Path to Europa

by Garion Swann

  As they approached the station became larger on the screen, Grant every so often adjusting the optics to keep the picture clear. They were actually adjusted by mechanical arms and cogs, no power needed. Alex watched as his ship was towed to line up with the cargo bays on the station. Cargo bays were mostly universal, so there was no issue connecting the Michelangelo to the pirate station.

  The bridge received the alert that the seal had been successful and the cargo doors were being opened by the station. Alex attempted to connect to the cameras in the cargo bay but he was locked out, he tried to raise the Armageddon but got no response, Alex had accepted that they could not do anything. Did that make him a lousy Captain? Should he be doing everything he can to get them out of this mess? He is the Captain of a ship he can't control, a ship that pirates are currently loading some form of illicit cargo onto, for all he knew it could be explosives designed to damage Europa, he had to find out what it was.

  After nearly an hour the ship's computer told them the cargo doors had been resealed and the ship was safe to detach from the station. The Michelangelo was released from the station.

  "I have control!" Jenny shouted. She began testing controls, the ship responded to her perfectly.

  "Captain Harper," a new monotone voice came over the comm, "Please continue to the coordinates inputted into your navigational computer, We expect you there within nineteen hours. Failure to comply will not end well." the comm cut.

  "Well he sounded cheerful," Dylan said sarcastically but with his usual grumpy tone.

  "Dylan, get us going, continue as they've asked, I'm going to engineering to figure out our options."

  "Aye Captain," he said as he stood up. "Pilot, take us out to the jump point. Ops plot a jump course to the coordinates and forward it to the helm." Nods of acknowledgement came from both Jenny and Grant.

  Alex left the bridge and descended one deck, he entered the top level of engineering on deck three, he walked onto the balcony that overlooked the rest of engineering, the engine core was humming away perfectly with all the new power that the Armageddon had transferred to them. He spotted who he was looking for,

  "Grey!" he shouted down. His longtime friend looked up, they grew up together on Europa and had spent many hours talking about running a ship together, and they finally got their wish. Grey could have got any engineering job he wanted on top of the line vessels but decided he wanted to be on a small freighter instead. They were best friends and had been for a long time, even after losing touch as Alex's work took up more time they still remained good friends. Grey was also the first person he recruited onto his new ship, he also took him along to inspect the ship when he was looking to purchase it. Alex descended another ladder and made his way down to the lowest part of engineering where Grey was waiting.

  "How's it going?" Alex asked.

  "While we were undertow I managed to do some repairs to the engine and various other components, we're able to fly, but it won't last long, we need to dock." Before Alex could reply Grey continued, "We needed a dock two days ago, we had a chance, but you were chasing contracts! We would not be in this mess if you had just listened to me Alex, you have to trust me! You know me well enough to know when I'm being serious about something and I was deadly serious!" Grey was calm, but there was an assertiveness in his voice.

  "Yes, you're right," Alex said wishing Grey had brought this up later. "I'm sorry for not listening, but now I need options," Alex could tell Grey wanted to scream and shout about the situation he knew it would not help. Grey nodded for Alex to continue.

  "They keep getting control of our ship I need to know how. I also don't have access to anything about the cargo bay, and I need to know what they've loaded onto the ship" Alex had said it all very fast and Gray nodded along.

  "Leave your first issue with me. The cargo bay I would speak to Grant about, he can probably help better than I can." Grey replied. Alex knew he would find a way. If Grey asked you to leave it with him, he usually figures it out.

  "Thanks, Grey, and I am sorry for not listening," Alex said to his friend.

  "You never do," Grey responded as he turned to get to work.

  Alex moved to the engineering communications panel and pressed the button for the bridge.

  "Bridge this is Alex, Grant I'm hoping you can help me see what's in the cargo bay?" Alex said through the comm.

  "As a matter of fact I have an idea Captain, meet me in the Engineers toilets" Grant replied. Alex was confused, how could going to the toilets help.

  "Okay…" he replied slowly, "I'll meet you there,"

  About ten minutes later Grant approached the entrance to the engineering toilets. He saw the Captain and Grey and headed towards them, he knew the Captain would be confused by this, but he would explain.

  "Grant, I don't need the toilet why are we here?" The captain asked. Grant thought it might have been an attempt at being funny.

  "It's the thinnest part of the bulkhead that borders with the cargo bay, it's only three inches thick, whereas some of the others are nearly ten. We're going to drill a tiny hole through the bulkhead and poke a camera in there," Grant said, he was quite proud of his idea, he managed to affix a camera onto the end of some spare tubing he found in the equipment store, well, he hoped it was spare.

  "Brilliant, the Cargo bay is a vacuum, so we need to seal this area off, can these toilets be sealed?" Alex said.

  "Yes they can, and we just need a quick seal patch from engineering so we can seal the hole up after us, and it would be best if we get some Vacuum Suits, just in case."

