All That Glitters Ch. 12

The order came over the address system to prepare teams, and Cynthia got up to follow the two scientists, who would be her escort on station. They went down to the EVA chamber and began to strap into their personal suits. Cynthia in the distinctively bright coloured light blue and yellow of news services.

The suit had cost her a small fortune to create. She had taken the basic suit and expanded on it over the years. It had far more capabilities built into it than most of their kind.

The suit could link directly with the customized holo-vid frame she always wore and the tiny floater that always trailed her. It also had a cluster of miniature, high end, multi-spectral holo-vid cameras situated around the helmet that could be directed in pairs or individually to different targets. It had a massive memory core and a top-of-the-line editing suite that could do multiple edits of the same interviews or edit different interviews simultaneously. She could return from her EVA excursion ready to submit her story as soon as the suit could link to a network.

The suits survival abilities had also been enhanced. Working with reporters who had experience in war zones, Cynthia took the opportunity to have her suit hardened. It also included additional oxygen and food stores and a built-in medical bay that would keep her alive from almost anything but a critical hit.

The medical bay was a feature that was found on Marine EVA Combat suits and was not supposed to be available to the average citizen. It was often tricky to find the medical ingredients necessary to keep the bay topped up without tripping up law enforcement, who might or might not look the other way for a reporter. For that reason, her work with law enforcement generally showed them in good light, but there was always the truly bad cop that occasionally had to be exposed.

Once strapped in, Cynthia activated her external cameras and waited for her escort, who had different capabilities in their suits that had to be inspected before leaving the ship. One of her cameras was situated to 'look' into her helmet and show her face. She tested that by opening the image so she could smile back at herself. The well practiced smile was absolutely gorgeous. But then, it was the best money could buy.

The group moved to their assigned shuttle and strapped themselves in. The shuttle was designed to transport a dozen Marines and/or navy personnel in their much larger EVA suits, so there was plenty of room for the three scientists, the reporter and the two Marines strapped in the cargo compartment. The two pilots were in the forward section, sealed off from the rear, though they too wore EVA suits.

The crew of the Wimple were constantly being admonished to treat each mission as a combat drop, even if it was only a supply run, so no military person ever took chances in flight.

The shuttle was not pressurized but did have reserves of oxygen available to top up their suits if needed. This was their assigned shuttle and the vessel they would return to except in an emergency.

The shuttle had plasteel windows going around three-quarters of the vessel, giving a good view of the surrounding area. Cynthia suspected that this choice of shuttle assignment was deliberate, for which she was thankful.

Shuttles began moving out of the bay, and her vessel followed in its assigned order. She finally got an unobstructed view of the alien station. It looked nothing like the Liramor-23 platform, which looked like a fat top.

The station, as it was being called, was more rectangular in construction from a distance but looked like a series of immense tubes stuck to each other the closer one got to it. Other than the overall rectangular exterior look, there were almost no straight lines, everything being curves running into each other. Even the bay doors and hatches were circular, with a spiral shaped diaphragms that opened and closed in a circular pattern versus the two halves of bay doors on human stations.

The scientists took the reporter around the station giving a running explanation on all they knew as they recorded every piece of writing they came across. Cynthia was like a child in a toy store, recording everything and asking sharp questions of the two scientists. They eventually found themselves down in one of the bays among hundreds of alien corpses.

The damage to the corpses and to the station itself was apparent. It was clear that these aliens had been viciously attacked, which was a news story in itself.

I've underestimated the scope of this story! Cynthia thought to herself. It's obvious that this will take months to investigate.

Cynthia heard a tone in her headpiece, indicating that they had been out almost ten hours. She was surprised as it seemed as she had just arrived on the station.

"Time to head back, Cynthia," one of the linguists told her, point back toward the open bay door. She nodded and gave the 'OK' sign to indicate she had heard then followed the two doctors out into space and toward their waiting shuttle. Twenty minutes later, they were landed in the shuttle bay and making their way to the EVA chamber to divest themselves of their suits.

