Starla and the Echo

Chapter One: Rendezvous

Space had always been a source of endless inspiration to the people of the Sahm System. For centuries one could point at the cosmos before them with a telescope and ponder the intricacies of the strange, far-off, worlds they saw. Many would consider the prospect of traveling this great unknown before them a most exciting venture, but for Starla, it meant another 6 weeks with nothing to do... For 6 long weeks, she had sat in a chemically induced coma just to pass the time. After groggily stumbling from her quarters to the cupola of her ship, she made herself comfy in her captain's chair. She was almost about to nod off to sleep again when a grading artificial voice broke the silence.

"We are approaching the designated salvage target. Current range- 924 meters"

The voice belonged to the Spirit of Fortune's robotic co-pilot Noodle, who hung from an overhead track next to Starla.

Starla pushed a finger through a wad of her near-black hair and twirled it around as it floated aimlessly from her head.

"Alllrighty just uh- put the docking arms out. I'll go check out the ship when we close in on it" she responded informally.

As their target came closer and closer to them, Starla toggled a joystick from the side of her control console. Suddenly, a stream of jets pulsed out of the front of their big, orange, switcher. Starla lurched in her seat and these jets abruptly halted their ship in front of the target.

Noodle remained silent, despite his lack of emotion, Starla could tell he was irritated with her lackluster piloting. Perhaps it was the way his hard drive seemed to click with every jolt or every subtle movement of his camera lens. Starla felt almost that he was judging her, in a silent, robotic, kind of way.

Suddenly, the front of the Spirit of Fortune began to unfold as 4 large robotic legs protruded from the front and positioned themselves before the target.

"Initiating auto docking sequence" Noodle announced, not giving any room for Starla to start docking.

"Uh- right, I'll secure the towing lines," Starla said as she got up and made her way towards the airlock.

"Way to be bossed around by a robot Starla...." she thought to herself

Starla eagerly climbed through the circular, ladder runged, hallways of the Spirit of Fortune. Securing towing lines was always her favorite part of any journey, second to payday of course. Already donning her orange spacesuit, she secured the yellow helmet to it, screwing it in place. Through the tinted visor, she reached for the locker and pulled out a large, gun-shaped, apparatus. The device had 6 large harpoons attached to it. Along the back, 4 small rockets protruded from the bumpstock, as well as from the end of each harpoon. With this strange apparatus in hand and spacesuit on, she made her way out of the airlock.

Pshhhhhhshhshshshhhhh

The large steel doors opened, revealing outer space from beyond the dingy corridor. Gingerly, Starla made her way out of the airlock. In anywhere other than outer space, it would take at least two people to hold the massive harpoon launcher, however here, it was as light as a feather. Starla balanced it between two fingers as she reached for her belay. After many failed attempts she grabbed it from her belt and connected it to a grab iron.

From outside the ship, Starla could get a good look at her salvage target. It was a massive hulking ship, dwarfing her, quite large, switcher by a substantial degree. Illuminated from her ship's searchlights, she could barely make out the name CSS ANASTAZJA.

From within a speaker inside her spacesuit came Noodle's voice

"Alright Starla now secure the lines upon the markers prov ded by th las bea co syt"