The Long Haul

Chester waited for the hatch to open.  He whistled to himself as he leaned against the steel wall.  The door finally slid up to reveal Hudson, arms crossed waiting impatiently.

“What took ya, hot stuff?”  he said, tapping his toe impatiently against the scuffed floor.

“Aww come on, our next jump is forty years.  I was lucky enough that our last trip was under fifteen years so I was able to see the same woman twice.  That’s so rare when you do what we do.  You make it sound all cold and dirty.  Just because your dick seems to be frozen from cryosleep doesn't mean I have to be the only one who likes a woman’s company now and then.”

Chester pulled out a smoke, stopping to cup his hands around the lighter as the bright flame danced around his face.  Breathing in a long puff, he expelled it back out through his nostrils, smoke rising in front of his face.  Hudson shot him a look and motioned with his head to follow him on board.  Chester took another puff of his cigarette and rolled his eyes, following behind his comrade.  The hatch closed behind them with a clunk and the hiss of air being sealed off.

“Plans have changed it seems,” Hudson talked while they walked to the bridge, the clang of their boots hitting the metal grates along the way.  “Myron said he’s got a different shipment he needs us to push out in a hurry.”

Chester snorted.  “Move something in a hurry?  That’s a good one.  Everything we transport takes at least five to ten years.  What difference does it make if it ships tomorrow instead of today?”

“You know there ain’t more than a hand full of us guys who actually spend all of their lives wasting it away skipping across the universe.  No one really wants this job.  If this shipment doesn’t get pushed out now, who knows the next time someone will be back to ship it off?  Next week?  Next month?  Next couple of years?”

“Yeah, yeah.  One of these days I swear we’ll wake up and they’ll have perfected instant matter transportation.  Suddenly we’ll have become useless and out of a job and when that happens, then what will we do?  We’ll be two old, incompetent farts, ready to be tossed aside, which, by the way, is why I think you should enjoy yourself more on our transport leaves while the going is still good.  Where do you go anyways?  You never talk about it.  We go for beers after the delivery is done and then I don’t see you or hear from you till our next delivery.”

“What I do with my free time is my choice.  Maybe if you didn’t spend all your credits on the nearest brothel, I’d stick around a lot more.  Now let’s get this rig over to Myron’s and see what he’s got us pushing through the lines this time.”

They arrived in the small hull of a command center that was the cockpit.  Hudson sat down in his chair on the left and began punching in the coordinates for the delivery depot into the ship’s navigation computer.  A.N.N.A., the Automated Navigation and Networks Assistant which also functioned as the ship’s computer interface began waking from its sleep status and greeted the two crew members.

“Greetings Hudson, Chester.  Glad to have you boys back.”  The ship’s programmed personality sprang to life.  “Hope your leave was exciting and exhilarating as well as relaxing?”

“As always Anna, nothing like getting outta the ship for cycle and seeing some of the local wildlife,”  chuckled Chester.

Hudson ignored his teammate and continued, “Heard anything from Myron about this shipment he wants us to jump on?”

“He sent a video log but it just has him stating he needs you two to come pick it up as soon as possible.  No other details were included.  Do you wish for me to still play it for you?”

“That won’t be necessary.  Start up the main engines and proceed with getting us out of the hanger.  Then set the course to Myron’s.  We’ll have to see what’s so special in person I guess.  Better be worth it.”  said Hudson.

“Affirmative,”  chimed Anna. With a few beeps from the navigation panels, she set the small course to Myron’s.  “We are cleared for launch, shuttle bay doors are open.  Main engines warming up.”

The ship shook as the massive warp engines started up.  The ship hummed and seemed to come alive like a bear waking from hibernation.  Hudson and Chester sat back and hooked in their restraint straps.

Chest spoke up, “It’s not like Myron will even tell us what we’re carrying.  When it isn’t deep space mining equipment, it’s always hush hush.  What makes you think he’ll actually tell us this time what our precious cargo is?”

