Interception
Not very far away from the ostentatious cruise ship’s current trajectory, a small unmarked vessel was floating in space. It was barely a quarter the size of the Mockingbird and, also, barely holding together.
It was hard to tell if this ship had always been this rough as it would be difficult to imagine it in pristine condition. It looked like it had been caught between a moon and a war ship.
The naked eye could see dents and imprints of past encounters. Ripped scrapes lined the sides of the vessel, taking away nearly all distinct identification markings or numbers. However, with a more careful examination one could possibly see, through the carnage, the designation of the ship in cracked and faded lettering; It read “The Hula Girl”
“The Mockingbird is approaching our location.” A harsh sounding AI announced loudly, and a woman’s head shot up, hitting the top of her navigation panel hard with the top of her head.
“Goddammit! Give me some warning next time, will ya?” The woman rubbed her face and groaned, a bright red mark from where she had been laying on the console took up the left side of her face.
“I just did.” The AI sassed and the Captain flipped the roof of the cabin off, “Very mature, Captain.” The AI Quipped and the captain rolled her eyes.
She spent the next couple of minutes glancing over what looked like holographic blue prints and scans of “The Mockingbird” on the sensor of her console. “How long till they intercept?”
“That depends” The AI explained dryly “On if you still want to go through with this awful plan or if you’ve smartened up and we can just hide here until they pass up without incendent”
“Alecta.” The captain warned, attempting to brush back the wild mane of brown hair from her face.
The AI sighed, “7 minutes and counting, Captain.”
The captain seemed to be having trouble getting her body to wake up and she twirled around in the moving captain’s chair, her eyes closed as she laid out her plans in her head.
The Captain was a bright, young, if not rugged looking woman. Her hair was tangled and wild, tracing it’s way in half curls down her back. She wore a one piece technician’s suit that was at least two sized two big for her and the neck line fell slightly down her shoulder. She was barefoot. When she opened her eyes she seemed ready to go.
“Helen! Can you take the helm for this one?” She shouted out loudly from the door exiting the cabin, there was no answer but 30 seconds later another woman, presumably an android, appeared in the door way as the Captain moved the blueprints and information to her portable device with a flick of her fingers.
“Of course I can, Skye. However, you have not yet indulged you plan to overtake the Mockingbird, that may make it difficult for me to help you.”
“Snatch and grab? We’re kinda tight on this one but if the catch is as good as the tip says it is we should be sitting pretty for a little while. Come over here and I’ll show you the plans” As she spoke she began to pull on various protective gear, including a shock vest and all terrain combat boots. She put a rather intimidating looking gun into her holster and grabbed a reinforced sack from the pile of misplaced things just to the side of the helm.
“Alecta I need you to hack the intercom systems, okay? That’s very important.” Skye eyed the ship suspiciously until the same harsh voice scratched through.
“Fine. If it’s that imperative.” The AI sounded as if she were playing solitaire or knitting as she spoke, barely an inflection in her words.
“It is that important, I need Helen to get me onto the ship, she can’t do both.” Skye assured and strapped a couple of knives underneath her bra straps. “Time Alecta ?”
“2 minutes, your majesty.”
Skye ignored her and made her way to the door, “When I give the signal, let her rip, Helen.”
Helen nodded, and began flipping a few of the obviously outdated controls on the helm and watching the signals closely. “Be careful Skye. No job is worth your life.”
Skye laughed, “That’s debatable! I’ll see you on the other side!”-- A few seconds later she popped back through the door--”Hey, do you know where my Ion Torch is?”
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Jemma threw her head back and laughed at what the lead singer was currently Joking about on stage, she looked better than she had since she had first gotten the news that she was to be on this ship. She had found a small group of acquaintances that were charming and kept up a good conversation and she had found a table with them for the show.
Jemma sat back in her seat as the music started and the song began, something about a long lost love and finding a new reason to live. It was a catchy tune and she swayed with the rest of her table as it truly started and the drums were added to the music.
The intercom shrieked loudly even through the concert and the band stopped playing as an alarm began and everyone glanced around.
“WE ARE UNDER ATTACK. PLEASE GET TO THE NEAREST SAFETY--” The panicked AI was cut short with a crack and suddenly the sounds of what resembled plundering vikings came through the coms, screaming orders and demanding payment, then another voice came through, “Hi everybody, I am the Captain of a very powerful ship. My crew and I, well, we’re here to take your things.” Everyone in the crowd gasped and began to stand.
“No! No, don’t leave your seats if we see anybody move we will not hesitate to shoot to kill, now stay where you are and everything will be fine and we’ll all get out of this alive.” The voices continued through the intercom, shouting crude threats and wild accusations. The people in the concert hall sat back down, fearful and shaking.
Jemma was shaking too, however it was because of what she didn’t have on her, she had one goal on this journey and that was to protect those books. If pirates got a hold of them there was no telling what would happen to them, the physical history that would be lost.
She yelped as the door slid open and a pirate walked in, she was rugged and looked as if she hadn’t bathed in several days. Her face was smeared with something black and oily. She wore a tight space suit and heavy boots, at her hips were two deadly looking guns.
She walked in calmly, holding a metallic bag without speaking she held it up to the first person she came across, a mustached man in his late forties. She seemed to be looking at the people as if they were her prey. The man hesitated and looked up at the criminal, his lips trembling.
She sighed, “Put your goddamn valuables in the goddamn bag before I kill you, you slow motherfucker, some of us got schedules to keep.” The man flinched as if he were struck but immediately began dolling out his valuables into the sack, including credit cards, money, and some expensive looking jewelry.
