Read part two here: http://swanindustries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/arcturian-pt-2.html
By Calum Morton
On
board the bridge of the Taurus Captain Nezzarr Odan listened to a report from
his sensors and weapons officer Ensign Kross. Odan couldn’t stand Kross, son of
a wealthy Confederacy diplomat, because he was about as useless as a damp box of matches.
“I
see, ensign, I see,” said Odan nodding at Kross as he acknowledged that the
ship they hunted was headed for Tau Beta Station. Tau Beta was a large space station on the
fringes of Confederacy territory, that sat as a garrison to guard the borders
against rebel and pirate held space near a large nebula. It seemed that Captain
Silassus might well be meeting contacts in the rebellion. Not that it mattered
to Nezzarr Odan; his job was simple: arrest Silassus and impound his ship and
cargo pending further investigation on numerous felonies and crimes across the
known (and probably unknown) parts of the galaxy. “Continue to stay in their blind spot and
follow them, we’ll arrest them at Tau Beta Station,” ordered Captain Odan
before retiring to the captain’s chair. They would be dropping out of Jump
Space soon and he would need to be ready to react to any tricks Silassus might
play.
----
Markus
Silassus awoke to the sound of an alarm chirping. The control panel told him
that the navi-comp would be dropping the ship out of Jump Space momentarily. He
sat up and hit the ship coms button to broadcast to the crew.
“Okay,
we’re coming out of Jump Space so buckle up! Seb, I want you to get down to
weapons and be ready, warm up the pulse lasers and raise the shields to full. I
don’t want to drop out right into the middle of a pirate raid and get caught
with my trousers around my ankles! Devin, heat up the Ion Drive and make sure
we’re ready if we need to make some evasive manoeuvres.” There, that should do it, not that there’s likely to be any pirates,
we’d have received a distress signal, thought Markus.
The
ship jumped and bucked as the Jump Drive hurled the Arcturian back into real
space. Markus’ face was illuminated by the bright flashes of laser beams, plasma
blasts and the flaring jets of flame created by explosive decompression and
missile hits. Well shit, I certainly
wasn’t expecting there to actually BE a pirate raid going on! Markus
quickly hit the comm panel and spoke his orders. “Seb, I’m going to hail the
station, try and find out what the heck is going on out there” Keep those
shields at full but do not engage! Devin, hold on tight this is going to get
interesting!”
“Define
interesting,” Devin replied through his wrist comm with evident concern in his
voice.
“Uh,
oh god, oh god we’re all going to die?” replied Markus.
“Probability
of survival remains at a steady 78.65 per cent, Captain.” Of course Seb would
have to chip in, he always did!
A
new light blinked on the instrument panel: someone was hailing the Arcturian.
Surely it couldn’t be the station, not this quickly. It wasn’t. Markus answered
the hail.
“Captain
Markus Silassus of the Blazing Arcturian?” A terse, authoritative voice came
over the speaker. Only confederacy officers speak like that. Shit.
“Speaking,
who are you and what do you want?” replied Markus, an edge now set to his voice.
“I am Captain Nezzarr Odan of the Confederacy Light Interceptor Taurus. I was under orders to arrest you
but it appears that a situation has developed which is rather more…pressing.”
The voice showed almost no emotion and had an almost imperceptible French
accent. That’s a new one.
“Yeah?
I hadn’t noticed. What do you want me to do about it? I ain’t a hero, Captain.”
I don’t have time for this, Markus thought
as he played for time.
“Well,
today is your chance to prove you are loyal to the Confederacy and not the kind of rebel scum who you were supplying on Procturus.” The voice sounded as if its
owner was smiling, the kind of smile that a predator gives to prey that it has
trapped in a net. Dammit.
“What
did you have in mind, Captain Odan?” Markus hoped that the fear wouldn’t show in
his voice; he’d been through worse, after all, and so had the Arcturian.
“I
intend to get into that fight and rescue as many civilians a possible, as is my
duty and as should yours be too.” The voice had just a hint of anger in it now.
Well, I guess I don’t really have a
choice, die fighting, or get arrested; Markus flipped the mute mic button.
“Okay,
we’re going in there and I know you both heard all of that. Just play cool and
we’ll come out of this just fine.” Markus hoped that they couldn’t hear the
concern in his voice as he flipped the button once again. “Okay then Captain,
we’ll follow you in. We wouldn’t dream of running away from such a good, just
fight.” Markus’ cocky voice swept over the ears of the crew of the Taurus.
“Full
ahead Lieutenant Darmstor, we have a battle to join!” boomed captain Odan from
his chair as the lights of battle grew ever closer like a fireworks display on
a summer’s night. Danger awaited but it was his duty to protect the citizens of
the confederacy. He read the signature of the Arcturian behind him and knew
that Silassus would stay true to his word.
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