Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Negasi hesitated outside Aurora's door. She was still locked inside, and knowing the girl's personality, she was probably seriously pissed off.

Hopefully she'd only be pissed off at Jeridan. An easy thing to do. That guy was an idiot.

He buzzed the intercom.

"Go away, jerk!"

Yep. Still pissed off.

"It's Negasi."

"Oh, the assistant jerk."

Assistant? That little brat!

"Can I come in?"

"Can I come out?"

"Um, maybe. Promise not to tase me?"

"I'm not promising anything."

Readying himself for a sprint down the hallway in case teen angst became a health hazard, he opened the door.

Aurora sat on her bed, arms crossed and frowning.

"What are you angry at me for?" Negasi asked.

"You locked me in my room."

"That was Jeridan. He's a putz."

"What's a putz?"

"Never mind. I wanted to talk to you about your brother."

"Where's the puzz?"

"Putz. He figured you wouldn't want to see him."

"At least he's not totally stupid."

"Only mostly stupid," Negasi agreed.

"Don't try to get all buddy buddy with me. You could have let me out an hour ago."

"We've been trying to figure out what to do."

"And you were scared I was going to take over the ship or something?"

"You're resourceful enough. You might have wired the whole ship and zapped us all."

A trace of a smile twitched her lips before they quickly firmed up again.

"Where's my brother? Have you given him his medicine yet?"

"He's in his room. Not locked up. And no, we haven't given him his medicine yet. We did talk to your father, though."

Her eyes lowered.

"Do you talk to him?" Negasi asked.

Negasi took a step back in shock as the teenager burst into tears.

"You think I like this? It was bad enough Dad got killed, and now I got to deal with his ghost in Mason's head. I see him change every time I give him his booster. Dad comes out when you do that. Mason's posture changes. His voice changes. Even his eyes change. It freaks me out!"

She covered her face with her hands and sobbed.

Negasi felt like running. Instead, he said in a soft voice, "I'm not blaming you. None of this is your fault."

She sniffled and mumbled something through her hands.

"What's that?"

"I know it's not my fault!" she bawled. "But I'm stuck with it! My damn mother did this, and now we don't have a choice. We have to go along with it to save the cacking universe." She wiped her eyes and sniffled. "And now you're stuck with it too. Sorry."

"It's OK." No, it's not.

"You should leave."

He turned to go. "If you want to be alone, I understand."

"No, I mean leave leave. Get out of here. This isn't your drama."

Negasi paused. Despite all that they'd been through in the last hour, it had never occurred to him that they could cut and run.

"I think it's gone too far for that. Too much is at stake."

"We got other people from the League here. They can take your place. Get away from all this crap and have a normal life. I sure as hell want to."

Negasi thought for a second. "Your father said Jeridan and I are the best pilot/gunner team he'd ever seen, and he's right. No one on the Karnak could take our place. If we want to get this done right and stand a chance of stopping the alien invasion, we need to stick."

Aurora wiped her eyes and looked at him with far more seriousness than any fourteen-year-old should ever have to.

"That means giving Mason his boosters."

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"Is that true? It's not something your mom told you and you believed?"

"I was there when the doctor gave us instructions. Mom made me be there because she needed me to give the shots."

Aurora hung her head and wiped her eyes.

"It was your mother who did this. You didn't have a choice. I don't blame you."

"I do," the girl mumbled.

Silence settled in the room. Negasi realized that he and his partner were backed into a corner. If they wanted to complete this mission, they had no choice but to continue with the shots.

"What should we do?" Negasi whispered. He wasn't sure if he was asking himself, the universe, or the half-child in front of him.

"I don't know," Aurora replied.

Negasi remembered the newsvids showing footage of the Rimscourge attacking worlds on the Outer Rim. Entire fleets blown out of the sky, nuclear explosions all over the planets, the spreading wave of radiation searing every life form …

"I need to go now," Negasi said. "Sorry, but I'm going to have to lock you in again."

"I'm a criminal and I deserve to be locked up."

Negasi wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

"You're not a criminal, Aurora. You're a victim." He turned and left the room. "I'm beginning to think we're all victims."

He went back to the deck to find Jeridan sitting there checking the long-range scanners.

"Any trouble?" Negasi asked.

"Beyond what we're already in? No. More Syndicate ships could come at any time, though."

"I'm thinking if they had any reinforcements close by, the three ships we took out would have waited for them."

"Maybe. Maybe they didn't bank on the presence of the Antikythera. Those three could have taken out the Karnak and ground crew no problem."

Negasi peered out the window at the distant ship, no more than a speck of light against the larger green glow of the planet.

"They already have a crew out fixing the damage," his partner said. "We need to do the same, but that leaves the ship unmanned except for the S'ouzz."

"Yeah, and if we don't go out soon, those guys over there are going to wonder why we haven't."

Jeridan and Negasi looked at each other. Time to make a decision.

They kept looking at each other. Still no decision.

"I checked on Aurora. She's really upset."

Jeridan grimaced. "She must hate me."

"Not as much as she hates her mother right now."

