Space Wrecker Ch. 02

If you just found this story, you might want to read the previous story (Space Wrecker), to get up to date. As in all previous stories, all the errors are mine. All characters are over the age of eighteen.

Lastly, thank you readers, without you, I most likely would be spending too much on my other hobbies, enjoy.

The Galveston jumped into normal space with a flash of light as some of the half-life subspace particles were pulled into normal space to only burn out in seconds. The two FTL's drives opened a hole into normal space and pulled the ship and some traces of those particles into normal space. I sat back and relaxed from the exotic forces. The longer wavelengths of gravity and electro-chemical interactions of subspace on the human body frazzled most people.

Some people lost it in subspace, as subspace protons played hell with the neurotransmitters of the brain. I was told it is a learned tolerance. The first time, it scared the hell out of me. By the time I was planet side on earth going to wrecker school, I was an old hat at it. The UN Galveston broke out of subspace a million miles outside the goldilocks zone of the Kazar system.

I was returning to Kazar II.

When the first UNN scout ship passed by this system, all they found was a dead rock circling a class 'G' star. A second pass through year's later saw what the first fly by didn't. Kazar II, an 'M' class planet circling one hundred and eighty-two days behind Kazar one.

The only problem was, it was open territory and the Felidae Federation or the cats found it at the same time we did. Well, when two very dominant races find something that both wanted, eventually there was going to be a fight over who gets it.

The Felidae Federation and UNN bordered this system, and tensions between our two races had been running high for the last thirty years. My long-range sensors picked up the debris from that fight. SARA my on board AI already had the Galveston on a slow reverse, slowing me down from near light speed. I broke into normal space closer than allowed with a normal or occupied solar system.

I was coming in hot and the reverse drives were at nearly ninety percent, slowing my ship. This was my twenty-eighth trip to the Kazar system, and I was now pulling dead ships slated for the scrap yards. Over the last nine months, I have been pulling military wrecks back from the battle.

It was as if Kazar was my personal fishing hole. No other space wreckers companies wanted to deal with an active war zone to just make a few million credits now. I had already stripped all the salvageable ships by the time the UNN and the Felidae signed a peace treaty. I had over a half a billion credits in bills pending or paid by the United Nations Naval Department, bringing in the wrecks from the battle of Kazar.

I have taken the cream of the crop and now I am pulling in the bottom dregs. There still was several trillion of credits worth of flotsam around Kazar II. But all of it was off limits to UN people. It belonged to the cats. And no one had a contract with them.

The Galveston was just under six hundred million MPH when medium range sensors lit up saying there were active, new ships floating around Kazar II.

"SARA, please identify the new ships."

It still felt strange talking to my ship. But my ex-lover and friend? Chree Ticaozah from Miller industries was more than a salesperson for them. She was also one of their better technicians. She had turned on all the features I had paid for, including SARA, my AI. She even negotiated a ten-year warranty extension to my five-year contract and a lifetime software upgrade, since Miller was showing videos of the Galveston in action in their sales commercials.

Since then I have added a second quantum memory bank and had SARA upgraded to a full personality AI with predictive capabilities. But you could only upgrade your onboard AI so far, before they introduced the Artificial Intelligence act of 2231. No AI shall have over one-half of human thought power.

The act kept people from getting lazy and kept computers from making important decisions, like they did in the early 2200's. Why think when a machine can do the job for you. SARA was right at the edge of that law, or maybe more. I added several extra memory trays myself for my book collection. I might have configured the software wrong. She was now a full working member of my crew.

'Ships identified. One medium class Felidae cruiser and several smaller ships, possibly short range fighters.'

"SARA," I screamed, "Take evasive action, turn us away from Kazar II's orbit!"

'Turning. Captain, we are being scanned.'

"Nothing we can do about that, maximum power to turn us SARA."

I felt the Galveston shudder as she turned the ship.

'Captain, we are being hailed. Incoming signal identified from a Felidae cruiser class vessel.'

"Play message."

"UN Galveston this Felidae Federation Cruiser Zenfolio please respond."

'Captain,' SARA said, 'the Zenfolio is requesting a video uplink on subspace gamma channel four.'

