The Outer Worlds: Book One of the Epherian Chronicles (6 page)

‘
Wait, Cynthia. What could you bring to our crew?’ asked
Michael.

‘
Cap, you can’t be serious,’ said Ajax, leaning back in his
chair and folding his arms across his chest.

‘
Let her answer the question.’

Cynthia turned
back around and stared blankly at Michael for a few seconds before
answering. ‘Well, like I said, I’m a fighter. I’m sharp with my
pistol, and I’m not afraid of anything. You can send me into any
situation, and I won’t buckle under the pressure.’

‘
You’re really not afraid of anything?’ asked
Michael.

‘
Nothing at all, Captain. I have nothing to lose, so I have
nothing to be afraid of.’

‘
If you are really not afraid of anything then you won’t mind
telling us the real reason you want to join my crew,’ said Michael.
Cynthia lowered her eyes, and a few moments passed in silence.
‘That’s what I thought. I’m sorry, Cynthia, we don’t have any room
for you on our ship.’

‘
Wait, wait; just give me a second. The real reason; I’ll tell
you,’ she stammered. ‘The real reason is because I’m stuck on this
space station. X5126 is the worst place in the galaxy; just take a
look around; there’s nothing here but shadows and misery. They say
the aliens are coming. I don’t have any money, I don’t have a
family, and nobody has any friends in a backwater like this. If I
can’t find a crew I’ll die when the aliens sweep through and
destroy this place.’

‘
We’re not running a charity,’ grumbled Ajax.

‘
I don’t want your charity. I just want a chance to prove
myself, nothing more.’

Michael stared
up at Cynthia for a long moment and wondered if he should give her
a chance. He knew what it felt like to be trapped, and he felt
sorry for Cynthia; nevertheless, a lot of people were in the same
situation. There were billions of people trying to escape the
advance of the aliens across the galaxy. He knew the life of a
station girl wasn’t one to be proud of. Life on a space station
like X5126 was one of hunger and hopelessness. He could fully
understand why she wanted to join his crew. She stared at the crew
with hopeful eyes.

‘
I’ll give you one mission and then it goes to a crew vote. We
will drop you off at the next civilised stop if anyone votes
against you. You have to prove yourself as you said you would. Do
you understand?’

Cynthia’s eyes
lit up and she looked as surprised as she was happy. ‘I won’t let
you down,’ she said enthusiastically.

‘
Take a seat. I’ll introduce you. This is Ajax; he’s our heavy
gunner. Sara is our pilot. Ivan is an android, but you better treat
him like he isn’t a robot; and this is Ethan, he’s our mechanical
engineer.’ Dog-Two barked at Michael. ‘Oh, I nearly forgot; this is
Dog-Two.’

**

The Out
Drifter powered away from X5126. Michael was sitting beside Sara in
the co-pilot seat. He stared through the viewing panel at the faint
stars in the distance.

‘
Captain, I’m plotting a course through the alien battle zone
to Zeno Par. I hope we don’t regret this decision.’

‘
We won’t.’

She hit the
ship’s internal communicator. ‘Ethan. How is everything looking in
the engine room?’

‘…
All systems are functioning reasonably. The engines are at
eighty-five percent and increasing. The pressure release valves are
stable…’

The pressure
release valves almost overloaded on a previous mission, which would
have destroyed the entire ship. When Michael had upgraded the
engine he hadn’t upgraded the release valves, which meant that they
were frequently at risk of exploding due to the large increase in
pressure. Ethan had welded several reinforced alloy sheets over the
valve casings, but they all knew that it was a patch job that could
not last. Michael felt a fair degree of anxiety each time they
switched to the interstellar engine, which required the reactor to
be at full power.

‘
We are almost ready for interstellar speed, Captain. I’ve
plotted the course. Twelve days to destination.’

‘
Let’s do it.’

‘
Switching engines now. The underlying two-dimensional field is
distorting. I’m developing the curve in three-dimensional space. We
have a stable trajectory. Here we go.’

Sara turned on
the internal communicator. ‘Be ready for the gravitational
adjustment.’

