Doppelgänger 2
Rick had a lead on someone. Since it was big money he had jumped at it without thinking it through completely. Worse yet, he hadn't told anyone. One reason was that he didn't want to share. It was a failing of his, however, it had yet to raise up and kick him in the ass. He had no reason to think otherwise now.
He'd set the automatic pilot and had retreated to the tiny kitchen area. Basically it was a refrigerator, an induction cooking plate, a small microwave, and a little storage. Opening the fridge, he sighed heavily. He'd been stupid enough to start this trip without checking his supplies. "Sometimes I wonder if it really is screwed on," Rick lamented, meaning his head and the supposed brain inside it.
"I'm not telling her I did this." He didn't want to get an earful and if he did tell her she would berate him something fierce. The universe knew he loved her with all his heart. But his little girl had grown up and she wasn't afraid of him anymore. When she was little he could get away with doing stupid things. Though even then she would glare at him. "Daddy!"
He wondered where she was now. In a way he had been proud that she had followed him into the same line of work. If he was honest with himself she was twice as good as he was. She also spent her money better than he did. He blew his money on things that if he had told her about she would likely reach through the screen, grab hold of his ear, and twist till he was sure she was trying to rip it off. Yet he never seemed to learn. He would see something or hear about something and decide that he just had to have it. Many of those same items were long gone by now.
He huffed out a breath then pulled something out. He put it in a container, placed it inside, and pressed the button. A moment later he took it out and took a whiff. It didn't smell that bad, though he had yet to taste it.
Once he'd finished choking down his meal, he put it into the compactor then ejected the whole mess into space. Next he booted his computer and started doing some research on who he was after. "Samurai? What the hell is a Samurai?" He had hunted down any number of kinds of people or items, but this was new.
"Mathias Arts… That doesn't sound so bad. Using a sword to attack. The old school warriors actually use a metal blade. The newer ones use a vibro blade. Great…" The metal sword didn't sound like trouble. The vibro blade, though, that was likely to be a problem.
He did some research on a vibro blade. "Handheld hilt that could look like anything. A power generator produces the blade that is anywhere from 2 feet to 6 feet long. Couldn't make this easy could you?" He didn't like the sound of that.
Still he would deal with it when the time came. "Antara system." Rick pulled up the charts and started looking the system over.
"It's a moon, so not that large. The sizable station in orbit could be a problem." He knew this system was not part of the empire. It was a stand-alone, meaning they would have their own rules. Getting any help from law enforcement was likely not going to happen.
"Doesn't matter," he told himself. It hadn't stopped him in the past and it wasn't stopping him now. "Likely why he was last spotted here in the first place." It made this location at least a little safe.
Rick reached and pressed a button. "Let me know if there is a problem, Vincent. I'm going to bed," he told the ship's computer.
"Acknowledged," Vincent's mechanical voice answered.
There wasn't anything he could do about it so he lay down to sleep. Besides he knew of no one that could attack another ship while traveling Faster Than Light. It was thought to be a safe way to travel.
The early FTLs had never been heard from again. No one could explain what had happened to them. The predominant theory was that they never actually exited FTL and were still out there traveling. Or at least until they ran out of fuel and got dumped out in no-man's-land.
FTL was a lot safer today. Still there were occasional problems. Mostly it was because the computer would hiccup and spit out coordinates that would dump them directly in the middle of a sun. Or far too close to a black hole or some other anomaly. Rick didn't worry about what he couldn't control.
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"Hi!" She leaned in and purred into his ear. She most certainly had Rick's attention as his gaze traveled down her body. She was built and looked healthy. He hated to admit it but he was a tit man. The bigger the better. He wanted to bury his face into her breasts and get lost in there somewhere.
He gave a low whistle. "Hello there, gorgeous." Rick did his best to show her his million credit smile. It seemed to have the desired affect as she lifted up and planted a wet one on his lips.
"Your place or mine?" she whispered into his lips.
Rick hardened into velvet-covered steel. "Neither," he replied then ripped her top open exposing the bra she was using to hold her massive chest in place.
"I like the way you think." She pulled him down into a soul-searching kiss. She didn't wait to be invited and simply used her tongue to invade his mouth.
He caught up to her and the tongue war was on. He searched for the clasp and soon the bra was discarded as she went to work on his shirt. It took no time at all until he could feel her bare breasts on his chest. "Lie down, I want you in my mouth," she murmured breathily.
Soon he was on his back while she wrapped her lips around his erection. He had to admit that as much as he wanted to get his hands and lips on those massive breasts, he was enjoying this. "Like this, lover?" she stopped just long enough to ask. Rick could only groan and missed seeing her wicked smile. She went back to licking, sucking, and playing with the slit at the top all the while teasing his balls.
She was really good and it had been so long that he couldn't hold back from climaxing much longer. "So hard, nice and long... You're perfect," she told him after taking his erection out of her mouth.
