Mayday! Mayday! S.O.S! This is Ares 101. Our engines have failed and we are falling! I repeat, we are falling! Requesting immediate assistance! We are carrying supplies that must reach the Durian system! We have casualties on board, I repeat, we have casualties on board! Can anyone hear me? If this message reaches anyone, our co-ordinates are-
Strive tried to boost the signal but it was no use. It was growing and weaker and the meseiver wasn’t able to play anything further. Strive was disappointed; he could’ve made good use of those co-ordinates and found the falling warship almost instantly. Such a waste.
He glanced out of the side window to his left. His spacecraft, ‘The Romanov’, was landed temporarily upon a floating asteroid, in the mist of an asteroid field. This was a matter of sheer convenience, for the chameleon circuit installed on his ship allowed him to blend in with the current surroundings, and an asteroid field was the perfect hiding place for a man in Strive’s position. The only problem was; to stay there for a lengthy amount of time was an extremely tedious job, one of which Strive was eager to escape from. Not that he had a choice, of course. If the boss ordered him to remain hidden inside a field of floating rock, then that’s what he had to do.
Strive activated the voice recognition on the meseiver. He was greeted by the voice of Tula, his life-partner, of whom he had programmed the meseiver to imitate. This often triggered a certain mélange of emotions in Strive, for he missed his Tula painfully however the sound of her voice provided him with an air of soothing comfort whenever he was in a foul mood.
He spoke his name to the meseiver and was granted full access. He then commanded instant contact to Boss Tyrannus, who’s ship was currently orbiting the diamond planet of Diamas, a sight that Strive imagined was far more pleasant than the endless fog of rock he had been forced to stare at for, what seemed like weeks. Without the advantage of a sun, being able to measure the amount of time passing was ridiculously impossible.
Tyrannus answered the meseiver, and a vivid mini hologram of his figure appeared, beamed from the meseiver’s installed projector. Strive faced his boss, bowing his head first as a gesture of respect. ‘Greetings, Boss Tyrannus’ he humbly stated.
‘Report’, Tyrannus abruptly ordered, his eyes staring straight at Strive, as if attempting to tear themselves into his inner being. Tyrannus was clearly eager for good news.
‘I just received an S.OS. It came from a cargo ship, the ‘Ares 101’. The good news is, they were headed to the Durian system. The bad news is, their communications were jammed before they could relay their co-ordinates. There’s no way of being able to tell if they’ve landed, if they’re ship is destroyed or if they were transporting anything of value.’
The meseiver shook, and the hologram of Tyrannus flickered as he screamed in anger. The volume was too much for the meseiver to be able to communicate, and instead all Strive received was a high-pitched tone. This didn’t mean that he didn’t have a general idea of what Tyrannus was saying; of course Ares 101 was carrying valuable goods. Why else would a supplies craft travel to the Durian system, a planet roofed with forests, whose trees traveled upwards for miles above their clouds, which was currently being ripped apart by civil war? Ares 101 was blatantly not travelling there for a mere visit; the profit made by the likely cargo on board would be immeasurable.
‘Find them, Strive.’
‘Boss, I-‘
‘No Strive, I don’t care. Hiding in that asteroid field, waiting for something to happen, is a waste of time right now. Find that ship. By any luck, it is floating around in space somewhere between you, and the Durian system. That cargo is too potentially valuable to waste. Find it, or find out what has become of Ares 101.’
Strive was surprised at how unenthusiastic he was about this situation. Under normal circumstances, he would have leapt for any chance to get out of the asteroid field. But something in his gut…he felt a twinge of dread.
He switched off the meseiver and the chameleon circuit; anyone looking closely upon a particular rock would have seen a small Lemnos cruiser suddenly materialize. Strive activated all engines and proceeded to exit the asteroid field. As his journey began, a plan began to form inside his mind. A plan he was certain would work.
Tyrannus did not hear from Strive for 20 Diamasian days until he finally decided to lead a search party. Not that he was worried about strive of course; his concern was for Ares 101. He remained hopeful that the cargo was still intact. After a long and desperate search, his men finally managed to locate the spacecraft. Blessing the stars for his luck, he sent every man he had on board and ordered that all cargo was to be transported onto his ship. Strive, he thought, had obviously been unsuccessful in his search and abandoned his attempts.
As Tyrannus sat aboard his vessel, his meseiver beeped. He answered, and a hologram of his first mate appeared.
‘Status report?’
‘Boss…there is nothing on board this ship.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘We’ve checked the ship’s log, and this was indeed carrying valuable items- weapons, food, materials, all sorts of things. But none of it is here now.
This triggered a memory inside Tyrannus, of years ago when Strive had been just a young boy and Tyrannus had taught him his first lesson. A lesson Tyrannus should have upheld himself.
Never, ever, trust a space pirate.
