AN: I came to the realization that maybe I shouldn't be addressing every single person who pilots or captains a ship a "Captain," since that's more of a military term. So from here on out, the characters will be addressing each other by using suffixes, last names, or first names, unless it is military-related.
Also, sorry for the late chapter. I had a long flight and was really jet-lagged.
---
POV: Mark
I frowned and stared at the woman with a good share of confusion written across my face. "I'm confused by your question, Miss Alvarez. I'm simply the escort you hired, your muscle, if you will. I simply did what I was being paid to do."
I saw confusion flash across her face before being replaced by a mix of shock and awe that was quickly replaced by frustration, all of which was partially hidden by her EVA suit.
"Don't try to play dumb with me, merc," Alexandria spat out. "You know damn well what I'm talking about. I have never witnessed or heard of anyone being capable of single-handedly fighting off a pirate attack where they are essentially outnumbered eleven to one and still come out virtually unscathed. And your ship, what kind of technology is that to fire so often and blow the pirates to bits while they are still over a hundred thousand kilometers away from weapons range? And then its maneuverability. How were you able to turn so quickly? How were you-"
"Miss Alvarez," I interrupted her. "I understand that you have your questions, you have your suspicions, and you have your fears. But that doesn't concern me in the slightest bit. You should be praising me for the impossible task I pulled off, rather than patronising me with questions that I will just answer with a single, simple response. Engineering, when done right, opens the doors to the unimaginable. Just think of the Vulpinians and their technology. Humanity is just barely scratching the surface, and maybe I just happened to scratch a little deeper than most."
She was left at a loss for words, and I could almost see the gears turning in her head at the revelation that just maybe I had breached the door to advanced technology that the vast majority of humanity was not privy to.
"Well, Miss Alvarez, I'm currently undergoing repairs to a few breaches done to my hull from that one bastard who managed to sneak up behind us," I said with a sigh. "My long-range comms are down as well, so there's that to repair. Thankfully, that's as far as it goes. My ship is still fully operational and able to defend you lot while you undergo repairs."
While we were still talking, two additional faces joined our call. One was an older, gruff man with a very low-cut mohawk, and the other was a young man with a messy head of hair. The older man was the first to introduce himself, followed by the younger man.
"Hope everything's alright on your side of things. The name's Chikie Morris, but everyone calls me Chik. The other runt on the line is my son, Sean."
"Father," the younger man, Sean, said while sighing. "After deeper inspection, we found that the Triton did not only sustain damage to the engine manifold. To put it simply, two of our engines are beyond fucked. We are only able to get full power to engine 2 and partial power to engine 5. At this rate, it'll take us 2 months to reach the colony."
"Hmm," Chikie grunted. "What about you, Alex? How are things looking on the Dolores?"
"If we ignore the four dead and three injured along with the multiple breaches to our hull and bridge, I'd say we are doing alright," Alexandria answered with a defeated sigh.
"Uh-huh," Chikie grunted again. "I say we split the Triton's cargo and crew between our ships and the merc's ship and leave her here with a beacon. Come back for her later."
"I think that's our only choice for now," Alexandria agreed.
"The merc's got a name, you know," I said while giving a half-ass wave of my finger. "Anyways, what class engines does the Triton have?"
They all looked a bit confused at my question, but Sean answered it. "It's got Spatial Propulsionary Solutions Class 2 engines. Why?"
"SPS Class 2 engines," I repeated to myself. "You happen to have the schematics for it?"
Chikie snorted at my question. "What does a merc know about ship engineering?"
"You offering to repair the engines or something?" Sean asked, his face seemingly annoyed.
"Or something," I answered while nodding slowly. "But first, if I am to help, you may never speak of the methods I will use. Do you understand?"
"What, you a wanted criminal or something?" Chikie asked, to which I simply gave a deadpan look.
"We do have the schematics for them," Sean spoke, answering my earlier question.
"I guess that means that we do agree to keep whatever you plan on doing a secret," Alexandria chimed in next.
"Chikie?" I asked.
"Fine," he grumbled. "I know to keep my mouth shut."
"Well, that settles it," I said with a clap of my hands. I then muted myself and turned to speak to Marcos. "Hey, what's the price of replacing a single engine?"
