text: There he sat, if you could call it sitting. Legs propped up on the console, arms crossed, eyes slowly closing. He had sunk so far down in his chair that his chin was pressed up against his chest. Kellek had only a day's worth of scanning left. His job was one of patience, or boredom, depending on how you look at it. The conglomerate would scan deep space for promising asteroid belts and when they found one, they would send him, all alone, to scan the asteroids for valuable minerals. The process was mostly automated. He would tag an asteroid with a small beacon, get into position and begin bombarding the asteroid with varying types and combinations of radiation. It took hours to scan a single asteroid. The cockpit of his small industrial frigate was mostly silent but for the humming of the scanner. His equipment had gone to sleep before he could. A few critical systems remained at attention but the rest powered down to conserve energy. His eyes finally closed and his mind transported him back home, alone still. He had spent most of his life alone, no family and few friends. You *had* to comfortable alone to do this job. Suddenly, he was jolted back to deep space by his ship; The nav system had emitted a short, loud screech. Kellek sprung up in his chair, swinging his legs off the console. This was a sound he did not hear often; Contact Alarm. He was expecting nobody. As far as he knew, the conglomerate were tight lipped about what they found, hoping to be the only ones to profit from it. 3 ships had been detected uncomfortably close. "Someone else must have found this belt.." he thought to himself. Although unlikely this far out, it's possible another corporation had stumbled upon the same asteroid belt as his employer had. The 3 vessels remained at a distance, not moving. They were just far enough away to prevent any kind of scan or IFF. The comm crackled to life. He had been so concentrated on the radar that he didn't even think to try to communicate with the vessels. "Industrial Frigate, power down and prepare to be boarded" That was all he needed to understand what was happening. These weren't other miners, these were pirates. They wanted his data for themselves so they could claim the site and start mining right away. By the time the conglomerate could get another ship out here, the asteroids would have been mined to the core. He also knew that they had no intention of taking prisoners, and they couldn't let him go free; If he could make it to the nearest come relay, he could inform his employer and that would allow the pirates less time to mine the belt. His only chance was to run, and he knew it. Kellek tapped furiously on the touchscreen in front of him, instructing the vessel to power engines and cease scanning. The cockpit slowly came back to life, screens lighting up, the sound of fans spinning. He reached for the long range comms. At this distance, and without a comm relay nearby, he wouldn't be able to talk to anyone but he could at least send out an SOS. Hopefully someone would pick it up.... A few key presses and the screen on the instrument read "SOS AWAY". At that same moment, the 3 vessels began accelerating towards him. "They picked up the SOS!" he said aloud with nobody to hear him. His heart was racing now, they knew he intended to run and their only chance of getting the data was to destroy his vessel and recover the computer core. He slammed the throttle as far as it would go and furiously grabbed the control stick. His ship was an older industrial model, not suitable for any kind of maneuvering let alone running from pirates. He knew his only chance would be to lose the pirates among the asteroids. If he could find a hole in one of them, he might be able to hide until someone answered his SOS. CRAAAAAACK! They shot at him! The ship momentarily lurched to the left as the RCS fought to keep it's bearing. "PORT RCS FAILURE". An error message appeared in red on the main console. They were firing on him; They had hit him. He was close to the belt now, a few more seconds and he would be among the asteroids. His assailants hot in his tail, and gaining, had no intention of letting him slip away. As he approached the nearest rock, ordinance could be seen exploding on it's surface. They were still firing at him. Kellek's hands were sweating and his grip on the controls was such that his knuckles were as white as his face. He yanked the control stick backwards swinging his ship around the back of the asteroid he was scanning. He was safe for a few minutes; He had put a rock between him and the pirates. His eyes darted around the asteroid frantically as he looked for a hole or crevice where he could park and power down. Absolutely nothing. The asteroid was as featureless as the prairies where he grew up. The pirates would easily spot his ship without any cover. He was about to re-emerge in view of the pirates. He had to make a decision; Should he try to make it to another asteroid, or should he surrender and hope the pirates were feeling generous. As he came out of the cover of the asteroid, the pirates came back into view, much closer than before. Without much thought, Kellek quickly flipped a switch labelled "BRDCST". "If you come any closer i'll purge the computer core and you'll get nothing!" he barked into the mic. The pirates slowed to match his peed. "If you do that, your dead anyways..." said one of them after a few moments of silence. He was right, if he purged the core, he would lose all of his navigational data. If they didn't destroy him out of anger, he would be stranded out here until he died of hunger. "Don't