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A Rare Commodity

By: scotjock1



Iridium, a precious and rare mineral found only in space, and in just twenty individual humans on Earth as of 2013. Capable of improving human skills, and abilities as well as space travel of ships, Iridium also allowed those twenty chosen individuals to safely use Cryogenics. To be frozen safely without being harmed due to the Iridium in their bodies, whilst those without it died from exposure to the immense cold temperatures of the technology. One of these rare, and chosen twenty bearers of the Iridium in their blood was James Anderson. A simple man, with nothing in his life until the fateful day he was chosen for a blood test and found to have the rare mineral in his blood.

He was given a choice, to live and be studied by scientists to explore and unravel the potential of the Iridium in his blood, or be placed into an early model of a Cryogenic pod, and survive the process due to the Iridium. Where and when he would awaken to was never discussed, it was simply called an adventure. That day he was placed into the Cryogenic pod, he was scared, he was even frightened. He didn't know if he would even wake from this pod ever again, it could have become damaged and he would die from the damage. Nothing was certain, and asked when he wanted the pod to open and release him, James chose the date of 2113.

From the current year of 2013, James had chosen to be awakened 100 years in the future. This was something only imaginable in films, television or even literature yet he was living a dream most would kill for. But he knew only nineteen other people like him existed, and until they solved the problem of the Cryogenic technology it would kill anyone without Iridium in their blood within seconds of the pod being sealed. An adventure awaited James, and he would soon discover how much the world had changed from the day he went into the pod.

7015 Years Later, The Year 9028AD, Solaris Space, Former Human Republican Space, Abandoned Space Frigate Coronis

It was cold, hell it was freezing. I could feel it creeping up my body, down my throat and to my lungs. I wanted to cough, I wanted to rub my chest and warm myself up. This was an ungodly cold, unnatural and my body slowly moved and as I awoke from a dreamless sleep, I fell forwards and in darkness I hit the floor hard. The cold floor felt metallic, and slowly I tried to open my eyes. They wouldn't open. Was I blind? I feared the worst, had I lost my sight. I felt naked, I remembered going into this pod naked other than a pair of thin underpants. I strained, trying to pull myself onto my knees but I had no strength. 

Was I dead? I wondered. I was about to shout, scream out even but maybe I had lost my voice as well. Then I heard a robotic sound, perhaps it was some sort of machine.

"We have the package, he's the only survivor in the pod. He's alive, but he's finding it difficult for his senses to return. Prepare the Med Bay on board, and we'll bring him in." The voice called out.

I forced my eyes open, god it was fucking painful. As if I was lifting a car with a child's arm, the strain alone was painful in its own right. My vision slowly returned, and the blurry shapes came slowly into focus. The voice had come from a human, or at least they looked human. They were standing over me, wearing some computerized, body suit in metallic design. It was bulky, and in places looked to store items. They stood over me, and as I looked up they were wearing some sort of mask, the slits of where their eyes would be was bright blue in light. Below where their mouth would have been was some form of respirator, and their breathing was loud and rough through it.

Holding myself up, my eyes moved across and I saw they had a weapon in their arms. It looked menacing, a long rifle, curved at it's end and sleek steel in design. It looked menacing indeed, and I was afraid to move suddenly and give the person wielding it a reason to shoot me dead.

"Are you... are you human?" I asked, my voice breaking and just barely my words came out.

I assumed the person was a soldier, and they said nothing as I felt my eyelids weigh down and I collapsed into darkness once again hitting the metallic floor. I awoke a time later, as I opened my heavy eyelids once more I found myself on a warm table on my back. I looked down and I was covered from my waist down to my feet with some form of a blanket, blue in color. I looked around me, and my surroundings resembled some form of medical room, perhaps I was in the Med-Bay the soldier had mentioned earlier on in front of me.

I didn't know where I was, nor who the people were who had found me. Had there been a fault with my pod, had I awoken only a few hundred years since I was put inside? I didn't know, but that person I had seen wielding that menacing weapon didn't make me feel good about my rescuers. I was too exhausted, I could barely lift my arms, even if I did get to my feet I was likely to collapse once again. I heard the sound of a mechanical door, and I looked up and saw the same person who I had seen earlier on with the weapon walk in with the mask still on their face. They weren't wielding their weapon this time, at least that was a good thing.

However the fact that they were a soldier meant that they didn't need a gun to kill someone, and I flinched as they moved closer to me on the table. They said nothing, as they came to a stop only a few meters from the table I was laid on. They breathed hard a few times, and I feared they were going to kill me. But if that was the case, why was I in a Med-Bay being treated? I was mentally preparing myself, to simply throw myself from the table onto the floor and make a last-ditch attempt to crawl to the door the soldier had come through.

All of a sudden the person staring down at me, moved their right hand to their neck and I flinched. The person slowly pressed some sort of latch on their neck, and there was the sound of air being forced through a tube, and the soldier pulled at the mask and slowly it came loose from the suit they wore and slowly the mask came off to reveal its wearer.

It was a woman! Not just a woman, she was gorgeous. With brown, braided hair, it came loose as she pulled the mask fully off and held it to her side in her hand. She had piercing hazel eyes, and brown, ebony skin. She wasn't smiling, nor was she making a face of aggression towards me.

"Relax, I'm not here to hurt you. If we were going to kill you, we wouldn't have brought you on board to our Med Bay." She said simply, in a strong, confident tone.

I was breathing hard, hell I was even sweating as I felt beads of sweat on my forehead.

"The gun, the one I saw you with...." I said stuttering, and she nodded acknowledging my observation.

"We're a salvage crew on board this ship, we come across pirates often and when we find salvage we need to come prepared. I'm not a soldier if that was what you were wondering, I am the security chief on board this ship." The woman explained.

I was at ends here, what ship was she referring to? Pirates, what the hell was she going on about? My head was swimming, either simply from the state my body was in or it was the drugs the Medical staff had given me.

"What ship? Are we at sea?" I asked slowly.

She smiled, and it was intoxicating but she composed herself.

"We're in space, we are a salvage crew in space. You're on board the Osiris." She explained smiling.

I looked at her hard, my eyes dropping to my own hands on my lap.

"How long were you in that pod for? When were you placed in Cryo-sleep?" She asked me slowly moving closer to my table, most likely observing me.

I sighed, and felt some difficulty breathing but I simply put that down to being in the Cryo-pod for so long.

"I was placed in the pod, back in 2013." I said simply, waiting for her to tell me the date it was today.

"By the gods, you've been in that pod for well over seven thousand years." She said, genuinely surprised with her mouth agape.

I immediately swung my head back and forth, not accepting what she was saying.

"That's not possible, no way. I was only meant to be in the pod until 2113!" I said, getting agitated.

She looked at me hard, and her face softened.

"The year is 9028, you've been in Cryo-sleep for exactly 7015 years I'm afraid." She said trying to slowly ease the revelation onto me. 

I was breathing hard, and I laid my back against the table fully taking what she had said fully into my mind.

"What went wrong?" I asked slowly, my eyes were no longer on her but on the ceiling of the room.

She pulled from a pouch on her suit, a small handheld computer and pressed her fingertips against the screen a few times.

"According to our technicians on board, they checked your Cryo-pod and found that a fault was caused from weapons damage on the ship your pod was on board." She answered me, taking her answers from whatever was on her computer.

I looked back down and centered my gaze on her eyes.

"My pod was on board a ship? But when I was placed in the pod, I was on Earth." I said cautiously.

She put away her computer, back into the pouch on the back of her suit.

"You're unaware of this, but Earth is gone. It was turned into an inhospitable crater, from the civil wars fought after the First Republic fell in the year 4080. Since then its now just a floating lump of rock, we can't even land on the planet now without taking the chance of burning up the Osiris in the atmosphere. They probably moved you off-world, unaware of who you were or what they were moving. Either this was before the Civil Wars or just before the planet became uninhabitable." She answered me, reciting passages of her own history unknown to me.

None of this made sense, so if Earth was gone where was the Capital planet now. Who was leading humanity now? If my pod was on board a ship, when they found me then how was the ship damaged?

"The ship you found my pod aboard, was it involved in some battle?" I asked.

She nodded, and looked me in the eyes.

"Most likely, the ship we found you on board was a frigate called the Coronis. Our records show that it was involved in the immediate evacuation of Earth immediately before 4080. The weapons damage to the Coronis points to the ship actually being damaged as they tried to flee the planet, at the time the atmosphere around the planet was a war zone between rival groups, and factions. It seems likely the Coronis was left to drift through space, and over the next 4048 years it eventually drifted into the atmosphere of the planet Solaris." She summarized.

"What is Solaris?" I asked slowly.

"It's a dead planet, still habitable but it's out of the reach of the current human space government, the United Colonial Federation. The frigate simply drifted further and further away from the planet, and from heat signatures of any ships analyzing it would simply show it as floating metal. Not worth checking out, but we did since we're a salvage crew. Anything is of value to us, so we checked it out. We're on our way to Solaris now, its a planet known to shelter thieves, pirates and smugglers. It's the reason the UCF don't have any power in this region of space, it's controlled by criminals. But we make do with who we can, and do business with who ever has the credits." She explained, and she saw that it was hard for me to comprehend.

She sat down on a nearby bedside cabinet I assumed had medical utensils and such inside, her ebony skin shone from the ceiling lights above us both. 

"I'm Aisha, what's your name?" She asked me gently.

My mind hadn't fully gone, so I was able to answer her simple question.

"James, James Anderson." I shivered from the cold of the Med Bay.

Aisha nodded, and she slowly put her hand behind her head and untied something, all of a sudden her braided hair came loose and it was clear they were dreadlocks. She was stunning, and the fact that she was trained to fight and protect me was an even more alluring prospect. 

"How many are aboard this ship, the Osiris?" I asked slowly, my words felt heavy in my throat.

"On board the Osiris, there are twelve of us as a whole salvage crew including myself. That twelve is made up of five technicians, four pilots for flying the ship, and three security guards including myself. I am the head of security on board." Aisha listed, watching my every move.

I didn't say anything more, my throat was dry and in pain and to speak was causing a rush of pain through my body.

"I'll let you rest, our medical officer will see to you. I'll be back once were in Solaris space." Aisha said with a faint smile.

I nodded, saying nothing as she she stood and she left the room with her mask in her hand. The Med Bay door closed behind Aisha, and I breathed hard as my whole body felt like it had been struck with a car, and I couldn't breath. It was Aisha's revelations, and where I was now. In the year 9028.

A Few Hours Later, On board The Osiris Salvage Vessel

A few hours had passed since meeting Aisha, and I had been seen to by the medical officer. A young Asian man, who used some sort of robot to check my temperature and such. It looked like a round cylinder, with lights blinking all around it and various tools sticking out on robotic arms. I did freak me out slightly, but the medical officer told me to relax, and that this was one of most advanced robots on the market.

The medical officer, a Mr Wong was also one of the vessel's technicians on board. He was quickly done, and told me that Iridium in my blood was evident from the robot's scans before leaving me alone in the Med Bay once again. I felt alone, I had nothing in common or connection with anyone aboard this ship, or in this world. I felt like an outsider to this world, everyone I knew and what I knew was now 7015 years old, and long gone. I slowly felt my eyes close, and I felt close to sleeping once more when the Med Bay door opened again, and Aisha walked in followed by an older man, in a military flight suit, and with some form of rank symbol on his shoulders.

He had short gray hair, and matching thick gray beard. He was tall, but he looked like he had seen a lot in his life. He didn't have a friendly expression on his face, as he looked at me hard and then at Aisha standing next to him, without her mask, and her dreadlocks now rolling over her shoulders, and the suit.

"We risked entering pirate space for a goddamn cryo-pod, and a relic from before the Republic. How by the gods do we make a profit of credits from this guy?" The older man asked, his face a fury of emotions.

I felt like I was a plague victim, that even addressing me was not worth this man's time. I assumed he was the Captain of this ship, being that Aisha seemed to wait until he was finished asking his question before responding. She turned to him, and her dreadlocks gently swung around her neck.

"He has Iridium in his blood, Dr Wong told me the medical bot found the mineral in his blood upon his checks. He can use the old Republican technology, we found aboard the Coronis. We found weapons, and equipment that is useless without someone with Iridium in their blood using it. He is the last person in space, the last human actually with Iridium in his blood. His existence is impossible we were told, anyone from the Republic days with Iridium in them was long gone dead. Iridium cannot even be found on any planets now, the mineral itself is extinct. He is worth more than anything we found on board the Coronis." Aisha defended me.

The Captain grunted, and turned to her.

"You better be right about that, Aisha. Because we're about to land on Solaris, we need something from the Coronis vessel that can pay for our repairs and such or we're floating without gas from here on." The Captain threatened her, and he stormed out of the Med Bay.

Aisha whispered gently to herself.

"Yes, Captain."

She turned to me, and slowly moved towards me on the table.

"Who was he?" I asked gently.

Aisha forced a smile, she was a beautiful woman.

"McAdams, our Captain aboard the Osiris. He's angry about our find aboard the vessel you were found on, he doesn't see the significance of your existence as the rest of us on board do. Iridium as a mineral went extinct soon after the fall of the First Republic. Then eventually those with Iridium in their blood died out, and now its extinct making any of the technology created by the Republic useless as only those with Iridium in their blood can access it. We found a cache of weapons on board the Coronis, Republican in design. That means only you can use them, and if you can show a buyer what that weapon does, or that piece of equipment we can sell it to a collector perhaps." Aisha explained to me.

"But that brings a risk, if those we plan to sell what we found on board the Coronis knew about your existence, then its not beyond some to try and capture you in order to access forgotten Republican technology." Aisha warned me, and telling me I think worried her personally in some way.

I looked at her hard, she was worried I could sense it.

"Who would we have to worry about, who would try and kidnap me to make me use old Republican technology for them, down on Solaris?" I asked her.

Aisha moved closer to me, and leaned against the same cabinet she leaned against earlier on.

""The Smuggler's Guild are quite powerful down on Solaris, they would know of clients Universe wide who would pay their entire wealth to have someone who could use old Republican technology. Not to mention the planet's local crime lords, if they saw the profit in you then they would attempt to capture you. Then there are the rogue UCF generals, who have fled to Solaris in order to evade punishment by their leaders. They would see the profit to be made in someone like you, either way I'll make sure that the common knowledge of who you really are is restricted to us on board this ship. We'll be planet-side on Solaris within the next hour, so I found some clothing for you to change into." Aisha said pushing off of the cabinet, and she moved over to a shelf nearby and pulled from it a simple t-shirt, and what looked to be brown leggings with pouches and such on it.

"These are to put on beneath your survival suit, similar to mine but basic in design. You need to wear these underneath, to keep yourself warm. These suits are good at everything else, except keeping the wearer warm. Blame that on those that made the suits, I once heard the best survival suits were made by the Republic, before their collapse." Aisha smiled, and she put the pile of clothing and the metallic suit on top of the cabinet.

She nodded and said no more, as she turned and left me alone in the Med Bay. I sighed, and feeling strength in my arms and legs more than I did hours before, I slid from under the blanket over my lower torso and I was naked with my cock swinging left to right, as I got off the table. I moved over to the cabinet, where the pile of clothing was. Slowly I started with the thick leggings, with the pouches on it and slid them up my legs all the way to my waist and tied them in place. Then came the thin, simple white t-shirt and I pulled it over my head and onto my upper torso. Then I looked at the survival suit, and I was astonished.

It looked metallic, and plates of the metal were padded like armor but also flexible beneath it with some other form of material holding the whole thing together. I opened the suit from the back of the neck, and it opened up down to the waist before the lower part of the suit. I pulled it on and I felt like the survival suit was clinging to my skin, becoming a second skin almost. As I pulled the suit up to my neck, it immediately sealed shut around my neck without me doing a single thing. The suit was tight, but comfortable at least, and it was a survival suit. There were lights all over the thing, bleeping and on the wrist of the suit was a small computer, I assumed the wearer used to interact with other systems, and computers.


A Rare Commodity Ch. 02



The Year 9028AD, The Planet Solaris, The Capital City

The lights, the city blinded me for a moment, with so much going on on the ground level of the city, it made me wonder about the rest of the city. Myself, Aisha, Hailey and Captain McAdams with our cargo were on our way to see Korvak at the Red Sun Club. Aisha had given me a modern handgun, in place of the Republican weapon I was carrying, it would bring too much attention on us. We slowly moved out of the elevator into the street, Hailey piloted the robotic, pallet that our cargo sat on top of.

The city was too much, so many advances in technology blinded me, things I read about before going into Cryo-Stasis, science-fiction novels that were real now. We slowly moved along the busy streets, passed food vendors selling their wares, and some of their foods surprised me, from insects to large alien-like creatures now being sold as meats. Some looked similar to bears, but with tusks, and odd-looking tentacles. They freaked me out, and I think Aisha noticed and moved closer to me, under McAdams gaze.

"I'm guessing you've never seen animals like that before?" Aisha asked me as we pressed through the crowds on the street.

I nodded glumly.

"Yeah, they never existed before Humanity explored the stars. They remind me of science-fiction novels, and books. Things we imagined, but never thought would become a reality." I said as I felt her arm gently graze mine as we walked together.

"Your time interests me, how things were before we explored the Universe, and colonized planets. When we were just on one single planet, and that was it. Sounds like a simpler time." Aisha commented, squeezing past a crowd around a stall.

Aisha was quite interested in my past, but she was unaware of how things were before I was placed into Cryo-Stasis. Wars were everywhere, food shortages hit the world quite hard, and most felt the world was spiraling to it's end through these problems. If Aisha was born, or alive in my time, she would have been like me, the idea of a future exploring the stars was far better than being stuck on just one planet. I looked over at her, Aisha was beautiful, and it was clear that maybe McAdams had kept her on his ship for reasons than just forcing her to work for him. Maybe he had aspirations to have her for himself some day, and I don't think he liked me talking to her.

"Believe me, exploring the stars like this has always been Humanity's dream, especially mine since I was a child." I smiled at her, and she seemed to smile back in a flirtatious way, she pushed her brown, braided hair from her face. She smiled at me, her beautiful smile was alluring, and attractive.

She appeared as if she was about to speak to me, say something when McAdams pushed his way in front of us and turned to us.

"Ice Popsicle, shut your hole. We need to get to Korvak's, and now." He said, but then his eyes set on Aisha and it seemed to make her uncomfortable, as she turned her own gaze away from him, and she rubbed her arm comfortingly.

McAdams turned and began to march ahead of us, ignoring us almost behind him.

"He needs to be put in his fucking place." I said gently, for Aisha to hear me.

Aisha instinctively grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Don't please, it's just going to make things worse for us all on the ship." She said pleadingly.

Something hit us both at that moment, Aisha's breathing became heavier, I could hear it in her voice, as her eyes looked into my own. I felt my own heart skip a beat, and every breath I took felt like a weight on my chest. Aisha pulled away, letting go of my arm and turning back in the direction McAdams had walked towards.

"I'm sorry for grabbing you, like that." Aisha apologized to me, but wouldn't meet my gaze.

"No its alright, I didn't mind it." I said trying to look into her eyes, maybe make her look back at me but she didn't.

