Chapter 1
Space was dead except for the thrum. The engines firing merrily from the rear carried the sound through the vessel along its metal plating and expensive alloy underpinnings to be echoed through the many ducts. The deck plates, while subtle in their motion, vibrated just enough for Marcus to feel beneath his booted feet as his fingers moved off the keys where he adjusted his trajectory and then the silence fell again. Dead space.
He never got over the silence though he was able to cope better than most. Drifting through the vast expanse toward one’s destination was lonely and many had given over to space madness from it. He knew several who installed devices throughout their ship to have ambient sound of some kind. Some always had music playing. Others still burned fuel if nothing was available. But Marcus was more disciplined than that. He used the quiet to think and study. The quiet was often distressing, but it was when sounds came that one truly needed be worried.
He adjusted himself in his faux leather seat and looked at the readout to his right. Everything was well within tolerance and his vital supplies; food, fuel, and air were within expected quantities. His left hand stretched while still reading from his right and he punched in commands to run a few unautomated diagnostics and scans without looking.
It would take a while for all the results to come in so he grabbed his glass eye from its resting spot around the stick and gingerly set it on his head in the proper position. It only took a few seconds for his neural chip to interface with the neural band of the device, a yellowed alloy that ran in a thin band across his forehead, and the lone transparent red screen hovering a few inches in front of his left eye began to load his settings. He read messages and scrolled through a few files before he decided he would listen to some music. It only took a second for the glass eye to link with the ships comm systems and a soft melody flowed from the network like a wave into the cockpit rising to a crescendo before tapering off only to rise again.
Little beeps overlaid the music at odd points but it was an hour and a half before Marcus looked at the readout to examine all the scans and diagnostics at once. Everything was fine. He queued up another set of music on the glass eye while beginning a preprogrammed external scan on his console. He sat back and sighed in boredom but the second composition had just started when the music abruptly died as a pleasant woman’s voice came over the system. “High priority substance detected in sufficient quantities; Margin of error 19%”. The ships voice component faded into the background and the music was starting again but Marcus killed it before it reached its regular volume. He removed the glass eye and looked at his readout. In flashing bold red letters stood out the word “Aurgustun”
The readout clocked away as the quantity continued to rise. A quick tap brought up detailed information. The detailed list gave specific though brief information on the element. “Element 126 known as ‘Aurgustun’ is a noble gas that was first discovered through man made attempts in the year 2087. Its current primary use is as a filter to excite photons to a hyper activate state which gives beam weapons their heat in modern lasers and cutting equipment for mining and construction. It is highly volatile and standard safety procedure beta 12-5 should be taken for shipping and transport.”
The phrase “beta 12-5” was a hyperlink that would lead to the proper safety procedures but Marcus had read it before. Indeed he didn’t even read the brief information about the element as he knew it by heart. Instead he scrolled below to watch the count rise and to locate the position. Other man-made elements and alloys began to pop up on his screen. He minimized them and threw them to the corner occasionally watching their counts rise. Hydrogen ions were depleted in the area and he sighed in relief, but the quantities he was getting suggested one of two things; either a massive battle, or very large ships.
Double checking his readout on hydrogen ions, he tapped a few keys on the control. There was a hum as the engines on his small ship rotated to the proper positions and a few thrusters fired. Then the thrum was back as the engines sprang to life. He ran several programs designed to let him safely navigate both asteroid fields and salvage sites and as he neared the location his ship automatically slowed and scanning began.
His scans ended and he plotted a course to get near enough of the substances of interest to bring them into his hold. He had been harvesting for only an hour when the ship spoke again. “Intermittent homing beacon detected in personal grid 541-2. Would you like to set a course?” Marcus sighed. That was the problem with salvaging new wrecks. Survivors were always so prickly about it. “Yea, I guess. Plot us a course, Leslie, but keep current evasion protocols activate. Let’s not repeat that again.”
“Sir, I’m only a program and do only what I’m told”, the ship responded as the hum of the rotating engines began and the thrusters fired.
“I understand that, but I don’t normally tell you to keep the artificial gravity on or to continue to recycle the air do I? This is common sense stuff,” he huffed back as the thrum returned.
“I have no common sense, Sir.”
“I’ll not be taking sass from you young lady.”
“I’m incapable of sass, Sir.”
Marcus sighed. “Just get us there in one piece, Leslie.”
“Yes Sir.” And the voice was gone.
