Taking Space

NOW WHAT

Sighs of relief filled the room as Daniel took off his virtual reality helmet and leaned back into his remote pilot seat.

“It worked. Good job, Cat, Michael, and Steven.” Stephanie congratulated.

“What about me? I just flew Mission impossible!”

“Your ego is enough to congratulate yourself.”

Daniel’s eyebrows curved and his lips pouted as he gave her the wounded puppy stare. Catherine walked over and poked her finger against his forehead as if popping his bubble.

He smiled and rolled his eyes at her. She returned his loving smile and gently kissed him on the lips. “Good job.”

“Ahm.” Stephanie cleared her throat.

Catherine slightly blushed, and Daniel gave his little sister a smirk.

She jokingly made a fist at him in return, then said, “Now what?”

Daniel furled his eyebrows. “What you mean now what?”

Stephanie waved towards the hologram. “Well, from the heat diagram, I’d say you have six pirates to deal with.”

Everyone’s attention returned to the dead pirate ship.

“Oh. I didn’t even think about that.” Michael admitted.

Daniel stood up and walked over to the hologram. “Shouldn’t they just get into an escape pod and fly off somewhere to try and find help?”

Steven shook his head. “Normally yes but a core overlord of that magnitude likely fried every single electronic device in a point O three-light seconds radius.”

“So no escape pod then?”

Steven once again shook his head, “no.”

Michael stuck his hand into the hologram navigating the asteroids with his index finger like they were a complicated maze. “Can we drag the ship to somewhere where they can get help?”, He said as he highlighted a possible path out.

This time it was Stephanie who shook her head. “No, it would take me hours to safely pull that thing out of the asteroid field. They would die long before I get it even halfway out.  Besides, if we did that, they’d just have the ship fixed, and we would be back at where we started.”

Silence fell over them like a blanket as they pondered what to do with the pirates.

At long last, Daniel spoke up. “I hate to say it, but maybe we should just leave them there.”

Catherine’s eyes grew wide. “What? They will be dead in a few hours!”

“I know.”

“How can you say that then?” Catherine asked, staring at her husband with horror and her eyes.

Daniel took her hand and softly said, “Because Kitty, they are real PIRATES. Not those fantasy pirates that sail around on ships in some ocean. If we interact with them at all, there’s a very real chance they could end up slaughtering Michael Steven and me, and take you and Stephanie as prisoners, where unspeakable things will happen to you.”

“I know. But they are living people! We have to help them!” She countered, pulling back her hand.

Steven stepped between Daniel and Catherine. “I’m with Daniel on this one. A wise man sees a lion ahead and turned aside; a fool wonders on and is devoured. These people are definitely lions.”

Catherine turned to Stephanie, and she shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I didn’t think this whole idea was good, to begin with.”

Catherine’s gaze switched to Michael, and he shook his head. “I can’t see any way to save them. The only option we have is to take the mining ships out and retrieve them, but that would mean letting them into our cockpit and that…”

“Would be suicide.” Daniel finished for him.

A dark cloud settled over Catherine. She leaned lifelessly against the hologram table.

Daniel lovingly reached out and took her hand again. “I don’t want to be responsible for their death, neither Kitty, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Her eyes met his. She said, “Well, then, let’s pray about it.”

Daniel nodded and reached out for Michael’s hand.

Steven, Michael, and Stephanie joined hands, and they all stood in a small circle.

“Michael, you pray,” Daniel said.

Michael closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and began to pray. “Father, we first would like to thank you for enabling us to deal with this problem. Now we ask that you help us to hel….”

Michael’s eyes shot open, and he dropped their hands. “That’s it! Thank you, Jesus.”

“What’s it?” Steven demanded.

“We use your makeshift cargo box with the engine strapped to it. We throw a CO2 scrubber in it to keep the pirates alive, then we take them somewhere and drop them off.”

Steven gaped at Michael. “The walls on that box are so stinking thin it’s barely airtight and retains no heat whatsoever.”

“But it will work, won’t it?” Daniel asked anxiously.

Steven rubbed his temple. “I guess, but they’re going to be freezing cold, and you’re going to have to have someplace really close, or they will be frozen solid by the time you get there.”

“Oh, you’re right. I didn’t think about that, and I don’t even have a clue where to take these guys to.”

Catherine smiled. “Oh, I’m sure Marvin and his men would love to speak with them. In fact, I bet if I message him right now, he’ll meet the cargo box right at the edge of the asteroid field.”

Giant smiles spread across all their faces and Michael chuckled as he said, “Yes!  I’m sure Marvin would like to have a word with them.”

***

Marvin’s freight ship finished taking on their rather chilled prisoners, and Marvin’s smiling mug appeared above the hologram table. “Thank you very much! I’m sure with a little bit of coercing; I can find out where they stashed my other ship. As soon as I do, I’ll be sending you five a little tip for its recovery. I will also be sending a ship over later tonight to pick up the delayed shipment.”

Catherine nodded. “You’re welcome. And thank you for your business as well.”

Marvin gave another happy grin and cut the transmission.

***

A few days later, Steven walked in, smiling like the cat that ate the canary. “Guess what guys.”

