The Infinity Chronicles Volume 1

Act-8: The beauty and the Sniper...

Graham Stellar Enterprises Shipyards, Center, 24-Nov-2328

Act 8: "The beauty and the sniper.."

Delilah Saxon, a gorgeous blonde with awesome curves, walked around the partially stripped out Commercant. It was a well maintained vessel, but she knew it's Captain, and he would settle for nothing less then near perfection for it's refit. GSE had already upgraded the sublight thrusters to a more powerful military unit, and the shield generator was a cruiser's model, stolen from a TE shipment that wondered a little too close to Carcosa. The hyperdrive proved to be more problematic then had been expected, and was scheduled to be completely removed this afternoon.

"Ms. Saxon?" Came a call over her implant COM.

"Yes?"

"Sorry to bother you ma'am, but just letting you know that we're gonna be de-pressurizing the hangar in 10." The voice said.

"Very well." She replied, moving toward an exit near the stern of the ship. She had been assigned this update project even though she was way overqualified for it. Mr. Carlson had requested her expertise personally, and in the brief meetings she had had with him, he never let on why he wanted her on this project. As lead design engineer at GSE, he felt that even though she wouldn't feel challenged by the project, it would get done with nearly zero defects. And that was what Alex was really after. That, and she was a possible trophy.

Walking through the airlock, she turned and saw Alex standing nearby, talking to one of GSE's weapons engineers. Well, she thought they were talking originally. Now it sounded more like a shouting match.

"Listen dammit! I want the 304mm Disruptors! I don't care about hull bracing. That's your damn job, isn't it?"

"Sir, with all due respect, the turret configuration that all Commercant's come with simply won't house 304's. Not because of the gun's size, but because of the turret's rotation gear. It just isn't strong enough to support that size cannon."

Delilah moved closer, and held up a hand before Alex could go off again.

"Gentleman, if I may?"

"Of course, Ms Saxon." The engineer said, as Alex merely smiled and nodded towards her. He was studying every curve that was showing, and it showed on her body. She loved it when men stared and she wasn't about to ask him to stop. After all, would any SANE woman tell such a handsome and RICH bachelor that she didn't appreciate being oogled?

"Now, as I see it, we can do one of two things: The first thing we can do is to remove the quad 144's and exchange them for single 228's, which is the most these turrets can handle, OR, we can simply replace these turrets with a custom upgrade I've been working on, specifically for upgunning Commercants for the Colonies. The new models look outwardly like the older models they replace, mainly because I've restricted their ability to traverse. You can mount either a triple 228, dual 304 or a single 406mm disruptor."

"How restrictive is the arc?" Alex asked, taking his eyes from her buttocks and looking her squarely in the eyes. He was all business.

"Well, they lose their 360 degree rotation. Vertical indexing stops at 15 degrees positive and 2 degrees negative, and swivel drops to 270 degrees."

"So, they can't fire dead astern?" Alex asked, weighing the problems this would cause versus the firepower advantage.

"Correct." Delilah responded, turning from him and looking out at the ship. The cranes had lifted it from it's resting place, the two halves of the hull having been separated from each other so as to allow removal and refitting of the hyperdrive. The two decks would then be reattached and all connection points recoupled.