Nellie and the Nanites - Bk2 - Ch.4 (Patreon)

Chapter Four

Planning ahead.

Nellie walked around the table several times, ensuring it looked right from all sides. The design looked right to her, but was there any way to be sure?

“Hey, Lucy? Can I see what this would look like in three dimensions?” She asked.

“Here we go,” Lucy sounded distracted, but the design flickered into life as a hologram that rotated slowly above the tabletop.

“Thanks,” Nellie grinned and gave it the once over; now she could see how it would look built. She was standing in the back of their second hanger. The prefab sections had needed a small change here and there but they fit together easily enough. Their yard was now the owner of two large prefab hangers that were honestly more like glorified sheds, but it was progress nonetheless.

This new design was one that Nellie had explained to Lucy, who had promptly altered a design in her memory banks and printed it out. On the surface, it looked like it was built from leftovers and parts, as befitted a scrapyard, but a powerful machine was hidden beneath the rust and random parts.

It was an emergency plan she wanted in place, just in case.

The shuttle would look like a simple planetary shuttle, albeit a big one. The secret was that it was space-worthy. It was the escape option of last resort.

But still only half a plan. The hidden InSystem-Drive was not that powerful and had almost no shields, let alone weapons.

It would get them into space safely. Once they were there… that was what she had to work on next. In between now and then? It would add another shuttle to their current list of three.

So far, they had a small passenger shuttle, a cargo shuttle, and the reclaimed one from the scavengers.

However, This particular shuttle would need more than a little scavenging if they wanted to get it built.

“Lucy, I’m going on a scrap run,” Nellie said as she wiped her hands and headed for the large sliding door.

“Have fun!” Lucy called brightly, “Bring me back something good!”

It always made Nellie smile when Lucy said something like that. It was not like they could actually go anywhere separately. Lucy went wherever Nellie did, leaving commands for the robots and nanites to complete while they were out.

She hesitated as she passed the small shed in the corner of the yard. It was Paren’s personal space. The girl hadn’t come out of there in days. Not even to steal a few parts for whatever the hell it was she was making in there these days.

She wanted to knock.

She wanted to ask if Paren was okay.

She wanted to say sorry again.

Most of all, she wanted Paren to tell her that she understood that what Nellie had done was to keep her alive, to protect her.

Instead, she sighed and trotted over to the cargo shuttle. Firing up the engines and lifting off, she couldn’t resist a last look at the shed.

The door opened a crack, and her improved vision gave her a clear look at a red-eyed Paren, who watched the shuttle lift off and then came out of the shed just as Nellie left the yard.

“She just needs time,” Nellie told herself again. Just as she had for the last few days.

Clearing her mind as best she could, Nellie turned the shuttle to a familiar heading and flew off toward the real ship graveyard on the planet.

The area she was heading to was liberally littered with fallen ships. The half of the command ship had not been the only thing to fall out of orbit that night, and they had landed in clumps.

Those clumps were good places to go for scrap metal and parts, just as long as you didn’t mind the company. There was always company.

As the hours passed, Nellie felt herself relax, falling into the now-familiar habit of only breathing every minute or two and expanding her senses out of the craft.

She could hear the wind rushing by, see the area ahead clearly, even at high speed, and was able to even feel the vibrational changes as cross winds buffeted the shuttle.

She always had to pretend to be human, but here, in private, she could admit she was more. Nellie stopped fidgeting, no longer needing to adjust her position for comfort or because her leg or arm was numb. Those were problems she no longer had.

She felt a gentle warmth from the nanite forge in her chest in place of a heartbeat. She barely needed to breathe, and she never got sore or stiff. The changes made her very still, and she quickly realized it creeped people out, even Paren.

So, she only allowed herself to indulge in this kind of stillness when she was alone. Her mind drifted, allowing small snippets of information from Lucy to be delivered directly into her mind.

She knew that Lucy somehow maintained signal contact with her bodies back in the yard, but the AI would never tell her how. All she would say was that it was untraceable.

It was probably quantum. Most things were, according to Lucy.

Nellie just wished she knew what the hell quantum was. Lucy had tried to explain.

Many times.

Entanglement this, tunnel that, it all went over her head.

She struggled to get past high school science, so this all might as well be magic as far as she was concerned.

When she said that to Lucy, the AI refused to talk to her for three days.

It was nice to know the all-powerful AI could be petty.

===<<<>>>===

“Salvage License?” The Fed trooper held out a reader, which Nellie happily put her thumb to. The machine beeped and turned green, but the trooper bashed it a few times anyway. “Damn thing’s still on the fritz!” He sighed. “Name, please? I know you came before, but I can’t remember, sorry.”

“Hannah,” Nellie smiled, “Solo.”

“Thanks,” The Trooper made a note. “What are you taking today?”

“Just some metal and frame parts today,” Nellie replied promptly. “I’m hoping to scrape together a new frame for a shuttle.”