The Valour, Travelling

Fiona shook hands with Adm. Rallond Heist and FAdm. Charles Thenton as they readied to board her ship for the return trip to Folden Naval Base for Thenton, and Terra for Adm. Heist.

Capt. Noor was talking quietly to Cdr. Davis giving hints and instructions on her new role as aide-de-camp for Fiona. She was keeping an eye on the two admirals and their aides and moved to join them when they began to enter the little vessel.

The five were ensconced in the multi-purpose VIP room, which was now configured for the two admirals, their aides, and Noor. The Valour's captain, Capt. Joseph Ward, was giving a quick brief on ships procedures for the guests from the bridge via holo-vid feed. The guests would see the bridge and the forward view on the large holo-monitor in the VIP room.

They watched as the ship left the bay and moved into the outbound navy jump lane. The ship quickly came to speed and her FTL vanes opened. Space folded and the ship jumped into an unoccupied system as they waited for the M/A generators to recharge. An hour later they jumped again, ending in high orbit over a planet and approaching an orbital station.

"Welcome to Liramor Prime and Pallanders Orbital Shipyard, seventy-six light years from Liramor-23," Capt. Ward intoned.

Henadi gave Thenton a curious look.

"You do want to see your new command do you not, captain?" Thenton asked.

The ship swung around the station and came up on a large ship that was currently in a refit cage.

The ship was incredibly large, with many of its hatches and access panels open to space. Workers were flitting around the vessel, pushing and pulling pieces of machinery in both directions through the various hatches and access ports.

The pilot smoothly brought the ship up to the shuttle bay hatch, which opened for the small vessel. They landed in the bay and a commercial gangway sealed itself to the forward airlock on The Valour.

The executive foreman met them at the end of gangway. "Welcome aboard The Wanderer," he said with a broad French accent.

The gregarious young man escorted them around the ship, showing off with pride its capabilities. Eventually, they came to the bridge.

"Captain?" Thenton said, point to the Captains Chair with a smile.

The chair sat forlornly on the empty Captain's balcony; the workers still employed at installing various pieces of control panels around other places on the bridge. It was still wrapped in plastic, and nothing was operational on it, yet, but Henadi sat gently down into the seat and leaned back getting to know the 'feel' of her ship.

The chair was amazingly comfortable, even with the plastic over it. She couldn't wait to try her out for real in a few months time. Her face suddenly broke out in a huge smile as she thought about taking her command out for the first time!

Adm. Heist saw the smile and winked at Thenton, who grinned heartily at the older man. The Foreman noted the exchange but didn't say anything. He knew where his toast was buttered, and the person he had to impress was now sitting in 'her' chair.

They spent a total of three hours on board the ship and had to drag a reluctant Henadi away from her new command.

The Valour jumped directly to Terra and set down at the shuttle port of Naval Headquarters, dropping off Heist and his aide. They stayed to eat, inviting Capt. Ward to the Officer's Mess for lunch.

They took the time to show off the small vessel to other interested admirals they had met in the mess, then took off and made two bounds to planet Hanover, seventy light years from Terra, where they dropped off FAdm Thenton and his aide.

Henadi moved to the bridge and took the 'guest' chair beside Capt. Ward as they made the return trip to Liramor-23, at a tangent to the Karen System, thus two bounds away at sixty light years. Noor was impressed. They had been to three planets today and had travelled more than 236 light years in the space of only ten hours! Most of that time being spent on a tour of her new command and eating lunch on Terra!

She had spent time with FAdm Thenton, something that few new captains would have the opportunity to do, receiving special instructions on her new command.

But she was under strict instructions to tell no one of her visit today, especially Raymond. He wasn't aware yet that The Wanderer was Henadi's new command. She was a little leery of springing that piece of information on him. She decided that Thenton could deliver that news to Raymond! Not that she was a coward, but she wanted to stay on Raymond's good side.

Interplanetary News Services, Planet Hanover, Karen System, Seventy Light Years from Terra

Peter Broaden, was the news director for Interplanetary News Services on Planet Hanover. It was his job to decide what stories were broadcast when and from which channel. He had to determine if the story was of local interest, planetary interest, or something that could be of interest to the entire Union.