We continued to walk, pushing past the crowds until we hit the seedy part of the city, brothels and neon lights were everywhere. We had officially hit the city's red light district. Women stood in doorways of dirty, grimy buildings enticing men inside, with exposing outfits. Some wore PVC outfits, that didn't cover their breasts, in fact their breasts were on show to everyone who walked past. Some even tried to entice me, using their fingers in a flirting motion, trying to entice me inside the buildings with them.

"Korvak's business exploits." I said simply, noticing that this was Korvak's territory, and his business trade. He held the city's brothels, and sex trade, and with that any other businesses that would make him a profit.

Aisha nodded, I could see that from the corner of my eye.

"He owns the city's monopoly on the sex trade, and with those big profits he's invested it over time into other areas, making him one of the most powerful crime bosses on the planet. He's unopposed, and he's stayed in power this long through his links to the UCF and the legal authorities on Solaris." Aisha explained, and finally looked at me.

"We need to be extremely careful, Korvak's people are watching us now, relaying to him McAdams is with us. That's going to make Korvak impatient, but he will wait for us to go to his club. Just watch every doorway, we don't want any surprises hitting us from nowhere." Aisha advised me, and I watched her hand undo the clip of her holster on her hip, which would allow her to get to her gun if in need.

"Why do I get the feeling Korvak is far worse, than you guys let on earlier." I said gripping my own handgun, as I did not have a holster on my suit.

We moved through the crowds of rowdy men, who were ogling the girls and women who were offering their services to everyone. Sadly it was the same moment one of the men ogling the working girls mistook Aisha for one of those women, and grabbed her ass through her suit. She instinctively grabbed the man's arm and twisted it behind his back, forcing a cry of pain from his mouth.

"I'm not a fucking whore, you asshole!" She shouted at him, and threw him back into the crowds of men, and turned to me.

"Fucking idiots, they immediately think every girl here is for sale." She said, pushing her braided locks from her face again.

I had to admit I liked her soul, and her personality. She was strong, independent and more than capable of her full potential. I had to smile at that, and she noticed, and perhaps understanding why I had smiled, she smiled back at me.

We continued through the crowds, and found McAdams standing outside a large door, illuminated with bright lights, the neon lights almost blinded me. Above the doorway were the words 'The Red Sun Club" in red neon lights. There were armed guards everywhere around the busy entrance, some carried handguns openly, and others had rifles watching us from behind security masks.

"Careful here, just move slowly through." Aisha whispered to me, and I felt her squeeze my hand.

We slowly moved towards the entrance, and as McAdams did the same as us, the guards swarmed around him aiming their weapons at him.

"Relax, they did this last time." Aisha assured me, squeezing my hand gently, and I liked it.

They grabbed McAdams, and pulled him inside the club first in front of surprised revelers and customers waiting for entry into the club. We moved along at a slow pace, and one of the guards moved towards us, but his weapon was lowered.

"Korvak wants you to follow your Captain inside, with your cargo." The guard said, and turned away. 

We followed his orders, and made our way into the club slowly behind the guards dragging McAdams in ahead of us. The neon lights illuminated the dance floor inside the club, and women and men were dancing to the hip, clubbing music, it reminded me of the club music back in 2013. There were guards everywhere, even on the dance floor watching our every move with their weapons aimed at us. A guard guided us through a large steel doorway, that allowed us all to enter through, including the cargo pallet Hailey piloted via remote control. As we entered through it, the steel doors closed behind us shut by the guards now behind us, with their weapons raised on us.

"Move on." One of the guards instructed us.

We were flanked from all sides by armed guards, where ever they had taken McAdams he certainly wasn't here with us now. We were herded further inside the room, that looked like a large cell to anyone else. The guards had us outnumbered, only three of us, and several of them watching us, guns in their grips.

"Where did McAdams go to?" I asked with my handgun in my grip, and all of a sudden one of the guards, a large built man with a tattoo covered face confronted me. In his hands he held a large gun, it looked rusty in places, and quite simple looking, it appeared to me that with two barrels alongside each other on the weapon, it was a shotgun type firearm.

"Hand over your weapons, all of you. Now." He grunted simply at us all, but his eyes were on me firmly the most. The prick must have assumed I had something hidden away, which I was going to pull out on him.

Slowly I handed over my handgun, and Aisha did the same with her own. Hailey wasn't armed, other than a wrench, and even that was on top of the cargo.

"Now listen up, I said fucking listen remember that." The same guy said taking our weapons, and handing it to one of his colleagues to his side.

There was a loud computerized sound that emitted from a loud speaker on the wall, and what looked to be a camera next to it, the camera was watching us.

"I am Tarana Korvak, you may know my men have their weapons trained on you all, this is the way I do business as you're already aware. Now Captain McAdams, has told me of one of you having old blood in you, Iridium rich blood. This obviously fucking means that said person, can use the Old-Republican weaponry that you are trying to sell to me. I want to see what I am paying for, and be quick about it. Now identify yourself." Korvak's voice was rough, and sounded faintly foreign compared to those I had spoken to since awakening.

I didn't move, I did not know what to do, was I supposed to step forward?

"I said fucking identify yourself, before I decide to have you all searched!" Korvak screamed through the speaker on the wall.

I breathed hard, I didn't want Hailey or Aisha to be roughed up, because of me. I stepped forward, assured from the camera that Korvak saw I was identifying myself.

"Ah finally the wandering relic shows himself, good. Now take out the Republic weapon you're trying to sell to me, and activate it." Korvak's voice rattled out from the speaker at us.

I didn't need any other instructions, as Hailey and Aisha helped me open the cargo pallet to get the Republic weapon from inside it. As we opened the pallet under the watchful eye of Korvak's guards, Aisha handed me the beautifully crafted weapon. It was inactive, it's display was dark as I took hold of the base of it in hand, and as I took grip of the handle the weapon came alive. The guards took back steps away from us, particularly me with shocked expressions as they exchanged glances.

"Now aim the weapon at the targets at the other end of the room, and show me what that thing can do. If you try to turn it on my guards, they will shoot you dead as will the rest of my men should you escape the room." Korvak threatened me, hell for a man I hadn't even set my eyes on he was already sounding like a complete prick.

I brought the relic of a weapon to bear on the metal targets at the other side of the room, they looked to be target pallets crudely painted for my benefit. The guards all stepped back, and pressed their backs into the walls of the room for comfort, thinking they were safe. The display on the weapon was a mix of numbers, and symbols I couldn't make sense of, but what ever they meant it felt like the weapon was working perfectly. I took a deep breath, and squinted my eyes as I looked down the aim of the weapon at the targets, and chose the target of three as my choice.

"Get on with it!" Korvak barked, his voice was shrill and venomous through the speaker.

I breathed hard, and felt something on my shoulder, I thought it was one of the guards preparing to push me to fire the weapon quickly. It wasn't the guards, it was Aisha's soft hand on my shoulder, I felt her squeeze it and whisper to me.

"Take your time, I'm here." She said gently, before pulling her hand away.

I felt the comfort of her touch, and felt a renewed confidence in me and I aimed down the weapon at the target, and pressed the soft trigger. I took grip with my finger on the trigger, and pulling on it my muscles were tight, and down I pressed. The trigger came backwards from the pressure of my finger, and the weapon erupted. What came from the barrels were bolts of searing light, orange in glow. I lost count of how many bolts left the weapon, I think it was at about ten or more and the blasts struck the metal target. Have it been any other weapon, I would have expected the rounds to bounce off of the target, my weapon did something you wouldn't expect. The bolts seared through the target, and even embedded themselves into the wall behind it, the metal of the room's walls glowed and cracks began to appear.

The weapon made an unusual sound as my finger released the trigger, and the weapon came to a stop. The room was silent, had it not been for the guards exchanging frightened glances, and then the speaker came alive. I couldn't believe I had put the fear of god into these men, who only moments earlier had treated like animals.

"Well... that was quite a display for such an old relic of a weapon, the Old Republic did indeed make amazing weapons and technology." Korvak's voice was no longer stern, it sounded like he even struggled to find words to say.

I felt Aisha's hand on my shoulder once more, and I craned my head around and saw her smiling, in a warm, comforting way for my benefit.

"You did great." She whispered to me.

Korvak's words came loudly once again through the speaker for all our benefits.

"Place the Republic weapon back on top of your cargo pallet, and let my guards take what's inside it." Korvak said, and slowly I did as I was told putting the weapon on top of the pallet. The big guard who had taken our weapons took hold of Hailey's controller so he could pilot the pallet away from us.

"Now as your Captain pointed out to me, there is more profit in keeping such a man who can access the Old-Republic technology than it is to simply have him test fire the weapons for me. Your Captain doesn't seem to find losing a crew member, so guards please grab our illustrious guest, and bring the women to my office." Korvak said, and my mind came to life, the fucker was double-crossing me. McAdams had betrayed me, and he was giving me over to Korvak for a price.

"McAdams! You son of a bitch!" Aisha shouted at the camera and speaker angrily, and Hailey was breathing hard unsure what to do as the guards began to move towards me, and the girls. I had no choice, the Republic weapon was still in my grasp. I just had to push past the guards and get it in my hands.

"Aisha just shut the fuck up, and let things happen as they should!" The speaker spurted out, it wasn't Korvak speaking. It was Captain McAdams.

"You fucker, McAdams!" I shouted, my throat was on fire and I charged towards the pallet leaving my reach, every second I wasted. I ran and pushed past two armed guards who tried to reach for me, but I was too fast pushing passed them. 

I couldn't fight the brute pushing the pallet away, he was built like a brick shit-house. I pushed passed and came around him and grabbed the Republic weapon, when I felt hands pull at my suit from behind me. I couldn't let this happen, I wasn't going to be fucking showcase for Korvak to his guests, to test-fire his collection of Old-Republic weapons at his whim. I pulled the weapon from the pallet, feeling hands trying to grab a hold of me but I got my hand on the handle of the weapon first.

The weapon came alive, and I swung it behind me into the face of the guard grabbing me. I heard the sound of crunching bone, and as I pulled the weapon to my front there was fresh blood on the side of the weapon. I knew I had struck the guard in the face with the weapon, and he was on the floor sprawling in pain. I pushed away from the pallet and shouted in my hoarse voice.

"Aisha, Hailey! Get down on the floor, get down and cover yourselves!" I screamed as my throat clenched in pain, they looked from their facial expressions not to expect much of a miracle. They looked to be expecting failure, and my capture. Aisha looked to have tears in her eyes. I was not going to be fucking taken prisoner, no chance.

"Activate, give me a fucking firestorm!" I shouted at my weapon, why did I bother. It wasn't as if the weapon would understand me, it wouldn't sense my predicament and save me with some hidden talent of itself.

I looked down at the display of the weapon, and it read an unusual message in red symbols, but it was the fact it was in English, as if translating for me personally.

'ALTERNATIVE FIRE ENABLED. EXPLOSIVE CHARGES LOADED.'

The weapon had responded to my words, to my actual fucking words. Whatever it had done, I wasn't going to complain about it. I hoped to the gods, which ever existed that this would save us all. With this new capability enabled, there was now two barrels protruding from the weapon. Not just one as it was before, this was a hidden capability in the weapon.

"Please god, make this work!" I shouted, feeling my voice waver, close to emotional exhaustion overtake me. I brought the weapon back to bear on the largest crowd of guards, and I saw Hailey along with Aisha were crouching out my line of fire.

I pulled hard on the trigger, and was blinded by the barrels literally turning red, and large bolts of crimson energy, far larger than the bolts I had fired before erupted from the barrels. The shots went straight at the guards closing in on me, three of them were clutching their weapons as the bright explosions took them by surprise.

The blast sent the three guards flying backwards at the wall of the room, they would have simply slumped to the floor had it not been for the the following shots I had fired. The powerful bolts of crimson energy tore into the wall to the back of the room, and it crumbled in front of me as the entire structure of the room came apart. The weapon was knocking the fucking walls off of their foundations. This was no time to become sentimental, for the lives of these bastards.

I turned the weapon on the larger crowd of guards closing in on me, but they looked uncertain with expressions of fear on their faces, fighting the urge to flee.

"No fucking mercy." I said simply, and pulled on the trigger once again and a volley of bolts went flying towards the guards. The shots sent them flying all over the expanse of the crumbling room, some into walls, and others into the ceiling. Bodies littered the room, and all the guards were dead, or unconscious. Some of the corpses were smoking, even cindering which I assume was a result of my weapon.

"Stand down, now! There is no escape, you're a fucking dead man if you don't surrender to my men!" Korvak's voice was quivering, true fear in the man's words. Good, that's how I wanted him to be and feel.

"Go fuck yourself Korvak, and same goes for you Captain." I said staring at the speaker and camera on the wall.

"I wield the power of the Old Republic, not you." I added before turning my mighty cannon towards the wall, where the door we had initially came through was. Hailey and Aisha were still crouched, trying to avoid my firing line.

"Get behind me! Now! I'm going to blow the wall!" I ordered them both, and they both quickly got to their feet running to get behind me, out of my firing line.




A Rare Commodity Ch. 02



I trained my cannon as I now called it, on the door leading out of Korvak's den into his dance floor. My Old-Republic relic of a weapon may not have been the true size of a cannon, but it felt like one in my hands. I hoped there were no innocents on the other side of the door, and had hoped the sounds of the explosions had forced most to flee the club. I didn't aim properly now, and simply trained the barrels in the general direction of the door. I pressed firmly down on the trigger once more, and sent another volley of bright bolts at the door and the wall around it.

The shots tore through the thick set doors, and thick walls it was connected to and then came the screaming.

I was about to tell Aisha to arm herself, but she was already clutching a military-grade rifle in her hands as she saw me crane my head to look at her. It was from one of the dead guards in the room.

"Shoot into the air with the rifle, scare who ever else is left on the dance floor to force them to flee. I can't fire this thing at the roof, it will come down on us." I said to Aisha, and she simply nodded with a gulp in her throat.

She ran past me through the crumbling remnants of the wall, as some slabs of metal fell around her. She crouched down ahead of us, and aiming in the air she fired her rifle, screams followed and I could hear the trampling of feet as dancers ran for the doors. Aisha turned to me, and nodded to confirm innocents had left the building.

"Hailey grab the controller for the pallet and stay behind me, I don't want you to get hurt. Pilot the thing out behind me and Aisha, towards the exit. You got that?" I asked craning my head to see Hailey, her brunette hair was out of place, from her dropping to the floor for safety. She had dust caked to her suit, and her face but she still had the focus to nod to me, before running back to grab the controller to the pallet.

I turned my attentions on the dance floor, and just when I thought that Korvak had backed down in his pursuit of us, his guards began to appear on the balconies of upper floors. They had their weapons trained on us, everything from rifles to heavy machine guns. I wiped a few beads of sweat from my brow, and the dust that had settled there before moving through the breach of the wall. I stood alongside Aisha, who was observing the guards watching us.

"We can't get out of here, without a proper fight." Aisha commented, and turned to me, with fear in her eyes.

"We don't need to fight to get out of here, we just need to annihilate the fuckers. That's my job, this thing will tear the walls of Korvak's club down around him. You concentrate on getting Hailey out safely with our cargo, and I'll be right behind you. Can the crew on-board the Osiris pilot the thing without McAdams on-board?" I asked her, I wanted a clear cut answer from her.

"Yeah, they'll be fine getting us off Solaris." Aisha confirmed for me.

I nodded, that was a good stroke of luck there, not needing McAdams to fly the ship. Best thing for that treacherous snake was to be left on Solaris, to contend with Korvak's temper.

"Good, get going." I said and Aisha understanding the time-restraints of us, began to move around the empty dance floor to the exits, followed by Hailey with the cargo on the pallet.

I turned my weapon upwards, aiming the thing at the balconies of the upper floors where Korvak's men had their weapons trained on me.

"Shoot the fucker!" Came Korvak's insistent, shrill voice through the speakers dotted around the club.

I didn't need any incentive to fire at the fuckers, and pulling hard on the trigger my beauty of a weapon propelled fiery bolts of power, and death at the guards. Entire floors of the upper levels came crumbling down around me, guards in the free-fall as well. What ever this weapon was firing, was enough to bring down entire buildings I would have thought. No wonder the Old Republic had sustained and survived for so long, with these weapons at their disposal. A few of the guards got off a few shots of their rifles, but luckily none were great shots, neither was I for that matter. I didn't need much of an aim, to fire my weapon, I had to simply point and shoot the beast.

I continued to back away towards the doors, my exit from the club still firing bolts at the balconies and landings of the floors above, that still stood. Some of the guards fell to their deaths from heights so high, I knew there was no way they were coming back from such injuries. All of a sudden my weapon made an empty clicking sound, I looked down at the display of my weapon and it was alive, but with no symbols other than the simple zero illuminated in light. My weapon was empty, and dry for that matter. I was already at the doors luckily, and could see some of the guards recovering from the onslaught of my weapon, given enough time they would be coming after me again.

I shouldered my weapon, and ran out of the doors of the club. There was chaos everywhere, civilians running in fear for safety. I could see Hailey and Aisha in the distance with the cargo pallet, piloting the thing back towards the streets we had come through to get to Korvak's club. I ran towards them, to catch up with them, the weapon felt like a heavy weight in my hands now as I panted close to being out of breath. Aisha was looking at me, with her rifle low so no one could see it unless close to us.

"We need to get to the landing pad, back to the Osiris before the security forces get there, they are paid by Korvak." Aisha said to me, re-iterating how much power and influence Korvak held on Solaris.

I nodded to her, now feeling as the one in the dark about events. We navigated our way back through the streets towards the landing pad, and luckily we didn't come across any of Korvak's men since they must have come running to the club, when they heard the explosions.

Approximately Forty Minutes Later, Salvage Vessel Osiris Docked On Solaris Landing Control. Above The City of Solaris, Late Evening

I don't have any clue as to how we made it through Solaris's streets back to the landing pad, but we made it. Overhead we saw ships, flying in the direction we had just come from, towards Korvak's club. Aisha told me the ships bore the markings of the planet's security forces, paid for and by Korvak. At the landing pad, we quickly got on-board the elevator and it rumbled to life, taking us up to the Osiris. The elevator came to a stop at the top floor of the structure, and as the doors opened we saw the Osiris right where we had left it earlier in the evening.

There were no security forces, or guards on the pad so we had left at the right now to avoid them. We quickly moved towards the Osiris's cargo doors, as they opened for us, thanks to the crew on-board. Aisha kept us all covered with her rifle, aimed at the elevator doors. Hailey piloted the cargo pallet as best she could onto the ramp of the ship. Hailey didn't need any instructions to get on-board, as the winds of the evening slapped me hard in the face. It woke me up, to how brutal a future I had awoken in. Nothing had changed since the days before I was put to sleep, the only difference was now we could do our dirty dealings, and betrayals on other planets.

"James!" Aisha shouted, aiming down the sights of her rifle at the elevator doors. They had opened, and who should be stepping out of them, other than Captain McAdams himself, alone.

I turned towards the elevators doors, with Aisha aiming her rifle. McAdams looked like he was out of breath, like he had run the entire way to the landing pad behind us.

"James, here!" I heard a voice call from behind me, in the Osiris's cargo hold. It was Hailey, and as she finished calling for me she threw a handgun through the air to me. I caught it luckily, and thanked her turning the thing in the direction of McAdams.

