Gris was elbow deep in the guts of the engine when the call came in. This was unfortunate, because it meant that McSally was the one to answer it.
If Gris had been the one to answer they’d never have gone to Artivian-9. But he hadn’t and they had.
“This is a bad idea, Mac.” Gris told his co-captain. “We’re not a rescue ship. We do salvage. We aren’t equipped to save these people.”
McSally turned back from inspecting the data on the interlock door “We were closest. We have tools, we have suits if we need them. Plus, the data I’m getting says there’s oxygen on the other side. Whatever happened to them in there, they haven’t vented and the life support systems are still running.”
“Do we know what did happen? Did you ever get more information out of them.”
“The signal degraded once we Jumped. I’ve had Wuuz checking the frequencies since we bounced in.”
Gris sighed and called Wuuz, their Degerak navigator “Yo, Wuuz. Did you get back in contact with this lot?”
“I have failed to do so, Captain.”
“Well, keep those tentacles working, let us know if you do.” Gris grimaced “I do not like the idea of going through that door without a clue what’s on the other side.”
Mac grinned, that stupid, excited one he got every time before he did something ridiculous “That’s what exploration is all about, Gris.”
Before Gris could respond, Mac opened the door and sniffed.
Unbelievable, he was getting worse.
“Are you actually an idiot?” Gris yelled.
“Lax, Gris, just lax. Door said it was all good.” Mac was trying to be soothing.
“Oh, the door said it was all good. Well, that’s fine then. Its not like what the readings we see are sent by the system over there and we don’t know if the system is compromised or broken because we can’t talk to the survivors. Yeah, I’ll just be a laxxed about it.”
Mac nodded “Good point. Strongly made. May I produce a counter-point?”
“If you must.”
“The data on the door is coming from their system, true. But the data on my pad,” Mac twisted his arm to show his data pad to Gris “this data. That’s coming from the probe pod I have latched onto the bridge. And they match.”
Gris stared at his smiling friend, it was definitely time for Mac to either retire or take a very long break. “And how does the probe get its data, Mac? Being that it is outside of the ship?”
“Easy, come on man, you know this. The probe connects to the ships computer and sends us the…” Mac trailed off and went pale. “Oh, oh no. Gris, man, I’m an idiot.”
“Yes, you are. But the door’s open now and we haven’t died yet. Even so, helmets on, just in case.”
Gris called the bridge “Wuuz, we’re going in now. I want you to focus only on the signals from our suits until we can confirm the ship computer is working properly. So I want to know immediately if any of the data from our suits looks off. Understood.”
“Understood. Captain Gris, your blood pressure is unusually high.”
Gris had to laugh “Yes, I expect it would be. Give it a minute, it should settle down.”
Putting on his suit helmet, he watched Mac closely to make sure his friend did it right. When he was satisfied they were both space safe, Gris pulled the door all of the way open and stepped onto the Artivian-9.
The Artivian-9 was a long haul freighter, ugly on the outside, functional inside. The owners had clearly never seen the benefits of prettying up the interior for crew morale. Every wall was the same shade of dull grey. It looked like exactly what it claimed to be, a working ship.
“Weird, doesn’t seem that hot.” Mac said.
“Why would it be hot? Did they mention a fire on the call?” That worried Gris, an out of control fire this far into the black was something everyone who travelled this far out was terrified of.
“No, they said nothing about a fire. They just said that they were hot. I thought the environmentals were probably on the fritz.”
Gris chewed his lip in thought. The heads up display on his helmet read the temperature of the corridor they were in as normal. He decided to get Wuuz working on digging into the ship’s systems.
“Wuuz, do you read me?”
“I am here, my Captain.”
“Great. Use the probe and get us a full link into the ship’s systems. I want to know if there are any heat blooms on this ship that shouldn’t be there.”
“I shall attend.”
“Thanks, Wuuz.”
Mac had already walked off down the corridor by the time Gris got off with Wuuz. Cursing his impetuous friend, he jogged down the blank corridor after him.
“I’m not picking up any life signs.” Mac said as he caught up.
“You think we’re too late?” Gris started to tally the potential salvage up. It was an automatic response and he hated it. But salvage was salvage. If everyone was dead, the ship was theirs to break up and sell. He knew of some rogue crews that would have killed any survivors, but that wasn’t how Gris and Mac ran their ship.
“Too early to say, this is a big ship and what sensor readings I’m getting don’t cover the whole thing. Check it for yourself.”
