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V&A Shipping 2: Hollow – Chapter 5
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/VA-Shipping-2-Hollow—Chapter-5-e1e52e7
https://smile.amazon.com/Hollow-Shipping-Book-J-R-Murdock-ebook/dp/B00GT9H4JQ – Grab a copy of your own!
“Vic! Vic!”
With Dexter’s jump and Vic being hit by something, that left only Joey secured to the hull of the ship. The tether keeping them all attached had been cut. The object, about the size of a basketball, had hit between Joey and Vic and broken the tether before hitting Vic and knocking him off the ship. Dexter had tried to jump at the last minute and deflect the object but had only succeeded in spinning Joey around. He felt dizzy. He felt sick. He’d only done a couple of spacewalks and the loss of direction made his head swim.
“June, Vic is floating away, what do I do?”
“What do you mean floating away? I thought the three of you were tethered together.”
“We are. We were. Well, whatever hit Vic must have snapped the tether. How do I go get him?”
A hologram of June appeared in his helmet. “Joey, pay attention. This is very important. Don’t lose sight of Vic. You’ll lose him quickly in the stars. Do you still see him?”
“Yeah, he’s not moving very fast. Sort of spinning a little bit.”
“Are you still tethered to Dexter?”
“Yes.”
“Release the tether.”
“Eep! Eep! Eep!”
“It’s alright, Dex. Joey needs to do this. You be ready to catch the two of them on the way back.”
“Wait a minute, catch us?” Joey asked as he untied the tether.
“Joey! Keep an eye on Vic. Don’t look away. This is very important. I should have been out there. Anyway, lift your right arm and point at him, and put your left arm straight out in front of you. Got it?”
Joey looked at his arms. He followed his right and he was still pointing at Vic. The suit had a way of holding your position even when you relaxed. It made him feel comfortable knowing he could stay in this position as long as he needed to.
“Yes.”
June’s hologram flickered. “Now I want you to look at your left arm. Are all the lights green?”
“Yes.”
One of the lights blinked from green to yellow back to green.
“One of them should have just blinked.”
“Okay, you had me scared there for a minute. What happened?”
“I took control of your suit. Well, partial control. I’m going to fly you out to Vic and you’re going to catch him. Look down your right arm and make sure you can still see him.”
“I’ve got him. Now you’re going to do what?”
The ship dropped away. Not slowly, but fast. He thought he might lose his balance or veer away from pointing at Vic, but Vic came up fast.
“What do I do?”
“Grab him!”
Joey lashed out and grabbed for Vic, but missed. The tether trailing out behind him had come close and he managed to grab the end to make a loop that caught Vic’s arm. The two started spinning away from the ship. He fought with the tether as he pulled Vic in and finally grabbed onto him.
“June, I think I’ve got him.”
“Don’t think right now, Joey. Do you have him or not?” The hologram of June kept looking down and back up. “Joey!”
The stars spun around. Joey closed his eyes. “What happens if I get sick in my suit?”
“Joey! Listen. Do you have Vic? You need to secure your suit to his. Pull the black plug on your right shoulder and connect it to the matching plug on Vic’s suit.”
“But I’m on the back of him. How can I…”
“Don’t think about it.”
He started to reach for his shoulder but their rotation caused them to separate. He pulled Vic back in harder. He tried twice more and the same thing happened.
“I can’t do it.”
“You need to get this done.”
She wasn’t helping. Her yelling was making him stress out. The stars spinning by were making him sick. He tried to keep an eye on Vic. He needed to get them connected. He got a better grip with his right arm tucked under Vic’s right arm and reached for the plug with his left hand. This time they stayed together. A long cable came out with the plug. With his right hand, he tried to get a hold of the plug on Vic’s suit. It took a couple of tries, but he pulled Vic’s plug free and connected them.
“I think I’ve got it.”
“What did I tell you about thinking?”
Joey looked at the connected ends. “I’m connected!”
After a brief sensation of being pushed sideways, Joey assumed that he and Vic were moving back toward the ship. He was holding on tightly to Vic and didn’t dare look around. What if they didn’t make it back into the ship? Would that be so bad? They’d run out of oxygen, but at least they’d know how long they had. Onboard the ship with a black hole for a power source there was no telling when things would go wrong or how badly they’d go wrong.
He needed to stop thinking about that. Right now nothing was more important than getting back on board the ship. To safety. Joey hadn’t looked inside of Vic’s facemask so he didn’t even know if Vic was alive or dead. The impact of that rock that hit him, or asteroid, or comet or whatever it was had knocked him for a loop. Literally. The hard suit should have taken the brunt of the blow, but now Joey needed to make sure Vic got inside.
Something started pulling in short jerks. He tried to turn around, but could only see the edge of the ship getting closer.
