Special Pickup - Chapter 3: Change of Plans
02 Jun 2016LordPsymon
Previous chapterSpecial Pickup: Chapter 3 - Change of Plans
---Arungu - Deep Space---
There was a muffled clunk as the escape pod made contact with Rattlesnake’s cargo scoop, while the HUD confirmed that the pod had been loaded into the cargo bay. I closed the scoop and brought the ship to a stop, turning back to bring the Tiberius into view. I unstrapped myself from the pilot’s seat and headed out of the cockpit.
Time to find out who’s inside this escape pod. Maybe they can tell me what the hell happened over here.
I entered the cargo bay of my ship. The escape pod was secured automatically against one of the cargo racks, large enough to fit one person inside. The front window of the escape pod was covered in some kind of soot.
Alright, here goes. Let’s find out who you are.
I wiped the glass and used the console on the front to turn on a light inside the pod.
Well, shit… You don’t look like someone who’d be hanging out with a Viceroy!
Inside, a young woman rested in stasis. Her fair, freckly skin softly reflected the blue interior lighting, and she had shoulder length auburn hair. She looked peaceful despite the circumstance. I looked inside at her, taken aback by who I had found. I had expected, perhaps, Viceroy Fink himself, or someone close to him.
I engaged the thawing process of the escape pod, which hissed loudly as the young woman was slowly brought back to life. Her eyes shot open as the front of the pod swung open and she fell forward onto me. I gently lowered her to the ground, supporting her back in my arm. Her breathing was rapid, and she squinted, trying to get focused as her head rapidly darted around the cargo bay, trying to make sense of where she was.
Her voice trembled as she tried to speak. “Wha- where am I?”
She sat up, holding her knees in her arms, looking around the room. She was wearing a long sleeve, red dress and an ankle high pair of hide shoes.
“It’s okay. You’re safe aboard my ship.” I gently replied.
“Who…? You’re not Fink.”
“I found your pod drifting slowly away from the Tiberius back there. Are you hurt?”
She looked up at me, still squinting, trying to make out my face. “No… I don’t think so. How long was I out there for?”
I sat down on the ground next to the woman. “Honestly, I don’t know. At least two days judging by the state of the ship you were on.”
“What about everyone else?”
I looked toward the entrance of the cargo bay and sighed. “I doubt anyone on board survived. It looks like you’re the only one who made it.”
She let off a sigh of relief. “Good!”
I gave her a puzzled look. “Good?”
“Yeah, good. They got what they deserved,” she exclaimed.
I stood up and held out my hand.
“Well until I know what went on out there, I can’t really judge. Come on, We should get some rest, and maybe after you can tell me what happened.”
She took my hand and I helped her up.
“Yeah, rest first. Talk later.”
I helped her walk to the sleeping quarters on the ship.
“Make yourself comfortable. It’s not much, I know.”
She sat down on the spare bunk then gently lay down.
“Thanks. It’s fine. What are you going to do?”
I walked toward the door of the room and stopped for a moment, looking down at the floor.
“I’ll go get some shuteye in the cockpit. I want to be near the controls in case anyone shows up.”
I entered the cockpit, with the Tiberius still tumbling outside beyond the canopy. I hopped into the pilot’s seat and reclined it back, switching off all non-essential systems before drifting off to sleep.
---Seven hours later---
I awoke to a thud on the canopy. I leaped out of the pilot’s seat in a panic. The body of a man, wearing the robes of an Imperial Viceroy hit the canopy window, and bounced off slowly. I could see his face, fixed in a lifeless, panicked expression as he tumbled off into space.
I take it that was Fink…
I headed back to the sleeping quarters to check on my new guest. She awoke as I entered the room and sat down on my own bunk. She slowly arose and swung her legs around to the side of her bunk, stretching and yawning.
“I never even asked your name back in the cargo hold,” I said with a slight grin.
“Fiona, and you are?”
