Most gates had stations, colonies, or even huge planetary systems surviving in and around the gate system. Stars and gravity wells made locations for planets or even simple rocks to collect and give a place to call home. Some locations, there was nothing but dead, barren space separating the gates.
The spacefaring races did the best they could to station warships at gate locations to keep the small unarmed haulers from falling victim to the raiders that made a living off the weak. Regrettably, space remained vast, filled with a shitload of nothing, separating the limited gravity wells that allowed life to exist. The authorities could not be everywhere at once. There were too many shipping lanes and jump gates for the entire network to be adequately patrolled. This gap in protection allowed the evil bastards to make a living off the backs of the hard workers of the ‘verse.
One of the things that kept a delivery ship like the Moth safe was, even if a final destination was known, the captain had a plethora of choices when it came to routes to take. The fastest was not always the best, or safest. The captain’s experience and own knowledge of the area’s routes remained the best defense against pirates.
Unfortunately, Jax cleared his vision to learn they were in empty space, traveling to another gate, three days’ distance at full burn. He would have stayed longer to contemplate the ship’s impending demise, but like clockwork, time came to empty his bowels. Wormhole travel always gave him the shits.
Thank goodness the crapper was close enough to human standard to fit his body, or there might have been other problems. He’d heard stories that made his blood run cold. If he lived long enough to find work on another ship, the second thing he would inspect after his rack would be the shitter. Life was too short to not take a crap in comfort.
Against the constant chill, he threw on his blue crew jacket, which did little to keep him warm. He had thought after so long in space he would grow accustomed to the freezing temperatures. It never happened. He picked up his step, knowing the seat would be heated.
Needs taken care of and stomach settled, his next stop was an after-jump inspection of the cargo. His duty as the loadmaster would not be over until the cargo was safely delivered. This remained the worst part of his job. In reality, he could be considered expendable if anything went wrong. This was probably why the TikaTiki wanted a different race as the able-bodied deckhand. It would be nothing to throw him to the wolves. No family ties to their homeworld.
He reached the cargo hold, and three blue-coated crew members stood at the rails looking at the deck below.
The first to speak was Flanges. “What did you do?”
“What?” Jax asked.
The others said something, but Jax’s mind became preoccupied with the open box that littered the cargo hold’s deck.
“No, no, no…” Jax cried as he floated his way down the ladder to the empty container. “What happened?” Jax was no engineer, but he’d been around long enough to recognize a stasis chamber when he saw one, even an alien one made to look like a coffin. Where’s the cargo?”
The box was indeed empty. In a way, that was fortunate. There could have been a corpse waiting to greet him… or worse. Depending on the length of time a body remained in stasis or the condition of the cargo held in suspension, some really bad things could happen. Given the fact the cargo opened during transit could mean whoever had been inside might now be stark raving mad. That didn’t help quell Jax’s fears.
One thing was certain, the cavity inside was not for a full-grown TikaTiki. As a matter of logistics, the space would not have held one of the adult’s tails. This coffin looked suitable for someone the size of a human child and no larger. There were, however, any number of known alien races that the adults did not grow larger than a human child. Jax should have spent more time learning about the different races, but since leaving Earth, most of his time had been in the company of the TikaTiki. They were complicated enough to work around, why spend time learning about peoples he might never encounter?
The look of an empty coffin made a cold shiver run down Jax’s spine. The thought of an alien vampire now running around the ship full of oversized lizards made him feel like the main course on the menu. He took a moment to calm his fears and remind himself the lizards he worked with were not cold-blooded.
Jax stepped back from the box. “Has anyone told the captain? Has anyone done a search of the ship? Something has escaped this crate. We need to learn what the hell we were carrying. If our crew is safe…”
Jax withheld his concern about a bloodsucking alien running amok on the ship. He might be overreacting on that aspect. He was sure the chances must be low. If such a race existed, the tales would’ve spread around the many watering holes. All sailors loved to tell sea stories. All crew members told tall tales. Bloodsucking aliens would have topped the charts.
“The captain has been notified. He is dealing with a situation,” Whiz said from above. Jax wasn’t sure when the first officer came into the cargo hold, but the words did little to comfort his already frayed nerves. “I suggest you learn as much as you can about what happened to the cargo… the cargo you signed for and approved.”
Jax knew where Whiz headed with this line of reasoning. He prepared Jax for the ax. He stood his ground. “I can’t be held accountable for faulty equipment. You agreed to bring this piece of shit onto the ship, and it broke… We were all asleep.” It took all his might to maintain his composure. “What was inside the box, Whiz? Who was inside this container?”
“You know more than I do. I suggest you stop complaining and find your missing cargo. Now, I need to get back to the bridge.”
“Wait a damn second… What the hell is the captain engaged in that is more important than this?” Jax shouted from the lower level, his right hand outstretched, pointing at the empty satin-lined container.
“We have been ordered to heave to and be boarded by a ship claiming to be from the Prodian homeworld. It is still too far away for the captain to ascertain the validity of the claim. It might be a ruse to take control of the ship.”
