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bay.
    “We have two
heavy tugs, equipped with hyperdrives, which could drag the sections along with
them,” Tomalson responded.
    It was one of
the options they had been discussing and the easiest. All they would have to do
was basically carve up the shipyard into manageable pieces and allow the tugs
to haul them through hyperspace to Newton. Once at Newton, the sections could
be reassembled. They would need to decide on the tug idea in the next day or
two.
    After
discussing a few other items, Kurt and Tomalson left the construction bay and
took a turbolift to the station’s Command Center. Going inside, they saw Colonel
Hayworth, who was in charge of ship construction, speaking animatedly to several
junior officers.
    “Is there a
problem?” asked Tomalson. He could tell Hayworth was highly excited about
something.
    “I just
learned we may have another ship we can recover,” responded Hayworth, turning
from the two officers, who quickly went back to their posts. “Lieutenant Haley informed
me that the light carrier Dante has been located and may be salvageable.”
    “Where is
she?” Kurt asked with interest. If they could save her, it would augment his
force even more, allowing him to launch a powerful contingent of fighters and
bombers. The Dante had been crewed by fleet personnel from the UK.
    “On the far
side of the planet,” Hayworth answered. “We should have a video feed coming in shortly.
I’ve dispatched a fleet tug to the area to see if it’s practical to bring the
ship to the shipyard.”
    Tomalson
nodded. For the last twenty-four hours, they had been checking all the wrecks
in orbit to see if anything could be repaired or salvaged. Most of the ships
had been blown apart. Only a few had been found with the hulls relatively
intact but were so heavily damaged from internal explosions that even boarding
them had been considered too hazardous.
    “Video feed is
coming in,” reported Ensign Paul Simmons from Communications. “I’m putting it
up on the main viewscreen .”
    Everyone
looked toward the screen as it flickered to life, and then an image of the
battered light carrier appeared. The ship had been hit by some heavy weapons
fire, as the hull was badly compromised in several areas.
    “The tug captain
is reporting no indications of power from the ship,” Simmons added. “He’s also reporting
several airlocks are open.”
    “Do you think
the aliens removed the crew?” asked Kurt, looking intently at the viewscreen. The
main airlock hatch stood wide open. He had been briefed earlier about the
possible abductions.
    “Possibly,”
Tomalson responded with a heavy frown. “From reports we’ve received across the
planet, we know the Profiteers took several thousand people. They may have
taken this crew as well.”
    “Where to?”
    “We believe they’ll
be sold as slaves on a world called Kubitz,” Tomalson answered. “We picked up a
lot of their ship communications and managed to decipher their language pretty
quickly. The Profiteers didn’t seem too concerned about attempting to encrypt what
they were saying.”
    This greatly
concerned Kurt. The last time he had checked, Captain Randson hadn’t been able
to locate his wife and daughter. Plus there were rumors that the aliens had
abducted people from the vicinity where Randson’s home was.
    “Passenger
liners are preparing to depart,” reported Lieutenant Vargas.
    Another screen
came to life, displaying four small space liners and two much larger superliners.
The small liners could carry five hundred people each while the superliners
could hold 2,200.
    “The
destroyers Titan and Phobos will be escorting them from Earth and
back to Newton,” Kurt said.
    The plans were
for the ships to stay long enough to unload and then return to pick up more
evacuees. Also two more small liners and one more superliner were in transit
from Newton with a destroyer escort. Denise, Alex, and Bryan were scheduled to ride
on one of those. Kurt would feel