“What does it matter?” replied Hudson.  “We pick it up, we transport it safely, we get paid.  Done deal.  Then you take your cash and get the next decade's set of hookers.”

Chester scoffed, “Doesn’t it bug you though?  Who knows what we’ve transported in the past.  What if something in our hold was so priceless we get attacked while in cryosleep?  Shouldn’t we have a right to know if someone’s going to try and kill us just to get some unknown cargo off our ship?  Shouldn’t we have the chance to say no to a shipment?  Save our own assholes?”

“You’re probably safer not knowing, not to mention this keeps you from being tempted to take it for yourself.  Though if you ever did leave with the cargo, it wouldn’t be hard to search all the whore houses till you were found.”

Chester sneered.  “Will you lay off the god damn ladies already?”

“The ship is ready to leave the hanger,”  Anna interrupted.

The ship had finished powering up and Hudson took the controls.  The hulk of a ship creaked loudly as he gently steered it out of the bay.  It flew softly and handled well for being a bit of an over sized turtle.  They sure didn’t design them like they used too.  They glided out of the hanger and into open space.  After they had reached a safe distance, the engines roared to full power and they shot off into the starry darkness.

Myron’s depot was only the next quadrant over, for the Lucky Gallapagos that was just an hour trip. The flight to Myron’s was quiet as it always was.  Despite the two crew members' long partnership together, they really didn’t talk much at the beginning of a job.  Chester always wondered where Hudson went on his leave, but Hudson never told.  Hudson never had any interest in hearing about Chester’s trip to the brothel and his massive amounts of alcohol consumption so neither said much after leaving the dock.

Hudson spent the hour trip going over the ship’s maintenance reports the hanger had generated while they were on leave.  Chester did his usual of checking provisions for the trip and making sure that the cryo-beds were prepped correctly and ready for them to use.  It was the routine they had worked out and kept with for over 200 years of transporting cargo over the universe.

Anna announced over the intercom that they were nearing their destination.  Chester returned to the cockpit where he could see the massive orbital station that was Myron’s Long-Spacial Delivery Service.  With Anna’s help, Hudson navigated into the cargo bay and rested the ship on the titanium alloy scuffed floor.  They opened the cargo hatch and stepped out.  There standing by the ship was Myron VI, a large, sickly, yellow looking alien with four tentacles instead of arms.  He wore a red trucker’s hat and a button up plaid shirt bursting at the seams.  Holding a graphics pad in one tentacle, a pen in another, and with a free tentacle, he waved them over.

“Hey Myron,” Chester greeted him. “Starting to get a little grey there, getting ready to hand the business over to Myron VII yet?”

“Ha ha Chester,” Myron laughed sarcastically.  If he had actual eyeballs, one may have seen him roll them, “Still got more years than you I bet.”

“Sorry to hear about your dad,” Hudson broke in. “He was a great guy to work with and it was a disappointment to hear the news when we got back.”

Myron snorted, “Oh yeah, thanks Hudson. I almost forgot about that. That was twenty-five years ago.  Didn’t realize you guys hadn’t been in that long.  Wow, I’m sure glad I’m not the one out there leapfrogging around time.  Anyways let’s get down to business.”

Myron waved a third tentacle and drones began moving a large quantity of cargo cases into their hull.  Myron continued, “So yeah, I’ve got a rush order on this shipment, need it in the Ortoga quadrant ASAP.”

“Ortoga!?”  Chester flipped out, “You trying to get us killed?  In all the years we’ve been working at least one thing hasn’t changed, and that’s Ortoga!  Everyone knows you don’t head down there unless you’re done shitting from the hole you’re using and wanna try another one.”

Myron held up his two free tentacles in protest.  “Now Chester I know what you’re thinking but don’t worry, I’ve got you a special pass.  You’ll be going through the Federation’s lines there.  It might be a little bit longer but you’ll be safer.  It’s that important that the Federation is willing to help out.”

“I don’t like it.”  Chester grunted.  “What’s in those cases?  Something’s fishy.”

