Mitchell's Revenge
U.S.E. shipyard, off EQ2, Karhu System

Lauri rubbed his eyes and stretched. He shook his head. The bench in front of him was strewn with computer flotsam. Chips and circuit boards, bits of wire and switches. Directly in front of him the display screen of the Universal Software Equipment Interrogation Tool, or USEIT for short, showed a string of zeros with a dash at the end.

“Hopeless!” he spat, and walked away from the bench.

He stood in front of the viewing screen at the other side of the workshop and looked down on the repair pods below. He could still not work out what had caused the stealth ship to crash. All the data showed normal operation, but based on what Jake had experienced, something was not quite right. And Lucy. He couldn’t bear to think too much about Lucy.

Lauri, Tim and Erik were the only ones who knew what had gone into the bionics that were now part of Lucy’s make up. They knew that she would be faster and stronger than before. They knew that she would be able to see the hidden structures on board any of their ships and read metal fatigue, broken cabling or a lubricant leak.

They knew that her primary task was to protect U.S.E. property, personnel, and the Stern family. They knew that she would change as the bionics took hold of her system.

“Spooky,” thought Lauri. “We had no idea at the time that we were going to put her on board Mitchell’s Revenge as protection crew! Lucky that we authorised it anyway.”

None of them were sure what to tell Lucy.

“Maybe nothing,” he thought. “Maybe its better that she doesn’t know what we’ve done to her. Just let the enhancements reveal themselves as she needs them. That might be the best thing.”

He continued to stare at the repair pods. Technicians were reassembling the crashed stealth ship. They were able to salvage the rear components of the ship and combine it with a new front end. They stripped the FTL drive and the onboard computer and fitted a completely new system from their former supplier. The repaired ship would be ready for testing in a few days. The results of the tests would determine how they built the rest of the ships on order for the Karhu System military.

Lauri strolled across the workshop to the viewing screen for the construction yard. Mitchell’s Revenge was suspended in a cradle above the deck while the technicians below worked on various parts of the ship. They had refitted the cruiser with a new FTL drive and computer system. They were now working on weapons installation and were gutting the passenger quarters to make way for parts storage.

Lauri was now attempting to work out how to retrofit stealth capacity to a ship not originally built for it. And that was going to be crucial to the safety of the crew. Once the intergalactic mafia got hold of the news of a repair ship carrying such valuable parts they would be fair game in space. Jake was absolutely right about needing protection.

When Ripley’s Revenge went missing from Standing Point refuelling hub, there were three crew on board. Universal Starship Enterprises still had no news as to what had happened to the ship. They were assuming the worst and that it had crashed or burned up in a sun somewhere.

Lauri watched Jake walking across the deck below towards one of the technicians. They had a brief conversation and Jake began yet another inspection of the ship that was soon to be his command.

“Like a father with his son,” thought Lauri. “Ah well, back to work.” He wandered back to the USEIT and tapped the display screen with his finger. Still nothing.

“More like USELESS,” he thought as he pulled the power cable out and re-booted the unit. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ Find ɴøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

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