The Interview.

“Thank you.” Dillgar heard the lock release on the door. He pressed another button and the door slid out of the way. As he walked up to the ship he could see that she had taken damage recently. One of the cargo doors had been removed and was apparently under repair. There was no one visible in the landing bay, nor was there anyone in the cargo bay. It appeared that all of the crew was off duty. He continued forward and walked up the steps to the main airlock. Both the inside and outside doors were open. He stepped inside but there was no one there.

“Hello? Is there anyone here?”

“Can I help you?” Dillgar turned around to see a strikingly beautiful woman standing at what appeared to be the bridge hatch.

“I’m here for an interview.”

“Ah, yes. The captain is expecting you. This way”

Her hair was jet black with dark eyes that seemed to look right through him. He followed her around a corner to a door that seemed heavier than normal. She hit the call button and the door slid aside. She motioned for him to go in. As he stepped inside he found himself in what seemed like a museum. There were all sorts of weapons behind a glass wall. The furniture appeared to be all hand made from real wood and the fabrics were all rich and vibrant. This captain obviously liked antiques. On the desk was a small crystal statue of a knight in armor. As he looked more closely Dillgar realized that the statue was moving. The head was turning and following him as he moved around the room. Dillgar found himself enthralled with it and never noticed the person walk into the room behind him.

“It’s a living crystal statue. They’re quite rare.”

Dillgar felt his spine stiffen as he turned around to see the captain standing in the doorway.

“I’m sorry sir, I was just admiring it.” Dillgar’s voice came out a little strained.

“Don’t worry about it. I get that kind of reaction a lot with these kinds of statues. They’re very hard to find these days. That one was handed down to me by my father. He got it from my grandfather. It’s a pre-collapse carving. That’s a replica of a crusader knight from a planet called Earth.” The captain moved across the room and sat down behind the desk. He motioned for Dillgar to have a seat. “I apologize for making you wait. I was trying to get my engineer here for this meeting but he’s still out looking for some parts. As I’m sure you’ve already noticed we took some minor damage recently and need to fix a few items here and there.” Dillgar nodded. “Can I get you something to drink before we start?”

“No thank you. I just had lunch a little while ago.”

“Alright then, let’s get down to it then.” The captain began by asking Dillgar some standard questions about his past. The kinds of things he had done, the problems he had encountered and how he handled emergencies. As time progressed the questions got more in depth and harder. Dillgar found that some of the questions he didn’t know how to answer. He also noticed that after some of the questions the captain would frown slightly. He was really starting to think he had blown his chance.

After about 3 hours of questioning, Dillgar felt exhausted. This captain really knew his stuff. He had grilled him on all manner of systems from simple electrical problems to quantum mechanics. The interview had not gone well in his estimation and Dillgar had resigned himself to the fact that he would have to go home and tell his father that he had failed.

The captain was typing some notes on the terminal at his desk when the call buzzer went off. He picked up a small ear piece and held it up to his ear. “I’ll be right there.” He responded to the person on the other end. “I apologize Dillgar, I need to tend to something. Please stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Dillgar nodded and stayed in his seat as the captain left the room. He noticed that the computer terminal had been left on. He couldn’t quite make out what the captain had entered on the screen. Curiosity got the better of him though and he leaned forward over the desk to get a better look at the notes. It was ugly. He found himself staring at a long list of his shortcomings. A bit depressed now he slumped back into his chair. The list was very long and showed that the captain had severe doubts that Dillgar was right for the position.

As he was sitting in the chair thinking of ways to tell his dad that he had failed the interview, the door once again opened.

“Dillgar?” The woman standing in the door was a young looking thin blond wearing a simple ship’s suit. She looked a bit Arion but she seemed short for that race.

“Yes.”

“The captain asked me to escort you. Please follow me.”

“Wonderful!” Dillgar thought to himself. “Well, at least I can always go back and look at the want ads on the search board.”

The woman motioned for him to go down the hallway toward the aft of the shift. Dillgar was a bit confused since this was not the way he had come in. When the reached the aft bulkhead she told him to wait a moment and she disappeared through an iris hatch in the floor. Now he was really confused. What was going on?

