing with capital ship weapons. It was more than strong enough to stop infantry weapons… Probably.

“We’ll have to do some testing.” I muttered, but as captain… Yeah I wasn’t about to start shooting in my own hold. It would be fine, but it might damage the walls!

Or you know explode the shield or something. I don’t know. 

“Alright girls. Give me a cycle, shut down and turn the system for a while. I need to make sure it works.”

“Yes! We can do that!” The two Crabbit chirped happily as the shield turned off, and then on.

It was… Big, bulky, rugged, and not at all like the personal shields like the Baron has. No, but it would let me stay alive, especially once I finished the second one, and could literally enclose myself while traveling down ship hallways with shields on each side.

I suddenly yawned, my jaw creaking and I realized just how long I’d been awake.

Taking off my gloves I took a moment to rub my eyes. “Alright, tell the bridge girls to double check our course. I’m going to sleep.” I decided and started making my way towards the ladder before stopping and turning. “And you two, put the shield away in the workshop after you’ve run some tests.”

“Yes!”

—--

I woke up to a banging, and I grumbled a bit. Pulling my feet free of my blanket I blindly stuck them around a bit to find my boots as I rubbed my eyes.

Getting them mostly on I stood up a bit shakily before making it to the door and then finding the noise coming from the Mess.

Walking to the ladder I just knelt down and stuck my head through the hatch.

“What is going on?” I called out, and the noise went silent for a minute.

“That you Captain?” Hammonds voice called out. “Just exercising a bit.” He called back and it took my brain a moment to register that was weird.

I grumbled and stood enough to use the ladder down and then finding a rather odd sight.

The Crabbits giggled quietly as Hammond strained while holding a long metal bar that I was pretty sure he pulled from the scrap in the hold.

The Crabbits were sitting on the ends of the bar, and obviously using the Gravity Plate to make it heavy as Hammonds arms that were thick and corded were obviously straining as he lifted the bar up and then down. And then he dropped it, causing the bar to bang into the floor making a loud noise.

Thankfully the Crabbits had been quick to cancel out the gravity so it was just the sound of a metal bar landing on metal, and nothing was denting my floors.

He reached up and used a towel to rub his face a bit.

“My apologies, didn’t think about the noise.” He offered and I considered how to react. Part of me wanted to just yell at the older man, but…

“Why are you up here, and not in the hold?”

“Ah, was working out in the hold at first, but your drones told me that it was a red zone. So I had to ‘play’ somewhere else.” He said his beard twitching as he seemed amused at the Crabbits definition of his exercise. 

“Okay, that’s… We’ll figure out a better place to exercise, because I was sleeping.” I grumbled rubbing my eyes again. 

At least the Crabbits were happy. They were giggling and having fun acting as weights for Hammond, and… Well it seems like he was adapting to having them around as well. It was a positive thing.

“You look tired. Sorry. You need more sleep?”

“Probably.” I agreed but released a massive yawn and wandered over to the drink maker. I wet my throat as I watched Hammond continue a routine. He grabbed two smaller metal bars, and the Crabbits rushed over to grab onto the end of each one. The two Crabbits hanging cutely from his hand as they giggled as he started doing a sort of jumping jack routine.

“You exercise like that a lot?” I had to ask, because I didn’t want to know how heavy the Crabbits were making the bars.

“Often as I can. Don’t often get helpers like these. Some ships’ll have equipment. Some don’t.” He grunted and I had to wonder if I should buy some exercise equipment…

I took a moment to sneakily look down at my abs. They weren’t popping out or anything. Was I flabby? Should I exercise more?

I hurriedly looked away and took another sip. I had too much work to do to worry about exercise! 

Yep.

I grunted a bit as I stretched and instead of heading for my room I headed for my workshop. I wanted a second shield to cover my ass, and then I still had so much else to build.

—--

A few days of awkwardly getting to know my two new crewmates later and we burst back into reality in familiar territory.

“And there she is.” I whispered, as UNK-L came into view. I felt my shoulders loosen as I recognized a familiar ship already connected to the station as well. The Crabbits had made it here already which was a massive relief. 