“Dexter, pull harder. You need to get them inside the ship.”
“Eep. Eep. Eep.”
“Just pull!”
When had the hologram disappeared? Looking out into the stars and being pulled toward a spaceship, Joey wondered once again what would happen if he suddenly got sick. Did the suit account for that? Would it clean itself?
Dexter’s face looked in at his. Joey lowered his feet down onto the ship’s dura-plasti hull and they stuck instantly. He was safe. Now he and Dexter needed to get Vic to safety.
They tethered together and pulled Vic along with them. Joey never liked the sensation of stepping over the edge. He felt like he was going to start falling, but Dexter was moving with a purpose and it was all he could do just to keep up. As soon as they were back in the airlock, the outer door slammed closed and the inner door opened up. B.O.B. stood there tapping his robotic fingers together looking like a nervous Nancy.
“I was watching the whole time. Muffin has hooked me up to the video cameras. I couldn’t see the hull, but I could see the three of you and I was so worried when that pod hit Vic and knocked him off the surface of the ship. I thought for sure he would be flung off into space and we’d never be able to get him back again. Please, please, please tell me that you’re not going back out there for a long time.”
Joey popped off his helmet. “We’re not, now help me get Vic’s suit off. We need to get him into the medical pod.”
“Certainly. Right away. Let me just prepare the right tool.” B.O.B.’s hand retracted and a bright, blue flame shot out the end of his hand.
“No! Wrong tool.”
“So sorry, is this one better?” A whirling blade replaced the flame.
“B.O.B. just use your hands. We can undo the suit and open it up. We don’t want to do any more damage getting him out. Understand? Slow and careful.”
“I understand. Shall I hold him? Or perhaps I should be the one to…”
“Stand back, B.O.B. I’ll take over.” June allowed the bot to slide out of the way and helped Joey get Vic out of his suit. “You boys couldn’t wait a few more minutes for Muffin to finish her calculations. You had to go rushing out into space to look at the outside of the ship. I knew something like this was going to happen.”
“Less scolding, more helping?”
June was mad and she had every right to be, but right now they needed to get Vic out of his suit and into the medical pod. None of them could see what might be wrong with Vic, but the medical pod could not only check him out but keep him safe until he either healed or they got to a port to get him the medical attention he needed. Joey tried to shake off his suit’s gloves but wasn’t successful. It was almost impossible to help Vic out of his suit.
Dexter appeared at their side, already out of his suit, and put his three arms to work helping Vic. Joey sat on the floor next to B.O.B. as June and Dexter half-carried, half-dragged Vic away.
“I guess we weren’t much help, were we?” Joey asked, not wanting an answer.
“Should I go and offer my assistance? It seems that I was only getting in the way, but if you think there is something I can do for Vic I will gladly go and do that. What do you think?”
“I think you did enough already. Why don’t you just take a break?” Joey laid back on the deck as B.O.B. went in circles for a few minutes before finally tucking himself into a corner of the cargo bay.
They had been a little hasty about going out to inspect the ship. For a few minutes, it’d gotten Joey’s mind off the black hole the ship carried around. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around how something like that could power a ship safely. It defied all logic. Black holes weren’t safe, they were dangerous. They destroyed life, not aided it. Even if it was a microscopic black hole, it could obliterate the ship. And if it was large enough to capture a planet, even a small planet, and control the orbit of the planet, that meant it had to be a sizable black hole and not something insignificant.
He needed to just go to sleep and maybe when he woke up he’d be thinking clearer about the situation. Vic would be better, they’d be closer to the delivery point. Everything would be alright. That’s all. He just needed a nap. First, he’d have to try to get himself out of his suit. Getting in had been easy enough, but it was always an easier task when you had a little help. He tried to sit up, but that didn’t work. He tried rolling to his side. That also didn’t work. The suits were designed for work in zero-G, not for lying about on the deck of the ship.
Should he call for help?
No, everyone was busy or incapacitated. Everyone except for B.O.B. Joey groaned.
“Hey, B.O.B., can you give a guy a hand?” Even as he asked, he knew they were words he would regret.
V&A Shipping 2: Hollow – Chapter 3
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/VA-Shipping-2-Hollow—Chapter-3-e1dq15k
“Have the boys picked up our lost shipment yet?” June picked at something under her nails. She needed to take a shower.
Muffin beeped. “The boys aren’t the ones fetching the shipment. Argmon has redirected the ship. I’m performing calculations to ensure it will stay in orbit.”
“Didn’t you already do those calculations?”
“Of course I did. Victor failed to tell me that he wanted an alarm in case we lost it.”
