Cargo, Held

Cycles Go ‘Round [Chapter 6]

Pirates. Yes, they do still exist, even in times like this. And here I find myself, captured by these self-proclaimed pirates, all before I was scheduled to have my days off. To think, it began as such a simple assignment.

It began with docking my little ship to the freighter. The Reptorian captain, Rex, had an account with our company to cover his employees in their little shipping business. As I was told, his two new workers aboard would need to be put on his policy, easy stuff.

“So, first off, just to make sure all our information is up to date,” I said, going through the paces in the confines of the freighter’s crew hold. “Does your business ever handle cargo that could be considered toxic or dangerous?”

Rex, with his green scaly nature, shrugged and presented a grek-eating grin. “Only if you could consider smelly grub-gagging crewmen as being toxically pungent. Water tanks are heavy and take up a lot of space, so showers are mostly discouraged.”

I nodded, tapping my finger on the edge of my tablet to stifle my retort. “Uh, let me change how I put it. Is there anything on board that could negatively affect your crewman’s health?”

“Oh, if that’s what you mean, we have plenty of gut-water on board for when the long hauls get too boring.”

I clicked my tongue and nodded, pretending to put details into my tablet. “No water, but plenty of booze, check. Luckily for you, alcohol abuse would be a topic for your health insurance provider, not our worker’s comp insurance.”

“Hooray for us!” Rex grinned again, clapping his scaly hands.

“You know, I could just reach out to the trade board in this area to pull the records of your past manifests, just to make sure everything is still above board here,” I bluffed, knowing full well neither I nor dispatch had that power.

Rex nearly tumbled out of his chair, pulling his feet down off the table. “Oh, well it’s not like that would be a problem. But to save you time, no, nothing dangerous or toxic that would do my employees in. Just the usual nonsense of space.”

“Perfect,” I nodded, happy at being able to make progress. “Then, I would like to take down the names of the two crew members enrolling, as well as their species and age. Then if you could make sure all the employer’s information is up to date. If you would?”

Rex reached out for my tablet. I said back in the rickety chair, most of the old foam and upholstery ripped and shredded or completely absent. With toes pointed together, I stared at my knees, with the occasional glance to Rex’s pointy fingers on the screen of my tablet, tapping away.

“Here, everything looks good,” he said, standing and pushing the screen back my way.

I examined the form, nodding along with each line filled out. “Thank you very much,” I said, ready to stand.

Rex cleared his throat. “So that goes out right now to your company?”

“I will submit it and send it off with my stamp of approval over the warp-waves as soon as I’m back to my ship,” I said, putting on my best customer service voice.

The captain clapped his hands together. “The sooner the better. I beg you. Like… what do you Terrens say— ASAP?”

I lowered my eyes in made-up concern. “I’m afraid there is only so much I can do once it leaves my hands. But I can assure you that Cycles Go ‘Round works as efficiently as possible.”

Rex nodded, eyes seeming to water with anticipation. “Well, I hope so, as we are already out here on track with those two blokes aboard. I’d hate for something to happen to them.”

Despite my distaste for conflict, I had learned and practiced a phrase just for the occasion. “I understand, but poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”

Just as I was ready to tuck my tablet under my arm, a loud bang radiated from deep in the ship, accompanied by a sudden jolt that nearly took my feet out from under me. I pushed myself up against the nearby wall. The captain swung about on his chair and rushed to the control panel across from me, slamming down on a button near a readout screen. I felt his eyes land on me for a moment before crossing the petite room.

“You’re not going to tell me what that was?” I said, sliding in his way.

Eyes flickering back and forth, he simply shifted past me and onto another bank of controls. “We have to do a little bit of expecting the unexpected here. But don’t worry, the bulkhead doors are sealed… for now.”

I bit my tongue to hold back my fury, producing the following words with restraint. “I work in insurance sales, captain. My business is all about expecting the unexpected, and making sure that people aren’t… screwed over by it. And frankly, I’m feeling a little bit screwed over right now.”

Rex had his back to me, talking into the ship’s radios in a different language. Between annoyed-sounding grunts, he glanced back to me and shrugged. “Poor planning on your part does not con… make an emergency for me, you know?”

