The Maiden Voyage - Part 5
Life In The 31st Century - The Misadventures of Derek Dark, Intergalactic Courier.
Welcome to part five. You join us just as some unexpected (and unwelcome) visitors turn up…
This series is being serialised every Sci-Friday but if you’d rather skip ahead and get the entire story (and my deep gratitude) direct to your reading app of choice over at https://books2read.com/themaidenvoyage. UPDATE: The Maiden Voyage is now also available as an audiobook for those of you who like that kind of thing from the Google Play store.
Unexpected Visitors
I never had a reason to disagree with my grandfather’s warning about unexpected visitors in deep space..
I rushed over to the scanner as the alert once more bathed the flight deck in its usual seizure inducing red and blue flashing pattern.
“What’s going on?” Maiden asked, the tremble in her voice becoming clearer. “Are we in trouble?”
“I’m not sure. With a bit of luck, we’ll have enough time to avoid them or find a nearby asteroid field to hide in.”
I ran to the sensor console to identify who, or what was approaching.
“Err Angel, why is the long range sensor turned off?”
There was a definite pause before the comms unit squeaked back into life.
Well, Captain, you didn’t actually give the order to turn it on
I bit my lip. “Angel, would you be so kind as to activate all the scanners so we can work out who is approaching and turn off the flashing lights?”
Affirmative
“And the alarms, please?”
Whilst I waited for the scanners to come online, and for my eyes and ears to recover from the latest assault by the alarm system, a thought popped into my head. “Hang on a minute. Maiden, if the scanners are turned off, how did you know someone is approaching?”
“I looked out the window.”
“Oh.” The pregnant pause gave birth to rapid action as I rushed over to the aft viewport to see a very large and very aggressive looking battle cruiser all but on top of us. Its sides bristled with a myriad of blasters, cannons, and missile launchers. All of which seemed to point directly at us.
They were close enough that even the insignia painted on the side was visible. I closed my eyes and prayed I was mistaken. If that was who I thought it was, we were in serious trouble.
Incoming call
Angel’s squeaky voice was the last thing I wanted to hear now, but at least it wasn’t another alarm.
“Accept the call and broadcast it over the comms channel. We might as well all hear what our visitors have to say.”
The comms system beeped its acceptance and my heart sank as a familiar booming voice filled the flight deck.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the flagship of the infamous DIC fleet, welcome to Northengen space Mr Darke…”
I quickly interrupted the comms. “Beeeeep, sorry, all the representatives from Darke Intergalactic Couriers are busy right now and your call can’t be taken. Please leave a message after the beep. Beeeeeep.”
“Enough of your stupid games, you cretin. Halt your engines and drop your shields, otherwise we’ll leave you and your sorry looking ship scattered across the system in a million tiny pieces.”
“Oh Su’nak,” I replied, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise it was you. How can I help?”
Su’nak Merek was a commander in the Shak Resistance Force. A fearsome warrior with a well-deserved reputation for cruelty and abuse. A heavily ladened warship helped him keep that reputation foremost in his enemies’ thoughts. An array of cybernetic prosthetics were a testament to his willingness to embrace problems head on.
I looked across at Maiden and I could see the look of terror on her face and I did my best to reassure her. I just wish someone would reassure me.
“It’s ok,” I lied, “the SRF are the local militia within the Northengen region and I’ve had dealings with them before.” I wiped my sweaty palms on the legs of my trousers and hoped Maiden didn’t notice. “They’re probably just on a routine shakedown to see if they can take a cut out of any contraband we might have onboard. With any luck, they’ll let us pass without too much grief.”
Shak is the largest planetary system within the Northengen region. Miraculously they’d kept GalCorp expansion at bay through a series of focused guerrilla campaigns. Campaigns that hit GalCorp where it hurt - right in the pocket. And Su’nak was high on GalCorp’s ‘would very much like to disappear’ list.
It was common knowledge that the SRF were also muscle-for-hire for anyone with pockets deep enough. The word around the station was that the TolMek crime syndicate was looking to establish a presence in this sector. I’m sure Su’nak and his goons would be more than happy to oblige.
I once heard my grandfather boasting into his beer about being a smuggler for the TolMeks in his youth and how eventually he escaped that life. I remember asking him about it a while later, but he denied all knowledge of it.
“It would appear Derek,” Su’naks voice echoed over the comms channel and a feeling of dread ran down my spine, “that you have something the TolMeks want. Something very precious to them. And they want it back.”
I gulped and could see Maiden standing as close to the bulkhead as possible. She was visibly shaking and consciously trying to avoid making eye contact.
“Honestly, Su’nak, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. I’m just doing a standard delivery run.”
“The TolMeks have asked me to retrieve it for them and will pay quite a lot to ensure its safe return.”
Su’nak paused.
“But. They’re also prepared to pay to have all evidence of it removed like it never existed. So it’s your call. The easy way, or the wipe-all-trace-of-you-from-the-face-of-the-galaxy way?”
“Wait, Su’nak please. I don’t have anything valuable onboard and certainly nothing that the TolMeks could possibly want. Are you sure you have the correct ship?”
“Oh, it’s the correct ship. Our agents have tracked your Cerulean friend halfway across the quadrant. She knows what the TolMeks want back. And we’re here to collect it, and her.”
Maiden was shaking so much she fell to her knees and raised her hands in supplication as if she was about to beg for her life.
“Mr Derek. Please, you must help me. He is lying. You must not let them capture me.”
“Let me guess, help me ‘O’ Mr Derek, you’re my only hope?”
Maiden nodded vigorously.
Su’nak‘s voice came through the comms system again. “You have exactly point one time unit to power down and prepare to receive borders or we’ll start shooting.”
A volley of blaster fire skimmed the surface of the shields and reduced their integrity by ten per cent.
“Woah, Su’nak, what the frack are you doing? You said point one unit.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, my mistake. I meant point one before we start shooting to kill. You now have point zero nine and counting. Tick Tock Derek, tick tock,” crackled Su’nak‘s response.
I racked my brain for options and quickly realised my only chance was to give Su’nak what he wanted. Throw myself at his mercy, hand over Maiden, and hope to walk away with most of my ship intact. If this was a vid-game sim, I’d activate the blasters, fly rings round that toaster head and write my name in streaks of fire across their broadside.
But this wasn’t a game, this was real life and besides, rust buckets don’t come equipped with blasters.
Oh, who was I kidding? Su’nak was not known for his mercy. There was no way neither I nor Maiden were getting out of this in one piece. We had to make a run for it somehow, or at the very least, try.
“Ok, ok, please stop shooting. I’m starting the power down sequence now.”
Thanks for reading, part 6 will be out next Friday. I’ve also updated the index page if you’ve missed parts 1-4. (Life In The 31st Century Index Page).
If you can’t wait to see what happens next then you can get immediate access to this ebook (and now also in Audio) from your favourite ebook retailer of choice over at https://books2read.com/themaidenvoyage. Alternatively please consider subscribing to my publication to get notified when each new episode drops.
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