Page 27 of The Stolen Tribute
We wouldn’t be safe now until we found the leader of the Mujugs. These gooey, smelly creatures were barely sentient, but they were easily manipulated. Whoever owned this trawler was likely a being of intelligence, who was employing the Mujugs to work the scrap ship. I’d seen it a million times.
I lead Kylie through the corridors, keeping a tight hold of her hand. I kept my laser blaster in front of us, in case any more Mujugs got in the way.
“What’s the plan?” Kylie panted.
“We need to get to the controls so we can send out an SOS to my crew,” I said.
“What about these gooey aliens?” Kylie asked.
“Once we take out the leader, they shouldn’t be a problem,” I replied. I was no fan of unnecessary killing. Mujugs without an intelligent leader were more of a nuisance than a threat.
Kylie’s grip tightened on the laser blaster in her hand. She nodded.
“Come on, let’s go,” I said, picking up the pace.
These scrap trawlers were massive machines, but the vast majority of the space they took up was because of their giant bellies. The livable area was relatively compact. We worked our way through the narrow corridors, thankfully not encountering any more Mujugs as we went.
Finally, we reached the control bridge. The door was closed, and two Mujugs were positioned on either side of it, waiting.
“Whoever is leading these guys is in the control room,” I said to Kylie.
The human peeked around the corner, observing the guards. “We can take them out and then force our way in,” She said, more to herself than me.
I looked down at her in surprise.
“What? Oh, right,” She said, blushing. “Well, I guess you couldn’t have known this, but I was a top-ranked gamer back home on Earth. Not to say real fighting is the same, but y’ know, the strategy isn’t all that different.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “I’ll take your word for it, Kylie.” I felt the urge to kiss her again but resisted. Not now. I had to be focused on the goal.
I glanced back around the corner. “Cover me, then,” I said to the human.
She nodded.
The look in her eyes gave me all the confidence I needed.
I swung around the corner and aimed two shots at the guards. They tumbled to the floor, oozing liquid. I stepped over their stinking bodies and examined the door. It was locked from the inside.
I flipped open the keypad and fired another shot into the computer. It fizzled, sparked, and then the doors slid open. Easy as pie, as the humans would say. It was too easy. Scrap trawlers like this were way behind in security tech.
The control bridge was a giant white room with screens instead of windows. The dirty nature of scrap trawling made windows pointless. The lighting was dim, with various buttons and screens blinking.
It was empty.
“What? Where is the crew?” Kylie asked, coming up behind me.
I glanced back at her. “I don’t know,” I admitted. I took a step inside the room. Overhead lights flickered on, triggered by some sort of motion detector.
Fans kicked on, and suddenly, the center screen changed its view from the outside of the ship to a simple white background. Texted scrolled across the screen in several languages.
“Welcome to the AG-40 Cleantrex Trawler. The first entirely AI-run machine of its class,” I read it out loud.
“If it’s powered by AI, why are those smelly jello-things here?” Kylie whispered.
“Good question,” I said. “Probably to deter people from taking over the ship.”
Kylie caught the look in my eye. “Are you going to be able to send out an SOS with the computer like this?”
I chuckled. “Oh, dear Earthling, this should be easy,” I said with a wink.
