Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Jeridan let out a sigh of relief when he finally got into orbit around Makayamawe Prime. Flying a spaceship missing a thruster was as hard as dancing in a spaceship without artificial gravity.

Now that he got in a stable orbit, he could rest for a moment. They'd left that ship pretending to be an Imperium freighter way behind, but long-range scanners showed it still coming for them, estimated time of arrival one-and-a-half hours. Persistent bastards. Jeridan guessed they thought they could take the Antikythera out.

They almost had. And it wasn't like this dump of a planet had an Orbital Patrol to come and save them. All Jeridan could see were a few other freighters and a few clunky satellites. No space station, and certainly no repair docks.

And without a repair dock, they were stuck here. He and Negasi could fix the thruster, but a faster than light drive was so complex it took ten years of training to get certified. Without a faster than light drive, Aurora and Mason would be senior citizens before they got to the next inhabitable world.

His boss, as usual, had something else on her mind.

"We need to get down to the capital," she said, unstrapping her harness.

"Um … "

Jeridan couldn't think of anything better to say. How do you come up with an intelligent response when the person paying you seemed not to care about the imminent threat of annihilation or the fact that they were marooned in a backwards system?

Negasi cut in on the comm. "What our loser pilot means to say is, shouldn't we be more worried about the raiders and the fact that we're dead in the water than sightseeing on some hick planet?"

"We're not sightseeing. We're picking up essential intel," Nova said.

"Intel on what?" Jeridan asked.

"A code we need to access the jump gate station's databanks."

That got Jeridan's attention. They'd been hired as pilot and gunner to help on the mother of all tech scavenges—a supposedly intact research station dating back to the Galactic Imperium. If it really was intact—a huge if—the tech would be worth a fortune and could pull the Orion Arm back from the Dark Ages.

It might also help deal with that invasion of an unknown species of planet killers from the Outer Rim. That was the sword hanging over everybody's heads.

"So that data chip we all risked our lives for doesn't have the code?"

They had needed an elite hacker to open the data chip. He couldn't imagine the kind of security the old scientists had put on their research station. The Imperium government had kept jump gate technology their most closely guarded secret. It had been the key to their power, and when somebody took them all down, it had been the means to their downfall.

Nova got out of the crash webbing and stood. "Actually it does have the code, but not a ship's serial number."

"I don't follow," Jeridan said.

"Neither do I," Negasi put in.

As usual on the bridge, Nova had the ship-wide comm on, so the entire crew could listen. Jeridan wondered what the kids thought about all this. Or the S'ouzz. That thing was even harder to figure out than children.

"To access Imperium databanks, you had to enter the serial number of your government ship and then the correct code. We have the code, but not the serial number."

"And the Industrial Revolution smog breathers down on the planet do?"

"Yes."

"Wait, there's no record of Imperium ship serial numbers?" Negasi asked.

"Not for the right time. The ships had to be current to the operating period of the station or the databank won't recognize it."

Made sense. What didn't make sense to Jeridan was her thinking the databank was still operational. That sounded too good to be true.

"So where is this serial number?" he asked.

"In the main square of the capital city is the Imperium science vessel that first explored this system. They put it there as a monument. It's of the right time period."

"Oh come on, it but have been stripped to the beams!" Negasi said. Jeridan nodded. That's what he would have done.

"It's just a shell," Nova said, "but the serial number is engraved into the inner hull. All Imperium ships had it put in the same place as identification. They also put it on various working parts of the ship, of course, but those are long gone. The serial number on the hull should still be intact."

"Wait," Jeridan said. "So you want us to break into a national monument in the main square of the capital city? I want a raise."

"I want a raise too," Negasi agreed.

"It's in the early hours of the morning there," Nova said. "We'll land, break in, and leave before they know we're there."

Jeridan sighed. "All right. I'm going to have a hell of a time taking the Antikythera through the atmosphere minus a thruster."

"Too risky, especially with the hull damage. And we'd be noticed. We'll take the shuttle."

"The shuttle?" Negasi and Jeridan said in unison.

Nova had sold the shuttle before they got hired on because she had been flat broke. Or at least that's what she had told them. Jeridan made a point of not believing anything their boss told them. Safer that way.

You must have gotten a great price for whatever you had in those biotubes.

"All right," he said aloud, "let's get this done and then find a place to hide from those raiders." Jeridan took off his crash webbing.

