Two hours later, Chris leaned back, swore loudly, and blinked to get the sweat out of his eyes. Slowly but surely, the wall section was disappearing, being cut
off section by section.
Shutting off the plasma torch, his eyes darted to the counter in the top right corner of his helmet, displaying his remaining air time. Right now, it was
giving him a twenty minute warning. "Ben, this is Chris. I'm coming back."
"You got it. I'm suiting up now myself."
Resting the torch on the floor, Chris went to the end of the hallway, did the mental maths, then stepped out and drifted back to his ship. As he landed lightly
on its hull, the airlock opened and Ben climbed out. "Have fun," he chuckled.
"Right..." Ben drawled, looking up into the void before kicking off. Chris climbed into the airlock and closed it, waiting for the system to cycle
and air to fill the chamber. As the lights went green and the inner door opened, he unsealed his helmet and pulled it off, running a hand through his sweat
soaked hair. Stepping into the locker room, he pulled off the extra armor, then unzipped the undersuit and took a quick sniff. Wincing, he pulled off the
undersuit and tossed it in the storage bin, then headed for the bathroom,
***
"Ben?" Chris said as he wandered into the kitchen twenty or so minutes later, holding a radio.
"Yeah?"
"When we get to Ragol, we need to replace our water completely. And I mean, flush the whole damn plumbing."
"Reached that 'recycled one too many times' stage huh?" Ben chuckled.
"Oh yeah," he replied, looking through the fridge. "And I wouldn't laugh. When you're done there, you're going to want a decent
shower."
The amused chuckle cut off. "Bugger," he managed a moment later. Chris smirked, placed the radio to the side, and pulled out the last of the chicken.
***
Sliding the trolley out from under the crate, Chris stepped back and steered it around, hooking it against the wall, before stepping out of the secondary cargo
bay and dropping down the bulkhead behind him. Doing a quick lap of the main cargo bay, he made sure all the doors were sealed and there was nothing left that
would be damaged by hard vacuum. Once he was satisfied, he picked up his helmet and put it on. "Ben, I'm preparing to open the hold," he said,
entering a command that began to suck the air out of the hold.
After about a minute, the lights on the control panel shifted to a bright red, matched by those near all the doors around the bay. Pressing another button, he
stepped back slightly as the main doors began to open, the stars becoming visible at the top of the ramp. The wreck soon came into view, Ben shining his light
out of the hallway to show Chris where to go.
Turning off the artificial gravity, he picked up the end of a length of cable wrapped around a winch, then stepped out into the void.
On board the wreck, Ben watched as Chris approached. Idly, he glanced behind him, where the escape pod now drifted. After a bit of swearing, he'd managed
to get it out into the hallway, where it now waited for Chris and the cable.
"Miss me?" Chris asked, grabbing at the wall to regain his balance.
"Not really," Ben said. "Pass me the cable." Hooking it onto the pod, he nodded to Chris, who hit a button on a remote, starting the winch
and pulling the pod towards the ship, along with Chris and Ben, who grabbed on and hitched a ride.
"You know, you were right," the younger man commented. Chris looked over at him. "The view. It's incredible." Holding onto the pod with
one hand, he twisted to look out over the starscape. "We've been out in the stars for over a year... how'd we never see this?"
"How often do we stop outside a star system, and go EVA at the same time?" Chris asked. "It's just one of those things." As they were
towed into the bay, he added. "I'll grab the door and controls. You get this thing settled."
"Sure," Ben replied, planting his feet on the floor as Chris pushed off, floating over to the control panel. Stopping the winch and activating the
door, he looked over his shoulder to make sure that Ben had steadied the pod on the floor before turning the gravity back on.
"And now..." he said, watching the console for about twenty seconds, before the lights turned green. "We're good," he finished, taking
off his helmet. Ben nearly ripped his helmet off, having spent nearly an hour and a half sweating in that thing with a plasma torch. "Let's open this
thing already."
Ben nodded, opening the control panel and entering a command. A second later, a nearly invisible seam along the side hissed, venting a small cloud of steam,
before swinging up on a hinge. Both men stepped closer to have a look, before Chris whistled.
Inside the pod was a young woman, about seventeen or eighteen, with shoulder length purple hair, with a small flash of red at the front. She was dressed in
rather casual clothes, including a rather oversized brown leather jacket.
"That's a damn shame," Ben declared, "when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white girl like that." He promptly ducked a slap
aimed at the back of his head.
"So," Chris said. "It's not a cryosleep chamber. That's something at least."
"Yeah. Less chance of her waking up screaming or puking," Ben agreed. He tapped a small metal band running along both sides of the pod near the girls
head. "Good money that's an alpha-wave inducer. Puts her out like a light, lets the pod slow down her body functions to the point of death."
Nodding, Chris started going through the girls pockets, finding a wallet in the jacket. Flipping it open, he scowled. "Well, this isn't hers, unless
she's a man in his early forties with one heck of a mustache." As Ben chuckled, his eyes narrowed. "Ah, we may have an issue here."
"Hmm?"
"This guys drivers license expired over forty years ago." He looked up at Ben, worried. "She's been in this pod a long time."
"Christ, this could get messy after all," the other man muttered. "Come on, let's get her out of this and into one of the passenger
rooms," he said, grabbing the girls arms. Chris nodded, grabbing her legs.
***
The waking world returned rather calmly, which struck her as odd, given the chaos that seemed to be the last thing she remembered. There had been fire, people
running and screaming, some sort of tiny capsule...
And now she was in a bed, a somewhat small bed, in a slightly cramped room seemingly made entirely of metal. A ship or something?
As she sat up slightly, looking around the room, there was movement to her left. A slightly bulky man a few years older then her, sitting in a chair.
"Hey, how're you feeling?" he asked.
"Fine, I guess," she said, looking around. "Where am I?"
"You're on my ship, the Duskwalker," he replied. "We found your escape pod."
She blinked, a look of unease coming to her face. "I... I remember that. There was something going on, I don't know what it was, but there were alarms
blaring, the ship was shaking..." she looked over. "Did you find anyone else?" she asked.
