Heart of Gold
The air was frigid, just the way he liked it. Bliss filled his core as he strode through the icy depths of the cavern and he rumbled appreciatively deep in his chest. It was late in the afternoon, the additional chill seeping deep into his insulating fur, but he felt content. It was as it should be, not the sweltering interior of some metallic tomb.
He turned a corner and everything changed. As if detecting his fears the walls turned from shining crystal and powdered snow to bare corroded metal and hissing pipes. The heat hit him like a physical wall, immediately he started to pant as his body temperature increased, his chest felt heavy as if a great weight was pressing on it. He couldn't breath, he fell to his knees and tried to cry out but was only able to let out a whimper. This hell pressed closer on all sides, he was going to perish here, he closed his eyes.
Argwen opened his eyes suddenly as he jolted awake. He was confused for a bare moment before he recognised the bare steel ceiling of his room. He attempted to yawn but was prevented by a large weight on his chest, he groaned slightly as he looked to see his companion creature Geraldine laying on his chest. Her toothy maw was only about an inch from his face, the large conical teeth imposing. But he knew he was in no danger, Geraldine was a noppin, a croc noppin to be precise. The noppin were animals originally native to the planet Nowhere on the western outskirts of the Union, they had been domesticated over the centuries by the planet’s population and then spread across the stars.
He grunted and poked her scaly snout a few times before she grumbled and opened a slitted eye. Seeing that her favorite basking spot was now awake, she gave a low groan of displeasure and slid off his stomach to the floor where she proceeded to yawn quite spectacularly. Her long narrow mouth stretched wide, showing off her dazzling array of teeth, with a pop she snapped her jaws shut and then seemed to smile at him.
Argwen knew she was more intelligent than she let on, he remembered the day he had gotten her as a little juvenile. He had been able to hold her in the palm of his hand at the time, and she had been so lively. Nowadays all she seemed to do was lay around, though that might have been because he had the temperature settings as low as they could go. As an Atraxses, his thick coat of insulating fur was perfectly capable of protecting him from subzero temperatures like on the Atraxses homeworld of Ho’the’rell. Out in space, where the ship's lowest settings would only take the temperature down to a balmy eighteen degrees celsius, he was a bit too warm. Geraldine was from an arid world however, her species adapted to the hot climates with cold blood and slow metabolism.
Thinking of her slow metabolism made his stomach growl with hunger and he sat up in bed before rubbing his face, he was still tired. He was glad he didn't have to wear a full body uniform like some of the hairless races in the Union, Humanity and the Nerivith came to mind. Instead he slung his shoulder pads on, they had his affiliation and pockets that allowed him to retain the least amount of covering possible in the hot confines of the ship. Argwen knew it wasn't really that hot on board, but to him it felt like a blazing summer's day.
As he made his way out of the small sleeping quarters and towards the kitchen, he paid more attention to the details around him. The same slightly corroded steel walls from his nightmare pressed in on all sides, at two hundred and eight centimeters in height, he was a bit tall for his people, but that wasn't very helpful when his primary means of transport was designed for Humans. His head didn't quite touch the ceiling, but he did have to duck to enter rooms, something he had learned rather quickly after banging his head multiple times.
He heard a low rumble to his right and looked down, Geraldine was walking along beside him. While she was a large breed of noppin, she wasn't particularly tall. The obvious quadrupedal ambush predator build evident in her scaly form brought to mind pictures he had seen of creatures from faraway lands. But as the first settlers of Nowhere had learned, the noppin were quite a bit more intelligent than their outward appearance would suggest.
He reached out with one of his hands and gave her broad head an affectionate rub to which she grumbled happily. He smiled, a very Human gesture he had picked up several years ago in a small border colony. He made his way into the ship's kitchen and made a quick meal of reconstituted eggs and sausages. After a quick meal, in which he only fed a few sausages to a begging Geraldine, he made his way to the ship's bridge.