Why had he installed that dimwitted AI? He could have sold it for a decent price almost anywhere, though truth be told anywhere but a ship, and a ship of Korrim design no less, would have taken a major overhaul. But he was older. And some days he was lonelier than others now. Quickly approaching his mid-thirties he often craved conversation, even the simulated conversation of a computer AI on those long flights between ports. Leslie had filled that roll.
She was good, but only being activate for a few months, they were both still getting used to each other. On her first activation she began deleting his programs because they were not part of the standard model of navigation and flight operations of a Korrim military vessel. They were also not locked and labeled in the proper fashion. He was lucky to stop her before it went too far. A few weeks later she almost killed him when he was ready to leave a salvaging area he had found and she just took off paying no heed to massive amount of floating debris in the area. Had he not manually activated his shields and had they not been more powerful than the standard he would have become part of that very debris field. He very nearly deactivated her on the spot. But time went on and they began to get used to one another. She began to understand what his wishes truly were and he began to anticipate what uninformed decision she would make next.
Marcus stood up and walked around the cockpit. The chair was comfortable but he needed a stretch. He kicked the deck plates with the toes of his boots to settle them in place though in truth they were quite settled and tied expertly and tightly; laced all the way up like the professional solider he used to be. His flight pants were tucked into those boots and he checked the pockets to make sure everything was in place for the hundredth time that day. He then smoothed his plain black shirt and made a quick run around the waistline of his pants to make sure it had not become untucked. Then, interlacing his fingers, he put his hands on his head and breathed deeply.
Marcus was not vain, but he was quiet the model of a man. Standing at 212cm he was impressive in height and he was fit and muscular. His ebony skin was flawless and though the march to his mid thirties was nearing its end, he showed no signs of graying or hair loss on his close crop dark hair. His brown eyes, too, were flawless orbs, never needing vision correction and always taking in everything. He was intelligent, and his wits were quick. He loved to read everything he could lay his hands on almost as much as he loved to fly. The only thing that he loved more was the search; finding those things lost to the void of space be they ships to salvage or minerals to mine on asteroids. The discovery was thrilling.
He had only made a couple of trips around his small cockpit when Leslie’s voice came over the comm again. “Confirmed: Cryrostasis pod. Model ELG104 Mk:VI.”
“Do you have a visual?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Marcus moved back to his seat but the picture did not emerge.
Marcus sighed. “Would you please put the feed on the viewscreen, Leslie?”
A picture emerged on the top right corner of the viewscreen. He quickly set it to cover a full half of the screen. Then he swore under his breath.
“Do you think it might be possible to light it up so I could see it?” he said scathingly.
“Yes Sir,” she reply. Nothing happened.
Marcus ground his teeth in frustration. “Leslie, would you please light the pod up for me?”
“Yes Sir.”
The flood lights came on and swiveled on their mounts. The distance was great but the pod could be made out now, though just an occasional gleam of metal and now that his vision was focused on the proper spot, he could occasionally make out alternating blue and red lights.
The ship moved closer to the pod and it became more illuminated by the search lights. The pod had a complex axis of rotation which gave the idea it had been battered by several pieces of debris. Finally the light shone on the front of the pod and Marcus swore loudly as he made out the markings. The pod was clearly marked as belonging to the Coalition.
“Shall I destroy the pod, Sir,” asked Leslie.
“What? No! Damn it Leslie!” Marcus paused getting his wits under control again. He could fire on the pod. A single shot would end the problem, but he did have what he hoped was a higher sense of morality. He sighed. He seemed to be doing that a lot today. “Tractor it into hold 4 and activate the medical bay. No telling how long he’s been out there.”
Marcus threw the console to one side. “Keep salvaging what you can. I’ll be back when I get this sorted out. You know the priorities. Don’t kill us little girl!”
“I will endeavor to make it so.”
Marcus grunted and made for the door.
“Marcus,” Leslie said as he was almost out the door.
Marcus stepped through and continued down the hallway toward the cargo holds near the rear of the ship. “What is it, Leslie?”
“You should have killed him.” The doors hissed closed to the cockpit and the hum sounded again as thrusters set to work to position the ship. He marched down the hallway, footfalls echoing off the empty walls. The human in him was appalled at Leslie’s suggestion, but the ex-soldier in him couldn’t help but agree.
Post
Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:34 pm
#1
Space Tails: Chapters 1-3
Last edited by nickgreyden on Sat Feb 09, 2013 7:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
An eye for an eye and the world goes blind, but in the land of the blind the one eyed man is KING!