<i>Shoot to thrill, play to kill. I got my gun at the ready, gonna fire at will...</i><br/><br/>Dwayne bobbed his head lightly as he dug through news articles he'd downloaded form the onmiweb. The name of the song, group and the original artist had been lost to centuries of space travel, colonization and a few armed conflicts that nobody wanted to admit actually happened. At least not in public.<i>Shoot to thrill</i>, as it was commonly referred to, was an old favorite. The<i>Earthborne</i>loved their classics and their history, but that was about all they were good for. None of them were actually born on Earth. The<i>real </i>Earthborne, the ones who'd been lucky enough to survive centuries of cryo, had woken up, founded a settlement, had their children and passed on. Today, Earthborne was a title reserved for the elite rich. They used it as a pedestal. A high and lofty place for them to lord over the average Coalition citizen. Dwayne hadn't seen those border markers in years. The Free Worlds Coalition was anything but.<br/><br/>Coalition news was difficult to come by out in Confederate space. What Dwayne had was little more than gossip column pieces published by two bit rag editors who thought they could play journalist and break into the big time markets of the core worlds. Available for free download at any and every omniweb access point on most Confederate Free Port worlds and stations. It wasn't good reading, but it did pass the time. The music in his ear piece became too low to hear.<br/><br/>"Dwayne. Why are we using such outdated technology for communication purposes?" Bianca asked.<br/><br/>"Because it transmits audio well over short distance, it's easy to fabricate and nobody scans, listens for or gives a shit about bluetooth." Dwayne explained.<br/><br/>"Human fecal excrement is not a socially acceptable gift or tradable commodity."<br/><br/>Dwayne paused for a long moment, "Thank you Bianca. That's...a very astute observation."<br/><br/>"You're most welcome Dwayne."<br/><br/>As far as AIs went, Bianca was considered far above average intelligence. She could learn. A<i>smart </i>AI they called her. Bianca's previous owner had used her to short hand the mathematics for stellar cartography. He'd done little other than bark orders and hand her stellar algorithms to simulate. He also had an appetite for young boys. Dwayne had only collected a portion of the bounty that had been offered. He never worked for free, but for the public service of gutting a pedophile, Dwayne was more than willing to do the job at cost. A fresh corpse had no need for an AI. A physician had been pestering him to make some changes to the way he worked. Get a crew or get an AI. When he wasn't pursuing the bounty boards, Dwayne was out salvaging. Adrift in the cold void, often for weeks at a time. It wasn't healthy. But then, neither was getting stabbed, shot or airlocked in the name of having one less person to split a payday with. When Dwayne found an opportunity to take a five finger discount on an AI, he'd seized it. She was a bit underdeveloped due to neglect. Some of the nuances of spoken language were lost on her. At times, she was even child like.<br/><br/>"Time check?" Dwayne asked.<br/><br/>"Six hours to target. Will you be undergoing a power saving cycle Dwayne?" She asked.<br/><br/>"Sleep? Ya. Better to be rested when we get there." Dwayne reasoned.<br/><br/>He could hear the rapid clicking of metal against metal. Dwayne spun in midair to face the direction of the small racket. Bianca's rectangular enclosure came into view, skittering along the bulkhead as fast as her four tiny segmented legs would carrier her. She dipped low toward the bulkhead and kicked off. Bianca didn't have much experience in zero-g, but she was getting better. She almost made it this time. All nonessential systems were shut down. No gravity, minimal lighting, short range sensors and life support enough for one. He had to keep the signature radius as low as possible to avoid detection. Dwayne reached out and extended a single finger toward Bianca. She released a small tethering cable and coiled the end around the finger he offered. One steady pull brought her the rest of the way. Legs and tethering cable retracted as he tucked her into the breast pocket of his jacket.<br/><br/>"Do I have to shutdown my external optics?" She asked.<br/><br/>"Do you want to?"<br/><br/>"No."<br/><br/>"OK then."<br/><br/>Dwayne opened his eyes slowly. Bianca was standing on his sleeve as she lightly brushed the back of his hand with one of her legs. She perched onto one of his shoulder blades as he swam toward the bulkhead. He could hear her skittering along as she headed back toward the main view port and console. Dwayne fished the bluetooh earbud out of his pocket.<br/><br/>"Thanks." he said sleepily<br/><br/>"One hour to target." she chirped.