And Another One...

Upon hearing from Evah's crewman that the Morningstar would need a drydock for the required repairs, I thoroughly wondered if I really was ever going to get to Teague's Doorstop- with my ship.

Life isn't like it is in the movies where the protagonist faces challenge after challenge only to, at the last impossible moment, gains victory. This is reality, and sometimes the good guy gets his ass canned. I was considering giving up on getting to the crusty pirate station and just going somewhere else, but whenever I felt that ball of energy in my gut encouraging me, my brain suddenly reminded me I'm wanted by the Commonwealth and the ISF, and going anywhere but a pirate station was probably a bad idea, so it was back to problem solving- again.

I stood with Evah in the guts of her ship, humming and moaning it's mechanical processes all around us. She had her arms folded and stood with me silently as I thought. Taurbeshi and Helthex crew occasionally strode between us as they headed off around a corner, down a ladder, or into a lift.

"I can give you a ride to where you need to go," Evah kindly offered. "We're almost done mining here and we'll be heading back to Juno in a few hours. It's in Commonwealth space, but it's controlled by the Torpin Syndicate."

I thought about it but then shook my head, "No, I can't go there, I have to go to Teague's Doorstop. I can't risk going to a Syndicate held station in the Commonwealth with my wanted status."

Evah's brow furrowed a little, "Teague's Doorstop, huh? You have a death wish or something?"

"My contact told me to go there. I've been trying to get there the last few months."

Evah chuckled under her breath. "A few months ago? I think you're a little truant."

"It doesn't matter, I have to go there," I added stubbornly.

"Why?" Evah snapped, "What's so important there? There's a lot of other stations held by questionable people here in Outspace other than Teague's Doorstop, ya know. And less dangerous."

I sighed a little as I was forced to confront my insecurity. "I have to be honest with you, Evah, I've never really done a bad thing in my life, hell the thing I'm wanted for I didn't even do. I'm in uncharted waters now and the only reason I'm still a free person is because of another man. He told me I had to go to Teague's Doorstop, and I'm going to go there no matter how late I am- because I don't know anywhere else to go.
I can't get caught; not now, not ever. The whole reason I'm even out here is because I'm trying to put some meaning to my parent's death and the death of all the people who died when the Sprykon ambushed the colonies in the Jamul system. I want to give their deaths worth instead of being some senseless statistic in this whole war. I have to bring those Sprykon who attack those colonies to justice. I don't know I'm going to do that but I'm going to try, and I can't do that in a six by six cell."

Evah looked at me for a long moment. She stared into my eyes, judging me it seemed. Then she rubbed the back of her neck as if to rub off the stress that had suddenly appeared there and stared down at the floor.

"I don't know you all that well, but I can tell you're an honest person. I believe you, Jack. I don't know who would try to frame you for that murder, but when I look in your eyes I don't see a killer."

"Thanks," I said with a subtle grin.

Evah put her hands on her hips hardily and huffed, "So, I can assume that leaving your ship and coming with me is pretty much out of the question?"

"Yes," I added flatly.

"I don't blame you."

We began walking again down the hallway, only this time it seemed I was following Evah to a specific place as her pace had quickened from before. "You'll have to disconnect from the Gossamer Willow as we can't go superluminal with your vessel attached to us, so we're going to have to figure something out."

"Where are we going?" I asked her as I followed behind. Just then we reached a large door that was different from the others.

"Right here," Evah said as she input a code on a keypad nearby. The doors opened with the heft of big metal plates whose actuators had long since tired. I was presented with the bridge of the ship.

It was rectangular- longer than it was wide- but almost square. There were two rows of stations, each one descending a step lower than the one before it. At the very front was a helm control that was about three meters below me. A large bubble of a window gave an amazing view of the rest of the ship before us and the glimmering nebula beyond. The lighting in here was a little bit darker than it was in the halls. All of the ambient light either poured in from the window up front or the rim of accented magenta strips of light near the ceiling.

The bridge crew was entirely Taurbeshi and seemed to dwarf the consoles they managed that were obviously intended for Belkuri. Their consoles glowed from the screens and buttons.

We stepped inside and Evah approached one of her bridge crew's stations. "If we're going take your ship with us and still achieve FTL, we're going to have to think this through." She turned to the Taurbeshi at the station, "Heik, bring up the dimensions of the ship outside from the sensor logs." The large blue alien did so and on a large screen orthographic views of the Morningstar appeared along with a list of dimensions for every angle.

Evah studied the ship for a few moments. "Hmm, alright, now Heik, bring up the dimensions for the Gossamer Willow." As I watched the screen resolved the schematics for Evah's ship.

"What are you playing at?" I asked.

"I want to see if there's negative space in the hull geometry of the Willow to fit the Morningstar, so that when we generate a superluminal field, your ship will fit inside."

Heik set up a computer simulation algorithm that asked the question to the computer where on the Gossamer Willow the Morningstar could fit. The screen flicked madly as the computer began trying different positions and orientations of my ship coupled to Evah's. As soon as it started the simulation was complete.

"Ah, it looks like there's three places on the Willow we could place the Morningstar and not compromise the FTL field," Evah said as she pointed to the graphics on the screen.

"Excellent," I grinned and felt that this wasn't going to be too difficult- a welcome change.

"It looks like the spot just behind the bridge is the best spot, I think; there's an emergency hatch just out side here where access can be made via EVA suit." Evah turned to me, "Is your engineer still on board?"

"Yes, I could have her position the ship and then board once ship is moored in place."

Evah nodded her head and gently slapped the top of Heik's station in approval, "Excellent, let's do this."

I pulled out my tRib and called Jan. "What's up?" She replied with a static filled pop.

"Jan, we're going to moor the Morningstar to the aft dorsal section of this ship- just behind the bridge. I need you to get on this ASAP."

Jan popped back on. "No problem. Mooring the ship is going to take a while. The Morningstar isn't exactly small-", Evah interrupted, "I can have some of my men help her to speed things up."

"Excellent," I said, "Jan you hear that?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get started right away. You want me to send Chalk back through the umbilical before I detach?"

"Yeah, get him over here. Jack, out." The signal popped as I deactivated the communication channel and placed it back in my coat pocket.

"Jack, I have to check up on final mining operations in the lower decks. If you're hungry or anything make yourself at home in the mess. You should be able to find it if you follow the directions printed on the bulkheads."

I nodded and Evah stepped out of the bridge. She seemed like a really kind person and a bit of an oasis in this desert of selfishness that I'd found myself in lately. In the back of my mind I secretly worried that she was going to pull the same trick that Rugburn did. I felt a little bad thinking that someone as kind as Evah could plot something like that, but I wasn't willing to take chances.

By the time Chalk joined me on the bridge to oversee the mooring operations, we'd already de-coupled from the Gossamer Willow and Jan was slowly maneuvering the Morningstar into it's new parking spot. Heik, had re-purposed a mining drone that had been relieved from mining operations to transmit video of the mooring to his station for us to see.

After about an hour Jan had the Morningstar positioned perfectly over the hull where she'd be moored down. Chalk and a few other Helthex from Evah's crew headed outside in EVA suits to help Jan speed things along.

The Helthex that went a long were led by Therin and he'd advised mooring the Morningstar to the hull via magnetic locks. Other Helthex floated outside with large, flat cylinders with locking mechanisms on them. They looked about a meter and a half in diameter.

They EVA teams went about securing the magnetic discs to the hull of the Morningstar and the Willow where each one had a partner magnet that it would link to and fasten the Morningstar down to the ship. It took a while to fasten the pairs together because occasionally they wouldn't be facing each other correctly- a disc on the Willow would be facing straight up at ninety degrees will it's pair on the Morningstar was fastened at a forty five degree angle. This meant that bearings had to be brought in and fastened to both discs to fix the forty five degree error.

"Jan, how many more to go?" I asked over the Willow's communication array.

Jan's voice squawked back at me in a mish mash of noise, "We've got five locked in place, four more to go."

"How long is that gonna take to get the rest?"

"I dunno, we have to jury rig some of the locks. I'd say maybe another three hours, give or take an hour."

"Alright keep me posted." I switched off the channel and stared back up at the video screen. It was like looking through a fish-eye lense at my ship. I felt like I could do much here and it seemed Jan and Therin had a good grasp of what was going on, so I decided to take Evah up on her offer and head down to the mess.

When I stepped out of the bridge I saw my first direction, printed in yellow paint with an arrow, pointing in the direction to the mess. There were also other directions printed on the bulkhead like, engineering, medical, mining ops, and living quarters.

I felt like I was walking about the ship following breadcrumbs painted on bulkheads, but I finally arrived. The mess held about fifty people perhaps. At the moment it was mostly empty. A few Taurbeshi lounged around and a Helthex cook sat behind a counter with a glass wall that had a cyan tint to it. It was rather quiet down here except for the occasional noises the Taurbeshi made talking and a video monitor that hung from the ceiling. It looked like it was playing a rerun of a Grit race from last weekend but no one in the mess seemed interested in it.

As I grabbed a drink from the counter near the cook I took a seat and sat back to watch the race on the monitor. It wasn't then that I noticed that all the yellow-white light that dominated the ship there were red lamps as well. I imagined this was for the Helthex crew so they could see where they were going. It didn't dawn on me that a Belkuri ship would have to be refitted for people who didn't see in the visible spectrum.

I had been enjoying the Grit race for an hour or so when Evah entered the mess. She looked tired- like someone who just finished a long day. She spotted me, which wasn't hard considering how empty the place was, and came over to sit with me.

"How's the mining?" I said leisurely.

Evah fell into her chair and slouched into with a huff. She had a beer in her hand and put the icy beverage up to her neck to cool off a little. "Hot," she muttered.