"That makes two of us."

"Three. Four if the S'ouzz is capable of that emotion. What they did was the wrong thing to do but now that's it's done, I think we're stuck with it."

"You mean … "

Negasi gave a helpless shrug. "If what they're saying is true, and all of them are being consistent, then we need Derren at the Imperium station. The kid's already been hurt, and it would only be for another few weeks. We—"

"What the hell's the matter with you? You're saying we should just go along with all this?"

"It's horrible. It's wrong. But the damage has been done and I don't see any other way."

"Unbelievable." Jeridan shook his head and turned away.

"Do you see any other way out of this?" Negasi asked him.

Jeridan didn't reply.

"Well, do you?"

The pilot slammed his fist on the console. "No, damn it! That's what bugs me! Is that what you wanted to hear? Fine, I don't see any way to save the galaxy except by being a ghoul and keeping a possessed child on this ship." He rubbed his temples. "Damn, I feel sullied just considering it."

"Better than being nuked."

Jeridan looked out at the nearby planet with haunted eyes. He had been the first to see those newsvids, after all.

Negasi put a hand on his shoulder. "I was hoping we'd become heroes out of all this. Now it looks like we'll be heroes and villains at the same time."

"Let's get everyone together," Jeridan sighed.

"And tell them what?"

"Tell them some things they want to hear, and a few things they don't."

* * *

Ten minutes later, everyone was assembled in the mess hall. Everyone except Helen, of course. No way were they going to let her out of her cabin. Even so, Negasi and Jeridan kept their guns in their hands.

Negasi looked around the group. From the look in Mason's eyes, Negasi could tell Derren was present and not his son. Aurora looked sulky, Nova looked calculating, Helen's face on the vidscreen was unreadable, and Jeridan looked seriously pissed.

Almost as pissed as that time Negasi beat him eight times in a row at chessboxing.

God, I could use a bout right now. So simple. So honest.

Jeridan sat at the head of the table, the seat usually reserved for the captain on more formal vessels. He obviously wanted to assert dominance. Negasi sat at the other end to cut off anyone's retreat out the room's only door.

"Negasi and I have discussed this, and after a lot of thought we've decided to continue with Mason's boosters."

Sounds of relief from Nova and Helen. Aurora muttered something under her breath. Jeridan raised his hand for quiet.

"This will only be until we find the Imperium station and for as long as it takes afterwards to initially process the data. After the comm probes have been sent to this League of Concerned Archaeologists you never told us about and all high-tech worlds, we will stop the boosters and let Mason come fully back into his own mind."

And head to the nearest high-tech world to hand Nova over to the authorities.

Negasi studied their boss, or ex-boss or prisoner or whatever she was. Her initial relief had been replaced with a poker face.

"We'll need to go to a high-tech world and have the process reversed. We can't just stop the boosters. I told you."

Fine. Save Mason and slap you in jail. Two birds with one stone.

"All right." Jeridan looked happy to agree.

Negasi cut in. "In the meantime, all of you except Helen will have freedom of movement on the ship. All weapons will remain locked in the armory or carried by me and Jeridan. Using captain's override, MIRI is locking you all out of any ship's functions other than the most basic. Any attempt to take over the ship will end the deal. Any attempt to tell the League what we've done will end the deal. If they find out some other way, any attempt by them to interfere will end the deal. Are we understood?"

Nova frowned and looked up at the ceiling. "MIRI, is this true? You're going along with this mutiny?"

"This is not a mutiny. You have given up your rights as owner of this ship by engaging in serious criminal activity. Derren is also culpable. Mason and Aurora, being minors, can't take over command, so by several articles in the Interstellar Ships Charter, Jeridan and Negasi are well within their rights to take over the ship."

Nova cursed. "And you, S'ouzz? Are you listening in on this?"

"You have committed the gravest crime my species can imagine. It is also a crime for your species. If the situation wasn't so perilous, I would leave this ship at the first possible opportunity."

Silence fell around the table. Negasi found his irritation with his boss replaced with a deep sadness. They had all begun to get along. The days and weeks spent traveling between star systems had given them a chance to become close. The kids had grown to like them and vice versa. Now Mason was disappearing and Aurora looked perpetually angry. They had even forged a good working relationship with Nova. All that was gone forever.

Negasi felt like something precious, something that he and Jeridan hadn't enjoyed in a long time, had slipped through their fingers.

"One more thing," Jeridan said, leaning forward and looking at each person in turn. "Negasi and I will give the injections."

"What! Why?" Aurora asked.

Jeridan's tone softened. "Mason asked us to. Well, he asked us not to let you do it because he doesn't like how it hurts you."

Aurora hung her head and wiped her eyes.

Jeridan turned to Nova and his tone hardened again. "Plus Negasi and I don't trust you to do it." He slammed a hand down on the table. "So that's the deal. Take it or leave it. We get this mission done and the moment Derren here is finished with the research, we will stop the boosters and he will fade away."

"Thank you," Derren said.

He sounded like he meant it, and unlike with everything Nova said, Negasi believed him.