Mitchell's Revenge
Salvage pod, Ambleby System

Snatch completed a thoroughexternal check of the command module. His instruments and sensors locatednothing living, no life form residue, diseases or pests. He peered in throughthe heat damaged windscreen and could see nothing human or animal, living ordead. He decided they were safe to bring the module back to the Guardian Angeland strip it for parts.

The coms unit crackled to lifeinside the salvage pod. “I’m coming back up,” said Snatch. “Close scans havefound nothing, a visual check has found nothing, so we’re good to go. Let meget back on board and we can stow this for transport.”

He carefully made his way back upthe grappling cables to the pod. Once safely inside, Grabb began thecomplicated manoeuvres necessary to get the command module into the storagetray for transport. This took some time due to the size of it, and theybreathed a collective sigh of relief when it was safely stowed. They made theirway slowly back towards the Guardian Angels’ docking bay.

Bolter guided the pod into positionwhen they reached the Angel. Once they were secure and the U.S.E. commandmodule was unloaded, Snatch and Grabb began to take it apart, bit by bit. Mostof the navigation instrumentation was in one piece, as was the FTL drive thatjumped the ship from place to place. These parts were recyclable and they could usethem in the Guardian Angel.

Flex was relieved. He knew theirFTL drive was failing and had tried hard not to think about what they would dowhen it finally did. A properly functioning FTL drive was the only thing thatkept them clear of the system police, the intergalactic mafia, and otherpirates. Without it they would not last long in deep space because their weaponscapacity was limited and replaceing ammunition was even harder.

Bolter was excited by the discoveryof the cruisers’ primary chip. It would give them the details of the U.S.E.ship, where it had come from, what had happened on board to cause the crash, anda plethora of other details that would be useful to them. He plugged it into his command board andwatched the data pouring down his vid screen.

Several hours later he had areasonable picture of what had happened to Ripley’s Revenge, the first of thesophisticated intergalactic passenger cruisers built for Tigerline by UniversalStarship Enterprises. It had come from Standing Point refuelling hub in theRunalong System, which was adjacent to the Karhu system. Their nav chartsshowed the ship had made one almighty jump to reach Ambleby.

According to the data stream therewere three crew on board when it undocked and jumped to where the crew of the Angelhad first seen it hurtling past. Its crew, however, had not been located in thecommand module. The data indicated that one had been in the galley, makingcoffee, the other was in his own cabin, and the third was in a san unit, whenthe ship undocked and jumped.

Bolter’s mind began to docartwheels. How had the ship undocked without the crew to guide it he wondered.Even more puzzling, how had it jumped without command protocols?

Something was very wrong if thedata he was reading was correct. He wondered if it was a computer malfunction,or a stowaway pilot taking command of the ship. He knew full well whatstowaways could do after their experience with Rufus. He pinged Flick and askedher to come and study the data with him. It always paid to cast two pairs ofeyes over new data. She might pick up something he had missed.

“The weird just gets weirder,”Bolter said as Flick settled into the seat next to him, clutching a cup ofcoffee. She sipped it as she watched the data stream.

“Something must have happened thatcaused the ship to undock and jump,” she said thoughtfully. “Looking at this,it does appear that there was no one in the command module when the shipundocked. Did it cause damage at Standing Point when it disengaged?”

“The data doesn’t support damage onexit,” said Bolter. “I know that U.S.E. have been experimenting with remotedocking software for some of its freighters, but those ports are largelyautomated anyway, and it’s a different kind of operation to passenger vesselrefuelling stops. Judging from this information, I think the crew were alreadydead when we encountered the runaway.”

“Nasty,” said Flick, finishing thelast of her coffee. “Going into FTL flight unprepared could knock you out for atime. It depends on how experienced you are. There was hardly any time betweenthe ship jumping in and the crash we witnessed. If the crew were unconscious,they would have died down there.”

They continued to study the datawith little result. The chip refused to reveal any more information. Meanwhile,Snatch and Grabb had dismantled the command module and were running their owntests on the navigation equipment, which they would use to upgrade their own,and the FTL drive, which they were anxious for Bolter to install in the Angel atthe earliest opportunity.

It was time to move to a safe portwhere they could perform the re-fit and stock up their supplies. Flex andBolter thought they had one or two jumps left in the existing FTL drive beforeit finally gave up the ghost.

“We need to get to a bootlegshipyard in two jumps or less,” said Flex. “What are we nearest to, Rufus?” He turned tothe pilot.

Rufus had been poring over the navcharts since the command module was unloaded. He decided that Cirrius Minor wasthe nearest system with a bootleg shipyard that had a reasonable reputation. Theydidn’t want to have to watch their backs every second of the refit.

“Set the course,” said Flex. “Let’sbe off.”