UNIVERSAL TURBULENT

V - SOMEWHERE ON THE GALAXY

The ready room had been painted orange, green, and blue over the last thirty six years and all three layers of paint had started to peel. The names of long gone crew members had been stenciled over empty suit racks and never removed. Not out of respect, or sentiment, but because Jedidia Jyro didn't care.

The space armor had clocked more than ten thousand hours and was no longer covered by anything other than carefully applied patches. The warranty was little more than a memory, nobody would write a policy on it, and Jyro was broke.

That being the case, the prospector ran the diagnostics twice, mumbled "Good girl" when the read outs came up green, and entered the Pelocan's main lock.

The name stemmed from the way the vessel was shaped. Unlike many of the ships owned and operated by Jyro's peers, the Pelocan had actually been designed for mining asteroids, which explained the big beaklike bow.

Farther back, roughly halfway down the hull, two pylons extended at right angles to the ship. The tractor and pressor units necessary to grab ten-ton boulders and feed them into the vessel's enormous maw had to be mounted somewhere; hence the Pelocan's "wings".

Of course, the tractor-pressor units could be used to clutch other objects as well, including salvage such as the heavily damaged drifter pinned under the Pelocan's work lights. A fabulous find that could erase Jyro's debts and fund his future.

The spaceship was a derelict, and had been for a long time, judging from the fact that there were no signs of heat, radiation, or electrical mechanical activity emanating from it. There was damage, the sort one would expect of something in an asteroid belt, but the hull was intact.

All of which meant that it should be safe to bring the vessel aboard. But prospectors are a paranoid lot, especially those who live long enough to celebrate their fiftieth birthday, and Jyro wanted to inspect his find. What is his activities triggered ancient weapons? A power plant? Anything was possible.

"No, it pays to be careful", Jyro said, as the lock cycled open, "and to trust the Lord, for he shall show the way".

The Pelocan's navcomp, which Jyro called Herbert, after the ancient navigator, issued a perfunctory "Amen", took note of a distant heat source, and wondered about what the object could be. Time would tell.

The utility sled would have been perfect for the job, but it, like so many other pieces of gear, was sitting in the Pelocan's maintenance bay awaiting repairs.

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away", Jyro intoned sanctimoniously as he pushed the ship away.

"And blessed is the name of the Lord", the AI replied, "for he rules heaven and Earth".

"He rules heaven", Jyro agreed tartly, "but Earth is up for grabs. That's why I left".

The computer noted the useless information and stored it away.

The prospector fired the jet pack, swore when he veered off course, and made the necessary changes. Was he getting rusty? Or did the right thruster need a tuneup? It took a lot of work to run a scooper, which was why the Pelocan had been designed to carry a crew of three humans and two robots. That was fine, except that people made Jyro crazy, not to mention the effect he had on them, and the fact that the robots had been sold to buy fuel.

The drifter was bigger now, much bigger, and clearly a prize. Jyro felt his heart beat faster and was reminded of his childhood, when brightly wrapped presents awaited eager hands, and suspense was half the fun.

Which would be more valuable? He wondered. The ship, and whatever artifacts it might contain, or the metal it was made of? A nice problem to have.

The prospector fired his braking jets, felt the suit start to slow, and brought his boots up. They hit, his knee absorbed the shock, and the electromagnets embedded in his boots grabbed the hull. Or tried to grab the hull and failed. Jyro bounced away. "Damn! There's no steel in this hull!"

Herbert, unsure of how to respond, said nothing. The heat source was larger now, but only in relative terms, since it was little more than a pinprick of warmth in a sky lit by a powerful red giant. Once the object came close enough, assuming it did, the navcomp would notify its master.

Unable to walk on the surface of the hull as he had originally planned to do, the prospector was forced to reactivate the jet pack and search for a way in. There were plenty to choose from. Having been wrecked by the asteroid field, or having fallen in with the floating rocks, the drifter had been repeatedly holed.

Jyro selected a large pear-shaped opening and eased his way through. With no sun or starlight to guide him, the prospector found it necessary to activate both his headlamps. Only one of them worked. The disk of pale white light drifted across potentially valuable artifacts, and Jyro felt his pulse start to race. Alien technology could be worth lots of money!

The light drifted across the entrance to a tunnel. The human brought it back. Something that looked like a leathery fire hose led up and into the darkness beyond. It floated like kelp in the ocean.

Jyro killed his thrusters, pushed the hose to one side, and pulled himself into the tube. Metal gleamed as if coated with some sort of lubricant. There were no seams, ridges, or other handholds, so the human grabbed the hose and used it to pull himself upward.

Eventually, after what Jyro estimated to be twenty or thirty feet, the tube emptied into a central chamber. The prospector turned his head, which caused the light to play across smooth metal.

Now the human realized that there were six additional tunnels, each having its own hose, all of which terminated in a half-inflated leather bag. That was when Jyro realized that the "bag" possessed eyes, at least three of them, and that the hoses were arms, or tentacles, that the alien could extend into various parts of its ship. It appeared as if at least some decomposition had occurred, followed by freeze-dried mummification once the ship was holed.

The human shuddered, released his grip on the withered limb, and felt his back hit the inside surface of the chamber. That was where the prospector was, still examining his discovery, when Herbert called. "Sorry to interrupt, but it appears as though a ship is headed our way, ETA three hours, sixteen minutes, and thirty two seconds".

Jyro used the Lord's name in conjunction with a swear word, was ashamed of himself, and started over. "Blast! What kind of ship?"

"Too early to tell", the AI replied. "Looks big, though, judging from the amount of heat".

Jyro swore once again. Just his luck... A company ship? Or a pirate? He wasn't sure which he dreaded more. Either would be happy to steal his prize. But not if he could take the drifter aboard, hide among the asteroids, and wait the heathens out.

The prospector turned, grabbed hold of the tentacle, and pulled. There was no resistance. The far ends was free. Jyro swore, fired his thrusters, and caromed off the side of the tube.

"Bring the Pelocan in close! Open the hatch! I'm on the way!"

The human was subject to tremendous mood swings, and having been unable to consistently correlate them with external stimuli, the computer no longer attempted to do so. It used a pressor beam to shove an asteroid out of the way, shortened the tractor beams, and brought the hulls closer together.

The hatch yawned obediently, and the maneuver was complete. Herbert cycled through the onboard systems, verified that the most critical ones remained operational, and went to standby. The human would emerge soon, and work would resume.