The man shook his head. "Just you. Was there someone else on the ship with you?"
"My father," she managed, her voice catching. "Is he...?"
"Was his name Franklin Lockley?" he asked.
"Y-yes...?"
"You were wearing his jacket. We found his wallet in there." He looked uneasy for a moment. "There's something else. What year is it?"
She looked at him. "Twenty-Seven Eighty-Two, Earth Cal." She looked at his expression. "It's not, is it?"
He sighed. "Twenty-Eight twenty six," he said quietly. She looked at him, horrified. "I'm sorry," he managed.
Looking down, she said quietly. "I'd like to be alone for a few minutes, if that's alright?" Glancing back up, she chuckled at the hesitant
expression. "It's alright, I'm not going to do anything stupid. I just... need to think."
He nodded and moved to the door. "I'll just be outside."
"Okay."
***
Chris closed the door, then leaned forward, resting his head against the frame. "Fuck."
"Bad?" Ben asked.
"She's forty-four years out of time," he said. "And if her father was right there to give his jacket, then he's probably dead. God only
knows what else is going to happen to her."
"So what now?"
"What else can we do?" Chris asked. "Lay in a course for Ragol again. We've got a schedule to keep, and there's nothing left here."
Ben nodded slightly and went back towards the bridge.
***
About five minutes later, the door opened again and the young woman stepped out. It was obvious from her eyes she'd been crying somewhat. "Sorry about
that," she said.
Chris shrugged. "It's more then understandable," he replied. "Everything that's happened to you, I doubt I'd be on my feet so
fast." That got a slight smile from her, much to his relief. "Anyway, I didn't get your name earlier."
"Fiona. Fiona Lockley," she said. "I don't think you gave me yours either."
He smiled, bowing. "Captain Christopher Wood, of the Independent Starship Duskwalker, at your service." Straightening up, he chuckled. "Mind
you, the 'Captain' is pretty much an honorary title. It's a small ship, and there's only one other crew member. I get the big chair because the
licensing board only accepts one name, and he didn't want the flashy title." That got a rather amused laugh from her as he turned. "Anyway, I
might as well give you a tour of your home for the next few days." Chris grinned. "Starting with the kitchen just down here," he finished,
noting the suddenly eager look on her face as she followed him down the corridor to a somewhat smallish kitchen, although it was clearly enough for their
needs.
"Food isn't much of a problem," he said, going over to the fridge and grabbing a can of coke out of the door rack. "We always have as much
fresh food as we can get, and to be honest, those Hungry Humanoid foodpacks aren't that bad."
"Well, if you've got fresh food, there shouldn't be too much of a problem," Fiona commented with a smile. "I like to cook."
"Which pretty much guarantees you're welcome on this ship. Ben and I aren't great cooks. I'll toss stuff in the pan and all, but-" he
shrugged and downed a mouthful of his drink. "Anyway, you're welcome to help yourself, just don't go overboard."
"Sounds fair," she replied. "So, where are we going?"
"We should be at Ragol in about three days... oh, right," he muttered at the blank look on her face. "It was only colonized about ten years ago.
Odd story behind it too. Take a seat, I'll start on that." She nodded, grabbing a drink first. "You ever hear of the planet Coral?"
"Yeah. Used to be a big world until about thirty," she grimaced, "seventy years ago."
"That's the one. Dropped into a civil war, never really pulled themselves out of it," Chris replied. "About twenty years ago, they began to
notice that they were having some other problems. Namely, their planets ecosphere was about to collapse from all the damage they'd done to it. So, they
thought about it, and figured the best thing to do was get the hell off the planet before it took them with it."
"Sounds messy," Fiona noted.
"Oh yeah. I've seen the images from the time, and it wasn't good. Planet was heading into a nuclear winter with a vengeance. Anyway, they sent out
a lot of probes to uncharted systems, and eventually they got lucky. Lush, green world, no intelligent life, not too far from the rest of galactic
civilization, but just somewhere no one had looked before, and well enough in range for large scale colony ships from Coral."
She whistled. "Good for them. Still, they've kind of shown that they can make a real mess of a good deal already."
"Yeah, well, most of the people that were on the colony ships don't exactly have much patience with the military any more. Still... Things went a
little pear-shaped. See, the first colony ship, Pioneer One, landed on Ragol about about fourteen years ago, with Pioneer Two due to arrive twelve months
later. Only, when it arrived in orbit, something happened. Some kind of explosion took out the Pioneer One, killed virtually everyone on the surface, then
mutated most of the local wildlife. Everything there is bigger, meaner, and usually capable of carving holes in starship armor."
Fiona blinked, then raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"
Chris shrugged. "Not a clue, to be honest. Officially, it was believed to be some sort of failure in the colonies power core. Given they used the Photon
tech of theirs, everything that followed kind of makes sense... that stuff can get damn weird, and I use it from time to time."
"So, what'd they do?" At that question, the man laughed.
"They got stubborn. They'd barely escaped a dying world, traveled across a good portion of the galaxy, and they weren't going to let a bunch of
mutated monsters stop them from claiming that world as their own. They upgraded their weapons and armor even more, which, having seen some of their stuff, is a
scary concept. Right now, Pioneer Two is still in orbit, while the military and the Hunters Guild work to clear regions on the planet. Primary goal is to make
enough room for crops, then work on getting the people settled in." He shrugged, finishing off his can. "Anyway, that's Ragol in a nutshell. A
city in orbit over a world where the animals are just plain scary. But they're good people, and you can always get business there."
Standing up and going over to the waste disposal unit mounted in the wall, he continued. "Once we get there, we should be able to get you some help
through either your embassy, or something else. Maybe even get you a flight back to your homeworld, or something to help you... I dunno, settle down?" He
dumped the can into the opening, then turned back. "If that doesn't work out, I should be able to find work heading out in a direction that might help
you out."
The young woman paused as she raised her can to her lips. "You'd do that?"
