FTL: Faster Then Light
Amongst the Stars
A FanFict based off of the Indy game: FTL
By Indogma.
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit fan based story. The contents of the story are owned by Subset Games. In no way do the views shown reflect the views of Subset Games. Please support the official release.
The ship Good Tidings has hit a more then bumpy start. After it's first major engagement, the ship is already down one crewmember and severely damaged. Now in an unknown sector, the remaining crew Captain Harris Breg and his Lieutenant, Evera Quenant, mourn the loss of their comrade and repair their ship before moving on.
-FTL: Amongst the Starts-
Chapter 2
Recovering and Remembering
General Braken stood in the middle of the bridge of the newly acquired flagship: The Jupiter. Triumphant, was the word that best described his mood today. He had just had his belongings moved into the captain's quarters, (moving the captain to one of the lower cabins), and was now in command of this giant space ship with enough fire power to destroy an entire squadron of Federalist ships.
As he stared out of the bridge's opened viewing window on the planet of Lewvin, a young officer walked up beside the General and saluted him. "Sir, we have a message from the ship, Show Stopper, in the fringe."
The general turned from his window and said: "Oh? Has he found the ship carrying the data?" "He didn't say sir." Replied the officer. "He just requested to report to you first."
The General nodded, "Very well, I will receive the call here." The officer saluted the General again and left the bridge for the General. When the young man had left, Braken went to a open control panel and opened the hail from the Show Stopper.
"Captain Troy," begun Braken, "What have you found?"
"The Federation is using a Kestrel ship, the Good Tidings, to carry the data it seems sir. We engaged the ship not more then six hours ago." "What happened?"
"We badly damaged the ship sir, lowering its armor to less then half before it jumped to another sector. It got a lucky hit on our engines and we were not able to follow it for some time. When we repaired our engines we jumped to the civilian sector of Zurt, thinking it was the place they would have picked…" He then added embarrass, "It seems we where wrong sir."
"What was the other sector?"
"Fasy sir, a pirate sector." Replied the captain.
The General nodded, understanding the reasoning why the captain would think that the ship would go to Zurt. "Did you get the captain's name?" "Yes sir. A Harris Breg." "Breg? I did not realize he was still a captain. Are you certain?"
"That is who he identified himself as, sir."
"Very well," said the General, "Keep up the search, we cannot allow that information to get to the remaining Federation fleet at Dexter Prime."
"Yes, sir. Troy out!" Said the Captain ending the hail.
General Braken turned and returned to his spot to overlook the planet. "This may get interesting…"
On board the ship, Good Tidings, the two remaining crew were quiet, deadly quiet. They had been after the jettison of Walker's body from the ship. It was custom for the crew to launch their dead crew members into space to avoid air contamination, and it seemed to follow the tradition of the idea of being "buried at sea". Before they launched him from the ship, Harris said a few words, as a sort of funeral service for him and for the Lt. "I can't say I knew him that well… but from what could tell, it seemed like he would have been a fine space man one day. And maybe a good friend…"
As he looked down at the deceased crew member wrapped in a white sheet, Harris remembered swore in his mind. The young man died no more the twenty years old, his birthday was only a few days away from Harris's. They had probably had a lot more in common than that, but it was to late too compare. Walker was gone.
Harris, sighed loudly and then recited the spaceman's farewell, a line from a poem devised for the occasion of losing a member. "Now we cast you out into the empty void, leaving you to the fate that none can avoid. We your crewmates say farewell you and rest in peace, and my yours be the only death until this fighting ceases…" Together Harris and Evera walked out of on of the side cambers of the ship and through the med bay to the repaired door control. There, Harris opened the doors to vent the chamber of air, and release Walker's body into space. Soon there was a subtle sound of the air whooshing from the chamber into the black of space. As the roomed emptied Harris felt heavy with grief, but he did not show it. When all the air was gone from the room, Harris closed the door and let the air flow back into the room.
For a silent both of the ship's crew just stood staring at the panel, lost in their thoughts. Harris was the first one to break from his trance by saying, "I doubt Walker would want us to just stand here and morn him forever. Come on, we still have repairs to complete." Evera gave a small half hearted nod. And the two of them went back to business as usual, or as close to it as Harris could reproduce.
The Good Tidings, was still heavy damaged from its fight. Harris and Evera only repaired the door control panel to jettison Walker into space. Harris and the Lt. decided to split the work, Evera would start on the Armory and Harris would fix the sensor station, when he was done their he would head over to the Armory and help.
