Stars, hide your fire: do not against us, conspire

[Gir Quee]

Stormfire-class Assault Frigate Watchkeeper, near the Zigoola System

"Change heading by twenty degrees port," said Gir, eying the CIC holo-tank's representation of the system's Oort Cloud.

Among the tumbling brown rocks, the Watchkeeper led a small gaggle of Lucerne Lab's corporate vessels. Most were rather unremarkable small ships, including one of their oldest Armorer-class Corvettes and trio of brand new Circinius-class Bulk Corvettes. But in the middle of the column floated a heavily modified CMC-A14 with rectangular engine pods seemingly welded on at random portions of the hull. It was an arrangement that Gir thought was barely mobile; he half-expected the lumbering hull to come to an uncontrolled drift as its engines failed. Yet somehow, it hadn't failed yet. He eyed it intently. It'll break down at the worse possible time...His eyes darted towards on incoming asteroid. We'll clear its path...but...His eyes went back to the modded station, christened Ragnar Station. They won't clear it. He flicked his headset comlink on.

"Gunnery Chief Zazu, eliminate track 213."

"Roger sir."

Moments later, the Watchkeeper's mass drivers erupted, sending round and round into the hulking rock. Dust began to billow out from the rock as it was gradually pulverized into nothingness. How many is that? He began to uncurl his fingers as he counted, but abruptly stopped. I suppose it doesn't really matter...as long as we get to our destinations...

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir's eyes wandered up through the maze of stellar objects portrayed by the holo-tank. Among the asteroids floated chunks of impure ice and large planetesimals which easily dwarfed the length of the compact convoy. It was a minor exercise to weave a path through this celestial debris, and arguably even an easier one to simply blast through with their high-powered weapons. Yet Gir liked to think that he operated with a bit more subtlety and surgical precision than the average starship captain. In this case, it would also leave less of trail if anyone had followed them from the Hast System. It was an unlikely prospect given the system's lack of interest to average spacefarer. Yet it was not one he could easily ignore, especially given that those the visitors it did attract were far more dangerous than most. Gir had long decided that he would rather not run into any sort of Sith or darksider adherent, regardless of the circumstances. He eyed a cloud-shaped planetesimal that blocked what otherwise would be the path of least resistance to their destination. He considered his next best option, which involved triangulating a path between three planetesimals that were grouped in a rather close proximity. The blonde man sighed.

"No good shortcuts here," mused the man from Hast, turning to the Watchkeeper's navigator, "we'll take the first route that we calculated."

"And the obstacle?"

"Still working on how to best approach that one," admitted Gir, "it looks like it's movely slowly and predictably enough that we might be able to hug its contours as we go by it."

"We might be able to...but what about Ragnar Station?"

"You think not? I'll defer to your experience is this matter, given that you've seen more of its capabilities than I have at the moment..."

"For all the science personnel they have onboard, I'm surprised they're willing to stay on that piece of junk..."

A thought hit Gir as he thought of the station's occupants. For all of their brains...one actually might be useful for this part of the journey...He turned his blue eyes onto the slim frame of the Watchkeeper's brunette communication's officer and cleared his throat.

"Lemens, can you see if you can get me Doctor Jaxter on the horn? Last I heard he was on Ragnar Station, but it's possible that he's on the Matthew Lucerne now."

"I'll see what I can do..."

 

[Gir Quee]

It only took Lemens four minutes to get a hold of the lanky scientist. Gir could hear the doctor's voice boom out of Lemen's earpiece. She winced and tore off the headset. Gir sympathetically winced with her, and promptly lifted the speaker from his ear as she transferred the call over to him.

"What's happening, my man?"

"Physics question...or problem..."

"I find that much of life can be composed of practical physics problems...cooking, efficient furniture arrangement, angry wives throwing things at you..."

Gir briefly closed his eyes as Jaxter began to drone one. They say brilliance often comes with eccentricity...but sometimes I can't help but wonder...He opened his eyes and scanned the amphitheater-like room. He watched as several sets of eyes glanced away from him and darted back to their stations. If nothing else, he knows how to attract and maintain people's attention...The professor's voice began to slow down to a more normal pace.

"...now this question you've got for me...what is it?"

Gir paused as he considered how to present it.

"Is it possible that we would have a means to rotate an oblong asteroid, say...one the size of star destroyer?"

"Well, that seems rather simplistic to me...you do have enough tractor beams in the fleet, don't you?"

"Not enough mass to push it with though. The Watchkeeper is probably largest pusher we've got."