She reached
forward and hit the four interstellar engine acceleration switches
and pulled the operational lever fully back. The ship started to
tremble and lurched forward as three-dimensional space began to
curve under the influence of the interstellar engine. The curvature
of space created what was commonly known as the sliding influence,
where a ship would slide down the angle of distorted space. The
speed was directly proportional to the size of the distortion. An
interstellar engine allowed ships to reach speeds many thousands of
times faster than the speed of light.

For a few
moments the artificial gravity dissolved, and Michael felt a queasy
feeling in his stomach. Seconds later the artificial gravity
adjusted to the new speed and everything returned to normal.

‘…
the valve casings are heating up…’ said Ethan over the
com.

‘
Will they hold?’ asked Michael nervously.

‘…
They will probably settle in the next few minutes. Captain, we
need to replace these valves when we return to Timber 5. This is
totally unsafe. The entire ship is at risk of falling apart at any
moment…’

‘
We’re safely in the slide, Captain,’ said Sara. ‘The computer
will guide us all the way to Zeno Par on autopilot. I’ve left the
salvage scanners on; we still need to turn a profit.’

Michael
nodded. ‘Well done, Sara,’ he said as he stood up and walked toward
the back of the ship. Ajax and Cynthia were standing in the
corridor at the door of the armoury. Ajax was showing Cynthia an
Epherian modified automatic cannon, which was an oversized gun that
would usually be fixed to a tripod due to its weight. The auto
cannon fired explosive micro-droids. The miniature robots could
adjust their own course in mid-flight. If they missed their target
they would land and use their six on-board robotic legs to either
return to the auto-cannon to be refired or seek out the original
target overland.

‘
You would want a weapon like this with you if you ever got
caught out in the open, especially in a firefight with aliens.’ he
said, clearly trying to impress her. ‘It’s probably too heavy for
someone of your size and weight.’

‘
Have you ever fought aliens?’ asked Cynthia.

‘
Just once…’ he mumbled.

‘
He hasn’t fought any aliens whilst he’s been on my crew,’ said
Michael as he walked by.

Ajax nodded
curtly. ‘That’s right. We try to avoid confrontations with them,
but we have to be ready just in case they decide to show their ugly
faces.’

Michael
continued back to the cargo bay. Ivan was sitting in the corner of
the cargo bay and working on repairing a broken jetpack. The
jetpack had been in Michael’s possession since his early days of
salvaging, and he had once used it extensively, especially whilst
surveying wrecks on surface missions. He had found the jetpack
whilst searching a derelict battleship; it was highly advanced,
with duel auto adjustable rockets, a programmable advanced computer
with autopilot, a return to mothership switch and highly sensitive
balance sensors. Ivan had been working on fixing the jetpack since
the day it stopped working, but he hadn’t been able to identify the
exact nature of the malfunction.

Michael
continued across the cargo bay and walked through the engine room
door. The engine room was cramped and narrow and cut directly
between the two large engine blocks at the back of the ship. Most
of the wiring, piping and valves were exposed, which made it easier
to work. Ethan was musing over a panel of indicators at the back of
the room. He glanced at Michael as he entered.

‘
The release valves are stabilising,’ said Ethan.

‘
I knew it wasn’t going to be a problem,’ said
Michael.

Ethan walked
over with a nervous smile. ‘Captain, this ship is a wreck. Look at
all these aging components. It’s not just the pressure release
valves; the whole ship is falling apart. I’m surprised it has
lasted this long. Most of the components need to be replaced, and
we need a complete rewiring of the entire ship.’

‘
It’s not that bad. Remember she’s an Armorstonian Cruiser. The
Armorstonians didn’t build ships to fall apart.’

Ethan shook
his head. ‘Captain, the Armorstonians made great ships in their
time, but if you don’t service them regularly and replace defective
parts, well, to be honest, they will fall apart like any other
ship. Most of the components on this ship are original; I’ve
written a list of everything that needs to be replaced. Captain,
you’re looking at a price tag of one hundred and fifty thousand
credits, and that’s just the urgent repair work.’

