T4 -- Into the Unknown.

[ManOfGrey]

Reaper looked at the Captain and asked, "Is there any way that you can patch me into the Beowulf's intercom system?”

"Absolutely. If you'll follow me to the bridge.”

Reaper nodded and said, "After you, Skipper.”

When he got to the bridge and connected to the intercom system, Reaper keyed up and said, "Attention aboard the Beowulf. I am Major Andere Codix of the Sylean Marines assigned to the ISS Nymeria Sunrise. Would all passengers please report to the Common Room in ten minutes?”

Reaper turned to face the Captain and said with a wink and a smile, "Let's see if we can get you some help fixing your ship. You and your husband may want to come down there with me so that you can direct them to the places they are most useful and needed.”

"Please! Lead on.”

Heading back through the ship, Reaper arrived shortly at the Common Room with the Captain and First Mate. He then lead up against a bulkhead and patiently waited for the passengers to arrive. But the Beowulf was not a large ship, and everyone arrived within a few minutes.

Reaper contacted Khat and said, "Would you please send my broadcast through the Nymeria Sunrise's intercom system?" and then set his comm to transmit to the Nymeria Sunrise so that Carmen and Khat could hear what was happening.

Khat patched through the comms as requested. She listened and nodded her head slowly to no one.

He took a moment to look around the room, taking a few seconds to look each and every person in the eye before he resumed, "I know that you didn't bring this on, and that you are still recovering from the stress of your previous plight. I know that, even after that struggle, you all still have it in you to stand together with the crew of this vessel, and to knuckle up and get the hard work done.

"Thank you in advance for your hard work, and please come forward and tell the Captain and her First Mate where your strengths lie, and they can direct you to where you are needed most.”

Under her breath Khat said, “Gettin’ shit done. Time for lickin’ wounds will come…. Hopefully with a stiff drink for ‘em.”

Everyone seemed glad to help, and they spread to the four corners of the ship. After only a few minutes, just about every access panel on the ship was lying on the floor as everyone began to piece her back together again.

After all the passengers had departed the common room, Reaper looked once more to the captain and said, "I am sorry to have to be the bearer of unhappy news, but your cook, Broccoli, has requested to be transferred to the Nymeria Sunrise, and we have agreed to take him on. I do hope that doesn't put an excessive burden on you and your crew.”

"I'm not going to lie, we'll miss his cooking. But he's not under contract. He's free to come and go as he likes. And he was quite the tiger when those pirates tried to board. He certainly gave them what for. You're lucky to have him.”

"For what it's worth, Skipper, the Nymeria Sunrise will be in system for a few days at least, so if you need us, just send us a message. We may be paying the pirate vessel a visit before we go. But no matter what, that vessel won't be bothering you for a few days at least.”

“Godspeed."

Remembering an old naval adage, Reaper responded, "Fair winds and following seas, Captain." He smiled briefly and rendered a sharp salute before turning on his heel and heading back to the Nymeria Sunrise.

 

[ManOfGrey]

Khat watched the new guy carefully. She heard the name "Broccoli" and a cook. Well, we could certainly use something more desirable than... she thinks of the packets and jerky that she's been living on... THAT stuff.

"Hey, new guy - com'ere."

Broccoli looked around and saw where the voice had came from, and headed over saying “cumin," (like the spice.)

Khat giggled to herself a little.

"Hey, I'm Khat - or as that one calls me, Glare-Bear." She quirked her head toward Reaper. "So, what can ya tell me about that ship that was givin' yas trouble and the people that were after yas?"

She waved her hands around dismissively, "Yeah yeah, let's bypass the whole "Pirates!" "Eeek!" "Scary!" nonsense and get to the real info.”

Extending his hand, Broccoli introduced himself. “I'm Brock Oscar Lee, or Broccoli for not so short. I don't know to much about want was going on, I was in the kitchen making the ship dinner when I heard shooting. I ran up past the captain and her husband and they were trying to contact another ship I don't think they got anything back from them then shit hit the fan. Then it was like my time training to be a cook three chefs on one little line cook.... Humm… over powdered ship takes on a paper airplane kind of deal.”