I didn't know what to do; we had a peace treaty. But still we just fought a major battle with them, albeit a brief engagement.

"Keep turning the ship. And open this video link."

The main data screen in the command center went from read outs to a slightly grainy picture of a cat in one of their signature leather outfits. The close up of his face confirmed to me they sort of look like a lioness from earth. He had yellowish amber eyes and a long, sharply defined muzzle. Almost an exact copy of a lion's face, but was missing the around the face mane of hair that male lions had, instead he had a full head of brown hair tied into some sort of elaborate knot on the back of his head.

When he opened his mouth to speak, I saw slightly long fang-like teeth in the front and a set of molars in the back, as most humans had. His voice was lower pitched than what I was expecting.

"UN Galveston, I am Captain Moser of the Felidae Federation, Captain of the FF Zenfolio. We mean you no harm. Our peoples have a signed peace treaty with yours. You may enter the Kazar II's orbit with no threat of harm to you or your ship."

I hesitated, not sure, if I wanted to put my ship in that sort of situation. I saw him close his eyes and nod his head yes.

"On my honor Captain, we mean no harm to you or your ship."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "SARA stop the emergency evasive action and bring us to a static stop."

I looked at the screen. "Captain Moser, you must forgive my actions. The UN Galveston is not a ship of war. She is a deep space heavy wrecker."

Captain Moser nodded his head yes. "I understand Captain. We are aware of your ship and its capabilities. We have witnessed your ship and its remarkable capabilities removing all the UNN's heavy ships of war. That is the reason my ship, and I are here. My King has ordered me to await your next arrival to offer you an exclusive contract in recovering the Felidae ships."

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting the anxiety of finding a war ship in orbit. I didn't know if I wanted to subject the Galveston to Felidae space just after fighting a war with them. But my fingers were already typing a course change to bring me back into the orbit of Kazar II. I was thinking, too bad. It did not look like I was going to get to the Sirus system this year..., but a missed tow is a missed payday.

"Captain Moser of the FF Zenfolio, I am Captain Walker of the UN Galveston. On your word of honor, I am changing directions and coming into orbit above Kazar II."

"Greetings Captain Walker of the U.N. Galveston and well met. My crew and I await your arrival. Till then, be at peace."

I nodded to him as they cut the video link. I looked down at the course corrections. SARA was turning the Galveston back towards Kazar II at a slower pace. I bit my lip, slightly worried. "SARA, do you have the technical read out of the FF Zenfolio?"

'Negative Captain, but Wikipedia lists the FF Zenfolio as a registered Medium class cruiser of the Felidae Federation. She is a three hundred million ton battle cruiser, it is thought to have twelve inches of hardened steel and reactive ceramic plating. It has four main hyper rail guns in the six-inch class. It has four forward and aft missile tubes. She has sixteen smaller three inch rail guns down each side and six dorsal and pectoral gun emplacements.'

'She has ninety known thirty millimeter Gatling cannons around her whole perimeter giving her a three hundred and sixty degree continuous field of fire. They estimated her to have a crew of one hundred and sixty. Her key role is a close support craft for the Felidae main battle group in either support of a battleship or carrier group.'

'Would you like the history of the Felidae federations medium Cruiser class warships Captain?'

"No, thank you SARA."

I sat there tapping my finger next to the enter-key. There was little survivability if the Zenfolio was going to be hostile. All I could do is to surrender the Galveston and hope for rescue. I typed out a message to the UNN Admiralty, including the video recordings between us. Then as a postscript, I wrote I was proceeding with caution.

With that sent, I looked over my options. I was already taking the scrap ships to Taurus, prime to the floating scrap yards. As with any naval engagement in the far reaches of space, it would have been more cost effective to land the wrecks on Kazar II and recycle the steel here than drag them through the twenty-six light years to Taurus prime.

But neither species had an established colony on Kazar II. If I did not outright own the Galveston, I did not even know if I would cover operational costs at this phase of the recovery.

I sat there for two hours watching the Zenfolio and several smaller ships going through the debris field as the Galveston slowly came into orbit around the planet. As I parked the Galveston a few hundred miles above the debris field, I could finally see what SARA thought might be small fighters were small, solar type Felidae wreckers trying to move some of the bigger ships.

