Chapter 21: Distress Call

As usual, we all rushed to the main bridge. The hyper drive went offline and Ship decelerated to sub-light speed as we approached the freighter from behind.

“What do we have Ship?” asked Jem.

“Sensors detect a freighter coming up ahead. Their hyper drive is offline,” replied Ship.

“This is a long way out between systems,” I said. Jem nodded.

“Hail them,” ordered Jem.

“Confirmed ... Connected, audio link only,” replied Ship.

“Unknown freighter, this is the Baglogi Star Cruiser. What is the nature of your distress?” said Jem.

“Baglogi Star Cruiser, this is the freighter Crayus. Our main power is failing. Request immediate assistance,” replied the freighter.

“Understood. We are coming up on your aft. Stand by,” said Jem.

“Acknowledged,” said the freighter. Jem pressed a button to mute the communications.

“Options?” she asked, mostly looking at me.

“Ship, deploy defensive probes. Scan the freighter. Scan all around for hostile vessels,” I said.

“Confirmed. Defensive probes deployed. Markings and design are consistent with the Asan. Scan of surrounding area detects no sign of other vessels,” replied Ship.

“I recommend we not tell them who is aboard our vessel,” I said.

“Agreed. We won’t invite them aboard unless there is no choice,” said Jem.

“Ship, did they respond to our hail in Ori, or did you translate it?” I asked.

“Their response was in Ori,” replied Ship. That was interesting.

“I wonder what are the chances that an Asan freighter would be capable of speaking Ori?” I asked no one in particular.

“Ship, please put up a chart with both the Asan and Ori Confederation on it. What is the distance between?” asked Jem.

The tactical display showed a chart with the relevant systems highlighted, and they looked a long way from each other. “Distance between is over thirty days at hyper drive,” said Ship.

“Koluna, do you know of any connection between the Ori and the Asan?” asked Jem.

“No captain. I have not heard of them before,” replied Koluna.

“So captain, you plan to extend a power cable and provide power for their life support?” I asked Jem.

“Yes, it seems the right thing to do. They are not a threat to us, and we need to do something or they’ll die soon,” said Jem.

“If this is a trap, that would be exactly what they would expect us to do. I just don’t know what their next move might be,” I said.

“Commander?” asked Laine.

“Yes Laine?” I said.

“You exploited the data ports on an enemy vessel to take it over. Is there any weakness on a power coupling that an enemy could use against us?” Laine asked.

“That’s a good question. Ship, what could they do to us via the power coupling?” I said.

“An extreme discharge from a muon feedback loop could theoretically cause fatal damage to this vessel,” replied Ship. That sounded nasty!

“What can we do?” asked Jem.

I smiled at Jem. “Ship, do you have a redshirt probe ready to deploy? Can you equip it with a retractable power cable, the like of which we would normally use to connect to the freighter?”

“Confirmed ... Fabrication of power cable is complete. Probe is ready to deploy as configured,” said Ship.

“Ship perform a redshirt maneuver. Deploy probe ahead and have it connect to the freighter. I’d like us cloaked a safe distance behind. Relay all communications through the redshirt probe,” I ordered.

“Confirmed. Probe is deployed. We are now cloaked,” said Ship. On the tactical display we could see a visual of what looked like our vessel approaching the freighter. It was surreal.

“Captain, to continue the pretence, please tell them we will hook up a power cable so they can maintain their life support,” I said. Jem nodded and unmuted the communications channel.

“Attention freighter Crayus. We will come alongside and connect a power cable to give you power so you can maintain your life support and essential systems,” said Jem.

“Acknowledged and thank you!” came the reply.

Jem turned in my direction, “Just what is this redshirt probe?”

“It is like the dreadnought probes we have used. It pretends to be our vessel, while we remain cloaked. I was inspired by the redshirt devices, and I thought we could create something similar for Ship. Now if the freighter does some nasty feedback loop thingy, they will not damage Ship. Our chance of survival is improved,” I said. I waited, expecting her to blow up about not telling her about it.

Then suddenly she reached over and hugged me! I was shocked.

“Thank you Brian. You keep amazing me with these creations of yours. If this is a trap, we will all owe you a life-debt, including Ship,” said Jem.

“I should not collect life-debts for doing my job. Besides, I am amazed these sorts of things had never been done before,” I said. Jem gave me a final squeeze and let go.

“Ship, I assume you will handle connecting the power cable and providing power to the freighter?” asked Jem.

“Confirmed.” replied Ship.

We sat watching the tactical display. Our probe was slowing down to match speed alongside the freighter ahead of us. With any luck, the crew of the freighter wouldn’t realize what was going on.

“Attention commander, a call from her royal highness,” said Ship. Jem looked at me and nodded.

“Ship, please patch her through,” I said.

“Commander, we understand this vessel has stopped. What is the meaning of this?” said the princess angrily.

“Yes, your royal highness. We are answering a distress call from a crippled freighter. We only just got here in time to save them,” I replied. I drew on my Tian upbringing to keep my emotions to myself.

“This is not acceptable! You are delaying our progress and putting our royal person at risk. We command you to resume course immediately,” she said. Everyone in the main bridge heard this and looked shocked.

“Your royal highness. It is interstellar law that our vessel must provide aid to vessels in distress. It is also part of our mission and our nature to rescue those who need it. We rescued your royal person, and we will rescue the crew of the freighter. Your concerns are noted. I will make all effort to complete a prompt rescue while keeping your royal person safe. I will update you when we resume our course for Dentra. Out,” I said as calmly as I could. Ship closed the call for me.

I looked at Koluna and Laine, “And you wanted to spend time with the princess?” I sighed. Koluna looked sad for me.

“You handled that well Brian,” said Jem.

“Thank you captain. Ship, I suggest you take steps to keep her from wandering around or calling us,” I said.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

I looked at the tactical display. The probe was in position and was extending the power cable. It was a slow process, but eventually the connection was made.

“Attention, the probe is now supplying power to the freighter,” said Ship.

Jem pressed a button to connect with the freighter, “Attention freighter Crayus. We are now connected and supplying power to your vessel. You can now shut down your power core and make repairs. Please let us know if you need replacement parts. If you can supply schematics for the parts, we can attempt to fabricate them for you.”

“Acknowledged. Our engineer is working on it now. We will contact you about what we need when we know more. Crayus out,” came the reply. Ship closed the call.

“I suggest we give them time to work on their power core,” I said.

“Agreed. Let’s go have dinner together,” said Jem. We all got up.

In the main dining lounge, Jem got our attention. “I have a treat for you tonight. I have done some research on Earth food and I have discovered a dish called pizza. It is fantastic!”

“Sure, I’m game to try it,” said Koluna. Jem went over to the food dispenser and ordered up some different varieties. She moved them over to our usual table, together with some smaller plates. The pizza were big round flat things. They were hot and had different ingredients on them. We each took a seat around the table.

“My research says to cut the pizza into segments known as pizza slices,” said Jem. She presented a sharp knife and cut slices out of the one nearest her. We each took a slice.

“Mmm, this is good!” said Koluna.

“This is food eaten on your home planet, Brian?” asked Laine.

“My home planet is Tian Prime. We do not eat food like this,” I replied. Laine kind of walked into that one. Jem frowned at me. I took a small bite of my slice. It was not spicy hot, but it was hot. I was glad I had not taken a big bite. The flavours were alien to my pallet.

I got up and fetched a glass of cold water from the food dispenser. By now they were all enjoying their meal. Koluna looked at me with that look. I put down my glass and got three more. She smiled. I nodded.