First, I'd like to ask you to please visit my fanfiction.net account. My username on there is Ermor, you can do a search if you like to do searches on fanfiction websites.

This is at my story's current level of completion. I haven't worked on it much, save grammar, etc. since last year.

Please comment constructively! Thank you!

May peace be with you,
Dash

<EDIT>
Oh, yeah, I'll post the chapters in separate posts in this thread, for ease of referral/commenting, and for neatness, and that way I'm not making one HUGE nevrending post. Then, I can go and keep writing, and posting new chapters at the end of the thread. Yeah.
</EDIT>

This post has been edited by Dash_Merc : 04 January 2005 - 12:24 AM

Chapter 1

“s###. Sir, Three contacts at mark two three. Should I cover for you, sir?”

“No, Brad, I have this one put me on with the formation leader.”

Hands deftly sliding over the keys, Bradley connected his captain to the oncoming pirates through the main com channel. “Connection in 5, sir.”

“Thanks, Brad,” Captain Taryn Throve prepared herself for a battle of wits. The screen flickered on, “Hello, friendly flyers, how may we—“

“Cut the crap,” interrupted the captain of the lead ship, a specialized Pirate Corvette, “You know what we want. Prepare to be boarded, or we will take your ship by force.”

“Well, excuse me, sir. I wasn’t aware that you had that authority,” Captain Taryn said, a look of extreme amusement, and mild anger shone in her eyes, “I don’t think you really want what we’ve got. Are you sure you can handle it?” Taryn made the signal, behind her back, telling her crew to prepare for battle, “Catch me if you can boys!” She waved tauntingly at the screen, to intimidate the Pirate captain.

Bradley cut the signal.

“Alright, red alert, put the turrets on computer control, and get everyone to the pods, just in case we have to bail. Prep the afterburners! Anyone who wants to leave may do so now. I promise I won’t hold it against you.”

Everyone on the bridge stood unwavering. None moved, twitched, blinked. None voiced even a grunt.

First Mate Elena got up from the Second Command seat, and gave Taryn a quick pat on the shoulder. “Sir, I think we’ve got a job to do.”

Taryn viewed all her crew, looking down towards none, and said, “Thank you. I hope you don’t mind my saying so, but you guys kick ASS! Alright, everyone, let’s move, seal the bridge. Put all other airlocks on standby. Security teams to the main hatches and everyone here grab a disruptor or two, because I think it might get rough.” Taryn began to prepare for the routine boarding kickoff. Again. She only hoped that these pirates were sissier than the last few who tried, and failed.

This can not be happening, thought Taryn, The doors didn’t hold up to the cutters like they should have. I hope the rest of the crew is alright. Taryn crawled along the maintenance section as fast as she could. She had to get to the engine room, to the last escape pod. Man, if they let me live, it’ll be the worst mistake they ever made. Taryn was pissed. No pirate had ever successfully taken her ship. But this group had decided to prove her wrong. They will pay for this! Luckily, as far as she knew, the rest of the crew had jetted. I hope they make landfall very soon. I’ll meet ‘em at the rendezvous point.

She had arrived at the hatch for the engine room. I’ll just open it slowly and quietly, and sneak over to the pod then trigger the self-destruct. She prepared herself for the hardest thing she had ever done...destroying her own, and best ship. Here goes she opened the hatch, ready to sneak away, only to find that the captain of the pirate ship was standing right in front of the hatch, waiting for her.

“Heh. I knew you’d come here. Why do you have to be so predictable? Get up here.”

Taryn stalled.

“Now,” the captain pulled her out of the hatch, and onto the floor, “I’ll take it easy on you if you don’t resist. Tell me the access code to your cargo, and I’ll let you leave.”

“If not?”

“Then,” said the captain, motioning to his first mate, “I’ll take it out of her, too.” He gestured towards the newly produced Elena, Taryn’s first mate.

