Scrappers Part III

The Call

"Speaking of," Ruggy said, flinging his feet off the dashboard. "Let's call this in." He reached for the touch screen in the middle of the dashboard and navigated through the system's interface. The speakers rang, then clicked.

"This is operator 43-S3, unit S-89 do you reply?" came the operator's distorted voice.

"Hey, operator," Ruggy said.

"S-89, have you reached the assigned location?" the operator asked.

"Done and scrapped. We're on our way back."

"What did you call for then?"

"About that scrap. Did you know it was a Harvester crash sight?"

Silence.

"You had us rush out here in the middle of the night," Ruggy persisted.

"We'll want a full report on your findings when you return to base," the operator said.

"Yeah, I get that. That's protocol. I think we should actually chat with someone about what we saw."

Silence.

"Hello?" Ruggy asked.

The cruiser made several beeping noises. A red dot appeared on the dashboard's map. That was never a good sign. Someone else was in the area. The question was, who? From the details on the map, the cruiser's sensors detected it to be above ground. It was aerial. Another spacecraft.

"Operator 43-S3, are there any ships in the area?" I asked.

"Don't bother kid," Ruggy said. "If those were our ships, we'd know." Ruggy pressed the touch screen, cutting the communication with the operator. He flicked some additional switches that shut off the exterior lights. I brought the cruiser to a halt and turned off the engine. This was protocol. Unidentified spacecrafts meant only one thing – Harvesters. We couldn't have this cruiser radiating transmission signals and lights. I watched the map fade out – the red dot getting closer – as the cruiser turned off. We were left in the dark.

"The cruiser doesn't use any global positioning?" I said. "How did it find us?"

"No, the maps are local," Ruggy said, eyeing the sky. He puffed on his smoke. "Looks like the Harvesters came for their crashed ship after all."

I inhaled the cigarette while looking out the windshield. Dirt, ruins, and a dark sky. There was no sign of anything. The cloudy night sky was working against us. We remained silent, both watching in anticipation. The Harvesters had to be near. The cruiser's sensors were pretty accurate.