Hutton Orbital, Part 2
05 May 2017User4296
Somewhere in the Alpha Centauri SystemFederation Space
January 3302
She wasn't kidding, I thought.
I was a little over half an hour into the trip, and had spent the past several minutes staring at the ship’s HUD, watching the timer to the right of the destination display slowly tick down. A little under one quarter of a light year was nothing to sneeze at, and I found myself wondering why one couldn't simply jump to Proxima Centauri – the star that Hutton Orbital was actually orbiting.
That was a question for those who knew better, I suspected, and shrugged. Oh well, I thought. I've never given up on a job, and I'm not about to start now.
Usually, pilots can find ways to keep themselves occupied: they can update their records, check the condition of their ship, or listen to the radio. With this thought, I reached over and keyed the communication array to the correct frequency.
Hutton Orbital had its own station to keep the "Hutton Truckers" - thanks, Roscoe - entertained. Apparently, somebody attached a large transmitter to the side of the station at some point, which ensured that Hutton Orbital Radio could be easily received anywhere in the system - and even a few places beyond.
Still, I realized, while having background music is nice, it doesn't address the main problem: there was nothing to do. And while this new Python-class ship, the Helix, was roomy, it didn’t have much in the way of entertainment. Even if it did, I was never really a fan of leaving the bridge while the ship was in transit anyway.
"Computer," I asked, seemingly for the hundredth time, "What's the status of our systems?"
The computer was quick in her reply. "Hull is at 100 percent. Shields are at 100 percent. All systems green."
"Just like the last several times. Thank you, computer," I said.
"You are welcome, commander."
This surprised me - I had never heard her say that before, though I had to admit I had never thanked the computer before. It didn't occur to me that maybe she was capable of more than just giving voice to relatively simple readouts.
"Computer," I began tentatively. "Do you have a name?"
"Verity," she responded.
"What's your purpose?" I asked.
"My primary role is to assist you in the operation of this vessel," she said, without hesitation.
"What else can you do?"
"My databanks contain information about most objects in space, as well as most of the ships manufactured by corporations within human space," came the reply.
"What about outside human space?" I asked, half-jokingly.
“I don’t understand the question,” she said.
"Are you sentient?"
There was no reply.
So she's not an AI, I thought. "Thank you, Verity."
"You are welcome, commander."
"... here at Hutton Orbital Radio, we give you music to squeeze to!" the radio intoned, before playing another song.
"Ew," I said, then paused. "Verity," I said next, mostly on a lark, "Scan the ship for lifeforms. Deck by deck, constant readout."
"Understood, commander," she replied. "Beginning scan. Deck one: lifeforms... one."
Makes sense.
"Deck two: lifeforms... zero."
So far, so good.
"Deck three: lifeforms... zero."
Yup.
"Deck four: lifeforms... one."
What?
I stood and walked over to one of the bridge terminals. "Verity, confirm there are two life forms aboard this ship."
A pause. "Confirmed, commander. The Helix currently contains two life signs. One is on the bridge, the other is in the cargo bay."
"Can you tell what it is?" I asked.
"Negative. I am unable to make that determination."
Shit. Probably a stowaway.
"I've seen horror holovids that start this way, Verity." I said, turning to retrieve my pistol from its holster in my jacket. "But don't you worry, I'll find out what's going on."
Verity didn't reply as I approached the bridge doors, which slid open as I came near.
Not even the computer finds my jokes funny.
***
The doors opened, revealing the darkened expanse of the cargo bay.
"Lights," I said. Instantly, the luminescent strips in the ceiling sprang to life, engulfing the room in a cool white glow.
The cargo bay wasn't especially large, only taking up about half of the Python's lowest deck. The other half of the deck contained the SRV hangar, but that room was secured. If I was right, and this was a stowaway, then they were willing to take any risk necessary to change their lot in life. Even if it meant suffocating to death in someone's cargo bay, as a lot of commanders turned life support off in those areas.
And, if discovered, they could turn violent. The stacks of cargo crates gave the intruder lots of space to hide, or even plan an ambush, if they were so inclined.
"All right, joyride's over," I called. "Come out. I won't space you, but you may be stuck at Hutton Orbital for a while."
No answer.
"Verity," I said next, "ETA?"
"30 minutes," she replied over the ship's intercom, as I moved down the small staircase to the cargo bay's floor. The cargo containers were stacked nearly to the ceiling, creating a series of corridors - between each stack there were only a few feet of space, but there was a larger corridor bisecting the room nearly in half. This I began to move down, and looked down each side corridor in turn.
Nothing, I thought as I reached the end of the room. I turned around, and that's when something strange had caught my eye.
One of the lower corners of a crate had been bent outward. I bent to inspect it, reaching out to push the metal corner back into place. It moved easily, and the places where the corner should have connected to the adjacent sides had rusted away. In fact, most of the metal that made up that side of the crate was discolored.
The price of doing business on the cheap, I thought. Some of the smaller companies had no choice but to buy crates secondhand from other companies, and many of these had seen heavy use and had been damaged in some way. This crate had been welded back together to try and repair it, but the welds hand long since given out, creating a weak corner.
I pulled the corner back out. It didn't bend far - certainly not far enough for a human to fit through the opening. I lowered my head and tried to peer into the crate, but couldn't get a good look inside. I reached in.
Curious. There was a good foot of space between the nearest box of spirits and the wall of the crate. I withdrew my hand and stood.
"Commander-"
Verity's voice startled me, and I jumped. "Shi-"
"-the life form is no longer in the cargo bay."