"The processing equipment can get pretty warm and we can't afford cooling down there because my main power core can't handle the stress with everything else going on."

"By the looks of you, I'd say it's rough down there," I added as I toyed with my empty glass.

"Well that's why it's nice to have Taurbeshi crew. They can handle higher temperatures with much more finesse that us frail Belkuri," she lamented as she cracked open the beer and took a deep swig.

I chuckled, "speak for yourself, lady."

A lull quickly descended on us as we enjoyed the mediocre silence.

Evah brushed some sweaty hair from her eyes and peered over at me, "So, what's your plan for bringing these Sprykon that murdered your parents to justice?"

She asked it as if she didn't really believe I could do it. Part of me believed her.

I rubbed my eyes, "I don't know honestly. I'm just going from day to day. It's all become so much more than about justice now. When I lay alone in bed I think about what's become of things, and I just get this instinct that I've pulled Jan and Davin, maybe, into a deeper hole that I wanted. I never thought going after those Sprykon would cause so much... shit to happen."

"Who's Davin?" Evah asked.

"Huh? Oh. He's this strange smuggler guy Jan is dating. He's helped me and Jan out a lot but recently he's just sorta vanished off the charts. The last bit of assistance he left us was to go to Teague's Doorstop."

Evah nodded as she put the pieces together. "I see now why you're so bent on going to that place."

"Yeah."

"Why are you wanted for the murder of that university professor? I mean I'm not saying you do it, but-," Evah asked gently.

"I have something. An energy signature that was caught by some Pelthoran scientists that might give away how the Sprykon stealth fleet- the ships that murdered my parents- can be tracked. I wanted to get it decoded so that I could use it to find them. I had hired this university professor to decode it when I found him shot in the head and the data gone."

"Shit," Evah muttered in amazement.

"Next thing I know me, Jan and Davin's faces are plastered all over the Commonwealth and we're trying to escape."

"All that for some data?" Evah said with a bewildered tone. "Why would you be framed for that? And do you know who really did it?"

"I have no idea. But I've still got a copy of the data in my personal computer on my ship."

"You know, Jack, it seems to me that you should probably try to find out who is framing you first."

"Ha! At this point I'm just trying to stay alive and at large."

Evah's tRib chirped and she pulled it out of her pocket. "I can never catch a break too long on this ship; someone always is needing me somewhere. This is Evah."

"This is Hoc, you should come to the bridge." It was that gruff Taurbeshi's voice that Jan and I first encountered when we approached Evah's ship.

"Why, what's going on? Is the Mooring operation alright?"

Hoc's voice snapped back, "Sensor's have detected a ship on intercept course with us. It's transponder is Ibzaan."

"Ah fuck," I moaned as I let my head fall back.

"Alright, Hoc, thanks. I'm on my way up." She stowed away her tRib and stood up. "I have a feeling you know this ship," Evah said as she stared down at me.

I got up and straightened my jacket. "Yeah. It's the ship we were hiding from in this nebula."

"Walk with me, Jack." We headed out of the mess into the corridors headed back to the bridge.

"You never told me you were hiding," Evah's voice had a hint of frustration in it. I didn't blame her.

"I didn't think it was prudent to say anything. I thought they'd stay out of the nebula."

"So who's this we suddenly have to worry about? Are they dangerous? Pirates? I've never even heard of the Ibzaan before."

"It's a salvage ship, run entire by an Ibzaan crew- Chalk, my other passenger, is an ex crew member from that ship."

"Is Chalk a threat?" She asked.

"No, no." Fuck, I hope he isn't I thought. "The Ibzaan come from the Zeta sector, upspin from us."

"Alright. So, what do they want with you?"

We turned a corner and our pace was much faster than it was the first time I'd encountered Evah. She definitely was all business this time.

"My ship was adrift in space and they picked us up. Rugburn, their leader, claimed salvage rights on my ship, but his real motive was to turn Jan and myself in to the ISF for bounty money. When I found out, Jan and I, with the help of Chalk, escaped. Rugburn's been after us since."

"Alright. Now that we're on the same the page, do you have any other secrets you want to tell me that could endanger myself, my ship, and crew?" She had a command in her voice that was intimidating but also very maternal.

"Uh no."

By now we'd reached the bridge and the main screen above and just behind the helm control was displaying the telemetry of Rugburn's ship and us.

"Heik, when will they be in visual range?" Evah ordered as she took assessment of the situation.

"Two hours, Captain."

I opened my tRib and opened a channel to Jan. "Hey, how long until you guys are done out there?"

"Shit, Jack, we're going already."

"Jan, Rugburn is on an intercept course and will be visual in two hours."

There was silence on the other end for a moment.

There was a sigh and then Jan spoke up, "Ok, alright, we'll try to go faster. These Helthex don't exactly like being hurried though."

"Do what you can." I closed the channel and looked back up on that telemetry. As I stared at the little blip that represented Rugburn all I could think about was how I'd just put Evah and her crew in danger. First Jan, then Davin, Chalk, and now Evah. I'm getting really good at this.

"Evah, I'm sorry for getting you involv-," She turned to me with a stern finger in the air, but she didn't look angry. "Jack, it's Outspace. Shit happens. You don't need to apologize. Let's just deal with the issue right now; that's the important thing."

J.

Evah

I was still on the ladder leading into the airlock of the miner's ship staring at a woman that came to greet Chalk and myself. I didn't expect this at all really. I climbed off the ladder and Chalk followed. I had a confused look on my face and I looked this woman up and down, trying to figure out what to make of her.

She was around 5'10" and Belkuri. She had large eyes and a heart shaped face. Her hair was about shoulder length and black but in this low light it could've been a dark brunette. She wore greyish-blue overalls and a utility belt with all kinds of tools attached- reminded me of Jan's belt actually. The overalls were definitely worn in but didn't have any holes- just scuffs and stains from unknown gunk. Her stature was confident and showed experience.

"You're a woman," I said, trying to figure this turn of events out.

She smirked and nodded her head at me, "nothing gets passed you."

"Well it's just that we spoke to a man on the ship. And we assumed it was a crew of all males; especially after that offer my engineer-", she interrupted me with wave of her hand and some nodding, "-yeah, yeah. That was Hoc (pronounced Hotch). He's a Taurbeshi but his translater mimics a gruff Belkuri." She turned and began to head towards the hatchway to her ship, "He comes in handy out here in pirate country." She stopped at the door.

"You coming?"

Chalk and I followed behind her after stepping through the hatchway. The ship wasn't that beat up, but it definitely wasn't sparkly either. The lights were bright and the walls were a kind of eggshell white and covered with a thin layer of old age. There were conduits running through the bulkheads under the grated flooring and the ship hummed loudly but mostly from processing equipment I guessed.

As we followed this woman down the corridor every member of the crew we passed was an alien- either Taurbeshi or those four legged bugs, the Helthex- similar to Bandan back on New Haven. I found this a little odd.

"Are you the only Belkuri on this ship?" I inquired.

"Yes," she replied, "In this kind of business it's beneficial to have Taurbesh and Helthex crews. Mostly because they have a hardier constitution and they're are more loyal than Belkuri."

I grinned sarcastically in response to her, "you really love your people."

She turned and looked at Chalk and then at me. "You should talk, Jack."

"Wait, how do you know me?" I stopped dead in my shoes and waited for her reply.

"You're face is plastered all over the galnet," she retorted nonchalantly. "Don't worry, I'm not going to turn you in- as long as you behave yourself. Besides, there's enough cutthroats here in Outspace. I don't need to add to the list."

"So, you know me but I don't think I ever caught your name."

"I'm Evah."

"What do you do on this ship?" Chalk blurted out.

"I'm the Captain," she grinned.

We began walking again through the bowels of the Gossamer Willow. Evah wasn't talking so I decided to take the opportunity to have some questions answered.

"How'd you know we weren't pirates?"

"It was obvious. First, your ship isn't the typical hull pirates go for. Second, you're FTL was none existent; not even a residual trace signature. So, even if you were playing 'dead', we would been able to tell. And third, you have a woman on your ship. Pirates don't have women on their ships."

"Wait, they don't?"

"Not as part of the crew, no."

I was intrigued. "Why not? Sounds stupid."

"Pirates don't like having to contend with women in positions of power."

After passing through a small maze of corridors, we arrived at small bay that looked like a machine shop. It was piled with parts and tools, machinery of all types and purpose everywhere in the room. The light in here was dark and a red light glazed everything like a crimson blanket.- similar to Bandan's cellar on New Haven. "A Helthex must work in here."

"Yes," Evah replied. "Therin!" she called out. "Therin, you in here?"

A calm voice replied to the Captain behind a large machine in the back of the machine shop. It was a Belkuri voice as well, but most likely the translator Therin was wearing.

"We have guests here and they require assistance with their ship. They've lost FTL ability."

Therin appeared from behind the machine. He was about the same height as Bandan but he had a bright yellow, fiery pattern down his carapace with flecks of jet black. In his hand was some tool that he'd been using and his eyes glistened like polished violet marbles. "I'll see what I can do to help," Therin replied. "I will need to speak to the Engineer of the ship."

"Chalk here can help out, right, Chalk?" I added. The Ibzaan nodded and stepped forward.

"Our native drive core is a Typhon class-R engine for metaspace slipstreams. It was modified to generate a singularity but resulted in catastrophic failure-" Therin interrupted sarcastically, "No kidding?" Chalk continued. "At this point we have not the materials to fabricate an alternate means of FTL."

Therin stood motionless for a moment. I figured he was thinking about what he could do to assist in our conundrum. "I will need to board your ship and look for myself."