  Grant and the Captain had gone around and got the equipment they needed, they had warned engineering and the bridge about what they were doing and were ready to begin. Grant watched as the light above the door went green to say they had a seal he then ordered the life support system to vent the air out of the room, he wanted to avoid a sudden decompression when they drilled the hole through the wall, even though it was a small hole he didn't want to risk it. Grant saw that the life support system confirm the room was a vacuum and began drilling, the Captain was watching him with anticipation, it took about five minutes to drill through three-inches of bulkhead. Eventually, he was through. Alex pushed the camera tube through the hole, he began to look, the camera's night vision took over as there was little light in the cargo bay. Grant watched the screen as the captain pushed the tube further in, he could see lots of containers that were identical. They didn't look like standard cargo containers though, they seemed bulkier as if there was extra reinforcement on them, he then glimpsed a panel on the side of one of the containers.

  "Captain, see if you can get a good view on one of those panels," The captain compiled and moved the camera. Eventually, he managed to get a view.

  "It's got some readouts on the screen, it's got... oh wait, that's a life support readout. There's life support inside those containers," Grant said confused. The captain looked a little paler than he did before.

  "You know what that means," The Captain said, Grant looked up thinking he knew what the Captain was going to say.

  "Slaves."

  Dylan entered the Captain's office and saw he was not the last to arrive, the Captain had called all the senior crew to his office for an urgent meeting they were to drop whatever they were doing and get there, he'd arrived about four minutes after the call went out. He didn't like meetings, just people sitting and talking rather than doing, it was pointless. Talk as you go he always said, that's what the fleet was like. As an ex-fleet officer, Dylan had seen his fair share of pointless meetings so probably had a biased view, but he still didn't like them. A fleet Captain would not have got his ship into this mess they would have followed the maintenance program that all United Planets ships had to follow, Captains would be severely reprimanded if they let their ships go downhill when it came to maintenance.

  Dylan had taken his seat and the last person, Doctor Tamber, entered the room. He looked around and next to him was the Captain looking very worried,
Grant looked equally concerned. Also around the table was the pilot Jenny, Grey the engineer and now Doctor Tamber, the ship's physician and crew booster as he called it, her job was to keep the crew happy, healthy and to resolve disputes. That should be his job, but apparently, he gets too aggressive, so the Doctor does it with her lighter touch.

  "Thank you all for coming at short notice, I'll cut to the chase as time is not on our side, we have slaves in our cargo hold, that's the illicit cargo," Alex said quickly in his calm tone, the reactions were the same, a bit of shock mixed with worry.

  "How many?" Asked Doctor Tamber.

  "We don't have an exact count but we think there are thirty per container and it looks like there are about two hundred containers," Grant said looking at his data tab.

  "We have six thousand slaves in our cargo hold!" Dylan shouted, "Dammit." He threw his hands up as he got out his chair in frustration. Slaves were outlawed in all governments that signed the Earth Memorial Agreement, it was in the agreement itself.

  "We have two choices," Alex said returning the attention of the room to him, "We complete the task, or we release the slaves and risk facing down Lady Jean. I know what my choice is, and as Captain, I will make that the ship's choice, Lady Jean showed no knowledge of the crew so anyone who wants to leave the ship can do so without issue, you will not face any repercussions from me or this ship. We will release the slaves and run, as far as we can, as far as our engines will take us, we'll aim for the other side of inhabited space and not look back. Although we will leave behind our home, we will also know that we freed six thousand slaves."

  "Lady Jean is not going to be pleased," Grant said.

  "She can go to hell," Dylan said sitting down again.

  "Here here," Alex said, "Let's get to work!"

  *

  "Alex!" Grey said running onto the bridge, "We need to eject the computer core as well,"

  "Why?"

  "It's what is allowing them to take control of the ship the only way to stop it is to dump the core. They can't track or control us then." Grey said catching his breath, he'd obviously ran up to the bridge.

  "What about a full purge and reset?" Alex asked.

  "It takes days to prepare for a purge, we don't have the time."

  Alex thought for a moment, "Can we switch to manual controls?"

  "Yes, easily," Grey said.

  "Jenny, can you manually plot jump routes?" Alex asked.

  "What a stupid question, of course, I can!" she replied.

  "Do it, now," Alex said to Grey.

  Alex had managed to get an encrypted message to a contact of his on Europa, and they will accept the slaves, he also provided all the information he could on Lady Jean, the Armageddon and the station they were docked at.

  "Ok, let's do this," he said to the bridge crew.

  "Core has dropped and confirmed it is still transmitting the location beacon," Grant announced.

  "Good, as soon as we're out of the jump start plotting the next one, as far away from here as you can." He said to Jenny.

  He watched the screen countdown the final seconds of the jump and hoped he had done the right thing.

  The ship emerged from the jump, and as expected three Europan vessels were waiting, Alex had pulled in a favour from a friend in the Europan military. The ships immediately jumped into action and attached themselves to various parts on Michelangelo's hull. They began cutting through, and it didn't take long until they were unloading the containers full of slaves The efficiency of the military meant it did not take long to complete the tasks. The ships detached themselves and moved away.

  "Go," Alex said, and the Michelangelo jumped out. He hoped that was not the last time he saw a Europan ship.

