Chapter 57. Runaway Kobold.

  Watson sounded a warning throughout the ship, which could also be heard in the station’s cargo hold. The verminkin and his drones were ordered aboard with whatever they could carry. For now, the salvage was simply dumped onto the cargo bay’s deck. A few drones, and the verminkin team on duty, were tasked with carrying everything to the reprocessor. Once the last of his crew were aboard, Watkins disconnected from the boarding tube and drifted away from the station with small bursts of power from the maneuver thrusters.

  Once far enough out to prevent damage to the station, he lit his main drive and set an intercept course for the wayward kobold ship. More than likely, it was the AI at the station who sent the strange thrusters to capture the kobold vessel, but there could also be someone else out there, someone who might not be an enemy. For now, he kept quiet, watching as more data from his sensors appeared.

  Kicking himself for not investing in another level of research for his main drives, it was apparent that Watkins wouldn’t be able to catch the kobold ship before it reached the station. At least if it was being sent to the station, it might still be within his grasp once he dealt with the AI there. Having a second station full of resources, and a kobold ship ready to plunder would have made Watkins’ mouth water if he still had one.

  “Look at that, the thrust levels on those drives are weakening,” Lani said. She was right, the power output on the strange missile-like devices was down by 22% of its previous maximum. As more data came in, Watkins grew more confident that these weren’t missiles at all. He had half expected them to detach from the vessel and attack once he closed in.

  Their overall size was more than double the size of his current missiles, but much smaller than the torpedoes that his ship would eventually research. If these things were just mobile booster rockets, they would have a limited amount of propellant. Getting here from the station, if that was their point of origin, would have already eaten into their limited supply of fuel.

  Even if he considered that the space normally occupied by a warhead was probably converted into fuel storage, these booster rockets might run dry well before reaching the jump point station. Calculations were made as the booster rocket thrust dropped again, now down by 35% of its previous max. If they remained at that level of thrust, they would still be too far away to intercept before the Canon entered weapons range of the station.

  “Lani, have you ever seen anything like those booster rockets?” Watkins asked.

  “No, I doubt they would be useful except in a niche case like the one we’re in. I wonder if the station AI developed these a while ago, or is it powerful enough to design and construct the rockets just in the time we were dealing with the kobolds and halflings?” Lani said.

  Watkins didn’t want to think about what they might face if the AI at the station really could design and create that fast. If it was hostile, and that powerful, it probably would have already calculated and constructed some countermeasure to defeat the Canon by now. The more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed that the jump point station had some kind of super AI installed.

  “Lani, that AI is what’s left of you after you installed yourself in the ship. I doubt what was left has advanced that far. Maybe, it had been awake and active after the attack, it might have replaced what it lost, but there’s no way its somehow taken such an exponential leap in capability,” Watkins said.

  “I agree, but it does raise the question of why it had developed those booster rockets. Maybe the station had to haul in drifting ships before, after all, the station’s not exactly mobile like we are,” Lani said. Before they could consider the point further something in the sensor returns caught Watkins’ attention.

  “Look at that, the ship’s reactor is failing,” Watkins said, drawing Lani’s attention to the sensor readouts. As they watched, the reactor on the kobold ship began to fail, but instead of shutting down, it was being forced into full meltdown. Comparing it to the data from the kobold ship that had destroyed itself to prevent capture by the halflings, this reactor was behaving the same way.

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  “There it goes,” Lani said as a bright flash appeared in space as the reactor detonated.

  “And there goes all the salvage and research we might have gained from it,” Watkins said. The kobold ship was gone, blasted into bits too small to be worth harvesting. Even worse, all four booster rockets had been consumed in the blast, leaving nothing for him to examine.

  “Do we continue to the station, or head back for more resources?” Lani asked.

  He was tempted to head back and gather up all the resources he could stuff into his ship. Time could also be used for more research, but time wasn’t his friend at this point. The station had just advertised with the booster rockets that it could easily extend its reach beyond weapons range. The last thing he wanted was to putter around waiting for research to be finished, only to have the AI try and pilfer the research station out from under him.

  “We continue on course, let’s see what this other half of you has to say for itself,” Watkins told Lani.

  “Skitterbach, keep helping with the salvage hauling and I’ll let you know when the training systems are ready in the research bay,” Watkins ordered.

  They were going into an unknown situation and keeping the crew busy was usually the best way to handle things. He ordered a pair of drones to work on the research lab. It was currently empty, and he designed a simple desk that should be comfortable even for the verminkin with their rat-like tails.

  “I’ll work-labor with the teams, Captain. May I ask-request something?’ Skitterbach asked.

  “You may, what do you want to know?” Watkins replied.

  “The crew is curious-concerned to know, what species is the Captain Watkins and Lani?” Skitterbach asked. It was a good question, and one he wasn’t quite sure how to answer. For now, he’d keep the verminkin in the dark, at least until he was certain his current state wouldn’t freak them out too badly.

  “Let’s leave that a mystery for now. Once your people have worked hard and proven themselves, we’ll see about making a personal visit,” Watkins said.

  “I understand-listen, we be patient. One other thing, if I can ask-request. The ship is underway, where are we going?” Skitterbach asked.

  “I think we can give them a bit of information on what we’re facing,” Lani suggested on the private channel with Watkins. She was right, the crew deserved to know their current course and purpose.

  “Chief Skitterbach, I’ll have a drone install some view screens for you. We’ll place one on the bridge and one in the CIC. From there you can see our current heading and destination. We’re heading toward a place called jump point station one. The station has information and supplies that we’re going to need, but it’s controlled by an AI that may or may not be hostile to us. When I know more, and what the crew’s role in this venture might be, I’ll let you know,” Watkins replied.

  “Aye, Captain. Thank-appreciate you giving us information,” Skitterbach said before scurrying off to grab a broken chair from the salvage pile in the cargo hold to haul off to the reprocessor. Watkins had to give the verminkin chief credit, he worked as hard, or harder than his people. Skitterbach could have easily sat back and tried to boss everyone around while he relaxed, but the guy genuinely wanted to be useful.

  One of the drones setting up the research lab was pulled to build viewscreens where Watkins had indicated. The interface with the screens was a bit slapdash, with Watkins trying to visually interpret what his sensors were seeing so the verminkin could follow their progress. He asked Skitterbach if he’d ever heard of the jump point station they were heading to, and he said no, but reminded Watkins that the halflings didn’t exactly share much information with their food source.

  Watkins received a notification when the electronic warfare research was completed. He worked with Lani to set up a way to generate a message when things like that were complete. The system that guided his core made it an easy enough process.

  You have completed the initial research on the Electronic Warfare Suite. The level 0 version of this module may now be produced.

  Looking over the data, Watkins could see that the new system was a bit bulky and would require several masts to be built on his hull. As much as he wanted to finish up the armor upgrades, the Electronic Warfare (EW) suite might be the difference between victory and defeat if things turned into a fight. He pulled five drones off armor upgrades to begin constructing the EW suite.

  It would give him and Lani the chance to hack into enemy systems at range. Most ships, even those not originally designed for military use, were well protected, but even their level zero EW system should be able to hack into the guidance systems on missiles and things like that. He was a long way from being able to take control of and turn an enemy’s missiles against them, but such a thing would be possible at higher levels of research.

  Before he forgot, Watkins started research on level one for his main drives. If things at the station turned sour, he wanted to get out of range as quickly as possible. A quick check showed that his research module upgrade progress was at 67%. Once it was done, it would unlock the ability to start level two research for everything else.

  He had a long way to go, but the hard cap that the council had placed on his core still loomed over him. Watkins was going to break that cap, and the jump point station likely held the means for him to do so.