"Adventures in Contracting", or, "Wearing off the Paint, One Light Second at a Time"
'Adventures in Contracting', or, 'Wearing off the Paint One Light Second at a Time'
The T-6 sat there in the hanger as the maintenance crew walked around her shaking their heads. These boys and girls had turned a lot of nuts and bolts over the last thrity-eight hundred light years. Down by the left landing strut the chief engineer was kneeling and shaking her head. She turned and look at me.
"That's gonna cost yah", she told me then handing me the bill for all the repairs. "You want the paint job redone too?"
I signed off on the work order and looked up at the ship.
"Nah", I replied, "she don't need new makeup."
The engineer got up and set her crew to work. I wandered down the access tunnel to the station bar and ordered up a couple shots of whiskey as I sat and reflected on this last contract.
Clothing in, clothing out, rinse and repeat. The T-6 had done her job, and done it well, even if I did scorch the hell out of her on the corona of a blue-white star. The damn ship cat had distracted me and it was a close call, but other then a cockpit full of smoke and a few well toasted circuits the ship got us out of there.
The Indians along the trail had tried to have their way with us a few times. Ten tried, ten failed, and other than a couple of arrow holes here and there we were still flying. One did manage to knock us out of our escape route but a mine and the get-the-hell-out-of-here boost button did their job.
Back and forth, forth and back. Xi-2 to Tikurua, Tikurua to Xi-2. Seventy six legs, thirty eight round trips and the Lakon and I had earned our way into the 25% bonus area of the contract. We had come to an understanding, the T-6 and I, that we wanted into the 10% bracket so we kept hauling.
Finally it was a last day, and the last few minutes left to make to back for one more load. I didn't know if we were 50 tons from the 10% bracket, or 500 tons. Wanting to make the most out of the last run I stripped her down. Out went the shield boosters, the hard points, the docking computer, the military reinforcement. Sacrificed too were the heavier life support and anything with more mass than something else. I could tell the T-6 was wondering why I stripped her naked for just a few more tons to carry. Because I wanted that bonus and there was no arguing with me.
Barely enough time was left to get to Xi before the contract expired and we hopped out of Khrunov City and set course for Xi. The clock was yelling at me "it's late, it's late, it's really really late". I turned off it's power and hit the gas.
It was six jumps to Xi and we were hauling between jump four and jump five. That is when the universe decided to laugh at us. The network popped and the server inside the ship went black. Cussing and red faced I finally got the systems rebooted. As the lights came up there I was sitting in space and the time was very short. "Go, go, go", I thought I could hear the T-6 scream. I reached down to hit high wake and happened to look at the gas gauge. Somehow between the server crash inside the ship and getting it back alive I had lost nearly all the fuel. We had maybe, just maybe two beer cans of fuel in the tank.
I was ticked now, and I'm sure the universe could hear me cussing all the way to Andromeda as I popped open the navigation map. There, to my relief, was a lonely little star, with a lonely little asteroid belt and one lonely little station just one light year off. I looked at the clock, there was no time left. The contract had expired during the reboot. Out the hatch went the cargo. Maybe someone in the universe needed a hundred eighteen tons of shirts and pants. They were welcome to it.
We landed at the little station and how we had enough fuel to make it I don't know. It was an anarchy station and one look at the beat up t-6, the beat up driver, and the empty gas gauge the attendant got a kings ransom for the fuel. Humbly, I pointed her nose home to Xi, and off we went.
Now, looking up at the ship in her slightly fried and weary face I patted her on the nose.
"I'll get you some new paint before the next contract", I promised, as I counted out the 13 million in profit.
Somehow I could tell the T-6 knew I was full of crap.
"Yeah," she said. "Just like you remembered to get us fuel before we left Khrunov City."
-Rooster Podunk, 03-16-3303
'Adventures in Contracting', or, 'Wearing off the Paint One Light Second at a Time'
The T-6 sat there in the hanger as the maintenance crew walked around her shaking their heads. These boys and girls had turned a lot of nuts and bolts over the last thrity-eight hundred light years. Down by the left landing strut the chief engineer was kneeling and shaking her head. She turned and look at me.
"That's gonna cost yah", she told me then handing me the bill for all the repairs. "You want the paint job redone too?"
I signed off on the work order and looked up at the ship.
"Nah", I replied, "she don't need new makeup."
The engineer got up and set her crew to work. I wandered down the access tunnel to the station bar and ordered up a couple shots of whiskey as I sat and reflected on this last contract.
Clothing in, clothing out, rinse and repeat. The T-6 had done her job, and done it well, even if I did scorch the hell out of her on the corona of a blue-white star. The damn ship cat had distracted me and it was a close call, but other then a cockpit full of smoke and a few well toasted circuits the ship got us out of there.
The Indians along the trail had tried to have their way with us a few times. Ten tried, ten failed, and other than a couple of arrow holes here and there we were still flying. One did manage to knock us out of our escape route but a mine and the get-the-hell-out-of-here boost button did their job.
Back and forth, forth and back. Xi-2 to Tikurua, Tikurua to Xi-2. Seventy six legs, thirty eight round trips and the Lakon and I had earned our way into the 25% bonus area of the contract. We had come to an understanding, the T-6 and I, that we wanted into the 10% bracket so we kept hauling.
Finally it was a last day, and the last few minutes left to make to back for one more load. I didn't know if we were 50 tons from the 10% bracket, or 500 tons. Wanting to make the most out of the last run I stripped her down. Out went the shield boosters, the hard points, the docking computer, the military reinforcement. Sacrificed too were the heavier life support and anything with more mass than something else. I could tell the T-6 was wondering why I stripped her naked for just a few more tons to carry. Because I wanted that bonus and there was no arguing with me.
Barely enough time was left to get to Xi before the contract expired and we hopped out of Khrunov City and set course for Xi. The clock was yelling at me "it's late, it's late, it's really really late". I turned off it's power and hit the gas.
It was six jumps to Xi and we were hauling between jump four and jump five. That is when the universe decided to laugh at us. The network popped and the server inside the ship went black. Cussing and red faced I finally got the systems rebooted. As the lights came up there I was sitting in space and the time was very short. "Go, go, go", I thought I could hear the T-6 scream. I reached down to hit high wake and happened to look at the gas gauge. Somehow between the server crash inside the ship and getting it back alive I had lost nearly all the fuel. We had maybe, just maybe two beer cans of fuel in the tank.
I was ticked now, and I'm sure the universe could hear me cussing all the way to Andromeda as I popped open the navigation map. There, to my relief, was a lonely little star, with a lonely little asteroid belt and one lonely little station just one light year off. I looked at the clock, there was no time left. The contract had expired during the reboot. Out the hatch went the cargo. Maybe someone in the universe needed a hundred eighteen tons of shirts and pants. They were welcome to it.
We landed at the little station and how we had enough fuel to make it I don't know. It was an anarchy station and one look at the beat up t-6, the beat up driver, and the empty gas gauge the attendant got a kings ransom for the fuel. Humbly, I pointed her nose home to Xi, and off we went.
Now, looking up at the ship in her slightly fried and weary face I patted her on the nose.
"I'll get you some new paint before the next contract", I promised, as I counted out the 13 million in profit.
Somehow I could tell the T-6 knew I was full of crap.
"Yeah," she said. "Just like you remembered to get us fuel before we left Khrunov City."
-Rooster Podunk, 03-16-3303