THE HAUNTING OF THE STARJAMMER

Part I

By Travis Hiltz

What has gone before: The Starjammers, once again, got caught up in Kree/Shi’ar politics and ended up saving a colony world and gaining two new crew members, Drax the Destroyer and Rocket Raccoon. Both have since moved on to join the Guardians of the Galaxy. In the process of losing two crewmembers the Starjammers gained one, in the idealistic young Kree, Harr-Tenn. The Starjammers have now snuck off to the quiet fringe of the Shi’ar Empire in hopes of avoiding the military and repairing their ship’s damaged artificial intelligence system…

The Starjammer flew through space like a graceful bird of prey. Its surface, though scratched and tarnished, still reflected the distant light of the system’s two suns.

On the bridge, the crew was scattered about the horse-shoe shaped room, intent on their various controls. There was no sign of the tenseness that came with battle or flight from an enemy. This was merely a test run.

Christopher Summers, known as Corsair to his shipmates, sat in the center command chair relaxed and content to watch his crew go about their duties. Ch’od, the massive, reptillian alien was hunched over the communications console, tapping away at the light keyboard as he monitored the comm and the ship’s diagnostic system. Cr’reee, his ever-present pet was bonelessly draped across one broad, scaled shoulder.

Raza, the cyborg warrior was seated in front of Corsair, at navigation. With no set course, Corsair had told him to just indulge himself. The ship zoomed and soared, as Raza put the Starjammer through its paces.

At Corsair’s right sat his furry and alluring ladylove, Hepzibah, seated at the main weapons console. She looked bored, having nothing to shoot at, and was running a targeting program on the occasional passing asteroid or comet.

The Starjammer’s newest crewmember, the young Kree Harr-Tenn was at the science station. He had the console pried open and was going through the innards, trying to get the ship’s AI program, Waldo, up and running again. He seemed to be making little progress, but was reluctant to say anything about the damage. He was instead intent on pulling off some bit of technological miracle work and proving himself to the rest of the crew.

Corsair shook his head and smiled. He could just tell him that the fact that both Raza and Hepzibah had stopped glaring at his every move with suspicion was their version of hanging a “Welcome aboard!” banner.

“Seems to be running like a dream,” Corsair said, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back in the chair. “Nice to have something go right for a change.”

“Curse us, you will,” Hepzibah muttered. “ Too quiet of late, I think.”

“I, for one, will savor this quiet for as long as it lasts,” Ch’od added.

“You and me both,” Corsair said. “Boring generally means no one is trying to kill us. Anything out there worth a second look? Or should we start heading back to civilization? Now that the ‘Jammer’ is shipshape, a supply run is probably in order.”

“Very little, “ Raza replied. “Just old asteroid mining rigs and a few outpost stations. Tis one of those rare sectors that neither Kree nor Shai’r felt was worth fighting over.”

“Hard to believe,” Corsair said. “The Kree and Shi’ar would fight over a day old soy roll.”

“Actually, Captain Summers,” Harr-Tenn said hesitantly, “even before the war, this area was rarely explored by either empire. The Kree had several small mining colonies and a token military presence, while the Shi’ar only had a few outposts and automated monitor satellites…”

“Then, the war broke out,” Corsair nodded. “And everyone got pulled back. Makes sense. Oh, Harr?”

“Captain?”

“It’s not ‘Captain Summers.’ It’s ‘Corsair.’ ‘Sir’ is acceptable, but don’t over do it. “

“Uh…yes… Sir.”

“Not,” Corsair said, turning in his chair to face the rest of the crew. “That it wouldn’t kill anyone to make the token effort at a show of respect.”

Ch’od chuckled, though it sounded more like a gurgle. Hepzibah came over and draped herself over Corsair’s shoulder.

“Corsair should be content with crew’s pretense of listening to him.” She purred. “And concentrate more on sitting in big chair and looking handsome.”

“If a mere crew man may interrupt thy banter,” Raza said. “We are picking up several derelict stations and colony domes. Might we be able to combine thine ideas of exploring and gathering supplies?”

“Good thought,” Ch’od nodded. “The coffers are quite light. So, salvage, rather than barter would suit.”

“Good idea,” Corsair nodded. “ Let’s fix course. Raza, find us something big and deserted. Ch’od, keep an ear out for any chatter. If there is somebody else out here, I want to know before they notice us.”

For several minutes the bridge was quiet, as the crew went about their tasks. Corsair allowed himself a small smile of pride, and then concentrated on the view screen and the panorama of empty space it showed. He soon noticed a tiny glint that might have been a distant star or…

“Contact,” Raza announced. “Scanners have espied a station. Tis a low energy signal.”

“I’m getting something,” Ch’od added, his clawed hands tapping rapidly across his keyboard. “Odd signal…may be an automated signal…hmmm…?”