Why were the navigation computers always so literal? The last one had nearly gotten them all killed trying to obey an order from Vic. Hopefully, Vic learned from that mistake. She didn’t want a repeat performance with Muffin.
“So how did we lose it in the first place? You were able to trace when we lost it. Why did we lose it?”
For the first time, Muffin started making clicking noises. Usually, it had an answer or just went silent. June didn’t like the sounds it made.
“June, what are you doing to Muffin? I thought we had all agreed not to give our new computer anything difficult to do.” Vic didn’t look happy. It probably had something to do with the few beers he’d had since he woke up. Not enough sleep combined with alcohol never did him any good.
“I think you just need to go back to bed. Things are under control.”
Joey wasn’t anywhere in sight, but she could feel him. He’d gone to the break room and his mind was filled with worry. Vic had done something stupid. Hopefully, it didn’t involve Dexter. Joey always had a way of getting hurt along with Vic whenever he’d pull one of his pranks on Dex.
“What did you do to Joey this time?”
“I just explained to him about the black hole drive. That’s all. Something in his mind snapped like having a black hole on board the ship was dangerous or something. Hey, what’s an Iron Maiden anyway?”
“You can be so stupid sometimes.” June started to get up, but Muffin finally came back with an answer.
“June, Victor, I tried to determine why we lost our shipment. I am unable to come up with a solution. All I can determine from the data I have available is it changed orbit and broke free. By all calculations, it shouldn’t have changed direction.”
“Well do we have it back yet?”
“Victor, it will be back in orbit around the ship in the next few minutes. Shall I notify you as soon as we have it?”
Vic finished off his beer and let out a loud belch. “Nah, I’m going back to bed. June, can you take over for Joey?”
“What about Argmon? He’s already here. I’m sure he doesn’t mind. Do you big boy?” June stroked Argmon’s arm.
Argmon snorted.
“Fine, as long as someone is up here. I don’t think Joey is right in the head at the moment. I don’t know why, but I think he needs some time to digest the whole blackhole thing. Why is that so hard for him…”
Vic kept on talking as he walked away.
“Argmon, let me know if you need anything. I’m going to go take care of the two babies.”
The Shathar gave a little growl but didn’t look away from the controls.
“June, dear. We have the planet back in orbit. I just thought someone might want to know.”
“Thank you, Muffin. I’ll let you and Argmon get us back on course.”
June needed to go back and check on Joey. The best she could tell he’d gone into a state somewhat related to shock. He’d always been so accepting of everything around him, why would this one little thing suddenly make him worry so much. It wasn’t as if it had just appeared. It’d been there the whole time. He was smart and understood a lot of things, why would the propulsion system of a spaceship scare him so much? She’d just have to get in there and talk to him.
She liked the way the lounge had been upgraded. It still had much of the same furnishings as it did before, but now it was so much bigger. They weren’t cramped in with their knees bumping the small, central table and with nothing but Vic’s beer machine on one wall. Now they had a wide variety of refreshments to choose from. They didn’t even have to hang out in the galley to eat. They could cook there, and bring it to the lounge and just sit back and relax. They even had a floor-to-ceiling entertainment screen in case there was something they wanted to watch, though it seldom got turned on.
Joey sat in a chair and turned himself in circles. It was worse than she thought.
“Hey there. How are you?”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t even look up. He would just spin, slow down, spin again. Something drastic had to be done to get his attention. She walked across the room, put her boot on the chair to stop him, and gave him a good slap.
“What did you do that for?” He almost jumped up out of the chair, but she put her boot in his chest and pushed him back down.
“Are you thinking clearly now?”
He rubbed his cheek. “Yes.”
“What’s the problem here? It’s not like you haven’t seen strange new technology before. Why is the fact that the ship is powered by a black hole so disconcerting to you?”
“Why? Because black holes destroy everything. It doesn’t matter how big or how small they are, they exist for destroying. That’s why. We’re carrying around the source of our destruction. One small failure on my part as Ship’s Engineer and we’re all dead. How could Vic put that responsibility on me? What if I did something wrong or if I pushed the wrong button. We’d all be dead. In a fraction of a second, this ship would just disappear.”
“I think you’re overreacting just a little bit.”
“Overreacting? We’re all that’s left of Earth. The three of us are the only humans in the galaxy. If we die it’s all over. Then what?”
“No, really. You’re overreacting. There are so many safety precautions in place that you’d have to make about a hundred mistakes before anything bad could happen to this ship.”
“But we just lost a planet. Not that many things needed to go wrong for that.”
June shook her head. “Muffin is trying to figure out how we lost that planet. From all her calculations and monitoring of the situation, it shouldn’t have veered off like it did.”
Joey sat up and ran his hands through his hair. “But it did! And while I was supposed to be watching it. How can I take that knowledge and go back to the engineering room and know it’s not going to happen with the engine.”
