Arrival - Chapter 19
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Spark woke up the next morning to find a tray of food sitting beside her bed and Mag nowhere to be seen. Spark checked the bathroom, then carefully pulled out her pad and checked the cameras. Nobody was in her hallway, and after a bit of searching she found Mag in the fighter bay working on one of the ships though not the same one from yesterday. Keeping the camera of her hallway up and telling her pad to follow Mag in a second window, Spark began to work on her programs again between bites from the tray.
Around mid-day Mag returned with two food trays, Spark looked up from her mattress, yawning and stretching as the door opened though she had only laid down a moment before after stashing her pad as she had seen Mag approaching the door on the cameras. Mag set down one of the trays and took the other to her own mattress, grumbling as she picked at the nutrient bars and hard mineral cracker on it. “Sorry the food hasn’t been good; this is all that we have until we reach port though I doubt it will get much better unless we get off the ship. I don’t want to go anywhere near that place if I can help it but for a good meal after how long we have been eating this garbage it is looking like a better and better option.”
Spark noticed that Mag’s words had been translated through her pad next to her, but that she hadn’t appeared to have pulled it out before sitting down. Had it been there this whole time sitting beside the bed? Mag noticed Spark’s attention on the pad and glanced at it. “Huh, guess I left this here when I left earlier.” She shrugged then turned back to her tray. “Not like there is anything it can do besides translate anyway. I poked around on it earlier but couldn’t find anything else that would run on it, and it doesn’t have a standard remote data connection either. Only thing I can think of is that it needs a special program to change its functions.”
Moving over to the pad, Spark looked up at Mag and waited for her to give approval before touching the device. She picked it up, placed her paw onto the screen then said something the device didn’t translate. A moment later the screen changed, a listing of languages showing up in two columns, one had Kintessian selected, the other was highlighting the word Common. Spark then said something in Kintessian, the device remaining silent as she showed Mag the screen. Mag took the pad and scrolled through the languages, surprised at the number of languages it could be set to. “This thing even translates Twill?” Mag asked, one eyebrow raising up as she eyed Spark. In reply, Spark let out a belt of speech in Kintessian, the unit remaining stubbornly silent.
Mag returned the device to highlight both Kintessian and common and pressed the key to accept the changes. A moment later the device started speaking once the dialog screen vanished. “It does not work when choose language. Sorry you can not understand. Must choose language for working translate.” Spark looked at the pad and raised an ear at it, then shook her head. “Must still listen when not working. Is what I said beforre. You had question?” She looked at Mag who peered at the device thoughtfully. “Hmm? Oh, I was surprised that it could translate Twill is all. Not many translators have that language in their program.”
Spark nodded her head and lay down on the floor, stretching out. “Master worrked with Twill for a time. Last place we stop had Twill so useful to have.” Mag nodded absently, then she picked up the empty trays and headed for the door. “I’ll be back later with dinner. We can talk more then but now I need to get back to work before they start looking for me.” She left and Spark pulled out her pad again, watching as Mag stopped by the mess hall to deposit the trays and then headed to the fighter bay, returning to the same ship she had been working on earlier that day. Spark began to work again as well, finishing up her programs an hour before Mag returned to the mess hall to pick up two trays and head her way.
Stashing the pad again Spark returned to her usual place on the mattress and waited for Mag to arrive. She had stopped trying to even pretend to like the hard cracker, having left it over on her tray the last three meals and Mag had taken notice. Today there was no cracker and instead the tray contained the usual two wrapped nutrient bars and a third package, smaller and brightly colored in purples and pinks. Spark looked at Mag but her tray held the usual two nutrient bars and cracker that Spark had been used to while she had been on the ship. “Can’t say I can get that again, at least not until we dock up, but I used the last of my vouchers to get something a bit more edible. Hope you enjoy it.”