Taryn was in a panic. “I’ll tell you the code, but you must let her come with me or you’ll have to kill me.”

“That can be arranged ” He pulled out his pistol, aiming it at Taryn’s head, and his first mate did the same towards Elena.

“Please, let her go,” pleaded Taryn, “She doesn’t know the code. I’ll let you into the cargo, but first, let her go.”

The captain gestured to his first mate, who released Elena, and kicked her to the floor. “Go.”

“Taryn. Thank you. I will wait.” Elena walked cautiously to the escape pod, looking back only to glare at the man who kicked her down.

“Now,” said the pirate captain, “Tell me.” He squeezed Taryn’s throat with his left hand, and pressed his pistol harder into her temple.

Taryn cringed, and prayed that she would be spared from the pirate’s wrath if she told him the code. “Don’t get too feisty,” said Captain Taryn, witfully “Maybe could we discuss this over tea? Or something else, maybe? Whiskey?” Taryn felt his grip tighten. “Maybe not um please loosen my throat, so I can annunciate. I’ll open it myself,” again, tighter, “Uh uh if you want the cargo, you have to let me open it, dontcha? It’s coded to my voice, and my voice ONLY. K?”

“Alright, you. Open it. But if you pull anything, your first mate will be breathing vacuum, alright? And you might just find yourself floating home, as well ” With that, the pirate captain pushed Captain Taryn violently towards the cargo locker.

Taryn stumbled, paused to compose herself, and cleared her throat. “Taryn Throve, Captain. Security Clearance Alpha Pi Zeta. Open Secure Cargo Locker Theta 8.”

A Loud Clank resonated throughout the cargo hold, and a small series of clicks proceeded, followed by a loud hiss, and much steam, as the heavy bulkhead door swung open. If only these doors were all over the ship thought Taryn.

“Alright. You can go after we offload the cargo. OK, boys, round ‘em up! Let’s go, pack it on! Move, move!” The pirate captain chuckled. “Thanks, lady, but don’t expect to get off so easy next time. If you put up a fight again, we won’t be as nice. Nice workin’ with you.”

“My pleasure,” said Taryn, I wonder how long it’ll take them to realize that this isn’t the real stuff hopefully not until after I’m off the ship. “May I leave now?”

“Not yet, ma’am. I’d like to take you up on that Whiskey, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“I don’t actually have any. Sorry to disappoint.” bullcrap , thought Taryn I’m not sorry.

“Well, that’s just too bad. Well, you’d better have some next time.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Chapter 2

“Captain?”

No response.

“Captain? Taryn, what’s wrong?”

“Huh? Oh. Nothing’s wrong, Elena. We still have the cargo but that’s not it. It’s the ship. I’ll miss her.”

“It’ll be alright At least they fell for it so far I just hope they don’t come back for us after they realize it ”

“They won’t and even if they do, they won’t find us. And even if they do, we’ll be ready We have enough money to get a new ship but finding new crew, and paying them that’ll be a bit more difficult ”

“We can manage with the amount of crew we have now, Captain,” assured Elena, “We’ll do fine for a while, as long as we stay out of trouble.”

“We’ll see about that. Until then let’s go to dinner. We’ll round up the crew in a week. I’ll get the new ship tomorrow.”

“You sure about this?” inquired Elena.

“Yep. Positive.”

“Well, let’s eat.”

“No, I want one that’ll hold up to a little bit of a beating,” Taryn said, irritated, “I don’t want to have to upgrade it entirely on my own. I have neither the time, nor the money for this.”

“Well, this is the best I can do for you.”

“Bull. Come on, you’ve gotta have something that’ll stand up to this,” Taryn was almost ready to give up, but she sure wouldn’t ever let the dealer know that, “Okay. What have you got besides a Light Freighter? A Bulk Freighter’s too big, but what do you have that’ll stand up to what I’m foreseeing?”

“Well, there is something ” The dealer looked thoughtful, “Follow me.”

