Mitchell's Revenge

The Guardian Angel slid smoothly into bay seven. The automated cradle arms approached the ship as it floated, motionless, to complete the docking procedure. Rufus held the ship steady as the arms attached gently to the ship. Once firmly attached, he powered down the drives. The docking bays’ outer space doors closed, sealing with a whumpf as they shut the vacuum out. The Guardian Angel settled into the repair pod cradle and Rufus began their disembarkation sequence.

The crew manifest was copied to the sysadmin before docking and no questions were asked. Rufus glanced from the control room window to see two of the shipyard security personnel emerging from the connecting door that linked the docking bay to the inner wheel of the complex. The door was located between the two sections of crew quarters positioned at the rear of the repair pod.

The security people were uniformed and armed with stun guns. No other weapons were allowed into the shipyard. Rufus was required to display their personal weapons to security and then lock them into a strong box on board the Angel whilst they were here. This included any lasers and other firearms, knives and hand to hand combat equipment. It was standard procedure for the shipyards and stations in this galaxy.

Flick, Snatch and Grabb changed into faded navy coveralls which they hoped would blend them into the general population of the shipyard. They planned not to draw unnecessary attention to themselves over the next few days. Flex, as previously agreed, stayed on board. Rufus remained in his Captain’s garb until he confirmed their arrangements with security. When the shipyard personnel were satisfied that all requirements were met they returned the way they came. Rufus loped back on board the ship to change.

“So far, so good,” he said to Flex as he removed the Captains’ pips from his jacket and put them carefully into the small storage box he kept in his cabin for this purpose. He extracted a navy coverall from the robing cubicle and climbed into it. Flex was lounging against the door frame, waiting for Rufus to change.

“It’s a good start,” Flex replied. “We just need to keep it that way... You know what to do, so let’s get on with it!”

Rufus nodded. “Bolter’s down there already sorting out the parts we need,” he said to Flex. “Snatch will help him with the heavy lifting. If you want to go up to the bridge we can communicate with you from the tarmac via the coms unit. Set the control room window to obscure and you should be safe from prying eyes. We’ll all be wearing headsets. If you want me to come up and help you in here, just let me know.”

He turned and made his way back down to the tarmac where Bolter and Snatch were standing, staring up at the belly of the ship.

“She’s ugly all right,” commented Snatch.

“What do you expect from something that’s been cobbled together from salvaged ships?” asked Bolter.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your knickers in a knot. I’m just saying,” responded Snatch.

“She can bloody fly though,” said Rufus, arriving at the end of the conversation.

“Thank you Captain,” said Bolter. “Let’s get to work. We need to see if we can patch those couple of gashes while we’re here too. We must have scraped some rubble in that asteroid belt when we went after Ripley’s Revenge.” He pointed to some long silver streaks on the hull that looked like flashes of forked lightening scoured into the metal.

“Better check the hull integrity,” he muttered as he began unpacking sensors and tools from the kit at his feet. “Rufus, you go back inside and run some diagnostics over the hull while I get this sorted.”

Rufus nodded. “On my way boss,” he said as he grinned at Bolter. They all got to work.

Meanwhile, Flick and Grabb were checking the on board food stores for what they needed.

“Coffee, definitely,” commented Flick, as she typed the word in to her handipalm unit. They checked and added things until they were satisfied they had all they needed on their list. Then they checked the med bay stores and added a few more items.

“I’ll transmit this to the shipyard Store Master. See what they’ve got that we can buy,” she said to Grabb, “And then we can go for a little walk. It’ll be good to get off the ship for a while.”

They’d been in space for months, running from the police, raiding other ships, and running again. It actually felt good to be still. And, they believed, out of harms way for at least a few days.

Grabb agreed. “Do you think they’d actually have any chocolate anywhere? I’d kill for some of that Copernican dark we scavenged off the last ship we raided.”

Flick laughed. “You never know, we might get lucky. Let’s go see.”

They each slung an empty handipak onto their back and headed towards the connecting door to the shipyard interior.

“Stay in touch via your headsets,” suggested Bolter’s voice in their ears as they reached the door.

“Will do,” responded Grabb, and they were gone. The door slid shut behind them.

The diffused lighting in the inner corridor of the shipyard made it hard to see at first. Flick wished she’d brought a flashlight. As her eyes began to adjust to the gloom she realised that most of the shipyard power must be reserved for the repair pods. She’d never been to one of these facilities before so she supposed that some things would seem odd to her. A yellow line down the centre of the corridor and signs on the walls indicated that they should stay to the left at all times.

Grabb, on the other hand, was quite familiar with this kind of set up. In his days as a ballroom dancer, he had competed in some very grubby venues in his home galaxy, so this was no surprise to him. A flashlight would be handy though, he thought as they headed towards the first connecting corridor to the centre hub. They were relieved that there was no one else around as they walked.

An automated trolley whirred past them, disappearing down the corridor they were heading towards.

“Should have hitched a ride,” commented Flick. Grabb laughed.

“I’d say we need the exercise,” he responded. “Been on board far too long and I’m fed up with the ships’ gym!”

They continued on, walking briskly now as they got their bearings. Forty five minutes later they were in the central hub of the shipyard. They checked the layout against what they remembered from the schematic they’d viewed on board the Guardian Angel as they came in.

“Med bay first,” instructed Flick. “Let’s see if they’ve got our first aid refills ready. And it’ll be the lightest stuff to carry around.”

A few minutes later they had everything they needed loaded into Grabb’s handipak. They headed towards where they thought the shipyard central goods and food store was located and found they were passing through the centre of what resembled an old fashioned food hall from an old earth shopping centre.

“Good god,” exclaimed Flick. “I never thought I’d see something like this, let alone be standing in one! What a strange set up they’ve got here.”

She looked around to see all manner of food outlets, a drinks bar and a serious looking coffee shop. The stores were situated around a central courtyard scattered with tables and chairs. The lighting was better here and when she looked up she saw that the ceiling depicted clouds and blue sky. There were even tall green plants standing in pots dotted between the tables here and there.

“Wow!” agreed Grabb, “I’ve never seen anything like this before! Cool. We can try lots of different foods all in one place.”

He walked excitedly towards the nearest cake counter and started examining the chocolate cakes on offer. Flick smiled. She’d never known anyone to love chocolate as much as Grabb.

There were more people here too. Flick cast her eyes over several groups and noted that they all seemed quite relaxed. There was a mixture of human types, some dressed in bright colours, and others in the ubiquitous faded navy ship suits that were found in every galaxy she had been to. Hair styles varied from spiky upstanding quiffs to long silky hair tied back in pony tails.

Her eyes were drawn to a particularly attractive girl seated with a man and a woman at one of the tables. She seemed to be quite tall and willowy, with long dark hair in a ponytail down her back. She had big brown eyes and the most beautiful smile. She smiled often at her companions. Flick saw that Grabb had noticed her too.

“There’ll be none of that while we’re here,” she hissed in his ear as she edged closer to him.

Grabb looked innocently at Flick.

“She’s a stunner alright,” he said. “So many women, so little time.”

“Stop it,” Flick hissed at him. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. Remember?”

Grabb shrugged his shoulders under the weight of the handipak and turned back to studying the chocolate cakes in front of him.

“You get the coffee and I’ll get the cake,” he said cheerfully, and pushed Flick in the direction of the coffee shop.