The Delkar Job - Epilogue
23 Mar 2017Jellicoe
Over twenty hours in Super-Cruise aboard a heavily damaged ship with patched up engines and an equally jury-rigged power plant only operating at 40% capacity is not good for the nerves, the slow but inexorable decline of the fuel level and the very real fear that you will be left stranded in the depths of interstellar space, beyond the reach of any possible help to die the slow, lingering death that every spacer dreads likewise does nothing to improve your spirits but the engine, our fuel and our luck all just about held and with slightly frayed tempers but imanse relief we eventually reached the outer edge of the Solati system. I set course for McCandless Base, a planetary outpost in the outer system, it was a small place seeing little traffic and boasting only the most basic facilities which suited my purposes perfectly. I wanted to be long gone before word could reach Delkar that a crippled Corvette had put into Solati, and the smaller the station the better chance I had."Big job that mate." The chief mechanic said examining schematic of the Resolution's damage on his data-slate while sucking air through his teeth in the approved manner of mechanics everywhere just before warning their customers to expect an eye wateringly huge bill. "Won't come cheap I'll tell you that now. Won't be quick neither, we're not geared up for jobs this big."
"Just get the jump-drive working." I replied. "Don't worry about anything else, and if you can get it done within twelve hours I'll pay an extra 25% on your bill, off the books if you want."
"You leave it with me Guv." The mechanic said barely able to contain his glee. "We'll have her fixed up in no time."
About an hour later I was sitting with Claude, Vik, Harry and Mira in what passed for a restaurant on this Godforsaken rock trying to consume a barely edible synth-steak while sipping a revolting brown sludge that the waitress claimed was tea.
"What now?" Claude asked.
"Find an independent system about a hundred light years away and get the ship properly fixed up then lie low for a bit."
"What about Skirving and the rest?"
"All regular navy personnel will be left here when we go, what they do then is up to them." I replied. Mira growled, the regen packs had healed her wounds but I knew she would dearly love to get her hands on the men who had given her such a beating.
"What about crew?" Vik asked. "It's not just the marines we'll miss, two of the three watches are navy personnel, they'll need replacing if you want to keep round the clock operability."
"We'll have to hire people, marines as well but that'll have to wait till we've thrown Sleer and Rickard well and truly off our scent."
"Where are we heading? Serabrov?" Harry asked.
"Yes." I replied. "Sleer will probably guess but we need all the friends we can get around us."
"And Rickard?" Mira asked.
"Oh one day we will deal with Nedim Rickard have no doubt at all about that." I replied with a grim smile.