Quantum Entanglement Pt. 01

Light Transport 35-a

One light-hour from UN colonized territory

CAPTAIN ERA CONRAD

My ship's proximity alarm blared in my ear as I brought it up alongside the disabled vessel. The vessel, a civilian freighter, had lost all flight controls and was rolling to its starboard side, though who could really tell which way was up so far out in the black? I silenced the alarm with a swipe of my front panel and extended the umbilicus. I'd done this maneuver a thousand times, in and out of simulations, and knew better than my ship's stupid sensors what was too close. When you'd been boarding ships as long as I had, you could almost feel the distance in your bones.

"Front seal is good. Pressurizing umbilicus." The soft female voice of my onboard computer, Darla, was a product of my own coding. I didn't need a man's voice telling me what I already knew. I'd had enough of that in my life already.

I flipped on auto pilot and stabilizing thrusters to stop our rotation while I grabbed my go bag, checking to make sure I had an arc cutter and a plasma rifle before slipping on my boots and heading for the door. Just because sensors said no lifeforms were onboard didn't mean I needed to take any chances. I threw my pack over my shoulder, wound my dark hair up into a knot on top of my head, and deployed my envrioskin. Sensors indicated that life support had been disabled for quite some time and internal temperatures were hovering just above freezing. The latent heat radiating off the fusion core was the only thing keeping it from dipping lower. The cold I could deal with...the lack of oxygen, not so much.

"Keep her steady, Darla, and alert me immediately if anyone comes close."

"Yes, Captain. Do not be long. The fusion core is holding steady for now, but catastrophic failure is imminent."

Darla's concern made me smile as I hooked my bag around my shoulder. "I know, Darla. What I need to do won't take long."

I bounced a little in the diminished gravity of the umbilicus, my boots squishing in the soft fabric. The door to the disabled vessel was welded shut from the outside, though I had no idea why the pirates had risked taking the time to do that. But, that's what the plasma cutter was for. I took my time cutting, being careful not to hit the umbilicus. All I needed was to blow a couple thousand credits' worth of fuel getting back onto my ship after being vented into space by a careless cut. It wasn't a mistake I planned on making more than once in my life.

Less than five minutes later I was inside. "Darla, you still reading me?"

"Yes, Captain."

"I'm not seeing any bodies. Search the corporate databases for intel, please. Go deep if you have to." I secured a few tools that lay scattered on the floor as I looked for any indication as to what the pirates were after. It didn't seem like the typical MO of traffickers, but they were always changing their methods, so who knew for sure? It's not like the corporation or any governmental agency would give me any real data anyway. All they'd said was that it was safe and I didn't need a chaperone.

"The last beacon drone lost contact with the vessel four days ago. No distress signal was initiated. Passengers were located yesterday on Triton outside Research Station Delta. All but four had succumbed to the elements. Youngest casualty - six months. Oldest - fifty six. Black box transponder began transmitting this morning at 0400. Total systems failure estimated in two hours thirty-seven minutes and seventeen seconds."

My cheeks burned. There weren't many things that made me lose my grip on my temper, but kids dying was one of them. What I wouldn't give to be able to hunt down the people responsible for those deaths and make them pay for what they'd done. But that wasn't my job anymore. I was here for data, not justice.

The lack of bodies meant the only thing I'd be recovering from this wreck was information. Which was fine with me. I hated dealing with bodies. Bodies reminded me of my past and that's not where I wanted my mind to go today. Or any day for that matter. I sighed and pulled up directions to the bridge on my visor.

Even with my diminished weight in the lower gravity, the material of the pilot's seat cracked underneath me as I belted myself in. The synthetic leather didn't do so well in the cold. Neither did I, though. I shivered from the thought of it, despite the ten mil membrane covering my skin. Cold wasn't my favorite.

"Just get through this job and you'll have ten days on a sunny beach on some remote Cyr island," I whispered to myself.

"Captain," Darla asked, interrupting my musings.

"Nothing. Just talking to myself."

The thought of being warm somewhere sunny had my fingers flying through the wiring of the dead ship. I hit a snag and had to rip off the console panel and nearly climb in the damn thing before I could get my sifter to read anything, but once I got it working, all I had to do was sit back and wait the fifteen or so minutes it would take the bots to work through the system.

My eyes had just slipped closed when something crashed behind me. I flinched, fumbling out of the harness, and flew out of the chair as fast as my body would allow, which was more like trying to run in swamp water. I grabbed my rifle off my back and hopped over to the side wall, trying not to make a sound.