“Hmm.. so that wasn't the ship yas were tryin' to contact? Any idea why they picked your ship? Did yas have any interestin' cargo?”

“I know the captain was willing to give up cargo after they tried boarding us.”

“Got it. Are you familiar with the mechanics of ships, or just the kitchen area?”

“Mostly just the kitchen area, but I know some basic mechanical.”

Khat nods slowly. "Ok, fair" She reached for Brock's sleeve and pulled him closer, leaning in near his ear she whispered, "That ship was interesting. If you remember anything else you come to me, yeah?" She turned her head, looking him in the eyes, a mere inch between their noses. "To me. right?" She nodded her head slowly. "Help me, I help you. Understood?”

“I think I'm cooking what you're putting in the pan.” Brock backs up from Khat and lowered the hammer on the revolver in his off hand that was aimed at her sternum.

She patted him on the shoulder, "You'll soon learn who to be pointin' yer guns at. They aren't so scary when I'm the one responsible for all of yas gettin' around safely." She banged her fist on the control panel and sits back in her pilot seat while propping her feet up. "Unless ya wanna give it a whirl around?" She cocked an eyebrow in his direction. "⌧ it up and ye'll be answerin' to me though."

"Sounds fair… just not used to getting pulled around.”

"I think we're gonna get along just fine. As for pullin' ya around, well that's kinda my job - so you'll get used to it, and might even enjoy it in time." She winked and looked over the panel in front of her momentarily.

 

[ManOfGrey]

As Broccoli excused himself, the smell of re-heated chicken Quesadillas permeated the bridge. Carmen stuck her head in and handed Khat a tortilla wrapped in foil.

“Doesn’t anyone know the way to a girl’s heart is through her stomach? But I know who to butter up, or cheese up, as the case may be,” Carmen said with a wink. “And what did Brok O. Lee think he was going to do with that little revolver anyway? You have handled a lot more than that.

“I just really hope he can cook.”

“Girl, he better know how to cook… otherwise I have a windshield that needs cleaning. Maybe right as you get us moving faster than he can hang on!” Khat winked at Carmen and giggled. “Have a seat, get comfy.” She patted the co-pilot chair, and unwrapped the foil.

 

[ManOfGrey]

Khat glanced behind her when she heard Reaper close the air-lock after storing the umbilical.

“Hey Reaper, com’ere when ya’ e got a minute…. Or five.” (The last bit said more under her breath than out loud.)

Helmet tucked under his left arm, a wry smile crossed Reaper's face before he turned toward Khat and responded, "I've been meaning to sit down with you for a conversation anyway."

He made his way over to Khat and said, "How about we do a bit of 'quid pro quo'. You ask me a question and I will answer it as honestly as I can, and then I ask you one and you respond as honestly as you can." He turned the tactical station chair to face Khat and settled himself down in it. Khat noticed a small twinge cross his features as he lowered himself into a seated position. "What can I do for ya?"

“Yeah that’s fair.” She propped her feet back up on the panel in front of her and got comfortable in her seat. “I’m tryin’ to figure out what that was all about. Obviously I wasn’t leavin’ m.. the ship unattended, so I didn’t get to see much. Any idea what drew ‘em to that ship?”

"I am trying to figure that out as well. Not sure at this point if it was the cargo, crew or passengers. I was planning on asking the Captain questions to see if we can get a better idea of the reason."

Reaper used one hand to scratch through his Mohawk hair, an expression of consternation on his face. When he looked back up at Khat he said, "It is very confusing at the moment, and I am quite concerned for the safety of the Beowulf."