"Not true," said the professor, "Ragnar Station has a prototype tractor beam emitter that's slated for use on the foundry."

Gir briefly considered that line of thought, "But does it have the engine capability or mass with it to be of real use?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"Yes...well, mass isn't entirely the only factor to worry about in these equations," chattered the professor, "did they ever make you draw a force diagram? I'm not talking about the jedi or sith religions...but you know....the physic's sort of force diagram..."

"A few," said Gir, "again, most for tractor beam operations..."

"But nothing this complex?"

"We were predominantly interested in catching starships for my class..."

"Yes...well...there are simply so many more possibilities and things to do with tractor beams besides just that...you speak of rotating this asteroid, so clearly these thoughts have occured to you as well on some level...but you just lack the experience and or thought process to make this happen."

"It's why I called you."

"Let's do one better than that. Why don't you come over to the station, and we can get to work on your 'problem'. They can survive without you for a little bit, can't they?"

"That's true..."

What did I just get myself into...

 

[Gir Quee]

His flight from the Watchkeeper to Ragnar Station was fairly short, if a somewhat hazardous affair. Still, Gir enjoyed his brief period of solitude away from the rest of the ship's crew. It seemed unusual for him to have much time for him to recharge on his own. Upon landing his personal fighter in the station's cavernous hangar bay, he was greeted not only by Doctor Jaxter, but by a graying woman wearing a white lab coat. He had seen her before somewhere, yet he struggled to come up with a name for the face. Gir clambered down the craft to hop onto the duracrete floor of the station.

"Captain Quee, it's a pleasure to see you again," said the woman, "Mister Jaxter here tells me that we're here to talk about physics..."

"Yes, yes we are...what else could get him off his ship?"

Gir let a subdued smile slowly crease his face, "It's always something of a challenge to move a large vessel through such a confined space; but it's arguably harder to do that without leaving much of a trail."

"You're concerned that we're being followed?" asked the lady.

"Just a precaution," said Gir, following the pair of scientists deeper into the converted mining station, "there's a lot at stake in this project, and I'd rather not risk it now to any potential enemies."

"I just did some sensor scans on the object that were talking about," started the woman, "and I am almost certain that you should reconsider Doctor Jaxter's proposal."

Gir blinked and briefly halted, "I haven't even heard his yet..."

"Ah," grinned the other man, "but we're going to make you use your mind just as much as you make us use our's...."

 

[Gir Quee]

"But really, it goes back to your preconceptions of what we should do," mused Doctor Jaxter, leading the other two into a darkened circular room.

The old man fumbled for something in one of his coat's oversize pocket before pulling out a clunky-looking device that seemed to be a cross between a full-sized datapad and a comlink. He punched in several buttons on it, causing a holo-projector pod that occupied most of the room to burst into life. Light coalesced to form a meter-wide image of the obstacle impeding the convoy's path. Jaxter tapped another button on his phablet, causing a red pointing laser to leap out of the device to the pointed tip of the planetesimal.

"This place here on the target would be where you'd want to apply the force with your ships," said the old man, moving the laser pointer down to the opposite side of the celestial object, "and here would be where you'd want Ragnar station to project its tractor beam. By both pushing and pulling at these opposite ends of the object, we can tilt it to allow safe passage of our vessels, but it will take some time..."

"How much?"

"It's hard to say with absolute certainty, but something on the order of 8 hours, give or take an hour or so..."

Gir slowly nodded. He began to weigh how that would affect their planned schedule. As he did so, he remembered briefly encountering the woman in one of the planning sessions. Miss Colosi...She's working on her second doctorate under Jaxter...His mind turned back to the time table. The scientists seemed to realize Gir's quandary.

"It's really too long to be practical, I'd wager," said Jaxter, "but that is the shortest time that it can be done."

"What's your option?" said Gir, turning to Colosi.

"We use the planetesimal as a vessel to move Ragnar Station."

"Come again?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"This station is designed to land on large objects to mine. To do so, it has the ability to latch onto and secure itself to objects like the planetesimal. If we land Ragnar on this concave section of the planetesimal, and use its tractor beam to push off on that planetesimal over there, we can alter its axial rotation. The station rotates with the planetesimal, and then releases itself once its clear of the other obstacles."

"How long would that take?"

"Two to three hours," guessed the woman.

"Any other complications or risks that I should know about with this option?"

"There's likely to be some flying debris so to speak that will be caused when we set this thing into motion. The station will need some active protection against that."

"I think I can arrange something to do about that," said Gir, "begin briefing your people on this station on how to do that. I will start preparing the ship captains for this plan."

"You don't want to hear more about it?"

