The Maiden Voyage - Part 7
Life In The 31st Century - The Misadventures of Derek Dark, Intergalactic Courier.
Welcome to part seven. You (re)join us to find out what happens when a vicious space pirate launches a full spread of photon torpedoes in an asteroid field (and no this is not a vidgame sim).
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.
Abandon Ship
The best thing about space travel apart from the view was the serene sense of peace. Especially on the long runs out into deep space. Once the ship is on the correct heading and the desired velocity reached, it’s time for the engines to wind down. Apart from the background hum of the oxygen scrubbers, there’s not a sound to be heard, and nothing but the infinite night for company. With the running lights turned off, you can sit next to the viewport and drift off into a galaxy sized sensory deprivation tank.
Spacers have been driven to the brink of insanity by just sitting and staring into the endless void. Starship builders have developed advanced AI systems to provide nagging reminders to complete the simple things in life. Like maintaining a suitable sleep cycle, eating, and basic toiletry.
Derek, it’s time to wake up
“Ugh.”
Wakey wakey sleepy head
“Just five more minutes, mommy.”
DEREK! Wake up, we’re in real danger and Maiden needs your help. Get your sorry backside up right now
Yep, the nagging AI is a vital part of every ship’s system.
Thankfully, the alarms had stopped and the low level emergency lighting didn’t aggravate the thumping pain in my head too much. It took a moment longer for the rest of my senses to catch up and remember what had happened.
The torpedoes.
I sat up quickly. “Ow, what the frack?” I’d landed underneath the main console and, unfortunately, they did not engineer the underside for comfort.
“Angel, status report. What happened? How bad is the damage? How much power do we have? Where’s Maiden? Is she hurt? Is the ship ok? What should I do? Are we going to die out here?” The questions blurted out thick and fast. Not waiting for answers, I slid out from underneath the console and cautiously tried to stand up before deciding it was a bad idea and sank back on to the floor.
Derek, calm down, I’ll tell you what I know, which right about now is not a lot as most of the sensors are offline. The ship appears intact, but we are drifting in the asteroid field. The primary power grid is down and life support is being maintained by the emergency batteries. I have activated the automatic distress signal. We just have to sit tight and wait.
“No, you must turn it off. Su’nak can use it to find us.”
Her voice was music to my ears. “Maiden, you’re alive.”
I tried to stand once more. For some crazy reason, I had a desire to give her and everything around me a hug. Propping myself up on the bulkhead, I took a shaky step towards her and promptly collapsed again as my head continued to spin.
“No thanks to your crazy flying,” she replied. “Su’nak is still out there and he’ll be looking for us.”
“He can’t get to us in the asteroid field. His ship is far too big to get through.” I said.
“He doesn’t have to. He can just blast his way in or sit and wait for us to die.”
“Either way, it sounds like keeping the distress beacon running is a good idea.” I said.
“Not if it leads him directly to us,” she replied, “with the beacon off, we’re just another piece of floating space debris. With any luck, he’ll not be able to distinguish us from an asteroid.”
“Angel, cancel the distress beacon on the authority of Captain Derek P...”
Okay, okay, no need for the theatrics. I’ve already turned it off, but you better come up with a plan soon as the emergency batteries can only keep the life support system going for less than half a cycle
I collapsed back in the pilot’s chair. I needed to think.
Maiden stood muted, looking out through the viewport.
My mind was racing. What the hell had I got myself into and, more importantly, how was I going to get out of it in one piece? But first I had a bucket load of questions for the one person who didn’t seem so keen on sharing the answers.
“For fracks sake Maiden. What did you do to upset the TolMeks so badly?” I asked, “I know they can be a bunch of raving psychopaths, but mobilising the SRF to hunt you down seems a little extreme, even for them.”
“I stole something from them,” she confessed, “something very valuable to them, something they want back but they mustn’t get.”
I nodded, “yep, Su’nak mentioned that. So what did you steal? Can’t you just give it back and say sorry?”
Maiden shook her head, “weren’t you listening? They mustn’t get it. It would mean the end of everything.”
“What are you talking about? We’re about to face the end of us.”
“What do you know about the Cerulean’s, my people?”
I shrugged my shoulders, “Nothing, I’ve never heard of them before. You’re the first one I’ve ever met.”
“Few people have. We live a plain and secluded life on giant colony ships sailing the dark paths between the stars. The vast majority of my kin live their entire lives onboard, never encountering another soul.”
“So what’s that got to do with the TolMeks?”
“Even though we try to be self-sufficient, there are times…” Maiden paused as if what she was about to say was difficult for her to admit. “There are times when some of us, usually the young, harbour a desire to leave the ship and experience other races and cultures. My people refer to it as Agnirpsmur.”
“So, is that what you did? You ran off and met the TolMeks on your Agninurp-thingy.”
“It’s Ag-nirp-smur,” she said, enunciating the word carefully, “and no, it wasn’t me”, Maiden paused again, “it was my grandfather.” I could see this was obviously going to be a tough conversation for her.
