Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

It was another of those long travel periods between destinations. Even at top speed, the Antikythera was going to take a few days to get to the space station.

Normally, Negasi used these down times to study xenoanthropology, work out, and kick Jeridan's ass at chessboxing.

But he found he couldn't concentrate, and didn't have the interest in doing much of anything.

Anticipation of what they would find, and fear of what they might not, gnawed at his mind.

There was also that strange conversation in the corridor when Jeridan had asked about Helen. The loser hadn't said everything he had been thinking, and that worried him.

"Ha! Checkmate!"

He blinked and studied the chessboard in front of him. Then he looked up at Aurora's gleeful face.

"I finally beat you!" she said.

"I was distracted."

"Suuuure. Excuses, excuses."

Negasi smiled. "Congratulations."

"We should set up a giant chess set on Antlia Seven. We'll cast giant pieces out of durasteel and have Poopsie move them for us."

Antlia Seven was the world Aurora had decided they were all retiring to once they saved the galaxy. It had mountains, beaches, temperate weather, and most of all horses.

After all this cack, it sounded like heaven.

"Why do you want giant durasteel chess pieces?"

"Because when I checkmate you in ten moves, we'll leave it as a monument to my awesomeness."

"My awesomeness? You're beginning to sound like Jeridan."

"Hey!"

Negasi laughed.

"Want to play another game?" the girl asked.

Negasi stood. "Not right now. I got something to do."

"Ooooh, chicken."

"No. I'll beat you later."

He got up and left as Aurora made chicken noises, flapping her arms like wings. He wondered if she had ever seen a chicken in real life. It had been years since he had. Maybe not even since he left his home planet.

The sounds of clucking followed him down the corridor.

Thankfully, they didn't follow him all the way to Helen's quarters.

He turned on the vidscreen.

Helen was sitting cross-legged on her bed. She opened her eyes and a smile spread across her face.

"Negasi. It's been too long."

He tensed. When he spoke it took some effort to keep his voice level.

She probably wasn't fooled, though.

"You must be looking forward to getting out soon."

"The station will be fascinating. Especially for you as a tech scavenger."

Negasi chuckled. "You know, in a way I'm dreading it. If it's all Nova says it is, no tech scavenge after that will ever be as good."

"And you love the hunt, don't you? The sense of adventure and discovery."

"Better than the life I came from."

"Tell me about that," she asked with what sounded like genuine interest.

"Actually, I had a question for you." He didn't want to share any personal information with this half-human, and he had to get to the bottom of things with her.

"Sure. What do you want to know?"

She got off the bed and approached the vidscreen. Negasi took a step back before realizing how weak such a move made him look.

"Don't worry," she said, her smile broadening. "I can interface with electronics but I can't pass through them."

He cleared his throat. "You had a conversation with Jeridan the other day."

"He wanted to make sure I wouldn't kill you all. He cares very deeply about you and the rest of the crew."

"Um, yeah. Well, he seemed pretty upset by that conversation. Care to tell me why?"

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Helen touched the screen with her fingers. Negasi's skin crawled. Maybe she really could pass through electronics. It sounded crazy, but he'd seen a lot of crazy stuff lately.

"He's afraid things will change. Are you afraid of change, Negasi? All it means is going beyond what you're accustomed to. Going beyond your comfort zone."

"I haven't been in my comfort zone since I met you people."

She ran her fingers along the screen. Negasi felt a tingle go up his spine.

That was a fear reaction and not some sort of energy transfer, right?

"I haven't been in my comfort zone either. Latimer Station was terrible. Even in that place full of smugglers and bandits, people are scared of someone like me. A path would clear through every crowd. In the market, vendors would pretend not to hear my order. My refined hearing picked up the most terrible things being said about me in every language. The loneliness crushed me."

Negasi didn't know what to say. Helen went on.

"So I did my work and stayed apart, but I'm still human, Negasi. The computer side kept functioning while the human side withered."

"I'm … sorry to hear that."

The look of eagerness that transformed her face made him jerk with surprise. It was the first full emotion he'd ever seen from her.

Or at least the first one he didn't doubt was genuine.

"Are you sorry? Really?"

"Um, yeah. I mean, you chose to have implants but you don't deserve, uh … "

Didn't she deserve to be exiled? She was illegal, capable of anything. He and Jeridan had nearly been killed by a band of rogue cyborgs. Of course people were afraid of her. What did she expect?

And she was in the same organization that downloaded a dead father into his son's brain.

He was talking to the worst criminal he had ever met, and that was saying something.

And yet he did feel sorry for her.

For a moment they stared at each other through the vidscreen. Then the shipwide comm chirped.

Jeridan's voice came on.

"We're approaching the station and the S'ouzz will take us out of light speed in five minutes. Everyone strap in. Negasi, get to your battle station."