“Fuck me…” There was little left for Jax to say. He did a quick scan of the area. With only the black box in the center of the floor, there were only a few storage bins for the missing stowaway to hide. “Let’s start the search with the cargo hold.” He looked up for help from the lizards that moments ago watched him, but they all had conveniently disappeared. He shouted at the empty room, “You all suck, I hope you know that!” His gaze passed the closed doors and bins, just waiting for something to jump out. “Fuck me,” he said to himself.
Weaponless, he took the few hesitant steps to the first locker. In the lowered gravity, he more floated than walked. He waited outside the chock storage locker, his ear pressed against the thin metal door. Eventually satisfied there was no breathing on the far side, he nearly opened the door. He thought, What if they don’t need to breathe? They could be waiting on the far side of this door, ready to tear my lips off… or worse.
Jax jerked the door open and forced himself to swallow his near-scream. Behind the door, the locker was filled with tie-downs, like it should be. He nearly closed the door before changing his mind. A claw hook called his name. Not the best weapon but better than shouting obscenities at the stranger waiting for him behind every turn. Stressed and still suffering the effects of hyper-sleep he nearly slammed the door shut from habit, but he was quick to remind himself he still needed to find the missing cargo.
The lights went out.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me…” Jax stood next to the locker waiting. “If someone is screwing around with me, you will sleep sometime, and I will shit in your rack…”
The emergency lights kicked in. “That can’t be good.” In the blink of an eye, he keyed the coms unit inserted behind his ear to the bridge. “This is Jax. We lost lights in the cargo hold.”
“Kind of busy up here. You’re a deck-ape, you’ll need to deal,” the captain’s voice answered back.
That, Jax
didn’t expect. “Captain, I’m trying to find the missing cargo.”
“And I’m trying to keep the ship in the ‘verse,” the captain grumbled. “Could you be a good human and just suffer in silence?” The line went dead.
That didn’t sound good to Jax’s untrained ear at all. Over the years, he had never lost power to the cargo bay during maneuvering. The crew had played more than a few jokes on the token human, but the captain had always been above their hijinks.
If the bridge was shedding load to gain the power to run, things must be bad…
The limited lighting cast deep shadows over the corners and indentions of the ribs that made up the outer frame of the ship. The places that could have hidden a person multiplied by a factor of ten. Now a monster waited in every hard edge of the light, waiting to rip his throat out.
If this wasn’t real, it couldn’t be a joke, the officers would never endanger the ship, even if to play a joke on Jax. He just wasn’t that important.
Two fingers reached to feel the pulse at his neck. Jax’s heart raced like he’d been working in heavy G’s all day long. Another disturbing possibility came to mind. What if I’m still in my rack, under the influence of the sleep drugs… What if this is all a nightmare?
It took several deep breaths to regain control of his racing heart. Jax hated waking up from hyper-sleep. The drugs always jacked his sense of reality, probably because they were made for lizards and not humans.
He was fairly certain he wasn’t dreaming. If he was… could he do anything about it?
“Why are you—” Whiz didn’t have a chance to finish the sentence.
Jax jumped high enough to lose contact with the deck. His sudden contortions caused him to spin uncontrollably in the air. His arms flailed about, clutching about for a grip… They were all out of reach. His emotions hopped up as they were betrayed his fear as he shouted incoherent curses into the void.
Eventually, he would have drifted back to the deck of the ship. Jax knew better than to make any sudden movements, and he had a hard time hiding the embarrassment when Whiz needed to tackle him mid-tumble and push him to the nearest bulkhead.
“What are you doing here?” Jax struggled to regain his composure.
“The captain said you didn’t sound… sane. I came to check on you.” Whiz had an unfair advantage. He had his hands, feet, and tail to grip with, while Jax only had his hands.
“I was doing all right until you snuck up on me…” Jax nearly added, and scared the shit out of me, but decided to leave it unspoken.
“I will ask again, why were you standing in the dark?” Whiz reached over and grabbed a portable electric torch from its charger.
“Because I wanted to see if my heart was still able to take a jolt.” Jax was sure the sarcasm would be lost, but he tried.
“We need the cargo on the bridge. There is no time for you to play games.” Whiz pushed off across the open deck. “This way.”
Jax followed as best he could. “Wait, how do you know where the cargo is?”
Whiz turned and, with the beam of light, showed off two ports that had opened under his nostrils. Jax had never seen these holes in any TikaTiki before.
“What the…” Jax asked.
“These are a seldom-used organ, from when we needed to hunt for food in the dark. They help us smell the heat.” Whiz turned his attention in the direction he floated.
“Damn… don’t you think that would be useful in the cold of space?”
“We don’t like to show them. They remind us of a time we were not so… civilized. I smell warmth ahead. There is something hiding in the bulkhead bracing.” Whip pointed the light, and Jax spotted movement.
This was that point in a horror vid when the alien would jump out and claw someone’s face off. Jax made sure to keep the large lizard of a first officer between the face-clawing alien and his precious mug. He felt it an obligation to the many females he had yet to meet.
“Come out, we will not hurt you. We only want to help.” Jax found himself surprised the first officer could speak with such a soothing voice.
