Part 2: Not What They Bargained For

Kwame and Jon were already waiting at the airlock when Alex glided down the corridor. Jon was covered in coffee. There were spots all over the front of his pressure suit, and his helmet had brown smears where he had tried to wipe it away.  Kwame floated with an amused grin.

“It is all of that sugar you use,” he started, “that is why it is so sticky.” Jon just glared back, arms crossed. Kwame continued, “You should have your coffee the way it was meant to be… black.”

Jon ignored him and turned to Alex. “Hey captain, maybe a little heads up before you go shutting down the gravity. The galley is a mess right now.”

“Good thing I have someone on the crew to clean it up. Besides, it’s good for you, builds character, a nice change of pace from those luxury cruisers you were so used to.” Alex opened the airlock controls, and turned to Kwame. “Jade is bringing us around now. It looks like something left over from the old exploration days, likely late 21^st, early 22^nd century, maybe even older.”

Kwame considered that for a moment, as Alex opened the air lock and motioned them to get in. “We will need to be very careful with it. We should attach our winch cables manually.”

“Why can’t we just launch them and tow it in?” Jon asked, as the airlock depressurized.

“Kwame’s right. That ship is bound to have taken thousands of micrometeor hits over the years. No telling how solid the hull is. If we shoot our cables at it, we could easily punch right through. Assuming the hull is intact now, a sudden depressurization could ruin things inside… valuable things.”

The crew floated into the cargo bay. While the Bucephalus had its share of issues, the cargo bay was one place where it shined. It was big, which was good. But Alex had invested in every hidden compartment and detection avoidance technology he could afford. No matter how many times he had been boarded, he always managed to come away clean. Customs officials had leaned against contraband, bounty hunters had stood over their prey, completely unawares. While it might not have been pretty, the Bucephalus had a reputation for always delivering its cargo.

Alex tapped the com in his helmet. “Jade, are we in position?”

“Affirmative, Cap.”

“Good. Kwame, open the doors.” He turned to Jon. “This is your first spacewalk, huh?”

Jon was nervously trying to attach a tether to his suit. “Maybe I can stay back and work the winch while you two attach the cables?”

“Nonsense!” Alex floated over, grabbed the tether, and quickly attached it. “This was the kind of thing you signed on for! What kind of mentor would I be if I didn’t let you experience every part of the job? Kwame can work the winch; we’ll be out and back in no time, piece of cake.”

Jon opened his mouth to argue, but one look at Alex told him it was a bad idea.  Kwame brought over the cables. “If this thing is worth what you think it is, Alex, maybe we should invest in a tractor beam for these salvage jobs. Not to mention force fields for the cargo doors so we do not need to depressurize every time we collect something in space.” Many of the cargo drops they made were in deep space, away from prying eyes.

“Fix the artgrav, buy a tractor beam, get force fields for the doors. Take, take, take, that’s all this crew does. Besides, if we can make off of this what I think it’s worth, we won’t be doing any more salvage jobs. With the upgrades I can afford, we’ll be in high demand.”

“You’d upgrade this instead of buying a new ship?” Jon asked.

“I’d never give up the Bucephalus. She’s got a lot of…” Alex looked around. There were spots on the walls were the paint had been rubbed off, and there was rust in places where there should not be rust. Not to mention the fact that they currently were floating because of a dicey artgrav projector.

“Character.” Kwame offered.

“Yes, character. And a reputation, that, a good reputation, does not come easy.” Alex grabbed Jon’s tether. “Kwame, open the doors.”

Looking at the Bucephalus from the outside, the cockpit sat on top, the crew quarters below that, and they both sat on top of the cargo bay. The engines were positioned on either side, and could be accessed in the cargo bay, which opened at the front and rear. Jade positioned the ship so the salvage was in front of them.

Alex and Jon glided out. Alex quickly attached his cable, while Jon got tangled in his. Not worrying about that, he made a quick assessment of the ship.

It was long and narrow, in the style of the old rockets from the early exploration era. There were wings along the side, indicating it would fly upon descent onto a world, thus predating anti-grav technology. As Alex moved down the fuselage, he noticed the insignia near the thrusters. A red orb overlapped a blue one with a small streaking rocket circling them both. Below it, in block letters, read NASA-M.

Alex thought about what that meant when a glimmer in the distance caught his eye. Immediately his radio crackled to life.

“Cap, you better get inside, fast.” Jade was calm, but there was a touch of panic in her voice. “We’ve got company.”

“Copy that.” Alex looked over to Jon, who flashed him a thumbs up. “Kwame, start the winch, then head up to the rear guns.”

“I’m on it, Alex.” The salvage started to move, and Alex fired his thrusters, waving for Jon to do the same.

“What is that out there?” Jon asked.

“Something that will ruin our payday,” Alex said. As soon as the salvage was inside, he slammed the button to shut the doors. “We’re in, Jade, get us moving, and fire up the gravity, we need the inertial dampers.”