  ***

  Chapter One

  Three Years Later

  "We have a what?" Alex asked.

  "A fuel leak, we're losing fuel quickly" Grant replied.

  "Engineering this is the Bridge, Grey did I ignore any of your maintenance requests?

  "No, you didn't actually, I like this new you!" Grey replied.

  "How do we have a fuel leak?" Alex asked.

  "We're losing fuel too fast to worry about that now, I'm putting the ship in low power mode," Grey replied.

  "Understood," Alex replied. He tapped the announce button and addressed the crew. "All hands, we're putting the ship in power saving mode and coasting, make your way to the bridge ASAP."

  Alex was trying to figure out why they had a fuel leak. If he remembered rightly, the fuel tanks are checked every week and were also on a recent round of maintenance.

  "We have enough power to get to this station at the current rate of loss, it's a small jump away from our destination," Dylan stated, he showed the Captain the outpost, it was the only viable target. Dylan had found it very quickly, the strange thing was, it wasn't even his job.

  "Forward to the helm, we'll head there, Give me an ETA when you have it." The crew had started filling onto the bridge, the rest of the ship was being shut down to conserve power. In these sort of situations, the bridge has room for all the crew, so the life support only needed to work in one place. The bridge had a small room on the side which has a toilet, shower and ration storage for about four days. After a few losses and some crew leaving after they ran from Lady Jean, there were about forty-five people onboard the Michelangelo.

  "We're about three hours from the station at current fuel loss rate," Grant said to everyone on the bridge.

  Jenny was monitoring the readouts on her console, as the ship was drifting on the momentum they had gained speeding up there was not much she needed to do, with the limited fuel she had to avoid correcting small discrepancies in their flight path all the time. That would frustrate her but Jenny had conditioned her mind to combat frustration and anger, she had done a lot of mental conditioning in her time, her training master always said to her that she would not complete his course until she felt nothing when she killed someone. All that was a long time ago though, she had grown since then, adapted to her surroundings and learnt that killing was not always the answer.

  "You ever flown drift before?" Grant asked from next to her.

  "A few times, it's somewhat peaceful," Jenny replied, she did find the idea that they were drifting through space somewhat powerless quite peaceful.

  "Peaceful? How are you not frustrated, a comet could come into our flight path, cause us to use the thrusters, we run out of fuel, and we're dead! How does that not frustrate you?"

  Jenny smiled, "I don't get frustrated."

  "That sounds like a challenge Glover!" Grant said with a boisterous grin on his face, he was a big child, but he was good company on the bridge.

  "You're playing with fire McDonald, careful you don't get burnt," Jenny warned playfully.

  "Ooo, is that frustration I hear coming through?" Grant jested.

  "If I ever got frustrated you would know,"

  "So you can get frustrated," Grant smiled back at her.

  "Unlikely," Jenny responded with a cold tone.

  "I bet you a day's wages I can get you frustrated!" Grant challenged.

  "Make it a week and a round of drinks. You have two weeks, good luck" Jenny said accepting the challenge.

  "This will be a fun two weeks," Grant said as he tapped his console, he was diverting some power away from various systems.

  "Jenny, if you're going to kill him, please make sure it's off my ship and be sure to have found me another Ops Manager," Alex said, he was slightly amused by the conversation between the two of them. He liked that fact his crew got along, they were all friends, they had a laugh, and they worked together as a team. Alex had never got involved with the social life of the ship mainly because it's quite daunting, he was a mostly confident commander but not as sure of himself when it came to socialising and especially with small talk, so he avoided it.

  "What's on the menu tonight anyway? Whose turn is it to cook?" Grey asked turning from his engineering console.

  "
Do you ever not have food on your mind?" Tina, another engineer, asked.

  "I think it's your turn anyway Grey," another crew member said.

  "That's fine I can cook my famous A la Caca!" Grey said grinning.

  "What's that? It sounds nice!" Tina asked.

  "It's incredible, smells a bit, but it's incredible!" Grey replied holding back a laugh. A few members of the crew were sniggering. Tina looked confused.

  "What is it?" She said looking a little frustrated. Doctor Tamber walked over.

  "Tina, where did you grow up?" She asked.

  "Rowena," she said confused.

  "Ahh, that explains it," Grey said laughing, "Caca is a word from an old Earth language called French, there's a community on Europa that still speaks it so we all picked up the funny words as you would as kids."

  "Oh, that's quite cool. I've never heard another language before. What does caca mean?" Tina said. Grey just laughed out loud.

  "I'm sorry Tina, it means poo, caca is poo in French,"

  "Oh, Grey!" Tina said as she playfully hit him on the arm. A lot of the crew were now laughing, that would be one to remember, Alex thought to himself.

  "It's a shame," he began, "Many languages died in the decades after the Languages Act of 3142," The languages act made it, so all citizens of the Empire had to learn one of three languages, most already knew them but some minorities had to learn something completely different from what they knew. It caused an uproar, but the Empire was so powerful at that point they just ignored it.