Using his eyes to select and inspect the ship schematic on his heads up display, Gris saw that over half the ship, mostly lower levels and towards the rear, were blank. The genera shape of them appeared, but where the bridge and upper levels showed readings for everything from cargo to environment, the blank sections had nothing.
“Does that look accidental or intentional to you?” Gris asked.
Mac hurmed, deep in his throat “First glance, looks like maybe a cascade failure, up to a point. But something isn’t quite right. Can’t put my finger on it right now, but I think those are intentional sensor black spots.”
“The only question is whether they were there before or after whatever happened to the ship.”
“Shall we try the bridge first? Get to the logs?”
That was the question, they could call up the ship’s logs, look for the reports on what had happened. But that was going to take them some time. The call had apparently been urgent, which might mean any survivors didn’t have the time it was going to take them to investigate. It was a hard call.
“Captains, your suits have detected movement at the end of the corridor.” Wuuz’s sharp voice broke his concentration.
Gris and Mac looked in opposite directions “Which end, Wuuz?”
“My end.” Mac said.
Gris turned to look and saw a pale man in a blue jumpsuit dart away at the far end of the corridor.
Mac raced off after him.
“Dammit, Mac.” Gris yelled, chasing after his friend “Don’t be an idiot.”
Mac was much faster than he was and vanished around the corner before Gris was halfway to the turn.
When Gris rounded the corner, Mac was nowhere to be seen. Cursing he pulled up the schematic and looked for Mac’s signal. His friend was about three turns away and still moving.
“Mac, god dammit. Stop running and let me catch up. You don’t know what you’re running towards.”
Mac’s blip stopped moving “Sorry. Gris, man, I’m sorry.”
Gris could hear it in his friend’s voice, the sadness and doubt. They both knew what was causing this. He should have made Mac take time away. Hell, he should have docked the ship for a few months and they both should have had time away.
“Just stay where you are. I’m coming.”
Following the map, it was easy for him to find Mac, who was leaning against the wall, helmet off, reduced and clipped to his belt.
“Why have you taken your helmet off?” Even knowing what he did, he still couldn’t believe Mac had been that reckless.
“Because its safe. Check your readings. Besides, even if you don’t trust them, that guy was human and had no suit or helmet. Didn’t look like he was suffocating.” The worry had gone from Mac’s voice, now he sounded calm again.
Gris looked at the readings from his suit, they matched with the information the probe provided. The air was safe.
Gris lifted off his helmet, pressed the button that retracted it and clipped the palm sized piece of equipment onto his belt. He sniffed the air. It was clear, crisp.
“Did you see where he went before I called you?”
Mac shook his head “No, I lost him after the first turn.”
“So why did you keep running?”
“I thought I could catch him.”
“Did you have a signal to follow?”
Mac looked at Gris, who saw the tears in his friend’s eyes “No. Once I started chasing, then I was chasing. Gris,” his voice hitched “I’m getting worse, man.”
“We should go. Right now, we should pack up and leave.”
“What about the crew? No-one else is near here. It could be another day or three before they get help if we leave.”
He was right. That didn’t mean staying was right though.
“I don’t know, Mac. Are the crew actually going to be safer if we stay? Are you safer for them than whatever trouble they are already in?”
Mac straightened up “I’ll give Wuuz lockdown control of the suit. I go off-rails, you call, she shuts me down. But we aren’t leaving until we know if the crew is safe.”
Gris didn’t like it, didn’t want to risk Mac for strangers. At the same time, he didn’t like the idea of abandoning a call for help when they were already on site.
“I’ll agree to that for now. But I reserve the right to call this all off and bug out if you go too far.”
Mac clapped him on the back “One last adventure. We can do this.”
Gris gripped Mac’s other arm “One last time. Let’s find the crew.”
“You’re a rescue team?”
The voice spoke from behind them, making both jump.
The pale man was standing ten feet away, looking ready to bolt again.
“We got the distress call. We’re a salvage ship but we came to help if we can.” Gris told him.
This did not seem to ease the pale man’s worry.
“You’re not QuadSec?”
Now Gris was worried “Why would you expect QuadSec?”
“The Rousters.” The pale man whispered.
Gris felt the blood drain from his face and looked at Mac to see the same thing happening.
“Rousters? We thought you had a malfunction.”
“Yeah, the woman said you were hot. That you were roasting in here.” Mac said.