Joey started to cry. June got up and hugged him. He was still having a hard time adjusting to being in space. Most of the time there wasn’t anything to do and even though he’d taken to studying the ship, he still didn’t know a lot about it. Perhaps it was just all the pressure of the situation. Maybe it was because he was still so young for everything he’d been through in such a short time, and for the most part, he’d held up well. It was just this one little thing he couldn’t get past.
She took a deep breath and pushed relaxation into Joey’s mind. With each breath, she could feel his anxiety flowing away. His crying stopped. His heartbeat returned to normal.
“Thank you.”
She kissed him on the head. “I know it’s still early, but I think we should get some breakfast.”
“June, I thought you would like to know that we’re back on course.”
“Thank you, Muffin. Please let Vic know.”
“He’s already asleep. I’ve administered a gas that will ease the effects of the alcohol he drank.”
June laughed. Muffin was good at doing things like that. Vic would probably be upset, but at least he wouldn’t wake up with a hangover.
“Hungry?”
“A little.”
The two made their way from the lounge to the galley. The galley was one of the only places that remained similar in construction. It still had the same benches with the long table down the middle. The food storage had been greatly improved and they had more means to cook food. Argmon still did a lot of the cooking, but June had started to get the cooking bug. She figured now would be a great time to cook some breakfast.
For the most part, they could find foods similar to what could be found on Earth. As long as June had spent in space it didn’t matter much anymore. As long there was food to eat, she was happy enough.
The hardest thing to do was to fight off the boredom and that was never a small task. Even though it was trying at times, she liked it when things went wrong. The last couple of shipments had been so routine that they were downright dull. She’d hoped they could take a few weeks off to regain their sanity, but Vic insisted they do one more run before taking some time off. It wasn’t like the supply of undeveloped planets from the star cluster was going to slow down any time soon. They couldn’t even get up to full speed with a planet in tow which meant it would take that much longer for the trip back.
“What do you feel like eating?” She asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, we’re fresh out of that so you’ll have to pick from what we do have.” June pulled in Joey and kissed him on the cheek. She’d hoped this would break him out of this weird funk because of the black hole issue.
He sighed. Seemed like that didn’t help very much.
“Fine, sit, and be quiet. I’m going to make some food.”
“I’d love to help!” A golden robot with bright-blue accents popped up from the corner of the galley and nearly scared June out of her skin. Joey let out a squeal as well.
“B.O.B! What are you doing hiding over there?”
B.O.B. stood for Binary Obedient Butler, but for June the robot was just a pain in the rear. If it heard you in the same room it would pop up like it just had and try to be helpful. More often than not that just ended in disaster. Vic and his hopeless causes.
“Ms. June, I only want to help. Vic said I should be earning my keep and if there’s anything I can do, anything at all, please just let me know and I’ll take care of it.”
Its friendly voice only grated on June’s nerves. More than once she’d tried to eject the thing out of the airlock, but Muffin wouldn’t allow opening the exterior doors to purge the robot off the ship. She didn’t know if they stuck together because they were both artificial life forms or if Muffin really would keep any crew member from being ejected into space.
Beyond just being annoying, June didn’t like that a presence was in the room and moved about the ship and she couldn’t keep track of it. She liked to be able to walk into any compartment on the ship and have a good idea of who was there and not be surprised. Even though this bothered Vic as he couldn’t surprise her, she liked knowing where everyone was.
“B.O.B. why don’t you go clean the lounge while I prepare some breakfast for Joey and me?”
“Absolutely Ms. June. I would love to do that for you. Is there anyone in there? Should I go right away? Will Vic be pleased if I do a good job? I think he will. I should take care of that straight away. Thank you ever so much for the suggestion. I know exactly where all the cleaning supplies are…”
“B.O.B! Go now or Vic will be most displeased!”
B.O.B. scurried out of the galley. Clangs and clatters came from the lounge and something crashed on the floor.
Muffin beeped. “B.O.B. stop whatever you’re doing! I will need to get the cleaner bots to clean that up now.”
“You could try being nice to him you know.” Joey’s muffled voice came from his head being wrapped in his arms and resting on the table.
“I don’t have to…”
Something banged loudly on the outside of the ship.
V&A Shipping 2: Hollow – Chapter 2
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/VA-Shipping-2-Hollow—Chapter-2-e1d0q6v
https://smile.amazon.com/Hollow-Shipping-Book-J-R-Murdock-ebook/dp/B00GT9H4JQ – Grab a copy of your own!
The beer tasted so good as Vic finished off the last bit left in his can. He stopped by the break room to grab another. Vic had asked Joey on many occasions if the beer on Earth had ever gotten any better, but apparently, the drinking age had changed and Joey wasn’t even old enough to drink.
