Star Hawk Rises

87: CHAPTER 6: Abandon Ship!


"What!?" I stared at her for a few moments before slowly turning to look at the single dry dock before a new question popped into my head. "How? There is only one dry dock on this ship."

"Oh, that's easy, I queued them so when one is finished and removed from the dry docks the second one will instantly start construction." Clara said excitedly.

"Right" I said, remembering that was a thing she could do, and stood there silently for a few moments before frowning and turning back to look at Clara.

"Hang on, I thought you needed licences and blueprints to build things, how can you custom make a mining… truck?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, well, that is a good question, actually. It took me a bit to figure out why I was allowed to construct the first one. It turns out that I don't need a licence for a custom job. As far as the galaxy is concerned, I own this design, and if someone else wanted to build it, they would have to purchase the licence to do so from me. Of course, there is a bunch of stuff in the truck that is licensed by me, not just the truck as a whole. However, there is also a bunch of stuff that I now owe royalties on whenever the licence for the entire truck is purchased." Clara replied.

"Ah, so you patented it" I said as I started to grin.

"Ah, not exactly, it's a little confusing, I think the Galactic Federation purchased the rights to the mining truck then created a licence for it and gave me the rights to sell the licence?" she asked slowly like she wasn't sure.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" I asked her, almost laughing at the absurdity.

I saw her look up at me with nervousness and anxiety on her face, and I instantly stopped laughing, realising she was worried that she may have been half robbed of her designs. Like when someone makes something and a company takes it claiming they work for the company so it belongs to the company, but they will receive a nice bonus for their work. Only, no one bothered to tell Clara she was working for the company.

"Shit…" I whispered as I looked down at the blueprint table and slowly took a step back from it. The frown on my face slowly deepened as I watched the table carefully.

"Ya know, the idiot that recruited me for the galactic federation navy said something that I didn't give any thought to at the time."

"What? What did he say?" Clara asked as she watched me curiously.

"He said, and I quote… The best I can from memory, 'This particular server is used in military recruitment for this sector of the void.' End quote. That implies they monitor everyone that receives a new class." I said slowly as I thought about the implications of what I was considering.

"Yea, so?" She asked as confusion crossed her face.

"So everyone with a void status of some kind is recruited… but not everyone that could do the job, for instance Timothy is an exceptional pilot who flew a ship from the orbital station to the planet, bringing up thousands of people. However, he was never recruited and yet, there were a lot of people that did not have the void status in the galactic alliance navy, doing similar jobs to us. This makes me wonder what's so special about the void in my class. Why is every single one of them recruited?" I asked slowly, my eyes still on the blueprint table.

I saw Clara's shoulders roll in a shrug, and she was opening her mouth to respond, but before she could an alarm started blaring loudly making me step back and look around, the next moment a synthetic voice shouted.

"ALERT!! ALERT! An unknown Battlecruiser sized war ship has surfaced from subspace and is coming into the Star System! All hands report to your posts! Captain to the hot seat! Prepare for battle, this is not a drill!"

"I didn't know the ship did that!" Clara suddenly screamed as she looked at me in alarm.

"Well, the void thing is something we can think about later, right now we have an unknown ship to identify." I said calmly, trying not to panic as I walked out of the office. I made it ten steps away from the door before I broke into a run and tore off to the chair below the weapons room.

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I was soon in the chair and connected to the ship the sensors came online quickly and the unknown ship was shown heading into the star system at an alarming speed, headed straight for the planet I had blown a mountain up on. I grimaced slightly thinking about the damage I had done there, but my attention was drawn back to the ship when it changed from a blue outline to a red one with a little box indicating the ship was an enemy and should be destroyed. I instinctively went to turn the guns towards it, but something was off… I frowned when I notice the sensors and scans still had not identified the ship, and yet it was screaming at me to destroy it, I couldn't help but wonder… 'Why?' I slowly reached out for my radio, switching it to broadcast on all known local frequencies so no one outside this star system would accidentally hear what I was about to say.

"Alert! Unidentified ship, entering Blossoming Terranova territory, identify yourself and explain why I shouldn't listen to my ship and open fire on you!"

I repeated it four more times before giving up and turning back to my weapons systems. I turned them towards the ship and was doing the mental maths to align the guns up with the ship when I heard a voice on my radio.

"Blossoming Terranova Ship, identify yourself, this is a diplomatic vessel entering already owned territory on a routine check up of one of our civilisations."

