Chapter 1

Jumping Into The J Space River

I awoke to the green-blue colors of a ship in G drive. My head was still muzzy and was fighting off a dim headache. I looked over at Bo and could see that she was holding a slender hand to her head and shaking it.

“One of these days, I’m grabbing that Gi Staff and instructing Mandy Mandy in a few lessons she needs to learn,” mumbled Bo as she shakily stood up and walked over to the main console.

I could tell we were on a Station courier ship and we were ripping through the star fields.

“Looks like we’re somewhere in the Graveyard.” She looked up from the console and stared at me. “How’s your astronavigation Ranko?” She held up her hand at my next obvious rejoinder that obviously the computer did that job and we were only passengers. “From what I can tell, the nav comp has been disabled.” She turned to look down again at the console. “Naturally they would do that huh?”

For the first time Bo really looked at me. Her gray-green eyes pinned my senses. Her night-black hair swept away from her wide forehead by a silver band, she stared her question.

“Naturally,” I agreed. “Of course the Slj have a lot of proxy bad guys working for them and any one of them would be happy to intercept us.

“Can you access the computer? It’s still driving the ship you know.”

“You bet ahm a driving us and don’t yuh forgit it!” came the deep-barrel voice out nowhere.

Bo and I jumped a few feet and assumed combat modes, swiveling our heads like crazy marionettes.

“Hey youse joiks, I’m over here.” The console lights started to flash and we suddenly realized that it was our computer talking to us.

“Yeah yeah, I know what you’re thinking. We never had a talking computer before and so on and so on right? Well, I am the new fresh-off-the-drawing-board and oh-so-ready-for-action Personal Kit 1023 -ngp-gazk. You can call me PK for short. I have orders to deliver you and the prototype J Grav to HQ.”

Bo and I were speechless. What other tricks had Mandy Mandy left for us to discover?

“What is a J Grav?” I asked, knowing that I probably would not like the answer.

“It is a recently developed grav wave projector with unknown ramifications, considered to be an amazing breakthrough in G space astrophysics,” responded PK in a clipped English butler-type of accent.

“I say there old chaps, would you care to know where we are?”

“I sure as hell would,” said Bo as she started to rub her left arm up and down while looking pointedly at me.

“Waal pilgrims, we’re out in hostile territory, ah can tell yuh that,” PK intoned in a deep drawl.

“PK! Would you please choose one dialect and just stay with it?” I yelled while rubbing my left arm up and down and quietly cursing Mandy Mandy.

“Which would you prefer, Sir?” came the tone of an English butler.

I was about to yell back when suddenly all the alarms went off.

We canted wildly to the right at a 60-degree angle and Bo and I were plastered up against the wall.

“We are under attack. I can maintain a steady deck for 22 seconds. Please use that time to reach the control chairs.” We righted to a level plane and Bo and I ran to the flight chairs and buckled in.

“Attacker identified as a Slj scout!” shouted out Bo as she viewed the incoming data on the screen.

The Slj always attack first and then ask questions, if you happen to survive. We were still in the Graveyard according to navigation, and technically in neutral space, but tell that to a Slj.

“Compensating for J grav!”

I glanced over at Bo and could see her biting her lip as she played the weapons console.

“I would advise against that Madam,” said PK still in his butler mode. “The J grav is still in a testing mode and the Station has tasked me to ensure the safe arrival of the prototype weapon at the base.”

“Well that Slj is about to make us vapor!” I yelled as I jinked us left and right and down and up, but still the scout was drawing closer. They always liked to be as near as possible when making a kill... something about their ancestral ways when they were still wild and primitive, living in the swamps.

“The J Grav has many unknowns, such as field warp fluctuations

and…”

Bo cut PK off in its recitation with a savage punch to the weapon.

“Well let’s see!”

There was a loud SNAP! My vision became blurred and then coruscating colors passed through me. I became part of the colors.

I vaguely remember shouting and watching rainbow colors flow from my mouth and then SNAP! The mind warping hues were gone and we were still whole.

When I saw the nav screen I could not believe it. I had to ask.

“PK, what do your sensors show?” I was able to barely croak out.

There was a pause. “Nothing. I detect nothing. No star fields, no energy no planets. Nothing.” PK this time was talking in the standard computerese monotone that I was used to hearing. I guess if you could say a computer could be shocked… this is what happened to PK.

This time I heard and felt and smelled and saw the third SNAP! as the Slj scout popped up right next to us.

Bo lunged for the weapons. “Firing missiles! She shouted as she pushed various pads.” Nothing happened. I whipped us away from the scout but we moved like we were stuck in molasses.

