Taken
22 Aug 2020Excess Fire
Hey there all, Its been 11 earth days since my last confession, last time I wrote anything, missy explorer was at the helm, I was in my bunk sleeping with the cat on the deck plating beside me. I woke up here, back on the fleet carrier, Greybeards Hope, in the med bay, That was 2 days ago. I had been unconscious for 9 days and 2 more days stuck in a frakin med bed, missy's in the bed on the other side of the room here, her father sitting in a chair between us reading a data pad I recognize as from Destiny.
"Heya," I say "What's going on?"
"Uhuh" I get back quietly as he hands me the data pad. "Missy manager?" I ask looking over at her, "uhuh" which i translate to "she's ok now, just sleeping, but it was touch and go for a while, she saved all your lives according to that" looking to the data pad, "even the ship, why would she almost die trying to save a damn ship?"
"You know why, you helped create her all those decades ago" I replied
"How could you know that? I was young back then, I recognized you the minute you walked into my bar, how is it you not have changed in five decades?, your father, he told me you were different, but not this, who are you?" looking me square in my eyes.
"I Know who he is, father! just like you know who I am, and who Destiny is, and you know those that ask these questions get dead, now drop it, these walls have ears, it is not our place here", Missy annoyed says from across the room, it appears she was awake the whole time. Now that is dealt with I turn my attention to Destiny's data pad.
So it turns out it was an unavoidable accident, we had simply jumped onto a system where the entry star coordinates had somehow been set to a star with an asteroid field around it, when we jumped in the system destiny slammed straight in to an asteroid, this happens from time to time and usually get reported but not in this case. If we had jumped a second earlier or later we would have cleared it easily, just real bad timing. Destiny was instantly ripped open lengthways down her belly and almost all her systems rendered useless along with her outer and inner hull. Fortunately the cockpit hatch was shut at the time and only buckled a small amount allowing missy amazing who was slammed around the cockpit area, quite seriously injured herself, managed to gather her strength, get into a zero atmosphere suit and get myself, who also was slammed around from where is was sleeping, and Lilo (the cat), who was in a panicked frenzy of teeth and claws in to escape capsules before we both died from exposure to vacuum. Having multiple punctures in her suit she still managed to get a call out on the wireless to her father informing him of where we were and the danger on arrival before removing Destiny's AI module and climbing into the last escape capsule before passing out herself. That call saved us all, Destiny's beacon had been destroyed and it took 6 earth days for us to be located by the carrier her father had hired to come look for us, the ejection of the capsules had failed so they had to tow Destiny aboard the carrier to get us out.
Missy's father knowing who he knows, got us medical care here from his home at Kojeara and has had Destiny transferred to the junk yard there where she is being assessed. for rebuilding. The damage is most of the the hull and outer bulkheads, all internal modules have been destroyed, ripped from their mounts and smashed against various bulkheads i expect, I don't see much hope for her here. I pass the data pad back to missy's father who passes it to missy curious to read, after a while she looks up and slowly over to me with a widening grin from ear to ear and says "HA!... I saved you!" I pass out at hearing that, well pretend to anyways, falling back on the bed, "frak, neva gunna hear the end of it huh?" "uhuh" comes from missy and her father.
"Where's me cat?" I ask, Doc walks in at that moment hearing what I asked and responds "He's in stasis being transferred to Colonia Hub, I cant help him but a friend there is the best animal doc there is and she is the best hope for him. He's broken up pretty bad, what is he?, must be at least 100 kilos, I hope he makes it, she will do what she can but it going to take a while" While Lilo is a rare breed, his species is not unknown, his lineage goes back to the panther species of cat from earth, his size and muscle mass is a result of being brought up and trained on a high gravity planet, his species is only permitted on earth if you have a permit and getting that was not easy. I've had him since birth, losing him would leave me in a pretty bad way, missy as well I suspect, I am feeling she blames herself for all this. Missy's father speaks quietly, "I will be checking on him... wont we doc!" looking at nothing in particular, "oh yes,.. yes sir, we will" he slightly stammers back, was that fear I sensed just then? or respect? who is this man, this bartender, that seems to have all sorts of resources at his beck and call? "uh uh" I hear, or was that in my head?, Looking at missy I see she's moving her head ever so slightly from side to side, yep, these are questions I do not need answers to right now. I sense others entering the room, I feel uneasy, somethings not right, it is fear i see, now in Missy's eyes, and anger, rage, coming from her father as he pulls out his blaster, I need to get up, what is it? what the frak? why cant i move? so tired, so dark now, the bed i am in is moving, why? where?