"What are you doing! You were going to leave without me, cocksuckers!" He roared out like a bear at us, as if he was in any position to do so.

I trained my handgun on McAdams, with my Old-Republic beast on my shoulders snugly. Hopefully reloading I hoped, to myself.

"Step any closer Captain, and we'll shoot." Aisha said sternly, making it clear of her position and intent with her Captain.

McAdams tried to fake a laugh, as if this was all a joke he was in on, and continued to take a few steps towards us. Aisha was not joking however, and pulling on the trigger of her rifle a round fired off, striking the ground near to his feet. I watched surprised, I didn't expect her to shoot.

"I fucking said to keep back!" She ordered him once more, training her rifle on his head. I could see that was where she was aiming now, as she suddenly lifted the rifle higher.

I kept my handgun in the grip of both my hands, gripping the handle with one, and the other on the butt of the handle. I aimed as best as I could down the sight at McAdams, it was like an old Mexican stand-off between us and him.

"I fucking made you Aisha, now if you don't step out of the way and prepared a grovelling apology for me, you know what I will do." McAdams smirked, slowly stepping forwards.

I knew his threat had an effect on Aisha, as she didn't fire again as he closed the distance between himself and us. Aisha was doing the right thing before, I was damned if I was going to let her back down now. I pressed on the cold trigger of my handgun, and a round hit the ground a few inches from McAdams boots.

"Cocksucker!" He spluttered, his breathing became ragged, and worn.

"You betrayed me Captain, you were prepared to sell me off to Korvak. Best way to get rid of me I suppose, no dirty trail left behind to lead right back to you. Korvak would have me in the dungeons of his club, entertaining his guests with the relics I would showcase to them. That was your plan all along wasn't it? From the moment you found me on-board the Coronis, I guess when I answered you back that only gave you more reason to go through with it." I shouted to be heard over the ships overhead, confronting Korvak with the dirty truth.

McAdams was breathing hard, his suit looked to be uncomfortable on his beer gut, and overweight body. He looked close to collapsing under his own weight, and ill-health. No luck there however, he kept standing staring me down.

"You count yourself lucky I was prepared to hand you over to Korvak in the first place! You insolent prick! I could have simply handed you over to the UCF, they would have loved to have had you. They wouldn't have looked after you, oh no they would have put you in one of their laboratories, and experimented on your ass. Trying to find out how to use your blood, how to somehow find a way for them to use Old-Republican technology for themselves. He would have been good to you, as good as can be expected and yet you train a gun on me? Fucking cunt!" McAdams threw back his own weight in defiance.

"He's not a fucking showcase monkey! He's not an animal in a cage for the amusement of others, he's a human being! He's one of us, had you just asked Korvak for payment for the weapons after James test fired them for him, he would have become a valuable asset to the crew!" Aisha defied her former Captain, she no longer cared if he wore the stripes on his suit, he wasn't her Captain any longer. 

I felt wanted, I felt cared for, by Aisha. Even Hailey had shown her own form of care and concern, throwing me the gun.

"Just because you're wet between the legs for him, don't mean shit Aisha!" McAdams spat back, her words failed on him clearly.

Aisha grunted in anger, her hands gripping the rifle even more in anger towards McAdams. I had to admit McAdams words did make me wonder about Aisha, she had been friendly to me, when it wasn't expected of her. 

"Now I'm getting on my ship, and we're going to hand over this cocksucker to Korvak's men. Then we're going to have a nice fucking talk about loyalty Aisha, just you and me." McAdams bluffed, trying to take control of the situation. I honestly thought Aisha was going to go through with his decree. 

McAdams began to walk towards us again purposefully, and I prepared to surrender myself to Korvak's men. Aisha seemed to have backed off, and I half-expected her to turn her rifle on me. I wasn't going to make this any harder on her, than it had to me. I lowered my own gun, and breathed in deeply as McAdams closed the gap between us all.

"It's alright, Aisha. I understand it, and I don't blame you for it. Here." I said handing her my handgun.

Her face was a mixture of surprise, and torn emotions as she slowly took my gun. I faced her and with my empty Old-Republic weapon on my shoulders I put my hands on my head, in a surrender gesture for her benefit. Aisha looked up at me, in her prone position with her rifle.

"I'm so sorry." Aisha said in a defeated tone, her eyes gleaming deeply into mine, searching for something.

I smiled gently, as best as I could considering my circumstances.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Aisha. Nothing at all, I swear that to you." I said gently, and a tear grew in my eyes. I hoped she didn't see it's coming, hoping I could muster it off before she noticed. 

I don't know why I felt like crying, maybe it was knowing what fate awaited me now since destroying Korvak's club, and destroying half of his hired army. I was going to be chained up like an animal to be gawked at, and poked by guests in his cells. There was no chance of that apartment, McAdams spoke so highly of, or that good treatment I would have received. I deserved no better, for placing trust in men like McAdams, and putting Aisha through her own torment and hell.

Slowly, and I might add unceremoniously I lowered myself onto my knees on that dark, lonely landing pad in a submissive pose for everyone. I didn't want anyone shooting at me, maybe hitting Aisha. I wasn't going to be the cause of her own death, because I chose to be hero once more. Where did that get me, even before I was put to sleep? Being a hero, or trying to be one just got me hurt, and humiliated. Even now, seven thousand and fifteen years into the future I was still a waste of a human being's existence. I took lives, perhaps even innocent ones back in Korvak's club. How was I to know none of my blasts hadn't killed an innocent woman, or man on the dance floor just trying to make their lives that little bit more bearable. To have some fun with someone they liked or loved, on time deemed to be their free time in life.

Aisha was breathing hard, exhaling loudly, if I was closer I would have heard her very heart beat rapidly.

"I am so sorry, you came into this new world, only to be treated like a dancing monkey for Korvak. Chained up, and humiliated." Aisha trembled, was it because of the cold, or something else?

My tears gently rolled down my cheeks, god it was shameful. A grown man crying.

"I deserve nothing better, Aisha. I did nothing with my sorry life before I was put to sleep, why waste a thought on someone who did more damage in his life to others, than any good." I mumbled, I wasn't crying but the tears were streaming down my cheeks touching the floor I knelt on. God I was crying.

"I failed so many in my miserable life, and the only good thing I ever had to offer was blood. Make's sense I suppose." I mumbled like a pathetic child, thinking of everyone I had failed including my own dying mother, and sister. I couldn't save them, so why should I expect someone to save me?

Aisha couldn't pull her eyes away from me, and when I looked up slowly she saw my tears. Was it pity in her eyes, or simple disgust at a man crying for his life.

"Don't let Korvak take me, please... just put me out of this world. I'm just a smudge on this world, and the one I came from. Don't let him cage me like an animal, please..." I blubbered, I hated myself yet I couldn't stop myself. The night sky crackled above us, and rain began to hit us, covering us in droplets of water. I always did think of my last moments in the rain, that was the way I always wanted it to go as. 

Slowly the hand gripping the handgun I had given her, moved slowly towards me, and she leveled the barrel of the gun to my head.

"You deserve so much more in your life, so much better for you James. I'm sorry I can't give it to you, but my life... it's already a mess as it is. I'm looking out for Hailey, and the others on-board. I'm protecting them from him, from what he will do to them if we don't do as he says." Aisha said, and I could swear I could see a tear in her own eyes, as she looked down the sight of the handgun. She slowly stood from her prone position, so she towered over me with the weapon. A merciful angel, I wished for that to be the case of it all.

"Protect them, you're their ward Aisha. Save me from my fate, I won't fight you. Just do it for me, I cannot be a caged animal. Not again, I did that in the pod." I trembled, and shivered. It wasn't the cold causing the shivering, it was knowing what was going to happen to me.

"I blame you for nothing, but I thank you for everything." I whispered to her. 

Aisha went quiet, and still trembling. I felt the barrel of the gun press into my temple gently, but then pull away.

"Why would you thank me for this? Thank me for turning you over to Korvak, or even killing you?" She asked, dumbstruck. Wondering why I would thank my killer, or the one to hand me over to Korvak.

"When I woke up, and saw you on the Osiris. I hoped, I even wished for there to be more for us. You were beautiful, and caring, even kind. I may not have got what I truly wanted with you, but I made a friend of you, and a friend of Hailey's... even if just for a short while. That was all I could have truly asked for, coming into this new world. I needed... no, I wanted someone to talk to. You were that someone, and you were there for me. For that I thank you, I won't be thinking of this when I go. I will be thinking of you being there for me, helping me in this new world, you did your best by me." I closed my eyes and began to cry, as a grown man, as a dead man.

McAdams closed the gap between us, but he was still a few yards away from us. The rain was hitting my hair, soaking my neck, and even my suit. I couldn't tell what was coming from my eyes, was it the rain or my tears. I could tell Aisha was crying, even with the rain droplets hitting her face and hair she had tears there. I could always tell when someone had been crying, even in rain, their subtle movements. The red blushing of their cheeks, and the unsteady trembling. I should know, I was doing that just now.

"If you kill him, Korvak will have my fucking head. Now get your handcuffs on him, the security forces will be here any moment to take him away." McAdams shouted, roared even to be heard of the rain above us.

Aisha trembled, and without warning leveled the handgun at McAdams.

"Stay back, I will go back with you, for the sake of those on the ship. But I will not see him become a dancing bear, chained up for the pleasure of Korvak's many fucking friends. If I'm to betray the man, I will put him out of this sick, twisted world with mercy. He will not be slave to Korvak, I won't see it happen... even if I must put him out of his torment myself." 

I watched Aisha at her last words turn to me, her face was blushing slightly red, as if warm to the touch. She was trembling but kept her handgun raised at McAdams steadily. 

"He's worth thousands of credits, maybe even more than that Aisha! We could live off what we earn from him!" McAdams tried to convince her to not shoot me, the promise of a high bounty would turn anyone quick enough. 

"If I am to betray the man, I will put him out of this fucking world myself." Aisha repeated to herself, but everyone heard her. Her gun was still leveled at the Captain.

Aisha dropped her rifle as carefully as she could to the floor, and slowly moved closer to me. My tears were in full release, I felt like a child again, when I cried I had dreams of my mother dying, and running to her bedroom in tears. She would comfort me, and promise it was so far into the future I had nothing to fear. Aisha trembled moving closer to me, and I could hear her heart beating like a machine. I felt her warm palm gently touch my right cheek, as it crossed over my mouth and jaw. I began to cry even more, feeling the comfort her hand gave me.




A Rare Commodity Ch. 02



"I'm so very sorry, James. I did feel the same when I saw you, I would have loved to have had more with you... if given the time to." Aisha gently wept, her tears gently cascaded down her cheeks to touch my head and her suit.

"I don't blame you, just please remember that Aisha. For me." I cried like a baby, my tears swelled up, fell from my eyes and resurfaced within seconds again. 

Aisha gently lowered her head, and I felt her press her lips to the top of my head, still with her hand on my cheek.

"Thank you." She whimpered.

McAdams moved closer.

"Don't you fucking pull that trigger, Aisha! I will be fucking damned if I lose out on a fortune for him!" 

McAdams's words had no change on Aisha, and her arm was steady with her gun trained on him.

"Move any closer, and you die. I swear it by the gods." She grunted, only lifting her lips to speak, and putting them against my forehead this time. Her voice when speaking to McAdams was steady, I wish I could be like her in times like this. Yet I was on my knees weeping, like a child, being comforted by her, my angel. My killer.

"I'm so sorry." She said once more in a whisper to me, kissing my forehead, holding her lips there. They gave me comfort, solace, if I was to die then I would be happy for it to happen with her near me.

I cried, my eyes were aflame from the tears, I thought of everything in my shit, poor life. My mother on her death bed, my sister in hospital with her final hours. Thinking, rethinking of how I could have done things differently for them.

"Who do you want to think about, someone to take your mind off of it? Tell me." Aisha asked me in a whisper, even in her voice I knew she was crying.

"My... my... my mother, and... and sister." I cried, as I felt her rub my cheek gently, and press her lips to my forehead.

"It's alright, think of them honey. Close your eyes... for me." Aisha whispered once more, and pulled back placing the barrel to my head but then she pulled it away from my skin.

"It's alright, keep your eyes closed for me, and it will be over so very quickly... you won't even feel it honey. Think of your mother, and sister James. Think of you and me, and what we could have been. We would have been so happy, think of that please." She said with a jump in her voice, her tears were there.

I slowly closed my eyes, and my world went dark. I could still hear Aisha telling McAdams to back away, and then speak back to me, as I was in darkness. I thought about everything, my mother, my sister, and my Aisha. The Aisha she wanted me to think of, what we could have had, if not for certain people.

"I love you, James. Think of me, keep your eyes closed and it will all be over in seconds. You won't feel anything, my James." 

The gun cocked, and the sound of it rang in my ear. The sound of death, the sound of my beautiful angel being merciful on me, my savior she was. How the darkness makes you feel, and think of the ones you love.

"My James." Aisha said once more, crying.

Darkness. Bang.

*

All feedback is appreciated. Hope you enjoyed the story guys, and girls.  



A Rare Commodity Ch. 03



Salvage Vessel Osiris Docked On Solaris Landing Control. Above The City of Solaris, Late Evening


The shot rang out, and then there was just the whistling of the wind, how could I hear it if I was dead. The cold wind struck my face, it was still darkness with my eyes clenched closed. I slowly opened my eyes, in the darkness I could see the tarmac of the landing pad. I was still kneeling, still alive, and still breathing. I looked up slowly, craning my neck which was a stiff as a nail in pain, and above me loomed Aisha. She was no longer aiming her gun at my head as she was moments before, she wasn't looking at me either, her eyes were in McAdam's direction and looking down the sight of her handgun she was looking.

I craned my neck down and turned towards McAdams at the other side of the landing pad, and there he stood cradling his chest. He began to stagger, clutching at pain he was feeling in his chest, and then the dark looming crimson liquid began to spread across the center of his military flight suit. His immaculate flight suit that he probably prized, as it showed his rank of Captain was quickly stained with bloody. He clutched feebly at his chest with his palm, and then began to cough blood into his thick gray beard. 

"You stupid bitch, you have no ideas what you have done...the UCF will hunt you down, my contingencies will go online now. You stupid bitch-" He began to say before coughing another load of blood onto his beard and the floor.
"I don't care, you will not bully me or this crew any longer you son of a bitch." Aisha spat back at the Captain, still holding her sidearm up, aimed at his chest.

I got the picture, Aisha had stood up to McAdams, and hadn't killed me nor was she going to hand me over to Korvak. I stood slowly, straightening up, before standing up straight alongside her. Without taking her eyes off of McAdams, she handed back my handgun to me, and straightened her grip on her own gun.

"Hailey, the crew, all of them... They'll pay the price for your little mistake right now, you know that much don't you." McAdams snarled, bearing his blood stained teeth.

I gripped my gun, and aimed it at McAdams in unison with Aisha. He turned his snarl from her to me, and forced a gurgle and a laugh followed after it.

"The man of the fucking hour is it? Well let's see how tough you really are; both of you, with the UCF Peacekeepers on your asses all across the controlled space, you won't last long out there." His snarl was forced, and the sound of it disgusted me. 

"We'll avoid UCF space if we have to, you can wait for Korvak's men to arrive, we ain't staying." I said, and aiming down my handgun's sights I fired off a round striking McAdam's in the knee and he dropped to the ground screaming in pain.
Aisha turned to look at me shocked, slightly lowering her gun and then we heard it. 

The mechanical sound of the elevator coming up towards us, whoever was inside the elevator were either Korvak's personal army, or the bribed Solaris security forces.
"We need to go, leave him to the wolves, they're circling." I said in a convincing tone, to motivate Aisha to leave McAdams to the wolves. 
Aisha nodded and turned to sprint other ship's open hanger bay, I followed her in a sprint also.
"Come back, fucking get back here... you cocksucker!" He shouted after us, snarling almost in his words, as he coughed his own blood up. 

I didn't know who he calling after, me or Aisha but I didn't care. We sprinted up the ramp of the open hanger bay, running past Hailey who patted us both on the back as we passed, she looked out after us to look at McAdams who was know kneeling on the floor.

"Don't you dare run Hailey, I'll find you, they'll find you!" He shouted his threats, hoping Hailey would have a change of heart, and run back to help him. She seemed to be apprehensive of pressing the button to close the hanger bay doors, so I pressed my palm firmly yet gently against hers. 

The increase in pressure pressed on the button, and the mechanism whirred into work, as the hanger bay door closed drowning out his pleading.
The only noise was the whirring of mechanics inside the ship, and Hailey's heavy breathing. She looked up at me, panting.

"Thank you, I don't think I could have done that on my own, I would have backed down." She said in a low voice.

"I know it would have been hard for you, leave him to the wolves Hailey." I said gently, and she nodded before dropping her gaze. 

I decided to leave her to her own thoughts, and followed after Aisha to the bridge of the ship. I didn't have to follow for long, as I felt a sudden surge of power through the ship, and felt it slowly take off from the landing pad we were resting on. Aisha must have spoken to the flight crew on the bridge to take off, well it didn't matter now what we had just done, we were all going to be hunted down by Korvak.


Salvage Vessel Osiris, Entering Solaris Atmosphere, Late Evening


As the ship began to take off, and ease into the air I knew it wouldn't be long before we hit the atmosphere, and I increased my speed to get to the bridge. I finally made it to the bridge, and saw the flight crew busy preparing the ship for entering space above us. Aisha was speaking to one of the flight crew; a young blonde lad who was looking over instruments in front of him, preparing coordinates for us to follow. 

I slowly began to walk into the center of the bridge, all around me there was activity, the flight crew busy with computers and instruments around me. The layout of the bridge was sort of like a half-crescent moon aimed outwards of the ship through the clear glass viewing ports. Outside I could clearly see whirling of wind, and the breaking up of dark clouds as we shot through them. 

I was amazed at how a ship as old as the Osiris could hold up pushing through what was outside of the ship. I feared we would be torn into pieces by the powerful winds outside.
Aisha finished up speaking to the blonde flight crew member, and turned to me. She was still breathing hard, but seemed calmer as she saw me waiting to speak to her.

"About on the landing pad, I wanted to thank-." Before I could finish she forced a smile, and put her arm up to speak.

"It's alright, I needed McAdams to think I was going to go through with shooting you, I would never have done it. I wanted him to think I would, so we could get the jump on him." She explained to me, probably in thinking that was what I wanted to discuss. It wasn't that however.

"No I meant, I wanted to talk about what we both said... before McAdams went down, about feelings-." I began once more.

"Oh that, well I wanted to-." Like a stroke of bad luck, she was cut off by the blonde flight crew member who from the name stenciling on his suit, I assumed he was called Ryan. 

"Aisha, we've got Solaris security forces on the channel, it's hot and active." He said to her, before handing her an earpiece to listen to. She pressed it into her ear. Aisha turned to Ryan, and pulled the earpiece from her ear.

"Put it on speakers." She said clearly to him.
He nodded, and pressing a few buttons on the instruments before a noise indicated the speakers on the bridge were now working. Everyone on the bridge listened in, intensively.
"We've received reports of sporadic gunfire on Landing Control 4B, injured man suffering gunshots wounds has been found by security. We have been given information ascertaining those responsible are on-board a salvage class vessel, of Osiris type which has taken off from Landing Control 4B and is leaving our airspace. We have Firefly Squadron preparing to give chase to subject vessel, but they have an ETA of several minutes before they'll be in positions to give chase, further updates will be broadcast. Solaris security feed out." The male voice ended, and the channel was dead, and quiet.

