A bluish-white beam grabbed Jenz from his struggling. It lifted him off the ground as he struggled and screamed, “Put me down! Put me down you fucking cunt!” He was struggling in vain. The tractor beam wasn’t going to let go, and I wasn’t feeling particularly merciful.
I walked over to the hatch to his ship, checked my readouts to make sure my suit was sealed, and then hit the switch to open the hatch. He screamed in response, “No! No! FUCK!” I guided his struggling body out through the retention field, and out into open space.
He began to struggle for a moment. His eyes began to crystalize first. They were exposed and wet, after all. His struggle began to get a bit more violent as he realized he was dying. No breathing in the vacuum of space. I watched every last little twitch. Finally, when I was satisfied, I dragged him back through the retention field.
I took a moment to look at his pitiful form. His skin had begun to crystalize. His eyes were more ice than they were tissue. He was bloated and pale. Splotchy, where his blood had frozen in place after boiling. I would’ve spat on his corpse, if I hadn’t already put my helmet on.
I made my way to his controls, and sat down in his seat. It was similar to my 325A. Enough so, that figuring out where things were wasn’t hard. He’d only taken us about a Gigameter or two from the station. Far enough to be out of Armistice, and communications range, but close enough to drop me back off when he was done with me. Fucking dickwad.
I had to work fast from this point. I hit the quantum drive and circled the nose back to the station. The trip back was about as short as the trip here. I didn’t bother hailing the station. Instead, I put the ship into low emissions mode. I turned off everything except the engines. Only had the smallest iota of power in that, too. I even turned off Life Support. Not like he was going to need it. The station might not even pick me up at the moment. The plus side to these tiny little fighters.
I flew the 300i to the pad that I’d last seen the Corsair on. To my luck, it was still there. The lithe little fighter set down quite gently on the pad. I made my way out of the seat and through the hatch to the pad outside. I was able to land really, really close. This was going to make this easier. This was step one. Step two involved leaving him in his ship, and going to get my prize.
I walked toward the Corsair. I didn’t want to use a gun to open the door, so from my pack, I pulled a Tiger’s Claw. It was a hacking device, used to override security on electronics. I slotted it into the cargo door release, and then waited a moment for the Claw to work. I then hit the release switch for the cargo ramp. It dropped down obediently.
I walked around the ramp, looking up at the cargo bay. My feet touching the plating of the ramp was a comfort. There were boxes piled as high as I could see in the cargo bay. The Claw should’ve taken over the security system for me. This was going as planned, so far. No sign of the owner. I headed past the cargo, keeping the tractor beam on me. I couldn’t use a gun this close to the station without attracting attention. This thing? Much better idea.
I reached the door to the component deck. In the Corsair it was between the Hab and cargo decks. I looked to the left, and smirked. There, sitting in their receptacles, were two Sakura Sun Lotus Power Supplies. I made my way past them, toward the Hab deck.
The door opened without any fuss. I stepped through, wielding the tractor beam like a lifeline. Nothing. The Corsair was empty. I checked each room, becoming more and more nervous. The owner could be back at any time. Should probably hurry.
I sped my way to the cockpit, it was the very next doorway. That door also opened without incident. I stepped into the cockpit of the Corsair. No one here. Fuck, yes. I dashed toward the pilot seat, I reached toward the familiar switch on the dash. The one I’d been messing with for the past three weeks while Rhys yelled at me to ‘try it again’. I heard the ship’s component ports unlock. Jackpot.
I all but leapt out of the cockpit, back through the open door to the Hab units. The other doors had stayed open. I still had the tractor beam in my hand. It was going to be useful for this next part, anyway.
When I reached the power supplies, I tractored the top one. It slid from its station without any effort at all. I began to back my way up towards the cargo bay. I got about half way through the door, when I realized that the boxes were going to make getting it out in this direction impossible.
I looked around, searching for options. It would take too long to move all of the boxes out of the way. It would also attract attention. It would make a huge mess. Oh yeah! The docking port! I could probably get it out through there. It had the added benefit of covering my escape from prying eyes. I moved past the door to the cargo bay, heading to another door to the right of it.
I bumped the switch to open the door with the ridge of my palm. It took three weeks to get this opportunity, I wasn’t about to pass that up. The weapons racks were empty. It was an observation I made as I entered the tiny armory. Though, the suit lockers weren’t. They had some really nice expedition suits. One Pembroke, One Novikov with custom red paint, and that was it. The last one was indeed empty. I shrugged, and headed to the docking collar door. I didn’t have time to gawk.
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