He stood there for several minutes when suddenly the light went red and alarms began to sound throughout the ship. Dillgar recognized the alarm. It was an antimatter leak alarm. His pulse quickened. He had to get out of here.

The door to engineering opened and a droid came out missing several pieces. Smoke poured out of the engineering compartment. He moved toward the droid as it collapsed. When it hit the floor more pieces came off including the head which roller away. Dillgar could barely make out the engineering suite on the other side. He thought he saw a body on the floor in a radiation suit.

For a brief moment he was unsure of what to do. Should he go for help? Should he try to help? Should he just run for his life?

Dillgar decided to help. If this leak got out of hand the star port could be in danger. He leapt into action. Running through the door he grabbed one of the breathing masks that he saw hanging on the wall. The consoles in the area were showing a great many angry red lights. Quickly scanning the console he found the main shut off valve for the fuel flow and turned it off. On this console he also found the control for the radiation foam. He hit the emergency release but nothing happened.

“Damn!” He shouted over the sound of the alarms.

He raced to the body on the floor and started to drag him out of the area. The body was rather small and light. This allowed him to get this person out of the way quickly. He went back into the engineering area and sealed the door. He could hear the life support system straining to clear the smoke from the engineering spaces. Scanning the consoles he was able to discover where the manual control for the foam was located. The smoke was thick and burning his eyes. He made his way along the edge of the bulkhead in the direction he needed to go. After several frantic moments he finally located the control and tried to spin the wheel. It wouldn’t give. He tried again using all of his strength and weight to force it. It still wouldn’t give. If he didn’t get this thing open he would surely die from radiation in short order. He fell to his knees to look beneath the smoke. He saw a metal bar nearby and crawled to it. It was incredibly heavy. Dragging it back to the valve he realized that it must have been made of chromacryst. It was very difficult to lift but he managed to get it into place and use it to force the wheel free. But when he did there was no foam coming from the nozzles in the walls and ceiling. It was just water. Dillgar began to panic. He would have to find some real foam or a medical facility fast.

Then the alarms stopped and he could hear what he thought was clapping coming from above him. As the smoke cleared with the help of the sprinklers he could see two figures standing on the roof of the office looking down at him and applauding. They were wearing Vacsuits, normally used to go into open space. One of the figures began to climb down the ladder that was on the wall. The smaller figure simply jumped to the floor and waited. Both of them walked to where Dillgar was standing.

The first figure raised the face plate to reveal the captain face. He was smiling. “Congratulations Dillgar. You’ve passed the practical exam.”

“What?” Dillgar was still running on adrenaline. He looked back at the captain with a confused look.

“Very nice work.” The other figure said. The voice sounded familiar.

“So Dillgar, how would you like an engineering job on my ship?” The captain was looking a bit more serious now.

“Um…..” Dillgar’s head began to clear. “I mean yes. I’d like that very much.”

“Good. Let’s get you cleaned up and squared away.” The captain removed his helmet. “I would like you to meet my chief engineer. We call him Monkeyboy.”

As the other figure removed his helmet Dillgar finally realized where he had heard the voice before. “Maki?”

“Great job kid. Of course you do realize that your first job is to clean up this mess?” Both Maki and the captain chuckled.

More applause was heard by the engineering hatch. Angel and Bruno were standing there looking at him, smiling.

“Angel, would you please escort our newest crew member to his quarters?”

“Yes captain. I’ll take good care of him.” She turned to Dillgar, “C’mon sweetie, let’s get you squared away and cleaned up.”

Dillgar was still in a bit of shock. How had all of this happened so fast? He started toward the door and stopped. Turning to the captain he said “I won’t let you down sir.”

“That remains to be seen.” He smiled back at Dillgar and jabbed his elbow into Maki.

After Dillgar was out of sight the captain turned to Maki, “Are you sure about this one?”

“Yes sir! This kid has what it takes. I’ll get him into shape, don’t you worry.”

“It’s my job to worry. It is my ship after all.”

A bit of shopping.

Dillgar left the diner several credits poorer than he had planned. He didn’t feel too badly about it though. His tool bag was worth far more than Bruno could have eaten.

“Thank you so much for Lunch sweetie.” Angel had a big smile on her face as she reached out to shake Dillgar’s hand. “And good luck with your interview. If it doesn’t work out try and find me here again later and I’ll introduce you to my captain. I think he wanted to add another engineer to our staff.”

