Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Jeridan lay in sickbay, listless and bored, slowly recovering. It had been three hours since they got back to the Antikythera. Poopsie hadn't found any signs of life on the station, biological or robotic. No functioning systems. That had been a relief. So the four of them had headed back to the airlock. He, Negasi, and Helen all had to power up and use Imperium spacesuits since their own were ruined. Nova had to help Jeridan into his suit. In his condition, he wouldn't have been able to tie his own shoes.

He had never used an Imperium spacesuit before. It was a really nice model with all sorts of sensory capabilities that he would have to try out once their lives weren't in mortal danger.

They still didn't know what else might lurk on that station, they were still surrounded by an Imperium minefield, the Antari Syndicate was still hunting for them, and the Rimscourge was still invading the Orion Arm.

All in all, a crappy day.

At least he was healing. The readouts from the medical computer said he had sustained a series of internal injuries that were all on the mend now. In an hour or so, he'd be able to get out of here.

Negasi had lain in the other bed for an hour before his ribs and hand were good enough that he could move around without hurting himself. Now he was off dealing with the rest of the crew.

Poor bastard. Jeridan felt better off in the sickbay. This ship had too many agendas and way too many mysteries.

One of those mysteries walked in.

Mason, the ten-year-old boy who held his dead father's mind in his head.

Judging from the adult look in the eyes and the serious set of that youthful face, it was Derren who was in charge right now.

"How are you feeling?" the boy (man?) asked.

"Better. MIRI says I'll be out in an hour."

"Good. We need to get back there ASAP."

"I'm talking to Derren, aren't I?"

"Yes."

"Can Mason understand what we're saying?"

"He's far enough down that he's only dimly aware of what's going on."

Monster.

"Can he follow conversations?"

"Not unless they go on a long time."

"I have a question. I've seen photos of you. Mason doesn't take after you or Nova at all. Aurora looks like your kid. Mason doesn't. Is he adopted?"

Or abducted?

Derren/Mason frowned. "My family is none of your business."

"I've been nearly killed half a dozen times since meeting your family. Damn right it's my business."

Jeridan found himself in a staring contest with a ten-year-old.

Or more precisely, with a ghost.

Either way, his opponent blinked first.

Derren/Mason turned and walked out of the room.

"Report to the bridge when the sickbay computer lets you go," he said as he left.

* * *

An hour later, Jeridan stood with Nova and Negasi in the engineering room. Negasi had hooked up the memory chips of the two Imperium robots to MIRI and the AI was analyzing them.

"The service robot has nothing to tell us," Negasi said. "Like I suspected, that metallic spider powered it up. MIRI is still trying to crack the encryption on the spider."

"Almost completed," MIRI said. "All combat mechs and many other models of Imperium robot came with encryption. They varied between models, the combat mechs having the most robust. This will take another five seconds … completed … I have a full analysis."

Jeridan grinned. "That's my girl!"

"So nice to see you have recovered, Jeridan," MIRI said.

"Thanks."

"What about me?" Negasi objected. "I got injured too."

Jeridan nudged him. "Don't be jealous."

"I already congratulated you on your recovery, Negasi."

"Yeah, don't be an attention hog," Jeridan said.

"You'll give me plenty of attention the next time I whup your ass at chessboxing."

"In your dreams."

"Will the two of you stop bickering, stop flirting with your AI, and stop interrupting?" Nova said. "I want to hear MIRI's report."

"She's just jealous that MIRI likes us better than she likes her," Jeridan said with a grin.

"Totally," Negasi agreed.

"I already have two kids. I don't need two more. MIRI, what did you find out?"

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"The combat mech was plugged into a wall socket in Engineering Room Five. I can give you the location. It first came to life a few hours after you left the station on your initial visit."

"Oh, damn."

"It appears that during your visit, someone had plugged in an external power source in order to access a computer wall unit and then left he power supply there, either by accident or deliberately. The wall unit was connected to the entire room, so the power was accessible by all electronics in that room. The combat mech was engineered to automatically take power from any source if it had gone to zero energy. The other computers and devices were not. This was a simple way of giving combat mechs priority in case of a catastrophic interruption of power."

"Would Ibrahim have known about this?" Negasi asked.

"I don't know," Nova said.

"Didn't you say he was an expert in Imperium robotics?" Negasi asked.

"Yeah, but he never mentioned that. I don't think it was common knowledge."

"It is mentioned in 75% of standard textbooks on Imperium robotics," MIRI said.

"He wouldn't have betrayed us!"

"He might have," Jeridan said.

"We planned to bring him back for the next retrieval mission. He knew that. Why endanger himself?"

"Because he would have joined his buddies in the Antari Syndicate before then," Jeridan said, wondering why Nova was so eager to defend him. "If you went back before they could assemble a team to go themselves, then you would get killed by the combat mech. If the Syndicate got there first, they would have gone in with a full combat team. Heavy weapons, Mantid warriors, plus a couple of combat mechs just for chuckles. They would have wrecked this thing no problem."

Nova shook her head. "I don't believe it."

You don't want to believe it.

Jeridan didn't speak his mind. There was no point arguing with her.

"Well, now that we've cleared the place of danger, let's get on to the main event," Jeridan said.

Negasi's eyes sparked. "Downloading all Imperium knowledge of the jump gates. Wow, buddy, we've finally made it."

They gave each other a fist bump.

"I'll go tell Derren," Nova said, leaving the room.

Jeridan huddled in close with his friend.