“Uh huh,” The trooper noted it down. “Any mechanical parts, electronics, or advanced systems must be scanned before claiming; you know the drill.”

“Sure do,” Nellie said, keeping a polite smile on her face.

“Go ahead,” The trooper waved her into the crash site with a bored look.

Nellie hurried in, scanning for a likely area to pull from. She avoided a familiar shape in the middle of the field. Several troopers stood around that one, checking everything closely. It was half of a destroyer-type craft, and Nellie could swear it was the one that had killed the Bly.

A small group of salvagers was working on it.

She kept to the outer areas, talking the bits others didn’t want. There were several sites like this in the area, and she was known by a different name at each one.

And a different face. For this one, she was blond, with medium-length hair always in a tangle, and showed one metal leg, which she limped on.

That was little Captain Solo.

She had not been able to resist the name; it was a little something from home, and she had never mentioned it, she was sure.

It was safe.

A couple of other regulars waved disinterestedly at her as she limped across the field and grabbed an anti-grav sled. From there, she got to work.

She spent a couple of hours cutting metal plates and struts free from what looked like a piece of cargo ship before hauling the full sled over to be scanned at the exit booth.

“Was this lot even worth the effort?” The trooper on duty asked her. The man was bald, scarred, and had the darkest skin Nellie had ever seen. He was also the first of the Feds she had seen with slight scaling that indicated Brackta DNA.

“Free is always worth it,” Nellie smiled politely. “I’m gonna use this lot, not sell it.”

“Really,” The man asked, his eyes going vacant as he lost interest. “Well, it’s all clear; off you go.”

“Thanks,” Nellie said, fighting to keep the amusement out of her voice. She kept a polite look on her face as she pushed the sled over to her shuttle and unloaded it. She even took the time to return the sled to the bay and wave goodbye to the Fed, who had taken her name.

Only once she was in the air and over a half hour away she started laughing.

In the back of the cargo shuttle was sheet after sheet of thick metal. Every inch of it was highly armored with a rare alloy. All they scanned for was electronics, not what the metal was.

For anyone else, it would have been a decent find.

For them?

Well, she was pretty sure Lucy just about had an orgasm when they cleared the checkpoint.

Nellie let Lucy take over flying and put her feet up on the console, patting her little fake cutting torch where it hung from her belt.

A few more days like this and they might actually be getting somewhere.

Not wanting to spoil her good mood with guilt, Nellie dropped the cargo shuttle off at the yard and went straight to the passenger shuttle, setting off again before she could get caught up in worry.

This afternoon, she would be a ferry captain, shuttling people between the larger cities. They’d earn a few Federal Credits, and she could eavesdrop a little. Who knew what she might hear?

It was on one of these trips that she heard about that bastard commander and also learned of the wider war.

Or rather, the occupation. Seemed the war outside the system was not being reported on much. Nellie assumed that meant the Feds were losing. The winners tended to crow about it.

The Feds weren’t losing too badly, or else they would be spending time reassuring everyone they were winning. Saying nothing? That meant you were getting your butt kicked, but only just.

Even so, it meant there was little hope for a rescue party for the system. Not that it mattered much to her, really. The fog of war was actually really helpful for her, personally. Still, the old lot didn’t leave so many people to die.

All in all, she’d be happy to see the back of the Feds.

She dipped the shuttle into a line of waiting shuttles and idly tapped the console while waiting for her number to be called.

It took almost a half hour, but eventually, she was up.

“Hey!” The woman smiled, her wide smile and sharply yellow eyes went with her deep tan scaled skin and wildly thrashing tail. “Over here!”

Nellie suppressed a shiver and trotted over to the exuberant dispatcher.

“Hi, Camille,” Nellie said, wincing as the woman practically shrieked in joy. “Voyager shuttles at your service.”

“You remembered!” Camille practically danced in place. “I thought you would have definitely forgotten my name again!”

“I'm a slow learner, but I get there in the end, I guess,” Nellie said, letting a little blush creep into her cheeks for effect. She was currently showing a very pale skin and long, dark, straight hair.

“You certainly do!” Camille grinned like a tiger, “Well, as a reward, I’ll give you a full shuttle today. Maybe even something else if you play your cards right!” She winked hugely.

Nellie tried not to throw up in her mouth. Nothing in this world would make her want Camille. The woman smiled like a tiger, but she was a pure pit viper inside. Last week, Nellie had forgotten the Bracta’s name and waited hours until a single passenger was given to her.

It was no surprise the Feds had given her control of the area. They knew skill when they saw it. She was great at her job, but more than one shuttle skipped the city to avoid dealing with her.

Nellie didn’t have that option, unfortunately. Camille had only checked her license once, and if she tried the other cities, they would not be so lax.

So she smiled and added a little extra blush to let Camille think it was working. Not that Camille had any real interest in her. She did something different with all the pilots; she just got off on making people uncomfortable.

So Nellie spent a few minutes squirming theatrically while the woman got her jollies by teasing her, and then she walked away with a good payday and a packed shuttle.