"Sure," he replied with a shrug. "One of the best parts of my life is the freedom to head off in whatever direction I want. And if it means I
can do someone else a favor, why not?"
Fiona smiled. "I appreciate that," she said quietly.
"Well then," Chris said, "how about we continue with the tour?"
***
Over the next two days, Fiona came to adjust somewhat to life on the Duskwalker. Despite her almost 'time-lost' condition, she seemed to cope rather
well, even if Chris suspected part of that was still residual shock. She proved more then willing to help out, before either Chris or Ben even considered
asking, saying she might as well pay her way.
"You think she's coping?" Ben asked, his feet propped up on the console.
"Hard to say," Chris admitted. "I know that if I was in her mess, I wouldn't be coping at all. She's stronger then she looks." Ben
shrugged. "And I don't think those smiles are an act. I mean, look at her eyes. Sure, there's pain there, but she's pushing past it."
"Maybe," his friend said, then glanced at the console as it beeped at him. "Finally," he muttered, sitting up and working at the keyboard.
"Finally?" the other man said.
"Remember that security drone you had to deal with on the wreck?"
"I remember boiled corpse."
"Thank you for that wonderful thought to lull me to sleep tonight," Ben said. "Anyways, I grabbed it before we left, just to see what these
things were doing. But you blew a fair few big holes in it, kind of scrambled it. I hooked it up to a console and let the computer try and figure it out. Guess
it took a while."
"And you never even mentioned it?" Chris asked.
"Slipped my mind," Ben defended himself with a shrug. "Anyways, let's see what we've got here..." As he looked over the rather
garbled code that scrolled down his screen, there was a knock on the control room door. "Oh, hey," he said in greeting to Fiona.
"Just thought you might want to know, dinner should be ready in about twenty minutes," she said. Having arrived on the ship with only the clothes on
her back, she'd had to make do with a pair of coveralls, one-size-fits-all thanks to the rather complex seeming system of straps and folds it possessed.
Technology serving mankind, Chris thought wryly.
"My lord," Ben noted, "a man could get used to this. Say, is it safe for you to leave your cooking for a few minutes?"
"Sure," she replied. "What'd you need?"
"Well, I told you about those drones we found on what was left of your ride. What kind of name is Sea of Stars anyway?" Chris wondered.
"Marketing committee," Ben said, taking up the conversation. "We managed to recover one of them. Figured we might find something in its hard
drives, but it's a mess." He frowned. "From the look of this, it looks like these things weren't that smart. They got their instructions from
the ships security center, rather then rely on their own AI. Makes sense. Last thing you want is some drone with a gun flying around without oversight."
Fiona chuckled, slightly bitterly, at that comment, then looked over the drones hard drive as Ben closed the script window. "Is that a log?"
"Where?" She tapped on a file name, and Ben nodded, opening it. "Looks like a basic text file really. Orders and responses are logged
here." He scowled. "And it looks like most of it's scrambled."
"Check the bottom of the file," Chris suggested. As Ben scrolled down, he nodded. "Look at this part. Boarders detected, section One-Something.
Blah blah blah, I think that says 'identity passes?'"
"Oh!" the girl responded, snapping her fingers. "Something we got when we first came on board. A little badge we were told to wear all the time.
It was some sort of access card, I figured."
Chris considered that and nodded. "I've heard of ships doing that, but it's kind of risky. I mean, if they were using that to say 'oh,
you're a passenger, not going to shoot you', it's just begging for something to go wrong."
"Helps to explain why they came after us," Ben considered. "Last thing they knew was that they'd been boarded, and as far as their simple
programming was concerned, it didn't matter if their code was scrambled, or a power drain had knocked them offline for decades. All that mattered is that
there was someone on board that wasn't supposed to be."
Sighing, Chris leaned back in his seat, his mood dulled. At the same time, in a rather subdued voice, Fiona said "I need to get back to the kitchen."
As she left quietly, Ben and Chris gave each other significant looks.
***
Fiona worked on the meal silently, her mind elsewhere, considering things she had not wanted to think about since she'd awakened to an unfamiliar world.
Behind her was the sound of someone locking the door. "Look, I know you're meaning well," she said, "but this isn't something I can
really talk about."
"You can hardly keep it all bottled up," Ben said gently. "I've seen people try and do that before. It usually makes things worse."
"So what then?" she demanded, turning to glare at him, although her heart wasn't in it. "I should burden you two with my problems even more?
Heck, I don't even know how to talk about it."
"However you feel like you should," Ben said. "What you're worrying about, what has you afraid - if you're afraid, that is. Thoughts,
observations, anything." He shrugged slightly. "Sometimes, it doesn't matter what you talk about, just as long as you talk."
Fiona looked slightly calmed. "Maybe. Just not yet." Ben nodded, a slight smile on his face, as he turned away. The young girl looked at him for a
moment. "Wait." The man stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Maybe now is the time." She sighed, putting the lid back on one of the
pots. "I didn't really want to think about it too much. It was just, too much to really process, you know? Must have finally gotten enough of it
through my mind to make some sense of it."
"Forty years... That's longer then I've been alive... or I remember being alive, at any rate," she grumbled. "I have to wonder if
there's any of my old life left."
"Four decades is a long time," Ben admitted, "but it's not forever. Especially given that the average human lifespan is a hundred and thirty
years. You mentioned at your mother and sister weren't on board the Sea of Stars, that they were still back home?"
Fiona nodded. "Yeah... Dad managed to get an extra ticket for his business trip, invited me along." She chuckled ruefully. "Hindsight sucks. But
given how much time has passed... will they even still be on New Wales by now? Especially given..." She sighed. "I know I didn't want you to tell
me too much just yet, but I checked the ships astrolog. The Solarian League declared it a 'protectorate' twelve years ago."
"I take it that means the same thing now as it does then?" Ben asked quietly.
A scowl passed over her face. "Their army or those blasted Mega-corporations decided that they'd gotten sick of waiting for the planet to join on
their own and took it by force. Near military dictatorship, harsh censorship, the companies taking advantage of their power..." The scowl vanished,
replaced by one of misery. "I heard stories, but I never thought..." she looked up. "If they were in the middle of that-"
"-We don't know one way or the other yet," Ben said. "They may have left before it happened, or they're making do on the planet
still."