Michael didn’t
say a word for at least ten seconds. His eyes scanned the exposed
wiring and electronic components. ‘Look, Ethan, I don’t have that
kind of money. I think you’re doing a great job keeping the ship
together. I believe in your skills. You’re the best mechanical
engineer I have ever worked with. I don’t think I’ll ever meet a
better engineer in my life.’

‘
Flattery won’t keep the ship flying,’ muttered Ethan, looking
away. ‘You know I’ll do the best I can, but you have to understand
I’m limited by what I have to work with.’

Michael gave
Ethan a friendly slap on the shoulder. ‘Keep up the good work,’ he
said as he turned and walked back to the cargo bay.

**

The journey
across the alien battle zone was set to take them approximately
twelve days at full speed. Usually during long distance space
travel the crew would enter the deep sleep pods and remain in
stasis for the entire trip. Ajax always refused to enter deep
sleep, or “go under” as he described it. Often Michael would sleep
intermittently throughout a long trip, and Ethan would wake every
two days to check the ship’s systems before returning to deep
sleep.

Michael
actually liked the fact that Ajax refused to enter deep sleep,
because it meant that he constantly had someone on board who was
keeping watch. Everyone in the galaxy had heard stories of ships
being boarded and looted whilst their occupants slept. The Out
Drifter had automatic security systems to prevent such an
unfortunate event, but no amount of automatic security was a
substitute for a real person.

Michael lay
back in his sleeping pod. A panel of glass slid over his body. He
hit the operation switch; an instant later he was asleep.

**

Ajax had a
unique way of escaping the confines of the ship. On one of his
first missions he had salvaged an ancient virtual reality simulator
from an abandoned wreck. The simulator came with two helmets; once
placed on his head the helmet would project light waves into his
eyes and electrical impulses into his upper spinal cord. He could
use the virtual reality simulator to explore hundreds of virtual
worlds which were loaded onto the system. The worlds were so real
that the brain was completely tricked into thinking they were
actually reality.

Such
technology was known for its tendency to make its users addicts. In
the virtual world there were no consequences and no hardships.
What’s more, the player could often develop the virtual world to
suit their particular interests. The risk of using virtual reality
machines was well known throughout the galaxy, and the technology
was shunned by most people who regarded it as potentially
unproductive and life destroying. Often people would refuse to
leave their machine once they were addicted to the world inside,
and sometimes people would die from not meeting their essential
needs in the real world.

For Ajax the
technology was just a way of escaping the confines of his life on
the Out Drifter. The virtual worlds gave him a rare feeling of
freedom, and freedom was a precious commodity in his life. He
considered life on the Out Drifter as a life of confinement and
restriction. He felt that he had no real freedom because he
belonged to a crew and had to follow orders. He respected Captain
Michael more than any other person, but he knew there was a limit
as to how much he could take and that soon he would have to move
on.

**

Ajax was
sitting beside a pristine stream which was situated between two
snow-capped mountains. Rows of towering pines ascended the
mountainsides. He could see silver fish swimming through the
crystal clear water. He lay back on the soft grass and looked up at
the bright blue sky. He felt completely relaxed and at peace. He
was smiling dreamily up at the majestic clouds above as birds
cheeped and the sound of the flowing water relaxed his mind.

‘
So this is where you go when everyone sleeps,’ said
Cynthia.

He leapt to
his feet and his smile melted away. ‘What are you doing here?’ he
yelled. ‘This is my world. I built this place. You have no right to
be here!’

Cynthia was
standing beside the stream. She took two steps back. ‘I’m sorry.
There was a spare helmet. I didn’t realise I wasn’t allowed to use
it.’

Ajax shook his
head and muttered some words under his breath. ‘You’re meant to be
in deep sleep. That spare helmet is my property!’

Cynthia beheld
the icy mountain tops. The beauty of the virtual world was quite
astounding. Rays of light were reflecting off the mountainsides,
creating a golden glowing haze in the sky, which shimmered over the
mist filled distant valleys.