Illicit Interruptions

[Ilana Logan]

Dr. Patricia Lennertz


The modified valkyrn traveled faster then its military grade original design. With the dropping of armor, and an increased thruster booster the ship traveled at speeds rivaled by few other ships. Its pilot, Greg, a short, older, and heavy man, sat in the living area of the small craft. Across from him sitting at a small table was a young woman, Li, who seemed young enough to have just recently gotten out of medical school. She was eating a plate of greens. Greg watched a small screen on a wall in front of him, which was showing some of the carnage of Za-Za. He had trouble realizing that such a terrible tragedy had occurred so close to where they were, and this many years after the war. He took a drink from a coffee mug in his hand, but he didn’t say anything. Something came into his mind, and he peaked around a hallway behind him. There was a woman laying on a hospital bed in the back, there were machines monitoring signs of hers, but he was too far to be able to see what the various numbers and signals were saying.

”She ok back there.” Greg asked looking over at Li. He didn’t know a whole lot about the medical equipment, he had basic first aid and some EMT knowledge, but nothing beyond that. 

Li turned and looked. She didn’t see anything that was different. ”Yeah, she’s fine.” She answered. ”There’s nothing really to do except make sure she’s still breathing, and it’ll tell us if something’s going wrong.” She went back to picking at the greens before her, and eating them slowly.

Greg shrugged and went back to watching the screen. Most of the images were the same, just a destroyed city. He’d flown an ambulance back during the war, but the closest thing he’d seen to that was a lot of the bombing on Persephone. But that was the war, this wasn’t anything close to that.”How do you think…” He stopped when there was suddenly an alarm going off. It came in short, high pitched intervals. A red light appeared above them. Greg and Li both looked up at the light. 

”What is that?” Li asked quickly. But Greg was already getting up, and moving quickly in towards the cockpit. It was clear that he hadn’t heard what she said. So she stood up and followed him in and asked again. ”Greg, what’s the siren for?” she wanted to know, but Greg didn’t have a face of a lot of concern.

”Proximity alert, it might be an asteroid or something.” Greg answered as he began to check the scanners. The screens in front of him were reading something, but it wasn’t very large. It was about three or four times the size of the Valkyrn they were on. It was moving fairly fast and on a deliberate pattern. He could tell because it was shifting position towards them. ”It’s a ship I think?” He said openly. He was somewhat confused by the speed that it was going in at them with. He checked the classification to see if he was correct, and maybe get a read on the ship. It told him it was a salvage ship. ”A Walden? It’s moving pretty fast for one of those.” Greg was confused by this, though it wasn’t uncommon for scrap ships to operate in this area, and pick up items between systems. 

”What’s that mean?” Li asked, not sure if this was a bad or good thing. Greg was hard to read right now, just because he was somewhat confused. She couldn’t see if he was scared or not, but it didn’t seem like it. She stayed in the cockpit waiting to see if she could pick up on anything.

”Walden Class-Scrapper Greg spoke as the com opened up. ”This is Allied medical transport B8-2912 coming from Di Chun station, please identify.” He spoke, giving a long pause afterward. ”Walden Class-Scrapper, this is Allied medical transport B8-2912, we are in your path passage, please acknowledge.” He said again, but there was no response. His eyebrows were close together and he shook his head not understanding what was going on. He had taken the ship out of autopilot and gripped the controls still unsure of what was happening. 

Suddenly there was a blaring of another proximity alert, he looked down and the scanners found another signal, only this one was coming in much faster. ”Shénme tā mā de!”  Greg yelled as he threw the sticks on the control down to avoid what was coming. But it was far too, they had come in much too fast. There was the sound of a heavy pressure hitting the hull. And there was a flash of a light blue and silver wave of energy pass beyond the front of the cockpit. The craft shook, and rocked trying to cope with what had just happened. The sound of systems powering down were clearly audible. The engines had shut down, and many of the navigational tools had cut out. Greg continued to work to see if he could get the systems back online. ”Check on her!” He yelled back to Li. Li quickly turned around and ran back to check on the woman they were transporting.