At that moment, lights across every console on the bridge began to flicker violently and the ship lurched. Corsair was thrown against the arm of his chair. He winced as the wind was knocked out of him, and he then went down on one knee. The Starjammer gave another lurch and he tumbled and ended up flat on his back. The lights went out and he could smell smoke. When the light returned, it was the dimmer emergency lights.

“Talk to me!” he shouted, getting to his feet. He plopped back down in his chair, and tapped frantically at the controls on the arm. “What the hell is going on?”

“I’ve got systems down all over the ship,” Harr-Tenn announced, waving away the wisps of smoke coming from his console. “Some kind of energy surge…”

“Locked, weapons are!” Hepzibah announced, flipping down her targeting visor. “Station’s power port targeted.”

“Fingers off triggers,” Corsair commanded. “At least until we know what just happened.”

“I don’t think it was a weapon,” Ch’od said. “It was the comm signal… some kind of energy cascade or else a massive data dump that our systems couldn’t handle. Hard to tell… half my board is still out. Harr?”

“It was a comm signal, but … done as a super dense information burst in some kind of energy pulse.”

“Okay, okay, let’s start with the basics, what is working?” Corsair asked.

“We have helm,” Raza announced. “But nav computer tis offline. Shields are at minimum.”

“At half power, weapons are,” Hepzabah said. “Targeting computer offline.”

“Targeting…? Targeting who?” Corsair shouted. “ Let’s concentrate on what’s going on, rather than who we can shoot for five seconds, Hep! Do we have any kind of scan capability? “

“Just barely,” Ch’od replied.

“Whatever that was,” Harr-Tenn said. “It seems to have overloaded systems, ship-wide. I…um…don’t think it was an attack, but, a signal or an energy pulse, that was just more than the ‘Jammer could handle. With a little work we can get the self-repair systems going and sort this out.”

“Time scale?” Corsair asked.

“Two hours, I think.”

“I really miss Waldo,” Corsair muttered. “We really need to get the AI system working on this ship. Do what you can, Harr. Raza, can you find where that…’whatever the hell is was’ came from and get us there in one piece?”

“Aye. With both wings ripped off and bleeding atmosphere, I could land this ship on a one credit chip.”

“Then you and Ch’od find us a spot to land, and I’ll take a look at the engine room,” Corsair said, standing up and heading for the door.

“Join you, I will,” Hepzibah said, springing up and following him.

“We need to find out what happened,” Ch’od muttered, as the bridge doors slid shut on their captain and his ladylove.

“Aye,” Raza nodded, pressing several switches then standing. “Docking initiated. To the airlock.”

“What?” Harr-tenn said, turning in his seat to face his crewmates. “But…Corsair said we… I mean, shouldn’t we…?”

“Fret not, lad,” Raza said, patting the Kree’s shoulder, as he strode past. Of course, he patted with his cybernetic hand, so Har-Tenn winced rather than felt comforted. “Corsair hath two women in his life; Hepzibah and the ‘Jammer and both do drive him to distraction with their moods and needs.”

“Chris Summers will not be able to focus until he has the ‘Jammer back to working order,” Ch’od added. “While he deals with the engine and you reroute the bridge systems, we shall deal with the station. ChrisSummers, is our captain, but that does not mean we are incapable of making descions for ourselves. You have the bridge.”

“Uh…alright,” Harr-tenn said, to the empty bridge. “Quickest promotion I ever received.”

The engine room was a large metal cavern with the massive machine that powered the Starjammer at its center. It was ringed with metal scaffolding, conduits and piping.

The engine was sparking and putting out billows of sour smelling smoke. Corsair had pulled off his gloves and after several moments of tinkering with it, he had changed tactics, and decided the best method of repair would be to bang against the engine with an over-sized spanner while cursing it out. After that didn’t work he resorted to throwing the spanner on the deck and glaring angrily at the engine. “All fixed, is it now?” Hepzibah asked, slinking up behind him.

“Had to get the pre-repair ritual of frustration out of the way,” he muttered in reply. “Can’t believe after all the effort we put into overhauling it, the dasting thing gets zapped.”

“Fix it, we can,” Hepzibah purred, stroking his shoulder.

“I know, I know,” Corsair muttered, leaning back against her. “Some days the near constant ‘one step forward, two steps back’ lifestyle wears on my nerves. If we can’t take care of ourselves, hard to see how we’ll keep an eye on the rest of the galaxy. “ “Which means taking on, we will, some foolhardy job that promises an ocean of credits and certain death.” Hepzibah said.

“On top of everything else, “Corsair chuckled. “I’m getting predictable in my old age.”

