by Garion Swann
"How long ago was that again, I can never remember with the old Gregorian calendar," Mark, one of the security personnel, asked. Alex thought for a moment, probably clear with his facial expression.
"0 ASF, is 3454 A.D, and it's now 134 ASF, so 3142 is 446 years ago," Alex said after some working out in his head.
"Why is it so confusing," Mark said as a rhetorical question.
"Because we're ruddy humans," Dyan mumbled.
Time passed slowly while drifting, the crew were surprisingly happy though, it's the first time they'd been locked up on the bridge since the incident with Lady Jean three years ago. Alex watched as his crew conversed, laughed and bonded. He noticed a few crewmembers getting somewhat close to others, he had never really considered the thought that two crew members may form a relationship. He had never really put much effort into relationships, it had never been a priority for him. Like most other humans he did crave closeness to another but not enough to make him want to pursue a relationship.
"The station is signalling us, they're requesting comms," Grant announced.
"Put it up," Alex said. Grant accepted communication and then diverted the audio to the main bridge speakers.
"Inbound ship state your business," The voice said, it was a high voice, but definitely male.
"This is Captain Harper, and this ship is the Michelangelo. We have a fuel leak and request emergency docking,"
"Request accepted, are you able to complete docking under your own power?"
Alex looked to Jenny who nodded, "Yes we can, thank you,"
"Confirmed. Please proceed to bay four,"
"Docking bay four, that's confirmed." The comm cut and Alex returned his attention to the ship's status screen. They had enough fuel to get there, just. He wondered what could have caused the leak, he thought it could be sabotage but to what gain. He only had one enemy that he knew of, and they were hopefully on the other side of the galaxy. They hadn’t not heard anything from or about Lady Jean, Alex had been considering taking the ship back to Europa. He hadn't started investigating the fuel leak, if there was a saboteur it was more than likely one of his crew, and the moment he announces an investigation, the saboteur would know straight away. He would investigate alone and only bring in people he trusted completely.
"We're on approach," Jenny announced, "bringing us into line," she nudged the controls, using minimal amounts of thrust, with the fuel so low she could not afford to use too much power. The ship slowed as it approached the station, Jenny was concentrating so much on her small movement she had not checked the fuel.
"Fuel status?" She asked anyone.
"I'm surprised we still have power," came Grey's response.
Alex released a breath he didn't realise he was holding and checked the pilot's screen, they were very close, only a minute away from making contact with the stations docking clamps.
"We're on course, just need to slow us down," As Jenny increased the braking thrust the sound of systems failing could be heard, the engines came to a stop, and the lights on the bridge went out. Low-level lights came on as the emergency batteries kicked in. Jenny cursed under her breath.
"Let's hope the station has reinforced docking clamps we're coming in a bit too fast!" Jenny said looking at Alex.
"Brace for impact," Alex raised his voice to all the crew on the bridge. Seconds that felt like minutes passed as the ship got close to the station, they were on a perfect course thanks to Jenny's piloting but had no thrust to slow down. Alex waited, hoping they would not just break through the docking clamps, they were designed to hold a powerless ship stationary not slow one down. Standard docking clamps would crumble if a ship going this speed impacted them, reinforced ones would be able to take the impact and bring the ship to a stop.
The ship jolted as the docking clamps took hold and the sound of metal groaning vibrated through the hull, after several more long seconds it stopped, and the ship came to a stop. The main lights came on as the Michelangelo switched to station power and status screens returned to normal, there were numerous red warnings on a lot of the screen stating there was no fuel.
"Good work Jenny," Alex said.
"You can't say that having no power, unable to control the ship at all, flying towards a station didn't frustrate you," Grant said as he stood up.
"As I said, peaceful," Jenny said with a sly smile.
"Hmm," Grant responded, "good flying Glover."
Alex left the ship alone and made his way to the control room aboard the station, it was not a fancy station by any stretch of the imagination, but it was functional and seemed efficient from what he saw. There were lines on the floor designating where people can and can't walk, it showed areas where only small cargo carts could be pulled and showed clear areas where people couldn't go for whatever reason. The station was not busy, there were only three other ships docked all cargo vessels, two of them were twice the size of the Michelangelo and one that was probably ten times the size, thousands of crew, and more cargo space than he could imagine it was an impressive machine. He's seen a lot that size when on Europa, the profit they made in a run could buy his ship a thousand times over, they weren't cheap to run though so it's all relative as to how much is pure profit and how much will go back into the ship. The crew are probably paid similar to what Alex's crew is.
Alex eventually made his way into the main control centre of the station, there was a small desk with a terminal and a woman sitting behind it, she was wearing an old style flight suit which was far from clean, the sleeves were rolled up and her arms were marked with grease and dirt, clearly an engineer.
"Hi, there!" Alex greeted the woman.
"Hey! Welcome to Zingara Station, my names Rixie what can we do for you?" She smiled at him as she spoke.
"My name is Alex Harper I've just docked the Michelangelo, we need some fuel and some materials for repairs to a fuel tank,"
"Ahh the Michelangelo, small system freighter, Sierra class, built 118 ASF, serial number 7BER132WXSD," Alex was surprised at the information Rixie told him.
