13.
"Woah, this a big one" said Milton staring up at the lifeless drone.
"Woah, this a big one" said Milton staring up at the lifeless drone.
"Even
uglier than you" added Nita. She was surprisingly calm for being in the
presence of a merciless killing machine, but she knew how good her new intrusion
programme was.
"Shut up
and take my picture" Milton had managed to sit up with his back against
the cupboard, attempting to smile, although the weight of the gravity was
making his jowls sag.
"Ok,
hang on" Nita managed to get herself in a position so that her view took
in both Milton and the drone. Picking the camera option from the menu brought
up in her iris display, she took the picture. "Done" she told Milton.
"Cool.
Send it over" he replied, and she pinged it over "ohhh, that's a good
one"
"I ever
told you that you're a screwball?" Nita had began to crawl back to the
hole.
"Well
there goes any chance I share my fortune with you when my e-book sells; Adventures across the solar system: The
dashing space pirate" Milton was gazing into the middle distance
"Just wish I could see the looks on the faces of the conglom execs when I
release it" he barked a laugh, the effect of the gravity on his lungs
giving it somewhat of a rasp.
"Come
on, we need to get a move on"
"I'm
right behind you"
The
acceleration stabilised at a little over 3g as the transporter completed the
slingshot. This meant that they had to work their way over to a different hatch.
Jumped out the one that they'd entered by, would see them smeared over the
protruding ion drive.
Eventually
they reached a suitable exit, but had to use a small hand jack to lift the
weight of the hatch. Milton came close to losing a finger when they dropped it
back down, launching into anther grumpy tirade. They slid their way to the edge
of the hull. It was difficult to get a frame of reference to work out how
quickly they were now travelling in the dark of space, although that was
probably a good thing lest Milton discover just how many thousands of clicks an
hour they were moving at.
Linking a
thin tether between their hips, they pushed off the hull. Milton had pushed of
a little harder, so they span in the zero g, the transporter looking like it
was rotating quickly above them. The sensation made Nita feel sick. It made
Milton actually sick, the muffled splattering noises transmitted across their
secure link. Eventually the ship, still under acceleration, disappeared from
their view. While they were still flying at a significant speed, they were no
longer accelerating. They were alone.
"Where
are they?" demanded Milton, voice muffled by the vomit on his vac-suit
microphone.
"Shouldn't
be too long, I've activated my transponder" Nita looked around. Although
she trusted Chen, floating in the vastness of space with only Milton for
company, she didn't half feel vulnerable. "We were late getting off the
ship. It'll take time for them to get to us"
"Wouldn't
be surprised if they left us here" grumbled her companion in infinity.
"They got the gear, and the profit splits better between two than four.
Bet Chen and that fat bitch Tenyon are laughing their asses off at us right
now"
"Shut up
Milton" frustration crept into Nita's voice.
"Hey,
you think he's banging Tenyon?! Would make sense why they're always sending us
over. Dirty fucker. Still whatever floats your boat is what I say"
"SHUT
UP" Nita barked. She couldn't stand Milton talking about the captain like
that.
Silence
descended for a minute or two, but Milton couldn't keep it up.
"It
ain't fair that they always send us to do the hard work though" he said
"Then the captain goes and claims the largest share. Plus we have to give
a 15% cut back to the loop, what the fuck is that about?"
"You
benefited from the loop's cut back before you joined the crew, so you can't
moan 'bout it now. Also, the captain plans the ops, you reckon you could have
pulled off what we just did?"
"I could
if that cheap ass bastard would buy us a couple of rail guns. He's some kind of
hippy, not wanting to arm ourselves. Every other fucker out here is
packing"
"Precisely
why we don't" she rolled her eyes, although the motion was wasted on
Milton in the black of space "You honestly think a couple of poxy rail
guns are gonna let us go up against a fleet of drones?"
"They
would if I was piloting"
"We'd be
a small dent in the side of a large asteroid if you were piloting" Nita
muttered, but Milton wasn't listening. He was too busy making shooting noises
while pretending to fly a space ship. Nita sighed, and ran another check on her
transponder. Where are you captain?
It took two
long hours for one of the distant stars to slowly resolve itself into their
rescue ship. Two long hours of Milton moaning, predicting their imminent doom.