Gris closed his eyes, they were all dead. Mac hadn’t listened properly, hadn’t made the connection. Why did the call have to come in when he couldn’t answer it?
“Anyone else but you alive? Are the Rousters still here?” Gris demanded, trying to not let fear overwhelm him. “Who are you, anyway?”
The pale man took a step back at the rapid fire questions. “I’m Yessin, I was a loader. I think there are more survivors, but I can’t get to them. I think the Rousters have left. It’s been two days since they attacked.”
“Why are you out here by yourself?” Mac asked.
Yessin looked embarrassed “Oh, well. I’m a hologram. They couldn’t really do much to me.”
Mac reached out and pushed his hand through Yessin.
“Hey! That’s rude.”
“Sorry, man. Just wanted to check you’re telling the truth.’
Yessin looked very unhappy at the intrusion into his person by Mac’s hand, Gris didn’t blame him.
“Do you know where the rest of the crew are? Where the survivors have holed up?”
“They went into the lower decks, chased by the Rousters. I could hear them screaming, I could hear the fighting echoing through the stairwells. Then it all went quiet.”
“Why didn’t you do down to check, man?”
“No holo transmitters down there. And I was afraid.” Yessin’s voice was quiet.
“Afraid of what?” Mac demanded “You’re made of light, they couldn’t hurt you.”
“Afraid of being alone! Afraid of seeing all of my friends dead. Afraid that I would be the only one left on board, drifting eternally until the power runs out. Which it would do in, say, six hundred years.” Yessin was yelling by the end. “I was afraid to be alone for hundreds of years until everything just stopped. This ship isn’t that advanced. No voice control. So I wouldn’t even be able to turn on the entertainment system and watch a film or read a book or listen to music. Do you get it?”
“So why did you run from us?” Gris asked.
“Haven’t you heard me at all? I’m afraid. I’m a coward. I was scared so I ran, I didn’t exactly think it through.”
Mac went to put an arm around Yessin’s shoulders. His hand passed straight through the man and Mac overbalanced and fell into the wall.
“What are you doing?” Shrieked Yessin.
“Sorry, man. I was trying to be comforting.”
“I have no physical form.”
“Yes,” Mac laughed “I just forgot for a second.”
Gris watched as amusement spread through Yessin before the pale man started laughing too. Great, he was stuck with a cowardly hologram and a man with failing impulse control. This could only get worse.
“Wuuz, have you got into the logs yet? And have you heard our conversation?” Gris called back to his ship.
“Yes, my Captain. I have lockdown control set for Captain McSally’s suit, I will await command on activation.”
That was one thing taken care of, in preparation at least “Good. Now, the logs?”
“The last entry is six days ago. A ship was approaching the Artivian-9 at an unsafe speed. The Captain ordered a reduction in their own speed and evasive manoeuvres. There are no more entries after that. The ship was attacked in some way and all recording has been halted. The manifest has also been deleted. Along with much more.”
“So no-one will know what was taken. Is there any way to recover the deleted data?”
“It appears not, my Captain.”
“Don’t worry about it then, Wuuz. Leave that, see if you can find us a way to track any survivors.”
“Yes, my Captain. I have but one other thing of note to tell you.”
“What’s that?”
“A greater part of the ships internal memory has been changed from its regular functions. The work is very advanced. It is beyond my skills to determine what has happened.”
“OK, Wuuz. Keep tabs on us and call us if you see anything weird.”
“Roger, my Captain.”
When Gris turned back to the two laughing fools, he found they had settled into contented chucking.
“When you two have quite finished. Yessin, lead us to the furthest point you can go. Mac and I will search for your crew mates. Also, my navigator has gotten into your ship files. She says the last recorded log was six days ago about a ship approaching dangerously. I thought you said you were attacked two days ago.”
Yessin looked confused “But, it was only two days ago. Wasn’t it? It can’t be six days. I can’t have been alone that long.”
“Just, help us find your crew. We’ll work it out from there.”
The trio descended five levels in the still functioning lifts. After that, they had to take seventeen flights of stairs to reach the lowest level Yessin was able to access.
“What’s after this point? Gris asked.
“Cargo space, then the engine room takes up the back and lower third of the ship.”
“Anything else down there?”
“Some offices, canteens, rec rooms. The usual stuff.”
Gris clipped his helmet back on and activated it. Mac gave him a puzzled look but Gris didn’t say anything until his friend put his on as well.
