Flight of The Edge Tracker

Control It, Mr.Coll !

“So, Mr.Coll, does this old girl still taking rough highway smoothly?” said the brute, harsh, and commanding voice.

“Aye Sir, all vessel conditions are still within healthy parameters. Even its Dimmuran Crystal is still supplying the required energy” Mr Coll answered.

“Aye, good then, my fine young elf, let’s pray to stars it will be so till we return to Malaka”

“Lets pray for so, Captain Merrick”

“Aye! GOODBRING, REPORT!” the dwarven captain shouted out loud.

“Goodbring here, o dear tormentor of ears“ a fine, female voice came out of bridge audio system “nothing unusual in the engineering. Although, I don’t know, it can break up without warning anytime”

“Bah, blasted Drow, don’t make the young lads nervous, shall we?”

“Aye, Captain! Well, like you said, lets pray that Malaka’s girls will be able to bathe in aural-magnificence of your voice once again!”

“Curse you, Goodbring!” Captain Merric smiled under that heavy facial hair of him. “MORGO, REPORT!”

“Escort drones are present and accounted for, o Merric the Thunder!”

“Do they work?”

“Would you like a hole be drilled from weapon bay to your bridge, o Merric the Whiskers, as proof of their functions?”

“Bleh, Morgo, one of this days, I’ll belt out of that rough green skin of yours!”

“O Merric the Terrible, this green skin, adored by my six wives, is not as weak as you thought it is”

“What about what’s under the skin, you senile Orc?”

“That, O Ancient Captain, is yours to test in the Arena Holobay, if you so please”

“Hehehe, nice, a mortal challenge! And what about the lads?”

“Well, Merric the Interrogator, they are ready. Weapons are good too, Thank Goodness!”

“Hrrh..at least we got something to shove off any idiots that came to our way, eh my old Orc?” Merrick grinned.

“So to speak, o Merric the (urfotunately my) captain”

“Good. Raffent, what about our cargo, are they still alive?”

“Alive, and it seems that I detect the usual pattern in their neural waves, the moment you blurted out your thunderous act” Raffent spoke “I believe we call it ‘fear of uncertainties’ “

“Well, my good doctor, a little shot of adrenaline flowing in their veins is nice, isn’t it?”

“It will compensate their lack of muscular activities, albeit little”

“Good. Just keep their neural system online, eh, gnome?”

“Aye, captain!”

“Are you just making fun of my associates, Captain Merrick” A voice of dignified and proud tone came from the captain’s left side “If you do, let me remind you that you are still under our service, you and your crew”

 “Bah, no need to talk like we are some kind of Federation suits, High Magistrate Tolmov” Merric frowned and smiled bitterly “you want exploration vessel willing to go to Hugarnass, and we are the only one willing for it, so be fair and let us do it our way!”

“It is surprising to me that with so may exploration vessels docked in Malaka, why you are the only one willing to go to my destination” Tolmov, a dark-skinned Halfling with thick visors on his face and thin moustaches atop his ever pursed lips, said it as a statement “it’s such a glorious destination”

Merrick rolled his eyes “Bah, Magistrate, Perhaps your glorious destination is not good enough for Federation to bull other vessels to do your bidding, so they come to us, and put stones in our shoes unless we go to your ‘glorious destinations’ ”

“Stones in your shoes?”

“They love to make ex-pirates miserable, in their own lovely way”

“I wonder” Tolmov smiled mockingly

“Yeah, right!” Merrick muttered inside

“May I ask you something, Magistrate Tolmov?” Mr. Coll spoke rather suddenly

“My my….an inquiring word from an ex-pirate” Tolmov still smiled mockingly “what could it be, o good elf?”

“What is so glorious about Hugarnass System? It is pretty desolated world, almost no sentient beings detected, and the one that do exists, doesn’t exist in material dimensions!”

“What is so glorious about it? Well, young elf, Hugarnass is the only system in the charted part of the galaxy that doesn’t have material sentients living alongside their energy colleagues, but have so many material civilization artifacts found on one of its solid planet. Artifacts are not dated beyond stones and mortars civilization. That alone is a BIG mystery, if your mind is as enlightened as mine”

“That is sure is an interesting fact, Thanks for your explatanation”

“Careful, magistrate, you could ended up having an ex-pirate as your student”

“If one mind requires to be enlightened, so it must be enlightened, my good captain”

Merric smirked. Coll smiled a little.

“Captain, High Magistrate, we are approaching the end of our Hyperspace Lane.”

“Just send the damn protocols, Mr.Coll”

“Aye, Captain, sending the protoc..’

BOOOM !!!

Edge Tracker’s balance system went haywires. If not for safety belts lined up their chests, everyone on bridge will surely be thrown from their seats.