Scrapper. Book 1. Parts 1—3

Chapter 10. Compensation

«Captain, we are being approached by SS Laneera, a small cargo vessel under the command of one Liam Woods.» Lyssa’s voice sounded.

Serena raised her eyes from the control panel before her and thought for a moment.

«Have they sent any signals yet?» she asked.

«Captain Woods is hailing us right now. Shall I connect?»

«Yes, please.» Serena straightened her back, looking at the screen as it lit up and she saw a couple of men and women. «How can I help you, Captain Woods?»

One of the men, whose face bore a triple scar on his cheekbone, as if torn by a wild beast’s claws, stepped up closer, his expression harsh and on the verge of rage:

«Your AI failed to provide me with your name, captain. Introduce yourself!»

«My apologies. My name is Captain Serena. How can I be of help?» the woman noticed one of the men watching her very closely.

«You were at the Karaaln space station yesterday, correct?»

«Yes, we were picking up some supplies. Why?»

«You have a crew? Three men?»

«Does your inquiry have a reason for such an interrogation?»

«I am interested only in one of your men. Tall, blonde, goes by Pher.»

Serena felt her teeth gritting and took a deep breath, before continuing her conversation:

«Yes, that is one of my men.»

«Perhaps, it would be better to speak face to face, like civilized captains?»

The woman thought for a moment, then agreed, knowing that if they were to come aboard her ship, the AI would be able to back her up in case a fight ensued:

«Fifteen minutes. You’re welcome to board my ship.»

The man she spoke to forced a polite smile to his face and bowed a little before the communication shut off, rendering the screen dark.

«Fucker… what has he done now?» Serena mumbled under her breath, standing up. «Lyssa!»

«Yes, captain.» the AI was ready to receive orders.

«Gather the men by the airlock, don’t tell them the reason.»

«Of course, Captain.»

Serena headed to the cargo bay, deciding to get a little bit of gold to try and buy her way out of whatever trouble Pher got them into. She picked up three gold ingots and stuffed one of them into her belt pouch, which was big enough for it. The other two she hid into one of the robotic helpers, ordering him to follow her.

As she approached the airlock, Cipher, Hunter and Pher were already there. And if the first two were weary of their meeting, Pher seemed to be cheerful and waved to Serena, greeting her. The woman ignored this gesture, her face indifferent and collected, and she passed the men, stopping in front of the airlock just as the hatch opened and the men saw five people standing there.

«Welcome aboard my ship, Captain Woods.» Serena greeted the visitors.

«Captain Serena…» the other captain bowed slightly, greeting the woman. «I am here to negotiate a certain matter that took place on the space station.»

«Of course.»

Captain Woods gestured aside and a young girl stepped out from behind him. Serena noted the large bruise on her face and felt her body tense up. The girl raised her arm and pointed at Pher:

«That’s the one, father…» she said, her voice shaking.

Serena glanced over her shoulder at Pher, who chuckled and winked at the girl, making her flinch.

«Your man attacked my daughter.» captain Woods said, his voice becoming harsh.

A silence fell between the two groups and Serena looked at her visitors again, noting all of them being armed and ready to take a stand. She thought for a moment, then sighed, meeting the captain’s gaze:

«Would you like your compensation to be of blood or monetary value?»

The man before her smiled and made a wide gesture with his arms:

«Either way would suffice.»

Serena turned to Pher and saw his face losing the cheerful expression, becoming tense in a split second. The woman walked up to him, forcing him to straighten and grit his teeth.

«Is this true? Have you really attacked the girl?» Serena asked, looking at him with such a cold and dangerous stare that the man couldn’t help but swallow a lump in his throat.

«We were just having a bit of fun…» he said, his voice audibly shaking.

Serena gritted her teeth and stepped back, turning her back to him. A moment passed, and she opened her pouch, taking out a golden ingot. Looking at Captain Woods and seeing him intensely intrigued by such a thing, she twisted around, landing a blow to Pher’s jaw with the ingot and throwing him to the floor.

Coughing blood and dazed, the man tried to push himself up, but failed, landing face first into the small puddle of his blood. Serena leaned down and smeared some of his blood over the ingot and headed back to Captain Woods and his men, offering him the payment:

«I hope this will suffice.» she said, feeling an urge to drag Pher out into open space as soon as the visitors leave.

Captain Woods accepted the bloodied ingot and bowed once more:

«A pleasure, Captain Serena. May your travels be swift and safe.»

Serena nodded to the man and watched him step back and return to his ship. As soon as the airlock closed and she was left alone with the three silent men – only Pher groaning on the floor – she took a few moments to gather herself, before turning to Cipher and Hunter and glancing at them angrily:

«Lock him up. Three days should be enough for him to think about what he’s done.» she said. «If I see him out earlier, you all will be incarcerated for the remainder of our trip.»