“You sure you don’t want to grab something kid?”
Not only had the break room been completely remodeled and provided them more space to spread out and relax as a crew, but it had also been fully stocked with part of the shipment that had been intended for Almo Petrino. Almo had good taste when it came to beer. Too bad it was illegal in some parts of the galaxy.
Joey got himself a soft beverage. Someday Vic would get the kid to graduate to something stronger. If Joey wanted to avoid the good stuff, he wasn’t going to push him.
“So I’ve done some reading on the SS Acid Rat’s propulsion system, but nothing I’m reading makes any sense.”
“It’s not like your Star Trek engine kid. Those things were close to magic.”
“Actually, on subsequent versions of the show, they explained pretty well how a warp core worked with the matter and anti-matter streams…”
“Kid, I’m sure those things were well-thought-out and someone thought they would provide a lot of power. Tell me a little about what you read about this ship. This one works. The ones on TV were just that, spaceships on TV.”
Joey had done a good job learning as much as he had about the ship, but he had some big shoes to fill. Mike had been a great engineer on the ship even though in the end he’d become psychotic. Vic blamed all that on his father, not on Mike. Heck, it had been Joey that saved the crew from Mike. The kid was smart and had proved himself in a fight. What else could you ask for in a crew member?
“So what you’re saying is I should just throw all those ideas out?” Joey took a drink from his beverage. It smelled like some kind of juice.
Vic took a long swig off his beer to give him a minute to figure out how to answer that. “No, I’m not saying throw everything out. Just don’t take it as gospel. A lot of what is in those shows is based on science. What I’m saying is that you’re looking at a technology that no one back on Earth ever dreamed of.”
“That much I’ve noticed. I’m still not even sure what powers the ship.”
“Really? After a year and you haven’t even gotten that far?”
Joey shrugged. “I mean, I’ve read a lot about the systems on the ship. Things I was able to understand and piece together, but the propulsion is something way beyond me. I don’t even know where to start.”
“I’m glad you said that. Let’s see if we can educate you.”
The two took the ladder down to the storage area of the ship. This was one of the only parts of the ship that hadn’t been changed. The top of the ship, the living quarters, had been destroyed in the crash. This part of the ship had remained mostly intact. Vic often wondered why Verbiddi had decided to repair the ship rather than just scrap it and buy them a new one. Not that it mattered. Vic might have likely fought to keep the SS Acid Rat flying. It was the first ship he’d flown into space and he hoped it would be the only one.
As they made their way across the storage area, only a few crates locked down in the middle and the Iron Butterfly off in the far corner, Vic knew he had to go mess with Dexter. The tri-ped was the only one that slept down in the hangar. Sometimes the little guy would sleep standing up. It was times like that Vic would play a little joke on the fellow.
“Hey, one sec. We need to have us a little fun first.”
“Vic, my arm is still sore from the last time.”
“You just need to hold on tighter. That’s all. Come on, this’ll be fun. Trust me.”
“That’s what got me into trouble the last time. I couldn’t move my arm for a week.”
It had been funny seeing Dexter hop around with Joey in tow. The kid had let go at the wrong moment and fell about fifteen feet. The dislocated shoulder had been easy to put back, but Joey took a while to heal. That was almost two weeks ago. Surely the kid could handle another go. Vic put his arm around Joey’s shoulder and pulled him toward the weapons locker.
It was more of a weapons room. They each had gear in there, but only Dexter and June ever suited up. Joey had tried once to help with keeping a shipment secured. That hadn’t ended well and the scar on Joey’s wrist was a testament to how poorly it had gone. At least he hadn’t been as stubborn about getting an artificial hand to replace it, unlike Argmon.
When they got to the open doorway, Vic could see Dexter standing in the corner. “Maybe if we belt you to him this time…’
“No! You go mess with him. I’ll wait over here. Dexter already hates me enough as it is.” Vic set his beer down next to the weapons room doorway.
“He doesn’t hate you, kid. He likes this little game we play.”
“How do you know that if June is the only one that can talk to him?”
“I just know. If you don’t want in on this, then just wait over there. Better yet, grab that cargo net and hold it over the doorway. This will be so funny.”
Even though the kid complained, he set his drink down next to Vic’s, got the cargo net, and stood next to the doorway. Vic reached inside and turned the lights off. Dexter was a strong sleeper on trips like this. Something in his body just shut down until he needed to wake up. Vic had made sure that Dexter woke up on more than on occasion.
He nodded to Joey. The kid shrugged.
“Muffin, Fire Drill! In the weapons room!” This was how Vic had gotten Muffin to help with his plan.