Some of the systems that were monitoring her had shut off, but she hadn’t been linked to anything vital. The thing she noticed most was that the anesthetic drip, which had been working previously, was now off. She’d likely wake up in a few minutes, but that wasn’t important right now. ” Dàodǐ shì fāshēng le shénme!” She yelled up to the front of the ship. She could see the pilot frantically working at his console to see if he could do anything. ”I don’t know!” Greg responded from the front. Then, from out of no where, the ship began to shift to starboard quickly, and the sound of clamps were heard. Greg stood up and ran back. In his hand now there was a pistol. He looked back at Li ”Stay back!” he ordered pointing his weapon forward towards the port side airlock. A bead of sweat went down his face, he braced himself for whatever was going to happen, and Li stayed back with the patient

Bang! The airlock door flew open and in came a canister. It began to spew out a visible yellow gas, and it was just at the feet of Greg. ”Lā shǐ” He yelled as it came to his feet. It was followed by the sound of a sonic pulse, and Li watched Greg fly backwards and fall to the ground. The gas had drifted into the back where she was hiding. She could smell it, and her head started to spin. Her eyes were going blurry. She tried to remain standing, but she hit the ground. She started to hear voices, and was barely able to make them out. She leaned back against the wall, and she heard an extremely deep voice. It was almost like a cartoon, but she had enough consciousness to know it was because of whatever she had breathed in.”Hurry…. Said the extremely deep, and fading voice. ”Get the signal up before they get help.” It didn’t make any sense to her, and she could see the patient breathing in the gas as well. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she slumped over unconscious.

[Bishop Morse]

The room was fairly cold, and rather dark. Only a single light was what kept the room illuminated, and it was dim and flickering at times. It would need a replacement fairly soon. The floor and walls were metallic, much of it dirty and rusted. There was a bad smell within it as well, as though something had spoiled in there, and had been spread on the walls. At any rate, this room wasn’t scrubbed down at all for quite some time, though it needed to be fairly badly. On the floor there was the woman who had been knocked out on the ship. There wasn’t really any sound, or way to tell how long they’d been unconscious. The room was also fairly small, smaller then the quarters on most ships, but was long enough for someone to lie down. The only thing that was different about any of the walls, was that on one of the shorter sides of the rectangular room there was a door. Its panel on the inside had been broken, but was drilled in tight to the wall regardless.

[Ilana Logan]

Marina Kseniya Sebastian


The smell hit Rina first, the smell and the cold.  The hard metal grating she lay on registered next, digging into her cheek and chin.  She rolled over—or tried to—and excruciating pain slammed through her.  

It sent her right out of her head.  

She blinked and found herself in the dark, lying in her own vomit, her throat raw and stinging, her left arm nothing but fire.  The rest of her was freezing cold, shivering and clad in nothing but a shirt and skivvies.

This can’t be good.

Hugging her injured arm close to her chest did little to dull the pain, but it gave her something to do as she rolled over and lay there and breathed.  She closed her eyes and took stock.  No tools.  No weapons.  No pants.  No idea where she was or how she got there.  Her pulse pounded in her neck, her head felt stuffed with cotton and yet painfully light, and each breath she drew went down her throat like razors. Medical gauze met her fingers as she inspected her arm, looking for the source of the pain.  Memory returned. Smothering dread.  Her gorge rose.  She gagged it down.

Just another day at the office.  Get up.  Move.

Somehow she got her feet under her and her back against the wall.  The pain from her arm nearly made her pass out.  Her head swam.  Rina slammed her left elbow back, hoping the pain would keep her focused.  The Universe went white as everything ripped out of her and she came to her senses dribbling bile and sucking air down her ragged throat … but she was on her feet.  She took a shaky step. The wall caught her before she could fall.

That’s it.  The wall is your friend.  The wall is your friend.  

She tipped her head back and blinked at the light above her, a flickering bulb behind a safety cage that did little to banish the murk.  Out of reach, about eight feet off the deck.  No help from that quarter.  Her breath rasped harshly in her ears.  Past their ringing she thought she could hear their faint echo bouncing off the hard surfaces of the walls.  How big was this room? One breath.  Two.  Three.  Deep breath.  

Push off…. 