Meanwhile, on the derelict station, Ch’od and Raza were forcing open the airlock door. The large reptilian wore an oversized environmental suit with a bubble helmet. His shipmate wore just the bare minimum of breathing apparatus, as his cybernetic body parts made him durable to the point of invulnerability. With a final shove of his cybernetic arm and a screech of metal, the bulkhead was opened and the two strode into a metal corridor.

“Odd,” Raza muttered, as they walked along. “Smells of disuse, but not death.” ‘No sign of any attack,” Ch’od added. “ If the station was merely abandoned, why send a data burst message? The Shi’ar are not prone to panic.”

“Onward,” Raza said, “Keeping your over sized eyes open for any useful bit o’ salvage.”

“While I agree with your plan,” Ch’od said. “I take offense at your manner. My eyes are considered one of my best features…”

Back on the bridge of the Starjammer, Harr-tenn was sitting cross-legged on the deck, sorting through the wiring and components he had pulled out from the damaged console. A small, handheld device was projecting a three-dimensional hologram of the bridge schematics to help him sort through what had been damaged and what was just hopelessly jury-rigged.

“A wonder the system held together this long,” he muttered, as he worked. “Ah, Cockrum buffers…sturdy, but no idea where we would ever find replacements…? What the…is someone there?”

The young Kree peaked his head up above the console. He was still the bridge’s sole occupant.

“Odd. Oh well, just anxious…I thought…Hala!”

All across the bridge consoles began to light up in a familiar pattern. Then the communications system activated.

“Damnit, Harr!” Corsair’s voice shouted. “What are you up to? We’ve still got parts to replace and you’re firing up the engines?”

“Corsair, sir, it wasn’t me!” Harr-tenn replied, leaping for the main console. “We just went into emergency warm up! Maybe it was caused by something on the…station…oh, d’ast…!”

“Um…I’m not liking the sound of that.” Corsair said. “We’ll slap this together and be right up.”

“Raza and Ch’od are still on the station!” Harr-tenn shouted, trying to adjust the ship’s controls. “And its power core just went critical!”

On the station, the two space pirates had collected a good-sized pile of salvageable goods. Ch’od peered over the pile, thoughtfully, while tapping notes on his info-disk, while Raza continued lugging boxes and bits of equipment over to add to the pile.

“Hast thou noticed,” Raza mused, “that staring upon yon boxes does not cause the pile to grow larger?”

“We need to keep track of what we’ve accumulated,” Ch’od muttered, absently in reply. “A cargo hold full of garbage will do us little good…do you hear that?”

“I hear not but your babbling to excuse your sloth,” Raza grumbled, casually tossing two crates on the pile.

“There was a hum, like… systems powering up,” Ch’od said, looking around. “Did you touch anything?”

“T’will be touching you in a moment,” Raza said, clenching a cybernetic fist at his shipmate. “All I have been ‘touching’ is containers and machine parts, while you tax yourself making a list of what I have been…did you feel that? There’s a vibration running through yon floor plates…?”

“It is my reasoned opinion that we might consider returning to the ship very quickly.” Ch’od said, looking about anxiously.

The two space pirates then heard the muffled sound of an explosion. They glanced at each other, then grabbing as much salvage as they could carry raced for the airlock.

The bridge door slid open and Corsair and Hepzibah dove through.

“What the hell are you doing, Harr?!” He shouted, taking in the disarray and his newest crewmate racing from one station to another. “We can’t take off!”

“I didn’t do it!” The young Kree replied, frantically. “ There was a power surge on the station and the next thing I knew the Jammer’s systems went into automatic. The power surge must have tripped some automated system…!”

“The ‘Jammer doesn’t have any automated systems!” Corsair interrupted, settling quickly into his chair. “The AI was fried!”

“What, happening on the station is, that the ship would kick into emergency flight mode?” Hepzibah asked, leaping to her station and tapping away quickly at the console keys.

“That’s…actually a good question,” Corsair muttered. “We need to figure…Dast! Thrusters just kicked in! Who…?”

“Still tethered to the station, we are!” Hepzibah shouted. “We’re going to swing back into the station if we don’t disconnect!”

“We can’t disconnect until Raza and Ch’od are back on board!” Corsair shouted back. “Shut the thrusters down!”

“I’m trying!” Harr-tenn. Replied, his fingers racing across the console. “ Systems are still fluctuating! I don’t even know where Raza and Ch’od are!”

“Right, he is!” Hepzibah nodded, leaping from her weapons station to Ch’od’s. “Scanners, fluctuating is.”

“Great, just great,” Corsair muttered, standing up. “ Here’s how it goes: I’m going to unhitch the tether manually and make sure we have a functioning airlock for Raza and Ch’od, so they can get onboard. You two figure out what’s going on, before anything else goes wrong!”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the station exploded…

To be continued…