Suddenly there was nothing but pain. Mind-numbing pain. His eyes snapped open and he looked down. What he saw shocked him speechless. His pain was forgotten.
In one hand she had a blade and in the other she held his penis. "Was it good for you, too?" she cooed.
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Rick screamed and sat up in bed. Immediately his hands flew beneath his sleep pants to check to see if it was still there. Once he could feel and see his flaccid penis he relaxed and closed his eyes. "Thank god."
It had just been a dream. Make that a nightmare. However, the next thing he knew was that there was an alarm blaring in his ear. Opening his eyes he saw red lights everywhere.
"Vincent?" he yelled but got no response. "SHIT!" He ran for the bridge.
Once he was there he saw space, which was not good. That meant he'd exited FTL, which was a bad thing. His screen showed lots of red lights. "So who attacked me?" was his first thought. Just how had they done it?
His scanners were still functioning so he looked at those. "Clear." It told him he hadn't been attacked. "Will you shut up!" He reached to silence the stupid alarm that was blaring. The noise was making it difficult to think.
He pulled up a schematic of his ship and was shocked to find a section was completely missing. "What the hell?" He looked at what was or used to be in that area.
"Secondary power generator." That was not good. It meant all he had was main power and minimal battery.
"No… .no!" Rick looked at some of his other warning lights. He was leaking fuel, if a gushing stream of fuel could be called a leak. "Vincent?" he called; he could definitely use some help.
He got nothing back; he hurriedly checked more red lights. "The generator blew a hole through the main computer." He was ready to collapse. It meant Vincent was gone and never coming back. The computer would need to be replaced before it ever worked again.
Then he would need to purchase another Vincent. This job was turning into a nightmare. "Communications," was what he thought about next. He looked over his screens. "Oh, come on! Can't I get a break? Just a little one?" Rick slammed his hand into the screen which caused spider lines to appear on it.
It didn't matter. He was in trouble that was far worse. "Where am I exactly and what's near here?" He checked the screen. He wasn't on course any longer and it looked like he maybe never had been. "At least I'm not lost. Not completely." It still left him no where to go.
"70% fuel remaining." He needed to decide and decide right now. He thought for a moment and came up with a plan, consciously not listening to the internal voice that was telling him that his daughter was going to do much more than twist his ear for this.
He needed numbers which had him scrambling for the only computer he had left. It was smaller and nowhere near as powerful as Vincent but it was all he had. "Either this works or I blow up instantly," Rick said grimly then ran back to the cockpit.
He quickly made some adjustments, set his course. "I love you, pumpkin." He sent out a small prayer into the universe and pressed the button. It dumped every last drop of fuel he had into the engines. An overload FTL jump was what he was hoping for. He was in the middle of nowhere and wanted to end up in a far away system that he knew nothing about.
The empire hadn't even bothered to send a probe in this direction yet. They had enough concerns to deal with. He hadn't ever heard a peep about anyone giving a rat's ass about this sector of space. Still it was all he had to work with.
He was lifted up out of his chair and slammed into the ceiling. His world went black.
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Rick slowly opened his eyes. Unfortunately was it was still mostly dark. After finally convincing himself his eyes were open he found that the only lights that were still on were the emergency lights that used the batteries. It meant everything was barely lit.
He started to sit up and immediately groaned; he touched his hand to his head where it hurt. His fingers were wet. "Why?" he wondered. He pulled his hand back and could smell blood on his fingers. He moaned from the pain. Sitting up made his head spin; his eyes slipped shut. He waited for a time before opening them again. Nothing had changed.
"Shit!" He looked around. His screens were dark. What had happened slowly filtered into his brain. "Explosion, damage… VINCENT?" Rick called again but was met with silence.
First things first, then. He lifted his arm and requested an atmospheric scanner. It popped out of his left wristband and he held it out a moment before moving so he could look at the readings. "Barely enough to breathe." It helped explain why his chest ached every time he took a breath. "Only a few minutes left." He needed to get out. The real question was where was he?
"Gotta get moving." Rick struggled to his feet causing him to groan since moving made his head hurt. He stumbled to the back living area. He stopped at his little computer. "Load." And watched it vanish into his left wristband. He checked and saw that he still had a fair amount of space for more items.
The right one was even more empty. "Okay…" He worked his way over to another area and opened the door. Inside was a large number of weapons and ammunition of various sizes and types. "Load," he commanded and waited. Everything that was there disappeared into his wrist band.
He loved Dimensional Compression technology.
Sometimes referred to as Flat Space technology, Dimensional Compression is used to store objects in a Pocket universe. Simple objects are stored/retrieved and more complex ones systematically deconstructed/reconstructed in a flow of sparkling lights. A significant number of items can be stored for easy retrieval without burdening the user with either weight or size. The technology mainly takes the form of easily overlooked wristbands, although 1 inch scabbards holding 42 inch swords are also seen. Handguns (some with 18 inch bayonets stored in their 6 inch grips), and ammunition are also hidden in this manner (the bullets flying from the wristbands into the magazines on command).