After about an hour in the sensor station, Harris was able to get the sensors up. He checked the full status of the ship, and found that there was another breach on one of the side corridors leading to the engine room from the armory. He then noticed that the Armory was not showing any progress as far as repairs. Harris then opened a channel feed to the armory's camera and found it to be empty. He cycled through the feeds until he found the Lieutenant in the corridor room opposite the one that had the breach. She was sitting up against the wall with her head against her knees, crying.
Harris let a depressed sigh leave his lips. He felt sympathy for the young girl, this must have been her first death. The academy did not prepare her for that. They never did. Harris then left the sensor station and headed towards the room where the Lieutenant was.
As the doors opened to reveal the tearful young officer, the Lt. snapped her head up and Harris, fearful that she was in trouble. Quickly wiping the tears from her eyes, she got on her feet and said looking down to the floor, "I'm sorry, Captain. I'll get back to work."
"No Lieutenant, that can wait." The young lady flinched, expecting some sort of reprimand for not fixing the Armory. "Let's talk." The Lieutenant looked at Harris confused, "about what?"
"Walker," said Harris. He then stepped to the side a motioned her to the armor and pulled out two fold able chairs for both of them. When both of them were seated, the Lt. looked uncomfortably at her commanding officer. "Sir, I don't know what I can say about Walker. I barely knew him…"
"Yes," agreed Harris, "But his death is clearly affecting you." Evera looked at Harris and wiped a tear from her eye. "I'm sorry sir, I am not used to death." "I would be concerned if you were Lieutenant, nobody is ever used to death on a ship." He then smiled and admitted, "Not even me."
"Really?" Asked the Lt. Harris nodded giving Evera a relieved feeling. "Was he your first death?" Asked Harris. The Lt. nodded. "Yeah, the first one is the one that you remember the most." He then laughed, "My first was serviceman a little older then Walker. His name was called Harq. He loved to play practical jokes on the crew, setting traps around the ship to get the crew. One day he was preparing a joke on the captain, and pressed the wrong bottom and opened the air lock rather then the door. Before he could even yell, he was sucked out into space… and was gone."
"That sounds terrible," said Evera.
Harris nodded, "Yeah, but none of us at the time really thought much of it while on board. Nobody wanted to talk about it, or even mentioned his name again." Harris then stopped for a moment, lost in his memory. "Then after I transferred to a different ship, I started having nightmares. For a while I was a scared of falling asleep, and my performance suffered. But I passed it off as nerves, and tried to avoid it as saying I had a problem. Until I had heard what my former Captain did."
"What did he do?" Asked the Lt.
Harris sighed, "He had a mental breakdown and went on a rampage with a laser pistol at a large shopping center. Before the local law enforcement could shoot him down, the last words he spoke where: "I'm sorry Harq." It was then I realized what was giving me these nightmares, the serviceman Harq." "What did you do?" "I took sick leave and checked into a psych-ward in the space fleet. There I discovered I could not even say Harq's name, no matter how hard I tried. They treated me for PTSD, and I had a month of treatment to go through."
"How were you able stay in the fleet?" Asked Evera.
Harris smiled, "It was because I checked myself in on my own. Apparently I was a "role officer" because of my willingness to get help for a problem that I had. Plus I was good friends with one of the higher admirals, who put in a good word for me and allowed me to stay in the Space Fleet."
"I had no idea, you went to therapy…" said Evera amazed.
Harris smiled, "I was not that bad after awhile." He then sneered, "I mean I did find my wife there after all."
"You're married?!"
"Yep," smiled Harris, "About four years now… She was a psychiatrist at the place I visited. She's now working at a colony on one of the fringe planets." "Do you plan to see her sir?" "Hopefully," sighed Harris. "If we go past her planet…, but remember Lt. out mission comes first. Understand?"
Evera nodded, "Yes sir." Harris smiled, and looked around at the Armory still heavily damaged. "Now, Evera. We better get back to work, I don't like floating at a nearby beacon with our weapon systems offline." As both got up from their chairs, Harris added, "Lieutenant, I wan you to know, if you need to talk about something I am here. I'd rather you admit you have a problem and deal with it then bottle it up for it to come back latter. Understand." Evera gave a small nod, and smiled slightly, "Yes sir, Harris."
The captain laughed, "That is the first time you called me by my name, Evera."
She shrugged, "I thought I could loosen up a bit. And I don't see the harm of saying someone who you respect first name, instead of rank." "You're learning."