===<<<>>>===

“See you tomorrow?” Prit-Mal waved to Crush-Cha as she hurried off. He waved back and walked over to the meal line. He had been deliberately late today, claiming that he had overslept. It was important that he looked relaxed and sloppy.

Just in case. His suspicions had been confirmed. The prisoners, or as they were politely called ‘detainees,’ and wasn’t that a nicer word, were given clean clothes every three days.

Never earlier.

Prit’s had looked both new and clean yesterday, and today. She was definitely not on the prison schedule anymore. And so many questions. What did he think people would do to try and fight back?

What would he do?

On and on it went. Prit-Mal was a lot of things, but no one could call her subtle. As far as spies went, she was his favorite type.

Hopelessly inept.

He tried to ask about Brix twice, getting nothing. As they talked, Crush had let his eyes casually glance around as if he was thinking. What he had been doing was counting. About half the security officers were left, and none of them looked to be doing well.

Except for Prit-Mal, that was.

It was sad but not unexpected. Still, he would have loved for his training to be wrong, just once. Sitting at a busy table, he smiled at the people around him and dug into his lunch. Lunch always included a large roll, which was what he needed.

Tearing off large bites as he prepared to activate his implant, Crush-Cha cursed the Feds, Prit-Mal, his parents, and always, ALWAYS, the people who had made him like this.

There was no getting around it; this would really hurt.

He swallowed the lump of bread, pretending to choke as he gasped. The others scrambled around, patting him on the back as he gasped for breath. Just as the guards started to push through the crowd, he activated the implant and slumped to the floor… dead to the world.

His last thought was wondering if the implant had degraded after all these years.

If it had, he would never wake up again.

===<<<>>>===

Nellie curved away from the town, rising to the usual cruising altitude. High above the landscape, she passed control of the ship over to Lucy and focused her attention on the passenger cabin behind her.

The basic sound insulation was no match for her improved hearing, and the conversations came through loud and clear.

“...they got the new entertainment cubes through last week…” A woman trilled.

“...what I was saying, you know the Feds always take the brightest for training…” A proud man told someone.

“...they say it turned up in a village this time. A bunch of dead looters underneath.” A woman was whispering to someone. Nellie focused her attention on that conversation. “Through the soldiers into an uproar. They thought it must have been a copycat, but the image is an exact match.”

“What does it mean?” A man whispered back, “Is it one of us or one of them?”

“They don’t know,” The woman hissed. “They call them the Flower of Death, but they are lost now that a bunch of locals got killed.”

“As long as they keep hitting the Feds, I’m all for it. I think the commander will be as well.” The man said.

“Will you shut up!” The woman hissed back. “Want to get us shot?”

“Sorry,” The man sighed. “I’m not very good at this, am I?”

“Maybe we will get lucky,” The woman said, a little warmth in her voice this time, “Whoever it is will hit that depot for us, and we’ll all take a few days off.”

Nellie listened for a few more minutes, but the depot was beyond her. She could do it if she went in fully boosted, but one signal gets out, and the planet turns into a crater.

It was still worth the trip, however. She now had concrete confirmation that people were still fighting back.

That was something. The two whispered back and forth all the way to the other city.

As Nellie dropped off her passengers at her assigned landing bay, she caught sight of her other target for the day. Even with all her preparations, it was a big risk, but some things were worth it.

She ducked back into her shuttle and pulled out the scavenged radio she had pulled from the body of a Fed trooper. Lucy helped her find the right frequency, and then she activated the Voice Synthesizer Module and spoke into the radio.

Once she was done, she waited nervously until a knock on the side of the shuttle called her out.

“Yes?” She asked the two troopers waiting for her.

“This the Prospero Shuttle Service?” One asked.

“It is, can I help you?” Nellie asked politely.

“Yeah, you’re drafted. Get this lot out to base twelve, southwest of here.” He gestured to the crates that sat on an anti-grave behind them.

“I’m a passenger service,” Nellie pointed out. “Are you sure about this?”

“Just do the job, lady,” The Fed said. “No one is asking here, okay?”

“Okay, sorry,” Nellie looked suitably chastened as they loaded the shuttle.

“Right, off you go,” The trooper said as he pulled at the radio clipped to his chest. “Priority shuttle coming out, over.”

“Roger.” Came back over the box, and he waved her off.

“Run along; this is a rush order!” The other snapped at her.

Nellie scrambled back into the cockpit and flew off, heading southwest.

She couldn’t believe it had worked.

They hadn’t even checked the registry; they had just gone off the description!

She had done it!

Weeks of planning, a new upgrade, and creeping around in the bushes were all worth it.

All for this moment.

She reached over to the co-pilot’s seat and ripped the top off the crate.

She pulled out her bounty and pressed the little marked area.

The can pinged, and she wiped a tear from her eye as she looked at her little shuttle, loaded to the roof with crate after crate of HyperDrive.