"Or they could be dead."
"Or they could be dead," Ben admitted. "One way or another, we'll find out. Once we're done on Ragol, that's where we're
going." He smiled. "Chris agrees with me on that one. Neither of us are fond of doing business in the League, but if we didn't go, I get the
feeling it'd gnaw at us forever."
She looked at him, surprised. "But, there's no way I could afford-" He waved off her protest.
"Don't worry about that. We'll find a job or two that'll take us in that direction. It's the least we can do." He laughed at the
expression on her face. "Hey, what're new and unexpected friends for?"
Fiona shook her head, amazed. "You guys are something else, you know that?" she said, her voice catching slightly. "I mean, say what you like,
you could bring on a lot of trouble for yourselves, for someone you barely know."
"I know enough," Ben said with a smile. "And I always enjoy it when things get interesting... or afterwards, anyways. So now you know.
Regardless of anything that has happened, or may have changed in your life, you've two rather oddball friends there to help out."
"Dammit," came a voice from the doorway as it opened, revealing an amused Chris. "You come back to see how she's doing, and you turn it into
a motivational speech?"
"Oh, like you weren't listening in and nearly cheering," Ben responded. The other man shrugged.
"Well, yeah." He nodded at Fiona. "Pretty much everything he said goes for me too. I think I mentioned that the whole point of this ship is to
do what we want with our lives. Might as well take advantage of that." Laughing at the look on her face, he pointed. "Pot's bubbling over."
She blinked, then yelped and ran over to the stove.
***
Thirty hours later, all three people had gathered in the Duskwalkers control room, looking out at the blue-green mists of Slipspace that swirled around the
ship. "Coming up on the re-entry point," Ben said, eyes on the console. "Three, two, one..."
The mists of Slipspace seemed to blow away from the ship, stars blinking into view. As blue-green was replaced the black of real-space, the ship was rocked by
turbulence, nearly knocking Chris and Fiona off their feet. "What was that?" the man said.
"Not a clue," Ben admitted. "Something went screwy for a second, but I'm not getting any error alarms." He looked over his shoulder.
"Inertials?"
"Slow us down to point-one-five," Chris ordered. "Slowly. Fiona, you're with me," he added, heading out the door and sprinting towards
the engine room.
***
"Found it," came the response on the control rooms intercom. "Slip-point motivator's glitching up."
"Not the inertial dampeners?" Ben asked.
"What is with you and that thing?" came the amused comment from the engine room.
"Even if it acts up slightly, we've got a damn good chance of getting smeared over the walls," Ben retorted. "Call me paranoid, but with
something like that, I'd rather not take my chances."
"Right. Anyways, I've cut the power to the motivator for now. We're not going to be using it for nearly a week, so there's plenty of time to
look it over in port. Kick in the speed again and head for Pioneer Two."
"Roger that," Ben said, igniting the main thrusters again.
***
"Okay guys," Ben's voice came over the com. "Time for you two to get up here. View's starting to look pretty impressive." Chris put
his book down and went forward, Fiona close behind.
Chris stepped out of Fionas way the second he entered the control room, giving her a clear view out the forward windows, and flat-out stopping her in her
tracks for a long moment.
Ragol itself was clearly visible, a beautiful blue-green world, its sun just visible over its horizon (Chris suspected Ben had made sure to come in from this
specific angle), adding to the planets beauty even more. The lack of massive clouds in the atmosphere didn't hurt.
But that wasn't what seized the young woman's attention. Ahead of the ship, there was something else visible. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust,
but when they did, she realized she was actually looking at a city in space. Gleaming towers that would be the envy of any skyscraper on any industrialized
world, shielded behind... well, Fiona wasn't sure what it was, aside from a faint blue tinge.
"That's Pioneer Two?" she managed to say, amazed.
Next to her, Chris laughed slightly. "What were you expecting?"
"Well, you said it was a colony ship, so..." she shrugged, lost for words, as the city took up more of the forward windows. She could make out more
features now, the lights from the city itself becoming visible.
"You expected the sort of bulky, one-way ships that get disassembled on arrival," Chris said. "The kind you see in the history tapes."
Fiona nodded slightly as Ben spoke up. "The Coralians had to do things differently. They figured it was easier to build the city beforehand, and just land
it on the planet. Of course, they're about the only people in the galaxy with the technology and the resources to pull it off," he added. "That,
and they were just so damn reluctant to let go of the things they like. Pioneer Two is one of the most advanced societies in the galaxy. Even the League,
Manticore and the Machine worlds pale before them. Nowdays, some people wonder if that's going to cost them their existence." He smiled slightly.
"Personally, I think they'll pull through." He turned his attention to the radio as it crackled to life, orders coming from Pioneers ATC.
"What's keeping the air contained?" Fiona asked. "Is it some sort of glass, or something like it?"
"Energy shields," Chris replied. "Another example of Ragolian tech. More then a few militaries would love to get their hands on Ragols shield
technology. So far, they'll just have to tolerate what weapons the Principal is willing to export."
Duskwalker drifted slowly past the atmosphere shields, the faint blue tinge now clearly visible, and quite remarkable. As Ben fired the maneuvering thrusters
to slow the ship, she passed under the city's 'ground level', replacing the view with that of seamless metals. The ship came to a halt in front of
large cargo bay doors, already smoothly opening for them, the blue tinge of atmosphere shields visible between them.
"I always say I'd love those things," Ben said. "Think of how much time it'd save us with airlocks."
"Want want want," Chris joked as his friend moved them in slowly, igniting the ships atmosphere turbines as they entered, rotating them to a VTOL
angle.
"And we park... over there," he finished, moving the ship forward, bringing it around one hundred and eighty degrees, then backing it in slowly and
settling it down in the bay. "Landing gears down and locked, shutting off engines," he reported, flicking a panel of overhead switches. "Pioneer
ATC, Duskwalker is settled safely."
