All That Glitters

New capabilities, The Wanderer wanders. Pirates plan.

The Wanderer finally enters the story. New capabilities for some ships. Pirates make plans to hit the platform, again!

Because of the amount of abbreviations in this story, I include a glossary. By popular request, this has been moved to the end of the chapter.

There is little attempt to explain the back story, so it is necessary to read previous chapters to fully understand where we are.

As before, I claim sole responsibility for the story line. This story is a fantasy, with no basis in reality. Any similarity that you may perceive to current events, people, or situations real or imaginary is completely unintended. Look no further than the story line for its intent and purpose.

A big shout out to SaddleRidder for all the help she has provided in editing, so many small errors I had made that make a second pair of eyes necessary. If you find any errors still left in this chapter, they are mine.

Please rate and comment. But keep your comments respectful. If you rant and rave or are disrespectful in your commentary, it will be deleted.

'Nuff said...enjoy.

NS Churchill, Piscium System, 106 Light Years from Terra

Cdr. John Seldon was pissed off, really pissed off. His new command, fresh out of refit, was a technical piece of shit. The ship was constantly having major electrical issues, and the Chief Engineer couldn't find the source.

Sometimes the ship wouldn't have sufficient power to do things, like an FTL jump, or fire the weapons, and other times, they got so much power thru put that they were burning out electrical systems.

In short, the ship was unreliable, and he and the ChEng couldn't figure out why. They had just run three days worth of drills, attempting to find the source of the power issues, but constantly drawing a blank. If they didn't get on top of it soon, the ship would have to be removed from service and that would put a black mark on his record, and the records of the senior personnel on the vessel.

It was a lose-lose situation for him and his crew, and he didn't know how to get around it.

Conference Room One, Liramor-23 Mining Platform, Piscium System

NS Dewfall had finally left, taking with it the JAG and his team and all the prisoners. Because the majority had received death sentences, the pirates would automatically be allowed to appeal. But that appeal could happen at another venue, so the ship departed. Fiona would miss the morning chats with Adm. Hannison. They had given her so much insight into her position as commander of the Piscium system.

Fiona was looking at her schedule for the next week. Besides going to the naming ceremony at Pallanders Orbital Shipyard, she had the supplies for the new ship coming this week.

Ammunition, missiles, torpedoes, various kinds of mines, Combat Shuttles, Combat Drop Shuttles, specialized combat kits such as space jumper kits, were all coming into the NQM on Liramor-23, who had requisitioned one of the construction bays for himself and another for the Marine company soon to arrive. The sundries necessary for the new ship, and for the current six combat ships, meant he needed the extra space.

But now, she was talking to one of her newest captains, and the news wasn't good.

"And you can't figure out why?" Fiona asked of Cdr. Seldon on the issue of the Churchill's problems.

"No, ma'am," he admitted. "Whatever it is, it is a ghost. One minute, we have no issues, the next we have no power, or are burning out electrical units because of too much power. It's an anomaly, and we cannot run it down. The ship is fresh out of refit and was certified space worthy, so we cannot go back against the contractor without cause.

"We've checked with the other ships chief engineers, and they are drawing a blank as well. No one can figure this out," he finished.

"In three days, I'm going to Pallanders Orbital Shipyard on Liramor Prime for the naming ceremony of a new ship," Fiona stated. "I want you and your ship with me as an 'escort'. Well get the ship into a bay and have their experts take a look at it. If they can find the problem, we can get a solution. If not, we will be able to say that as well.

"Thank-you John for not trying to hide this issue. A lot of people in your position might have," Fiona said.

Fiona sighed; it would be a long week.

Pallanders Orbital shipyard, Liramor Prime, Liramor System, Thirty Light Years from Terra

The Valour's captain, Abigail Moore, guided the ship into the designated spot in the maintenance bay. They would be there all day, which would give Pallanders the time they needed to make a few upgrades. She could see the pieces laid out around them as the ship settled onto her landing struts. It would be a long day for her and the crew.

