Unexpected Strike Event

The Intersystem Trader Stone Cold was sitting in orbit. The Captain had declared that a human Engineer would be working on the systems and was now at the required two light minute minimum from an inhabited planet. As per the regs, he had left his crew behind.

He would have preferred to stay on planet himself, but the rules forbid 'unsupervised' human engineering. He had no idea what the humans were doing, even after the Engineer had carefully explained it.

That bothered him, just not enough to do anything about it, but it was a common complaint amongst the Captain's. Tell that to the shareholders. All they saw was the money they saved.

Outside the ship, two men were watching things go very, very wrong.

"Do we have a drill for this?" asked his apprentice. His sister's boy. Nice lad, a bit slow to make the tea.

Half the ship was floating away, heading towards the local sun.

The Engineer gave a hollow laugh. " We have a drill for everything. This is an 'Unexpected Strike Event', and the drill is write your will and discover a God. The ship is fucked."

The meteor had arrived suddenly and fast. Since the universe hated engineers, it had struck just as his apprentice had disabled the scanner array and shields for repairs. It had probably been on this path for a million years, never bothering anyone. Unnoticed in the dark, until fate had put the ship in its way.

The Cargo and Supply compartments had been shattered, the engine suddenly sent freewheeling into space. Shields, weapons and life support were dead or dying. The ship doors had sealed off the damage, but you can't repair what isn't there.

The Engineer shook himself. This was merely the start. If he had wanted a safe job, he could have stayed home and kept his hands clean. Anyway, he had to save the boy. His sister would kill him if they died out here.

" Adam, go and check the Comms, use the backup and start calling for help. I need to talk to the Captain."

Captain Maddie was a sentient silicon species. It didn't panic about being exposed to space, at least not as much as its organic crew. Privately, it thought they should stay on the ground. If space was going to kill you, why fly about in it?

The Engineer arrived. Time to see what the famed human skill could do about this mess. "Well Engineer Petersson, would you like to explain why half the ship is missing? What exactly did you do?"

"The universe decided to sucker punch us. The array and shields were down for repairs, as you should know, since you authorized it.

We lost cargo, supplies and engines. Also most of the atmosphere. I know that doesn't really matter to you, but me and the boy need it. He's calling for help now.

The Captain called Comms. "Apprentice Adam, have you had any success?"

"Sorry Captain, I can only activate the collision warning. Nothing else is working at the moment. I need help down here."

The last statement had a certain tone that the Captain recognised as the human emotion "worried."

His own species tended to feel emotions only on an annual basis. They had never really got the hang of the organics sheer range of 'feelings'. Perhaps they made sense to a species that had been both predator and prey. His people had never been either.

"I believe your apprentice needs you. Keep me informed."

Two light minutes away one of the orbital controllers noticed a collision alert. He cross checked it with known ships in the system and identified it as the Stone Cold.

A trader ship under repair by humans.

Ahh. That's what you get for allowing those annoying apes play with your equipment. He turned his satellites to watch the disaster unfold. The surviving part of the ship was now completely dark, nothing but the automatic beeping from the collision alert.

What the controller found was the engine tumbling towards the sun, followed by streams of debris from the cargo and supplies compartments.

Jumping to conclusions, the Controller announced that the Stone Cold had been lost with all hands and was currently falling into the sun.

On planet the crew of the Stone Cold were told the news. Most of them were of the same species as the Captain and reacted stoically. A brief moment of mourning and off to find a new ship. One of them was different.

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One of the crew had been a refugee, once rescued by a human ship. He remembered the Hazard Junky. He remembered when the humans came for him. Saved him.

He remembered sitting in the dark, buried, forgotten and waiting to die. If someone was still out there, they would be feeling the same. He shivered with the memory. Then he went back to his room and began searching. Success. He made a call.

"Captain Middleton here. I'm told you were looking for me."

The Captain took down the details. Sounded like a dead loss to him. Ship broke, ship fell into sun. Fuck all for him to do about it. Then he discovered that the controllers were already blaming the humans, warning that that's what happened when you hire a Xeno Engineer. Screw that.

"We're going on a search, lads. Gear up."

He didn't expect to find survivors, but he might find answers.

The Stone Cold was spinning in space, unpowered and dark. It was now far from its original course, settling into a terminal orbit of the sun.

"Adam, cut the transmission. We might need the power. No-one is coming."

His apprentice was, all things considered, pretty calm. Waiting for him to fix this.

