Chapter 4: Pirates Attack

In space, distances between inhabited systems are huge. Travelling at hyper-drive can take weeks to get there. This was my first long trip. As it continued, the freighter seemed to get smaller. A fellow crewmate had explained to me it often happens on a first voyage.

Being aboard a vessel for an extended period in deep space is unlike living on a planet surface, where you can step out for a breath of fresh air. You must come to terms with the claustrophobia or it can drive you crazy. It’s possible to get anti-anxiety meds, but I found what I needed from breathing and meditation techniques.

Another new experience for me was Ori culture. It seemed normal for Ori to express feelings and to communicate about various subjects that Tians would never discuss. It took me some mental effort to open up with my crewmates. This was my special assignment. Fortunately, everyone was keen to help me. I think they saw me as a young orphan male - one who needed help to overcome shyness.

On Tian Prime, I’d grown up without a father figure in my life, and my mother had passed when I was young. It was Tian culture not to show emotion and keep thoughts to yourself. Although I wanted to distance myself from my Tian heritage, I found it hard to do. I would have struggled with anxiety over the closeness with my crewmates If I didn’t have the captain’s assignment on my mind.

When travelling in space, you need activities to keep you from going crazy, and from letting your mind and body atrophy. You get assigned duties to keep the freighter working, and then you have learning or fitness activities. I studied many of the various online training programs, and I spent time in the gym as well. I was keen to do well on my first voyage. For a while, I succeeded.

About 12 days since we left the Trading Post, I heard a loud alarm sound. After days of smooth running, and only the hum of the hyper-drive engines, this was quite disturbing! Soon after, I heard the captain over the communications system.

“All crew, we’re being pursued by multiple hostile vessels. They’ve picked the most remote area to come after us, there being no nearby inhabited systems. They aren’t responding to our hails, and it looks likely they intend to board us. This isn’t a training drill.”

Soon after, I felt the explosions from the aft direction. We were being fired upon. I was in the cargo hold, performing an inventory check. Each hit shook everything around me. So I moved into an open area so that nothing overhead would fall on me. Where can I go? Where would the safest place be?

I had no training or experience dealing with pirates. I figured it was pirates. It had to be. Who else would be out here attacking an unarmed freighter? Even if I’d completed training for pirate attacks, I don’t think the pirates would have watched them.