The Maiden Voyage - Part 11
Life In The 31st Century - The Misadventures of Derek Dark, Intergalactic Courier.
Welcome to part eleven, cue the training montage music…
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Heading Out
Louie continued to glare at me after the Admiral had left.
“What?” I asked, daring him to answer.
“Have you any idea who that was?” Louie asked.
“No, and I’ve no idea who you are, either. And for that matter, what any of this has to do with me.”
Before Louie could respond, I continued, “Or why you’ve been supposedly watching me. How creepy is that? Am I being setup to take the fall here? Can’t you at least be honest with me for once? Give the condemned man the truth. Wait, this food, is this supposed to be my last meal?”
“Can’t you just shut up for once?” Louie said. “Believe it or not, I’m actually here to help you.”
“I thought I was the one supposedly helping you.”
“Look Derek, we need to work together on this. Su’nak is obviously desperate or else he wouldn’t be making this offer.”
“But you already have the drugs. Why go through all this effort?”
“The haze is only a part of the TolMek’s plan. What we really need is Maiden. She has a lot more knowledge of what’s going on and how we can put a stop to it.”
“As well as clearing my name.”
“That as well, so if there’s a chance to rescue her, then we should take it.”
“I guess so.”
“Good. Now, as pleasant as this little chat is, we’ve still got a job to do and the window of opportunity is closing. So let’s get a move on.”
Before I could respond, Louie had headed out of the door. I hastily grabbed a few more sausage rolls and followed behind him, again marvelling at how a man that was only three foot two could walk faster than someone with legs twice his size.
“Louie, wait up. Where are going?”
“I told you, I’m taking you home.”
“Wait, what? Back to my ship?”
“Our ship,” echoed back as Louie turned the corner. When I caught up with him, he was already at the turbo lift, tapping his foot. I wasn’t sure if his impatience was with me or the lift that was failing to live up to its name. The doors swooshed open as the lift finally arrived. I was beginning to like this ship. “Hangar deck, bay six,” Louie said as soon as the doors had closed behind us.
“So why don’t you just find some other idiot to return the haze to him? Why does it have to be me?”
“Su’nak still thinks you’ve got the cargo and that you’ve probably stashed it using some of your old family tricks —“
“I never, I haven’t done —“
“Derek, I don’t care about that. What I do care about is that if anyone else but you tried to make the trade, Su’nak will know it’s a setup.”
“But I still don’t understand. If this Purple Haze is as dangerous as you say, then why are you so keen to give it back?” I asked, the look of confusion rapidly spreading across my face.
“Well…” Louie said, “The thing is… Purple Haze is a very experimental drug, and not very stable. It would appear to be particularly sensitive to things like Epsilon radiation, which apparently renders it completely inert.”
“Are you saying that the haze is…”
“Well, there’s a little known GalCorp regulation that specifically states that all salvage reclaimed from deep space should undergo a detailed quarantine scan before being allowed on board. What’s more interesting is that this vessel has been trialling a new type of scanner that is powered by—“
“Epsilon radiation?”
“Exactly. See, this is why I have faith in you Derek, you catch on quick - when you’re not being a dick.”
“But won’t they know? The TolMeks, about the haze, I mean?”
“Eventually, probably. But by then it’ll be too late, with any luck.”
“You can’t believe they’ll fall for that, surely?”
“Why wouldn’t they? As far as the SRF are concerned, you’re still in hiding with the TolMek’s property. I doubt they even know what it is, other than the TolMeks want it back very badly and if they don’t get it back, it’ll be their necks on the line.”
“When you put it like that. But why would Su’nak offer to trade?”
“They obviously can’t get what they need out of Maiden, and by now, Su’nak will be desperate enough to risk anything. Hence his offer.”
“And you expect him to keep his end of the bargain? You obviously don’t know Su’nak Merek. What’s stopping him vaporising me with another brace of torpedoes the moment he’s got what he wants?”
“Oh, I know Su’nak very well. And no, I don’t expect anything out of that treacherous toaster head. I’m sure he’ll try to kill you both unless the TolMeks have explicitly told him to return you both alive.”
“Again, top marks for a rousing recruitment speech, expertly delivered.” I said, trying to pour as much sarcasm into my response as I could muster.
