Dave Walsh [Walsh - Cydonia Rising

000. Space Girl

Jace

J ace leaned back in his chair, carefully resting his bare foot on the console in front of him, doing his best to not trigger anything. The metal chassis felt cold to the touch, but so did just about everything on the ship. It had been seven cycles since Jace had bought the Pequod and struck out on his own, yet it still didnt feel like home to him after all of that time. There were a few rooms he had made his own, but they were few and far between. The ships control decka glorified cockpit with room for maybe four peoplehad always been one of the areas where Jace had gone out of his way to make it feel like it was his .

Those areas that Jace spent time in were always in a constant state of disarray, Jace inhabiting them throughout most of his flight time while ignoring the rest. He knew he didnt always have to be in the control deck while traveling and that autopilot took care of most of the work, but when you flew alone as Jace did, there were fewer and fewer reasons to sprawl out or search for alone time. There was also the neurotic fear of something going horribly wrong and not being close enough to take evasive action thanks to not having a crew to rely on. That being said, most of his voyages were alone time by choice.

Jace was selective about what jobs he took, and he stayed away from most of the live cargo or transport jobs. The Pequod was up for carrying more people, with plenty of additional quarters and room for at least twelve to live comfortably, but for Jace, his solitary existence was what felt comfortable to him. That meant moving shipments from moon to moon, planet to planet within the Andlios Republic under the rule of Cronus Freeman. Jace snorted to himself at the very thought of Cronus Freeman while he shook his head, picking himself up out of the command chair and stretching his arms out as far as they could go before his hands smacked against a part of the hull. He was hungry anyway and the great expanse that was space whizzing all around him could wait for him to get back. He figured it wasnt going anywhere without him.

Jace plodded down the metal steps into the ships galley, forced to duck through doorways and sidle through the hallways that were rough on his bulky frame. He was tearing through the compartments looking for something that wouldnt require much of him while sucking on a pack of water. He wore a few days worth of stubble at most times and his hair was in a constant state of disarray, a light brown mess that he always ran his fingers through. He was hungry and anything would do. Maybe some of that freeze-dried stuff that never quite tasted like what the label said it was, but it didnt require him heating anything up or having to wait for it. That stuff also lasted for years, which was helpful when he was on longer jobs. Hed always pick up fresher foods before he left for a job, but after a few days, it was back to canned food and freeze-dried stuff. At this point, he was just under a week out from Cyngen and he had eaten his last apple two days prior, so freeze-dried was about all that he had left.

He sorted through the packets inside the metal drawer, tossing aside a few before picking out one labeled Cherry and slamming the drawer shut with his hip while he held the packet up to his mouth. He gnashed his teeth against the top, trying to tear it open when he heard the alarm from the deck blaring throughout the ship. Great, he thought to himself, he must have miscalculated something or he was on a collision course with an asteroid and certain doom. If Ro were still alive, shed be lecturing him on being reckless again, and the thought brought an impulsive smile to his face, even with the possibility of certain doom hanging over his head. That was something he wanted to avoid, at least for the time being.

He quickly found himself regretting not wearing shoes while he sprinted down the corridor, up to the metal stairs and into the control deck. Jace slid effortlessly into his chair and slapped a button above the control chair to turn the alarm off, the packet dangling from his mouth. He surveyed the readings only to see that he was rapidly approaching an object in space. It wasnt anything natural, it was man-made and it was definitely too small to be a ship, even a smaller ship. There was also a life sign, which made his heart jump a bit.

Jace quickly entered a few commands and zoomed in on the object, a projection rotating on the left-hand side of the window before him. It was a life pod, a larger one, too. It was large enough to fit multiple people, but his scans were just picking up a lone lifeform in it. They were still deep out in space, about five days away from the Cydonian-inhabited planet of Cyngen near the outskirts of the system. That meant almost two weeks out from Andlios. He was out in no mans land and knew if he didnt stop it, whoever was aboard that life pod was a goner.

With a groan, the ships HyperMass Drive powered down, Jace watching the space around him turn from streaks to still stars. There was still no visual on the life pod, it being a few klicks out, but his sensors were still reading it. Most life pods didnt have much by the way of comm systems, but he sent through an automated reply just the same, curious as to why the life pod didnt have its distress beacon activated. This was pretty deep in the middle of the frontier, so there was a good chance that whoever was aboard had given up hope and was just waiting for death to come.

The Pequod was a smaller class freighter, which gave it higher maneuverability and the ability to be a bit quicker with still enough room in the cargo bay to fit that life pod. With a flick of a switch, the cargo bay door was opening up, a display showing him the door status while he inched closer to the pod. It wouldnt be an easy pickup for most pilots, but for Jace, this was all a part of his job. There were often times where hed be asked to retrieve lost cargo in remote systems, being hired out by logistics companies who were too embarrassed to admit that they had lost some in a transfer and instead paid him to do the dirty work for them discreetly.

Picking up a life pod from deep space wouldnt be much of a sweat. Jace deployed the cargo arms on each side of the bay doors, controlling them via twin joysticks on the dash. While the Pequod inched closer to the pod, he put the arms in motion. The arms reached out, the right grabbing ahold of the pod to stabilize it while the left edged in to get a grip on it. When the pod was firmly locked into place he retracted the arms and waited until his display showed that the pod was secured and then he closed the bay doors.

There hadnt been a visitor aboard with him in at least four standard months, which only made him more self-conscious about the shape of the ship. Jace quickly fumbled for a pair of socks and his boots, slipping the socks on in a hurry and pulling the boots up over his feet, clumsily clomping to his feet and almost tripping over his left boot, which he hadnt fully stepped into yet. He let out a sigh, wondering if he had maybe lost a step when it came to dealing with the human race since Ro passed seven cycles prior.

Jace quickly shook the face of his dead wife out of his head, pulled on his jacket and strapped his pulsepistols holster around his waist. While it hadnt crossed his mind before, he was now imagining a setup with a life pod floating helplessly waiting for some moron to swoop in to save the day only to find himself in the middle of an ambush. Jace knew how to take care of himself and had a fair amount of practice with a gun, but it was mostly for show just in case someone tried to get the jump on him. The walk down the stairs to the cargo bay was a bit more graceful than his last bout with the stairs, but he had company to worry about.