by Will Crudge
“Sorry, dear.” Sasha winked. “I have that effect on people.”
“Well, they want us to dock and give a statement in person.”
“I heard the whole thing—ears of a predator, remember?”
“Then why did you ask for a status?” Kara gave her an inquisitive scowl.
“Because, dear… I wanted to know if you intended on blowing through to Tangine Station, or if I need to sharpen my claws?” Sasha spoke with her sultry sounding rough vocalizations, provided the backdrop for her voice module’s motherly voice.
Kara instantly noted in her mind, how amazingly nurturing the big cat sounded when she was saying sinister things. “We’ve got the speed. We’ve got firepower. But do we want to stir up a hornet’s nest on the other side of that gate? The way I see it is, we might just have to give a statement and leave peacefully, but if we shoot our way through, then the security forces, AKA Crimson summer camp will certainly be on to us. We may have to see how this plays out.”
“Go ahead and dock, Kara,” Jimma spoke from the adjacent berthing space. “I don’t care if we fight or not, but fighting isn’t our goal here. Our goal is to make it to Tangine and link up with your local law enforcement contacts. We can’t very well infiltrate the Crimson agents running that station, if we come through the gate mowing them down with plasma!”
“Well, I guess if my thought process is endorsed by a trained War Master, then I can’t be wrong!” Kara said proudly. She was proud of herself for gaining Jimma’s trust.
“Ha! If only War Masters were never wrong! The mighty Kaylen might have lived much longer!” Jimma said with a playful, yet sarcastic tone.
“You guys always talk about this Kaylen guy like he’s a deity, or something. One day I’d like to hear the real stories about him. I’ve always heard him mentioned to be some great hero, but that’s about all I know.” Kara said. Her words were true. She didn’t quite understand what all the fuss was about, but if this ‘Kaylen’ kept on being brought up in conversation, then he must be an important figure.
“Dearest, we will tell you everything. But by Kaylen’s sword, I must insist you follow your HUD readout to the dock!” Sasha said with a wink.
The Skull-Crusher casually glided along its prescribed route to the docking assignment they had received without incident. Along the way Kara took in the view of Clarendon Station. The typical fake-metal-planet shape of the main structure was much smaller than its larger cousins. But nearly all hyper gate stations had the same basic structure. Most of the space within the station itself was dedicated to fuel storage, cargo distribution, and housing for the massive generators that produced the protective shielding. The even larger generators that powered the graviton stability drives were the bulkiest. Those were used to hold the gates of folded space open. The regional hub only boasted about four hyper gates, but it had several more HAL launchers than bigger stations.
The HAL’s would launch vessels with inertial dampening capability at extreme velocities. This allowed vessels to accelerate to their cruising sub-light speeds in a matter of seconds. Although a HAL launch wasn’t cheap to book, it did save money in the long run. Not only did it dramatically shorten normal spaceflight durations, but it saved quite a bit of fuel. Accelerating in space accounted for the bulk of any vessels’ fuel consumption. Depending on the expanse of any particular system, a HAL launch could allow a mega-freighter to cut across to the nearest planetary body for an additional slingshot and make a three-month-long subspace hop only last two to three weeks.
The economic might of the entire UAHC, and other sovereign entities were dependent on the volume of trade that could be achieved through hyper gate stations. Traversing an expanse of thousands of light years was now possible in a matter of months, weeks, or even days with an efficient flight plan… and the right amount of money. Nothing about interstellar travel was cheap, but it did serve to power economies, and provide a close connection to every corner of humanity.
The Interview
Location: Clarendon Station, Interstellar Port, dock
Date Time: Post Interstellar 08/01/4201
System: Vulcan System, Outer Region
The Skull-Crusher glided through the magnetic field that sealed the atmosphere from the outside vacuum of space. The shield rippled slightly, and then settled back into its invisible form. There were no racks, cradles, or docking jigs available, so Kara deployed the standard landing gear. She preferred a landing rack or cradle over having to climb down the steep retractable steps of the fighter. She liked the idea of taking a single step down to the flat surface of a deck. She wasn’t so much afraid of heights, but she decided wearing her newly upgraded armor was necessary, she figured she didn’t want to look like a lumbering baboon while anyone watched her descend the steps.
They had no idea if the security representative waiting for their statement was legit, or just a Crimson agent in disguise. Presentation was key, and clumsily thudding down a small set of steep steps wouldn’t lend much to her intimidation factor.
Kara made it down the steps with more grace than she was expecting to have. Her armor had been upgraded from law enforcement to military specs and was roughly equivalent to light infantry – minus the typical bulkiness. Unum tech had triumphed once again. She suspected that the power-assisted joints, and armor plating were significantly better than what she was used to as well.