"Ryan, we have several minutes to get the fuck out of this airspace and away before the Firefly Squadron are deployed. Get us out of here." Aisha said with a disciplined, military tone.

Ryan didn't need much motivation, and I watched as he hit some buttons and pulled on some instruments. McAdams may have been Captain, but it was  the crew that ran, maintained and flew this ship; not him. The ship shook, as a burst of more power surged through the ship and I assumed the engines were being pushed to the Max to get out of the atmosphere quicker than usual. Quickly the dark clouds and wind broke away into clear blue atmosphere as we entered space, we came to a slower speed but it was still fast enough to be gliding through the darkness.

"Enter coordinates for Toras, it's outside of UCF territory yet almost on the border with them. We need supplies, and we need salvage along the way to buy those supplies, going to Toras from Solaris will take us through dead space. We should find some abandoned, floating ships to salvage from out there." Aisha confirmed, but Ryan didn't seem as optimistic about the coordinates.

"No one has been in the dead space zone for over a century, whatever is out there is from the fights with spacing pirates and marauders, and that doesn't mean they are not active out there. We aren't a military vessel, Aisha." Ryan disputed with her.

Aisha ran her hand through her braided, brown hair and sighed.

"Dead space is all we have, if we want enough salvage to buy our supplies and repairs we need to take a gamble, or we can wait in Solaris space for Korvak's men to find us. What's it going to be Ryan, give me a better fucking solution other than marching right into UCF territory!" Aisha shouted, angry and stressed, unintentionally taking out her anger on Ryan. He flinched, and nodded his consent.

"Dead space is all we have, you're right. I'll plot a course, and have Hailey and Lena prepare the salvage bots for when we enter the zone." Ryan said quickly, scared and stressed himself. 
Aisha sighed, rubbing her forehead, clearly stressed.

"I'm sorry Ryan, I didn't mean to snap at you." 
Ryan nodded, looking up at her.

"No it's alright, Aisha. I understand what needs to be done, we need to find salvage." He said forcing a smile. Aisha nodded, and began to turn to me again.

"I really need a fucking rest, the dead space zone is a few hours away at our speed. I need to rest my head for a while, can you keep an eye on everyone up here and wake me up if something should come up?" She asked me rubbing her neck.
I nodded and forced my own smile.

"Yeah sure, go get some rest." I said, and she nodded turning to the main door and leaving for her quarters. I looked out into the darkness of space outside the ship, and took a seat; ironically it was former Captain McAdam's chair.


Salvage Vessel Osiris En Route To The Dead Space Sector, Early Morning


A few hours had passed since leaving Solaris, and Aisha had gone to her quarters for some much needed sleep. In that time I spent getting to know the ship, some of the crew and had a conversation with Hailey about everything that had happened. She didn't know really what to say, as I asked my questions as to how she felt, leaving behind McAdams. She admitted that she had wanted to do just that for so long, since he began blackmailing her. After speaking to her, I figured it was best I woke Aisha in her quarters, and asking for directions I found myself outside her room.

I found some weird button pad next to the door, and assumed the obviously red button must open the door. I pressed it with my palm, and the door slid upwards in a blink of an eye, and the room was open to me. It was dark inside, Aisha must have turned the lighting inside her room off when she got into her cot. I slid inside into the darkened room, and outside the passing stars were clear through a small port window. 

I moved quietly across the room of her quarters, and began to hear shallow, low breathing. It was Aisha, I surmised. I moved closer to what I assumed was her cot, where she slept. A simple, think grey blanket was pulled over her sleeping form on the bed. She must have been in a deep sleep, as her body was rising and falling gently. I moved over to the bed, and saw her form. She was laying on her tummy, and it was her back facing me, rising and falling under the blanket. I gently touched her shoulder to wake her, and the touch made her suddenly moved forcing the blanket off of her back onto the floor. She moved about slightly, then settled down again in the same position as before, she was stubborn in waking up.

However with the sudden movement, and her blanket now on the floor I was able to see she was almost naked beneath her blanket. She was wearing simple, yet tight grey panties. I didn't know if they called them panties anymore, but they looked like military regulation briefs with a matching grey vest above. Her beautiful, alluring black skin shone in the little light breaking through from her port window looking out into space. No matter how good a man I think myself to be, I still couldn't help but look at her body, and her ass.
Even in my own survival suit, I felt my manhood stir within my suit. 

This wasn't how I wanted Aisha, I shivered as a bolt shot through my body, and I slowly covered her womanhood with her briefs. I knelt down, picking up her blanket before covering her again with it, to give her some modesty. I gently shook her by her shoulder, and she stirred with a groaning.

"Wait, how long have I been asleep for?" She asked stirring, her eyes were glazed and her voice shook. I smiled as warmly as I could, and leaned against the wall her cot was against.

"A few hours, you needed it. I didn't want to wake you." I said gently.

Aisha groaned, and sat up in her cot with her back against the wall, she clutched the blanket to her chest.

"How far out from the Dead Space sector are we?" She asked me, rubbing her eyes with her hands.
I scratched at an itch behind my ear, and walked into the center of her quarters and looked at her.
"Ryan says we're still a few hours out from the destination, Hailey and Lena are preparing the salvage bots for the work. Roland is doing his usual... well his research he says on the sector, trying to find us a worthy area to start searching from." I said recounting everyone's tasks, and roles.

Aisha breathed hard, and leaned over to a shelf next to her cot, and picked up her water canteen. She unscrewed the cap from it, and putting it to her lips she took a few generous mouthfuls of the liquid. I assumed it was water, but I don't judge anyone should they want something a little bit stronger, this was space we were in after all. She slowly put the screw cap back on the canteen, and put it aside on the shelf again. Aisha slid from under the blanket, whatever modesty I thought she would want, she didn't seem to care about it as she went over to the corner of her quarters. I saw her hit an electrical pad on the wall, and the lights of the room immediately came online. The room was bathed in a warm, clear light that illuminated Aisha's body.

She was beautiful, perfect in my eyes, a woman I dreamed about for most of my life. Her grey cotton panties and vest clung to her physique, and toned body. She was perfect in every area of her body, and as she bent down to slip her survival suit onto her legs her ass rose high, and my eyes were glued to her womanly bottom. My heart skipped a beat, my chest tightened and a few beads of sweat began to develop on my forehead. 

I turned away as her round, firm ass bounced from her movements to get her suit on. She eventually got her suit on her legs, and wiggled into it, I knew this because I was staring into a mirror on the wall. It was as if God was torturing me, making me have to see Aisha like this, it was becoming too difficult to contain my wanting for her.

"Ryan says that the Dead Space Sector is named for other reasons, other than it being the scene of battles before the formation of the UCF." I acknowledged, and Aisha showed some slight apprehension on her face, and her movements. She slowly craned her head, and looked at me.

"Did he? What did he say?" Aisha asked, beginning to pull her suit over her chest, hiding her beautiful assets there. 
I breathed hard, this mirror was acting as my eyes, even though I tried to look away to respect Aisha.

"It's said to have once been a testing ground, for the First Human Republic's experiments. It's only rumors, but even Roland didn't seem convinced it was just hearsay." I said, watching her eyes, as they furrowed, she winced as she caught her suit on her skin I thought, and eventually had the thing on her body fully. She secured it, closing any gaps in the suit, as well as making it skin tight to her body once more. Her breasts were profound even beneath the suit, and no one could pretend they couldn't make out her breast size in it.

As for her legs, and thighs the suit clung to them as a second skin, affording almost no modesty to the wearer. I hadn't noticed really, since Aisha as well as the other crew members wore additional equipment and kit on the suits, they drew my eyes from the exposed areas. Now however, other than the suit it was as if Aisha was naked other than a layer of light, PVC like in the days I came from. She turned to face me, clipping her utility belt to her waist, her curves evident and mesmerizing. She checked that her sidearm was in it's holster, right where she left it before going to bed earlier.

"I'm not going to pretend, that there are not risks in entering the Dead Space Sector, there are many risks. There have always been rumors about the sector, once being a testing ground for the Republic to test many of their powerful weapons. Those who know the real truth of it are dead, and long gone." Aisha said, busy clipping an ear piece to the neck of her survival suit.

"Roland said no one has been into that sector of space, unless you count those who have gone and not returned. He says it's been a battleground since the fall of the Republic, no one knows what's out there its all just rumors. We could end up coming up against some forgotten experiment of the Republic out there, and no one to help us." I said remembering everything Ryan had told me, when Aisha had gone away to rest.

Aisha was getting irritated, breathing hard she finished clipping the ear piece and additional magazines of ammunition to the pouches, on her utility belt.

"You think I don't know that? I've weighed up the risks with the outcomes, we could get from it. We're already running low on provisions, supplies and parts for repairs. We could just drift through the lawless regions and sectors, and hope we don't get picked off by pirates or smugglers. If we don't find salvage to sell, and make some credits then we won't last out here for much longer. I'm weighing up our options, and I'm coming up short of any other option open to us." Aisha said walking past me out into the corridor from her quarters, I followed her as she began to head in the direction of the bridge.

"It's First Human Republican salvage out in the Dead Space Sector?" I asked keeping up with her, but as I asked my questions her speed of walking increased.

Aisha sighed, and we had found ourselves outside of the bridge. It was a short walk, but me asking my questions made us both forget about how fast we have traveled. Aisha turned to me standing in the doorway of the bridge.

"Roland thinks so, but it could be anything out there; both pre and post of the formation of the UCF. We could find Republican salvage out there, or we could find vessels just recently abandoned from some battle. I really don't know James, but whatever we find we'll take it. Parts for an Osiris vessel are rare, and merchants are smart to charge whatever the fuck they like for them." Aisha said, before sighing. She seemed uncertain of something, perhaps entering the Dead Space Sector, or something else.




A Rare Commodity Ch. 03



"I know we don't have much of a choice, I'm fine with whatever you decide Aisha. I trust you, and you decision." I said firmly, letting my arms hang to my sides. Aisha's frustration seemed to drain, and she smiled at me surprisingly.

"McAdams never trusted me, but I trusted my crew, looks like I made the right decision not to kill you." She said smiling, I had to admit she was right, even if it was quite an unusual joke to make. 


Salvage Vessel Osiris, Entering The Dead Space Sector, Early Afternoon


The Osiris was slowly entering the debris field, hours had passed and finally we had arrived at the Dead Space Sector. It was aptly named, the debris field wasn't just debris, it was entire ships; damaged, abandoned or torn into pieces. It was a field, a graveyard of ships that had fought in long ago battles, and some in battles only a few hundred years old. Some looked as old as the First Human Republic would look to someone who didn't know what ships looked old, but I could tell. 

Even though some of the ships were old, former First Human Republic ships were far more obvious, even abandoned and damaged, they still looked like wonders once to the entire Universe.
In their prime the half a dozen ships would have looked beautiful to look upon, their sleek design and build would have once looked like a piece of art even in battle. The rest of the ships were clearly of a later time, after the collapse of the First Human Republic, they were of poorer design, and in some cases looked like ships pieced together with parts and bulkheads of other poor ships. These must have been ships involved in piracy, and territorial battles between rival planets or systems. There was clear distinction between the older vessels, and ones more recent in the last hundred years. 

"Once, this whole area of space was a peaceful part of the First Human Republic, before it's leaders decided to use this part of space to experiment, and test their weapons." Roland recited, moving up next to me as I stared out of the bridge's main observation window into the debris field ahead.

"What happened, all of this couldn't have been caused simply by the Republic's collapse?" I asked, it was unusual that all this damage could have stemmed just from the First Republic's collapse alone. Roland gently swung his head.

"It was a myriad of things that caused this, all across the Republic's territories after it's collapse. The Capital of the Republic was on Earth, and after the evacuation of the planet most control, and governance of the territories fell apart. No one to truly lead, the Republic was led by a main Council; made up of the leaders of the most powerful planets in the Republic's territories; the wealthiest, those with resources, and others with strong armies. In the end once the Republic became so powerful, it was protected, run and managed by the Twelve as they became known as. They were all based on Earth, and once the evacuation was ordered control by the Council fell apart, in essence; the head of the Snake was cut off, and the rest of the body withered away slowly. Planets fell out of the control of the Twelve, as they tried settling on the planet Coras, but by the time they set up the Council on the planet, the Republic was tearing itself apart." 

I laughed gently, letting my arms hang limply at my sides.

"What's the joke?" Roland asked me.
I smiled at him, and then looked out of the ship into space again.

"Empires fall time after time, even in space our very own Empires were not infallible. The Romans, The Greeks, The British, in the end they all fell, over time." I said, taking the moment to think about everything I learned in History back in school. 

Every Empire fell eventually, no matter how advanced, how civilized, or how powerful they were; in the end they all collapsed. It made sense for the Empires to begin once again once we as a race explored space, and slowly collapse once more, as we got too powerful for our shoes. 
"Space has changed nothing, we still have powerful factions fighting for control, and Empires around us collapsing so very often it's no longer memorable." I said finishing my thoughts out loud to Roland.

I think Roland wanted to add his own opinion to the debate, when Aisha entered the bridge and he turned to his computers, looking busy to everyone. She made her way over to me, her eyes on me all the while, until they moved to the window looking out into the debris field. 

"The Dead Space Sector. I grew up hearing stories about it, but never ever entered it. Mind you, we're probably one of the only ships to actually enter it in the last century, and not come spoiling for a fight with someone." Aisha said reciting what she remembered, not taking her eyes from the wreckage of the ships outside.

"What did you hear, about the sector?" I asked her gently.

Aisha smiled gently, her eyes scanning the ships, and debris outside.

"My father used to scare me as a child, told me of whatever creatures were here would come after me in the night if I misbehaved. Whatever was in here, scared even my father it seemed. Immediately after telling me of the tale to scare me, he came into my room to apologize to me for scaring me. He told me that joking of the Dead Space Sector was not to be used for scaring children, whatever lay he should never be taken lightly. I've never seen my father so worried, even frightened before. After that, I never once underestimated the power of what people believed the Dead Space Sector was truly to be." Aisha said, breathing hard before turning to me.

"Hailey has the salvage bots ready, we just need to prepare our suits and find a suitable wreck out there to check out." Aisha added.

Roland coughed aloud, and Aisha and me turned to him.

"Already have one picked out of you guys, it's an old Republic vessel. From my archives, I assume the ship is once the revered Titan Battlestar vessel, I could be wrong but the archives seem to verify most of it's intact body and identifying markers." Roland said keeping eye contact with both me, and Aisha.

"What was the Titan?" Aisha asked watching the ships outside, hoping to find the one Roland was referring to.

"It was a former old Republic Battlestar vessel, one of thirty of the Republic's finest. While the rest of the thirty, the pride of the Republic Navy, the Titan is classed as a scientific-research vessel, yet armed and fully operational as a war vessel if needed by the Republic Navy. According to my archives, the Titan was called from it's regular scientific-research duties in the Rokkar System, the name of this Sector before it became known adeptly as the Dead Space Sector as it is now. The Titan was called to a territorial skirmish between warring criminal factions here, in 4080 a few months prior to the Collapse of the Republic. Archives do not say much about the actual battle, as the archives of that time ended in that same period of time following the Collapse." Roland said using the interface strapped to his head, most likely going through the archives on the Titan.

"What about from actual damage evident on the ship?" I asked, I wasn't an idiot. If computer databases didn't hold answers, then a simple analysis of the damage to the ship would yield answers.

Roland turned to the bridge window looking out into the debris field, and he pointed out a sleek, almost Crimson in design and paint-job, but the hundreds, even thousands of years since it was once in working order had stripped it of it's obvious beauty. While some of the other Old Republic ships were in good state, almost no damage caused other than a few blast craters in the hull, the Titan was split in two almost in it's center. It was only barely held together, the two ends by what appeared to be some girders of metal. It was clear however, if we were to board the vessel we would have to be wearing air-tight space suits. 

"God, there's extensive fucking damage to the Titan. How can we scavenge salvage from it, if most of it is open to the elements and space itself." I observed, making it obvious and clear to Roland and Aisha.

Roland activated some feature on his headset interface, and spoke.

"From our ship's readings of the Titan, it seems the Bridge and most of the front of the ship is sealed air-tight, most likely a precaution when the ship took the damage that it did. The Bridge, and most likely the labs of the vessel were sealed off. Once you make it to the bridge in your suits, you'll be able to activate the air supply to most of the front of the ship and the bridge itself. Maybe on the bridge, you'll be able to access files, on the computers, that point to valuable areas of the ship to search for salvage. Other than that, archives and analysis of the ship doesn't show up much more than the sealed areas of the ship." Roland noted.

Aisha sighed, and rounded on Roland.

"What about the rest of the Titan, the tail end of the ship?" She asked him.

Roland was taken quite off-guard by her question, and breathed deep.

"Open wide to the elements, there is no air-supply to the tail end of the ship. Most of it has been damaged beyond actual repair, and it's open to space, you'll be walking through it in it's entirety in your suits. But analysis of the tail end of the Titan, shows simply the actual workings of the ship, engine rooms and the like. Anything of value seems to be at the front of the vessel, the tail-end doesn't seem worth the danger of searching in your sealed suits." Roland answered Aisha, even though it seemed rushed in tone.
Aisha sighed, nodding gently.

"Then we stick to the bridge of the vessel, and the areas in the front of the hull of the ship." She agreed.

We had a plan, and I was happy enough with it and nodded my consent.

"You two better prep your suits, Michaels will go with you both as armed guard just in case." Roland said pressing a few controls on his computer.
We both nodded, and Aisha was first leaving the bridge and I followed her to get changed into our suits.

Salvage Vessel Osiris, Entering The Dead Space Sector, 5:50PM

We were suited up, our space suits were air-tight, and sealed for our protection against the elements as we boarded the Titan. Michaels was one of Aisha's security detail on-board the Osiris, he was tall, almost six feet tall, and with a clean shave face with short blonde hair. He seemed handy with his Pulse Rifle, and his own air-tight space suit. Time would tell as I got to know the Osiris's crew and all those on-board. We all wore our normal suits, but with additions like our helmets, and sealed gloves and air-lock seals all across our suit. We had our 02 canisters strapped to our waist, with a small tube leading up to our helmets pumping air inside. 

Tony, another of Aisha's security detail aboard the Osiris entered the chamber, and looked at us all. 

"Aisha, we've got communications up and running on your Rigs, just call through if you need anything. Me, and Greggs are ready to double time it to the Titan and evac you guys ASAP." He said, with his short black hair and strong jaw.
Aisha was stressed, and was trying to speak as she was trying to connect her own air supply to her suit.

"Hopefully it won't come to that Tony, but if it does we'll appreciate any help you can send our way." Aisha replied, but she gasped out angrily as she lost grip of the tube to her air supply.

"Turn around." I said simply, and she looked at me as if unsure what I was asking of her.

"I'll connect it, relax we're out of the UCF territory, so we can take a breather." I  said simply, and she reluctantly turned her back to me.

"No funny business, alright." Aisha said resting her head against her shoulder, and looked over at me with a smile on her lips.

