The Penelope Incident – 2

3

Heviya stared blankly at Nadines corpse and the pool of blood expanding beneath it. The kind woman had made her feel welcome aboard the Penelope right off the bat. She had never really understood why. At the start of their voyage to Asterion 14 months ago Heviya had been an unexperienced newcomer to space travel, constantly worried to do something wrong. She had been trained as a wireless operator during her compulsory service in the confederate army, but apart from that she only had an aborted hyperlane navigation studies to show for. If her uncle had not pulled some strings with someone he knew from HR at Elysium Interstellar she was certain that she would never have gotten the job.

And yet Nadine treated her as an equal from the first day after they had left the orbit around Earth. She had always taken the time to answer any of Heviyas numerous and probably stupid questions. When she had made mistakes Nadine had calmly pointed them out to the young operator and helped her out with hints until Heviya had corrected them herself. Over the weeks they realized that despite their difference in age they liked the same music and also shared an interest in early 22nd century sci-fi movies. Especially the early works of Amy Emmerich that dealt with a first contact between humans and aliens long before Savko Guerlaine invented his DM-Sails and humanity had actually met other civilisations among the stars.

Over the time they had become friends. And now her friend was dead. Tears were streaming down the young womans cheeks and clouded her vision.

If only she had listened to her fathers advice to bite through her studies. Or to her mother who was totally against any of Heviyas plans about pursuing a career in space and away from the Solar System. She was still bemoaning the decisions which brought her here when a series of barked commands from the metal faced woman who had shot Nadine brought her back to the here and now.

“Break is over pendejos, time to move over to your new pen. You, you, you,” she pointed her rifle at Aleksey, Captain Lestrange and Heviya, “get up you will go first.” One of her gang members cut the restraints on the captives legs and ankles and they were hurried over to the airlock which connected the Penelope with the Helldriver. Heviya tried to get her jacket back over her shoulders to cover herself but she didn’t manage to do so while her Hands were still bound behind her back. Aleksey was the first to make the transfer, directly followed by his pirate watchdog.

“Move it girl” she heard the command of the guard behind her and felt his gun poking into her bare back. She steadied herself and looked through the connecting tube of the airlock. The open hatch of the pirate ship was about 6 meters away. She bend her knees took aim and jumped, leaving the influence of Penelopes Gravwire.

Heviya was not used to Zero-G. In one moment she jumped upright into the tunnel and in the next she felt like falling head first down a shaft. Her paddling legs let her do an uncontrolled turn and she yelled as her falling Body passed the invisible barrier of the other ships gravitational field and landed clumsily on her butt. Her guard chuckled as he evaded her with ease and landed deftly on his feet.

This entry was greeted with resounding laughter. “There, there I think we got ourselves a ground hugger here.” The voice belonged to an obnoxious, adipose man with a greasy beard whose whole body seemed to be covered with tatoos. Another yell escaped her throat as the hideous pirate grabbed her hair, jerked her to a crawling position and directed her away from the airlock to make room for the other incoming captives and their escorts.