Chapter 13 - A Time To Run, And A Time To Fight!

We knew it would happen sooner or later. There's not a spacer alive that doesn't have his stories, but still...

I'm not saying we weren't bein' careful mind you. We studied the star-charts carefully, and did all we could to avoid possibly dangerous systems, and we made our jumps as short as possible to conserve fuel. We also avoided other ships we encountered as best we could. On three occasions, we had even been attacked by pirates, but we always managed to out-run them before they had a chance to fire at us.

"Three ships off the port bow Captain."

"I see 'em Aria! Hit the turbos and hard to starboard! Then hit the go-go juice as soon as we are clear!"

The "turbos" are what Aria referred to as "fuel injectors". A little upgrade I had installed as soon as I could afford them. "Go-go juice" is what she kept calling the "torus drive".

She just doesn't get the lingo!

Basically we ran like little schoolgirls whenever we saw another ship hit our scanner. After all, I did promise to be careful didn't I?

Ya, that's the reason.

Galcop Vipers were another animal altogether. We tended to stick as close to those as possible. You know... In case they needed any help...

And so it went. Aria and I would dock, we would look over the station manifest, decide what to buy and sell, then we would be off to the next planet. We made a good team, and we had our routine down. In other words, we became complacent...

We were at Isinor, I had just picked up a load of furs and decided to make a run for Qutiri, a rich industrial planet.

"Captain, that is a multi-government planet. There could be some risk involved." Aria warned.

"I know Aria, but it would mean more profit. Besides, we got them beam lasers now, and I am gettin' tired of runnin'!"

I had managed to upgrade both fore and aft pulse lasers to beam lasers after selling the docking computer.

"Docking computer?! We have a docking computer?! Why didn't anyone tell me we had a docking computer!? I ranted. Not that I needed one anymore. I was now good enough at docking, that I usually did it with my foot to the floor, and the turbos kicked in. But still...

Anyways, we now had the beam lasers, and I was feelin' a little cocky. Mistake number two.

"10...9...8..." Aria counted down.

Flip-flop went my stomach.

We were there.

"Five ships off the port bow Captain!"

Five yellow blips on the scanner, suddenly turned red.

Oh crap.

"Hard to starb..." A laser flashed past my window.

Enough running...

I put my foot to the floor and turned directly at them, which seemed to surprise them for a few seconds. The blips just sort of milled around, as if not sure what to do.

"Lock on as soon as we are close enough, Aria!" I shouted.

"Target locked, Captain." said Aria, as calmly as ever.

It was a Krait, the scourge of something or other...

I fired.

Sparks flew from his shields as they tried to deflect the lasers energy.

My laser stopped firing, it had overheated.

Lasers were now criss-crossing the black all around us.

I turned and ran.

I yelled for Aria to switch the vidscreen to the rear view, and there was the Krait, directly behind me. I fired again.

An instant later, the Krait disappeared in a fire ball.

More lasers flashed past me now, and suddenly, I heard the ominous echoing bang of laser hits on my shields.

Time for the turbos!

I watched the vidscreen as I tried to run, another small ship fell in behind me. I don't know what it was, or what it was called.

I was too scared to care...

Bang...bang...bang, the ship shook with each hit.

My aft laser still had a quite a ways to go before overheating, so I opened fire again.

Just as my laser overheated... Another fireball.

The little red blips disappeared off the scanner.

"Go-go juice Aria!"

We had made it.

Then, I saw the energy display on the vidscreen.

A slice of yellow, as thin as a hair, was all that was left.

I started to shake.

"Are you okay Captain?"

"I just killed two people Aria... and I almost got us killed as well."

Aria was silent.

The rest of the trip to the station, was spent dodging and running, until we were finally able to dock. Aria was banged up a bit and needed some repairs. I was banged up a bit too, and needed some "repairs" of my own. I headed for the bar.

"I know that look, son..."

I tried to focus.

"Made your first kill today, didn't you?"

"Yesh shur." I slurred.

My drink disappeared from my hand, and something hot in a mug replaced it.

"Wash thish?" I mumbled.

"Black coffee with Buzzkill." said the mystery voice. "Come on, drink up."

With a little help, I managed to choke down the scalding concoction. Minutes later, I was mostly coherent again. Bummer.

Across the small table from me, was a grizzled old spacer. Deep wrinkles around his eyes deepened as he grinned at me.

"Sorry to waste booze and a good buzz there son, but they aren't going to help you right now."

"I should have run... I shouldn't have..." I rubbed my hands over my face, as if trying to rub away the memory.

The old spacer sighed. "Maybe... Then again, maybe not."

I peeked at him from between my fingers.

"Let me ask you something, son... Did you fire first, or did they?"

"They did... I think..."

"Okay, then tell me son, did you ask them to fire at you?"

"No! Of course not!" I replied, getting a mite angry.

"No, of course you didn't. They were waiting there to ambush the first spacer they saw, and it was your bad luck to be the one to stumble into them. You didn't ask for the fight son, and you didn't start the fight. All you did, was defend yourself, and that there ain't nothing to be ashamed of."

I put my hands down on the scarred table top, and looked at the old man.

"Here's something else for you to think about son. I got jumped by pirates myself just a few hours ago. I managed to escape, barely, by making the hyperspace jump here to Qutiri. When I came out of hyperspace, I saw some of the wreckage left behind from your encounter. Now, what do you think would have happened to me, if I had run into your little welcoming committee right after that jump?"

I looked him hard in the eye, but didn't say anything.

"Ya son... It would have been me floating around all vaporized in space right now. So the way I see it son, is you saved my life today. And that's the way you gotta see it too, if you're gonna survive out there in the black." The old man sighed.

"Those pirates made a decision plain and simple. They set their course the very first time they decided to attack an innocent spacer. They decided it was easier to take things away from us mostly honest folks, than to work for it themselves. And if you think for one second, they are gonna loose sleep over vaporizing you, just to get to your cargo son, you're mistaken. they don't care if you're someone's son, or daughter, father or mother. They CHOOSE to kill and steal, and now it's up to you to choose son. Choose to fight when you have to, or choose to go home."

The old spacer stood and placed a hand on my shoulder. "No matter what you choose, son. I thank you for saving my life today, even though you didn't know you did. Now I got some repairs to make, then I am heading home to Tionisla to visit my own son. He and my beautiful daughter-in-law just gave birth to my first grand-baby! He pulled out a small holophoto and handed it to me. It showed a handsome young man standing next to his pretty little wife. In her arms was a bundle of baby blankets, surrounding a tiny pink face and one chubby little arm waving in the air.

I smiled at the picture, then held it back out to him.

"You keep it son, I can get another. You keep it and maybe remember why, sometimes, we need to fight instead of run."

The old man turned and walked out of the bar. I sat there for a long time afterwards, just looking at that picture.

"Aria? You all fixed now?" I asked, as I entered the loading bay door.

"Affirmative, Captain. All repairs are complete, and I am at one hundred percent efficiency."

I worked my way up to the bridge,and flopped into my seat. I tucked the picture the old man had given me, into a corner of the console on the armrest.

"How are YOU feeling, Captain?" asked Aria.

I looked at the picture.

"Looks like good prices on computers here... Let's grab a load of them and get out of here. What do you say, Aria?"

"I would say that seems like a sensible plan, Captain."

"Okay then, let's load up. There's a whole universe out there waitin', Aria."

I was feeling pretty good after all.