Fiona maintained a look of uncertainty and discomfort.
“Simon… Simon Datura. And this is my ship Rattlesnake.”
She looked half amused at the name I chose for my ship. “Interesting choice of name.”
“Yeah well… There’s a bit of a story behind that. Anyway,” I handed her a ration bar, “let’s get some food in us, and how about you tell me just what went on over here.”
Fiona looked to the ground, taking a deep breath.
“We were attacked. I… was in the main saloon serving drinks to Fink and his minister when these ships appeared and started attacking us. I managed to sneak to an escape pod while everyone was distracted by the chaos.”
“Do you know who they were?”
“I am guessing they were from Chapterhouse of Inquisition.”
I leaned forward, interested in what Fiona was saying. “What makes you say that?”
Fiona hesitated a little, took a big breath and continued.
“I don’t know to be honest. We had a visit from an Inquisitor a few months back, on Durius… I think his name was Matt. Somehow he managed to make Fink really angry. I’m not sure how exactly. Maybe Matt found some dirt on Fink. He took some records from him. Maybe that’s why the Inquisition came after Fink.” She paused and smiled slightly, “Matt made me feel human for the first time in ages.”
“So… How did you end up in all of this?” I asked.
“I…” she sighed heavily, “I am a slave. Fink owns my contract. Or at least he did.”
I smirked, “I don’t think he does any more… I saw him bounce off the ship’s canopy.”
Fiona let off a weak laugh and continued.
“My term was over at least a month ago. I was supposed to be going free but Fink refused to release me. He was going to sell me to someone in Cubeo as payment for helping him go into hiding.”
I stood up suddenly.
Wait… WHAT?
I shot a worried look at Fiona.
“So wait… Hold on… This… someone? He wouldn’t happen to be named Caius Bisley?”
“Yes… I believe that was his name. Why?” Fiona looked concerned.
Son… of… a… BITCH
“So… YOU are the special cargo I am supposed to retrieve?!”
Fiona stood up and backed away toward the door. “What are you talking about?”
“I was sent out here to find this ship, find out what happened and pick up a ‘special cargo’.”
She backed away further. “So, you’re just going to turn me in, huh?” Her face went into a deep frown. “Just hand me over like a piece of cargo and collect your fat paycheck?”
“What? No!” I paced back and forth in the sleeping quarters. “No, I’m not going to turn you in… I didn’t… I had no idea the cargo was a slave!”
Fiona maintained her distance, but seemed to calm down a little.
“You’re… not going to turn me in?”
“No! I don’t involve myself with slave trading. Only the lowest scumbags deal in slaves.”
She stepped forward a little. “So… what now then?”
I stopped pacing and looked at Fiona. “Well first, we’re going to have to-”
Incoming jump signatures detected.
Shit.
“Wait here…” I said as I scrambled to the cockpit. I strapped myself into the pilot’s seat and rapidly booted up the ship’s systems. In the distance I could see flashes of light as a wing of ships jumped into the area and headed toward us, consisting of a Keelback and three Vipers. I targeted the wing leader and let my ship run a scan on the ship’s details.
<Keelback - Designation: CattleRunner>
<James “Reck” Harrison>
“Oh… Shit. It’s him!”
I heard Fiona running into the cockpit. “It’s who?”
I looked back, “I thought I told you to wait in the sleeping quarters!”
“What’s going on, Simon?”
I faced forward again, gripping the throttle and joystick. “You better strap yourself in Fiona, it’s about to get rough.”
The comms crackled as Fiona strapped herself into the copilot’s seat. A raspy voice came through the comms.
“Well, looks like we aren’t the only ones checking out this distress beacon looking for some loot huh?” Reck growled.
“Actually… I was just leaving.” I responded calmly. “So if you don’t mind, I’ll be seeing my way out.”
A wave of laughter erupted over the comms.
