“Captain, can I have you attention for a moment?”

“Sure, what’s up Nyx?”

“Before you continue with your mining efforts, I have a suggestion regarding efficiency.”

“Do tell!”

I was about to step out of the ship to continue after having given everybody the heads up on my new body and appearance. What I found most fascinating was the fact that the vac suit had actually accommodated my much taller body just fine. I wondered if the material was some kind of smart fabric or if it was simply the game mechanics kicking in. I know in any other MMO I have touched, that armor had always adapted its size to the wearer.

“From the conversations I understand that you would prefer to have my vessel in space before the incoming ships arrive, preferably with some time to spare. With your current efforts, that will be impossible.”

I rolled my eyes. Leave it to the computer to point out the obvious. I mean, come on, tell me something I am not already keenly aware of.

“I hope you have a solution to the problem as well as the awareness of it?”

“I do indeed. I ran multiple simulations and I believe that it is possible to create a hole big enough for me to leave within the given time frame. Although that will still leave you short on crew.”

“One problem at a time Nyx. One problem at a time!”

“Then I would suggest the following…”

What she suggested was actually quite ingenious and I should have thought of it myself. But obviously I hadn’t. You know, trees and forests.

The next thing I knew, I had made my way to the upper deck and entered my first red marked sector on the ship. Specifically I was in the mining and processing room. Was room the right name? I wanted to call it a lab in my head but it wasn’t really a lab. I guess compartment would work. Okay, so I was in the mining and processing compartment while captain Ishi had sent a crew of six on the assault shuttle to assist in the effort.

Also aboard the shuttle were six dismantled missile warheads that I was able to talk him out of. And I wouldn’t even have to pay for it. After I had sent him one of Nyx’s simulations, he was eager to help. He figured, as did I, that six missiles were cheaper than losing ships.

When I got into the compartment I started working on the mining laser control. The thing was that I had not taken the mining lasers into consideration. To be fair of all the Active components only 33% were showing in working order. Sucks that not everything was working but the good in the bad was that the one thing actually doing what it was supposed to, was one of the mining lasers. But I hadn’t thought of it even after checking the ship status. Neither had I considered using actual explosives to expedite the tunneling effort. So instead of my asinine, doomed-to-fail plan, we were actually going a different route.

So while I was using the remaining mining laser to drill holes into the rock from this side, Ygglog with the help of Ralgau and two of the mercenary marines was drilling holes on the outside. Nyx had planned where to drill and while she was lacking a proper survey scanner she had extrapolated where we would get the most bang for our buck.

Another two of the mercenaries were busy preparing material that would block the holes so the kinetic energy from the explosion would be directed correctly instead of just shooting out of the holes. And the last two were setting up the warhead munitions to act as shaped charges.

It took us three and a half of the twelve hours we had to drill the six holes we needed. I was done just before the team on the outside. And while they finished up, the explosive experts were starting to set the charges in the holes. Which turned out to be more complicated than I had anticipated, mainly because the holes were about two meters deep but only about 15 centimeters in diameter. So the guys had come up with a solution that used the struts of one of the broken down shelters to push the charges all the way to the end. And making sure they all pointed in the right directions was another problem that they somehow, after much cursing, had solved.

After the charges on the inside were set, they stuffed the holes with debris and then pumped a super fast acting sealant into them. When I asked, I was told that it was plascrete. Which led then to me being educated in the properties of one of the most common building materials in the universe.

The stuff was a mix of elements and resembled a viscous material similar to wet concrete. However, the moment the material was exposed to oxygen, it expanded rapidly and it was widely used in various militaries to build fortifications as well as in civilian life to quickly erect cheap and nearly indestructible buildings. The problem was that the stuff was purple and there was no way to color it. So many planets had purple sectors, which were not exactly the slums but they weren’t far removed from them either.

It also tended to bond nearly unbreakable with any other porous or semi porous material. And that is why the guys used the stuff in the drill holes. The ‘cork’ they were creating would actually be harder and more tightly bonded with the surrounding rock than the rock itself. Which would then make sure that the explosive force would be directed the way Nyx had calculated, the way that gave us the best odds for shearing off a chunk of the asteroid and opening the cavern to space.

While they were busy doing their thing, I was done with my part. Not having anything else to do, I checked with Irene and Nirazera on the progress of their recruitment effort.

They had come up with a list of the people we had available, including some of Ishi’s people that we would temporarily assign to the necessary posts, so we could get the whole thing started and moving.

