Dream Catcher

"All right people," Penny spoke into the com, "we split up in threes and cover more ground. Gabriel, your team goes to the Armoury; Depa, you take Engineering and my team will go to the Bridge."

"Roger," came the stiff reply of Gabriel as he made his way towards the Armoury-- which would be hard to locate, since the entire ship had been running on emergency power for at least 8 hours. As his team left through a corridor, Depa took another direction while Penny took the most direct route to the bridge. There was only silence, except for the low hum of the engines.

Penny's group walked cautiously, wary to set off any remaining traps-- there had been a firefight around this area. As they began to tread carefully on the corridor, Penny signalled the group to stop as they noticed a large hole in the center of the walkway. Something had eaten through the walkway and could have presumably been the cause of the ship drifting in space. As she walked around it, she spoke into her com. "Pops, are you seeing this?"

The camera mounted on her shoulder pad of the light armour fed the image of a massive hole and a sickly yellow substance at its corner. Logan was on board the Norman, reading their camera feed, just like Jordan and Kit. He whistled, "well, I have no clue what the hell could have done that. We only read some minor breaches near the engine, where Depa's heading. But nothing like that. Although...Depa?"

"Yeah?" She called out through the com.

"I need you to look around for any minor breaches. Be careful, we did see lots of damage scoring around the ship. And I am reading the inital layout of the ship. Penny, be careful. There have been some deck breachers throughout the hull, but nothing where you're heading," The old man called out.

Smiling, Penny only replied, "no problem, Pops."

After reaching the bridge, Penny, Alejandro and Liz took control of the command consoles. The doors had been the hardest part of getting through. It appeared that this was everything they had ever dreamed of. "This is quite the catch," Al spoke up during the silence. "I mean, after this, we're all gonna be rich. We've made a fortune and all we have to do is override the system and pilot it back to known space."

"Not so fast. We have to watch over the prize and make sure it is worth it," replied Liz, not even glancing away from the screen as she patched in through her own terminal. "Whoa," she said, catching the attention of her friends.

"What is it?" The older woman asked.

"Umm.. this is a piece of work," the younger woman answered. "There are redundant security clearances. I don't think we stumbled on any liner, Penny. Even the bridge doesn't match the configuration. It's like, some sort of--"

"Battleship?" came a voice that interrupted them. They looked up and noticed that 7 marines--or pirates -- them surround with their weapons aimed at the group. "You are correct," came the voice again. Out of the shadows, a figure appeared. It was an older man that looked similar to one of their own. "Welcome aboard, Ms. Fel. I am Major Michael Hazel. I believe you know my son, Gabriel. Tell me, does he still have that pathetic arrow-head necklace?"

Depa walked towards the engineering section of the ship. The reactor had seemed to be running, but at a much slower pace than any reactor normally would. As she continued to walk towards a command console to check the status of the reactor-- really to see if their prize was damaged goods-- she stepped on an almost sticky resin-like substance. "What the hell?" She stepped back and noticed that the resin had gotten on to her boots. She turned around and saw that Jace had found it curious too.

"Depa, what the hell did you step in?" He laughed at her. "Hey John! Check this out! Depa just stepped on some guy's cu-- John? John!" He called out. As he turned around, John was nowhere to be found. Clicking into the com, he called out, "John, you there? Beech, are you there? Logan, can you locate him?" There was the sound of static, with a faint voice on it. "Logan, are you there?" Sighing, he looked at Depa, who only shook her head. She had tried the same thing and realized that there was nothing but static.

"I think it's the engine room or something that's blocking our transmission. To think, all of this technology and we still can't have a decent transmission. Hey, Penny, you there?" She called through the comlink. She shook her head and looked around. "I think we should go back the way we came. We gotta find John before he gets himself hurt." Jace only nodded.

As they began to walk towards the corridor they came from, they noticed a dripping substance as well as more sticky resin. "How come we didn't see that there before?" The young man asked, cautiously. As they continued walking towards it, Jace shone the light from their shoulder-mounted flashlight. It rvealed the reflection of the translucent substance. "What the hell secreted this?"

"I don't know," Depa said. She began to grow fearful. Something wasn't right. Their prize, the dreamship that could make them rich, was slowly changing into something else. Raising her rifle closer to her shoulder, she walked over to the resin and noticed a massive hole protruding from the floor panel. Something had just broken through it. As she walked closer towards it, she heard Jace grunt and heard his rifle clang to the ground. Spinning around, she noticed there was nothing behind her. Jace was nowhere to be found. "Jace?" She hissed silently. She spun around, the sounds of dripping were all around her. The reactor's low hum filled the background. Jace was nowhere to be found. She saw a mass concentration of dripping substance-- probably coolant-- and spun around, not hesitating to look elsewhere. As she began walking away from the engine room, she kept calling out, "Jace? Logan? Can anyone hear me?"