The AMI Heart of Gold wasn't technically his ship, not really. But as he had been assigned to it for the last four years, he had come to know its ins and outs, its little quirks. He knew that it liked to pull a bit to the right when full acceleration was used and he knew that the right hand sample collector was a bit wobbly.
He ducked as he entered the compact control room that worked as the ship’s bridge, Geraldine trotted in behind him, her tail held just above the floor behind her. As he sat in the slightly too small chair, she curled up next to him on her favorite cushion. He had purchased the padding from a small second hand store back on the hub.
He had not been to the hub for almost a full week, though time meant a lot less in space. The hub was, as its name suggested, the system’s center for trade and commerce. It was a large space station that held, among other things, a small shipyard for repairs, housing, stores, and the headquarters for Axel Mining Industries. AMI was his current employer and the real owner of the AMI Heart of Gold, but he didn't mind. As far as evil corporate overlords went they were not too bad. His pay was always correct and on time and he had health benefits, yeah it could be worse.
The Heart of Gold, or Hog as he liked to call it, was currently in the system's outer asteroid belt. At almost eighty five standard astronomical units from the system's star, it might as well have been interstellar space. At least he hadn't pulled a month of duty out in the Oort cloud. That was not a fun place to be, isolated by trillions of miles.
He started the ships systems, bringing them to life from the power conserving hibernation they had been in while he rested.
Turning to Geraldine he said “Good, we didn't drift too far from our position last night, let's get to work on that M class on scope.” He knew she wouldn't understand all the meaning or concept of what he had said, but she understood his tone.
The large scaly lizard raised her head briefly from her nap and gave a short grumble of congratulations before closing her slitted eyes and dozing back off. Argwen chuckled to himself, as long as he had her, things never seemed so bad. He had been originally skeptical when a Human had told him to get a noppin, the thought of a predator species as a companion giving him pause. But as he had raised Geraldine he could no longer imagine life without her and her slightly grumpy mannerisms.
He jerked his eyes back to his sensors, the asteroid was coming into range of his main array now. He would have to process a core sample in order to discover the exact composition of its makeup, but he could get a decent idea of what it contained from a distance. He grabbed a water bottle from the side of his chair, the small cooled drink case inset into the chair was a Human idea, and a welcome one.
As he drank a gulp of the icy water, he caught a glimpse of the asteroid's composition and nearly choked as he gasped. Coughing and hacking for a moment he heard a concerned grumble from in front of him as a large blunt snout pushed into his lap. Patting her snout he coughed again and reassured her “It's okay girl, I just tried to inhale water.” Seemingly satisfied that he was in no immediate danger, she snorted and moved back to her nest.
Looking back at the readings he found himself grinning. This was exactly what he had been needing, a big haul. The metallic asteroid would have already been a decent find as it was, but his scanners had detected the presence of natural Osmiridium in it. The primary hard currency of the Union, Osmiridium was invaluable as it was impossible to fake and necessary in the construction of warp drives and artificial gravity components.
If the asteroid was even a bare thousandth of a percent rich with the material, then he would still have made more in this single find than the last year of finds all at once. He rubbed his large hands together, this was going to be good regardless. The Hog was a Human designed Jumble Lix class prospector, at only seventy four meters in length, it was smaller than the seventy nine meter asteroid he had just found.
There was no way he was going to be able to process the entirety of the find himself, and even if he could somehow have attached a large chain or series of hooks around it, the Hog wasn't nearly powerful enough to jump it back to the inner system alone. He would need some backup.
He got on the ship's short range hypercom, essentially it was a complex device that could open a short range wormhole to a connected device to send short bursts of data. While not exactly as powerful as military channels or Hyperweb complexes, it was an invaluable piece of technology that would allow him to communicate with his constituents further in system in as near as real time.
Argwen popped open the communications panel on his control console and selected a linked communicator. He then raised his wrist mounted assistant and spoke “Dune Strider, this is Heart of Gold, come in Dune Strider.” He didn't expect them to get back to him right away so he decided to move in to take a core sample while he was waiting.