«Yes, Captain.» Cipher found his voice first.

Serena didn’t wait for Hunter to reply and pushed past the men, returning to the bridge.

The men exchanged glances and looked down at Pher, who seemed to be coming back to his senses.

«Bitch… I lost a tooth… you bitch…» he groaned, still incapable of pushing himself up.

Without a word Cipher and Hunter pulled their friend up and headed in the direction the AI showed them with the floor lights.

Chapter 11. Stunt

Even though two days had passed after the unpleasant encounter with Captain Woods, Serena kept herself distant from Cipher and Hunter, showing them her disdain for what Pher had done. She busied herself with constantly watching for any sort of possibility them being followed, as if some instinct was telling Serena that the gold Captain Woods and his men saw might have caught their attention and given them reason to try and get a bigger loot.

That evening Serena finally felt a little more relaxed, not seeing any traces of ships that could have followed them, so she decided to call it a night and retreat to the Captain’s Quarters to get some sleep. Returning through the corridor and meeting Cipher, who calmly greeted her with a silent nod, she passed the man, but suddenly heard a muffled thud, and hurried steps, belonging to multiple people. She darted towards the sounds, turning the corner, and saw a strange sight: Hunter, hanging in the middle of the air, was carried off towards the airlock by two barely visible figures.

«Captain…» Lyssa’s voice sounded.

«Shut up!» Serena jolted after Hunter and the cloaked figures, hitting the small pin on her chest – the nano armour Lyssa showed her only a day before.

This Veluthian armour was extremely rare and worn only by Veluthians, DNA coded to a specific person. The small pin, which connected with the body on the chest, could quickly unravel into a full body armour that was able to protect the wearer in hand to hand combat, from various blades and most blaster guns.

It wasn’t, however, fit for outer space combat.

«Captain, the armour is not fit for battle in outer space!» Lyssa raised her tone.

«Override…» Serena jumped into the airlock right before the door latched shut.

She heard Cipher banging on the door behind her, watching her in panic, as she ran towards the outer latch. When the latch sprung open, Serena was pulled out, flying at immense speed, tumbling from the force of the pull. She managed to catch herself on the enemy ship that just left, grasping onto one of the protruding details on the outer shell and immediately unsheathed her blade, jacking it into the metal to have a firmer grasp.

The woman felt her body tensing from the cold, but began to hit and cut through the metal plating on the outside of the ship, trying hard not to growl and let what little air she had in her lungs escape. The spacecraft whirled aside, almost throwing her off, but she managed to catch herself once again, though her left foot burst in pain, as it touched the exhaust, roaring out of the engine behind the capsule. Serena pulled herself up, feeling her lungs beginning to burn, but forced through, making another deep cut in the hull of the ship. As soon as it was done, she slapped a tiny magnet explosive device inside and looked up just in time to see another craft rapidly approaching her.

A split second and she felt the side of the craft crashing into her, throwing her off the vessel. Whirling and dazed from the hit, Serena reached out, giving the command to the device she left. She saw an explosion enveloping the back end of the capsule and it lost speed, falling prey to the engine being damaged. Though, still flying forward, the ship could no longer accelerate to get away and was essentially stranded.

Serena felt her lungs giving out and finally succumbed to the darkness.

As for the damaged craft, carrying their captive, the crew had problems other than the crazy woman, who damaged their engines. Their captive regained consciousness just as they were trying to throw their uninvited guest from their hull. With his fierce resistance and the explosion that caused the crew to lose balance, Hunter overpowered his captors, getting rid of them one by one.

He ran towards the back of the ship, which was slowly being torn apart, and jumped into a tiny one-person lifesaving pod, immediately sending it off the vessel.

He watched through the small window as the ship he was just at exploded, and Lyssa appeared before him, catching his pod into her cargo bay.

Once in the safety of her hull, Hunter jumped out of the pod and ran to the airlock, seeing Cipher standing there, pale and panicked.

«Serena?» Cipher’s question caught Hunter off guard.

«Get inside!» Lyssa’s order sounded stern.

The door opened slightly and Cipher dragged Hunter into the corridor, allowing Lyssa latch the airlock once again and open the bay.

The two men watched the pod being thrown out of the ship – the top latch breaking off and hitting a suspended body, floating in space unmoving. Hunter felt his heart drop, understanding who he was seeing being slowly caught into the bay.

Once the bay was closed again and the air pumped inside, Hunter punched the door, too panicked to see Serena lying on the floor without movement. Lyssa barely unlocked the door, before he slid through and ran up to Serena, trying to see if he could take off her helmet.

He didn’t notice one of the helper bots whirling to them and hovering above Serena’s face, sending a signal to the armour to retract. Hunter panicked even more, understanding that the woman before them wasn’t breathing.