He looked directly into Khat's eyes when he continued, and said, "Listen, I don't care about what got you in the predicament that I collected you from. What you did or did not do in the past that caused your incarceration is absolutely none of my concern unless it directly impacts our mission, so I will leave it alone unless you decide to tell me of your own free will." He paused and an expression of mild amusement crossed his face before resuming, "I have seen with my own eyes that you are a skilled and capable pilot, and for that I am extremely grateful that you got "paroled" onto this ship. What I do want to know at this point though, is if you can handle a firearm."

Khat’s mouth quirked at the question, “Can I handle a firearm?” She chuckled very briefly, “One aimed at me, or the one I am aiming?” She settled down, “I’ve been known to do well in both of those scenarios.” She looked more serious now, “I won’t leave this ship unattended unless it’s absolutely necessary, or I am certain it is safe to do so.” She hitched a finger in Carmen’s direction, “Keep an eye on her, should she get in trouble, we need ‘er or we’re goin’ no where… theoretically, anyway. I haven’t had time to look over the system here to see how easy or hard it might be to get past that code she has.”

Reaper smiled at Khat, an earnest smile that reached his eyes, causing a small glint of amusement to sparkle within. "Well, the reason I asked that question was to make sure you would be OK if the rest of us were to board a hostile ship, or be out on station or planet and someone were to 'come calling'. About the code for the drive system, just don't go corrupting the systems during your 'examination'." As he says the word examination he made air quotes with his armored hands. "I'll keep an eye on everyone that is with me, it is just in my nature to do so. Marine training is pretty rigorous and I have led many marines into combat. I haven't lost anyone, and I plan on keeping it that way. As soon as I can get some info from the captain of the Beowulf I will make sure you are apprised of what I find out.

“Did you have another question for me?"

Khat laughed, “I like how you operate. No bullshit and get ‘er done. I appreciate that.” She leaned toward Reaper a bit, lowering her voice before continuing, “So, the ship the pirates came in on... did ya happen to notice the … odd … configuration of the ship? I mean, it definitely wasn’t an Imperium ship. So, who else has the capabilities of building a ship of that caliber? And I don’t think we should be advertisin’ that we know this. It could cause us some problems. But it could also be leverage for us to use to our advantage.”

With a knowing smile and a quick touch to the side of his nose, Reaper responded, "I have never seen that configuration before, but it is reminiscent of the Patrol Cruisers that I had been stationed on in the past. She was a bit faster than us, so that in and of itself is concerning. I also don't know how she was refueling. That ship doesn't have the ability to enter the atmosphere of the gas giants to refuel." He paused for a moment to think and his expression seemed both pensive and concerned. "I would REALLY like to find out where these douche bags are based out of and perhaps give ‘em a bit of a surprise with a missile into their docking bay." A wide smile formed on his face as he said this and he gave Khat a sly wink. "I would like to know if you have any contacts out here in the Laairer system. I don't want to or need to know who or where they are, but if you do have any out here, I have a few things that perhaps they can procure for us."

Khat simply shook her head. “No. I don’t know anyone out here in BFE.”

"Well, that is unfortunate, but can be remedied.

"Well, the passengers all checked out. Repairs to the Beowulf are underway. I don't know about you, but I really want to go and have a peek around that pirate vessel. We may even get a few of them to interrogate, and if not, then we could hopefully scour their computer systems and maybe find out where they are based out of. What do you think?"

“I’m all about that plan. I want to get into their computers and find out what I can. Where are they from, who are they working with.., or for… you know, the basics.”

Reaper looked at Khat with a sly grin once again and said, "We might as well look at their "cargo" while we are over there as well... who knows, their owners may pay handsomely for their return... but unfortunately, some of their cargo was never recovered.

“Hmmmm....I wonder if there was a bounty for any of those pirates…”

Khat grinned wryly at Reaper, "Oh I'm sure.... we.... can find out once we see what that cargo is. You'll have to organize the group to do a thorough search, those pirates are creative with where they build cargo holds. Don't leave a single panel unsearched. I won't be leaving this ship unattended, nor our computer systems unmonitored."

