BEEP BEEP BEEP! My hand shot out to where the alarm clock would usually be. I remembered a second to late, as my hand slammed painfully into a rough bulkhead, that I was in the pilots seat of my small freighter the Bravo. I withdrew my sore hand and went about looking for the sound that awakened me. I saw the comm light blinking and I realized that a transmission must have been shot at the ship.

"Probably another complaint about unauthorized orbiting. I hit the playback button and watched as the holographic projection came up. To my infinite surprise it was not the local authorities, instead the face of my old friend Avi Kostov appeared.

"Stiletto, I hope your reading this, I need some assistance and you’re the only guy I can count on. I need you at the included coordinates as soon as possible. If you can’t be there in a standard week, get a hold of me the usual way." Avi and I went a long way back. We were both cargo haulers many years ago. We met on a run and had been partners in several enterprises with varying degrees of success over the years. Several years ago, Avi decided to join the Navy and try his luck in the forces. As things worked out, he was an excellent tactician and ended up an Admiral in command of an entire fleet. I had done small jobs for him and the navy over the years, but I had not been needed for anything big yet. I knew him well enough to not underestimate whatever was happening. He and I knew each other well enough to judge that whatever was going on, it was big. I guessed that I might be needed right away, with that in mind I sent a brief message informing the local traffic system of my departure. Without waiting for a response I fired my engines and pulled out of orbit. I waited as the ship accelerated till it had sufficient potential energy and engaged the jump drive. With its characteristic jerk, reminding me yet again that I needed a tune-up, the little freighter entered the strange realm called Trans-Space.

For you to understand my story properly you must know the exact definition of how I make my living. I mentioned being a cargo hauler earlier. You say, that’s easy enough to understand. In truth, the name ‘cargo hauler’ is a more polite title for someone whose range of talents include shipping cargo that might be a little less than legal, dodging sensor nets and gun towers to deliver that cargo, and in some cases even being a mercenary for hire. We are looked on as both useful and dangerous. Both these definitions were accurate to an extent, going from one end of the scale to the other depending on who you were talking about. Now I won’t bore you with my job description any more. Back to the story.

Several boring hours later, my little ship emerged into real space. In front of me was a fleet, and not just any fleet. I recognized flagships from at least five fleets. Wait, that cant be right, I thought, that’s a lot of ships, but not five fleets worth. The urgent beeping of the comm system cut off my thoughts. With two fleets worth of firepower pointed I thought it would be a good idea to answer promptly. Instead of the expected traffic control officer, I found myself facing a conference room of admirals, group commanders, captains and their paraphernalia of asides, secretaries and general assistants. All of them were dressed up as if attending a function of some sort. I unconsciously straightened my pilots’ suit, wishing that I had known that I was going to face a group of high officers.

"Um, Yes"? I mentally cursed myself, I sounded like an idiot. Pushing his way through a group of asides, Avi Kostov, came forward and addressed me.

"You’re here, good".

"Av – Admiral Kostov, good to see you."

"Skip the formalities, the brass is just here for a meeting, don’t be intimidated." He said guessing that I felt intimidated by the high-ranking officers surrounding him. Actually he was slightly off, they did not intimidate me, the firepower they commanded did.

"Ok, What do you need me for?"

"Not over the comm, David, come in to dock, at my command ship". And with that the screen winked out. It took me a moment to find his command ship among the hundreds of ships in the area. After locating it I contacted control for an approach vector.

"This is freighter Victor Bravo zero zero, niner requesting a vector for docking."

"Affirmative Victor Bravo, come to heading 210 and hold, you are seventh in line for docking at VIP bay." "Seventh in line, VIP bay?" no way I thought.

"Negative control, I’m coming in to fighter bay one following heading 55." Ignoring the squawk of protest I punched my engines and brought my ship around to aim for the bays. Tapping the thruster controls to slow my ship down before I entered the bay. With an almost imperceptible bump I touched down on the bay floor. Fighter bays look like nothing more than a sea going carrier of old, minus the fact that it was enclosed in the front of an immense ship.

After a brief stop in the back of my ship to change into something presentable I stepped out of my ship and into what could be described as gleaming acres. Everything on this ship was polished to a shine. The floors bulkheads and even the ceiling were brilliantly clean. My little ship looked positively dingy next to the row of new fighters it was parked by. Getting my bearings I notices a rather flustered ensign that was trying to get my attention on the other side of the bay. I walked over to great him.

"Sir, Ensign Jeff Morgan, I was instructed to lead you to the admiral."

"Excellent, wonder what’s up that he needs me for so badly."

"You and the rest of the ship sir."

"What, you don’t know?"

"No sir, we are as in the dark as you are."

"Hummph, oh, don’t call me sir."

"Yes sir."

I followed the excitable ensign through several corridors, listening the whole time to him ramble on about how great it was to be on the Admirals staff. He seemed to be a likable fellow if not too smart about when to keep his mouth shut. My wandering thoughts were set straight by our arrival at the Admirals office. Before the ensign could sound the chime the door slid open to reveal the massive bulk of Avi Kostov.

"David!"

"Good to see you to Admiral." I was pulled through the door which shut behind me, cutting off the squeak of protest from my escort.

"I’m glad that you’re here, we were worried that you might not make it."

"We? And worried about what?"

"The rest of the Admirals, but never mind them." Never a one to mince words he immediately started explaining.

"You’ve herd of the situation with the Karr"?

"Yes, I herd that the fleet was doing well in battle".

"Damn propaganda. Let me give you the real situation. Were in defensive mode, we are constantly losing ground, being pushed back towards zero point. The fleet is not strong enough, look here". He got up and mover to a holomap on the wall.

"Here is out battle plan". Elements representing ships moved around the map "We were losing, but the tech department has some new gear that I think will turn the tide". He hit a button on the holomap and it changed to display a three-view image of a missile of some sort. "This is the new Firestorm missile, it is designed to be carried on a dagger class standard fighter. It carries reactants designed to interact with Karr drive plasma in such a way that it would destroy small ships and do a good amount of damage to larger ones". At that point a gleam entered his eyes, one that I had not seen in years. It was an image of an old Avi Kostov, still a cargo hauler and still just having fun.

"The problem with this whole delivery system is that we need a fleet of ships to come from behind the encirclement ring and attack the ships from where they can hit their drives. We don’t have that fleet."

"Who does?" I asked

"You". He said simply.

"What, fleet, me, no…"

"Relax David, I didn’t mean you personally, I meant you and the rest of the cargo haulers being hired by me as mercenaries." At this point I saw his plans illuminated, all focusing on the fact that I would help by rounding up a fleet.

"And you want me to get that fleet for you?"

"That’s the general idea."

"Avi, your nuts, you were a hauler, would you have ever purposely risked you butt in a battle that you were pretty sure you would lose."

"For the kind of money I’m offering, yes."

"And just how much would that be?"

"Half a million standard credits." At that simple statement my jaw dropped open and I proceeded to gawk at him for a moment.

"Being an admiral in the fleet has its advantages, such as the ability to dray unlimited funds from the black budget."

"I see," was all I could get out.

"That’s right, If you agree to do this there will be a lot of work ahead of you. Outfitting freighters for carrying firestorms, getting large shipments of firestorms to the haulers without the Karrs noticing, and all of the complications that come with that."