I smiled gently connecting the light, smooth tube to her suit, but took my time to do it as I enjoyed the curves of her back, and body. Her arch was beautiful, curved inwards slightly leading down to the top of her backside in the suit.

"I won't if you can contain yourself." I smiled at her, and she grinned.

"Well if you knew my tricky spots, I don't think I could contain myself for too long." She grinned, slowly opening her eyes and closing them in an alluring manner. 

I looked at Michaels, and he was too busy with his own suit, and gently I dropped my hand down to the curve of her back and gently grazed her through the suit, with my hand. She shivered at my touch, and her whole body shook slightly, as I let my hand graze more of her back arch. She shook more, convulsing ever so slightly, and as my fingertips traced down to the top of her backside she gasped. Michaels looked over at us, dumbfounded and wondering what we were doing.

"I think the tubing is secure, James." She said taking control of herself, and turned to face me, her face all flushed and red slightly.

"I'm sure too, though are you sure you don't want me to screw it in a bit further?" I asked making a discreet sexual innuendo to her, and she figured it out, looking over to Michaels.

Michaels was certainly not that bright, and went back to fiddling with his own suit, too pre-occupied to notice our odd behavior.

"Yes I am sure, it's screwed in just enough." Aisha said determined, and making it clear not to do anything else that would cause awkwardness.

We all checked our suits, giving them a once over and made our way to the airlock connect by footbridge to the Titan's bridge. Slowly from the bridge of the Osiris, we were given the all-clear and that the footbridge was connected to the Titan. We waited alongside each other in the chamber, me to the left, Aisha in the center and Michaels to her right. The green light shone bright above the air-lock door and it opened quickly, there was no gust of air as it secured, it had already done that. The chamber was also sealed shut, so the rest of the Osiris was safe.

We began to move together onto the footbridge, through the air-lock door and made our way to the rusted, airlock of the Titan. It indeed had seen better times. Through our communications in our helmets, the bridge contacted us.

"Opening the outer airlock door of the Titan now, make your way to the bridge and re-establish air supply to the manageable areas of the ship." After that the channel went silent, and the outer, rusted airlock door opened. 

At one point, almost partially open it appeared like it was going to snap, and not open fully, but it slid into place eventually.

"Piece of old rust bucket." Michaels said through his mic in his helmet, angry and agitated.

"Relax, these Old Republic vessels and it's technology were well designed. They are going to rust, they've had many years to do that, and they're still in good shape." Aisha said in response, as we passed through the airlock into a long corridor, that from our position, we couldn't see where it ended in both distances.

"A big ship." I observed, smiling.
Aisha contacted the Osiris via her own mic.

"Osiris, from our position which way towards the bridge?" She asked.

A voice crackled on the channel, a female one, it was Hailey.

"Aisha, if you go East of your position about a hundred yards on, you'll come to an elevator. Our systems still show power to the elevator, so you can get to the bridge from that location." She explained, and the channel once more went silent.

"Right, we go East towards the elevator." Aisha reaffirmed, and we began down the corridor, it was pitch black. On all our helmets were connected flashlights, we turned them on and illuminated parts of the corridor as we slowly walked down it.

"If this was a scientific-research vessel, wouldn't there be clear signs of it being just that. It's empty corridors, and no real signs of experimentation like Frankenstein." I laughed gently.

Aisha turned to me slightly, still walking down the corridor.

"Frankenstein, who's that?" She asked me.
"Well it's... never mind, not important." I said smiling, understanding my perception of the old world was long gone, and most of what I knew from my past was gone also.

We continued walking down the corridor, it was eerily silent, but then again it was an abandoned space vessel, untouched in thousands of years. We finally found the elevator, and a few blinking lights showed it was still in use, and had power in it. Aisha hit a few buttons and the doors open, and we were forced to step back in sheer shock. The lights inside flickered, almost as if out of a classic horror film from my time. There were two bodies, of male soldiers against the inside of the elevator. They were dead, but preserved from the lack of oxygen to this part of the ship.

There was large spots of blood and gore all over the walls of the elevator, there were some old Republic weapons at their sides, but it didn't look like they got a shot off. What was most eerie, most frightening was that their eyes were missing, and clearly they didn't simply rot away, they were torn out by something, or someone.
Along the wall above their bodies, was a simple message for us all to read, and still preserved, written in gore and blood. I didn't have to read it, as Aisha read it out for us all, quite conveniently.

"The abominations of our own greed, will forever haunt and taunt us, until they come for our very flesh." Even her words shook, as if reading the last will and testament of these two soldiers was like forcing herself through a pool of blood.
Michaels didn't need much motivation at this point, he was on point even, his rifle pressed to his shoulder, and he was aiming down the sights behind us down the very same corridor we came up.

"What the fuck happened here?" He asked, his voice high, and distressed.

Aisha said nothing, simply watching the message, her breathing was heavy, and labored.

"What did that to their... their fucking eyes?" Michaels asked once more, like a drama queen, mind you I didn't blame him.

"Whatever did it, are long gone." I said trying to comfort, and reassure him, when a loud crashing sound from down the corridor alarmed us, and it was followed by a scuttling sound.

Michaels was breathing hard, and Aisha turned unloosening her own sidearm and aiming it, with a red-laser sight peering off into the dark distance.

"They're not gone, they're still here." She said simply, cocking her gun.

The noises drew louder, more closer, clearly evident to us all that we were not alone on this ship, and that the Osiris systems were wrong in their readings.

I unloosened my own sidearm that I had brought with me, luckily. I aimed down the sight of it, and turned on the red-laser sight, staring down the corridor with Aisha and Michaels, in the distance there was movement, human shapes, shadows. They weren't human, or maybe they were once, not anymore. We all cocked our weapons, ready for the impending attack.


All feedback is appreciated. Hope you enjoyed the story guys, and girls. Any ideas or thoughts, hit me up with an email or leave a comment.























A Rare Commodity Ch. 04



Formerly The Rokkar System, The Dead Space Sector, On-board The Derelict Titan Battleship

*

I was aiming down my pistol, down the dark corridor alongside Aisha; Michaels was aiming his Pulse Rifle down the corridor, turning on the flashlight attached to the bottom of it's barrel.

"What the hell happened here? What's that noise?" Michaels asked, he was concerned breathing hard as he swung his rifle left to right, trying to illuminate the corridor.

The scuttling sound was echoing down the corridor, as we waited for the inevitable; whatever had done this to these two dead men were still on board this ship.

"Whatever the fuck they are, they'll be here soon enough." I said gripping the handle of my gun much more tighter, and aimed down it's iron-sights.

The scuttling sound grew louder, and then the shapes appeared; we could see them, they were on hind legs, and others were almost human. That was until Michael's flashlight illuminated their faces, and torn bloody torso's. They were mutated, beyond recognition; whatever had caused these mutations had twisted their bodies. 

But it was clear they weren't the survivors on-board the ship, they would have died out through natural means; these were their offspring, their twisted breeding had caused this. Several of the creatures had filled the entire corridor in front of us, and were slowly advancing towards us; their extra limbs and twisted bodies dragging along the steel floor of the corridor.

"What in the God's mind, are these things?" Michaels asked excitedly, he was nervous as hell, and his voice showed that.

He was shaking, trying to hold his rifle up but his nerves were shot.

"It doesn't matter, just shoot them." Aisha said focusing our attentions.

Aisha was first to fire her gun, and then Michaels followed with his rifle; seeing as I was the odd one out, I pulled back on the trigger of my own gun and began firing off shots. Most of my shots missed, only occasionally hitting some of the creatures in their grotesque, twisted torso's or limbs. Aisha was experienced, her shots hit all their targets, putting most of them down before they could reach us. Michaels was unsteady, even with the most powerful weapon of all three of us; his nerves were shot, and he could barely land an accurate shot.

His shots were ranged all over the place, on full automatic mode the man was hitting walls, and only injuring the creatures. The shots were illuminating the corridor, and I could see more of these creatures entering the corridor from ventilation shafts, and doors leading onto adjacent rooms and such. They were swarming us, as our shots rang out, and empty casings spat out from our weapons filling the floor beneath us. 

"Were getting nowhere doing this! They'll just keep coming, we need to get to the bridge! Get this elevator moving!" Aisha shouted over the sound of gunfire, and monstrous moaning the creatures made as they charged for us. 

We all pressed up against the back of the elevator, still firing at the creatures. I was nearest to the controls of the elevator, I placed my shaking hand over the controls and they came alive with an interactive screen. It was a mixture of lights, and controls; I used my hand to jab at the button with a corresponding arrow pointing upwards.

"Close that damn door!" Aisha shouted once more at me, as she fired off her gun.

The creatures had reached the doors of the elevator and were almost inside, when the metal doors closed shut and we breathed sighs of relief between us all.

"What the hell is going on, on this ship?" Michaels shouted, in a very demanding tone.

He took the chance to lower his rifle, as we did the same with out pistols. There were exactly sixty floors to the Titan, and we were on the lower levels, only the twelfth level. So we had a long journey ahead of us, until we reached the bridge above us. We all took the chance to take a breather, and leaned against the walls of the elevator; Michaels reloaded his rifle, and Aisha did the same on instinct with her pistol. I decided I better reload a new magazine into my gun, or end up in trouble in the next fight we had; with no ammo left. 

"What happened on this ship?" Aisha asked me, looking for some answers.

"What can I tell you, the goddamn Republic messed around with something back at the height of their power; and it backfired. They then covered it up, and pretended it never happened. Governments have done this throughout our history, they were doing it back before we began to explore space, when I was frozen." I said angrily, Aisha had no right to put me on the spot; and ask me something I knew nothing about.

Aisha knew that her question had irritated me, and simply watched the sign above the doors telling us we were passing the thirty fourth floor of the ship, less than thirty floors to go. 

"The Republic were experimenting with something, and it went wrong somewhere along the line; but these creatures cannot be the survivors and crew aboard the ship. It's been hundreds, thousands of years since it happened; they must be the offspring of the first creatures." I said as an observation I had made of the creatures, and the state of the ship.

Aisha nodding, perhaps accepting my explanation even if vague. Michaels was still nervous, and his hands were shaking as he attempted to hold his rifle still.

"How have they survived on the ship?" He asked me, his blonde hair matted to his skull and forehead by sweat. I could see that, through the visor of his helmet that all of us had, which was slightly illuminated by a low blue light.

Now Michaels was pushing me to the brink for answers, even I couldn't explain that; but I could venture a guess of mine.

"Maybe the ship was stocked up, prior to the outbreak on-board. They survived as long as they could on the food stocked on-board, and when that ran out - maybe they resorted to eating each other." I said simply, knowing my guess was quite out there to be honest.

"Gods, Cannibals!" Michaels spat out, as if the words were sour in his mouth.

"Stow it, Michaels. We need to stay alert out here." Aisha told him, turning to him over her shoulders.

I holstered my gun, as I saw we had almost reached the fiftieth floor of the ship.

"Well the food would have ran out eventually, they couldn't survive without a food source; so it would make sense wouldn't it." I said simply, watching Aisha's reaction; she was studying me, her eyes narrowed slightly.

Michaels was shaking all over, barely able to carry his weapon; for being so unstable I was afraid he would become a danger to us.

"We're almost there." Aisha said turning her eyes from observing me, to the sign above the doors. Fifty-sixth floor, fifty-seventh floor, fifty-eight.

We were almost there, when I decided to take my pistol out again; just in case those creatures were outside waiting for us.

Sixtieth floor, and when we reached it an auto-mated voice came alive and spoke with a female voice, but it was clear it was computerized.

"Sixtieth floor. Bridge. Only authorized personnel are permitted to enter the Bridge. Please be ready to identify yourself to security personnel, with your ID code on your suit." The auto-mated voice said.

As we looked at one another, Aisha exchanged looks at me.

"There was oxygen being pumped into the elevator, and the corridor we were attacked in. I think we're alright, to remove our helmets. We can breath here, clip your helmets to your belts. Keep them close, we may need to put it back on if the air is vented out of here." She said, removing the tubes connected to the back of her helmet before pulling off of her head. 

Her striking, stunning dark braided hair came loose as the helmet was no longer containing it. We all removed our own helmets, following her as we knew there was some form of oxygen in this part of the ship. We all took some deep breaths of the air around us, and knew we were safe; for the moment. Me and Michaels clipped our helmets to our utility belt, allowing it swing and bounce as we moved or walked.

"Right, be on you guard, we don't know if there are any more of those things up here." Aisha told us both, her eyes bearing deep into my own eyes as she told me.

Her eyes lingered on me, longer than normal; longer than they had on Michaels. As the doors opened, she tore her eyes from me and stepped out first.

She was holding her gun in both hands, but lowered and resting against her stomach to be ready to bring it up to aim if we were attacked. I could see her training with the UCF was still viable even now, she hadn't forgotten anything; ironic her squad was named the Forgotten.

The bridge was dead quiet, and in darkness. The only light was coming through the large. pane windows of the bridge that looked out into space; the starts outside were illuminating parts of the area. But where we were, it was pitch black and Michaels used his flashlight to guide us towards the computers, and dormant systems that the crew would have used when the ship was operational.

"This place is eerie, it's so quiet." Michaels surmised.

"This place hasn't been operational in well over two thousand years, close to three thousand years since anyone operated any of these systems. Surprisingly it's all well preserved." I said following behind Aisha, holding my gun to my hip.

"The ship must have gone into standby mode, when the outbreak happened. It shut down all of the areas of the ship, that weren't required to stay operational. It kept the bridge and other areas going, still pumping oxygen into them in thinking that personnel were still using the systems." Aisha said offering her own guess as to why the Titan was still operational, and areas still had oxygen pumped into them.

"That would mean, that most of those creatures are restricted to the areas still made breathable by the ship; which means they must still be human, or alive in some form. They couldn't survive in lack of oxygen." I said thinking about the whole situation. 

The reason why the creatures were so aggressive and violent towards us, was that perhaps they feared attack themselves, or simply wanted to eat us which seemed more likely. Being cannibals, the idea of fresh almost perfect human flesh seemed worth being so aggressive to get their hands on.

"If the bridge, and other areas are still being pumped full of oxygen; then that means we can probably operate the systems and find out what caused of all of this." Aisha said to herself, an idea of hers.

"We may find logs, or recordings of the crew in the computers." Aisha added, before moving over to one of the computers.

Michaels stood looking out of the large observation windows of the bridge at the stars outside, as I followed Aisha. She sat down behind one of the nearest computers, at the end of a long row of the systems. She looked at me, and without saying anything pressed one of the buttons of the sleek, keyboard built into the desk. Nothing happened, no active life came to the computer or anything around us.

"It's old Republic technology, meaning it will not recognize me; but it will recognize you." Aisha said turning to look at me, her eyes looked stunning in the limited light of the starts pouring into the bridge.

I looked over at Michaels, he seemed to busy staring out at the stars to notice me and Aisha. I sighed and holstered my pistol, and slid past Aisha's chair, and she in turn got up. I moved onto the chair, and positioned myself more comfortably.

"I think if it recognized me, then the entire ship would have come alive when we boarded it." I said with a passing thought.

Aisha moved to the edge of the desk, looking down and watching me.

"Maybe nothing came alive, because of everything being on standby. Maybe the ship's sensors are offline, and couldn't sense you. Just try accessing the computer, and we'll see if anything happens." Aisha said gently.

I sighed, where I was sitting I had rested my hands on my thighs, but now as I raised them to hover over the dormant computer screen, it came alive. All of a sudden the entire bridge burst to life, lights, computers, sensors; every computer-managed system came alive around us including the computer I was sat at. 

"Goddamn it, you're like a fucking charged battery; bringing everything to life around you." Aisha said with a laugh, and kissed the top of my head affectionately.

The computers around us all came alive, the screens like the controls in the elevator came alive; and were 3D dials, access and such spouting out from the screen. This was like the world I grew up thinking of, the future of our world with computers and electronics. The screen and lights were a myriad of colors, ranging from bright orange to dark blue and black. 

"UN-RECOGNIZED HUMAN REPUBLIC USER. PLACE YOUR HAND ON THE SENSOR NEXT TO COMPUTER." An automated voice rang out around the bridge, and suddenly next to the computer a square shape illuminated from the desk in bright orange.

"PLACE YOUR HAND ON THE SENSOR, UN-ORGANISED USER." The computerized voice said once more around us.

"You better do, as it says. We don't want to be vented out into space, if it thinks were intruders." Aisha told me, gently placing her hand on my shoulder to reassure me.

I sighed, and feeling some courage with her hand on my shoulder I moved my right hand across to the bright pad and slowly placed it flat against it.

There were some unusual computer sounds and noises, emitting from the computers and the pad my hand was resting on.

"It might still vent us out into space, if it can't recognize me as a citizen. Being that I was born before their records were created, and the long hiatus it's been since it was last online." I said simply, my eyes never leaving the sensor my hand was on.

There was an awkward, agonizing silence from us all except the noises and sounds of the computers around us. Eventually the pad went dark, and the automated voice spoke once more.

"UN-RECOGNIZED USER, YOU ARE NOT SHOWING IN OUR RECORDS. WERE YOU BORN ON-BOARD THIS SHIP, TO A MEMBER OF THE CREW?" It asked me, in a simple, toneless voice.

I looked around, and to my right passed two computers there was an ID card, it was simple in design but it had a photo on it, and a name. The computer recognized me as a human with Iridium in my blood, so it assumed I was a citizen of the First Human Republic, but it did not have me within it's records. 

"Grab the card, quick." I told Aisha in a whisper so the computer could not hear us, I used my eyes to point her to the card nearby.

She got the hint, and quietly moved passed my chair to retrieve the card.

"Yes, I was born to a member of the crew on-board, computer." I said simply, but loudly for the computer to hear me fully.

"NAME, ID NUMBER AND RANK OF ONE OF YOUR PARENTS?" The voice asked me.

Quickly, Aisha came back and handed me the card. I placed it in front of me, on the desk. I looked the solid, digitized card; and looked for the relevant information. I was taking too long to find the information on it, as I touched it the card came alive and the information was shown to me in orange italics, pouring from the card.

"I REPEAT; NAME, ID NUMBER AND RANK OF AT LEAST ONE OF YOUR PARENTS OR SECURITY MEASURES WILL BE ACTIVATED." The voice stated once more.

"Shit, come on read it and say it out loud for it. Quickly." Aisha told me, squeezing my shoulder gently.

I was under pressure, so I read it as quickly as the information was beamed out in front of me could be understood:

NAME: GIRRIN-ROSIN ,ROSELLA ID NUMBER: 2744PRPD56-E RANK: SECOND-TECHNICIAN OF BRIDGE MAINTENANCE

The luck that it was a woman, but regardless I knew what I needed to tell the computer; I hoped it would accept the information. The digitized photo of her was pouring out of the card and at my eyes, for me to see her; she looked quite pretty, with short blonde hair and green eyes. Was it truly bad that I was using her identity to lie, that I was her son? She was dead of course, maybe that was the only saving grace; she would never know what I had to do with her name and identity.

"Emm, computer. My mother was Rosella GIRRIN-ROSIN. ID number is 2744RPRD56-E. Her rank was second-technician of bridge maintenance." I said simply, repeating the information from her ID card.

The computer whirred around, the same noises that had come from when the computer was scanning my hand on the pad audible once again. I looked up at Aisha, who was smiling slightly; but it was for my benefit.