“Yessin, we’re going down now. Can we communicate with you at all?”
“No. I can hear you if you patch into the ship communicators, but I won’t be able to talk back. Can’t touch them, you see.”
“Then that will have to do. We’ll patch in and keep you updated.”
“See you soon, man.” Mac waved goodbye as the pair of them started down the stairs.
The first cargo area they entered was brightly lit, but empty. Not a single crate or container was visible.
“Think they were running empty or did the Rousters take everything?” Mac asked.
“Bit of both, I suspect. No way could a single Rouster ship could clear an entire freighter like this. They had to have been running low.”
“Drone?” Mac suggested.
“Drone.” Gris agreed.
Mac plucked the mini drone from his belt and flicked it into the air with practised ease. The machine unfolded and stopped, hovering.
“Life sign or heat sign?” Mac asked.
“Heat. If they’re dead we’ll find the bodies, if they’re alive we’ll pick them up anyway.”
The drone shot off down the length of the cargo bay, to quiet motor noise vanishing into the vast, empty space. Mac and Gris kept a close eye on the display from the drone on the suit’s HUD. There were no heat blooms, no patches that were colder than elsewhere. The structure of the ship appear intact but there was no sign of the crew.
The drone reached the far end, turned and hurtled back. Mac retrieved it and replaced it on his belt.
“Next floor?”
“Next floor. Let’s hope they didn’t go all the way to the bottom, I don’t really want to be here that long.”
They found their first crew member just inside the door on the next floor. It was a Virtanian, half of one. Their right hand side had been vaporised.
“That’s an unpleasant way to go.” Mac murmured.
Gris couldn’t make himself speak, too scared opening his mouth would allow the bile in his throat to escape into his helmet.
“Yessin. We found someone. A Virtanian, they’re dead, I’m afraid, man.”
Gris averted his eyes and got ahold of himself. “Mac, send the drone. Get a reading off the body, have it look for signatures like whatever weapon fried this poor sod.”
The drone registered a distinct trace from the weapon and flew into the hold, which was also empty. Six hundred metres away, it found another weapon trace, it was coming from a single shoe, still with besocked foot inside. There was a hand and the lower leg of a Bory even further down.
“This is bad, man.”
Gris had to agree. Someone had to have survived long enough to send out the distress call, but had they lived long enough for them to be of any help.
There was nothing else on this level, so they went down again. The next floor had some containers still, forced open and left. Gris checked the contents while the drone searched. Viso fruit, now rotting in the opened containers.
“Looks like they left perishables.”
“No signs of life on this level, Gris.” Mac called over.
The next three levels were more of the same, mostly empty, no signs of life, perishable cargo left behind to rot.
They kept up a running commentary for Yessin.
Three partially vaporised bodies were in the middle of the hold. They were bunched together, alone in the vast empty space. Thy didn’t need the drone to see these ones.
“Send the drone anyway.” Gris told Mac, but privately he was more and more certain that the whole crew had been killed.
There was nothing else on this level.
With only four levels left, they found the door had been hastily barricaded. It hadn’t stood up to the assault but Gris suspected that this was where the remains of the crew had made their final stand.
Shockingly, this floor was filled with cargo. Everything still sacked as it should be except for a few containers with holes blasted into them.
“They fought here.” Gris said, more for Yessin’s benefit than anything else.
“Drone’s picking up weapon and other signatures at an office about halfway down.” Mac told him.
“Any life signs?”
“Can’t tell. Whatever they used there has left some screwy signatures. We’re going to have to eyeball.”
Before Gris could agree and start to lay out a plan, Mac was already racing down the bay.
“Mac, get back here.” Gris yelled.
Mac paid no attention.
“Wuuz, lock him down!” Gris screamed.
Mac was running at full tilt when his arms and legs stiffened up and locked into place, he went flying to the floor.
Gris winced and hoped Mac hadn’t done himself any damage. He hadn’t considered what locking down the suit would do while Mac was sprinting.
“Ow.’ Mac groaned.
Gris took a steady walk up to his friend, keeping his eyes scanning for any threats.
When he reached Mac, he told Wuuz to unlock the suit. Mac sat up and Gris saw a long crack running from top to bottom of the faceplate on his helmet.
“Mac, check your suit integrity.”
Mac focused and saw the crack “Aw, nuts. That’s not good, man.” There was a moment’s pause while he checked “Not leaking air. But may be compromised from environmental factors.” Mac looked around. “What environmental factors?”
