Phantom Star

“Open the Diamond Drive!” I called out firmly, I was nervous, but I didn’t want to show that to the Crabbit.

Seven Light Iris Drives were floating around me, held in place by Crabbits as I looked at the new Diamond Drive.

I had done test after test to make sure. It was… Perfect.

My stomach didn’t care though.

The much larger Diamond Drive opened, revealing the inner slot for the core drive. “Insert the core!” I called watching as the Crabbit floated over and gently slotted in the Light Drive. The Light Drives were much larger than the small drives of the old system. So it took a moment for it to be settled in place.

I watched as the Diamond Drive screwed shut, the deep glow of the Light Drive already peaking through.

“Insert the Iris Drive Array.” I said and the Crabbit floated in, each of them carrying the glowing foot wide squares. It was time.

They were each inserted, each of them had been very specifically gone over, and each drive had a unique slot just for that drive. Just in case.

Then as it was all put together. The entire mechanism clamped down, becoming nearly a perfect octahedron.

The blue glow of the Iris Drives filled the room, and I took a breath.

“Ignite the Diamond Drive.” And ignite it did. A wicked rumble began and I wanted to flinch back at the way the song of the Iris Drives shifted, and screamed, but it wasn’t agony, more like…

Heavy Metal.

A wild cascade of noise, a roar.

And the blue turned red, as the Diamond Drive ignited. “Insert the drive.” I confirmed once it settled down, and watched as the Diamond Drive was slowly lowered into its new slot.

I had realized that if anyone found out about my drive I’d be in trouble, so I’d come up with this as a solution.

The Diamond drive was lowered into an assembly on the floor, and then the metamaterial plates would clamp down on it, giving it added protection and keeping it out of sight, then another assembly would be lowered, that had basically a mock Iris Drive resting on it. It glowed, it was all hooked up, and it would help keep casual examination from noticing the truth.

The old Diamond Drive was still there as well, it was fitted into the roof for now, but I would likely need to do a full remodel on the entire engine room, if or when I ever got enough larger Iris Drives.

The Engine room settled in, as everything was locked in place, and sealed away

It was time.

—--

Final flight checks were being run, this was the first time the Phantom Star was going out into the stars with everything attached where it should be. She’d have twice the main engine power. And more than a few additional plasma thrusters for in atmosphere flight. She’d be speedy and sleek for a Corvette.

And I wasn’t trying to run away just because we had gotten word that the Baron was coming back again for a visit.

He’d come back a few times, and each time it was just so awkward. He kept trying to be so nice to me! It was weird!

So I was preparing to go. Not because of him of course, I had a job!

But I was leaving early to hopefully avoid him.

“Status?” I asked, and I smirked as the response came back.

“Green!”

“Green, green means good!”

“Greeeeeeen!” I nodded at my three bridge crew. Comms, Navigation and Tactical all agreed.

“Then let’s go. I’m completing decouple.” I called out and felt the slight tremor of the airlock closing shut and the umbilical returning to the Station.

For just a moment the Phantom Star was still, and I hesitated. This was it. The final time I’d leave as just a normal kid. With this, I was heading into the stars alone, at the head of my own ship, and all of space was opening up before me.

My hand touched the controls and I pushed forward. I slowly increased power, the ship smoothly moving, picking up speed, and then, once I was clear, I really pushed her forward the rest of the way.

It was my time to fly.

The Phantom Star purred, as the engines all entwined their gravity fields, and this time there wasn’t a weight issue. They were all working at full efficiency and then some.

It wasn’t like I was hurting for power, so the engines got a whole lot of juice.

And then we were gone, rocketing away from the Station with a speed that would be startling to anyone thinking my girl was still as slow as she had been before.

It didn’t take long at all, to move outside a safe distance, and then with a flick of a switch everything was all green, and I dived into subspace. The ship moved within that ethereal realm at more than twice the speed I had been able to achieve before. As the Phantom Stars engines opened up and shot me forward, towards my destiny.