He busied himself with the familiar controls, on the front of the Hog was a small but complex series of drills, lasers, and mechanical armatures that would allow him to clear a spot, drill a five meter core sample, and then move it into the ship via a small port at the front. He watched the tools readouts closely to make sure nothing was in any danger of damage. After a few minutes of practiced concentrated action, he had successfully managed to extract and collect the sample.
He leaned back into his chair and let out a breath “Whew. Never gets any easier to do, all the little pieces that could go wrong.” Geraldine didn't look up at him, instead letting out a low grumble. “Hey, I thought it was tough all right, gotta do something to challenge myself every now and then. Well besides trying to give you a bath.” At the mention of such a hated activity Geraldine pointedly glared at him causing a slight chuckle. “Fine. Be that way.” he said with a bit of false hurt.
As the ship slowly started working on processing the core sample to see what it contained Argwen noticed his communicator flashing. “Hmm, that was quick.” he muttered to himself. Usually Vincy didn't get back to him this fast, she must have been looking for work. That was good for him because it meant he wouldn't have to try very hard to convince her to help.
Argwen opened the message and heard the melodic voice of the Nerivith woman say “I read you Hog, what's the problem this time? Your waste reclamation unit backed up again?” he heard her say with a snicker.
Opening the link and checking the connection he sent a reply. “It was only the one time, and no. I have a potential jackpot here, I’ll have the results of the core sample in a few more minutes. But I think you are going to want a partial claim on this one.” And with that he sent the preliminary composition data along with it.
He was right about his earlier hunch as she responded with only a few seconds delay. He could practically hear her vibrating with excitement and imagined the pink woman’s tail lashing with her enthusiasm as she replied “Oh, I see. And this is just the preliminary? I'm on the far side of the star, but I'll be over there within the next three hours. Don't go anywhere.”
“As if I have anywhere to go.” He replied testilly. He knew she was just teasing him, but his tolerance for such antics was similar to most of his people, very low. This fact was known and exploited by Vincy any chance she got. He sighed as the link was terminated, he liked the woman, she was a good Tug operator and a friend, but he didn't handle her teasing very well.
His ill tempered response aside, he was happy to hear that she would be there soon. There had been heightened suspicious activity in the region and he was starting to miss the security of the inner system.
He spent a while waiting idly for the core sample results to finish, while he waited he played a few holovids on his assistant, just trying to pass the time. He looked up as a low tone emitting from his console alerted him to the core sample results. He sat forward, interested in just how good of a find he had made. The large metallic asteroid was high in iron and nickel, not too bad, his brow rose as he started getting into the rarer elements and then rose more as he reached the end.
“Blinding Blizzard!” he cursed as he saw the osmiridium content, osmiridium was a natural compound of about sixty percent osmium by weight and the rest of iridium. It had a unique molecular weight that was impossible to fake and what's more was used in various technological processes, and he really had hit the jackpot.
According to the data from the broken down core material, assuming the asteroid was relatively homogeneous, then the osmiridium content was several dozen times higher than a standard metallic asteroid, higher even than what was considered very pure osmiridium ore. If the whole rock was similar in composition then he had just found a single asteroid worth millions, tens of millions. He let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding and slapped the arms of his chair as his brain tried to wrap around the significance of the find. This system wasn't even considered a hotspot for such high yield finds, there were others where such finds were more common, albeit generally of smaller size.
All he had to do was get it back to the processing facilities on the Hub and he and Vincy would be absolutely stacked, with his fifteen percent commission fee for being the prospector to find the rock, he was looking at a potential pay in the hundreds of thousands of credits, enough to buy the Hog ten times over. He could do almost anything with that kind of money. Axel mining industries paid commission as well as a base salary to encourage their employees to look for high value targets, in this manner they quickly racked up a large amount of valuable ore instead of useless carbonite rocks.
