Alternity Chapter One

Alternity - Chapter 1

The Maru

"Well there she is" said Beka, the pride in her voice was obvious. "The Eureka Maru, the best salvager and cargo hauler in space, and your ride to Dawkinstown."

Trance looked askance at the spacecraft Beka was pointing to. With the advent of antigravity generators, spacecraft no longer needed to be streamlined to land or take off from a planet, and most space going vessels not designed for atmospheric maneuvering tended to be built for function rather than grace, but even by those standards the Eureka Maru was an eyesore. Long, boxy and awkward looking, a dirty brown in color; its hull was pitted, scarred and badly in need of paint. With the cargo pod perched above the craft's main body, it looked like a baking pan attempting to mate with a shoe box. . In many ways the Maru was a descendant of the tramp freighters that had plied the oceans of Earth three thousand years ago, eking out a living delivering mail and cargoes too small or to places too inconvenient to be attractive to the large shipping companies.

Beka noticed Trance's dubious look. "She may not be pretty to look at, but she's solid and fast. Harper may not be much in some ways, but he wasn't lying when he said he was a genius. He keeps the engines better tuned than most military craft’s are. Just ask any of the pirates or customs enforcers who've attempted to capture her."

The recipient of her praise, now standing more, but not completely, steadily gave their passenger a grin. "I told you I'm a freakin genius."

Trance started forward to the Maru's boarding elevator but was stopped by Beka. "Before you step on board I need to know something. Will taking you with us bring anyone after us? Because if it does I'll kick you off the ship and if we're in deep space at the time, that'll be your problem, not mine."

Her prospective passenger shook her head. "No, I left my family to find my perfect future. No one is looking for me."

"Considering how you were dressed, and what you were prepared to do to earn passage off of this mudball," said Beka, an edge of sarcasm in her voice, "maybe you should have stayed home. Your future isn't looking all too perfect."

"What was she preparing to do?" interjected Harper.

"None of your business, Harper," said Beka. "Now get aboard, and tell Rev we have company coming."

"Here, Harper," said Trance holding out a shiny object to him, "before you go. You can use this to keep track of the time."

"May I see that?" asked Beka, as Harper reached out for the object.

"It’s a watch," said Trance as she handed it over to Beka. "I thought maybe he could use it so he won’t be late the next time you wanted him to be on board before lift off."

Beka took a look at the watch. It was a combination timepiece and communicator. She recognized the brand name; if the watch was the genuine article it was ridiculously expensive. She also remembered where she had recently seen such a watch. "This watch looks awful familiar, Trance Wasn’t it on the wrist of the man you were talking to when I met you?" asked Beka.

Trance gave the older woman an embarrassed look.

"I didn’t see him give it to you," continued Beka.

"I guess he didn’t really give it to me."

"I see, so you’re a thief."

"No, I’m not a thief," stated Trance

"If you’re not a thief, then what are you?" asked Beka wondering where this conversation was going to go.

"Thieves have bad intentions when they steal things. My intentions were good, Harper needs a new watch."

"And just how did you know Harper was going to need a watch?"

The younger woman shrugged, "Lucky guess?"

Beka gave Trance an exasperated look as Harper took the watch. She made a mental note to herself to check the girl’s backpack before she left the Maru. It wasn’t that Beka had any great philosophical disagreements against stealing, but she did have objections against being the one stolen from.

The two waited outside for about five minutes to as Beka put it 'Give Rev the opportunity to be presentable for visitors' then entered the Maru.

The Maru’s boarding elevator, which was also part of the airlock mechanism, opened into a small squarish room. Looking around the room Trance noticed four spacesuits hanging on racks, and a large number of tools that she was unable to discern a use for mounted on the bulkheads. There were several storage boxes strapped to the deck, and a gravlifter pushed into one corner of the room. On the opposite bulkhead from where they had entered was an airtight door. Beka led her through the door, and into what Trance decided was the Maru's common room.