The commercial gantry swung down and sealed itself to the forward hatch as Fiona Marsh marched up the gangway with her captains in tow. She had made the trip with all her senior navy staff for the naming ceremony of this amazing ship. The only person missing from her crews was Cdr. Seldon as, being far less capable than The Valour, the Churchill was still working its way towards Liramor Prime. NS Churchill had left Liramor-23 the evening before The Valour, and Fiona expected him and his Ex O to be on hand later in the morning before the naming ceremony.

Fiona walked into the conference room with her entourage only to be surprised by who was there already her...just about every senior admiral from Terra was present.

General Vertim, the Joint Chief of Staff, was front and center, as well as General Drall, Commander of the Marines. There were of course familiar faces, such as Adm. Ramison, Chief of the Navy, Adm. Hannison, JAG of the Navy, Adm. Heist Chief of Naval Intelligence, FAdm. Thenton, Commander Sector Forty-Two, and also FAdm. Abrielle Matisse, Commander Sector Forty-Three, present as a courtesy as Liramor Prime was in her sector.

Thenton took the time to introduce his favorite Commodore to those who had never met her. Her captains were left on their own for a brief period, the only person from her entourage with her was her aide, Cdr. Helga Hellebore who felt decidedly out of place amongst all the flag officers.

Cdr. Seldon and his Ex O finally arrived, and Fiona broke away from the other flags to chat briefly with him. He confirmed that Pallanders was looking at the problem and that the Churchill's ChEng was with them.

A Pallanders representative entered the room and advised all that shuttles would be departing shortly for the vessel. People were broken into groups and shuttled over to the new, as yet, formally unnamed ship.

Everyone was gathered in the large main assembly deck. There were a lot more dignitaries there, including representatives of the Liramor family, President Lapierre of Liramor Prime, Dr. Aruna, VIP staff for Liea and Raymond, the ship's crew, and a few media who had already been advised as to what they could and could not cover.

Once everyone was settled, François Pallanders stepped forward.

"Today, we are formally naming a ship by the hands of its new owners, Raymond Clark and Liea Samson. Pallanders has worked on this ship for close to five months now, and it is one of the best ships we have ever produced.

"With the assistance of Dr. Ohiraha Aruna's electrical lab," and here he took Dr. Aruna's hand and kissed it, "we have a truly state of the art, one of a kind ship.

"She has new M/A generators that take the capabilities of this ship to a much higher level. She has improved sub-light engines and FTL drives. She has improved weapons capabilities, improved shields, and improved power management capabilities that currently do not exist on any other ship.

"The ships certification trials should take about two months and will show the full capabilities of this fine vessel. When they are complete, you will have one of the best private yachts in known space," he said with a knowing smile and waited for the laughter to die down.

"The navy is interested because of the new modifications that have been made to this ship. They have seen what those mods can do on the Princess Class and Sprawl Class small fast-ships, but this will be the first time they will have the opportunity to appreciate a large vessel with these mods. I think they will be pleasantly surprised.

"Raymond, Liea, if you would come forward please," he asked.

The two came forward and were directed toward a small platform with stairs. They easily climbed onto the platform and together took hold of the bottle on a string.

"We name this ship, The Wanderer," they said in unison and released the bottle. The bottle swung through a large arc and successfully crashed against a spot on the wall to the resounding cheer of all assembled.

For the next three hours, people dispersed around the ship for a first look at the magnificent vessel. Near the end of the tour, most wound up in the ship's combined mess for a delightful and much acclaimed afternoon meal cooked by Siobhan Riley and her staff.

Eventually, the dignitaries were rounded up and shuttled back to the Orbital Shipyard, from where they would disperse to different parts of the Union.

Construction Bay, Pallanders Orbital Shipyard, Liramor Prime, Liramor System

Adm. Ramison, Adm. Hannison, Adm. Heist, FAdm. Thenton, FAdm. Matisse, Cmdre. Marsh and all the captains of the Piscium Defence Force were standing in the conference room as the Pallanders Chief Engineer, Pascal Dejeu, went over the problems he found with the NS Churchill.