Argwen was finding the practice to be very beneficial at the moment, he looked at Geraldine and said excitedly “Geraldine, we are going to be rich! I can buy you all the Ranx steak and Himplit sausages you can eat.” At the mention of such treats she raised her scaly head and looked intently at him. “Well, not now, we gotta get paid first.” he said. Seeming to realize that no treat was forthcoming, she grumbled in a dissatisfied way and laid her head back down, her eyes remaining open though in case of a surprise treat.
He shook his head, his shaggy white fur swaying with the motion. For such a large and powerful predator, she sure liked to pout a lot.
Thoughts of grumpy noppins were dashed from his mind as a proximity alarm suddenly went off. The proximity alarm was only set to trigger in two cases, when a large mass of material, not uncommon in asteroid fields or belts, was moving towards the ship on a collision course. Or when another ship approached to within ten kilometers and didn't have a transceiver active.
Argwen opened his console to the external scopes and located the incoming vessel after a moment, all thoughts of outrunning it were dashed as he saw it was a faster ship. He thought about jumping away, but he put the idea aside as he realized that the warp core wasn't even warmed up yet. He did so and cursed himself for not doing it earlier, but it was a power sink to keep it prepped all the time and so he generally only did so when he knew he was jumping.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
It was too late to jump to warp and his ship wasn't built for speed, they had not fired and so were likely going to attempt to board his ship. He linked his wrist worn assistant to the ship, the personal computing device making a slight dinging noise as it connected to the ship's controls remotely. He stood, causing Geraldine to stand from her bedding as well. She seemed to understand something was wrong and groaned in sympathy.
Argwen weighed his options, he could send out a distress pulse and hope there was somebody nearby enough to help him, or he could surrender and hope they were feeling generous. He decided to test his luck on a nearby patrol rather than the goodness of the potential brigands' hearts.
His assistant pinged as he instructed the ship to send out an SOS pulse. As soon as it did his assistant pinged again, this time with an incoming transmission.
He opened it and saw the frowning face of a grizzled Human woman. Inexplicably, her frown deepened even more as she saw him and she spat “Stupid fuzzer, of course you would send out a distress pulse like the cowards your kind are. We were just going to take your shit, but now I'm going to take your life!”
Argwen was a bit taken aback, the woman seemed furious, and less at his cry for help than at his race. He knew speciesism was a thing, but he had never encountered it this blatantly before. He felt his temper trying to get the better of him and he replied “If you want my life then come and get it. I'll bet I’m not as cowardly as you seem to think I am… Bitch!” He added the Human swear on the end for good measure. It seemed to have the desired effect as the woman screamed incoherently in rage just as he severed the link.
Chuckling a bit despite the situation he found himself in, he turned and made his way quickly from the bridge in the direction of his room. Lumbering down the narrow hall, Geraldine trotting just at his heels, he entered into his small room and walked to the far wall. Pressing in a code and unlocking a wall panel, it swung open to reveal a long-barreled weapon. It was an Incalculable Arms manufactured double barrel shotgun. Grabbing it, Argwen turned to Geraldine and said “There are some bad people coming, we need to be careful.” He wasn't sure if she understood every part of that, but she seemed to understand his tone as she let out a grumble and hunched low.
Feeling a bit more secure now that he had a weapon, he made sure to grab spare ammunition which he placed in his shoulder pouch and then exited his room, locking the door behind them. It wouldn't do to give the pirates anywhere to hide for free. The ship was large for a single person, but most of its internal volume was taken by industrial equipment and storage, this left only two potential entry points for the raiders. They could dock with the main airlock and then try to force their way through, but it was more likely they would attempt to invade through the larger service hatch. This way they would be able to fit more than a single person through at a time, cutting down his chances to bottleneck them.