"You stay here. Negasi will come down. He speaks Sino-Amharic. We might need to talk to the locals."

"I thought we were trying to avoid the locals," Negasi said.

"Let's hope so. Find a defensive cluster here in orbit and cut a deal with them."

"How long you going to be gone?" he asked.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"We'll be back before the raiders make it," she said, leaving the bridge.

You hope. But you think you'll get held up. That's why you want me to find a defensive cluster.

He hit a private comm to Negasi.

"Stay sharp, buddy."

"You too. I don't like this."

Nova cut in. "I don't pay you to like things. I pay you to follow orders."

Aurora laughed. "When are you two losers going to remember there are no private comms on this ship?"

I'm beginning to miss that comet.

Jeridan scanned the orbit for a defensive cluster and found one on the edge of the rim. It was common for ships visiting lower tech worlds to form ad hoc treaties with other ships to fend off raiders like the one they had just tangled with. The ships would stay close in the same orbit and broadcast a signal stating their status. A bit like strutting into a bar with your sleeves rolled up and a crowd of big guys flanking you.

In this case, the crowd of big guys wasn't much of a crowd, and wasn't too big. Just a medium-sized Zetan cargo vessel, a large Awaari freighter, and two private human ships smaller than the Antikythera. None had very good arms or armor, plus the Awaari could never be trusted. Those sentient furballs would sell the hair off their mother's back for a quick profit. And he didn't know much about Zetans at all. Sentient jellyfish who kept to themselves because they couldn't stand anything above .25 Earth Standard gravity.

Still, bad protection was better than no protection.

He turned off the profile obfuscator so the other ship captains could see who they were dealing with and sent a hail to the cluster.

"This is Jeridan Cook, captain of the Antikythera. We had a tussle with a raider masking as an Imperium derelict and I'd like to join your team."

"Is that the ship headed here that I can see on long-range scanners heading 230.5 by 11.7?" The voice sounded squishy. Jeridan figured it must be one of the Zetans.

"Roger that."

There was a pause.

"They're scanning us," MIRI said.

"Good."

"They're also scanning the ship's shuttle."

"That's fine."

Jeridan watched Nova and Negasi head for the upper atmosphere and silently wished them good luck.

"Affirmative on joining the defensive cluster, Antikythera."

Damn right it's affirmative. We could take on any three of you. Even so, having backup will be nice. Make those raiders think twice, unless they got backup of their own.

Jeridan steered the Antikythera as well as he could toward the cluster. They really needed to get that thruster fixed, but that would take hours, and they didn't dare leave the inside of the ship when there were hostiles around.

Nothing but problems on this mission.

Once he got in orbit close to the cluster and as far as possible from the Awaari ship, he switched control over to MIRI and headed off the bridge. He wanted to do an eyeball check of the weapons systems. While everything had automatically reloaded, he'd feel better if he did a visual. Defensive clusters weren't always reliable when the cack hit the fan.

He barely got out the door before he stopped short in shock.

The S'ouzz stood in the corridor.

If you saw it from a distance, the alien resembled a very fat man except for the blue-gray skin and the rather squashed-looking bald head. But only if you saw it from a distance. Closer up, it didn't look human at all. Instead of legs, it moved using countless cilia on the bottom of the thick torso, and its fleshy arms ended in a spray of rubbery tentacles. The bottom of the face was fringed with cilia as well in a weird imitation of a beard that framed liquid black eyes.

The only clothing was a series of small metal cylinders in a frame hanging from the S'ouzz's chest. Several of his facial cilia were stuck into tubes at the top of these cylinders. Human atmosphere didn't provide all the chemicals it needed.

The alien's strange appearance didn't shock him—Jeridan had seen so many aliens nothing could shock him anymore—it was the fact that it had left astronavigation. The S'ouzz were hermits, disliking anything more than the most essential interaction with other beings, especially other species.

It hadn't been out of astronavigation since it had signed on. If it was down here, something was seriously wrong.

"What's the matter?" Jeridan asked.

A deep baritone came through its translator. "Something appears to be amiss with Mason."

"Mason?" Weird kid. Almost as much of a hermit as the S'ouzz, although for some reason the alien tolerated the kid's presence in astronavigation.

"I'll tell Aurora," Jeridan said, reaching for his comm link.

"He asked me not to tell his sister."

Jeridan's hand stopped a centimeter from the button. "What?"

"He said he needs help, but specifically requested either you or Negasi, not his sister and categorically not his mother."

