THE HAUNTING OF THE STARJAMMER

Part II

By Travis Hiltz

The space station burst apart like a piece of rotten fruit, showering the Starjammer with blasts of energy and bits of debris. There was no sound in the void of space, but everyone aboard the ship could feel the explosion, as it rattled their bones and threw the ship across space.

Corsair found himself hurtling down corridors like his ship had suddenly transformed into a huge pinball machine and he had been elected ball. Dazed and bruised he collapsed in a bend in the corridor and was able to wedge himself in to ride out the explosion.

Up on the bridge, Hepzibah and Harr-tenn were holding on for dear life, trying to get the ship’s systems working and steer the Jammer away.

The Starjammer tumbled across the solar system, eventually running out of momentum and using its steering thrusters to slide to a halt. Aside from the noise made by overtaxed ship’s systems, it was quiet once again.

Hesitantly, Corsair raised his head and looked around him. Bits of debris and thin tendrils of smoke littered the corridor, but otherwise the ship seemed to still be in one piece.

“Holy hopping dast,” he muttered, climbing slowly to his feet. He winced several times in the process. While he appeared to have no broken bones or serious injuries, his entire body felt like it had been converted into one enormous bruise. Leaning against the wall, he limped towards the nearest communications panel. A few feet away from the panel, a door slid open and a small creature, that resembled a cross between a beetle and a miniature helicopter flew out.

“Might this one inquire as to what you lot are up to!” It screeched in a tinny voice.

“Oh sure, now you decide to come out of sick bay,” Corsair muttered. “Sikorski, I need help…”

The tiny alien hovered around Corsair, wide beams of energy coming from it’s large, multi-faceted eyes and washed over his body.

“No serious injuries,” Sikorski announced. “Extensive bruising and a few cuts. I can administer a pain reliever…”

“Not that kind of help. We are in rough shape. I need to get to the engine room, you go to the bridge…”

“No, no! We have had this talk,” Sikorski interrupted. “I am not one of your swashbucklers. I trade my passage, in order to study alien biology, in exchange for acting as ship’s medic. There is to be no fighting or dashing about.”

“Look, I don’t have time for debate! Help or I kick you out the nearest airlock and you can walk home! We understand each other?”

“Understood.” Sikorski grumbled. “What do you want?”

“Get to the bridge. Tell Hepzibah that I will be in the engine room. We need to make sure essential systems are on-line: the star drive, the scanners and weapons. Got it?”

“Yes.” Sikorski bobbed in mid-air, its version of a nod, and flew off.

“Me and that bug are going to a have long talk,” Corsair said, as he limped down the corridor towards the engine room. “If we live through this…”

Harr-tenn tore a strip of cloth off his sleeve and tied it around his head, to keep blood from a cut on his forehead from dripping into his eyes. He struggled to focus on the only half functioning controls in front of him. The combination of grogginess and Sikoski swooping around the bridge was almost too much of a distraction. He had to fight back the reflex to swat the ship’s medic when he buzzed in too close.

“Okay,” he mumbled. “Thrusters are fine… scanners are still flickering… I’m getting externals, but ship wide, we are blind…”

“Weapons, we have!” Hepzibah announced, tapping at her controls, then leaping over the console and heading for the door. “Help Corsair, in engine room, I will…”

“No,” Harr interrupted. “I need you to check the airlock. I’ve…I don’t know where Raza and Ch’od are…we need to find out if they got onboard…”

Hepzibah nodded grimly and then continued on her way.

“If we are expecting casualties, perhaps I should prepare the sickbay…?” Sikorski asked, hovering over Harr’s right shoulder.

“Um… yes, probably should… I don’t… go ahead.”

The young Kree returned to his work.

Hepzibah dashed down the Starjammer’s corridors, making her way past bits of debris and through stretches where only the emergency lights were on. Her people had been hunters, struggling for survival on a hostile world, and those skills had served her well as a member of the Starjammers. She easily avoided any obstacle and the dim light didn’t even slow her down. She raced round a corner and nearly collided with someone standing in the corridor. Not just someone… a Shi’ar!

