Nellie and the Nanites - Bk2 - Ch.44

Chapter Forty-Four

To boldly go

“All crew braced for liftoff, captain,” Salem said.

“All hatches secured,” Remi said after double-checking his boards.

“Shields and weapons online,” Dar-Ken called.

“Engines are online, all readings in the green,” Baz grinned.

“All systems ready, captain,” Lucy said proudly. “Bly’s Revenge, ready to launch.”

“Lift off in five, four, three, two, one… launch!” Nellie said, feeling the slight shudder as they lifted off the ground. The viewing window was a display, as opposed to an actual viewport. It showed the rain of dust, dirt, and eventually debris as the Bly broke free from its underground hangar.

Then, she was free and rising slowly into the air, the landscape below them rendered in a wireframe from sensor data.

Nellie watched the control tower slowly collapse into the cavernous hole they had left behind.

“All crew, the Bly has launched. Secure for space flight and prepare to switch to internal gravity.” She closed the all-ship comm and turned her chair to Salem. “Contact Duke, let him know we have launched successfully and will wait for him in orbit.”

“Yes, Captain,” Salem turned away and spoke into her mic for a moment as the Bly continued to rise into the air. “Uh, Cap?” Salem turned back. “They have a little problem.”

“Put them through,” Nellie told her, and Duke’s stressed face soon appeared on the screen ahead of her. “Hey, Duke. Got issues, I hear?”

“Be- Nellie, thanks for answering. The short answer is, we are stuck.” Duke looked sweaty and tired.

“Uh, okay. How?” Nellie asked. How did you get an arc-sized ship stuck?

“We can’t get our main doors open on the second level. We were planning to blast, but the metal is too thick. We can rip free, but the walls around this place will fall if we do if we do. I don’t want to leave the people remaining behind with no walls.” Duke ran a tired hand over his face. “I wanted them to have something after we left, and they are currently outside the walls and waiting in a bunker for us to clear the area.”

“So what can we do?” Nellie looked at her implant list of ship systems. They had a grav tow, but using it on a planet was dangerous.

“I’m not sure if you have much in the way of weapons,” Duke said, “But if you could try and cut the doors free, it would be a big help.”

“Sure,” Nellie smiled. “I think we can do that, be there in a few minutes.”

“Really?” Duke smiled with relief. “I know it’s unlikely… but thank you.”

Nellie cut the comm and directed Baz to fly them over to Duke’s place.

They came into range of Duke’s only fifteen minutes later, and he had the targeting details ready for them. Nellie took them but had Lucy do her own scans on their first pass, just to be sure. She was alarmed to see how broad the targeting data from Duke was. Their systems were able to lock onto the massive hinges easily.

“Permission to show off a little?” Baz asked.

“Go for it,” Nellie laughed as they slowed, and the ship rolled slowly as they passed over the massive opening. Their arrays fired in series, each pair striking a different hinge and cutting it neatly in half as they rolled by overhead. She called a flustered and stunned Duke and checked he was good to launch now, and when he confirmed he was, gave the command she had longed to give.

“Take us up,” She said and sat forward as the clouds on the viewscreen parted and bright sunshine shone on the tops of the dark clouds. Higher and higher they went until the sky started to darken, giving way to the cool blackness of space, sprinkled with stars all begging her to explore.

There was a split second of weightlessness, and then the artificial gravity kicked on.

“I’m back!” Nellie sighed and slumped in her chair. A chirping seemed to run the length of the ship, and she looked over at Lucy.

“The oozes are glad to be in space,” She said distantly. “It’s what they were designed for. I, I forgot they did that.”

“I like it,” Nellie said, feeling misy-eyed for some reason. “Baz, put us into an orbit to wait for Duke.”

“Attention Bly’s Revenge,” A hail came over the comm line within minutes, “Planetary evacuation will not start for two hours; do not attempt to leave orbit.”

“Bly’s Revenge, Captain Bonne Chance commanding. We read and will not leave orbit. We are just waiting for a friend.”

“Understood Bly. The commanding officer requests to speak with you if you have no objection.” The voice seemed friendly enough.

“Go ahead,” Nellie said, sitting up straighter. It was crazy how much posture affected people’s opinion of you. The viewscreen flickered and revealed a stocky woman with a very familiar jawline.

“Hey there, Captain Bonne Chance; I’m Brenda DeVore, Captain of the cruiser Last Chances. I have to ask where you got that ship; she’s a beauty if even half my scan data is right, which I frankly don’t believe.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know someone I’m waiting for, would you?” Nellie asked.

“Oh, you’re the friend, are you?” Brenda laughed. “He’s been keeping secrets from me.”

“To be fair, he didn’t know about this ship. No one did.” Nellie said. “I have trust issues.”

“Don’t we all?” Brenda said with a wink. “If you’ve lived, you either get trust issues or end up dead.” She sat back for a bit and then nodded. “Thank you, Captain Bonne Chance, you helped me make my mind up about something.”

“What’s that?” Nellie asked.

“I think I’ll head out with Duke after all. Keep an eye on my big brother for a while.” She winked again, “I think it might be more fun than I thought with that ship of yours.” Brenda signed off, and the comm line closed.

“So…” Baz said. “She’s gonna try and take the ship at some point, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Nellie said with a chuckle. “Strong pirate vibes from that one.”

“Here he comes,” Lucy pointed out the scan data. A massive ship was slowly rising from the planet below. It was the kind of thing you swear should never fly, let alone be allowed in space, but it was on its way.

It was basically a cigar in shape, but it had a set of growing towers sticking out of the center in a circle, like bullets in a revolver. It made Nellie tense just to look at them. Surely they should have had some sort of hull over shit like that, right?

“Duke’s Hope to Bly’s Revenge,” Their comm officer called and gave the coordinates for the jump point to Salem.

Unlike them, the arc ship did not wait for clearance, simply slipping out of the atmosphere and into space without staying in orbit.

Nellie shrugged, and they followed him out, with the Last Chances taking a position on the far side of the colony ship.

The three weren’t challenged at any point as they traveled the half-day’s journey to the jump point. Nellie got to see Fig-Seven in the distance, still wreathed in its permanent smog despite not having been a foundry for a long time now.

Then, at last, it was time.

“Bringing the Exo-System Drive online,” Lucy said calmly.

“Jump point locked for out-of-sector jump,” Baz confirmed.

“All crew, all crew. Brace for jump,” Nellie called over the ship-wide comm. She wondered if everyone else was as nervous as she was.

“Synched with the Hope for simultaneous jump,” Salem called. “Five, four, three, two, one. Jumping.”

End of Book Two

Book Three: Crashed Hope and Last Chances

Coming Soon!