Kara scanned the docking bay and noticed a man in a typical grey contract security uniform approach. She steeled herself, and kept her surroundings in her peripheral vision, but didn’t want to make it obvious she was looking for potential threats. She reminded herself she had some serious backup on board her fighter, then took a deep breath to calm her nerves.
The man approached casually, and Kara could see he was an unassuming presence. Blonde hair, average height, no distinct features to speak of. Then she smiled and spoke with a façade of confident body language.
“Greetings, Sergeant!” Kara said, and then felt relieved to see the man smile back.
“Same to you, Major,” the man said.
At first Kara was taken back at his recognition of her rank, but then remembered her new armor allowed for a more prominent view of her insignia. “So you’ll be our security rep to take our questions?”
“Yes, ma’am… err, who’s our?” The Sergeant looked around.
Kara realized she’d blundered and attempted to play it off. “Sorry, I have an embedded AI in my armor!” Whew!
“The name’s Steve, Sergeant. Pleasure to meet you!” Steve came in for the save.
Thanks for not being a dick, Steve! She silently messaged him.
Are you being sarcastic?
“Pleasant to meet you too, Steve, and yes, I’ll be taking your statements. My name is Andrews.” He politely bowed.
Kara thought he may try to salute her since, by contract, his firm was required to recognize Unum rank structure. “Well, Sergeant Andrews, I’m all yours. Where shall we begin?”
Kara and Sergeant Andrews discussed the incident from her viewpoint for several minutes. She pretended to play off the real cause of the crash, since she needed to gauge whether her interviewer already knew. It would eventually come out that there was damage caused by weapons fire, but she kept things vague enough to remain believable as she could.
“You must have seen what happened to cause the crash on the outbound lanes of Clarke Station, wouldn’t you?” Andrews kept pressing.
“It’s like I said before, the freighter rushed the gate! I hit at least a dozen other ships, and almost rammed mine, too. Its shields were toast by the time it got to the gate itself,” Kara said calmly.
“Looks like Clarke STC sent us a data burst just now. Hold on.” Sergeant Andrews paused to read something on his display.
Kara looked back at her fighter, as if to grasp for the sense of security she felt while inside. She could only pray that the STC report omitted the blasting part. It was no accident that the LRF came out of the gate in
the wrong sequence either. She hadn’t quite figured out how to play that one off yet.
“OK then. Looks like they answered my next question. Says here the freighter went rogue, wasn’t broadcasting IDENT, and rushed the gate as you said. I was wondering why you’d come out of the gate out of your assigned order. Too bad you couldn’t get into safe weapons range when you tried to interdict on Clark STC’s behalf. Might have made them think twice and come to a halt,” Andrews spoke as if he either bought the whole charade, or if he was playing it cool until back up arrived.
Kara decided that either way, the best play was to play along until something made her draw a weapon.
“Yeah, well actually…” Steve chimed in. “I’m remotely detecting that our pulse cannons may have auto-engaged. Kara and I hadn’t noticed at the time, since she was kind of thrust into action at the last second. I would have caught it sooner had I been embedded directly into the ship.”
“Wow! Auto-engage, huh? Sounds like a dangerous feature don’t you think? I mean you’re obviously Unum contract law enforcement, but that doesn’t seem like something you should have enabled in civilian traffic.” The Sergeant’s eyes narrowed.
Luckily, Steve was very capable of replying to the Sergeant by voice while simultaneously schooling Kara on AI logic.
“Very true, had this vessel been civilian. Notice the IDENT? It’s registered under Unum Defense Force. The shield data revealed that there may have been some kind of explosive device discharge from the freighter. It’s possible it was a false reading due to the myriad of collisions that were taking place, however the shield’s data triggered the self-defense systems on board. They are designed to engage any potential threat with minimal force autonomously. After all, Kara could have been incapacitated and the offender could have broken through to cause even more havoc in Clarendon space. I’d say it’s a damn good thing the potential for disaster was mitigated the way it was.” Steve’s words were uncharacteristically professional.
Sergeant Andrews updated his report as the AI spoke, and then stopped to scratch his chin. Then he nodded.
“Very well. I’ll need to have a snapshot of the data for forensics. If the data holds up, then I’ll file my report and you’ll be free to go.” Andrews smiled.
“Well, I…” Kara didn’t know what to do now. She was convinced Steve had overstepped and spit out a garbage narrative that they couldn’t back up.
“Here you are, Sergeant.” Steve interrupted. Data streams came through from Skull, and Steve relayed them to Sergeant Andrews’s devices. Kara felt her neural interface tingle with the data transfer. She forgot Steve could use her suit’s features as much as she could herself—perhaps even better.