"I'm delegating this task to you, since the other vessels seem likely to be only incidental in their use for this...and these types of physics, as you call them, seem to be more in your expertise..."

 

[Gir Quee]

“Hm....well...I suppose I can't really argue with that...”

I'm certain that you want to though, if it didn't stroke your ego...Gir turned his eyes to Colosi in an attempt to gauge her thoughts on the idea. But her eyes were focused intently on the holo-projector; she seemed oblivious to his attention. Gir cleared his throat.

“Do you have any thoughts on this, Miss Colosi?”

It took a second for her head to snap over to face Gir.

“Hm? Sorry, I'm afraid you caught me with my mind drifting...we were talking about Doctor Jaxter taking control of the station? I've heard much of his skill with these sort of operations, but I haven't seen him in action on a scale like this...”

Neither have I...

“...it will be interesting to watch.”

“Lieutenant Hastings is currently the officer of the watch?” asked Gir, “am I right in thinking that? When did they last do a crew shift change, do you know?”

Jaxter shrugged, and the gray-haired woman quickly followed suit. They might be brilliant in their field, capable of coming up with ingenious solutions to these sorts of problems, but they do not seem to aware of basic shipborne status. And that is something that can make or break this...perhaps I'm being too hasty to implement this plan. Step by step...

“I'll leave you two here for a moment to think about any other requests you have to successfully execute this operation. I'll be off to grab the officer of the watch who will be assisting you in making this all happen.”

“Right, we'll be here...”

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir managed to get himself lost very quickly in the depths of Ragnar Station. Its lower levels were labyrinth-like between the many modifications made to the station for the Hephaestus project and the large number of deactivated droids. He had finally managed by chance to run into a rather chirpy MSE-6 droid that seemed all too happy to lead him out the dark catacombs and into the station proper. The boxlike droid quickly led him to a pair of armored Directorate marines who manned a checkpoint at the main turbolift cluster. As suddenly as it had appeared, the droid scurried down a maintenance hatch, leaving the blonde man standing awkwardly in front of the guards. Gir glanced into the black visor of one of the soldier's helm.

"Who is your officer of the watch?"

"Of our watch sir? Or the station's?"

Gir's face briefly flushed red. That's sloppy on my part...on some smaller ship's, it's one and the same...but apparently not here...I should probably do a bit more of an orientation before trying to do anything on an unfamiliar vessel...He shook the thoughts away.

"The station's."

"Lieutenant Hastings."

Well, at least I got that part right from the previous sitrep...

The other marine cleared his throat, "Sir, if you'd like, I can take you to him."

Gir glanced down at the man's armor, checking for a painted on rank insignia. But there didn't appear to be any white markings on the blue-gray armor. Given the lack of rank, Gir guessed that he was a private. Looking at the other marine, Gir did spot a rank insignia, which almost certainly guaranteed that he was the higher ranking marine present. He started back into that dark visor.

"If you can spare this soldier for that task, I'd be much obliged."

The marine bobbed his head up and down, "I can't really say no to that request sir, given who you are."

Gir briefly bit his lip out of annoyance. Perhaps not...but it's proper if nothing else...

"I'm not always aware of everyone's situation," replied Gir, "and I would rather not interfere with your duties if you are busy..."

 

[Gir Quee]

"There's no issue sir."

With that, the private beckoned for Gir to follow him. Gir's eyes scanned the massive power conduits and the curious machines and technologies that seemed to be wedged in every nook and cranny available. He had never been too far into Ragnar station, and he was beginning to regret not having been in it before. While it clearly was the navigational nightmare that he'd seen on the schematics, it seemed that Doctor Jaxter had been remarkably efficient in using space in that sort of mad-scientist way. The blonde man doubted that it would every be likely that they could get anyone to permanently live or want to work on Ragnar Station for long. But hopefully, this will be its last voyage...While they must have been walking for at least fifteen minutes, it passed quickly for Gir as he tried to figure out what each piece of the mining station did. It was a puzzle that he wouldn't likely be able to solve in his lifetime. The bridge foyer was guarded by another pair of marines, causing his guide to come to a halt. The private performed a remarkably crisp about-face movement to face the blonde man.

"Sir, I can think they can take you from here."

"Thank you for your time, private."

The private merely bobbed his head up and down in acknowledgement before disappearing in the twisting labrynth of station's corridors. He turned his attention to the marine on either side of the door, who seemed to straighten up and become rigid. Gir let a subdued smile roll over his face as he exchanged pleasantries with them. The blast doors then quickly whisked open to reveal the station's bridge. He was immediately struck by amphitheater-like arrangement and the number of dazzling holo-displays, most of which seemed to depict wire line images of nearby celestial objects. A throaty voice called out to him as he passed a display.