“Thank you for lunch Dillgar” Bruno was careful not to squeeze Dillgar’s hand too tightly. “Be careful around here. It can get kinda dangerous at times.”

“I’ve noticed that.” Dillgar smiled back at Bruno. “It was a pleasure meeting you both. I hope to see you again”

They both smiled at him and waved as the turned and walked thru the entrance to the private dock area.

Dillgar gathered his things and chuckled as he looked across the walkway where the merchant was still cleaning up after the ballistic thief had come flying into his tent.

Taking a deep breath he walked forward into the dock area. As he entered the first thing he noticed was how busy the facilities were. There were cargo movers with containers on them going every which way. They number of people was amazing. This place was far more crowded than the main starport facility.

He suddenly stopped dead in his tracks as a cargo mover went past him with six heavily armed and armored troopers guarding it. In the rest of the city weapons were not allowed unless you had the correct permits, and even then the weapons that these troops had would never be allowed. They looked like state of the art assault weapons. The one up front had his visor up and looked like he meant business. His keen eyes watching the crowd as he moved thru them. The armor they were wearing was a mottled grey in color and looked incredibly tough. On the shoulder of each of the troopers was an emblem that resembled a six pack of cans. “That’s a strange thing to have for a unit emblem.” Dillgar thought. He let them pass before he started to breathe again. Now as he looked more closely at the people around him he realized that almost all of them were carrying some sort of weapon. There were swords, daggers, pistols, rifles, and a few larger weapons too. Dillgar suddenly felt a bead of sweat forming on his brow as he realized that he was completely unarmed. If one of these creatures wanted his belongings they could merely point the weapon and take them.

He took a deep breath and pushed on. Ahead of him was a wall, of sorts, with several bulletin boards on them and a series of computer terminals. He approached one of the terminals and punched in a query for the ship that he was to meet. He noted the bay number and looked at the time. He still had over an hour before he had to be at the interview. He was very anxious but didn’t want to arrive that early. They might think he was desperate for the job. While that may be true he didn’t want them to know that.
On the bulletin boards were all manor of things. There were notes for lost shipmates to find their ship which had moved, job listings for deliveries, and postings for crew requirements. Dillgar looked through them quickly to see if there were any engineering slots open. There were many listed but none of them was for an entry level type of person. All of them required years of starship experience. He didn’t even see the job he was going to interview for listed there. That seemed a bit odd to him. Dillgar suddenly had a sinking feeling that this might just be a fishing expedition by the ships captain.

He decided to try and take his mind off of this train of thought by doing a bit of shopping as he walked to the interview. Each of the docking bays had a small area set aside for the guests to use as a shop. Dillgar found the variety of items being offered to be staggering. There were tools, weapons, clothes, food, drink, bulk containers of seed, and starship parts. This one caught his eye and he wandered over. The person minding the shop looked up at him as he approached but maintained the conversation he was having with the customer he had in front of him. The customer looked like the same monkey creature that had been in the diner earlier today. He was looking at a power converter and asking the salesman questions about it. The guy behind the counter sounded like your typical used starship parts salesman. “This part came fresh out of the crate. Never even been used.”

The Monkey looked skeptically at him. “May I test it?” he asked the salesman.

“Sure go right ahead.” He replied.

The salesman opened a port on the device and the monkey pulled out a minicomp and plugged it in. Dillgar could see that this device was definitely used. He could see some odd coloration on one side of the device that the monkey couldn’t see at the moment. The coloration was barely noticeable anyway but it caught Dillgar’s eye. This device would be next to useless in an emergency. It would most likely blow the first time it had a high power load pass thru it.

“Excuse me, but you don’t want to buy that item.” Dillgar said to the monkey as he moved closer.

“And why is that?” The salesman asked with an attitude.

“Because it’s been used and looks like it won’t last much longer, that’s why.” Dillgar shot back with the same attitude.

“What are you talking about boy?” asked the Monkey. “The tests seem to tell me that the device is sound.”

“Try using this to test it” Dillgar pulled out another type of scanning device and plugged it into the converter. As it went thru it’s testing it started to list problem after problem with the device. The list began to scroll down as there was not enough room on the screen to show all of the problems.