Taryn followed the dealer into a back part of the lot, towards a large hangar of sorts. “What you got hiding in there?”

“Oh, nothing, just a new shipment we got about a week ago. I’m technically not supposed to sell on until tomorrow, but I’m sure I could make arrangements.”

“Oh, good arrangements so what is it?”

“You’ve no doubt heard of CDX Starworks?”

Taryn nodded.

“Good. Well, they recently came up with a new design of ship, and just started distributing it. I happened to get an order in with my contact just before the release. Let me show you.”

“Please, enlighten me. This sounds very tempting.”

“Alright then. Come on in,” The salesman opened the small side door of the hangar, and walked in. The lights slowly flickered to life, casting shadows off into the corners, and under the big hulk in the middle of the room, “You ready?”

“Yep, I think I’m ready.”

“Alright,” with that, the salesman touched a pad on the wall. The hangar door slid open, not all that gracefully, clanking as it went. “This,” The light slowly filtered into the hangar, briskly outlining the beautiful graceful curves of the starship enclosed within, “is the CDX Starworks Argosy class Light Freighter. Top of the line components, brand new sensor technology. Maximum speed 200 AU/h, slow acceleration, average turning, 35 shields, 40 armor. A maximum of 3 gun emplacements, maximum of 2 turret emplacements. 60 Tons of weapons and upgrade space, 130 Tons of cargo space. 4 jumps worth of fuel. 52 meters long, 215 Tons, and on-board crew space of 28, with space for more. The minimum operating level is 19 crewmen. 2 laser turrets standard.”

“Oh,” Taryn was completely shocked, “Wow,” she swallowed it, “Um, so how much is this again?”

“Oh, not too much more than the Light Freighter. But since it’s new, and pre-release, you’ll either have to wait, or put in a little extra up-front.”

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem,” Taryn replied, still stuck to her spot on the floor, “How much more is it than the Light Freighter?”

“Oh, this one runs at around 750,000 credits, barebones. No upgrades included.”

“Oh my gosh. That is a bit up there I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Taryn replied, a bit shocked by the price, “I’ll probably wait until next week. Still, with the Argosy, the speed and other things are upgradeable, correct?”

“Oh, I sure hope so. Otherwise, these ships would never get better, now would they?”

“I suppose that’s true. Silly me. Right. I’ll go discuss this with my crew. I guess I’ll just have to wait,” said Taryn, a hint of sadness in her voice, “Thanks a ton, anyhow.” Taryn turned to leave.

“No problem, ma’am. I promise I’ll try to hold one for you, but seeing as I only have two well, no definite promises, but I’ll try.”

“I appreciate that. Thanks again.” Taryn turned on her heel and walked off the tarmac.

“No problem. See you soon?”

Taryn raised her hand in salutation as she walked off into the distance.

“So, like I said: 750, all in advance. Only problem is, we’ve only got 400,000. Just enough for another Light Freighter, plus some upgrades...”

“Taryn,” Elena paused, “We can do it. We’ll just have to stay land-bound for a bit, put the whole crew to work, and pool our money. It should only take a couple of weeks.”

“But the shipment’s already overdue as it is! We don’t have two weeks ”

“We can do it Taryn. Let’s at least try. Heck, with this new ship, we could even do a little pirating of our own. We’d make some money real fast with that. Kestrels only run ten million or so, it shouldn’t be too long until we can afford one and start making some serious money. I say we go for it, Taryn. What do we have to lose, I mean, besides the obvious?”

“Alright,” Taryn admitted her defeat, “I give. Let’s give it a nice hardy try. I’ll inform the crew. Let’s start job-hunting tomorrow.”

Chapter 3

The sky was beautiful at sunrise. The beautiful colors made by Diphidia II‘s sun were awe-invoking. Time to get cracking, thought Taryn, sleepily, gotta find a job to buy that ship. And the crew’s depending on me. She stepped in from the balcony of the hotel room, and headed for the shower.

