Most cryosleep pods had a glass window where the occupant’s face would be. It was probably meant to make the experience of freezing to half-death in a metal box less claustrophobic. However, they typically fogged up once the process was complete…
Should have made it a god-damned screen instead of a window if it wasn’t going to be see-through.
“When was the last time I saw one of these? Hmm... Oh, that’” Hmm... I recalled accompanying a friend to the hospital once. His sister had caught a crazy new disease, and the doctors were keeping her on ice while they waited for research on a cure to be completed.
I placed my hand on the pod. “Could it be another pirate?”
If so, maybe I should power off the gravity control and toss this thing into outer space...
That’d be rather extreme, though. There could always be an innocent person in here, and it wasn’t that much of a risk since even a seasoned pirate would be groggy and weak after awakening from cryosleep.
“It should be safe enough if I keep my guard up” I muttered, tapping my fingertips on the laser gun’s holster. “I’d rather not test it, though. I’ve had enough life-and-death fights for the rest of this fiscal year.”
Before doing anything reckless, it would be better to try and figure out who exactly was in there. Since the pirate was kind of enough to not put a password on his terminal, I decided searching it for clues was worth a try.
The wallpaper was a picture of a little girl in the arms of a woman whose face had been cropped off the shot. That was eerie, but it painted a faint picture of the man that had owned this device. Could it be his daughter that's frozen in there?
I went through the app drawer fully expecting one of those sketchy calculators to be present — the type where you input a code and the real app opens. Instead, I found this pirate did all of his messaging on the standard SupDog app, which came pre-installed in most terminals nowadays.
The most recent conversation confirmed some of my theories on what’d happened to this starship.
. . .
idk man, that sounds sus af
bruh do you really think spacecakes is gonna hire a big shot for a ship that size
dude the big food companies don’t fuck around
jeez it’s just one mercenary, what’s the worse he could do
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way better than that piece of junk you’re so proud about
don’t talk shit about my love nest imma wreck these fools, you’ll see
So, according to these, he attacked a small fleet composed of a cargo ship and a mercenary escort thinking it’d be an easy payday. His friend here tried to warn him, but he ended up taking a Mistletoe to the side and somehow drifted away far enough to end up in here with me.
“The strange part is that the Space Cakes are in the cargo hold. So, does that mean he won?”
It was confusing, but I doubted I’d find any more information about that. I did find what I was actually looking for, though.
. . .
The one you wanted has been sold.
dude wtf? you said you’d wait until I had the money
I said I’d wait one hundred days, not one more.
bro f u I can’t believe you’re doing this to me
as if you didn’t have any others to sell instead
Now, now. I do have a proposition for you.
???
Ayme told me you were shopping for some… special toys.
If you have that sort of interest, I have another product for
about the same price that might interest you…
… i’ll hear you out just because I really need this, but don’t you think imma forget about what you did
Pleasure doing business.
That conversation was with someone called “Gravemaster.”
That type of username, along with the way he texted, would be characteristic of a lonely teenager trying to act edgy online. However, where there should be a black-and-white sad anime character, there was only the default profile picture. This made it feel like the real deal.
Scrolling further also showed Ryan — that was the pirate’s name — had been working out some details with this guy in the past.
I didn’t need them to get a clear picture of what happened here, though. Ryan bought this starship as a “love nest” to move in with a slave he’d reserved with Gravemaster. However, the slave had been replaced last minute — well, that conversation was from a few days ago — by someone who would be notably suited to Ryan’s “special interests.”
Scratching my chin, I felt like I was only missing one piece of the puzzle. I shrugged and turned to the pod. Most certainly I’d find an innocent woman in there. Even if she decided to attack me for some reason, I had a gun and could probably overpower her.
My hand hovered over the unfreeze button. However, I hesitated.
“Let’s assume she’s friendly…” I muttered, boarding a new train of thought.
Even if the person in here cooperates, it may be best to open it later. Otherwise, my already meagre supply of SpaceCakes will be halved, and my chances of starving in deep space will double. Furthermore, operating a breached starship without getting decompressed to death will be much harder with another person walking down the hallways.
“It’s for the best.” I said, putting down the pirate’s terminal and sighing in concession. “I’ll consider it later, depending on how things go.”
“Click!” A shiver went up my spine when I heard the sound effect. I looked down to see the terminal notifying a successful NFC scan.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The revival process began and small clouds of cold fog formed around the edges. All the buttons powered off, taking away any hope of turning back.