A new crew member
01 Dec 2020Sheronimo
I never made it to dinner. After taking a quick trip back to the wreckage, returning, and cleaning up, I got a message that the Doctor wished to see me ASAP. I go down to the Sick Bay, I find him in his office, attending to what looks like paperwork. "Hey Doc, you looking for me?" The Doc looks up, and looks very worried. "I have some information for you regarding the child." Oh boy, here we go. One can only imagine. He hands me a pad with all the boys info on the screen. I read down, read down some more, and then, I read that he is "owned." "So, the boy is a slave, brought up from the Empire." One mystery solved. "What about the dog?" The Doc replies, "No record on DNA strand, unregistered, so, a stray, if you will." Ok, so, then, why does the Doctor look worried? Then, I start to reflect, BOUNTIES, if the boy is a slave, and missing, there will be hunters coming, looking for him. "Doctor, you look worried, I assume it is because the boys fate is already sealed, but, I do not think that needs to happen." It certainly would not be the first time I hid something from bounty hunters, or, authority in general. I play the role of opportunist. I take, sell, steal, salvage, whatever I can do, or, get away with, to make a living. If the hunters find him, he will die, no doubts there. I take a minute, looking away, thinking about how many times, when I was young, someone pushed me along, helped me, when all was lost. I have looked at wrecked ships, salvaged hundreds of escape pods, wondering about the families, the hope lost, loves lost. I cannot just turn him in, and now that the Doc has sent a data request, someone knows he is here. "Doc, send in a bounty claim, include DNA proof, say we found a body in the pod, circuits failed, didn't survive." The Doctor looks at me for a second, then smiles, and nods. I use his pad to send a message to housekeeping to get the boy and his dog a set of quarters, hand it back to him, and NOW I will try to get some dinner.After a short, but satisfying meal, I head up to the Bridge. The XO meets me just inside the door, saying Duke Morgan is insisting on speaking to me at once. Good grief, never ends around here. "XO, send him to my office, please." XO nods. I am at my desk, going over permits, fuel consumption reports, market predictions, new ships coming out, you know, the usual stuff when you have your own business, and the Duke walks in, looking impatient. "I need to talk to you" he offers as he bursts in my door. I look up to see him, looking like a redcoat from the 1800's in his fancy Royal uniform. "Yes Duke, what can I do for you?" He reaches in his pocket, pulls out a data storage key, hands it to me and asks that I put all the data I scanned from the Royal Cutter on that for him, and he will never tell where it came from. HUH? Did he just say that? "Duke, I have no data for you." I raise my hand, refusing the key. "The port on the Cutter must have been damaged, I never saw a nav point to scan." The Duke, just stares at me for a few seconds, then, like he had suddenly changed his direction of thought, stood tall, saluted me, and left my office in a hurry. That was strange. He was waiting around, trying to be cordial, to see what I had recovered from the Cutters databanks? Must be important, to him. No mind, happens a lot out in space. Ships disappear, people disappear, loved ones, bosses, are always sending hunters out to find out anything about their missing person, who ever it might be. Funny, he seemed uninterested in anything except the data, even the boy and dog, he saw them down in the cargo bay, I am sure of it. No matter, after reading one more report, I head back out to the Bridge.
As I enter the main Bridge, I see, on the viewers, a Clipper leaving its landing bay. Must be the Duke has other places to be. GOOD, he won't be weighing us down for our next jump. "XO, please send a message out to all crew members, new destination, Mandh, specifically, Miyasaka Orbital. Empire is offering 250 percent profits on materials for new Capital Ships. Anyone wishing to stay here needs to depart." I like the numbers. Makes me rich. Cargo is boring yet, satisfying. XO nods, and types out the message on his pad. A few seconds later, the typical announcements start for making turns to depart. It will be at least 15 to 45 minutes before we get there, depending on route, and open carrier slots in the area. As the floor begins to vibrate with the hum of the thrusters and Hyperdrive coming online, I think, I should go and talk to this boy, see if he can shed any light on to what the Duke might be looking for, or, where his parents might be. I also start thinking about a new name for him. I didn't even look to see what his real name was, but, whatever it is, it needs to change. I hope he is ok with all this, because the alternative is not good for him. Guess I'll stop at the general store and see if there is any dog treats.
By the time I reach the boys quarters, the carrier is winding up for the first jump to Empire space, walls vibrating, constant chatter on the intercoms, noisy, big ship, bigger engines. The door opens, and I see a boy, young man perhaps, 12, maybe 13 years old, petting his friend, sitting on a chair. I introduce myself, and greet the dog, who has walked over to check me out. "What's his name?" I say. The boy just shrugs, "no name eh, well, he protected you when no one else would, so, I'll call him Hero if that's ok." The boy, again, just shrugs. "So, how did you get here?" Silence, the boy just keeps petting the dog. "Son, listen to me. I want to help you. People want to find you, and, I promise, they won't do good things" The boy stops petting his Hero, tears well up in his eyes, he looks towards me and says, "I am a slave, I don't have rights, and neither did my parents." "No son, you are not!" I tell him the whole story with his records, and the Doctor. He just stares at me, "Why did you do that, why are you hiding me?" I think for a second, why am I doing this? "Boy, I don't know where you are from, and I don't know who your parents were, or are, but, I do know this. You are no longer alone, and you are welcome here as long as is wanted or needed. I can offer you employment, and these quarters for now. We can work on other things as time goes on." The boy looks confused, and very scared, and I understand. "I will come back and check on you later, please feel free to wander the ship, use the facilities, and keep in touch with the Doctor." At that moment, I decide the boy needs some more time before I grill him about where he was found. I reach in my pocket, grab some treats and offer them to the dog. He takes them like he hasn't had a treat in years. As I turn towards the door, the boy says one word, "John." I stop, turn back, smile, and say, "Thank you John, nice to meet you." For the first time, I see what could be called a smile on his face.
I head to the Bridge, as I walk away, I can hear the jump countdown..... 5-4-3-2-1, and we are out of here.