“Now Chester I know we’ve been over this and you seem to argue with every generation of my family but you know it’s a need-to-know basis.  You’re just gonna have to handle your curiosity and let this one slide.  You know the rules.”

Chester opened his mouth to argue, but Hudson shot him a look.  Chester closed his maw and growled.  He turned on his heel, kicking some dust up from the floor and stomped back to the ship.  On the way, he yelled at one of the droids for driving too close to him before disappearing into the cargo bay.

Myron sighed and looked up at Hudson.  “You’ve known him the longest.”

“And he never changes,”  Hudson finished his sentence. “He’ll have a smoke and cool off.  Don’t worry.  So... Ortoga?”  Hudson tilted his head, his curiosity also searching for answers.

“Yeah, special shipment, that’s all I can tell you.  I’m sorry.”  Myron handed over a metallic card and the graphic pad to Hudson.  “Read it over and sign at the bottom like always.  This card will be your pass for the Federation.  Just give it to Anna and she’ll know what to do.  It has the access codes for their gates.  Anything else you need?”

Hudson scanned the tablet’s screen.  When he read to the bottom, he signed and handed it back.  “Shouldn’t be a problem.  Anna’s smart, she’ll know where to go and be able to wake us up if any trouble comes along.  But I gotta say, even I kinda agree with Chester.  Ortoga’s not the kinda place we like delivering too.”

“Sorry Hudson, I don’t have anyone who can ship it off for at least a few more cycles and I’m under a lot of pressure to get this delivered.  That said, this shipment is worth a lot of credits and you’ll both get a big bonus for it.  Also, you won’t be shipping anything back this time but you’ll get paid for the whole trip.  At least it’s a short jump.”

“Yeah, using the Federation’s lines should be only ... 5.6 years.  Okay.  Well we’ll see you when we get back.”

Myron tipped his hat in goodbye and headed back to his office.  Hudson oversaw the droids as they loaded up more cargo. Once the hull was full, he closed the hatch and made his way to the cock pit.  Chester was already there, halfway through his third cigarette.

“You gotta stop smelling up the cockpit, Chester,” Hudson said, waving the smoke out of his face. “You ready to jump?”

“As ready as I ever can be to go to Ortoga.  Hmph.  Ship’s ready anyways.”

“Okay then, Anna, I got a card here that’ll let us use the Federation’s gates this trip.  It’ll add some time to the trip but we should be a bit safer.”  Hudson slid the silvery key into the reader on the dashboard.  The control board started to whirr as Anna processed the data.

“Looks good, Hudson, I’ve set our route using the Federation gates to plot a course to Ortoga.  As Chester said the cryo-chambers are ready.  You will have to wake up half way when we leave Federation space to change routes to the Ortoga quadrant.  Their gates only go so far as the Sulphich quadrant.  I have already programmed the wake up timer to coordinate with this course change. Once we leave the holding bay, it should be approximately 1.56 hours till we reach the warp gate.”

“Thanks, Anna, sounds good.  Get us out of here and on our way,”  Hudson said while grasping the flight controls.  The engines once again powered up and hummed as the Lucky Gallapagos shook with the burden of a full cargo hold.  Hudson flew the ship out into space, following Anna’s guidance.  Once they had pulled far enough away from Myron’s, Anna took over on the auto pilot.

“Care for cards while we wait?”  Hudson stood up and grinned at Chester.  “Or did those slippery whores take all your credits.”

Chester looked up with a smug smile, “I don’t need any credits cause all of yours are gonna be mine soon enough.”

They laughed and walked off to the mess hall.  After many hands of cards, laughs and some exchanging of credits, Anna came over the intercom. “We are approaching the warp gate.  Please prepare for cryosleep travel.”

Hudson gathered the cards and shuffled them together, “Looks like that’s it for now.”

Chester sighed, “I still never get used to it.”

“Used to what?  Loosing all your credits to me?”  Hudson smirked.

