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Space Is Vast


The Background

Space is vast. It is essentially… well, a vast space. But when taken in increments, the true beauty is revealed. If one were to search vigilantly through these small increments, one would find in the farthest corner of the universe, by taking a picture at the exact moment, you would be able to see a small box floating through space labeled “Socks”.
Although, at this point in time, Adam Higgins, the captain of a four-man crew on board the Shepard, hardly noticed the true beauty of space, or the box named Socks. Instead his mind was set on seemingly more important things. It had been three and a half weeks since the crew of the Shepard had last set foot on solid ground. The Shepard wasn’t, and isn’t the nicest looking of ships. It being a dull gray, pockmarked from who knows what previous missions, and constantly needing fixing. It was a simple trade ship. The four man crew… well, four-person crew on board the Shepard consists of three men, and a woman.
The Captain, having already been introduced, goes by the name of Adam Higgins. Having found the Shepard he rightfully claimed Captaincy. Adam stood at about 5’9. His dark skin wasn’t from a tan, but from his racial traits, as well as his long neck length curly hair. His second in command, or as he liked to call him, his first mate, was none other than Scipio “Skippy” Guerra. The tall tanned young man, whom Adam had known since child hood had stepped up to the plate when Adam had first brought in the junk heap that was at one time the Shepard. They had together worked day and night to create something out of the dead rats, cut wires, and strangely enough, a small piece of burnt toast. Soon they had a ship, after countless nights, and many days off, Adam and Scipio stood before the pale beauty of the Shepard. The two men quit their jobs, and went off into the unknown to make their way in life. Two weeks later, they were shoveling dead cats into the furnaces of the Taris under city. It was there they met Jonah “Jones” Rynanson. Jonah was an underachiever, lazy, and pretty much useless. Pretty much… he had graduated from a top-notch military flight school. And somewhere between then, and now, Jonah had become the lazy dead cat shoveling man he is today.
The three men became quick friends, and when Jonah learned of Adam and Scipio’s ship, he caught the opportunity by the throat, and he became the third crewmember of the Shepard. The three men pooled their money, and left the dead cats behind. It was in space where they met their fourth and last member.
The three men had been traveling for eight days nonstop. Adam felt morale was dropping, and so he set coordinates to the nearby space station, “The Pleasure Dome” It was here that Adam was paired with a pretty girl named Vida Watson. Wearing nothing but a very, small bikini, and two colorful circles, she knocked out Adam, and stole the codes to the Shepard. Little did she know, Skippy, and Jones had already finished and had retired to the ship. When she entered, the two men were amazed that a pretty girl had voluntarily, and unpaid, come to their ship. Unfortunately, they too were knocked out by Vida. It was then that Adam awoke from his unconsciousness, and thinking he had just had the time of his life, left the small room. Vida, on the other hand was having trouble starting the ship. It was nothing she was used too, all the controls were wrong and she could of sworn one of them looked exactly like a toaster. Adam arrived at the ship, and when he entered saw Vida sitting with the controls, with a solemn and defeated look upon her face. After a long discussion, Vida became the fourth and final member of the Shepard. With her long fiery red hair, and tough no-nonsense attitude, she was the balance between the guy’s stupidity, and logic. Vida “V” Watson, became the techie for the ship, as it would turn out she had gone to a technology school, but her knack for inventions and tinkering with things got her expelled when she created her robot, “The PAL”. She had left it on one night, staring at the TV screen, where it watched an episode of The OC, and determined all humans were fanatical, and didn’t deserve to exist. So, it raged around the school campus knocking over trashcans and scaring pigeons. The dean, who was later given a demerit for the lack of pigeons on campus, booted Vida from the University.


Intermission

The cold frost glinted off the forest of trees creating monstrosities in the corner of ones eye. The moon hung in the night air shedding its light, and illuminating the path of one man running through the damp snow. His short breaths came and went, condensing in the air before him and steaming upwards into the night. He allowed his eyes to wander for a moment, to forget for the briefest of seconds what he was doing in the woods at this hour of the night. He watched entranced as his eyes followed the patch of steamed air. His eyes lifted more and more until he was staring directly into the trees…. and at a figure peering down at him. He felt his heart skip a beat and again he took off running. He had caught up. He had thought he had lost him. How close is he now? Where is he? Am I going to die? John allowed these thoughts to flow around his mind and let his legs take him wherever they felt best. He glanced into the trees every few seconds but this did not reassure his thoughts as every glint of moonlight, and every rustling branch was, in his mind, his pursuer. He began running again and felt as a branch snagged onto his over coat. In his fear he threw it off and did not look back to see what, or who, his attacker was. His mind reeled and he no longer paid attention to where he was running, a fatal mistake. John felt a sharp pain as his foot caught on something and he fell face first into the cold snow. Cursing himself for his clumsiness he elbowed his way up to a sitting position and saw what he had tripped over. A rope had been set out in his path between two trees, and he had no doubt who had made this simple trap. He sat there for many minutes, and yet nothing happened. Slowly and cautiously he stood up. He gave a quick look around and when he found he couldn’t decipher anything from the darkness took a careful step forward. John never heard the muffled shot as he took his first step into what he thought was freedom. He fell to one knee grasping his calf, which now had a rather large hole in the side of it. He cursed once more as blood began running down his leg under his pants. He tried to stand and felt his leg give way and fell on his side in pain wondering when this torture would end. Soft footsteps approached, he could hear his pursuers controlled breathing as well. John held his breath hoping they would mistake him for already dead. He nearly whimpered as the cold voice spoke to him.
“Mr. Edwards, I hope you don’t think that I’m stupid enough to take you for dead. I’d of thought you much more intelligent than that.”
John cringed as he felt the figure lean over him and place a strong hand on his side and roughly turn him over.
“Y- you can’t be real… th- none of this can be happening to me!” He cried out as he looked at the face of the man in horror.
He was answered only with a smile, cold and emotionless. John could see the eyes; they were a cold gray, which was a strange mix for a man with such dark skin. In horror he watched as the figure stood up and un-slung a large rifle from his back. Silently he held it in one hand and pressed the silenced muzzle against John’s forehead.
“Good bye Mr. Edwards.” He heard the assassin say before everything went black. And before Adam woke up.