be a hero. Power down or be destroyed. No matter what you do, you are *not* getting out of this alive". Kellek was beginning to think the same. His ship was pointed at another asteroid, hurdling through space as fast as it's small engines could push it. He was a few minutes out from the next rock. "Have it your way." said the pirate. Kellek froze. Was this it? Was he going to die all alone in the middle of nowhere? The ship was screaming at him now; Alarms blaring. The pirates had accelerated again and were closing fast. He glanced at the radar and his heart sank when he saw that two small dots had left the pirates and were headed straight for him. Missiles. His hands fell away from the controls and he sank back in his chair. Hardly a minute left before the missiles reached him, Kellek had given up. He gazed through the window in front of him, rapidly trying to decide if he regretted anything. The missiles were only 10 seconds out now. At least it would be fast. The same alarm that had signaled the start of his demise rang out from the nav computer once more. "CONTACT: CRUISER CLASS - IFF: FRIENDLY" Almost as soon as the alarm sounded, the two missiles disappeared of the radar. Kellek whipped his head around in the direction of the contact. A conglomerate vessel! But how did they make it out here so fast? "Industrial frigate this is EV Xerxes. Set an intercept course to this vessel, docking bay 4 is all yours". It didn't matter how they got here. A few taps on the nav and his ship swung around to face the cruiser. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! The pirates fired on him again! They weren't giving up. "PROPULSION FAILURE - RCS FAILURE" His ship began spinning slowly, unable to maintain it's bearing. The pirates had hit his engines, killing them. The starboard RCS thrusters were firing wildly. He was still a few minutes out from the cruiser, and the pirates would reach him before his would-be saviors could. "I can eject!" Kellek exclaimed, again with nobody to hear him. If he ejected now, the cruiser might be able to locate him before his life support ran out and the pirates would be more interested in fighting off the cruiser than taking him out. He swung his arms over his head, reaching for the helmet attached to the back of his seat. He jammed the it over his head and into the locking mechanism on his suit. A green light appeared in the top of his visor indicating that his suit was vacuum-ready. He reached for the two eject handles, one on either side of his seat but paused just before yanking them. Kellek quickly leaned forward and started tapping furiously at the console. He navigated to the reactor control screen and set the power 300%. The computer refused, informing him that anything above 130% would cause the reactor to overload. This is precisely what he wanted! After typing his override codes and dismissing a plethora of warning messages and confirmation dialogues, the ship reluctantly cooperated, setting the reactor to 300% power generation. "Industrial frigate, EV Xerxes. It doesn't look like we are going to make it to you in time... Can you eject?" Kellek was already sitting straight as an arrow in his seat with both hands on the ejection handles. SWOOOOSH! The now unattached canopy of the cockpit separated from the ship with explosive force as the atmosphere inside pushed it away. The cockpit chair unlatched from the floor and a small thruster underneath shot Kellek away from his ship with amazing force. His vision narrowed as he accelerated away from his vessel, the G force was tremendous. Kellek focused on breathing, not wanting to lose consciousness. He turned his head towards his ship and grinned at what he saw; One of the pirates had begun docking with it, undoubtedly to retrieve the computer core. He looked for the others. They had continued on to fend off the cruiser. In a spectacular flash of light, both his ship and the boarding pirate were gone. The reactor had given up and exploded just as the computer had foreseen! Seconds later, the other two pirates had broken off from the cruiser, one heavily damaged but still able to maneuver. They headed for the belt. It was their turn to try to hide. Kellek flipped open a small control pad on his armrest and activated a beacon hoping the cruiser would be looking for it. "We've got you! Hang on, we're going to grab you with the cargo scoop". The voice played loudly through his helmet. The cruiser was coming straight for him now, the cargo scoop on it's underside was wide open and as it got closer he could make out two men floating at the mouth of the scoop, ready to grab him as the cruiser swallowed him whole. "You are one lucky son of a bitch" said a young man with two chevrons on either shoulder as he unlatched Kellek from his chair. The cargo scoop had closed and had re-pressurized. It felt wonderful to take his helmet off. "How the hell did you guys find me?" Asked Kellek "That's.. erm... classified" Said the Corporal, avoiding Kellek's eyes. "Fine, I'm just grateful." "We can bring you to the nearest comm relay and set you up with a ride back home, but we need to get back to our assignment ASAP" said the young man. Kellek nodded with a look of immense gratitude, though he couldn't help feeling something wasn't quite right. How had they gotten to him so quickly? Why was the corporal acting so secretive? It didn't matter. He was safe, and he was going home. A voice came over the ship's intercom: "Contacts are leaving the belt, set condition 3 throughout the ship" "If you'll follow me to the medbay we can get you checked out." Said the corporal. The end.