Evah turned to me, "Is this satisfactory?"

"Yeah, sure. Chalk talk him back to the Morningstar."

The two left me alone with Evah. "The Morningstar, huh?"

I shrugged, "Yeah, so what?"

"Nothing it's just a beautiful name for a ship," she started to walk me out of the machine shop and we were back in the corridors heading to a new place in the ship. "It's too bad your ship is so beat up. The Quasar class cruiser is a real beauty."

"She wasn't always that mangled." I grimaced at the ugly truth.

"What happened?"

"A desperate decision," I lamented as I thought back at the pirate attack and the singularity jump that put all this in motion.

Evah nodded sympathetically. "Ah.. yes, I've had one too many of those."

I sighed and put my hands into my jacket pockets. "I guess it comes with the territory. You don't seem the type to be out here. What's your story?"

Evah let out a chuckle that hinted at more than what was on the surface of her circumstances. "Well, I used to be a regulation gas harverster in the Commonwealth. I was the first mate on a rig with a crew who mined hydrogen in Class-C nebula. I'll tell you, it was a job that never got boring."

We stopped in the hallway and I leaned against a bulkhead as we chatted. "Why was it never boring?"

"Let me fill you in on gas mining. There's two types C-class and D-class. C is very dangerous; considerably more than D at least. This is because we mine class C nebula. These are stellar nurseries that are very active with young stars. With all those gravity wells everywhere, they can stir up some serious gaseous currents- especially of the lighter elements. Miners have to essentially 'ride' these currents in their ships; like a sea vessel except the 'water' isn't just under you it's all around. Now take that mental image and imagine you're in the worst typhoon imaginable- the ship's buckling, rocking all over the place. And to make matters interesting crews have to work on the deck of the ship in reinforced EVA suits to gather the buoys that we string up and down the current for the best trawling line. The currents can get up to hundred and eighty kilometers an hour out there.

Now D-class mining has it's dangers but it's a cake walk next to C-class mining. This is what my crew and I are out here for- D-class nebula; mostly SNR's but sometimes they can be leftovers from stellar nurseries as well."

I stopped her for a moment, "By SNR you mean Supernova Remnants, right?"

Evah nodded, "exactly. SNR's have much much more variety of elements than stellar nurseries but none of the dangerous currents caused by gravity wells."

"But SNR's are known to have huge amounts of rhodite."

"Correct, which is why they are dangerous but only if you try to an FTL jump within one. But who's dumb enough to try that?"

I opted to stay mute on that remark.

"Anyway, I got tired of the adventure of hydrogen trawling and decided to have a go at my own rig and crew, but none of the stress that came with class-C 'nebs'."

"That doesn't explain why you came out here. There's plenty of SNR's in the Commonwealth to mine."

Evah rolled her eyes and a taut grin stretched across her face. "Yeah... you know like everyone else how the government is cracking down on taxes to fund the war. I mean, sure, they give out war bonds but that's long term. I have a life of my own to live here; I can't just hand over my sweat to them for some bullshit war they decided to have with the Sprykon."

She paused for a moment.

"I know it's illegal. But I have responsibilities too. It's not like I dodge my taxes. I still pay the government what they require but out here on the black market I can get twice, sometimes triple what I would in the regulated market. That little extra really helps me out and keep my operation in the black." Evah had a genuine look of regret on her face. She really seemed like the type of person who looked both ways before crossing the street and all this wore on her moral compass.

"I understand," I said simply.

The moment was broken by a beep on Evah's tRib. She pulled it out of a pocket on her jumpsuit and flipped it on. "What's the situation, Therin?"

"Their ship is dead in the water. It needs a dry dock to retrofit the drive core. I can't do anything." The comm channel popped and flickered fidelity as he finished speaking.

Shit.

Evah nodded. "I understand. Alright, come on back. Out." She replaced the tRib in her pocket again and looked up at me with a look of regret. "I'm sorry, Jack."

J.

The Gossamer Willow

When we approached the mining vessel in the nebula, we could get the full breadth of just how beat up and old the thing was. This was definitely not a pirate ship. It must have been at least a fifty year old hull- from back before the first Border War. It was a big ship; at least five hundred meters and mostly made of massive holding takes for the mined mineral that they'd been trawling. The actual habitation sections of the hull were small in comparison. I imagined the interior of the ship looking about the same as the outside- dented, chipped paint, jury rigged components and micrometeorite scar marks.

The hard point to this behemoth of a junker was located on the dorsal section of the hull. It was connected to an extendable arm that was already being activated by the crew inside. I rolled the Morningstar on her right side so that our airlock faced the their's. Slowly our two hard points joined together with a subtle shutter and I initiated the magnetic seals.

"Ok Jan, what now? They're going to be expecting you." I said in a crass voice as I spun my chair around to face her.

Jan was seated at the secondary control terminal that was just behind and to the right of my piloting station.

The engineer shrugged uncaringly and then a giggle. "What, you think I'm actually gonna board the ship? C'mon, Jack, don't be so dense."

Upon hearing the full extent of her plan, I closed my eyes in frustration and opened them again with an annoyed glare. "...What?"

"Hey, you needed to dock with their ship, I got you that. Now it's your turn."

Jan's brand of 'off the cuff' thinking is like a double edged blade. It makes her a great engineer but she's a so spontaneous at times it really puts me off. Like now. "Why didn't you think through this whole plan of yours before you put it in motion?" I said. "They're gonna be pissed when they find out you're no long a menu item." I stood up and straightened my jacket, "Especially guys who have been out in space for sometime."

Jan scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Jack. You and Chalk are here to protect me," she concluded with a big smile which I could only look at with contempt.

"Oh yeah, sure, Jan. We have one gun and that's it. We're a real force to be reckoned with." Jan rolled her eyes again. It really irritates me when she does this crap- putting me and Chalk in a tough spot that is. She can be so- shit- what's that word- self centered sometimes.

In the midst of our argument, Chalk noticed that the miners were hailing us as a message on the screen at my controls was flashing. Chalk nudged me with his yellow hand-claw thing, "They are trying to speak with us again, Jack."

I turned around and noticed the que on the screen. "Damn."

I plied the controls and opened the channel. "Uh yes?"

"What's taking you so long?" The scruffy voice said. He sounded a little annoyed. "My people have been waiting at the airlock for you."

"Yeah, uh, we're just getting ready. Um, our ship is pretty beat up. My apologies."

The man huffed and the channel cutoff with a static filled pop. "Wonderful," I moaned.

Jan stood up, "Well, you guys better head over there. I'll be down in engine room and you should make sure you have that pistol on you."

"Jan is very adept at putting you, and myself, in precarious positions," Chalk said.

"She means well," I sighed, "but her execution could use a little TLC."

Chalk tilted his head to the side, "TLC?"

I shook my head and slapped him on the shoulder, "Eh I'll tell you later. We better get to the airlock."

The airlock of the Morningstar wasn't interesting in anyway. It was a typical uni-spacial docking unit. Which just meant that the ship could be joined with a port that was of a different orientation than our own and the gravity field would adapt to match that of the port outside. In this case, the miner's ship was fortyfive degrees from the Morningstar's and our gravity field would need to be adjusted to the visiting ship's.

Chalk and I stepped inside and sealed the hatch to the rest of my ship. The chamber itself wasn't very big; it could only fit about three people, so it was snug for us. I unlocked a plate on the wall that folded out next to the hatch that connected to the miner's ship. Chalk did the same on his side. These were foot rests for us to stand on when the axis of gravity shifted to match that of the miner's.

Chalk and I put our hands on a safety bar afixed to the wall as a gravitational axis shift can be a little weird. "Ready?" I asked Chalk.

He nodded and I tapped a few buttons on a console next to me. The lights in the chamber which shined a soft yellow hue switched to blue to warn of the gravity change. Then slowly the gravity began a soft transition from the manner we had been standing to now what would be us standing sideways. The lights above us softly went dark as lights on the wall where the hatch was to the rest of the Morningstar began to come to life. This was to help with orienting us to the axis so that the lights would always be on the ceiling. Transitions like this can be a little weird on the inner ears, for Belkuri at least, I'm not sure for Chalk's species. The lights only serve to better adapt us.

Finally the gravitational transition was complete and we were now standing on the wall that connected the miner's vessel to us. I worked the airlock controls and the doors cycled to match air pressure. The was a bit of a hiss of air and then the sound of the mechanisms for the hatch whirring. The doors slid open and a ladder was visible that lead to another hatch far below. Chalk and myself began our descent down the ladder. It was lit by dim, white lights that were positioned every meter down the umbilical corridor to the miner's below us.

As we neared the hatch to their ship we could hear them opening it. "Well, here we go," I huffed to Chalk. I hoped this wasn't going to get out of hand. I felt inside my jacket to make sure I still had my pistol that Davin had left behind.

The hatch hissed open and as I looked down below I was greeted by- a woman?!

"Welcome to the Gossamer Willow."

J.

Feminine Negotiations

It'd been while. A long while.

We'd made it out of that nebula we used to hide from Rugburn but it wasn't easy. Given we had no means of superluminal travel in Outspace, it took a while to find a way to escape, and in that trial of itself, Rugburn kept waiting just outside the nebula for us to make our next move.

Farmaulk Alpha, the Nebula we hid within wasn't anything extraordinary except that it was frequented by gas miners for it's elements and wasn't patrolled by mining regulation crews which meant there was no quantity gap for prospectors. This, essentially, made the nebula illegal to mine because the elements being trawled here would offset market costs. This made me anxious if these gas miners were of the pirate variety. We were, after all, essentially in pirate space.