Five steps had her plant her face against the opposite wall.  Huh.  Seven, maybe eight feet. Go right. Measure it off.  Hugging her arm to her chest again, Rina forced her leaden feet to move.  … Three … four … five … corner.  Turn …  She put her back to the corner and keeping the wall to her right, she squared off and paced forward again.  Ten steps took her to the next corner, then left and another five steps to the third point on the rectangle.  Looks like eight by twelve or so … Huh.  Her world was shaping up.  Her legs were water, her head about to float off her neck, her arm so swallowed in pain it had a color, the red-white heat of a furnace, the heart of a burning star.  She no longer felt cold.  She no longer felt her feet. She resolutely paced off the distance to the last corner and her right arm snagged on something.  Panting from the effort, she stopped and explored it with the five fingers she had left.

Control panel. What..?   

Blinking, she focused her eyes on the wall inches from her nose.  It was covered in filth and a good portion of the stench came from it.  Levering off the wall with her good arm, she braced herself and squinted at the panel.  

Broken.  Figures. 

She tried getting her nails under the edge of it.  It was screwed down tight.  She slid her thumbnail into the slotted head of one of the screws, gave her thumb a turn.  She was too weak to do much beyond chip her nail to the quick.  She barely noticed the sting.  Looking to the side, she finally noticed what she’d missed the first time: a door.  She stepped back and studied it. Metal. Heavily braced. Thick-jambed.

Pressure door.  Nothing I’m kicking down anytime soon.

Her vision wavered, her legs shook and she sought the comfort of the wall again.  The world went away and then it came back and she put her good shoulder to the wall and continued her interrupted trip to the last corner.  

…Four … five …Turn…. 

She locked her knees to stay upright and breathed and waited for everything to stop spinning.  Her head alternately floated and sank. The wall at her back went soft, then hard, soft and hard again.  Spots sparked in her vision.  Her arm … just didn’t bear thinking about. Lying down didn’t seem too bad.  Dying didn’t either.   

No.  You had a ship fall on you once and you’re still here.  Keep moving.

Rina pushed off the wall and paced the perimeter again, right shoulder against the wall, none too steady on her feet, forcing herself to move.  If she was dying, she was doing it on her feet, refusing to back down.

And thinking, thinking desperately of what she could do to get herself out of that room…

[Bishop Morse]

Burts

The space twisted as the stars spun. Being the only real point of reference it was hard to get a feel for what was up and what was down. The monitors inside the vessel were the only other point of reference, and they flickered and flashed. They were old and in a bad need of replacement. But that didn’t matter, the point was that they worked. Why fix it if it wasn’t damaging other systems? At least that was the mentality on the vessel. The twisting stopped and there was a hard clunking sound on the exterior of the ship. The occupants of the bridge watched somewhat blankly as they saw before them a large set of arms come about the sides of the vessels, and a large square central piece. Both of these objects stopped moving wasn’t the clunking finished.

Burts hocked about phlem in his throat. His cheek twitched and his eyes moved about the ship in front him. He adjusted his belt, and moved it up and down to make sure it wasn’t going to fall off. ”Keep em’ engines ready Mr. Black, wouldn’t wanna get stuck here if I need out.” He said turning about face and walking out of the bridge. His feet clunked on the metal as his boots connected with the floor. He walked in a way that almost made it sound like he was stomping, which was common for him. He liked people to know he was an important person that they should watch out for. He moved by a group of hatches, with quarters likely on the other side. Then when he came by one, he could hear banging against the door. He didn’t like hearing banging, he didn’t like the sounds of a struggle. He walked over to the door and activated a intercom pad beside it. ”Shut the FUCK UP!” He yelled he yelled kicking the door. The banging stopped. The volume on the intercom was turned up very loud, and he knew it. It was likely deafening on the other end, but he didn’t care, it had gotten results. He continued his lone march through the ship and got to the cargo bay. Here he found a man wearing a big jacket. It was old, and ripped at a certain portion. The man wearing it was tall, and very muscular. He had a sort of frown, the kind you’d almost expect to be hearing snarling through, and his seriousness was emphasized as he was holding a shotgun. 
”Open it up Grease, let’s see the stock.” He said. The large man opened up the airlock of the cargo bay door. On the other side there was a group of three men. They were each holding guns, varied rifles. Though they all held guns, no one brought theirs up as though they had intention to fire. Two of the men on the opposite side were younger, but the one in the center had a wide brim brown hat, and a long beard that wasn’t very well kept. Burts stepped forward, no real expression on his face except for a seriousness that men held when it was time to talk business. At his sides he was ready to pull his Marakov’s up and blow all three of them away. But no one made a move.