"That is a good course of action. We do need to keep one person onboard at all times when we are away from secure docking. With my training and skill-set, my remaining onboard would be a waste of assets. Since I will be pulling more security, you may want to appraise the others of things to look for that may signify a hidden compartment."

He looked away for a moment, then returned his gaze to Khat. "Like I said before, I don't care about your 'history' unless it is going to become a problem for us. That being said, I am completely for being a bit 'fast and loose' with pirates, back alley contacts, and other shady dealings. But when it comes to how we work with the general civilian and military complexes, I am hoping that you will agree to keep things on the up and up."

Looking at Khat with complete earnestness upon his face he continued, "You are one hell of a pilot, and I want to keep you there. So please work with me on this, and let's make the best of it together."

“My closet is full of skeletons. But, skeletons don’t talk, and I paid the debt that I had… and still have.” She pulled up the leg of her pants and cocked her head toward her ankle. “At this point, someone higher up sees value in my … abilities, I may as well see if there’s just as much revenue and thrill on this side of the line for once. But, don’t hold it against me if I play chicken with that line from time to time. I’ll use what I know regardless of who’s hand in’ me payment at the end of the day. A win is a win. Yeah?

“As for ‘my best behavior’ - I can dress up the attitude when necessary. Not everyone deserves this charmin’ version of me.” She winked playfully.

Reaper laughed wholeheartedly at that, eyes twinkling with mirth. "One of these days, you and I are going to have to see who can win an insult contest, I have a feeling that you may be my biggest challenger on that front."

With a laugh still in his voice he then said, "Let's hope that Andrea Simmons proves to be a solid contact for procurement in the future as well."

 

[ManOfGrey]

But then something occurred to him. Deciding he would like to run another scan on the pirate vessel, Reaper began specifically looking for thermal signatures of personnel and to see if they were emitting any comm signals.

Sure enough, they were. The sensors were able to detect a tight beam transmission coming from the ship. (Apparently they had just caught the outer edge of it.) It was repeating every nine minutes or so. It seemed to be encoded. Reaper certainly did not recognize the code, and neither did a computer cross-check.

Quickly making a copy of the repeating transmission, he then tried to jam it. But, frankly, even more interesting was the thermal image he detected.

 

[ManOfGrey]

Five of the thermal images looked normal. But three displayed body temperatures that were abnormally low.

Odd.

 

[ManOfGrey]

Checking to see if Broccoli had moved his gear aboard the Nymeria Sunrise, and that Broccoli and Carmen were both aboard, Reaper sent the copy of the message over to Khat.

”Khat, two things. First, we need to move the Nymeria Sunrise into a jamming position to block that transmission. Second, there is a copy of their message on the mainframe, do you think you can try to decrypt that for us?”

Then as Carmen settled into the navigator’s station, Reaper turned to her and said, "We need a bearing on that transmission. That is the easiest way to get an idea of where these pirates are based out of. I don't understand the navigational computations necessary, so you are our best bet on that."

Flipping on the intercom, Reaper finally said, "Broccoli, we are going to need you to be ready to either get into a vacc suit or don flex armor. Please come to the bridge as soon as you can.”

Excitement started to course through his veins, but Reaper did his best to settle down. This isn’t the Marines, and these people aren’t soldiers. They don’t have to follow commands. Chill.

But if decorum had been breached, the ladies gave no indication of it as lithe fingers flew across keyboards.

“Damn. I can’t make heads or tails out of this code. This is military grade encryption, that’s for certain. My best guess is that it’s a distress call. But I have no idea what it says.”

“Well, if they’re calling for help, they may be waiting for some time. That transmission is being beamed directly for grid 2312. The old maps refer to it as the… aaa… Giikkala system. There’s no record that it’s been visited since the fall. Distance is two parsecs. It will take six years for that signal to travel that far.”

“So there’s nothing between here and there?”

Carmen shrugged. “Who knows? If you’re asking if there’s another ship between here and there… it’s certainly possible. It’s empty space. Anything could be floating out there. What I do know, is that there’s not another star between this one and the next.”