Now he was no fan of hurting other creatures, but it was a dark and often hostile universe, one had to be ready to defend themselves with violence if necessary. He checked his assistant, the unregistered ship was almost on them, little more than a hundred meters away and closing. He hoped that someone had heard his distress pulse as he was not really fancying his odds of fighting them off alone. As if she had heard his doubts, Geraldine butted her snout against the back of his legs as if to assure him of her presence. He reached down and fluffed her frills affectionately, at least he wasn't truly alone.
After a moment of waiting at the bend of the hall overwatching the service airlock, he felt a shudder pass through the ship. They had made contact, it wouldn't be long now before they breached the airlock and came for him. He shouldered the shotgun and aimed it square at the rounded hatch of the lock. Geraldine groaned in worry and he reassured her “It’s alright Geraldine, I won't let them hurt you.” he got another headbutt in response.
His attention was drawn back to the hatch as it seemed to smoke slightly then blasted inwards with a loud bang causing him to flinch. He frowned as nothing came through the door immediately but remained in position, partially in cover around the wall. Soon a sound reached him, the scuffling noise of something moving.
After another moment he saw movement as a large Human male wearing a dark chest piece of some sort burst through the door. Argwen immediately fired both barrels simultaneously, the fearsome recoil slamming into his furred shoulder and causing him to wince slightly, he immediately pumped the fore-end, the double action slide first ejecting then loading two new rounds into the weapon. The large man gave a startled yell as he was slammed back into the dark opening, Argwen wasn't sure if he had killed the pirate, but given the loud curses coming from the end of the hall he didn't think so.
As the man had been wearing some sort of protective plate, he assumed that they were simply angry now. He held his ground as more noises came from the dark opening, he couldn't see anything however and so held his fire. He wasn't sure if he would get the chance to reload the bulky weapon if he didn't do something to slow them down.
Feeling a bit brave, he decided to shout “Not such an easy target am I?”
After a moment's pause a string of foul curses rang out followed by “That's it, I'm going to enjoy killing you slowly, watching the pain and fear in your eyes as I carve you apart piece by piece!” it was the same voice he had heard over the communication, the pirate woman.
“Oh yeah, not if you don't make it on my ship you won't!” he taunted, feeling more confident.
He saw a flash of movement as two of the brigands rushed through the entrance, Argwen fired both barrels in quick succession but only managed to hit one of the invaders, the man falling to the floor. The other managed to dive into the cover of the airlock and began to fire back on him with a small caliber pistol. The bullets ricocheted off the rusted metal walls of the Hog and he ducked fully into cover to avoid being struck. Geraldine let out a low groan of anger at the noise and danger but remained by his side, her frill extended and her posture low. It made her look a lot more threatening, but he knew she was likely more afraid than angry.
At a short pause in the incoming fire he leaned back out around the corner and let off another volley of fire, this time hearing a shout and a curse. He wasn't sure if he had hit anything but it was immaterial as the incoming fire doubled and he had to fall back fully around the corner. Realizing that his position was too exposed he started making his way towards the middle of the ship. There was another bend in the hall next to the galley that he could use to catch them exposed in the open.
“Cmon girl, we need to move!” He said to Geraldine, the croc cocking her head a little before bounding off after him. He ran as fast as he could down the twenty-meter stretch of exposed hall, expecting a bullet in the back at every moment. The sting of death did not manifest however and he made it to his next holdout position panting and hot. His people were not known for being fast, and the temperature inside the ship was much too high to be comfortable to him.
As he panted and turned around he heard shouts of anger, it didn't take long for one of the pirates to peek around the corner. Unfortunately for them Argwen had been expecting that and the man flew back as two rounds of heavy shot smacked into his helmeted head. Unluckily for Argwen the man was wearing a ballistic helmet, so while knocked unconscious the downed man would likely survive.
Another flurry of shots rang out causing him to duck back into cover. He waited for a lull and leaned back to take another shot, to his surprise he found himself not more than ten meters from two rushing pirates. Neither side hesitated and a flurry of shots rang out, one of the charging men went down hard with a large portion of his leg missing while the other only took a glancing blow to the chest. The return fire struck Argwen in the arm causing him to cry out in pain and shock.