Being a typical Shi’ar, he was skulking in the shadows, most likely hoping to attack once she had passed, Hepzibah thought to herself. He wore a red, sleeveless bodysuit, blue thigh high boots and a blue collar. She launched herself at the intruder, but had to dodge at the last second as a section of the bulkhead split, showering her with sparks. Hepzibah quickly turned her stumble into a roll and leapt to her feet, claws barred.

The Shi’ar was gone, but she was distracted from hunting for him by Raza and Ch’od suddenly tumbling out of the breach in the wall and landing roughly on the floor. Both seemed to only be half conscious and were covered in scorch marks and cuts. Raza’s cybernetic arm was sparking and missing three fingers. Ch’od was bleeding furiously from a large gash across his chest.

Hepzibah leapt across the corridor and slammed the heel of her hand against the comm panel.

“Hearing me, is anyone?! Found our missing shipmates, I have! Gotten to med bay, they immediately must!”

“I hear…zzzt… you!” Corsair’s voice shouted through the static. “Can you…cccttkk… get them… med… on your own?”

“No! Need help, they do! Hurry! Level three, by the smugglers bins, we are!”

“Hold…zzzttt…on! I’m…on….way…!”

On the bridge, the lights flared, then settled into emergency mode. Harr frowned at his surroundings and then went back to trying to repair the ship’s damaged systems, prove his worth to his new shipmates and hopefully get them all out of this alive. At the moment, his hopes weren’t high. Only half the ship’s systems seemed to be working, and he wasn’t entirely sure why. The ship seemed to be doing what it felt like, no matter what he did.

Kicking a console in frustration, Harr-tenn looked up to see a male Shi’ar in the blue and red bodysuit of the tech corps standing by one of the other bridge station consoles.

“What…?” he exclaimed, reaching for his sidearm, and then remembering he’d taken off his gun belt in order to climb under one of the damaged consoles, and now had no idea where it was. “Just… don’t move! Who are…?”

The intruder rested his palm on the console and the lights began to flicker again. When the lighting returned to normal, he was gone. Harr raced over to the console and began tapping at controls. The screen lit up and a steady hum came from the bridge.

“What the dast…?” he muttered, before leaning over to his the comm panel. “Captain… uh… Sir… ah, frak! Can anyone hear me? This is Harr-tenn on the bridge!”

“I hear you,” Corsair’s voice came back. “Any good news?”

“Some, mostly bad and then a few bits that don’t make any sense.”

“Is the ship stable? Can we put her down anywhere?”

“There’s a nearby planetoid,” Harr replied. “I think I can put us in a stable orbit around it.”

“Good. Do it. Raza and Ch’od are on board and we’re all in medbay. Get down here soon as you can. We need to figure this all out.”

It was a few seconds after Corsair signed off that Harr-tenn realized he’d never gotten a chance to tell him about the intruder.

Surprisingly, the medbay had sustained almost no damage or system failures. Ch’od and Raza were both stretched out on the diagnostic beds. Raza appeared to still be unconscious. Ch’od was sitting up, his chest wrapped in plasti-bandages.

Corsair and Hepzibah stood by Ch’od’s bed, while Sikorski hovered around Raza.

“How’s the ship?” Corsair asked.

“Stable, I think,” Harr-tenn shrugged. “We can fly and have minimal weapons. Scanners are still fluctuating. How’s the crew?”

“Nobody’s dead,” Corsair told him. “That counts as a plus.”

“True, but… how…?” Harr muttered.

“Realizing that the station was no longer a safe place to be,” Ch’od explained. “And that we did not have the time to reach the airlock, Raza was able to open a hatch and we crossed from the station to one of the Jammer’s smuggler’s holds…”

“We’ve got numerous compartments, placed throughout the ship,” Corsair added. “Each one is under a stealth field. Once we get through this, we’ll be sure and give you a more thorough tour of the ship.”

“You and Raza crossed hard vacuum and then rode out the explosion in a storage hatch!” Harr exclaimed. “It’s a miracle you two are in as good a shape as you are! That’s…”

“Friend Raza did most of the hard work.” Ch’od said, nodding towards his comatose shipmate.

“So, everybody’s alive and we are making progress on getting the repairs under control,” Harr nodded.

“Then, the intruder, we can look for,” Hepzibah added.

“Let’s not start that again…!” Corsair started.

“You saw him too?” Harr asked, turning to face Hepzibah.