To Be, Or Not To Be

“You can see the Dean now.” The woman at the desk looked up to the dark skinned boy and smiled. “Just go on in.”
He nodded and stood up and walked though the large waiting room placing down his magazine and making his way to a large doubles doors. He stopped outside of them and made to give a slight knock and watched as the doors swung open at his presence. He eyed the doors strangely and proceeded inside. The boy glanced around the large office. His eyes played over the expensive burgundy carpet, which complimented the large oversized desk. The desk was placed slightly nearer to the wall opposite of the double doors, making the walk to the desk unpleasantly long. The boy’s eyes wandered to walls also scanning over the hundreds of weapons that were hung. Most of them he had seen before, but a few… such as a large “W” shaped weapon with a length of cord attaching the two tips of the “W” truly baffled him. Finally his eyes came back down to notice the man standing behind the desk with his hands placed on the wood he had leaned slightly forward and was smiling warmly. The man looked to be in his mid forties with a brilliantly white smile. His clothes were a dark gray as were traditional clothes of the school. He was much taller than the boy, standing at a little over six two he was lean and sinewy. He had a scar across his face, from his nose to the bottom of his right cheek, but the disfigurement only seemed to enhance his character and his smile had made many girls hearts drop before. The man cocked his head slightly and spoke.
“What can I do for you son?”
The boy walked to the desk and sat down in one of the extremely comfortable chairs placed in front of the dean’s desk.
“Dean…. Sir, I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to stop. I- I have nightmares sometimes.” He looked away a little ashamed, “I don’t think this is what I should be doing with my life sir.”
“Bollocks! Who’s been telling you that? Of course this is the best thing for you, you’re top of the class, and no doubt the most efficient with a 23-0 record. As far as I can think no one has yet to top that, and you want to throw all that away?”
“Sir… I don’t think I can handle all this, my conscious is telling me it’s wrong, and my body just reacts and does it. I want to stop for good. Someone else can be your top student.”
The dean looked at the boy who sat in the chair before him. His brown eyes were locked onto his own, and although he was only seventeen he had progressed to a level 4 when most boys his age where only at level 2. He truly hated to lose such a valuable asset but he had always told all his students that if they should wish to leave they had only to ask. He couldn’t deny this boy’s plea. He gave a deep long sigh and pushed a button on his desk. A screen popped up from the center and folded out revealing a keyboard underneath. The dean sat in his seat and tapped a few keys before leaning to his left to peer around the large screen.
“You realize this means we erase your files from this place. You were never here.”
The boy nodded.
“And we’ll give you a small trunk which you can fill with food and such, but you had better find a way to live. You’re a young man and you better not waste you life shoveling cats in the city of Taris.”
Nod
“Also we can send you to any planet you wish. Do you have a preference?”
Nod, “Erandor Sir. I’ve heard a lot about the place and I’ve always wanted to go there.”
“Then so it shall be. Just stay in the waiting room for a little bit and I’ll have my secretary bring you the tickets and provisions.” The dean stood up as he talked and extended a hand, which was accepted by the boy with a firm handshake.
“I will miss you Adam. I hope this is what you truly want.”
“Thank you sir, I hope so too.”



The Real Story

“What do you mean we have to go to Erandor?”
“I mean we have to, I… I’ve got something there I need to clear up.”
Vida sighed… she had always been the sensible one of the crew. And she could see something was deeply troubling Adam. Ever since the news of Erandor having been hit by the comet, Adam had been constantly checking the news, and survivor reports.
“Look, Adam. If it’s that important, why don’t you just tell us?”
Adams eyes shifted to each of the three-crew members.
“Because…. I just cant.” He finished lamely. Vida rolled her eyes sometimes she really hated men.
“Ok, fine!” she said as she threw up her arms in defeat, “lets go to Erandor.” Adams face turned into a large grin, and jumped to the front of the ship. “OK!” he said. “Lets go!” he pointed his finger out the dirty window. A few seconds passed… Adam turned to the crew; Jones was sleeping at his station. He should have been looking at different trade routes; instead a small puddle of drool had collected by his face. Skippy was looking around the small ship, clenching, and unclenching his hands. And V stood in the center of the ship; hand on her forehead, looking like she was about to give up.
Adam cocked an eyebrow, “What?” Vida shook her head.
“Adam. Do you even know where Erandor is?” Adam’s hand dropped a little bit,
“Well, uh… it’s over there… isn’t it?” Adam waved vaguely at the open space, of space.
“Look, Adam. Erandor is in a totally different system. So we nee-“
“Right then, if you know where it is why don’t we go?”
“Adam, we need to buy a hyper drive before we can go there!”
Jones appeared next to Vida, leaning on her shoulder.
“Man, I know the perfect place to get a hyper drive. We can go to Taris, they have a great flea market, get a hyper drive for 500,000, easy.” Jones gave a half smile at the duo.
Vida gave a startled jump as she heard Jones voice. She turned her head to see Jones, and then back at Adam.
Vida turned back to Jones, “Is he ok?” Jones shrugged in response. He stepped forward and stood in front of Adam. Adams face seemed to be masked in horror. His jaw had dropped, and he seemed to be staring at nothing. Jones shook him a little bit. “Yo.... yo, Adam, you alright? What’s up?”
Adams mouth opened and closed, trying to form around the invisible words escaping his grasp.
“Tha…. That’s a lot, a whole lot of money.” Adam shook himself a little bit. “Where are we gonna get that kinda cash?” He glanced questioningly around his crew.
A fourth voice in the back spoke up, “I know a guy.” The sentence seemed to hang in the air, awaiting its ending. Adam pushed Vida aside gently, and stared at Scipio. “You know a guy?” he repeated.
“Yeah, I know a guy.”
“Uh-huh, and how long have you known this guy?”
Scipio picked at his fingernails, “A while…” Adam gave up at this,
“Fine, uh… we’ll go and see Skippy’s “guy” and get us our hyper drive. Jones!” Adam turned to find Jonah having disappeared from Vida’s side.
“Yeah?”
“Wha-?” Adam spun quickly to see Jonah sitting at his station. He glanced from where Jones had last been to the station.
“Uh… just pu-“
“Already done! Were headed there now.” Adam cocked his eyebrow.
“Ooook.”
Adam sat in the pilot’s chair.
“Now,”
He swiveled in towards the window
“We go.”
And the pitiful excuse for a starship put putted faster than a sloth with gum disease, towards the not so distant planet of Taris.