"INFORMATION MATCHES MY RECORDS. WHAT IS YOUR MOTHER'S CURRENT STATE?" The computer asked me.

I sighed, and looked up at Aisha and her smile was gone; because we both knew Rosella was dead, and gone. The computer hadn't corrected itself, meaning it may not have updated it's systems and computerized clocks and calender, knowing how long it had been offline for. 

"Mother, deceased as well as father. Only offspring of them both." I said simply, for the computer's benefit.

Aisha gently squeezed my shoulder to comfort me, and she looked over at Michaels who was nervous still, and looked close to running off if we were attacked once more.

"RECORDS UPDATED WITH NEW INFORMATION. STATE YOUR FIRST NAME, FOR MY RECORDS." The computer asked me, in it's emotionless tone. 

It was a computer, it had no emotion or understood what loss of life was truly like for humans.

"James." I answered simply.

The computer made it's usual tweaks, noises and sounds.

"DO YOU SHARE YOUR MOTHER'S LAST NAME, OR YOUR FATHER'S?" The computer asked me, as began to feel more comfortable knowing the computer thought I was one of the crew.

"My mother's." I stated, speaking into the computer assuming it had a mic built into it.

"JAMES GIRRIN-ROSIN. YOU ARE CLASSED, AND RANKED NOW AS A ROOKIE SHIP'S HAND. REPORT TO YOUR SUPERVISOR FOR DUTIES, AND CLASSIFICATION ON-BOARD THE TITAN. UNTIL YOUR SUPERVISOR ISSUES YOU WITH YOUR ID CARD, AND ID CODED MAINTENANCE SUIT YOU WILL USE YOUR HAND PRINT AS MEANS TO ACCESS COMPUTERS AND FACILITIES ON-BOARD." The computer stated, the entire bridge was aloud with it's voice.

"Thank you, computer." I said simply and turned to the screen in front of me pouring out into it's 3D display. 

Knowing how advanced the First Human Republic really was, I was sure that the computer on-board the Titan could be spoken to, in order to access logs and recordings before the outbreak.

"Let's have a look at the recordings, and any logs of the crew." Aisha told me, gently but moving me towards our main aim for being aboard the ship. I nodded, and spoke for the computer to hear me. "Computer, request access to the most recent logs and recordings of crew aboard the ship." Aisha whispered to me.

"I doubt it will allow us access to the Captain's logs, choose someone lower in rank." She advised me.

I nodded understanding.

"WHO'S LOGS, AND RECORDINGS DO YOU REQUEST ACCESS TO?" The computer asked me.

I thought about it, being that the Captain's records would be too high level for me to access, I could not access it.

"My mother's logs, and recordings. Rosella Girrin-Rosin. Most recent logs, and recordings before all computers and systems went on standby." I said, and hoped the computer would allow me the access I was requesting for. 

The computer made it's usual noises, and sounds meaning it was contemplating my request.

"REASON FOR ACCESS TO SUCH LOGS AND RECORDINGS?" The computer asked me.

"Personal reasons, my mother is dead; I wish to know why the ship was on standby for so long." I explained, and Aisha spoke.

"Is that such a good idea, we may see more than we should; we just need to know what happened here." She said in a whisper.

I nodded.

"It may be the only reason, the computer will accept for me asking to see her logs and recordings. Besides she was on-board the bridge as her rank, she may give us more information than anyone else's besides the Captain's." I told her, explaining my reasons.




A Rare Commodity Ch. 04



She sighed, and seemed unhappy about my decision; maybe she didn't want to know too much about someone who had been dead for so long as a mark of respect.

"SYSTEM RECOGNIZES REASON FOR ACCESS, BUT REQUIRES YOU TO OBEY RULINGS AND REGULATIONS OF COMPUTER SYSTEM USE ABOARD REPUBLICAN VESSELS." The computer spoke, accepting my reason.

Me and Aisha took a deep breath, knowing that the computer was not going to vent us out into space or lock us out of the computer systems.

"I accept, to follow rulings and regulations." I said.

I assumed my words were binding, a vocal agreement as a digital print of my agreement to the terms and conditions of using the systems on the ship.

"ALL RECORDINGS, AND LOGS OF MS ROSELLA GIRRIN-ROSIN ARE SHOWN ON YOUR COMPUTER TERMINAL." The computer spoke, and at that moment the computer I was sat in front of came alive, with a display of three digital files in order. 

The display showed three recordings, the latest one was recorded seven days after the first, and latest one. The second recording was in the middle, recorded about sixty hours between the first and third recordings. I used my hands, and using the digital display on the screen I touched the first recording with my finger tips.

"First recording, recorded seven days before the last recording was made." I said aloud for Aisha to hear me, and she crowded around the computer with me, and Michaels overhearing me decided to view the recording too.

Knowing us crowding around one small computer, would draw our attentions away should we fall under attack by those creatures. I decided to try something I had seen in films and television, from my time before I was frozen.

"Computer, put the recording on the largest screen on the bridge." I said aloud, and what I said surprised Aisha and Michaels. 

They didn't have to be surprised for long, as suddenly in front of us where the observation windows were a floating, digital screen appeared. The recording was being played like films were shown in cinemas from my time, projected onto a wall; but this one was projected into the air and floated there. This truly was like the future, I dreamed of as a kid in my time.

At first there was nothing to see, until a young woman; the one matching the photo on the ID card stepped into the view of the camera recording. She was beautiful, far more beautiful than her ID photograph showed her as. This was the same woman, I was pretending to be related to, as her fake son.

She was wearing a white, maintenance suit; with gadgets and gizmo's attached to it. She was smiling slightly, and looked tired and drained. Her bright green eyes were illuminated by the light of the camera, recording her.

"Log of Rosella, Girrin-Rosin. Second-technician, on board the Titan battleship. I am just recording this moment, because I am so darn happy." Rosella said, ending her words with a volley of giggles and laughs.

She seemed so happy, for some reason.

"I have just came back from a scan in the medical bay, down on the thirty fourth floor. I am so happy, I am pregnant. I'm pregnant, I hope it's a boy; God I don't care what it is. A boy or a girl, it makes no difference; I have a child. I've had to let my supervisor know about this, but she seems happy for me so it's no big deal. The Republic is generous with military personnel, who are pregnant. I'll get some time off for the birth, and then he or she will go through the usual procedure to be documented and such. I am just so happy." Rosella expressed herself, with more giggles and laughs.

Then her smile waned, and she was serious on the camera.

"I just wish this was the only news I knew of today, just good news; but it seems we've intercepted reports of a skirmish nearby. We've been posted to the Rokkar system, to stop skirmishes between the local colonies and criminal factions. But while we're stuck here playing Peacekeepers, the rumors continue to fly around over the net. Word is the Republic is coming apart at the seams, Earth is surrounded by warring factions, large Armada's are preparing for war. The Republic seems helpless now as we lose control of more systems and planets, everyone is fearing a Civil War between what planets the Republic still hold, and those who have broken away from us. I know we can't truly do anything, but there is word the Republic is going to evacuate Earth and move everything to Coras. If they do that, we'll lose control of the entire Republic; or what's left of it." Rosella went on, her face told of her fear and concern; this was only a few months before the Earth was actually evacuated.

"Anyway, it seems the Republic want us to stay in Rokkar system and stop the skirmishes between the locals. It doesn't make sense though, we're not truly a military vessel. I know we can resort to operating as one, with our weapons and systems; but we are primarily a scientific-research vessel. God only knows what those egg heads down in the research levels are really cooking up, playing God can only backfire for those who try and play God. Anyway, I was present when we intercepted messages and contact between what looks to be space pirates. They must be coming to fight it out with their rivals, and loot the ships once they're finished. Anyway more word on that, when we make contact. This is second-technician Girrin-Rosin, signing off." She said, moving towards the camera, and the screen went black, meaning she had turned off the camera.

I sat back, my back fully resting against the back of my seat and looked up at Michaels and Aisha who both seemed worried.

"So they were already hearing reports of the Republic falling apart, Earth being the staging point for a Civil War, even that early." Aisha commented, leaning on the desk as she spoke.

"Makes sense, Earth was already turning into a set-to between the Republic and the rebel planets that had already broken away from them. The evacuation was only a few months away, and then the destruction of the planet was quick after that." I said remembering what I was told by Roland and the crew on the ship.

Michaels was silent, but then spoke.

"What doesn't make sense, is why the Titan wasn't recalled to Earth to help defend it. Why keep them here, in the Rokkar system to stop locals and criminal gangs skirmishing?" He asked, mainly to himself; but he looked like he wanted someone to talk to about his query.

"That's what doesn't make sense either, I agree. Unless whatever this virus was at the time, the Republic brass already knew about it and it's existence on board the Titan. They perhaps decided to keep it at a distance, fearing exactly what happened to the ship; it would get loose but too close for comfort, to Earth." I said venturing my own guess.

Aisha sighed, and stood back on her feet and stretching her arms across the desk.

"They passed a death sentence on everyone, aboard this ship. They left them all to die, of what they had found. They decided that Earth was more important, and in the end it still fell regardless." Aisha said, surmising her own view on things.

I nodded, and sat back up in my seat and moved my hand to the computer display in front of me, and jabbed my fingers at the second recording; the one before the final one she recorded.

"Second recording, it was recorded 48 hours after the first one we just saw." I said for their benefit, as the video came alive but without needing to tell the computer again; it put it up on the big screen for us again.

She just sat there, in front of the camera recording her. She had a smear of blood on her forehead, and some smoke marks on her cheeks and chin. She looked exhausted, and sad looking at the lens of the camera. Her hair was a mess, dirty and frazzled.

"Log of Rosella, Girrin-Rosin. Second-technician, on-board the Titan battleship. We came under attack only a few hours ago, we got between two warring groups. They had frigates and such, so we didn't fear anything. The Captain took us into the battle they were already fighting. We put down one of the groups, one of the local groups who we knew had been profiting from raiding and attacking their nearby settlements and outposts. They were just as guilty, as the space pirates they were fighting. We turned our attentions onto the pirates, but they surprised us with an Ion cannon they had fixed to their ship's hull. They are outlawed, and banned in Republican space. I guess that doesn't matter here in the Rokkar system, being we're not in Republic space." She said, and the last sentence of her record seemed to drain her.

"Anyway, they fired their Ion cannon on us; and it chewed right through our hull. We destroyed one of their frigates, but their main ship was able to fire the Ion cannon again on us, and blew another chunk out of our hull. We lost power to entire sections of the ship, other parts were vented out into space and many lives were lost. Luckily our bridge was unaffected, but we no longer controlled movement of the Titan. Our Captain gave the order to finish off the pirates's main ship, before it could fire on us once more; and we did. They were dealt with quickly, but we were stranded and floating in space, with major damage to our hull and engines." She said recollecting.

She looked at the camera, and sighed. Her head dropped, and her hair covered her eyes and face, then we heard it. The crying, and sobbing.

"Like most of those on the bridge, we were thrown from our chairs following both blasts of the Ion cannon. I felt something-I felt something bad, when I hit the floor. I hit it hard, really hard." Rosella said, and at that moment she looked up at the camera with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Even I knew what happened, after watching her last joyful recording.

"Once things calmed down, I requested leave to go to the medical bay, which hadn't been vented or damaged. I told my supervisor that I was injured, and she allowed me leave from the bridge. I made my way down there, hoping that it was nothing; that I was over-thinking things. I begged him, the doctor to check the welfare of my child; my growing child." Rosella continued, but her tears were making it hard to get a sentence out without having to wipe her eyes.

"He told me, I had lost it. I had lost my child, from the fall. I lost my baby." Rosella wept, and she covered her face with both her hands at that moment.

There was a few moments of her saying nothing, just crying into her hands. She slowly lowered her hands, and looked up at the camera once more.

"Things are getting worse for us on board, those egg heads down in the the science department have created something; and it's gotten loose. But it's worse, far worse. The virus, or mutation, or whatever should have been contained to the labs down there; but there was a technical fault with the ventilation, and air systems. The ship has done the exact opposite, and vented the virus through to the unaffected areas of the ship. The bridge is the only part of the ship unaffected by the air fault, so the virus hasn't reached us up here; I guess I was lucky I ran back to the bridge after the doctor told me-that I lost my child. Soon after, the venting fault happened and now we are barricaded on the bridge. It seems whatever this virus is, has turned the crew below into mindless, aggressive zombies. They are alive, but they're mutated." Rosella said, she seemed chilled to the bone talking about those infected by the virus; I wondered what they were like in the initial stages of infection on that day.

"They are outside our main doors now, trying to gain access to us via the stair-access, but we've locked down the elevators. The problem is that I know as a technician, that those doors blocking the stairwell access, won't hold out for long against those creatures. They are intelligent, they are still humans; they were once the crew. They seemed intent on gaining access to the bridge, via the vents. If just one on of those things manages to get inside here, they'll infect us and we'll lose control of the bridge. What is left of our security officers up here, have rigged together flamethrowers with what they've found in the storage rooms, and they are prepared to burn the fuckers once they gain access." Rosella explained. seeming close to breaking point, occasionally rubbing her dirty cheeks, and matted down hair.

"Well we'll just have to see, if they can use those weapons before they get inside here. Anyway, I haven't slept in hours so I'm off to one of the bunks we've set up in the storage rooms. This is second-technician Girrin-Rosin, signing off - and hoping to live long enough to record another log." She said, before the camera feed went dead, and the screen was black.

I heard, and sensed Aisha's dread as the second log had finished; she turned to me and sighed.

"She lost the child." Aisha said gently.

This was the last thing I expected her to speak of, after watching the video; it seemed to effect her more than I had expected.

"She did." I said simply, but softly.

Feeling ashamed, of masquerading as her fake son to gain access to the systems; made me feel as if I was evil. She had come so close to feeling the joy of having a child, and she had lost it - as I pretended to be that child of hers. I sighed myself, and rubbed my face slowly. I then felt Aisha's hand on my shoulder again, and looked up at her. 

"You did it, because you had to - she lost her child, but you had to do it this way to find out what happened." Aisha said trying to comfort me.

"Start up, the next log." Michaels said simply, holding his rifle at his side.

I nodded, and with her hand on my shoulder I chose the last, and final log Rosella had recorded.

"This was recorded 48 hours, after her last log. This is her final one, so hopefully this sheds more on what we need to know." I said jabbing at the final with my fingers.

The screen came alive once more in front of us, at the head of the bridge. Rosella was sitting in front of the camera, but there was something amiss; the location of this recording wasn't on the bridge or one of the rooms they had used on the bridge to rest in. It looked far smaller, like a closet or something. She had fresh tears on her face, and in the background I could hear moan, groans, growling and screams; those of the infected.

"Log of Rosella, Girrin-Rosin. Second-technician, on-board the Titan battleship. Most likely my final, and last log. The bridge has fallen, I was last one alive; I fled to one of the storage rooms, and found this small crawl space. I do not know how long until the infected discover me, it will not be long; they seem to sense by smell over their sight. Everyone is dead, they broke through the sealed doors of the staircase eventually; they had torn open the control pad next to it. They tore so many wires, and stuff out of it that the doors malfunctioned and opened. Our guards had no time to react, they were outnumbered and overpowered." Rosella sadly recounted.

"Eventually everyone else fell, the Captain was attacked trying to flee for the escape pods. I guess he didn't want to go down with his ship." As she spoke, she stopped short when a loud howl echoed around her, on the other side of the camera.

"They're coming for me, they can sense me. I do not have long, at least my child was not born into this world. I only hope those of us ahead of our time, can learn from these mistakes - but who are we kidding, we never will. This world will continuously beat, abuse and self-destruct over and over again." Rosella said spitting out the final words angrily, as if she knew what the future was like; not any better.

"Goodbye, I know my family will never see me again. I just hope Earth is safe, the Republic will fall - and another power will just replace it as always. This is second-technician Girrin-Rosin, signing off - for good." Rosella said finally, but as she reached for the camera there was the sound of a loud crash, and the door behind Rosella in the film burst open and the infected swarmed in.

"Oh god, no please!" She screamed, turning to face them.

They swarmed her, and one of the creatures with half of it's face torn off; and sprouting extra, twisted limbs knocked her to the floor, and they swarmed around her to devour her.

"God, just turn it off." Aisha said shocked, and turning from the screen as her screams were loud and ear-painful.

I pressed the display, and the video stopped as well as the large screen went dark. There was a sad, eerie silence between us all; even with all of the computers on and such around us on the bridge. We looked at one another, even Michaels was silent.

"Whatever the science department on this ship created, got free and consumed everyone on-board. With Earth's imminent evacuation, the Republic didn't really care about the situation on-board the Titan, and left it to rot away out here. She suffered, for nothing." Aisha said angry, she was infuriated by the videos.

"Look, I'll try to locate some salvage with the computer." I said to calm her down, to take her mind off of Rosella's logs.

She was swinging her arms around angry, infuriated, enraged that this current world was just as bad as one that she had heard of being as a time of peace, and prosperity. I turned to the computer, and spoke as if speaking into a mic.

"Computer, can you show me where the nearest weapons hold is on this bridge?" I asked loudly, and waited patiently for the answer.

Aisha was looking at Michaels who had wandered off, and called him back over with her hand.

"NEAREST WEAPONS HOLD, IS TO YOUR FAR RIGHT. STORAGE ROOM 5-IC." The computer said, directing us to the weapons room. 

I turned to the right, and there was a torn-open door, torn right from it's frame which I assumed had been caused by the creatures.

"Over there." I said simply, as Aisha turned to look.

"Michaels, go in there and see what's there. I'll cover that door, Rosella spoke off that leads onto the stairs. We do not want those creatures to come up, and take us by surprise." She said, and un-holstering her gun, she turned and made her way over to the doors.

I decided knowing where the weapons room was, I would help Michaels and slid out of my chair, before crossing the large room to follow Michaels. We both stepped inside the weapons room, and there wasn't much left; but there were gore and blood smears all over the walls inside. There must have been a fight in the room, the infected creatures must have been brutal to the crew. 

There wasn't much in terms of equipment, but there was a large square, cylinder left in the room; inside we knew there would be something. It was a large metallic box, and Michaels moved over to it. There was nondescript italics on it, Republican language just like those I saw on the weapon I used back on Solaris.

"It looks like it's locked with Republican technology, you're going to have to access it." Michaels told me, and he stepped aside as I stood in front of the container.

I looked at the container, and as I waved my hand over the box another digital display came alive in front of me; and I jabbed every command and function it displayed until it eventually opened with a whirring noise. I knelt down, and opened it's top half and pushed it forward; as we could now see it's contents. There were rows of weapons, smaller models of rifles similar to the one I had used n Solaris. They were smaller models, and looked designed for close combat; like sub-machine guns.

"There's a dozen of these things inside here, if they are similar to the one I used on Solaris; they may be be quite powerful." I stated and looked around the room for something, we could place the container on in order to wheel it back to the Osiris. 

I looked at Michaels.

"Look for something, so we can put this container on it, and wheel it back to the ship. We'll break our backs trying to carry this thing by hand." I said, still not spotting anything of use in the room for the task.




A Rare Commodity Ch. 04



Michaels suddenly chuckled away, and knelt down next to the box.