"So, what would the fleet pay for me to do this service for them?"

"One million, plus a thousand credit bonus for each hauler you hire."

"Deal, when do we start?"

"Now."

To truly understand this story you must understand the enemy. Our enemy was currently the Karrs, an unusual race that believed that their god had intended them to inherit the galaxy. For hundreds of years they had warred their way ever outwards from their part of the galaxy, taking over anything that resisted. They did not appreciate the terran ‘heathens’ and their allies settling down on ‘holy ground’. Therefore the Karrs had immediately attacked the first terran ships they encountered, starting the war that had lasted five years and was showing no signs of slowing. The Karrs themselves are short stocky mammals with vicious clawed hands that more resembled tigers claws than anything else. With that in mind let me continue.

I walked with the Admiral at my side to another launch bay. This one, unlike the other bay, was not gleaming. The ships here were older and had the burnished look oh spaceflight. More than one ship showed damage from a variety of weapon impacts. I followed Avi to an elevator, which took us to an overhanging catwalk. Docked to the catwalk were a number of larger frigate sized ships, held in suspension by antigrav units. Avi pointed to one of the ships and said:

"Your new ship." I followed his gaze to look at a large freighter. While smaller than the warships surrounding it, it was of a fair size and appeared to have weapons and engines to match its mass.

"Come on, let’s have a look around." Avi, with me in tow, walked over to the entrance hatch and punched in a code to open the door. The door opened with a squeak that made us both grimace.

"I thought that I told the engineer to fix that." Said Avi with a disgusted look at the door. I looked at a corridor that could have been placed on any ship and not looked out of place. We walked towards a turbolift once inside Avi hit the up button. The lift was open and looked out on the raw shaft. With only three decks the lift did not need button for each deck, simply an up and down control pad. After a moments pause the lift jerked into action and moved for the upper level.

"Where the hell did you get this piece of shit?" I asked Avi, disgusted with the condition of the ship.

"I know what you mean. Despite her looks she’s tough, fast and well armed." I wondered how sure Avi was about this ship. A few yards brought us to a tough looking door. Another code to open this door, this time one that I recognized. I idly wondered how he had gotten the access code to the Bravo. My first thought as I looked on the bridge was that perhaps I had been premature to judge the ship badly. The bridge was compact, it looked to be designed to be flown by a small crew, perhaps only two or three men. A closer inspection confirmed that it could be flown if necessary with only one person, if you didn’t mind to using the computer to fire the gun turrets.

"Lets take her out for a spin." Said Avi. I couldn’t help myself, I broke out in a grin from ear to ear. That was the Avi I remembered, always happy to fly a new ship. I remembered many a time spent talking about what ships we would buy if we could afford them. I put those thoughts aside and sat down in the pilots seat. I hit the comm button and said:

"Freighter," I broke off realizing I did not know this ship’s name. Avi, realizing my problem cut in.

"Freighter two two alpha, outbound from bay five, requesting departure."

"We copy that two two alpha you are cleared for outbound vector."

"Punch it." Said Avi to me. I grinned and slammed the throttle to the max. We were thrown back with much better acceleration than I expected. The moment we cleared the bay I threw the stick to the side sending the ship into a tight turn to the right. As a general rule big ships were slow and sluggish to handle. This one broke all he rules. I let out a yelp of delight and threw the ship into a set of maneuvers generally reserved for ships half this size. What a ship, I could not believe my luck, this was the ship I would get to fly for this job!

"Don’t get to happy yet, we have a job to do. Bring her around, we have one thing to do on this little excursion."

"And what would the be?" I asked.

"Docking your ship, you didn’t want to leave her here did you?" It took me a moment to realize that he meant my little freighter. Then I saw her. It took me a moment to recognize my own ship. I realized that was because it had been painted.

"What the hell did they do to my ship, and how did they get into it to fly it here."

"One question at a time." Avi paused, "They repainted it so that you would look impressive. We need to look good when we present our plan to the Haulers, like we have money".

"And getting it out here?"

"The fleet has been working on electronic lock pickers for years. Your ship was easy to open."

"I guess that answers my questions, where is the docking port on this big thing anyway?"

"Don’t worry about it, the other ship does all the work, just don’t make any sudden moves." A moment there was a bump and the light for the docking port went from red to green.

"Ok, it’s aboard. So when do we start?"

"Unless you had any other plans, one stop to pick up some cargo my luggage, and another crew member and were off."

"Heading for your command ship now."

"Not the command ship, the ship we need to dock with is not here."

"Where then?"

"Let me fly." I switched seats with him and barely had time to sit down and fasten my restraints before he threw the ship into Trans-Space.

During transit there is not much for the crew to do. The ship pretty much handles itself. I took the time to look over the big ship’s specs. There was more to the big freighter than I expected. Unlike most ships its size it had a partial docking bay for small freighters. I hit the button on the hand-comp I was looking at for modifications. My jaw dropped open at the list of modifications present. Military engines of the highest grade, weapons that made this ship capable of much more than she looked, a mass dampening system that explained the ships incredible maneuverability and, this caught my eye, Twin fighter launching rails. At that moment Avi floated up through the opening in the floor that served to allow access to the upper compartment under zero G situations.

"This thing is incredible, where on earth did you find her?"

"I ordered shipyards to make a ship that looked like a freighter but preformed like the best warship in the fleet. I didn’t set any guidelines, so they put the best of everything in her."

"I noticed we have launch rails, are we planning to carry fighters?"

"Wait and see." Said Avi with a grin.

Two hours later the ship emerged into realspace with me at the controls.

"Let me do the talking."

"Talk then." I said pointing at the plashing comm light. Avi hit the receive button.

"Freighter, you have ten seconds to identify yourself or surrender or you will be destroyed." Said a harsh voice over the comm.

"This is Admiral Avi Kostov, voice identify me and scan the ship, you will find them in your record." A moment later another voice came on, this one was not the harsh metallic grating but instead was instead a pleasant woman’s voice.

"Good to see you made it Avi, you are cleared for docking." This all seemed odd to me, as there were no other ships in sight. A moment later space folded in on itself. That’s as close as I can come to verbally describing what happens when a cloaking field shuts down. Of course I didn’t know what a cloaking field was at the time. Avi looked at me gawking at the appearance of the station and laughed.

"You ain’t seen anything yet, David." I didn’t reply, there was no need.

I stepped out through the port we had docked to. The ship I stepped into was dimmer, people moved about their business quickly. I felt at home here, on a warship.

"Admiral!" I turned and saw a young woman, about my age, it occurred that it was her voice that had guided us in.

"None of that Admiral crap or ill start calling you lieutenant, here I’m just Avi. Oh, let me introduce you to the fool that I convinced to do our dirty work, David Hasich. David, this is Ann Vertidal, out number 2 fighter pilot."

"So I was right, we are bringing fighters."

"That’s why were here, to pick em up."

"Who’s out number one fighter pilot?"

"You," he said simply.

"What, I’ve never flown anything quite that high performance."

"You are the best pilot that I have ever seen, you wont have any trouble with a fighter."

"If you say so." I feigned indifference but I was excited. Fighters were the fastest and most maneuverable ships in the explored galaxy. It was every pilot’s dream to get behind the controls of one. Most pilots do not get their dreams fulfilled, but it appeared that my luck was holding.