Chapter a la Duo

The Shepard touched down on Taris the next day. Scipio had flown them to a large city by the name of Grandite. The four-crew members disembarked with Adam leading the way down the squat ramp, with Scipio and Vida side by side, and Jones taking the rear. Adam took a few steps from the ramp and stopped. He drew in a deep breath.
“Mmmmm…. Smell the air of Taris. The largest farm planet in the entire Collective, nothing but green grass and fresh -”
“s**t” Scipio coughed to muffle the word. Jones cackled behind them, and Adam cast them both an angry glare.
“Ok Scip, lead the way to this guy you know.”
Scipio took the lead, and began walking. The others walked behind him, and were awed at the wondrous smells and buildings. Taris was a bustling planet. Being the largest farm planet, it was constantly exporting and importing all sorts of creatures. Unlike earth 70% of the planet was fertile grass, and the other thirty, fresh pure water. As the trio followed Scipio they marveled at the interesting structures. Grandite was the most industrial city they had seen. The buildings were hundreds, if not thousands of stories tall, and they reached farther into the sky than they should of. The buildings all seemed to be the same color, and only separated by the large signs on the front signifying the section and building number. The crew wasn’t nearly as interested in the architecture though, as they were in the events going on at ground level. It seemed every inch of the ground was moving. People were hurrying to and fro, and along the sides vendors were trying to sell their seductively tasty treats. Adam was amazed at the colors. Banners stretched from one side of the street to the other, green and blue, and orange with gold streaks on the intersections. It looked as though there was an ongoing fiesta in Gandite. After another half hour of walking Scipio finally stopped. He stood in front of a dark ally; occasionally a person would stop in front, and glance around quickly before hurrying in.
“What, you gotta take a leak or something?” Adam questioned Scipio
“No, this is the place, he’s in there, just go inside and ask for Rodriquez.”
Adam looked frightened. “Me? Why me?”
Scipio gave him a hearty look. “Because you’re the Captain, you make the decisions.” Scipio glanced at the ally again, an as an after thought added, “and because I’m not keen on getting killed.” With that, Scipio turned his well-muscled arms onto Adam, and pushed him inside the dark ally.
As he entered everything went black. Adam tried to turn around, but found that the entrance had gone. Instead, in its place was the cold silence of the dark. Adam stood, trying not to scream, his mind was trying to figure out which way was up.
“Hello there.” Came a raspy voice.
He was caught in mid thought; he jumped and let out a yelp.
“There, there. It’s ok I wont hurt you. Tell me who you are looking for.”
“I… I…. Maybe…. I just… if you could….”
“Out with it!” the voice said in as close as you could get to a yell while whispering.
“Rodriguez!” Adam spat the name out.
“Mmmmm…. Ok, one moment.” Adam could hear as the voice disappeared into the dark.
Again Adam stood in the dark, a feeling of being watched slowly crept over him. He could have sworn he had seen two red eyes peering at him to his left. Well, he thought it was his left, it could have been up.
This time, when the voice came he was ready.
“ahhhh…. Mr. Higgins, what is it I can do for you?” the voice was smooth. Adam felt like he was talking to a cup of well-blended coffee.
“We need a job. Uh, hopefully one that pays about 500,000.”
Adam waited; he heard some shuffling of papers. Then Rodriguez spoke again.
“It seems like your lucky day Mr. Higgins I have two jobs needing doing. What kind of ship do you own?”
“I… uh…. we have a simple trade ship.”
“Mmmm…. Ok, I have a delivery I need made. It has to be done by a third party.
“Sure, sure. We can do deliveries, just show us where.”
“I shall have a few of my men deliver the goods to your ship, they will leave instructions as well. You will be paid upon delivery.” With that Adam was thrown back into the cold silence. Adam, now unsure what to do decided to try and end the conversation in a friendly tone.
“OK, well, I’ll just be seeing you then.” With that, he gave his best smile, but, realizing he was in total darkness, stopped. He then turned around as best he could, and stumbled back outside.
“Adam!” Vida’s voice was the first to reach him. He turned to see his friends standing out front. Adam waked carefully over to them, waiting to get his bearings back.
“So?” Scipio inquired
“Yeah, we got the job, we’ve got to deliver some stuff.”
“Sweet!” Jones and Scipio turned to each other and gave each other a high five.
Vida looked at Adam curiously.
“What stuff?”
“Uhhhh…. Hmmm…. You know, now that I come to think of it, he never did tell me.”
Vida scoffed, “Sounds pretty suspicious to me.”
“Don’t worry V, it’s probably a crap load of sugar, or tea leaves.”
Vida shook her head. She hated working with men.


