Fortune & Glory

Posted on Sun May 17th, 2020 @ 7:14pm by Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss

Mission: Fortune & Glory
Location: A Moon Called Fortune
Timeline: March 2517 - Seven months ago

He had the metal ammo box they’d been sent here for in his backpack, thumping around uncomfortably as they made their way back to the rendezvous point across uneven, rocky ground. Alden stopped, at the high point of a craggy orange formation and gulped a mouthful of water from his flask. She was ahead of him, the light footed little minx, her pathway seemingly gifted to her step by step, and she would definitely beat him to the landing site.

Drake was due in about an hour. They were on time and doing well. Mission accomplished. And yet, something bugged him. Something nagged at his conscience, stirred in his gut and yelled in that quiet little whisper that demanded to be heard.

Alden climbed higher, on all fours at one point to scale the sloping angle of uneven rock. And then he realised why he hadn’t been able to settle. A big dumb grin flooded his features as he tilted his head to the side and confirmed his suspicions.

“ALISON!” He yelled across the previously silent space. And as she turned he gestured for her to head back towards him, waited as she crossed the desolate ground and took up a position where she could cast her eyes in the same direction as his own. “Can you see it?”

Coloured with orange dust and wedged in between two opposing cliffs, almost impossible to see unless you viewed it from precisely the right angle, was what looked like… no, it definitely was… a ship. Between them and it was a rough pathway of rounded stone and challenging uneven ground.

“Race you to it!” Called Alden and he dropped his weight onto his fingertips, to slide perilously down the other side of his current lofty height.

Alison was thirsty. The walk in the blazing sun was such a great change from the cold space. Hot, wrapping like a blanket. She wanted just to lose all her clothes and dance. For the first hour. Then it became a little bit of nuisance. By now, she wanted to go back to the coolness of a ship on the orbit. Or on the station. Shouting Alden, trailing behind, interrupted her thoughts.

Alison was naturally agile, to the point she met only a handful of people as agile as her. That was her blessing, offsetting her naturally skinny build, which didn’t gift her much strength. But here, strength was not needed. So she was moving lightly on the trail through unwelcoming and almost inaccessible mountain range. This was the reason they were dropped off a few kilometers away from the point they were to collect the package. No ship could land here.

Prompted by Alden, Alison came down a few steps to look at what he was pointing to. To say she was dumbfounded was an understatement. He was pointing at the ship. Not just a ship. She recognized it as a Firefly-class transport. While covered in dust and missing few external panels, she was in surprisingly good condition. It was wedged between two walls, the engines in positions suggesting someone was trying to hover on the spot. She couldn’t be sure. Alden interrupted her thoughts again challenging her.

Alison laughed.

“I bet you. You get there faster, you can claim it, I do that, it’s mine!” She shouted. “I’ll give you five minute heads up!” She taunted him.

But obviously she didn’t. Alison sprinted forward, being already at the disadvantage of being farther away. The dust raised around her boots as her feet were finding footing on the quickly inclining terrain. At some point, instead of slowing down, she just leaped forward, grabbing on the wall and locking her boots in various footrests, like a spider. Now it was the climb. She glanced at Alden. He was just barely ahead of her. But she was nimbler. Moving up the wall, she caught up and then moved ahead, closing on the transport.

Few more meters, her hands finding unevenness to pull her body up, her feet locking in to give rest to move higher and higher. With her sheer agility, she went ahead of Alden, but realized he had easier access to the open cargo hold. For him it was a short jump off the wall, from her side, it was very difficult and a long one. She stopped, taking the best position for it. Alden was closing in. The jump she needed to take was very risky, but going on the safer route meant to be the second.

She jumped.

Flipping in the air, she aimed for the edge of the cargo ramp. But she missed. Only thanks to her reflexes, she was able to grab it with her hand and swung around. Spreading her legs, she eased her momentum and avoided slamming into the ramp but she could only watch Alden doing the easy jump to get on the ramp first. Reaching up with her other hand she gave herself a firm hold, but still was hanging in the air.

She was going to steal his prize! Alden wasted a breath cursing as he pushed his body forwards as swiftly as he could, his pace slowed not through lack of courage but by the terrain itself. He hadn’t wanted - or been given - the head start Allison had offered, though that mattered little at this point. He could still prevail, even if it would be a victory stolen via her own stubborn pride and potentially her untimely death.

Because, sure enough, Alison had to try that damn leap despite the fact that from his viewpoint, it looked suicidal.

Did he worry, or yell at her to wait? No, there was little point in such things. Alden pushed on, held his breath as she jumped, and hurled himself forward despite the secondhand fear for his companion. As his boots landed firmly on the extended cargo ramp, he caught her wayward motion in his peripheral vision and swore.

She hung from both hands, mostly stable then as he turned to offer his own to aid in her recovery and Alden couldn’t resist a thump of his heavy feet on metal in a brief, but merry little dance of jubilant celebration. Alison was safe - mostly - and he’d won. He’d WON!

“Captain Loxley would like to invite you aboard his shiny… well, dusty... old wreck of a boat,” Alden announced with great ceremony and obvious joy, as he knelt, reached out a long arm and grabbed Alison’s wrist in a firm warrior handshake. “Permission to come on board, granted,” he told her, big dumb grin on his tanned features as he pulled her up to stand beside him.

