Splicer

Aja worked with several engineers for a couple of weeks. She had an idea for keeping vessels from being boarded in the event of a losing sea battle. It would be a last line of defense. Inside the railings of the latest ship "The Splicer" were scanners built in. If a person's DNA print was not in the database, that person would receive one hell of an electric shock.

In the building stage, it was turned way down because a few men not part of the build team had tried to come aboard to borrow tools and were knocked on their arses. Aja had warned them and laughed her head off when it would happen.

"I told you?" she"d say with a big grin. "You don't listen to the captain, this is what you get." then she would go about her work, letting the crew member get helped to Parker"s for evaluation. Parker would scold her later of course, but she would remind him that she had told the yards employees twice now not to attempt to board that vessel without clearance. If they chose to ignore that warning, they deserved what they got.

Aja wasn"t without sympathy, she just saw it as a simple matter of consequences for not heeding a warning given.

The EM barrier additions

While up in the crowsnest, doing calibrations on the radar systems, a squawk was heard making Aja glance up. It seemed birds were not able to get through Splicer"s shield either. Aja considered this for a moment and then made a note to check about objects like arrows and other projectile weapons.

"Rico." she called over the walkie system.

"Yesss?"

"Bring my compound bow ta da Splicer."

"Why?"

"Cause I want ya ta aim an arrow at da shield."

"You got another idea didn't you?"

"Jist bring the bow, smart arse." she said back through the com. "Pick on me when ya get here."

Aja thought about it while she finished up the calibrations on the radar systems. She recalled a scientist she heard once, explaining that there were shields available that could in theory anyway, stop a projectile from crossing it.

She looked down and spotted Bismark below running his calculations through his computer.

"Yo! Biscuit boy!" she called making him jump. She just chuckled at this. The man drank way too many of those energy drinks and it made him twitchy, which Aja just thought was tremendously funny to exploit. "Yeah?" he looked up accustomed to the nickname that Aja had taken to calling him by then.

"Electromagnetic shields. Can we pull dat off with this equipment?"

"Yeah, I suppose we could."

"How long would it take ta make dat happen?" she called down while gathering up her tools. She glanced down at Bismark who had his "thinking" face on. After three minutes had passed without him saying something. "Did I break yer brain, Biscuit boy?"

"No. I'm just doing the mental calculations."

"Do "em faster! I got Rico bringing me mah bow down and I wanna see if we can stop an arrow from penetrating the shields on dis here puppy."

"It takes time, Aja." He called back up.

"I"ll aim at ya, BB. Get jiggy with the math making." Aja grinned as she zip lined down the ratlines and somersaulted to the deck near Bismark. She laughed when he jumped. "Easy, genius. I'm jist coming down ta meet up with Rico." she patted his shoulder and went down the gangplank. She saw Rico coming towards the ship and waved. ?"Bout time ya got over here! What did ya do, take da scenic route?"

"Some captain I know, didn't put her bow back where it belonged. I had to search for it."

"Pish." she waved a hand at him. "Gimme!"

"Say please." Rico grinned at her holding it above his head.

"Gimme or I play punch first mate!" she drew back her fist, grinning like mad at Rico.

"You cheat at punch mate."

"Yes." she laughed and held out her hand. "Gimme." he handed it over with a shake of his head and a chuckle. She notched up an arrow and took aim at an unoccupied section of the deck. Letting the arrow fly, she noted that something altered the arrow"s course, the arrow made it through but hit the deck rather than going straight over it. "Glad no one was standin dere. We've have crew kabob."

"You could’ve cleared the deck first." Rico suggested standing next to her.

"Or called out FOUR like they do on dem golf courses." Aja grinned. "Why do they yell four" Seems odd."

"I don"t know."

"Me either...hence why I asked ya. Yer supposed ta know about dat fancy pants stuff."

"Do I look like I'm wearing funny pants?" Rico said and Aja snort giggled. "Oh lords."

"Funny pants." she giggled. "I could get ya some." another arrow was notched up and she let that one fly with the same result. Its course was altered and it hit the deck. "Ok. that happens on the low setting. If we crank that back to normal, figure it might actually ping that arrow back?"

"I don"t know a thing about the science, Boss."

"Me either." she sighed. "Biscuit Boy!" again, Bismark jumped and she laughed. "He"s far too high strung." she said to Rico before yelling at Bismark again. "Crank da shields up. I wanna test somethin!" Bismark gave her a thumbs up a moment later.

"You're good to go!"

"Excellent." Aja notched another arrow. "Here goes nuffin!" she let the arrow fly and this time, it ricocheted off the field, flew back over Aja and Rico's head sailing off towards the other ship being repaired.

"HEY!" they heard someone yell. "Who jist shot me bleedin hat off me head"!"

"You just shot Harlan"s hat off, Gracie."

"So I gathered." Aja grinned. "Sorry, Harlan!" she yelled out. "Ya ok?"

"I’m fine C’ptain!" he shouted back but she could hear him muttering.

"Whoops." Aja grinned sheepishly. "But, interesting discovery." she pondered this and wandered further down the docks to a place at the back end that went out further than the ship being repaired next to it. Pulling her forty five, she took a shot at the barrier and heard it the moment the bullet lodged itself into a tree behind her. "huh." she said as Rico ran up.

"Are you crazy"!"

"Like a fox." she beamed. "It worked! The bloody shield works on arrows and bullets!" Aja was practically dancing in place. "I need my cannon." she started down the docks, Rico followed quickly. He noticed the worried looks from the crew members on the other ship. They would never question the Captain, but they knew that sometimes, they had to clear the decks because she would do something slightly dangerous.

"No!"

"Whut, no?"

"You'll kill someone!"

"Nooooo! This is so people don't get killed." she was saying as she continued towards the weapons shed. "if that shield can block bullets and arrows. Then I have ta see if it can block cannonballs!"

"Aja...if...just if...it doesn"t block cannonballs, you?ll have a hole in the new ship." he said hoping to give her something to think about and potentially saving a random crew member in case her tests failed.

"Huh.." she stopped in her tracks and thought about that. "Damn ya and yer logic. It has no place in my reality." Rico had hope for a moment that she would give up. "Missiles then. Think it might block a missile?"

"How about we run a test shield out on boom island?"

"Alright.." she sighed. "Ya win. But then, we'll see if the shields work against various weapons." Aja started down the deck. "Dis includes cannon balls!"

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