Despite the possible pirate issues, I did have Rugburn to deal with outside. I wasn't sure what his ship's sensors equipment was capable of, as the Farmaulk Nebula did have a pretty large quantity of Rhodite, that while explosive to Metaspace drive fields, also plays havoc with sensors. It's an obstacle that's not impossible to over come- all commercial and military grade sensor suites can see right through it, but does Rugburn's? That's where the playing field evens out. My original sensor suite was destroyed and the Sprykon unit Jan and I shoehorned into the ship wasn't anything close to my old one, except for one thing- Sprykon sensors, now matter how crappy, can see right through nebula like they aren't even there. Old Lobster head is clear as day to me and sitting stationary eight hundred million kilometers out. The downside is that my sensor's range isn't that great. Actually it's quite shitty. I can barely see half a light year out and at the one third mark fidelity starts to get iffy.

Jan and Chalk kept trying to jury rig an FTL drive out of what we had but things weren't looking all that great. A lot of Jan's spare parts or her 'junk pile' as she referred to it, was blown out into space when the hull in Engineering had breached. There was a unanimous decision that a singularity drive was probably not on the to do list.

Once we arrived at the conclusion that we could be in the nebula for a while, I made the decision to move us deeper inside to a denser concentration of Rhodite.

When there wasn't much to do I'd cleaned up the Morningstar and placed everything back where it was, more or less, before the fiasco with Rugburn began. Oddly enough it didn't look as though anything was missing. I suppose Rugburn's crew hadn't had an opportunity to pillage.
I checked the computer's database to make sure they didn't download anything and all looked normal. As well as the hard copy of the Sprykon stealth fleets signature I had from the Pelthoran scientists.

I still wasn't sure if the men who killed that University professor and framed me for it made a copy of the stealth fleet data or just outright deleted it thinking that was the only copy. I doubt it. I was still wanted by the Commonwealth and the ISF, and I had momentarily forgotten that being out here in Outspace and all the ruckus that had recently happened. Davin was out there somewhere and we were still trying to get to Teague's Doorstop. God, that was what nearly two months ago?? There's no way my contact Davin wanted us to see was still there. I suppose we're on our own. But it did make me wonder why Davin hadn't tried to contact us since we'd miss our contact. All these unanswered questions were annoying.

I was in the galley eating a Ginko Bar and generally relaxing to the hum of the ship's systems when Chalk stepped inside. He didn't say anything and didn't look at me. I watched him shuffle over to the cold storage bin and big around for something. He tossed things about with, what looked to be an agitated demeanor. After a moment of not finding what he wanted he closed the bin and stood for a moment. He leaned on the bin and suddenly let out a whale of a shout and started bashing his hands in the lid!

I was taken off and not ready at all. I must have jumped out of my seat. "Holy shit, man! Relax!" I yelled, mostly worried for my freezer bin's safety.

Chalk stopped but still huffed which sound like a big pissed off animal. Then he started muttering to himself in Ibzaan.

As I was standing by now, I picked up my seat and set it straight, "Chalk, man, what the hell was that about?" I asked.

Chalk said something in Ibzaan and then remembered to turn on his translator and repeated himself. "It is difficult," his translator cooed in that annoyingly calm tone that didn't fit the tension in the air at all. Chalk turned to face me and leaned on the freezer bin, "I cannot find an solution to the drive problem. No progress."

"Uh huh," was all I managed to reply.

Chalk shuffled over to the other side of the galley and folded his arms. "We could be stranded."

Upon hearing this I began to think of other avenues of action. "What do you need then?"

"Things. Many things," Chalk huffed.

Soon Jan joined us. Her hands and face were caked with grime and grease and whatever kind of goop the Morningstar's entrails provided. "We're stuck, Jack."

"Yeah, Chalk told me."

Jan took a seat at the table between Chalk and myself and buried her face in her arms on the table top. "Plus that turd, Rugburn is out there just waiting for us to come back to him because we have no way to go anywhere," she whined through her muffled voice.

"No way," I shot out, "He is not an option; I'm not going back there."

"Same," Chalk said as he nodded.

For a moment all you could hear was the hum of the ship. It seemed either everyone was brain fried or quietly thinking.

"The gas miners." Chalk and I nearly said it at the same time, like we were digging through the universal idea basket and grabbed the same one at the exact moment.

Chalk's glassy eyes met mine and we knew that was the only way we could get out of this situation. But what did that mean for the Morningstar? One thing at a time here.

"Yeah, we'll start looking for mining ships. It's just a slight frequency change on the sensor spectrum." I had started tossing ideas out into the air while I spoke to myself.

Chalk jumped in, "During my time with Rugburn, I learned of ways to find blackmarket miners, the types who trawl out here for gas." He moved toward the table enthusiastically, "it shouldn't be difficult to find miners here."

"Shit then let's get on this!" Chalk and I headed up to the bridge.

Jan wearily got out of her chair. "I'm taking a long shower."

On the bridge, Chalk and myself began scouring the nebula with the sensors to find any mining ships in the area. With Chalk's little 'insider experience' it wasn't long before we found one a hundred million kilometers out in the opposite direction from Rugburn.
The sensors couldn't tell us what kind of ship it was, only that there was on there. Chalk was fairly confident it was a mining ship because they are the only kinds that show up on the discriptors we'd factored into the sensor ques.

"Ok, let's punch it. I don't want to wait around anymore than I have to," I ordered as I put the engines online. The thrusters brilliant pinkish violet glow came to life and the Morningstar thundered off.

It took about thirty seven hours to arrive at the location of this ship we'd been following. It hadn't moved far, only about a few hundred thousand kilometers. I slowed the ship as we neared it's magnetic perimeter. "They probably have known about us for some time," Chalk said. "Yeah," I replied, "I'm curious if they've got weapons."

"One way to find out," Chalk answered.

I switched on the communications to a broad frequency. I gave an anxious glance back at Chalk and took a breath before opening the channel.

"Unidentified vessel, this is the Morningstar. Please respond."

We waited for a moment. The ship wasn't yet in visual range but I still had the ship's heading dead on intercept only at a slower, non aggressive speed.

Still, even after several minutes there was nothing. Chalk and I started to wonder if the communications equipment was even working at all, but the information on my console stated that transmission had been received.

"Maybe they're deciding over how they're gonna shoot us." Jan's voice echoed down the hall as she came nearer to us from her quarters. She was wearing a cap with a pony tail out the back and a powder blue tee shirt that said 'take no prisoners' with the outline of a notorious Belkuri alcoholic beverage bottle. She had khaki on that fit snugly around here hips and became less fitting as they flowed down her legs that rested on her canvas sneakers.

I stared out the front window at the colorful nebula outside. "That would be fitting given our current state of affairs."

Jan rested her arms on the back of my seat's headrest, "It's the moment of truth- they're hailing us." She pointed with a nod at the blinking light on the console for incoming communications.

I promptly opened the channel. I little pop of static filled the bridge and faded into background noise as the ship's communications algorithms filtered out the soup. A scruff sounding voice seemed to stumble into the air of our ship. "Morningstar, come to a complete stop."

"Better do what the voice says," Chalk advised. The disembodied voice was of a Belkuri man, no doubt about that. He sounded middle aged and like his life was full of hardship.

As directed, I stopped the Morningstar in her tracks. Before I could reply, the man's voice crackled over the channel once more, "State your business here."

"Um, we are having a-," Chalk grabbed my shoulder and waved his hand, "- don't tell them we are at a disadvantage. We don't know what they want yet."

I started my reply again. "We are currently looking for miners," I fumbled out, and not very convincingly.

Jan slapped me on the head, "What the hell was that? 'We're looking for miners'?"

"What was I supposed to say? 'Hey we need help', 'We need your assistance'?"

That channel was dead for a moment longer. It was awkward mostly because I now felt like an idiot.

"They're gonna shoot us. I know it." Jan lamented as she threw an arm up in the air.

Again, the channel snapped on. "Our scan of your ship isn't detecting any kind of superluminal drive, and your hull is highly compromised. How did you get this far out?"

"We were the victims of a catastrophic drive failure," Jan interjected. I stared up at her with an annoyed look on my face. Jan returned that 'you're an idiot so I took over' look that I've gotten so many times.

"Who's that!" The mining vessel called back quickly.

"Uhh," Jan stepped in again, "I'm the engineer. Sir."

The man's vocal demeanor on the communication channel perked up suddenly, "You've got a mighty cute voice, Ms. Engineer." He concluded with a hardy cackle.

Seeing an opportunity, Jan impulsively took over the conversation. "Thank you very much! Say, you sound like you haven't had the luxury of a woman in a while."

I snapped around quickly at her, "What the crap are you doing!?" I shouted quietly.

Jan simply shushed me and went back to her dealing with the miner on the open channel. "What do you say if we're allowed to dock with you and I'll come on over," she finished in a rather flirtatious tone.

The miner hesitated for a moment. "Well..."

"How about this. I will come over to your vessel?"

Jan giggled, "Oh sir, as you could tell, our ship has taken some damage and it wouldn't be safe." She then transitioned into a poor, innocent, vulnerable tone. I gagged.

"Oh but our ship is damaged and we don't know how long it will be before I'm captured by filthy pirates. You're our only hope. Besides, I want to see your big ship up close."

"Well..." the man stammered again. "Alright."

"Thank you so much! We'll be right over!" Jan severed the channel and rolled her eyes. "Well, we can go dock now."

I folded my arms, "You know what kind of position you put yourself in?"

"Jack, you're not my Dad."

J.

