The crew of the Rusty Bolt, or rather at the moment, the Grimalkin, looked at the news stream on the monorail with wide-open eyes. It was just a short side-note among a larger piece. The larger piece was about an Erulas’ battleship being attacked and damaged by alien ships assumed to be from the Qyrl race. Inside the Junkstorm. The side-note in that piece was that all of that happened near a pirate outpost called Binary Bloom which had also come under attack.

Twitch was the first to get out his tablet and search for a local newsfeed. Grubs was only seconds behind. Red looked outside and then grabbed both men while they were still busy with their tablets and pulled them out of the carriage at the next station.

„We need to get somewhere more private, I think.“, she said by way of explanation. They found a somewhat secluded corner near a vending machine for snacks and drinks.

The news on Erulas were, unsurprisingly, focussed mostly on the battleship and its crew. All of this had happened an hour or so ago. Apparently an open emergency broadcast from another human ship involved in the battle had alerted the press.

„Fuck me sideways!“, Twitch exclaimed, his choice of words highly unusual for him.

He tilted his screen so the others could see the article he had found. They all scanned the article with rapidly growing worry on their faces. After they had finished, there was silence.

Grubs was the first to speak. Solemnly, he noted: „I have family on Bloom.“

Red nodded and looked at Twitch, interrupting him before he could say his piece: „Can we get a channel to Bloom without the Erulas authorities noticing?“

Twitch swallowed what he had been about to say and gave the question a moment of thought. Then he nodded: „I think I can make that work. They’ll be able to estimate the direction, but there are certainly other ships somewhere that way. It won’t be conclusive. Only if they already suspect us as pirates would it pretty much confirm that.“

„Worth the risk to know what’s going on.“, Red decided, „The Rusty Bolt is still docked there and I’d like to have her back in one piece. Grubs can ask about his family and you can ask about your girl.“

Moments later, the three of them jumped into a train going the opposite direction, back to the spaceport. The ride went by without any of them saying a word, all lost in their thoughts, staring out the window, though actually into the distance.

Back at the spaceport they made their way straight to the Grimalkin. They had checked the ship in for self-maintenance, so there was nobody else in or around the ship and no workers expected. Coming and going was pretty normal, so unless someone had followed them all the way, they were not acting suspiciously.

Only once they had reached the bridge did they speak again. Grubs announced that he’ll fire up the auxiliary generators and Twitch said he’d need a minute or so to get a connection to Binary Bloom. He didn’t say the „if it is still there“ part out loud, but the other two understood it anyway.

A minute and a half later, they were connected to an operator on Binary Bloom. Pirate outpost or not, at its size, Bloom needed some level of organization. All three of them relaxed visibly. At least the station was still there and able to answer.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

„This is captain Red Rodriguez of the Rusty Bolt,“, Red started the conversation, „which is currently docked in the hangar bay. We are off-station in another ship and heard the news. Can we get a series of local calls to our families and friends to check on them?“

„Sure“, the operator said, „If I can reach them. Station is still in turmoil and a bunch of people are in medbay, mostly minor injuries.“

Within the next minutes, they learnt the good and the bad news. Grubs was the first to get his calls, because family comes before friends and business contacts. He briefly spoke to his sister, who despite the tensions between the two was happy to hear that he was ok. She had not known that he was away, the two didn’t speak much. He also learnt that his father was fine, having suffered a few bruises only.

Grubs was also eager to ask about some of his friends, but he could see Twitch being nervous and decided to let him go. The station was ok and most people were fine from what he had learnt, that needed to be enough for now.

Twitch tried to be connected to Valarie Sarron. There was no answer. He insisted the operator to try again. On the second call, someone answered, and Twitch went from worried to relieved to shocked within a few seconds: „Hello?“, a female voice had said. „Val!“, he had answered and started more when the woman at the other end dashed his hopes: „I’m sorry, no. This is nurse Sena. You are trying to reach Miss Sarron?“

Twitch was unable to speak for a second. Then he caught himself. He immediately understood what a nurse answering meant: „Uh. Yes. I’m her boyfriend. How bad is it?“

„Well“, nurse Sena responded, „We don’t give out medical details to others than family members, but it’s pretty bad. She’ll make it, though. That’s all I can say.“

Twitch’s heart sank. He croaked a „thank you“, his voice failing. He sat down.

The call was transferred back to the operator. Red stepped forward and asked about Yezz. There was no answer from her. But Red had multiple contacts and the third one picked up. She talked for a minute, but to Twitch and to Grubs, who had come over to support him, it was background noise.

Red shook them out of their stupor after she had concluded the call.

„Yezz is dead.“, she stated matter-of-factly.

Twitch looked at her: „We need to get back there. Now.“

Grubs nodded in agreement, but Red shook her head: „It’s two days. And Bloom is no longer a secure location.“

Twitch’s eyes widened slightly, then his expression hardened: „That’s why.“

Red put a hand on Twitch’s shoulder: „We aren’t medics and the Grimalkin is not a medical transport. Valarie, right? The medbay on Bloom is the best place for her right now.“

„I know“, Twitch said, „And I ought to be there.“

Grubs again nodded, before speaking up: „I still don’t know about my friends. And if Bloom is no longer safe, we need to get our stuff and the Rusty Bolt.“

Red shook her head again: „Heading there right now is the most suspicious thing we can possibly do. Everyone and their dog is after our cargo. We’d arrive with more hostiles in tow. They might even attack the station again.“

„Don’t care.“, Twitch’s face was a frozen mask.

„Twitch is right, captain.“, Grubs added, „Fuck our stuff. And without Yezz, do we even have a buyer for our cargo? No, what we should do is meet our people in the docking bay, transfer to the Rusty Bolt with them and be in and out in ten minutes. In two days, his girlfriend will be stable enough for a transport for sure. And the medbay on Bloom doesn’t compare to a proper hospital like they have here.“

Red looked at her crew, her gaze going from one to the other and back. They had never both opposed her so directly.

„As captain, my decision is to stay here.“, she said, keeping her voice as firm as possible, „And as your friend, I say we wait two hours and then call again. The situation is in flux and things can change quickly.“

There was a glimmer of hate sneaking into Twitch’s gaze as he looked her in the eyes. Then he lowered his gaze in defeat and spoke softly: „It’ll take half an hour to get the ship ready anyways. And at least that long to get water and supplies for more people. Can we please prepare so that if we decide to go we can lift off immediately?“

Red nodded. It would give Twitch something to do and keep his mind busy, though she dreaded the moment she would most likely have to shatter his hopes.

He refused to look at Red again while they began preparing the ship.