“You know what, it’s fine,” I said. “You don’t have to tell me. It’s not like it’s going to make a difference anyway. We’ll be dead as soon as Su’nak finds us.”
I had a flash memory of an ancient phrase my mother used to say. Something about speaking of someone called the devil and just at that moment, the comms unit crackled into life.
“Oh Derek. Are you still alive? Did you think you could just simply hide out from me in an asteroid field?”
“Great, Su’nak is back”, I reached for the handset to respond to him with something suitably pithy.
“Wait!” Maiden shook her head and her eyelashes flared.
I paused, letting her finish.
“If you reply, you’ll just broadcast our position and make it easier for them to track us.”
“Dammit, you’re right.” Su’nak, you evil fracking psycho, taunting me into revealing our location. Why didn’t I ever have ideas like that?
Boom.
Even though sound doesn’t travel through the vacuum of space, we could feel the rumbling aftermath of a new explosion as a shock-wave buffeted the ship.
“What the frack?”
Several more shocks continued to rock the ship.
Maiden raised her head from the scanner console. “It’s Su’nak. He appears to be blasting a corridor through the asteroid belt to get to us.”
“You mean he’s literally blasting his way in? For fracks sake, Maiden, what did you steal?”
“My life, and the future of my people.”
“Huh?”
“My grandfather made a deal with the TolMeks and I was the price he agreed to pay. I was to be Naka TolMek’s wife.”
I was speechless. Naka TolMek was the first-born son of Nori TolMek, the current head of the crime syndicate, and Naka was rumoured to be next in line.
“When my grandfather realised they had deceived him, Naka had him killed before he could expose the truth, but I escaped. Now all I want to do is take my grandfather’s remains back to our people as a warning.”
“And that’s why you chose me? Hoping to slip away without being noticed?”
Maiden nodded, “The TolMeks have eyes and ears everywhere. But this is now all my fault. I must surrender and go to him and he might let you go.”
“Then you don’t know your future husband very well then, do you?” I snapped back.
Maiden’s face dropped. She ran off the flight deck as the tears ran down her cheeks.
Derek, I estimate at his current rate, Su’nak will reach us in about point two-five units.
“Angel, please, give me a tick to think!”
In lieu of a better idea, I would suggest you and Maiden take the lifeboat and hide out in the asteroid field.
“Wait, what? No, we can’t do that. What about you?”
If Su’nak doesn’t destroy the ship first, then I can at least activate the self-destruct mechanism when they get close. It should buy you enough time to escape
“Wait, we have a self destruct mechanism, since when?”
I can download a backup copy of my neural matrix into the lifeboat’s storage, I’ll be fine
“But what about the ship? We can’t just let Su’nak and his thugs destroy it. It’s our life, our home.”
I’ll transmit a non-fault accident report, the insurance should cover a replacement, albeit smaller vessel
For the second time this cycle I was at a loss for words and Maiden wasn’t the only one with tears on her face.
Derek, there’s no time left. Go now, they’ll be here any moment
It’s not a law per se that all ships must have a lifeboat. For starters, it would be nigh on impossible to enforce. But it would have to be a foolhardy person who’d venture out into the cold, dark night without some form of backup in case of catastrophic failure. The Bucket had a single use lifeboat that was accessed via a separate airlock next to the main cargo deck. It could comfortably fit about ten people with emergency supplies for about five cycles.
Since I was the only crew, I’d made a few upgrades over the years and kept it well stocked with non-perishables and a copy of my digital library. With careful rationing and providing the oxygen scrubbers held up, it should be possible for Maiden and I to hide out in the asteroid field for almost an entire rotation. Plenty of time for Su’nak to get bored and leave and for us to restart the emergency distress beacon.
Angel had already activated the lifeboat startup sequence by the time I arrived with the very few personal items I didn’t want to leave behind. I dumped them in the boat and went to fetch Maiden.
When I got to the cargo deck, Maiden was bent over her grandfather’s casket. No doubt saying her last goodbyes, or maybe cursing the old bastard for getting her into this mess - either would be appropriate right now.
“The lifeboat’s ready and we have to go. Now. I’m sorry, but we can’t take your grandfather with us. There’s no way we’ll get the casket through the hatch.”
From the look of horror on Maiden’s face as she stood up wide eyed, I could tell that she’d not heard my approach, and I’d surprised her again.
Behind her, I could see that the casket was open. Instead of the respectfully prepared remains of her grandfather, someone had packed the casket with vials of sparkling purple liquid.
“What the…” I never had time to finish the sentence as, for the second time in our brief relationship, Maiden shot me with a stun gun.
My eyes closed as the electrical charge once more slammed me against the wall. The last thing I heard before succumbing once more to the darkness was Maiden’s voice.
“Derek, I’m sorry.”
Thanks for reading, part 8 will be out next Friday. I’ve also updated the index page if you’ve missed parts 1-6. (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.
If you’ve enjoyed this then please consider sharing it using the button below.