“Well ladies… I don’t know about you. But I am certainly curious. Should we go pay our uninvited guests a visit and see what this is all about?”

“Count me in.”

“Helm is responding, and course is set. ETA, twenty minutes.”

 

[ManOfGrey]

“What the hell are they doing? Is that some kind of lifeboat?”

“I don’t know. Looks like they’re abandoning ship.”

“To where? They must know they’ll be apprehended if they head in-system.”

“Maybe that explains why they’re heading the other direction.”

“To deep space?”

“Looks like.”

“What’s the point of that? It will take centuries for them to get to the nearest star.”

“Well, considering their speed, they’re giving it a good try. They are accelerating away from us at 2Gs. At that rate, we’ll never catch them.

“And nobody’s out there to rendezvous?"

“Nothing’s on sensors. And this is a scout ship. They didn’t cut any corners when outfitting it with sensors.”

“Well… what do those sensors show us about who’s aboard?”

“Detecting four heat blooms, all well below regular body temperature.”

“In suspended animation?”

“Probably.”

“In that case, I hope they’re comfortable. Considering the distance their distress signal has to travel, it may lake some time for a rescue party show up."

“Is there any way to determine how much of a power reserve they might have?”

“Not with any degree of certainty. Imperial practice is to have enough power for a year in reserve, for just such an emergency. But that’s assuming someone knows you’re missing, and will come looking for you after you’re overdue for a predetermined length of time.”

“Maybe that’s what they are doing.”

“That would make sense, but then why the distress call?”

“Good questions. Why don’t we go find out? My math says they left someone behind.”

 

[ManOfGrey]

"Well, now that we’re here, what are we going to do?"

“Any response to our hails?”

“Nope.”

“Color me surprised.”

“It looked like there were a couple of hatches and a cargo bay door on the underside. We could try to go in there.”

“There is that big-ass cargo bay door in the rear.”

“I’m not sure we can get that open. It’s probably controlled from the inside.”

“So, who wants to go?”

“We can EVA over there, but we can’t wear armor under the vacc suits. That leaves us a little exposed.”

“And we should probably leave someone aboard the Nymeria Sunrise in order to keep them from doing the same thing to us.”

“We could extend the umbilical to the other ship. That would allow us to cross over in a shirt-sleeve environment, so body-armor becomes an option. It’s certainly more resistant to bullets than a vacc suit.”

“Yes. But then the umbilical becomes a problem. If it’s compromised, most of us will have to hold our breath. If someone opened that other door and sprayed us with full autofire, they would riddle the umbilical full of holes. That would make for a very bad day without vacc suits.”

“Look… there are four of us, but only one suit of Battle Dress. It’s made to go into situations like this. It’s pressurized, and pretty effective protection against small arms fire. Why don’t I go over there solo? The rest of you can armor up, stay aboard the Nymeria Sunrise, and defend the ship.”

“You’re going aboard the derelict space-ship alone?”

“I’m a Marine. We do stupid stuff like this all the time.”

 

[ManOfGrey]

Reaper had made his way from the Nymeria Sunrise to the intruder’s ship. “Above” him loomed a small cargo bay door and two power-driven hatches. Two keypads glowed in front of him, indicating they still had power, but relentlessly queried him for an access code. Well, he certainly didn’t have one of those. But, with a little searching, he found what he was looking for. Pulling an adjacent panel loose, he extracted the crank that acted as a manual override. Bracing himself, he began to crank, and crank and crank… and slowly the hatch in front of him opened.

 

[ManOfGrey]

Finally! After getting the outer door cranked back closed behind him, Reaper found the button to pressurize the chamber, and then began to search around for a way to open the inner door. Again, a keypad asked him for a passcode in glowing letters. But there was no manual crank for the inner door.

(sigh) I guess thieves have the highest fences.

But there was an intercom button. Shrugging, Reaper pressed it.