Or at least my first normal job. I was a space trucker now…

“And that’s enough staring into the abyss for today.” I decided aloud at that thought and tore myself away from the comfy captain chair. “Alright everyone. Light duty.” I called out, and the Crabbit cheered, light duty meant a majority of them could play around for a while.

I was tempted to head to my quarters and be lazy for a while, but I had just left, and there was still work to be done.

Most of the exterior stuff was out of reach thanks to being in subspace, so I was basically stuck with internals, which really sucked.

The shipments for some of my additional weapon systems had finally come in. Despite requesting them almost a year ago, it took this long for them to be transferred over.

I had the big ones though. The ones I had requested through the Baron’s military connections.

Eight Laser batteries and two missile racks rested in my hold just waiting for the time to install.

Most of the connection points were already installed into the hull thankfully, but it was still a matter of installing them, and that wasn’t safe in subspace.

So they’d get installed slowly as I had time.

For now, that meant I was stuck working on internals, and for the most part that was done.

I walked through the halls that still didn’t have flooring. Most of the cables had been properly stashed away. Looking up I saw the neat rows of strapped down cabling that supplied power to different sections.

I still had to finish installing the overhead lights, the Phantom wasn’t exactly dark, but there were sections where I had to use flashlights to get enough light to work.

“Where did I put the overhead lights?” I asked my shoulder Crabbit, and it hummed for a second.

“Ooh. Where is that? It’s not in the hold!” She told me, and then went back to processing. She was being cute, but she was actually checking the manifest.

I was pretty bad about remembering where everything was, so the Crabbit kept a manifest of stuff that I put down and forgot about.

“It’s in the Mess! You put them in the cupboards!”

“Why did I put them in the cupboards?” I wondered, and then instantly got my answer. As my own voice came out of the Crabbit.

“Shit Fu-dge! I almost tripped! Put these lights in the cupboards until we’re installing them!”

I stopped and looked at the Crabbit. She looked at me. I could, and probably should tell her to not record my voice like that. I’m absolutely sure I’m either going to regret it, or really appreciate that some day.

“Thanks.” I decided I’d roll that dice I supposed.

“Teehee! Of course Captain!”

“Did you just say Teehee? Where are you learning this from?” And once again my question was ignored, and I just figured out my Crabbit was definitely hiding something from me.

I sighed and just walked to the Mess to get my lights.

—--

I groaned as I stretched, flexing sore muscles tired from carrying things around. The string of lights behind me only highlighted how much more of the hallway was still in darkness. I scratched an itch as I decided to take a break.

I was hungry. Time to really test out some things.

Walking into the mess room, the central point of the Phantom Star, I headed into the Icebox, grabbing one of the Manipulated Protein Canisters. You didn’t need to freeze them, but it was just the best place to store them, and it didn’t hurt the protein.

Walking out I carried the canister over to the reprocessor, and slotted it into place.

“What’s for dinner?” I asked aloud, looking at the Crabbit but it just tilted a little at me in confusion. “Right silly question.” I turned back to the reprocessor. Let’s try something simple first. A steak… Hmm, yeah I’ll add some texture to it, so we’ll add a nice side of crunchy stalks. They sort of reminded me of green beans, but were mostly hollow.

Drink? No, I wasn’t in the mood for the drinks you could make from the Manipulated protein, they were thick like smoothies most of the time.

Instead I turned and walked to my nice little drink maker. Coffee was a bit much, but I could add some sweetener to water and enjoy that. I grabbed a spare water container and pushed it into the slot and added one of the flavor mixes.

It would be a surprise because I hadn’t had any of them yet.

When I turned back to the reprocessor the meal was already done.

I popped open the completion tray and smelled the wave of steam and flavor that washed over me as I stared down at a cooked steak, and some crunchy stalks. They had an actual name, but I liked mine more.

I grabbed the plate and had to admit, that looked really good. I guess going full out for something expensive had been the right call. I placed it on the counter, as I didn’t actually have a table for the Mess yet, and grabbed my drink and dug in.

