TK Special #1 - AngusEcrivain... Apparently He Writes Sci-Fi, Too!

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT ALIENS DON'T EXIST

"We can take it. That cargo's gotta' be worth at least twenty-thousand credits."

"Taking it ain't the issue but the Fed ship eight clicks out and closing, is."

"But it's so pretty, and unmanned... Well, unless you count the eight dead crew."

"Dead men don't tell tales. They don't fight back, either... OK that onetime, but they weren't exactly dead, if I recall."

"You're not seriously considering this, Cap'n? We might as well put up a beacon and let the Fed ship know exactly where we are."

Bennet smirked at his second in command. He knew she was right; Hell, she was always right, but that never stopped him doing anything he knew was completely and totally bloody stupid. Besides, twenty-thousand credits was a whole lotta' cash and he had a crew who hadn't been paid in months, food to put on the table and a ship in dire need of a out-and-out overhaul, or a couple of new parts at any rate.

Thing is, however much she might protest, Eva was well up for anything slightly crazy and he knew it. He'd fought at her side during the Colonisation Wars, after all, and as such he knew damn well that her apparent caution was nought more than a smoke-screen... Eva was the craziest soldier he knew, which is why she was his second in command.

"Do you even have to ask?" he said with the same smirk upon his face, noting the fact that Eva bit her bottom lip as he spoke. He doubted she'd go toe-to-toe with him in front of the rest of the crew, not unless he genuinely deserved such treatment, but that was not to say she didn't want to.

"Take us in, Harvey," he said without turning to the helm.

"Aye Cap'n," the young pilot replied. A fearless eighteen year old kid, he'd follow Bennet to the edge of the Universe and back.

"The ship's yours, Eva," said Bennet with a wink. "Morgan, we'd best suit up... I'll bet my left nut there's no life support on that boat."

"What gives it away?" Morgan asked. "The fact that everyone on board is dead, or the huge gaping hole on the starboard side?"

"A little of both," he replied with a shrug. "Now, let's go."

As he was making his way off the bridge, Eva grabbed Bennet's arm firmly.

"I don't need to say it, do I?"

"Don't worry, Eva," he replied, kindly. "Ain't gonna' let any harm come to your wee bairn of a sister."

"I heard that," Morgan yelled over her shoulder as she made her way down the corridor towards the airlock. "I'm twenty years old, for fuck's sake!"

Eva rolled her eyes, shaking her head as Bennet set off after her younger sister. If she had her way Morgan wouldn't be part of a crew, let alone one that made most of its money from illegal salvage. No, if Eva had any say at all in the matter, her sister would have a nice, respectable job on Earth.

She didn't have any say in it though. Before her death, her mother had made her promise never to let Morgan out of her sight. That meant she'd had to sweet-talk Bennet – not that it was a difficult task; a little cleavage was all it took – into allowing her to join the crew of the Spartacus.

She could have remained on Earth herself, of course, but there weren't many 'respectable,' jobs suitable for women with a penchant for slitting throats and sabotaging the occasional core reactor with a flat head screwdriver, a packet of liquorice allsorts and a bottle of tequila.

"Spartacus is in play," said Harvey with a grin as he flicked the comms switch. "Y'gotta' three foot jump, Cap'n. I'd have got you closer but that bitch is pitched more awkward than a camp site at a rock festival."