But the bot wasted no time, reaching out to Serena’s chest with one of its appendages and sending an electrical burst into her body. She arched her back and fell down, still unresponsive, and the bot repeated his action, taking a second to scan her vitals, before repeating it once more.

Hunter grasped at Serena’s shoulder, searching for a single sign of life, when the woman suddenly breathed in, arching in pain and shock, and the man caught her in his arms when she jolted up.

«I warned you that your armour is not fit for open space, Captain!» Lyssa sounded extremely unhappy. «You could have killed yourself!»

Serena was too disoriented and shocked to reply, trying to catch her breath and grasping at Hunter, feeling a faint relief from the clenching cold that enveloped her body.

«Oh, you crazy bitch!» through the muffled sounds of her heart beating in her ears she heard Cipher laughing.

The man kneeled down next to her and grabbed her head, landing a hardy kiss on her forehead.

Serena heard him laughing and felt a bit better, knowing her crazy trick even worked. Slowly she regained her senses and composure, feeling exhausted after the stunt. The numbing pain in her left foot was nothing compared to the sudden happiness she felt, pressed against Hunter’s chest.

Chapter 12. Course

Serena lay in bed, feeling her left foot still pulsating in pain, as both – the healing bandage and her regenerative abilities slowly repaired the damage she received during her stunt, when she almost lost her life. Nevertheless, she was glad to have succeeded in helping Hunter escape captivity, though the reasons of him being taken in the first place still haunted her.

«Captain, might I ask you a personal question?» Lyssa’s voice sounded, distracting Serena from her thoughts.

«Sure. What do you want to know?» the woman replied, glancing out of the window and watching the stars slowly floating by.

«I was wondering if my assumption is correct concerning the reasons for your reckless behaviour yesterday.»

Serena frowned, confused:

«So what, exactly, is your question?»

«I have found a correlation between your actions and a literary depiction of a certain human emotion and so I was wondering if my assumption was correct.» Lyssa said. «You love Hunter.»

Serena fell silent, caught off-guard by such a blatant statement.

«Laithorians know no love.» the woman said.

«So I was mistaken?»

«I just…» Serena didn’t know how to reply to all this. «I don’t know, Lyssa.»

«I apologize if I offended you, Captain.»

«No need, Lyssa. It’s fine.»

Serena lay there, pondering on the possibility of her really experiencing love towards Hunter, until silence was broken once more with Lyssa reporting:

«Hunter and Cipher are here to see you, Captain.»

«Let them in.» Serena glanced towards the entrance of her quarters and saw the two men approaching her with a bottle of liquor.

«There she is, our crazy bitch!» Cipher jumped up to her first, leaning in and landing another hardy kiss on her head. «You beautiful beast, you! I wish I had a sister just like you!»

Serena chuckled, pushing herself up to sit, though her injury caused her to wince slightly.

«How are you?» Hunter sat next to her, gently smiling to see her looking better.

«I’ll be fine. I’ll be up and about in no time.» Serena replied, hiding her sudden embarrassment, when she realised her thoughts turning towards Lyssa’s question again.

«If she stays off her feet today, she’ll be all healed by tomorrow morning.» Lyssa reported. «Please make sure she doesn’t go running off.»

The men cackled, exchanging glances.

«Then how about we share a drink?» Cipher offered Serena the bottle. «I do think that a celebration is in order after what happened yesterday.»

«And, maybe, our Captain will be too drunk to go running off anywhere?» Hunter added.

«A wonderful idea.» Lyssa said. «Though, I usually advise not to mix alcohol with medicine, this time I agree with you.»

«Wow.» Serena couldn’t hold down a chuckle. «You’ve turned my own ship to your side.»

«I find them to be good friends.»

The men cackled, shrugging and glad to see Serena in high spirits. The woman didn’t decline the drink, finding friendly company a great distraction from the lonesome thoughts that were just as chaotic as before – even more so after Lyssa brought up the possibility of Serena experiencing feelings towards Hunter.

Now, seeing him sitting on the edge of her bed, laughing and having a great time, Serena couldn’t shake off the feeling that Lyssa may, in fact, be right. Otherwise why would she risk her life to try and save him from captivity in such an irrational manner?

Hours passed, while the three drank and shared stories of exceptional stunts, almost competing with each other in danger and craziness of their tricks. Though, both men still agreed that Serena’s stunt definitely outshined them by all means.

Slowly, but steadily, the bottle was finished and thrown aside, while the trio fell into more serious topics in their conversation. It was then that Serena remembered Pher being stuck in a holding cell on the lower level of her ship.

«Bah!» Cipher seemed uninterested in the man, who was paying for his mistakes. «Let him stay there another day, he deserved every second of it.»

Suddenly he sat up, looking at Serena.