He jerked back into the cover of the hall and fumbled with the small medical trauma kit at his waist. He pulled out the syringe of adrenaline and stabbed it into his leg with a grunt as his vision swam. As an Atraxses, his body didn't produce the life saving combat stimulant and a severe injury to his arm would likely have put him into shock sleep for several hours as his body tried to repair the damage. Lucky for him he was Atraxses, meaning his biochemistry was similar enough to Humans that he could make some limited use of the substance in order to remain conscious. It did nothing for the searing agony that his arm had become though and as he was reaching into his pouch for painkillers, the other pirate rushed around the corner with a roar of hatred.
With the adrenaline coursing through his blood, Argwen felt as though time had slowed to a crawl, his senses hyper aware of every detail. The smell of burned gunpowder, the glisten of moisture on the corroding walls. The smell of the brigands sweat was potent as was the stench of his own blood, the heavy wet coppery smell making him feel dizzy, but as the Human raised his weapon a large mass slammed into him from behind with a subsonic bellow of rage.
Geraldine had tackled the man, her oversized digging claws piercing into the man's protective vest with a brutal tearing sound. The man screamed in terror as he impacted the deck face down, before he had a chance to so much as struggle Geraldine closed her jaw around the man’s neck and with a sickening crunch she crushed the pirate’s spine and throat. Giving another bellow that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up, Geraldine stood, blood and small scraps of flesh hanging from her toothed maw.
Argwen knew she wasn't going to attack him, but part of him still recoiled in abject terror at the gruesome sight. After a second he collected himself and rumbled “Good job, thanks for saving me. We need to move though!”
She seemed to understand his intentions as she followed him down the short hall to the bridge. As soon as they were both in he locked the doors to the bridge, the thick partition closing with the shriek of corroded metal on metal. Argwen sat heavily in the main chair, exhausted by the heat and the fear. He felt something brush his leg and looked down to see Geraldine looking at him.
She gave an affectionate grumble and he smiled, his dark features seeming to placate her worry. He reached down and gave her scaled frill a few pats before he said “Well, that was awful. I'm sorry that you had to do that girl.” The croc noppin just blinked her slitted eyes, not understanding the words but hearing the gentle tone of his voice. She gave him another affectionate headbutt and a small grumble while scratching at a small container next to his chair and he laughed “Alright.. alright. But only one, you know you get a stomach ache if you eat too many.”
He reached down and opened the cooler and pulled out a small package, unwrapping it revealed it to be a protein bar. He tossed it to her and she snapped it out of the air and made an attempt to chew it for a few seconds before giving up and swallowing it whole. She grumbled again in a questioning way and he shook his head. “Just one, maybe another when we get out of this.”
She settled herself on her small bed as he turned his attention back to the ship’s condition. On the small internal monitors he could see the brigands had moved up to the corner he had defended. The two pirates that had been dealt with lay where they had fallen, their cooling bodies serving as a grim reminder. The woman in charge seemed to yell something, but the cameras were video only and he couldn't hear through the void-proof bridge doors. Whatever it was he was sure it wasn't pretty though.
The remaining pirates stalked up to the doors of the bridge and after a moment two of their number were dispatched back to their ship. Argwen didn't like the look of that, it had all the markings of them going for something to breach the doors. Accessing the intercom he spoke “Good job, you’re doing great!” His sarcasm wasn't lost on the woman who turned to the nearest intercom and screamed something silently before shooting the offending speaker with her plasma pistol.
He just gave a grunt of humour at the sight and sat back. There wasn't anything he could do to stop them, he just had to hope that his distress call had been heard.
Less than twenty minute passed as he watched the raiders at their work. They had grabbed some cutting torches and were busy setting them up as he watched, he gave a small snort. While they would be able to cut through the doors with such tools it would take them quite a while. Though it seemed like they were trying to capture the ship intact, this was likely the reason they were not risking explosives on them.