A short walk later we walked out of the corridor we were in into the main fighter bay. To my great surprise the freighter was in the bay, which was currently in zero gee a condition to allow for the loading of two fighters onto the launch rails. Taking a look at the fighters I realized that these were not your everyday fighters. Confirming my suspicions Avi said:

"Behold, the QX-44 Nova, the latest, fastest, most advanced starfighter in existence today. In this ship you will have the edge no matter what you go up against. Go ahead, hop in." I did not argue with the chance to get a look at the inside of that cockpit. I climbed up the ladder of the indicated fighter and hopped into the seat. The cockpit was like nothing I had ever seen. It was small, you had some room, but I could tell than once you strapped in you would ‘Wear’ the fighter.

"Put the headset on." Said Avi from below. I saw the pilots’ headset on the right of the cockpit. Putting it on I herd the usual humming of background noise, but I also felt a strange tingling in my skull that I did not expect. Then Avi’s voice came through the headset, not as noise, but projected into my brain directly.

"Feels weird doesn’t it?" Said Avi "That’s how we can make such a complex fighter operate with only one pilot, direct mind hookups." That answered most of my questions as to where all of the omnipresent switches were in this little beauty. I herd footsteps, not actually as hearing, but perceived through the headset. To the right of my fighter I saw Avi climbing up the ladder into the next fighter.

"Let’s take em out for a spin." Came Avi’s voice through the headset.

"Avi are you crazy, I have no idea how this thing works." But even as I said that I knew that it was not true. Somehow the headset had also told me how to mentally operate the ships subsystems.

"Heh heh heh, I love doing that to people who don’t know the ships specs". Said Avi accurately guessing what I was experiencing right now. The ship was flown with a joystick like most ships were, but most everything else was handled via the headset. There were enough controls to let someone fly the ship at greatly reduced efficiency if the headset systems were destroyed.

"Ok, let’s go." Looking around to make sure that no one was near the ship I grinned and slammed the throttle to full. The engines thundered to life, leaving a large scorch mark on the wall behind me. The ship shot out of the docking bay, accelerating at a rate that left that left the bay behind me instantly. Looking through the bubbly canopy I was treated to a view of space that made the limited view out of the windows of freighters seem pitiful. Looking out my right wing I saw Avi in squadron position. Letting go of all inhibitions, I threw the fighter into a series of aerobatics that put most aerospace shows to shame.

"Nice moves Stiletto, now lets go, we have a freighter to catch." I turned to follow Avi and realized that he was far ahead of me heading for a rapidly departing freighter I recognized as ours.

"ETA one minute to jump out, go full burners, we don’t have time to waste." I realized two things at once, one technical, one not. One was that there were afterburners on this thing, the second was that Avi was just having fun. Grinning, I threw in the burners was rewarded by getting slammed back in the pilots seat. The acceleration was incredible, I loved it. I reached out with the sensors through the headset and ‘felt’ the freighter ahead of me powering up its jump engines. Without hesitation I threw the fighter into a dangerous maneuver knows as the deadmans deceleration. It consisted of bringing a ship in and cutting its engines off, turning it around and hitting them full on. It was dangerous because as a pilot you were usually completely blind behind your ship. Not this ship though, through the headset I felt the freighter perfectly, using newly acquired skills I guided the fighter onto the launch rail backwards while madly decelerating the whole way. Even with full engines on I couldn’t decelerate fast enough to keep the fighter from igniting its shields as it bumped into the stop on the end of the launch rail.

"Now that you are both done showing off we are entering jump." Came the voice of Ann Vertidal through the headset.

"Affirmative Ann," I answered.

"Call me Panther, hotshot."

"That’s Stiletto to you lieutenant."

"Whatever." I grinned and began unhooking the straps around me as the fighter descended into the hull of the ship.

One boring day later we came out of jump and into real space near sector V1-658. V1-658 was not even displayed by most charts as much more than a large area containing nothing more than a few stray rocks. Which made it a perfect place for haulers to find cargo to move, eat sleep and socialize.

"Ok people," I said to the two people now posing as members of my crew. "We are going to go onto the rock, so we all need to look like haulers. That means no patches, flight suits or anything that looks fleet issue." Avi just grinned at while Ann gave me a strange look.

"Aren’t we going as fleet representatives?" asked Ann.

"We are representatives, but we don’t want to be shot while going to see the right people. Speaking of getting shot, Avi, we all have weapons right?"

"Yup, I still have my pocket disrupter, you have your gun and I’ve got a gun for Ann here." At that point Ann got slightly paler and asked.

"Guns, do we really need them?" Avi and I gave each other looks that clearly indicated that we were thinking the same thing.

"Ann," I replied "We are going into a haven for criminals, mercenaries and other not-so pleasant characters. We need to be armed to the teeth, but not look it."

"And how do we manage to go armed and not look armed packing rifles?" I smiled and reached under my flight jacket and pulled out a highly illegal cut down photon pistol and Avi pulled out an equally illegal pocket disrupter from a hidden wrist holster. Ann’s eyes went wide at the sight of an innocent looking hauler and an Admiral of the fleet pulling out two highly illegal weapons.

"Oh." She said quietly, still taking in the sight of the handguns.

"Of course David’s is mainly for show," said Avi. I winced and threw Avi a look that let him know what I would have liked to say right then.

"Oh, why?" Asked Ann.

"Because I can’t shoot strait to save my own life, that’s why." I replied in a disgusted tone. Right about then the nav-computer sounded that we were being scanned and that we had a transmission incoming. I hit the switch to receive the transmission.

"You there, identif- oh, its you David." Said the image of Gary Lucas, the head of regulating the traffic that flew in and out of the rock, the hollowed out asteroid that most haulers hailed from. "Nice ship, where you get the cash for that thing?"

"Ran into an abandoned cargo ship carrying a load of drive crystals, figured I’d turn the money into something I could use."

"Figures you’d have so much luck, who are those guys?" He added indicating Avi and Ann.

"Just some crew I picked up, crashed their freighter and needed a ride, and I needed a crew."

"Okey, you can come in any time, the usual place." And with that the image cut off.

"Hasn’t changed any has he David?" Said Avi from behind me.

"Nope, same old Gary, he never gets any older."

"I hate to interrupt and reminiscing going on here but I think that we have a mission to carry out?"

"Ok, ok, lets go." I reached over and put the drive at quarter throttle, no point in giving away her true capabilities.

"ETA one minute people, go get into whatever you are going to wear, oh, and Avi, get Ann a gun."

"Gotchya."

About a minute later we stepped out of the ship and on to the walkway the she was docked to. We were all dressed in cloths that would not have looked out of place in any bar anywhere in the galaxy. Unlike most ‘ports, stepping out here looked like stepping out into a dirty area of town. Not necessarily a poor area, but an area where laws were not enforced quite so strictly. The kind of place where the big deals went down and the danger was real. Looking about to get my bearings and to make sure I knew how to get back to the ship. I turned and walked down the ramp towards the center of town. Looking over my shoulder I saw that Avi and Ann had fallen into flanking positions. Realizing that this was unacceptable I paused and turned to face them.

