The fabrication section of the Triton was easily the loudest place Captain Valance had ever seen or heard. Located above the main hangars it was so large, cavernous that an air temperature and pressure differential whipped the air into a mild gusting wind. Long hoist arms reached over top the mouths of the two materializers at work. They were three meters tall and eight wide with long strips of heavy transparent belting to separate the space where energy was converted to matter from the rest of the massive compartment.
Some things never changed; heavy equipment still moved on wheels or treads, a good strong length of carbon fibre cable was still better than an antigravity cart for moving awkward and heavy components around and people were still at extreme risk if they didn't know what they were doing inside the fabrication and assembly area of the ship. Jake was careful. He had actually never seen a place that could do so much, that in the space of an hour could convert energy and recycled metals into the cockpit of a Uriel fighter or a room full of furniture. Further down he could see the transparent barriers that cordoned off a section of the deck for the fabrication of more delicate parts and materials. There were clean rooms down there, smaller materialization suites and a vast collection of shop machinery.
Deck Chief Vercelli had the fabrication deck running like clockwork. All the processes and safety measures that were practiced had been set out by him and Engineering Chief Grady. When Jake signed off on them he hadn't yet grasped how critical they were. The deck was marked with yellow, black, blue and red boxes and pathways. The yellow and red sections were the most dangerous, the first designating areas where heavy equipment was in occasional operation and the second type of marking was for generally unsafe areas where there could be energy discharges, falling objects or other dangerous activities. The blue sections were safe areas for moving from one section of the deck to another and the black portions of the deck were marked off for temporary storage.
The high durability, multi layered reinforced carbon nose of a Uriel fighter was being wheeled out of one of the materializers just then and Jake couldn't help but be in awe as the predatory, sharp angled section was guided to the assembly point where other portions of the hull waited to be put together. In less than a day the Triton would have another brand new heavy fighter.
Chief Vercelli noticed him. “They're fine looking ships once we get them assembled. What brings you down here Captain?”
“I just thought I should come down and see this part of the ship. I've never seen a mass materializer this size before and after getting the last parts for the Samson I had to see where they came from.”
“Everything up to spec?”
“That's just it; the Samson is made mostly from spare parts and what you and Liam sent down just looked too new. Nothing matches, now I'll have to do the whole ship.”
It took Chief Vercelli a moment, but he got the joke and nodded. “We aim to impress.”
“I hear you picked up a few pilots on your recruiting run.” Jake said as the front half of a fighter engine pod began to emerge from the materializer. He could feel the vibrations from deep within the machine in his teeth.
“Aye, twenty three all told. Only two failed qualification once they came aboard, they're signed up with Frost.”
“Do they have fighters assigned to them yet?”
“This one here is for one of them, aye.”
“Why isn't the pilot down here watching how it's put together?”
Chief Vercelli just looked at Jake for a moment before returning his attention to the sections of hull and interior component packages being gradually laid out in the shape of the fighter to be. “You're right Captain. To be honest we never built fighters from scratch on my old assignment. We got 'em from a factory like most outfits. I'll get him down here so he can learn what his machine's made of.”
“Good. How are the rest of them doing?”
“What? The nineteen pilots we have flying? Pretty good. Only had one tried to steal his rig. He was surprised to find that the hyperspace and wormhole systems were locked out from the Flight Control Centre.”
“I caught that in your report a few days ago. The playback of the conversation between him and Paula was hilarious. I think she really enjoyed shutting his fighter down remotely and having him dragged back with the Cold Reaver.”
“What did you end up doing with him?”
“Ashley's dropping him off outside Sheffield.”
“That one's taking care of that sort of business?”
“Leland's doing the dirty work, but she's running the show.” Captain Valance nodded.
“Will wonders never cease.”
The pair watched the mind crushingly loud ballet of manufacturing, assembling and machining continue in front of them. The other materializer was making parts for the main emitter array. The complex, dense components were taking much longer to manufacture and had to be treated with much more care than the sections of the fighter that were coming out like clockwork from the other large machine.
“I was wondering, what are you going to do with the Samson? I know she's being outfitted as a shield ship and she's got the power of a small tug, but you haven't assigned a pilot to her or put it on the patrol rotation.”
“It's driving Paula crazy isn't it?”
Chief Vercelli laughed and nodded. “Aye, she likes to have everything in order.”
“You'll know exactly why that ship's being rebuilt when she goes into action.”
“How much work is left on her?”
“Finn and Price are putting the final touches on her tonight and I'm hoping to have her out in space for some testing-” Captain Valance stopped and answered a priority call from the bridge. “Go ahead.”
“Sir, we have a transmission from the Silkworm Four. You should get up here,” Stephanie informed him.
“I'm on my way,” Captain Valance answered. “I'm sorry Chief, I'll be back to do an inspection when things quiet down.”
“Aye sir, the boys'll like that. In the meantime I'll have someone track down this pilot so he can see how his fighter's put together.”
The communications station on the bridge was surrounded by Cynthia, Stephanie, Paula, Laura and Price. As Captain Valance approached they parted so he could see the scratchy message for himself. “-it burned out our hyperspace systems so we'll be going to Pandem using the wormhole system and conventional engines. I'm hoping you have a long range patrol out in our direction so you receive this before moving on. If not, Oz and I will track you down. Love you Laura, hope to see you soon.”
“Would you like me to play it back for you sir?” Cynthia asked.
“No, I got the gist and I can review it later. Who picked this up?”
“Tanner and his copilot sir,” Paula answered. “They were doing scans along our outer radius and testing their wormhole drive. Your friend is lucky we had a trustworthy pilot out that end, otherwise it would have taken a month for his message to get to us. Will that be all?”
“Have they returned yet?”
“No, they're actually a couple hours out. They used a high compression micro wormhole to relay this back to us as soon as they got it. They couldn't decrypt it but recognized that it had a Freeground tag and thought it might be for you, Captain.”
“Thank you Assistant Chief, that'll be all,” Captain Valance said with a nod. It was that way between them all the time, absolutely business like. On the brighter side, Paula had seemed to calm down, to accept the fact that he was Captain and there was no changing her place on the ship unless she left entirely. No one complained about her attitude shift whenever Captain Valance walked onto the bridge.
“Tell me we're going after them,” Laura said quietly.
“Our main emitters are still offline, we can't make it to Pandem in a reasonable amount of time in the Triton,” answered Captain Valance.
“We can make it there in twelve days if we push the engines, that's a start.”
“The Cold Reaver is out on a recruiting mission. She won't be back until tomorrow. Besides, I think I know a way to make it there in a lot less time. I'll take a fighter.”
“No,” Stephanie said firmly in a low whisper.
Captain Valance looked at her coolly. “What?”
“Whether you realize it or not you've been the one holding the ship together. You watch the reports, skim the
