Star Man 1: Star Bourne

by I. G. Roberts

  Once the hatch was open, they had access to the passageway beyond. They chose to once again deploy two remote probes. The lighting was almost non-existent in the passageway so they were scanning on infrared and some other frequencies. One of the probes was sent forward while the second one moved aft. The Troopers noted that the one traveling aft was fairly quickly stopped by a locked and sealed hatch. The probe heading forward, moved probably forty metres forward till it was also blocked by a closed hatch. In the forward direction there were six other hatches evenly spaced, three on either side of our passageway. In the aft direction, there were no side accesses so the Troopers only needed to worry about the hatch at the end. They considered the problem for a few minutes before deciding to send fourteen Troopers forward and two aft. The intent was that the Troopers moving in the forward direction would stop at the first unguarded hatchway they came to, leaving two Troopers at the hatch then move on till all hatches were guarded. This ensured nobody could ambush the Troopers while they were exploring the areas beyond each of the hatches and clearing the associated compartments.

  Once the Troopers were all in position, they began with the hatch at the aft end of the passageway. The intent was to see what lay beyond the sealed hatch. They quickly found that this hatch opened into the main engineering spaces which we already knew were open to vacuum. As long as we kept pressure on this side of the hatch, any hostile would need to blow it out to gain entry from there. The next two hatches were entries to additional holds. The Troopers quickly cleared them before again sealing them shut. The third hatch on that side led to the external airlock they’d identified while clearing the external hull. The Troopers then checked the hatches on the other side of the passageway to find that one led to an empty compartment while the other two led to passageways leading into the ship’s core.

  They then decided it was time to try and find the twenty people we already knew to be on board the ship. If the Troopers could find them, they would be able to quickly neutralise any threat these people may possibly pose. If they were simply prisoners or slaves, finding them quickly would allow us to evacuate them back to FNS Destiny where we could help them more effectively. The Troopers sealed and locked the hatch to one passageway and took the other to the core where they started searching compartments as they headed aft. They finally found the one they were looking for when they arrived at the seventh compartment. That compartment was locked on the outside so it was apparent someone had in fact been locked in.

  RESCUE

  When the Troopers were finally able to break into the locked compartment, they were confronted with a horrific sight. There were twenty-one people inside, twelve females and nine males, all of whom were dangerously thin due to lack of food. It was clear to us they were obviously prisoners of the pirates but the Troopers still took no chances with them. When we debriefed them later, they told us they were effectively starved for about three weeks. They told us someone threw a few cases of food into the compartment immediately after the battle, then they were left to fend for themselves.

  The compartment they were locked away in was not particularly well ventilated so by the time we arrived to rescued them, the air was becoming quite stale, even putrid with the smell of sweat and other body wastes. They were also unable to access any water for the previous two days since the pump supplying water to that compartment gave out. When the emaciated state of these people was reported to me I told the Troopers to start moving them up to the airlock ready for pick up. There was no way I was willing to leave them behind, even if they turned out to be pirates. I arranged for the spare shuttle to be immediately launched so it could head over to the pirate ship to make the pick-up. By now we were nearing shift end, so I ordered the prisoners who were working around the ship returned to their quarters for security reasons. Thankfully, these prisoners had been true to their word and caused us no trouble whatsoever. As soon as they were safely locked away, I ordered the spare shuttle launched with four of our remaining seven Troopers to maintain security and four medical staff to care for the people we were intending to retrieve from the pirate ship.

  The shuttle arrived at the pirate ship where it docked to the selected air lock. Once everything was secure, the lock was cycled so they could move all the people we rescued from the pirate ship onto the shuttle for the trip back to FNS Destiny. While the transfer to the shuttle was underway, a small team of Troopers continued to probe further into the ship, methodically clearing it, compartment by compartment. As they cleared each compartment, they closed and locked the hatch before placing a seal on it. If someone entered a compartment after it was cleared and sealed, we would know about it. The seals they used were not readily visible with the naked eye and once broken, could not be repaired. They cleared as far as they could go to the rear before starting to work their way forward. By this time, we’d managed to load the people we rescued onto the shuttle and the medical staff started to evaluate them so the best treatment could be decided by the time they arrived on FNS Destiny. The Troopers who’d gone over to the pirate ship on the shuttle swapped with four of the Troopers who were already there and the shuttle then disconnected from the pirate and began its journey back to FNS Destiny.

  As the shuttle made its way back to FNS Destiny, the Troopers reported to me there were some Federation Navy personnel among the refugees. They also told me that one of them, a human female, seemed to be able to think and communicate reasonably clearly. She asked the Troopers if they could request the Captain to meet her when she reached our ship. I asked them to let her know I would come to the medical bay to see her once the shuttle docked with FNS Destiny again. I wanted to make sure everybody who needed it, received adequate medical attention as quickly as possible. With the captives on their way back to us, the Troopers remaining back on the pirate ship began to pursue their search and clearance operations more aggressively. We needed to do everything we could to render that ship safe as quickly as possible so our own people could go over there to scavenge any potentially useful materials. In particular, with all the additional people we’d been accumulating aboard FNS Destiny, food was likely to become a critical item sooner rather than later.