"Acknowledged Duskwalker. Welcome back."
off section by section.
Shutting off the plasma torch, his eyes darted to the counter in the top right corner of his helmet, displaying his remaining air time. Right now, it was
giving him a twenty minute warning. "Ben, this is Chris. I'm coming back."
"You got it. I'm suiting up now myself."
Resting the torch on the floor, Chris went to the end of the hallway, did the mental maths, then stepped out and drifted back to his ship. As he landed lightly
on its hull, the airlock opened and Ben climbed out. "Have fun," he chuckled.
"Right..." Ben drawled, looking up into the void before kicking off. Chris climbed into the airlock and closed it, waiting for the system to cycle
and air to fill the chamber. As the lights went green and the inner door opened, he unsealed his helmet and pulled it off, running a hand through his sweat
soaked hair. Stepping into the locker room, he pulled off the extra armor, then unzipped the undersuit and took a quick sniff. Wincing, he pulled off the
undersuit and tossed it in the storage bin, then headed for the bathroom,
***
"Ben?" Chris said as he wandered into the kitchen twenty or so minutes later, holding a radio.
"Yeah?"
"When we get to Ragol, we need to replace our water completely. And I mean, flush the whole damn plumbing."
"Reached that 'recycled one too many times' stage huh?" Ben chuckled.
"Oh yeah," he replied, looking through the fridge. "And I wouldn't laugh. When you're done there, you're going to want a decent
shower."
The amused chuckle cut off. "Bugger," he managed a moment later. Chris smirked, placed the radio to the side, and pulled out the last of the chicken.
***
Sliding the trolley out from under the crate, Chris stepped back and steered it around, hooking it against the wall, before stepping out of the secondary cargo
bay and dropping down the bulkhead behind him. Doing a quick lap of the main cargo bay, he made sure all the doors were sealed and there was nothing left that
would be damaged by hard vacuum. Once he was satisfied, he picked up his helmet and put it on. "Ben, I'm preparing to open the hold," he said,
entering a command that began to suck the air out of the hold.
After about a minute, the lights on the control panel shifted to a bright red, matched by those near all the doors around the bay. Pressing another button, he
stepped back slightly as the main doors began to open, the stars becoming visible at the top of the ramp. The wreck soon came into view, Ben shining his light
out of the hallway to show Chris where to go.
Turning off the artificial gravity, he picked up the end of a length of cable wrapped around a winch, then stepped out into the void.
On board the wreck, Ben watched as Chris approached. Idly, he glanced behind him, where the escape pod now drifted. After a bit of swearing, he'd managed
to get it out into the hallway, where it now waited for Chris and the cable.
"Miss me?" Chris asked, grabbing at the wall to regain his balance.
"Not really," Ben said. "Pass me the cable." Hooking it onto the pod, he nodded to Chris, who hit a button on a remote, starting the winch
and pulling the pod towards the ship, along with Chris and Ben, who grabbed on and hitched a ride.
"You know, you were right," the younger man commented. Chris looked over at him. "The view. It's incredible." Holding onto the pod with
one hand, he twisted to look out over the starscape. "We've been out in the stars for over a year... how'd we never see this?"
"How often do we stop outside a star system, and go EVA at the same time?" Chris asked. "It's just one of those things." As they were
towed into the bay, he added. "I'll grab the door and controls. You get this thing settled."
"Sure," Ben replied, planting his feet on the floor as Chris pushed off, floating over to the control panel. Stopping the winch and activating the
door, he looked over his shoulder to make sure that Ben had steadied the pod on the floor before turning the gravity back on.
"And now..." he said, watching the console for about twenty seconds, before the lights turned green. "We're good," he finished, taking
off his helmet. Ben nearly ripped his helmet off, having spent nearly an hour and a half sweating in that thing with a plasma torch. "Let's open this
thing already."
Ben nodded, opening the control panel and entering a command. A second later, a nearly invisible seam along the side hissed, venting a small cloud of steam,
before swinging up on a hinge. Both men stepped closer to have a look, before Chris whistled.
Inside the pod was a young woman, about seventeen or eighteen, with shoulder length purple hair, with a small flash of red at the front. She was dressed in
rather casual clothes, including a rather oversized brown leather jacket.
"That's a damn shame," Ben declared, "when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white girl like that." He promptly ducked a slap
aimed at the back of his head.
"So," Chris said. "It's not a cryosleep chamber. That's something at least."
"Yeah. Less chance of her waking up screaming or puking," Ben agreed. He tapped a small metal band running along both sides of the pod near the girls
head. "Good money that's an alpha-wave inducer. Puts her out like a light, lets the pod slow down her body functions to the point of death."
Nodding, Chris started going through the girls pockets, finding a wallet in the jacket. Flipping it open, he scowled. "Well, this isn't hers, unless
she's a man in his early forties with one heck of a mustache." As Ben chuckled, his eyes narrowed. "Ah, we may have an issue here."
"Hmm?"
"This guys drivers license expired over forty years ago." He looked up at Ben, worried. "She's been in this pod a long time."
"Christ, this could get messy after all," the other man muttered. "Come on, let's get her out of this and into one of the passenger
rooms," he said, grabbing the girls arms. Chris nodded, grabbing her legs.
***
The waking world returned rather calmly, which struck her as odd, given the chaos that seemed to be the last thing she remembered. There had been fire, people
running and screaming, some sort of tiny capsule...
And now she was in a bed, a somewhat small bed, in a slightly cramped room seemingly made entirely of metal. A ship or something?
As she sat up slightly, looking around the room, there was movement to her left. A slightly bulky man a few years older then her, sitting in a chair.
"Hey, how're you feeling?" he asked.
"Fine, I guess," she said, looking around. "Where am I?"
"You're on my ship, the Duskwalker," he replied. "We found your escape pod."
She blinked, a look of unease coming to her face. "I... I remember that. There was something going on, I don't know what it was, but there were alarms
blaring, the ship was shaking..." she looked over. "Did you find anyone else?" she asked.
