Chapter 9
Loading deck
The Ergon Skiele
21st century
Opening his eyes, Jack filled with shock. Of course, with the way his luck had been running, he really shouldn't have been surprised.
"So, I take it this isn't your everyday, run of the mill freighter," Jack ventured, looking at the heavily armed men surrounding him, weapons trained to kill.
"This is your one opportunity to surrender any weapons you may have. I suggest you take advantage of it." Jack looked at the man who issued the order. Standing well over 6 feel tall, with light hair and an icy cold stare was the man Jack presumed to be the captain of the ship.
"I'm just an honest hitchhiker," Jack warned but relinquished his Webley. "That's all I have. I'm not looking for trouble."
"Search him, Vodo", the tall bonde ordered a smaller, dark-skinned, hunched man. Vodo gave Jack a wary look before crossing the divide and patting him down. With an increasing air of disappointment, the dark man reported that he wasn't able to find any further concealed weaponry.
Jack noticed that the leader continued to look at him mistrustfully and wondered what the next move was going to be. Jack was not left waiting long.
"Strip."
"Excuse me?"
"You are obviously not from this part of town. You look human but a human wouldn't have the ability to contact us. There are a number different technologies you could conceal under your clothes that is not in our interests to let you keep. Strip."
Jack sighed but acquiesced, slowly removing his coat and the layers underneath. He refused to take his eyes off the leader, as if daring him to find fault with him. He really wished he had been able to investigate his ride before hopping aboard. This was not what he had in mind when he decided to leave Earth. What was that old saying? 'Out of the frying pan, into the fire?'
The blonde man jerked and Jack paused before removing his vest. The other man's eyes were fixed on Jack's wrist strap.
"Hand that over." He ordered.
"It's harmless. I can't use it offensively. It's not designed that way," Jack lied, knowing that they should have had no exposure to a portable vortex manipulator. Jack realized that he made a mistake when the men surrounding him cocked the hammers on their guns to fire.
"I didn't ask you that. I told you to hand it over."
Jack removed the leather band from his wrist and handed it over without a word before continuing to remove his remaining clothes. When he was finished, the blonde man seemed satisfied that Jack had nothing to hide. Rather than letting him dress, however, he gazed at Jack's eyes and made a decision.
"Space him."
"Oh no no no no. Hold on a second boys." Jack held his hands against the approaching crewmen. "I don't want any violence." It was the truth. The thought of constantly dying and reviving in a vacuum was wholly unappealing. "Give me a chance. I don't know what you are doing and I don't care. I just wanted to get off Earth. You're right. I'm not a local boy. But I can be valuable to you. A corpse floating in Earth space would raise questions. I take it that you aren't the type to appreciate questions."
"Your body wouldn't lead to us."
"Perhaps not at first but it would make things more difficult that not spacing me at all. Now isn't the time to make rash decisions. Think about it. Lock me up wherever you choose. I know I can be an asset. Give it some time and I'm sure we can see eye to eye." Jack made sure to avoid eye contact and give the blonde man all indications of his submission to the other man's authority. Dying horribly really was not on the agenda for the time being.
The blonde man looked at him appraisingly. He did have a point. Even if his body was never connected to to Ergon Skiele, it would make it more difficult to stay under the radar in this region of space for quite some time. He was intrigued about how Jack came to be on Earth and what he had to offer.
"We'll see about that. We'll let you live, at least until we get to a more convenient corner of the universe. Go ahead and lock him up boys."
He turned and walked away.