  The shuttle with the refugees had not yet arrived back at Destiny when the Troopers finally made first contact with the other inhabitants of the pirate ship. This first contact took the form of a fleeting glimpse of someone exiting a compartment via another hatchway just as they entered. Our Troopers now had clear confirmation, someone else was on the ship with them although we still did not have more than intermittent life signs on the instruments. As the Troopers moved closer to the ships bow, we were seeing the other life signs more and more.

  It was becoming clearer to us there were not very many of them but there were in fact more than one person trying to hide from our Troopers. Our people continued their way forward, carefully clearing and locking each compartment and passageway they passed before sealing it. Finally, one of our Troopers rounded a corner only to be hit squarely in the chest armour with the beam from a hand held laser. The armour held long enough for her to duck back around the corner out of the line of fire before she sustained any injury though her armour did sustain some minor damage. Now our Troopers isolated the location of the other occupants on this ship they began working to contain them prior to taking them prisoner. The Troopers quickly began moving through other passageways, trying to flank the pirates.

  By this time, the shuttle carrying the people we rescued, docked with Destiny to unload its cargo of people. Additional medical personnel and other crew were waiting to assist the new arrivals up to the medical bay. I didn’t feel I could leave the bridge right then, not till after the Troopers finished securing the other ship so I was not there to welcome them aboard. Instead, Eri was down at the shuttle, reassuring the new people they were safe now, they were in fact on a Federation naval ship and we would be going home soon. She told me later the looks of relief these people had on the faces after being rescued almost broke her heart
. These people all needed to be re-hydrated and given nourishment and they desperately needed rest. Still, we knew it would be weeks or perhaps even longer before any of them were able to fully recover.

  Meanwhile, on the pirate ship, the Troopers reached the point where they were ready to subdue the remaining occupants. They began by sending the smallest reconnaissance drone they had available down towards where they thought the pirates were hiding. As the drone moved down the passage, the Troopers constantly adjusted the targeting on their weapons. The Troopers intended to fire some of their less lethal ordnance towards the pirates in the hope they could cause enough confusion so a simple rush on their positions would be enough to neutralise them. The drone was destroyed by laser fire after it reached a point about two thirds the way down the passage.

  As soon as it came under fire, the Troopers launched four grenades in that direction. The grenades the Troopers launched were similar to the flash bangs police use on Earth. As soon as the grenades detonated the Troopers moved quickly down the passage through the smoke and confusion till they reached the expected location of the pirates. When they arrived, they found four pirates, all stunned and confused writhing around on the floor from the after effects of the grenade detonations. The Troopers quickly moved in and restrained these four pirates. Once the four were restrained they searched the compartment where they found an electronic device that seemed to be running. While we still had suit telemetry, we had lost a lot of the remote life sign signals for the Troopers as they drew nearer to that compartment. They disabled the electronic device and the remote life sign sensors immediately sprang to life, showing the restrained pirates and all the Troopers scattered throughout the ship. When I saw this I sent an order to the Troopers to retrieve the device. I thought Federation Naval Intelligence might want to take a look at it. Our Troopers then finished clearing the ship, manually checking each and every accessible compartment. We now knew the ship was secure with nobody else who could cause us any problems later. The four new prisoners were restrained, bundled up and herded back to the airlock ready to be bought back to FNS Destiny on the next available shuttle.

  While they waited for the shuttle to arrive, I asked the Troopers to transmit images of the pirates back to me. In the meantime, now we were confident the pirate ship was secure, we put together a decent sized scavenger team to go over to see what they could find. Their task was to scavenge anything from the pirate ship they thought would be useful to help us to keep FNS Destiny going till we were able to navigate her to a port where further repairs could be made. As soon as the scavenger team boarded the shuttle it departed for the pirate ship along with another four Troopers. We’d decided to keep a strong Trooper presence on the pirate ship till we completed our scavenging but I also wanted to draw the numbers down by about half with regular changes being made every time a shuttle went over to the pirate ship. This would give the Troopers time to have their armour serviced and rest between times.

  When the shuttle docked with the pirate ship, the Troopers loaded the four new prisoners along with eight Troopers. They also loaded all the unused air bottles they could find and some food they’d been able to locate, some of it very fresh and of good quality. When the shuttle was loaded, it began the trip back to FNS Destiny. While the shuttle headed back, our scavenger teams began cataloguing the items they found in the accessible holds and stacking the obviously useful materials ready for return to our ship. As they identified each item it was added to a list which others on FNS Destiny could see in real time. If someone thought it would be useful, then they could mark it on the list for retrieval. The first shuttle now proceeded to dock with the pirate ship and the teams there began loading it so the selected materials could be bought back to us as quickly as possible.

  After the spare shuttle docked with Destiny, the prisoners were immediately locked in separate secure accommodations before the Troopers went down to the squad bay where they began to service their armour before resting for a while. In the meantime, the shuttle crew were relieved of duty so they could also eat and sleep with a spare crew put in their place. Ani had returned with this load so she could rest then swap with Shasi later. She reported the status of the operation to me before heading down to the squad bay to service her suit and then rest. The Troopers were all working extremely hard and I was proud of every last one of them.