With the small intervention over, the two crewmembers got back to work on the Good Tidings' repairs.
After another hour and a half, the two where able to have the ship as ready as the two of them could make it. They could not do anything about the hull itself but they could repair all of the broken systems and get the interior systems back to functioning order. When that was finished both Harris and Evera gathered in the bridge to decide on their course.
As Harris pulled up the star map, he noticed the sector was deemed a "pirate" sector. "Dammit!" Harris swore out loud. "What?" Asked Evera confused by the sudden outburst.
"I jumped us into a pirate sector!" Said Harris angrily.
"Pirates?" repeated Evera.
"Yeah, I guess I was not paying attention to which sector I could choose from… I just pick one and jumped. I was more worried about Walker and the Armor then where we were going."
Evera sighed, "So what do we do now?"
Harris looked at the star chart, from the first beacon; he could see three possible routes they could take. Over one of them was a symbol that meant an anomaly in the system. Harris pressed the region and the AI off the ship elaborated: "UNRECOGIZABLE STRUCTURE DETECTED. INCOMING PRERECORDED HAIL FROM STRUCTURE. DO YOU WISH TO ACCCEPT? Harris glanced at Evera who shrugged. He then pressed the "Accept".
PLAYING PRERECORDED HAIL. The star map then shifted to an image of a fat man with a bright yellow rubber shirt on behind a counter. (Disturbing image I know). "Hello traveler! Are you in need of repairs or supplies? Need a nice bed for a day or two? Well come no further then to Tiny's Fringe Station! Home to everything you could want or need for your journey! See you soon!" The man then wicked at the camera and the hail ended.
Evera then lowered her head from the hail and stared at Harris, her face asking: "What the hell was that?"
Harris smiled, "In the fringe there are self-made vendors, like Tiny apparently, who open shops in the deep reaches of space to help freelance travelers and large colony transport fleets and sell their goods. It is very common in the fringe." Harris smiled, "and lucky for us, we need repairs."
"You cannot be considering going sir?" Asked the Lt shocked at the captain's willingness to go to these "shady" shops. Harris looked at Evera, "We don't have much of a choice in the matter do we? We need repairs, and he says he can do them." Evera looked at Harris, every bone in her body hated the idea of going to a unlicensed shop, but her new found respect for the captain, and the state of the ship made it see the benefits of going. "Alright," she sighed, "but I do not like it."
Harris looked at her, "Neither do I but we have to go there."
As the Good Tidings, dropped out of FTL drive and arrived at the Space Shop, Evera came back to the bridge from the shields and together they saw the station come into view. It seemed like the station was made up of dozen pieces of material, all of different colors and metals. It seem to vibrate ominous feeling from it. "Shady…" said the Lt. out loud. "At best," added Harris.
As they approached the station, two meteors' appeared from nowhere and began to orbit the ship. "What is happing Harris?" Asked Evera.
"They're defense drones disguised as meteors, to be sure we don't do something stupid." INCOMING HAIL FROM UNKNOWN SPACE STATION. Harris accepted the hail, and the same man from the prerecorded hail appeared on the holographic screen. Evera noticed that he seemed to have gotten much bigger then before. But she could tell it was the same man, since he wore the same yellow shirt. "What's your business here, Fed!" Came his threatening voice.
"We are here seeking repairs for scrap. I was told this was the place to get it fixed at," replied Harris calmly. "And who the hell told you that?" Came the man's still angry voice. "You did, in your prerecorded hail," said Harris still calm. The large man then seemed to freeze dumbfounded my Harris's remark. Then, to surprise to Evera, he started to laugh, a deep loud laugh. "Ha, I'm starting to like ya!"
"We are in need of repairs, can you help us?" Asked Harris "Sure I can!" Said the man, "How much scrap you got?" "About forty units worth." The fat man then grunted, "That should be enough, come in to dock." And then the man cut off the hail.
Harris then turned to Evera and said, "open the weapons locker and get a laser pistol of you and me. Just because he said we can dock does not mean he will try to double cross us." Evera nodded, happy that Harris was being cautious, and went to the locker to arm herself.
After docking at the Station, Harris locked the ship's AI so Tiny could not do anything to control the ship if he decided to betray the two of them. As they walked though the final airlock into the station, a long corridor in bright red lighting greeted them. Harris and Evera looked at each other, if the outside of the station was not enough to make them feel ominous towards the station, the corridor did.