Spark carefully opened the package and sniffed at the contents; a thick cut of salted meat covered in spices and a dried sauce of some sort. She set it down then ate the two nutrient bars before taking small bites from the jerky, chewing carefully and enjoying the flavor enough to wag her tail a bit though she stopped when she saw Mag smiling at her reaction to the slightly better food. “Glad to see you approve. We should arrive at the docking platform around lunch time tomorrow. I doubt the captain will let me take you off the ship, but if I do go station side, I will bring you back something better to eat. I’m sure you are as tired of nutrient paste bars as I am, and I have a feeling your tendency runs more to the carnivorous.”
Spark finished the last bite of the small jerky stick, sucking on it a minute then swallowing. “Meat good, yes.” She waited a moment, looking at the door then asking in a more hesitant manner. “Where Mag go all day?”
Mag looked at the door and lay back against her pillow, staring at the ceiling. “Not sure you would understand, but I have been working on two of the fighters. Both needed to have their targeting computers realigned and one had a blown relay between the aft thruster assembly and the main computer. It took all day to trace down that fault in the relay, the system kept giving me the wrong information. May need to do an overhaul of that soon too, or a fresh installation of the computer system which would be about the same as replacing it. I haven’t even been able to work on my own fighter at all in the past week. Not that it needs anything major like these two, but it is the principle of the thing, every pilot wants to work on their own craft.”
“Mag has ship? Mag take Spark to master?” Mag sighed and looked at Spark. “Yes, I have a ship, but I can’t take you to your master. Even if I wanted to, my ship is in lockdown and the door to the bay won’t open unless the captain puts in his command code to override it. None of us are free to come and go, instead we stay here and protect his ship, picking up what crumbs he decides to scatter our way as we build more and more debt from repairs, meals, protection, and many of us were slaves to start so we have our purchase price to work off as well. The others may be fine with the arrangement, and a few are free to come and go, those whose ships we have to maintain for them, but I still have over 3 years of work left to pay off on my debt at the current rate of increase. After that I would have to pay for passage, food, fuel, parts, and maintenance unless I did it myself.”
Mag sighed and draped an arm over her eyes. “It hurts to think how much I still owe, but I have paid off so much already that all considered I’m nearly done. Three more years give or take, that was 15 when I first started. It hasn’t been all bad though, I could easily get a job repairing ships or running trade lanes. I know where pirates tend to hide so I can avoid most ambushes and I’m fairly good in a fight. I also haven’t ever been caught so my face isn’t on any wanted posters unlike many of those who live here. I would have to pay off the cost of my ship to take it with me, that would be another 10 years at least though I can claim about half of it as spoils of combat once I’m no longer in debt so maybe another 3 to 5 years if I’m lucky and really careful.”
Spark held her eyes shut, wanting to say something comforting to Mag but resisted the urge. Instead, she moved to flop down beside the human, pawing at her leg and nuzzling against her side. Mag looked over a bit startled, but quickly relaxed and petted Spark. “I thought not but it was still good to get it out.” She fell asleep with one hand resting on Spark’s head, Spark drifting off as well shortly after leaning against Mag’s side.
Spark woke up first, carefully extricating herself then gently pressing her paw against Mag’s cheek to wake her. Mag looked over and smiled, then sat up and stretched. “I’ll be right back with breakfast.” The two of them ate silently, Mag taking the trays with her as she headed off to work. Spark immediately pulled out her pad and began to work, the two cameras, one facing her hallway and the other following Mag, sitting prominently in the top corners of her display. After two hours she sighed and flopped onto the mattress in defeat. The files she wanted, the ones that held Mag’s debt along with the rest of the ship’s financials were inaccessible, locked away behind command codes that even her engineering pad was unable to circumvent.
