was slung across her back.
He stared at her for a moment, fuming, before trying to step forward again.
She put her arm out straight and stopped him with her palm. “Your ammo stays here or my scanning team won't let you through.”
“My ass they won't let me through,” he pressed again.
Stephanie jerked her pulse pistol from it's holster, aimed and fired in one smooth motion. The bolt of energy scattered across his entire body, setting his nervous system on fire momentarily, causing him to twitch violently and fall to the ramp.
In the space of three seconds she had both his weapons out of their holsters and tossed them into the cabin of the spaceliner behind him.
“I was gettin' my identification, I'm with Enreega Fed Law,” he said through clenched teeth. The pain of a mid powered stun weapon was unbelievable, and he'd be disabled for at least ten minutes longer.
“I couldn't care less, you attempted to intimidate the First Officer of this vessel, violated our code of conduct and didn't properly announce yourself. You're not welcome aboard.” She said as she rolled him back into the space liner.
“You bitch!” He managed to curse through an involuntary twitch.
“You don't know the half of it,” Stephanie laughed as she walked out of the airlock and punched the button to seal it behind her. “Frost, you're clear to release the starliner. It's empty except for one giant prick.”
“The giant prick didn't fit aboard?” Frost retorted quietly.
Stephanie's irritation evaporated and she chuckled. “He wouldn't relinquish his ammo.”
“Ah, all right, releasing the locks on the star liner. How are you for space down there?”
“We've counted eleven hundred twenty nine so far,” reported Liz from the bottom of the ramp.
There were a hand full of people left, waiting to present their identification and be scanned and Stephanie quickly counted them. “I'd say we just picked up eleven hundred forty three. That upper berthing is probably getting pretty full.”
“All right, we have one more military vessel to dock with.” Frost said. “They're coming across in emergency shuttles on our port side, and hard locking with us below. Ramirez will be escorting them in. Captain needs you on the bridge,” Frost reported.
“Has Ramirez been taking ammo?”
“Let me check for you,” Frost said.
“No, he didn't think of it,” interjected Captain Valance. “We should have.”
“Well, at least eleven hundred of them aren't-” She stopped on the ramp as she saw a two by two meter storage compartment filled with ammunition and several disposable firearms. It was like looking at a munitions pit.
“Something wrong?”
“Oh, nothing Captain, just looking at enough ammunition to fuel a small civil war. Leaves me wondering if it would have been simpler to make sure everyone was armed instead of collecting ammo. Probably would have been faster.”
“Well, hopefully the military personnel can help keep the peace for two days. From what we've heard the berths down there are pretty cramped. Twenty eight and fifty six bunks to a compartment and we haven't figured out the sound dampeners or soft isolation systems yet. It's going to be loud and cramped.”
“Well, I'll be on the bridge in a moment. I'm taking a team with me so we have security there, the rest I'll assign to keep the peace in the berth we just filled up.”
“I'll take my team back down to medical. It's a miracle there are no wounded.” Grace said as she turned to leave the gunnery deck. “Computer, show me the quickest route to the main infirmary.” She commanded. Arrows appeared to her left on the deck, just in front of her feet and she raised an eyebrow. “What do you know, learn something new every day.”
Departure
The darkened launch bay was property of the Freeground Special Projects Team. Laura was contacted by station security as soon as someone, authorized or not, signed in. It was supposed to be sealed, both of the ships inside weren't in use any longer. They were sealed materials, working prototypes for practical research that were kept safe and undisturbed in case the systems had to be reviewed as a reference.
Laura rushed to the bay, hoping that security had been wrong about who was inside the Silkstream IV. When she arrived her fears were verified. Ayan was directing a small loader robot up the ramp into the eighteen meter long, needle shaped ship with a crate of supplies. She looked up from her arm console and stared at Laura.
She looked tired, her vacsuit was sealed up so only her face was visible and her poncho was draped over her with the hood up. “I have to go, I'm sorry Laura,” she could barely hear her say as she leaned on a white cane heavily.
Laura sealed the hatch behind her and sent the all clear signal to Freeground Station security. “They'll have your rank for this, the Special Projects Initiative will change.”
Ayan ignored every word. “No one's going to get him. No one's taking the trip out there to tell him who he is, how important he is to us, what he's done. Intelligence won't even let me send him a message. They even blocked the ones I thought I got through.”
“Regent Galactic has threatened war if Freeground lends aid.”
“That's not a problem. The Silkstream's transponder's been hooked into Minuteman. I can change it to whatever I want whenever I want. They won't know this ship is from Freeground.”
Laura crossed the docking bay at a run and followed Ayan up the ramp into the ship. “ Minuteman? That's not even finished.”
“Yes it is. I told him to finish constructing himself and he did. It took him less than five seconds to figure out how then two hours to finish building his processing cluster. I had to deactivate the Silkstream's AI, it was slowing him down.” Ayan gestured to an unassuming, gray, one meter long case inside the small hold. It was wired into the ships computer system through several panels. “The most powerful calculator is now part of the fastest ship in the galaxy. It's a match ma-” Ayan stopped and coughed, leaning on her cane.
Laura rubbed her shoulders. She was little more than skin and bone. “I'm sorry, I know you loved him. ”
“I can't forget him Laura. So much of this work wouldn't have happened if it weren't for him, even Minuteman, if it weren't for him releasing Alice and us capturing a part of her predatory code inside the quantum core by mistake, none of that would have existed. A molecular quantum core so small and powerful it can even keep me alive a little longer.”
“What do you mean?”
“I installed a more advanced framework system and some nanobots into my body. Now Minuteman is controlling how they heal me, which fires to put out, which organs to save and how.”
Laura could only stare at her friend, imagining the constant pain she must be going through as she walked through the habitation cabin with its small table, two built in chairs and four bunks.
“I'm so tired of sitting around, pretending like every day might not be my last, feeling sorry for myself and wondering if Jonas will ever know where he comes from.”
“He wouldn't want you to do this, not for him,” Laura pleaded quietly as she followed Ayan.
“That makes him worth it,” she sat down in the pilot's seat and started warming up the ship. “I still love him. I tried seeing other people when I was still in shape, you were there. I kept measuring them against Jonas. Now we know where he is, or where he will be. I'm going. You'll have to drag me off this ship to stop me Laura.”
She hadn't seen such determination in her friend in years. Part of her was back, the part that mattered. “We love you Ayan. We don't want to see you end up all alone in space or killed in some accident.”
“No. You, Jason and Oz love me, I know. That's where it ends. My own mother won't take time out from building her precious colony to spend a few more days with me before I'm gone. In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been feeling very well lately, without Minuteman and all this technology I've got three days left at best. Nothing can save me, but maybe I can save Jonas. If he knows where he comes from, that someone is willing to