After walking down the corridor, they were finally greeted with the fat man behind the counter from the spam hail. "Welcome to my shop!" Harris looked around, it seemed like the closest thing to a cheap pawn shop he had seen in quite a long time. Harris then walked up to the fat man's counter and said, "I'm Harris Breg of the Federation." "Tiny," said the large man, introducing himself.
Tiny then opened a holograph of the Good Tidings, and examined the damage. "I see your ship is in pretty rough shape, almost down to a quarter of its hull left." "Yeah, we where caught off guard." Admitted Harris. "Well, with that amount of damage I am going to need all of your scrap im payment." Harris sighed in his mind, he expected to fully repair the ship would cost a lot of scrap.
"Is their anyway I could get you to spare us some scrap, we could use the extra to pay to buy fuel and missiles." "Look man, if you want your ship completely fix then it will be 41 scrap units. If you want a partial repair job and save some scrap to save for missiles and fuel that is up to you, but it's 41 units of scrap for a complete repair." Then Tiny smiled, "Unless you have something I might want."
"Like what?" Asked Evera.
"I buy luxury goods from the Federation and sell here so that people can have a taste of home out here. That includes videos, fancy clothing—" "Chocolate bars?" Asked Harris.
Tiny laughed, "Ha, I doubt you have any! I know Fed rules, they are not allowed on board because they are like drugs to the Mantis. Even a drop of the stuff and they go mad! I doubt you would have been brave enough to bring them on board!"
Harris looked at Evera, and reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Walker's chocolate bars and put it on the counter in front of Tiny. Tiny cautiously pick up the bar, opened the wrapper, smell the bar then look a big bite from it. After a few chews, Tiny stared at Harris amazed, "How the hell did you keep these?" Harris shrugged, "through a naïve serviceman. We have three more boxes of them on board our ship. How much would you pay us for the entire lot?"
Tiny stood their crewing the chocolate bar in thought. "I'd give ya 4 fuel, 5 missile and 15 scrap off the repair job for those boxes." Harris nodded, far more then he expected.
"All right it's a deal," smiled Harris.
As soon as the deal was made, Tiny went to work. Not personally, but he had an army of repair drones that did his dirty work for him. Within two hours the Good Tidings was fully repaired and stocked with more missiles and fuel. When the transaction was complete Harris and Evera, then headed back to the ship and undocked from Tiny's station.
As the station started get farther away, Harris was hailed again by Tiny. "Just thought I'd share a little friendly advice, if you are looking to avoid a fight, take the middle jump to the planet there. It's an unsettled place with not much gone for it, except for the strange creatures on the planet. Maybe you can land there and recruit one for your crew! Haha." Tiny then ended his hail with the ship.
"Can we trust him?" Asked Evera through the intercom.
"I doubt he would repair us just to send us into a trap," replied Harris. "And he would know the area better then we would after all."
The intercom then clicked as if the Lieutenant was going to respond but didn't. "Something on your mind? I'd rather you tell me then keep it to yourself."
"It's about Walker's chocolate. How could you get rid of it so fast? I mean it was not yours, sir." "Technically it was when Walked was killed. In UNLA is says once a person is deceased the captain has the right to claim any of his belongings, especially, "prohibited substances" like chocolate bars."
"Still, sir. It was not…" Her voice trailed off trying to find the least hurtful word. "Decent?" Said Harris. "Yeah…" replied the Lieutenant.
"I can understand your want to try to keep respecting Walker's belongings, but if I have to trade someone's snack's to improve the chances of this ship's surviving, I will."
"But sir," protested Evera.
"Dammit, Evera! I already lost one man, I'm trying to make sure we do not lose another!"
For a moment the ship seemed to go silent. Either one knew what to say. Evera saw what Harris was trying to do, protect her, and Harris seemed vulnerable to his second in command. "Look, Evera. Walker is dead, he won't mind if we use his belongs to improve our chances. He probably wouldn't mind it if was alive either. I can understand your concerns and they are noted. But I need to make sure we get out of this ok."
The Evera replied, "I understand sir. And… thank you, for…caring."
"It comes with the territory…" Replied Harris. "Now," said Harris charging up the FTL drive, "let's get back on course. Prepare for FTL jump."
"Yes, sir!"
When the Jump Drive was charged, Harris turned the ship towards the planet that the station owner, Tiny, suggested. They had nothing to lose by trusting him, and hopefully would gain something from the trip. That is all they could do now. Hope.