Chester waved Hudson’s comments away, “Naw, not that, the cryosleep.  I wonder…  I wonder if that’s what death feels like. Every time I wake up from it, it feels like I’ve been dead.  Still scares the shit outta me.  How do I know I’m gonna make it back out alive?  At least with normal sleep you dream.  This just feels like a black, empty nothing.  Like you’re sitting in limbo for forever until suddenly the heat and adrenaline hits you like a truck and drags you back to life.”

“Anna’s a good girl.  She’ll keep us safe, always does.  Plus you know that after you wake back up there’s always plenty of women looking to take your credits and give you a good time.  That’s something else that doesn’t change after each jump.”

Chester smiled and leaned back, eyes drifting upwards in a daydream. “They never get older, always staying young and beautiful.”

Hudson got up and motioned to Chester, “C’mon.  Let’s head over to the cryo-beds and get settled.  Bit of a short trip but still gotta sleep.”

“I’ll be there in a sec.  Just gonna have one more smoke, in case it’s my last.”  Chester chortled.

Hudson shrugged and walked off to the cryo-chambers.  He approached a white door that slid open for him, revealing four individual cryo-beds.  Looking like tanning beds of the past, each one would support one person through near light speed travel through the universe.  Hudson began stripping down and placing his clothes in a nearby locker.  Chester soon came in and checked the monitoring panel for the cryo-beds.

“All set and ready to go or in this case, ready to freeze,”  he said to Hudson.

“Good to go,”  Hudson acknowledged and opened one of the beds, climbing inside.

Chester nodded and pressed a button on the panel.  “Have a good sleep buddy,” he said as the bed began to close.

Hudson felt a chill as the bed began its cooling process.  A cold mist began to spray out of nearby nozzles, causing his skin to break out in goose bumps.  Closing his eyes, he breathed in deeply as everything slowly went black.

-------------------------------

Hudson slowly opened his eyes.  The cryo-bed hissed and the door slowly rose up.  A shiver ran down his spine as he tried to wiggle his toes.  They tingled as the feeling of blood beginning to pump through his system brought life back to his body.  Most people preferred to use a stimulant like adrenaline to help wake from the cryo-sleep faster, but Hudson never liked that. Didn’t feel it was right to shock your system awake after being in hibernation for so long. He began his wake up routine of flexing different muscles, starting with his toes.  Clenching his calves, moving up to his quads and buttocks, he wriggled his stomach a bit and breathed in to expand his chest.  Rotating his shoulders and his neck gently, he worked his way over to his arms, flexing his biceps, rotating his wrists and lastly wiggling his fingers.  His skin shook at the feeling of warm air pouring onto the cooled bed.  He wriggled a bit more before taking another deep breath and pushing open the bed lid.  

Chester’s bed was already open and empty.  He may have woken up first and the shot of adrenaline always jumped him out of bed.  Hudson, dragging his legs over the edge of the bed, sat up on the bed and began stretching again.  Too many times had he not stretched first before getting out of bed only to fall flat on the floor or pull something right away.  No, waking from cryo-sleep required a bit of prep work.  He made circles with his arms and lifted his knees a few times.  When he was confident with his body, he stood up slowly, kept his balance and grabbed his clothes from the locker.  

As he was dressing he spoke out to the ship’s computer, “Anna, status report.”

The computer coldly shot out, “ANNA Interface Personality code 033BBA78 not found.  System Error.  Unable to service request.”

Hudson blinked and finished putting his pants on while he wondered what was wrong with Anna. “Chester?  Chester?”  he called out as he walked to the cockpit.  

‘What’s going on?’  Hudson thought to himself.  ‘Where’s Chester?  And what’s wrong with Anna?  Good thing the timer for the bed was hard coded into the database else we may not have woken up if Anna was offline.’

He continued to call out but no response came.  When he arrived at the cockpit it was empty as well.  He sat down and ran a diagnostic on Anna’s programming as well as a status report on the ship.  

The ship’s generic cold stock voice reported back to Hudson, “Ship Coordinates are 0423, 4229.5, Knarl Quadrant.  Currently engines are offline and there is no course set.  ANNA Interface Personality - file not found.  Reload from back up?”

