Mitchell's Revenge
Universal Starship Enterprises Headquarters, Covington, EQ2

As Jake walked through the streetsof 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 herbetter than anyone.

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

Lost in his thoughts, Jake coveredthe distance to headquarters very quickly. His father’s secretary ushered himinto his office on the fourteenth floor which overlooked the city’s centralpark. Jake was surprised to see Lauristanding at the window looking down at the park. He shook hands with hisfather, Tim, and his Uncle Erik.

“How’s she doing?” asked Laurianxiously.

Jake smiled and looked directly atLauri.

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

“But?” asked Tim, gently. “There’ssomething 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’llrecover. She’s got nothing to benchmark this against. Mark her progress, thatkind of thing.”

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

“I know that,” replied Jake, “But Ialso know Lucy better than any of you, and I know she’s going to replace thistough.”

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

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

“We stripped the data from the primarychip,” said Lauri. “From the wreck of the stealth ship. Whatever it did to yoursteering at the end of the last run is not recorded, despite the informationthat 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 wassomething it did by itself. Random. I had no trouble bringing it into theshipyard. It responded exactly to my commands. I just don’t understand.”

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

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

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

Tim’s brother Erik, who wasfinancial controller of Universal Starship Enterprises, was the completeopposite in looks and manner. Dark haired and brown eyed, most people neverfigured them for brothers. Only two years separated them. Erik was taciturn andreserved. He was good at keeping secrets. A wizard with figures, he could spota rip off a mile away. He could do complex algorithms in his head, and couldread a spreadsheet in a flash.

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

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

“What do you mean Dad?” he asked.

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

“They don’t know where it is,”finished Erik. “The passengers and rest of the crew are stranded. Tigerline aredemanding to know how general crew could possibly have taken the ship. And itmeans 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 inplace.”

“Twelve ships,” mused Jake.

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

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

“Mostly in system,” replied Erik. “Exceptfor the one that disappeared this morning. Its last port was in the Runalongsystem.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leaning over the conference tablehe 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 inships that your reputation depends on!” Lauri shouted.

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

Still red in the face fromshouting, Lauri sat down. He felt as if a light had gone on in his brain. Hetook 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? Spacetechs! I’m in.”

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

“No, but I can fly them to wherethey need to go, and I can help protect them from pirates and any other troublewe’re likely to replace. I do have skills from my first job, remember? ” Jakereplied. “And you’re going to need a protection crew. We’ll be carryingvaluable spares that pirates would love to get their hands on. And when Lucy’sbetter she can join us.”

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

“We can contract to repair otherships 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 artcoms, stealth capacity, armour, weapons, and enough room for crew, techs andparts. It’ll be quite large I expect!”

Tim and Erik were still sittingspeechless at the table. Lauri started to laugh. Jake’s enthusiasm wasinfectious.

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

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

Erik blinked and looked at Jake. “Backup 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?” heasked.

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

Tim managed to shake himself freeof the gloom that had possessed him all morning. He started to make a sensiblecontribution to the discussion. While Erik worked the numbers, Tim, Lauri andJake began to put together a plan to salvage the company’s reputation before itwas too late. Several hours later they had a plan. Erik had approved theestablishment cost of Universal Starship Enterprises Intergalactic Breakdownand Repair Service.

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