"This won’t work, you can’t look like a couple of body guards. You are my crew, remember?" By their expressions they both had figured out what I wanted them to do. Feeling reassured that they would not make the same mistake twice I turned and set out for the center of the complex. I knew that we were here on a mission, and that meant that we needed to go where there would be the kinds of deals that we needed. I went for the local bar, knowing that where there were drinks, there would be pilots, and where there where there were pilots, there were deals to be made.

Pushing my way through the opaque force field that served as a door at the bar, I entered into a crowded room packed full of pilots of every species in the galaxy. I was greeted by a louder than usual murmur and a few lifted drinks from familiar faces in the room. Walking over to what seemed to be the communal table I pulled up a seat, and gestured for my ‘crew’ to do the same.

"David, good to see you again, I hear that luck has favored you with a new ship, or at least that is the rumor that has been circulating." That was from Hev, an injured runner, one of the few permanent residents of the rock. "And could it be, Avi Kostov back in the business?" he continued. "You have stories to tell, and if I don’t miss my mark, deals to cut." I shook my head at him, an amused look on my face.

"Well, as usual, rumor travels faster than I can, so I should at least make the best of it." "But before I continue with my descriptions of battles and glory, my crew and I need a couple of drinks."

"What’ll it be?" said the waiter that had seemingly materialized out of thin air at the request for drinks. Three Ales, something smooth." I replied, not phased in the least by the waiter’s sudden appearance. After a few timed on the rock, one got used to the unusual things about the people who lived there.

"And now that drinks are on the way let me settle in and disclaim all of the lies that have been spread about my crew and I."

"I herd you have a new ship, something big." That from the Havorish across the table from me. I couldn’t remember his name, but that didn’t trouble me as nobody could remember the names of Havorish.

"Now that rumor is true, a new ship, and yes, it’s big."

"Make, model, give us some details David," Said Hev.

"Well," I took a sip of the drink that remarkably seemed to have appeared in front of me. "She’s a class 13 Devorian freighter, modified of course."

"Class 13, that is really big, you run into a cargo container full of credits or something?"

"Nah, Ran upon an old cruisers drive. Still had a full suit of crystals."

"Damn man, you did run into a cargo container full of credits, no matter whatchya say." Said another runner with the look of someone who did a lot of work in zero gee.

I stayed and talked a while and then made some excuse about a commitment and went back out to the ship my crew in tow. I knew how to get into the type of business that we needed, so I went to the ship with Avi and Ann and told them to stay there. After checking that my photon pistol still had a full charge I went back out of the freighter and walked down the street, making it clear that I was not going to anywhere but was just out for a ‘stroll’. After about fifteen minutes of walking I herd a second pair of footsteps join mine.

"Looking for business David?" Came the cool voice of Mercer Haley, one of the numerous ‘heads’ on the rock.

"Good to hear your still alive Merc." I said, not turning my head to look at the man walking beside me.

"I manage." Came the cool voice back. "I get the feeling that you are not looking for work but actually offering it out. We should talk somewhere more secure." Without waiting for a reply he walked ahead of me and turned into a door that opened just as it seemed that he would run into it. I followed behind him knowing that I would be safe as long as I had work to offer or find. The room I entered was actually rather homely with bookshelves and a fireplace with an actual fire in it.

"What do you have to offer me David." Said Merc without hesitation. I replied while we both sat down at Mercers desk.

"I am actually a messenger to offer you a large sum of money to get together a fleet of haulers to be mercenaries for -"

"You know that most haulers don’t like to be mercs, it gives them a bad name. It will be hard to get together more than a few haulers for that job."

"Don’t interrupt me Mercer." "Mercenaries for the fleet, not for any corporate entity. I think that will make many objections go away, and the amount of money that I can offer each hauler will take care of the rest.

"Hmm, that explains the presence of Avi Kostov, I gather he hasn’t actually given up his rank as Admiral?"

"That would be accurate, there would also be a nice additional bonus you would get for each hauler you can convince to join me."

"Interesting, I’ll consider it." "You will have my answer tomorrow." At that point I assume that I was shot with some type of drug to make me sleep, because the next thing I remembered was waking up to the sound of a comm beeping. Realizing that I was in the cockpit of the freighter, I answered it and was not surprised to see Mercer in the screen.

"You really didn’t have to do that you know." I said by way of greeting.

"I had to make sure you couldn’t do anything foolish. That’s not the point though, point being that I will accept your offer. I will have a list of haulers that have accepted within the week."

"A week, Merc, you are getting slow in our old age." But by that time I was addressing a blank screen. I grinned, realizing that I had accomplished a feat that I had dreamed of for years. I was no longer just another hauler. I was an employer, or at least a representative for an employer. I amended after a moments thought. Realizing that I should tell my shipmates that I had succeeded in my objective to convince Merc to help in hiring haulers I stood up and began to turn to head back into the ship where my crew awaited my news. I wasn’t out of the cockpit when a blast rocked the ship, throwing me against the bulkhead. I immediately recognized the blast for what it was, a concentrated burst of energy, undoubtedly fired from a close by ship. The attackers however, expecting a bulky under-armored and not very advanced class 13 Devorish freighter had expected to destroy some critical component, undoubtedly our drives, had not expected auto response shields to activate and guard the ship from the beam. I slapped on the auto-fire controls and was satisfied to hear the sound of turrets irising open and returning fire against my yet unseen attackers. I was about to call for Avi and Ann to come forward when they stumbled into the cockpit with the look of people abruptly woken up out of sleep. Despite that, they took positions at the controls for the ships main weapons. I sat down in the pilot’s station and hit the controls for the main drives. The engines started, coughed once, and for an agonizing second I thought that they had died. They roared to life and flung the ship from its dock and into flight. Maneuvering out of the docking complex and into flight I showed off the true capabilities of my big ship. Bringing the ship around to face my attacker, I saw a large corvette, unmistakably the property of my former employers, the teh consortium. I realized that they probably thought that I had gone rogue, as I had not delivered their last cargo shipment, in fact, I realized that the shipment was still in the hold of my little freighter docked to the bottom of the larger ship I was flying. I was suddenly struck by an idea. Grabbing the slave control for the freighter out of my front pocket, I hit the button to open the cargo bay and at the same time pulled straight up. Using the tractor beams to gram the now falling cargo I flew around the corvette and used the beam to put the cargo down gently on the cargo elevator of the corvette. As soon as the cargo was landed I hit the button for the comm and typed in the comm code for the corvette and my former employers. A moment later the face of the comm tech on the corvette flashed into view.

"Give me the captain," I said before the comm tech had a chance to reply.

"Uhh, ok." He replied, startled by the tone of command in my voice. A moment later the face of Gerald Tak came into view.

"Ok David, give me my cargo, or ill blast that pretty little ship out of the sky."

"Good to see you too, its on your cargo elevator right now, bring it in." Gerald turned around and issued some command to someone behind him and then turned to face me.

"Ok, David, I’ve got my man getting the cargo right now, but if the cargo is fake and you sold those torpedoes to buy that fancy ship your flying than I’m going to blast you out of the air." I assured him that the shipment was actually genuine and that I had actually obtained my new ship by other means. After he received conformation that the torpedoes were intact he withdrew, slightly embarrassed by his mistake and undoubtedly feeling very stupid for wasting such energy blasting at the shipment he was there to claim. After a short exchange of words he withdrew.