The man shook his head. "Just you. Was there someone else on the ship with you?"
"My father," she managed, her voice catching. "Is he...?"
"Was his name Franklin Lockley?" he asked.
"Y-yes...?"
"You were wearing his jacket. We found his wallet in there." He looked uneasy for a moment. "There's something else. What year is it?"
She looked at him. "Twenty-Seven Eighty-Two, Earth Cal." She looked at his expression. "It's not, is it?"
He sighed. "Twenty-Eight twenty six," he said quietly. She looked at him, horrified. "I'm sorry," he managed.
Looking down, she said quietly. "I'd like to be alone for a few minutes, if that's alright?" Glancing back up, she chuckled at the hesitant
expression. "It's alright, I'm not going to do anything stupid. I just... need to think."
He nodded and moved to the door. "I'll just be outside."
"Okay."
***
Chris closed the door, then leaned forward, resting his head against the frame. "Fuck."
"Bad?" Ben asked.
"She's forty-four years out of time," he said. "And if her father was right there to give his jacket, then he's probably dead. God only
knows what else is going to happen to her."
"So what now?"
"What else can we do?" Chris asked. "Lay in a course for Ragol again. We've got a schedule to keep, and there's nothing left here."
Ben nodded slightly and went back towards the bridge.
***
About five minutes later, the door opened again and the young woman stepped out. It was obvious from her eyes she'd been crying somewhat. "Sorry about
that," she said.
Chris shrugged. "It's more then understandable," he replied. "Everything that's happened to you, I doubt I'd be on my feet so
fast." That got a slight smile from her, much to his relief. "Anyway, I didn't get your name earlier."
"Fiona. Fiona Lockley," she said. "I don't think you gave me yours either."
He smiled, bowing. "Captain Christopher Wood, of the Independent Starship Duskwalker, at your service." Straightening up, he chuckled. "Mind
you, the 'Captain' is pretty much an honorary title. It's a small ship, and there's only one other crew member. I get the big chair because the
licensing board only accepts one name, and he didn't want the flashy title." That got a rather amused laugh from her as he turned. "Anyway, I
might as well give you a tour of your home for the next few days." Chris grinned. "Starting with the kitchen just down here," he finished,
noting the suddenly eager look on her face as she followed him down the corridor to a somewhat smallish kitchen, although it was clearly enough for their
needs.
"Food isn't much of a problem," he said, going over to the fridge and grabbing a can of coke out of the door rack. "We always have as much
fresh food as we can get, and to be honest, those Hungry Humanoid foodpacks aren't that bad."
"Well, if you've got fresh food, there shouldn't be too much of a problem," Fiona commented with a smile. "I like to cook."
"Which pretty much guarantees you're welcome on this ship. Ben and I aren't great cooks. I'll toss stuff in the pan and all, but-" he
shrugged and downed a mouthful of his drink. "Anyway, you're welcome to help yourself, just don't go overboard."
"Sounds fair," she replied. "So, where are we going?"
"We should be at Ragol in about three days... oh, right," he muttered at the blank look on her face. "It was only colonized about ten years ago.
Odd story behind it too. Take a seat, I'll start on that." She nodded, grabbing a drink first. "You ever hear of the planet Coral?"
"Yeah. Used to be a big world until about thirty," she grimaced, "seventy years ago."
"That's the one. Dropped into a civil war, never really pulled themselves out of it," Chris replied. "About twenty years ago, they began to
notice that they were having some other problems. Namely, their planets ecosphere was about to collapse from all the damage they'd done to it. So, they
thought about it, and figured the best thing to do was get the hell off the planet before it took them with it."
"Sounds messy," Fiona noted.
"Oh yeah. I've seen the images from the time, and it wasn't good. Planet was heading into a nuclear winter with a vengeance. Anyway, they sent out
a lot of probes to uncharted systems, and eventually they got lucky. Lush, green world, no intelligent life, not too far from the rest of galactic
civilization, but just somewhere no one had looked before, and well enough in range for large scale colony ships from Coral."
She whistled. "Good for them. Still, they've kind of shown that they can make a real mess of a good deal already."
"Yeah, well, most of the people that were on the colony ships don't exactly have much patience with the military any more. Still... Things went a
little pear-shaped. See, the first colony ship, Pioneer One, landed on Ragol about about fourteen years ago, with Pioneer Two due to arrive twelve months
later. Only, when it arrived in orbit, something happened. Some kind of explosion took out the Pioneer One, killed virtually everyone on the surface, then
mutated most of the local wildlife. Everything there is bigger, meaner, and usually capable of carving holes in starship armor."
Fiona blinked, then raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"
Chris shrugged. "Not a clue, to be honest. Officially, it was believed to be some sort of failure in the colonies power core. Given they used the Photon
tech of theirs, everything that followed kind of makes sense... that stuff can get damn weird, and I use it from time to time."
"So, what'd they do?" At that question, the man laughed.
"They got stubborn. They'd barely escaped a dying world, traveled across a good portion of the galaxy, and they weren't going to let a bunch of
mutated monsters stop them from claiming that world as their own. They upgraded their weapons and armor even more, which, having seen some of their stuff, is a
scary concept. Right now, Pioneer Two is still in orbit, while the military and the Hunters Guild work to clear regions on the planet. Primary goal is to make
enough room for crops, then work on getting the people settled in." He shrugged, finishing off his can. "Anyway, that's Ragol in a nutshell. A
city in orbit over a world where the animals are just plain scary. But they're good people, and you can always get business there."
Standing up and going over to the waste disposal unit mounted in the wall, he continued. "Once we get there, we should be able to get you some help
through either your embassy, or something else. Maybe even get you a flight back to your homeworld, or something to help you... I dunno, settle down?" He
dumped the can into the opening, then turned back. "If that doesn't work out, I should be able to find work heading out in a direction that might help
you out."
The young woman paused as she raised her can to her lips. "You'd do that?"
"Sure," he replied with a shrug. "One of the best parts of my life is the freedom to head off in whatever direction I want. And if it means I
can do someone else a favor, why not?"
