A week later…
“Bones!” Jim shouted. “Wake the fuck up.”
“Hmm,” I cracked my eyes open and stared at the floating eyeball in front of me.
“Something is going on outside.”
That shocked me out of my little nest bed. I was warm and cozy, didn’t want to get up, and shivered when I finally crawled out of my blanket.
“Why’s it so fucking cold?” I hadn’t been wearing my shirt this past week, so I tossed it on and opened the hatch.
Out of all the things I expected, a massive glacier was the second to last thing I’d ever thought to see. It almost edged out my spaceship for last place. The raft drifted through tropical heat and warm waters, so what the hell was this thing doing here? Thankfully, nothing on the dock was damaged or taken, which was what I’d thought was initially happening.
“Thoughts?” I mumbled.
“I got nothing,” Jim muttered. “This shouldn’t be here. I mean, it’s a statistical anomaly. Mathematically, it is possible for this to break off from a polar cap and appear here without completely melting, but its original size would have been astronomically large.”
I’d already taken a rope out and was creating a lasso.
“What are you doing?” Jim’s tone of voice made it seem like I was an idiot.
“Going to tie it off and make it follow us.”
“That thing is a mountain. What the hell are you going to lasso—wait, can you even lasso?”
“Look to the bottom left. Something is sticking out of the ice. It might be a board or… a tree? Either way, it’s small and looks sturdy. I’ll just tie us off to that.”
“Yeah, but why?”
“You mean other than drinkable melt water?”
“Sure, that is helpful, but it’ll slow our drift tremendously, and the drop in temperature in the surrounding waters might scare off your fish. But most importantly—never mind.” Jim said as my third lasso attempt landed on the money. I cinched it tight and pulled us closer to the glacier.
“Most importantly?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t be an ass.”
“Did you look closely at the ‘branch’ to which you secured the rope?”
“No?” I pulled us closer and wrapped the rope around the pole under my seat before tying it down. Once secure, I walked over to the edge of the dock and looked at the black and gnarled thing jutting from the ice. Following it into the glacier, I tried to determine what was inside the semi-transparent ice.
“Ah? AHHH! What the fuck?”
“Guess we aren’t alone on this planet,” Jim said without ridiculing me this time.
“The bigger question is, how did that corpse get that far inside the glacier? Do you think this is an artificial glacier?”
“I do. Now that we are closer, I can see that there is an unnatural symmetry to it. Even though it’s been weathered by the sea, its man-made structure is noticeable. I suspect that guy was murdered and shoved into the ice when it was created.”
“Why murdered?”
“Your weak eyes can’t detect the anomalies, but the darkness to the ice around its body is his blood. Looks like someone probably stabbed him in the chest.”
“Is the knife still in his body?”
“That’s… out of everything I just said, that’s what you want to ask? What the fuck is wrong with you, sicko?”
“C’mon man, cutting fish with that fucking pocket knife is ridiculous. I need something better.”
“That makes sense,” Jim agreed. “But isn’t it bad to disrespect a corpse like that?”
“Dammit, Jim. I’m a pirate, not a priest.”
Jim rolled his eye and should’ve expected such a response. “Whatever. You’ll need to modify the laser cutter again.”
I groaned because I’d taken the thing apart a dozen times this past week to make the recommended changes. It could be charged now, but Jim had to control the current sent to it. “What do I need to do now?”
“We need to remove the top arm. The pipe-wrench style won’t work if you want to free the corpse. You’ll need a blade-style laser cutter.”
“We can do that? Why didn’t we do it before?”
“Honestly, you become a retard around shit like that, and I didn’t want you to hurt yourself or destroy your pod.”
“Dammit—okay, that’s fair,” I muttered. “I like fire. Is that so wrong?”
“Yes,” Jim said immediately. “We aren’t going to change the lasers, so its strength won’t be affected, but we’ll make the pipe-wench top removable. I’ll print the piece we need next. It’ll be a push-in wire connector. You’ll be able to unhook the wire and turn the centerpiece until you can pull the top part out. Then to put it back in, you just crank it the other way, shove the piece in, and reconnect the wires.”
