This was a fun exercise I wrote for my Writers Group an eon ago. I hope you enjoy it!
“I am Johnny “Fever” McGuillicutty and I am the best damn pilot in the sector.” He chanted his mantra as he checked the readout one more time. Sensors told him that there were at least six Raiders between him and the next jump point. His precious cargo would earn him a lot of credits but not if he was dead. Time to prove his worth to his mysterious benefactor.
He flipped three switches and turned the dial to the maximum, filling the cabin with his favorite tunes and ramping up the ion drive. Then he pushed up the sliders to engage the shields to seventy-five percent, leaving enough power for signal jamming.
“Ivan, override inertial dampers and dump power to directional thrusters.” It was usually easier to let the Petunia’s AI do some of the heavy lifting.
“Are you sure that’s wise, Captain?” The ship computer answered smartly.
Johnny sighed. Easier when Ivan was willing to do what he was told the first time. “I am. Well, as wise as any action that has me taking on a gaggle of Raiders would be considered. Now do the thing!”
“Aye, Captain.” There was a trace of sulk in Ivan’s voice.
Johnny let out the throttle as he felt the ride get rougher. The six-point restraint would hold him in place, but there would be some shaking.
He flew directly at the nearest Raider, screaming in time with the lead singer of the Oscillation Overthrusters. Guy Killington had a voice like a warp engine failure. Johnny did his best to match it.
Signal jamming would make his ship, The Petunia, look like background noise or space junk. It should work until he was close enough to make the Raider pilot wish he was wearing brown pants.
“Ivan, shields full front and angle fifteen degrees port side.” Now he had to ensure no one shot at him from the sides or rear.
“Shields front and angle port side, aye.” This time there was no hesitation.
His feet and hands worked the ship’s directional and throttle controls. On most ships, such manual control would hardly have been necessary. Johnny preferred to fly by feel. Haptic sensors provided feedback to his bare soles and the palms of his hands.
He would have been close enough to see the whites of the Raider’s eyes if windshields were a thing on interstellar ships. He unleashed pulses of energized particles from the Petunia’s ventral canons with his left pinky. With his right big toe, he sent a barrage of torpedoes at their drive couplers. The particle canons were a distraction to keep them from noticing the cloaked missiles.
With a twist of his wrist, he sent the Petunia in a starboard slide just in time for the Raider to return fire. The movement made him lurch in his pilot’s chair. His shields sent the beam towards the general vicinity of the other Raiders. At the same time, the torpedoes detonated, ripping a huge hole in the enemy ship’s drive couplers. This whole exchange took place in less than a second. The damage should look like their ally had malfunctioned. The amount of hull ionization would be playing havoc with their communications.
Johnny whooped and turned his slide into a series of loops and whirls, randomizing his movements as much as possible. It felt like he was sitting in a ball being played with by a kitten the size of a supernova. “Ivan, shields back to normal.”
“Full coverage on shields, aye.” The AI barked. Now Ivan was getting into the spirit of things.
Three Raiders were going to check on their comrade and the other two were doing a sweep. The Petunia would have left a bit of a trail, but with all the crazy juking it would be hard to follow. One Raider looked like it might zero in on him given enough time.
He could pour on the speed but that would make him easier to detect. “Ivan, distance to jump point at current speed and heading?”
“Three point zero three six nine two minutes.” Ivan had been taught to calculate to at most five decimal places. Anything more was silly
That was a literal lifetime if he wasn’t careful. He split power between shields and signal jamming and dropped in behind one of the nearby Raiders. After fifteen seconds of creeping up, he slid signal jamming to one hundred percent leaving him temporarily shieldless. He then sent four torps right up the Raider’s poop chute. Once they were away, he turned and burned straight for the jump point.
There was a bright flash behind him. He looked long enough to make sure that no one had gotten a peek at him. Even at full power, jamming wasn’t a guarantee. No one was following him. They were all too busy trying to figure out why one of their number was nothing but stardust.
“Good shot, Captain. Do you think this job will pay out what it promises?” Ivan was a bit of a pessimist. He did have a point, considering they had been burned a few times.
“Well, it’s true I don’t know who the benefactor is, but their references are good and the deposit cleared. The deposit will cover our expenses at least.” The jump to their destination was going to be a long one so they’d need to refuel when they got where they were going. “Any particular reason you’re worried, good buddy?”
“I tried scanning the cargo and infiltrating the manifest, but it was resistant to my charms. That makes me wonder what it might be and if it’s entirely legal.” Ivan was good at cracking most security.
“Legal smeagol. As long as the people we’re delivering it to aren’t the fuzz then I don’t see how that matters.”
The Petunia reached the coordinates for the jump point and everything went fuzzy as his ship crossed the wormhole. Once he came back to reality and uncrossed his eyes, he checked his sensors to see what was in the neighborhood. There was a nearby planet and a space station in orbit. He’d jumped about sixteen lightyears, give or take a parsec.
“Well, we made it in one piece.” Johnny patted the console.
“This Titus Space Dock to…”, the voice on the other end paused, “the independent cargo hauler Petunia, we have your security certificate and acknowledge its receipt. What’s your business?”
“I have a delivery for one of your citizens. Ivan, broadcast sealed info packet Zed-Zed-Niner.”
“Broadcasting, aye.”
“Info packet received, Petunia, and verified. Proceed with docking maneuvers.”
Minutes later, Johnny stood shaking hands with an attractive lady about ten standard years his senior. “Thank you for the delivery.” She patted the huge shipping container Ivan had offloaded with the Petunia’s built-in crane.
“Can I ask what’s in it?” He usually didn’t care too much, but the run-in with the Raiders made him want to know.
“Of course.” She palmed open the lock and they walked in. It was easily five below zero inside. “I’m the chief physician at a hospital for children with rare genetic conditions and one of our patrons wanted to throw us an ice cream party.”
Johnny stood there with his mouth open. He’d flown frozen moo juice over sixteen light years. Well, it was a good cause, and a station like this wouldn’t have the real thing. There wasn’t a cow to be had within twenty light years of this place.
“Did you have any problems with the delivery?” The doctor asked.
Johnny laughed and grabbed a container of the frozen delicacy. “Nah, I guess you could say it was a regular milk run.”