Mitchell's Revenge

As Jake walked through the streets of Covington towards U.S.E. headquarters he was thinking about Lucy’s recovery. She always gave the impression of being tough and strong, but he knew her better than anyone.

Underneath that veneer she was sensitive and kind and he knew she was going to find the recovery difficult. She had never been injured in her life, never had to recover from any illness, or deal with bad eyesight, or digestion problems like so many space faring people did. She was going to need all the help she could get.

Lost in his thoughts, Jake covered the distance to headquarters very quickly. His father’s secretary ushered him into his office on the fourteenth floor which overlooked the city’s central park. Jake was surprised to see Lauri standing at the window looking down at the park. He shook hands with his father, Tim, and his Uncle Erik.

“How’s she doing?” asked Lauri anxiously.

Jake smiled and looked directly at Lauri.

“She’s alive, she’s repaired, according to the surgeon, and it’s going to take at least six months for her to begin functioning normally,” he said. Jake shook his head as if to clear his thoughts.

“But?” asked Tim, gently. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

“I’m really worried about her, Dad,” he said. “She’s never been injured in her life, and I don’t know how she’ll recover. She’s got nothing to benchmark this against. Mark her progress, that kind of thing.”

“Try not to worry so much,” said Erik, “We’re making sure she’s got the best help available. The doctors know what they’re doing.”

“I know that,” replied Jake, “But I also know Lucy better than any of you, and I know she’s going to find this tough.”

“Let’s give it a couple of months,” suggested Tim, “See how she progresses, and then we can see what else she needs to help her get well. Worrying is not going to help her, or you. And we’ve got some serious development woes to deal with, so we’d better get down to business. Let’s sit.”

The four men sat at the small conference table near the window and Tim’s secretary brought coffee and pastries to the table as they began their meeting.

“We stripped the data from the primary chip,” said Lauri. “From the wreck of the stealth ship. Whatever it did to your steering at the end of the last run is not recorded, despite the information that showed up on the technical scans in the control room.” He looked at Jake.

“I don’t understand it,” said Jake. “I didn’t actually adjust my steering at the time. It felt as if it was something it did by itself. Random. I had no trouble bringing it into the shipyard. It responded exactly to my commands. I just don’t understand.”

Tim frowned. The frown ruined his good looks in an instant. He was a tall, muscular man, in his early fifties. He had thick white blond hair and a fringe that flopped into his eyes whenever he got excited about something. As it did now. His pale blue eyes assessed his son, seated across the table from him.

Jake was a mirror image of his father, only twenty five years younger. His fierce intelligence gave his features an intense look, which quite often intimidated the people around him. He didn’t mean it that way; it’s just the way he was. Five years as a mercenary in the far reaches of the Ambleby system had toughened the boy into a man.

Jake thought it was ironic that he had run away from home to avoid working for the family business, and now, here he was. He asked himself whether it was karma, or just plain bad luck. He didn’t know.

Tim’s brother Erik, who was financial controller of Universal Starship Enterprises, was the complete opposite in looks and manner. Dark haired and brown eyed, most people never figured them for brothers. Only two years separated them. Erik was taciturn and reserved. He was good at keeping secrets. A wizard with figures, he could spot a rip off a mile away. He could do complex algorithms in his head, and could read a spreadsheet in a flash.

Lauri felt completely out of place with this family of intensely handsome men. He also knew that Tim possessed a temper that could flare in an instant, and he was aware that this issue with the latest stealth ship had not only cost them production time, but lost their best test pilot for at least six months. His restorative sleep before coming down to Covington had not given him any answers.

“While we try to work out what’s going on with the software, we’ve got a potentially much more damaging problem,” said Tim. Jake looked sharply at his father.

“What do you mean Dad?” he asked.

“We’ve already got at least a dozen ships out there with this same software installed. Tigerline Luxury Cruises reported this morning that one of their brand new liners has mysteriously disappeared from its last port. There were only three crew aboard at the time, and they weren’t pilots, which makes it even odder. Somehow they were able to undock and jump away.” Tim explained.

“They don’t know where it is,” finished Erik. “The passengers and rest of the crew are stranded. Tigerline are demanding to know how general crew could possibly have taken the ship. And it means we could be sued for failing to provide a proper docking immobiliser for it. This could get ugly. We need to sort it out now and get some damage control in place.”

“Twelve ships,” mused Jake.

