Misjump by Mark Long

Author:Mark Long [Long, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-25T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Nitrauw didn’t call the crew to meet on the next day, explaining that he wanted his life support specialists to go over the inventory and suggested that the crew should take a look at the colony. Jax grumbled, but the others were glad to be out of the Sarafina and to see faces that were not their shipmates.

Gregor and Ivo borrowed a skiff from the stalk and took a tour of the colony. The miner’s vessel was simple and showed signs of heavy use but was well maintained. It seemed painfully slow, even compared to a cargo ship, but high accelerations were not welcome this close to a deep space facility. The skin of the colony was as thin as possible to reduce problems with cosmic radiation slipping past an EM shield; that made for cheap and light construction but was delicate even with the best manufacturing. Low relative speeds kept everyone alive.

The stalk resembled a deformed mushroom, more or less conical with a central trunk and arms extending from it, bridged by structures and old ships. The curved top contained the primary farms and living areas as well as a system of foil mirrors concentrating the light from the distant primary. The re-purposed ships that had been added to the sides were a mixed bunch ranging from old bulk carriers to something that could have been a Corvette class military ship from a few centuries back. There were multiple cargo modules connected into the chain, perhaps as habitation or storage units. The rudimentary sensors on the runabout didn’t offer IR, but several sections of the conglomerate were dark, either uninhabited or sealed up. Cables and pipes connected the ships in a piecemeal way, and the whole thing resembled a nest more than it did a space station. Mismatched laser turrets had been welded into the matrix to give some defensive capability along with some kind of slug thrower.

“Is a mess,” commented Gregor.

“No shit,” agreed Ivo. “One hit from a rock and half of that would tear away.”

“How are they not dead already?” asked Gregor.

“Hell if I know,” said Gregor. “Power core in middle of stalk either big or armoured,” he added.

“Yeah,” replied Ivo. “What do you make of the weapons welded into the matrix? They don’t look as if there are enough of them to be a lot of use.”

“Yes and no. Against attackers, no, would be pretty useless. However, against rock fragments moving fairly slow? Pretty useful then. Is old installation and may not have much deflection tech. Is bad engineering solution but good engineering if it is all you have got. Environmentals is more your thing. What do you think they have? Good or bad situation?” asked Gregor.

Ivo shook his head. “I am surprised that they have any life support at all. It must be running on luck, duct tape, and spray lube. These old stations were designed to be largely self-sufficient, but they have to be hurting for renewables. I have no idea how they are still running a fleet, but there are several in-system bulk carriers docked.

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