The Storm Fishers and Other Stories

by Everitt Foster

Brine.

  “This is real help,” Andromeda said strapping a knife inside her boot and securing it with electrician’s tape. “You have to do your part. We all do. Each one.”

  “Does the captain know you’re going?” Volt shoved his way through the core team’s huddle.

  “Clearly,” Nugget said in a sarcastic tone, “Which is why we need Q’s program to jack a ship of our own.”

  “The inventory system resets every twelve Terran hours. You probably won’t have time to take one and return it before the ship’s AI knows it is missing,” said Quark.

  “In other words, give up now and hope it will work out in the future?” Brine used a tone meant to remind Quark of his probationary adviser.

  The air felt still and the moment felt as if the hour had been captured by a black hole. There are moments that make a man who he will be for the rest of his life. Each of us must choose. And when we choose we create a copy of ourselves that follows the path not chosen. But in this reality standing before his future, Quark looked to the constellations peering through the port window bathing the equipment room in shadows and light.

  “I will help you. But I will help on my terms. Using force? That’s not bravery it’s frustrated ignorance. Your minds were created for great things. You are scientists. You are heroes of the imagination.”

  “Ubi sunt…respice post te, ubi sunt…respice post te, memento mori…respice post te,” Maria whispered to herself, eyes closed, rubbing a small silver medallion that once belonged to her mother. She sat patiently upon a small cargo crate. SRVs floated by carrying energy, minerals, the products of another’s time in this world.

  The three scientists waited until no SRVs were within detection distance. Quark installed Poly on the hangar’s mainframe. She was active in under thirty seconds. “I’ve got control,” she said. The SRVs veered to the side wall and powered down. Moments later the lock on a cargo crate popped open. The three scientists quickly pulled a flat 5m x 9m metallic sheet from the top level and loaded it on a manual pushcart. Within minutes they had positioned a lathe over the sheet. Poly activated the machine.

  In the control room above accounting interns behind the tinted glass watched readouts pulse in seven second increments. The screens indicated the SRVs were preparing the next cohort of energy cells for the arrival of the next ship. No one thought of anything more than the next caffeine break.

  When the lathe finished its work Quark and Brine rested it on the crate beside Maria. “Are we ready?” she said in a somber tone.

  “Almost. Quark, Poly I suppose, needs to adjust the accounting ledger so the scandium plate doesn’t show up on the inventory until the next reboot,” said Ibrahimzade. He turned to Quark, “Is the transport invisible yet?”

  Quark reconnected his tablet and Poly disappeared from the mainframe, “It is.”

  “Let us find out,” Ibrahimzade slid an ID card across an authorization pad and thumbed when instructed. Slowly two doors parted before them. “No attention siren. We’re good,” said Andromeda looking back at the control room.

  Argie, stood upon his hoverpad overlooking the ordeal from the upper deck. He began to descend. The SRVs sprang back to life. He continued to the control room and hesitated, “Good speed and good ways.”

  A Ghost Pepper class transport, often favored by pirates for speed and a low radar profile, ascended from the ship’s auxiliary hangar. She was the color of the sea after a storm, with translucent shields across the windows. Two small turbines were lodged against the hull and two more fixated mid-wing.

  “Is the ship armored?” said Maria.

  Ibrahimzade shook his head, “And no weapons either.”

  Quark tucked his tablet in his pack. The rest shouldered their equipment and stared at the ship hesitating, hearts pounding. Brine held the handle of the pushcart ready to load the ore upon command.

  “This is your last chance. No one will think the less of you for turning back,” said Quark to the surprise of Brine and Andromeda.

  Upon launch Quark loaded Poly into the Ghost Pepper’s mainframe. “Can you make a copy of her to take with you on the ship?” said Maria.

  “Her programming doesn’t work like that. She’s not a simple routine.”

  “He built me as a unique stand-alone entity. I can be uploaded to anything with an electrical pulse and a CPU. However, the code controlling my memory and predictive abilities are nomic. Copying them will reset both functions, and I enjoy remembering my…existence would you call it?”

  “Oh. I just thought maybe we could bring her with us when we go to negotiate. In case the Rangers suspect the scandium isn’t T.U. encoded,” she said.

  “It would be nice,” said Volt.

