[ WP ] A band of space-pirates faces down a massive mining frigate .

The bridge is a fairly narrow room containing four seats one for the navigator and the other for the pilot two of which were currently occupied by Glenn the pilot/engineer/navigator and Desmond the ships “ security officer ” /weapons specialist while his Captain, Sam leans against the back wall. Quinntenn would normally prod some entertainment out of Desmond however Sam cuts him off. 
 
 “ Well now that Quinntenn is finally here we can begin. ” Sam gets off the wall and points her finger at the large almost phallic like ship sitting immobile on the edge of a large blue nebula visible form the Duraglass window in front of them. “ That gentlemen, is a Kelgeorian mining frigate. Now normally we would have stayed far away from such a beast but, you know what Glenn, ” Sam says looking over at the small man in the pilot ’ s seat. “ Bring up the distress call. ” 
 Almost immediately Glenn flips a switch on his vast array of lights, buttons, switches and knobs that make up the labyrinth of the pilot console. Once flipped the on board radio starts sputtering garbled words and inaudible sounds among the static and everyone but Sam, went to cover their ears from the brutal attack by the horrible sounds coming out of the radio. After a few seconds of this Sam nods at Glenn who then turns off the radio. 
 
 “ Jesus Sam, ” Desmond says rubbing his ears in an attempt to soothe them “ I didn ’ t know you invented a new method of torture? Gee that is just fuckn amaz- ” 
 
 Sam cuts Desmond off “ Glenn and yours truly put that garbled mess through the computer and we were able to piece together something I think you all will find quite interesting. ” Sam turns back to Glenn “ play it. ” 
 Glenn starts typing and after a couple of seconds a voice come over the intercom “ …..UEC frigate New Charon, ……an SOS………stay…………Please Save………………. ” 
 “ That ’ s it? Quinntenn says looking at Sam unamused “ that message could mean any number of things. Hell it could have already reached one of the other UEC outposts, it could be one of the Big Fish trying to catch some fucking idiot hero UEC captain stupid enough to fly into a nebula. I don ’ t need to tell you what happens to electrical equipment there, if- ” 
 “ Jesus Quinntenn, ” Sam sighs with disappointment “ why did you become a pirate in the first place if all you apparently want to do is bitch about danger. ” She turns her back to Quinntenn and walks over to the Duraglass observation window. “ Glenn you finish up, ” she says waving he hand toward Glenn, the excitement form the new discovery now drained from her voice. 
 
 Glenn turns his chair to the rest of the crew and clears his throat in an attempt to hide his young voice. “ I was able to gather more information on the destress call see, I knew I had heard the ships name before and it turns out the last cargo drone we scooped up was not only scanning asteroids but looking for a lost ship. ” Glenn beckons Quinntenn over to his console and flips another switch to turn on the large computer screen in the middle of it. “ Look Quinntenn, the ship New Charon has been missing for only half of a Galactic week the Kelgeorian mining company has no Idea what happened to it. It left port at Whetham station in the HD 10180 star system and no one has seen a trace of it since. Guess what it is carrying Quinntenn? 
 
 “ Whetham station, ” Quinntenn said his jaw almost dropping at the name. “ Water, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen the fucking thing is caring resources for terraforming. ” 
 
 “ Exactly Quinntenn, that ship is carrying everything for terraforming new planets from the water, plants, and raw materials to key elements of the atmospheric processors. Now anyone want to guess how much these particular materials go for on the black market? 
 
 Sam turns form her view and come bounding back into the conversation her excitement now rejuvenated. “ 2 million for the gas tanks, 5 for the water tanks and 3 million for plant seed! We could finally give the Xavier the upgrade she deserves we could outfit her with stasis pods, a better FTL drive, better yet both. Think about it we could finely get out of the Orion sector we could finely see the galaxy, see Earth, go to New Mars see something else than this god forsaken backwater. 
 
 “ That ’ s…good, ” Quinntenn says his eyes fixed on that ship, “ Ok Sam let ’ s hear the plan. ” 
 “ We enter form the half not inside the nebula, ” Sam says, “ b-line it to cargo, then pack the Xavier with as much as she can carry, set a course to Kepler-42 system, and get rich. ” 
 
 “ Hold on Sam, ” Desmond says holding his hands out to make his point more clear “ what about the people on the ship? ” frigates don ’ t just piolet themselves or break themselves for that matter. ” 
 “ We did a scan of the ship no life forms aboard ” Sam replies “ we scanned as much of the ship as we could and no lifeforms came up, they must have used the escape pods when they crashed after sending out the message. Just makes our job easier. ” 
 
 “ But there is nothing around here. ” Desmond says, “ Glenn you said yesterday that this is not a usual flight path, which is why we are going this way in the first place. So why is it here? ” Sam looks a Glenn, and looks like she is about to strangle him. 
 
 “ umm, ” Glenn stutters trying to keep his cool “ the navigation system could have sent them on this alternate route for a multitude of reasons meteor storms blocking the original route or the equipment could have malfunctioned. The navigation systems on those big ships are still new and prone to bugs of all sorts. ” 
 
 Desmond begins to argue more but Sam steps in. “ DESMOND! We are going in with full suits so anything on that ship we don ’ t want on our ship will stay that way ok, ” Sam says her face getting more and more annoyed at Desmond the more she talks to him. “ Now, Desmond will you get you balls out of your purse and stop being such a little bitch, Hmm? We are about to get filthy rich and you want to tuck tail now? ” 
 
 Desmond veins begin to show in his forehead however after a few tense seconds of silence he relaxes back in his chair. “ Fine Sam,'' he says, `` you ’ re right, let ’ s get rich. ” 
 
 Sam looks at Quinntenn, smiling as if she was a little girl with a bag full of candy. “ Don ’ t need to convince me, let ’ s make some fucking money Sam. ” Quinntenn says unenthusiastically. 
 
 She quickly jumps to her seat giggling as Quinntenn lazily walks over to his seat beside Desmond. Glenn begins bringing the ship closer to the metal behemoth in all the excitement of their new found fortune Quinntenn is the only one to hear Desmond say, “ Something is not right here. ” 