Fiona smiled. "I appreciate that," she said quietly.
"Well then," Chris said, "how about we continue with the tour?"
***
Over the next two days, Fiona came to adjust somewhat to life on the Duskwalker. Despite her almost 'time-lost' condition, she seemed to cope rather
well, even if Chris suspected part of that was still residual shock. She proved more then willing to help out, before either Chris or Ben even considered
asking, saying she might as well pay her way.
"You think she's coping?" Ben asked, his feet propped up on the console.
"Hard to say," Chris admitted. "I know that if I was in her mess, I wouldn't be coping at all. She's stronger then she looks." Ben
shrugged. "And I don't think those smiles are an act. I mean, look at her eyes. Sure, there's pain there, but she's pushing past it."
"Maybe," his friend said, then glanced at the console as it beeped at him. "Finally," he muttered, sitting up and working at the keyboard.
"Finally?" the other man said.
"Remember that security drone you had to deal with on the wreck?"
"I remember boiled corpse."
"Thank you for that wonderful thought to lull me to sleep tonight," Ben said. "Anyways, I grabbed it before we left, just to see what these
things were doing. But you blew a fair few big holes in it, kind of scrambled it. I hooked it up to a console and let the computer try and figure it out. Guess
it took a while."
"And you never even mentioned it?" Chris asked.
"Slipped my mind," Ben defended himself with a shrug. "Anyways, let's see what we've got here..." As he looked over the rather
garbled code that scrolled down his screen, there was a knock on the control room door. "Oh, hey," he said in greeting to Fiona.
"Just thought you might want to know, dinner should be ready in about twenty minutes," she said. Having arrived on the ship with only the clothes on
her back, she'd had to make do with a pair of coveralls, one-size-fits-all thanks to the rather complex seeming system of straps and folds it possessed.
Technology serving mankind, Chris thought wryly.
"My lord," Ben noted, "a man could get used to this. Say, is it safe for you to leave your cooking for a few minutes?"
"Sure," she replied. "What'd you need?"
"Well, I told you about those drones we found on what was left of your ride. What kind of name is Sea of Stars anyway?" Chris wondered.
"Marketing committee," Ben said, taking up the conversation. "We managed to recover one of them. Figured we might find something in its hard
drives, but it's a mess." He frowned. "From the look of this, it looks like these things weren't that smart. They got their instructions from
the ships security center, rather then rely on their own AI. Makes sense. Last thing you want is some drone with a gun flying around without oversight."
Fiona chuckled, slightly bitterly, at that comment, then looked over the drones hard drive as Ben closed the script window. "Is that a log?"
"Where?" She tapped on a file name, and Ben nodded, opening it. "Looks like a basic text file really. Orders and responses are logged
here." He scowled. "And it looks like most of it's scrambled."
"Check the bottom of the file," Chris suggested. As Ben scrolled down, he nodded. "Look at this part. Boarders detected, section One-Something.
Blah blah blah, I think that says 'identity passes?'"
"Oh!" the girl responded, snapping her fingers. "Something we got when we first came on board. A little badge we were told to wear all the time.
It was some sort of access card, I figured."
Chris considered that and nodded. "I've heard of ships doing that, but it's kind of risky. I mean, if they were using that to say 'oh,
you're a passenger, not going to shoot you', it's just begging for something to go wrong."
"Helps to explain why they came after us," Ben considered. "Last thing they knew was that they'd been boarded, and as far as their simple
programming was concerned, it didn't matter if their code was scrambled, or a power drain had knocked them offline for decades. All that mattered is that
there was someone on board that wasn't supposed to be."
Sighing, Chris leaned back in his seat, his mood dulled. At the same time, in a rather subdued voice, Fiona said "I need to get back to the kitchen."
As she left quietly, Ben and Chris gave each other significant looks.
***
Fiona worked on the meal silently, her mind elsewhere, considering things she had not wanted to think about since she'd awakened to an unfamiliar world.
Behind her was the sound of someone locking the door. "Look, I know you're meaning well," she said, "but this isn't something I can
really talk about."
"You can hardly keep it all bottled up," Ben said gently. "I've seen people try and do that before. It usually makes things worse."
"So what then?" she demanded, turning to glare at him, although her heart wasn't in it. "I should burden you two with my problems even more?
Heck, I don't even know how to talk about it."
"However you feel like you should," Ben said. "What you're worrying about, what has you afraid - if you're afraid, that is. Thoughts,
observations, anything." He shrugged slightly. "Sometimes, it doesn't matter what you talk about, just as long as you talk."
Fiona looked slightly calmed. "Maybe. Just not yet." Ben nodded, a slight smile on his face, as he turned away. The young girl looked at him for a
moment. "Wait." The man stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Maybe now is the time." She sighed, putting the lid back on one of the
pots. "I didn't really want to think about it too much. It was just, too much to really process, you know? Must have finally gotten enough of it
through my mind to make some sense of it."
"Forty years... That's longer then I've been alive... or I remember being alive, at any rate," she grumbled. "I have to wonder if
there's any of my old life left."
"Four decades is a long time," Ben admitted, "but it's not forever. Especially given that the average human lifespan is a hundred and thirty
years. You mentioned at your mother and sister weren't on board the Sea of Stars, that they were still back home?"
Fiona nodded. "Yeah... Dad managed to get an extra ticket for his business trip, invited me along." She chuckled ruefully. "Hindsight sucks. But
given how much time has passed... will they even still be on New Wales by now? Especially given..." She sighed. "I know I didn't want you to tell
me too much just yet, but I checked the ships astrolog. The Solarian League declared it a 'protectorate' twelve years ago."
"I take it that means the same thing now as it does then?" Ben asked quietly.
A scowl passed over her face. "Their army or those blasted Mega-corporations decided that they'd gotten sick of waiting for the planet to join on
their own and took it by force. Near military dictatorship, harsh censorship, the companies taking advantage of their power..." The scowl vanished,
replaced by one of misery. "I heard stories, but I never thought..." she looked up. "If they were in the middle of that-"
"-We don't know one way or the other yet," Ben said. "They may have left before it happened, or they're making do on the planet
still."