The room was roughly octagonal, a bit over 5 meters in diameter. It contained a small galley, a table with bench seats and an old fashioned entertainment set. There were dirty dishes on both the table and the galley stove. In one corner of the room was a set of shelves that held flexies and various small objects which fairly screamed 'trinkets and souvenirs'. There were cabinets mounted on all the bulkheads, most of them marked with symbols, which Trance assumed indicted the contents of the cabinet. The only cabinet symbol she recognized was a large red cross There were three doors leading out of the room. The one to her right, which would have led to the forward part of the Maru was closed. The one to her left, leading to the aft part of the starship was open. The third door was in the bulkhead opposite the door they had just stepped through. Like the right hand door, it was closed..

All of the doors were airtight doors. An air leak in one portion of the ship could be isolated, leaving the rest of the ship pressurized. Located beside each door, including the one she was standing by, was a large gage. Trance took a moment to study the gage, and realized that it was designed to show the air pressure on the other side of the door, a good thing to know if you were planning to open the door and weren't wearing a space suit. The Maru was obviously built with damage control in mind.

Beka pointed to the right hand doorway, "My stateroom and the command deck are through there. You don’t go into either unless you’re invited." Pointing to the door on the left she continued, "Engineering spaces are down that passageway. Stay out of them unless someone is there to make sure you don't get into trouble." She pointed to the last door. "The door in the port bulkhead leads to crew’s berthing. Rev’s undoubtedly in there changing into a clean robe."

Trance scooted around Beka to take a look down the passageway leading to the engineering spaces, as she did the door to the berthing area opened and Harper and another individual stepped into view. Trance took one look at the other individual, gave a scream of fright and attempted to bolt for the exit, only to be stopped by Beka.

"You don't have to run," said the Maru's captain "That's Rev, he won't hurt you."

Rev's physical appearance was enough to intimidate the bravest soul. Rev was a Magog, six feet of shaggy hair, large muscles, huge paw like hands ending in long curved claws, and a mouth full of sharp fangs. The Magog had become the scourge of the galaxies after the fall of the Commonwealth. It wasn't just their physical characteristics that had made the Magog hated and feared; it was their dietary and reproductive habits. Magog were carnivores, and they preferred their meals to be alive when eaten. They reproduced by injecting eggs into a host; the eggs hatched into larva that consumed their host from the inside out. As a species, the Magog considered humans, and most other intelligent life forms, highly suitable both as hosts and as hors d'oeuvres.

Trance stopped struggling and turned to face Rev. Instead of battle armor he was wearing the robe and triangle medallion of a Wayist monk, a religious order noted for its pacifist ways and good works. Then there was the obvious fact that both Beka and Harper were outside Rev rather than inside his stomach. She began to relax just a little.

"You're a Wayist?" There was incredulity in her voice.

"Proof that the Divine has a truly warped sense of humor," the Magog's voice was that of a cultured educated person, not that of a bloodthirsty monster. He gave Trance a smile, which caused her to shiver involuntarily. A smiling Magog is a frightening thing.

"Rev, this is Trance," Beka made the introductions. "Trance, this is the Reverend Behemel Far Traveler; better known as Rev. Trance will be riding with us to Dawkinstown Drift, Rev."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mistress Trance." He held out his hand, and she tentatively reached hers out to touch his. His paw dwarfed her tiny hand.

"Rev, it'll take us nearly two days to reach Dawkinstown, so Trance will be sleeping in the crew's berthing area tonight and tomorrow. I promised her that she wouldn't be bothered on the trip, so if Harper comes on to her, you have my permission to eat him."

Rev sniffed at Harper then said, "Only if he's sober Beka, you know how much pickled food upsets my stomach"

From the lack of expression on the engineer's face, Trance assumed that Beka and Rev were joking. At least she hoped they were.

"Well let's get you settled in the crew's berthing," said Beka as she led Trance through the door into the berthing compartment.