"Captain, your vital signs are spiking. Are you in trouble?"

"Someone's here," I whispered.

"Scanners do not read any life signs. Are you sure?"

"Yes, dammit! Something's moving around." There weren't too many things that could be moving around in zero degree temps and no oxygen, and fewer still weren't deadly. I charged my rifle to the max setting and tried to keep my breathing quiet.

The sound grew louder as whatever was moving around got closer to the bridge. It made kind of a bump-slide-bump sound as it moved across the metal gangway and up the steps. I leveled my rifle at what I hoped was eye-level and waited.

A young-looking man with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders stepped through the doorway. His eyes were focused on a tablet instead of me crouching in a corner as he muttered to himself around a screwdriver clamped between his teeth. The bumping sound was coming from his injured leg that he was halfway dragging across the metal floor.

"Stop right there," I yelled in my most authoritative voice.

The man stopped moving and raised his hands, though he kept the screwdriver in his mouth. His eyes darted nervously around the room, probably looking for more people. If he was hostile, I was in trouble.

No chaperone needed, my ass.

"Hello," he said carefully, drawing out the "o" sound. The screwdriver dropped slowly from his mouth, bumping against his leg on its agonizing descent to the floor. Before I could stop him, he turned and ran back through the door. I pushed off the wall and followed him, but I couldn't go nearly as fast.

"Damn grav boots," I growled. I had been asking my supervisor for some of those for months, but nobody could justify me having them. Maybe they will now, if I survive this, I thought ruefully.

I bumped into the far wall and scrambled for leverage. The guy had only gone as far as the exit hatch and was fumbling with the door to try and get out. I was about to shoot him on principle when I noticed the awkward way his fingers were grasping for the handle. They didn't move organically.

"Wait. Stop. Are you human?"

The guy turned his face towards me, fear written across his sharp features. Deep brown hair hung down in his eyes, but it couldn't hide the unmistakable amber glow of his irises.

"You're AI," I said on a breath. I let my rifle catch on its strap and braced my forearm against the wall beside me as I willed my heart to calm down. "I thought you were a pirate."

The guy stopped fumbling with the door and faced me. His eyebrows knitted together as he looked me over cautiously. "Are you not?"

I chuckled. "Not even close. I work for the company that owns this freighter. I'm just here to find out what happened."

"Are you alone?" His voice was soft and smooth. A little lower pitched than I'd expected, but it didn't carry the metallic echo that I'd come to expect from humanoid AI.

The question made my heart tick up a little more, but AI had protocols to keep them from hurting humans. I tried to tell myself to quit being stupid. "Yeah. Corporate didn't see the need for a chaperone."

The guy jerked his body around quickly, grabbing a few things. He was suddenly more nervous than he had been when he'd been staring down the barrel of my gun. "Then we need to go. Now."

I didn't question him. I didn't trust AI so much, but they were designed to protect and serve humans. If he said we needed to go, then we needed to go. "Fine, but I need my sifter first." I turned and started hopping towards the bridge, but the guy shoved me against the wall with a single firm hand and pushed past me.

"Get to your ship and get it ready to go. I'll get your stuff."

My mouth hung open as I looked at him for half a heartbeat before I turned and started for the umbilicus. I was just hopping through the door to my own ship when he came up behind me, dragging his busted leg across the threshold. He wrapped his arm around my waist and half-carried me to my pilot's seat. I tried to push away, but he was much too strong. I had half a heartbeat to notice how humanlike the veins in his forearms were before he sat me down and buckled me in. Another heartbeat later and he was strapped in the seat beside me, staring at me with jaw tight and eyes sharp.

"Go." He ordered.

"Excuse me. Who the Hell do you think you are bos --"

"Captain, I have an incoming contact moving at peak velocity. Weapons lock. Weapons lock. Weapons lock."

"Fuck!"

I punched the thrusters, not even bothering to disengage the umbilicus. The exterior hatch slammed shut, cutting the connection. I'd worry about paying corporate back later. If we survived. I rolled my ship away from the disabled freighter and shoved the throttle forward.

"Shields at max, Captain."

I was moving the ship as fast as it would go, but it wasn't designed for evasive maneuvers. It was slow and cumbersome and I could only hope that when the missile hit the freighter the shock wave would dissipate before it destroyed us too.

"Warning. Warning. Warning." Darla screamed in my ear in time with the Klaxons overhead. I had just enough time to picture Lexi's face before the wave overtook us and sparks shot out across my control panel.

"I'll be seeing you soon, baby," I whispered just before the forward screen blew and everything around me went black.