<br/><br/>Dwayne completed the rest of his wake up routine in silence. He loaded some protean and fat nutrients into the fabricator. Chicken's were rare. Pig were extinct. Technology was great. So were sausage and eggs. The target he'd been drifting towards for the last few days was a derelict. Bianca knew this section of space was empty from her stellar cartography days. He'd used it as a safe midpoint between FTL jumps. Space was a vast and mostly empty place. The odds of seeing anything other than a celestial object from a view port were slim. They'd landed here out of their FTL envelope during a contraband run and there she sat, adrift, on the left side of the main view port.<br/><br/>Dwayne met Bianca at the airlock. Her tethering cable was entwined with one attached to the ship. He attached his own to a fixture on the back of his EVA suit. Bianca hopped onto his shoulder. They drifted only a short distance before landing at the airlock on the other side. Bianca quickly bypassed the external hatch security protocol before her tether pulled taught and yanked her back toward the<i>Rag Tag </i>at high velocity.<br/><br/>"Why do you do that?" he asked.<br/><br/>"I like to analyze the inertial data that the trip generates." she said.<br/><br/>Dwayne smiled. That seemed to be the AI equivalent of 'wheeee'. She was quickly out of his eye line. His vessel was the only thing in sight. The<i>Rag Tag </i>looked every bit her name. But she was space worthy and solid. And she was his. Owner, operator, captain, smuggler, bounty hunter, salvage expert; it was a good life. Quiet when he wanted it to be. Loud when he didn't. It beat the socks right off of serving in the Free World Legions and kneeling at the feet of the Earthborne. Dwayne engaged his magnetic boots and stepped inside.<br/><br/>It wasn't a retirement payday, but it was one hell of a find for Dwayne. Compatible power cells for a drained suit of powered armor he had stashed in the<i>Rag Tag's </i>hold. Hard target contracts paid leaps and bounds better than what he could get out of selling Coalition grade power cells. A single combatant in power armor was no joke. The idea of being able to<i>suit 'em up</i>again made him feel a little nostalgic for the life he'd left behind. All he needed now was an orbital drop apparatus and he'd be ready to rock.<br/><br/><i>Dickheads beware. </i><br/><br/>The cruiser was old and it was of Coalition origin. Of that much he was certain. The tech aboard had a familiar feel to it. As did the deck layout. Whoever she was she'd been geared more for science and exploration than military operations. Dwayne plugged data warehouses he'd brought with him into the omni ports of every console he passed by. Bianca could access them remotely and with any luck, open a few more hatches. If there was enough structural integrity. Every ship had an armory of some kind. It was fairly intact if not a little depleted. Dwayne had expected as much. He knew all to well what grav-gauss weapon impacts looked like. The bulkheads here were riddled with them. Something dirty had gone down aboard this old lady when she was in her prime.<br/><br/>The real find here was the equipment. Salvage drones, scanner drones, plasma torches, prism saws; Bianca had already identified new software aboard the data warehouses used for survey analytics and metallurgical analysis. The sort of treasure trove that'd make any hard line salvage expert reach for a change of pants and a cigarette. Dwayne made several trips back to the<i>Rag Tag </i>taking all he could carry. Which was a considerable amount in zero-g. Two functioning gauss rifles, several rounds, data warehouses and<i>all</i>of the considerable equipment he'd found. He left a plasma torch and a prism saw secured near the hatch. Dwayne could come back after he slept and start ripping up deck plates. Starship grade glettanium was expensive and never sat on the market for very long.<br/><br/>"Dwayne. You can now access the medical bay if you wish." Bianca chirped.<br/><br/>He shrugged and took up the torch and saw as he headed below decks. Most of the choice pieces one might find in a med bay had probably expired long ago. It was worth a look. Tissue rejuvenation and other such equipment could be pricey if you had them in bulk. Sounded like a med bay. A force of something pressed against him when the double doors parted. There was air in there. It gave Dwayne pause for a moment. The med bay had been sealed. Sealed med bays were a bad thing. Like some Coalition funded quack cooking up some flavor of pox or pestilence far away from Free World eyes and regulations. There was a special place in the five hells for men like that. Lights came on next. The med bay had it's own power supply separate from the rest of the ship. That was even worse. Dwayne could see scorch marks on portions of the bulkhead and more grav-gauss impact marks too. This place was trashed. He took a cautious step inside. The console above the door began to buzz and stutter.<br/><br/>"G. Gee. Gah-ah-hee. Genetic material identified. Soldier caste. Jin. Gena. Gen-hee. Generation unknown."<br/><br/>"Ya-Ya. I'm a Seventh generation test tube baby. Now fuck off." Dwayne muttered.