“I'm setting up the emergency airlock.”
“Sending instructions to your hud Captain Cofey.”
I immediately popped open the equipment compartment on my right side and pulled out the small little package that was the airlock. It appeared to be a pair of stringy circles, with a very thin plastic layer in between. I followed the instructions and pressed the string against the wall, to which it immediately straightened itself and adhered. Emboldened I pressed it all the way along the bulkhead until it formed a circle, barring the path back to the ship.
“Or it would, if there was anything in the middle. Hook, how do I make this thing seal.”
“It needs an electric charge, connect it to your suit.”
I found a little connector, two actually danging at either side of the emergency airlock, and connected it to the wrist mount on my suit.
Almost instantly the center of the airlock irised shut, a mostly see through, wafer thin layer plastic material practically oozing out of the emergency airlock.
“Okay... so I set up the paired one over here...” I said, as I set up the other emergency airlock on the opposite side of the noisy compartment.
“Okay, so now how do I get air in here.”
“Connect to your suit, and select 'pressurize compartment from suit stores.' be sure to maintain enough to get you back to the ship, but as long as you did not make the airlock too big you should be fine.”
I nodded, then went through the menu's in my hud till I found the control. Immediately I began to hear a hissing as my suit vented compressed gas into the makeshift airlock. There was a strange haze in the air.
“That's weird.”
“What is Captain Cofey?”
“It's almost like a mist is rising as I presssurize this compartment... I'm going to grab a sample.”
I pulled a small container from my side, unsure what it was originally for, but I ran it through the cloud of stuff and sealed it, before reattaching it.
My hud indicated the seal atmosphere was breathable, so I leaned towards the noisy compartment and opened my helmet. The smell that hit me was... intense, blood, offal, and... something chemical hit my senses.
“Can you hear me?”
I spoke, and I swore I heard... something, but it sounded like gibberish.
“Wait one, your translator is working to process... Looks like a form of portugeuse.'
“Is that common in the empire?”
“Common enough. Each Captain tends to pick a language they prefer and make their whole crew speak it.”
“Fair enough. How do I make my words come out portugeuse.” I said as I looked through my hud. Then the option popped up 'vocal-auto-translate->Portugeuse'
“Never mind, got it. Can you understand me?” I spoke the last words with the auto translator on.
“Yes yes!” A feminine voice echoed back.
“I've set up an airlock out here, can you get out?”
“I Jammed the door to keep those... things, out.”
“You were able to see them?”
“Only when they were covered in blood.”
I nodded to myself.
“Step back, I'm going to force the door.”
I indicated the hatch in my hud and several ways of opening it popped up, I selected one that involved a prybar and the plasma torch in my wrist. I pulled the prybar from my side, and extended the plasma torch from my left wrist, and went to work, putting steady pressure on the compartment as I cut through weak points along the outside. With a pop the hatch came free.
A sea of pink curly hair obscured my vision before I picked out the face in them. Big brown eyes stared back at me, on a cute face with a button nose. She quickly scrambled out of the compartment and flopped onto the deck, breathing deep.
Said breathing did all kinds of distracting things to her chest, which was a modest B-cup, but plenty distracting as it was, what little of her olive skin showed was enticing to say the least.
It had been way too long since I had gotten laid I thought as I tamped down my libido
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
The rest of her body was slim, obscured as it was by her bright red overalls.
She rolled over onto her back and her eyes finally locked on mine.
She scrambled back against the wall, her eyes going wide “COG! Are you the ones who attacked our ship? Some new kind of weapon?”
I backed away from her as she made herself small against the wall.
“No, no, I saw your ship getting torn apart though, and I was close enough that my maneuvering jets could get me into boarding range.”
“You saw us getting attacked?”
“Yeah, I guess we entered close enough time wise that my ship was close to yours in the void. Saw your ship get shredded.”
“You must have been close.”
“I think I've been right behind you for the last few jumps, saw a pirate base that still had residual heat from being destroyed, I figure that was you.”
“Our squadron yes...”
She paused and I decided to press in. “Look, this ship is done for, I doubt you'd survive transit, I have an emergency suit with me, come aboard my ship, get checked out at medical, and I'll get you out of here.” I held out my hand to help her up.
She nodded. “I suppose I'm not the first person to be ransomed back to the empire.” she took my hand and let me pull her upright. I thought-clicked a button in my hud that popped open another storage compartment in my backpack.
Out popped the compartment with a little folded up semicircular metal band, that seemed like it could expand out. I held it up.
“How does this work Hook?”
“Open the collar, have her step into the filament that deploys below, make sure her whole body is inside, then close the collar. A hood with facemask will deploy. Please note it only contains 15 minutes of oxygen.”
I folded out part of the thick metal band, and saw it formed a collar. There was some see through fabric that was now stretched across it, and when the collar opened it stayed out instead of going back into the collar. When I pushed on the deployed 'filament' It stretched.
“Got it, okay, I need you to step into this... thing.” I said as I opened the collar and spread the 'filament' to on the floor, holding it in place with my foot.
“Who were you talking to?”
“My ships AI, he was explaining how this thing works, I've never used it before.”
Her eyes went wide, but she stepped into the filament and let me snap the collar closed around her neck.
“An AI? We had heard that the COG were Guilty of Techno-Heresy, but I didn't think you had gone that far.”
“Not true AI, as Hook is so keen on reminding me, he has a lot of blocks and things he can't do, but is otherwise quite helpful. He is very vocal in stating that his existence in no way breaks any accords treaties or other legalese set up between the factions to restrict AI usage for the safety of mankind, etc etc. Seriously it get's old.”
“I am so sorry I bore you Captain Cofey.” Hook said, his voice sounding in my ear and echoing from the collar around the woman's throat.
I realized I hadn't asked her name.
“What is your name?”
“Carolina313.”
“313? Oh, right, you are a clone.”
“Of course I'm a clone aren't you... wait, you're COG... That means your natural born right?”
“uh... yeah...” I said... not knowing where to go with this.
“How long ago?”
“Uh... I was born june 3rd, 1991” I said without thinking.
She blinked.
“1991... it's 2521 now... HOLY SHIT YOU WERE BORN ON EARTH!” She shouted.
The wreck shuddered.
“Quiet... I don't think vibrations are what this wreck really needs right now. Also, now that I think of it, I don't know that sound doesn't carry in this void... we should be quiet till we get aboard my ship.” I said, making stuff up that sounded plausible, but might get her to calm down until we were safe.
She nodded to me and tapped her collar, apparently having more experience with this kind of thing than I did, and an opaque hood flipped up over her head, and a small clear plastic hemisphere covered her face.
I reached out to take her hand. “Let's go.”
I unzipped the airlock door and let the air out, and quickly made our way back to Hook.