My restraint came loose. I jerked forward, shoving a finger into his back. “Unexpected!? No! You were expecting something! Something exactly like this… whatever’s going on. Right? That’s why you had me out here to update your policy! Whatever trade route this is, it isn’t a good one!”

Rex turned himself back, eyes narrow, voice with a self-assured hiss. “We are not technically in danger, personally. Certainly not you or me. That was just our hull being breached. And likely, our visitors won’t even come our way, once they get what they want.”

“And who exactly are we talking about?” I huffed. “Like, pirates?”

“Pirates,” he said with a nod. “That is what they’re called, huh?”

I looked into his eyes as if waiting for him to give up the joke. “…great. And here I’m docked far on the opposite end of your ship, past your cargo hold. I don’t suppose there’s another way to the aft to get out of here?”

Rex shrugged. “Old, dusty vents. Your slim, smooth-skinned body might…”

I held up a hand to his face and scoffed, deciding to plop back down in the mangled chair. “I shall wait. All the doors are locked, I assume?”

“Yes, like I said, no reason for them to come this way.”

The chair creaked and complained as I spun it around to face away from the captain. Despite its rickety nature, I found my body relaxing and eyes feeling heavy, despite some miscreants likely causing havoc in the cargo hold a few compartments away.

The pneumatic hiss of one of the doors pulled me out of my almost napping state, almost sending the chair backward with me in it. I rolled out and caught myself on my feet, hiding behind the table. Rex stood up, facing the one who had come through.

“Dart, are they gone now? Why haven’t you been answering the radio?”

I recognized the name as one of the new crewmembers I was adding to the policy. He was another Reptorian of a different sort, with pale yellow scales. Another person behind him was of a different species, one of smooth, slick-looking skin with frog-like features.

“She’s the insurance lady, boss?” Dart asked, looking me up and down. I huddled behind the table further into the far corner of the room.

“What’s going on here? Why are you with him, unlocking the doors!” Rex fumbled, looking between his crew member and the other fellow.

The pirate pushed past into the room. “Okay, listen here boss.” He said with a gulp. “Your man here was havin’ a nap right in that cargo hold when we latched on and busted in. How convenient that we would have an extra pair of hands to help pull apart all the crates you’ve got. But ya’ know what, Cap’n? ”

Rex folded his arms. “I don’t know what.”

The frog man clicked his tongue a few times. “Well, obviously you ain’t gonna tell me where the most valuable things are packed, I’m thinkin’. Dart here certainly don’t know. But then I heard from the man that someone else was on board, a neat little thing that might be able to help us out in other ways.”

“You were trying to get insurance on me!” Dart chirped in roughly. “So if I die out here, you get all the money. Isn’t that right, smooth-skin?”

I jumped up as if controlled by his finger and shoved myself into the corner. “That’s not exactly what I do, nor how it works. It’s… workers comp and stuff, so your boss can provide for you if you’re injured and… and…”

“See!” The pirate huffed. “All the red tape ‘honest’ work like this comes up with is nonsense. This guy’s with me, now, Cap’n. And after we get what we want from the cargo hold, we’ll be back for her!”

Rex balked for a moment but found the peace of mind to lean back against the wall. “Take him, then. Traitor. And don’t expect to get your paycheck from your training period, either.”

Dart frowned and glanced at the pirate, then shook his head. “Fine.”

I ignored the payroll violation playing out in front of me and carefully raised my hand to draw the least intimidating attention to myself. “I’m… not sure you want anything to do with me. Certainly… more red tape to deal with if you do…”

“Oh, no,” The pirate huffed and chuckled. “Well, we’ll see about that, Terran. At the least, we certainly don’t want ya’ scooting out of here and calling the authorities. So stay put. Cap’n, you’re free to tell us where the expensive stuff is, so we can get out of your hair sooner.”

Rex and I met eyes across the compartment, and he turned to shrug at the pirate. “If you want the good stuff, you’ll have to work for it.”

The pirate sneered and jerked back. “Come on, Dart, plenty of crates to pry open. You’ll have to excuse the mess we leave behind, Capn’,” he turned out the door, laughing.

I turned back to Rex as the doors closed. “He’s just walking all over you! You… don’t have any weapons? A single laser pistol or something?”