"I figured you would ask as soon as I heard you ask them if they had the schematics," Marcos said. "Current price for a single engine replacement ranges from 10,000 to 250,000 credits, all depending on the engine class. Class 2 engine replacements are 30,000 credits a pop. They've got 3 they need to replace, I'm pretty sure you can do the math."
I thanked the AI and turned back to the floating screens before me, unmuting myself. "That will bring my commission up to 260,000 credits."
"What!? Two hundred and sixty thousand credits? That's jump point robbery!" she hissed, momentarily overcoming her shock with fury. "And you're also the one who let two of my ships get hit!"
"Right," I said while inwardly rolling my eyes. "I'm also the one who disabled and destroyed nine ships before they could turn every single one of you into a cloud of floating debris... The contract stated that my pay would be 200,000 credits in case of an incident. An incident occurred. Furthermore, the contract states I am not responsible for damage caused by an engagement. However, I will replace your 3 engines for the price of 2 and cover the repairs to your ships, as a sign of… good faith."
Alexandria was about to argue when Chikie cut her off. "That's a good deal, Alex. What do you think, Sean? You'd take that deal."
Sean nodded while leaning back in his own chair. "Yeah, I'd take that deal."
Chikie nodded as well, "Damn good deal."
"Fine," Alexandria relented. "Just send over the new invoice and do whatever it is you have to do. I'm going to get shit sorted out aboard my ship."
Alexandria then ended her call, leaving me and the father and son duo.
"Alright, Sean," I spoke while dragging a hand across my hair. "Transfer those schematics to me, and I'll get working on the replacement and rebuilding of your engines."
The father and son duo both frowned before I explained myself.
"If you're going to do a job, you have to make sure you do it right. I have the tools to break down and create new engines for you. I'll even do you a solid and guarantee you 10% better efficiency, let me just take a better look at those schematics while I finish repairs here."
Sean nodded before disconnecting from the call as well, which left just Chikie and me.
Chikie huffed before speaking. "I can't tell if you're an exceptional prodigy pilot and engineer or just a son of a bitch trying to take us for fools."
I raised an eyebrow at that. "The Gemini is the only ship that didn't take any damage in this engagement. I doubt a fool would manage to pull that off."
He smirked at that and nodded. "You have a way with words, merc. Hope your actions can back up your promises."
Chikie then ended the call, and I slumped in my chair. "Marcos, send her the repair pledge and the immediate invoice for the full escort fee. Once we are done with the patchwork on the Shepherd, get the drones out there and collect any salvage that isn't debris. We can sell the railgun slugs and the hull parts, hell, if their weapons are still salvageable, then by all means, take them as well."
"On it, Captain," Marcos responded, his avatar now glowing with a mixture of pride and awe. "And don't worry about it, they'll pay. They've seen what you just pulled off. You just gave them a whole new education in galactic warfare, delivered by the Shepherd."
I fixed my eyes on the distant husk of the pirate frigate as it drifted towards us. "Hey Marcos, what are the chances that the remaining two ships make it to a safe port and report us?"
"Extremely high," He said. "They saw our colors, our ship profile, and what we can do. I'm pretty sure you'll be having a bounty on your head a few weeks from today."
"Wake me if there's an emergency," I said as I handed Marcos full command of the external operations and went to get some very well-earned rest.
---
POV: Sean Morris
Almost a day had gone by since the attack. All of the breaches on the Shepherd's hull had been patched, and Sean stood by the viewport of the bridge of his freighter, watching as the drones the Shepherd had dispatched worked on the Dolores. His eyes shifted towards the Shepherd as it slowly approached his ship.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that ship wasn't even involved in the fight," a voice behind Sean called out.
He turned around to see a woman with pale skin and orange hair that was tied up in Viking braids wearing his jacket. He grabbed her by the waist and drew her near to him, kissing her on the lips.
"How'd you sleep?" he asked as he pulled away from her.
She gave a shy smile and slapped his arm. "You went a little too rough last night."
Sean chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, we had to celebrate surviving that onslaught."
"Yeah, right," the woman said, moving past Sean and staring out of the viewport. "Still, kind of amazing how that ship just shrugged off a direct attack to its bridge while mine just caved in."
The woman turned around and faced Sean. "I lost 5 crew members yesterday... lost 5 friends... and the bastard fucking extorts me for more money."
"Alex, baby," Sean called out softly, cupping Alexandria's chin in his hand. "You know how this life is, how they work. Mercs don't care about anything other than money. And to be fair, he is repairing your ship for free, and from the looks of it, he is ready to replace my engines."
