Read Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades for Free Online Page A

filed in-flight. Her duties were
fulfilled, and there was still a little light left in the day. The
crewmembers of the Warlord who remained behind while the ship was on
an intelligence gathering mission and many Haven Shore residents were
taking a day off at the beach. After the last few hours of the long
day on Tamber, the terraformed moon would be overshadowed by its
brother moon and the planet it orbited, Kambis.
    Alice enjoyed hanging
out with Ashley, the sometimes bubbly, and often underestimated
pilot. Even though she had the intelligence and experience to plan
ahead when it came to her duties, Ashley was a great example of
someone who enjoyed living in the moment, and she made every moment
she could enjoyable.
    Alice had gotten to
know nearly all of the other Warlord crewmembers as well, and liked
most of them. Work on the ship was nearing completion, and even
though she’d spent much of her time as a ranger, she couldn’t
help but be proud of how it was turning out. The restoration seemed
to take forever with so few people working on it, but months of
ceaseless labour and good teamwork yielded undeniable results. The
addition of a British Shipwright Crew in the last two months
accelerated the work more than anyone expected, especially her. Every
time the Warlord returned to the system it seemed like a whole
section of the ship’s interior was brand new.
    When the ship was
ready, Alice would be have to make a decistion: remain on Tamber and
serve the Rangers, a new organization that she learned so much from,
or go off-world with her father.
    It was a difficult
decision - she enjoyed her work as a Ranger, and it was completely
different from what she’d be doing on the Warlord. As a Ranger she
saved people in the wreckage of Port Rush, searched for old research
bunkers on the island of Haven Shore, or kept watch over cultivation
crews as they picked fruit in the jungle, for a start. There were
large carnivorous cats with glinting eyes, and curious monkeys who
would steal from the pickers’ bags if they got too close. There
were many other dangers as well, snakes, nests of widow beetles, and
so on, but monkeys and big cats were the most problematic. The
Warlord seemed so much more confining, but she knew she’d see new
ports, aliens she’d only heard about, and there would be combat –
it was guaranteed.
    The notion that she’d
just done her last run as a ranger for weeks, maybe months, maybe ever , was just
sinking in as the main Haven Shore settlement came into view. Her
fighter slowed as she neared the new docking facility. The settlement
took advantage of the hard, time-tested cliff face. Many small
landing platforms and the framing of several buildings were anchored
into the side of the stone. Atop the cliff was the port building
proper, a bulbous, irregular dome that was still under construction.
Parts of the main lower levels were finished, but the skin of the
dome would be stretched upwards and expanded as more floors were
added. They still used a much smaller building as the main port hub.
It was a simple transparent dome that would be repurposed as an
outbuilding later.
    The Everin building was
well on its way to being completed, and even though it was massive to
Alice, she knew there were plans for several more, and they’d be
interconnected by a larger framing structure. The hollow structure
was already large enough to house everyone who had arrived with them
at Haven Shore; even she had an apartment there. Haven Shore Navnet
took control of her Ramiel fighter and guided it towards the centre
of the Everin building.
    The ship descended into
the hollow centre of the structure. The twenty-one storey building
seemed squat from above, but she couldn’t help but marvel at its
size as her ship was led to a soft landing halfway down the hollow
centre on a small retractable landing pad. Freeground technology,
fabrication systems from the Triton, and mountains of supplies that
Ayan and her people bartered