“PK! What the hell is happening? All weapons non functioning!” yelled Bo as she slammed the non-responsive console with her palm.

We seemed to literally be moving at walking speed as I attempted to get us the hell away from the Slj scout.

“No weapons fire from the Slj. Apparently the scout is in the

same predicament we are,” intoned PK.

I blinked through the sweat dripping in my eyes that had sprung to my forehead out of sheer terror.

PK was right. The Slj was somehow linked to us and turned as we turned. It most definitely was not shooting at us.

“PK, report on the class of scout we are looking at,” commanded Bo.

“Slj scout code named Ripper. One occupant. Flight range five light years. Weapons are ten Rips missiles and two T beams.”

“So we’re stuck with it.”

“Actually it is a she. The female Slj are the core leadership and the warrior class. Most ferocious. The Scout pilots are the best of their best.”

I noticed that PK had now settled into the old earth English butler accent and I did not have any problem with it right now. At least it was consistent, which was more than I could say for our present condition.

“We had better call Station and report in.”

I agreed with Bo.

“Not possible. I have been sending since we arrived here and have not been able to receive.” PK paused, which really worried me, “All sensors are fully functional and yet I cannot ping the scout… in fact I am now blind and can no longer receive or send any telemetry”… another pause… “Please tell me how far away the scout is.”

Bo and I looked at each other and I think her eyes were as wide as mine.

“Uh, I’d guess about 500 yards or so. Bo?”

“About that, yeah,” said Bo as she again looked straight at me with a “What the hell?” look on her face.

“I do not show the scout present. Simple radar signals are being emitted according to my readings but I am not receiving a return signal, which I most definitely should be.”

I had never heard a confused and worried computer before but PK was most definitely in that mode.

“All energy waves are being damped but what about visual? Try blinking the running lights and see what happens to our friend over there.”

“Good idea Bo,” I said as I toggled the lights on and off.

There was a long pause from the Slj scout and then its lights blinked back.

“Ah, communication,” muttered Bo. “Now what?”

“I will attempt to signal it that we are both in the same fix. I can use the Slj equivalent of Human Morse Code.”

We waited while PK communicated to the Slj and watched its green lights flashing back at us in rapid staccato beats.

“She says her name is Waj, as close as I can bring it to English Translation, and she has enough food for three more of our days. The problem is her life support which was damaged in the fight. She has less than a few hours left. We have enough food for months to feed you two and I can easily synthesize what Waj needs to survive.”

Bo and I looked askance at each other. “Are you suggesting that we save this Slj? She would hardly do the same for us. They think we are little better than dirt.” I admit I was somewhat gruff in my statement, but that is how I felt.

“True, but this is also a moment when Slj and Human might finally truly work with one another for the common good of survival,” she replied.

“How do we even get it or her over here without any power?”

“Waj is willing to push off from her ship while trailing a line. If she misses then she will pull herself back and try again. Of course we can improve her odds by meeting her from our ship.”

“How much air does she have left?” asked Bo.

“Now 5 minutes 16 seconds …”

“We get it,” I said as I turned to the locker and pulled out my space suit. “What the hell, maybe Waj likes poker,” I muttered to myself.

Bo came over and tied a line around my waste as I walked to the air lock. “Try not to dawdle too much,” she said with a wide smile.

I nodded, shot her a smirk, and entered the air lock.

“I have signaled Waj that you will be meeting her and will guide her in. She has agreed, and is now entering her air lock. She should soon be visible.” PK paused. “I can’t sensor anything anymore. Do you see her?”

“I can see her,” responded Bo. “Ranko are you ready to meet her?”

“Ready as I will ever be,” I said as I opened the outer airlock and saw the Slj, um, Waj standing at the open lock. I raised my hand and she raised hers and then pushed off into the gray nothingness in which our two ships were mired.

I slowly floated towards Waj with my lifeline trailing behind me.

How is it that the engines were good but with nothing but a walking speed? The life systems were still running but we had no weapons and no communications. I nudged my course with an air burst from my tank and soon I was headed on a collision with Waj. As I neared her, I noticed that her left arm dangled downwards at an awkward angle and realized that it was broken.

I was on my own as my radio could not communicate with her or with Bo and PK. I reached out and grabbed Waj and saw that she was unconscious, like looking at a giant sleeping praying mantis. I was tempted for a quick second to simply miss her and let her go on to the end of her tether, but I already had her in my arms and I turned around, disconnected her tether and headed back to our ship. Mandy Mandy would never believe this one.

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