"Or they could be dead."
"Or they could be dead," Ben admitted. "One way or another, we'll find out. Once we're done on Ragol, that's where we're
going." He smiled. "Chris agrees with me on that one. Neither of us are fond of doing business in the League, but if we didn't go, I get the
feeling it'd gnaw at us forever."
She looked at him, surprised. "But, there's no way I could afford-" He waved off her protest.
"Don't worry about that. We'll find a job or two that'll take us in that direction. It's the least we can do." He laughed at the
expression on her face. "Hey, what're new and unexpected friends for?"
Fiona shook her head, amazed. "You guys are something else, you know that?" she said, her voice catching slightly. "I mean, say what you like,
you could bring on a lot of trouble for yourselves, for someone you barely know."
"I know enough," Ben said with a smile. "And I always enjoy it when things get interesting... or afterwards, anyways. So now you know.
Regardless of anything that has happened, or may have changed in your life, you've two rather oddball friends there to help out."
"Dammit," came a voice from the doorway as it opened, revealing an amused Chris. "You come back to see how she's doing, and you turn it into
a motivational speech?"
"Oh, like you weren't listening in and nearly cheering," Ben responded. The other man shrugged.
"Well, yeah." He nodded at Fiona. "Pretty much everything he said goes for me too. I think I mentioned that the whole point of this ship is to
do what we want with our lives. Might as well take advantage of that." Laughing at the look on her face, he pointed. "Pot's bubbling over."
She blinked, then yelped and ran over to the stove.
***
Thirty hours later, all three people had gathered in the Duskwalkers control room, looking out at the blue-green mists of Slipspace that swirled around the
ship. "Coming up on the re-entry point," Ben said, eyes on the console. "Three, two, one..."
The mists of Slipspace seemed to blow away from the ship, stars blinking into view. As blue-green was replaced the black of real-space, the ship was rocked by
turbulence, nearly knocking Chris and Fiona off their feet. "What was that?" the man said.
"Not a clue," Ben admitted. "Something went screwy for a second, but I'm not getting any error alarms." He looked over his shoulder.
"Inertials?"
"Slow us down to point-one-five," Chris ordered. "Slowly. Fiona, you're with me," he added, heading out the door and sprinting towards
the engine room.
***
"Found it," came the response on the control rooms intercom. "Slip-point motivator's glitching up."
"Not the inertial dampeners?" Ben asked.
"What is with you and that thing?" came the amused comment from the engine room.
"Even if it acts up slightly, we've got a damn good chance of getting smeared over the walls," Ben retorted. "Call me paranoid, but with
something like that, I'd rather not take my chances."
"Right. Anyways, I've cut the power to the motivator for now. We're not going to be using it for nearly a week, so there's plenty of time to
look it over in port. Kick in the speed again and head for Pioneer Two."
"Roger that," Ben said, igniting the main thrusters again.
***
"Okay guys," Ben's voice came over the com. "Time for you two to get up here. View's starting to look pretty impressive." Chris put
his book down and went forward, Fiona close behind.
Chris stepped out of Fionas way the second he entered the control room, giving her a clear view out the forward windows, and flat-out stopping her in her
tracks for a long moment.
Ragol itself was clearly visible, a beautiful blue-green world, its sun just visible over its horizon (Chris suspected Ben had made sure to come in from this
specific angle), adding to the planets beauty even more. The lack of massive clouds in the atmosphere didn't hurt.
But that wasn't what seized the young woman's attention. Ahead of the ship, there was something else visible. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust,
but when they did, she realized she was actually looking at a city in space. Gleaming towers that would be the envy of any skyscraper on any industrialized
world, shielded behind... well, Fiona wasn't sure what it was, aside from a faint blue tinge.
"That's Pioneer Two?" she managed to say, amazed.
Next to her, Chris laughed slightly. "What were you expecting?"
"Well, you said it was a colony ship, so..." she shrugged, lost for words, as the city took up more of the forward windows. She could make out more
features now, the lights from the city itself becoming visible.
"You expected the sort of bulky, one-way ships that get disassembled on arrival," Chris said. "The kind you see in the history tapes."
Fiona nodded slightly as Ben spoke up. "The Coralians had to do things differently. They figured it was easier to build the city beforehand, and just land
it on the planet. Of course, they're about the only people in the galaxy with the technology and the resources to pull it off," he added. "That,
and they were just so damn reluctant to let go of the things they like. Pioneer Two is one of the most advanced societies in the galaxy. Even the League,
Manticore and the Machine worlds pale before them. Nowdays, some people wonder if that's going to cost them their existence." He smiled slightly.
"Personally, I think they'll pull through." He turned his attention to the radio as it crackled to life, orders coming from Pioneers ATC.
"What's keeping the air contained?" Fiona asked. "Is it some sort of glass, or something like it?"
"Energy shields," Chris replied. "Another example of Ragolian tech. More then a few militaries would love to get their hands on Ragols shield
technology. So far, they'll just have to tolerate what weapons the Principal is willing to export."
Duskwalker drifted slowly past the atmosphere shields, the faint blue tinge now clearly visible, and quite remarkable. As Ben fired the maneuvering thrusters
to slow the ship, she passed under the city's 'ground level', replacing the view with that of seamless metals. The ship came to a halt in front of
large cargo bay doors, already smoothly opening for them, the blue tinge of atmosphere shields visible between them.
"I always say I'd love those things," Ben said. "Think of how much time it'd save us with airlocks."
"Want want want," Chris joked as his friend moved them in slowly, igniting the ships atmosphere turbines as they entered, rotating them to a VTOL
angle.
"And we park... over there," he finished, moving the ship forward, bringing it around one hundred and eighty degrees, then backing it in slowly and
settling it down in the bay. "Landing gears down and locked, shutting off engines," he reported, flicking a panel of overhead switches. "Pioneer
ATC, Duskwalker is settled safely."
"Acknowledged Duskwalker. Welcome back."