Gris checked the readings on his own suit, the sensors were definitely picking up something strange. Something they weren’t calibrated to fully understand.
“I don’t like it, Mac. Go back, I’ll check out the office.”
“Nah, if its compromised, I’ve already got whatever it was. Can’t be any worse if I leave now.”
Gris couldn’t believe him “Yes it could, you bloody idiot. It could be like radiation, the higher the dose the worse it gets, now leave.”
“I’m not leaving you, man. So, you can either have Wuuz lock me here, in which case I’ll still get dosed. Or we can go see if there are any survivors in that office.” Mac grinned, his infuriating ‘you aren’t going to convince me’ grin.
“Fine. Let’s do this quickly then.”
They hustled over to the office and Mac retrieved the drone. The windows were shuttered and the door closed. There were no obvious signs of violence.
Gris banged on the door “Hello? Anyone alive? We got your distress call. We’re here to help, if we can.”
He thought he heard voices from the other side, then the door unlocked.
Gris pushed the door open and saw the six dead bodies immediately. Blood had crusted as it flowed out of their mouth, ears, eyes and nose. Five humans and another Virtanian. There was no-on else inside.
“Shit, man. We’re late.”
“I thought I heard a voice.” Gris told him. “Hello, did anyone survive this?”
“Sort of.” A woman’s voice said.
Gris and Mac both looked around, checking under the desk and in the cupboards. There was no-one there.
“Who’s speaking and where are you?”
“I’m Falia Tone and my body is by your feet.”
Gris took a step back, motioning for Mac to do the same. “You’re dead?”
“Yes, the Rousters killed all of us.”
“So how am I speaking to you?”
“I uploaded us into the ships central system once we realised what was happening. Had to dump a lot of data to make space for us.”
That would explain the weird things Wuuz had found.
“How many did you save?” Mac asked.
“Just three of us, the others didn’t transfer before they died. We ran out of time.” Gris could hear the frustration in her voice.
“Can we get you out?”
“We’re data now, all we need to move is enough storage. Do you have enough space on your ships computer?”
“Let’s find out. Wuuz?” Gris asked, knowing she was monitoring the conversation.
“Regrets, Falia Tone. Our ship’s computer does not have the storage space for even one third of the data you and your crew take up.”
“Shit.” Said the voice of Falia.
“However, there may be another solution.”
“Tell us then, Wuuz. Don’t drag this out, I want to get gone before the Rousters come back for what is left.”
“Our bots have positronic brains. Their storage capacity is much greater than that of the ship itself. We will have to format their brains, however, in order to accommodate the survivors of Artivian-9.”
The bots, now that was a good idea. They came in all shapes and sizes, cutters, carriers, the delicate dismantlers. They were the reason Gris and Mac could get by with just Wuuz as their crew.
“Great idea, Wuuz. Get to formatting. We’ll transfer as soon as possible.”
“I must inform you, my Captain, that if we do this, the bots we use will never be able to function for us again. We can use them as storage, but their brains learn their functions, they cannot be simply reloaded.”
That gave Gris half a moment’s pause. The bots were very expensive and having to replace three of them could well bankrupt him at this point.
“Falia, is your rescue covered under the company’s insurance policy? We’re going to do this anyway, but it would be nice to know I’m not going to lose everything because we’re nice guys.”
Mac nodded in agreement, neither one of them would have left this crew behind.
“We are. We’ll make sure you are compensated fairly.”
“Right on.” Yelled Mac. “Wuuz, get formatting. Transfer as soon as you can.”
“Falia, Wuuz is a navigator, not a tech. Can you talk her through the procedure for transfer? We want to get each of you in your own bot, not scrambled together.”
“Once the bots are formatted, just get her to connect them to our system. Through the probe you attached to the bridge will do fine. We can take it from there.”
“Excellent. You guys get on with that. We’ll go tell Yessin.”
“Yessin survived?” Falia sounded surprised “I thought the Rousters got him.”
“I guess he’s harder to kill than you all thought.” Gris laughed. “Wuuz, get started. Let me know when the transfer is in progress.
Gris and Mac used the lift to go back to where they had left Yessin. He was nowhere to be found. They spent precious minutes looking for him on that floor, calling out for him.
Wuuz called “My Captains, the transfer has begun.”
“That’s good news, Wuuz. Have you got Yessin on any of the sensors?” Gris said.