Alexandria frowned and pushed his hand down. "You're not supposed to be on his side."
"I'm not," Sean said, raising his hands in mock surrender. "I'm just saying that he is going above and beyond what we hired him for, and he's done a good job for now."
Alexandria turned back around to view the Shepherd. "Yeah, I know..."
Sean walked up next to her and draped one of his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. "At least you're still here..."
Their moment was interrupted as a communication request pinged across the bridge. Sean and Alexandria broke apart, and he went to answer it. When he did, Mark's face appeared on a hologram.
"Alright, Sean. I'm all done with the Dolores," Mark said while letting out a yawn, "so you can let her crew know they can return to it. I sent some drones ahead of time to scan your engines, and it seems like one of them is beat to shit, but still in a repairable condition. However, my pride as an engineer will not allow me to just fix it and call it a day. So we'll be doing a full replacement. I'll be getting into position at the Triton's stern and begin work on the engines shortly."
Sean nodded in response. "Thank you, Mr. Shephard. Do what you think is best."
Mark shrugged and nodded all the while letting out another yawn. "I'm just doing what I'm being paid to do."
Sean shook his head. "No, we both know you are doing much more than you're obliged to do by the contract. Many other Mercs would have high-tailed it out of here the moment the pirates showed up or left. But not only did you stay, but you are also providing us with repair assistance outside of a shipyard or dock."
A small smile tugged at Mark's lips. "What can I say? I'm a man of many talents."
"Don't forget to add extremely greedy," Alexandria chimed in, breaking her silence.
Mark sat up straight at the sound of her voice. "Ah, if it isn't our resident embezzler. How are you holding up?"
Alexandria immediately turned red in the cheeks at his remark. "I'm not embezzling any money," she said in a dejected tone.
"Sure," Mark replied in a chirp tone. "And I'm not a mercenary."
Mark ended the call, and Sean turned to face Alexandria.
"The human body has over 7 trillion nerves," she said in a low, angry voice. "And that bastard has somehow managed to get on every single one of mine."
Sean bowed his head and scratched the back of his neck. "He's not wrong, though."
If looks could kill, Sean would be dead a thousand times over with the stare he received from Alexandria. "Sometimes that bluntness of yours I love so much is the bane of my existence."
---
POV: Mark
The system we were in only had the designation of O-037. It was a desolate and nameless star system on the fringes of the charted territory.
"Sir, the gravity device they used is a total write-off," Marcos said as I finished positioning us by the stern of the Triton. "There was too much internal damage from the power spike. However, the pirates' command frigate has an intact bridge..."
"Yeah, I know," I replied, recounting yesterday's event. I hadn't aimed for the frigate's bridge on purpose, hoping that it would be in a salvageable condition and I could just store it in my inventory.
"Oh, great. Then maybe you should, I don't know, board it for some intel. Kill all the crew and tow the ship around, that way you'd have yourself another frigate for a later use," Marcos suggested.
I nodded my head. "Yeah, maybe I should. But I'm sending in the drones as a sacrifice before I ever step foot inside it. It's too risky to just go it. I have no idea what self-destructs or traps are in it, or if there are still pirates aboard it."
"Fair point," Marcos replied. "I only detected two escape pods exiting from it in the last twelve hours, but I haven't detected any further activity from it. It's very likely that the entire crew escaped in those pods. It's also just as likely they didn't and are waiting inside the confines of its hull for someone who isn't a pirate to board them. Maybe we should try hailing them, see if they want to surrender."
"Surrender?" I asked. "Marcos, my friend, you have a terrible memory for an AI. Did you already forget what that first pirate we proposed surrender to said? Pirates never surrender."
Marcos' avatar shifted, and his face turned to one that resembled a man lost in thought. "Hmm, yes. But that was only the response from one pirate and his crew. I doubt every single pirate is like that. Plus, it never hurts to try."
"Fine," I relented. "You may contact them and propose their surrender."
"Aye Aye, Captain," Marcos said, giving me a mocking salute before disappearing.
I finished maneuvering the Shepherd into position, perpendicular to the stern of the Triton. Once I was in position, I engaged the auto-stabilizers to keep my ship in place. Then I stood up from my chair and made my way to the cargo bay, shifting my loose clothing to my armor during the walk.