The Runabout

The crew arrived back at the Shepard. Adam found a note attached to the inside of he windshield. He spent a minute to look at it. He read it over, and then picked up a small sack next to it. He turned to the crew.
“Says here, we’ve got two crates of whatever this stuff is.” He indicated the bag with a little shake.
“It also says, he gave us some to enjoy. Hmmmm….” Adam opened up the small bag. He turned to the crew and laughed.
“Look, its just sugar, see! What did I tell you V? Nothing to worry about.” Adam laughed again and shook his head. He pocketed the bag and strode over to Scipio.
“Here Scip, put in these coordinates. We’re supposed to meet a hip here and transport the stuff.” Scipio typed in the numbers and a purple waypoint lit up the screen.
“We’re good to go.” He turned to Adam and gave him the thumbs up.
Adam turned to Vida.
“V, why don’t you take the ship out? I’m gonna make me some java.” Adam walked past Jones and opened a small hatch Seconds later he had disappeared into the storeroom.
Vida took the controls, and turned on the engines. She eased the ship up, and began flying towards the closest docking ring. Vida set the ship on auto and swiveled around in the pilot’s chair. She stopped as she eyes a familiar control. It was the same one she had seen when she had first come onto this ship over a year ago. She leaned forward, and studied it. It really did look like a toaster. But she was sure that they had used it to make something else.
“Hey Scip!”
“Huh?”
“C’mere a sec.” Vida heard the squeaking of his chair as he rose out of it. Vida pointed at the object,
“What is that?”
Scipio followed her pointing finger.
“Oh, that’s our engine temperance generator, makes sure the voltage from the engine doesn’t overload.”
Vida nodded.
“Thanks Scip.” Scipio stood there, staring at Vida; he looked at the device, and back to Vida. She turned to him.
“What?”
“You think I’m serious? That’s a freaking toaster! Me and Adam used to get hungry on long trips, so we put a toaster in the front so we don’t have to wa-”
There was a crackle over the radio, and then a strong male voice came over the speaker.
“This is Delta Echo Zeta Beta Charlie Alpha Gamma Reno Saber Foxtrot Romeo Zulu 9 to Trader eleventeen dash one five one.” The crew heard some scuffling in the background.
“Eleventeen, what the hell is eleventeen?”
“Just wanted to see if they notice, just play along. Oh, damnit, is this thing still on?”
“Uh Trader eleventeen dash one five one, come in this is Delta Echo Zeta Beta Charlie Alpha Gamma Reno Saber Foxtrot Romeo Zulu 9.”
Vida sighed,
“Yeah, don’t worry guys, you don’t do anything, just sit there and let me do all the work!” sarcasm dripped from her voice.
“Thanks babe!” was the lone reply from Scipio.
“Uh hello?” Vida spoke into the radio hanging from the ceiling.
There was a crackle, then….
“Oh man, it’s a chick!” spoke the first voice
“Don’t blow it, be cool” said the second
Another crackle.
“Ahem… uh this is Delta Echo Zeta Be-“
“Yeah, we heard.” Vida interjected before he could finish.
“Right….” Said the man “So, this is a random inspection, am I speaking to the captain?”
“No, hold on one second” She turned around. Adam wasn’t on deck. He must still be down below.
“Adam!” there was no reply “Hey Adam!” Vida yelled even louder. “Will one of you guys get Adam?”
Scipio got up and walked over to the hatch. He knocked on the trap door,
“Rise and shine Capn. We got company.” Scipio opened the hatch.
“Whatever your doing in there you had better wrap up, I’m coming down and I hope I don’t see anything fleshy.” Vida tapped her foot impatiently. She waited for Scipio to emerge from the trapdoor.
“Oh s**t, something’s wrong with Adam!” Vida’s head snapped around towards the open trap door, and she began walking towards it when another radio message came in.
“This is Delta Echo Ze-”
Vida snatched the radio off the hook and screamed into it.
“What in gods name do you want? We have problem here!” Vida heard a whispered voice over the radio say,
“Smooooth, your never gonna get any girls like that!.”
The man's voice came on again.
“Yes mam, but we have a problem also. It seems you are carrying an illegal substance.” Vida’s eyes opened in shock.
“Illegal? What do you mean? All we have is sugar!”
“No, actually what you have is two million credits in Moon Dust. It looks like sugar, but it’s actually a very powerful narcotic.”
“Oh god…” The radio slipped from Vida’s hands.
“Yeah…. So, were gonna have to take you in. Maybe ask some questions. And poke around a little and may-“ Vida wasn’t listening any more. She ran to the trap door and slid down the ladder to the storeroom. Two lights on either side lighted the dark musty room; the space was cramped, and held two crates and a small counter with a coffee machine, and an embedded Naturalizer. Vida saw Scipio kneeling besides Adam who was slumped on the floor.
“Scip!”
His head turned to see her.
“V, I dunno what wrong with him!”
“I do, that stuff they gave us, its not sugar. It’s Moon Dust.”
Scipio’s face froze.
“Moon Dust?” he repeated. Vida nodded. She stood up, and saw the half open bag Adam had been looking at earlier. Then she saw the cup of coffee completely drained. She picked up the mug and looked inside, sure enough there was little specks of angel white Moon Dust inside.
Scipio looked at the mug Vida was holding.
“He didn’t…”
Vida turned to him and nodded.
“C’mon lets get him on deck” Vida hoisted up Adam and Scipio clambered up the ladder to pull him up. As she limped her way over to the ladder she tried talking to Adam.
“Hey, Adam, you in there? We’re taking you up to the bridge. Don’t worry, it’s gonna be oka-“
Adam’s head rolled over to her direction. And his eyes opened. He focused on Vida.
“Whos-a pretty lady? You new? I don’t think I gave you those coconuts!”
Vida scrunched her face in confusion.
“Uhhh... Adam what are you tal-”
Adam brought a single finger to his nose.
“Shhhhh….” He looked behind him and turned back to Vida.
“Tell… tell the squirrel…. That the ostrich is in the other hand.”
Vida wasn’t sure what was going on, but never the less she had made it too the ladder. She put Adams arms up, and felt as Scipio grabbed them and pulled him up. When Vida had climbed up she saw Adam lying on the ground with Scipio putting a wet cloth over his head. Adam was muttering about fascist chickens carrying gray buckets. She walked over to the captain’s seat and found Jones sitting in it. He was staring intently at the large Police ship in front of the window.
“Jones? Wha-”
Before she could say anymore she was lifted off her feet as the ship dropped.



Chasing The Shepard


Vida struggled and strapped herself in the copilots seat. She looked back at Scipio and Adam. Scipio managed to strap himself in, but Adam was still lying on the floor. Scipio looked at Vida and shrugged. Vida turned her attention back to the window in time to see a 4 million ton building fly by the window. The Shepard was flying through the city of Grandite, swerving around lampposts and colored banners, narrowly missing most certain death.

The Shepard was in full throttle. And behind it sped twenty police cruisers. The gray buildings flashed past as the speed increased. Jones turned the ship hard right and sped down another street. Vida felt the tug of g-forces straining against her seatbelt. And she nearly cried as she saw they were speeding along the side of a very large, and not so flat building. The side of the building was dotted with satellite dishes, and open windows. Yet, Jones managed to avoid every one, although the same couldn’t be said for the cruisers behind them. Vida watched the rear view as a burning pile of molten metal went streaming strait for the ground. Jones then rocked the ship into a strait climb.
Vida watched in horrified fascination as hundreds of levels flashed past in seconds, and before she knew it, there was nothing but blue sky. The Shepard had flown out over the hundreds of buildings, but the climb had taken its toll. The engines cut, and the ship stalled in mid air. Vida felt herself float for a few seconds. Then came the gut wrenching force as gravity remembered it place. She felt her head being pressed into the back of the seat and could only watch in horror as a single gray building came speeding towards them. Jones adjusted the ship to aim for a single tiny patch of blue. Vida looked at Jones, and saw his knuckles had turned white from thee pressure, but still he held the ship strait. As they neared Vida saw what Jones had aimed at, a single pane of glass lay in the middle of the top of the building. Vida could see a few people staring at the ship as it came plummeting towards them. Vida turned her head and tried to scream at Jones, but her words were caught in the back of her throat, so instead, she screamed in her mind.
The crash of glass was deafening. Vida also hoped it was blinding, but was horrified to find that she could still see. She felt each crunch as they tore through hundreds of glass panels, all set perfectly in line. Vida turned to Jones to see a face just as amazed as she was.
“I really hadn’t expected this to happen.” He flinched as another loud clash signified another window. “I had actually expected the engines to come back on before we hit the building.” He smiled sheepishly. Jones was furiously pushing the “On” button. Vida glanced out the window and caught the number 4284. She looked back at Jones, and pushed the button a few times as well, then back at the numbers, 3129. She turned back to Jones,
“We’re falling really fast. I mean really fast.”
“I know!” he yelled at her. Jones pushed the button again and Vida felt as the engines roared to life. Jones thrust the throttle into full reverse and Vida felt the horrible pressure as the ship tried to reverse, and travel forward at the same time. Vida watched the numbers again, 548………..390…………261………….152……. Vida felt the ship pull to a halt. And breathed a sigh of relief. The Ship had stopped at floor 97, with the nose touching the 96th glass pane.
Jones took a breath, relieved not to be dead. He looked over to Vida, and saw her staring transfixed out the window. One of the people was waving at her, and Jones couldn’t help laugh at the comical sight. Jones slowly leveled out the Shepard and pointed it towards the glass window headed outside. Adam sat cross-legged, in the back, he had apparently not moved at all, and he seemed to be having a lengthy discussion with a banana, a mongoose, and light bulb. Vida turned to Scipio.
“Set a course for the docking ring, we need to get out of here fast.” Scipio punched in some numbers, and a purple waypoint appeared on screen. Jones pushed the throttle forward and the Shepard burst through the glass, sending colorful shards in every direction. Before the police could turn their vehicles, the Shepard had a good space between them, and was already cresting the atmosphere. The Shepard shot through layers of clouds, and gas, and burst forth, finally through the docking gate and out into open space. The three-crew members cheered, ecstatic to be free from gravity, and long drops. Scipio had already put in the new coordinates that Rodriguez had given them, and Jones flew them off in search of the mystery ship.