”Afternoon Mr. Burts.” The older man with the beard said. He was rather shorter then everyone else there. He had to look up to see his counter parts.
”Yup.” Burts said, his face not moving much. ”So whaddo yuh got to show me.” He wanted to keep up a serious front so that this guy didn’t get the better of him. He was a man of business, he knew how to play the game.

”Lets go take a look.” the short man with the beard said. He tilted his head to the side to beckon them to move. He took the lead, his men watching the new arrivals as they walked about the ship. The halls were smaller then those on Hardtack, but that was probably because it was a salvage ship. Space was needed more for crewmen inside, rather then to haul freight through. They moved about going through the narrow hallways, barely even able to walk two by two. They came upon a door, it had a large latch which kept it shut. There was a view port and the short bearded man stood up on his toes to look through. ”Here’s some. Picked em’ off a small freighter.” He said stepping away proudly.

Burts came upon the view port, and looked through. He couldn’t really get a good idea of what was in there, the light was fairly dim. ”I can’t see shit in there, open it.” He demanded. He had to see what he was going to buy, what was the point of purchasing something if he didn’t know the quality. 
”Oh right, of course. The man said quickly. ”Open it up.” he said to one of his people. He could easily do it himself, but it was asserting his authority. His man didn’t dispute it, he just quickly undid the latch, and activated the control, and the door slid open. Inside there sat a group of three people, two men and a woman. They stepped back when the armed men appeared in front. Burts stepped inside and looked them over. He stepped in closer and grabbed one of the men by the hair, and dragged him over. The man proceeded to yell and struggle. The other man stepped forward as if to do something. ”Try it.” Burts spat with a look of anger on his face. He didn’t look up at the man, but he had drawn the pistol on his left side with his off hand and drew it. The man took a step back, and the woman sniveled. He tossed the man to the ground, and looked over the others. He eyed each of them, particularly the man was trying to step forward to stop him. Fighters weren’t very well appreciated in this trade, but he wouldn’t have to let his buyer know that he was one. ”I’ll take the lot.” He said walking out, the door being slammed shut behind him. 

But there was still more to see. So they moved on down the hallway. ”We picked these two up off a grab in near 52, sold off the others, these were all that was left.” This time they just opened the door. It was just a group of two young children, scared and cowering in the back. 
”I don’t want em.” Burts declared. It was very hard to sell children, as they tended to try to run away far too much. Burts knew what keeping child slaves on ships was like, the little terrors were far too hard to control, and they weren’t good for hardly anything. Burts just started to move to the down the hallway to the next room.

He scratched at his armpit. He could feel a crust feel to it, he hadn’t washed himself in many days. As he moved through the hallway he felt something pressure in his rear, and released a bit of wind in a short burst. He moved down the hall until he found the next room. ”What’s in this one.” It didn’t even sound like a question, more like a demand to open up the door. The man with the beard started to describe it. ”Found an Alliance ship runnin’ in from the Rim, took its signal out and scrapped the ship. It had three in it. Had to shoot one, and the other seemed to hit her head and couldn’t get her up. So we shot her out to nowhere. This one was lyin’ on stretcher, had a buncha things hooked in her. Was missing in arm, probably was an ambulance.” As he finished, he had his man open up the air lock.
   
In the room there was a woman. A ragged bandage was on her left arm, which was right about where the elbow was so far as Burts could tell. There was a smell coming from inside, it was fairly bad, but he didn’t really notice. He looked her over and stepped inside a bit. ”The fuck I’m unna do with this. The fuck buys damaged goods?” Burts said with a sort of aggression. He moved his hair off from his shoulder. ”Yer tryin’ tuh sell me spoiled fruit” He said turning back to look at the prospect. He hocked a bit more phlem as he sized up what he was looking at, and he adjusted his jaw bit, so much that it looked like who was chewing on something when there was nothing in his mouth.

[Ilana Logan]

Marina Kseniya Sebastian


She had to sit down.  Rina wedged herself in the rear corner farthest from the door.  She must have dropped off.  She blinked and her sense of time nagged that she’d lost some.  How much?  There was no telling.  The room was as she’d left it.  

Her neck was sore.  She realized she’d fallen asleep sitting up with her right ear against the wall. Suppressing a cringe at what she felt sticking wetly to it, she made to move and froze.

