Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Five days into their voyage to the planet, Jeridan happened upon Mason in the corridor. The kid was heading to the holocabin just as Jeridan had come out after sparring with a projection to get his reaction time up.

"Hey, kiddo, feeling better?"

The boy looked awkward and didn't meet his gaze, his usual response no matter what Jeridan said or did. So Jeridan persisted. Coming upon the kid alone was rare enough that he couldn't let this chance slip past.

Jeridan stopped. He didn't exactly block Mason's way, but the boy would have to squeeze past if he wanted to get to the holocabin. Mason stopped too.

Mason didn't look at him as he replied. "Feeling better … for now."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"No. I'm fine." The boy paused, closed his eyes, and seemed to concentrate for a second.

Then he opened them and looked right in Jeridan's eyes. "When mom goes down to the planet, maybe we can talk again."

"All right," Jeridan said, his voice coming out hushed, as if someone was listening.

Mason closed his eyes again, his small body tensing. Then he looked at Jeridan once more. "I'm going to use the holocabin now."

Jeridan forced himself to smile. "All right."

He stepped aside, and Mason walked to the holocabin, opened the door, and entered. Jeridan heard it lock behind him.

Jeridan wiped sweat from his brow that hadn't come from his workout. He looked each way down the corridor and didn't see or hear anyone approaching. He stepped over to a control panel by the holocabin door that was fitted with a small screen.

He tried to turn on the screen, which would allow him to see whatever holographic program the kid was using. It didn't work. The privacy feature was switched on.

"MIRI, override the privacy program on the holocabin."

"I detect that Mason is currently in the holocabin. In the regulation regarding minors—"

"Overridden by Captain's Extraordinary Powers, section 3, paragraph five, I think."

"The one regarding the safety of minors and the potential for child abuse?"

Jeridan's mouth set in a grim line. "That one."

"That's section 3, paragraph six."

"Whatever. Show me what's going on in there."

"The legality of this might be debatable in court."

"I don't care. Be a witness for the prosecution if you want to."

"I am programmed to be impartial in matters regarding lawsuits between the ship's owner and captain."

"Just don't narc on me, OK?"

"You know I'd never do that."

Jeridan grinned. "That's my girl."

The screen came on.

Mason stood on a cliff overlooking a broad lake fed by a waterfall several kilometers high. The water cascaded down, the length of its fall making it diffuse out into a vertically moving cloud before it struck the lake's surface far below, creating a tremendous splash. The noise would have been deafening if the cliff Mason stood on hadn't been several kilometers away. In the sky above, some wispy clouds with a distinctive purplish hue told Jeridan he had programmed a trip to Rhea Zeta.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

For a moment, Mason stood and watched this breathtaking scene in silence, then he turned as footsteps approached.

A man appeared, blonde and muscular and wearing a spacer's jumpsuit. His resemblance to Aurora told Jeridan who he was.

Derren Bradford. Nova's dead husband. Jeridan's breath caught.

"This is quite a sight you found for us, kid," Derren said with a smile.

"Yeah!" Mason said with wide-eyed eagerness. "Negasi told me about it."

"He's a good crewmember. He's going to help us a lot."

Derren's image put an arm around Mason's shoulders. Jeridan winced. The holographic projection of Mason's dead father had no substance, so the kid couldn't feel his dad's affectionate touch.

It was all just an illusion.

Guilt washed over him. He shouldn't be watching this. Jeridan was about to turn the screen off when Mason said something else.

"Can I be alone sometimes? Just sometimes?"

"Why?" Derren's voice came out suspicious, not something Mason should have programmed into the image at all. Or was the program based on Derren's personality from when he had captained the Antikythera?

"I dunno," Mason mumbled.

"Did Jeridan ask you to be alone?"

"No."

"He did, didn't he?"

Mason slumped. "It's just … weird being like this."

"I know, kid," Derren said in a softer tone. "Once all this is done, I'll leave."

"But I don't want you to leave!" Mason whined.

"We all leave, one day. That's just how the universe works."

What the hell is going on here?

Mason and his father's image fell silent for a time, watching the splendid waterfall of Rhea Zeta. After a minute, Mason turned to Derren and opened his mouth to say something, but just then Jeridan heard footsteps in the corridor, switched off the screen, and hurried away.

* * *

"I'm telling you, the kid's schizophrenic or something."

Jeridan and Negasi sat in Negasi's quarters, one of the few places on the ship where they could be sure of privacy.

"It does seem strange the way he was talking," the gunner admitted. "And it's really unhealthy to go into the holocabin with an image of his dead father. Poor kid."

"Yeah. I've been tempted to do that with my family. It's been so long since I've seen them. I've always resisted, though."

Negasi nodded. "Same here. I've known people who've done that and it's always a bad idea. One thing the Derren hologram said that's weird. You said he asked about you?"

"Yeah. He asked Mason if I had encouraged him to be alone. The context made it sound like the breakdown I mentioned. That's why I think Mason has mental problems. He's getting the ghost of his father to lecture him about taking medicine he doesn't want to take."

Negasi thought for a moment. "There's another possibility."

"What?"

"What if the Derren hologram is backed by AI? Maybe they downloaded Derren's personality before he died."

"But he died unexpectedly."

Negasi looked at him. "How do we know that?"

"Because Nova said so. Oh. Right."

"Exactly. MIRI might not be the only AI on this ship."

"Then why not use him instead of MIRI? Why hide it? Plus I've been all over this ship. So have you. We've never seen any sign of a second computer capable of holding a human personality."

Negasi scratched his chin. "Good points. And there's no use asking Nova. Or Aurora. Mason seems afraid of his sister."

"Aurora is a good kid!"

"She is a good kid. But she obeys her mother's orders, and those orders are to give Mason the medicine he seems so scared of. It's not her fault. Nova probably told her that without it he'd get sicker. Maybe die."

"What if that's true?" Jeridan asked, suddenly unsure of himself. "What if we're messing with the wrong thing? Mason is only ten. He's not old enough to know what he needs."

"Then why not come clean? When we signed on, Nova could have said, 'my son suffers from such and such a disorder and we need to give him regular injections.' We would have never questioned it."

"Yeah," Jeridan said and sighed. "He said he wants to talk again when Nova goes down to the planet. I hope she doesn't want me to go down too."

"Usually she goes down with me because I'm the better fighter."

"In your dreams. Anyway, I'll think of some excuse to use in case she wants me to go planetside at this Yavari place. Have you had a chance to look it up?"

"I did, and found next to nothing. A minor planet that was off the beaten path even in Imperium times. Pre-collapse population of only fifty million."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. It was a mining colony for rare minerals. Only a small part of the planet was given over to farming and industry to supply local needs. No exports except from the mines. Apparently, the flora and fauna were pretty nasty."

"Nasty? How?"

"Not sure. There aren't many records left on some of the more obscure planets. You know how it is. The only references I could find said that the fauna was carnivorous and the flora aggressive."

"Aggressive flora? I don't like sound of that."

"Oh, and it's 1.4 Earth gravity, so we'll be seriously uncomfortable, plus there's a chemical compound in the atmosphere that's mildly narcotic."

Jeridan raised his hands in despair. "Why can't Nova ever take us anywhere nice?"