"On my way."

He turned to go, then hesitated. "You'll be out soon, Helen."

"You'll be safe. All of you."

Negasi ran off to the dorsal turret, just as confused but maybe a little less worried than before.

He strapped in, powered up the weapons, and waited for the stars to stop stretching out in rainbow smears and become pinpoints of light again.

Jeridan's voice came on again. "We're about to drop out. The S'ouzz is taking us as close to the edge of the Imperium minefield as is safe. Then we're going to study it for a while before going in."

Negasi took a deep breath. Here we go.

He felt the familiar feeling of dislocation as the Antikythera dropped out of light speed. The stars suddenly became normal again. Long-range sensors picked out an object far ahead of them, still visible only as a dot on the highest magnification.

"The station."

"That's right, buddy," Jeridan said. "We're finally here."

Negasi blinked. He hadn't realized he had spoken out loud.

MIRI came on.

"Arriving within close scanning range of the edge of the minefield in three minutes. Then we will stop and the S'ouzz and I will examine it."

"Take as much time as you need, MIRI," Negasi said.

Negasi kept scanning the surroundings, half expecting to find a rival tech scavenger ship or Mantids from the Antari Syndicate or even the alien invaders from the galactic rim. That would be just his luck.

But there was no one. They were alone in space. Just them, the galaxy's greatest treasure, and a centuries-old minefield waiting to kill them.

He studied the point ahead of him. The station was still too far to bring up on visual, but he could see from the spectra that it was made of standard Imperium durasteel. It was the station, all right.

Then the reading distorted, the spectra's absorption lines wavering, the wavelength readings going all over the place.

A moment later, the readings went back to normal.

"Was that one of the mines?" Negasi whispered.

"Yes," Nova replied.

He shivered. "I want a raise."

The Antikythera came to a stop. The station still hung just out of visual range. Another distortion passed before it.

Negasi put out a wide scan on all wavelengths and took in a sharp intake of breath.

The readings didn't make any sense. All in front of him, starting at a distance of 1,000 kilometers, he could see strange distortions in the readings on every wavelength. The sensors couldn't get a fix on them and he had to focus on the clear sky in the gaps between them in order to get an idea of their approximate location.

The anomalies seemed to move at random, and the sensors couldn't even get a fix on where exactly they were.

Oh, and they seemed to speed up and slow down. Another variable in the pattern. Wonderful.

Then Negasi remembered Nova saying that two of their ships got too close and a mine made them vanish.

Extra wonderful.

How the hell are they going to find a way through this?

Watching them hurt his eyes, so he turned away and scanned the rest of the sky to make sure no other nasties were sneaking up on them. Coming to an untouched Imperium research station and having it all to themselves seemed too good to be true.

A readout showed all nonessential systems powering down. The lights went off, leaving only the dim red glow of emergency lights. Heating and air recycling in any unoccupied cabin switched off, as did all computers except navigation, astronavigation, defense, and MIRI herself.

She was doing some serious thinking. Negasi supposed the S'ouzz was too.

He didn't interrupt. They didn't need his input and he wouldn't understand the conversation anyway.

He stayed in his turret on his lonely, silent vigil, scanning the sky for potential threats.

At long last, MIRI's voice came on.

"We think we've unlocked the pattern."

"You think?" Jeridan asked.

"With a 72 percent accuracy."

"What about the other 28 percent?" Negasi asked. "You can have more time. As much as you want."

"Impossible to improve accuracy given the limits of our sensors and the unique nature of the threat."

"So, um, if we end up in that 28 percent?"

"We die," the S'ouzz said.

"Oh."

That wasn't the answer he was looking for.

"So we're … going for it?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Nova asked.

"Go to a resort world and drink Beta Rigelian tequila on the beach?"

"I vote for horse riding on Antlia Seven," Aurora said.

"Nope. We're going in," Nova said.

"Jeridan is the captain," Negasi said. "What do you say, captain?"

"Since when did you defer to my judgement?"

"Since the decision might lead to my death by unknown and very scary causes."

"I … um … say we go in."

"Jerk. I knew you'd say something like that."

"We could jettison you in a spacesuit."

"Tempting, but I'll stay put. If it looks like we're going to die, I'll kick your ass at chessboxing one last time."

"You two are such losers," Aurora said. "Come on. If we're going, let's go."

"Don't be so eager to fly into a minefield. You're too young to realize you're mortal. Just you wait until you're our age."

"Your age in years or your age in maturity?" Aurora asked.

A giggle came over the comm. Maybe Mason. Or maybe Aurora. Or maybe even Jeridan. He was wuss enough to giggle.

"All right," Negasi said with a sigh, "Let's get this over with."

He hoped he was talking about the mission and not all of their lives.