The story of First Mate Danne, who must step up when the ship is attacked by a vicious pirate gang.
The empty void of space is prime grounds for mercenaries and freelancers. This story is about a group of such ponies, who are faced with a life threatening challenge when their cargo ship is attacked by a gang of savage pirates, bent on taking their cargo, and possibly, their lives.
The red wasteland spreads before his eyes. Rocks blend in with the surface. A heavy layers of dust, untouched by pony hooves, covers everything. The sheer fact that the planet in question has a breathable atmosphere is a miracle in itself. Behind him, a once majestic starship sits half buried and on fire. It's windows lay shattered. The bridge is half visible above the ground. The engines stick up in the air at a severe angle. The hull is ripped in places, completely destroyed in others. Salvageable, if Celestia decides to shine on it. Between the two depressing sights, sits a pony with blue hair. A horn on his head and wings on his back, he is a rare breed. Jack of all trades, and master of none. A jet-black jumpsuit covers his body. One wing is twisted at an unnatural angle, and scratches and burns dot his body. Every bone in his body aches. The crash had taken its tole.
"The captain. Gone." Tears form in his eyes, and fall to the parched ground. He straightens up and looks at the surroundings, focusing on the task at hoof. On the horizon, larger rocks dot the surface. A mountain range, perhaps
"Good as any place to set up camp" He thinks. With what seems like a great effort, First Officer Dann starts towards the rocks. His hoof prints make soft prints in the martian landscape. Seconds turn to minutes. Minutes turn to hours. The alien sun beats down upon the sole life form. Each step is labored. Breath comes uneasily. His wing starts to drag on the ground, only causing more and more pain. The task of wandering becomes repetitive, and his mind wanders to the actions that led to this, if only to keep from thinking about the pain...
"NO! I will not take HER with me." The aging mare stands above the young filly. Her eyes look curiously at the surroundings. The mare stares intently at the ships second in command. A good friend. "Please. She wants to learn the ropes. And, there's no better place to do that than on this ship." His wings flare in a sign of anger. They were set to leave yesterday, and the extra delay does not improve his mood. "She'll just get in the way. We have to get this cargo to Cetrax-3 in two days. That was yesterday." He sighs, and looks back up. "Alright. You're busy, I understand." Gesturing for the filly to follow, he walks through the hatch onto the station. She takes another look around the corridor, and follows. Dann turns back towards the bridge. Trotting at a brisk pace, he reaches there quickly. "Captain. We're ready to undock." He informs the commanding officer. The captain, a young, but competent, grey unicorn, motions towards the helmspony. "Squid. Takes us away from the station." The pony, a slender gray mare, acknowledges. She hits a cluster of brightly lit switches, and takes control of the maneuvering thrusters. The ship shutters as the view on the screen changes. The station, outlined by the distant moon, moves from view as the ship maneuvers away. The stars seem to shift as they orientate. "Ender. Is the course set?" The captain asks. A black unicorn, console set against the far wall, replies. "Course set to Cetrax-3." The captain nods. The moon falls out of view and a field of starts covers the screen. An ocean in the heavens. Danne had seen this many times before, but it still feels like the first time. "Engage." The starts seem to jump towards the ship as they are propelled through space. The starts flash by at a tremendous speed. they appear to dance around the ship. The navigator speaks up. "We will arrive in twenty-two and a half standard hours." The captain nods. "Good. Get some rest everypony. Squid, you stay and make sure every thing goes smoothly." As the three ponies exit the bridge, Dann gives Ender an approving nod. "Nice job with those calculations." He smiles, shyly. A brilliant pony, Ender has a hard time making friends. So, Danne had tried to help him transition into the crew. "I'm heading to the cargo bay to check on the cargo. No telling what mess the jump made down there." Ender nods and turns toward his room, no doubt about to look over the most recent charts. In the cargo bay, boxes line the walls, filled with food, water, and supplies. A large, clear, container covered in a decorative cloth sits against the back wall. The faint illumination dances over the parts the cloth doesn't cover, revealing the contents as a clear liquid. Dann approaches the container. A strip of lights and controls sit at eye level. "Yo! How you doing in there?" A synthetic voice responds. "I've been better." With a few powerful beats of his wings, he is near the top of the hold and the container. Latching onto the cloth, it falls away. Inside the tank, a fish swims aimlessly in circles, a trident in fin. A bubble sits to one side of the holding. "We'll arrive in a little less than a day." He starts checking the panel. All vitals check out. "Oh. Good. I'll finally be free of this stupid cell." He gives what Dann guesses is the fish approximation of a smile. "And we'll be free of having to buy giant bottles of fish-food. Please tell me, why must we season giant fish flakes before giving them to you?" "Have you ever tasted fish flakes. Ghastly. That season is the only thing that makes it palpable. The seasoning is the least you can do. You can do marvelous things with fish flakes. Saute, grind, grill, fill, squeeze, blend..." The ramblings continue on even after Dann has left.
