The Raven jumped rapidly in the inky darkness between galactic disks. It was shocking how dark it was between galaxies, but one got used to it after a few times. Kell was new at starcraft travel, and she still wondered at the sudden transition from the light of a galactic center to the utter darkness between galaxies. The rest of the crew ignored what was happening in the viewscreens as they traversed the darkness to intersect yet another galactic disk, which spun around with bright jewels of stars in it's center.
The Leader had given them a lot to think about. Dranke pondered his next move. It was hard to get through to the Jexx without Kell's help and he needed her to be on his side. It would not do to have conflicting interests at work, especially when dealing with an alien species, who had three observers at any point of time to pick up on every nuance. Fenie and Piteer were working on creating a starmap of their travels so far. It had tracer lines spanning six galaxies and four satellite galaxies. The hologram rotated and the color coding made it look incredibly complex. Dex pinged Kell for her rotation on the maintenance crew, and she got her toolkit together as she headed off.
The Jexx planet was still some time away, and they had to make sure the Raven was ready for whatever they encountered. The darkmatter starcraft had some modifications which had been suggested by spacecommand, based on Jexx technology, and the crew was working round the clock to see that they had incorporated the weaponry which was required. It was all modular, but some of the tech required conversion, which was the tricky part. Sette and Dex were tasked with the conversion and Vaxe spent long hours trying to see that there were no issues with the modular linkages before they tested them.
Since all the work was inside the ship, it was relatively easy to carry out the testing. Once they needed to attach anything on the outside, they would have to shut down the engines and stop the jumps until they were done. It needed to go like clockwork and Dranke himself shut down the engines from time to time to recalibrate the settings. There was not going to be any time for them to experiment in space.
Since Niket's darkmatter starcraft needed some on-site maintenance, she was to follow once her ship had been to the spacecommand dock. Dranke wondered if it would have been easier to just carry out the modifications at the dock, rather than on the go. He dismissed the thought. They had already decided on a course of action. Fenie stood near one of the laser sights which had been dismantled at one corner of the deck. "Captain, we are almost ready with the testing of the weapons, at your order, we will need to mount the external modules for further testing." Dranke nodded "Your call Fenie. I'm keen to do the mounting before we reach Jexx; I wouldn't like to have them see us testing the equipment, for what it's worth." He sipped on his coffee analogue contemplatively as Fenie marshaled the crew together for a briefing on her plan of action. Dranke, Fenie, Piteer and Vaxe had already spent time together debating the sighting of the weapons and their efficacy. Now it was time to blueprint it, and obligingly Piteer pulled up the schematic of the ship with the enhancements being shown in red against the blue outline. It looked impressive.
The maintenance crews were disbanded temporarily and re-purposed into three crews who would handle the enhancements. Almost everyone except for Dranke had been pressed into the work crews. Their training and simulation was the next step. Working in space would be hard without precise plans and instructions. It would require clockwork accuracy. A large space which was multipurpose and had served as the dining quarters had been taken over by the work crews and the pandemonium which ensued as everyone tried to do everything at once made Dranke smile.
After three Earth days on the simulations, the crews were working much better, testing was now at an advanced stage and the modules were ready to be fitted on the outer 'skin' of the darkmatter starcraft. Piteer shut down the engines and the ship coasted on its existing momentum. He reversed the engines until they came to a complete halt. The crews kitted up in their spacesuits and lined up near the airlocks as they cycled out the air for the exercise. It was time to go.
Vaxe was the first out with Fenie and Piteer following. The rest of the crew rapidly exited the airlock, strapped themselves to the outer skin using the handholds provided, and soon there were flashes of lasers as the crews started the fitting. It would involve two large laser weapons, one huge projectile weapon and smaller sighting and automatic modules which took some time to configure. Dranke watched the proceedings from the bridge. He was alone inside the Raven, and it felt strange to be the only one inside.The work would take roughly twelve Earth hours. And then it would be time to make the remaining jumps to keep the appointment with the Jexx. The holograms showed Fenie twisting in above the 'surface' of the ship, while staying anchored to it. The laser beam cutter glowed brightly as she moved, focusing the beam tightly on the target. Dex spun over her as he moved a large mounting tied to his back over to the hull. He grabbed the work-line as Sette pulled him over to the handholds. It was good to sit here and watch the action. Dranke was thankful for the solitude as he reviewed the orders he had received from Nina.
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