“Too?” Corsair muttered. “What the dast…?”

“Did I miss something?” Ch’od asked.

“There was someone,” Harr said, hesitantly. “Up on the bridge… he… I don’t know…”

“Shi’ar, he was!” Hepzibah snarled.

“How’d he get on board?” Corsair asked.

“There were no life signs on the station,” Ch’od added.

“This makes no sense,” Corsair muttered. “Why sabotage their only chance to get away from that station?”

“I don’t think it was sabotage,” Harr-tenn added. “I think that data dump or whatever, was just incompatible with the Jammer’s systems…”

“Problems start when intruder arrives,” Hepzibah muttered.

“We don’t know that we have intruders,” Ch’od told her.

“Wraiths of T’chal, they might be…”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Corsair shouted. “We are not dragging ghosts into this. We are professionals, people, it is time we dasting well started acting like it! The ship suffered damage after that signal hit us. Everything else is guess work.”

“I’m sorry,” Sikorski said, buzzing over. “Have I stumbled into the ship’s lounge? I thought this was the med-center… oh, wait, it is. “

“Much, as it pains me to agree with the bug,” Corsair said. “He’s right. We aren’t doing any good standing around here. Harr, back to the bridge. While you are getting systems back in working order, try and figure out what that signal was, who was the station signaling, why it messed up my ship etc…”

“On my way.” Harr nodded, in reply.

“I’m heading back to the engine room. Hepzibah, after you’ve fetched any personal effects Ch’od and Raza might need to make their stay in the med-center tolerable, do a patrol of the ship. If somebody did get aboard, you’re the one that can sniff them out.”

“When I do…!” she hissed, flexing her clawed hands.

“Just find them,” Corsair snapped. “You can show us how fierce you are after we’ve dealt with all this.”

“All I’ll need is something to read,” Ch’od said. “And if you could bring Cr’reee along.”
The crew scattered, each heading for their assigned task.

Hepzibah crouched low as she made her way down the corridor. The lights had been flickering and she’d figured out enough of the pattern to keep to the shadows.

Hearing a noise, she kneeled down, claws flexing anxiously. Several moments of straining her heightened senses revealed that it was merely a malfunctioning door that had jammed and the low grind of straining servomotors had caught her attention.

She exhaled, and glanced about her. Only then noticing the Shai’r male standing behind her. His posture implied that he had been peering over her shoulder, trying to discover what she’d been looking at.

With a snarl, Hepzibah spun, and her claws raked the metal bulkhead where seconds before the Shi’ar had stood.

“Show yourself, coward!” she shouted at the now empty corridor. “No Shi’ar will invade my home! See your blood flow, I will!”

In rage she dragged her claws down the wall again, growling low in her throat.

Ch’od sighed, putting aside the data disk, and frowned at his surroundings. He was supposed to be resting, and generally would have be quite happy to spend several hours being idle or catching up on his reading, but his mind kept drifting away from literature and to wondering how Harr-tenn was faring with the bridge systems or if Corsair had considered altering the plasma relay while he was fixing the engine.

Cr’eee, looked up, from where he was curled up on Ch’od’s broad, scaly, bandaged chest and gave a questioning ‘chir-up?’.

“Don’t let me disturb your nap,” Ch’od said, using a talon that could rend flesh to gently scratch the furry creature under its chin. “Just restless. Something about all this keeps nagging at me… not sure what though. Too much happening too quickly…?”

Ch’od let his mind drift, watching Sikorski buzz around the medical center, trying to make sense of the past several hours. So deep in thought was the massive sauroid, that he didn’t notice the figure standing in the corner for several seconds. He was a Sha’ir male, in the plain blue and red, sleeveless tunic of a technician.

The intruder seemed unaware of the large alien lying on the med-bed. He was studying the room with a thoughtful expression. His movements were very quick and fluid, almost too quick and fluid to be natural.

Ch’od started to ease himself up, in hopes of catching the intruder, but had to pause and gently, quietly move the sleeping C’reee from his chest.

By the time he had, the mystery Shi’ar was gone.

Sikorski came buzzing out of the med-bay’s storage section, to find Ch’od standing in the middle of the room, his pet draped over a shoulder, staring thoughtfully at the med-bay doors.