“What?  Why are the engines offline?  We weren’t supposed to wake up till the Sulphich quadrant,”  Hudson questioned the computer.  He looked at the card reader.  The Federation pass was gone.

The ship’s computer blankly responded.  “ANNA Interface Personality code 0FFA9DE6 not found.  System Error.  Unable to service request.  Reload ANNA Interface Personality from back up?”  

“Yes, goddamit!  What the hell is going on here?  Computer, scan ship for life forms.  Where the hell is Chester?”

“Four life forms identified.  One in the ship’s cockpit.  Three in cargo bay.”

‘Shit,’ thought Hudson, ‘the cargo.’

He jumped out of his seat and ran out of the cockpit.  He ran off to his quarters.  Whatever was in his ship, he was going to need something to handle it.  Pressing the code into the keypad for his room, it unlocked and the door slid to the side.  He pulled a weapon case out from under his bed.  Unlocking the clasps, he opened it and pulled out a laser rifle.  He took the strap for it and shouldered the rifle.  Reaching back in, he pulled out an old Smith & Wesson revolver.  It was scratched to hell but the polished barrel still shone in the light.  Generally he just kept his pistol on him for good luck but it had turned out to be more than useful time after time again.  He shut the case and kicked it back under the bed before running out of the room.

The cargo bay was at the back of this ship. ‘Chester must be there,’  Hudson thought to himself as he ran down the corridor. ‘Probably figured something was wrong and went to make sure the cargo is safe.  He’ll need back up.’

Reaching the side door for the cargo bay, the door slid open and Hudson slowly crept inside.  He came up to a large wall of cargo boxes and crouched, looking around it.  A small ship was parked in the middle of the cargo bay, with two insect-looking being’s overseeing some drones fill the ship with some of the cargo.  

“Bastards!”  Hudson muttered to himself. “Hi-jack my ship and steal my cargo?  Not on your life.”

Hudson looked over and saw one of the ship’s interface panels.  He reached over and began typing into the console.  The ship’s lights dimmed and warning lights started to flash.

“Warning!  Ship lock down initiated.  Warning!  Ship lock down initiated.”  The cold stoic computer voice echoed throughout the cargo hold.

The doors hissed as they slammed and locked shut.  The two insect aliens freaked out and starting looking about.  One opened its carapace, wings protruded from its back and it began to take flight, searching the cargo room for what was going on.  Hudson ducked back and flattened himself against the cargo boxes.  He could hear the annoying buzzing of the wings as they flew closer.  He gripped his rifle and took a deep breath.  The sound of wings buzzed closer then stopped, the alien had landed and the talons on its feet clinked on the cargo bay floor as it walked over to the corner where Hudson was hiding.

Hudson closed his eyes and waited, listening as it came closer.  When the bug had come far enough, Hudson jumped out and fired a burst of shots in the direction of the steps.  The bug whirled around just in time to see streaks of red laser fly at it.  One sizzled and scorched up its right eye, another crippling one of its legs and two more shot straight through its midsection.  The bug squawked and coughed before falling to the floor twitching.  Its companion clicked and squealed before jumping into the small ship.  Hudson cautiously stepped over to the fallen bug and kicked it, making sure it was dead.  Sure of its demise, he turned towards the ship and carefully approached it.