The sun continues to fall on the horizon. The distant rocks continue to rise above the far reaches of sight. The lone pony's cheeks flush. Sweat beads, condenses, then falls to the lifeless ground. Faint traces of dull gray smoke are visible on the horizon. One of the planets moons is faint in the sky. The wreckage is no longer smoking. Dann's remaining wing twitches with each step. His hooves are shaking from exhaustion. His forehead is creased in determination. BOOM Startled, he turns his head toward the sky. A metallic cylinder streaks toward the ground at an incredible speed. The front glows red hot due to the tremendous stress of reentry. Within seconds, it is within normal view. BOOM The ground shakes. Dust flies into the air. Covering his face with his hoof, he coughs violently. Water starts to stream out of his eyes as dust seeps through his eyelids. Then, the dust clears. The sky returns to view. The metallic object is half visible above the ground. He can see it more clearly. Thrusters dot the top. What looks like a hatch is just visible above the ground. Realization hits him hard. An escape pod! Energy returns as he gallops toward the pod. His wing screams in protest. A faint, synthesized, voice can be heard coming from the vehicle. It sounds very familiar. Arriving at the vehicle, he yells. "Hey! Fish Face! Is that you?!" A faint voice comes from the other side. "Is that you? Thank heavens! Can you get the hatch open?" Dann's horn glows. The door is surrounded by a magical veil. With a creak, and a groan, the metal snaps, torques, and crashes to the ground beside the pod. Inside, the fish sits scrunched against the far wall, trident propped beside him. "I'd like to say i'm glad to see you. But, from what we saw of the planet, I won't fare much better than it appears you have." Dann grunts. With another magical exertion, the fish and trident are lifted out of the pod and onto his back, cradled by his remaining wing. "Thank you" He comments. His face moves subtly as his mind tries to find a piece of information. "I don't believe I know your name." He starts walking past the pod and toward the mountains. "Dann. You?" The fish grips the trident in both fins, looking for signs of life, hostile or not. "To my people I am known as glubglubglubglubburbleglub. But, to outsiders, I am known as Alex."