Suddenly, a shadow appeared. She glared the light at it, bringing her weapon to bear on it. There was nothing. As she began to walk towards the corridor, she felt something whip past her. She spun around, gasping at the sight of nothing. As she turned around, she saw a black reflection on her. Suddenly, it moved and picked her up. She was paralyzed with fear and turned around to run away. She found she couldn't move. There were three of them that picked her up and throughout the corridors, no one could hear the high-pitched scream that was Depa Bhora being pulled down through the broken hole of the floor panel.

He couldn't stop playing with his arrow-head necklace. It brought him back to the memories of Mandy. Oh Mandy, how could something so simple have gone so wrong? He tucked it back into his shirt the moment Lyna broke through the Armoury's code panel with her hacking terminal. He slung his pulse rifle back and pulled out his pistol, switching off its safety in the same fluid movement as he continued walking into the room. Convinced that nothing hostile was in the room, he holstered his pistol, flicking the safety on. He looked around and found a payload that would had Bobby whooping.

"Oh sweet! I mean, we've got like, uh, thousands' worth of weaponry and ammo. This is like a dream come true!" he exclaimed. Obviously the man was excited. Gabriel continued looking around. He found several sentry gun placements, plenty of ammunition, cartons of M40 grenades as well as several pulse rifles, shotguns and even the M56 smartgun.

"Something's not right," he said calmly.

"What do you mean?" Lyna asked the ex-marine. He seemed perfectly calm and yet she knew that there was something cryptic about his tone.

"This is definitely no liner," he explained. "No liner has this kind of weaponry nor does it all stay in one place in a situation like this. This is more like a battleship. But there is no one on board. Lock and load, we gotta get out of here." He turned to face the excited young man, whose expression went sour and edgy when he realized the serious tone creeping into the voice of Gabriel. "We have to go, now. Something isn't right and this ship is certainly no dream come true."

"Oh you gotta be shitting me, Gabriel. You're a former marine. This Armoury is like a dream come true for your kind. This ship is our dream come true, we're gonna rake in millions."

"I wouldn't know anything about dreams, I only have nightmares. This ship is a tomb. Now let's go." His tone was cold and his expression was stern.

"Now, wait a minute. We're not in the military here, you got that trooper? Now stop with this bullshit and stop freaking Lyna out."

"Is that so? I am in charge of this group. Trust me, our salvage will still be here, but it's worth nothing to us if I am right. You're coming with us. Lyna," Gabriel turned around and saw the young woman's expression was fearful. "Lyna," he said once more, this time very cautiously. "I need you to get on the com, and call Penny and let them know we gotta get outta here. I'll inform Kit and Jordan to prep the ship, ok? Can you do that for me?"

She nodded, silent and fearful. "Bobby, he's right. There's nobody on this ship, except for us. I think it is better we go. Something doesn't feel right."

"Oh there's nobody on the ship, except for us, huh? Well guess what, this is what we do. Shit, Gabriel, look what you've just done. Fucking cryptic shit, as always," the man said. He pulled out a cigarette and popped it into his lips. As he began to reach into his pocket for a lighter, he felt a rush of cool air whip right past his mouth, snatching his cigarette away. "What the fuck?"

"We're in an armoury. Don't smoke in here, numbnuts, or you'll find yourself floating home." Gabriel handed him the cigarette from his hand.

"Well thanks-a-fucking-much," the annoyed man said. He took his cigarette and walked out of the Armoury.

Lyna continued on the com while Bobby Dee was smoking outside of the Armoury. Gabriel was comming Kit, informing him to be wary and get ready to prep for dustoff, in case something goes wrong. No one could get a hold of Logan. Depa's group had also stopped responding. "Gabriel," she called out to the ex-marine. "Something's wrong. Penny's not responding. And neither is Depa's group."

He looked at her. He nodded grimly, "I can't get a hold of Logan. We'll make for the bridge and grab Penny-- hopefully Depa's group is doing the same thing. They probably have a dead com unit or there is a lot more interference here."

"Yeah," she said, not entirely sure that she believed the ex.marine.

As the group started walking out, Bobby just looked at Gabriel, who locked up the Armoury, while taking extra ammunition. "Tell me something, Gabe," he said, as he caught several extra pulse rifle magazines. "You ever have one of those dream catchers when you were younger?"

Not looking at the slightly older man, he replied. "Yeah. Once, when I was 12. I had nightmares for a week before I decided to throw it away."

"Oh," he said, before pulling another drag on his cigarette.

"You?"

Exhaling, he looked at Gabriel and smiled. "Yeah, me too. But I didn't have nightmares. I had dreams I was rich and knee-deep in naked women."

"Ahem," Lyna coughed as she continued walking through the corridors with the 2 men.

"Oh, uh, sorry there, Lyn."

The trio continued walking through the corridors, eager to get to a lift to carry them to the bridge.