Peter opened an unusual note from Naval Station Folden, indicating there was a report from an FTL coms probe for the news services from Liramor-23 Mining Platform. That was unusual. The Navy usually passed these kinds of stories through a Public Relations Officer.

When he opened the story, he realized that it didn't come from the navy, but was passed through the navy. That piqued his curiosity.

He recognized the face of the reporter, Cynthia Stewart, an up and comer. Not Anchor Reporter level, but a growing face in the business. She had a good nose for interesting news tidbits, but sadly lacked a string of major stories.

The preface showed that there were four pieces, a two-minute and a five-minute capsule news piece, a fifteen-minute explanation, and a documentary-level presentation all on the same story, a new ship and its capabilities.

Peter cued up the short capsule news piece and was immediately intrigued by the story. Ya, she was showing again her penchant for finding the unusual. New M/A generators capable of cycling within an hour? That was new. A ship that had a leap capacity of forty-five light years. OK, the techies would find this of interest.

There was an image of a navy captain in the cue. Damn he was good looking, holo-vid star quality looks. Capt. Raymond Clark? He was the owner? Wait, a navy captain that can afford a private ship? Is there another story here?

Peter called up the name on his comp and sat up immediately when the information came up. OK, NOW she had his interest, THAT Raymond Clark!

He immediately cued up the fifteen-minute piece. It was a more technical piece but not something that was beyond the average citizen. Good explanation on the capabilities of the ship. WOW! The ship's captain indicated that another ship in the class just circumnavigated human space in under sixteen hours! Why had no one heard about that feat?

The interviews with the ship's captain and owner were good, clean products. The one of the ship's captain the more technical piece, but Cynthia skilfully worked him to dumb it down for the average consumer when he got overly excited in his ship.

The owner was dressed in full navy regalia. The style of the interview was more human interest and with that face and the bling he was wearing it was a perfect piece. Damn, that woman could pick them.

He sent the two pieces to the station's producer telling him they were definitely Union level interest pieces and there was a documentary level piece associated with them. That would get his attention.

There were a couple of smaller items. He cued them. What the hell was the Battle of Liramor-23? Never heard of it. Two different miners from the platform had engaged pirates...WAIT? PIRATES? Attacking a mining platform?

He looked up the synopsis on the Battle...Liramor-23 Mining Platform defended itself from pirates with the help of the navy. FOURTEEN PIRATE SHIPS DESTROYED? Why hadn't he heard of this battle?

Wait? The miners had engaged the pirates? Some were awarded the Medal of Bravery and the Cross of Bravery! OK, he wanted more of this story. Why had nobody heard of this?

Oh, footnote says that the story on the battle was supressed through, the Senate? Cynthia was asking if someone could investigate that and find out why and who would have the power to supress a story like that.

News investigation story? That could be interesting. He would have to find out if there was a legal ground for supressing the story. He'd let the Terran services handle that issue. They were savvy enough to keep their noses out of trouble with the authorities, while still getting answers to unwanted questions.

Frank Cassie, the station producer, popped his head into the room. The two worked out how they would distribute the items and on what specialty channels. Peter showed Frank the notes on the Battle of Liramor-23. That got Frank's attention. He agreed to send a note to Terra for further clarification before they ran that story themselves.

Peter wondered how they could get in touch with Ms. Stewart. He looked up Liramor-23 and discovered that it was in a mining platform the Piscium system and the rights to the system belonged to Liramor Holdings on Liramor Prime. Shit, that would mean sending requests through a long chain. That's when he saw a contact listing for PO1 Ferth, at the comms unit of Folden Naval Base.

"Folden Naval Station, Station Comms, PO1 Ferth speaking," came the disembodied voice.

"PO, this is Peter Broaden, Interplanetary News Services. You sent us a news item from our reporter Cynthia Stewart on Liramor-23," Peter started.