It took another 15 minutes of close manoeuvring for the ship to match their
velocity and get close enough for them to grab on to. Another 15 minutes of
Milton complaining that he could fly it better. Then a further 5 minutes while
the airlock cycled and they could take off their vac-suits. A further 5 minutes
of Milton moaning about all the sick that dripped out of his helmet and down
his overalls.
Nita's smile
was broad and genuine when Chen finally welcomed them back on board as she and
Milton sipped coffee in the mess room. That he was someone other than Milton
was a big bonus, but there was something else in her smile too. Feelings. She
shook her head, stupid girl.
"You
didn't think the plan worked?" asked Chen, a disappointed frown across the
parts of his face not covered in beard or hair. Hurt in his eyes.
"Hmmmm?"asked
Nita, shaken from her contemplation of the captain.
"You
were shaking your head, looked unhappy about something"
"What?
Oh! No, sorry, was thinking about something, er, else. Plan worked good"
"'Part
from the bit where you left us with our asses hanging out in space for five
hours" interrupted Milton "And the stupidly high g that transporter
was pulling. My lungs still hurt."
"It was
closer to two hours, but, yes, well, sorry about the wait and the gravity. There
wasn't another way" Chen explained.
Milton
muttered something about rail guns, but Chen ignored him and turned back to
Nita.
"You're
ok though?" he asked.
"Sure,
just a bit cold" she sipped the still steaming coffee for effect. The
captain had the ship slowing at an easy 0.5g so she hadn't had to drink from
one of those annoying flasks. Chen was thoughtful like that.
"Your
scripts ran perfect. We got two full containers, high quality ore too"
"Well,
er, thanks" she started to blush, idiot
girl
"You
see, that's what I don't get"
Nita was almost grateful for Milton's interruption. Almost. The downside being
it did mean another ill-informed tirade was incoming. "If this_amazing intrusion script was sooo good, how comes we only got two
containers, eh? Why not empty the whole fucking shebang? Sell it and live like
kings. Way I see it, you boffins lack
ambition. Not like me, I think big. It pays to listen to old Milton" he
sat back with a smug look on his broad face.
Nita and Chen
shared a glance, both with eyebrows raised. Whose
turn to deal with the stupid questions this time?
"Whole
transporter shipments going missing tends to raise a few eyebrows" began
Chen.
"AI
don't have eyebrows" Milton actually looked pleased with himself for
coming up with that rebuttal, Nita groaned.
"But
they do have their intervention ships prowling around out here. Last thing we
want is a tender on us."
"That's
where the rail gun idea comes in" Milton wasn't going to give up easy.
"Rail
guns find it tough to track drone interceptors which can change course at 30g.
You whined enough at 3g so I can't see you outmanoeuvring them" Chen
continued.
"You
sound just like her" a disparaging nod at Nita.
"That's
because she knows what she's talking about"
Nita was on
the verge of blushing again, so spoke in an effort to maintain her cool.
"Plus,
if we did clear out the transporter, (a) how the heck are we going to shift it
all in this little thing" an open handed gesture to the small repurposed loop
habitat resupply ship they were sat in "and (b), who do we know that can
take a couple million tonnes of ore off our hands with no questions asked? We
tried dropping that much on the Kinshasa boys and they'd freak the fuck
out"
"The
Kinshasa boys are small fry. S'all about ambition" replied Milton after a
few seconds of silence, as if that was an answer in itself. Nita shook her
head, and reached for her coffee. But Milton wasn't finished with his bright
ideas. "Why go after fucking ore at all? Even once refined it's still
worth jack shit. We should hit one of the big fancy zero g factories, get
ourself some high tech equipment. Bigger profit, you see?" he slowly
enunciated the last few words as if he was talking to simpletons.
"You
want to hit a heavily guarded factory, usually to be found within spitting
distance of the lunar or Mars conglom shipyards where they build all range of
nasty contraptions?" Chen asked with a single eyebrow raised.
"Why
not? Thought you said the intrusion scripts were good?" Milton shrugged.
Chen looked
to the ceiling in exasperation. Having to explain the difference to Milton
between ambition and suicide would be just too painful. The captain looked like
he might be about to give it a go, when he stopped, then frowned, before
tapping his ear.
"Say
again Tenyon, and broadcast it ship-wide, I want the others to hear"
Tenyon, who
was sat in the depths of the ship monitoring what passed for the bridge,
switched her transmission to all crew members.