His right wristband was now almost full; he'd loaded every weapon and ammunition round that he had in it. From there he moved each piece of equipment that even looked like it still worked. He also loaded every item he would need to make repairs for anything that might be damaged. Or so he hoped.
Next he picked up a small case and opened it. Once open, it started to glow from the open effect of Dimensional Compression. He started throwing clothes, pictures, and readers into it. But he was slowing down and breathing was starting to become more difficult.
He ordered up his atmospheric scanner and looked at the readout. He was out of air and out of time. What he had would have to do.
He picked up the case and stumbled over to his escape pod. Hitting the button got the door to open and he threw in his case followed by stepping inside and sitting down. Hitting another button closed the door behind him. "Bye Vincent." He was really going to miss him. Though with no power and a hole in the main computer, the unit was already effectively dead.
Rick started running his fingers over the controls. Suddenly he was able to breathe far more easily and the atmosphere was restored in his pod. Then he activated the restraint system and slammed his hand down on the button. It immediately caused the bolts to explode and shoot him out into space. His screens showed what was left of his ship disappearing behind him.
"Now what's in the area?" His pod couldn't go that far so there needed to be something. "You might work." He saw a system that had nine planets with two of them located in the sweet zone. He was too far away to read the atmosphere of either of them. His ship could have read from this distance but his little pod couldn't.
"Let's see how far." Rick started inputting the data he did have and got his answer. He groaned. "Two days travel time?" He looked around his tight one person space and groaned. Nowhere to go, no real place to even lie down. "No bathroom." He promised himself that his next ship was going to solve that not-so-small problem. "I forgot the food!" He let his head fall on the console which immediately beeped at him.
He lifted up his head to find out what he had done and fix it. After a mad scramble he vowed not to do that again. "Two days." He was really going to hate this.
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Rick was approaching orbit when he could finally get a reading on the planet that was below him. "78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Sounds livable." He could at least breathe the atmosphere.
He was on the bright side so he didn't see much but continents and clouds. "Let's see what else we've got." He tried to scan for other items. "Oh great, the planet's surrounded by junk. This is going to be tricky." His pod was meant for escapes, not maneuvering through an asteroid field. "What else have we got? To get this amount of junk into orbit there has to be some sort of space flight." He grew hopeful. Maybe they had space travel.
"Space station… A little on the tiny side. Can't get readings on power generation. Hmm… what's this?" He pressed the panel and suddenly the pod was filled with music. "Communications, interesting." Rick tried to focus on one before moving on to the next one. "Both video and audio. All in the low range band. If they don't have FTL I may be stuck here." That thought didn't please him much.
A beeping sound got his attention. "Oxygen levels are falling. I need to land soon before the carbon dioxide builds up too much." If it did, it meant death – his. "No time like the present." He took a breath, adjusted his course, and worked at trying to avoid all the junk.
He'd barely started when he heard it. Things that didn't even show up on his screens were striking the skin of his pod. In only moments warning lights began flashing. "Hull breach." Rick silently swore; it looked like he was cursed.
"Make that two, three… four. Damn it, there isn't going to be anything left of me at this rate." The pod's oxygen levels plummeted. It was also becoming harder to keep any kind of course. The oxygen that was escaping was starting to force the pod into a spin that he was having trouble controlling.
Suddenly his arm hurt and unthinking, he slapped his hand over it. Lifting his hand away, he could see blood. He had been hit by a piece of space junk. "Okay, enough of this shit." He had hoped to be able to keep the pod but it didn't look like that was going to happen.
He dove into the atmosphere to get low enough to breathe. He started counting his lucky stars as more and more hits sounded against the hull, penetrating it.
He'd finally gotten low enough to breathe. "Goodbye pod." Rick blew the access door and jumped. He was in free fall for a time so he took advantage of that and looked around. He realized as he'd cruised down into atmosphere that he'd traveled into the dark side. It looked like he was going to land right in the middle of it. He could only just make out his pod as it flew across the night sky and headed for a large dark zone. He was a little thankful that it wasn't going to land on someone's head, or so it appeared.
"Lots of tall buildings and lots of moving lights." He wasn't sure how high he still was but it felt right. He ordered his chute to deploy and started gliding down. He searched the ground, looking for a place to land. A place that would not alert the locals to his arrival.
"No, no, no. Not there." Rick pulled and tried to adjust his descent. His choices were few and dwindling quickly. He had to make a choice and make it fast. He decided on a roof of a building that looked like it was only four or maybe five stories tall. He pulled both cords and drifted down nicely to land on the roof. He ordered the chute back into his storage space. It retracted and folded back up again.
"Now let's see what we've got." There were a number of taller building around him. The place stank something fierce and it was loud. He heard horns and other sounds that he didn't understand.
"Transportation, it looks like. What's all that junk billowing out the back? Are those wheels? I'm so screwed." He let his head fall to his chest.
He could just hear his daughter now. She was going to rip him a new one, he was sure of it.