“Already on it,” she said, and with a thud, the salvaged ship hit the floor.

Alex was running for the airlock. “Jon, get our cargo strapped down.” Red lights around the door flashed and changed to green, indicating they were pressurized. Suddenly, the Bucephalus shuddered.

“What was that?!” Jon shouted.

“They’re shooting at us,” Alex replied, ripping off his helmet and throwing it down.

“What’s going on? Who’s out there?”

“Raiders.” Alex said, rushing out the door. Jon followed.

“Why are they shooting at us?!  I thought pirates made a few threats, boarded you, took some stuff, and left.”

“This ain’t the holos kid. This ship ain’t worth the risk to board; they can just as well crack us open and salvage anything of value after we’re dead. Stop worrying, get back there and strap down our salvage!”

The ship lurched as Jade took evasive maneuvers. From above, Alex heard the big guns powering up. The Bucephalus had a carefully concealed main battery in the aft that fired hull piercing slugs. Alex could hear them now as Kwame opened on the pirate’s ship. The ship shook with the force of the recoil and the stabilizing thrusters’ compensation. Guns that big were not meant to be on small transports, but in this line of work, one couldn’t be too prepared.

Alex climbed into the cockpit. “What do we got?”

Jade was furiously working the controls, but her demeanor was calm. “Looks like they dropped out to salvage, same as us, thought we’d be easy pickings.” The viewport in front of her was now set up as a combat HUD. The trajectory of the opposing ship and its line of fire were highlighted. Jade rolled the Bucephalus just out of the way of another burst.

“How long until we can jump out of here?”

“30, 45 seconds, maybe. It’s tough for the nav computer to calculate coordinates when we are keep moving around. It’d help if you could lay down some covering fire, that raider is closing fast.”

“Way ahead of you.” Alex had his combat display in front of him. He could see bright spots on the Redipsilon ship where Kwame was hitting it. “Damn, they have kinetics.”

Kinetic barriers were common on large ships, both civilian and military. While a barrage of projectile weapons could momentarily overwhelm the shield, generally you needed energy weapons to get through the shield, then projectile weapons to open up the hull. Smaller ships usually did not have the power available for both energy weapons and kinetic shields. They instead relied on their own armor plating and maneuverability, trying to avoid the knockout punch until they could break contact.

“It’s ok, 25 seconds until we make the jump.” Jade said, pulling the ship into a sickening roll.

From the cockpit, Alex could control the suite of weapons scattered along the hull. He let off a volley of fire at the raiders, again to no avail. Now it was close. He could see make out the features of the ship, including a transparent dome on the front.

“15 seconds, captain.”

“Kwame, focus your fire where you see me hitting those shields.” Alex opened up his weapons on the raider cockpit. It lit up white as the kinetic barrier deflected the rounds. Suddenly the white disappeared and was replaced by a spout of debris as Kwame’s main gun hit the same spot.

“Nice shot, Kwame!” Jade said, punching a few buttons on her console. “Making the jump.” The ship shuddered as the stars stretched into lines, then nothing. “We’re in hyperspace, we’re safe. Maybe no more salvage work until we get to the Rock.”

“No argument here. How much fuel did we just waste?”

Jade looked at her instruments, then tapped them for good measure. “We’ll be fine if the artgrav is running normal. If not, we need to shut it off until we can get home.”

Alex nodded and picked the com. “Kwame, check the status on the artgrav, how are looking?”

“”Strangely enough, it seems like that hit knocked something right. Looks like the artgrav is running within normal parameters.”

Alex slumped in his chair. Jade looked over and smiled. “I’ll switch to auto pilot from here. We have about 33 hours until we arrive. With your permission, I’d like to go relax for a bit.”

“Sure, of course. I can keep an ear out for anything while I check our new acquisition. At least we have some quiet time to look it over.” No sooner had the word left Alex’s mouth than he heard blood curdling scream

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” It echoed through the ship, over and over again.

Alex jumped from his chair. Jade had already disappeared down the ladder. Alex grabbed the com. “Jon, what the hell is going on down there?!”

“Captain, you need to see it yourself!” Jon shouted back over the screams, which were obviously coming from the cargo bay. Alex and Jaded sprinted down the ship, soon joined by Kwame.

As they entered the cargo bay, they saw Jon crouched by the wall, covering his ears. “I didn’t do anything!” he shouted, but they weren’t paying attention to him. Instead, they covered their ears and stared at the source of the screams.

The ship they had salvaged now was open. Inside was a gaunt man, swallowed up by a flight suit that was at least three sizes too big. He was barely moving, all of his energy being spent on two things; screaming, and clawing at a giant helmet with withered, thin fingers, his face contorted in agony. Finally, with one last shriek, his arms fell to his sides.

As quiet returned the room, Jade stared at the man, then back at Alex and Kwame. “What did you find out there?”

Alex stood gap jawed. “I have no-freaking-idea.”