Mom and Dad

I was still in the gray area between dreamland and consciousness when my eyes decided they'd had enough and let the green light of ship's systems upon my brainscape. After that it was pretty much no going back and I was awake. My body still sat motionless on its side while I gazed upon Jan, who was on her back with her leg bent with the other resting on the knee. Her conversed foot lazily oscillated in gentle circles. Her hands were resting under her head and she stared at the space ahead of her.

feeling that I was awake, her foot stood still. "Today is the day."

I sniffed, "Yep. And hopefully Chalk will stick to his side of the deal. Us getting the hell out of here depends on him."

Jan sat up and turned to put her feet on the floor. Her hands settled at her sides. She stared off into space again and a furrow appeared on her forehead. She was thinking.

"Chalk wants off the ship. We're the only ones who have what he can give provided he helps us. He'll pull through."

As I listened to Jan, I rolled off my 'bed' and slowly stood and stretched my exasperated bones. I looked forward to my own bed soon. By tonight I'd be in it.

I grabbed my jacket that hung over a conduit protruding from the bulkhead and threw it on. "I just wish I knew why he wanted out of this place."

Jan entered the corridor and I held her by the arm for a moment. "Remember to tell Chalk we meet at the Morningstar when the crew goes into their sleep rotation tonight." We turned our backs and headed our own direction down the lengthy passages of Rugburn's ship.

As usual, I spent time on the bridge at the navigation station helping Rugburn lay in salvage plots. All the time I spent on the ship part of my mind was always stuck on trying to figure what was going through the lobster head's brain. I couldn't understand why he wanted my ship so bad. It's just a ship and Jan had said before that she'd seen wrecks in the bay that were of far more value than our little Morningstar- yet he yanks the Spindle and puts it someplace Jan and I can't reach and agrees to let us try to patch up the Morningstar knowing we'll never be able to leave. It was like a scratch that was just out of reach. Just like his mild demeanor too.

He holds me and Jan here, claiming that he can't stop his salvage tour for anything, tells us we have to pull our own weight here but we aren't prisoners either. His interest in Jan is none existent and likely the same with myself; so trying to have a conversation with him is like trying hack off one's own limb- good luck. It's always business as usual.

Plotting in salvage markers was a tedious job. All I did was download the latest markers from Rugburn's probes that showed the best chances of salvage and then translog them into the navigation computer to chart a way point path that was the most efficient. It wasn't that hard really, and luckily Ibzaan computers use an iconography system to label systems so I didn't need to learn too much of their language to be able to navigate the ship's Operating System.

I had noticed through the first few hours that the plot I'd laid out had had a course correction added in the middle of everything. I asked Rugburn about it but he said there was a salvage way point off the path that he'd saved from a previous tour but hadn't had time to pick up.

It was a pretty big deviation from the current course. It would turn us facing toward the galactic rim with our asses pointed towards galactic deadcenter. I thought it was strange but Rugburn always was on a need to know basis with information, so I didn't bother to try prying anything out of him. And I didn't care that much either what he was up to. Today was my last in this green bucket freighter of his, so lobster head could shove it.

When the first break of the day came, we'd been through several salvages and brought on some wreckage of old ships, mostly of pirate origin, and few scraps here and there. I had planned to meet Jan in the galley soon and had already left Rugburn and the bridge to himself.

I was pretty hungry. Let me change that. Since being here I've always been hungry. Ibzaan cuisine isn't near my favorite and it's barely compatible with Belkuri digestive anatomy. The stuff I can eat is like eating a pureed bug with little soft chunks of mystery meat thrown in for good gag measure. As every second passed I looked forward to nice hot burger and beer. God, I want that burger.

I entered the galley and it was full of the crew. They'd grown accustomed to us 'Gephers' as they called us in the beginning, which means 'stranger among us' in their dialect. It wasn't hard finding Jan in this circus of yellow and red skinned folk, and sat with her. I forewent the usual gag meal knowing I'd be pigging out on real food soon. Jan had some water in a pale yellow glass. Her face and hands were a little dirty from the work in the engine room where she'd been working with Chalk.

"How's Chalk?" I asked as I sat on the stool next to Jan.

"He's fine. He found a translation AI in the salvage of a ship from yesterday and got it partially working. It's a bit easier to understand him now but the AI is corrupted so it's not perfect."

"It's better than charades."

Jan looked a little distracted, flicking her nail at the side of her glass. "What's going on?"

"I've been trying to figure that all this is starting to not make sense."

I smirked a little, "Heh, you mean Rugburn?"

"No, no. Well, yeah, but he's not what I'm concerned about at the moment." Jan answered as she adjusted herself on the stool.

"Okay, what"

Jan subtly looked over her shoulders as if she was afraid someone with Rugburn's ear would over hear her. "When I was down in the engine room, one of the salvagemen came in to get something, but when he left he forgot to take a datapad with him." I nodded and listened further, "So, naturally, seeing it, I casually picked it up and right there on the screen was a manifest of all the stuff in salvage bay. Even the Morningstar."

"So what's the big deal? Is the Morningstar worth a shit ton or something?" I asked.

Jan shook her head with a slightly irritated wrinkle across her face, "what? No. She's not worth anything."

I raised my head a little bit as I wasn't exactly anticipating that.

"Compared to all the other salvage in the bay, the Morningstar is worth next to nothing. The only thing worth salvaging is her twin engines but even those would only garner a moderate salvage reward."

"Everything's backwards. Why does, Rugburn want the ship so bad if it's worth nothing? I mean, he took the spindle and then lied to us about taking the ship if we could repair it." I placed my forehead on the palm of my hand in confusion.

Jan sipped her water. "I dunno. I thought this whole time it was because he thought ship was worth a lot. I'm just as lost as you."

A small gap of silence past between us before Jan's spirits shot up. "But hey, who gives a shit, right? Tonight we're outta here."

I ignored Jan's quips of excitement as I played this new information through my head. "Something's not right. Something's not right, Jan."

Jan laughed and shoved me by the shoulder. "Jack, buddy, forget it! We're outta here in ten hours. It's just Rugburn's stupid salvage mentality. Who cares what he wants."

"No, on the bridge this morning when I was plotting salvage routes, Rugburn plotted a course deviation from the way points; I mean a big course deviation."

"He did?"

"Yeah, and when I asked him about it he said it was some old way point that he wanted to catch."

Jan felt puzzled again. "Really. Does he do that a lot?"

"No. He's never done it-" Jan interrupted, "Do you think he knows? About us and Chalk?"

"No... he'd have locked us up by now. It's that course change. Things aren't panning out the way we'd assumed all this time. I never checked where that way point went either. I just took Rugburn at his word."

"I think that was bad idea," Jan added.

"I think you're right." I stepped off the stool, "I'm going back bridge and I'm going to find what that way point is."

Jan nodded as she stood as well. "Alright. I'm going to head back down to engineering and make sure I know where Chalk is."

"Good. Stay alert."

A sinking feeling was in my gut all of a sudden. I knew there was something weird going on this whole time but I could never put my finger on what it exactly was. Hearing that the Morningstar isn't worth shit only made me more paranoid. I thought that Rugburn wanted the ship. He made such a big deal about keeping it.

I tried to walk as casually back to the bridge as possible with out making it look like I was making a bee line for the place. When I stepped off the lift pad that put me on the deck the bridge was located, I kept feeling like suddenly everyone on the ship knew something; they were all in on the secret except for Jan and myself. It was nerve wracking. The bridge was straight ahead and as I entered I had a bit of good fortune that the place was empty. At least for the moment.

I quickly sat at the navigation station and started plotting the course for the way point that Rugburn currently had the ship traveling to. I kept running into access issues that wouldn't let me see the course destination. "What the fuck?" I shouted under my breath. I tried several times but it was the same result. I didn't know enough about the Ibzaan computer systems to find an alternate solution. I sat at the station gently rubbing my pursed lips. Then I noticed at the helm control, where Rugburn usually sat, there was a monitor active that had my navigation system online. "I wonder if it's unlocked on that," I thought as I stood up and shuffled over to the helm.

I quickly sat down, careful to not disturb the things Rugburn had left laying about. I started working the controls and I was in luck. After putting in a request for the final course destination, the map scrolled about, following a dotted line that was the charted course and came to stop at the final stop. It was some random Ibzaan icon I'd never seen before. Not knowing what else to do I instinctively moved the cursor over the icon and selected it. A hologram emitter buzzed to life and flickered new information onto the space before me.

"Holy shit." My mouth hung open as the murky green light from the hologram glazed over my astounded face. I was broken out of my shit storm going off in my head as I heard the hatch to the bridge cycling. I quickly closed everything and shot up out of the chair and tried to look as if I was working.

The doors opened and it was Rugburn. He was a little shocked to see me as if I wasn't someone he'd been expecting to find. "Jack..." He asked with that weird alien voice of his.

"Oh, hey, Rugburn." I tried to act as nonchalant as possible.

He slowly stepped onto the bridge and headed over to the helm. "What are you doing in here? I thought you had gone to meet Jan for your meal break."

"I did, but I decided to get some work done instead, but I've just finished so I think I'm going to head back to my quarters to use up the rest of my break for a nap."

Rugburn stood motionless as I tried to smile as naturally as possible while making my way off the bridge. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Rugburn nodded slowly. "Hmm.. I understand. Take as long a nap as you feel necessary."

A chill went down my spine when we said that. It didn't feel like the usual Rugburn pleasantry. Or maybe I'm so fucking creeped out now that my nerves are making everything worse than they are.

When I stepped off the bridge and I was sure the hatch had closed, I hauled ass down to the engine room. At this point, I didn't give a shit who thought what as I sprinted past them in the corridors, I had a new mission.