“Oh, sour! Nice.”

—--

Two days later, and a much brighter Phantom Star slipped back into realspace with a flickering kaleidoscope of reality smashing into unreality.

And then I was back among the stars and I relaxed.

Thanks to my job request, I had all the details already, so I called the direct comm line for transport arrivals. *This is Phantom Star, here to pickup delivery H-00545.*

I looked out the window, and I could just see the massive station set up near the planet's moon. Constance was another major industrial planet, and it showed. I could see with my naked eye the glittering trail of ships flying from the planet to station and back. Just a line of tiny sparkling lights glinting off the light of the sun.

Then a digital voice responded. *This is Eclair Biotech, credentials accepted, please follow instructions to docking ring B4.*

I accepted the data packet, and my auto pilot started up, slowly ramping up speed as I flew towards the large station.

I stayed aware just in case there were any issues, but autopilots were so common, unless someone decided to pull away and start flying around, it was perfectly safe.

Slowly we pulled up to the station, and then finally I did have to take control. Considering the size of the containers I wouldn’t be fitting it through an air lock, that meant direct hold to hangar connection. The Phantom Stars hold opened up on the rear of the ship.

I could have made it a front loader, might have even been easier without the big engines in the way, but then she would have had an ugly nose. And my ship was a beauty! And it didn’t matter if I added a little more to her aft, she was already a bit of a dumptruck back there.

So I backed her in the final few meters and only when the hangars' gravity panels reached out did I stop and let them hold my ship steady.

I lowered the hangar bay door, and headed out. I wouldn’t have to help pack everything away, but I would need to confirm everything. And more importantly supervise.

If they dented up my ship they’d be paying for it! Sliding down the ladder into my hold I noticed men already bringing massive shipping containers over.

I walked over, noticing the ship slowly being adjusted until she was just touching the inside of the station's hangar letting the men walk off and on without issue.

“Captain of the… Phantom Star?” He asked looking up from his Tab at me.

“That’s me.” I confirmed the first man to arrive.

“I’ll need your electronic confirmation.” He said, me his Tab and I checked the details, but it was just the order, and if I accepted responsibility for its delivery.

I acknowledged and that was that.

“Alright, We’ve got a few of the containers ready, but it’s going to be another day before we have the last of it to load up. You have docking clearance until the shipment is compiled.” He offered and with a few button presses I got an alert on my Tab. “Accept that, and you’ll get a message from Station Control when we’re done.”

I hit accept, and put my Tab away.

“Alright, try to stay out of our loading zones. You can use the elevator to head up to Deck 3 if you want to stretch your legs.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks.” I confirmed, and turned back to my ship first. I did a quick check that everything was locked up. “Make sure you set a watch around the entrances of the ship. I don’t want anyone getting on board that shouldn’t.” I told my shoulder Crabbit, and she gave an electronic chirp in agreement. I reached up and scratched just under her face's optic plate.

Huh, looks like this one didn’t like to talk.

—--

The elevator opened and I smiled at the familiar sights and sounds.

Of course this station was way bigger and busier than UNK-L.

They had a fully populated planet right next door, and were a manufacturer, which meant a constant stream of transport ships coming and going.

The warm smell of cooking food was familiar, but I was enjoying my own kitchen at the moment, so instead I started going around the edge of the large park area. This station’s park was really different from UNK-L. Not nearly as well taken care of, but I guess if you have a planet right there, it wasn’t as big of a deal.

So instead I focused on the shops along the ring, and walked around to see if there was something interesting.

There were lots of little shops that reminded me of ho-UNK-L. Of the station. Almost like I would turn a corner and run into Aunt Sheila barking orders at me to come help fix something.

Huh. I stalled out and looked over the area and realized I was a little homesick. Or maybe just a little lonely.

I realized that other ship crews were around the ring, sitting in groups and drinking and talking.

It must be nice to have people to be with.

Maybe I should have asked if someone from UNK-L wanted to come?... Marshall?