"We already carry those kind things on us, James." He said and pulled a small round cylinder off of his utility belt.

He twisted the top of the cylinder, and turned it once more before it disconnected and parted. The cylinder was now split into smaller cylinders. He pressed a dial on each of the cylinders, and they without warning transformed into a flat, clear metallic board. It was paper-thin, but looked alive with computer electronics built into it's shape. Michaels lifted the container with just one hand, so it was slightly jutting into the air, exposing some of it's bottom; he immediately slapped one of the strips of metal onto it, and it stuck immediately to the container. 

He did the same to the container's other side, and stood back with a grunt of exhaustion, from lifting the large container even if by only a few inches.

"So, what now?" I asked stupefied, unsure of what he had actually done to help us out with this issue.

He smiled, and pulled from one of the pouches on his suit, a small remote control. It was size of one of those iPod's from my days, and he pressed one of it's controls. The container slowly began to rise from the floor, by a few inches until it was at least seven or eight inches hovering off of the floor.

"It's a hover cargo pallet, it can carry probably twice the weight of that container. We always carry the cylinders with us, when we can't find any winches or such. They come in handy, at times." He said and with the controller in hand he waited for me to give further instructions.

I looked around the weapons hold, there was nothing more of interest or value to us. Some of the weapons in the container, were spread across the floor but most were split in half or damaged extensively.

"There's nothing more worth taking here, let's get this container to the elevator and Aisha." I said and I left the room first, as I heard the mechanical whirring of the hover pallet, and Michaels following behind it slowly.

We entered the large bridge again, and made our over to where Aisha was standing. She looked to be on alert, holding her gun tightly and listening for sounds or noises from the staircase. The doors that led out onto the staircase, were torn and twisted from their frame; these creatures were extremely powerful and not even doors could hinder them. Aisha heard us approaching, and slightly turned to the noises our feet were making.

"We need to go, I can hear those creatures; they are intelligent so they'll figure out were on the bridge. Is that everything worth taking, on the bridge?" She asked us, craning her head further to speak.

"No, just one container of working weapons. We have a dozen of them, they look similar to the one I used on Solaris. Hopefully they do not need ammo to work, and regenerate it through non-use." I told Aisha, who seemed slightly happier with a smile on her face.

"Well I guess it was worth this entire trip, old Republic weapons; and twelve of them. That will get us a good profit on the market." She said with a grin.

All of a sudden, there was gut-wrenching howl, that turned my stomach and it was coming from the stairs, it sounded that it was a distance away.

"We need to go, and get back on-board the Osiris before those things find us." Aisha affirmed, and holding her gun she turned to the elevator.

I was first to stand in front of it's doors, and hovered my hand over the controls which soon came alive once more; and I jabbed the control I assumed opened it's doors. They slid open so quickly, I questioned if there were even doors there. I stepped inside as Michaels had his Pulse Rifle pressed up against his shoulder, and was aiming at the stairs. 

He had the controller in his hand, pressed up against the barrel of his weapon and was still piloting the pallet into the elevator. Once it was inside, he was next inside followed by Aisha who was aiming at the staircase. Then they appeared, those creatures were climbing the stairs and were only a few yards from the elevator.

"Michaels, shoot!" Aisha told him, smacking him on his shoulder to motivate him.

Michaels began to fire short bursts at the creatures, three of which were already on the floor now and charging for the elevator. His shots dropped two of the creatures, and Aisha's dropped the last two.

"Get this elevator moving!" She told me, well more like barked at me as an order.

I found the controls illuminated near me on the wall, and pressed the controls; as the doors closed we began to move. I remembered what floor, the Osiris was docked at; floor thirteen. The elevator was fast moving, but we could still hear the growls and howls of the creatures; they must have been split onto each floor we passed; at least the areas still being pumped full of oxygen.

"They're on every goddamn floor!" Aisha said in her observation, from the noises and sounds we passed by.

"We just need to get to the airlock, and get back on-board the Osiris. We move the pallet on-board, then we cut docking entirely to this fucking ship and we get out of this system." I said un-holstering my gun, and held it at my side waiting for a firefight once we reached the thirteenth floor. 

"So, what do we do about this ship?" Aisha asked me, and I understood her meaning.

What if in the near future a gullible crew of another ship, stumbled across the Titan again and came under attack as we had been. 

"Maybe, I can speak to the computer and convince it to vent the entire ship when we leave." I said, perhaps there was an idea here.

There was another awkward silence, in the elevator; no one was speaking as we slowly reached the thirteenth floor.

"Get ready." Aisha said, as if giving an order to her platoon.

The elevator sign above it's doors showed we had reached the floor, and slowly the doors opened. There was only one of the creatures in front of us, but it didn't sense us; it was crouched down and was looking intrigued at the blood and debris on the floor, as if searching for food.

"Shoot it." Aisha told Michaels, who aiming his rifle, he popped off a single round to the back of the creature's head. 

The creature slumped forwards, and lay still on the floor.

"James, check the computer over there and try out your plan. We'll get the pallet across to the Osiris. Also, put your helmets on. We don't want to be vented out into space, or for something to go wrong with the airlock." Aisha said, running for the airlock doors we had come through earlier in the day.

On her instructions, we watched her put her own helmet back on, and connecting the oxygen supply to it by it's tube. Michaels and myself did the same, before we did anything else; I pulled my own helmet back on and shoved the oxygen supply tube into the socket at the back of it. I moved over to the computer terminal that was built into the wall, a few yards away from the airlock doors that led to the Osiris. 

Michaels was busy, piloting the pallet towards the airlock as Aisha opened it. With our helmets on, we were safe from exposure to space or to lack of oxygen. I waved my hand over the dormant terminal, and it came alive with it's digital display projected in front of me. I began to press controls and buttons I knew nothing about, and soon enough feared I was pressing controls that could vent us out into space. I decided to consult the computer.

"Computer, can you sense my presence on floor thirteen?" I asked loudly, through the mic of my helmet, that enhanced my voice with a hollow background to it.

The computer heard me, that was all that mattered.

"HUMAN VITALS SENSED ON FLOOR THIRTEEN. WHAT IS YOUR QUERY, ROOKIE SHIP'S HAND GIRRIN-ROSIN?" The computer asked me.

I thought about how I would poach my idea to the computer, it needed to be a strong enough reason to force the computer to resort to security measures.

"Computer, can you sense non-human vitals coming towards my position?" I asked once more.

The usual whirring noises of the computer comprehending my question made themselves known.

"MUTATIONS SENSED, WITH HUMAN ELEMENTS; HOW THEY ARE MUTATED. SHIP IS UNDER ATTACK, REQUIRE ALL HUMAN CREW TO MAKE THEIR WAY TOWARDS ESCAPE PODS. LOCATING CAPTAIN OF SHIP." The computer stated, and then I decided to intervene.

"The Captain is dead, can you not sense him on-board?" I asked the computer, hoping my question would make the computer question it's functions.

The computer was whirring away, thinking of it's answer and using it's systems to attempt to find the Captain on-board.

"CAPTAIN IS MISSING, SHIP HAS FALLEN INTO HANDS OF HUMAN-MUTATIONS. ENACTING SECURITY MEASURES 124-SD." The computer said aloud, now this really worried me.

"Wait, what are security measures 124-SD?" I asked it, my concern was evident in my voice as Aisha and Michaels were looking over at me, as they were pushing the pallet through the open airlock doors.

The computer said nothing for the moment, just it mechanical whirring noises were audible.

"SELF-DESTRUCTION OF SHIP. VITAL RESEARCH AND EQUIPMENT CANNOT FALL INTO HANDS OF ENEMY COMBATANTS." The computer answered me.

"Human survivor Girrin-Rosin, computer I am still on the thirteenth floor." I said, hoping the computer sensed my fear and concern.

"I WILL HOLD OFF SECURITY MEASURES, UNTIL YOU REACH THE BRIDGE AND OPERATE AN ESCAPE POD. HOWEVER IF YOU ARE NOT OFF OF THIS SHIP WITHIN TEN MINUTES, SECURITY MEASURES WILL GO AHEAD TO PROTECT REPUBLICAN TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH." The computer said simply, giving no quarter other than a ruling in it's system to allow the crew ample time to escape the ship.

I turned to Aisha, and Michaels who were pushing the pallet onto the docking bridge between the Titan and the Osiris.

"We have ten minutes, get the weapons on-board the Osiris." I said, and ran to reach them as Michaels operated the pallet by remote.

Then we heard them, their growls, howls and gut-turning moans for human flesh. The creatures were making their way down the general staircase that connected the bottom of the ship to the bridge.

"Get the pallet across, they're coming!" I shouted, giving an award winning portrayal of Aisha's own personality.

They looked at me, and then they looked and saw the creatures turning the corner into the corridor, they were charging towards us. They were deformed, extra large, twisted limbs; even some additional limbs from years of inbreeding and mutation. They were hungry for our flesh, and we needed to get off of the Titan. They sped up moving the pallet down the docking bridge, and I followed them until we were inside it.

"Move it, I'll hold them off. Keep moving!" I shouted holding my gun up, to aim at the creatures who had reached the airlock doors.

I fired off a few shots, most hitting their targets as they were bottle-necked on the bridge, they began to fall and pile up around the door. We finally reached the airlock door of the Osiris, and Aisha pressed in controls and the door opened. We were soon pushing the pallet into the preparation room, that was adjacent to the airlock doors. We were soon inside.

"Close the door!" I shouted, as I saw some of the creatures charging down the airlock bridge towards us.

Aisha slammed her fist onto the control panel, and the door closed quickly.

"Disconnect the airlock bridge, we're on-board." Aisha shouted down the mic of her helmet to the bridge of the Osiris.

"Roger that, disconnecting from the Titan." Ryan said, from the bridge and at the same moment the airlock bridge began to recoil, with wisps of air pumping out from it, as we pulled away from the Titan.

We could see the moment, we pulled away from the Titan through the small pane glass window of the airlock door, and we saw some of the creatures fall from the doors that were still open into deep space, and others simply collapsed from lack of oxygen.

"They were indeed human, in some way." I said aloud, as an observation.

Aisha and Michaels were looking at me, before they slowly undid their helmets and removed them.

"We have a few minutes to get as far away from the Titan, before it blows up." Aisha said, scurrying towards the doors that led onto the ship.

"I'll get these weapons put away, you better follow her." Michaels said shouldering his rifle, and using his controller to pilot the pallet out of another door of the room, that led to the crew's quarters and the security station.

I followed Aisha through the door she went through, and down a long corridor to the elevator. She had obviously gone up in the elevator, as it's illuminated sign above it's door was stating it was on the bridge on standby. I pressed the control panel, and the elevator whirred to life and came down to me. 

I got in and pressing more controls, it took me quickly to the bridge. Everyone was on alert, Ryan was busy punching in controls and commands on his computers, piloting the ship. Roland was looking over his own computer, and his interface at files. Hailey and Lena were going over digital schematics, I assumed were related to the Osiris's operating systems. Aisha was sat in the Captain's seat, and looking out of the observation windows at the Titan. 

It looked like it was once a beautiful, visually stunning piece of machinery; once the pride of the Republic, once. Now however we could all see the battle scars it wore, and the large holes left by the Ion cannon damage it had sustained in it's pivotal battle.

The ship was effectively stripped of most of it's hull, and structure from the Ion cannon damage caused to it; it was a floating ruin of a once, powerful empire. 

"Two minutes until self-destruct measures are initialized." Ryan commented, pressing more controls and buttons in front of him, as he looked up at digital display he used for his commands, and orders; like an old computer screen from my day.

I took that vital breath, I hadn't taken on the ship fearing for letting my guard down and getting us all killed on-board the Titan.

"You can rest, we're far enough away from the Titan that whatever explosion does occur; it won't effect us." Aisha said noticing my tiresome look, and knew I was drained.

I sat at a vacant seat on the bridge, and continued to stare out of it's observation windows at the Titan.

"Once the pride of the Republic navy, now a ruin. It just surprises me how powerful the Republic became, yet it only took a few years for it to collapse into nothing. Even the computer, must have sensed it's crew were all dead. I'm just surprised it never sensed their presence, and initiated it's security measures long ago." I said aloud, as everyone on the bridge turned to listen, even Aisha.

"The systems went offline, the moment the crew were no longer present to keep them running. The computer stayed offline, or standby; and only came back online when it sensed a fully human person aboard, with Iridium in their blood." Aisha commented, venturing her own opinion.

I nodded, it did make sense that computer went offline the moment it's human crew were no longer around to keep things running aboard.

"One minute, until self-destruction. We are a far enough distance from the Titan, that nothing will effect our systems." Ryan explained, before turning to his systems again.

I continued to look out of the Osiris to the Titan, as everyone else acted as if this moment wasn't worth watching; maybe they had all witnessed ships exploding, and blowing up throughout their lives. For me this was a first, and I was going to show some respect to the Titan, it's crew and it's computer.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0." Ryan said over his shoulder, as if counting down the Titan's destruction didn't merit him watching it's existence disappear from memory.

The first explosion came from it's bridge, the entire bridge blew up sending debris and parts of it's hull into space. The ship began to vent out through what was left of the bridge, objects and debris were sucked into space. Smoke bellowed from the damage, before another explosion where we had docked tore the ship in two. Slowly like a jigsaw, being broken up by a wayward child; the ship split into smaller pieces, and parted. 

There were no more explosions, it was clear there was only two detonations needed; one to destroy it's bridge and another to separate the ship from it's head. The rest of the required damage would be caused by venting into space; the virus would die out, and so would any evidence of what had actually happened on the Titan. Only myself, Aisha and Michaels truly knew what the Republic had done, and how it had dealt with their grave mistakes. 

They left the crew to die in the Rokkar system, probably hoping the virus got loose and killed off any witnesses to it's creation. I noticed a few minutes had passed, only the busy atmosphere of the bridge remained; I had been sitting thinking to myself without noticing anyone around me. To me, the Titan's destruction was mesmerizing, but for the crew of the Osiris it was just another day, hard at work.

I slowly stood, and saw Aisha was too busy using her own systems in the Captain's chair. Everyone else was busy as well, I was the only one who noticed a piece of history unfold. I sighed, and spoke.

"I'm going to bunk down, I'm tired." I told Aisha. She looked up at me, and smiled before nodding her approval. 

"We'll wake you up, if anything happens." She told me, before turning back to her systems. 

I looked around the bridge once more, before making my slow way to my bunk. I needed a long sleep, that was for sure.

*

(Sorry people, I know MANY of you have been waiting for this chapter, I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get back into my writing. I promise there will be no hiatus as long as the one you've all experienced, in waiting for this installment again. Anyway hope you enjoy it, comment and rate for me. Cheers people.)  



A Rare Commodity



There were clips around the neck of the suit, most likely where the mask would be connected onto the suit. There were similar clips at the wrists, where I assumed I could connect gloves and make the suit airtight to wear in space, with the right 02 canister for air supply. Now fully dressed, I began to pace around the room getting used to the suit's mobility, and flexibility. Finally used to the suit at least a little, I decided to finally leave the Med Bay. I'd already been in here most of the time I had been awake, I wanted to explore the Osiris before we landed on Solaris.

I stepped through the Med Bay door, and it slid open fast automatically and into the corridor I went. It was empty, and very much like the old Science Fiction shows I watched back before I was placed in the Cryo-pod. I didn't know where I was going, so I turned right and began to follow the winding corridor to a large metal door. As I approached it, the door slid open automatically like the Med Bay door. Inside I could see what I assumed was the crew meeting room, as I could see three people sat around a large table. Two women talking away, a blonde and a brunette and one guy drinking from a steel mug some sort of beverage.

They immediately all looked up at me, and went silent. They knew who I was, I assumed they were crew members. Most likely since all three looked like book worms, they must have been the technicians. The guy looked young, maybe in his twenties with spectacles on his nose and he had a computer, flat in design on the table in front of him next to his beverage. The two girls looked young, same age roughly as the guy, one blonde with blue eyes and the other was a brunette with matching eyes. All three of them were in similar suits as to mine, but with different markings on them, and additions such as extra pouches, and tools.

They were quiet, and so I decided for the first time to speak first.

"Hi." I said simply, a good as any introduction.

Nothing came from the three, not even a whimper.

"I'm James." I added slowly.

The guy looked about to speak after I said my name, but the brunette beat him to it.

"You're the one Aisha found in the Cryo-pod, on board the Coronis." She said simply, it was a question but a statement.

I nodded firmly, not wanting them to think I was the one to be afraid. Impressions were everything to people.

"I'm first-hand technician, Hailey. I am one of the ship mechanics, and this is Lena. She is a salvage specialist, knows her way around salvage we find but she knows her way around the ship's systems as well and helps me. That is Roland, he is an intelligence specialist, keeps us informed of where we are, and what we find. He knew the ship you were on was the Coronis, from his records." The brunette said, who I now knew to be called Hailey.

Lena, the blonde said nothing and forced an awkward smile to me whilst Roland went back to his computer on the table, most likely reading some records of his. Hailey smiled, and stood keeping her eyes on me.

"Ignore them both, neither are quite sociable until they get to know you." She said simply, and walked around the large metal table to me.

"Aisha said you would probably come out to explore the ship, once you'd changed into your suit." Hailey said.

I finally looked more at Hailey's suit, and saw it was unique mainly to her role on the ship. Her's and Lena's suits both had mechanic, and engineer symbols on it, particularly a spanner symbol in rough red paint on the arms of the suit. Roland's suit however had the word 'INTEL' stenciled in blue on the chest plate of the suit. Hailey and Lena's suits had pouches, and tools sticking out of them as well as what looked to be a small scope on their shoulders, used to look closer at objects. Roland personally had the small, flat computer on the table in front of him but now I could also see he had some sort of interface on his head, a chip stuck out from his left temple on his head, and a wire ran down connecting to the suit. It looked like he was interacting with some sort of computer connected to his mind as well as the one in his hands.

I looked at Hailey, who was smiling now watching me. 

"Welcome to the Osiris, third class Salvage vessel. We're not the newest model on the market, nor the most advanced but we're sturdy if nothing else. They no longer make Osiris vessels, so we're unique. However it can be a bitch trying to find spare parts for repairs, when they no longer make the ships. We aren't an armed vessel, so we're dependent on our security detail led by Aisha and their weapons. Our primary trade is salvage, we go into formerly controlled regions of space that the First Republic once governed as the pickings are rich and rare. However what we're doing isn't exactly legal in the eyes of the current human government, the United Colonial Federation. They would have us hand over all old Republic technology, and salvage we find. However they are too few, and not that powerful outside of their own space in and around the planet Caledan. So we're able to do what we like, salvage what we find and sell it on planets like Solaris." Hailey went on, as she began to walk towards a door leading out of the room, one I hadn't gone through yet.

The way she was walking was to signal that she wished for me to follow her, so I did. I followed her through the door, and onto what I assumed was the bridge of the ship. 

"This is the bridge, take a look and see what's out there." Hailey said simply, coming to a stop.

The bridge was busy, and active. I could see Captain McAdam's sat in his chair at the head of the bridge, overlooking his crew. There were four technicians, sat at consoles around the bridge and all had the same markings on their suits. What looked to be a small ship, black in color and the letter 'P' stenciled to the left of the image. I assumed that was what distinguished themselves as piloting crews on board. Captain McAdams unsurprisingly had the letter 'C' stenciled on the arm of his suit, and when he turned briefly to see who had entered the bridge I saw the full markings 'Captain J McAdams' in blue stenciled on his chest. He looked at me, and Hailey.