There was a pause. “No Victor, there isn’t a fire in the weapons room.”
“Muffin, now! Fire Drill!”
Again a pause. “Victor, I do not detect a fire in the weapons room. The last time I didn’t detect a fire in the weapons room.”
“I can see it.” She was starting to get on his nerves. Why wouldn’t she just release a stream of water like she’d done the last time?
“I have no visual detection of a fire either.” Muffin beeped.
This wasn’t going to work. All he wanted to do was give Dexter a little wake-up shower and watch him bounce around a little bit. There was something funny and beautiful the way Dexter bounced all over like that. June said that Dexter didn’t like getting wet, but it was just too funny not to pull this joke on him again. If everything worked out right, Joey would toss the cargo net over the little tri-ped and they could ride him as he ran around the room. It wasn’t like they were hurting the little guy or anything like that. Why is everyone trying to ruin my good time?
June’s voice came over the intercom. “I told you to leave him alone. You’re going to make him angry one of these days and then you’ll be sorry you messed with him.”
Vic leaned down, picked up the drinks. Joey had put the cargo net away. They continued their way to the engineering room.
“Well, that went over like a lead balloon.” Vic drained his beer.
“Don’t you mean a lead zeppelin?”
“What? Like the band? They went over great. Maybe it went over like an Iron Butterfly.”
“That also went over well.” Joey sipped his drink. “Maybe it went over like an Iron Maiden?”
Joey was always saying things like this as if Vic would get the reference. “Let me guess, that’s another band from what, the nineties?”
“Actually, Iron Maiden was still pretty popular after I left. I think they got their start sometime in the eighties. Maybe June knows. I only listened to a little of their stuff.”
“Well, we’re not changing the name of the Iron Butterfly to the Iron Maiden. Butterflies can, well, fly.”
“I wasn’t suggesting that we change the name. I was… whatever. Never mind. Let’s check out the engine. How do you plan to use it to make sure we don’t lose the planet again? Do we have a tractor beam or something?”
“A tractor what? No? We’ll just use the ship’s power source. You don’t have a clue, do you?”
“No, not really.”
The kid looked as if he were about to explode, like a kid on Christmas morning waiting to open his presents. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be disappointed. Vic didn’t think the kid would be disappointed.
“So you understand that the planet we’re about to recapture is orbiting the ship, right?”
The kid nodded. “I’ve got that much down, I just don’t understand how or why. I thought maybe we caught it with some beam or laser or something.”
“Light isn’t gravity, kid. That’s the only way a planet, even a small one, is going to orbit the ship. Therefore we need to generate a huge amount of gravity to keep this thing orbiting. Got it.”
Another nod.
“So how do you think a ship like this is going to generate gravity?”
Joey looked at the ceiling. He did that in a cute way when thinking. “I don’t know. How can we generate gravity? I mean, if we had gravity it would hinder our ability to land on a planet not to mention make flight nearly impossible.”
“Well, not really. See, there is shielding on the ship to contain the gravity when we need to. We move the shielding just right and we can control the orbit of the planet around the ship. That’s why we need to keep a constant watch when we transport a planet like we’re doing. We don’t want it to just fly off into space. Rogue planets are dangerous.”
“Okay, so how do we keep a planet in orbit around us?”
“A black hole.”
Vic thought Joey was either going to laugh or throw up.
“There can’t be a black hole on this ship,” the kid said and started to turn white.
“We’ve got one. It’s a power source that gives off so much radiation that the ship always had power.”
“You mean we’ve got something on board that could destroy us all?” Joey dropped his drink and walked out of the room.
The kid had gone pale. Vic thought the kid would be happy to hear the news of something like that. Maybe even be impressed with the technology used to control it. Instead, the kid looked as if someone had just signed his death warrant.
“Kid, where you going? Don’t you even want to see it?”
Joey spun around. “See it? What, the harbinger of death riding on the tail of the Acid Rat? No thank you. I think I’ll spend as much time as I can far from this side of the ship, thank you.”
“Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little bit? I mean, think of how long this technology has been around. We’re not going to get much safer than we are.”
“I don’t want to hear about this. I need to process this all. Black holes are nothing more than death in every sense of the word. They suck things in, crush them, give off massive amounts of radiation and jets of material. No, I can’t, no… I just…”
The kid walked off, not looking back. Vic tried to get a few more drops out of his beer and decided to follow the kid back up to the break room. Perhaps there’d be a chance to talk some sense into the kid.
V&A Shipping 2: Hollow – Chapter 1
What’s this? Jay recorded something?
Yes!
After so much waiting, I have finally fired up the mic and recorded Chapter 1 of V&A Shipping 2: Hollow. I know many have waited for years for me to get off my duff and get to recording once again. I plan on dropping more than one episode per week and getting through my entire backlog of books that I’ve not recorded previously.