No. That way lay me eventually throwing him out an airlock. I was just a bit homesick. It’d pass. I took a breath and kept walking, turned into a shop that looked like it was a parts shop and decided to look around. Maybe I’d find something neat.

The shop’s atmosphere was weird. Unlike Aunt Sheila’s where the parts were just scattered around, this one seemed more official, with actual shelves and things for the parts.

“Welcome! Are you looking for something in particular? If you need mechanic services we assist with that as well!” The man, no the boy called out from behind an actual counter. He was probably sixteen, and he had a sharp face that had made me think he was older than he likely was.

Hmm. Maybe some genetic thing? I think the dock master I had spoken with had looked similar.

The fact was that ethnicities still existed, they had just added about a billion more to them, so most people didn’t seem to care much.

“Oh no, I’m a mechanic myself, just seeing what you have.” I added as I browsed around and he nodded and then jerked a bit.

“Whoa, what’s that?” He pointed at me, and I looked around. Nothing behind me? I looked to my Crabbit and it spun around a little and then did a little shrug too.

“What’s what?” I asked as I turned to him, but he was pointing at the Crabbit…

Oh right.

“Oh, it's a Drone. Say hello Crabbit.”

“Hello Crabbit.” She repeated in my own voice. I pouted at her, as the little drone bounced up and down rapidly as she giggled.

“Smart ass.” I told her as I looked back at the boy. “They’re assistant drones I made.”

“Whoa. Is that an AI?”

“Partial.” I admitted, AI were rare, out here on the frontier. “They don’t have nearly enough processing power on their own to be actual AI.” I said, which was the truth, but I didn’t admit that they were a synced hivemind, and their combined processing power was more than enough to reach that level.

They were a little ditzy, but were AI.

“Nova.” He said as he came around the corner. “I don’t recognize any part of it, you said it was custom?”

“Yeah, the shell is completely custom, but like the optic is just a visual display from a Tab.”

“Oh I see that.” He muttered and reached out, but she jerked back and flew behind me out of reach.

“Sorry they’re shy.”

“Wait, are they running on Drives?”

“Yeah, they have Gravity Panels integrated for mobility, I needed at least an Iris to give them enough power.”

“Crazy build, but I guess if you have the creds. You’re a spacer right?”

“I’m a Captain.” I admitted, and the boy's eyes widened.

“Whoa, you’re so young! Did your family?” He asked, and I instantly understood what he was inferring. Did my family die and leave the ship to me?

“Oh they’re fine back home… Anyway, I’m going to look around.” I said and very purposefully looked away. I guess it was odd that I was so young captaining a ship, especially one like the Phantom.

But that was my business. I hummed a bit as I purposefully focused away from the boy. I listened, and heard the gentle chimes of the tech in the room. Some of the songs were brittle, some fritzed as they weren’t working properly.

I even heard the slightly tinny noise from my mothers blaster on my hip. It thankfully wasn’t too distracting wearing it, as it felt like any of the usual tools I had on my belt, but its song was a little off.

It was functional, but I was going to have to do some work on it soon.

And then as if guided I walked towards the back, but unfortunately had to stop.

“What’s back there?” I asked, the doorway in the back of the shop called to me, a song that was familiar but odd in my ear.

“Storage. Mostly.” The boy offered and then hesitated and shrugged. “If you want to check it out, I can show you?”

“Sure.” I agreed, and watched as he opened the door, and I felt myself smirk because this was more familiar. A mass of spare parts, and equipment all piled up randomly.

This is what a part shop should look like.

“Now we’re talking.” I couldn’t help but say as I followed him in, and looked around.

Lots of random bits and bobs, but that one song was still drawing me over and eventually led me to the side of the room where a stack of Shield Emitters were laid out, with junk covering them along with a good layer of dust.

“What’s with these?” I couldn’t help but ask as I looked the emitters over and noticed just how different they were.

“Those old things? They’re weird. Shield emitters, but they’re not right.”

“Not right?”