Once there, I walked over to a console and ensured that all of the doors were sealed shut. Then I began depressurizing the cargo hold, a process that took merely 20 seconds. Once that was done, I summoned both of my nanoprinters out of my inventory, which materialized perfectly within the confines of the 20-meter-tall cargo hold.
I tapped the console once again, and the hold's door split open from the middle, with one door sliding over to the left and the other to the right. Each door then splits into 4 separate sections, sliding snugly one behind the other, leaving a 30-meter-wide opening with a perfect view of the 5 engines of the Triton.
The SPS Class 2 engines were cone behemoths with a diameter of 30 meters towards the end. I felt gravity lose its effect on me and the two nanoprinters behind me as we started floating. I tapped my feet together, activating my boots' magnetic coils, which promptly secured me to the deck of the cargo hold.
"Time to get to work," I said to myself while tapping away at my wrist. I had done some changes to this suit, envisioning some sort of data pad mounted on my wrist, which the pendant understood perfectly and materialized as a curved screen that wrapped around my forearm. From it, I could control the drones I had.
"Thank God Marcos left me some of these drones. Otherwise, I have no clue how I would get the printers over there," I said under my breath, while walking over to the bigger of the two printers and attaching myself to it.
"I may not be God, but you're welcome," I heard Marcos' voice ring out on my helmet's comms. That got a good chuckle out of me.
The 10 drones I had to my disposal moved in perfect unison, 6 of them pushing the bigger printer while the other 4 pushed the smaller printer. We came to a stop a good 20 meters from the Triton's engines, after which I directed the drones to disconnect the 3 damaged engines from the ship, and cut them into sizeable pieces to fit through the two nanoprinters.
Over the course of three hours, the engines were completely removed and broken down into sizeable chunks. All the while, I had begun printing the parts of one of the engines using the material that had been fed into it back when I was finishing building the Shepherd.
I was a bit thrown off at first; after all, working in Zero-G was a first for me. However, I quickly found my footing and got into a rhythm. If there is one thing I learned over these past few hours, it is that working while in the silent void of space is really, really boring.
"Hey Marcos, please tell me you downloaded some music while we were in one of those stations, because doing so never crossed my mind," I said, knowing that Marcos was always monitoring me.
"What am I, your nanny?" Marcos asked in an offended tone. "Of course I did. Do you know how boring it is to travel the stars without a single bit of entertainment? I also downloaded a ton of movies, shows, and may or may not have hacked into the educational systems and downloaded all of their studies. Man, where would you be without me?"
I won't lie, the day I learned that Marcos was a fully sentient AI, my mind went haywire with possibilities. An AI uprising, the end of times, how he would somehow take over my own body. But as the days went by, I've come to appreciate his sentience. He's like a mix of a kid, a super smart one, and an adult. Maybe I should make him a body someday.
"Alright, Maestro, let me see what kind of music you're been listening to," I said while slotting a part into place.
That was a terrible mistake. My ears were instantly assaulted with a jargan of sounds that would probably make God Himself shed a tear.
"Marcos, what the hell is this!?" I asked while attempting to cover my ears to no avail since my helmet was in the way.
The music immediately stopped, and Marcos answered my question. "What, you don't like the Space-Punk-Rock scene? It's golden music in my opinion."
"Rock?" I asked, completely perplexed about how those sounds could be called Rock. "Jesus, man, that's just a bunch of sounds thrown together. Is there any music under the name of AC/DC or, I don't know, Michael Jackson?"
"Hmm," Marcos hummed thoughtfully. "Looking at my files, I do appear to have some music under those names. But man oh man, these songs are from almost a thousand years ago."
A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I realized that not everything had been lost with the fall of Earth all those years ago.
"I don't care if it's from the Stone Age," I said with a giddy smile, "play it."
"Sure, old man," Marcos chastised me. "If you say so."
It only took one song from AC/DC to blow the socks right off Marcos' nonexistent feet.
"You know what," he said. "I take back what I said four minutes and thirty seconds ago. Now I wonder what goes through humanity's minds to create such atrocities as what I had been listening to for days."
"If you think AC/DC was great, just play a song from the great King of Pop," I said while bolting together some parts.
And just like that, I spent the next 19 hours listening to great music before I stopped working, ordering the drones to move the printer a bit further away and commence the feeding of the pieces of the old engines into them.
I had one of the drones take me back to the ship, as my oxygen was already starting to run out, and I was growing tired.