But then I frowned, there was another ship I was here looking for that wasn’t here.

Where was the Octavius?

“So this is it?” Sin asked, leaning back in her chair next to all of her EW consoles. 

“That’s UNK-L, but I don’t see the Baron. He might be out hunting pirates or something.”

“Great.” She said a little flatly, but I agreed. I was really wanting to get this problem taken care of.

I smiled as I was already getting a comm message, and I opened it up.

“KATHY!” A voice shrieked through the bridge and I winced for a moment before I couldn’t help but start smiling.

“Hi Marie.”

“You’re back! That’s amazing! We got the message from your drones that you were coming, go ahead and dock I’ll send you an open space.”

“Thanks. I’ll be there soon.”

“I already told your parents.” Marie teased and I flushed a bit as Sin gave me a look but I shook that off. 

“I’ll be there soon!” I repeated before closing the comm.

Not too long after the Phantom Star docked with a shudder going through the ship as the airlock secured us, and I couldn’t help but rush towards the hatch. I ran past Hammond as the air lock cycled, and a moment later as it finally opened I rushed out and laughed, as I practically leapt into Dad’s arms.

Despite the height difference he spun me around a bit before squeezing me tight.

I’d missed him.

I’d missed Mom too, who was already rushing over and I scooped her into the hug as well.

I’d missed… This.

“The Captain returns!” Aunt Sheila called out and I glanced up to see her smiling warmly, our smiles met, and I nodded. 

“Just for a short bit.”

“Caaaaaptainnnn!” A shriek rang out and I glanced up to see four Crabbits rushing towards me before breaking off and suddenly I have four eager children floating around my head chattering all about what happened on their ‘adventure’ through space.

I reached out and grabbed one of them stopping the spinning, and their chatter as I looked right at them.

“You did it, made it here and delivered the ship. I’ve very proud of you.” I told them, looking to each of them and then I had four embarrassed Crabbits that were all floating around like Gravity no longer could touch them.

“It’s good to see you Kathy. You look like you’re doing well.” Dad said as he stepped back and looked me over.

“It’s… Been an adventure.” I decided finally. “I’ll tell you all about it, but first… Is the Baron expected to be back sometime soon? I came here to… Well ask him for something.” I admitted stumbling a bit over admitting the truth.

“I’m afraid you missed him, possibly permanently.” Uncle Kyle! I looked over at the man that was approaching, and noticed he had one of the Barons soldiers with him as well, that was focused on me.

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking around and Uncle Kyle spoke words that I really didn’t want to hear.

“The Baron was given a new position. He seemed quite pleased with the fact, a new ship is still on the way to replace him, but he’s no longer here.”

“Crap.” I muttered, that wasn’t good.

“What’s wrong Kat?” Mom asked, reaching up and pressing a cool hand against my face,

“Oh I just… Well I have a situation I need to talk to him about is all.” I demurred, and thankfully a distraction stepped out of the Phantom Star right that moment keeping me from having to explain.

“Whoa.” Aunt Sheila muttered as Hammond stepped through the airlock and onto the floor of UNK-L. The massive man looked around a bit curiously as he took in the sight of everyone crowded aroun d,e

“Oh um.. Hammond, this is my Mom, my Dad, and well everyone. Everyone this is Hammond Kristler, a Bounty Hunter I picked up as a crew member.” I explained.

Hammond stood up fully and offered a Kenish Salute. “A pleasure to meet you all.” He offered before looking to me and there was something in his eyes. 

“Right. The Baron isn’t here right now, but let’s take a bit of leave?” I offered, knowing it was pretty common to let your crew relax when you docked on stations.

Hammond looked pleased and nodded offering a greeting to Dad, that he returned. Real man energy between the two. 

“You found some crew huh?” Dad spoke, sounding proud and suddenly I was squeezed again. “You’re growing up Kat.”

“There is another matter.” Suddenly Uncle Kyle cut in. “I’m told you are looking to sell the other ship your drones delivered?”

“Yep!” I chirped smiling happily as Uncle Kyle looked more than happy as well.

Great. Now just had to haggle with my Uncle that does this for a living, and then somehow find the Baron.

No stress.