The monkey stared at the device in disbelief and the salesman’s face started to turn red with anger.

“Unplug that thing right now!” The salesman was furious.

“No problem” Dillgar replied.

“What kind of scanner is that?” asked the monkey.

“It’s just a normal scanner with a modified scan program that my father and I wrote. We use it all the time to troubleshoot power devices in the plants that we work in.”

The monkey was examining the scanner more closely. “You wrote this program?”

“Yes, with my father’s help”

“Get out!” the salesman was looking straight at Dillgar as he said it.

“I guess we aren’t going to do any business here.” The monkey said to Dillgar as he handed the scanner back to him.

“I suppose not.” He replied with a grin. “My name is Dillgar.” He extended a hand to the monkey.

“My friends call me Maki” the monkey replied as he shook Dillgar’s hand. “Which ship are you with?”

“I’m not with one yet but I do have an interview in a little while” he replied.

“Well, if it doesn’t work out let me know. Here is a call number you can use at one of the terminals to reach me.” Maki handed Dillgar a small card about the size of a business card. On it was just a bar code and his name.

“Thanks, I’ll let you know either way.” He tucked the card in his pocket.

“No. Thank you for helping me out in there. I might have bought that piece of junk.”

“I’m glad I could help”

“Hey, listen, even if it does work out with this interview do you think I might be able to buy a copy of that program from you for my scanner?”

“I’m sure we can work something out Maki.” replied Dillgar.

“Great. I wish you the best on your interview and look forward to talking with you more later.”

“Thanks. I’ll contact you after the interview.”

With that Maki turned and walked back toward the entrance to the private docks. Dillgar looked at his minicomp and saw that he had wasted enough time. He headed down the ways to dock number 57.

When he got there the outer door was locked. He rang the buzzer and waited. After a minute or so he rang it a second time. Finally a voice came over the speaker.

“Can I help you?”

“I have an interview for the engineering position. My name is Dillgar Zephris.”

“You’re early.” The voice didn’t seem to have a problem with that though. “Come on up to the ship and enter thru the main airlock.”

Arrival

Dillgar Zephris stepped off the Maglev train as he gazed out at the starport around him. He had been here one other time with his father many years ago.

Dillgar liked to go with his father on jobs. He liked to watch the work and tried to help whenever he could. After his 10th birthday his father started to train him on the finer points of engineering. His father was pleased with how quickly Dillgar picked up new concepts and always pushed him to learn more. Now that he was twenty he had a very good working knowledge of most electrical and mechanical systems. Over the last couple of years Dillgar had begun to read about starship drive systems and weapons systems. He was fascinated with the raw power and intricate designs that he read about. He longed to get his hands on some of these systems to see how the worked up close. Unfortunately there was little of that technology around these days. When this type of equipment was found it quickly found its way into other vessels. Since the collapse any working high tech parts were worth their weight in platinum.

This is why Dillgar was so surprised when a friend of his fathers from the city called to tell him that a starship had arrived and wanted to talk to him about a possible spot as an assistant engineer. To say he was excited would have been an understatement. He had barely slept in 3 days and he was now in the city to talk to the captain and chief engineer. He had to be at his best for this interview. As he stood there in the boarding area he decided to freshen up and get a quick bite to eat. There was a small diner near the exit to the private ship docks that looked inviting.

As he entered the diner he could tell this was a well used facility. All of the tables were full and only a few seats at the bar. He hopped up on one of the stools and grabbed a menu. The place was very busy and quite loud.

Dillgar felt a heavy tap on his shoulder and turned around to see a huge furry bear-like creature hovering over him.

“Could you move over one seat please?” asked the creature in very good talosian.

“Sure” Dillgar tried not to look too hurried but slid over to allow the bear in. As he turned back the bear suddenly moved to the farther seat and a young lady sat down between them. She had the most beautiful long blond hair Dillgar had ever seen.

She turned to Dillgar, smiled and said “Thank you sweetie.”

“Any time!” Dillgar smiled back at her. She was gorgeous and he found himself staring a bit at her. She either didn’t seem to notice or didn’t care. The bodysuit that she was wearing showed off her curves very well. She turned back to talk to her friend the bear and Dillgar ordered his meal.

