The Dream
05 Nov 2019Openflanker
I was dreaming. I knew I was dreaming, I'd had this dream before, so many times that I knew that it was a dream. I was running. All the worst dreams involve running, usually away from someone. I was definitely running from someone, a group of someone in fact. I was being pursued by a mob. As was usual for this dream they were all faceless, formless shapes. Their presence was what made them pursuers. Their malice was implied rather than obvious. But I ran nonetheless. I was getting good at this dream, I no longer got tired when I was running. Then I was awake, breathing hard and sweating. Lying on my back staring at the metal bulkheads that made up the ceiling of the Oasis Mellon. I sat up and looked next to me, Linka was lying on her front, facing away from me. He shoulders were covered in a bandage that sped the healing. The scarring would be limited, they told her, but unavoidably completely unpreventable.
I'd gone out to look at the rescue Python, named "The Dream". She was less of a dream than she'd been described the first time out. Thrusters too small and too under powered to run in a fight. Shields two sizes too small and needing a lot of repair. There were blast marks all over her hull, she'd seen a lot of action. She was definitely a ship that screamed "run away" rather than "stand and fight". Run away it would definitely be if anyone decided to interdict us.
I got out of bed, still trying to shake the dream. No matter how many times I had it the dream still bothered me. It was as if the dream itself meant nothing, it was more as if it was a carrier of doom. Experts and scientific minds will tell you that it was just my anxiety manifesting itself and what I was experiencing was normal. This, in no way, made it any better.
I picked up a jug of water and poured a glass, drinking it in one. I had another then sat back on the bed. It was a metal framed bed bolted to the floor. The mattress was old and hard, filled with a course grass rather than something comfortable. Linka said it was better than she'd had in captivity, sort of hinting that I should suck it up and be happy. The simple act of breathing made the springs on the base creak so we decided to forego anything more vigorous before bed.
I slung my legs back into bed, inviting a cacophony of spring loaded creaks at the same time. Linka moaned a small complaint before going back to sleep. I looked at her then jiggled my body. More creaks, screeches and groans. "Mmmmffffff", came the response from Linka. I jiggled again. Then again. "Dick", was all that came from her side of the bed, followed by a smile. "I'll have the eggs, garcon."
"I'll get them when I get the lobster", I replied. We laughed. "Come on, we need to get up."
"Ugh," was the reply and she rolled onto her back. The covers fell away from her body and I knew that I was never going to tire of that view. "It's impolite to stare," she said. "But I like it so be impolite." She laughed.
We got up, got washed, got dressed then headed to the hangar. The groups had already assembled and the first lot of people were boarding the ship. A mass of humanity filing into a cramped spaces in the hope of finding a new life free of oppression. But the fear was palpable, the apprehension of the journey ahead. We were going to be bounced by someone at some point, it was like Russian roulette with an Algoran Tri-barrel pistol. All I had to do was get them to Jaques Station.
In the corner of my eye I caught Amanda walking over to me, striding purposefully. Her knee-high boots were polished to a high shine, contrasting against her grubby coveralls. "Ready?" she asked.
"Yep." Looking over at the Python I said, "I hope she holds together."
"Me too. These people have been through so much. We jumped into this system last night, Colonia is a small jump away. We're close to the main star so when you come back fly via a different system and do a second jump. We don't want you guiding them to us."
I nodded. "Fine," I said. With that I headed over to the ship, Linka in tow. We climbed into the seats on the flight deck that smelled of mould and other organic interestingness. After checking the hatches were closed I fired her up and we took off into the void. The sudden appearance of the star blinded me slightly, I looked away to the right hand screen to check the fire groups. I put the lasers on one trigger, the multi canon on the other. At least the weapons hadn't been skimped on. I selected Colonia from the left hand screen, lined up and engaged the FSD.
Bang! We arrived in Colonia, the star rushing to meet us. I immediately selected Jaques station, angled the ship and legged it. I checked the contacts page, there didn't appear to be anything untoward knocking about. All of the ships seemed to be Colonia ships. Nobody here would have a beef with slave rescuing ships. I dropped out of supercruise at Jaques and docked. The ship was pulled into the hangar and, once the atmosphere was sorted, I got out the ship. A door to the hangar opened and a small man with a bald head, carrying too much weight around the middle, approached. He walked over to me nervously. "The goose walks in the night," he said.
"But the gander flies in the day," I replied. "This is bloody stupid."
"Amanda---"
"Amanda reads too many books and watches too many damned films. I know who you are, she showed me a picture." With that I turned on my heel and stormed back to the ship. "Let's go!"
The former slaves filed out of their cabins and headed down the exit of the ship. Within hours they would be all over the universe, hitching rides to new pre-allocated jobs far away from their previous masters. Some would even be pilots.