Sound.

She pressed her ear harder against the metal, closed her eyes, and listened.  

Nothing like an engine on pulse, just a steady near-audible hum that might simply be the blood rushing through her head.  No, wait. There it was again.  A slow grind and a thump.  A slight vibration came with it.  Then …  Silence.  Stillness, broken only by the pound of her pulse and the rasp of her breath.  Another sound, louder this time.  Closer. An irregular hum that she realized dully was human speech.  Too far away, with too much metal between her and it to make out more than a faint buzz. 

Hope blazed hot inside her.  She wasn’t alone.  She had no idea who the person or people were or if they meant her good or ill. But the sounds were drawing closer, they’d be here any minute.  More noise that resolved into booted feet on the deck.  Stronger vibrations from the approaching party, strong enough she had to pull her ear away from the tickling it inflicted.  She pushed herself up until she stood, her back braced against the wall, her chin up, and her gaze forward.  She’d have just the one chance, just one, to gauge the opposition and form a plan. She barely flinched when the door flew open.  She swept the newcomers with a look.  

Six.  Men.  Armed. Dirty. Bad news.  

One of them strode forward and had a conniption as he examined her in turn.  His ranting told her everything she needed to know.

Slavers.  So … slave.

She drew a silent breath and bowed as respectfully as her shaky legs would allow and dragged herself upright again. If she was lucky, he wouldn’t shoot her where she stood but take her off this stinking boat and within reach of something she could use.  If it took days, weeks, months of hard abuse, she’d find a way.  But first, she had to survive.

“I was an engineer,” she said softly. “Now I live to serve. How may I serve you?”

She looked at the man in charge just once and cast her eyes down to the deck and prayed with every fiber of her being she’d just bought herself a little more time.

[Bishop Morse]

Burts

Burts head turned quickly from the moment he heard a word come out of her mouth. Rare was a moment someone so much as made a peep out of crying for mercy. As her mouth her mouth moved, he did not hear a single word. His mind was just working on instinct, clicking and grinding with the carnal thought that ripped through his head. ”Who the FUCK said you could speak!” He said with the simultaneous action of his legs and right arm. It whipped quickly through the air with absolute intent on striking the woman before her. He came in hard, his knuckles being brought in first. He worked like a barbarian, knowing what will hurt the most, and the extended bones above his fingers striking against her cheek would be quite a blow. She fell to the floor it was so heavy, and it was with every intention supposed to leave a mark.

”Hey, hey, don’t damage goods!” The man with the beard yelled as Burts struck the woman. Granted this wasn’t the most valuable piece of his stock and he didn’t really catch any of what the woman had said either, but he still had to make a profit here.


Burts turned around to look at the man as he’d knocked the woman to the floor. ”The fuck you mean damage goods? Iz’ bitch is ardy broke.” He said then turning around quickly to get next to the woman. The scent of his breathe a miserable thing. ”You see this shit!?” He said pointing at the arm. ”I’ll bet you sawed that arm off, just so’s you could get rid of her.” He yelled looking at them. The wound was fresh, and it seemed like the bandaging was rather ragged, so it was a fairly reasonable assumption. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen a mutilated product just so it could be sold off easier, or to break its spirit. 

[Ilana Logan]

Marina Kseniya Sebastian


She didn’t see it coming.  The man’s fist caught her on her left cheekbone.  She felt it crunch as her face exploded with pain and for a second she couldn’t see.  The deck slammed into her hard.  Her left arm let her know its displeasure and the agony was so intense she couldn’t breathe.

But she could hear. How could she not? The man was screaming loud enough to be heard all the way to the Core.  She felt the thrum of his footsteps draw near, smelled his stinking breath as he leaned in close.

Still.  Stay still.  You’re stunned.  You’re nothing.  Not going to make trouble …

She forced herself to stare off into the middle distance, somewhere at the level of his booted toes, docile, unassuming, sucking in air past the pain and trying to note the details.

Breathe.  Just …. breathe.