All is quiet in the crew quarters. Everypony is either asleep or being extremely quiet. The captain snores quietly from his room. Elder lays awake, levitating star charts while he study's them. Squid sits dozing on the bridge. Dann quietly reads a mystery novel. "What are you reading?" Startled, he flaps his wings furiously and hits his head on the metal plating of the ceiling. His vision blurs and un-blurs. A knot starts forming on the top of his head, under the blue spiked mess he calls a mane. Below, a filly looks curiously at the book. A young earth pony, doesn't even have her cutie mark. "How did you get here?" He yells down. A tinge of anger in his voice. Her appearance had been, frankly, quite frightening. She looks up. "It was easy. I just snuck back on when grandad wasn't looking. Then, I hid in the cargo bay with the fish." Realizing he's still flying near the ceiling, he floats down to the filly. "What's your name?" He asks, not as much mad as curious. "Amy." Satisfied, the filly starts levitating. Carried by Dann's magic, they move down the hall to the captains room. "Cap! Captain!" A few moments pass until the door opens revealing a sleepy looking captain. "Captain. We have a stowaway." The captain blinks. He turns and looks at a small clock on his wall. He turns back and gives a grin. "Well then. It looks like you have a new friend for twenty hours." The door shuts and locks. With a sigh, Dann lets the filly drop to the floor. "Now. Amy. Stay in my quarters and out of trouble. Got it?" She nods, and they walk back to the cabin. The door snaps open as they enter. Dann lays back on the small bed, and Amy curls into a chair. The book sits near the hoof of the bed. He decides to leave it for later. He turns the light out, and falls asleep without seeing a small figure exit the cabin. The hallway is dimly lit, but, she can still find her way to one of the cabins. The door is unlocked, and she peeks in the room. A black pony sits on the bed, looking at star charts. He doesn't notice the door open and close. She backs away from the door and continues down the hall to the cargo bay. The hatch opens into the cavernous hold. The tank remains on the far wall. A box shakes slightly. As she approaches, it begins to shake more violently. The release button pulses with a dull red light. In a moment of extreme curiosity for the contents of the box, she hits the release. The top pops open, and a hairy ball of fur rockets out, bounces off the ceiling, and flies into a pile of supplies. Though no mouth is visible, it keeps making a strange sound as it bounces. Meepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeepmeep Panicking, she jumps and tries to intercept the fuzzy creature. It hits her, full force, and they fall to the ground. She shoves it back into the box and closes it. She falls beside the box, battered and bruised. Deciding that the fuzzball was enough excitement, she retreats to Dann's cabin to recover.
"And that's how I defeated the monster of Geatus-9." The story had dragged on through another large portion of the trip. Alex, apparently, had been everywhere and had slayed various creatures. He had started to doubt the validity of the stories after he had told of how he slayed a creature that shot acid out of his eyes and had six heads. The rocks on the horizon had grown until they towered above the two. The gray smoke had become thicker. Up ahead, two dots show through the heat waves. "Hey. Alex. What's that?" The dots grow in size until their outlines form into two small land vehicles, barreling toward them. "Pirates!" He can feel Alex tense, readying for action. Magic grows in Dann's horn, waiting to be used on the thugs. Red lights fire from two cannons mounted to the sides. They hit nearby, scattering rock and dirt. They're almost upon them. He dives to the side as Alex sticks the trident out, spearing the first rider. The speared pony falls off the back as the bike skids in the dirt. His counterpart, seeing the first fall, tries to turn out of harms way. The bike skids and falls over, the rider losing his grip and rolling to the side. After sliding a ways more, it stops, leaving the rider face first in the ground a ways behind it. As she tries to stand, she is lifted in the air by a magical force. The toughened pony struggles against the grip to no avail. A snap, and one of her legs stops struggling, and she utters a gasp of pain. The magic dissipates, and she falls to the ground, grasping for her wounded limb. Dann calmly walks over to the wounded mare and places his hoof over her neck. She looks up, no longer the tough brute on the bike. Her eyes, sad. Not the eyes of a killer. The eyes of somepony that has had a hard life. A life full of pain and suffering. The life he is about to extinguish. "Do you want to finish her, or shall I?" Alex asks. "I will need my trident back." He glares at the fish on his back. "We won't kill her." He says in a no arguing voice."Now. Help me look through these bikes." After a half hour of searching, they find that both the bikes are in working order. Attached to the bikes are two portable guns. There are two basic medical kits. They use them to bandage Dann's many cuts, and stint both his wing and the bandits leg. "You have two choices." Dann says to the pony. "One. You come with us. Two, you take your chances in this desert." She looks up, blinks, and responds. "I'll join you." They set off, the mare on one bike with disabled canons, Dann and Alex on the other, each armed with a gun.