“I have not. Long range scanners are picking up a vessel heading this way at an unsafe speed, however.”
Gris felt all of his saliva dry up in an instant. He looked to Mac, who seemed unfazed by the news.
“What’s up with you?”
“The Rousters are coming back.”
“Probably. So, why are you scared. We don’t have any cargo they might want.”
“They won’t know that until we’ve been boarded and killed!” Yelled Gris.
Mac had a faraway look in his eyes.
“Mac, are you with me?”
Mac turned his head away “I’ve got you, man. Go back to the ship. Get us ready for departure. I’ll find Yessin and bring him along.”
Before Gris could say anything, Mac walked away. He was very tempted to lock down his friend and drag him back, but it would make departure faster if they split up.
Getting in the lift he commend Mac “Don’t take too long.”
“I know what I need to do. Don’t worry.” Mac replied.
Gris ran down the corridors, heading back to the airlock where they had docked. Yessin was waiting for him there.
“Where did you go?” Gris demanded “Mac’s down there looking for you. Come on, we need to go.”
Yessin gave a sad smile and shook his head “Can’t.”
“What do you mean can’t?”
“How exactly am I supposed to go over to your ship?”
Gris started to gesture at the door the stopped. Yessin was a hologram, he wasn’t really there. He would need to be transferred over too. They had forgotten about him.
His face must have betrayed his thoughts because Yessin spoke again, calmly “It’s fine. I’ve known all along that I would be staying here.”
“I’ve got to get Mac back here. He’s out there looking for you.”
“Go, get everything ready. I think I know where to find him.”
“I can just call him. Tell him to get back here.”
Yessin smiled “I don’t think you can.”
Furious, Gris called Mac “Mac. I found Yessin. He’s here at the airlock. Get your arse over here so we can leave.”
Silence.
“Mac? Mac, come in.”
Still nothing.
Gris glared at Yessin “What do you know?”
“I know what killed my crewmates. It was a vestra bomb. They set it off outside of the office and let those nasty energy waves do their work. That whole level is full of vestra energy. Nasty way to go. They knew they were dying the whole time it was happening.”
The crack in Mac’s suit, the environmental danger. Gris felt tears fill his eyes.
“Your friend will have realised by now. I heard you talk about the crack. You can’t save him. You don’t have the power or space to transfer him, and you really don’t have the time.”
“Mac.” Gris whispered, feeling the tears roll down his cheeks.
“Get aboard your ship. Save my friends. I’ll be with him until the end.”
“Thank you.”
Yessin nodded, then gestured for him to go.
Gris ran through the door, slamming the close button as he ran.
He raced up to the bridge where Wuuz was still in place.
“Have the transfers completed?” He asked.
“Yes, my Captain.”
There was a metallic thudding behind him and three dismantlers walked onto the bridge.
“Thank you.” Said Falia, the blue one. Her delicate tendrils pointed at the green dismantler “This is Tok Sho.”
“I am Weston Marks.” Said the red one.
“Pleased to meet you all.” Gris said, rapidly running through the decoupling procedure.
“Your ship is small.” said Weston.
“She’s big enough for our needs. We have expandable storage we can tow if we pick up a big load.” Gris was only half paying attention to them, he wanted to get the ship moving as soon as possible.
The clunk as the ships detached echoed through the bridge.
“We are clear, my Captain.” Wuuz told him.
“Get us away, let’s hope we can use the bulk of their ship to hide us until we jump.”
Gris felt a slight tug of acceleration as Wuuz manoeuvred them down the length of the Artivian-9.
“You guys are clear.” Mac’s voice came over the communicator.
“We are. Where are you, Mac? How are you doing?”
Mac laughed “I’m dying, man. But its all good. I’m in control.”
Gris fought to keep his sadness away while they tried to escape. “Where are you hiding?”
A louder laugh came across “I’m not hiding. I told you, I’m in control.”
The freighter ignited its manoeuvring thrusters and started to turn away from them.
“Mac, what are you doing?”
“Something impulsive.”
“Mac, that doesn’t answer the question. You can’t outrun them.” Gris felt that old frustration with his friend fighting the sadness.
“Look, Gris, we both knew it was only a matter of time until the Herdok’s got me killed. This way, I’m using it to save you.”
“He has Herdok’s?” Tok Sho asked “He should have been on planet receiving treatment.”
“Yeah, he should.” Gris wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive himself for not making Mac take that break.
“My Captain, the Artivian-9 is heading towards the incoming ship.”
