Unnamed freighter, orbiting planet Paxx, Paxx’Ondor system
‘I bet Andy’s enjoying a nice cold beer on the Gabriel right about now,’ Ed moaned, curling his lip, as he worked his way through the dirty, dingy and smelly corridors, looking for the freighter’s bridge.
Finally, after opening about a dozen doors on three different levels, he found the bridge. It wasn’t any cleaner than the rest of the ship. There were five seats, all a bit threadbare and in dire need of a scrub. Old used food and drink cartons lay everywhere, and the control screens were just about visible through years of dust and crud.
‘What a bunch of grubs,’ Ed moaned, as he sat at what he hoped was the pilot’s seat.
Then he thought of something and went back to the door, shut and code locked it. The five seats all looked sat in, it was probably nothing but he didn’t fancy two other murderous pirates sneaking up on him while he was otherwise occupied with flying the ship.
‘Right, wadda we have here?’ he said to himself, touching an icon on a very dirty navigation screen.
‘Are you in need of navigation assistance?’ a female voice boomed from behind him.
Ed nearly levitated out of his seat, as he snatched his rifle off his back and swung it around the room. The bridge wasn’t big and there was nowhere for anyone to hide.
‘Who is that?’ he demanded, nervously.
‘Preed Denamart Autonav, model fourteen ten B,’ the voice stated. ‘Are you in need of navigation assistance?’ she repeated.
‘Ahhh,’ he grunted, recovering from the shock and sliding back into the seat. ‘You’re an old automated navigation assistant. I’ve heard about systems like you,’ he said. ‘In that case can you set a course for the nearest jump zone in this system?’
‘Course set,’ she said, without even the slightest pause.
‘Okay, cool…take us there then,’ he said, sitting back in the seat and crossing his arms.
‘Do you wish me to initiate the course change?’
‘Yes…please,’ he said, rolling his eyes.
‘Unable to comply.’
‘What?…Why?’
‘Only the captain can initiate course changes.’
‘Why didn’t you say that before?’
‘It’s a pre-requisite.’
Ed held his head in his hands for a moment.
‘Okay…switch to manual control and I’ll do it myself.’
‘Unable to comply.’
‘Don’t tell me.’
‘Don’t tell you what?’
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake.’
‘Who is fuck?’
Ed sighed and counted to ten. He closed his eyes and began searching around with his DOVI. He found the systems quite basic and quickly discovered the vessel’s flight controls and the Preed Denamart software integrated into it.
‘Can’t be that simple, surely,’ he said to himself, after finding a code lock to disengage the autonav. He’d already hacked the captain’s code to lock the shuttle airlock and the bridge door.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
‘System maintenance,’ he said, as he changed the authorisation code and disconnected the autonav.
‘This is against company regulations and has to be reported.’
‘Who to?’
‘The captain,’ she said. ‘It could lead to disciplinary action.’
Ed took control of the freighter and moved it out of orbit, accelerating it away and through its plethora of moons.
‘You’re moving the vessel,’ she said.
‘No shit, Sherlock,’ Ed mumbled, as he concentrated on programming the first jump back towards Dasos.
‘Your crew licence could be revoked.’
‘Don’t you ever bloody shut up?’
‘No she doesn’t,’ said a voice Ed recognised from the beach.
He froze, as something cold and metallic was pressed against his neck. His personal shield was turned off and his weapon was on the floor at his feet.
‘Don’t even think about trying to pick that up, Mr GDA,’ the captain continued, nodding at the rifle. ‘Keep your hands where I can see them and move your arse out of my fucking chair, slowly.’
Ed did as he asked, slowly and carefully, at the same time decommissioning the captain’s pistol still pointing menacingly at his face. It became obvious when he turned how the man had entered the cockpit undetected. A hatch in the far right corner lay open, the roar of the engines had shielded any noise of it hinging up. Then another face, grinning from ear to ear, appeared up through the hatch.
‘Hello, lover boy,’ she said, unable to contain her obvious excitement. ‘This is going to be a glorious day, but perhaps not so much for you.’
The lights in the cockpit dimmed slightly as the ship jumped. Ed had set the autopilot to take him back to Dasos and in this ship it would require three jumps.
‘Oh,’ grunted the captain, stretching his neck to inspect the navigation screen. ‘Going anywhere nice are we? And don’t pretend you don’t speak Ellinika this time.’
‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ said Ed, jovially, trying to appear calm when he was anything but.
The captain turned to the girl as she climbed out of the hatch clutching the roll of engineering tape Ed had used on them. She waved it in his face.
‘Now it’s your turn for a bit of bondage,’ she said, with a wide grin and theatrically pulling a long strip of tape off the role.
Ed decided he’d had enough and letting her truss him up was an extremely bad idea. Launching himself forward, he delivered a right-hand uppercut under her chin with every ounce of strength he could muster. Her head snapped up, she flew backwards, catching her calves on the co-pilot’s seat and cartwheeling backwards over it.
Ed immediately reversed his momentum and threw himself backwards towards the captain. He didn’t see the look of confusion on the man’s face as his weapon failed to fire. He felt his head though as he clattered into him and the back of his head met the bridge of the captain’s nose. Pushing hard with his legs, he continued backwards taking the stunned man with him. The back cockpit bulkhead soon put a stop to their uncontrolled stagger and they hit it with some force. The captain’s head smashed into the covering plastic panel so hard the brittle material cracked and as he sank to the deck, leaving a thin trail of blood down the dirty greying panel.
The girl had by now recovered somewhat and righted herself. She stood on slightly unsteady legs, and a snarl crossed her face as she rubbed her bruised chin. Ed didn’t see where it came from, but there was suddenly a large commando-style knife in her hand. He glanced at his rifle lying next to the pilot’s seat.
‘Go on…go for it, you fucking arsehole,’ she snapped, stepping up on the co-pilot’s seat and launching herself at him. What she didn’t expect was the old dirty seat cushioning to collapse as she thrust off it and one of her legs to drop through the frame. She stumbled, which gave Ed the chance to grab her wrist, twist her arm over and slam his forearm down on her elbow. It snapped, she bellowed and dropped the knife, before collapsing down on her haunches cradling the broken arm and sobbing.
Ed sidestepped over to the pilot’s seat and snatched up his rifle, but before he could initiate the shield, he was hit in the back by a powerful energy bolt. He convulsed and the last thing he remembered was the cockpit floor coming up to greet him.
‘Look at the bloody state of you two,’ said Giner, climbing out of the hatch, a laser pistol in his hand. ‘All you had to do was shoot the fucker.’
‘Get that piece of shit out the nearest airlock now,’ mumbled the captain, holding the back of his head with one hand and trying to push himself up with the other.