It seemed like forever but when I finally made it to engineering and I looked around frantically for Jan. I couldn't find her though. "Shit, where the fuck are you, Jan?!" I screamed in my head. I was getting close to just grabbing random crewmen and asking if they'd seen her when I saw Chalk. I ran over to him and grabbed him by the arm. "Chalk! Where's Jan!"

Chalk spoke in his unintelligible native dialect but then the salavaged AI pined to his chest chirped to life. It had simulated a male Aiqoo that was a little distorted from the corruption. "I think she is in the galanthium processing chamber. I will show you..."

"Yeah, yeah show me."

I practically drove Chalk down the gantries by the shoulders. After all I needed him and I wasn't gonna let this little yellow spud out of my sight. We came through a few steam filled chambers and entered into a huge space filled with silos jammed full of galanthium. It was noisy and the air was thick with galanthium fumes and processed atmosphere.
I immediately caught site of Jan on a catwalk just above me. I was up the ladder to her before Chalk could point her out.

Jan turned around surprised to see me down here, "Jack?" She instantly could read my body language and knew something was not right. "Whoa, Jack, what's goin' on?"

"I figured it out! I figured it out, Jan!"

"Wait, what?"

"I know everything now- about Rugburn, us, the Morningstar!"

"You do? What!"

"Rugburn never wanted the Morningstar! It was bait to keep us here. To keep us occupied so we wouldn't start asking questions!"

"Oh shit."

"I saw the ship's next way point; the one that Rugburn changed course to head for."

"It's the Station, San Muerta, Jan!"

Her eyes grew as big as saucers.

"Fuck me, Jack, that's the Commonwealth!"

"Jan, we're the salvage! Rugburn is going to turn us in to the ISF for reward money! It's why he's been acting so cordial the whole time!"

Jan's face went pale and her mouth gaped open so big I could swear you could fit an F class star in it."

I grabbed Jan by the arm and started pulling her with me toward the ladder. "We have to leave now!"

Jan tugged back on my grip, "Jack. Jack, it's not safe yet, everyone is up still!"

"Jan, this ship is going to be Commonwealth space in under two hours. The sleep rotation starts in nine. That means we have to leave now."

I half climbed half slid down the ladder and headed over to Chalk who was still waiting nearby. Jan followed behind me.

"Chalk, the plans have changed. We are leaving right now. You have to go get the spindle."

Once the AI finished chirping my words back to Chalk in his own language, he suddenly threw up his hands. "No. No, I cannot. Too dangerous right now. I am not allowed in restricted parts alcove. I'll be caught."

Jan jumped in between us. "Chalk listen to me, we've already been caught, Rugburn just doesn't know it yet. It's only minutes until he figures it out. If we have any chance at escaping you have to get the spindle now."

"Rugburn will know we'll make a play for the spindle once he's figured out we're escaping," I added.

Seeing the dire situation's circumstances have placed us all within, Chalk realized his new duty and nodded reluctantly.

Jan placed a nurturing hand on Chalk, "what's wrong?"

"They have weapons where spindle is. If they see me take spindle, I'll be killed. There are many down there."

"I'll go down there with you," Jan reassured. "That would settle my nerves," Chalk replied.

Jan turned to me, "You don't need me do you?"

I shrugged and was a little perturbed we were still discussing this, "Considering we need the spindle first and then you to fit it into the Morningstar before I can fly us out, I guess no then. Can we get this shit going!?"

The plan was in motion. The escape. Not exactly the way I envisioned it to happen though. I hoped there'd be slightly less stress involved. A lot less. When Jan and Chalk split away to retrieve the spindle I was left alone to tread the halls of this prison ship. That's all it was now that I knew Rugburn's true intent- a carefully shrouded prison ship. I was pissed at Rugburn. But not as impressed with his guile any longer. He didn't outsmart us with the spindle. He just saw our perspective and let us run with it. Prick. I wanted to put my fist across his face but that'd have to be something that would have to live in my mind. I preferred to not encounter that man again and just get the hell out of here.

I had to take a few lifts before arriving at the salvage bay. Everything was tense- to me it was. Everyone else, the crew, appeared to be going about their business. But I just felt that they new, they just didn't know that I knew now. And any second Rugburn's dick of a voice would come out over the ship's PA system telling the crew to capture us.

I had already ran full boar through the ship, so that must have at least sent them some kind of clue. I had no choice but to assume they knew I'd found out. It was a game of strategy and chance now. I had to win.

After climbing aboard the Morningstar, I ran up to the bridge and threw myself in the command chair- and waited. I looked out the view screen before me and watched the crewmen like a hawk. Looking for anything that would show they knew. Sitting here in the dark with the consoles blank was disconcerting. I couldn't do anything until Chalk and Jan came back with the spindle- and probably with a shit load of pissed off crew behind them.

God, it felt like an eternity waiting. I kept getting all these thoughts in my head that maybe they'd been captured- or shot. What if they got separated or lost? I leaned back in my chair and put my hands on the bezel of the console in front of me. My fingers on my right felt something stashed under the helm controls. I leaned over and pulled it out, but I knew what it was in my hands before I could see it.

A pistol.

I held it up before me, clueless as to how it got there until I remembered that Davin had possession of the girl when he stole her from the impound on New Haven. Did he place this pistol there out of some habit or because he knew I'd need it?? My distraction was brief when I saw movement outside below. I put the pistol on the dead console and looked outside.

A small group of Ibzaan works were gathering; talking about something and occasionally gesturing to my ship. "Oh shit."

Just then on the opposite end of the bay a lift appeared. It was Jan and Chalk! I strained my eyes to see if they had retrieved the spindle. Jan had nothing but Chalk appeared to be holding some box. "That better be it," I thought. They didn't even wait for the lift to finish it's ascent. They leaped up and began running for me and the ship. I suddenly had an instinct to grab Davin's 'gift' and head up to the dorsal hatch outside.

It's about to get real.

As I quietly climbed out of the Morningstar through the dorsal hatch I made clear that the catwalks above were clear before sneaking my way out. I had a good view of the port and starboard sides of the ship but the girl's bow was so long it obstructed things. I held the pistol ready while I took a knee. I could still see Jan and Chalk running about the piles of scrap towards me.

When I peered over to my left I could see the group of Ibzaan crew. Wait, they'd moved- shit, Jan and Chalk have been made. The crewmen began yelling and and ran over toward the two. "Shit, what do I do?" I screamed silently in my mind. "Those crew aren't armed.. what, am I gonna shoot unarmed men? I suddenly felt myself doubting my spine to fire at other people. It's so easy when in space combat, when you don't have to see the person you kill. Another lift appeared near where Jan and Chalk's were. A group of pissed Ibzaan leaped out. They were shouting and holding weapons.

They started fanning out, obviously looking for Jan and Chalk. I started looking for the two, but I couldn't find them. Damn, junk everywhere! There! I caught a glimpse as they ran between a small gap between two piles. And then promptly weapons fire erupted. Shit. I adjusted my grip on the pistol again.

From where I saw Jan and Chalk I knew there was only one exit from the junk pile to the Morningstar and that group of unarmed Ibzaan crew were waiting for them. I caught Jan again in another gap. She was running hard and closer to the exit.

I knew it. I knew what I had to do, but my gut hated it. I'd never be able to hit them with a pistol at this distance. I stood up and ran over to the starboard wing of the Morningstar and slid down her to a spot on the hull closer to the deck.

I tried to and make as little noise as possible when my boots hit the synthetic flooring. Thankfully the weapons and shouting were muffling my sound well. My knees felt a little wobbly and my palms were sweating. It felt like my moral compass was shouting at me, trying to override my body to stop, but I had to keep going. I crept quickly nearer to the crew laying in wait for Jan and Chalk. I could hear Jan's shouts coming nearer. It was a now or never moment. I had the crewmen in my sights and an easy kill. They didn't even notice me. I found it really hard to pull the trigger. I knew I had to but my finger wouldn't move. Dead in my sights, right there. It's all I had to do; no problem, right?

Suddenly as the sweat glistened on my brow, I heard Jan scream my name. It sent a shiver down my spine- something in me snapped. For an instant, I was thrown back into my dreams that haunt me. Back at my parent's home. Watching them die. For a moment I could swear Jan's voice sounded just like my mother's. As if time had stopped and then started I was back to myself, with a fire suddenly raging in all my nerve endings. The rage I felt for my Mom. My Dad. Jan's my only family.

"Jan!" I shouted allowed

The crewmen turned, startled that I was flanking them. I squeezed that trigger. I squeezed it hard. All the fire in me, it just rushed through my hands through my fingers and into that gun. I fired off round after round into those men. And they fell. It was all so slow.

Jan appeared around the corner, slowing slightly making sure Chalk was behind her. I stood up from the scrap I hid behind. "Jan, c'mon!"

"We all ran back to the Morningstar. Everything was in slow motion. That sprint to the Morningstar; the moments I'd turn to fire back at the armed crew emerging from the scrap piles. I wasn't hitting them but I didn't care, I just had to give cover for Chalk and Jan.

We made it aboard the ship finally after helping Chalk and Jan inside. I kicked the ladder away from the ship and I had to get to the bridge. Jan ran Chalk down to the engine room and I cycled to the doors to the ship.

All hell was breaking loose outside. It seemed the whole crew was pouring out of every opening to the bay.

I was back in my chair. And soon the computer systems had booted up. The screens on the bridge came alive. I flipped on the comm to the engine room. "Jan, are we up!?"

"Almost there! Watch for green!"

I kept my eyes on the engineering diagnostics node of the console. Sounds of the crew's weapons sounded like a hurricane of angry thumps and stings upon the hull.

"Jan, now!?" I shouted even though the diagnostics node was still red.

"Wait!"

"They're pounding the shit out us, Jan! Go! Go!" I screamed.

