Chrono Virus

Chapter 2

The Raven was a tin can. The Augusta class ship was a medium sized vessel, long and round, shaped like a big straw. Sound bounced off the metal and reverberated throughout the length of the ship as Hubbard and Heidi Watts approached. Ken could hear their footsteps from thirty feet away. A moment later the seal on the door disengaged and it creaked open. Hubbard and Watts entered and the captain locked the door behind him.

Captain Bill Hubbard was slightly taller than Ken, clocking in at six foot, ten. His muscular build gave him the strength to accomplish most of the heavy lifting around the ship solo, yet without slowing him down, thanks to a rigorous daily workout. It was all muscle thanks to a workout set in his quarters below. His beard had grown to a near bushy state since they undocked at Bridger. The Raven was well stocked with grooming supplies, but Hubbard liked to mark the time with his whiskers. He'd shave the moment they unloaded the coils at Cogan, looking professional once again so he could lock in the next job.

"Status, Mr. Mallory."

Ken lifted an eyebrow. Hubbard was rarely this formal. "Ship-wide system's almost done scanning, but she's coming back all green so far."

"Good. You know you forgot to announce 'Captain on the bridge' when I entered. You also didn't stand at attention."

Ken nearly roared in laughter, but Hubbard's stare was deadly.

Protocol? We haven't done that crap in years.

He tried to read the captain's face. Hubbard didn't move and the air grew thicker by the second.

"Um, Captain on the bridge?" Ken made his body rigid and threw a half-hearted salute.

Hubbard's face remained stone, and he leaned closer toward Ken's face.

His words were barely audible. "Never... bet me that I can't get him to do something, Watts." Hubbard's authority dissolved, and his laugh bounced around the bridge.

Watts threw her hands in the air. "Fine, fine. It's only ten qit off my share of the cargo. I can't believe you fell for that, Ken! C'mon, I thought you were better than that."

Ken rolled his eyes. "Well, now that I'm no longer the mark for your wager, can we get down to business? I mean, it is your ship after all, Hubs."

Hubbard walked up to the console and Ken moved to make the chair available for its rightful owner. He watched the captain scroll through the same data he scoured through minutes earlier.

"That was some intense turbulence," Watts said. "I've only been sailing for a few years and I've never felt anything like that before."

"Neither have I," Ken said. "The sensors alerted me to an issue a few seconds before it hit, but nothing's out there." He pointed to the glass.

Watts's frown deepened with each new screen she read through. She glanced out at the viewport, sighed, and then focused back to the data. Ken knew she'd hit the same dead end as him. Watching her work through it though made him smile. Heidi reminded him of his sister Lindsey the moment he first saw her. Only a year older, Watts mirrored her fascination for space. Their identical ship-standard cuts of brown hair lent an air of familiarity to Ken's otherwise lonely time away from his family. Ken hoped to bring Watts along to dinner the next time they were docked near Lindsey's ship.

Hubbard looked up from the display. "Raven's clean. No bumps or bruises. It had to have been an FTL wake."

Ken waved the notion aside. "No way. Even an Albany class ship couldn't create that."

"It could if they jumped just before we passed through."

"He's right, Captain," Watts said. "I served a stint at FMS 22 a while back. Even with a line of ships waiting to jump, we never saw a wake generate as much force as what hit the Raven."

Ken had served on ships abiding by the shipping lane rules. The wait was long due to the set locations a ship could make an FTL jump. Passing through an FTL monitoring station brought the unique advantage to take on extra cargo people didn't want to pass through planetary customs. Because of the Raven's small size and lack of FTL drive, it was exempt from lane requirements and delivered cargo faster, meaning more money.

"Well, if anyone has another explanation, I'm all ears," Hubbard said.

Ken looked back out into the darkness, grasping for a logical theory. He was no engineer, so he only had his experience to go on, but experience couldn't answer this. He saw Hubbard rubbing his whiskered chin deep in thought and turned back to the viewport for answers.

Watts cried out, breaking his concentration. Both he and Hubbard spun in time to see her unconscious body crumple to the deck, blood pooling around her head.