by T. M. Catron
Soon, the lack of sleep and the pain medication took its toll, and she fell asleep without meaning to.
When James came up the ladder, Rance woke with a start. The cockpit was lit up like twinkle lights, with all the usual glowing buttons and screens.
“Sleeping on the job, Captain?” he asked.
Rance’s mouth was dry, the result of sleeping with her mouth wide open.
“What’s up, James?”
“We have power to the engines and auxiliary systems. The consoles are functional. Just need to do some double-checking, but I think we’re in the clear.”
“That’s it?” Rance refused to believe it was that simple.
“Harper tried to uninstall Deliverance, but the AI is bedded down on the hardware itself. However, since the Caducean Drive was removed, she seems to have deactivated.”
“What does that mean for continuing our journey?”
James sat down in the pilot’s chair and swiveled it around to look her. “Theoretically, we should be okay to jump into hyperspace.”
“What about realistically?”
James smiled. “That too.”
Rance smiled in relief. “Okay then. Don’t tell anyone I was sleeping up here.”
James smirked. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Captain.”
“I mean it.”
“You’re so paranoid, Cap.”
“I detest drifting about in deep space, where anybody could come along and make easy prey of us. And stop calling me Cap. That’s an order.”
“As you wish.”
“Argh! James!”
James laughed. “You must be tired if you let that get to you. Go on, get some real sleep. I’ll call you when we’re ready.”
“Nope. Not happening. Everyone else has been up, too. I’m not going to let a little injury get in the way of sharing the workload. Where’s Henry?”
“Sleeping in Abel’s spare boot.”
“Hmph.”
“Captain,” Harper called over the comm. “It’s taking less time than I thought to boot up. We should be ready to jump in ten minutes.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Captain.”
Solaris chimed in over the comm. “Maybe you should go to sleep on the job more often, Captain. That way we can get some work done around here without you breathing over our shoulders. Although with that loud snoring—”
“I don’t breathe over your shoulders! Wait—”
James snorted and then burst out laughing.
“You told them.”
He held up his hand as if Rance had thrown something at him. She was contemplating it.
“You were snoring, Captain. I couldn’t let a good thing like that go to waste!”
“What did you do?”
“Hologrammed the whole thing,” Solaris said, the mirth in his voice unmistakable. “Sent it to all the screens and holos onboard, which were all working, by the way.”
James snickered again and stood. “Your mouth was wide open too.”
Rance reached over and punched his arm.
Just then, Solaris climbed into the cockpit and sat in his chair. The traces of his laughter were all over his face.
“Glad somebody’s in a better mood,” Rance grumbled.
“Why shouldn’t I be? We’re going to be back in hyperspace soon, heading to our original destination and possibly a good meal. I’m so hungry I could eat Henry. Although, I don’t want to pick hair from my teeth. And I’m not crazy about cinnamon.”
“Not funny,” Abel called over the comm. Then, “He didn’t mean it, Henry.”
“Just kidding, Abel,” Solaris said. “Just kidding.”
“He is just kidding, Abel,” Tally said over the comm. “Sit back down.”
While Tally convinced Abel not to go to the cockpit and beat Solaris to a pulp, Rance sat back in her chair and told everyone to harness in, as a precaution. “Get ready for the countdown to hyperspace jump. Coordinates loaded, Harper?”
“Yes, Captain.”
Solaris did his pre-flight checks and nodded to Rance.
“Alright, James. Whenever you’re ready.”
Rance always liked this part. No matter how many jumps to hyperspace, she never tired of seeing the blue wave wash over the ship, of feeling the slight electrifying current in the air, the tingle on her tongue. The anticipation was delicious. It meant freedom. Rance breathed easy. They’d only lost a few hours, after all.
She was disappointed about Deliverance though. They’d only had her a short time, and—
James pressed a button, flipped a switch, and grabbed the throttle. “Jumping to hyperspace in three, two, one.”
The ship spun up, the hum of the smooth drive more like a subconscious thought than a sound. A blue wave appeared around the window, blurring the stars.
And then it disappeared.
One by one, all systems shut down, lights turned off, the drive spun down, dead. The cockpit was in complete darkness. Once again, they were at the mercy of the void.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” James said.
“By all the Founders of Xanthes,” Rance said, fuming. “Can’t we get anything right today?”
“Are you implying we did something wrong, Captain?” James said. “Because everything checked out. It’s annoying that you blame us.”
“We still have some power,” Solaris said. “Look.”
A light flashed near his elbow. It came from a button labeled “Initiate” and was used to power up the ship on short notice.
“Tally, what’s the status below?”
“Checking now, Captain.”
Forgetting about her sore toe and her bare feet, Rance stood and stepped out into the aisle. She winced, but the pain was much better. It didn’t look so bruised, either, but the swelling wasn’t much better. It felt like she was wearing a giant’s toe. Even the toenail had turned black. Rance made a mental note to ask Harper about it later.
Before she could get down the ladder, Harper reported in. “It’s just a short, Captain. We’ve overloaded one of the main breakers. Probably when Deliverance kept trying to turn on before she was deactivated.”