The captain hissed, flicking his thin, pointed tongue at me. “Do you realize how bad an idea it is to be shooting weapons inside a thin metal shell floating around in the void of nothingness? And even if we didn’t pierce the hull, we would just rile types like these up.”

I planted my face into my palm. “So let me get this straight— since you head through known pirating sectors, you decide you need insurance for your ship and crew.”

“Obviously.”

“I can’t blame you. But to get me out here, in the middle of the sector to sign up your new hires… you’ve put me in this situation!”

Rex put his hands on his hips. “We needed them aboard, and I needed us to be on our way. A freighter’s gotta keep its schedule.”

I traced the edges of the ceiling and corners of the floor, looking for anything resembling a hatch. “Yeah, and so do I. Which means being captured by pirates is not going to be in the cards for me. Not to mention whatever they have in mind for me… tell me how I can get into the air vents and get out of here.”

“That’s, uh,” said the captain, hand rubbing against the back of his head. “That was kind of a joke. I mean, we do have air vents, but I don’t think anyone could fit.”

I huffed and plopped myself back down in the old seat. “Oh, so we’re both just gonna let this happen now, huh?”

Rex took his own seat. “Well, I assume you must have insurance as well? I’ve heard of kidnapping insurance. Does Cycles Go ‘Round not have that sort of thing?”

“I am insured, to inform you,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “But that’s separate from what my employer sells. If I were you, I would get insurance for your cargo back there, too. Our sister company—“

Rex was frozen in his chair. “Oh, is that a thing?” he mumbled, gently turning away from me.

“Hold on now,” I said, glancing to my tablet on the table. “The name of your company was…”

“You know, if I go out to the hold and get in the pirate’s face, I can maybe distract him long enough for you to run out of here.”

I pushed myself up, tucking my tablet under my arm. “You have insurance on this cargo, don’t you? I didn’t think this was a trade route— and that’s because it isn’t! This is why you haven’t put up a single ounce of effort against this guy. You just want to get the insurance money only doing half the work. I think I need to have a talk with this pirate.”

Rex tried to catch up with me as I opened the door. “I can tell you that this pirate is very much the real thing, insurance girl!”

Past the bulkhead door was the hold I had crossed after departing my own ship. The metal crates that had been neatly stacked before were all shuffled about and torn to pieces, with haphazard piles of goods moved about the space. The port side wall had a laser-cut opening in the metal hull, with the pirate’s craft securely sucked to the exterior. The frog-like man and his lackeys glanced up at me and Rex, who ducked away behind the opened door.

“Has he come to offer us up the Terran?” The pirate chortled. “Is it because he knows that all his cargo is junk?”

I cleared my throat. “You’re in on this insurance scam, aren’t you? As soon as I get back, I’m reporting both you and the Reptoran, here.”

There was a round of laughter. A few of the pirate crew members began to close in on me, the leader included. I glanced back to Rex, who readily closed the bulkhead door, sealing himself back in.

“Back off,” the frog-like man croaked at his men. “Let me at her. I’m sure I can… make use of her.”

I pushed myself back against the crates behind me, trying to locate the passage back to my ship, but to no avail. The pirate leader was certainly stronger than I would have imagined, able to pick me up by the collar and drag me back to the opening where his ship had forcefully docked. “I promise you…” I whimpered, “I have a tracker on my ship. So… if you do something to me… they’ll know where to look.”

The pirate plopped me down in a seat inside his ship and placed himself in front of the hatch, clearing his throat. “No need to worry, Terran. Should I introduce myself, first? Call me Splut. I hear you sell insurance.”

“Uh… well, I’m Anna,” I reciprocated. “And insurance is my company’s thing.”

“Perfect. Now I don’t know what you have with that Reptoran captain of that other ship, but we’d like something like it as well.”

“You mean… insurance-wise?”

Splut tilted his head. “What else could I mean? You don’t think folks like us need insurance? And we just got another set of hands and a mouth to feed, in case ya’ weren’t paying attention. So, what can ya’ do fer us?”

“I, uh… I can give you a policy form, and as for cargo insurance… I assume you take some on from time to time… I can tell you how to contact our sister company…”

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