The Sirius Job, Prologue
12 May 2017User4296
Near Bruce Prospect, Avik SystemFederation Space
February 3302
The Diamondback Scout hung in space, pinwheeling slowly through the vacuum. I found myself attached to it, a thin tether the only thing separating me and a relatively short lifetime floating helplessly through the void.
I instinctively reached up to ensure the seals of the remlock were secure around the neck of my flight suit, and glanced at my wrist as I did so. The numbers displayed on the small screen there read 14:01 - the amount of oxygen I had left. Plenty of time.
"Stay focused," I said to myself, and willed my hands forward to reach and grasp at the handholds that dotted the ship's hull. Of course, it would be a simple matter to simply let go and let the tether reel me in, but that ran the risk of slamming me into one of the many protrusions that lent the Diamondback its distinctive shape. There was also the lingering fear of the tether snapping, but the odds of that were low.
I hoped.
The Diamondback Scout had long since proven to be the correct choice of ship for my needs. On paper, the Asp Explorer was superior in a number of ways - it had more room, more hardpoints, and better power capacity, but the Scout had a number of advantages, too. For starters, it was faster, and the improved maneuvering thrusters allowed me to keep the four hardpoints on target for longer than I could the Asp's six. It may not have been as heavily armored or well-shielded as the Asp, but engagements rarely lasted long enough to matter, so long as I stayed smart about how I fought. I wasn't going to take down an Anaconda in this thing.
About the only thing missing was a fuel scoop, as there simply wasn't enough room to fit it.
Though a lack of fuel didn't send me out here, I thought, having finally reached the rear of the ship, where the airlock stood open. I crawled through the opening and slapped the pad on the wall, allowing the airlock door to slide shut behind me. A few moments later, a green light over the opposite door indicated that the room was pressurized. A second button press, this time on the wrist pad of the flight suit, retracted the remlock into its compartment in the neck.
“Welcome back aboard the Pyrrha, commander," a female voice said. The other door to the airlock opened, revealing the corridor that led back toward the cockpit.
"Try it now, Verity," I said, taking the few steps to exit the room. When I sold the Python, the Helix, I made sure to have the techs copy over the module Verity had been installed in. She had proven way too useful to leave behind, and there was a sense that we were used to each other. Our working together for the past month had only strengthened that perception. Besides, virtual assistants weren't cheap.
The ship shuddered as the engines came to life. "Commander, engines two and three are now active. Engine one is not operational," Verity chimed in as I reached the next door, which slid open at my approach. These were the living quarters, a small space consisting of two bunks, opposing each other across the corridor, a small galley and table, and a bathroom.
I saw movement as I entered the room. There, on one of the bunks, a small puppy lifted its head up to watch me. I unzipped the flight suit and pulled my arms out of it, leaving the upper half to hang around my waist as I smoothed the wrinkles out of the grey t-shirt I had worn beneath it. I paused as I passed the bathroom to steal a glance at myself in the mirror. My brown haired, bearded visage looked back at me.
"Time for a haircut, eh?" I asked myself, before continuing on to the cockpit.
This door also opened at my approach, and I settled into the pilot's chair before spinning around to face the controls. A quick pull at the stick confirmed that the maneuvering thrusters were indeed working.
"We should be able to limp back to the station," I said, mostly to myself. “We were already behind schedule when that pirate decided to jump us.” His lucky shot into the engines didn't help matters much, I didn't add, which necessitated my spacewalk to do a quick reroute. He didn't fare much better - the cluster of debris nearby was proof of that.
A circle appeared on the HUD, indicating the direction of the nearby station. Within seconds, the Pyrrha was on her way.