As the Shepard arrived at the coordinates, the crew was surprised to find no one waiting for them.
“Where are they? Should they be here?” Scipio said as he searched the map.
Vida re-read the note. “It doesn’t give a time, so I suppose we wait.”
Jones stared out the window. He was good at staring, it required little work, it was his kind of job. It was while he was staring that he noticed a piece of space flash. He turned to Vida; obviously she had seen it too.
“Did that piece of space just disappear and reappear?” she asked.
Jones looked even harder, “Hmmm… I don’t know, but it certainly loo-… Holy Jesus!!”
Out of nothing had appeared a Mammoth, a rare species of ship, held only by the filthy rich. Jones stared; he was flabbergasted, never had he laid eyes on such a magnificent, beautiful ship. It was sleek, and completely black. There was no way to tell which was the front, and which was the back.
“Damn thing was cloaked!” Proclaimed Scipio
“Yeah, a little too late Scip, thanks for trying.” Replied Jones
Jones watched as something moved on the ships surface. Something was coming out, he realized. And he could do nothing but watch. A large round black base appeared, and out of the center a long cylindrical pipe emerged. It turned so that the pipe was pointed towards the Shepard, and then Jones realized what it was.


A Secret Delivery


Adam wasn’t sure what was going on. Last he knew he had been sipping his coffee in the break room, and now he could of sworn he had been having tea with a large banana. Adam was staring at Scipio who was strapped into his seat. He groggily tried to rise from his feet.
“Hey Scip What’s going on? Vida didn’t knock me out again did she?”
Scipio looked at Adam startled, “Uh, no not this time. Turns out that this sugar we got, isn’t so sweet.” Scipio retold Adam the previous events. And as he got further into the story, Adams eyes became larger and larger. When Scipio had finished retelling the story Adam sat for a second. Then turned to shout at Jones.
“Jones! Did you really fly the Shepard into a building?” Jones turned his head, and nodded at Adam.
“Uh, yeah I did, but I think we have a bigger proble-”
Adam interrupted Scipio.
“Was that really Moon Sugar?”
Jones sighed, “Yes, it was, but look here, we go-”
Adam interrupted him again.
“Did I really call Vida pretty?” Scipio laughed as Vida swiveled in her chair and shot Adam her dirtiest look yet.
“Well,” she began. “If you had been conscious for the past five minutes, you would have seen the giant gun pointing at our ship.”
She smirked.
“But instead you were having tea with a giant banana!”
“Hey, he was friendly, and filled with sweet, sweet fruit.” Adam’s voice seemed to trail off at the thought of the banana.
“Adam, Adam, look… look here.” Scipio snapped his fingers in front of Adam.
“Right, sorry about that. So…. What about this giant gun?”
Vida turned to Adam again.
“Well, why don’t you come and have a look.”
Adam made his way to the co-pilots seat. He sat down and swiveled it around. He sat there for a few seconds. None of the crew could see his face. Slowly the chair swiveled around again. Adam’s eye was twitching, and his face had gone pale.
“tha… tha…. Tha…” Adam stuttered.
“That’s… that’s a big ******** gun.”
“We know.” Scipio gave a half heartened grin.
Vida walked to the co-pilots seat and gently lifted Adam out. She handed him to Scipio.
“Lay him on the floor.” She gave him a meaningful look. I’m gonna try talking to them.”
Vida turned to the radio console.
“Uh hello?”
There was silence as the crew waited.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT?” the sudden answer had them all jumping.
Vida was the first to recover, she always was. She spoke again into the radio.
“We…. We were sent here to deliver some crates.”
The crew waited. They were half expecting to be blown to pieces.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry. We thought you were undercover police. You must be the third party Rodriguez sent.” The voice had completely changed. It had gone from being deep and booming, to a simple nasally whining.
Vida spoke again. “Yeah, so well just transport the goods, and if you could also send us our payment?”
Again a moment of silence lapsed.
“Of course, 250,000 credits. Thank you for doing business. We’ll teleport the goods straight from your cargo hold.” Before Vida could protest the Mammoth had disappeared into the stars. Vida turned around, and leaned on the control console.
“250?” She sounded exasperated. “We were supposed to get 500! What are we gonna do?”
Scipio jumped up. “What? They just gypped us!” Scipio ran to his station. Seconds later a lance of bright light streaked off into space.
“You bastards! Get back here and give us our money!” Adam who had by now recovered placed a hand on Scipio’s shoulder.
“It’s too late Scip, they’re gone.”
Scipio slumped in his chair. He turned his head to look at Adam.
“Where the hell are we gonna get 250 thousand more credits?”
Adam shrugged his shoulders.
“Maybe we weren’t supposed to goto Erandor.” Adam thought aloud. Then his voice became quite. “Maybe I was never supposed to find her…..”