“This is Major Andere Codex of the Imperial Marine Corp. This ship, and her crew, stand accused of piracy. Open this door immediately, and be prepared to be bound by law.”

There was no response, even after a few minutes.

Go figure.

Now… just how to get this airlock open? I wonder if one of the others can come over here and run a bypass.

But then he facepalmed his helmet as it hit him. What an idiot! Why didn’t I think of that before?

Bending down, he once again began to crank, and crank, and crank the outer air-lock door open.

 

[ManOfGrey]

What a mess! It’s as if a bomb went off in here.

Reaper grinned at his silent joke since a bomb had, in fact, detonated where he was standing. Or, more specifically, a very well placed missile. Clearly it left the bridge in shambles. But it also left a pretty big hole that Reaper was able to use to gain access to the ship.

There were, of course, any number of jagged edges protruding from every direction imaginable, but Reaper was far more about scratching his Battle Dress than actually puncturing it. It was bulletproof, after all.

However, there was one down side to all this wanton destruction — he certainly wasn’t going to be able to access any of the ship’s functions from here, much less ask any of the crew that were stationed here any questions. Even if they deserved a decent burial, someone was going to have to sponge them off the walls first.

Well… if I’m going to figure out what was going on, and where these people are from, I’d better get after it.

Reaper quickly found the hatch that accessed the rest of the ship. Luckily for the ship, the hatch was sealed. Luckily for Reaper, it opened inwards.

Reaper knew he couldn’t just stand in front of the hatch and turn the release. The moment it released, the hatch would blow open from the air pressure on the other side… and probably smack him upside the head in the process. But that could be easily overcome with just a long piece of metal he could use as a lever. And looking around, he seemed to have an abundance of long shards of metal to choose from just floating around.

Standing to the side of the hatch, Reaper used his improvised metal lever to slowly turn the release a little at a time. Until, suddenly… it released!

The hatch blew silently open, until, a second later, his audio pickup “heard” the rush of air blow past where he was braced against the wall, venting into space. Twenty seconds later silence, once again, permeated the room. I wonder if anyone on the other side of this door was wearing a vacc suit, Reaper asked himself as he readied his assault rifle.

 

[ManOfGrey]

As Reaper explored deeper into ship, it was apparent he had stumbled into the crew’s quarters. Ten staterooms surrounded a central airlock. Two airlocks, in fact. Probably the same airlocks Reaper had tried to access just a few minutes ago. Both airlocks were closed, as were the individual staterooms. The airlocks, he was sure, were air tight. But the staterooms were not. Nor were they locked, which was curious. Regardless, it would have not been difficult to force them open. But it didn’t bother Reaper that he didn’t have to.

Going through the rooms, he wasn’t very surprised about what he found. What he was surprised about, is what he didn’t find. No bodies. Apparently the crew had abandoned ship after all. And, as far as he could tell, in something of a hurry. Well… at lease some of them were. Of ten staterooms, four had things scattered about, as if someone were searching for something in a hurry. The other six were tidy enough that Reaper’s old drill sergeant would have let them pass. Even when this section decompressed, the bunk covers stayed in place. Reaper didn’t bother to bounce a quarter off the sheets.

What he did do, however, was start to turn everything upside-down. He didn’t bother with the computer screens built into the bulkheads. He was sure they were password protected, and certainly didn’t have the skill, temperament, or time, to hack into them. But as he went though the occupants’ belongings, everyone seemed to have an electronic tablet. Which was great! He could take them with him, and Khat could break into them at her leisure.

Grabbing a duffel bag, he emptied out the contents, and started stuffing tablets, and anything else he could find to review later. There were lots of magazines. Half of them contained news articles. The rest were nothing but ⌧.

(sigh) Some things never change. Still… no reason for all these to go to waste.

After making the circuit, he came across the hatch that led aft. Unfortunately for Reaper, this hatch opened outwards from where he stood. The green indicator showed pressure behind it, so Reaper didn’t even bother to try to open it. He would never be able to force it open by pushing against the ton of force that was keeping it shut. But he did have an idea.