A door on the side of the ship quickly snapped open.  Hudson reacted quickly and shot into the doorway.  The beams fired through the door but there was nothing in the doorframe to hit.  He lowered his weapon for a moment to look at the doorway when instantly the other bug jumped out of the doorway.  Brandishing four laser pistols in each claw, it fired them all at Hudson.  Quick as lightening, Hudson jumped and rolled out of the way just in time. A shot grazed his shirt, but other than a faint smell of smoke, he was fine. He fired back another burst as he retreated behind a cargo case.  The bug proceeded to keep up the cover fire as it moved closer.  Hudson tried to look for a direction to peek out and return fire, but the combination of the four pistols was too much.  He backed up a bit from the crate and readied his rifle, awaiting the bug and hoping to get a lucky shot.  The shots grew closer as he heard the clack of the bug’s hardened talons scraping against the cargo bay floor.  Then everything stopped for a second creating an eerie silence that filled the room. Hudson held his breath, looking in all directions for the surprise attack. The bug jumped over the cargo crate, shadowing Hudson below.  Hudson gasped and tried to lift his rifle up in time.  Hudson closed his eyes and braced. A single shot was heard and the bug crashed down onto Hudson.  Hudson could feel the razor sharp edges of the bug’s exoskeleton scrape against his skin. He groaned as the weight of the bug came down upon him.  He slowly opened one eye and looked up to see the bug lying atop him with a smouldering hole in its head.  Stunned, he pushed the carcass off and over the cargo crate.  There stood Chester leaning over the cargo crate, lighting up another cigarette, laser pistol still in his other hand.

“Son of a bitch, am I happy to see you,”  laughed Hudson.  He stood up and brushed himself off.

“Someone’s gotta watch your back on this floating piece of junk,”  Chester replied taking a puff of his smoke.

“I was worried.  Where the hell were you?”

“Woke up early wondering what was what.  Thought something was fishy so I checked out the cargo hold.  Saw those two loading up the crates and was about to get you.  You musta activated the lock down though, cause it locked me in here.  I hid out waiting to catch them off guard but you jumped in first.”

“What are these things anyways?  And how did they get on the ship?”  Hudson asked looking over the corpse of the dead bug.

“Looks like they’re Xendo’pods.  They’re a group of space pirates known for hijacking ships and stealing cargo. They’re usually involved with smuggling rings and black market dealings.  Must have heard about the cargo we were hauling and set a course to intercept us.”

Before Hudson could reply, the ship’s computer spoke out over the intercom.  “ANNA Interface Protocol repaired.  ANNA Interface back online.”

“Guys?  What the heck is going on?”  Anna came back over the intercom.

Hudson called out, “Hey Anna, looks like we had some looters hijack us while we were in cryo-stasis.  Should be good now.  We can deactivate the ship lock down now.  We’ll meet you in the cockpit and figure out how to get back on track.  Also, can you send out a call to the Federation and ask how they let our asses get hijacked on their lines?”  

Anna responded by turning off the lock down. The warning lights stopped flashing and the doors unlocked with a notable click. “Sending out a comm link to the nearest Federation station.  Just so you know the nearest one is approximately 0.63 light years away.”

“Point-six-three light years?”  Hudson started walking with Chester to the cockpit.  “How could we get pushed so far off course?”

“Beats me.”  Chester shrugged, inhaling another puff from his smoke, “Who knows how they hit us?  Tech these days is probably jumping too fast for this ship to keep up.  Maybe after we should search their ship and see what they’ve outfitted that little beast with.”

“Nothing like this has ever happened before.  This is just unbelievable.”  Hudson shook his head, confused. They arrived at the cockpit, the door slid open with Anna onscreen to greet them. Hudson unstrapped his laser rifle and leaned it against the back of the cockpit before sitting down and beginning to look through the ship’s log on the console.

“How ya feeling, Anna?”  Hudson asked her.

“I think this is the closet thing a computerized personality can feel to having what you call a hangover.”  She sighed as they sat down.

“Do you remember anything about what happened?  Do we have any logs or reports of how they got us off course and boarded us?”  asked Chester.

“Nothing.  I seem to have lost any cached memory from the time of the incident.  I’ve been blacked out.  Whatever they used, they managed to shut down my systems before I had time to react,”  Anna replied sadly.

“Well, at least we’re okay now.  Can you plot us a route back to the nearest gate?  Also, do a full ship scan and system check just to make sure nothing’s been planted on board.  Don’t want anymore surprises.  If there’s anything we need to fix, we’ll wanna jump on that so we can get back on track,”  Hudson said.  

Anna was quick to reply, “I’ve gotten a response from a nearby Federation telecommunications relay.  They’re asking for our coordinates, ship number and our Federation pass to see what happened.  As well I can’t plot our course back to the gates without that card.  It seems to have been removed during the chaos.”