“Got it. Simple enough.”
“Sure, but it’ll take a day to get the pieces printed. You should explore your ice island before it melts for good.”
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That was easier said than done. The thing was like a mountain jutting out of the water, so I didn’t have an effective way to climb over it. So I dove into the water and swam around it instead. Mostly I gathered up all the trash, especially the plastic bottles like the one I already had. With it, I could speed up my salt production and seal away my food and leftover fish parts. In all, I found seven. One didn’t have a lid, and it became my toilet. I didn’t mind shitting over the side of the dock, but my diet wasn’t the greatest, so the wind easily sprayed my expulsions.
One became the holder of fish parts and viscera. If it got too full, I’d use it to chum and store a few extra fish in my little aquarium. The only thing about my aquarium is I had to be careful to follow a first-in-first-out method, or they’d die on me. I tried to feed them chum, and that worked for a bit, but it disturbed me. It was cannibalism at its finest, and I knew it shouldn’t bother me because it’s what they did, but I couldn’t shake my uneasiness.
Two days later…
I cut a flat spot onto the glacier so I could climb onto it. I took the blocks of ice I cut out with the laser cutter and had Jim analyze them thoroughly. I didn’t want to use any water with human blood, so I ensured I gave the corpse a wide berth when finding drinking water. It was like tearing off the moldy part of a piece of bread before eating the unaffected piece.
Regardless, I cut the area around the corpse just to reach its body. It felt like I was robbing a crypt, not that it’d stop me because I’m a fucking pirate! Still, it made me a little queasy. Despite being a pirate, I never directly killed anyone. I’ve scuttled a few ships and might have indirectly killed them, but it was different. However, when I reached its chest and pulled out a Santoku knife with a 15 cm blade (6 inches), a preferred knife used by many chefs, my uneasiness dissipated like smoke.
“This is awesome,” I said, swinging it around.
“It’s better than even I predicted. The steel used is high quality, which means this person and glacier didn’t come from a low-end pirate den or mafia.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“Not sure. One thing is for sure, there is a way off this planet. But are the locals hostile to outsiders? I’d assume the answer is yes because this planet is unregistered. Check the body’s pockets!”
“Why?”
“Identification. You are the Infamous Pirate Bones. Do I have to explain why?”
“I’m famous, not infamous, bastard,” I shouted. “And, uh, maybe explain a little.”
“You’re hopeless.”
“Fine, what the fuck ever! Just explain it, you robotic piece of shit.”
“Blackmail. Or if this person disappeared, which it seems like they did, based on the circumstance, it might get you in with the local power. We’ll have to play it by ear when the time comes, but it might provide you an opportunity. Especially if you have his ID along with that knife.”
“The knife?”
“It’s not a standard chef blade. It’ll be cherished enough that the chef probably made a huge commotion over its disappearance. It’ll probably stand out more than their ID would.”
Using the laser cutter, I continued to melt the ice around the body until I exposed the corpse’s waist and saw the fanny pack.
“Who was this nerd?” I laughed and pulled it off the corpse. Then I checked the pockets and found nothing except for some paper that might have been local currency. It was all mush now, so I tossed it into the sea. Besides the fanny pack, I noticed a ring on the hand curled up next to his chest. “What about that ring? Is it important?”
“Yes. Get it. It looks like it’s engraved with a coat of arms or something others might recognize. Don’t flash it around until we know what it represents.”
“Flash it around to who?” I asked, looking around the empty sea.
“I know you aren’t that big of an idiot, so stop playing dumb.”
I sighed and shoved the ring into my pocket. I’d already moved the rope off the corpse and found another place to tie it. I didn’t want to keep that corpse around me any longer than necessary. The modified laser cutter simplified extricating the body so I could give a sea burial.
“You need to take his clothes.”
“What? Fuck that.”