As he was eating the meal he kept looking around the diner. There were all sorts of different races here. He saw feline races, a bird-like creature, and even one large monkey looking creature with a tool belt on. There were also at least a dozen different humanoid races present here.

Suddenly something went past his left ear and he felt the breeze it caused. As he turned the blond was holding a smaller human by the throat and the bear was beginning to stand up. The people in the area moved away as fast as they could, knocking over chairs and spilling drinks and food on the floor.

She turned to Dillgar. “Sweetie, you need to keep a closer eye on your things around here.”

Dillgar then noticed that the person she was holding had a grip on his tool bag. He snatched it from the would-be thief and checked his other bag quickly. Everything looked in order. “Thank you! Thank you very much!”

“Bruno, would you like to show this bug the way out?” She asked as she turned to the bear.

“I would love to Angel” Bruno replied.

Bruno reached out and grabbed the man’s jacket. His hand was huge against this little human’s chest. People again hurried to clear a path to the door. Bruno lifted the man off of the floor and waited for a moment, glaring at his prisoner.

“Don’t ever let me see you again little man.” Bruno growled at him.

The thief was visibly shaking as Bruno lifted him higher and suddenly threw him through the door several meters away. Everyone heard the crash as the thief came to a sudden stop in a merchants stand across the walkway outside.

Slowly everyone began to relax and resume their meals and conversations. Dillgar turned back to Angel and Bruno realized that his mouth was agape. They both smiled back at him as he snapped his mouth shut.

“Please allow me to buy you both lunch. It’s the least I can do for rescuing my tools.”

“Well thank you sweetie. That would be very nice of you” Angel said smiling at him. Bruno sat down and had an enormous grin on his face.

Dillgar suddenly realized what the bear was smiling about as his meal was brought to him. The pile of food was more that Dillgar could eat over several days. He chuckled to himself as he lowered his head. He felt an arm go around his shoulder as Angel leaned over to him and whispered “Don’t worry sweetie, you’ll learn.” She smiled at him and went back to eating her lunch.

RUN!!!!!

"Captain, the Vampire is closing fast. They'll be in range in 7 minutes." Sarenia, the tactical officer was nervous. This wasn't the first time she had seen a Vampire ship, but it was the first time one this big had been hot on their heels.

The Vampire ship was a 25,000 ton heavy frigate and was 5 times their size. The Thunderchild wasn't a bad ship herself but she was just an armored freighter. At least the captain had maintained her with a loving care that no other captain seemed to have for their ships. The ship was also fairly well armed for a freighter. Technically she would have been classed as a paramilitary vessel but these days no one was really keeping track of those things.

"Monkey Boy, are we able to hyper out of this system yet?" The captain seemed to be as calm as ever as he talked with the engineer over the comm unit.

"Give me another 10 minutes captain. I almost have it fixed." The captain could tell that the engineer was a bit flustered.

"You have 6 minutes before the Vampire is in firing range and 5 minutes before I get upset with you. If they get too close they're going to be able to track us and be waiting at the other end of the jump so I suggest you hurry." The captain even smiled slightly as he said it.

"This would be a lot easier if you would either get me some help or leave me alone to do my job!" the engineer shot back.

"I'll get you some help in the next system. Assuming we make it there."

"Have I ever let you down before captain?" asked Monkey Boy.

"Sure, several times, but I won't hold them against you. Just get that drive fixed."

"You got it sir."

The captain cut the signal and then looked back at the tactical officer. "Warm up the defenses."

Captain Kyler was suddenly wishing that he hadn’t tangled with that smaller Vampire escort two days ago. It had gotten one lucky hit to the drive systems and damaged the hyperspace drive. Of course he did get some good parts out of the salvage. Monkey Boy was very excited to see the parts. One can never have too many spare parts out here in the frontier.

Kyler sat back in his seat and quietly thought about the stories of his great grandfather and some of the hairy situations he had managed to get out of over his career. All he could do here was put his faith in his crew and lead them as he always did with a calm demeanor.
Suddenly the bridge lights went red and the alarms began to sound. Kyler looked quickly at the tactical repeater to his right. It showed several angry red streaks heading toward his ship. The Vampire had launched a group of missiles at him. This Vampire wasn’t going to try and capture him as many did. This one just wanted him dead. Now things were going to get interesting.