I frowned as I hesitated to pull the trigger, something in my sensors was practically going ballistic trying to convince me to open fire on this ship. However, I was from earth and diplomats had been raised to at least listen to what a diplomat had to say before telling them where to stick it.

"I am Solar Baron and Captain, Kenna Mackenzie, Clan Mistress of the Mackenzie clan and Guild Mistress of the Blossoming Terranova Guild. I have taken ownership of every celestial object in this star system, you are in my territory, there were no competing ownerships. Now for the last time, please identify yourself before I start listening to the ship's demands!"

There was a long pause where no one responded, I was starting to get annoyed at their long silences, I was getting ready to snap at them when they finally responded.

"I am the void Captain Itshu Miskyu of the Void walking ship Lazarus, turn your weapons away from this ship before we take offence and decide to introduce you to the void."

"Void what now?" I asked in confusion as the sensors turned the entire ship red and started flashing warnings, practically screaming at me.

I kept the guns trained on the ship, but I lowered the power as a sign of good faith before I responded to them.

"Void is part of a class that doesn't seem to do anything, other than get flagged for immediate recruitment for Galactic Federation, only to be chewed up and spat back out. So, please, explain to me how my void pilot class turns into what ever you are currently claiming."

I was a little surprised when the response was immediate, I had been expecting the long delay again.

"What! What do you mean, you have the void pilot class! Oh, holy damn, are you one of our children? Do you have the sight?"

I blinked a few times as I stared at the ship in confusion, I was about to respond when the red around the ship suddenly turned to black and the weapons started powering up on their own.

"Oh, shit, the weapons are powering up on their own, I'm not doing it!" I screamed as I tried to cut the power to the weapons and pull them away from the ship.

Once I figured out I couldn't do it, and I had lost control over the rest of the ship, I began to scream as I felt violated. Like someone had taken all control away from me and left me paralysed and helpless.

"Will you stop screaming, what the hell is your problem?"

My mind shot towards the radio, staring at it for a few seconds before I started screaming again.

"Get the hell out of there, the ship isn't responding to my commands, It's going to fire at you!"

"Yea, that's not happening, but it's interesting that you are being so upstanding about all this, why don't you abandon that frigate and bring your people over here, let's see a frigate from the galactic federation should have a drop-ship onboard, use that but rip out anything that receives or broadcasts a signal. See you soon, void child."

"What the hell are you talking about" I screamed right before all the power turned off, ejecting me from my connection to the ship. I turned to look around the room, feeling confused.

"The hell just happened?" I asked the empty room before trying to reconnect, only for nothing to happen. I let out a loud sigh and get out of the chair, looking at all those stairs again, and groaned as I started walking up them.

I frowned in confusion when I got to the top and found the vault doors sealed and refused to open even after I smashed my fist against the panel.

"Fuuuuck." I screamed as I turned around, looking at the stairs back down to the chair. I let out a groan as I glanced at the walls, feeling the room was getting smaller. I quickly started running back down the stairs. Turning my attention to my HUD, I located and selected the call button for Clara.

"Kenna? What's going on? Devon was outside giving the Mining truck a test drive when the power went out, he is shrieking that you launched the damn engine at him.

Without the engine, the ship has no power, everything is dead! I can't even build a new engine without power. Kenna, we are inside a tomb!"

"Clara, listen to me carefully, get everyone and I mean everyone, even the cops, and get the fuck off this ship… something is seriously wrong! I am ordering you to abandon ship right now! Take the drop-ships but rip anything with a receiver or broadcaster out of them first leave it here on the frigate… oh shit, I bet that's how they did it, the frigate was hijacked and remote controlled! Get out of here now!" I shouted hysterically.

I quickly ended the call as I jumped the last few steps and skidded across the deck trying to stay on my feet. I let out a little squeal as I launched myself at the chair in the middle of the room. Grabbing a hold of it, I quickly strap myself in for the first time and scream.

"Emergency escape pod activate!"

The chair suddenly dropped into the ground and the next thing I knew I was inside an uplink pod hurting through the ship gaining speed and the only thing I had to grip onto was the chair. Then I was outside, hurting away from that death trap of a frigate, the little port showing me all the stars and pretty lights as they spun around me. I was about to glance at my HUD for details and information when I felt a small sting in my neck. I tried to turn my head to see what happened, only for my chin to hit my chest.

"Ooh," I groaned sleepily as my body started to feel heavy. "This cant be good" I mumbled as I slowly lost consciousness.

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