Argwen watched over the silent feed as they got the torches running and soon the bright flare of directed plasma blacked out the camera view. He turned over the side of the chair to see their progress. As he watched, a small but growing section near the middle of the door began to glow a dull red. He was distracted from the sight as another proximity alert went off. This time however the ship's transponder relayed its information to the Hog.
He read the data and gave a mighty sigh of relief, it read as the CMS Utmost Urgency, a Drabbon class patrol frigate. It was a military ship and likely full of Union marines, they would make quick work of the pirates. Suddenly the intercoms on his ship came to life as an authoritative male voice rang out “AMI Heart of Gold, this is Junior Commander Jack Lincould of the Union Navy, we received your call for help. Unknown vessel, you are hereby commanded to kill your engines and prepare for boarding, any resistance will be met with deadly force. This is your one and only warning to lay down any arms and surrender peacefully.”
Argwen watched as the pirates became agitated and stopped trying to force the door. The woman in charge seemed to be trying to convince her other crew to take up arms. While one seemed to be listening, the other two were shaking their heads. It seemed as though they had no intention to fight against the elite training of the marines.
On another feed, he watched as the CMS Utmost Urgency docked to his main airlock and the marines soon pushed inside. He made sure that the airlock wasn't under lockdown and the marines rushed inside a moment later in full battle armour. The matt black of their power armoured void suits covered the entirety of their frames, but he could see that there were at least two different races among them. Some that were obviously human, and a few others that were taller and a bit slimmer, likely Nerivith.
They pushed up through the ship, most likely patched into his own ship's video feeds as they seemed to know exactly where the invaders were. They encountered a pirate that immediately threw down their weapon and surrendered, they were roughly subdued and put into cuffs. A small device was attached to the back of their neck, likely a resistance plug. It was a small electronic device that, among other things, monitored the condition of the prisoner and would issue a strong electric shock if they tried to escape or fight back.
The single prisoner was left behind as the group of marines split. One half moved off towards the pirate vessel that was still attached, and the other half made their way towards the bridge. Argwen watched in fascination as they methodically worked their way to him. As the marines reached the corner that led to the final approach they stopped and seemed to communicate to the pirates in front of the bridge. The pirate captain yelled something and raised her pistol before jerking as if struck. He opened his mouth wider in surprise as he saw one of the other pirates throw a smoking gun to the ground and fall to his knees with arms raised. After a moment the other two surviving pirates followed suit. The marines then moved around the corner, guns up and ready to fire if the brigands made so much as a twitch towards their weapons. It was over in seconds with the invaders suppressed and being carted off by a few of the marines.
The tallest of the marines lifted a hand to their helmet and a second later his console beeped with a communication.
Looking down he read “This is Lieutenant Has Jerenger of the Union Marines. It's all clear out here. I would ask that you open the doors so we can verify your condition.”
Argwen moved to open the door then hesitated, looking at Geraldine he said “Geraldine, here.” She stood and moved to his side with a curious groan. He placed a hand on her back as he opened the door, immediately he felt her stiffen and crouch. He mumbled “It's alright, calm. Be calm, these are good people.” She seemed to relax a bit at his tone and he stood and turned to face the door.
After a few seconds the door was open and the tall marine stepped through. At two hundred and eight centimeters in height he still towered over them, but they were almost one hundred and ninety centimeters tall themselves, likely the armour added a bit to that.
The marine seemed to take in the room at a glance before reaching up and opening their helmet visor. Argwen saw he had been right as the rose colored face of a Nerivith woman looked back at him. She asked “Argwen Shmourgan?”
“Yes, that's me.” He replied slowly.
The woman nodded and then asked “I can see you are unhurt, was anything stolen or damaged besides the airlock?” He shook his head. The marine nodded and then turned to Geraldine “And who is this?” She asked in the melodic voice of her people.