"Yes that sounds about right," Alex asked.
"Has there been any modifications to your fuel system since it was built," Rixie asked.
"Not that I am aware of," he responded.
"Good, your fuel type should be Etza427, we currently have it at one two seven credits per unit." Rixie read from her screen.
"Oh, can I get the Bronze standard price?" Alex asked as that price was way too high.
"That was bronze standard, sir," Rixie responded.
"What?" Alex said surprised, "That's more than three times the galactic average!"
"We're a poor station Captain, we have to make money like everyone else."
"Why is it so expensive?" Alex asked, more as a rhetorical question but he got an answer anyway.
"We don't have the best amenities in this part of space Captain Harper, we don't have fuel coming out our ears as you would on Europa," How did she know he was from Europa?
"Fine, can you do any form of discount?" Alex asked with frustration.
"If you fill your tank we can give you repair materials for free," Rixie said with a smile.
"Ok, that will have to do. Can we hold off on the fuel while we make repairs?"
"Of course, just let us know when you're ready." Rixie said, "So your tank holds twenty thousand units of fuel, at one two seven credits per unit, plus the one hundred and twenty thousand credit docking and power fee for twelve hours, the total owed is two million, six hundred and sixty thousand credits. Would you like to pay now?" Rixie asked.
"Please," Alex said holding out his ident chip. Rixie scanned and checked for confirmation.
"All sorted Mr Harper, just let us know when you need the fuel."
"Thank you," Alex said and walked away. Thank you for taking all my money he thought. The expensive fuel had taken over three-quarters of what was in his bank. He made his way back to the ship when his comm beeped, it was a message from Grey, it just said ‘E
ngine room ASAP'. Alex upped his pace while he put his communicator back in his pocket, he knew this was not going to good news.
Grey was waiting in engineering when Alex entered. Grey watched as Alex spotted him and made his way over. He looked worried, and Grey knew that was not going to change. Grey motioned for him to follow and he made his way up the ladders to the top level of engineering, he made his way to a secure door that Grey put his pin code into and entered the room. Alex followed and saw the fuel tank, it was a large container that measured three metres across and wide, the tank was similar in height to the ship itself spanning all four decks. It had a large hole in the top, it was about half a meter in diameter, he could see into the large tank there was eerie darkness in there.
"There's a hole in my fuel tank," Alex said to Grey.
"Nope, there's two holes in your fuel tank, have a look," Grey moved to the other side of the hole and motioned for Alex to look through, he could see a large hole in the fuel tank which is where the fuel would have been leaking out of.
"What caused it?" Alex asked hoping Grey had an explanation rather than the conclusion he had already come to.
"It looks like something was placed on the inside of the fuel tank, that was triggered and then burnt through not just the fuel tank but the outside hull of the ship as well, the sensors were also disabled, so it wasn't detected. We’ve put emergency bulkheads in place now but that’s another thing to add to the repair list."
"Sabotage," Alex said, Grey just nodded.
"Why wasn't this hole spotted," Alex said pointed to the hole in the top of the fuel tank, "There are regular inspections in here."
"That's because I cut this hole about two hours ago to inspect the inside of the fuel tank, once I re-enabled the sensors I saw the hole in the side of the ship."
"How long to fix it? We've got some material from the station for repairs,"
"Yes, they contacted us to confirm what we needed, and I asked for everything we need plus a little extra as apparently, it was free?" Grey said questioning.
"That's because I just paid a ridiculous amount to refuel us. Get this fixed as soon as people, everything seems too convenient, I don't want to be here a minute longer than we needed." Alex said. It seemed too convenient that started to leak fuel and had just enough to only get to one particular station and the fact it was sabotage makes the whole thing even worse.
"Give me two hours we'll be fine to re-fuel. We need to find out who did this," Grey said.
"Aye, any leads,"
"There's no evidence of anyone getting into the fuel tank, but we did replace the top half of the tank last year, it could be that someone is playing the long game," Grey said, he looked as concerned as Alex.
"Ok, let's get out of here as soon as we can. Thanks, Grey" Alex said as he left the fuel tank room. Sabotage was something strange, whoever it was had access to the ship a year ago and has access to the fuel room. He would need to whittle down potential suspects and work this out before something worse happens.
"Station confirms we're fully loaded on fuel," Grant said to Alex from his station.
"Grey?" Alex asked without looking,
"We're a-go Captain," came the response.
"Excellent, let's get out of here, maximum speed to jump point," Alex ordered.
The crew followed the order quickly, and soon the ship began to move out of the docking bay as soon as the station gave clearance, and the docking clamps were retracted. Alex could see the helms console from his chair and waited for the amber light to come on, the light which would tell the pilot it's safe to switch from thruster power to sublight engines. The light would then change to green when at safe jump range, the lights were controlled by the automatic navigation system that links to the station, some less advanced stations just give their safe distances out in an automated message. Increasing speed to early could cause damage to the ship.
Alex watched the light with intensity, it has not switched from red yet, the ship had to stay thrusters only.
"We're way passed standard range for sublight, right?" Alex asked openly.
"Aye sir, we should have amber by now," Jenny replied.