"Who the hell was that?" Asked Ann as soon as the corvette withdrew.

"That," I said "was Gerald Tak, my former employer." "I forgot to deliver his last shipment after I visited you guys."

"Same old Gerald isn’t he." Remarked Avi.

"Yup, nobody has changed since your days." "A few new idiots, but that’s nothing new."

"Well we are very popular now, Incoming transmission." I slid into the pilots seat again and hit receive.

"David damnit, you blasted out of here and left everything a mess." Said the infuriated face of Gary Lucas. "The dock is torched and there are impacts from weapons fire on the structure." "Do you have any idea how expensive these things are to replace!?!" "Not to mention the owners of the adjacent ships are threatening to fly in and fire on the offices if we don’t compensate them for the damage done to their ships."

"Calm down Gary, charge everything to my former employers, they’ll take care of things for you."

"Oh, in that case good morning." He said grinning, understanding perfectly what had happened. The screen cut off and left the three of us to blink and realize that we all no longer needed any sleep.

"Well, who wants to go for a cruise?" I said to the two people facing me.

"Sounds good," said Ann. "what did you have in mind?"

"Oh, a brief run through a asteroid field clearing the way with the fighters and then a quick run by the rings of Aldernus then back." She grinned at the prospect of pushing her skills to the limit and at the idea of flying the little fighters again.

"You have a good idea my friend," She said and left the cockpit to change into a flight suit. I grinned at Avi and left to put my suit on too. If I would have been a fly on the wall a moment later I would have seen Avi grinning and shaking his head before sitting down at the controls and preparing for the brief jump to Trans-Space.

We shot out of trans space a few moments after we entered it. The sector we were in lacked more than a numerical description to identify it. Its main inhabitants were a number of rocks that tended to float around on course that made them quite hard to maneuver through. Avi was still at the controls as we approached the rocks while Ann and I were making our way to our fighters whn the ship was thrown off course. The impact knocked us from our feet and landed us on the hard floor. I stood up and made to activate the comm link to the bridge. I made to activate my link to the bridge and give Avi a piece of my mind. Avi beat me to it.

"David, we’ve got multiple ships on us, hull configuration suggests raiders, they probably think that we’re a rich hauler trying out a new route.

"Affirmative, take her into the asteroid field, maximum drive, we will launch the fighters now. I cut the comm link and ran for my fighter. I jumped into the fighter and shoved the headset onto my head. Taking full advantage of the headsets capabilities, I simultaneously ran my preflight warmed the engines and set the elevator to lift me onto the launch rail. I finished my preflight just as the elevator deposited me onto the rail. I didn’t waste any time in activating the catapult and revving my engines to their maximum rated capability. The fighter shot from the rail and off the front of the freighter. I immediately dodged to the left and narrowly avoided being fried by a bolt of plasma. The raiders were small ships, slightly larger than our fighters, probably crewed by two. I brought my ship arround and began my attack run on the first of the raiders. The raider panicked as it felt the first bolt impact on its hull and went into a completely ineffective dodging sequence. These raiders, I realized, were not very experienced. Good pilots would have presented a challenge for our two fighters, but as it was, the raiders were all two easy to take out. I realized this while I settled on the tail of the second raider and fired my cannons. The shields protecting the end of the raiders ship weakened and began to fail. Suddenly, out of nowhere the real attack began. Out of the dark fighters had jumped us. I realized two late that the raiders had been a diversionary tactic to distract us while the real raiders attacked. The real raiders had good pilot and better ships. Small commercially available one-man fighter specially modified to carry more deadly weapons and better engines. Still no match for our fighters but we were out numbered. I activated the comm and shouted to Avi:

"Avi, go into the asteroid field, keep up your speed." I didn’t listen to his reply, only pausing long enough to deactivate the comm before putting all of my effort into flying my fighter. Effort it took to, there were five fighters by my count attacking the two of us. We were good pilots, but these people were also good, and they outnumbered us better than two to one. I activated a comm line to Ann and told her to do the same thing I had told Avi. But unlike Avi she didn’t act without question.

"Go into the asteroid field, are you crazy David?!?"

"No I’m not, thesis ships are more suited than theirs for flying thought the field, so they would be crazy to follow."

"We’re crazy to go in there in the first place." But in her voice I could tell that she would go where I went. So flinging all caution to the wing I poured the coal to the engines and boosted them to 120 percent of their rated power. In a moment I was in the field. All around me there were rocks of all sizes. The smaller rocks and dirt turned the front of my shields into a glowing blue orb, protecting the front of the ship from damage. I dodged the larger rocks using the headset to track those that I could not see with my own eyes. I followed the beacon of the freighter ahead of me because besides the flares of he drives from time to time I could not see the ship. The raiders apparently were crazy as they followed us in. I flew at full throttle never daring to reduce speed for fear of slipping. I occasionally got glimpses of Ann’s ship, the freighter or one of the raiders. But otherwise the rocks separated us completely, even going so far as cutting off any comm transmissions between ships. Suddenly, there was Ann on my wing, flying close enough to stay there and to open a tight beam transmission between our ships.

"Ok David, you got us here, now what?" came Ann’s distorted voice over the headset.

"Have you seen any of the raiders?"

"Besides the occasional flash of a drive, no."

"Ok, stay close so that we can talk. Look for flashes, that’s how well track em."

"And once we have them we shoot them right?"

"Sounds good to me." Needing no further instructions Ann fell onto my wing and we started to look for the raiders. About a minute later I sighted a raider’s drive through the sensor obscuring haze and aimed my ship along the path that I approximated that it would take. Then we were alone again, flying through a pea soup unlike any other. Then there was the raider, right ahead of me. I squeezed he trigger by reflex and sent a burst of energy right into the raiders rear shields. The raider might have been the best pilot in he galaxy at that moment but he still panicked. He let his instincts take over and dodged – right into an asteroid that did a much more complete job of reducing his ship to dust than my weapons could have ever done. I could not celebrate though. In the distance I saw the large drive trail of the freighter as it popped out from behind an asteroid and into a clearer area in the murk and hen back into the soup again, but not before I got a fix on where it should be going. I hit the burners and was satisfied to see Ann on my wing imitating me. I flew to the edge, maneuvering through that field following the wake that the freighter made in the murk. As suddenly as we had entered the murk we were out again, and into the strangest area I had ever seen. There was a large hollow area within the center of the cloud. There were a few asteroids here and here, but overall they avoided the area entirely. In the center of the clear area was a small station of some sort. It was old and looked uninhabited, but I assumed that it was what held the clouds and asteroids away. Approaching the station as the freighter and moments later one of the raiders popped out of the clouds and into the clear area as well. I dispatched a pair of missiles to take care of the raider and ignored the explosion a second later.

"David, Ann, you guys reading this?" Came Avi’s voice through the headset.

"Affirmative, we are reading you loud and clear. What is this place?"

"Looks like an old Confed base." Everyone knew about the Confeds, the leaders of the Galaxial Confederation that had ruled the galaxy millennia before humans left earth. The older alien races all had stories from the days when their planets had also been part of the Confederation. The Confeds had died out thousands of years ago for reasons unknown, but their technology was still centuries ahead of anything that any of the younger races possessed. Confed weapon systems were valued in billions, little gizmos that still were not identified were sold to museums for hundreds of thousands of credits. A whole station was unheard of.

