Light Transport 35-a
One light-hour from UN colonized territory
CAPTAIN ERA CONRAD
My ship's proximity alarm blared in my ear as I brought it up alongside the disabled vessel. The vessel, a civilian freighter, had lost all flight controls and was rolling to its starboard side, though who could really tell which way was up so far out in the black? I silenced the alarm with a swipe of my front panel and extended the umbilicus. I'd done this maneuver a thousand times, in and out of simulations, and knew better than my ship's stupid sensors what was too close. When you'd been boarding ships as long as I had, you could almost feel the distance in your bones.
"Front seal is good. Pressurizing umbilicus." The soft female voice of my onboard computer, Darla, was a product of my own coding. I didn't need a man's voice telling me what I already knew. I'd had enough of that in my life already.
I flipped on auto pilot and stabilizing thrusters to stop our rotation while I grabbed my go bag, checking to make sure I had an arc cutter and a plasma rifle before slipping on my boots and heading for the door. Just because sensors said no lifeforms were onboard didn't mean I needed to take any chances. I threw my pack over my shoulder, wound my dark hair up into a knot on top of my head, and deployed my envrioskin. Sensors indicated that life support had been disabled for quite some time and internal temperatures were hovering just above freezing. The latent heat radiating off the fusion core was the only thing keeping it from dipping lower. The cold I could deal with...the lack of oxygen, not so much.
"Keep her steady, Darla, and alert me immediately if anyone comes close."
"Yes, Captain. Do not be long. The fusion core is holding steady for now, but catastrophic failure is imminent."
Darla's concern made me smile as I hooked my bag around my shoulder. "I know, Darla. What I need to do won't take long."
I bounced a little in the diminished gravity of the umbilicus, my boots squishing in the soft fabric. The door to the disabled vessel was welded shut from the outside, though I had no idea why the pirates had risked taking the time to do that. But, that's what the plasma cutter was for. I took my time cutting, being careful not to hit the umbilicus. All I needed was to blow a couple thousand credits' worth of fuel getting back onto my ship after being vented into space by a careless cut. It wasn't a mistake I planned on making more than once in my life.
Less than five minutes later I was inside. "Darla, you still reading me?"
"Yes, Captain."
"I'm not seeing any bodies. Search the corporate databases for intel, please. Go deep if you have to." I secured a few tools that lay scattered on the floor as I looked for any indication as to what the pirates were after. It didn't seem like the typical MO of traffickers, but they were always changing their methods, so who knew for sure? It's not like the corporation or any governmental agency would give me any real data anyway. All they'd said was that it was safe and I didn't need a chaperone.
"The last beacon drone lost contact with the vessel four days ago. No distress signal was initiated. Passengers were located yesterday on Triton outside Research Station Delta. All but four had succumbed to the elements. Youngest casualty - six months. Oldest - fifty six. Black box transponder began transmitting this morning at 0400. Total systems failure estimated in two hours thirty-seven minutes and seventeen seconds."
My cheeks burned. There weren't many things that made me lose my grip on my temper, but kids dying was one of them. What I wouldn't give to be able to hunt down the people responsible for those deaths and make them pay for what they'd done. But that wasn't my job anymore. I was here for data, not justice.
The lack of bodies meant the only thing I'd be recovering from this wreck was information. Which was fine with me. I hated dealing with bodies. Bodies reminded me of my past and that's not where I wanted my mind to go today. Or any day for that matter. I sighed and pulled up directions to the bridge on my visor.
Even with my diminished weight in the lower gravity, the material of the pilot's seat cracked underneath me as I belted myself in. The synthetic leather didn't do so well in the cold. Neither did I, though. I shivered from the thought of it, despite the ten mil membrane covering my skin. Cold wasn't my favorite.
"Just get through this job and you'll have ten days on a sunny beach on some remote Cyr island," I whispered to myself.
"Captain," Darla asked, interrupting my musings.
