“Oh my God, we are all gonna die!” Screamed Fletcher at Cerbus as the ship lurched violently from another explosion, the whole chassis shook. Flames were erupting all along the fuselage. The ship had been turning for what seemed to be an age. There was a whistle and then another explosion somewhere towards the back of the ship’s armour. Fletcher was thrown across the service tunnel crashing heavily into the side.
The ship groaned and then seemed to pause momentarily before the warp drive kicked in. Cerbus watched as Fletcher slumped over. All around them the ship was shuddering and shaking as the FTL drive dragged them away from danger. “We are out! Its going to be OK we are out Fletcher.”
“Don’t bet on it, we have been in and out of that pocket six times now.” Fletcher moaned.
“This ship is not built for this kind of mission.”
“Tell that to our dearest Pod Pilot.” Fletcher rolled over onto his back breathing heavily.
“He won’t listen.”
“Maybe now he will?” Fletcher got up. “Anyway let’s get on with these repairs, we just need to stabilise the ship so he can get it to the repair shop.” The ship remained stationary above the sun, hanging in space almost catching it’s breath.
“They are going to be laughing at us you know. It’s like they seen him coming.”
“Yeah by the time he finishes this mission most of the money from the bounties will have been spent.” Fletcher sighed as he moved forward.
They had been moving around the ship’s core patching up leaking conduits. Doing their best to keep it functional. This had been their first commission as free lance engineers and it wasn’t going very well.
“Remind me. Why did we choose “The Intrepid?” Fletcher looked at Cerbus.
“Well because you said it looked, well, ‘Intrepid’ and you liked the pod pilot. Kanenald seemed ‘pretty normal’ you said.”
“Ahh, right.”
“Well I guess being normal doesn’t necessarily make him a good pod pilot?”
“Too right.” Fletcher frowned. ”You know we are gonna have to talk to him about this?”
They continued to patch up internal leaks for a couple of hours while the ship remained stationary in space. Then slowly but surely it changed direction.
“We are going to dock and repair the hull.” The Moriarity’s voice came over the intercoms.
“About time, we have already lost the bonus for this mission.” Moaned Fletcher as he walked along the corridor in the direction of the bridge. His overalls were covered in oil and grease from his work.
The ship groaned and shuddered as they entered warp and eventually slowed down. Within second it began to shake, something was wrong. “Whats happening this time?” Yelled Fletcher as he sprinted off towards the bridge.
Outside the ship was being swarmed by the Mordus Legion. The shields were being quickly stripped. It would not be long until the ships armour would be left open to the mercy of the attacking ships.
“Errr….. sorry!” Came Moriarity’s modulated voice. I must have accidentally activated the wrong bookmark. ”Give me a second and we will be out of here.”
The ship rocked as another missile struck, shells were incoming fast and the shields were almost gone. ”I am going to kill him!” Screamed Fletcher, as he began to sprint.
The shields were gone and the ship’s armour was being pounded. Finally, after what seemed like an age the ship finished its turn and paused. There was that eternity of a moment when everything seemed to slow to a halt, around the ship time seemed to alter its form and then the FTL drive kicked in. The ship shook violently as it hurtled through space, eventually coming to a halt outside Eystur III Moon I Republic Fleet Assembly Plant. Inside the small vessel a large wrench bounced off the pod that contained Moriarity’s prone form.
“Fletcher! What are you doing!”
“What the fuck are you doing?” Fletcher screamed. ”Are you trying to kill us?”
“Clam down, it was a simple mistake.” Although the voice was modulated to make it sound throaty and masculine, there was a tightness about it that indicated the pod pilot was a bit scared.
“Get out of that pod so we can talk face to face!”
“No. I am not coming out until you calm down.”
“Get out here!” Fletcher was clearly apoplectic.
“No. I am not moving.”
“Moriarity if you don’t get your skinny ass out of that pod and speak to me like a man I am going to gut you when I see you.” Fletcher was standing with his hands on his hips glaring at the pod.
“Look Fletcher we have to have some order around here. Get back to your work, we have a mission to get completed.” Moriarity was trying to be assertive. It wasn’t working.
“I told you before. This heap of crap is no good for these kinds of commissions.” Fletcher was stock still staring at the pod. There was a long pause and then the modulated voice buzzed through the speaker behind his head.
“I think you have a point. Lets patch the ship up and finish this commission. I promise we will sell this ship and buy whatever ship you think will do. Can you get busy planning what we need please?” There was a long pause before Fletcher turned a quickly stalked out of the bridge.