These smaller Solar sized wreckers could only move some of the medium cruisers working in tandem or triples. They had one medium-sized wrecker on scene. About the same size as a Miller, four thousand.

She would need at least three heavy tugs to move the one battleship. And none of those were on scene. There was just enough UNN junk floating around. I could just cable it together, add a few mag-clamps, then fly it to Taurus prime in one shot and forget about the Felidae's offer. But the thought of moving their main, intact battleship had me more than interested.

There were several small skiffs tethered to it. The radiation levels were low to background. They must have pulled the main rods out of the core and moved them into lead storage. I sat there, staring at the large battleship. She was near the same size and length as Sri Lanka and Greenland. The battleships I towed to Briggs. The Felidae-ians had nothing on site to move her.

The second battleship was a total write-off. It looked like it took a direct shot to her reactor core and it went critical. There were no skiff's or other ships near her broken hull. When her core went critical, the resulting explosion split the hull cleanly in two. When I cruised by her nearly a year ago she was still leaking massive amounts of radiation, and as I drifted by her today she was still leaking radiation, more than my shielding could handle, so I gave her a wide berth.

I turned my thoughts to the intact battleship. I was thinking of where to attach the five hundreds when SARA informed me of an incoming video call. I opened the request as Captain Moser's face appeared on my screen. He was not on the bridge of his ship this time, but in some sort of conference room. I nodded, "Captain Moser."

"Captain Walker, have you thought about our offer?"

I nodded yes. "Yes, Captain, I have, but I have a few questions. Which ships were you looking to bring to dry dock and where is your dry dock?"

"We were hoping to bring in everything and for our dry dock's location, we would guide you in." Captain Moser turned and looked at another screen. I could not hear what they said. He must have muted the audio portion. But he was nodding yes with a look of getting his tail chewed off. Suddenly, my view screen split in two and another Felidae appeared in it.

He was wearing a bright white, loose-fitting type shirt of some gauze type material. His long muzzle had a bit of grey, as did his brown hair. The room that he was sitting in looked expensive, the rich dark wood curio cabinet behind him held gold and silver ancient types of weapons in it.

His bright yellowish amber eyes were studying me. As if, he could read me. The Felidae-ian stared at me for a few seconds. I did the same as he moved his head slightly from side to side, looking between two monitors. It appeared their neck structure had the same range of motion as humans did. The sides of his muzzle curled into what looked like a snarl. But his eyes opened a bit more. A cat grin?

"Captain Mark Walker of Back Water Recoveries, a fitting name or an entertaining jest. Excellent word play. The owner and operator of the UN Galveston. I am Chokota Howfio, ruler of the Felidae federation."

I sat up and bowed from my seat. "Sir, this is an honor."

Chokota laughed, a huffing sounding one that shook his entire body. "It might have been Captain Walker or could have been, except for this fiasco that my late Admirals got my people into." He waved his hand in dismissal, saying, "But that is a discussion for another time," a very human-like gesture.

"Now I have watched all the videos of you bringing in the UNN's great battleships all by yourself. Very impressive young man. I, we want the same, bring home my fleet to the Domnia system, or star NP-10145 on your human star charts."

"My King please, don't announce to the galaxy our home world's location, it's a military secret!"

"Military secret, my ass!" Chokota shouted at Captain Moser. "Quiet Captain, you and your precious Admiralty got us into this mess, and I had to negotiate us out of it."

Chokota turned and smiled at me. "I am sorry, Captain Walker, for that brief outburst. We are still clearing up a little faux pas in my military command. It looks like I still have a little weeding to do. Now our dry docks are in orbit around our home planet. I believe it is a three FTL jump from your current location. Now the question is, can or will you bring my battleships home?"

"Your Majesty, the...,"

Chokota laughed, "Sir or sire will do, Captain, you're not a citizen of Felidae Federation nor my subject."

"Thank you... sire. Of your two battleships, the first one, the one still intact, I can deliver in one piece. The other with a reactor breach, we are going to have to call in a specialty team and coat the entire face to contain the radiation, then it will have to be brought back in two pieces."

