The Drift is just as beautiful, and just as boring, as I remember.

Our path has us taking six days to reach Absalom Station… which is okay, as we don't have a specific schedule to keep. Also… this ship has luxury quarters… and we painted after buffing it up, so the ship is NOT neon pink everywhere.

Which is SO nice.

About three days into the trip, the expected happens: Our shields collapse from two rapid-fire hits from capital weapons… Persistent Particle Beam cannons, specifically.   They actually fire a dozen shots, it's just that only two hit… which is far more than enough to collapse our shields… seriously, those monsters average a hundred and ten points of hull damage per hit, and even the best shields on the market will only do a hundred fifty hull points of stoppage in one arc, if you spread it evenly. The hits on the hull sparkle… yay for buff spells.

But that’s my cue.  We know where the beams are coming from - they're direct fire, straight line weapons - so we turn and charge straight at them.

Did I mention I used both Winding Key and Mythic Haste on the ship?  We're moving over twice as fast as we should be capable of doing.

Even at that, however, they still get a second volley off before we get to them… which does exactly nothing: The shots sparkle off our hull.

After that?  We RAM them. We're going crazy fast, and have a ramming prow, and are swinging the idiotic melee weapons this ship uses… we manage to breach their shields and scratch the hull… of one of the three ships we're up against…

…which is enough for a boarding action. Now, Passenger Seating is basically free (although it still eats up some cargo space), so while our actual crew complement is just six on this vessel… we have an additional sixty summons loaded for Tarrasque… and a link to a demiplane where I have a thousand more waiting for this.  Sadly, the brief contact only lets us cram a dozen of them into the enemy ship… but that's fine: They have their orders, and the crew of that cruiser only has them outnumbered maybe ten to one. The real hard part for the summons is that they have orders not to kill anyone.

Yes, this is the single most ridiculous battle plan I could come up with.

Leaving them to it, we turn our attention on the other two ships… and after they shoot at us (the ship we hit is having some troubles…) we turn and smash into the next one, dumping another load of summons into them.  After that, the final ship.

Things quiet down after that.

Oh, we latch on and dump a few more loads of summons into the three ships… but that's just gravy.  

I wait quite calmly on my ship until I get the confirmation from each boarding party: “Vessel secured,” ...and over the enemy ships’ comms, no less.

I have the summons drag the captains of each ship before me: An Android, a Hologram, and an SRO, three different types of intelligent technological constructs.

We meet in one of their cargo bays; I see no reason to give them any insight as to what goes on within the walls of my ship.

I let them sit a good five minutes before I say anything. My first words? “Cut them loose and let them stand.”

The three captains look at me really oddly as the summons obey, and the captains get to their feet… well, treads, in the case of the SRO… he looks a lot like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit to me.  They don't have circulation, so none of them rub their hands as they stand.

The SRO speaks up first, “Why?”

Just the one word.  There are so many ways I could take that.  “Why are you letting us stand?” or “Why haven't you killed us?” or even “Why are you our enemy?”

I start with a quote from home “‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.’ There's been enough war and death,” I almost said ‘bloodshed’, but these folks don't have any blood, “And while I have some ability at war….”

I smile as the hologram mutters, “That's an understatement,” under his breath.

“...I don't like it.” I toss each of them a personal com unit, “Those have a valid email address for me in the contacts,” as the only contact; they're complete blanks otherwise, firmware only, really, “Take them back to your big boss; I'd like to arrange a meeting with whatever mortal or semi-mortal agent is calling the shots and asking for my head… for some reason, I don't think it's Triune themselves,” at least, I hope not, “so I'd like to have a calm, rational discussion about why it's a bad idea to hunt me, and why the tech I'm spreading is going to increase Drift travel on a long term basis, even if it does reduce it on the short term.”

The Android's turn, apparently, “That's it? You're just letting us go?”

I shrug, “Why not? Your weapons are useless, and you only found me because I let you. We'll vanish from your sensors, despite their magical enhancements, when we're done here.  Seriously, can you think of anything more ridiculous than the attack plan I used?”

The SRO considers a moment, “Yes.”

I chuckle, “I suppose that means I’ll need to work harder to get a more idiotic plan the next time I need to show off.  Or maybe not… I wanted to give you the chance to not be my enemy, so I took pains to make sure you all lived this time,” also because I’m avoiding the side effects on myself out of habit, “I make no guarantees of my mood the next time someone takes a shot at me... and I’m heading back to get this bucket of bolts outfitted with some real weaponry, so ramming won’t be a great choice next time,” I shrug.

The hologram speaks up, “Right… I’ll have a chat with the brass, then….”

Sense Motive is on full alert: The Hologram wants my head still, the Android is planning on following my instructions, the SRO is on the fence… doesn’t matter, at least one will get the message through.  

I shrug, “Well, that’s all I wanted out of this encounter.  My summons will be disabling a few of your systems, but your engineers will have no trouble getting them back in order within an hour or so, I’m sure.  We’ll be vacating your ships shortly.”

I walk out as they sit rather dumbfounded, and head back to my ship.  I wait while the summons do their sabotage, and per the earlier orders, vacate the enemy ships, and fly back through the void to mine… where I corral them all in the demiplane.  I then add One Step Beyond to my ship’s list of buffs as it defeats True Seeing, and continue on the route to Absalom Station.

The monotony of the rest of the trip is broken up by a giant fishbowl. Well, a chunk of the Plane of Water; a quick casting of Life Bubble on the ship deals with the pressure, and Ride the Waves makes it viable for getting through cleanly. While I'm at it, I also add Xorn Movement, Pass through Ice, Mythic Fly, and a few other buff spells.  Yes, the ship can fly all by itself… but non magical inertialess flight (including hovering) and traveling through stone, dirt, and ice may come in handy eventually… I mean, it's basically immunity to asteroids, if nothing else.

I do need to repaint the inside afterwards, but three days is plenty of time for that when I have unlimited labor.

The rest of the trip goes uneventfully; I arrive at Absalom Station, rent a hangar berth sufficient for my currently nameless ship (yes, Absalom Station has a hangar big enough to get Medium sized ships inside). I am known for having invisible ships, so I don't worry too much about the stares… I just get to work on the refit: I scrap the Drift drive and the stupid melee weapons, focusing on sensors, engines, shields, and of course: Turret weapons. I find power becomes my biggest limiting factor: I can only squeeze so large of a core into the ship… in order to get everything I want on the ship, I end up needing an Arcane Zenith power core (which is more expensive per power unit, but it’s the biggest core that will fit)… but I do squeeze things in.  Best shields on the market, best engines that will push the ship (including Horacalcum for that extra point of movement), a little ablative armor, just enough real armor to avoid the tracking lock penalty, a mark 1 tetranode computer (for when I want to survey a system), luxury crew quarters, electronic countermeasures to match the armor (with more horacalcum to slow down enemy missiles), a holographic amusement chamber (yes, I have a holodeck), a holographic mantle for when I want the ship to be seen, the very best sensors in the game (Ultra Long range djezet infused), an array Gyrolaser on the bow for when I need to minesweep, three persistent particle beam weapons on a turret (with Adamantine Alloy mounts for that extra punch), a consciousness uplink drive (I'm planning on linking summon up to the computer), and of course a data net (which I link into the fleet network, of course).

It takes a while, but I have a nice ship when I'm done… and about then, I get an email….