“Don’t worry, the tech boys are fitting a few upgrades as we speak. So we’ll have a few tricks up our sleeve, plus the Calvary will be on hand as backup and will swoop in as soon as the transfers made and arrest everyone.”
“Wait, what do you mean we?”
“You don’t think we’d be sending you on your own, do you? Your job is to make contact with Su’nak. I’ll handle everything else.”
***
Before I could respond, the turbo lift pinged, and the doors swooshed open once more.
From what I could see, the deck appeared to stretch almost the full length of the ship. “Wow, I’ll bet this bird could hold several fully equipped wings of single-seat fighters, as well as at least three troop carriers and their associated supply tankers.”
Louie looked at me with one eyebrow raised. “That’s seems awfully specific, Derek.”
“What?” I said, returning his look. “I play a lot of military vid-game-sims.”
I gazed along the length of the deck. “However, this place seems suspiciously empty.” I said to Louie, “doesn’t seem like an awful lot of backup around here.”
“I told you this ship is brand new. It’s operating with a skeleton crew at the moment. It’s not scheduled to be fully operational for at least half a rotation. Things will look a lot different then.”
“But what about now? What about if things go wrong?”
“A few of the defence batteries have been installed and should provide a minimum level of cover,” Louie said. “Anything more, and she’d look much too much like a warship. And with the way relations are strained between GalCorp and Shak at the moment, that wouldn’t be a good call.”
Louie headed off across the deck before I could question him further. Besides, I had a far more pressing matter on my mind.
Ahead of Louie, in the corner of the hangar deck, was my ship, my home.
It was a long walk across the hangar bay to my ship, and I was determined to get there first. The sweat was running off my brow and my back was soaking by the time I arrived, puffing and panting.
Louie still looked fresh as he sauntered up shortly after.
Home. The sight of it brought a tear to my eye. Normally, entrance to the ship is via the main airlocks high on the side, which are fine when docked in space. But since they had parked her in the hangar, the access ramp was down. I ran forward, eager to get back on board as quickly as possible.
The service crew were just packing up as I got close and I could see the telltale signs of a few modifications all along the dorsal surface, “what have you done to my ship?”
The lead engineer looked at Louie, who nodded before acknowledging me. “Mr Darke, we’ve upgraded this vessel as per the Captain’s request.”
“What upgrades? Why? I requested nothing. I’m the Captain of this ship and I have the paperwork to prove it.”
Louie put his hand on my arm as if to pull me back. “we’ll talk about this later, Derek. We have bigger things to worry about first.”
“Yeah, like Angel.” I gestured a thumb towards Louie, not sure how I should address him in public. “Err, he said someone infected her with some kind of virus. Have you been able to sort that out?”
The engineer nodded, “yes sir, there was a mutating cypher worm that was running through the system blocking any attempt to reboot. But we were able to utilise a legacy remote access protocol and purge the memory banks.”
“What? You erased Angel?”
“No sir. There is a protected region in the central core where the onboard AI regularly backs up its personality matrix just in case of situations like these.”
“Phew. So, she’s ok then?”
“Once we’d completed the purge, we used the matrix to restore the ship’s AI to its last known state. We also took the liberty of performing a few recommended updates to the software as well.”
“You did WHAT!”
“GalCorp protocols clearly state that all software installations on company ships must be….”
“For the last time, it’s not a company ship, it’s my ship and if you’ve done anything to Angel, I’ll personally…., I’ll…, she’s my…”
“Derek, that’s enough.” Louie interrupted me. “These guys are the best engineers in the fleet and I’m sure you’ll find Angel exactly as you left her.”
I didn’t wait for Louie to say anything else as I barged past the engineers and ran up the access ramp and in to the cargo bay.
“Angel, can you hear me? Are you ok? Are you… fully… operational?”
Affirmative Derek, system reboot complete and software upgrade status at one hundred per cent
“Thank god.” Looking round, if there had been a pillar or a post, I’d have hugged it. I didn’t realise how much I’d missed her voice until I heard it again. “So what happened? After my pod was ejected?”
Oh Derek, I’m so sorry about that. As soon as I realised what Maiden was doing, I tried to disable the cargo systems, but I was locked out. I was so worried
“Don’t worry about it. I was fine. I had plenty of supplies. So what was the last thing you remember?”
