Cybernetic Soul

Chapter 3

"Chief Engineer Juniper Gibsin and two junior engineers are in the Galstar Spirit's brig," said Bryn, reading off the notice on his screen. This was to the senior officers who were gathered on the bridge.

"How did that happen? Don't tell me this has something to do with the cooling pipe." said Krenin.

"They tried to walk out of a storage unit with a class 4 fusion drive main cooling pipe. They were caught," said Bryn. Now he faced a bill that would eat up the last of any reserves in order to free them. Then he had to find at least three hundred thousand credits to replace the cracked pipe. The Kameren contract was now officially a disaster. The Starstrel was broke. That meant that he could not pay his mooring fees, he could not pay his debt fees, He could not pay insurance, he could not pay his crew their percentage.

Bryn was meant to get twenty percent, but he had not seen twenty percent in a long time. In fact, it had been going the other way, but that well was dry. How many times had old-timers warned him to lock credits away?

"You're a... a... goofy moron," said Svana Flots. "...Captain," she added.

Bryn rubbed his temples. Flots did not often get flustered, but she had a right to be.

Yaba Gada chuckled. "You are a little goofy, Captain."

"Goofy? Learn some bad words, Flots. It won't kill you," said Krenin. She shrugged and gave him a white eyed stare that said a lot more than any rude words could convey.

"We could bust 'em out," suggested Sergeant Honroy. "Get the Starstrel ready to go. We'll be in and out before you know it."

Nobody answered. Everyone knew that would be near suicidal. Even if they got away, they would never be welcome in Fed space again. Outlaws! That would only leave piracy or move to another sector of the galaxy. Bryn had seen others succumb to it. The desperation. The lure of easy credits. Perhaps Honroy was right. They could do that... No. The life of a pirate vessel was anything but easy. It was the life of the hunted, miserable and lonely. There had to be another way.

Any pirates they had come across were half starved madmen living a life of desperation, caught between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to run except a long, long way from anything they knew.

"How did they get caught? Gibsin's better than that," said Krenin. "Half our drive is made up of pilfered parts. He never got caught before. I should've gone with him."

"I don't know," said Bryn. "He tells me that he and his boys pocketed a key card. When they found the pipe, security was just waiting for them to come out."

"It sounds like they were set up," said Flots. The thought had occurred to Bryn too. Gibsin was a cautious man, a canny man.

"Security to the Bridge," came a crackled voice over the comms.

"Go ahead, Security," said Bryn.

"We have a lady here. She wants to meet the Captain. She says she can help with the engineer."

Bryn gave the others a look. "Escort her up."

They could hear the footsteps coming up the central shaft steps, all the way up to the top where the bridge covered the entire level with a panoramic view broken only by the shaft towards the rear. The elevation shaft was broken and had been for a long time. The steps made for good exercise on a smaller ship, and Bryn did not want to pay for the repairs.

Shortly, a panting young ableman by the name of Ruibi stood aside to let a tall woman past him. It was the same purple-eyed woman he had seen at Vice Marshal Verts' office. She gave the crew a quick once over then fixed those eyes on Bryn.