friends.”
“Well, I'm here, I don't have enough fuel to get where I'm going and I'm not far off from being flat broke,” Alice said with a shrug. “That, and I keep looking over my shoulder every time the door opens half hoping it's an old flame and half dreading the thought.”
“Well, you don't have to worry about being flat broke for long. I have something for you.”
“You mean the Company has something for me.”
“Nope, I have a job for you.”
Alice took a sip of the green concoction and nodded to herself. “That's not bad. Okay, what kind of job is it?”
“I have to get something from here to a customer who has been waiting for it for a few months.”
“You can't make the delivery on a company ship?”
“This is the kind of delivery the Company generally doesn't like,” Wendy whispered.
“The Company doesn't frown on much.”
“Well, this is something I found during a salvage and the Supervisor was happy to look the other way. They don't want any part of it.”
“Okay, I'm curious, but that doesn't mean I'll do it. You know I could do expedited courier work for a few weeks and move on.”
“You've done smuggling before, this wouldn't be any different,” Wendy coaxed quietly.
Alice had never seen her friend test the water so much in conversation. Wendy was the type to just come out with it. “I get the feeling this is. What did you find?”
“Well, this transport wrecked when one of their emitters blew in hyperspace. They couldn't have been going too fast, since only a few meters of the port side was torn up but it was enough to knock their life support and main power out. We got the emergency transmission and arrived too late. They were from the Lethis System, you know, blackout central, and too far away for us to bother reporting the casualties. We got an all clear for the salvage operation center and hauled it back.”
“The Lethis System is in blackout status for a reason. They restrict that area with so much detection gear and firepower that I don't even put wormholes through within five light years of the place. No one knows what goes on there for sure.”
“Well, I could find out.” Wendy said, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair with a smile.
“You got a database?” Alice asked excitedly, keeping her voice down.
“Yahuh, a whole active high capacity organic data block. It's not empty either.”
“That's enough storage space to take in half the Stellarnet without breaking a sweat and not many people have seen or used one.”
“I've got one and that's not the biggest find.”
“I know I shouldn't even ask, but I can't resist.”
“There are four sealed deep stasis pods the company didn't know what to do with. They couldn't destroy them, didn't want to keep records of the find, and definitely didn't want to take them into inventory.”
“People?”
“Nope, eggs.”
“What?”
“Eggs the size of your head with some kind of genetically engineered specimen inside. It has something to do with the edxi. The genetic material they used is based on them.”
Alice's jaw dropped for a moment before she caught herself and used the small control panel on the table to request some music from the bar entertainment system. “There, this way there's less chance of someone overhearing you and spouting off at the mouth, starting an intergalactic war.”
“Oh come on, we're on the edge here but we're no where near their territory.”
“The last time humans came into contact with the edxi we were classified as a viable food source.”
“Everyone knows the story of the solitary shuttle coming out of hyperspace at Daybreak Station with crazy humans inside claiming a bunch of alien lizards took all their shipmates and sent a few of them back with a warning. That's more of an urban legend, no one actually believes it.”
“Well, I'd say if there's anyone in the galaxy you don't want after you, it would be them. Everyone knows ships that go into their space don't come back out. Besides, they're more like leathery skinned half insect people from the one or two blurry images I've seen.”
“Well, there's a collector offering a lot of cash to get his hands on these. He needs the data and the stasis chambers. This one delivery would buy you enough fuel to get you half way across the galaxy in that hotrod you fly and your passengers wouldn't be any trouble.”
“How much is he paying?”
“I can give you one million and he'll fill your tanks.”
“I want the cash in advance.”
Wendy was at the same time shocked and angry. “I can't bank that.”
“You also don't have another trustworthy friend with her very own wormhole drive.”
“But you don't trust me enough to do this and take payment after?”
Alice thought for a moment. Wendy wasn't always what anyone would consider a kind person. The Company liked her as a captain because she got things done on time and on budget, not because she was a caring, nurturing person. At the same time she wasn't a common cutthroat. If she was going to go against someone they knew when and why. “Fine, just top my tanks up. I need to make sure I can make this trip in as few jumps as possible.”
“I've seen how expensive it is to fill your tanks. I can give you fifty thousand before you make the run.”
“Where is this cargo going?”
“Yuelle Varr Moon.”
“Creepy. I've heard of that place. They've used it to make horror holomovies the genuine way. Other than that it's just got a couple harvesting operations and private mansions.”
“See? You know more about the destination than I do.”
“I get a lot of time to read. Besides, I saw the Frankenstein remake they did there.”
“Any good?”
“I like the original Gene Wilder version better.”
“So you'll do it?”
“I doubt I'll find anything here that will pay better. Just tell me when I can pick up my cargo.”
“It'll take me a day or so to get it out of storage,” Wendy said with a smile that could have lit up the room.
Bunk Chatter
The first ten hours after entering hyperspace had been hectic. A lot of damage had been done to the Samson and it took the entire maintenance team to reinforce the supports around the exposed section of the ship. After that was completed several panels had to be temporarily rewired to bypass sections they wouldn't be able to access until they were out of hyperspace and able to repair the areas open to space.
While that was underway Ramirez and Stephanie's teams were doing a sweep of the larger cargo hauler. It was twice the size of the Samson and there was a group of five soldiers left aboard. They had dug in to a supply storage area near engineering and it took both Ramirez's and Stephanie's teams to overtake them. They refused to be taken captive, so the hour long firefight ended with Ramirez losing one man and one of Stephanie's newbies running ahead and stepping into a trap that nearly got her entire team killed.
Everyone was exhausted by the time the Captain ordered everyone but the watch and his First Officer to rest.
Finn laid down in his bunk, stretching his arms and legs out. His muscles were sore and it felt so good to just have a slow, long stretch. The only good thing about his bunk was that it was over two meters long. The space between his mattress and the bunk above was little more than one meter, more than enough room to roll over for him but that's about all. There were six of them in the compartment. He didn't mind so much. Everyone was still