“Eleven actually,” put in Lauri. “As one’s gone missing already.”

“What type of ships are they? And where are they currently located?” asked Jake.

“Mostly in system,” replied Erik. “Except for the one that disappeared this morning. Its last port was in the Runalong system.”

“We have one luxury liner, as in the one that disappeared, and eleven Lumberjack class freighters. Only two of those have FTL drives fitted, and the rest are operating here in the Karhu system,” explained Lauri.

“Everything else we’ve built uses software from our previous supplier and we’ve never had a problem with any of them,” he went on.

“Our contract with the Karhu system military requires us to supply twenty five Sniper class stealth ships with FTL capacity by the end of next year. And testing this week has just blown us out off the water, so to speak,” explained Erik. “We have orders for more luxury liners, but as soon as news of what happened this morning gets out, I won’t be surprised if those are cancelled.”

Jake rubbed his eyes and ran his hands through his short blond hair.

“I can see that the first thing we have to do is dump this software supplier and get our hands on something reliable,” he said. “Why did we change to these people in the first place?” He looked at Tim expectantly.

“Promises,” Tim shrugged. “They promised us they could provide the most sophisticated, reliable and economically sound product currently in the market. The price was neither too much nor too little. Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Odds on it wasn’t fully tested before they released it,” said Lauri. He leapt out of his seat, his voice raised. “It was still in development, right? And you volunteered us as guinea pigs because the price was right? Is that it?”

Leaning over the conference table he glared at Tim, angrier than he had ever been since beginning to work for U.S.E. He couldn’t believe that Tim could have been so stupid.

“You don’t put untested software in ships that your reputation depends on!” Lauri shouted.

“Settle down Lauri,” said Jake quietly. “I’ve had enough drama in the last week to last a lifetime. We need a plan. And quickly.”

Still red in the face from shouting, Lauri sat down. He felt as if a light had gone on in his brain. He took a deep breath.

“The first thing we need,” he said, “Is a repair ship staffed with space craft technicians.”

Tim and Erik stared at him. “What?”

“That’s brilliant Lauri,” said Jake. “Fix it on the run. When you break down in space who are you going to call? Space techs! I’m in.”

“But you’re not a technician,” said Tim. “You couldn’t mend an FTL drive if your life depended on it.”

“No, but I can fly them to where they need to go, and I can help protect them from pirates and any other trouble we’re likely to find. I do have skills from my first job, remember? ” Jake replied. “And you’re going to need a protection crew. We’ll be carrying valuable spares that pirates would love to get their hands on. And when Lucy’s better she can join us.”

Jake leapt out of his chair and began pacing up and down the room. Ideas tumbled from him as he paced.

“We can contract to repair other ships as well, including military, as we’ve built quite a few of their ships already,” he went on excitedly. “Our ship’ll need a reliable FTL drive, state of the art coms, stealth capacity, armour, weapons, and enough room for crew, techs and parts. It’ll be quite large I expect!”

Tim and Erik were still sitting speechless at the table. Lauri started to laugh. Jake’s enthusiasm was infectious.

“We could appropriate the ship we’re currently building for Tigerline and modify it for the job,” he said. “It’s big enough because it’s a luxury cruiser.”

“We’d have to replace the FTL drive we’ve just fitted with something we know is reliable, and we’d need to look at how we could arm it without breaking any civilian weapons laws. “ Lauri added. “There are already crew quarters on board and we could convert some of the passenger space to parts storage. That could work.”

Erik blinked and looked at Jake. “Back up there just a minute,” he said. “You said contract to repair other ships, didn’t you?” Jake nodded and stopped pacing to look at his uncle.

“You’ll consider this then?” he asked.

“Let me do the sums,” Erik replied. “If, as I fear, Tigerline cancel their order, then we do have a ship available now. If we can possibly cover the cost of converting and operating the repair ship by contracting to other companies, it may be worthwhile.” Erik left the conference room and went to his office to run the numbers.

Tim managed to shake himself free of the gloom that had possessed him all morning. He started to make a sensible contribution to the discussion. While Erik worked the numbers, Tim, Lauri and Jake began to put together a plan to salvage the company’s reputation before it was too late. Several hours later they had a plan. Erik had approved the establishment cost of Universal Starship Enterprises Intergalactic Breakdown and Repair Service.

The ship they were building for Tigerline already had a name. They decided it was as good a name as anything else they might think of. Mitchell’s Revenge was born.