Weekend Special Short Tales California 2.3 Chapter 3

 

3.

Tiffany got the rest of the living crews up and we met at Common Chamber. Benz strolled in with the overall unzipped and display his upper body cavities. The two crews seated there were in their uniforms and were enjoying their meals at the table.

“Hoot…Hoot… The Aryan is showing off again.” Hagar called out at the brazen display by the other. “I doubt Tiffany will notice you.”

“She does not see the delight of the ‘pikk’ (Norwegian for the penis), Tyskland (Norwegian for Germany) idiot,” Hagen added on. The bastard knew my sexual gender.

“Vogeln (German for fuck)” Benz replied and took his seat at the table. He grinned at Hagar. “One day, I will use my metallic arm on your arse.”

“Promises… promises…” Hagar laughed. He then roared out the song that they all liked while turning his rear back to Benz.

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis

“Okay, enough of this for now.” It was the Captain. He had joined them from the rear where he inspected the other containers. He knew his crews were on good terms and the bartering of insults was their way to greet each other. I had then joined them there with my navigation results.

I pulled up the hologram of the system where we are then having maintained a full stop.

“I got the alert from the system. It was a malfunction and affected the program that operates the frame that housed the containers.”

“However, I could rectify the program but we lost a container here. A second alert was sent out.” Hirohito looked at me. It was my cue to speak. I had studied the charts and got the new bearing.

“We have to turn back and used the scanners we have on to find the container.” The ship scanners were not military standards and due to budget constraints, we only have short-range scanners.

Based on the speed of the ship and our last encounter, I would say the container is somewhere in this sector. There were two planets there and with five moons in the marked sector although they were another five planets with their respective moons.

“If the container was pulled in by the atmosphere, it may have landed on one of these. I cannot ascertain until we get there and used the scanners to pick up the transponder signal.”

Each container held a transponder unit and it can be picked up the signal if we are near it.

“This sector although seldom traveled and the planets and moons are uninhabited by any colonies. We may be encountering pirates or worse, rebels.” I added on. Pirates existed then with the renegades of the smugglers and they held various designs of ships salvaged or taken by force. The pirates are hunted and they hid out at the remote stations or the moons that will give them reprieve between raids.

All transporters like the Mercedes had the basic defense systems but we are no fight with any pirates or rebel ships. We could give them a run but with the containers, we were outclassed.

“We will look for the container and any surface search we will use the Shuttle only on confirmation.” I then looked at the system time. “If we rush, we may meet it back with a three days window frame.”

That was the allowed time for us to spare.

“Or we lose our bonus.” Benz roared. “Who was the imbecile to fix the links to the containers?”

“And who was to test the links?” Hagar launched his version of the roar. The fault-finding was beginning and I had to stifle it.

“I will say it’s our fault.” I roared out in turn. They all looked away from each other. It does help when I am the fanny in the group and more to it they know I am a major shareholder of the ship. I dismissed them all and then joined the Captain on the Bridge. We climbed into our respective seats. It was padded to provide the comforts needed for the ride. I had strapped in and then voiced my call at the Captain in front of me.

I had checked the logs.

“Hirohito, why was I not alerted when you did not respond?” I raise the issue with him. “There was a delay of three minutes.”

“I had Tiffany on a new routine. We are all tired after the last trip. This is our fifth in thirteen months and everyone was tired.” Hirohito replied. “Each trip, we were roused from our hibernation for issues. Most times menial ones and I re-programmed the alerts to call only me and I will maintain the next alert action unless more help was needed. I wanted to let all of you rest.”

I knew that we were on our edge. The emotional display at the Common Chamber was the tip of it.

“You could not have left me out. I am still your partner.” I told Hirohito and I knew why. It’s was his manly pride and the rank of Captain.

“The coupling on the link was faulty before and during the voyage, it came loose.” I did not recall any report on that.

“Tiffany was alerted to the drop in the mass of the cargo and woke me. I had investigated and then told Tiffany to alert you when I saw the container had dislodged.” Hirohito pushed back. “What surprised me was not the coupling but how it was decoupled. It was not system dislodged but it looked manually done. I saw no signs of other damages except for the depreciated clasps.”

“Are you telling me someone on our ship disengaged it?” One thing about accusations, it hurts worse than a bad fuck. We are only five and that is a lot of bad damages.

“It looked that way but I checked the ship logs. No one else was to do work on it and we have no intrusion…” The Captain had run his checks. The accusation was more than a statement.

“It may be a stowaway then on the ship. Tiffany may have missed that.” I knew it was a wild shot but worth taking if I can put the ship system to a fault. I wanted to have the crew put into the limelight as careless. I liked the crews.

“That is not possible as I ran the calibration check and mass density. We are as per the pre-defined weight with the loads and crews. I am…” I heard the bitch and told it to shut off.

“I am talking to the Captain and it’s a private conversation. So, butt out and ran the checks on the other loads. I am leaving it here to collect later. I have left our marking on the manifest and no pirates will take on dead bodies.”

“We will discuss the matter later. Right now, we have to retrieve the container.” I had then punched in the coordinates to turn the ship around. It was faster and less use of the resources to fly without the loads. Every count matters then.

“And send a memo to the crews. No more singing that relic of a song. We are going brazen with some new sounds.” I then punched into the system, the Cardasy Classics. I knew the crews disliked that but I was the fucking bitch then.