Ignition Broker: Chapter 36 Not Holding Back

Chapter 36

Not Holding Back

“There comes a breaking point where you have to take a firm hard look at yourself, at where you want to be. Then ask yourself is the trek to continue truly worth it, at that point you need to be truthful with yourself. When you are, you will hear a direction to go, that’s when you must take it.” – Marcon on breaking points.

Crackow.

A wrench struck the head of Cadet Goldbridger the team’s one and only assigned maintainer, the one new person added to Arla’s band of misfits.

Shock.

“What did you just do?” Rayalta cried out, her voice high and shrill.

“I took out the one trying to sabotage us from the inside,” Arla muttered dropping the now bloody wrench as she went about breaking apart everything as she began going into her mode to try to fix everything.

“What? Sabotage?” Lisom asked.

“Of course, they sabotaged us from the parts we wouldn’t be able to notice immediately,” Arla noted as she pulled back panels that showed wiring that was clearly cut, mangled, and otherwise irreparable.

Sparkle.

A few of the wires hissed with electrical energy before Arla found the nearby supply switch, killed it and then began working with what she had.

“What? What is that?”

“That is our Mechanic’s handywork, what he did during that hour of briefing, when we were told to get all the supplies we would need for this mission,” Arla replied as she began diligently tearing out wiring components, replacing metallic wires with newer crystalline substrates that could withstand the harsher environments of space.

“Wait, are those metal wires?”

“Yes, it seems that even as an engineer trying to disrupt us, he is not that capable. At the very least he could easily have caused twice this damage had he kept the original crystalline substrates in.” Arla concluded.

“Wouldn’t that blow him us as well?” Lisom asked, his mind confused.

That’s when Rayalta’s eyes went wide with understanding, “they intended for us to fail with the navigation portion, never even expecting us to go into space?”

Arla nodded.

“What do we do? There is no way we can fix this in time, is there?” Lisom asked noting the complete devastation that the entire ship was in.

“We don’t need the ship to run to perform the first task, we just need to be ready to find the launch time and coordinates of our destination planet.” Arla noted.

With that the others just stood around for a moment, before realizing Arla was correct. The moment their resolve attuned to her way of thinking was easy to notice, even while Arla began quickly going to each section of tampered wall and began repairing with skilled precision.

Had she been pressed, she would have a way to get them up into space within the one-hour time limit, but that was not the case for the moment. Instead, they were to work on the launch angle, trajectory and other factors. After which they were to be given an additional four hours of time to work on the craft.

The moment everyone seemed to buy into the plan was apparent, it was the moment that Rayalta went from shifting her weight from foot to foot in a nervous form of anticipation to standing perfectly erect. That moment, the one where she was filled with resolve was the one that Arla was looking for, as this was not about her. Arla could get out of here regardless. But for her future plans to work, she would want the team to buy in as well, that way she could have more time to operate independently.

“What do you need from us?” Rayalta asked.

“First you need to both heal and restrain our fearless engineer,” Arla began. “As for the rest of you, you will need to break down into two groups, those that can do Astronavigation, and those who can help by opening the wall panels so I can get to them a bit more easily.”

Everyone just stared for a moment, but Rayalta and Lisom both nodded and then pointed to Tigra, the healer of the group. She was also the one that was the quietest up until now.

Silently and efficiently the teams broke down. Lisom would help begin to restrain the unconscious and still bleeding Cadet Goldbridger, while Tigra healed. Rayalta seemed to spearhead the team of mathematicians who would try to work on the launch angle and trajectories needed to turn in. A task that while tough by hand, they were forced to spend no less than forty hours completing comprehension tests related to this very field of study.

Clatter-clank.

As for the rest, well they began removing and piling all wall covers in the center so Arla would have an easier time reaching the damaged or affected parts.

Truth be told the damage was simple to address, straight cuts, almost like they went in with a pair of needle nose pliers and began snipping at the parts that they were told was important. Seeing the work as amateurish at best, Arla could only shake her head as she worked on ways to not only repair operations, but to make the ship more efficient.

Working with seamless efficiency she shifted between using the crystalline butane lighter and the torquing coupler to place, hold, and seal her excess of welding coil.

Most manuals would state that the less welding coil used the better, this would create less draw on the main power source and ultimately cut down on delay between commands given and reaction time of the ship.

These were the general thoughts, however Arla learned that with her power she could create and generate multiple secondary and tertiary power sources thanks to her [Crafting- Permanent] Spirit Infusion.

It was cheating, pure and simple. Arla was not holding back, not anymore. While she was fairly certain most of her crew would not know what she was doing, in terms of not just repairing, but of enhancing her ship’s capabilities. As she worked, she also thought about different contingencies that would arise and how to best combat them.

There was also the obvious question, one that was brought up by Rayalta when she came back to not only check on Arla but also see how Lisom and Tigra were doing with our new captive.

For his part, Goldbridger was alive. Arla of course knew this, as she gave just enough force to cause a knockout and maybe crack the cranium a bit. The intent was not to kill, at least not for a simple sabotage. If there was more to come, then Arla would no doubt reevaluate along with the rest of my team.

“What do we do with, him,” Rayalta asked, clear disdain etched into her words as she spoke.

Hearing the question Arla just smiled slightly. There was a brief moment of horror at seeing her smile, as Rayalta visibly flinched and took an involuntary half step backwards at the sight.

