Space Diary Year 2

Cog had met and been briefed by Lisa as to what was happening.

He reached the doorway just as Less Ruther had reduced the gravity to normal. Quickly the old Dwarf opened his tool box. In there were assorted bits of wire, tape, string and other odds and ends.

He had once shown the contents of this box to John when he first came on board and asked him what he saw. When John said 'Junk' Cog had corrected him.

"No what you see is life. I have saved the lives of the crew a hundred times, with jury rigged repairs with things like these. Surviving in space isn't about scantly clad woman and big guns its about using what you know. We don't have proper life support but thanks to some elastic and a shard of copper that rarely needs replacing, that we have some Life Support at all."

The lesson was an important one about using what you know and have.

Cog looked at his collection of bits and pieces and looked at the red clad punk about the carve up the kid.

Then he looked again at the contents of his box and reached down.

There was a flash of light and a small sonic / electric implosion. Less Ruther flew across the bay and into a far wall before collapsing unconscious.

John rolled onto his side to see Cog holding a stun pistol.

"What happened to using what you know?" he breathed heavily.

"Nothing," replied Cog "I happen to know it's a good idea to have a weapon concealed in a secret compartment of your tool case,"

Over the intercom came the words of a female voice with strained patience.

"What's happening down there the Pirates are getting jumpy and forming into an attack position."

John looked around at the split barrels. Not all the cargo was lost but the cheep beer was definitely all gone. They could ill afford to loose more cargo but could afford a pirate fight even less.

Then he took a good hard look at Less Ruther the cause of all these problems and lost revenue which would almost certainly come out of his pocket.

Less Ruther awoke with a splitting headache and could hear nothing but the internal ringing of his own ear drums. He could see nothing but spinning stars. He tried to move his head but found it difficult.

He raised his hand and was curious to find it was dressed in silver.

His mind fought for purchase as he saw a ship swoop towards him, its outer bay door open like some large metal whale.

Less Ruther realised that he had been stunned, put in a vac suit and dumped out the airlock.

Pirates don't care about imperial citizenship. They know plenty of estranged private mining operations that don't ask questions about where their slaves come from.

Imagine you are a pirate Captain.

The average slave is worth 10,000 credits.

Even if you win a space battle the repairs to your ships can cost hundreds of thousands.

If you were the pirate Captain who was expecting a few hundred credits worth of beer for free then instead you were offered the chance to buy a ten thousand credit slave for half price, giving you a profit of at least a few thousand.

If you were this pirate Captain what would you do?

John Smith reported to Captain Carla, before giving her time to speak he said.

"I assume you wish to take back my promotion,"

"Not at all," the Captain replied.

"But it was my fault,"

"As far as I knew you were not a psychic" her voice smiled.

"But am I not responsible for my staffs actions?"

"Was I responsible for your actions when you lost that grain shipment?"

"No I paid for the loss" replied John

"And you have made sure that Less Ruther has paid for his loss and even managed to make some money from the deal, rather a lot of money."

"It was in the pirates best interest instead of a battle with expensive repairs."

"But you negotiated the deal. You pointed these facts out for them. You are becoming quite the negotiator Mr Smith. I certainly want to put you in for Imperial Merchant Navy Service."

"Was Ms Willow very angry about the cargo?" asked John.

"These things happen in space, she's old enough in the trade to know that."

"I should have taken his knives off him" said John

"No, you did the right thing. It is always more likely that we would be boarded rather than some crew member going nuts. Its best to allow crew members to remain armed. That will be all Head Cargo."

As John reached the door he heard Carla say.

"Next time you reach a planet you might consider spending your pennies on some basic combat training. I assure you that one day, you will need it."

"I'll get Lisa to teach me, with her gang background and the way she kicked Ruther over, she should be able to help,"

"Do you think she will teach you,"

"I don't know." And with that John continued through the door.

Later that evening John Smith took out the Vibrating Mono Knife and trimmed the Dwarf Cave Vines.

He could not reach up easily with the damage he'd sustained despite Cogs limited medical knowledge.

(He tended to treat his 'patients' as if they were yet another broken machine.)

Lisa smiled at him as she helped.