First and foremost, thank you for everyone who’s shown their support by buying a book, picking up a free edition, or simply commenting and asking for more content. It’s helped me keep pushing forward and getting things going. 2021 was great, 2022 should be even better.
Without further ado…
Audio Only: https://anchor.fm/jr-murdock/episodes/VA-Shipping-2-Hollow—Chapter-1-e1cnspe
https://smile.amazon.com/Hollow-Shipping-Book-J-R-Murdock-ebook/dp/B00GT9H4JQ – Grab a copy of your own!
“It’s kind of hard to lose a planet, kid.” Vic stretched and took a seat next to Joey.
Joey frantically pressed buttons to try and call up the display, but everything had gone blank. Not five minutes before he’d pinged the planet with a pulse and it came back right where he’d expected it to be. Now it was gone and he couldn’t figure out where it’d gone. He called Vic because he wasn’t sure why it had disappeared. He hated to wake him up, but this was the first time he’d been left alone in the cockpit. Even Argmon, the big Shathar, had gone off to get some sleep.
“I don’t get it. Where did it go?”
“Did you check to make sure it was still orbiting the ship?” Vic flipped a switch, turned a dial, and brought up a holographic display of the planet. “This is the planet. You didn’t touch anything, right?”
“No. I was just sitting here looking out at the stars and decided to do a check.”
Vic flipped another switch. “When was the last time you pinged it?”
“Probably five minutes ago. I know it was there.”
“June, Argmon. Hate to break the two of you from your beauty sleep, but we need to go hunting.”
“Do we need them on this as well?” Joey hated for everyone to be woken up for his mistake. They still had a couple of weeks before they’d be delivering this planet and he didn’t need them all upset with him.
“Kid, if we’re going to look for a dark planet in the blackness of space, we need all the eyes we can get on this one. In fact, Muffin, where’s the planet. I thought you had something set up to check on it automatically.”
Muffin was what Vic called the new ship’s computer. Its designation was LMSM and he laughed when he saw the little silver box it came in and named it Little Miss Silver Muffin. This got a lot of laughs from the crew, but Muffin still hadn’t taken too kindly to the name.
“If you must call me that, at least don’t expect me to do any more menial tasks. Joey was doing just fine and didn’t need my help.”
“When was the last time you checked on the planet, Muffin? We need to know everything about when you lost contact, which direction it went, all of that.”
“Really? you want me to spend time searching my records to see when the last time I looked?”
Vic took a swig of his beer and winked at Joey. “I need to know the exact moment we lost contact with the planet and what our coordinates were.”
Joey thought he heard the computer make an audible sigh.
“Vic, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it, kid. These things happen. That’s why we’re supposed to have computer backup. Muffin should be able to get us back to the right location. Then it’s just a matter of calculating when we lost it, what trajectory it went off in, and pick it back up. Piece of cake.”
He made it sound so easy. Something about towing a planet just didn’t sound like something easy. Sure, he’d been on board when they’d performed the past couple of jobs, but he wasn’t privy to what they’d done to perform the task. He’d been busying trying to study about how this ship worked. There were so many schematics and old wiring plans to go through and he hadn’t even gotten to the propulsion systems yet. Vic had given Joey the title of Ship’s Engineer, but he was still learning after nearly a year on the job. There was only so much you could read about the ship, the rest was all hands-on work.
“What are you boys doing up here? Tell me we didn’t lose another shipment.” June rubbed her eyes and sat on Joey’s lap. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.
“You two should get a room.” Vic looked away and out into the black in front of them.
June nudged Vic’s leg with her foot. “We have a room.”
They did have a room. They even shared a bed. They had kissed on many occasions, but that was as far as their relationship went. They’d spent some of their downtime together and that had helped them grow closer, but June just didn’t seem interested in being more than they were. Perhaps it was because of Vic, but Joey was pretty sure it was what had happened to Vic that brought them closer together in the first place.
Joey was just happy to have someone. On Earth, the only person he’d been close with was Carlos, his best friend, and for the most part, they were picked on to no end. It took getting off the planet to find someone special. It gave him a little comfort to be able to hold the last woman from Earth. Vic had told him several times it didn’t bother him, but June loved to goad him.
“Yes, I know. I helped the two of you decorate it. Remember? Can we just get back to work? Muffin, where’s this planet? How long does it take an advanced AI computer to look something up?”
“You also asked me to perform calculations and estimations on where it might be. This isn’t like dusting crops.”
“Speaking of dusting crops, why didn’t you alert anyone once you lost contact with it?”
Something beeped twice. “I’ve got your estimates.”