"The 'ghost' problem was really quite easily figured out. There is a weak place in the power wiring harness that affects the flow of power through it and into the systems. However, since power is coming from different generators at different times, power going through this weak place goes through in different directional flows, thus the problem shows as intermittent. Also, the amount of peak power going through it is intermittent.

"This means that when the weak place is hit, it can cause several things to happen. It can push all the power all at once, which we don't want to see, it can fail and let no power through at all, or it can let some of the power through dependent on the direction of flow from the power source to the system seeking power.

"The reason for this is quite simple: the wiring harness was not replaced during the recent refit. This might have been accidentally missed but, from what other problems we have found, we do not think this is the case.

"There are over eight kilometers of power wiring in this ship class. It looks like only two, possibly three km, were replaced." And here he threw up a detail of what looked like burnt out wiring.

"Also, the Marilon generators should have been replaced, but it looks like the serial numbers of the generators were tampered with, making it appear they were replaced when in fact they were not." And once again he showed imagery indicating what he said. "If you were only looking to confirm the generator's serial number, one could easily miss this.

"The automatic missile/torpedo loaders have not been cleaned of old grease nor repacked with new. They would function for awhile, possibly for up to five years if you are lucky, but eventually the loaders would fail, most likely in battle.

"The power buffers on the pulse cannon have not been cleaned. Their efficiency would be severely reduced, so much so that if this ship went into battle, it would not likely survive.

"We looked at the FTL drives and found that electrical points have not been cleaned and some should have been replaced, meaning the FTL drives would be down by at least twenty percent and that would decrease dramatically over the next five years.

"The sub-light engines appear not to have been worked at all. Where things were in the open, everything is clean and properly done, but behind closed panels, very little was completed. Overall, this was not shoddy workmanship, this was a deliberate case of fraud of work not completed according to specs," he finished.

"This ship was in refit for over a year, and this is the result of that work?" Thenton asked of no one in particular.

"What was the cost?" Ramison asked.

"Cost overruns pushed the final to C110 million," Thenton told him.

"What would you charge to make repairs on this vessel and how long would it take?" Ramison asked of the Pallanders engineer.

"Around C50 million, give or take a million. It might take us three weeks," he told them.

"WHAT!!" Ramison screamed. "Are you trying to pull a fast one on us?"

"Not at all. The Whippet Class is an escort ship and takes heavy fire when it is active. Because of this, she is designed for ease of access for repair. We can open her outer hull completely and rip out the old power harness and replace it inside of four days.

"We have new sub-light engines that can replace the old ones in two days. We have a new more capable FTL drive ready for this kind of ship, and it can be installed in three days. The biggest headache will be replacing the Marilon generators because they are heavily shielded and ripping out the miles of power and control wiring. Getting those out and replaced will be an all-hands evolution.

"We currently do not have the manpower to do this work ourselves, so your crew would have to remain with the vessel and assist the repair team. However, our combined efforts can get the job done inside of three weeks. With luck, in two weeks, but I think closer to three.

"Then there are the power buffers for the pulse cannon. Getting access to them will again be an all-hands evolution. The easiest way to fix them is to pull the turrets from the ship to get access to everything. But we will not just clean the buffers, we will replace them with items from Dr. Aruna's lab. The ship's pulse cannons will be much improved and decidedly more capable.

"Your engineer, in fact your entire crew, can watch and help as we do the repairs, they can verify everything we do, not that we would do what this other company has done," he finished.

"You have all the parts necessary already?" Thenton asked.

The engineer nodded. "We have a private yacht based on the Whippet Class that is due for refit. The owner has been hemming and hawing over the cost of refit. We are tired of waiting for him. His loss, your gain."

"What will we have when you are finished?" Ramison asked.

"New and improved M/A generators, new and improved sub-light engines, new and improved FTL drive, new and improved FTL vanes, new and improved pulse cannon, new and improved shielding against plasma/pulse cannon fire, new power and control wiring harnesses, your missile/torpedo autoloaders will be like they came off the assembly line, new navigation computers and programs, a new command and control system, new and improved weapons fire control system, improved holo-vid monitors throughout the ship, we can even update your kitchen if you like," he said with a grin.