"Let’s go slow, if this is what it looks like we have just stumbled upon something more valuable than… well ok, its priceless."

"Affirmative, going in slow." I tapped on the thruster controls and sent the ships drifting forward with its drives inactive. I looked around out of the canopy taking the time to appreciate the wonder of this place that had not been seen for thousands of years. I drifted in close enough the station to take in the details. The hull looked like a molecule. Large central hums with arms connecting to smaller sections that I assumed were meant for docking ships to. Drifting as I was, I was completely unprepared for what happened next. I was drifting along unpowered when my ship was suddenly seized in some sort of tractor beam. I was surprised enough to react by slamming the main drives on full and twist the joystick around to evade the grasp of the beam as I would a tractor beam from a human station. But this beam was infinitely more powerful than anything that I had evaded before and my attempts to escape had all the effect of a flea attempting to attack a giant.

"David, David, what is going on!?" Came Ann’s voice via the headset.

"I’m in a tractor of some type. I think I triggered it by flying too close."

"Affirmative, can you break out?"

"No, I just engaged full drives to no effect." Avi’s voice came on.

"If you want to evac you can eject and I’ll pick you up with the freighter."

"Negative, you would probably get the freighter pulled in too. I’m just going to dock and disable the beam, then I’ll just fly out."

"You make it sound easy," Came Ann’s slightly sarcastic voice.

"I intend it to be a simple procedure. No more chatter, I need to think." I began observing the area I was approaching. There was no sign of a port anywhere on the blank surface and I couldn’t begin to figure out where the beam was taking me. A moment later the station answered that question by having an entire side of the station disappear. As soon as I stopped gawking I began to realize the true implications that his had for the finder of this station, namely me. There were a number of ships in the bay unlike any others I had ever seen. There were not completely featureless like the station itself and appeared to be studded with weapons. I grinned at the intake of breath from my wingmates. I grinned at the thought that it was not going to be a bad idea to get towed in here at all. Realizing that the beam would deposit me on the bay floor I put down the landing gear. The beam delivered me to the floor without even a bump. Reaching behind me for the helmet to the pressurized flight suit that I wore I prepared to disembark from my ship.

I hoped down from the hull of the ships ad hoped that I would be able to climb back up to the canopy when I needed to leave again. I looked around the bay wondering what to look at first. There were lots of ships around including some that I would qualify in the frigate range of size, and undoubtedly well outside that in firepower if the other technologies around here were any evidence. I had connected the headset to the wrist comm unit/computer before I left the ships and I switched on the unit now.

"Ann, Avi, you reading me?" There was no reply so I turned up the gain on he transmitter hoping that it would punch through the material of the station.

"Ann, Avi, do you read me?" I asked again. WHAM! I felt like I had been hit in the head with a bulldozer. There was a screaming noise over the headset and it was about then that I blacked out.

I woke up later with a slight headache and a sandpaper feel in my throat. I took a sip of the space suits water supply for my throat and ignored the headache. I sat up and looked around for the large heavy item that had hit me. I didn’t see anything that would account for the headache and the fact that I had been flat on my back.

"Ann, Avi, you there?" I croaked into the headset. I winced at my own voice and began to take another sip of water.

"No, but I am." I almost choked on the water in my mouth and I started to cough. Once I recovered from my coughing I responded.

"Very funny Avi, you figured out that we had a voice re-coder onboard didn’t you."

"I am not one of the carbon based beings on the other ships currently trying to talk to you." The voice was booming, the kind of thing you would expect from an alien spaceship trying to talk to you.

"You don’t like my voice, fine, is this better?" Came the same voice back, but not quite as malevolent this time.

"You are the… station?"

"That is correct."

"How are you…" That was obvious, the station was talking to me using the headset. "How are you speaking English?" I rephrased my question.

"I used the headset to figure out your language, much the same way you used it to learn to pilot the QX-44 fighter that you arrived in."

"So you know all about the Human race now?"

"Not all, just what I could access from you and the fighter." The fighter, how? I looked at the fighter and gasped. My ship was no longer spaceworthy. The entire cockpit module was gone and the weapons were off to the side contained in a rack of some sort.

"My ship." I managed to squeak.

"Relax David, you can fly out on any of my ships, they are not going to get used for anything else." My anxiety was, while not entirely gone, soothed and added to with a sense of anticipation at the prospect of flying one of those cool ships that were all around the hanger bay.

"In fact that is why the cockpit module has been dissembled, so that I can modify my ships to human standards."

"Human standards? Why would you want to do that to those ships?"

"So that you can fly them." At that simple statement my heart leaped. I had always dreamed of flying "real" ships. The kinds that were fast and well armed. I imagined that the ships around me were just that.

"If you want something fast than you may want to try that ships to your left, it has been refitted to your standards and you should be able to pilot it." I couldn’t contain myself anymore. I let out a whoop and jogged for the sleek little ship. The little thing was a beautiful ship. A long gloss black front hull swept back into forward swept wings with weapon pods on the ends. And from the protrusions clustered around the outer panels I could guess that it was well armed.

"Can you put me in contact with my people?"

"Affirmative, I just thought that it would be easier if we talked without interruptions at first." A moment later the headset blinked into life with the voice of Avi Kostov.

"… I tell you I’m going in after him."

"Too dangerous, the same thing might happen to you that happened to him."

"Sorry to interrupt, but that wont be necessary."

"David!" Came two voices at once.

"Sorry I was out of it for so long but the station was blocking you out."

"How are you transmitting now?" Asked Ann.

"I told the station to allow your transmissions through."

"You told the station?" I grinned at that statement while I climbed up the side of the little ship and into the cockpit. Unlike earth ships the cockpit on this fighter was easy to enter and quit comfortable.

"That’s right, I told the station. It is sentient."

"A sentient station? That would be the biggest discovery in centuries!" Came Ann’s voice.

"It is the biggest discovery in centuries. By the way, I am going to fly one of their ships out."

"That is crazy, you don’t know the controls. And how does the station know English?"

"Think of how you are communicating to me now."

"I am using the headset over… oh." Avi’s voice came on.

"This is great. You dock to the biggest discovery in centuries and then you get to fly a high performance alien fighter back!"

"Its not like I have much of a choice. The fighter is a mess. The station needed to know how we did control systems so that it could modify the ships so that I could fly them."

"I have got to meet this station."

"Station?"

"Hello everyone." Came the voice of the station.

"It’s on our comm lines too, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised."

"I haven’t even tested my capabilities yet either." Replied the station.

"Umm station, can you open the doors so that I can leave. I said from the cockpit of the fighter that I had settled into.

"Affirmative David, launching." The wall disappeared and I shot out of the bay on a catapult of some sort. I punched the throttle forward and was rewarded with a surge of power that left any ship that I had ever flown behind. And that included the QX-44’s.