By this time in the morning, almost all the crew was waking up, except for the newer crewmembers and night-shift security staff, who were struggling with their alarm clocks, and the habit of sleeping during the day, respectively. Those that were up, or getting up, were all thinking about the same thing: job-hunting, excepting one crew member, who was purring away, thinking of fish, and how good the warm sun felt. Many of the crew would find jobs in manual labor, as it was more readily available, and, in some cases, paid more.

Taryn was ready to get out, and start searching. She looked tough in her coveralls and hat, and her hair was pulled back neatly in paramilitary style behind her head. She had her captain’s insignia tucked away in her pocket, and her datapad hooked to her arm. She snatched her room key off the bedside table, and headed out into the hallway.

Into the Gravlift tube, and down to the first floor. Taryn reminisces about a time she can remember when mechanical elevators were still in use. The Gravlift rapidly grew in popularity during her childhood. She loved the exhilarating feeling of floating in the air down a plexiglass tube. Nothing compared.

No sooner had her feet touched the ground, than had she started walking. She had a mission, and she was going to complete it, in any way possible. I will find a job. Taryn thought to herself. I don’t care how difficult it is, I will do it. Anything for my crew, anything for my ship. My new ship. My soon-to-be ship. The thought of her lost ship depressed her. I’ll really miss her.

Taryn was absolutely determined to find herself a job that paid decently, so she could gather up the extra cash necessary to afford the Argosy. Her pace quickened. The door closed behind her, and the polluted air poured into her lungs. She didn’t cough, because all the air tasted the same on this planet, inside the hotel and out. She called a Sky Taxi over to the landing pad on the top deck of the hotel, and leaned against the calling post to wait for the closest taxi.

She had only just leaned against the post and a taxi was just pulling around the top spire of the building. This was not one of the normal taxis she was used to seeing, but rather, a slightly larger one, in red. It pulled a loop and headed straight downward for the landing pad, almost in a suicide dive. It pulled up at the last second, and went into hover.

The door opened. “Hello Taryn. Didja miss me?”

Taryn had to fight to keep her jaw from dropping open. She only let a smirk sweep across her face.

“Well, well. You haven’t changed a bit. Whatcha been doing all this time? Have you been in Cryo?”

“Well, actually—“ a normal yellow taxi came around the building, “Hop in, I’ll tell you on the way.”

Taryn approached slowly, ran her hand over the door towards the handle. She pried open the door, and climbed in.

“Buckle up. This is gona hurt, otherwise.”

Taryn obliged. The buckle was fastened in seconds as the car accelerated almost explosively away from its pursuer, over the edge of the building.

“Having fun?” The mysterious driver looked over at Taryn, who was frantically searching for somewhere to anchor herself.

“Oh, yeah. Loads,” replied Taryn sarcastically, “Do it every day.”

“Oh, good,” he smirked, “So how long has it been? Twelve years? Thirteen?”

“Something like that,” she lurched as the Sky Taxi suddenly leveled out and merged into a flight of traffic, “So really, what have you been up to?”

“It’s complicated.”

“What, have you been working for the Confed intelligence, or something?” she inquired jokingly.

“Something like that.”

Taryn gave him an odd look.

“Let’s just say I’m a white collar office-worker. I mean, where the heck do you think I got this car, anyway? I bought it. Straight out.”

“Nice. It really moves.”

“Thanks. I like it,” he thought for a second, “I slipped those pirates your flight path. I can’t tell you anything else. That’s how I got the car. Lots of money.”

“WHAT?” Taryn was suddenly interested with every part of her arms and head, “How could you do that to me? That cargo was worth millions, and it is going to be late. Once it’s late, I don’t get pay. If I don’t get pay, my crew lives like s###.”

“I can reimburse you for your troubles. That’s why I came to pick you up. And why I rushed off. I stole a fare, and they can’t know that. Also, I need your help. A job, I guess you could say.”

