Free Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework by Randolph Lalonde

two
forty two meter long patrol craft, nine heavy shuttles, and several
smaller repair and personnel shuttles that the old Enforcer crew
called ‘Mice’ that could carry six people.
    The eighteen meter long armoured transport
behind Jake lifted off, on its way down to their settlement on
Tamber. “I’m getting tired of hiding,” he told Frost. “But I’m not
so pissed at this situation that I’m ready to kill the plan. We’re
hidden because we’re protecting the people who might get caught in
the crossfire if someone tries to make a capture.”
    “Yeah,” Frost replied with a sigh. “So
you’ve said more times n’ I can count, lad. It doesn’t bother you
at all that the Samson’s hull is getting her finishing touches
tomorrow? Whole new hull on a redesign you and your old crew
hammered out.”
    Jake picked up a crate ready to be loaded
into a small shuttle behind him and began walking it up the rear
ramp. The standard muscle augmentation in his suit creaked. He’d
used that suit so much that the enhancement systems were showing
real wear and tear. “You had a hand in it too,” Jake told Frost.
The sealed hood and darkened faceplate kept anyone from overhearing
what he was saying. “Ever see a hybrid-organic hull grown onto a
ship before?”
    “Can’t say I have.”
    “Then maybe we should both take a day and
work down there instead of up here,” Jake said. “This scavenger
duty is busy work, Leland March could probably do it. I want to get
back down there today if I can. Besides, your old gunnery deck crew
has this all set.”
    “I hear ya,” Frost replied. “Not like
there’s any complicated work left to do aboard this gutted beast.
Your old friend Everin is going to have a problem with us shirking
his big plan to keep us scattered and hidden.”
    Jake bristled at the mention of Jason Everin
- the man had changed, and it wasn’t to his liking. “Between you
and me, Jason's head is too big. Ayan’s given him too much
control.”
    “Can’t disagree,” Frost replied. “I’m
waiting for him to screw up, because it’ll be in grand fashion, and
we’ll have to pick up the pieces.” He paused a moment before
adding, “Between you and me.”
    “How do you think that’ll go down?” Jake
asked. “His big screw up.”
    “Not sure, but he’s moving us around like
we’re pieces on an old game board, drawing up new petitions for the
Carthans every couple days, and trying to run this operation too
clean,” Frost said. “If he doesn’t screw one of us over by mistake,
or get the Carthans irritated enough to kick us off their rock, or
insult a crime lord by being snobbish, then I’ll be surprised.”
    “You’re thinking you’d do better?” Jake
asked.
    “No, I think you’d do better,” Frost
replied. “That’s why I keep askin’ when you’re going to go
bare-faced and start running the show again. Ayan’s fine, got all
the right training, but her team’s got holes. Seems to me, she’s
the only one with the stones to go nose to nose with a Carthan
Fleet Warden and not flinch. Everyone else in her little diplomatic
party are just thinkers. You have to get something she doesn’t have
to watch over running, maybe get a couple crews organised so we can
start pirating and earning, like you were saying the other
night.”
    “We’ll see,” Jake replied. He watched the
loading crew on the expansive, dimly lit hangar going about the
business of moving the bundled and crated salvage to the shuttles.
It looked like a leisurely pace to him, and it wasn’t what he
wanted to see. “We’ve got six hours to finish flying everything we
want from this boat down to Tamber before the Carthans take
possession. Pass the word to your old gunnery crew; there’s extra
liberty for them if they finish on time. If they don’t, I’ll make
sure they lose a week’s pay.”
    “Aye, aye,” Frost said. “I still think
things would move along faster if they saw your lovely