Uh-oh. I don't like the sound of this.

"Where is he?"

"In astronavigation."

"Let's go."

The S'ouzz slithered ahead, its features placid but moving faster than Jeridan had ever seen it move, not that he'd seen it much. He guessed it was worried too.

They headed up a spiral staircase to the upper deck, down a short corridor and through a door into the alien's quarters. As they entered, Jeridan sensed a strange tang in the air that signaled the S'ouzz continued to maintain its own atmosphere in here. While MIRI had told them none of the elements and compounds could hurt humans, Jeridan wondered if prolonged exposure had affected Mason somehow.

They ascended a spiral staircase to the glassteel dome atop the ship. It was here, surrounded by highly complex computer banks, that the S'ouzz worked its magic, surrounded by the majesty of the galaxy. And it was here, for some reason, that Mason had been hanging out almost since the alien had boarded the ship.

The boy stood by the computer banks, fingers gripping the edge so hard Jeridan was afraid he'd hurt himself. Sweat beaded on his brow and his teeth were clenched and bared.

"Are you hurt?" Jeridan asked, moving over to him. He almost put a reassuring hand on the kid's shoulder, but stopped himself. Mason was so strange, so stand-offish, he might not like it.

Mason looked up at him, his head turning slowly as if his muscles were so tense he had trouble moving. Jeridan's heart beat faster. He wasn't a medic, and he had never had to deal with children much. He had no idea what to do.

Why hadn't Mason wanted his big sister?

The S'ouzz stood nearby, not saying anything. The poor alien looked like he had even less of a clue what to do than Jeridan.

Jeridan knelt in front of the kid so he could look him eye to eye. "What happened? Why did you ask for me?"

"I need my medicine," he moaned. He was shaking, gripping hard on the counter, every muscle tense.

"I'll go get it," Jeridan said, standing. Then he remembered something Negasi had said, about how once when Aurora had been projected into one of their chessboxing bouts in the holocabin that it had looked like she was giving an injection, and again how Negasi had once seen her frantically searching for her brother with a small case the right dimensions to hold a hypodermic.

The boy looked up at him, pleading. "You can't let Aurora know. Or my mom. My mom's gone on the shuttle, right?"

"She has."

"Don't let them know."

"Know what?"

"That you got my medicine. It's in my mom's cabin. Aurora's got some in her cabin too but she's probably there."

Jeridan hesitated. "If you're sick, your sister should know."

"No!" he shouted with so much force Jeridan took a step back. Mason shuddered all over. "She … can't know. She thinks she's doing right, but she isn't."

"Mason," Jeridan said in as calm a voice as he could muster. "Your sister loves you and knows how to give you the medicine properly. She's trained as a Level Two medic and I'm sure she's familiar with your—"

"No! You don't understand. I can't take it from her. She'll give me the wrong stuff."

The kid looked on the verge of tears.

"Your sister wouldn't do that."

"She would. Mom tells her to."

Jeridan blinked.

Would she do that? While she was driven and bloodthirsty, she had never shown any signs of abusing her children. Neglecting them a bit in her obsessive drive to find the Imperium station, sure, but abuse? That didn't sound right.

"Please," Mason begged.

The boy's desperate eyes made Jeridan hesitate. He glanced at the S'ouzz, but the alien stood there without saying a word. It didn't understand what was going on. It was up to Jeridan.

"I'll tell you everything," Mason said. "All the secrets Mom is keeping. I'll even tell you what we delivered on the last planet before we picked you up. Stuff you don't know about. Everything."

Jeridan stared at the kid.

"Hurry. My mom's key code is 7271. The medicine is in the bottom shelf by her bed. But you got to hurry."

I'll tell you everything.

Nova had been keeping so many damn secrets that he and Negasi didn't know where they stood. They didn't even know for sure this hunt for an Imperium jump gate development station was real. They didn't know anything.

And this little boy promised to clue him in.

Jeridan bolted out of astronavigation, heading for Nova's cabin and hoping he didn't bump into her daughter. He didn't know if what he was doing was right. He didn't know if the boy was hurt or lying or what was going on with him. He didn't know if giving him a different medicine was the right thing to do. He didn't know if getting Aurora would be the right thing to do. He had to make a choice based on no information.

The only thing he knew was that if he got some answers, even from an obviously troubled child, he and his best friend might be a lot safer.

Mason and Aurora might be safer too.