Planet Wrecker

-14-

A week after Hawthorne had Director Danzig arrested, far out in the Jupiter System, Marten Kluge still had trouble believing that he’d become the Force-Leader of a capital ship.

“Get ready,” Osadar said. “I’m about to begin docking procedures.”

Marten sat beside her in a shuttle half the size of the former Mayflower. They were in mid-orbit around Callisto. Far below against the Galilean moon shined a bright orange light. It was a giant booster-ship making a landing, bringing badly needed supplies to a stranded cleanup crew. The Jovian System was like a kicked-over ant colony. Everyone left alive was busy trying to repair the horrible damage created by the cyborg assault.

Using his screen, Marten glanced at the nearing cargo vessel: the Thaliana. It was a huge teardrop-shaped spaceship and belonged to Meta-mines Incorporated. Meta-mines was a consortium with quarter shares by several of the most powerful Helium-3 Barons. Her survival of the war with the cyborgs was attributable to her clever captain. The captain had kept a strict visual of any suspicious vessel that approached too closely. Then she had promptly put the cargo ship behind a planetary body, shielding them from the intruder. The Thaliana was the third cargo ship this month to dock by Marten’s warship, and brought critical supplies.

Marten clicked a toggle. In spite of himself, he grinned as he witnessed his meteor-ship yet again. It was a battered warship, and had belonged to the cyborgs. Despite the brutal pounding it had taken on the original attack against Callisto, the meteor-ship had retained its basic shape. It was a rock, a hollowed-out asteroid packed with a repaired fusion engine, compartments, supplies, living quarters, coils, missiles and laser generators.

Through the screen, Marten noted that his ship looked as if it had passed through a floating junkyard. Tubes, oddly-shaped polygons, girders, patrol boats, antennae and trailing lines were attached in a seemingly random fashion. The warship still needed a lot of work to turn it into the combat-vessel it had been. But the warship could move under its own power now, and it could accommodate its crew. Maybe in another month, it would be ready to head for Earth.

“Initiating docking procedures,” Osadar said, clicking a switch.

The shuttle thrummed with power and thrust. Marten sank against his seat, and they eased toward one of the Thaliana’s docking tubes….