Uneven by Timothy Ellis

Author:Timothy Ellis [Ellis, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty Six

Before Brook went off to do anything else, I called the shareholders together.

They all noticed the eagles, but no-one said anything.

“We’ve got permission to use the jump drives and buttons,” I told them. “The Knight Marshal himself okayed them. But there’s a downside.”

“Let me guess,” said Darren. “They get to order us around again?”

His tone suggested that like me, he wanted nothing to do with the League military ever again.

“Not quite. They can call on us, but I said they needed to send a contract with the call. If that happens or not the first time is anyone’s guess, and probably depends on who makes the call.”

“I’m okay with being contracted,” said Brook.

“I am as well,” said Nyle.

“I think we should go anyway,” said Tom. “If they call on us, it will be because someone needs us, and we’re available. Not going could be fatal to someone we know.”

“I seriously doubt anyone will call us except in dire need,” added Doug. “In the case of you guys, doing so is admitting they screwed up booting you out. I can’t see anyone going there without a very good reason to.”

They all looked at me.

“I’m inclined to go as well, regardless, and then deal with it after. I’m also wondering if we should be actively looking at places like where we were on the lower spine, and intervening when pirates are active. We just proved we can jump in on anyone almost anywhere with very little warning first.”

“Four jump drives don’t go very far,” said Elsa.

“The permission includes creating new ones, but we need to pay the royalty on them each time. We’ve created two already. The approval includes putting them on any capital ship we keep in the future, but not on fighters.”

“So we put them on the two carriers straight away, and the three Cobras. Unbound and Unseen have them already. So does the ferry.”

And the Lightning. And now I thought about it, that drive was probably why Maya had accessed the new version of them. I had to wonder if the Knight Marshal had known that could happen. Maybe he did. Or maybe he just guessed.

“It changes our plans,” said Darren. “We don’t need Unseen to carry around ships now. We can just put drives on new ships, and jump as a fleet.”

“There is a reason why mercenaries are not getting jump drives,” I told them. “Having one is an agreement to destroy the ship if there is any danger of the drive being taken. That’s an AI responsibility, and since mercenaries are not getting AIs normally, they can’t get jump drives either.”

That sobered them.

“Isn’t that a little drastic?” asked Brook.

“Didn’t that happen a while ago?” asked Nyle.

“Yes,” I said. “Rogue mages tried to take a marine Gatekeeper, and the AI blew the ship. The module was jumped out of the explosion by a mage, killing the mage in the process, and they spent months at the bottom of an ocean before being rescued mere hours from dying. That was the trigger for ending the Trixone War the way it was.

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