"Jerlir." a female voice said off screen. I didn't know who's screen the mysterious was shouting from. Then the mysterious voice said, "Just plate the Conda back together and bring it in whole, you are trying to charge us double for the same job."

That is when I saw a female Felidae walk up behind Captain Moser. I swore under my breath. Female Felidae-ians were beautiful.

She had long golden colored hair that flowed down her back that was a shade or two lighter than her golden colored fur. Her two prominent cat ears flowed up from the side of her head that ended several inches above the top of her head. She had a slightly shorter muzzle than both of male Felidae-ians I was viewing. She had fuller lips, almost human full. Except her top lip had that split just under her nose like most felines. A feature that she and the two males shared.

She wore a very revealing leather vest that struggled to hide, two very large breasts. 'D' cup? She had a narrow waist and those wide flaring hips that every digitigrade legged species had. She wore tight black leather half pants that outlined her lower body, leaving very little to your imagination. The fur on her lower muzzle, cheeks and chest was a bright white that highlighted that part of her.

His majesty Chokota Howfio's facial expression turned dark. He half squinted his eyes and the sides of his muzzle curled up pulling his upper lips away from his front K9's showing his longer pure white fangs. I even flinched from it as he barked out.

"Julie Ann! Silence! Captain Walker is a professional. I will not have you disrespect him. Apologize this instant, or I will have Captain Moser, target the Zenfolia's guns on your toy ship! And have him bring you home in the brig"

Julie Ann's eyes flared. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Don't push me, daughter, now apologize!"

"Nedra!"

"Captain Moser, I order you to target the Xanadu and destroy it."

"Yes, your Majesty." He pressed a button saying, "Fire Control this Captain Moser. Target the Xanadu and wait for further orders."

It looked like Julie Ann flinched. Her defiant look changed. She curled up a bit and laid her ears completely flat to her head, and she sputtered, "Wait! Please father..., don't. I will..., I will apologize." She turned to my screen. "Captain Walker, I apologize for calling you a... a thief. Please forgive me."

I smiled and nodded yes. It was interesting watching this power play from what was obviously Chokota's daughter and her father.

"All is forgiven."

"Now not another word from you young girl." Chokota barked. "Now Captain Walker, what do you require bringing home the Tolkien and the Conda?"

"I looked down at my readouts. Preliminary read outs list both ships in the seven hundred and fifty million ton range, but not an exact weight. Nor did it list hull material type or internal weight dynamics. Looking up I said, "The technical drawings to both would save me several days scanning them, thus reduce the costs."

Seeing Captain Moser was about to protest, I added. "First, I will sign and transmit an NDA. An airtight, non-disclosure agreement, I will only use these drawings to have my engineering software determine the best place to attach my transport motors. I will not copy, distribute, or reproduce them in any shape or form and promise to delete them from the Galveston's memory banks on the completion of the job."

Then looking directly at his highness Chokota, "On my honor."

Chokota chuckled. "Funny, Captain Walker, I have been hearing that phrase a lot lately. So what is it going to cost me to get all my toys home?"

I looked over the battlefield. The Felidae-ians brought two battle fleets like the UNN did, but failed to bring a carrier. The carrier UNN Okinawa was far enough away and endured minor battle damage. She was able to fly back to Fort Brigg, all on her own. The carrier New Zealand was in transit at the start of the battle and only played a minor role near the end. The New Zealand's rescue ships were the ones that removed all the damaged fighters even before I came.

If they wanted all their ships back..., I started mentally adding the tonnage, then adding the travel time, Briggs was a two FTL jump..., "I would say about Five hundred and fifty mil, baring incidentals and perishables. But this job has to be on my timeline. I can deliver the first battleship, the whole one...,"

"Her name is the 'Tolkien', Captain Walker," Chokota said proudly. The FF Tolkien, we named her after a writer in your earth's history."

I nodded yes, wondering about that after I heard its name.

"I can deliver the Tolkien immediately, and on the return, stop and cable the last of the UNN's fleet and deliver it. Finishing my contractual obligations with the UNN. Five to Ten solar cycles outbound, the same on the rebound. I will have to stop at the space station, Briggs, to resupply and come back to bring part of the Conda in."