I happened to look out onto the bay and it was like our eyes locked.

Rugburn. He stood there on a mezzanine just ahead of me. He wasn't holding a weapon or barking orders. He just stood there, hands on the railing, staring right at me.

I didn't notice that Chalk had ran up to the bridge and seated himself at one of the redundant stations behind me. I broke away from Rugburn's gaze and peered back at Chalk.

"Have to hack bay doors," his AI voice politely quipped even though his true voice showed he obviously stressed out of his mind.

"Fuck." I hadn't thought of that.

Jan screamed over the comm, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?"

I spun my head back at my station and the engine diagnostic was glowing a brilliant green.

Without hesitation, I did what I'd done so many times before. My fingers danced across the controls and the familiar hum of my girl's drive core screamed to life. The crewmen firing outside began to retreat from the Morningstar awakening, but incoming fire was still raining on us.

I felt Chalk shove me on the shoulder, "Go! go!"

I plied the 'Y' axis controls and slid the Morningstar downward as we sank through the plasma field that separated the void of space from the atmosphere of the bay. As I spun the the ship about, I could still feel Rugburn's gaze until the bay left my view.

I set a course for a near by nebula in the opposite direction of Commonwealth space and floored the engines. I felt the Morningstar kick, and we were off. Even with her beaten half to death she still had the spunk in her to haul ass.

I heard Jan wooping and yelling over the comm as we made our way further and further from Rugburn. Chalk sighed a huge relief- from what, I still don't know. Me? I just sat in my chair and staired into space. A grin slowly crept across my face.

We weren't out of the woods yet. We were still in outspace and that meant we were sub light as the Morningstar's FTL wasn't operable out here. We weren't going to get far. And frankly we were lucky that that nebula was so close by. Hiding there would only work for so long.

Later, I finally laid on my bed in my room that was still in complete disarray from when we were without gravity, adrift in space, and before Rugburn found us, and I stared out the window while listening to Jan ram her goddamned music through the ship. I don't think I was ever so happy to hear that shit in my life. The family was back together again.

J.

Chalk

There we stood, in the engine room of the Morningstar, having just been outwitted by a red faced crab head. I wasn't sure whether I should be pissed or just surprised by Rugburn's level of guile. He read Jan and I like a book knowing the whole time we'd never leave the ship with the spindle in his custody. So what were Jan and I to do now? Rush his quarters and hold him hostage until he gave up the thing? The thought actually ran through my head, but only momentarily. I came back to reality promptly.

"Shit!" Jan hissed while laying her head on the drive manifold.

I knew that I had to get the spindle back from Rugburn but how? His ship is huge and I wouldn't have the first idea of where to look for it. But then I thought that perhaps I don't have to look for it. There's salvaged ships all over the bay here.

"Jan, I've got an idea." I paced about in the chamber as I layed out my plan, "we don't have to look for the spindle to our ship, there's bound to be a few out in the heaps of junk in the bay outside."

Jan rose her head from the drive core casing and looked at me with an irritated eye. "That won't work, Jack."

I stopped cold in my steps. "What? Why not?" I thought that was a pretty ingenious plan if I say so myself.

"Spindles are precision instruments. They are unique per engine. You put another in from a different drive core and it'll either not catalyze the galanthium properly or melt down the focusing lenses in the spindle itself."

Goes to show how much I know about drive core mechanics.

Rugburn and the crew would be up soon and having to swallow another day on this ship would be painful but at least I knew what I had to do. I just wasn't sure how I was gonna do it. It was difficult prying Jan away from the ship and head back to our quarters and the whole way back she was oozing anger. I could see it in the way she walked and the constant manner she clinched her jaw muscles.
She and I laid in our 'beds' which barely qualify as such since they were mostly cargo bags torn open and wrapped around insulation foam from a drive manifold that sat on top of a haphazardly welded frame. I imagined the other sleeping arrangements for the actual crew were on orders of magnitude improved from ours.
Ibzaan days are longer than a typical Belkuri one and when the crew would return to work from their sleeping break, Jan and I had already been up twenty five hours- a tad longer than we'd like to be being that Belkuri run on a 25 hour day.
As I lay there I could here Jan still huffing from our little, uh, 'surprise'. I couldn't blame her and I felt the same way but I knew we had to play this cool. I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to get the spindle from Rugburn, and given his professional demeanor it didn't seem likely. I quickly faded into a dreamless, uncomfortable sleep.
A few hours later, I woke up and the first thing my bleary eyes beheld was a Jan's bed across from me- minus Jan. I figured she'd gone to the bay to start her work early.
I got up and realized last night wasn't a screwed up dream like I'd hoped. What a way to ruin a morning. Walking down the corridor of the ship to the Ibzaan equivalent to a galley, I noticed a rather noxious odor. I wondered what in space could cause such a rank smell, and then discovered that it was me and that I hadn't showered in quite a while. I then proceeded to wonder if Ibzaan even have showers.
My thoughts were cast aside as I entered the galley. It was cafeteria-like in the arrangement of tables but they were more like bar counters where you sat on stool instead of a chair or bench. The food the crew ate was distributed from a console that appeared to be automated. And I'd usually ordered the same thing everytime, because from my experience all the other selections tasted horrible or were lethal to my biochemistry.
The tasty slop I was treated day after day was like oatmeal with milk that was borderline sour. I made it the order of business to shovel it down as quickly as possible with a very large mug of water. And even the water tasted 'weird'. It had some minerals in it that were not native to anything the Belkuri had and I hoped what I was ingesting wouldn't reward me with an extra arm growing out of my butt.
Before I did my usual routine, I noticed Rugburn at a table with some others nearby. Part of me wanted to go over there and bust his balls. But what would that solve? I definitely couldn't that and especially with so much of his crew present. Before I moved on, he glanced over at me and gave a subtle nod. I wasn't sure what that was about. He screwed me out of my ship and he's playing cool guy?
Later when the work rotation was concluded for the day and the crew had gone to sleep I hung out with Jan in the galley. It was quiet save for the occasional gurgling of the food dispenser. She and I nursed our drinks while killing the time. The Morningstar had all the repairs done to her that we needed to get away from here. And left us with a lot of spare time.

"I checked the salvage manfest before leaving the bridge," I mentioned.

"Oh yeah?" Jan replied with a disenchanted tone.

I took a sip of my water, "Rugburn's almost finished with the tour."

"Wonderful. So what are we supposed to do if he takes the Morningstar? Drop us off at some shady pirate outpost?"

I looked Jan dead in the eye, "That's not going to happen. The Morningstar will stay with us." I paused momentarily, "I dunno how but she will."

Jan stared into her drink, "It's these kinds of circumstances where Davin gets us out of-," I cut her off mid sentence,"Davin's not here, ok? It's just us. And we have to work this one out by ourselves." I was a little irritated by Jan's constantly comparing of me to her boyfriend. Like I was some helpless child that constantly required help getting out of the mud.

At that awkward silence between us a crew member of Rugburn's entered. He was wearing something more casual, not the work overalls that we had usually seen them in. It looked as if he had been sleeping. He immediately noticed us and nodded as he passed by to make himself something to drink.

"I recognize him," Jan whispered. "I work with him in the engine room sometimes. His name isn't pronounceable so I just call him Chalk for short."

Chalk was a little shorter than myself and his skin tone wasn't as red as Rugburn's, but more of a an yellow orange. His marble-like eyes that all Ibzaan have were hazel too and his facial features were smoother and not as chiseled as Rugburn's as well. A moment later, he sat at a table alone with his beverage which was bright yellow. And fizzing.

As Jan and I bemoaned our situation we'd occasionally hear Chalk practically gag on his drink.
"Uh are you alright? Something wrong with you?"

Chalk glanced over at us, a little surprised I spoke to him. "Yes. Okay, I be," he replied shyly.

I guessed Sanglish wasn't highly used language by the manner in which he butchered it. I nodded wearily, not entirely convinced that he was in top shape, but whatever. "What's that you're drinking there?" I pointed.

Chalk sat quiet for moment, trying to think of a way to articulate his thoughts into my language. "Err, medicine."

"You sick or something?" Jan asked.

Chalk stared at her for a moment, "I do not understand."

"Are. You. Siiick." Jan repeated while gesticulating vomiting from her mouth with her hands. It was kind of entertaining as she made gagging noises.

Chalk seemed to get the idea more or less, and said that he wasn't but that he had, instead, some kind of ailment that some Ibzaan contract when their body's hormone levels get a little out of sync and causes sleeplessnes. You wouldn't believe how long it took just to communicate that much. It was practically a game of charades.

Chalk seemed like a nice person, and I would have liked to talk to him more if it wasn't such a chore communicating the most simple of ideas. Then he told us he knew where our spindle was. Suddenly I didn't care if it took all night to talk to him, Jan and I were ready to chat.
He mentioned that there would be no way Jan or I would get anywhere near it, that it was in a portion of the ship that was off limits to us. Chalk also added that if he were to get it to us, he'd want us to take him too. I could understand that. Chalk would likely be punished for helping us. I agreed and a plan was set in motion for tomorrow evening when the crew was asleep. Everyone knew of Chalk's condition and his wandering the ship at night wouldn't be seen as suspicious. Jan and I would ready the Morningstar and Chalk would bring us the spindle and open the airlock for the bay where we'd escape. By then everyone on the ship would know we were leaving and that would be the critical moment when we'd need to haul ass away from Rugburn's ship as quickly as possible.
We parted ways and as Jan and I strolled back to our room we had a renewed sense of hope. But we both couldn't figure out why Chalk would help us. It took nearly all night of broken Sanglish and charades just to work out the plan. It was something that was bugging me in the back of my head. People don't just help. At least not in my experience; I don't care if you're Belkuri or alien, something always has to be in it for the other party.