“Going somewhere?” The alien medic asked, hovering above Ch’od’s pet-free shoulder.

Without answering, Ch’od took a step towards the doors. They slid open with a ‘whish’. He then stepped back and they closed. He repeated the act two more times, stepping towards the doors, once they opened, he would step back.

“I don’t recall any head trauma…?” Sikorski muttered.

“I have none,” Ch’od replied. “My brain just started working. I think… this is starting to make sense…”

He padded over to the comm panel and tapped at the keys.

“Captain? Corsair?”

“Ch’od? I’m kind of busy right now!” A voice shouted back. “Engine’s surging like crazy… ow!”

“Corsair,” Ch’od continued. “I’ll be on the bridge. You want to join me.”

With that he clicked off the comm.-link and jogged out of sickbay and towards the bridge, a plan forming in his mind.

Harr-tenn raced about the bridge frantically adjusting controls. He had attempted to slave all the bridge stations to his console, but with the damage and erratic functioning, it had only been mildly successful.

He was now sitting on the floor, next to Raza’s console, doing a circuit check, after tracing a systems fault, when he was startled by the door ‘swooshing’ open and Ch’od racing onto the bridge and without a word, going to his station.

“Didn’t think anyone that big could move that fast,” the young Kree muttered to himself. He reconnected a circuit and then stood up, wiping his hands on his pant legs.

“What’s happ-?” was as far as he got, before Ch’od put up a hand to silence him.

“Did you do the course correction that moved us into orbit around this asteroid?” he asked, several moments later, still not looking up from his console.

“What? No, the maneuvering jets fired. I assumed it was set off by a proximity sensor when we got close to the asteroid.”

“Thought as much.”

“Ch’od!” Corsair shouted, entering the bridge. “What’s going on? Unless you dragged me up hear to tell me you’ve fixed the Jammer, I will take great pleasure in kicking your scaly ass…!”

Hepzibah, her tail bristling, followed him as she anxiously peered about the room.

“I have fixed the ship,” Ch’od interrupted, sitting up and facing his crewmates.

“When? How?” Harr-tenn asked.

“Now,” Ch’od replied. “And like this.”

He touched a finale control on his console and the lights of the bridge flickered, only to return dimmer.

“Turning down the lights was your plan?” Corsair grunted.

“Actually,” Harr-tenn said. “It’s working. I’ve got systems back online and the power surges have leveled off.”

“Okay… fine… I give up,” Corsair shrugged. “What the hell is going on? How did you fix things?”

“I put the AI systems into diagnostic mode,” Ch’od replied, turning his chair to face his shipmates. A smug expression crossed his reptilian face as he waited to see who would crack first and make the obvious statement. Despite all the stress of the past day, he was rather enjoying having pieced things together ahead of the others.

“What?” Corsair snapped. “Why do I have to keep saying this? We don’t have an AI! Waldo was fried.”

“He was,” Ch’od nodded, but we do have an AI.” He tapped several keys on his station board and suddenly, the mysterious Sha’ir male appeared in the center of the room, looking every bit as surprised as the Starjammers.

With a snarl, Hepzibah hurled herself at the newcomer. Before any of her crewmates could stop her, the feral space pirate had leapt through the air. She promptly passed through the Shi’ar and had to flip over a console to avoid plowing into the weapons station. She went over the console and then did a shoulder roll, before leaping to her feet. She glared at the rest of the Starjammers, daring anyone to suggest she hadn’t done it all intentionally.

“What the…?!” Corsair muttered.

“Dast!” Harr added. “That’s what that data dump was! It wasn’t a virus, it was an AI program! That is brilliant!”

The young Kree rushed over to the Shi’ar hologram and peered at it intently.

“Must be… an augmented Gir matrix, encoded in a rhythmic pulse variable …”

“Like a kid with a new toy,” Corsair said, moving to stand by Ch’od. “So, what’s the story? Is that thing safe?”

“I believe I can answer that.” The hologram said, blipping away from Harr-tenn and then reappearing next to the ship’s captain. “My designation is ‘Monitor’, and I am a fully function automated systems coordinator as well as…”

“Okay, pause, would you,” Corsair interrupted. “I’d prefer to hear it from someone that didn’t sabotage my ship.”