“I got it,”  Chester said as he put his cigarette out on the arm of his chair.  He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the silver card.  Sliding it back into the slot, the computer clicked and once again began reading the information from the disc.

“Okay, reading card,”  Anna called out.  “Course set to nearest gate.  Would you like to leave right away?”

“Wait till the ship is done scanning and we’re sure we’re good to go,”  answered Hudson.

“Acknowledged.  Ship scan is coming up clean.  There does not seem to be any damage to the cargo bay consoles or the ship’s mainframe.”

“Odd. No signs of a break in?  They didn’t pierce the hull or override the cargo bay?”

“Doesn’t look like it.  Oh and the Federation just replied back.  The ship apparently left the last gate and departed Federation space on its own.  No one was found to be interfering with the navigational route externally from their sources.”

Hudson blinked confused.  He tilted his head in thought and looked at the console.  His eyes fell on the silver pass card sticking out slightly from the console. “Chester, where did you get the Federation pass from?”

Chester looked up shocked.  “I...  I, uh, found it in the bug’s ship.  They musta grabbed it from the console and tossed it in there while they were loading up the cargo.”

Hudson stared at him, “But you never went in their ship. We came here straight from the cargo hold.  You didn’t have time to grab anything from their ship, in fact you commented that we should search it later.”

Hudson started to stand up, but Chester beat him too it.  He had pulled out his laser pistol and pointed it at Hudson’s chest.

“Guess the game is up for me.”  Chester motioned for Hudson to sit back down.  “You weren’t even supposed to wake up.  You were supposed to sleep through it all.”

“Why, Chester?”  Hudson said glumly. “We’ve been a team for so long.  Why now?  Why this?”

“I’m sick of this!”  Chester barked.  “Aren’t you?  Aren’t you sick of jumping around, never having a stable life.  Never knowing what it’ll be like when we get back from a forty year trip.  We’ll have hardly aged but nothings the same anymore.  I wanted out.  I wanted something stable.  With this cargo run I saw my chance out.  Obviously what we were hauling was valuable, worth something to someone.  I called up some friends of mine and they set up the deal.  After you went to sleep, I went and programmed Anna to get us to the drop point and forget what happened.  Her fail safe shut down must have triggered your wake up call.  Like I said, I never planned for you to wake up till we made the delivery.  Just drive off the road, load up some cargo and then jump back to finish the delivery.  No one had to be the wiser.  We might get a slap on the wrist for some missing crates, but what could they do to us?  We were asleep the whole time.  Maybe they’d even force us to quit, win-win.  I take the extra money from this job and go retire somewhere nice.  I’m sure you wouldn’t complain either.  Sometimes change isn’t for the best Hudson.  Sometimes you have to settle down and let the world change you instead.”

Hudson sulked, “Change?  You sure have changed.  After all these years we’ve been together you’ve done some shitty things, but I never expected you to stab me in the back.”

Chester used his free hand to fish out another smoke and place it between his lips.  He then pulled out a lighter and lit the end of it.  “When were we ever going to stop?  At the rate we were going, it would be another couple of centuries, maybe even a millennium or two.  You know you’d go till you died in that bed.  Well, you’ve got a choice now, you can go back to that bed and get some sleep.  You’ll wake up fine outside of Ortoga.  You can deliver what cargo is left and go on your way.  Or we can finish it here and leave Anna all alone until some Federation ship decides to tow her in.  Highly unlikely though, probably some scavengers will find her instead and skin the Lucky Galapagos bare.  Either way, we’ve killed my delivery men and that leaves me to get that cargo to the buyer so I can get my credits.”

“You son of a bitch!”  Hudson tried to jump back up but Chester waved the pistol in front of him, reminding him to stay put.

“It’s your choice,”  Chester repeated sternly, exhaling a puff of smoke.  “Who’s going to stop me?”

“What about me?”  Anna blurted out as the ship went back into lock down.  The cockpit door slammed shut and the emergency lights began flashing.