"I need to check what we have. Stay here, in case anyone calls." He was lying, he just needed a walk. There was nothing to fix, his spares were on the way towards the sun and the ship was surviving on a couple of solar panels he had stolen from the biology lab.

He found the Captain in place on the bridge. Part of him was annoyed that the creature wasn't panicking. No emotions, like the rest of them. They measured their life in half-lives. Not quite immortal, but close enough. Good crew but, by his estimation, boring as hell. He knew that the Captain regarded Humans as a sort of firework: bright, exciting and soon gone.

"Captain, we are nearly out of power. I reckon we hit the sun early next week. We, me and the boy, won't last that long without atmosphere. I suggest you bail out before we get any closer."

"Engineer Petersson, I do not intend to spend my life orbiting this sun. You have any better ideas?"

"Not at the moment. I'll let you know."

Adam sounded excited when he tracked down the Engineer.

" Boss, there's a human ship. It's Rescue and Recovery! They're looking for us. You need to listen!"

The broadcast was short and looping. "Attention Stone Cold. This is the RR Hazard Junky. We are in system and searching. Please relay your position."

"Attention Stone Cold. This is the…"

It should have been the best news ever. It should have been, but off-course, tumbling in the dark, no-one was going to find them quickly. Maybe when they got closer to the sun and began to melt. Not helping.

"How much power have we?" asked Adam.

"Enough to call out if they were maybe twenty meters away. I sent the power to life support. I need to talk to the Captain."

He moved quickly to the bridge.

"Captain, I have some questions. Our lives may depend on the answer. From what I understand, you and your people are born with a central radioactive core that powers you for life, is that right?"

"Well, sort of. We can ingest more over time, extending our lifespan. I am currently capable of surviving several thousand rotations as I am. Don't worry, I will remember you."

The Engineer flinched. " I don't want to be remembered for crashing a ship. I want to know if you can express that energy? In any useful way?"

The Captain was, finally, surprised by Humans. " I don't know how useful I can be. I can absorb and deflect most energies. We are built for that, at least."

What followed was the most insane conversation the Captain had ever been involved in. Despite every reservation, he finally agreed.

The Captain floated in space, observing the damage to his ship. Even if this worked, it was going to take a while to repair.

"Adam, this is the oldest distress call used by humankind. A waste of time for anyone else. This is the last of our power. If it doesn't work, then I'll see you on the other side."

"Yes Boss. It will work though. It has to."

The Engineer began shooting at his Captain.

The Hazard was quartering the grid, searching for anything. The debris matched a meteor strike on an unshielded ship.

Well, that's why the ship was out here, safety away from occupied space. Looked like a lot of bad luck. So much for blaming the Engineer. It was the Controller that designated repair space. Maybe that was why they wanted to blame the human. Human lawyers were nearly as feared as human engineering.

"Captain Middleton, I have an anomaly."

"Show me."

A strange pulse was emitting from the dark. Close enough to be related to the wreck, far enough to be easily missed.

Captain Middleton listened. It sounded familiar, like something he should know. He found himself tapping it out on the console.

"Track that and take us in."

The closer he got, the more familiar it sounded. What the fuck was it?

It was his Comms Officer who finally realised.

"Shit.. I mean, Sir, that's an SOS! In Morse code for god's sake. It's human and it needs help. I heard it in a training film, years ago!"

When the Hazard arrived and spotted the ship they watched as the most half-assed laser they had ever seen hit an object in space. Every time the laser struck, the object pulsed, magnified to create the signal that he had followed. The pulse was short, short, short, long, long, long, short, short, short, pause and begin again.

The Hazard recovered the two humans quickly, at the last gasp of their atmosphere. The Captain went down to meet his new guests.

"Congratulations, Engineer. I have no idea how you did that. How many were lost?"

The Engineer spoke quickly, "You need to move. My Captain is floating about out there. Can you please go and get him?"

Captain Middleton was confused

"You mean he abandoned ship? And left you?"

The Engineer looked outraged

"Captain, that's what we were shooting at! He saved us. Please, bring him in."

It took quite a while to get the full story. The quirk of the Captain's biology, or geology, had been enough to turn a piss poor laser blast into a system wide pulse.

The Captain of the Stone Cold was recovered with, as he put it 'sunburn'. The ship was allowed to fall into the sun, damaged beyond recovery. He had been delighted to learn that the planet was at fault and he would get a new ship. So many emotions in the same month. He felt positively childish.

They sat and watched until it was gone.

"Adam, for the love of anything holy, find me a cup of tea."

"Yes, Boss. Oh, Mums calling. She wants to talk to you."

"Shit."