Geraldine, sensing that she was receiving attention, gave a low grumble and crouched playfully. The woman laughed musically and said “I'm assuming that this one is responsible for the mess out in the hall?”
“Er, yeah, she isn't normally aggressive but I guess she knew I was in danger.” He said a bit cautiously.
“Yeah. The love of a noppin is fierce. My brothers and I begged our father to get us one as juveniles, they were great. Though not nearly as impressive as this one here. A female I’m assuming?” The woman said while gesturing to Geraldine’s frill. As a female noppin her display was smaller and less impressively colored as her male counterparts. As he nodded she asked “What's her name?”
He hesitated but decided that he trusted the woman, she had saved their lives after all. “Her name is Geraldine.”
Geraldine gave him a bump as he said her name, as if acknowledging his admission. The marine nodded and said “Hi Geraldine!” As she reached out an armoured hand.
The noppin looked back and forth between them, seeing his relaxed posture, she seemed to decide the woman was a friend. She lumbered right over to the power armoured Nerivith and proceeded to flop over onto her back while waggling her paws in the air. The marine giggled a bit girlishly and crouched to scratch the noppin’s belly. Geraldine grumbled happily and squirmed around as she received power armoured skritches.
After a moment the woman stood and cocked her head a bit. Nodding to him she said “Alright, the raiders have been subdued, their ship is being towed back to base, it looks like you should be okay from here. Our sensors are detecting an incoming vessel with the same prefix as yours. I'm assuming you are familiar with the AMI Dune Strider?” As he nodded she confirmed “Yes, incoming vessel is friendly. Affirmative. Will do commander.” Reaching out a matt black armoured hand the woman said “Well, it was nice to get a chance to do something again. I thought this posting was going to be nothing but drills. I hope you are going to be alright now.”
Argwen took the offered hand in his own and gave it a shake as he said “Yes, thanks to you and your friends. I owe you my life, I thank you again Lieutenant Has.” He gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile, she let out a small giggle and he scrunched his brows.
“Well, I have to go, take care then Captain Argwen. Oh and I didn't forget you cutie!” She said as she gave Geraldine one last scritch before she waved and turned. As she walked down the hall he sighed. It was nice to be saved, but damn if he hadn't been almost as on edge around the military woman as he had the pirates. The Nerivith were known to be quite cold when it came to bloodshed, not even batting an eye at things that would give him nightmares. He shuddered as the sight of Geraldine crushing the pirate's spine played again in his mind unbidden. He moved to his command chair and watched as the pirate ship and the CMS Utmost Urgency moved away from him.
After a short period of inaction the two ships docked and then disappeared in a flash of light as they jumped into warp. A few minutes later another burst of light announced the arrival of Vincy and her ship. After another moment his communications channel beeped and he connected. The slightly aged face of a Nerivith woman met him as Vincy smiled “Argwen! So good to see you, in one piece that is. I'm assuming that military ship wasn't here for you?”
He snorted and said “Vincy, you have no idea.” As he laid out the last couple hours her face went from disbelieving to surprised to intrigued.
“It sounds like a certain someone is going to be treated to a premium Ranx steak dinner back at the hub then?” Vincy asked.
He gave a curt nod “More than one if this haul is as valuable as it appears to be. I’ll help you get loaded up, this is going to change everything Vincy. This is that big break you always talk about.” He said a bit excitedly.
He saw her nod, a small glint of mischief in her eye. “Yes indeed.” She said.
He sat back in his seat as he prepared to help affix the warp anchors she was deploying. Yep, it was all going to change, no more two week prospecting trips, no more having to follow directives. He was finally going to be his own man. He smiled, he was going to buy a small cargo ship and name it the Arctic Heart just like he had always dreamed. He wasn't yet sure what kind of ship it would be, but he wanted a sturdy one, one he could leave to his children if he ever had any. Yes, it was all going to change for the better indeed.
End of Story