“Please tell me it won’t take an expensive part we don’t have to fix it.”
“Okay. I won’t tell you.”
Rance groaned.
“But I can rig something to get us moving again. We’ll need to make some replacements once we get to Prometheus.”
“Fine. I’ll come down and help you. Where’s the panel?”
“It’s one of the main dashboards for the hyperdrive coil. Outside the ship.”
“That seems like a hazardous place to put it,” Solaris said. “It’s a major security flaw in the ship’s design.”
Tally chimed in. “The Star Streaker is a luxury space cruiser, not a military vessel. We need every available bit of space inside. Security doesn’t trump comfort.”
Rance swelled with pride at how Tally defended the Star Streaker. Anyway, it was just as much his ship as hers. He’d been there when she bought it and had been with her ever since. If it weren’t for Tally, Rance wouldn’t have made it as far as she had.
“I guess that settles it,” she said. “Abel, suit up. You and I are going on a space walk.”
Abel whooped so loudly, he didn’t need the comm for her to hear. His excited voice carried all the way up from the hold.
But Rance had forgotten that her toe was the size of a vagrappe. When she returned to her quarters, it wouldn’t fit in her boot.
“Guess I’m going then, Captain,” Solaris said, watching her attempt to put on her magnetic boot from the corridor.
Rance sighed. “Okay, suit up.”
Within a few minutes, they were suited up and Abel was standing inside the tiny airlock. They all waited impatiently as the compartment slowly depressurized. The air hissed out like the ship had a leak, rather than intentional cycling out air. Since the airlock was so small, Solaris had to wait until Abel was outside the ship with the ha
tch locked. Then they would repeat the process.
“Tally,” Rance called. “Remind me to install a proper airlock on this ship someday. One that more than one person can use at the same time and doesn’t take ten minutes.”
“Noted, Captain, along with automatic gravity controls, a military-grade weapons system, larger lavatories, and an automatic peanut sheller.”
“You just added that last one.”
“No, Captain. Added two months, five days, and three hours ago.”
“That’s not too much to ask for,” Solaris called. His voice sounded muffled in his space suit. Then, Abel gave the okay, and Solaris entered the airlock.
Rance waited impatiently. Soon, they would be visible through the cockpit windows, as the panel they needed was directly under the nose of the ship.
The ship clanged on the outside as their magnetic boots let them walk up the outer hull from the door. Rance imagined the quick catch-and-release from the magnets, the click as they engaged and disengaged, and sighed. She loved spacewalks.
Abel came into view and waved to her from outside. She waved back. He pretended to shove Solaris out away from the ship.
“Hey, knock it off,” Rance ordered.
“You know, Captain,” Solaris said. “I suddenly regret threatening to eat Henry.”
“If Abel chucks you out into space, I’m not coming after you.”
“You heard the boss. Hand me that socket wrench.”
They worked several minutes, with a few clangs echoing inside the ship. For the most part, Rance let them work. Harper directed them from the body camera Solaris wore. Rance watched the work on her handset since the screens in the cockpit didn’t have power.
After thirty minutes of tedious work, they had replaced the wiring and were reattaching the panel.
Then, a clang, and a strangled noise. It was muffled and came out with some indistinct but sharp syllables.
“Abel, you didn’t disconnect Solaris’ oxygen, did you?”
“No, Captain.” Abel’s voice was tight, controlled, like he was holding something in.
Rance couldn’t tell if he was stifling laughter or fear. She must be tired if they both sounded the same. “Abel? Report.”
“Solaris broke a rule,” Abel said.
“Which one?”
“Well, not the ones about companions in quarters or drinking. It was in a different language. But I know what he said.”
“Solaris? What’s going on?”
“Uh, sorry, Captain,” Solaris said finally, “but we have a problem.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve got company.”
Chapter Three
“What is it?” Rance repeated.
“Well, I’m not an expert or anything, but it’s metal and flying toward us. Looks like a ship.”
“Harper!” Rance called, ignoring Solaris’ sarcasm.
“Almost got it, Captain. Startup sequence running now. It won’t take as long as last time because we didn’t have a full shut down.”
“Solaris, Abel, get inside.”
“Already on our way.”
Without lights or navigation or sensors, Rance was blind except for what she could see out the windows. She craned her neck, looking out from every angle possible. Then, she stepped on the chair and pushed her nose up to the glass.
Still nothing. The ship must have been approaching from behind.
“What kind of ship is it?” she asked. “Is it heading for us on purpose? What’s its signature?”
Solaris’ voice through Rance’s handset sounded tinny. “To answer your questions—can’t tell, but it’s big, yes, and I don’t know.”
There were three possibilities. It could have been a merchant ship, checking to see why the Star Streaker was drifting in deep space. It could have been a military ship—a Unity patrol. Or pirates.
Out of all the possibilities, pirates were the most logical. This far from nothing, the DEEP was a prime raiding location for pirate clans big and small. Unity patrols rarely patrolled anything but direct trade routes, and merchant ships and cruisers, afraid of a trap, wouldn’t risk stopping for a foundering ship.