A Change of Heart


Just about now, that lone box, named Socks. Was flying through the galaxy at hundreds of thousands of miles an hour. But, compared to the amount of space contained inside space. It was going nowhere, very, very fast. Fortunately for it, a lone scientist had been peering through his telescope. He had happened to see this small box, and was amazed at his discovery. He is now watching this with interest.
Jones, who on the other hand, the crew of the Shepard was now thinking hard. It seemed they had been scammed, and were now 250,000 credits short of freedom. The three of them sat and thought deeply. They had all decided, not ten minutes before, that since they had already come half way, they should finish the journey, had gone back to sleep when the mammoth appeared and had missed the last thirty minutes of exciting dialogue was suddenly awakened with a brilliant idea.
“We can gamble!” The crew looked at Jonah.
Vida was the first to speak.
“Gamble? That’s crazy! We’ll just get a couple of jobs, within a couple of months we should have enough as long as we keep spending to a minimum.”
Jonah looked at Vida as if she was crazy.
“A couple months? Are you crazy! If we gamble, we can be there by the end of next week.”
Vida gave Jones her best motherly look.
“Obviously you’ve forgot about the down side to gambling, we could lose all our money!”
“Pssssshhh… Nah, that can’t happen, not if we play Zoggar.”
“Zoggar?” Adam had perked up. “Oh no, no no no.” Adam backed away from Jonah.
Jonah smiled.
“I remember he was telling me about his home planet. Adam was second place world champion in Zoggar.”
Vida turned from Jonah to Adam.
“You? A Champion?”
“Look, I played once, and now I stopped. I stopped doing that a long time ago.” Adam, for some strange reason had a look of terror on his face.
“Well, he would have been first, but there… there was an accident. But that’s beside the point. Look, let’s go, I know where they have a Gambling station. Its called Rombulous.”
Vida had that itch, she could feel that something was going to go wrong.
“Huh, fine. If you want to lose all this money go ahead. I’ll be there to laugh as you fail miserably.” Vida pouted. “Does no one ever listen to me?”
Jones looked at her. “Well, thanks for all your support! I at least hoped you wouldn’t start nagging us until we actually lost the money.”
Jonah turned back to Adam.
“So what do you think Capn?”
Adam cast his eyes across the others. Sometimes he hated being the decision maker. He hated pressure. As he came upon Vida’s face he couldn’t meet her eyes.
“Yeah, we’ll go.”




What The Hell is Zoggar?


Adam and Vida were sitting on the floor near the back of the Shepard. Adam was patiently explaining to Vida the dynamics of the game, as the two other men watch in amusement.
“What the hell is a Zorf?”
“A Zorf lets the player gain an extra turn. But, only before you switch hands and fold down two cards, or else you would actually lose a turn.”
Vida really wasn’t sure what Adam was talking about. Everything sounded like it was made up. Apparently, the goal of the game was to get the Squid, into the pot, and apparently the squid was a pair of cards marked with damp tennis shoes. When both squids were placed in the pile, it was up to the rest of the players to find corresponding numbers. The one who found the corresponding number would throw their hand of cards into the air and gain a Zorf. The Zorf would allow them to move an extra turn, unless as just said, they had already folded down two cards, in which case the Zorf would take a turn. But, if the Zorf was used correctly, this would allow for the player too place a Bzinger in the pile. The Bzinger would allow the player to switch two random cards from any player one wished. But… the catch would be the player wouldn’t know what card they would be getting in return. The Bzinger would be placed in the treasure card pile and await the next person to roll a 4 and a 1. Ultimately the point was to capture the other player’s matches, and pair them up. When they gained more than five matches they had to they would gain a squid. At the end of the game the player with the most squids in the pot would win the money. But, if the player did not call “Zoggar” when turning in a squid to the pot, and one of the opposing players noticed this fact, the other player could place the squid in the pot for themselves, and take out two of the opposing players squids. That is the game of Zoggar, in its simplest form.
Even after rolling over the game in her head several times she felt lost. It all made no sense to her. She could sense a headache creeping over her and she decided to stop while she was ahead.
“So, V, do you understand now? That’s about as simple as I can put it.”
Vida gave him her best smile.
“Sure, sure, it’s easy. You just put the cards into the middle pile, and you can place down different cards with different powers. Like reverse, or choose a color. Then when you’re down to your last card you slap it down and yell “Uno!”” She smiled happily at Adam. But he wasn’t smiling back. Instead, he sighed.
“Don’t go making up dumb card games. If you didn’t want to learn how to do it you could of just said.”
“I did say I didn’t want to learn it, but you kept on telling me that it was really interesting. So I gave it a chance, and now I know its horrible. So leave me alone.”
Scipio appeared by Adam’s side.
“Hey guys, we’re here. Anyone who’s coming, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Vida shook her head.
“Awww… V, you don’t wanna go?”
Vida looked at Scipio
“What I don’t want to do is watch you pour your money on some hopeless game. I mean what kind of imbeciles go an was-…… Oh my… is that Rombulous?”
Scipio looked at where Vida was looking. Outside the windshield a bright light eliminated space. Lights flashed and signs moved in tune to music. Vida was amazed at the sheer brilliance of the Sign. It read, in large Indigo letters. “Welcome To Rombulous” the letters were constantly flashing and changing colors. Vida felt like a deer in headlights. No matter what she did she couldn’t draw he stare away from the enticing light. Blue and red and green and orange, the lights never seemed to die.
Scipio watched Vida for a moment.
“Right then, we’ll just be off, just enjoy those lights V. We’ll be back in a moment.”
But Vida wasn’t paying him any attention. And with a soft hiss the door closed around the three men, leaving Vida to be hypnotized.
Vida wasn’t sure what time it was, or how, or when, she had fallen asleep. But apparently she had. And when she awoke it was to the solemn face of Adam.
“Hey V, I’m sorry…”
Vida gained her composer and looked at the other two men. They both had the same somber expression. She placed a lone hand over her mouth.
“You…. You didn’t…” Vida searched their faces.
“I…. I’m sorry V…” Adam’s voice dropped.
Vida looked at the floor at the shuttle.
“Well, I don’t suppose you’ll listen to me next time.”
When she looked up she saw three grinning faces.
“I’m sorry that you’re wrong V!” Adam fell over laughing. And Jones threw a large stuffed duffel bag towards Vida. Vida looked in amazement at the boys. She slowly opened the zipped to the bag and stifled a scream. Inside the duffle bag lay 5000 blue 100-credit bills. Vida pulled her hand away from her mouth and screamed.
“You guys are such jerks! How could you do that to me?” She screamed at Adam and gave him a push. She had tears running down her face.
The day never seemed more perfect.