“Mac, what the hell are you doing?” Gris yelled, but already knowing the answer.
“At that speed, they’ve got no fine manoeuvring. So, I’m going to accelerate towards them and plant myself directly in their path. I’m a lot bigger than them. By the time they realise what’s going on, it will be far too late.” Mac was roaring with laughter by the time he finished speaking.
The Artivian-9’s main engine increased power, the deep blue turning to a bright white as the bulky freighter accelerated.
“Thanks, buddy.” Gris said. “Is Yessin there with you?”
“No need to thank me, its what needs doing, plus its fun. And yeah, Yessin is right here.”
Gris heard the crew bots muttering to each other, but he blocked them out to direct Wuuz to get them as far away from the collision as they could.
The Artivian-9 and Rouster ship were directly behind them as they accelerated away.
“You good, Mac?” Gris asked.
“Well, my ears and nose are bleeding. I’m pretty sure my brain is actually melting. But on the other hand, this is going to be a really big bang. So, yeah, I’d say I’m good, man.”
Gris had to smile.
“Oh, Yessin wants me to tell the crew something. He says, he knows what they think and they are right. He’s just trying to help while he can.”
Gris glanced a the crew bots, but they weren’t built with faces, the three blank shells simply focused in his direction.
“I’m sure I’ll find out what that is about later.”
“Yo, Gris.”
“Yes, Mac.”
“I should have maybe listened to you about a break, but think about it, if I had, those three would be forever dead.”
“I haven’t decided if that’s an acceptable trade yet, Mac.” Gris watched the screens as the Artivian-9 closed in on the Rouster ship, which was trying to decelerate and turn, having finally realised what was going on.
“How about this trade then, man. After I do this, how many people are going to live because the Rousters are dead.” Mac was still laughing, but Gris could hear the coughing as his lungs chewed themselves to pieces.
“I’m going to spend days thinking about it.”
“Well, I say its worth it. See you on the other side, brother.”
On the screen, Gris watched the Artivian-9 swing sideways, blocking any possible routes for the Rouster ship to avoid it. A huge light filled the darkness and then the ships were gone.
“Wuuz, Jump us out of here.” He commanded, before bowing his head and crying.
Gris was drunk. He hadn’t meant to get drunk, just to raise a single glass in memory of Mac. That had been followed by another for Mac’s heroic sacrifice. Which had become one more in memory of that laugh.
It had snowballed from there.
The blue dismantler clunked into the doorway of his cabin.
“Which one are you?” Gris slurred.
“Falia. I am sorry for your loss.”
Gris waved the empty glass at her “I’m sorry for yours. But you’ll have to wait and see if they can get you a clone body so you can drink away your misery. So, I’ll drink for you right now.”
He went to pour more vodka into the glass when Falia’s tendrils gently plucked the glass and bottle from his hands.
“Hey! Gimme!” He protested.
“In a moment. I need to talk to you about Yessin.”
“What about him? Thin, pale, scared. Hologram. What’s there to talk about?” He was tired, should have a kip.
“I saw Yessin get gunned down when the Rousters chased us. There was only his shoe left behind.”
Gris flattened his face against his desk “Yeah. Live Yessin got gunned down. Then his hologram gets turned on. No wonder he lost four days.”
“That’s what I’m trying to talk to you about, Captain. Please wake up for a moment.”
Her tendrils gently lifted his chin.
“You got good control of them quick. Wanna job? Missing some crew.” he slurred.
“Maybe. This is not as bad as I feared. But I need you to think, Captain. Why do you say he was a hologram?”
“He said he was.” This was stupid, why couldn’t she let him sleep.
“You saw how much ships data we had to overwrite to save just three of us, that’s without projecting us into the real world. There was no room for anyone else. I just know one thing, we never saw Yessin. Neither did your navigator. He appeared on no scans.”
Gris felt the blissful ignorance of the alcohol fading “What’re you saying?”
“I’m saying the Artivian-9 had no capacity for a hologram. It had no projectors. There has never been a ship’s hologram aboard her.”
Sobriety beckoned, hurtfully “So, what were you right about? That message of his.”
“That we did see him die. Truly.”
Sobriety could piss right off.
“Give me the vodka, I need to drink and hope that they both made it to a better place.”
Falia gave him back the bottle and left him to drink to his friend, and hers.
© Robert Spalding 2020
Ghost Stories by Robert Spalding 