"What is that thing!?!" Came Avi’s incredulous voice over the line. I grinned as I shot past the freighter already going over five times as fast as the freighters top speed and still accelerating. I had to pull the throttle back or risk hitting the asteroid field surrounding the clear bubble. Just for fun I centered on one of the asteroids that as wandering through the clear area and fired the ship’s weapons at it. I was prepared for devastation but not of the kind I got. The asteroid split in half as an amber pulse from one of my guns struck it.

"Holy mother." Come the whisper from Ann. Avi was just silent. I just stared. My guns had split a 50 megaton asteroid in half with one shot.

"Station, what the hell did I just shoot?"

"You shot a gun and the targeting computer adjusted the guns for maximum effect against your selected target. In this case the computer decided that for maximum effect it should modulate the guns to fire a pulse that would destabilize the asteroid causing it to split.

"Wow, an intelligent ship with guns that change themselves."

"That and an adjustable hull configuration and self repairing systems." Added the station.

"What do you mean by all that?" I asked.

"It means that your ship can adjust its hull to be most efficient in the environment that it is in. It can also repair damage up to a certain point. I grinned, this was going to be fun.

"Can this thing adjust its hull configuration to allow me top land on one of the fighter rails on the freighter?"

"Adjusting." Said the station by way of an answer.

"Out of curiosity, how long will I be able to communicate with you once I leave this area?"

"Indefinitely, I will be travelling with you." That got my attention real quick.

"Travelling with me, how?"

"Watch." Said the station simply. I was watching, I was watching something like I had never seen before. The station was simply changing shape. None of the station was preserved. All the bays were closed off and I assumed that the ships were simply being moved to a new location in it. The arms that held the bays that I had docked with simply retracted into the hull not even leaving a trace that they had existed. Within a few moments the station had changed itself into a graceful starship. The ship was huge. Well into the mothership class of ship.

Motherships were giant starships so large that they qualified as mobile stations. Usually they contained equipment to build ships on the run and to harvest resources for building materials. There had only been several mothership sightings recorded in the entire history of the current galaxy. The first ever recorded was observed by a species that had not yet created the jump drive. They recorded a massive asteroid entering their system. Closer investigation by their few manned ships revealed it to be a giant starship. When the species finally invented the jump drive and entered into the mass of jump capable species in the galaxy the data regarding the ship was sold to the central lower council that attempted to lay down the law in the galaxy. The council analyzed the data and from the primitive readings that had been recorded of the ships passage it was determined that the ship was a non jump capable generation ship leaving the galaxy for another. After this first sighting there were several sightings of non-jump capable generation ships heading for nearby solar systems to colonize and search for life. All of these motherships at some point were stumbled upon by freighters passing through the area and in most cases were helped by the council to reach their destination quickly with the assistance of jump capable tugs. The next major sighting was when the Karrs came into the galaxy. The first sighting of the Karr mothership was when it slowed down out of jump and obliterated an outpost on the edge of inhabited space. From there the Karrs created a path of destruction in an erratic course around the edge of inhabited space until the found the appropriate planet and settled there and started building defenses. All attempts at diplomacy had failed with the Karrs and in short order the council had declared them to be hostile to the alliance of species and construction began on the first true battle fleet in centuries.

Another thing you must know to understand this story properly is the government system in place, or not quite in place, at the time of my little adventures. There are several tears that races can belong to. The lowest tear is non jump capable species who are by default not included. Then there are aggressors. These don’t come along often. A perfect example of this is the Karrs. An aggressive species that refuses to obey any laws laid dawn by anyone. The last aggressors before the Karrs were defeated over a thousand years ago. The next tear is the non-aggressors. These species are usually short lived. They prefer to stay unallied and usually end up being crushed or annexed by one of the other species around town. The next level is galactic member. A member group is a jump capable group that has signed the treaty stating that they will abide by the laws laid down by the council. While most species get away with all manners of things some stay in line. This is the end off the first system of government ends but from there more start. The lower council includes all jump capable species (with a few exceptions). The Upper council includes all of those beings that have transcended matter and become something more. They are living energy. From what has been determined aver the centuries all lower species will either die out or transcend or move to a higher state and join the upper council. The council does not interfere with the affaires of lower class civilizations most of the time but they have been known to save a more advanced race from ultimate destruction of they think that the race will soon join the upper council. The council, while energy beings, prefers to use ships as methods of anchoring themselves in the real world and most mothership sightings are actually just a passing upper council ship.

This would make six mothership sightings and though the ship was small for a mothership, she was half again larger than a carrier, which was mothership class on the charts.

"You know guys, we are going to have to do something with the station untill we can get that fleet of ‘haulers together.

"Do something with me, what do you mean?"

"We are on an undercover mission for our government and the sight of you cruising into dock with us is going to raise more that eyebrows."

"Yeah, it would really raise the blood pressure of whoever was acting traffic control today." Said Avi.

"But in any case, I think that we are going to have to stash you somewhere for a little while."

"Out of curiosity David, where do you plan to stash a mothership so that someone doesn’t stumble across it?" Said Ann.

"That may be easier than you think." Said the station.

"Eh?" I said surprised.

"I will remain here, your ships can contact me when you need me."

"Out of curiosity, why are you following us?"

"Now that I have been reactivated my current orders are to find the current operating government and contact it. Following you seems sensible rather than flying strait into your space and scaring the hell out of your government."

"Makes sense." I replied. "So how are we going to contact you?"

"You see the panel to your left with the orange blinking light?"

"Yes."

"It can contact me anytime. Just press the blinking light and flip the switch and your comm will be routed to me."

"Ok station, we will be back for you soon. Avi, Ann, I think that we have a meeting to attend?"

"Affirmative, lets head back.

We flew into port for the second time. Again we docked in the same slip, still empty, having been held under out name while we were gone. As soon as I docked I connected to the main ‘port comp and downloaded my mail. There were two advertisements for illegal weapons and one message from Mercer Haley. I deleted the advertisements and opened the message from Mercer. Rather than a voice or visual message Mercer preferred to use text only messages. I looked over the text, grinned, and called for Avi.

"Avi, come here and look at this!" Avi came into the main room of the freighter and walked over.

"What is I-." Then he saw the text on he screen and stated grinning. "He did it." Said Avi

"Yes he did, and a damn good job of it too! 50 ‘Haulers from here and 4 sent out to get more from the other hideouts."

"That’s one thing out of the way, now we have to arm these guys."

"What is the plan for that?" I asked.

"We need to arrange for one of those big bulk cruisers to carry a load of missiles and their support systems out to somewhere out of the way, we can arm them there." From the cockpit of the freighter come an urgent beeping. Both of us reacted instinctively and jumped up and ran for the cockpit. We entered the cockpit to see that the beeping was from the comm, not any of the sensors. I hit the button to connect to the incoming signal. A moment later the now-familiar voice of the station hit the room like thunder.

"DAVID, AVI, YOU THERE?" I grimaced at the level of the voice and turned down the volume.

"Yes we are here. Go ahead."

"I have some information for you, I don’t want it on the air, we need to meet."

"Same place?" I asked.

"Yes, come here and we will have a face to face meeting, but hurry, this is important."

"Got it, I can be there within the hour."

"Please be." I shut off the comm and said to Avi. "Lets get my fighter ready, I will go there without you."

"Are you sure that’s safe?"

"No, but is the best bet that we have."

"If you say do David, lets get that fighter ready. How do you want to launch without being seen?"