"What the fuck is that ice-Popsicle doing on my bridge, without my authorization!" Captain McAdams shouted at us both.

I didn't give two shits what this old, disgruntled prick of a Captain thought of me on his bridge as I was looking out the glass of the bridge out into space itself. It was beautiful, seeing it blocked out the old prick ranting at us. I could make out a planet, blue in places and the rest a mix of yellow and light brown which I assumed marked cliffs, or mountains. This must have been Solaris I could see, and we were slowly approaching the planet. Then I could hear the prick, give it to Hailey. I don't usually voice my opinions of people unless they push me across a line, and Captain McAdams was already there as I listened to his next comment aimed at Hailey.

"How fucking stupid are you, Hailey? Is being a lowly technician, slowly killing off your brain cells being down in the engine room!" He ranted at her, and she was silent just taking this berating from him. 

I turned to the good, old fucking Captain and shouted out.

"Now you fucking listen to me, prick-hole! Hailey was showing me around the ship that's all, now you want someone to take out your short comings on then let it be me because right now you are testing my fucking patience old man!" I roared out, and literally the whole bridge went quiet.

Captain McAdam's face was priceless, he had gone beetroot red and was breathing hard in anger.

"You dare talk to a Captain of a vessel like that, you've been in that fucking Cryo-pod for far too long!" He roared out, his gray beard couldn't hide his reddening face.

"I'm your fucking pay-day, Captain! It's me that has to make an old Republic weapon work, in order for you to sell it to some collector down there on the planet. So I advise you to treat your fucking crew slightly better, and the reason for your credits better. That's me by the way, you prick." I said angrily, standing my ground in front of him.

He was breathing hard, but said nothing more as he was shaking. He spun in his chair to face the bridge once more, and shouted out to be heard.

"Keep him the fuck away from me, Hailey. Tell Aisha the same, I'm only putting up with him until we get our pay-day." He said angrily, pressing dials and buttons on a console in front of him. I knew he was doing it as a show of strength, he couldn't face me like a man so he was cowering away. Not the type of person you want as a Captain for a space ship.

Hailey sighed, and forced a smile looking at me.

"We better go, I'll take you to see Aisha and the security station." She said, and out of another doorway I didn't know existed we passed through and onto another corridor, and we followed it for a few moments before we went through another automatic door. As it opened, Aisha was speaking to two men, and standing next to a weapons rack on the wall of the room.

Hailey smiled at Aisha, and then at me.

"Watch it Aisha, the Captain is in a pissed off mood but James put him in his place. He really doesn't like him." She laughed gently.

Aisha nodded, but was stern faced as she looked at me and then at Hailey.

"He's pissed off because he owes Tarana Korvak credits, and he's hoping we have enough salvage for him to pay off his debt, and then of course get into even more debt once again from his gambling." Aisha explained, and it made sense why the Captain was in such a mood today surprisingly.

"Who's Korvak?" I asked, making my voice heard.

Aisha looked at me, and smiled gently.

"A mid-level criminal down on Solaris, owns quite a few gambling dens. Unsurprisingly our Captain is in debt due to his own gambling habit, and he owes it to Korvak. Last time we met Korvak he took an unhealthy interest in the female members of the crew, including me and Hailey and said we could pay of the debt of our Captain. Surprise surprise, our own Captain actually entertained the fucking idea of us paying off his debt to Korvak. That ended the moment Korvak found out I was our security, and had come armed to his club. Now McAdams still owes Korvak his debt, and worse than that is that Korvak has the parts we need for the Osiris, to repair some faults of it. These parts are rare, as they aren't made anymore. That's how he keeps the Captain in debt, get the parts we need for the Osiris, and then what little credits we have left from our salvage he spends in Korvak's gambling dens." Aisha explained to me, and the more she spoke of Solaris, the less I wanted to go down to the surface of the planet.

"Your Captain seems to invite more trouble, than is needed on this ship. For a salvage ship, you guys seem to get into more trouble with McAdams that you would actually want." I said looking at the weapon rack, of rifles similar to the one Aisha had with her when she found me.

There was however a peculiar weapon, it looked far different to the others, it looked far more beautiful. The metal of the weapon had a glint to it, that drew your eyes immediately to it, between the bulky, modern-day weapons Aisha and her guards used.

"Is this the Republican weapon you want me to test fire, in front of Korvak?" I asked lifting it off the weapon rack, without asking for permission. Aisha didn't react angrily, and nodded. The weapon weighed almost nothing in my hands, it was feather light.

The metal frame of the weapon had a strange texture, it didn't feel like metal, more like plastic. I turned it over in my hands, it was about the size of a sub-machine gun from the old world I came from, with a display on the left side of the weapon but it was dark, and not responding. I turned the weapon in my hands, and could not find where the ammunition was entered into the weapon. 

"Where do the clips go?" I asked slowly looking the weapon over.

Aisha looked at me surprised.

"Its old Republican technology, James. The weapons were designed never to need ammunition, the weapon would create it within and eventually it would need time, to conserve it's energy to replenish what it used. That was what made the old republican technology so advanced, now that is lost. Our weapons now have gone back to magazines, and clips to be entered into the breach of the weapon. Your touch on the handle of the weapon will activate the weapon, it will recognize you as having Iridium in your body, and re-activate. It will assume you are from the Republican times." Aisha said watching me, everyone was watching me now attentively. This weapon if shown to work, could fetch this crew thousands of credits in profit if I managed to get it to work. I slid my hand down and clutched the handle, immediately the weapon gave of a mechanical noise, like a motor starting up.

The display to the right of the weapon's frame came alive with lights, and numbers in many different colors. It was unusual symbols on the display, they didn't make sense, and then all of a sudden they did. The unusual symbols changed, into English telling me that the weapon had a full bay of ammunition in it, with the simple number '300' on the display. There was also a small bar on the display, the marker was at the far right of it in the green, and I assumed once the ammunition within dwindled away the marker would slowly moved into the red on the left.

"The weapon is at full capacity for ammunition." I said simply, understanding the display.

Aisha, and the others were in astonishment watching silently. The weapon had indeed worked, they could show the potential of this weapon to Korvak, and it would earn them a hefty profit, on top of the overall value of the rest of the salvage they had found. It could be more than enough to clear McAdam's debt to Korvak, and buy the parts needed to repair the Osiris. I had half a mind to tell the crew to take the credits they amassed from all of the old republican tech they had, have me test it all for them and get rid of McAdam's for a far better suited, and experienced Captain for the ship. 

I slowly put the weapon down again, on the weapon rack and as the grip left my hand the weapon went dormant again, the display black once again. I looked at Aisha.

"That weapon will fetch you and your crew more than enough credits, as well as the overall salvage you have and the rest of the old republican tech you have. You can get rid of McAdams and find a better Captain on Osiris to fly the ship. He will continue to get you into more, and more debt with his gambling. He won't share the large amount of credits you will get, with you all, he will pay his debts to Korvak and then spend the rest of those credits gambling again. You will end up in the same spiral over and over again, going back to Korvak obediently to sell your salvage, and continue to buy those parts from him. Pay Korvak's debt and cut him loose, spend the rest of the credits on ample repairs for the ship, and find another Captain on the planet." I said sternly, to be heard.

Hailey, and Aisha with the two guards said nothing. In fact Hailey slowly moved off from the room, and the two guards pretended to tend to their weapons to avoid looking at me. Aisha breathed hard looking at me.

"We may not like McAdams, he may gamble our credits away... but he has something on us all, on board this ship." Aisha said simply.

I sighed, and understood the ethics of blackmail.

"What does he have on you?" I asked her, I wanted to know. 

When I asked her my question, I could see the two guards exchange glances and quickly they left the room, leaving me and Aisha alone. She breathed hard again and leaned against the open doorway of the security room. 

"I was once in the UCF armed forces, I was in a Black Ops team known as the 'Forgotten', we numbered about three hundred Universe wide. We were known for brutal tactics, and our efficiency in doing the UCF's dirty work. We dealt with space pirates, factions that refused to join the UCF, and we even dealt with enemies within UCF territory. Those that opposed their policies, and their laws. We were so good at our job, that we were sent into every war zone before the official UCF forces arrived. However, it couldn't last forever. The UCF wanted to appear more sympathetic to the universe, and it's people. The UCF cut us loose, the 'Forgotten' were truly forgotten indeed. They didn't stop at branding us traitors, and guns-for-hire. They hunted us down, one by one our leaders of our team were killed off, one by one by some other black ops team still in favor with the UCF. I had to hide, and so I found McAdams and the Osiris. I agreed that I would be security on board, and told most of my story to the crew. That I was UCF military." Aisha began.

I watched her, it looked as if every word caught in her throat as she recounted her story.

"A few months into my role on board this ship, McAdams came to me one evening and threw down in front of me, a confidential UCF file. It was a file about me, and my past with the 'Forgotten' and it's activities. I have no idea who gave him the file, but it was everything, every operation I was a part of, even the executions I committed for the UCF. I assume he got the file from someone powerful down on Solaris, with links to the UCF. I wouldn't put it past the informant being Korvak himself, he has been rumored to have powerful allies within the UCF military. Whatever the case, McAdams had me in a corner and told me to go along with every decision he would ever make for the ship, and the crew. If I refused at any point, the file would be sent to UCF command on Caledan and he would hand me over to them to be executed for the 'crimes' I committed." 

Aisha went quiet, at some point she had moved her glance from me to the view of the space outside the corridor, just outside the security room. There were hundreds of planets, and beneath I could make out the planet Solaris we would soon be landing on. Aisha brought her gaze back to me, and she had a shamed expression on her face.

"So I agreed, and have done since he threw that file down in front of me. I either end up in a UCF prison on Caledan, or maybe one of their facilities on some desolate planet at the ass-end of their territories, or I can keep my mouth shut and play dumb to McAdams. I've chosen to play dumb, and will continue to. My life at the moment is at a knives edge, and if I refuse McAdams I face either the firing squad, or life sentence on some penal colony in the outback. He has things on the rest of the crew. Hailey killed her fiance in self-defense one night, when he forced himself onto her before their wedding day. She killed him on Omega Prime, a planet a few thousand leagues from Caledan. She left her old life behind, and enlisted with the salvage companies in deep space. Eventually finding a placed on board this ship, when I was on board already." Aisha explained.

Aisha began to play with her dark, braids in her hair before turning to look at me again.

"Just like me, one evening McAdams threw down a similar file in front of Hailey. She told me that it was a UCF Peacekeeper file, the Peacekeepers being the UCF's space-wide police force, and they had a base on Omega Prime. The file had all the evidence pointing to Hailey being the prime suspect in her fiance's murder. It so happened, that her fiance was a member of a powerful family on Omega Prime with links to Caledan and upon his death, they wasted no expense in finding out who killed him. That file alone, if given to a UCF garrison or a Peacekeeper force, with Hailey in tow would guarantee a life sentence also on some penal colony in UCF space. Maybe even the noose which is still the method of execution on Omega Prime to this day." 

Aisha grunted, as if she disliked talking about another person's business.




A Rare Commodity



"McAdams has something on every one of us on board this ship, to guarantee our absolute loyalty. Everyone, except you which is why he dislikes you so much. You're an unproven foe, he has nothing on you, and he cannot do much about that. Sadly that makes him and even bigger threat to you're well being, he could hand you over to Korvak and get rid of you as a problem for good off of his ship. It's not like we haven't thought of just killing McAdams, and dumping him on some stranded ship we search for salvage. We even thought of simply knocking him unconscious, and handing him over to Korvak, as payment for his debts. McAdams isn't stupid, he has contingencies in place. If we did off him, he has the files ready to be sent to the UCF forces in the region, and a tracking device that would let them tail us until they caught up with us. Everyone on this ship would go down if we killed him, I think the contingency is password set, so if he doesn't put the password into the system every few days the computer sends the files, and turns on the tracking device. Devious fucking bastard, he is." Aisha laughed sarcastically at her last words.

I stood there, unsure what to say, what I could say to make things better for her and the crew.

"How are you guys, ever gonna get rid of him?" I asked, mainly to myself thinking of a way in my mind of getting rid of the tracking device, and disabling the system that sent the files to the UCF. None came to mind, I knew nothing of the computers of this time, nor how anything worked on board the Osiris. I wouldn't know the first thing of locating the files, on the computer systems. 

Aisha said nothing for a moment, her eyes darting from the view of space to me and then at her feet.

"I don't know, we just put up with it." Aisha said simply, and turned to leave the room.

"Bring the Republican gun with you, we have the rest of the republican tech sealed up and ready to move once we land, we're going straight to Korvak's den." She said, and she was out of the room after that.

I was alone at the security station, I took the Republican weapon from the gun rack once again and made my way to the bridge again. I didn't want to talk to Captain Fucktard, so I went straight over to Naomi who was speaking to one of the pilots at their computers. They both seemed to be going over navigating the landing of the ship, on the planet below. I leaned against the back of the bridge's wall, and watched the bridge and it's workers attentively as they prepared for the landing. They all knew what they were doing, and they were working towards a task together as a team.

Things hadn't changed since my day, the only difference was that we were now a space traveling race, in my day we flew in our skies and sailed the seas with the same capacities. Moments passed, as the bridge was busy with activity from everyone. I watched as the planet Solaris beneath the ship came closer, and after a few seconds of watching the crew a loud voice came over the speakers on the bridge.

"Receiving Salvage Vessel Osiris, this is Solaris landing control. Respond if you are receiving us." A female voice hollered, it was crackled and fuzzy in places as she spoke but it was clear this was from someone on the planet below contacting the ship.

Captain asshole himself, McAdams answered the call pressing something on his seat's right arm.

"We receive you, Solaris control. Go ahead." He said simply.

The female voice crackled as it was relayed to the speakers on the bridge.

"Vessel Solaris, we have received your ship ID automatically and you have been flagged as a ship of interest, to one our esteemed planet siders named Tarana Korvak. He has left expressed directions for you, once you've landed to immediately make your way to his place of business, the Red Sun Club in area Six, in the East of the city." The female voice explained, and the moment I heard Korvak's name I clenched my fist in anger thinking that McAdams had made the situation worse for the crew on board.

McAdams was quiet for a moment, and I could see Hailey and Aisha exchanging glances watching him.

"Copy that, Solaris Control. Prepare for Orbital entry." McAdams said to the female controller.

The female controller went silent, there was no static and I assumed she had ended the communications to our ship. Slowly I felt the ground beneath my feet, the actual floor of the ship slope downwards towards the planet and we were entering it's Orbit. Slowly we entered it, and soon enough we landed on what looked like from the Bridge, a tower of some kind protruding from a city beneath it. This was Solaris, and I felt my heart beat hard, and my stomach lurch as I thought about meeting Korvak. I didn't have much choice however, this was a one way trip if McAdams had his way about it.

Ten Minutes Later, Salvage Vessel Osiris Docked On Solaris Landing Control. Above The City of Solaris, Early Evening

The moment the Osiris docked on the tower with its beaming red lights luring us into landing, we were greeted by a small contingent of armed guards. Once the crew's salvage, and what they planned to sell had been packaged to move off the ship, the cargo doors opened onto the landing pad. The guards who met us were wearing grey uniforms and armor, holding rifles and pistols watching our every move. Their faces were obscured by the visors on their helmets, but I knew they were watching us. I felt Aisha's hand on my arm gently, as everyone aboard other than two of the pilots disembarked.

"Careful, the security force on Solaris is paid for by the criminals, and crime lords. They are corrupt, and will have no issues will hurting any of us." She said in a whisper, as we approached the armed guards.

I said nothing as McAdams in all his stupidity, led the way and stopped in front of the guards.

"Captain McAdams, is it?" The lead guard of the several men asked.

McAdams nodded, as the leader of the guards nodded in response.

"Tarana Korvak awaits you at the Red Sun Club. He advises you to be quick about getting there." The leader of the guards said, and turned putting away their weapons and leaving the landing pad entirely, via an elevator.

Aisha wasn't kidding, the police force for this entire planet was paid for, and maintained by organized criminals. These guards had literally been paid to come and greet us, and advise McAdams to hurry his ass up, to speak with Korvak. Power on this planet was everything, I doubted there was any honor in the mix here. McAdams turned to us all, and he gave me a cold stare before looking to speak to all of us.

"We're heading to meet with Korvak, Aisha and Hailey you're coming with me, and bring the fucking ice Popsicle with us. As for the rest of you, we are only going to be on this planet for a few hours. Be back on the Osiris within six hours, find supplies and purchase what we need with the credits I've given you all. No R&R you understand me, I don't want to stay here any longer than we need. All of you back on the Osiris once you're done, myself and the others will be back on board in due time." He said turning to face the elevator in front of us, it was huge and designed to transport cargo from the ships that landed.

Aisha leaned in and whispered to me.

"That means we stay as long as he fucking likes at Korvak's club, and he can gamble as long as he wants, but everyone else better be on the ship before then." She said angrily.

She turned back to face McAdams back, and we followed him to the elevator. The others that McAdams had given orders to, made their way to another elevator at the far right side of the landing pad. We were soon inside the elevator, with the pallet loaded with the valuables the crew were selling, and the Republican tech and weapons they wanted me to test-fire for the customers. The elevator doors shut behind us, and lurched to life going down floor by floor. No one said a word inside the elevator, as we fast approached the ground floor, and as the elevator came to an abrupt stop, the doors opened and outside was a flourishing city.

The lights almost blinded me, and from the elevator in the skies flew small and even large ships, ripping along the skyline at fast speeds. I watched as Aisha and Hailey pushed the pallet on its wheels out of the elevator. I now noticed Aisha, Hailey and McAdams were all armed; Aisha had a rifle, the same one she had pointed at me only hours before when she found me on the Coronis. Hailey and the Captain had sidearms strapped to their legs, and surprisingly even I was armed with the Republican rifle. I knew my weapon would gain a lot of stares, people would wonder how a Republican weapon would be working, at the hands of a human with Iridium in their blood. 

I was about to bring up my fears of the people in the city recognizing the weapon as old Republican technology, but Aisha was already facing me.

"Put the Republican weapon inside the pallet, under the cover and take this instead." Aisha said handing me a sidearm similar to both Hailey's and McAdams own weapons. I hid my ancient weapon under the pallet's cover, and held the sidearm I had just been given. It was a larger pistol, compared to the handguns from my time.

We moved out of the elevator into the busy street outside, and I was immediately hit by the busy activity, vehicles with no wheels were hovering just above the ground we stood on and at fast speeds were passing us. People were everywhere, stalls were selling wears and other items. Solaris seemed a planet of opportunity and business, for the right person.

"Welcome to Solaris, James." Aisha said, and I turned to her and I could swear she smiled slightly at me. 

Welcome to Solaris indeed, she was right. My new life, in this new world had started abruptly, but now I could see where my new life would take me. It would take me to many places, with Aisha and the crew of the Osiris.

*

All suggestions, and feedback is appreciated, and will be taken into consideration for the next installment. If you have any ideas for where this could go please leave your comments. Hope you enjoyed the story. The next installment is on it's way.