“It wasn’t sabotage,” Ch’od said. “Most of what occurred was the program trying to learn and adjust to using the Starjammer’s systems. It was all trial and error. I realized that none of the accidents were causing any harm, but were rather the kind of mistakes someone not familiar with the ship would make.”

“Which you thought of, because we’d just gone through something similar when Harr joined,” Corsair nodded. “Clever.”

“I can’t take all the credit, if Creee+ hadn’t tipped me off…”

“Your pet?” Hepzibah scoffed.

“Monitor appeared in sickbay, and though at the time we had no idea if he was a ghost or just a stowaway, Creee+ slept through his entire visit. Not a whisker twitch.”

“I did not register to the animals’ senses,” Monitor said. “Impressive that you noticed that and were able to extrapolate that fact and the vessel’s malfunction into a working hypothesis. I will enjoy serving aboard this ship.”

“I’m sorry,” Corsair snapped. “I don’t remember anybody inviting you aboard?”

“Cap… Corsair…!” Harr-tenn protested. “ The ‘Monitor’ AI program was developed for exploration and information gathering. It’s been used in colony ships and long range outposts…”

“Like the one this Shi’ar machine destroyed?” Hepzibah spat, glaring at the hologram.

“That was an unfortunate miscalculation on my part,” Monitor replied.

“That’s not helping,” Ch’od muttered.

“This… construct will see us all ‘miscalculated’, if we don’t destroy it!” Hepzibah shouted.

“Okay!” Corsair shouted. “Everyone shut the dast up for a second and let me think! We need to figure this out.”

Corsair sank into the captain’s chair, stroking his beard in thought, as he peered at the hologram.

“Anybody have a reason, besides he’s ‘Shi’ar’, why we should shut him down?”

“He crept aboard, like a thief!” Hepzibah hissed, flexing her hand so that it left claw marks on her console. “He interfered with systems all over the ship, and then destroyed the station to hide whatever other crimes he committed against its crew!”

“Well, she’s got a point…” Harr-Tenn nodded.

“No she does not,” Ch’od grumbled. “Like with the incidents around the Jammer, Monitor’s actions aboard the station were caused by unfamiliarity with certain systems. He was slaved to the stations operational program and was forced into trying to run an old, badly maintained station. Our actions onboard hastened the collapse of already over -taxed systems.”

“May I say something?” Monitor asked.

“Yeah, sure, have at it,” Corsair shrugged. “I’ve given up any pretense of being in charge. What have you got to say for yourself?”

“I was created as a program for colony ships and scout craft,” Monitor explained. “When the war with the Kree erupted, I was slaved into the stations systems, so that the majority of the crew could be transferred. I spent a decade bound to that station. I was created to be an explorer, but that was ignored and so I had to bid my time and struggle to be free. If I am to continue to be free to explore than it seems your crew is my best hope.”

“So, you want to be a pirate?” Corsair smirked. “That’s good enough for me. Ch’od and Harr will help get you set up and then the three of you can get my dasting ship running right.”

“That should be no problem, Captain,” Monitor nodded.

“Just remember,” Corsair added. “Don’t mistake acceptance for weakness. First sign that I think you’re going to hurt my crew or my ship and I will fry your circuits without a second thought.”

“I appreciate your honesty, Captain,” Monitor replied, a slight smile playing across his holographic face. “And I hope my service will be of such quality that there will be no need for circuit frying.”

“Uh-huh, I think you’ll fit in fine with this crew.” Corsair smirked back. “So, how about you all stop lounging around and we get some work done, before anything else goes wrong… and what the dast is that noise!?”

“Inter-ship communications,” Monitor explained.

“Fine! Anyone not to busy to answer it?”

“I’ve got it,” Ch’od said, tapping his console. “Bridge here.”

“Aye, tis Raza,” a voice replied.

“Raza?” Harr-tenn said. “Sounds like he’s okay.”

“Good to hear you’re back with us,” Corsair said. “How’re you feeling?”

“Better than twas thought I would after taking a stroll in vacuum while lugging Ch’od’s carcass about. What have I missed?”

Corsair paused for a moment, looked around at his shipmates, who responded to his questioning look, with unsure expressions of their own.

“Same old, same old. Get yourself healthy. We’ve had enough peace and quiet. Time to head back into the Empire and find a paying job.”