Tides of Change

[Gir Quee]

Union-class Corvette Monsoon, somewhere in the Mid Rim

"I'm not really sure if this is a wise idea," said Azira.

"I'm already here," countered Gir, ducking through a hatchway, "besides, it's good to know what the Labs is making...especially if it's in our corporate fleet. I have to admit, it's weird being on a ship so...quiet."

"Well...comparatively, it is...wonders of automation."

Wonders...The admiral inserted his company ID card into a card reader, whose light briefly flashed green before it made an audible click. Gir turned the door's crank open before he swung it open to reveal perhaps the tiniest bridge he had ever seen. A pair of Labs workers and Salmakk manned their stations in a room scarcely larger than his family's living room back home. The mon calamari engineer turned to look at him.

"Glad to see that you made it," offered Salmakk, standing up from his station.

Gir glanced around, "This almost looks more like a shuttle cockpit than a bridge..."

Salmakk lightly chuckled, "That's because it almost is. The Union is a small ship, and between the high amount of automation and the ship's small size...well...we don't need a lot of room or stations. The ship's computers themselves handle a lot of the minor work..."

"I suppose the good old Corellian corvette only needs seven people to run..."

"That sounds right," affirmed Salmakk, "but we can this ship far more efficiently with that number of crew than a CR90 ever could..."

 

[Gir Quee]

"Probably for the better...in this case," said Gir, settling into the ship's almost skeletal command chair.

A pair of holo-projectors built into either side began to hum. Light coalesced in front of his eyes to form his interface display. His eyes darted around to better understand its layout. The man wasn't entirely familar with the latest operating system that the Labs had made to control the highly automated starship. His eyes fell on one particular piece of information. There it is. His eyes lingered on it as his mind processed the information.

"More of them than I thought."

"Well, they think it's a golden ticket. It's bound to attract a lot of attention."

"If only they knew what it really was," murmured the man, "not that I'm anxious for them to figure that out any time soon."

He swiped one of the displays to the side to rotate to a tactical map assembled from data gathered by a probe droid on the scene. He watched as the bulk freighter slid up to dock at the previously unknown wheel-shaped space station. A variety of smaller craft that had previously swarmed around the freighter moved to dock at the various external docking airlocks and the single ventral hangar bay. About a dozen fighters and a pair of converted tramp freighters. We could take them on with the Monsoon and Typhoon, but it would be risky in open space...We need to get them settled down a bit first...Gir turned to an blue-emblazoned R8 unit plugged into one of the bridge's two astromech droids. He eyed the eyeless droid.

"Plot us a course Rate that'll take us right on top of that freighter," instructed Gir, "I'll plot one too."

 

[Gir Quee]

"Don't trust the ship's navi-computer?" questioned Salmakk, sitting down in the navigator's chair.

"With something this precise, I prefer to at least double check it. Triple checking it is even better. A little too far one way or the other, and we'll find ourselves in the station, and quite possibly dead, or far enough away to give them a fighting chance to escape."

"Well, even if we do take the freighter, destroy all of the other ships present," announced Azira, "and even capture the station, it might not be safe. There's a habitable moon within range of an escape pod."

"You think they'd stuff it in one?" questioned Gir.

"Well, even if they did," said Salmakk, "we could still track it..."


"I'd be more worried about what's on the surface, whether its people or the environment."

"It could detonate," offered Azira.

Gir mock-glowered, "And here I thought we left him back at headquarters..."

"I definitely look like a duros," muttered the bothan with a sly concern, "but seriously, it's a legitimate concern. I'm thinking that the escape pods on that thing aren't probably the best maintained. A faulty retrobooster or some frayed wiring..."

"Well, let's hope it doesn't get to that..."