“Wait,” Taryn commanded, “Reimburse? Job? What do you want me to do?”

“A quick job. I need you to pass off some information. We’re short some agents, as they’re busy with a big job. I’ve been given clearance to give you this information, but if I tell you any more, there will be no turning back.”

“Alright. Hold on,” Taryn collected herself, “If I help you with this ‘Job,’ and IF I forgive you, which is a bit sketchy right now, you’ll reimburse me?”

“ Yes ”

“Ok. Buy me a new ship.”

The man was suddenly panic-stricken, “What the hell? How can you expect me to afford that? I can buy a car, but not a ship. How much money do you think I have?”

“Enough. Look, if it helps any, we’ve already got 400k. You come up with the rest, and a little extra for the basic upgrades, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

“Ok, I’ll se what I can do. Don’t consider anything final until I talk to you tomorrow. I’ll be in touch.”

And with that, they were back at the hotel, hovering a meter off the ground, about to land. The door opened, and out jumped Taryn Throve, Proud future-owner of an Argosy.

Taryn turned around, “Oh, and thanks, James. I’ll see you around?”

“Sure thing.”

Taryn turned on her heel, and waved over her shoulder to James.

James sped off in his red taxi, dropping off the edge of the building and disappearing from sight almost instantaneously.

She had a bit of extra bounce in her stride. She was proud that she managed to find herself a job. She reached for her datapad, and dialed up a private channel with Elena.

Crackle.

“Hello? Elena here.”

“Hey, it’s Taryn. I ran into an old friend. And found a job. And got the rest of the 750, 000. I’ll fill you in when I know more. I just wanted to let you know I got something.”

“That’s great! We’ll be able to get off this over industrialized planet sooner than I thought. When can the crew find out?”

“Once I know more. I promise. Have fun doing whatever you’re doing.”

“Don’t worry. I will. Bye!”

“Later, Elena.”

Click...

“Ahh, that’s great YES!” Taryn jumped up high in the air, and bolted towards the hotel lobby doors.

That's all for now. Feel free to comment...uh...freely?

Please be truthful, but no flaming.

I should post any other chapters I write following these three in this thread when I get them done.

Later!

Very, very nice. I like. It has a very natural feeling in the whole story. One thing, you need to be a little more informative. What was the ship that Taryn and her crew were piloting in the beginning? What happened in the battle scene? It's ok, just need to work on that a bit. Also, I found no typos so far to date, so that's good. All in all, it's a very good story, and I look forward to hearing y=more of your chapters.

Nice start, Mercy. About the only factual glitch i can remember is that there's no shipyard on Diphidia II. I could be wrong.

Anyway, 'twas lovely to go down memory lane. We don't get much EV fiction anymore. I like the first few chapters. The end of the second chapter needs a spot more of info - maybe James actually making the call to tell her she's got a deal. Here and there.

I don't know if it's your style or not, but yes, a little more detail about the landscape/ships would be cool. (I'm not good at it either...:))

Cheers,
Guapo

ElGuapo7, on Jan 5 2005, 11:20 AM, said:

Nice start, Mercy. About the only factual glitch i can remember is that there's no shipyard on Diphidia II. I could be wrong.

Anyway, 'twas lovely to go down memory lane. We don't get much EV fiction anymore. I like the first few chapters. The end of the second chapter needs a spot more of info - maybe James actually making the call to tell her she's got a deal. Here and there.

I don't know if it's your style or not, but yes, a little more detail about the landscape/ships would be cool. (I'm not good at it either...:))

Cheers,
Guapo
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I'll get back to writing soon...after I finish the plug...and I also checked Diphidia II...definitely a shipyard there. It was a lucky guess on my part. Funny thing is that there aren't often pirates in Diphidia...I dunno. Also, Diphidia doesn't seem like the type of place to have a pollution-choked city...but yeah...