The Final Bounty--Dark Bounty Part 2

Sounds in the Dark

The cargo hold was located near the bow of the ship, one level below the command bridge. It was massive, and like most of the ship, poorly lit. Spasming track lights embedded in the floor outlined the aisles and created ventral lighting that dissipated as it rose to the black ceiling. Crates were stacked up two meters in each aisle, just high enough to be over everyone's head. The narrow walkways and the darkness above pressed in on all of them.

Some of the crates were opaque, others clear. Some were labeled, and others not. There were crates labeled from anything between luxury stores and food rations. Terrah ran her hand over a crate labeled "Amaralite."

"That's quite a find," she said to herself, but quickly returned to the matter at hand. "Let's split up down each aisle and look for the cells."

No one objected. Terrah and Videsse went down one aisle, and the other three split between two, the Karkarodon taking an aisle by himself.

The cargo room was forty meters by twenty meters and just under nine meters tall, most of which was filled with crated plunder arranged in rows; dark trenches for them to walk through. Terrah reached behind her helmet and lit her headlamp, casting a brilliant beam into the darkness. They walked quickly, reading the crate markings and occasionally stopping to open any that had no description.

Clanging of the floor grates happened from time to time, which echoed throughout the dank and dark room, reverberating until the sound disappeared into the void. The sharp voices of the pirates could be heard calling out to each other in harsh tones on the other side, somewhere in the same void. Terrah stopped to listen suddenly, her body becoming rigid, and her mentation focused.

Videsse continued to walk forward but then realized that Terrah had stopped. She turned around. "What, you just gonna let me find it?" Videsse asked, then not waiting for an answer returned to her search.

"Did you hear that?" Terrah asked.

"Yeah, a bunch of nerfherders," Videsse said referring to the pirates, as she tried to pry open another unmarked crate.

"No, something else," Terrah replied. "Like a huffing sound."

Videsse shook her head and responded without a sarcastic tone, surprisingly. "Probably your earpiece picking up your breathing. It happens."

Terrah rapped her helmet to adjust the speaker, listening over the pirate's bantering. After a quiet moment, Terrah tapped her earpiece again and resumed the search. "Maybe you're right." However, she continued to check behind her and at the top of the aisle.

It was not long after, that Terrah and Videsse found what they were looking for, a hover crate fitted with a dozen fuel cells. The cylindrical canisters were arranged like fambaas eggs in the foam nest, each about half a meter long and twenty centimeters in diameter.

"Do you think that'll be enough?" Terrah asked Videsse.

"Yeah, I think," she replied, but her lack of confidence left room for doubt. "Let's get 'em outta here."

As Terrah activated the hover cart, it emitted a magnetic hum and lifted a foot off the ground. She angled it into the path, and together they pushed it down the aisle toward the exit. The two of them were silent and walked as quickly as the hover cart would move. They passed through the doors into the corridor that led back to the landing bay.

They did not say anything, but both felt like leaving the pirates searching in the hold. They paused and looked back at the open door, and that was all the communication they needed. Each understood and turned to move the hover cart. Terrah smiled under her helmet at the thought of Cotrel searching for another thirty minutes, but she was more amused that Videsse had the same idea.