“Simple, we repair everything, go to the planet first, on the fastest and best maintained ship. Then when we land, we make sure to thank Cadet Goldbridger for working tirelessly to ensure we got to our planet first.” Arla replied, making sure to speak up so that everyone on the vessel could hear her. There is a trick to being heard on a craft like this, one that Arla knew well. The trick, while speaking at a normal or above average level, your voice would echo throughout the ship letting everyone hear you. This was why no one wanted to hang out in the entry way of most military transport vessels as your business would be heard by everyone onboard. A fact that I both proved, and reminded everyone about before takeoff, and we were going to take off.

At my comment everyone stared at Arla for a moment, then the questions came.

“Better?”

“Yes, better, the part of these older ships is that they are designed so that modern vessels can launch with and keep up with us, in case we run into any troubles while in space.” Arla replied, not a complete lie, but not the whole truth either. The truth was that clunkers like this were little more than old research vessels now, or cheaply maintained devices built for survivability and understanding the basics of astronavigation over anything else.

Rayalta just looked at everyone, apparently gauging their reaction based on eye contact she made with each squad member. This was good, and bad. It showed that Arla was still an outsider to the squad, and that Rayalta was considered the true team leader, but they would follow Arla for now.

In a way, this having two team leaders, or more faith in Rayalta was a good thing. At least, this is what Arla told herself as she mentally began closing off different parts of her mind. Before she tried to keep an open mind as to what she would do, maintaining that being cordial and responsive to everyone was in her best interest. Now though, with her mind going elsewhere she was prepared to leave. The planet they were going to go to was apparently rich in resources. From the instructions that had been given, there were races that were capable of being bartered with, as Arla assumed the Empire’s academies didn’t make it a habit of sparking revolt and revolution on “training planets.”

With all these factors in mind, Arla was more certain than ever that she could likely find enough components to craft something. Who knew, maybe solitary life on a distant planet would be exactly what she needed to truly find herself. Rather than constantly running around from con to con, she could settle down, find her moment in the sun and relax.

Arla thought about that moment, an ideal spot where she could sit and relax comfortably, then she realized that was not her. Such moments were nice to dream about, and would often get you through the tough times, but sitting back, relaxing, being an open target, that was not the future Arla saw for herself.

There was also the plan B, and Plan C options that were available to her. Plan B would be to commandeer the vessel used by the sister team that would also land on the planet. The idea being that she could either distract the crew while they were out on a mission, get in, hijack the vessel and take off for locations unknown.

Plan C was similar, but it meant stealing this already modified vessel and going off into the sunset. This was the burn all bridges and never return plan. One that would most definitely put her in the crosshairs of Rayalta and the others from here until the end of time.

While this was not ideal, it had to be accounted for as a possible outcome. At least, this was the way Marcon taught her to think. While Marcon might be ruthless, he was also pragmatic in his approach to getting out.

In all, the entire process took just over fifty-three minutes to complete. Arla finished with just over 143 yards of her welding coil, she could have had more, but thought having additional energy clusters for faster reaction times and speeds was more important than planning for future contingencies. This meant if she went with Plan B, she would have just enough to modify the ship to her specifications. Of course, Arla was banking on the sibling team’s vessel not having as much intentional damage as her own vessel had to begin with.

Like that, her repairs were complete as she gave the remainder of the squad the sign to start putting the panels back into place to hide their handywork.

“You done?” Rayalta asked, a note of surprise in her voice.

With sweat beading down her forehead, Arla nodded, then using the back of her wrist to wipe away the errant moisture she gestured to the paper in Rayalta’s hand. It was clear that this was the astronavigation coordinates that had been asked for.

Taking it from her, Arla looked, and then gestured for the pencil that she had on her sleeve.

“It is correct, I can guarantee that,” Rayalta commented defensively, even as she gave the pencil to Arla.

“I know, but this is the wrong launch time, which means we need to adjust our launch angle and trajectory slightly.” Arla noted as she began making adjustments, noting the new time, exit angle, and required exit velocity. Her mind raced with advanced calculations and factors that were not taken into consideration by Rayalta and the others.

Once Arla was done, she handed back the paper to Rayalta. Staring at the parchment Rayalta looked confused for a moment, but then asked, “why?”

“The rationale is written underneath,” Arla countered.

Flight time adjustment to 12:33

Angle: …

Exit Velocity: …

Justification for launching outside the stated mission window: Due to routine seasonal fluctuations and electrical distortion fields that will hinder standard flight operations.

Looking at the note, Rayalta asked, “are you sure?”

“Yes, now turn it in, and have everyone prepare to take off,” Arla commanded.

With that Rayalta on behalf of the team went with Lisom to turn in the adjusted flight schedule.

***

Rayalta and Lisom were far from the first team to arrive, but they were not the last to arrive either as another group of two cadets from one of the S-Rank teams approached.

As they approached, they could see that something was off, as many of those that turned in the reports were off in the distance clearly getting chewed out by someone.

“Next!” The Drill Instructor tasked with taking the launch papers yelled out, pulling Rayalta and Lisom’s attention back to the matter at hand.

Feeling suddenly nervous for a reason Rayalta could not explain, she timidly held out the parchment with hand written calculations. Compared to the other cleanly printed off pieces before the instructor, ones that were made from an actual working astronavigation unit, theirs looked immature.

Looking at the paper, the instructor looked like they were about to give the same route answer that they had given all day, but suddenly paused. Then looking up, the instructor inquired, “now just how did you come up with this answer?”

At that Rayalta froze as there was no answer she could provide.

“Well?”