J.

The Spindle.

I think I'd learned enough about the Ibzaan and their ship to qualify myself a resident expert. Days had passed, and I'd given up trying to get to Teague's Doorstep. Part of me was relieved as I knew of the stories about that place, but then again, that's the place I was to go per Davin's instruction. I hadn't heard from Davin either as I'd regularly checked my communications on the Galnet through an encrypted account Davin showed me how to create. Where was he?

It was like he just up and vanished.

Jan and I had done our own version of a disappearing trick out her in Outspace. In these parts of the wilderness we wouldn't have to worry about the ISF tracking us down and Rugburn had been kind enough to loan a small room to myself and Jan in exchange for pulling our own weight on the ship. He was a good guy and even though I still thought of the Morningstar as still mine, he continued about his business catalogging it's parts for cash assessment. I felt pretty irritated by that, and I understand it's a living he has to do, but shit, it's not like I abandoned her. The jury is definitely still out on that issue. I want to repair her, God knows there's enough spare parts down in the holding bay and even Jan has had an interest in restoring the old gal to operational status.
Jan managed to wrangle out an unsteady deal with Rugburn concerning the Morningstar- if she could get it up and running before their salvage tour was through, he'd turn over salvage rights to me. Needless to say, Jan has been using all her free time trying to fix the ship.
During the day, she helps out the salvage engineers with derelicts that they bring in and tearing them down. Occasionally she even helps out in the engine room.
As for myself? I help Rugburn pilot the ship and navigate and I help Jan any way I can with the repairs to our ship.
It's been slow going. We were able to use some high tensile cables in the bay to hoist up the hull of my baby so she at least didn't look like a dying animal laying awkwardly on the deck.
The whole sensor suite was wasted, so we had to practically tear down the whole bow of the ship to rip the burnt out, melted hulk of junk. Jan found a basic sensor unit from an old Sprykon cargo ship. She juryrigged it in but because the unit's geometry didn't mesh with the hull of the Morningstar, we had to fabricate an extension of the hull on the Y axis to make it fit. By the time we finished the front of the ship looked like a crew of color blind engineers paneled the hull. I swear, we must have used seven different colors of ship plating from other wrecks to patch the holes and cover the hull extension we'd added. The Morningstar sure has looked better, that's for sure.
Lastnight we finshed patching the hull breach in the engine room. It looks like a piss poor repair job and it's ugly as hell but it will do the trick. Occasionally Rugburn would come down and inspect the work on the ship. It is almost as if he was trying to gauge how much time we had left before we'd 'win' back control of the Morningstar.
Rugburn was a quiet guy. He spoke only when he had something to say and frequently haunted the gangplanks above the massive salvage bay like some silent overseer. The only time I'd ever speak to him was during my work shift when piloting the ship or help with plotting navigation routes to new salvage leads.
I kept trying to pry bits of personal information from him but I could tell from his constant dodging of questions that he either wasn't interested in becoming 'buddy-buddy' or plane didn't trust me enough to disclose details about himself. I suppose, being a salvager in pirate country keeping people at arm's length is a wise decision.
There brief moments during the day when all the Ibzaan would take their rest rotation and put the ship in standby while in FTL. Jan and I would use this time to sneak in more time on the Morningstar or generally snoop around and see what we could learn.
We felt a bit like quasi-prisoners. We were granted a decent portion of freedom on the ship and were free to talk to the crew and weren't being held against our wills. We stayed because we knew this was a bit of a haven from ISF attention and also, I wasn't about to let the Morningstar out of my sight. I wasn't ready to give up, not after Jan and I were so close to bringing her back from the dead.
It was one of those moments when the crew was resting and Jan and I snuck in some extra work on our gal. The ship was always quiet during rest period and it made for an eerie calm since the salvage bay was usually awash with sounds of crew, machines, and chunks of hull being dissected from their metal corpses.
Jan and I were inside the ship and testing the primary power of the main systems. For a while we'd only had the vessel on standby power and had the primary systems feeding from the drive core of Rugburn's vessel. He didn't know we were doing that, though so the less he knew the better. Today we were going to try to break the Morningstar's dependance on the Salvage ship's main power.

Jan lay in the tight space of a conduit shaft near the bulkhead connecting the main corridor with the engine room. Her hips and legs lay exposed from the wall; parts and tools strewn about as if the ship was trying to eat her. "Hey, Jack," Jan shouted from the innards of the wall.

"Huh," I mumbled back as I fumbled with some conduits and other guts of my ship.

"You think who ever our contact was at Teague's gave up waiting?"

"Probably."

It was a silent again. The standby power on the ship sound like a patient on a cardiac machine. The familiar hum of my gal was absent and it didn't feel right standing in my ship and not hearing that. I missed it and yearned to get the hell out of here and on my own. "Damn ISF," I huffed to myself.

"I miss Davin."

"I wonder what happened to that guy." I wondered allowed following Jan's comment. "It's like he just dropped out of existence."

Jan crawled out from the wall, finished with the repairs she had been doing. She tossed a few strands of hair away from her face with a matter-of-fact flair and grabbed a tool from her toolbox. She fiddled with it for a moment in the somber light of the corridor. "I've not been away from him this long. I can't even talk to him; hell, I have no way of even knowing if he's ok." Her voice had a tinge of tenderness in it, "It keeps me awake."

"I'm sure he's fine, Jan. Davin can take care of himself."

Jan sighed, "I know..."

I looked at the time on my tRib and stowed it back in my pocket. "Rugburn and the crew will be awake soon. We need to get back to our work stations before they notice."

"Right." Jan clean up her tools and locked up her box. We disembarked from the Morningstar and climbed down the ladder from the airlock to the deck and split off to return from where we came on the ship.

That evening Jan and I rendezvoused back at the Morningstar to continue repairs. The work was tedious and irritating because we often had to find creative ways to fix problems. I imagined the repair bill at a Comco station from the mess we'd made of everything to make her space worthy again. I didn't want to think about it, much less having to hear from the ACA about the sensor suite they paid to have installed on the ship that was now melted junk. I was sure I would kiss my salary goodbye for the next few years for that one . After a few sighs and shrugs I succeeded in brushing off the stresses that awaited me and continued repairing the ship.
Jan was pretty much in charge in this matter. She told me what to do and I did it. She was the engineer, I was the pilot. I knew when to submit to experience. I quickly demonstrated my capacity to screw up a simple job and Jan quickly demoted me to conduit replacement and soldering, what a lowly position I'd garnered. I kept telling myself that every little thing helped- and it did- but my ego didn't feel any less blemished.

After a few more hours of work, and most of the night, Jan and I had come to a consensus that we had repaired or juryrigged what was necessary to make the gal run on her own. We headed down to the engine room and Jan cycled the boot sequence to the main computer core. The standby power flickered while the Morningstar computed all the code necessary to green light a 'power full' command routine.
The screens flashed boot instructions and code. I could feel the extra weight on my body suddenly as the Morningstar's grav-field came to life and I was back to the comfortable weight environment I was used to than Rugburn's ship which was just a bit lighter.

"Ok head outside and pull the plug on wireless power siphon to the salvage vessel," Jan ordered.

"This is it," I replied as I headed outside.

I powered off the siphon and shuffled back inside to the engine room. As I entered, Jan was already inputting start up codes to go full power on the systems. She paused before completing the final code and looked at me with a smirk, "Ready?"

I threw my arms out ready for whatever fate the universe had in store for my life. "Go for it, Jan."

She entered the last command and the ship's power went dead. We stood there in near total darkness with only the subtle green and red glow of the Morningstar's computer wearily blinking back at us.

I swear it felt like eternity. I thought we had screwed up somewhere, and even Jan was beginning to wonder what had gone wrong. Finally, the lights and hum of the ship struggled to flicker into life. We succeeded! The power was on! Jan and I cheered in excitement and 'high fived' each other as we savored our sloppy, but effective handiwork.

"Let's get the hell off this ship!" I hammered out with a smile on my face. I was excited that Jan and I had beaten Rugburn at his game and saved our ship before he could complete his tour. It felt good and I was warm with relief. Yeah, yeah, I knew I had to daunting task of the actual repair of the ship at a spaceport but at this point I was taking things one success at a time. "I'm going to head to the bridge and spool the astro-navigational computers and warm up the drive!" I said with gusto while I exited the engineering deck.

"Wait, wait Jack."

"What's up?"

Jan was staring at the FTL drive core. She had a look that I was all too familiar with. "What is it, Jan." I asked...

"Something's not right." She stepped closer to the drive core and unfastened the manifold casing.

"Sonuvabitch! It's gone!" She shouted and tossed the manifold casing to the deck which made a metal 'twang' when it made contact.

I rolled my eyes and cocked my head to the side a bit in horror, "Oh fuck, what is it. What's gone?"

Jan leaned on the drive cylinder with her hands. If they were strong enough I think she'd have clawed a good chunk of the casing off. "The Spindle is gone. That red faced bastard, took it."

"Hold on, is the spindle important? Because if it's not, I don't care." All I wanted now was to leave. I was so close I could taste the freedom. So much of the ship was blown to shit I didn't care if one more part was missing.

Jan backed up from the drive into the middle of the room and threw her forearms on top of her head in probably the most discouraged manner I could have seen anyone make. "The Spindle focuses the X-Ray lasers into a concentrated beam to catalyze the Galanthium, Jack. It's the spark plug of the FTL drive."

It was then I realized we had spent so many countless nights and stolen hours for nothing. All I could do was stare into space and direct a heavy sigh to my tangled hair above.

Rugburn screwed us.