"Go to sublight," Alex ordered.
"But sir tha...," Jenny began but was interrupted by Alex,
"Now." Jenny didn't need another command, she brought the sublight engines online, and the ship accelerated. Alex was visibly worried.
"Captain, you could tell us what's going on," Dylan said.
"I think someone wants us here," Alex said, he was about to continue, but Grant suddenly erupted.
"Captain! Seven ships right behind us, I don't know how they got to us undetected! Their weapons are charged, I've raised our shields."
The lights dimmed as the shields used most of the available power on board. The seven ships surrounding the Michelangelo matched its speed, some overtaking, but all making a circle around the ship.
Alex looked at the sensor readout and cursed under his breath, the only person he could think of that wanted him dead was Lady Jean, but she was, hopefully, at the over side of inhabited space, he also couldn't see the Armageddon, the huge pirate ship that he hoped never to meet again.
A sound the bridge crew had not heard for three years, distinct metal impacts against the hull.
"They're grappling!" Jenny shouted. Alex has to think fast, he needed a plan. He sat in his chair furiously tapping the sidearm as he thought, he had to try and escape. He couldn't fight seven ships, and his crew couldn't fight seven ships worth of boarding parties.
"Grey!" Alex jumped up and ran over to his friend who has jumped at the sound of his name.. "Prepare for an engine surge, take power from everything, even shields and life support, but leave enough in weapons for a ten-second high powered burst of all weapons."
"I know exactly what you're thinking!" Grey said, with a smile. "I hope it works!"
"As do I," Alex replied.
He made his way over to the weapons console, the Michelangelo didn't have a weapons officer, they rarely had to use their weapons at all. Dylan did have the experience to manage them but Alex thought to himself they may need one if these encounters become more common.
"Captain Harper!" a horribly familiar voice boomed over the comms, Lady Jean. Alex was about to respond when Dylan stood up and put his finger to his mouth to shush Alex. Confused, Alex put his arms up to Dylan who mouthed "Trust me". Alex nodded to Dylan who nodded back and sat in the Captain's chair.
"This is Captain Dylan Roper of the Michelangelo, to whom am I speaking," Dylan said in a commanding voice.
"I'm sure you are mistaken Mister Roper, you're the second in command, I'd much rather speak to the first," Lady Jean's voice replied.
Alex worked on the weapons console and worked on a firing solution that would hopefully get them out the situation.
"You are speaking to the first in command, the previous command of the vessel Alex Harper died about two years ago, I presume you had business with him?" Dylan was doing his best to stall but was not the best at it, thankfully Alex didn't need any more time. He used the Captain's override command to cut the comms from where he was.
"Grey," he shouted.
"Ready!" came the response.
"All hands grab hold of something!" Alex announced.
He inputted the firing solution and executed it. The Michelangelo had four beam cannons and two flak cannons. The beam cannons were mounted in the corners of the dorsal hull, they all rotated and fired a sustained blast towards the origin of the grapplers, the attacking ship's shields took the brunt of the power but they soon collapsed, and the grappler came under fire. At seven seconds Alex shouted to Grey, "Now Grey now, Jenny full speed!"
The ship surged forward, stressing the grapple cords, the combined strain from the Michelangelo's sudden acceleration and the damage from the weapons fire soon destroyed the cables. The ship continued its forward surge now free from restraint. The acceleration was reaching the limits of the inertial dampeners, and
the ship began to shake. Everyone was holding on as the shaking become more violent, Alex was struggling to concentrate with the noise from the shaking, it had to be one of the loudest sounds he had ever heard. Starships were designed to have smooth acceleration and deceleration to avoid harming of the crew, with a ship the size of the Michelangelo sudden acceleration was something that you just didn't do. Alex glanced to the operations screen, and he saw a lot of red warnings pop up. Alex could see Grant turn and his mouth moving but could not hear what he was saying, the shaking made it impossible for the crew to talk to each other. He opened the ship's messaging system on the security console he was at, the shaking made it difficult to press the right buttons, and he went into the wrong thing several times. The first sound he had heard over the shaking was an explosion, one of the wall panels exploded, sparks flew out in all directions, one managing to strike something flammable, a small fire started, the fire suppression system kicked in, but the shaking meant it could not effectively extinguish the fire. They would have to deal with that when the shaking stops, two crew members tried to move away from the light the shaking making it more difficult. Alex eventually managed to open the chat system to all the bridge staff he just put JUMP and sent.
Jenny was holding on as tight as she could she was adamant she was staying in her seat, her ears were sore, the noise was unlike anything she had heard before. As a pilot she had never made a ship of this size accelerate at this speed before, it was reckless and dangerous but when needed it was a useful thing to do, she didn't want to guess how much damage had been done to the ship, whatever happens, it's going to be expensive. Jenny looked down as a message from the Captain popped up, she read it and actioned it without hesitation, she had already pre-plotted a short jump and simply hit execute. The ship jumped, she powered down the sublight engines, and the shaking started to calm, it was a strange sensation as the ships ambient noise returned, and voices could be heard, just as the crew were beginning to adjust to the drastically reduced noise an explosion rocked the ship.