Frustration
16 Dec 2020Teafox
And there I am, hiding in the cloud of evaporating ice as the other guy drifts closer. They've already attacked and destroyed one mining ship, but I'm running so cold that even if they see a blip on their scanner, they probably just assume I'm a limpet the other guy dropped. I check the timer on my charges, about half a minute left... If I'm very lucky, they'll leave before it goes off. Judging by what the pair of them did to that other guy, I'd never make it to super cruise before they wrecked me, so sit tight for now. It looks like they're exchanging cargo. Smuggling perhaps? Not good. That'll take too long. If I disarm the charges and they notice, I'm done for. If I don't disarm them, maybe they'll assume they're left over from the other miner... I did launch them before he got attacked after all.My finger hovers over the panel, the UI as dim as I can make it. The gunfire starts before I can decide. My view of exactly what's happening is obscured by the debris and ice, but the sensors pick up everything and simulate the sounds of weapons fire and explosions. The communications fire up and then cut short. One of the gunships drifts past, in pieces, and then the wreckage of something big and white, possibly a cutter barrels into the rock I'm hiding behind and I start to drift free. The remaining gunship is drifting, on fire, but still in one piece, but too close to the seismic charges I planted. In horror, I realize the pilot is about to make a final mistake. My fingers try to jab for two controls at once, trying to disarm the mining charges, and to open the radio panel.
"Don't eject, Pilot! I yell into my cabin." but even if I had managed to open the comm link, I'd have been too slow. The hull of his ship would have protected him. I see him thrash in space for a moment, looking for anything to hide behind before the blast goes off. The rear end of his, now unshielded ship comes away completely, spilling a spiral of cargo containers out into the blackness. At first, I wonder if it'll be worth scooping up, and then the pressure differential starts to split them open like so much pop-corn on a hot plate. Human bodies. Not all of them whole, unprotected from the void. One or two move for a moment before the vacuum takes them. I curse that I only have a small limpet controller, get a bead on the one coming closest in this direction and launch. The robotic collector grabs the canister and starts to haul it directly towards my ship before, as all of the others eventually did, this one bursts too.
I recognize the kid's face instantly as he wheels towards me. Something is different. Even as I turn and run for the cargo bay door, what my eyes saw sink into my brain. It was just the head and the upper part of his torso. No arms, no legs, just a mass of cables from his arms and where his rib cage would be.
I'm panting as I wake up. I'm sitting on the deck plate, leaned up against the kid's bunk. It didn't help that his arm had slipped out from under the blanket and was drifting in front of my face. Under the gentle spin I had put us in, the movement of my starting awake had sent me drifting into the middle of the room and for a moment all I could do was drift helplessly as I remembered the scene, awake now.
Thankfully, he had been in one part in reality, although he had suffered a nasty gash to his midriff when he and the remaining part of the cargo pod hit the hatch. I had re-pressurised the room as quickly as I had dared, even though I was pretty sure he was dead.
I could see he was dreaming too, it didn't look like he was having much fun either... A pity, but not surprising, I guess.
Let him rest, maybe his dreams will improve, at least the sleep will do him some good.
My head is feeling too full of nervous adrenaline to go back to sleep, so, once I manage to pull myself to a wall, I head into the cockpit and start to bring the ship to life again. I notice some comms chatter, and it turns out that there is a tent city not too far away... If, dear descendant of mine or other concerned reader, you are not familiar with belt parlance, I should explain. Belters don't tend to build many permanent installations, as, until recently, they lose their usefulness once the local resources get mined out. Instead, some of the larger, more worn out ships will be moved into position near each other and then secured together with scaffolding, ropes, and whatever else we have to hand. Cover this skeleton with canvas to catch any tools or dropped items, and you have a serviceable, make shift dry dock. Anyone is welcome to pull up, barter and trade out equipment... Well, anyone sufficiently respectable, at least.
I called ahead and asked if anyone would be willing to trade out an abrasion blaster, charge launcher and ammunition for a few hours and a cut of any haul. There was a little gentle teasing that I should have had those to start with, but it was all good natured. No questions asked, curiosity yes, but no suspicion, really. I gave away some of my share of the opals we mined a few days back and some of the food, as there was a young mother on one of the ships, at worse we'll go back onto food pills until we restock. I didn't hang around long, I yearned for that inner peace that only really comes from hunting down a big haul.
I think I woke the kid up with my cursing... Damn pulse wave scanner still isn't working right.
Two hours, and I only found three rocks. Sure, Vesper isn't a big ship, and sure, I would probably have better luck by moving further out into the ring, away from a group of very experienced miners, but still.
The kid looked a little lost when I noticed his reflection in the canopy. It was okay, I wasn't mad at him. Actually, if it wasn't for having a second pair of eyes on the job, I would never have spotted what was going on with it. Whilst I fiddled with the settings and controls, the kid took a camera drone up and took a look.
The damned thing isn't firing half the time, and when it does. It's firing backwards.
The old model Cobra mk.3 has a fire axe inside the airlock and it was all the kid could do to talk me down from seriously voiding the warranty.
But, with him piloting us slowly backwards through the belt, and my using the camera drone to read the scanner, we did manage to fill up our hold eventually, Benitoite too, valuable for it's weight, even if it was a bit slow.
We got a genuine round of applause and some commiserations from the miners when we recounted the tale, made payment of some of the ore and traded back the equipment. As it turns out, there has been a plague of faulty scanners on the market lately. It would be repairable, so they traded ours for an older model, it was a bit dented, but should work just fine.
I helped with switching the hard-points out. I must say, the modern modular system does make it much easier to do, no welding required, no adjusting plate sizes. You just a few bolts and clamps to loosen and tighten, power cables and break for lunch.
There are other kids here too. Always nice to see 'em at play, it was nice to see 'em marvel at how new and modern the kid's remlok is. Most of them are in ancient hand-me downs, and I can see more than a few cable ties in place to shorten sleeves and legs in places. It's nice to come back to see belt life from time to time. It simple, but the work is honest and the play is innocent. Kids learning how to space walk safely, using their cords and hooks to move around rather than their jets, old folk watching over 'em and even joining in from time to time. It's nice.
And, of course, another revelation about my traveling companion once it's all done and dusted. "How did they know the name of our ship?" he asked, totally amazed that they could tell, just by looking at it. I managed to bite my tongue before I blurted out the question that first came to my mind: "You can't read?"... How would Zach phrase this? He's better at this kind of thing than I am.
"I'll show you." and I lead him up to the ship's nameplate, taking him through each letter in turn.
Bastards taught him how to fly a ship, but not how to read his name. Now it makes more sense that he was using voice commands so heavily when flying... And I thought it was just because it seemed more fun.
Still, that could be a nice problem to fix...