Then he wrinkled his nose as a waft of warm air from within the open cargo bay caught his attention. “Ta ma duh, she stinks though…”

Alison crawled on the ramp with Alden's help and remained on her knee for a moment catching breath. It was quite a strenuous climb. Even if she was extremely agile, the high climb had her lack of physical strength to come out. She wouldn't mind winning but she couldn't do that all time.

She wrinkled her nose as well as the smell reached her too.

"You are so generous, Captain Loxley." She said, stood up and inhaled deeper. "Dead bodies, old ones," she added and her hand moved closer to the pistol. She stopped listening briefly but there was just howling wind and Alden's breathing that she could hear. "You win some, you lose some." She murmured under her breath, put her hand on the pistol and moved inside.

The first thing she saw in the cargo hold were two dead bodies. Cast on their side, dried out into skeletons covered with clothes. The kind of clothes you could see back during the war or even earlier. From their positions, it was also hard to say if they died on the spot, or were moved.

Other than that, the spacious cargo hold was empty. Empty, dry and hot. With the life support offline, the sun turned the ship into an oven. Alison's hand eased up, resting along the side of her body. She already felt sweat forming on her temples and her back.

"Let's check the ship, room by room. Starting from the aft and the engine." She proposed.

Alden had followed Alison inside, his strides proud and defiant as he savoured his victory. A victory slightly tainted by the presence of the dead, admittedly, but it still counted. He let his companion cover them, while he knelt down beside the nearest corpse and checked for any sign of ID.

Nothing. No wallet, no papers, nothing to speak of who they had once been or where they had come from. He cursed under his breath and stood back up.

"Yeah," he agreed, sounding uncomfortable, but concerned. "Good plan."

Half an hour later they'd been through the entire ship and stood on the bridge looking out through dust at a slanting view of the rocky landscape. They'd found another two bodies, one in engineering and one sat at the table in the galley.

"So," said Alden, mixed emotions driving his tone and facial expression. He was no engineer, but Drake's could help them on that score. "We fire her up, check her transponder... And bury the bodies?"

Alison glanced at Alden.

"I'd say just throw them overboard. We don't know even who they were." She said as she moved on the slanted bridge floor, helping herself by holding onto various things around. She dropped in the pilot chair, which was accompanied by the slight puff of dust. "Let's see if she is still operational." She said more to herself.

Alden sighed. He wanted to get to know this ship, but his conscience refused to allow him to ignore the dead. Whoever they had been, whatever had happened here some years ago, that was long past. Whether they deserved Alison’s respect or not, didn’t remove his own sense of duty from the matter. “I’ll handle it,” he said, unwilling to compromise or argue, and he left the bridge.

Alison's fingers began switching and flipping various switches and buttons. At first glance, it looked like she was doing it at random, but in fact, she was quite deliberate with what she was switching on first. There was just enough juice in the batteries for one jolt, so she needed to make sure she would have everything ready, or they were not going to start on their own.

"The good news is... we have power. The bad news is, we have enough for one try to start the engine. Let's hope that there is still fuel in tanks, or this will not work at all..." She kept switching and flipping to pause briefly before she tapped the starter button.

“Excellent!” Called Alden from down the hall as he dragged the bodies towards the cargo bay. Then, quietly, he spoke to the ship in a soft, encouraging voice. “Hear me, sweetheart, have some juice left. Start up clean, pretty please, Mei Mei.”

While Allison went through the take-off sequences and checks, Alden busied himself gathering the four dried out corpses, rolled them up and rested them within a large tarpaulin. He secured this whole set-up with cargo straps, hooked them off to the side and closed up the bay doors.

The drive core whined and for a longer moment seemed like unwilling to cooperate but then turned once and again, kicking off. With the power on, the lights on the ship lit up, the console came to life, the screen blinked and the ship’s status appeared. They had fuel. Enough to get on the orbit for sure. Alison checked the power lines and satisfied, engaged thrusters. With a rattle and smell of burning cables, followed by the horrible screech of metal against the rock the ship began to raise.

"Steady baby... steady." Alison murmured softly.

“Woa, woa!” Alden called as he slid from side to side climbing back up the metal steps towards the cockpit. “Hold on! You’re gonna hurt her!” The ship lurched, right, then left, then with a god-awful metallic sound that reeked of serious expenses to come, lifted upwards.

And then they were free. The screeching stopped, the ship danced in the air regaining the horizontal level.

"The good news is we have fuel, enough to get into orbit, maybe even to a nearby planet. The bad news, this foundling needs repairs. Badly." Alison looked at Alden.

Alden exhaled slowly and looked upwards for a moment. “But she’s ours,” he whispered, patting the back of the pilot’s chair and gifting Alison an enigmatic smile. “Pitstop,” he added. “Need to bury the nice people who died so we could have her.” He held up his hand, index finger raised to shush any protest. “Nope, don’t argue with me on this one. We’re doing what’s right.”

Alison shrugged. He saw this look in his eyes and knew Alden well enough not to argue with it.

He stared out past his friend at the landscape drifting by beneath them. “Over there looks good,” Alden decided. “Set us down, and call Drake. I’ll feel a lot safer breaking atmo if I know he’s out there to give us a tow.” He looked down, meeting Alison’s eyes then. “And don’t worry, I know I’m doing all the digging.”

"Of course you are." Alison confirmed and began descent slowing down to land. The screens were set to Chinese and there was currently no way of resetting it. Fortunately, she knew Chinese well enough.