<br/><br/>One large dome like piece of equipment sat in the center of the room. It was unfamiliar. Nothing about it looked Coalition. Dwayne walked around it. On one side toward the top looked to be thick slab of transparent omniplex, frosted over. The air inside must have been damp and flash froze when he broke the door seal. Dwayne reached up and wiped some of the frost away. His heart leaped into his throat. Dwayne broke the seal of his boots and vaulted backwards. The bottoms of his feet reattaching to the wall behind him, plasma charge pistol already in hand. He held steady for just a moment. It was a cryopod. A woman slept inside. Or at least he though it was. The features were obscured by fort and density of the omniplex. Whoever she was, she wasn't likely long for this world. Cyro tech was unreliable under the best of circumstances. Seventy-five percent of the real Earthborne hadn't lived much past three days after they thawed. The lucky ones had died in cryo outright. Only small percentage of humans possessed the physiology necessary to be compatible with cryo-stasis.<br/><br/>"B. I've got an active cryo-pod." he said.<br/><br/>"There is currently no cryogenic phenomenon present at your current location. There is currently no cryogenic phenomenon present aboard that vessel. There is currently no cryogenic phenomenon present within sensor range. Do you need to run diagnostics on your external optics Dwayne?" Bianca asked.<br/><br/>"No. I'm looking at. My eyes are fine. Sweep again. Tap the suit cam. She's..." Dwayne stopped.<br/><br/>He searched all around the base of the unit for just a moment, then he stopped moving all together. Dwayne wasn't a hard science guy. He didn't know the name of the chemical compound used for cyro-stasis. Cryo needed fuel and said fuel needed to be held in a pressurized container. An active unit created a frost ring on the surface it sat on. There was no ring of icing effects near the base of the unit.<br/><br/>"Bianca, how many life forms are aboard this cruiser?"<br/><br/>"Two. Yours and one very faint."<br/><br/>"So she's alive?"<br/><br/>"Yes."<br/><br/>"Cryo-stasis?"<br/><br/>"None present."<br/><br/>"Conclusion?"<br/><br/>"Error: No data available."<br/><br/><i>True-stasis?</i><br/><br/>The implications were not as lost on him as he might have believed. Colony efforts that didn't have a near eighty percent expected attrition rate. Storing sick people in stasis to stop an epidemic in its tracks. Longevity of essential personnel during long term exploration. A safe place for civilians during times of crisis or natural disaster while releasing the strain on the food and water supply. It was the find that could change everything in the entire Cradisen Verge. Or at least it could be. People in positions of power were extremely deft in finding inventive ways to piss all over new discoveries. Then there was the woman in the pod. Confederate salvage law was clear. If she was<i>in</i>the pod, then it was<i>her </i>pod, regardless of who found it.<br/><br/>"Reanimation sequence commencing. Five minute silent countdown." the pod's view port advised.<br/><br/>"Wait! No-No-No-No-No-No-No! Cancel? Abort Sequence? Re-...stasify? Fuck!"<br/><br/>Five minutes was not a lot of time. Dwayne depressed a foot pedal near the base of the pod. The floor magnets gave way and it floated. He kept one hand on the pod and pulled himself along by the wall rail where it was intact. He couldn't keep a silent count and get her and the pod to safety too. Dwayne moved as quickly as he could. He'd gotten it to the external door when a steam like substance began to escape. Dwayne could barely see it as it was sucked out into the void. He grabbed the tether he'd stuck to the bulkhead on his entrance. The magnet grabbed hold of the pod wall easily enough. His boots did the same.<br/><br/>"Bianca, you need to reel us in fast!" he shouted.<br/><br/>"Dwayne, that is ill advi-"<br/><br/>"Now!"<br/><br/>He felt the pull from below him, relative to the way he was standing. The pod was upright. His magnetic boots were stuck to the side of the pod wall. Looking up he could see the cruiser getting further away. Looking down he could see the<i>Rag Tag</i>approaching rapidly. Her airlock door was already starting to close. If Bianca was off even by a margin...<br/><br/><i>Ya, this is gonna hurt.</i><br/><br/>The pod cleared the airlock first. He went in feet first, attached to the pod. Dwayne braced. The pod hit the opposing wall and bounced off. The abrupt stop jarred him and dislodged his boots. He floated for just a moment before the airlock sealed and gravity engaged. The pod landed and engaged its floor magnets. Dwayne hit the floor with a thud shortly after and rolled near to the pod. A white gas billowed out as the door opened. It smelt strange. A human hand hit the deck plate near his head, palm down as if to provide support. Years of training took over as his hands brought his plasma charge pistol to bare before his mind had time to consider it. Dwayne kept the weapon trained forward.<br/><br/>"Don't move."