Daniel pulled off his virtual helmet. “You didn’t!”

“I did!”

“No way!”

“Yes, way!”

Catherine glared at them. “What did he do?”

Stephanie walked in. “He got the pirate’s ship working again.”

Michael dropped the tablet he was reading from. “I thought you said it was fried!”

“It was but Stephanie just yesterday found some premium-grade conduit metal in one of the asteroids in s34, and I was able to use it to replace the circuits. It has no breaker system or safety system other than the one in the dynovamator itself, but besides that, it works like a dream.”

Daniel exploded out of his seat and shot out the room, dashing towards the docking bay.

The others quickly followed.

By the time they caught up, Daniel was already sitting in the new ship’s pilot seat and had the ship powered up.

Michael promptly sat in the captain’s seat. The others each took the seat they thought best suited them as well. In a few seconds, they were out of the docking bay.

It wasn’t long before Daniel was happily trying out the weapons on the nearby asteroids.

For the next four hours, they played around like kids with a new toy, until Catherine turned to Michael and asked, “What now, Captain?”

Michael smiled as he answered, “We take over the GALAXY!”

All their eyes snapped on him.

“Ww...What?” Stephanie asked; her face full of alarm.

Michael beamed a giant grin at her and said, “I'm kidding.” Then looking down at his seat, his smile faded. “Actually, something like this ship will get us in a lot of trouble. It might be fun to fool around with, but honestly, we should sell it.”

“No way!” Daniel shouted as he blasted a small asteroid into pieces with the lasers.

The cockpit fell silent.

“You know what? I think Mike is right. All of us are prone to rash decisions. This is a combat ship, and if we use it, we are likely to end up in real combats.” Catherine said as she looked at Daniel.

He opened his mouth, but Stephanie cut him off. “She is right.”

“But we don't need money,” Daniel protested, “besides, where would we sell it?”

Michael took full control over the ship and turned it towards the docking bay. “Marvin may want it. If not, I'm sure I can sell it on Essport.”

“No, this ship has no safety system left; I had to bypass them. It now breaks almost all regulations. Marvin won't touch it, and you can't sell it on Essport even as is. Todd's list is the only other place you could sell it, and that could be just as deadly as keeping it.” Steven said.

Relief washed over Daniel’s face. “Selling it isn’t possible then.”

“It seems like it,” Michael admitted.

“Woot!” Daniel proclaimed.

“This isn’t a toy for you to play with,” Stephanie scolded. “Mick, we can't keep this!”

“Yes, we can!” Daniel countered.

“No, we can't!” Stephanie said glaring at him. “I know you; you will see the Almandian police unjustly molesting someone or such and try to step in and get us all killed!”

Daniel waved his hand, dismissively. “I won't get us killed.”

Michael started the docking sequence. “Maybe not, but you will step in, won't you?”

Daniel squirmed. “I, I... I'm a firm believer that if I see someone in danger and I have the ability to help, I should.”

Mike finished docking and turned to Stephanie. “You’re right; we can't keep it.”

Steven crawled out from one of the access panels and walked over to where Stephanie sat. “We can. We just don't let Daniel in it.”

“What? why me?!” Daniel blurted with wounded eyes.

“Theoretically speaking,” Steven continued. “I wanna keep us all off of it by completely automating everything and just remotely control it.”

“That.” Stephanie's eyebrows furrowed. “I guess that works...”

 “But that takes all the fun out of it, “ Daniel complained

“It also keeps us out of harm's way if you decide to play hero!” Stephanie shot back.

Daniel frowned at her.

Michael shook his head. “No, that doesn’t work. In combat, a split second can make a world of difference. If we were controlling it remotely, there could be up to three seconds of latency. To use it as you suggested, it would always have to be in our sector.”

“No, it wouldn't. We can just use Steven’s pinhole.”

This time Michael's eyebrows furled in puzzlement

“You know, his pin-sized permanent hyperfold. I use it all the time to make sure I have no lag when programming the outer mining drones.”

Everyone’s eyes swiveled to Steven, but he was emphatically tapping on the radar screen in front of Stephanie's seat.

“Steven?” Catherine said.

He did not respond.

Daniel stood up and walked over to the screen. He watched as Steven made different mathematics dance across it. “What's he doing?”

Stephanie shrugged.

Steven zoomed out the radar and frowned. “I added a new matrix to the radar that enables it to detect energy fluctuations and directional massage frequencies like the ones we used to lure the pirates in. With these and other tweaks, I've effectively increased its detection range by almost ten times. But it's now insisting that there is something in the Heldrid Asteroid Field. “He sighed. “Bugs like this are what Catherine was afraid of and why she wouldn't let me try this matrix on our space station three months ago.”

Catherine stood up from her seat and strolled over. “Losing radar on a small ship is one thing, but losing it on our station is expensive and could be deadly, Steven.”

“I know.”

“That being said, are you sure this is wrong?” Catherine said.

Stephanie examined the readout and sucked in air through her teeth. “Yeah, this has to be wrong. The Heldrid Asteroid Field is covered in a gas cloud. There are often short-lived explosions when asteroids impact with each other, so nothing lasts long inside. But this says there is something the size of a station almost smack dab in the middle of it.”