He couldn’t get the airlocks to cycle from the outside. But what about from the inside?

Sure enough, he was able to get one to open without a problem. Using some more debris from the bridge, he was able to jam it open so it wouldn’t close, and cycled it again. Just as he hoped, the airlock began to pressurize, and through it took ten minutes, with the door open, it pressurized the rest of this section too.

And as soon as the pressure equalized, he would be able to get through that hatch.

So… ready or not… here I come…


(Quick Decks: Starter Pack, Copyright © 2011 DSL Ironworks; Author Donavan Lambertus)

 

[ManOfGrey]

Clearly the entire crew had not abandoned ship. And as Reaper looked down on them, he could see why. One of them looked like he had been shot in the chest. The other two looked like they had been shot in the face. Frankly, Reaper wasn’t sure if they were even still alive.

But their injuries had been patched up, in a hurry, it looked like. And then, obviously, they had been put in suspended animation, probably in the hopes that they would receive immediate medical attention upon awakening.

Otherwise, they might not stand much of a chance.

Regardless, these three aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

What was a little curious, however, is that there were plenty of low berths to go around. Between the four compartments he had explored, Reaper had found twenty suspended animation chambers. But only these three were occupied.

Desperate times sometimes called for desperate measures. So, in a weird way, it made sense why four others would confine themselves to the black, frozen in a lifeboat, hoping against hope that someone friendly would rescue them “behind enemy lines,” (so to speak.)

Reaper wondered what the crew that departed on that lifeboat expected would happen to these three once this ship was boarded. Clearly they didn’t want to find out that answer themselves.

But what about the one remaining crew that was still aboard? What was his plan? He certainly wasn’t planning to surrender, otherwise he would have done so already. Did one of these freezers have his name on it?

Let’s go find out.


(Quick Decks: Starter Pack, Copyright © 2011 DSL Ironworks; Author Donavan Lambertus)

 

[ManOfGrey]

The more Reaper stood in the cargo bay, the more confused he got.

OK… I am clearly over-thinking this.

This wasn’t hard. Cargo bays on cargo ships were cavernous. That was nothing new. Over his career he had performed countless inspections of merchant ships. A six meter ceiling wasn’t unusual. But when he inspected standard subsidized merchants, there was hardly any room to squeeze between the cargo containers, all stacked to the ceiling. He had never seen one empty.

And, technically, he guessed he still hadn’t as he stood looking at the small launch, or lifeboat, tied down to the deck.

Who stores a ship’s boat in a cargo bay? Aren’t you supposed to store cargo here?

Reaper certainly understood that a pirate would want to leave port empty in order to have room for their spoils. So why take up valuable space by storing a ship’s vehicle in here? Never-mind two?

It was clear from the size of that the launch that was left, there would have been room for a second. Which explained where the one they saw abandon ship came from. In fact, the straps for it were still strewn about the deck.

But that’s like having a two-car garage with twenty-foot ceilings. Where are you going to do with all that space above the cars? Because clearly, these two launches would take up most of the floor space. Maybe they were planning to hang stuff from the ceiling. That might explain why the gravity is off in here.

What it didn’t explain was why anyone was left on-board. If some of the crew abandoned ship in one launch, why didn’t anyone still aboard abandon ship in the other one?

Curiouser and curiouser…

But, since for one reason or another, they had left it behind, Reaper decided he couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t get into the launch. Its hatch needed some sort of access code as well. So he disconnected the tie-down straps, and hit the control for the outer door. And as the bay doors swung open, he stepped behind the launch and started to push it with his finger.

It’s supposed to be weightless, right…?

Only, instead of pushing the launch forwards, he ended up pushing himself backwards.

Well, crap! It works in the movies…


(Quick Decks: Starter Pack, Copyright © 2011 DSL Ironworks; Author Donavan Lambertus)
(20-ton Launch: Copyright © 2007, Loren K. Wiseman, all rights reserved.)