  Over on the pirate ship, the scavenger crew found a host of useful items including a lot of good quality food, a couple of pallets of material for the fabricator and a few useful spare parts, parts the engineering staff thought could be adapted for use on FNS Destiny. I finally reached a point where I felt I could leave the bridge so I made my way down to the medical bay to see how the people our Troopers had rescued were faring now the medical staff were able to assess them. When I arrived there, I found Eri trying to convince one of the new people, a woman in a tattered Federation Navy uniform to go lay down but she was insisting on trying to help the others and asking to see the Captain, she kept saying it was her duty.

  I paused to watch for a few seconds when Eri saw me and exclaimed, “Captain!”

  I struggled to hide a smile as I finished entering. The woman came to attention where she stood though I could see she was really struggling to maintain it.

  I worried she might pass out from the effort so I said, “At ease!” before taking her by the arm and gently guiding her into Eri’s office while casting a questioning look in Eri’s direction.

  Eri just smiled and nodded so we continued on to her office where I motioned for the woman to sit in one of the chairs before I sat in the other. She still looked embarrassed and even a little frightened though it was clear to me she was trying very hard to hide the fact.

  “Hello”, I said, “My name is Colin Gordon. First, you need to relax. You are not in trouble; I am not angry but I do need to talk to you briefly. Could you tell me your name please?”

  “My name is Anne Frazer, Ensign Anne Fraser.”

  “OK” I said, “May I call you Anne?”

  She just nodded so I continued, “Welcome to FNS Destiny Anne. In the short term you need to do as the medical staff here tell you. All of you have been through a lot recently. As I understand it, you are all malnourished and dehydrated. If nobody has told you yet, once we have finished over at the pirate ship, we will be continuing back into Federation space. This ship has taken a massive beating at the hands of these pirates recently, we have quite a few of the crew and all the officers in stasis pods.”

  She looked quizzically at me when I told her all the officers were in stasis pods. I could almost see the wheels turning in my head as she struggled to understand what was happening and who I was if I wasn’t an officer. For the moment, I decided to ignore her puzzled expression and simply press on with what I wanted to say.

  I continued, “We need to get to decent medical facilities as soon as we can. We plan to put into the first port we can find in the Federation. Still, we have prevailed so far albeit with far too many casualties. If we include the ship we’ve just rescued you and your companions from, we have destroyed three pirate ships and repelled an attempt to board and capture us by a pirate boarding party. Once you’ve regained a little of your strength, probably in a day or two, I would like to talk to you, explain all of this more fully as well as a few problems we have that you may be able to help with. For now, though, I need you to concentrate on your health and do what the medical staff tell you.”

  When I finished talking she nodded again before replying, “Yes Sir”.

  She still looked a little nervous so I told her to relax and reinforced the fact that she, and her companions were all safe and would be going home soon. She gave me a wan smile as she thanked me but I could still see that she was exhausted. I rose and helped her up before gently guiding her back out where Eri helped me put her onto a bed. I stayed with her as reassurance while Eri put a drip into her arm and eventually, she went to sleep.

  When she was asleep I took Eri aside and as
ked her what she’d been able to discover about Anne.

  Eri gave me an appraising look before replying, “I do know she is an officer, an Ensign. She is also a protocol officer working on a diplomatic mission.”

  I said, “Good, I may be able to put a legitimate officer in charge of the ship.”

  Eri chuckled quietly before replying, “Don’t count on it. She is not a line officer and I would quite honestly be surprised if she would ever accept the role.”

  I grunted and said, “I know I don’t really need to say this, but look after them Eri. Look after them all.”

  After that, I turned and headed down towards the mess, I was beginning to feel both hungry and tired. By now, the crew had a system going to bring the materials we needed back from the pirate and to rotate the personnel so they didn’t need input from me right then.

  I’d already left word with the sensor operators to notify me immediately if they detected any incoming ships. That should give us at least two or three hours’ notice, or so I hoped, so I thought we could, if necessary, retrieve our people, abandon the remains of the pirate ship and her cargo and run. On the other hand, every shuttle trip topped up our stocks of materials and parts so we could begin repairing our ship again. I thought, one more day of this and we should be able to start our journey into Federation space. When I arrived at the mess, I thought about all that had happened since I came on board FNS Destiny while I ate. By now I was feeling quite exhausted so after finishing my meal I went to my quarters for sleep.

  I woke quite a few hours later to a quiet ship. As I climbed out of my bunk, I thought everyone must still be sleeping. I cleaned myself up, dressed then went to the mess. The mess was crowded when I arrived but I found Eri there so I sat with her while I ate. She told me the people we rescued the previous day were all responding well to treatment. I asked how the Navy personnel were coming along. She just smiled as she told me they were coming along quite well but she planned to keep Ensign Fraser asleep and in the medical bay for at least another twenty-four hours. Eri told me she would give the Ensign a strict re-feeding plan when she woke, then release her into my custody because she was worried the good Ensign would not behave herself if she was kept in the medical bay for too long. Then she mused, a bit like another human I know really. Of course, I just laughed at that, I knew exactly who she was talking about and I knew I deserved it.