Captain

Malcolm Solo

First Officer

Nirazera

Chief Engineer

Asami Soto (temp)

Navigation Officer

Irene Adler

Tactical Officer

Ralgau (temp)

Sensor Officer

Opisthos (temp)

Pilot

Den Walsh (temp)

Den was a pilot on loan from Ishi and had come in as the co-pilot for the shuttle and we would drop him off after the action with the RD was over. All the people required had already agreed and were just now entering the Nyx where they went through a briefing from our AI.

All of them had to make a bonding vow similar to the one I had taken. Apparently that was the way Nyx protected herself and the crew from people that would mean her harm. And while that wasn’t a completely foolproof solution, she had assured me that it was much less likely for people to divulge information or actively work against the interests of the crew without her knowing.

Nirazera and Irene had done so already and were now allowed in all sections of the ship. Their vow had been very similar to mine, differing only in that they also vowed to follow the captain’s orders when it came to matters concerning the ship, the crew or the mission and that they would do their utmost to fulfill the responsibilities or their respective posts. Ralgau, Opi and Den were about to do theirs which included a line that the whole thing was temporary. However, they would be restricted to green and yellow areas with the addition of the bridge, their primary space.

Asami was a different matter. Nyx had adapted his vow to include a section where he would be unable to divulge any information of his time aboard the ship. Which was necessary as his post would be in main engineering, a very red section. This vow would be enforced by Nyx altering his neural link to prevent him from recording or remembering anything that he was doing on the ship once he left it.

Believe me, he was not happy about that. The forgetting part that is. He was just fine with Nyx making alterations to his n-link just so he could poke around in the engine room. But the fact that he would not remember any of the technology he was working with had him arguing with me and her for a good twenty minutes. The funny thing was that he even understood the reasoning behind it and agreed with it. He was just not happy with it. So after we had let him vent at us for the time he needed to make peace with this, he was escorted to the med bay. The good thing was that the alteration could be made on the exam table and didn’t need the pot because our deadline was coming up.

The rest of the people that would be on board were confined to green and yellow without bridge access and Nyx would keep a sensor on them. Which would be easy as there were only Ygglog and First left. The former was perfectly fine hanging out in a cabin while the latter also used quite a bit of the time complaining and was then escorted into the cabin next to Ygglog’s by the Drak himself.

With all of that squared away we were ready to go and also came up on the half time. Ishi had tracked the ships but they had stayed on course with the same burn and would be here in a little under six hours.

All of Ishi’s people had boarded their shuttle and were just pushing off. Nyx had linked coms with them and joined their fleet. The detonation signal was routed through that com channel so that there would be no signal issues between the inside and the outside of the asteroid. She had also marked a vector in which it would be safe for Ishi’s ships.

For a moment I had wondered if it would be possible to lure the pirates into the explosion vector but Ishi was strongly against it and Nyx told me that with all the simulations she had run, it would be difficult to predict what kind of damage the explosion could inflict and that we would be better off if be blow the rock cap now and get into space instead of waiting. So that plan went out of the window.

But we were as ready as we could be.

Currently I was sitting in the captain’s chair with four people surrounding me. It felt a little claustrophobic without a window to the outside. When I asked Nyx about that she had told me that the designers of the seeker ships had opted for security in this regard as all data could and would be available via projected screens and it was safer for the crew that way. Which made sense. The closer to the hull the bridge was, the more likely it was for something to get through the hull and poke a hole into the command center.

“Nyx, screens please. Stations, ready check.”

The walls around the bridge disappeared and were replaced by a view of the asteroid cavern. It was a strange feeling. But then again if you have ever dealt with augmented reality, you had an idea what it was like and after a moment it actually felt good. 720 degree vision. Kind of cool.

“Navigation ready.” came the first checkin from Den. He was sitting on the piloting console slightly ahead of me and to the left.

“Tactical ready.” Ralgau reported from the station next to Den.

Then came the reply from behind me to the right. “Sensors are showing all kinds of things. It is impressive. And the way it is possible to refine the focus and the data feeds. And the resolution speed is incredible…”

“Ophistos, are we good to go?” I interrupted him, swiveling my chair to look towards his station.

“Oh, yes, all good.”

I sighed internally and think I heard a chuckle from our pilot. Second sure was capable from what I had seen so far but concise he was not.

“Engineering?”

“Ready down here.” came Asami’s reply.

That was probably the most impressive. He had taken to all of this like a fish to the water. Nyx had split her processing for the last hour or so and ran introductions to the consoles and tech for everybody. Of course, engineering was such an amount of knowledge that you didn’t get a handle on these things in an hour. But Asami had managed to understand all of the monitoring equipment and had even gotten a crash course into the underlying tech after his stop in med-bay. I was sure he would be monitoring right now and still digging through more information.

“Okay, that’s it people! Nyx, blow the top!”