Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Jeridan was relishing the fact that he could finally do the right thing without his former boss complaining about it. He knew what she'd say just as soon as they picked up the distress signal.

"SOS. SOS. SOS. This is the pilgrimage ship Renewal. We are being attacked by pirates. Someone please help. I repeat, this is the pilgrimage ship Renewal. We are being attacked by pirates. Someone please help … "

Jeridan could practically see Nova sitting in the copilot's seat like some nagging ghost.

"Ignore it," the ghost said. "The mission is too important."

It sure felt nice to have it only be a ghost and not the real Nova, who was still locked in her cabin. Much easier to ignore that way.

Jeridan sent a message for the S'ouzz to drop out of light speed, which the alien did within seconds. As the stars turned from rainbow smears back into harsh pinpoints, Jeridan got a better fix on the radio signal. Picking up radio signals while going faster than light distorted them to the point that it took a great deal of time and computing power to make them intelligible.

Jeridan got a fix and discovered they had overshot it by several tens of thousands of kilometers. It was a stroke of luck that they passed close by at all. The spaceway they were on wasn't used much. Jeridan turned the Antikythera around and headed for the distressed ship at top speed.

The SOS continued.

"I'm in the turret," Negasi said over the commlink.

"Good."

Helen came onto the bridge. "What can I do?"

Jeridan hesitated, then asked, "You combat trained?"

"No."

Really?

Jeridan sighed. "MIRI, open Nova's cabin door, please."

He got back on the commlink. "Nova, get up to the bridge. Any funny stuff and I'll space you."

"Is that a good idea?" Negasi asked.

"Spacing her? I think it's a great idea."

"Sure, but I meant letting her back on the bridge."

"I'm the one who's going to get a headache."

"Better you than me."

"Shut up and stay frosty. MIRI, anything on long-range sensors?"

"Two ships are appearing at the very edge of our sensors. One is the origin of the distress signal. It is impossible at this distance to tell which. It will take a minute to resolve further."

The distress signal continued. Jeridan heard the sound of running in the corridor and Nova appeared. Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed Helen had left.

Left to where? No time to worry about that now. The ships were just getting resolved onscreen. They were still far, but he could see one was an Interstellar Bus, a hulking ship that looked like an oversized brick, if an oversized brick was made of durasteel and packed with hundreds of people in cramped conditions being driven through space with an inadequate engine. The other ship was much smaller and of indeterminate make.

Nova spoke up. "We don't have—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

To his surprise, Nova didn't argue the point. Maybe she was finally learning that she wasn't in charge anymore.

Maybe. Probably not, though.

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There was a flare of energy, a thin tongue of infrared shot from the smaller ship to the larger one. It looked like the heat signature from a large missile.

"Who the hell fires on Earth pilgrims!" Jeridan shouted.

"Barbarians, that's who," Negasi said.

"Get ready. We're going to kick some ass." Jeridan got on the ship-wide comm. "Everybody strap in. We're going into combat."

"What else is new," Aurora grumbled.

"Sorry, kiddo. We have to save some Earth pilgrims."

"I'm not a kid. If someone's after Earth pilgrims, then kick their asses."

"Will do, young lady."

"That's better."

The SOS continued. As the Antikythera sped toward the two ships, Jeridan got a closer look. The ponderous Interstellar Bus didn't look badly damaged except for its engine. The attacking ship had taken that out. While they were still too far to make out details, Jeridan could easily see that the thrusters weren't working anymore and a trail of energy was seeping out of the blasted rear end.

The Interstellar Bus wasn't firing back. Had the pirates taken out their turrets too?

Jeridan studied the attacking ship. It was a midsized all-purpose a bit like their own Vega class, but of a make that Jeridan didn't recognize.

"Negasi, you seen one of those before?"

"Nope."

Jeridan grunted. Between them, they'd seen just about every ship that flew, or had ever flown.

"MIRI?"

"Ship type unidentified."

"Huh. This is getting weirder."

He didn't like the idea of going up against a ship type of unknown capabilities. That left way too many variables as to his immediate survivability.

The unknown ship had stopped firing on the Interstellar Bus and sent a signal to its victim.

"MIRI, decode."

"Impossible. The attacking ship is using an advanced code beyond my capabilities."

"Really? Why?"

"Unknown."

"That's odd," Nova said.

"Big time."

Why send a coded message to the ship you're trying to capture? To keep the crew of the Antikythera from knowing what they were saying? Their intentions seemed obvious, so what was the big secret?

"We should go," Nova said.

"You said that already."

"No, I didn't. You didn't give me the chance."

"Whatever. We're not leaving a bunch of Earth pilgrims at the mercy of … whatever they are."

"We have essential—"

"Stop."

There was a pause. Jeridan hailed the two ships.

"Unknown vessel. This is the captain of the Antikythera. Leave immediately or you will be fired upon."

A human voice answered. "Captain Cook, this is Captain Liu of the pilgrimage ship Renewal. We are victims of an unprovoked—"

All frequencies got blanketed with a loud, metallic hum. The attacking ship had just jammed them.

"Turning on the profile obfuscator," Nova said.

Jeridan nodded. They'd be within long range soon. It looked like Nova had resigned herself to being part of this fight.

They entered long range. The mystery ship didn't make a move. The profile obfuscator stopped Jeridan from transmitting a message to them, but they were obviously not in a talking mood anyway.

Soon the Antikythera made it to medium range. Nova had her hand poised above the torpedo controls. Negasi would be ready in the turret like he always was.

The unknown vessel darted with impressive speed behind the Interstellar Bus, disappearing entirely behind the much bigger vessel.

Jeridan grunted.

"Using pilgrims as human shields? Classy. Real classy."

"Maybe they're slavers," Negasi suggested. "Who else would attack a vulnerable ship full of poor people?"

"Makes sense. Now we have even more of a reason to blow them out of the sky."

Jeridan steered the Antikythera around the pilgrimage ship Renewal, keeping a healthy distance. The enemy ship moved in tandem, keeping the pilgrims as cover.

"This is getting irritating," Jeridan grumbled.

"Not as irritating as you," Negasi said.

"Har har."

"And almost as irritating as both of you put together," Aurora said.

"I'm not interested in the opinions of children," Jeridan said.

"Hey!"

Jeridan turned the ship around and darted back into the other direction. The enemy ship, having a much smaller orbital radius around the Interstellar Bus, kept out of sight.

Then something odd happened.

A bright light from a porthole on the side of the Interstellar Bus began to blink on and off. Sometimes it stayed on for a second, other times for two seconds. Even several kilometers away, the light was bright enough to see clearly. It must have been a focused search beam like those used on dark planets in distant orbits from their star.

"What's that?" Jeridan asked nobody in particular.

The light kept blinking. As they moved in orbit around the ship and the other side came into view, another light started flashing from a porthole on that side. The enemy ship remained out of sight.

"Looks like Morse code," Aurora said.

"What's that?"

"I learned about it in history class. An ancient type of communication with dots and dashes to make up letters."

"What's it saying?"

"I don't know how to read it. That wasn't on the test."

"Not even for extra credit?"

"Nope. Sorry. Some planets still use it, though, especially low-tech planets. Maybe it's the passengers signaling."

"They must be doing that because they can't hail us. With this profile obfuscator on they couldn't even if they weren't jammed. MIRI, can you translate from Morse code?"

"Affirmative. The code still exists in historical archives. Translating." MIRI paused as they performed another orbit and the lights on both the port and starboard continued to flash. "The message reads, 'Leave immediately or they will puncture the hull.'"