Disclaimer and stuff - see first chapter
All the nice reviews! I'm glad people are liking this story. So here's the next chapter:
"When the most unexpected things happen to unexpected people we call it luck. We forget that sometimes things are just meant to be- like you were meant to be born, the sun was meant to rise and set, and there was always meant to be hope."
It had been a week since they'd let him out. He was still recovering from it and just trying to keep a low profile. He didn't realise how futile his efforts were, especially with Granzen always at his back.
He hadn't had enough time to recover from the injuries he had let alone deal with new ones. But he was soon to realise that getting punched in the face was probably the least he had to worry about.
***
He'd been pulled into some special duty shift. It happened sometimes. It was because of his port. He was one of the few people with a cerebral port here, the Nietzcheans had given them to a few of them when they'd first been caught. He had almost not survived that and the memory of the burning pain in his neck the first time he interfaced was not something he'd ever forget.
They were marched to a docking bay. And in it stood what could only be described as a rust bucket of a ship. It looked like the whole thing was made of spare parts glued together. He heard some of the guards joking with one another.
"It's called the Eureka Maru, a typical kludge name, stupid and meaningless. Just another sign of human weakness. A piece of metal crap with a name."
For some unexplained reason Harper immediately felt protective of the old ship. It looked like it had seen some tough times but that fact that it seemed to be in one piece was a credit to it's makers and it showed human strength and resilience more than anything. But those stupid ubers could never understand that, never.
He was set to work trying to interface with the ships systems. Apparently the Dragans had acquired it from a Nightsider along with a human slave but Harper hadn't seen him yet. There was supposed to be some valuable information stored in here about some old ship wreak or something.
Everything of value that he found he immediately transferred to their ships database. There were star charts and maps and stuff that looked very promising and a whole load of other junk. He worked his way through so many barriers and hidden files. He knew all the tricks of this trade.
After about five hours he'd trailed through the whole thing and he was pretty tired. He was just a little bit curious, though, as to what exactly was so important about some old ship, older than this one by the looks of it. But it wasn't his place to be curious, maybe it was in his nature but asking questions here got you more pain than answers.
He was sent back to the barracks, most of the other shifts weren't back yet but interfacing was known to be a very tough job and they didn't want to end up with a braindead slave. He wasn't the only one there though. Another human was sitting on a bunk as Harper walked in. He guessed that this was the slave from the ship he'd been working on.
"So how did you end up here?" Harper decided that since he had time to kill he might as well do some talking.
The man looked up at him slowly. Harper could see he wasn't in very good shape.
"Nightsider bastard gave me to them. I'm Dale."
Harper just nodded, wisely not giving his name. "How did the nightsider get you?"
Dale had now focused his attention on a far wall while he answered. "I was working as an engineer on that ship they have docked. We were doing a salvage job for him, pulling a ship out of a black hole. But things didn't go to plan and I got separated from my crew. The nightsider needed to make some quick cash so he sold the lot, including me."
Harper just nodded again. He heard these kinds of stories before and much worse ones than that. Hell, his own story was worse than that, much worse. He went and lay down, hoping to get some sleep before he was called again. When Dale realised that he had lost interest he lay down on his bunk too. And for a while it was quiet.
***
"Get up! Now!" Harper jumped to his feet as the voice roared beside him. His blurred eyesight made out Dale's figure jumping up too. Granzen was standing beside him, grinning. Harper felt that sick feeling quickly return to his stomach.
"We've got a job for the two of you." And with that he walked out and they followed.
They were lead down corridor after corridor. At least Harper had an idea where they were going. Well, he knew it wasn't to engineering or the docking bays or cargo bays one to twelve, so other than that where could they really be going? Dale looked pale. A kind of milky pale like he was in shock. Harper wasn't feeling so great himself.
All of a sudden they found themselves standing in a room in front of what had to be a very important Nietzchean man. Why else would his bones spurs need that much polish? Harper groaned inwardly. He had a tendency to come up with witty sarcastic comments but he managed to keep them to himself. They would cause him a lot of trouble here.
"This is the one from the ship, and this is the one I was telling you about."
From his view of the carpet and the mans boots Harper could guess that he was sizing them up. Finally he spoke.
"Will he be able to do it?"
"Yes sir, he's the best one we have."
Harper presumed they were talking about him. Do what? What did they want him to do? Well he was sure he'd find out soon enough but he was kind of hoping it would be later.
"They'll do, you leave as soon as its ready to go." And with that they were dismissed, back down the corridor. This time Harper realised they were heading to the docking bay. Granzen walked up to the Nietzchean on duty.
"Are we ready to go?"
The guard nodded. "Yes sir, all systems are ready and the Nietzchean team are standing by."
Granzen grabbed Harper's arm and shoved him towards the airlock. "We're going on a little trip together, you'd better behave yourself. You too." He nodded toward Dale who quickly followed Harper.
Harper could barely believe it. What the hell was going on? Was this a good chance for him to try and escape? There was a doubt in his mind, a big doubt as to whether he'd come back alive after a trip with Granzen. And there was a hope in his mind, a faint hope, that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be coming back at all.
***
There was so much tension on command deck you could probably have shot it with a force lance. At least Tyr was itching to shoot something and pretty soon that was going to be anything.
Nothing much had happened. Captain Hunt was rarely seen except on command, he locked the door whenever he went to play basketball and Trance's attempts at conversation were met with a stone wall.
Beka wasn't much better. She was still mourning over Gerentex taking her ship and her engineer with him. Her ship had been her home but the Andromeda could be her home, if she'd let it.
The ship herself, the AI. She seemed kind of cold and impersonal. Very protective of her captain though. Maybe that's how these ships were meant to be. Even Rev seemed depressed. They were like a ship of ghosts because no-one here really seemed alive. But they would be soon.
"I'm picking something up on scanners" The holographic AI appeared. It was one of those freak times where everyone ended up on command at the same time. Everyone seemed to almost jump to attention.
"Put it on the viewscreen." Even Captain Hunt seemed interested.
It was a ship. Their ship.
"The Maru! We've found her!" Beka looked delighted.
"There are no lifesigns, she seems to be dead in space. It looks like the nightsider dumped her."
Beka was delighted. Her ship, her home, she had it back. But no lifesigns. She paused for a moment reflecting on what that meant. No life signs, no Dale. Poor kid.
Captain Hunt began giving orders and they brought the ship aboard. Beka couldn't really care less about his ordering them about. She was just so happy to have her ship back.
Of course they weren't expecting what happened next, which in truth they should have been. A Commonwealth officer, a skilled Nietzchean, a salvage Captain who knows trouble when she sees it. But for some reason they didn't, so what came next, came.
Two Nietzchean ships came almost out of no-where and immediately attacked. So lost in the surprise battle everyone forgot about the Eureka Maru sitting in the docking bay.
But that was how it was meant to be. Except the one thing Trance knew well was that there were many paths ahead and sometimes if things don't go exactly right they can go very, very wrong.
***
So what do you think? Constructive critism is always welcome, but spelling corrections are sometimes not.