A Trip To Erandor


A week had past since that day at Rombulous. The crew had swept down onto Taris, and bought the hyper drive before they could be ID’d by the police. They spent three days in space watching Vida install the complex device. On the fourth Vida emerged oil stained, and covered in cat urine.
Scipio sniffed the air.
“Was there a cat in there?” Vida gave him a death stare. “All right…. All right… I’ll just drop it shall I?
Vida turned to Adam.
“Well, the hyper drive should work. So why don’t you go ahead and start her up, I’ll go and take a wash. And don’t tell Jones or Scip, they might “accidentally” wander in, and we certainly don’t want any “accidental” concussions.”
Adam nodded to her and turned his attention to the control panel. He drew up a screen and saw a new bar indicating the state of the hyper drive.
“Scip, Jones, get in here!” Adam heard the shuffling of feet.
Jones and Scipio stood on each side. Scipio tapped Adam on the shoulder.
“Did you know that Vida is taking a shower right now?”
“Uh, yeah. She said to keep out or she’ll kick your a**. Anyway, Scip can you punch in the coordinates for Erandor?”
“Sure thing capn.” Scipio waddled to his station and punched in the coordinates. Adam turned to his left where Jones was standing.
“Uh, Jones, can you check the maps for any maj-….” Adam looked around the small front cabin for him. “Jones?”
Adam looked at Scipio who shrugged in response. Just then a ruckus broke out from beneath the trap door, which Adam now realized was open.
“JONES!” Came the shrill cry of Vida.
“What? Oh, sorry Vida, I didn’t know you were taking a shower.”
Adam counted down in his head ‘….3….2….1….SLAP.’
The sound resounded around the ship, and Adam grimaced at the noise. Moments later Jones came crawling up the ladder with a large soapy handprint on his cheek. His arm was half wet, and he had a wiry smile on his lips.
“Was it worth it?” Adam asked.
“If only you knew….” And Jonah sat down at his station, dripping water all the way.
“Hyper drive is turning on now. Brace yourself.” Scipio called out.
Adam jumped into the captain’s seat and strapped himself in; the others did the same. Alright, thought Adam, were all set, all three of us….. wait… three? Oh no!
As the hyper drive kicked in Adam was thrown against his seat. He felt the pressure against whole body, as though he were being sucked through a straw. Somewhere in the back of his mind he faintly registered the scream belonging to Vida, who was no doubt having the worst shower in history. Moments later the feeling of being sucked through a tiny tube had vanished, and in front of them floated a planet. Though this planet was no beauty. Although it should have had orange skies, and blue grass, the planet was desolate. Adam could see the ruin from thousands of miles in space; it must of looked even worse up close. Adam could see that that everyone on the planet was either dead, or had evacuated. Apparently the planet had been hit by more than one meteor. Its whole entire east hemisphere was pockmarked like the side of the Shepard. The blue grass had gone to a dead black. And the once orange sky had dissipated and left only the dank pollution from fires and any debris.
Vida had come up from the trap door looking very annoyed, and rather ticked off.
“What the hell what that?” She demanded, her icy voice killed any other emotion in the room. And her cold stare stopped the hearts of the men.
“Well… uh… you see… the uh, the hyper… hyper thingy…. It came on and….. lots of shaking…. Defiantly lots of shaking…..” The two other men nodded at Adams shaky statement. Vida was shooting knives with her eyes.
“Did any of you guys think, that maybe telling me, or even shouting it just loud enough so I could hear, was a good idea?”
Jones felt the pinpricks from her icy glare as she passed it over all the men.
“I am going down to change, and if anyone of you thinks about taking a peek, I will stick their head so far up their a**, they’ll be eating s**t for the next two weeks. Is…that…clear?” The three men nodded hastily. Vida whipped the hair out of her face and descended the ladder once more. The men could feel the heat slowly and cautiously entering back into the room. Neither of them talked until Vida came back up again.
“Uhhh…. Vida, this is Erandor.” Adam pointed out the window.
Vida nodded. She had apparently gotten a hold of herself while she had been down there. The three men had heard her cursing, and swearing the entire time she had been changing. Scipio could have sworn that there was a very hand like looking dent in the metal floor.
“So where’s is this thing your looking for?” Vida asked in a disturbingly calm voice.
“It’s not so much of a thing…. As much as it is a person.” Adam looked sheepishly.
“Oh?” Vida seemed intrigued. “Was she your one true love? I bet you two were madly in love, but you left the planet in search of fame and fortune, and she has been awaiting your return since. Am I right?” She looked at the three men. “What?”
“Vida, you read way too many romance books.” Scipio snickered at Adams answer.
But an icy glare from Vida shut him up quickly.
“Who then?”
“My sister”
There was a trio of gasps.
“You have a sister?”
“Yeah, well, not technically. She’s like a sister to me. She was an orphan on Erandor. I found her scrounging around through my trashcan. Her name was Abella. I was going to take her to one of the orphanages, but she told me she had runaway from there, and that she didn’t want to go back. So I took her in. I worked, and she went to school. She was a bright kid. But when I left three years ago, she was only fifteen. They found that I was living on a Trader’s License and they booted me off the planet. Before I could explain the situation with me and Abella, they had shipped her off to another orphanage.”
Vida was looking at Adam, and for the first time, he realized how blue her eyes were.
“You know, she had the same eyes as you do.”
Vida blinked and seemed to catch herself.
“Why do you keep talking about her in the past tense.”
Adam Shrugged.
“I don’t know where she is. I don’t think ill ever see her again.”
Vida’s eyes slowly left Adams face and made their way too the window.
“It’s horrible what happened to the planet.” She whispered. Only Adam heard her. He had gotten the feeling that only she had wanted him too.
“Well, while you two were having a moment, I was making some calls. As it would turn out, all the survivors were moved to a nearby space station.” Vida and Adam turned to see Scipio holding a data pad. Looking at the duo. Adam took the data pad from Scipio’s hand and looked at it.
Scipio Smirked.
“So, do you want to sit here? Or do you want to find your sister?”
Adam nodded at Scipio and jumped into the pilot’s seat. Vida stood next to him as the ship lurched to life.
Only she saw the crystal tears falling from his eyes