A soft quavering female’s voice came from behind the framing. “Please, don’t hurt me… Where are you taking me? Where are we?”
Jax lied, “Come out, we are here to help.” Jax really wanted nothing more than to stuff the cargo back into the box and get it offloaded. There was a collection of valuable porn that desperately needed his attention.
A slender hand reached from behind the bare metal brace. The skin shone dark as space itself in the white light. A slender arm was attached to the hand, and finally came the form of a female Prod, barely covered in a gossamer sleep shirt. Shorter than a human female, Jax was certain this was a fully developed woman and not some child that had been stolen from home and slapped into a sleep chamber. She stood beautiful, and for a second, Jax reconsidered stuffing her back in the box.
“We need you to follow us to the bridge… Miss?” Whiz asked the questions, while Jax still hung back, awestruck by the woman’s beauty.
“I’m sorry… I can’t recall my name. Wait… take me to the bridge?” Her voice flowed sweet as the honey Jax once ate as a child.
Finding her on this ship so far from everywhere made him reconsider his life as a confirmed spacefaring bachelor.
Even with over a decade of traveling with an alien race, they did things that never ceased to amaze Jax. That was one of the things he loved about traveling in space. He always assumed, deep down, Whiz acted a coldhearted bastard, but when he took off his crew jacket and draped it around the shoulders of the shivering female, the gallantry impressed Jax. He might have considered the action himself, if he hadn’t been so enthralled by the nearly nude body of the woman.
Rather than leave the side of his cargo, Jax tagged along to the bridge. With no invitation, he thought it better to keep his mouth shut and his ears open. Whiz never objected, but the look on his face reminded Jax of his pet gecko that found an unappealing insect inside his bowl. The short walk to the lift and the ride to the bridge passed in silence.
Even though the Moth was a small ship with a tight crew, Jax rarely made it to the bridge. The flight crew remained haughtier than the rest of the lizards, unapproachable even.
Running as they were from unknown pursuers, Jax expected pandemonium on the bridge. Instead, the assorted lizards sat silently on their stools, tails wrapped around the center post. He knew the ship could make violent maneuvers, and he wished they would install seatbelts for the tailless crew. With nowhere to stand, Jax picked a quiet corner and watched the show.
Whiz walked the Prod female up to the captain. “It seems the captain of the DanChan told the truth.” He waved the Prod woman to step up beside him. “I found her hiding in the cargo bay.”
Jax thought, We found her… He did his best to keep his eyes off the transparent wall located at the front of the bridge. Beyond it was a little light from distant, faint stars. This gravity well had no sun with visible light, or not enough light to shine this far from the center. Vertigo became a real possibility if Jax stared out the huge wall too long. It would do little to endear him to the crew if he threw up on the bridge in the middle of a crisis.
“She got a name?” the captain asked from the large window at the front of the bridge.
“She is standing right here… and I can’t remember it.” The woman crossed her arms, defiant compared to the voice she offered Whiz in the cargo hold.
The captain looked her over with a cool, calculating gaze. “You have put me into the spot, miss.” He pointed to the blank view of the main cabin window. “Out there is a ship doing its best to overtake us. They claim they are here to rescue a Prod female from a huge mistake. Are you that female?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t recall…” she said.
“Captain…” Jax should have kept his mouth shut but interjected anyway. “She is our cargo. We can’t just hand our cargo over…”
“I am well aware of the commitment to our contract
, Jax…” The captain glanced about the bridge. “Navigator, how long can we keep out of their range?”
“Three more hours, then they can fire on us. Six hours until they can board us.” The lizard never changed focus from the main screen. Her fingers didn’t need to touch a thing. She sat jacked into the computer system. Her mind worked seamlessly with the ship.
Jax knew the captain had access to the same information. The question and answer were for his and the Prod’s benefit.
“It matters little what I think. They will take the ship by force if they want to.”
“Let me speak with the captain of the DanChan… Perhaps I can call them off.” The dark-skinned woman spoke.
With a wave of the captain’s hand, the main view screen sprang to life with a three-dimensional view of a woman who could have been the cargo’s sister.
“Esmer, I’m glad to see you’re all right… Your last transmission gave me quite a fright.” The hologram captain spoke in a voice of familiarity.
Jax stood shocked when the cargo started to speak like she retained all her memories. “Megar… you’re too late. Please let me go. There is nothing you can do.”
Even through the vastness of space, the pain in the other woman’s eyes was evident. “Don’t say that. You can come back to the family at any time. You don’t have to do this.”
“The process has begun. I took added hormones before I placed myself in stasis. I will undergo the change before I reach Rapupin. I plan to become her husband…”
Jax tried to follow along. He was certain his translator implant missed some of the key details as the two spoke. One thing leaped into his mind: the woman on the chase ship had to be pretty damned rich to chase after a sister with a warship. He knew little of Prod society, and the mainframe information became less than useless. He would need time to study what the hell happened. Before him stood all the makings of a great tragic story. He only needed to understand all the missing subtext to get the story.
Humble Beginnings Page 13