"I said,
Captain, that we got a distress signal from back on the loop" Tenyon's
voice said from their ear receivers.
Nita's
stomach lurched, her coffee fell off the side of the table with an echoing
clatter; the ship was changing direction. The captain was the only one with a
bio-link to the ship controls, he was changing course, increasing the
acceleration.
"We got
any details on it? Casualties?" Chen demanded.
"We, ah,
er. It's tight-beamed at us, but flagged as an emergency" Tenyon sounded
unsure.
Nita was
confused, emergency signals were usually broadcast wide-beam to alert the most
possible potential rescuers. Chen must be equally confused, as he hurried off
towards the bridge. Nita and Milton gave a quick look at each other, then set
off in pursuit.
The bridge of
most space ships, unlike the majority of their fictional counterparts, was
small and normally relegated to the bowels of the ship. Small because much of
the ship function was either carried out by AI, or could be controlled by a
human from anywhere on board. Relegated to the bowels because it offered them a
little more protection in case of emergency and because there was no benefit
from having them near the hull; no windows in space.
Indeed, the
four crew members couldn't fit in the bridge of this ship all at once.
Especially when Tenyon was ensconced in the only chair, a roll of flesh hanging
over the arm rests after she'd wedged herself in. Chen lent over the rear of
the chair, while Milton had barged his way to their side. Nita lurked in the
hatchway.
A projection
display glowed in front of the chair, allowing for a wider field of view than
an iris augment alone. A red cross slowly span in the display, the emergency
signal.
"You
sure it's from the loop?" questioned Chen.
"I ain't
thick" Tenyon sounded offended "It's got the right data stamp and I traced back the signal"
Nita had the
unpleasant but familiar sensation of pressure building in her eyeballs, the
ship was accelerating further. Wouldn't be long till Milton was
complaining.
"Ok. The
crash vats preped?" Chen asked.
"Sure"
replied Tenyon.
"Ew, no,
not the vats. Let's just go a bit easier heading back" Milton's face was a
picture of displeasure.
Nita didn't
say anything - wouldn't want to contradict the captain - but she shared
Milton's unhappiness. Crash vats could be found in pretty much any vessel that
carried humans and might need to manoeuvre or accelerate at high g. So sort of
essential on a pirate ship.
The vats were
full of the same unpleasant smelling oxygenated gloop that could be found in
the marines' fancy tactical-suits. But the crash vats weren't mobile, and
looked more like coffins. They were not generally popular with crew members as
a result. No one forgot their first time 'breathing' the gloop while trapped
inside as the ship darted around.
"Ok
people" Chen spoke across the sulking Milton "Let's head to the
vats"
"Hang
on!" Tenyon urged. Chen's face dropped at the prospect of another dissenting
voice, while Milton perked up at the prospect of an ally.
"It was
an order, Tenyon" Chen had stood to his full height, chest out.
"No,
wait, there's a message coming through. An e-cast from the loop" Tenyon
looked up at the captain excitedly.
"Put it
on the projection" Chen ran a hand over his beard.
"Sure
thing" the red cross in front of Tenyon blinked out of existence.
And was
replaced by Lloyd's face.
"Hey
guys, you gotta come see this!" behind the wide eyed face of the systems
analyst there was a figure performing some kind of celebratory dance. It looked
like Kel. "That fucker Alcubierre, one of his probes is coming
back!" Lloyd’s transmission finished
"Alcumbi-what?"
Milton puzzled.
"That's
the fucker that interrupted my massage the other day" said Tenyon
huffily.
"Are you
ok captain?" Nita had a look of concern, Chen had gone very quiet
"You know this Alcubierre bloke?"
"What?
Er, no" Chen shook his head uncertainly "He's long dead. The probes
are named after a theory he developed a century ago"
"Fucking
boffins" Milton had lost interest.
"It's
what first got me into science as a kid, those probes being sent out. Pretty
much the only positive thing the congloms ever did for science. The search for
life outside of our galaxy."
"Wow"
said Nita, seeing the emotion in Chen's eyes was causing those stupid feelings
to surface again, twisting a knot in her stomach. Well, the feelings and the
renewed increase in thrust gravity.
"Get to
the crash vats" ordered Chen.
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