Another Interruption



Adam was still staring out the window, with Vida sitting in the Co-pilots seat next to him. They were talking to each other quietly as the two men in the back nudged each other and exchanged winks. The space station holding the survivors was not that far away, only a days ride, which would have them arrive by morning.
Unfortunately, the crew of the Shepard passed by a nebulous Cloud, a large gaseous cloud made from Space Hippo excrement. In this cloud hid the notorious pirate Henri Pickle. He sighed; he had been sitting here for the past two weeks waiting for someone to turn up. He had been sitting in this pile of Space Hippo crap for too long, and was having a hard time getting the smell out of his clothes. His head was dangling, and his eyes were drooping, he was on the verge of sleep. The noxious smell of the Space Hippo had a strong kick to it, a kick which rendered normal men unconscious, but Henri, having been there for over two weeks, could be considered superior. There was a blip on his radar. His head jerked, and he mumbled.
“Is zees for you …. No, you shoosh pud dat in zee cuboard…” he had a very thick French accent.
Another blip dotted the radar. He opened one eye. He wasn’t sure if what he had just thought he had seen was true. The blip appeared again, and then became a steady dot, moving slowly across the circular screen. He jumped in his char. Finally he had his chance, and he wasn’t going to waste a single minute. He started up the engine to his sleek ship. It looked very much like an eagle, only painted black with fire caressing the wings, which were drawn back in the standard position. The triangular cockpit sat in the front followed by the slender body and two large thrusters slowly powering up. The Small silky ship began moving forward, slowly gaining speed.
Vida was the last to retire. She had been looking over the knobs, and screens, making sure everything was fine before she bedded down for a couple hours. Assured that all systems were ok she made her way to the back of the ship where the three men were sleeping peacefully. She smiled; it was times like this she truly enjoyed. She went to fetch the sleeping bag, which Scipio had brought out hours earlier for her, and she stopped as her eyes grazed Adam. She stopped at his face, and stood for a minute staring at him. She was unaware of a slight blipping in the back of her mind. She leaned closer in.
‘He really is pretty cute.’ She thought to herself.
Before she could advance with her thoughts a voice came over the radio.
“Ello, ‘ah am Henri Pickle, zee notorious space peerahte. Eef you would az be so kind az to surrender zee goodz, ‘ah shall be on my way!”
Adam rocketed to a sitting position; he looked up and was startled to see Vida’s face not five inches from his own. She blushed and turned away. Adam looked at her curiously, but shook his head and recovered himself.
“Waz goin’ on?” he asked still a little bit groggy “Who waz dat French guy?”
Vida turned around, and could still see a hint of red on her cheeks. She didn’t meet his eyes as she spoke.
“He says he’s a space pirate. I dunno, why don’t you ask him?”
Adam struggled out of his sleeping bag and ran to the radio. He grasped it and thought for a long second before replying.
“What?”
“’Ah am ze Notorias Space peeraht Henri Pickle. Drop all zee cargo and ‘ah shall spare youah lives ” Henri waited for a reply. He could hear whispering.
“What? Did he say he’s a parrot? Sounds a little nutty to me.” Came the semi-groggy voice that first spoke.
“No you idiot, he said he’s a space Pirate.”
“Oh…” there was silence for a few more seconds then the voice of the man came on again.
“Uh, sorry but we don’t want any.”
Henri heard the *click* that signaled the end to any voice transmission. He could feel the anger boiling inside him. He pushed a few buttons and felt as his ship turned to face the small trade ship. An array of weapons had appeared on every single spare portion of his ship.
“Ummmm… Adam, apparently he has us targeted.” Vida spoke to Adam, who was still the only one awake.
“How can you tell? We don’t have any of that stuff that tells us that.”
“Well, you see, my first guess was the mass of guns that are aimed at us. And the second was this message he sent us. I can’t really read it, its in French, but it looks pretty angry, see he put a sad smiley face.”
She pointed a finger at the little arrangement of symbols. Adam nodded knowingly. He gave a shrug,
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to call him back.” Adam picked up the radio and called out in the general speak.
“Mr. Pickle?”
“Wee?”
“What are you selling again?”
“’Ah am not zelling anything! ‘Ah am ordering you to drop zee cargo!”
“Ah…. Well, I’m sorry, but that costs too much. Thank you, have a nice day.”
Vida stared at Adam in amazement. Adam gave her a happy smile.
“See, now we can go back to sleep. The trick is not to fall under their hypnotism. They try to guilt you into buying stuff.” Adam yawned and he fell to the floor snoring.
‘Oh god… He’s gonna kill us.’ Vida thought as she turned to watch her fate from the windshield.
Henri was in a real bind. This had never happened before. Well, then again he had never pirated anyone before. But still, he didn’t know what to do now. See the problem was, that after buying the immense amount of weapons that would pop fashionably out of his ship, it took every last cent he had. What he had completely forgotten about was the fact that these weapons were powered by one type of ammunition or another. So here he was with 17 different weapons, and none of them that could shoot.
Vida had closed her eyes, and found something to be seriously wrong when there was no loud explosion, or heavy pain befalling her. She opened her eyes to see the space ship floating in front of her in the same position it had before. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. She picked up the radio and talked into it.
“Uh, Mr…… mr…. Mr. Space Pirate French man, are you going to be killing us? Because this is taking a lot longer than I thought.”
“Ah, yezz, ah, one moment por please, I am just…. Le condamner de dieu, comment aurais-je pu oublier d'obtenir des munitions ? Quel l'enfer a-t-il tort avec moi ? Je quel suis gonna fait, oh dieu, j'espère qu'ils ont mis me comprennent !”
Vida stepped back from the machine as the stream of French came rolling out.
“Ohkay, you see zees guns? I shall shoot you if you do not cohoperate viz me.”
Vida decided to take a gamble, and put on her strongest voice.
“Go ahead, and shoot us. I dare you.”
“ ’Ah… well I shall. Just…..”Pour le bien de christ, comment je pourrait d'a été montré plus malin que par cette femme ? J'espère qu'elle brûle dans les fosses ardentes de Singapour, et les canards la mangent comme si elle était le poisson fraîche !”
Vida smiled at her victory.
“Look…” the voice had suddenly changed. It was replaced by a rough voiced, it sounded as though his voice was being lightly dragged kicking and screaming across a cheese grater.
“Just drop your goods, or we will ope-”
Vida had hung up the radio. Ten minutes later she was curled up in her sleeping blanket. She was feeling the soft nudge of exhaustion, and she welcomed it with open arms.
BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Vida shot up.
“What the hell is that noise?”
BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Vida looked at the boys, but they were sleeping straight through the horrible sound.
BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
“What the hell is that?” Only the blaring high-pitched sound greeted her.
BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
She stomped to the windshield to see the pirate ship still floating in space, the noise seemed to be coming from them.
BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Vida grabbed the radio, “What are you doing?”
“Eef you doo not hand over zee goos, we will… we vill….” The French man trailed off.
“We’ll lay on this horn all night, you wont be able to sleep for a single minute!” The second man interjected for his foreign friend. Vida really hated the stupidity of some people.
“You know, if it’s that loud over here, it must be deafening over there.” Vida smiled.
“Pleeze, jus’ ‘and ova dee goos, and we can all go ‘ome. Wee?”
Vida shook her head. She walked to Scipio’s station. She picked up the small radio attached to the station board.
“You know, we have weapons that actually work.” Vida heard hurried discussion.
“We don’t believe you. That’s a trader, they don’t carry weapons.”
She laughed into the radio, and swung the turret so that it faced the pirates.
“Believe me now?”
“It’s merely for show, just hand over the goods.” The voice sounded shakier than before. Vida sighed. She pulled the trigger and a red lance of light lashed out towards the pirate ship. In less than a millisecond it was gone, and the pirate ship had a smoking wing.
“Ok, we’ll let you off with a warning, but next time you wont be so lucky, next time yo-”
Vida cut him off by turning off the radio.
She really, really, hated men.