"I want you to document what you find as you take the ship apart," Ramison told him. "We will go after this company with that as proof. In addition, I think we will look at what other jobs they may have 'completed' recently to see if there are problems with those ships."

"How long to recertify her when the job is complete?" Ramison asked.

"Less than a month. We are not going to do structural modifications that would require major recertification. We just need to confirm the work that has been completed and test the new systems," the engineer said.

"You do this in the timeline and price you have indicated and you will get more jobs from the navy, especially if The Wanderer shows to be what you claim it will be," Ramison stated with conviction.

"You understand that this speed is only for the Whippet Class ships. Other ships are not made to come apart as easily. It would take time to refit them, though not nearly as long as this other company took," Dejeu told him directly.

"You completed the refit on The Wanderer in five months," Ramison stated. "That's pretty impressive considering the internal modifications that were necessary and all the work that you did to her."

"Extra hands, and the refit on that ship was considerably more expensive," Dejeu told him.

"When can you start the repairs?" Thenton asked.

"Today if you want," Dejeu answered.

Thenton looked at Fiona, who nodded.

"Cdr. Seldon, you will remain here with your ship and crew until the refit on your ship is complete," Fiona ordered. "Pallanders will see to your accommodations as the outer hull will be open. Advise via the FTL comms probe from Liramor Holdings when you start your recertification trials."

Seldon was ecstatic. If all went well, he would have a much improved ship back in three weeks. It would be hard on his people for awhile, but the ship's morale would get a boost once the problems were fixed.

Just then, François Pallanders came into the room. "Ah, good, I'm glad I caught all of you here.

"I have some interesting news for you Fiona. We have upgraded your ship, but we did a little modification to it as well. This will make your ship the lead ship in a new class of Navy Fast-Ship, The Valour Class.

"Each ship in the new class will be named after a person who has been awarded the Cross of Valour, military or civilian. The lead ship still retains the name 'The Valour' but also has this little addition." Here, François called up an image of the nose of the ship.

The name The Valour was still very prominent but, the Cross of Valour now was better represented. Underneath the cross in a crescent formation, was the name 'Fiona Marsh'.

"The upgrades we promised you are now on your ship. The sub-light engines have been replaced; it took us six hours to swap them out. The FTL drive has received a modification that will seriously boost its performance, three hours worth of work done concurrently with the sub-light engines. Your ship's comps have new nav programs that can handle the upgrades, and you now have a plasma/pulse shield that can take a few hits, but she is a small ship so don't take too many," he said with a smile.

"However, it's the modification that you might be interested in. Because you are a Navy Commodore, we originally built your ship to accept this little change. I think you will like it. I know FAdm. Thenton will," he finished with a smile.

The senior Pallanders escorted them to the viewing window for the construction bay where The Valour had undergone her refit. They eagerly crowded around to get their first look at the vessel.

The big difference was what looked to be a twin gun turret on the top of the vessel with the guns pointed aft.

"What the hell is that?" Fiona asked.

"Twin fifty millimeter rail gun turret," François told them. "We got the idea from the modifications wanted by Raymond Clark for the Wanderer.

"The turret is a little smaller to fit onto The Valour and to provide the necessary aerodynamics for in atmosphere flight, so it can only hold 6,000 rounds of ammunition per gun for a total of 12,000 rounds. The loading and firing sequences are automated and she is fed from cannisters that can easily be replaced from inside the vessel.

"It has a cyclic rate of 720 rounds per minute per gun, 12 rounds per second, the guns firing in counterpoint which means they fire one after another and not together. A one second burst will send twenty-four rounds down range.

"The rounds are set with one in every three being a tracer round, so you can clearly see the projectile tracks. The rounds are in groups of six with a high-density armour-piercing round, followed by a high-explosive armour-piercing round, followed by a standard round, or ball, with tracer, followed by a high-density armour-piercing with enhanced lateral penetration, followed by a high-explosive round, followed by a ball with tracer, and repeat.