“You hear that boys? This little guy thinks we’re going to just let him slip away. I bet that Cutter is all but empty, but I see a Cobra in front of me with just the cargo I am looking for. Power down your systems, and I’ll make sure we sell you off to one of the nicer areas of the Bubble.”
Fiona turned to me, looking worried. “Who are these people?”
“Trouble,” I said, “that’s who. No time to explain.”
I hit the ship’s booster, jerking us forward suddenly, pressing us against the back of our seats. I deployed the ship’s weapons as I headed straight toward one of the Vipers, throwing a relentless volley of laser and multi-cannon fire. The Viper lit up as it exploded, sending debris flying off in all directions.
“You son of a bitch, that is going to cost you,” Reck yelled over the comms as I turned the Cobra to make another pass at his wingmen. “Boys, aim for his engines. I want that asshole cuffed and in a stasis pod!”
“Yes boss.”
The two remaining vipers broke formation and came charging at us in a ruthless joust. We exchanged fire, chipping away at each other's shields until one of the Vipers spun out of control, flames erupting from its engine as my multi-cannon rounds pierced the hull. My shields read at 46%. I spun the Cobra around, ready for another pass at the last remaining Viper. I hit the booster, but a blue flash caught the corner of my eye. I looked in the direction of the flash and saw another blue flash… Then another… Three… Four… Five.
“Howdy Reck. Heard you could use a little hand.”
Fiona was clutching the arms of the copilot’s seat. I broke the joust against the Viper and headed toward the wing of new arrivals. Fiona looked at me like I was crazy.
“You’re not really going after them are you? You’ll get us killed!”
I retracted the hard points and started to spool the Frameshift drive.
Frameshift mass lock factor x7.
The frameshift drive started charging very slowly, held back by the mass of the other ships.
“No, I’m not that crazy.” I yelled, “ But if I boost right past the wing, they’ll have to turn around, hopefully giving us enough of a head start to jump out.”
We zoomed past the wing of ships as I hit the boosters as rapidly as the engine capacitor would allow. The wing of ships scrambled to turn themselves around and pursue us into the void.
“Simon! They’re coming!” Fiona yelled,the fear in her voice growing.
I turned to her as I continued to boost. “I know! We’ll make it, just hang on.”
Frameshift charge at 50%
I tensed as the drive continued to slowly charge. The enemy ships started chewing away at what was left of our shields.
Frameshift charge at 60%
Shields at 20%
“Come on girl, don’t let us down!”
Frameshift charge at 80%
Shields offline!
“Fuck! Come on! Hold together!”
Frameshift charge at 95%
Taking damage! Hull integrity compromised.
The dash sparked as Rattlesnake took further hits.
4… 3… 2… 1… Engage!
Rattlesnake rumbled as we finally hit supercruise. I relaxed back into my seat, breathing a huge sigh of relief. Fiona jumped up and down in excitement.
“My god, I can’t believe we made it! When those other ships jumped in, I thought we were done for!” She said with glee.
I searched through the list of bodies within the star system, selecting a reasonably dense cluster of asteroids in a belt orbiting not far from the star.
“It’s not over. Don’t get too comfortable just yet.” I replied sternly.
“What now?” She replied.
“They will no doubt pursue us and be on our tail before we know it.” I pointed her toward the target, marking the location of the asteroid cluster. “We’ll drop out there then lay low.”
Fiona frowned, not confident with my decision. “Won’t they just find us there?”
“I’ll attach us to one of the larger rocks, power down all the systems apart from life support and close the heat vents. The heat of the sun will mask our heat signature further. They shouldn’t be able to detect us... I hope.”
“You hope?!”
“We don’t exactly have many other options. We’ve taken damage and this is our best bet. I don’t know about you, but I do not wish to be sold to slavery again.”
Fiona opened her mouth, as if to speak, but stopped herself.
“You’re right. I hope this works, Simon.”
I looked toward her and gave her the most reassuring look I could muster. I took a deep breath and sighed loudly.
“Me too, Fiona. Me too.”