"Can I help you?"

Gir turned his eyes to look at the speaker, a middle-aged man wearing a gray company jumpsuit who smelled faintly of a nerfburger. The man rose up from his station and blinked. He immediately looked around, and Gir quickly followed his gaze, but the two of them seemed invisible to the rest of the room's occupants. The technician turned his eyes back to the blonde man and politely stammered.

"I...ah...I didn't realize it was you...ah...president sir...but you probably didn't come here to see me, did you? What am I saying..."

Gir offered the man a polite smile in return, "I would be curious to hear about your experience on the station, if perhaps at a later different time. I'm actually here to see Lieutenant Hastings."

"Oh...yes...he's...right there...excuse me...Lieutenant Hastings sir!"

 

[Gir Quee]

A towering man turned around from one of the larger holo-projectors which depicted the trajectory of an incoming asteroid. Gir caught a brief micro-expression on the man's face which conveyed annoyance, but that quickly changed to surprise as he noticed Gir's presence. The officer of the watch quickly slid past several other crewmembers and their stations to approach the man from Hast.

"Sir, I did not expect to see you here..." said the large man, extending a hand towards Gir.

Gir grasped and shook the man's hand, "I wasn't planning on being here, aside from having a brief discussion with Doctor Jaxter."

A mild expression of concern flitted across the lieutenant's face as he ushered Gir towards his personal station, "Nothing too serious came up, I hope?"

"Doctor Jaxter will be landing Ragnar Station on the largest nearby object. He and Miss Colosi will then be performing some tractor beam operations which should see the station use that asteroid as a means to navigate through the belt. I think that he will probably need your help in conducting that operation."

Gir observed the man's face carefully as he spoke, noting that Hastings began to slowly tilt his head to the side as he spoke. Hastings remained silent for a brief moment as he observed his bridge crew at work. He slowly turned his head back to face the man.

"I'm not certain that is a good idea."

"Why is that?"

"This crew is new...and the station...well...you've been inside it now. I'm not sure that we'd be able to pull off anything fancy yet, given our lack of experience."

"Some discretion and understanding on one's limits is admirable, and a good trait in an officer," replied Gir, "but the course of action is settled. The other ships of the convoy will be positioned to aid Ragnar during its maneuver."

"I see," said Hastings curtly.

"You are not convinced that this is a prudent action."

"We must all go out of our comfort zones," said the hulking man, "but I do not feel that we are prepared for any of this."

"It might be easier to take this in steps," said Gir, "my understanding is that this will be a very gradual process. We're not expecting Ragnar to simply barrel roll through the belt..."

 

[Gir Quee]

That remark elicited a brief, if somewhat forced chuckle from the other man. But the facial creases on the man's face were telling. He's really nervous about this. Gir briefly considered removing Hastings from command and taking over personally. While that would ensure that Ragnar's crew would be directly coolly while under pressure, it could potentially undermine Hastings not only for the duration of his stay on the Ragnar, but also throughout his remaining career with the Directorate. Moreover, in dismissing Hastings, he was potentially getting rid of a valuable source of information on both the station and its crew.

"We will conduct this operation together along with the good doctor," announced Gir quietly, "as I am not sure that Doctor Jaxter is entirely suited to do this on his own."

He pulled out his cylindrical comlink and tapped a button, "Doctor Jaxter, Miss Colusi, please join myself and Lieutenant Hastings on the bridge. We will need to begin briefing the crew on their duties for this operation. And they will likely have some input for us as well."

"Oh...you're staying? Mmmm...we'll be there soonish then..."

"Quee out."

He clicked a button on the comlink, ending his call to the somewhat loquacious physicist. His turned his attention back to Hastings had stood, but he was no longer there, having moved over to a large holo-projector situated by what Gir thought was the station's helm. Next to him stood a jowl-cheeked sullustan who conversed in Sullustese with the officer in low tones. Gir's own command of that tongue was pretty limited, though he knew enough to realize that they were either were talking about him or the upcoming maneuver. The blonde man cleared his throat, catching both the sullustan's and Hasting's attention.

"Doctor Jaxter and Miss Colosi will be here shortly."

The sullustan jerked his head up at Gir and pointed at the holo image before spitting out some words.

"A foo ma gooptaka bok!"