They needed to prepare. Rance waited anxiously for word that Abel and Solaris were inside. She didn’t dare leave the cockpit, but she peeked down the ladder, listening for sounds of the airlock opening and closing. Not being able to see the ship approaching sent spikes of fear through her. Whoever they were, they hadn’t hailed them, but they’d had plenty of time.
“Harper, ready?” Rance asked impatiently.
“Push the button, Captain.”
“Solaris?”
“We’re inside, Captain.” From the sound of it, they had stripped out of their suits and were pounding up the stairs.
Rance hopped down off the chair, the pain in her toe registering only a little. She pushed the initiate button. The lights turned on in the cockpit, then down the corridor below. Instrument panels lit up, the comm dashboard to Rance’s left switched on, and a moment later she was bringing up the radar screens that showed the unknown ship rapidly approaching.
Solaris and James appeared a moment later, taking their seats and running scans.
“How long until we can jump?” Rance asked the room.
“Five minutes. Still booting up.”
“Tally? What’s it looking like down there?”
“Perfect, although I’d be careful not to put too much stress on that hyperdrive coil, just as a precaution. We’re all strapped in down here, Captain.”
“James, I want a jump to hyperspace as soon as the drive registers ready. In the meantime, shields up.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Solaris was watching the red blip on the screen. “They’re approaching alarmingly fast, Captain. I think they suspect we’re about to jump. We’re out of time.”
“Alternatives?”
Solaris shook his head. “They have guns. Big EMP cannons and hull-piercing blasters. Military-grade. Oh, and a gun turret.”
“Pirates.”
“Nope. The flying pattern suggests Unity. Doesn’t look like private security, either.”
Rance didn’t know whether to be relieved or terrified. Pirates were bad. But Unity could detain them without much reason, and that would present a whole other problem to the fugitives onboard. Namely, herself and Solaris. “What’s Unity doing all the way out here?”
“I wondered that too. Harper,” Solaris called. “Did you disguise the Streaker’s registration before we left Ares?”
“Of course, sir. Sending up our new name right now.”
Suddenly, the ship-to-ship comm went live, and a man’s voice rang out over the ship-wide speakers. “Star cruiser, this is Unity Alpha Class X3458, designation Malta. State your condition and destination.”
Rance punched a button on the comm and read the name Harper sent up to her. “Hello, Malta. This is the Stanley Alto. We’re on our way to pick up cargo on Noko before heading to Prometheus.”
Solaris exchanged glances with Rance and mouthed, Stanley Alto?
She shrugged. Any other time, it would have been funny. Right now, a knot was growing in her stomach like some twisted vagrappe had taken root there.
“I’m Lieutenant Arnold,” the other man said. “Nice ship. You’re a bit small to be running cargo, aren’t you?”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. I’m Captain Cooper. We are a private ferry. Our cargo is human. Usually paid transport.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, sir. Sending you our registration.”
Solaris sent it to the Malta, and Rance fidgeted, braiding her hair and unbraiding it. They’d never tested their new registration codes against the Unity database. She hoped it worked better than Deliverance had.
The cockpit felt suddenly warm as if the ventilation system had failed. Rance checked it, but it was fine. She was only sweating out of nervousness, nothing else.
“Had some trouble?” Arnold asked.
“We had a hype
rdrive malfunction. But we’re up and running now. We’ll be on our way if you don’t object.”
“Stand by, Stanley.”
“What do they want?” James asked nervously.
Rance glanced at Solaris, who remained calm and stoic. While she’d been busy watching the screens, he’d changed his face to sharp features and dark hair. His fun-loving persona had disappeared, replaced by a grim countenance.
“Wish I could change my face right now,” she whispered.
“I can change yours for you,” he said, smiling to ease the tension.
“You can?”
“Sure. What would you like to look like?”
The Lieutenant returned. “Stanley Alto, you are required to submit to a random inspection. Lower your shields and prepare for boarding.”
“Ah, Malta, you’re welcome, of course, but I have a group of passengers waiting for us on Noko. If we don’t pick them up, someone else will. I’ll lose business.”
“Not my problem, Captain Cooper. Lower your shields.”
“What do you want to do?” James asked. “I could make the jump. They don’t have tractor beams on those Alpha Classes.”
“I don’t recommend it, Captain,” Solaris said. “Remember when I told you Unity had ships that could follow you into hyperspace?”
“Yes?”
Solaris nodded to the red blip on his screen. It was slowing now, in anticipation of boarding them. “That’s one of them.”
“Of all the luck,” Rance breathed harshly. “Triton’s hairy backside, sometimes I hate Unity.”
“That makes two of us.”
Rance spoke to the crew at large. “Alright, prepare for inspection. You all know what to do. James, make sure they don’t punch a hole in the cargo bay doors. Make sure they use the airlock.”
There was a faint scramble as the crew left their places. Solaris looked confused. But then, he’d never been on the receiving end of an inspection before. Rance had.
“We have a few protocols for this sort of thing,” she explained. “First, we do a quick sweep to make sure there’s no offensive cargo in plain sight. This is easy because right now we have none.”