"Why do you think she's so eager not to believe this Ibrahim guy wasn't a turncoat?" he whispered.

"That's what I'd like to know," Negasi whispered back.

They looked at each other for a moment, and when neither could come up with an answer, they left the engineering room to get suited up.

* * *

Jeridan knew he should really be in bed resting. While the medical computer had told him he was free to leave the sickbay, it had also told him to have 48 hours of complete rest in his quarters, with checkups twice a day. Negasi had been told to rest too.

No way he could listen to doctor's orders. They had the best scavenge in the galaxy sitting right in front of them. It was a tech scavenger's dream come true.

He, Negasi, Nova, Helen, and Derren/Mason all stood in the main computer room of the Imperium station. Poopsie stood guard at the door. Aurora had sent the combat mech on another patrol around the station to make sure there were no other nasty surprises waiting for them. She had also programmed it to unplug any robots it found.

It returned to report no hostiles in sight, and that it had unplugged three more combat mechs, five service robots, and an android of unknown type. None had the benefit of a conveniently forgotten external power supply.

That android interesting, Jeridan thought. We'll have to check that one out once we get all the data.

Actually, there's a ton of stuff we need to check out.

Visions of a bank account filled with billions of credits danced before his mind's eye.

After scanning the electronics running through the walls to make sure that powering up the main computer room would not power up something that should remain dead, Nova plugged in an industrial-capacity external power source the size of a suitcase.

She flipped a switch on the side and the entire computer room hummed to life. The overhead lights came on, all the consoles and screens lit up, and Jeridan let out a gasp of awe.

It was beautiful. Light everywhere, from the soft yellow of the overhead lighting to the blues and greens of the screens and buttons. Now Jeridan knew what it must have felt like for the early humans to stand in a cathedral on a sunny day.

For a moment, everyone stood there, staring at the display all around them.

Jeridan turned to his best friend. There was a big grin on Negasi's face. They looked at each other, and for once they didn't have anything to say.

Derren/Mason walked around the room, studying the screens. A child's body and an adult's seriousness. He ran a hand scanner over the consoles.

"Everything seems to be in operational order," he said. "Let's see if the serial number we got from Makayamawe Prime is valid."

Negasi and Nova had gone down to that planet, ruled by a dictator, in order to get the serial number off an old Imperium ship there. In addition to a code that Derren and Nova had already recovered, they discovered that the main computer on the Imperium station wouldn't open up without the serial number from a ship operational at the time that the station had been operational. Thus they had to examen a public monument of the Imperium science vessel that had first explored the Makayamawe system.

Of course, Negasi screwed it up and nearly got them both killed. Nova had made things worse, but that was par for the course.

Derren/Mason typed in the code, then the serial number.

He let out a gasp as the screen lit up with several interactive panels.

He grinned at everyone.

"Let's get to work," he said in a hushed voice.

Derren/Mason started typing away. Jeridan looked over his shoulder. He was typing in commands in Old Imperium Standard, a language most modern sentients didn't know. Of course, he and Negasi did. All tech scavengers knew the old language. It was weird seeing a ten-year-old kid doing it.

Although right now he's an experienced adult.

Then Jeridan remembered that when Mason was in control of his mind, he had learned the S'ouzz's language. So the talent at languages was shared by both the minds in his head.

This whole thing is way too confusing.

"It's safe to plug in," Derren/Mason said.

Helen pulled a wire out of her pocket, plugged one end into one of the implants in her head, and the other end into the terminal. Jeridan cringed.

Images began to flash in rapid succession on the screen in front of her. Derren/Mason worked on the terminal to her left. Nova went to another terminal.

Jeridan and Negasi peered over Helen's shoulder.

Images flashed by on the screen almost too quickly for the human eye to catch. Schematics. Spreadsheets. Tables. Mathematical formulae. Helen stood stiffly erect, those silvery eyes staring at the wall. Jeridan thought he could detect an inner glow in them.

"It's all here," she whispered. "But there's so much. I can't download it all. I'm only going for the most important."

Nova pulled a memory block from her pocket the size of a brick. "That's all right. I'll get it all on this."

Jeridan nodded. He'd seen those before. Computer engineers used those when transferring data into new space stations or downloading human minds into AI. It could hold hundreds of yottabytes of memory.

Helen, Nova, and that strange man/boy worked in efficient silence. Jeridan began to feel inadequate. While he knew a fair bit of engineering as any spacer did, this was way above his skill level. They had relied on him to pilot them here, but now he was standing around like a chauffeur waiting for instructions on the next ride.

He walked around the room, watching everyone. Negasi stood behind Helen, seemingly hypnotized by the flickering data on her screen.

Jeridan poked him.

"Hey. We're doing no good here. What do you say we explore the rest of the station?"

Negasi gave him a sly grin that said they had been hired to collect the data, but there had been nothing in the contract about a little pilfering on the side. After all they had been through to get here, they deserved a tip.

"We're going to explore," Jeridan told the others.

"I'd prefer it if you stayed here," Derren/Mason said without looking up.

"I'd prefer if you people didn't constantly leave us in the dark. We all have our preferences."

"We should stick together," Nova said.

"Poopsie did a recon of this place. We'll leave it here to protect you."

"I don't think—"

"Think about that," Jeridan said, pointing at the terminal. "That's the main mission. We're going to see if we can find any more tech that might help us against the Rimscourge."

And anything that might add to our bank account. This is a treasure vault!

"Be careful," Helen said.

Jeridan grinned. "What could go wrong?"