«What?» the woman frowned at the sudden change of expression on his face.

«I just remembered something.» Cipher tilted his head. «I forgot to tell you that I found out the ship is actually on course towards Velutha.»

Serena felt a shockwave clenching her back:

«What? Since when?»

«A few days. I found out about it this morning, and I saw who set the course.»

Serena exchanged glances with Hunter and realised the man was just as surprised to hear this from Cipher.

«Pher…» the woman exhaled.

«Do you want me to speak to him?» Cipher watched her expression closely, his eyes becoming more attentive.

«Sure.»

She felt Hunter gently grasping her palm and looked at him, meeting his concerned gaze.

«If you want, we can change course…» he proposed.

Serena looked away, suddenly very nervous to think about what could happen if she were to return home. It took her a couple of long minutes to finally shake her head.

«No.» she heard herself say. «Stay the course… Unless you want me to drop you off somewhere.»

She felt Hunter’s fingers twitch, but didn’t show that she noticed it.

Chapter 13. Advice

Cipher walked into the compartment, which had a single holding cell, where Pher lay on the floor, seemingly relaxed.

«Is it time to go yet?» Pher glanced at his visitor.

Cipher thought for a couple of moments, then said:

«I hope you learned that your actions have consequences.»

Pher sat up and smiled at his friend:

«Is that all?»

«I’m dead serious, Pher.» Cipher watched the man closely. «Your actions got us in trouble, and you show no remorse or guilt for it!»

Pher’s expression grew humbled:

«Is it about yesterday? Something happened, didn’t it?»

Cipher exhaled and shook his head:

«Because you attacked the girl back at the station, Serena had to give up a golden ingot, and that drew attention to us. Yesterday the ship was attacked and those pirates captured Hunter.»

Pher jolted up, hearing this:

«Where is he?»

«He’s fine. But only because Serena made the craziest stunt to help him.» Cipher gritted his teeth. «She could have died, because you drew the pirates’ attention to us.»

Pher studied Cipher’s eyes, looking extremely shocked and nervous to hear the news.

«I’m sorry, man.» he finally shook his head, feeling guilty to have dealt so much damage.

«It’s not me you should be apologizing to. Apologize to Serena. And I hope you do that sooner than later. You have no idea what she did just to make everything right, when you were the cause for all this shit in the first place!» Cipher sighed, really agitated. «And while at it, explain to her why you set course to Velutha without speaking to any of us.»

Pher perked up, his face suddenly becoming irritated:

«I had to do it! It’s not like any of you would! I mean, come on! We’ve been drifting for days!»

«So you just decided to go behind our backs and do everything your way?»

«My way?! My way?! Are you really going to forget that it was OUR way not but a few days ago, man! We were supposed to drop her off at Velutha, get our reward and that’s it!»

«Is it?» Cipher huffed. «So easy, huh? A quick coin and nothing else?»

«Oh, and you make it sound like you care for this spoilt princess!» Pher started screaming. «We were supposed to get off that rock, split the gold and go somewhere to spend the money! But you two decided to make things difficult! Sure, if we help her get back, we can get a reward, but do any of you even know how long that will take? Did you even ask how long the ship will be travelling through space to this Velutha planet? No!»

Cipher shook his head, disappointed to hear his friend talk like this.

«Hunter was right to call you a mad dog!» the man growled. «You really became one as soon as we fled the Company! Get your head straight! Stop acting like an asshole! Otherwise you’ll find yourself with your share of gold on the closest colony or space station all alone!»

Pher breathed out, calming himself:

«You don’t mean that…»

«Yes I do!» Cipher gritted his teeth. «I need someone who I can rely on! Not someone, who can’t keep his head straight!»

The man turned to leave, but froze for a moment:

«Lyssa, show him what happened yesterday. And let him go.» he said, then glanced at Pher and shook his head. «Apologize to Serena. Or we will part ways sooner than you think.»

He left, and Pher punched the wall in frustration, before seeing one of the walls lighting up with a recording from the surveillance cameras. He stepped up, watching attentively at the whole ordeal, beginning with a strange malfunction in the airlock, when the door opened on its own, and following to the corridor, where a barely visible shadow knocked Hunter out and dragged back to the airlock. Pher saw Serena see this and run over, covering herself in some kind of armour and heard how Lyssa warned the woman of the danger using such an armour in open space.

As the picture shifted to the outside of the hull, Pher saw Serena thrown out into the vast nothing, barely catching herself on the tiny vessel that just disembarked.

The man stood there, watching how she was knocked off, and how the ship exploded, damaging its propulsion engines. He stayed silent, realising that once Hunter returned onto Lyssa, Serena was left outside for far longer than her armour could have kept her safe.

Pher saw how panicked Cipher and Hunter were once Serena was back on the ship, and how she finally woke up after being shocked back to life.