"We will take the ship out for an "engine test" and launch then."

"Ok, lets go."

I deacceled from Slipstream mode in the little fighter and space cleared into view ahead bright white. I had enough time to think "hey, space isn’t that color." And pull seven G’s in a turn to avoid plowing into the bulk of the station full bore on. I still ignited my shields when I brushed against the hull, not quite making it without touching. Fortunately the touch was not so hard as to damage the ship any, just enough to ignite the shimmering blue shield that came up whenever I hit anything.

"Nice reaction time, I almost had to use my beams to pull you out of that."

"Thanks, I think that ill come out of space below slipstream from now on."

"Still, that would be an awesome missile launch method, come out launch and have enough speed to reenter just about right away."

"Whatever, what is this critical info you have for me?"

"You have a lot less time than your fleet commanders predicted to complete your mission."

"Why is that?"

"The Karrs are on the move again. You have a very short window of opportunity to get the ‘Haulers together and get them armed. I know you are probably planning to use a bulk cruiser and refitting their ships about 10 at a time but that wont work, to slow."

"How long do I have to get them armed?"

"One week tops, probably less."

"Damn, I need at leas three to get all the ships done and their pilots trained on the new systems."

"There is a convenient alternative to that you know."

"Oh, and that is?"

"Use me, I have the bay space and the capabilities to have the ships refitted and armed in only a day."

"That would mean that your existence would be public knowledge."

"A necessary evil required for us to complete out mission."

"Our?"

"Yes, you found and woke me up, I consider myself in your debt."

"Hmmm, thank you, and to train the pilots on the new systems?"

"Headsets would do fine for that."

"They are still classified!"

"Big deal, the existence of your civilization, or a large piece of it anyway, is at risk by alien invasion, these are just technicalities in our way."

"I like the way you think station."

"Thank you David." I grinned in the cockpit of the fighter. And then realized that the clock was ticking.

"Station, I am going to the confederation, I will arrange for the transfer of the missiles and then we will meet the ‘Haulers and do same transferring. Let my friends know that I am going to take this thing at maximum slipstream towards the fleet and get there as fast as I can."

"I will, but I can help you with that."

"Yeah?"

"I will grab you with a beam and get you out of the trough."

"You mean the wave form? How the hell are you going to do that?"

"I have methods of installing potential energy remotely."

Sorry to break you out again but to really understand this you must have some basic knowledge of hyper waveform. Thew way that hyper works is that a ship accelerates to a good velocity and then uses the potential energy built up in the frame of the ship to fling it into subspace. Then actual translation to subspace does not take much energy but it takes a lot of potential energy to get rolling. Subspace is great. Movement is much faster than real space but with only the small amount of potential energy that a ship can build up it can only get at the bottom of things. The usual form of hyper is the subspace equivalent of being at the bottom of a wave where the drag is greatest. Some fighters because of the greater realspace speeds that they can reach can achieve slipstream where they can ride the wave at a higher band. What the station was going to do was install my fighter with enough potential to allow it to truly translate to the higher bands where I could accelerate. That is he biggest problem with out current use of subspace is that the bands that we reach are deaccelleration bands not acceleration bands.

I do not know how the station did it but it did. For one moment I was sitting almost still and the next I was thrown into slipstream. This was exhilarating. I looked at the accell meter and took note of the fact that my current speed was over the top limits of the gauge. The wave theory seemed more and more accurate as I accelerated. Standard slipstream was like flying through water. It was slow and boring. The flying that I was doing now was like surfing. I did not have any control over my speed and I was simply flying the wave. I suddenly had the striking realization that I would be exiting slipstream at an incredible speed and that I better exit early. My thought came in just enough time to hit the emergency deaccell lever and screech to a theoretical halt and come out of slipstream. When I exited I was moving so fast that I watched the fleet off my bow turn from a speck in the distance to a fleet that was close and personal in under a second.

"UNIDENTIFIED STARSHIP, HALT AND IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" Came a loud voice from the comm. I grimaced and turned down the volume.

"This is fighter 774A returning from classified mission #2406 with critical information regarding Karr fleet movements, I need landing clearance for the flagship of the fleet IMMEDIATELY!" I put emphasis on the last word.

"Fighter774A you certainly come with high clearances, you have been cleared for immediate dock in the Admirals personal landing bay." I smiled.

"Confirm control, thanks." I engaged my engines and flung my little craft for the indicated landing bay. As I approached I lowered my landing gear and prepared the reverse thrusters for immediate use. I approached the bay at my customary high speed. Behind the blue pole shield protecting the bay from the vacuum of space I saw the reception party scrambling for cover. I blasted through the shield and skidded to a halt on the bay floor in a shower of sparks. I looked out of my cockpit and saw the reception party peering out from behind the barriers that they had dodged behind. I popped my canopy and hoped out of the fighter to the bay floor. The head of the welcoming party stood up and dusted himself off.

"Mister Jethro…"

"Just David."

"Ok David, I guess you have a reason for all this aerobatics insanity that you have just performed, and an explanation for your incredibly high subspace exit speed?"

"I have explanations for all that and more Captain…" I looked at his officers badge "Ivan." I said a bit surprised. The captain of the flagship of the fleet was greeting me. "An honor to meet you sir."

"The pleasure is all mine sir." He replied.

"Sir?" I asked a little confused.

"It is not every day that we get a fleet Admiral through here, especially not one from your project." I blinked. Fleet Admiral, what the hell was going on? Whatever it was it was going to have to wait till after I had briefed the good captain on the developing situation.

"Captain, is there somewhere where we could speak privately, I have vital information that can not wait."

"Don’t you want ot get into something more suited for around the ship?" He said indicating my dirty flight suit.

"Captain, I have a very short time before I need to leave again and in that time I need to give you critical information, now could we please go somewhere were we can speak."

"Yes sir." He said quickly. I smiled inwardly at how quickly I had gotten him to do what I said. We walked in silece for a short time, me following the captain. We turned a corner and the captain stopped to open a door. We walked in and he sealed it again.

"Ok Admiral, now explain to me why you have shown up here bearing urgent news, disrupting the smooth routine of this ship and scaring the shit out of a traffic controller." I paused, took two breaths and theb began quite simply.

"The Karrs are coming." This stopped him for a second.

"Yes, everyone knows that." He replied, an attempt to take an offense to what I had said.

"Soon, several weeks, no more." I said. He turned white and sut up for several seconds.

"How do you know?" He gasped finally.

"I hove sources that I can not reveal at this time." The captain sat gasping like a beached fish for several more seconds.

"But, the fleet, it will have to be emergence prepared, and we were not expecting them for months and, and…"

"Captain! Control yourself. Yes we are not ready, but we must get ready faster." This calmed him slightly.

"Yes, Yes, we must get ready. I will signal the rest of the flagships to prepare their individual fleets and we will prepare ours." He said, apparently taking great comfort in having a plan to follow.

"No captain, we will not, you will. I must return to my own area to help Avi." The captain paled again.

"But who will command the fleet?"

"You will, as acting admiral." He paled even more and then brightened visibly at realizing that this might be prelude to his own true admiralship. I crossed my fingers that I was not overstepping my bounds as "Admiral David" and that is I was that they wouldn’t realize it until I had already left.