From there she went through the concert hall and collected the didn’t have an issue with anybody as they pulled anything of value off of their person. When she got to Jemma and held up the bag, the librarian pulled off her earrings and ring, dropping them in the sack with the rest, she never lifted her head to look at the pirate, but her lip curled in disgust as she finished with the room and left, with a final warning that any body who moved would be killed immediately.
Jemma shook as the door shut behind the pirate, she could still here the pillaging happening through the rest of the ship and her mind went to the delicate books she had in her room. There was no way they would miss them, the briefcase was just inside her closet, a place they would definitely look. Tremors went through her body and her hands were sweating.
In a moment of insane bravery, she stood up, she closed her eyes for a moment, expecting someone to yell at her or shoot her but nothing happened. Her acquaintances at the table implored her to sit back down but she shook her head and went for the door. It opened for her and she stuck her head out, she expected to see the pirates but there was no one in the hallway. She crouched and sprinted down the empty hall.
She rubbed the empty place on her finger where the ring had been, her father had given her that ring. But that was a fleeting thought, she didn’t have time for sentimentality in a situation like this.
A door ahead of her slid open and the same pirate that had taken the people’s valuables stepped out, next to the door was one of the ships crew, knocked out on the floor next to the door, Jemma couldn’t tell if she was dead. The pirate looked both ways and her eyes stopped on Jemma as the librarian froze in the hallway. The pirate pulled out a gun.
Jemma sprinted the opposite direction to the elevators. “Hey! What the fuck are you doing?” The pirate screamed at her, Jemma didn’t look back but she could hear those heavy boots thumping on the carpet coming ever closer.
Jemma ran face first into the elevator doors but the didn’t open, she banged on the metal furiously but to no avail, he eyes darted to one of the utility vents next to the lift and in a heat of the moment decision she dove into the cramped space. She was only a few feet in to the cove when the door opened behind her, there was no way she would be able to out crawl that despicable criminal but she kept moving forward and a second later the door slid shut, apparently the awful pirate decided that she wasn’t worth the trouble.
Her breaths were coming in long shaking gasps as she crawled through the duct heading for the end of the it, finally she came upon a ladder that seemed to go all the way down. It was an incredibly long way down and she had to stop at every floor but she continued until she got to her floor and she crawled back out of the utility duct.
Jemma’s eyes cautiously darted around the floor, but it was just as quiet and empty as the place she came from, also nothing seemed to be out of order. Her imagination told her that she would find a situation close to vikings pillaging a village when she got here but she was wrong, there was nothing out of the ordinary, except for the heavy silence.
She crawled out and continued to crouch as she made her way to her room, she was nearly there when the entire ship shifted and she fell over with a yelp. The walls seemed to creak at the strain and she clumsily pulled herself back up and crawled towards her door.
“Hey, you there!” A voice behind her called.
She cried out and slipped into her room, even the books no longer a worry for her, she just wanted to live, she decided that this had been a very bad idea.
She could hear the footsteps of many people out side her door and she pushed her way into her closet, the briefcase was still there, nothing had changed. She cursed herself, what if all of this was for nothing and they weren’t even looking in the people’s rooms. She sobbed as the footsteps and shouting voices increased and she pulled herself into the closet, closing the door and continuing to cry .
She heard her door slid open and she slapped a hand over her mouth to try to strangle the cry that almost came out. Those familiar heavy booted feet padded around her, moving hurredly around the room. She screamed as the door to the closet slid open and a hand grabbed her by the back of the neck and ripped her away from the safety of her closet. She continued screaming until a strong hand covered her mouth and she looked up at the pirate, it was the same one that had been chasing her.
“Ugh, you again. Well now you’re going to be useful at least.” The pirate mumbled distractedly.
Jemma whimpered in response but the pirate ignored her and instead tapped the button to the device next to her ear. “I’m on my way I’ve got a hostage.”
She grabbed Jemma’s wrists and pulled her to her front, “Okay, now you can scream as much as you want.” The pirate shoved her forward and Jemma sobbed, but her last thought as she was pushed into the hallway was that at least the books were safe and she wasn’t going to die for nothing. That thought didn’t stop her from crying as they exited the room. The pirate put a gun to her head and shoved her the last step out.
They were met by what seemed to be the entire crew of the Mockingbird, all of them holding guns, prepared to shoot the pirate. Captain Morse was at the head of them but as she saw Jemma she put her hands up.
“Hold your fire!” She commanded
The pirate pushed the gun closer to Jemma’s head and she cried out, “Put your weapons down or I’ll blow her brains out, I swear to God.”
The crew complied, including Captain Morse who glared at the pirate, “Let her go and we’ll let you out unharmed, on my honor, just let her go.” The captain pleaded, but the pirate chuckled, backing away, she seemed to be patting the edge of the hallway with her foot.
“Right, like I’m gonna believe that, the only way you’re going to kill me is through her, and do you really want to do that? Huh, Captain?” Her foot went through a piece of the wall and she smiled as she held the gun up and a moment later she was backed up through the apparently holographic wall.
As the crew of the Mockingbird vanished from her sight she heard Captain Morse’s voice-- “It’s going to be okay, Dr. Simmons; I will find you, You’re--” And then she was cut off.
Jemma found herself in a clear tube outside of the ships, and the pirate screamed as she shoved her hostage forward through the tube. “CLOSE IT! CLOSE IT!”
The tube immediately began to close up behind them and the pirate turned around and pushed Jemma until they emerged into another ship. She pushed the hostage into a corner and left her there, running through the door out, yelling orders.
Jemma curled up on the floor and cried, she just wanted to go home, and the darkness was overwhelming in this room. She closed her eyes and pretended it was just a nightmare with the Captain’s words repeating over and over again in her head-- “It’s going to be okay.”, “It’s going to be okay...”