saw her searching frantically over her board. "Is there a problem, Commander?"
"I'm looking for the hyperfield perturbation array."
"I'm not familiar with such a devic e… at least not one we call that. What does it do and perhaps I can help."
"It detects and locates nearby hyperfold events. If that big bully jumps after us I want to know where it is."
Captain Modos looked at her for a few seconds before he did something completely unexpected. He laughed, rocking back and forth in a purely Bearephant manner as he chortled.
"I knew you were what we needed! Tell me Commander, how does one detect a hyperfold?"
"Well," Cat considered the question. "It's not terribly dissimilar to detecting a gravity wave but the angle of incursion is ninety degrees out of phase. I suppose I could modify your gravimetric sensors to do something similar but you would not be able to use them for dimensional transits until they are restored."
"And this will tell us the terminus of a vessel that hyperjumps in our vicinity?"
"Negative, Sir. It will tell us how far away they are but not the direction. We would need three observations points to accomplish that."
Captain Running Stream hit his comm. "Engineering. Prepare two gravimetric sensor probes. Commander Kimbridge will give you instructions for modifying them."
Cat smiled. She loved it when a plan came together. She and her companions would do their level best to help this captain and honor their pledges, but at the same time they were gathering incredible intel for the GCP.
' … if they could ever report it, ' she mused.
Chapter Seven: Escape...
The newly minted Modos officer Lieutenant Ben stood in the Bluefin's fabrication bay. Four gravimetric probes lay on tables. Their guts where splayed out. Ben was working with an old friend of his. Yhsif it turned out was a reasonably competent junior engineer.
"See if you can't get that solder joint a little cleaner. We need to be able to get all of this stuff back inside when we are done."
Ben had decided to modify four of the probes rather than the two requested. This would give them two spares in case they could not recover a set between jumps. He was just closing up the second of the four when the ship shuddered. Emergency klaxons resumed their wailing.
"I guess our friends have found us again" he muttered.
"They're no friends of mine," Yhsif grunted as he folded the modified circuit board back into the third probe.
"So..." Ben started to say. The ship rocked again, a bit stronger this time. He opened a direct link to Cat. " Cat try rolling the ship to disperse the energy across the shields. We just got these bad boys working again. I would hate to burn them out. "
" Not my first dance, Commander... er... I mean Lieutenant, " Cat shot back.
" Yeah about that..., " Ben thought back. He was interrupted by Yhsif who was completely unaware of the silent exchange between the GCP officers.
"So?" The Bearephant echoed.
"Sorry... I became distracted by the bad driving upstairs."
Yhsif grunted.
"So why do you suppose are we being attacked?" Ben continued.
Yhsif looked decidedly uncomfortable. "I best not answer that. It's something that the Captain should probably address."
"That bad?"
***
Yhsif carefully and covertly made his way to a storage locker on a lower level. The ship's manifest listed its contents as defective electronic hardware. The type that accumulates over time in any ship as complex as a star ship. What Yhsif was after, however, was not a piece of defective hardware.
His fingers felt around the side of the door to the locker and he pulled free a small remote control. He hated what he was doing but he had no choice. The Modos syndicate had his wife and children.
Quickly he typed in a few commands and a series of coordinates. He pressed the send button and replaced the small remote. Silently a small
"I'm looking for the hyperfield perturbation array."
"I'm not familiar with such a devic e… at least not one we call that. What does it do and perhaps I can help."
"It detects and locates nearby hyperfold events. If that big bully jumps after us I want to know where it is."
Captain Modos looked at her for a few seconds before he did something completely unexpected. He laughed, rocking back and forth in a purely Bearephant manner as he chortled.
"I knew you were what we needed! Tell me Commander, how does one detect a hyperfold?"
"Well," Cat considered the question. "It's not terribly dissimilar to detecting a gravity wave but the angle of incursion is ninety degrees out of phase. I suppose I could modify your gravimetric sensors to do something similar but you would not be able to use them for dimensional transits until they are restored."
"And this will tell us the terminus of a vessel that hyperjumps in our vicinity?"
"Negative, Sir. It will tell us how far away they are but not the direction. We would need three observations points to accomplish that."
Captain Running Stream hit his comm. "Engineering. Prepare two gravimetric sensor probes. Commander Kimbridge will give you instructions for modifying them."
Cat smiled. She loved it when a plan came together. She and her companions would do their level best to help this captain and honor their pledges, but at the same time they were gathering incredible intel for the GCP.
' … if they could ever report it, ' she mused.
Chapter Seven: Escape...
The newly minted Modos officer Lieutenant Ben stood in the Bluefin's fabrication bay. Four gravimetric probes lay on tables. Their guts where splayed out. Ben was working with an old friend of his. Yhsif it turned out was a reasonably competent junior engineer.
"See if you can't get that solder joint a little cleaner. We need to be able to get all of this stuff back inside when we are done."
Ben had decided to modify four of the probes rather than the two requested. This would give them two spares in case they could not recover a set between jumps. He was just closing up the second of the four when the ship shuddered. Emergency klaxons resumed their wailing.
"I guess our friends have found us again" he muttered.
"They're no friends of mine," Yhsif grunted as he folded the modified circuit board back into the third probe.
"So..." Ben started to say. The ship rocked again, a bit stronger this time. He opened a direct link to Cat. " Cat try rolling the ship to disperse the energy across the shields. We just got these bad boys working again. I would hate to burn them out. "
" Not my first dance, Commander... er... I mean Lieutenant, " Cat shot back.
" Yeah about that..., " Ben thought back. He was interrupted by Yhsif who was completely unaware of the silent exchange between the GCP officers.
"So?" The Bearephant echoed.
"Sorry... I became distracted by the bad driving upstairs."
Yhsif grunted.
"So why do you suppose are we being attacked?" Ben continued.
Yhsif looked decidedly uncomfortable. "I best not answer that. It's something that the Captain should probably address."
"That bad?"
***
Yhsif carefully and covertly made his way to a storage locker on a lower level. The ship's manifest listed its contents as defective electronic hardware. The type that accumulates over time in any ship as complex as a star ship. What Yhsif was after, however, was not a piece of defective hardware.
His fingers felt around the side of the door to the locker and he pulled free a small remote control. He hated what he was doing but he had no choice. The Modos syndicate had his wife and children.
Quickly he typed in a few commands and a series of coordinates. He pressed the send button and replaced the small remote. Silently a small
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