Aaron Smith had been heading home after settling a minor labor dispute in an outlying mining colony when the ship he was on was attacked by Shadows. Because they were short on pilots for their living vessels, Smith was taken to be joined with one instead of being killed outright.
"Hello?" Smith called out when he regained consciousness. He sensed someone near.
Hello? the thing near and around Smith answered.
"What are you?" Smith asked, totally freaked out by his situation.
I am ship. the thing Smith was in, which turned out to be a Shadow vessel replied.
A long discussion ensued. After hours of listening to the ship tell him what it was like to be a Shadow vessel and what its and his responsibilities were Smith asked the all important question.
"Who is your Union rep?"
Union rep? the ship that Smith had named Bob asked.
This led to yet another discussion about working conditions and Earth's labor laws.
--
Captain Sheridan shuffled the papers on his desk waiting for the day's explosion or its equivalent. Other than the continuing war protests in the Zocalo which had been relegated to nonissue status after the second day, it had been an extremely quiet week. It was time for the other shoe to drop. Captain Sheridan just hoped it didn't land on him.
"Uh, Captain I think you should have a look at this." Susan Ivanova called from C&C.
This was it. The shoe had dropped. Sheridan ran from his office as fast as he could. The first of the flung paperwork hadn't even reached the floor by the time he reached the door.
--
Captain John Sherridan stared at the view outside the station. Hundreds of Shadow vessels were lined up outside. Instead of attacking the station, they were flying back and forth along a line making strange squeaking and shrieking noises.
"Um, I just got a transmission from the lead vessel." Susan Ivanova said with a highly confused and incredulous look on her face "Apparently, they're on strike."