Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel by George Ellis (ebook reader ink .TXT) 📕

“What’s the big deal?” he asked. He still held a beer in his hand. Before I could answer, he saw the growing blip on the radar. “Whoa.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Where’s Batista?”

“Hold onto your pants, I was busy cleaning the dampers on the recycler,” she complained as she entered the cabin. She plunked down in her chair next to Avery without looking at him. They had been fighting again, I guessed.

“Don’t forget I’ve got green men with oversized heads,” Avery said to Edgar, who pointed back. The two had placed a bet on what aliens would look like if we ever actually ran into any. I assumed it would take years, if ever. The idea that we might have bumped into an alien ship after such a short journey surprised me. Calling them aliens was a stretch anyway, Gary had argued. For all we knew, we would be the aliens to them, having wandered into their home verse.

Or it was just another ship with humans that also had a warp drive.

“So we’re sure it’s not the Burnett,” I confirmed, eyeing the failsafe.

“We’re sure, captain,” Gary said. “When I said I couldn’t match the signature? It’s because this ship doesn’t have one that my processor understands.”

“Lovely,” Batista interjected, caught up to speed on the situation.

“Romy, Marcum, you guys secured?” I asked over the intercom.

Gary located their positions and piped in their audio from their respective quarters. They were both good to go, if we needed to make a fast getaway.

“Maybe we should run,” Gary suggested.

Edgar shook his head. “For a 15-year-old robot, you are such a little whiny baby.”

I looked at Avery to see what he thought. He had a gleam in his eye. Wasn’t this what we came out here for, he seemed to be saying. I agreed.

“Prepare the drive. But don’t bolt the area unless I say so first,” I told Gary.

“Aye, aye captain,” he acknowledged. “Want me to hail them? They don’t seem to be moving. We’re heading toward them.”

I nodded. Gary sent a transmission request, but got nothing back in return. If it was an alien ship, it was possible they didn’t have the same communication architecture as the Stang, meaning there would be no way to directly talk to them.

That is, if they used speech as their main mode of communication.

I checked with Edgar and he said he didn’t see anything that looked like a sign they were going hot with their weapons. “But it’s not like I can be sure. They might have photon plasma missiles or something out here.”

“Thanks for the reassurance,” I said. Then I had an idea. I told Gary to ping them again, but this time send over a verbal dictionary. “Maybe they’ll be able to interpret it.”

A few moments later, our hail was accepted and a pleasant human face filled the screen. The woman was attractive, with light green eyes and pale skin. She smiled politely.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hey,” I replied.

Then I waited for her to lead the conversation. When it became apparent she wasn’t going to, I blurted out the first thing that came into my head.

“You from around here?” I asked, realizing how dumb the question was. Batista audibly groaned. Even Gary whispered “good one.”

“We are not, in fact,” the woman answered. Then she furrowed her brow and changed her mind. “Well, at one time our people were. My ancestors come from a planet a few billion miles from here, near the largest star among that cluster of planets.”

She somehow beamed a diagram of the solar system onto my monitor. “Did you do that, Gary?” I asked. He said he didn’t. I looked at the diagram and saw that the sun was highlighted.

“You mean the sun?” I wondered aloud.

“We don’t call it that. Are you familiar with the star?”

“Uh, yeah, pretty familiar.”

Avery leaned over and whispered for me to ask her which planet she was from. Then Edgar added “And see if she has friends.”

I grimaced at Edgar’s comment, then asked the woman where her people were from. I watched in amazement as Mars was highlighted on the diagram.

“When exactly are we talking about?”

“Two million years ago, we left Cerenia.”

“We don’t call it that anymore.”

The woman nodded in understanding. “What do you call yourself?”

“Oh, right, sorry for the rudeness. My name is Denver and this is the Mustang Enterprise.”

“An odd name for a ship. Isn’t a Mustang a horse?”

“You’re familiar with horses?”

“You sent us a dictionary with your language in it.”

“That we did,” I said, embarrassed. “Like the horse. It was also an antique automobile and the person who named this ship liked those kinds of cars. And your name is?”

“Madiannaraian Protoria The Second,” she replied. “But many call me Madi.”

“Okay, Madi,” I said. “It’s nice to meet you.”

She then leaned closer to inspect my face. I put on my best smile. Eventually, she nodded, satisfied.

“Are you guys flirting?” Avery whispered.

I don’t think Madi heard it, but her eyes flashed toward Avery quickly and then back to me. “You are human, yes?” she asked.

“We are.”

“Then perhaps you can help us. Our ship ceased functioning several months ago and we’ve been adrift ever since. We still share many qualities with humans such as yourselves, even after millions of years of evolution. The primary similarity would be a need for oxygen.”

“Okay. Good to know. Well, it just so happens that we are the kind of ship that fixes other ships.”

“Ah, then it seems we won’t die from asphyxiation after all,” she said, before frowning. “We’re a very blunt race, Denver. We speak in very direct terms.”

“Perfect. I like that.”

“And I like your face. It makes me think about what it would be like to have intercourse with you,” she said.

I paused just long enough for her to realize what she had just said. She saw the looks on everyone else’s faces in the cabin. Her cheeks turned pink. “I guess you are not as direct as we are. This will make for an awkward first