Andrews looked down and nodded as the data flowed across his small hand-held display. Then after a few moments he looked up and smiled.
“Well, Major, looks as if everything is jiving well. I can’t see any reason to keep you any longer.”
“Great! And I’ve gotta say, you’ve been very thorough and professional, thank you,” Kara replied with honestly. She feared a Crimson agent in disguise, but then she realized that supplanting the entire security force would be too brazen. They must be focusing on the big picture, and still letting good people do their jobs.
They exchanged a few platitudes and laughs, and then Andrews turned to walk towards the doorway to the docking bay. Kara turned back to her ship with a smile. But then all hell broke loose.
Pirates and Ninjas and Lasers and Shit
Location: Clarendon Station, Interstellar Port, dock
Date Time: Post Interstellar 08/01/4201
System: Vulcan System, Outer Region
The tell-tail sound of a plasma bolt impacting bare metal caused Kara to spin around in a flash. Her years of para-military law enforcement training kicked in, and she realized she had her pulse pistol drawn and at the ready position.
“Hold right there, little lady!” The pirate said.
She saw Sergeant Andrews was being held from behind by the wretched pirate, and the plasma pistol was just a few centimeters from his head. She couldn’t get a clear view of the pirate himself, but she could see the pale bald scalp of the man hovering behind Andrews’ shoulder.
“Easy, fella. Let’s not do anything rash.” Kara lowered her pulse pistol, and her off-hand slowly came up with an open palm facing the two men.
“Seems as if I’ve found you at last! The last time I tried to claim my LRF prize, your UAHC buddy crashed the party,” The semi-concealed pirate spat.
“Oh, that was you? I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you without a few hundred kilos of man-meat and armor standing on top of you. Looks like you came out alright, though!” Kara’s sarcasm may not have been her best option to deescalate the situation, but she often circumvented protocol towards pirates. They weren’t just thugs. They were the lowest scum possible. Even Crimson agents held a slightly higher spot in her hierarchy of spineless fuck-sticks.
“The miracle of modern med-tech! We may have been taken by surprise once, but it won’t happen this time.” He sneered.
Then his friends showed up. The rough looking rank and file of the pirate goons she and Darius had encountered back on Tangine began to trickle in through the bulk-head door. Men and women alike bore the same eclectic garbs she had remembered from their previous encounter. But this time they brought a few more in number. Kara instinctively counted their heads as they emerged and then loosely fanned out into a poorly formed skirmish line. Eight of them posted themselves on the right flank of the bald leader, and another six on his left.
“More goons? Good! You’ll need ‘em!” Kara smiled.
“I know you security types… You’re loyal to your own kind. Even though your uniforms are different colors, you still stick together. You don’t want this poor guy to have his brain cooked by plasma, do you?” Baldy’s words seemed to be confident, as far as Kara could tell, but he also seemed to be grasping to find leverage.
Why not just move in and try to take the Skull-Crusher by force? Kara tried pouring over the question, but she had to stay in the moment. She knew she had some serious back up on her ship, but did they?
“Quit the yacking! Spit it out. What do you want?” Like she didn’t already know. A fully functional LRF-90—especially one with a gorgeous cobalt blue sheen—would set their entire crew for life. Even if they managed to squeeze out a few more centuries of a lifespan, the value of her ship was more than what the UAHC probably spent on a brand-new battle cruiser and would allow all of them to retire like royalty.
“All you have to do is drop your pistol, then pass along the access tokens for your fighter’s systems. This poor fella goes free, and you might not ev
en get raped in the process!” Baldy wasn’t the best negotiator on the planet, but he seemed to be confident on how this little snatch and grab was going to pan out.
“How did you find me? It’s not like you pirate punks waste your time on small regional hubs very often.” Kara noted. She knew pirates often didn’t mess with smaller hubs. Fewer egress options if things went bad, and the smaller populations made it harder for them to blend in and vanish.
It dawned on her that they had to be tracking her somehow. If they were in cohorts with the Crimson, then that would make sense. Andrews could be in on it also. Perhaps he was playing a part and was in no true danger of getting killed.
Steve chimed in on her thoughts.
“Well, I guess I don’t have much of a choice now do I?” Kara scowled, but her defeated expression was pretty authentic.
“No, my dear. You really don’t,” Baldy replied, but Kara couldn’t get a read on his face since it was partially obstructed by the Sergeant’s right shoulder.
Kara kneeled on her right knee. She slowly lowered her pulse pistol towards the floor hand she brought her left arms across to her right side to help guide the pistol to the surface without causing an inadvertent discharge. She froze at the sudden humming sound that rose up in her awareness, and the room turned to a pinkish tint.