“Twenty incoming missiles sir” Sarenia tried to remain calm but she could tell her voice was a bit shaky.

“Hmm, they appear to have some long range missiles. I guess we’re going to have to work a bit harder to get out of this system. Sarenia, jam them as best possible. Slave the salvo cannons to aid in point defense and set the gatlings to automatic.” The captain swung his chair to the right and looked at his gunner. “Deadeye, I’m going to need you to limit their firing options as quickly as possible.”

The cat looked back at the captain with his one good eye and nodded. He was not known for his conversation skills but he was one of the best gunners money could buy. Deadeye was from a long line of mercenaries. His clan was among the most sought after in the galaxy several centuries ago. Some groups were still working as fleets or ground units. However most were now scattered about space picking up jobs where they could. Deadeye had been shunned from his clan due to his injury. Among his people anything that restricted ones ability to fight was cause to retire them. That was a lucky break for Kyler and his crew though.

The missiles continued to close on the Thunderchild as Sarenia worked her magic with the counter missile systems. As she did some of the missiles veered off course, losing their lock. After a few seconds she had defeated seven of them. The rest now moved into range of the salvo cannons. The floor vibrated as the cannons opened up. From the weapons blisters on the hull the small jets of exhaust appeared bleeding off the excess heat from the weapon. Eight more missiles were destroyed. Now the gatling turbo-lasers opened fire killing 4 more. But that left one missile to get through. When it detonated the flash was so intense that the main view screen blanked for a moment. The ship heaved to port as the blast hit her. Warning lights flared to life as the damage mounted. Radiation warnings sounded as well.

“Sheesh, they sure don’t like us.” The captain was straightening himself in his chair. “They’re using straight, old fashioned nukes on us”

“Two minutes to energy weapon range sir” Sarenia looked shaken but in control.

The captain comm unit chirped at him. “We have a hull breach in the cargo deck sir”

“Just depressurize it for now Angel, we’ll tend to it later.” He cut the link and turned to Deadeye who was staring intently at his console.

“Take THAT!” Deadeye pressed a series of commands on his console and the captain felt the familiar vibration of the Pulsar cannon letting loose.

“Aren’t we a bit far for that Deadeye?” asked the captain.

The Cat just smiled. On the main view screen 2 explosions were seen on the hull of the frigate, one from the port side wing and another on the belly of the ship. With this size pulsar the shields of the frigate were useless.

“Sorry sir, I missed with one shot.” The cat never let his eyes stray from the targeting string. He sent the command again and this time both rounds hit the same spot. There was a secondary explosion from the Vampire’s belly from where the shots had hit.

Kyler grinned as he saw the damage appear. His smile faded at what he saw next. The Vampire fired again, this time, releasing over one hundred missiles. Kyler stabbed the comm unit. “Monkey Boy, we are out of time.” There was no answer from the unit.

Sarenia was visibly shaking as she continued her work to thwart the new missile threat heading toward them.

Another alarm sounded on the bridge and the ship lurched. “Sir! We have lost power in the starboard thrusters. Our speed is falling off fast.” Zephra informed the captain over her shoulder.

Duncan the navigator shouted “We have hyperdrive captain!”

“Then get us out of here.” The captain replied.

The screen went gray as the ship entered hyperspace. The bridge crew let out a collective sigh as they realized they were safe.

“Do you think they can track us sir?" Sarenia asked.

“I doubt it” replied Duncan. “They needed at least another minute to get a good fix on us.”

“Good job all of you.” The captain was proud of them. They still needed a bit of work but he would get them working better than any military crew around. He hit the comm button again. “Monkey Boy, what did you do to my ship?”

“I borrowed a few parts from the one system to get the other working. Sorry if I worried you up there.” The voice almost sounded a bit sheepish.

“Just try to warn me if you’re going to do something like that again, will ya?”

“Sure thing captain”

Kyler killed the connection and sat back in his seat. He slowly examined the damage reports that Angel and Bruno were tending to. “I hope the sale of these parts will cover the damage.” He said to himself. “Ah well, at least we live another day.”