  Quark said, “I would appreciate it if at least one of you stay with the ship.” Ibrahimzade, “Under your seats you’ll each find two weapons. A pulse ray and a sonic disruptor. The disruptor is non-lethal but has a short and wide range. The pulse gun will penetrate even granite. So be careful. You could punch a hole in the hull.”

  “I suppose the pulse gun dissipates as it penetrates matter?” said Andromeda holstering her weapons.

  “That’s correct.”

  Brine turned from the pilot’s seat and said, “Poly has the Ranger’s ship.”

  Poly announced, “She is perched behind Ganymede. Power is minimal according to the Ghost Pepper’s long range Very Long Telescope array. Barely above the CMB radiation. Though their heat trail is still present.”

  “You’re sure it’s them?” said Volt with a nervous crack in his voice. He loaded his weapon waiting for her answer.

  “They are the closest anomaly I can detect. And they are following the trajectory from ‘the Black Bird.’”

  Ibrahimzade interrupted, “And that’s the Ranger’s modus operandi. Hide and seek when a ship passes a moon’s orbit. And that beautiful creature has a lot of moons. Polymath, hail the ship when you can. Tell them we are a mining vessel from Io and we want to make a trade.”

  “What should I offer the Rangers?”

  “Cyclic-8-chain sulfur. Stable. No radiation damage,” he replied.

  Quark smiled at Maria, “One day when you stand down the opposition at the Terran Union you’ll be fearless.”

  Nobody said a word as the ship passed Io’s verdant aura, nor did they speak as they approached Ganymede. Only a yawn from time to time broke the silence, interrupting the lullaby-like hum of the engines.

  “There it is,” a flare from the Horntail’s blast shield spiked Brine’s field of view as the Ghost Pepper set course for the far side of the moon. Brine blocked the blinding light with his hand. Poly took over the docking. “They’re hailing. Should I reply?” she said.

  “Yes tell them we’re ready. We’re sending a trade group including our negotiator and accountant,” said Ibrahimzade.

  The Ghost Pepper drifted into the Ganymede’s orbit coming to rest meters off the Horntail’s bow. Brine could see the Ranger’s pilot from his seat. “They’re waving us over. I’m extending the docking tube.”

  Maria stood and brushed her jacket smooth hoping to hide the silhouette of her weapons. Ibrahimzade stood beside her and Quark beside him. Volt brushed Maria’s hand as the pneumatic seal breathed air from both ships into the vacuum tube.

  The Ghost Pepper’s door slid open. Quark, Andromeda and Nugget watched from the port windows as the team pushed the cargo through the tunnel towards the Horntail. Three rangers met them at the adjacent gate, pistols drawn. The team stopped, hands in the air. Quark drew his weapon. The others followed.

  A thud sounded through the tunnel. Quark moved towards the airlock as two rangers entered the Ghost Pepper. Both were shocked to see one another. Andromeda pulled her ray and shot the first through the heart. The living ranger raised his hands. Nugget rushed behind him to secure his weapon. Andromeda shook and dropped her gun and dropped to her knees, her hands shaking her eyes drying her nose flaring.

  “What have you done?” Quark said in
a whisper. She did not answer but took her gun in hand and tried to stand. He reached to help her to her feet.

  “I thought you were-I didn’t-you were-you couldn’t see,” she finally said.

  The three looked at the unarmed ranger. “We can’t keep him prisoner,” she said. Her voice as deep and strong. She no longer shook. She gripped her weapon. “What do you think we’ll gain by releasing him?”

  “Why were you sent here?” said Quark stepping between Andromeda and the ranger.

  He shook his head, “I-we were supposed to search the ship-please-please-we were supposed to take-ah-the-ah things-”

  “You thought the ship was empty and you were going to scavenge the electronics,” Andromeda said. The ranger nodded. His arms were weak and trembling. His nostrils flared and ran. His legs could no longer hold his unchecked weight. Andromeda shoved Brine out of the way. The ranger closed his eyes. His heart pounded hard enough to make visible his breathing.

  Quark squinted and cocked his head, “If you were going to scavenge our ship-you had no intention of releasing the crew.”

  Quark raised his weapon and looked at Andromeda. “You are a better person than I. But you were right.”

  He closed his eyes, “Step away Nugget.”

  He fired.

  He did not see the ranger fell to the ground.

  But he heard the body collapse on the corrugated steel floor.

  “What do we do now?” Andromeda said.

  Quark gazed down the tunnel, past the black, through