“They don’t act like normal shields. They’re combat rated deflectors, lasers, and such go right through.” Then he grimaced. “They disrupt normal shield fields too. So you can’t even double up on them or something. So no one wants them.”

I hummed deep in my throat. No wonder they sounded so strange yet familiar. They were literally a different tech base. No one used deflectors as a shield tech, there were too many energy weapons in space. Sure every ship had a deflector dish, but that wouldn’t do squat in a fight, and basing your entire defense network on hoping the enemy didn’t have lasers?

It was nonsense.

“Any idea where they came from?”

“Not a clue, You’d have to ask my dad, he’s the one that originally picked them up, but that was years ago. He didn’t know they were duds when he picked them up.”

“I’ll take them.”

“Seriously? They don’t work, I mean, they do, but they’re useless.”

“They’re interesting, and maybe I can learn something from them. I’ll take them.” I confirmed and pulled out my Tab, to make the deal, the boy obviously realizing he was about to sell something they had been stuck with for a long time quickly grabbed his own Tab and made an offer.

It was fair, and I flicked the Creds over.

Well I guess I’d have an interesting project for my trip after all.

—--

The next morning I was off, the Phantom flying off from the station and then dropping into subspace for a long flight to Stark Point.

Only when we were fully traveling along the course did I sit up from the captain's chair and head back towards the hold.

Almost the entire cargo hold was full of massive containers, which was interesting to see as it left my normally empty room feeling like a cave network of small passages.

Not that I was going to try and play around in there. The containers were secure but accidents were called accidents for a reason.

Instead as I slid down the ladder to the bottom I headed to the small section where the stack of dusty shield emitters were left in a pile and rolled my eyes.

“What are you lot doing?”

“Weird!”

“Weird!”

The Crabbit commented back at me, as they were going over the emitters themselves.

“Weird? Is that the official decision of the council?” I teased, and the Crabbit each twitched and looked at me.

“Council? Are we supposed to have a council? Red! Red!” One of them chattered and the other nodded, and they both raced off, and I realized instantly I had made a mistake.

“Aw well.” I muttered and settled back down, my shoulder Crabbit surprisingly didn’t run off and instead just moved a little close by holding onto my tanktop to look over my shoulder.

“Weird?”

“Seems so.” I said, and pulled out some tools I had with me as I pulled one of the strands of emitters into my lap and started exploring.

First I’d really like to know where these came from. So with an air blower and suction tool, I started blowing the dust from one of the sections of the strand. Usually there would be some company markings on it, and I could look it up with my Tab once I connected to the net again.

As I slowly worked, I hummed a little off tune to my usual, as I was mimicking the sound of the emitters, and I realized instantly that it was still a nice song. Simply different. But not wrong.

That only made me more sure I had made the right choice in picking these up.

It took a while, and a magnification using my Tab but I found the company logo. I copied it to the Tab to search later, and with that sorted, I started scanning the emitters.

Some would likely be no good and need some repair work after all this time of just laying around.

As I went over them I quickly realized just how different they were. Completely different concepts to normal shield emitters. Sort of like a group that had only heard about shield emitters and decided to try and make them on their own.

Considering how large human space was, it was possible. Maybe a planet of colonists got lost until they went out exploring the wide empty space and found more humans again.

It happened sometimes, more often out here on the frontier than not, which would explain this.

These emitters were… Rough. Interesting but rough. Like looking at one of the first computers ever created and comparing it to an Ipad. They were both computers… Mostly.

But would these emitters play Doom? That was the real question.

I giggled to myself at the old joke as I started fiddling with them. So they were only capable of stopping projectiles and did nothing to energy weapons. That wasn’t entirely a bad thing. I might be able to see how they worked and integrate the idea into normal shield emitters.

Specialized shields were pretty common after all, and while the Kenish Duchy tended to specialize in laser weapons, the Idric Dominion specialized in projectile weapons.

I wasn’t exactly planning on running into a Dominion Battlegroup, but I was a Kenish citizen, and I was flying a warship of sorts.

Best to be careful.