I headed back to the ship cockpit and looked up the outfitting screen. I ordered a new shield generator, hull reinforcements and re-armed the guns. I got the thrusters upgraded to the correct size and A-rated them. Yes, I was throwing cash away but on the plus side it was an investment in my continued existence. Once fitted we took off and headed out the station. I plotted a course to a system close to where the Oasis was, fired up the FSD and jumped.
"You didn't need to be so abrupt with them," Linka said. "They have had a hard time." She looked hurt.
I snapped a look at her, angry that I was putting not just my life at risk but also hers. But I couldn't stay mad, "Sorry," I said. "This is all stressing me out." I selected the system and jumped, almost flying into the Mellon on exit. "They are going to need to move it out the way of the entry," I said mostly to myself.
We landed and I headed over to Amanda as the next group of people boarded The Dream. We need to move the Mellon away from the exit point. I nearly smashed into it on exit."
"Hmm, that is going to be a problem," she said. "We need to get her refueled and the fuel scoop is already working at maximum. We'll see what we can do."
Again we launched and flew to Jaques. I looked at all the contact before and noticed something weird this time. An Imperial Clipper. We dropped out of supercruise at Jaques and, as the people disembarked, I looked out for the Clipper. It didn't enter the station. A feeling inside me told me that this wasn't going to end well. Once empty we took off and headed to a different system this time. Bang, we exited and I started to select the correct system when I heard another ship drop out of hyperspace next to us. "Got you," came the message. As I expected, the Clipper.
She was golden, painted in a beautiful sheen that reeked money. "Where is that filthy, slave-freeing, bitch Fless?" he asked.
I said nothing. Slowly I selected another system. He was going to have to chase me. Then I had an idea, there was a nice little black star a few jumps away. Tartarus. That would make it interesting. It was 48 stellar masses and people could easily get into trouble near it. There was also enough radiation to help us vanish. It was risky but it was not the worst option.
"Stay cool man," I said as I plotted a route to Tartarus. With that I firewalled the throttles, flipped the ship and jumped to the first point. I aimed at the next waiting for the FSD to cool, if I could go before he arrived I'd make it harder to find me. FSD ready, I engaged it. 4, 3, 2, damnit. He jumped in. Never mind, it was a race now. Bang, we jumped in and I located the next jump point, this time to Tartarus. The FSD cooled and I shot off into the void, again as he reached the system. Bang. There in front of us was the most enormous black hole. I dropped out of supercruise and then raced toward the black hole at top speed. The new thrusters had been lightly laced with some dirty drive tuning and she rocketed off. Hastily I plotted a course back to the Mellon but I needed to play a dangerous game first.
I got to just outside the exclusion zone of the black hole before I heard him drop out of super cruise behind me. He was a way away and was just very slightly faster. Good, I needed that. I boosted then disengaged flight assist drifting backwards at over 350 kph. He boosted but clearly forgot to disengage flight assist, so slowed down. He figured out his mistake and corrected it, now drifting toward us just slightly faster than we were hurtling backwards. I checked the black hole exclusion, we were tight against it. One wrong move and we'd be in the monster's gravity. I angled the ship slightly to the right, just to the side of his ship and loosed off some multicanon ammo. Too wide, that wasn't going to scare him. Laser fire, wide and inaccurate, shot bast me. Damnit, he had big beam lasers. I angled slightly towards him and fired more canon ammo. I saw the gravity of the black hole take it in. Excellent, I knew where the point was. As he approached it I switched all pips to WEP, selected the lasers, lined up as carefully as I could and fired for as long as the distributor would let me. The beams of light raced into the side of his cockpit canopy and his reaction was more instinctive than derivative and he flipped towards the black hole and boosted away.
I wonder to this day how long it was before he realised his mistake. For my part as soon as I saw his maneuver I retracted the weapons, lined up and got the hell out of the system. I expect that he eventually managed to get free of the black hole gravity well, maybe he didn't, but whatever the conclusion, we escaped and he wasn't able to follow. I was on fumes when I got the ship docked again.
"You were a while. Run into any trouble?"
"Some Imperial tool, lots of cash but not much combat experience. We left him battling he black hole of Tartarus."
Amanda looked impressed. "Nice work," she said approvingly.
"Let's get the last lot delivered," I replied.
The last trip was far less eventful, although I was on my nerves for the duration of the journey. I saw that damned Clipper in my imagination for days afterward. But it was nowhere to be seen and as we left the Oasis Mellon for the last time, this time in my AspX, I was relieved that we had managed to not only get Linka a new life but were still alive. Amanda sort of thanked me for the new bits on the Python, she'd said, "You can leave the shiny bits on it." But most of all I was glad of a job well done. Loads of people were free and living a new life because of the efforts of hundreds of people. Being just one of them made me feel like I had done something very worthwhile.
I set course for Colonia and engaged the FSD.