Clearing her search, Spark took another approach and after another hour finally had something workable. Maybe she couldn’t gain access to the files, but she could mess with the hardware itself rendering the data unusable. It would require a trip to engineering where the computer core resided inside its protective case but once there, she only needed a few seconds to pull out the data crystal, taking all the ship financials as well as a number of the captain’s personal files and logs with them, those she had been able to gather and move onto the previously unused data crystal. Shifting the file locations had actually been a bit too easy, all the lockouts were on accessing the files, not in their physical location. That meant that they would still be protected on the crystal and next to impossible to hack without a specialized machine, but they could still be removed physically. She had checked through the system and had located and moved all the backups to the crystal as well, part of the reason she had also found the blackmail files Able had on various government officials, probably the only reason he hadn’t been picked up yet inside Earth space or the outlying colonies.
Mag returned a while later, Spark looking up from the blanket where she had been resting, her work as complete as it could be for the moment. “We arrived at the orbital station a few minutes ago, most of the crew is already heading to the shuttle to go down. I was correct, the captain refused to allow me to take you with me, but you will be safe here until I get back. I mentioned the chance that someone may try to sneak you to the station to make some fast coin and he changed the code to the door, only he and I now have access to this room and any attempt to break in will set off an alarm.”
Spark looked at the door then lay back down. “I want meat.” Mag chuckled and turned to go. “Sure, I’ll see what I can do there. Be back soon.” Mag left and Spark again pulled out her pad, watching as all but two pirates stepped off the ship onto the waiting shuttle along with Able, and the door closed. The remaining two pirates were still in their personal rooms and Spark wanted to hurry but instead forced herself to examine the changes to the lock on her door. Two minutes and a few tweaks to her lock program later she was in the hall scampering towards engineering, the door already unlocked. She pushed inside and hurried over to the computer core.
Pulling open the side panel, Spark pulled out first a blank memory crystal, taking it over to the replicator and making a duplicate before returning to the core. Placing the duplicate into the unit, Spark copied the data she had moved onto the replicated core before taking the original and leaving the copy in its place, replacing the empty crystal into the core and sealing the casing. The whole process had taken no more than a minute, and Spark carefully closed the door to engineering behind her as she left, hearing the click of the latch as it locked behind her without any other sound. Returning to her room, Spark placed the data crystal into her hiding spot, pulling out the crackers to make room.
The replicated crystal would operate like any of the others, but the crystal structure was not nearly as stable. It would last through a few days at best before the data matrix collapsed, destroying the data and possibly shattering the crystal in the process or at least leaving a spiderweb of cracks throughout its surface. There was a reason that data crystals were grown in vats over extended periods and never replicated except for dire emergencies.
Mag was the first of the crew to return just over an hour after the shuttle left. One of the crew who had remained aboard had attempted to access her door half an hour after the shuttle left but when the code had been denied he shrugged and walked back to his room and that was the end of it. Mag entered holding a paper sack, the smell of cooked meat the first thing Spark smelled. She sat up and licked her lips as Mag moved to her own mattress and sat down, placing the bag before her. She glanced over at Spark and smiled. “You got lucky, they were having a buy one get one free sale on doubles.” She placed two colorfully wrapped packages from the bag onto a tray and set it beside herself. “Better come get them before they cool, I made sure it was just the meat and bun, no vegetables or condiments. You can skip the bread if you prefer, I won’t be offended.” Spark didn’t need any coaxing, moving over to sit next to Mag and tearing open the first burger, taking a big bite and enjoying the taste of the juices and fresh meat. It wasn’t like a fresh kill; the meat was a bit dry and slightly charred, but it tasted good after days and days of only nutrient paste bars. Spark took her time with the second burger, forcing small bites and chewing each enough to enjoy the flavor before swallowing. “Thanks Mag, I know you did not have to do this forr me.” Mag looked over at Spark, handing her the fourth burger. “Just when I think I have you all figured out you still manage to surprise me. Here, you need this more than I do. In an hour I’ll take you to go exercise in the cargo bay again, I was given permission since it will help you stay healthy to take you there every other day or so.”
Spark smiled and accepted the burger, eating happily. “Mag play hide and seek?” Spark asked curiously, and Mag just shook her head in disbelief. “Sure, why not.”