[Bishop Morse]

Burts

Burts stood up from the woman he’d just struck. She didn’t move, or saying anything else. Either he’d knocked the defiant spirit out of her, or she was just stunned. He went with the first one, but both would suit him just fine. He remained standing beside the woman who was still on the ground, his feet holding a strong stance. He looked back at the man with beard, and snorted a bit to get some of the scent of the room out of his nose. He dropped his jaw and shifted it from left to right, stretching it. He wasn’t saying anything, so obviously he was waiting for something to be said.

The beard man took the hint. “If yer gonna take her, its 400.” The bearded man announced, declaring his price.

”Like hell.” Burts spat back. ”She aint gonna be shit fer labor value.” He said, then he looked at her and pointed up and down. ”Aint gonna hardly be much fer rapin’ neither. Who the hell takes the one armed’n when ya can just’s easy grab one on the street fer nothin’.” He absolutely refuted the price. ”300.” He countered in what he continued to be a generous value.

“300, I got make a profit here. Otherwise you can grab yer own grubs n’ not come on my ship to bitch about mine.” The beard man recognized they were in the haggling phase. “370” He shot making a counter to balance it.

”325” Burts shot immediately. He wasn’t backing down, but he wasn’t going to be taken for an idiot.

“360” The bearded man batted back trying to see if he could take as much as he could possibly get.

”Middle it.” Burts returned quickly, almost as though he didn’t even hear what the counter offer was it came so fast.

“Middle it?” The bearded man asked confused. He knew what he was referring to, but he wanted clarification.

”Middle it, or I’ll take none of it, and you can try to find another buyer.” Burts declared. He knew he had the upper hand. This business was a very difficult one, and going out looking for another buyer that late holding them, there was a serious risk of being discovered. For that reason Burts knew that his advantage was better than the man he was dealing with.
“Fine, she’s yers,.” The bearded man said conceding the price. 

[Ilana Logan]

Marina Kseniya Sebastian


Rina listened to the bargaining going on over her head and smiled internally.  Burts wouldn’t throw money away on someone he intended to kill.  What he did have in mind for her she’d worry about later.

One thing at a time.  One step at a time.  

His disdain for her amputated limb barely registered.  Distantly she understood she was still in shock, still in denial of her injury.

Now’s not the time for navel gazing. Pay attention.  Get ready to move.

The bargaining concluded in a snap and Rina drew a covert breath and readied herself for more abuse.  Tighten your gut before the blow lands.  Roll with the punch, Mike’s words whispered from memory.  For a searing instant, Rina wondered if she would die without him ever knowing what happened to her.  Regret stabbed through her gut, followed immediately by the slow burn of anger.  

Tell him what happened yourself. 

Damned if she’d let these bastards win.  She made no sound but lay limp, like a broken doll at her captors’ feet.  They had no idea what they’d just taken on.

[Bishop Morse]

Burts

Burts started to step out, not taking even a second look at what he’d just bought. It didn’t matter to him, and he just had to figure out where he wanted to bring these items for sale. He started to step out and then his com on his belt was activated. He made the immediate presumption that something had gone wrong on the ship, and he pulled it out quickly. ”Ya, what.” He said after hearing a beeping pulse which indicated that there was something to be heard. 

”We got a wave off a Persephone.” Came a wiry voice through the com. It was fairly clear, though the com itself didn’t appear to be taken very good care of. ”From that guy you know… Dare.” The voice finished and then there was a crackle showing that there ‘talk’ was off.

Burts’ armed left arm twitched instantly, as he tried to restrain himself from jumping with joy. He hadn’t heard from Dare in a while, but he considered him to a friend. He’d tried and tried to get him to come back on the crew of the Hardtack with him, but Dare declined every time. But never before had Dare tried to contact him. Perhaps Dare had finally decided he wanted to get back out into the black, and have some excitement in his life. 

”Get this shit loaded up.” He said to Grease as he quickly moved out of the room. ”I gotta call.” Burts stated as he moved quickly down the hallway. He wanted to get there and take the wave as soon as possible. He was getting his hopes up that maybe the old days might come back, but he didn’t care, he hurried there anyway.

The large man with the large jacket that had been with him, ‘Grease’ Burts had called him, stepped into the room quickly. He dropped from his hand a thick baton. He in forcefully to ensure there was no way to move, and no time to do it. He brought the baton about quickly, and hit it against her head. A sudden pulse went immediately out, and through the woman’s head, with a sudden jolt of electricity. The only purpose of this was to knock her out, for ease of transport.