"Yes, sir," the PO responded. "I have an indication here that we are to act as an intermediary between you and your reporter on Liramor-23. The only admonition is that nothing can go encrypted, as it is going through military channels."

"OK, we can live with that," Peter readily agreed. "How often can I send or receive items from Ms. Stewart," he asked the PO.

"We have a daily comms run via FTL comms probe. It leaves here every morning at 06:00 hrs local time at the base. The probe has a thirty-six light year leap, so it arrives at Liramor-23 roughly six hours after it leaves. Liramor-23 sends a comms probe out at 05:00 hrs local time which is approximately 04:30 our time, so we get an answer back in in a little over twenty four hours, between 10:00 and 11:00 hrs the following day," the PO informed him.

That made the e-mails close to a thirty-hour return, better than for most of the Union, which was perfect for his needs. Peter made arrangements to send a return e-mail message to their reporter. This was going to make his life so much easier.

Pallanders Orbital Shipyard, Liramor Prime, Liramor System, thirty Light Years from Terra

Martin Pallanders was ecstatic. His father had given him the go ahead for the new project, and he was working out requirements and costs. He had tapped into Master Chief's Sprawl's amazing logistical mind to solve problems in minutes that would have taken him days. He would have to hire the man when he retired, after all, it was his suggestion that Martin was working on.

David had been very much impressed by his trip to Folden Naval Base, and had heard of the trip The Valiant had conducted from Liramor-23, to Liramor Prime, to Terra, to Folden Naval Base, and back to Liramor-23, all in ten hours!

David had noted that commercial airlines moved millions of passengers around Liramor Prime every year, yet the number of interplanetary passengers was relatively minor in comparison. The main reasons being that commercial airlines took only a few hours to move people around a world, while interplanetary spaceliners took days to make trips between worlds.

David had asked the obvious, now that they had ships that could do interplanetary travel in the same timelines as commercial airlines, why not create an interplanetary commercial spaceline with a same day return between planets?

Such a simple thought, and no one had put it together. People needed to move between planets, but the move cost money, plenty of money. C2000 for a trip to Terra in a tiny cabin on the slowest cargo ship available. C5000 for a relatively comfortable seat on a passenger ship, more on a luxury vessel.

The point was, however, each of these modes of interplanetary transport took time, sometimes days of ship time, to get to your destination. What if, WHAT IF, you had a fixed 'Interplanetary Transportation Net', a sort of spaceliner service, with Terra as the hub, that could cut down the travel time? You could make interplanetary travel affordable to the masses the same way as commercial airlines made intercontinental travel affordable.

With the new Princess Class ships, any planet was within one day's return travel! Even Hadrian's Planet, currently the furthest inhabitable planet from Terra at 142 light years, was only a little over four hours travel time with the forty-five light year leap capacity of the ships and was a little over three hours travel time with the sixty light year leap of the newer FTL engines.

What was coming up as the biggest surprise, was the cost to construct and run the ships. At C20-25 million per vessel, that was well within the cost of the planetary aircraft industry. With economy of numbers, the more ships they built the less the cost, to a certain degree.

The two had worked out what the ships would need, one cargo deck, and two passenger decks. They wouldn't need crew quarters but would still need eight crew, consisting mainly of bridge crew and engineering crew, plus a service team of stewards similar to that of commercial aircraft. But those crew could go home at the end of each day or stay in a hotel overnight as commercial airliners did.

The area that was currently being used as crew quarters on the Princess Class, would become cargo space, giving the ship a good-sized capacity for package deliveries and trans-shipments. The second deck would be for commercial-class passengers, while business and first-class passengers would be on the upper deck.

David had suggested to Martin to acquire a passenger fleet service certificate from Terra. The cost of the certification was relatively insignificant, however, building the required fleet was the most significant cost to most services. Currently, it cost nearly a billion credits to build the larger transport ships and far more for luxury liners.

Here, the new vessels would have a decided edge being of significantly less cost to build, run, and maintain. Their speed would be the largest factor. The most compelling factor to the average consumer was the price per seat. You could put interplanetary travel into the same price range as intercontinental travel!