I’m not sure, my memory banks were corrupted. The last thing I remember was Maiden overriding the self destruct program and then uploading some kind of malware. I was locked out of all systems before I had a chance to respond. Then it all went blank until I was rebooted
“But you’re all okay now?”
Affirmative, all systems are online and operating within defined parameters
“That Maiden’s got a heck of a lot to answer for.” I said.
Derek, you must remember. It has been difficult for her. She’s as much the victim in all of this as you are. She’s just trying to protect her family
“I know but…”
“If you two lovebirds have finished getting reacquainted, can we get in with the mission, please?” Louie said, interrupting our conversation as he pushed his way past and on to the bridge section.
I followed behind and my jaw dropped when I saw the access panels open and the mess of cables that were routed across the floor.
“What have you done to my ship?”
“Derek, do you want to head off on what could easily be some kind of ambush without the latest GalCorp gizmos to back you up?”
“I suppose not, but…”
“No buts Derek. This is happening now. And you can either be part of the crew or part of the next rock busting detail heading for prison. Your choice.”
“But this is my ship Louie. You know it and you can’t just take her like this.”
“For now, just think of it as an extended borrow. Like I said, we need Su’nak to believe you made it back to the Bucket intact and still have the haze. If another ship turns up in its place, then the ruse won’t work.”
“I’m not stupid, and neither is Su’nak. Are you sure this plan of yours is going to work?”
“I’ll admit it’s risky, which is why I’d rather do this with you than without you. I’ll handle the flying, and all you’ll have to do is just stand here and tell Su’nak exactly what I tell you too.”
“Woah, there, mister. I don’t care who you are or what rank you hold. This is my ship and if anyone is going to be doing the flying, then it’s me.”
Louie just smiled. “Well, you better get acquainted with the upgrades then,” he paused and I could hear the sarcasm in his voice, “captain.”
“Is that my old gaming rig?” I asked, looking at the new control console that was evidently a recent addition.
“Don’t forget to check the updated manifest. The tech boys have left us a few surprises that might come in useful.” Louie said, checking off the status lights against a corresponding list on his pad.
The flight plan has been downloaded into the astronav circuits, Captain
Louie took up position in front of a new navigation and short range scanner station. Ahead of us, the hangar bay shields were being deactivated. Opening the comms channel, Louie reported in. “All systems green control, alpha team ex one ready for departure.”
“Affirmative, ex one, good hunting,” crackled the response over the comms unit.
“Derek, you have control. Take us out.” Louie said.
“Affirmative alpha ex one.“ I said, trying to inject as much sarcasm as possible into my reply whilst making sure I didn’t scratch the new paint job on the hangar wall.
It felt good to be at the helm, heading into the deep dark again. I was starting to feel that we might have the smallest chance of actually pulling this off.
Oh Derek, you’re making me so happy
Angel’s metallic voice squeaked once more through the ship’s comms system.
You’re finally growing up into the man I knew you could be. Oh, your mother and father would be so, so proud. You going off on a dangerous mission to rescue the woman you love from the clutches of evil space pirates
“Err, thanks Angel, but for the record I’m not in love with Maiden, she’s err, just a friend,” I stuttered, as I wasn’t sure of how much either I or Angel was actually supposed to know. “And yes, thank you for reminding me we’re about to risk life and limb for the sake of GalCorp’s stock price.”
Oh Derek, don’t you worry about the business. You must do what your heart tells you is right. You are the captain of the ship after all
I could see Louie out of the corner of my eye, silently shaking as the tears of laughter rolled down his face.
“It’s not like I had a choice,” I said. “It was this or a lifetime breaking rocks on a prison planet.”
“Oh Derek, you’d make me so happy if we could get this most appropriately named ship moving and begin this dangerous mission. Don’t forget the evil space pirates have got a serious head start on us and the clock is ticking.”
I glared at Louie and threw him a cushion. “Then you’ll need this to see over the console in the copilot’s chair.”
Thanks for reading, part 12 will be out next Friday. I’ve also updated the index page if you’ve missed parts 1-10. (Life In The 31st Century Index Page).
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