 

[Gir Quee]

Sullustese was not one of the languages that Gir knew well. But what he knew of its intonation told him that it wasn't good, a view reaffirmed by Lieutenant Hastings, who did speak the language fluently. The two crewmembers of Ragnar Station began to speak in a mixture of sullustese and basic. Gir tried to follow for a few minutes, but quickly found it to be a hopeless endeavor: the sullustan was far too quick with his tongue. He regarded the sullustan for a brief moment before strolling over to the helmsman's stations. While he was in the middle of reviewing that station's controls, Doctor Jaxter and Miss Colosi arrived. The physicist quickly scurried over to the former admiral.

"I see that you will personally be piloting the station?"

"No," said Gir, turning his gaze upwards, "that's for someone more experienced with these controls. I was looking at them to get a better understanding of what were about to do."

"Who is the ship's helmsman, then?" asked Doctor Jaxter.

"He is," said Hastings, gesturing at the sullustan.

Gir winced, "I take it he wasn't comfortable with it?"

"No," said the other man with a sigh, "but he says it's doable with a good tractor beam controllers."

"Well," said Jaxter with a smile, "you have one of the very best right here. Let's get right to work...shall we?"

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir swept his hand towards a station on the second level of the station's bridge, "Doctor Jaxter, your place is right up, next to the gentleman with black hair."

"Hmm...yes...that looks about right," said the man, shuffling up the stairs.

"Where do you want me captain?" asked Miss Colosi.

"With me and Lieutenant Hastings at this holo-projector," informed Gir, "this projector will be showing the movement of Ragnar station among the asteroids. I want you to give us a play-by-play commentary so that we can follow both Jaxter's commentary and that of helmsman as this goes into play...and any suggestions or concerns that you may have."

She head rose up and down slowly in acknowledgement, "I should be able to do this."

That elicited a tight-lipped smile from Hastings. Yeah, 'should' probably didn't help improve his feelings about this all... He turned his attention to their sullustan helmsman, Nuik. The short alien had strapped himself into a chair, and seemed to be slowly pushing a pair of throttles forward, yet Gir could not feel any difference in the station's motion. Either the station has amazing inertial compensators, or more likely this has terrible acceleration...though I suppose it could be a combination of the two...He pushed the thoughts away from his head as he watched the holographic image of Ragnar Station slowly turn to orient itself towards the large plantesimal. Tiny plumes of blue light erupted around the outer ring of the station, causing the space station to gently jet towards the amorphous mass of gray and brown. Doctor Jaxter seemed to waver and shiver in pleasure as they neared the asteroid. Gir noticed that Hastings was clasping his hands together so tightly that they were becoming white. He quickly realized that his own hands were gripping the holo-projector's railing. He flipped a switch on his headset.

"Watchkeeper, stand by for assist with supportive fire and emergency tractor beams."

Lemens's voice came back clear and unstrained, "Ragnar Station, copy. We're ready."

 

[Gir Quee]

Her voice seemed to reassure several of the station's crewmembers, which in turn eased some of Gir's fears. Colosi began to point out the various asteroids and their trajectories as the objects neared the station. Most of the asteroids who drifted too close had their trajectories altered by the station's tractor beams so that they drifted away from the station. Several of the gigantic rocks were too large to be easily manipulated while the majority of the station's tractor beams were focused on the planetesimal, forcing the Watchkeeper to blast them apart into more manageable chunks with its mass driver cannons. One of these tumbling remains caught Miss Colosi's eyes. She pointed it out with a laser pointer and turned to one of the station's tractor beam projector operators.

"You there...Riha, isn't it, can you bring Track 324 into the processing bay?"

"Aye, I can do that," said the man.

Gir turned his eyes to that asteroid chunk, "Why are we doing that?"

"If you look at its coloration, you seen these vivid yellow-orange colorations right there...that is likely Hfredium."

Gir searched his memory for the name. An metallic ore of some sort...Salmakk mentioned something about its use in a competitor's corvette design. He made a mental note to look it up the first free chance he got, if nothing more than to be more knowledgeable for future test runs.

"I take it that it can be processed into something by the station's machines?"

She nodded, "It will be an excellent catch to test the station's refining capabilities."

She tapped a few buttons on her the holo-projectors control panel, which showed the rock being reeled into the station by a tractor beam. As it neared the hull, a pair of bright beams extended out from the hull and began to carve the rock into various chunks like a butcher slcing up various cut of meat. With the beam drill's work completed, the tractor beam projector moved the now divided up material into the ship itself. GIr watched as the yellow-gold Hfredium chunks moved down one conveyor belt, while its less valuable companion minerals moved down a separate one in the bowels of the station.