Crew's berthing was a rectangular compartment, approximately five meters in length and two meters across, mounted perpendicular to the main body of the Maru with the long sides of the rectangle being the fore and aft bulkheads of the compartment. The dominant feature of the compartment was the bunks set along the fore and aft bulkheads.. There were two bunks on each bulkhead, an upper and a lower one. The bunks were designed so that the mattresses could be lifted revealing storage compartments underneath them. To Trance's eyes they looked disturbingly similar to coffins. The two lower ones were already in use. One was neatly made up; the other was unmade, had clothes scattered about it, and several images of voluptuous, unclad young women attached to the bulkhead adjacent to it. There was no question in Trance's mind as to who's bunk was whose.

In addition to the bunks there were two pair of lockers mounted on the bulkheads near the bunks. One of the lockers had a Wayist medallion hanging from it. The other three lockers were covered by pinups, one of them life sized. However, while the other pinups were static images, this one was animated. As Trance approached the lockers the woman in the image began to use her hands on herself in a manner that caused Trance to turn her head away in embarrassment, which did not go unnoticed by Beka.

Trance continued her survey of the room The remainder of the room's furnishings consisted of a simple head, screened of from the rest of the compartment by a curtain. It was equipped with a washstand and toilet, both of which could be folded against the bulkhead to allow the head’s shower facilities to be used

Trance chose the bunk above Rev's, thinking that if Harper wanted to crawl into her bunk while everyone was sleeping he would first have to step on Rev's bunk. She threw her backpack on the bunk, and was settled in.

"Harper!", said Beka after Trance had chosen her bunk. " Clean out one of your lockers and get your harem off the bulkheads."

"Even Isabelle?" complained Harper.

"Especially Isabelle."

As Harper took down his two dimensional girlfriends, Trance followed Beka out into the common room The Maru's captain began rummaging around in the cabinet that Trance had noticed earlier, the one marked with the red cross. It was obviously the Maru's first aid locker. After a moment Beka retrieved an ampule of some sort of drug and an injector.

By this time Harper had finished his impromptu redecorating and had returned to the common room. When he saw what Beka was holding in her hands a distinctly unhappy look came over his face.

"If you'd been aboard on time, I wouldn't be needing to use this to sober you up," she scolded her crewman.

"Excuse me, Beka," interjected Trance. "Are you going to use Anoxahol to sober Harper up? It'll work but it'll also give him really bad headaches for the next couple of hours and probably make him sick as well. A combination of Vitranim and Matraconst works just as well and won't make him ill."

"How would you know about that?"

"I learned how when.." her voice trailed off as if she had decided that she was revealing something she didn't want revealed.

"Well we don't have any Vitranim or Matraconst," she mispronounced both words. "So Harper's going to have to suffer through it. Here, why don't you administer the injection?" She was curious to see how the girl would handle the procedure considering her previous comments.

"How much do you weigh, Harper?" Trance asked as she took the drug and the injector.

"Sixty seven kilos."

Trance expertly inserted the ampule of Anoxahol into the injector and made an adjustment to insure that the proper amount of drug was going to be injected.

"Can I see that?' asked Beka. Trance handed over the injector to the Maru's captain who checked the setting. It was correct; Trance had calculated the proper dosage.

She handed the injector back to the girl who placed the injector against Harper's neck and triggered it. There was a soft hissing sound as the drug was administered.

Trance's obvious expertise raised some questions in Beka's mind. With her skills she should have been able to trade them for a ride on any number of ships; so why had she been dressed as a prostitute, and been willing to trade her body for passage? Unless she was concerned that someone might be asking for a young girl with medical knowledge and had deliberately tried to hide it. But that didn't make much sense since a questioner would most likely be asking about a purple girl with a tail, something that would be far more likely to be noticed than her medical skill. The girl was hiding something but what? But then just about everyone Beka knew was hiding something, as long as the girl's secrets didn't endanger the Maru or her crew she wasn't going to pry.

Prologue

Chapter 2