“What the?”  Chester stepped back, stunned for a moment.

That moment was all Hudson needed.  He quickly shot out of his seat and drew his revolver.  Chester reacted, firing off a shot.  It hit hard into Hudson’s shoulder with a sizzle of burning flesh.  Hudson grimaced and unloaded two shots from his revolver at the same time.  Lead spiralled from the barrel of the steel pistol into Chester’s gut.  Chester cried out before crumpling up and collapsing on the ground.  Hudson quickly kicked the laser pistol into a corner.

“Is this really what you wanted you bastard?”  Hudson growled as he stomped on the cigarette that had fallen from Chester’s mouth.  “You know where I’ve been going all these times on leave?”

Chester groaned and tried to open his mouth and the pain was too much for him to talk.

“I’ve been going back to Alpha Outpost to see my family. That’s right, I have a family. I’ve been watching what I can of them as they grow up.  I’ve seen my grandkids grow up and have kids of their own.  You don’t think I’ve wanted to stop and see them, to spend time with them?  Laugh with them, talk with them, watch them learn and grow?  No, I’m stuck here on this ship, skipping across time just to support them.  If I could quit I would, but they need the money.  I’m doing this for them.  All that keeps me going is thinking of seeing their smiles when I get back to spend a few more days with them before I have to leave.  Do you know how hard it is to leave them?  Wondering if they’ll even recognize you when you come back?  Not even knowing who will be there when I come back?  Yeah, I know damn well the feeling of wanting to get out of this damn rut.”

Chester’s head slumped to side and his eyes began to close. Hudson holstered his weapon and sighed.  “Anna, ready the sick bay.  As much as I hate this mother fucker right now for what he did to us, I just don’t have it in me to watch my best friend die.  Contact the Federation for a meet up and we can let them settle this matter for us.”

“Sure thing, Hudson,”  Anna replied softly. “Plotting route for interception with nearest Federation gate now.”

“Oh, and one more thing, Anna.  Send a message to Myron, I think this is going to have to be our last delivery for him.” Hudson shook his head and bent down.  He grabbed Chester and picked him up with a fireman’s carry, trudging off to the sickbay.

---

Hudson awoke from the cold cryo-sleep.  Lifting the bed’s lid, he proceeded to perform his usually wake up routine of flexing and stretching. Working from his toes up, he began to feel life in his skin again.

“We’re just coming in to dock, Hudson,”  Anna announced as he sat up on the bed.

“Thanks, Anna, I’ll be up there shortly,”  Hudson responded.

He climbed off the bed and opened his locker.  As he began putting his clothes on, he looked over to the empty cryo-bed.  Chester wasn’t there.  The Federation had taken him into custody after the meet up at the gate.  His wounds had managed to stabilize.  He was going to live but he was now under arrest for hijacking and smuggling cargo.  Still the lonely trip shook Hudson.

“At least he’s free now,” Hudson muttered to himself. “Idiot got what he wanted one way or another.” He sighed and walked off to the cockpit.

“How was the sleep?”  Anna asked, attempting small talk.

“Cold, dark and lonely like always,”  Hudson answered.

“We’re approaching the dock.”

“I’ll take over manual control from here.”

“Acknowledged.”

He took over the controls and guided the ship to the dock.  The ship shuddered as the came to a rest and the airlock latched on.  Hudson got up to leave but Anna stopped him.

“Hudson, will you be back anytime soon?  Should I do anything while you’re gone?”

“I don’t know, Anna, we’ll see.  If something comes up I’ll be back, otherwise... it’s been great working with you.” He strode out and towards the airlock.

“You too, Hudson, you too.”

About an hour later Hudson came to a door.  He pressed a button beside the panel and a chime was heard inside.  Some murmuring came from inside and some footsteps approached.  The door slid open.

“Grandpa!  You’re back!  Come in!  It’s great to see you again.  Do you know how long you’ll be staying?”

“Hopefully a long time.  A long, long time,”  Hudson said. He smiled and walked inside as the door slid shut behind him.

The End