“I’m not kidding. We can recycle them later; his shirt might be big enough to create a small sail. It won’t do much for us, but it might help us move in a specific direction. We can’t keep moving around aimlessly.”
Air blew out of my nose from my closed mouth sigh. “Fine.”
The man didn’t have shoes or socks, and his long pants seemed odd for the tropical weather. No matter, I pulled them off with the shirt but refused to touch his underpants. After stripping the body, I noticed a few tattoos on his back that I recognized.
“Jim! Scan the tattoo. I think Blackeye had the same one.”
“He did. This is troublesome.” Jim scanned the tattoo and the face of the dead man. He could recreate the images later. Hell, he could recreate the entire crime scene using a 3D printer. It might or might not be helpful information. “Open that fanny pack.”
After unzipping the pack, I dumped it in one of my metal pans—just in case anything would roll out. I also didn’t want to reach my hand in because of some bad experiences that left me trembling to this day. I first noticed the fancy laser torch—an object similar to the old world’s Zippo lighters. It couldn’t cut anything, but the low-intensity laser made it easy to catch things on fire without burning straight through them, such as cigars and cigarettes.
“I got fire!” I shouted loudly.
“Idiot. What are the other things?”
“Those are condoms—so many condoms… Uh, anyway, that is probably an ID card, but it’s blank. And… that’s it. Priorities, am-I-right?”
“That card isn’t blank. There is a hidden monogram inside it and a biometric input. Put your thumb on the top left corner.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Jim asked.
“Are you sure you are an AI? What if that thing has some kind of tracker on it, and by activating the… whatever, it broadcasts my location?”
“While I commend you for using your brain for once, I can jam any signals, and inside the pod, there is that Anechoic drawer you installed just for that purpose. A pirate has to have his means of preventing people from tracking him down, right?”
“Does that thing even work? I only used that false floor in the cargo bay, which was also a Faraday chamber. However, I don’t have that anymore. The Anechoic drawer was just a stupid idea. I don’t even know why I put it in the pod except that I had leftover materials. I’ve never once used it.”
“It works. Well, not totally. You didn’t seal the interior perfectly, but the weakened signal will die off after like thirty meters. So you are fine unless they are right on top of us.”
Well, here goes nothing. Grabbing the card, I put my thumb on the corner indicated, and the thing lit up. First was a symbol I’d seen on the signet I pulled off the corpse. It reminded me of the symbol used by the Illuminati back on Earth hundreds of years ago. Technically, that organization was still around but didn’t represent its original values. Still, they were shady as fuck.
“Signal?”
“No. We should be safe.”
“Wait, keep jamming it. This thing isn’t just an ID. I’ve seen tech like this being talked about, but they also thought it to be a rumor as it hadn’t surfaced all these years.” I was slowly getting more and more excited. “I’m pretty sure it’s a communication device that possibly uses QEC.”
“Cock? What the fuck kind of communication is that?”
“Not cock, Q-E-C or Quantum Entanglement Communication.”
“Oh, that. It exists.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m smarter than you?”
“Are you asking if you are smarter than me?”
“Listen, Bones. QEC has been around for a while, but you are right. It’s not on the open market. You go to all the pirate hangouts, bars, and ports, but do you ever listen to the conversations? You don’t. Even that Blackeye shithead mentioned this tech. Which is now making sense. If they can embed things like that in an object the size of an ID, what else can it be embedded in? Maybe loot we thought was useless?”
“What do we do with this? Are you even able to jam QEC signals?”
“No, I can’t. Even your stupid Anechoic drawer can’t stop that, but… as far as I know, the technology doesn’t exist to pinpoint these entangled comms. It doesn’t use wave tech like the stupid radio Blackeye keeps broadcasting to.”
“Hey Bonesy, you there?” Blackeye asked. The static over the radio probably came from Jim’s jamming signal.
“Speak of the devil,” I muttered.
“Yeah… the devil,” Blackeye said. Jim and I froze and slowly turned toward the pod.
“What…?” We both said at the same time.