“Yeah, yeah. Now answer my question. Why didn’t any alarms go off? This is an important job.”
“You won’t like the answer, Victor.” Only LMSM could get away with calling him Victor.
“Muffin, just tell me.”
“You didn’t ask me to.”
“Oh, come on now. Are you telling me that after the first couple of times we did this and I asked you to set an alarm, you didn’t take that to mean that every time we drag a planet across the galaxy I want an alarm on it?”
“We’ve never dragged a planet across the galaxy. The furthest we’ve ever moved a planet is…”
“I don’t care.” Vic upended his beer. “Argmon, I’m empty! Grab me a fresh one on your way up here.”
Argmon must’ve read Vic’s mind and handed him a cold can of beer. He then chuffed and motioned for Vic to get out of his seat. The Shathar looked at Joey and shook his head.
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault! I was checking.”
June kissed the top of his head. “It’s alright. Calm down. No one is accusing you of anything.”
“I am,” Vic said with a smile as he popped open his beer.
Argmon took his seat. His two missing left arms had been regrown. Chancellor Verbiddi insisted that all reparations be made and that included getting Argmon his arms back. They’d spent the better part of three months planetside while the SS Acid Rat had been repaired, everyone healed, and Argmon’s arms were regrown. In that time the atmosphere had gone from difficult-to-breath to almost bearable. The tonindrium worked like magic pulling all the excess pollution out of the air. It was the job that had convinced Vic that he could stick to doing legal jobs for a while and perhaps keep the Galactic Police off their trail.
“Victor, your planet should be…”
“Could you just feed the coordinates to Argmon’s display? He’ll turn us around. To be honest, you’re just going to talk gibberish to me and you know I don’t like it when you do that.”
“Always a gentleman.” Muffin beeped twice.
Argmon looked at the display and his four arms went to work. The stars shifted giving Joey a moment to feel dizzy. He nearly dumped June off his lap.
“Easy there. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you were the one drinking, not Vic.”
“You know I can’t drink that stuff like he does.”
Joey had tried keeping up with Vic. Once. That didn’t end well and Joey wound up sleeping in their newly redesigned break room. He vowed never to have a repeat performance of that incident.
“Argmon, you got this all under control?”
Argmon snarled.
“Easy, I was just asking. Hey, where’s Dexter?”
“You only called Argmon and me. I’m sure he’s probably still sleeping. I don’t think you want to wake him up. He was in a feisty mood before going to bed.”
Joey knew that was possibly the worst thing June could say. It was almost a challenge for Vic once he knew one of the crew was in a bad mood. Sure Vic had mood swings and got bored from time to time, but when it came to Dexter, Vic loved playing with fire.
“I’ll be right back.” Vic started to leave.
June fought her way off of Joey’s lap. “No, you don’t! Dexter and I have some work to do with the load we’ve got down there and I don’t want our resident Tri-Ped all worked up and mad.”
“It’s just a little fun. He likes it.”
“Fine, then next time you’re sleeping, I’ll do it to you.”
Joey never really understood the relationship between June and Dexter. For that matter, he never really understood Dexter, the squat, green, three-eyed alien. Dexter was the strangest and by far most dangerous member of the crew. He and June were in charge of the ship’s security. June he had figured out, but Dexter seemed to have his motivations for what he did.
Vic, on the other hand, seemed to derive a lot of pleasure from tormenting both Dexter and June. Sometimes it had comical results, but often Dexter and Vic would wind up in a knock-down, drag-em-out fight that usually ended with Vic bleeding and laughing and Dexter sulking and angry. Joey was just glad he’d always been left out of the fun and games.
“Victor, we have found the planet you misplaced.”
“Hey, I didn’t misplace it. It was right where I left it when the kid took over. Don’t go pointing fingers at me.”
Muffin beeped. “You’re the captain of the ship and therefore the one ultimately responsible for the shipment. Therefore, I found the planet you lost.”
Vic switched between snarling and looking confused. Finally, he said, “Fine, Joey and I are going to go down and hook it up so we don’t lose it again.”
“Wait, what do you mean by that?” Joey got up to follow Vic. June took his seat next to Argmon.
“I’ll keep the seat warm for you until you get back.”
Argmon growled.
June slapped the Shathar on the arm. “Oh, be quiet.”
“Come on, kid, I’ll show you some more about the way this ship works.”
It was about time. Vic had shown Joey a couple of things, but he didn’t fully understand it all. It would be nice to have someone point things out to him rather than trying to read books and holo-manuals that didn’t explain things in terms he could fully understand. Sure he’d taught himself how to repair a turntable and a radio back on Earth. Those had parts he could make sense of. The SS Acid Rat was literally light-years ahead of anything he’d ever dreamed of working on.
J.R. Murdock 