In low Earth orbit, Solar System
Tina was about to leave the bridge after passing its control to Dana Durning, intent on having a family supper, when Anwar Duharto, on duty at one of the sensors and communications workstation, spoke up.
‘’Captain, I am now receiving a coded signal from a courier drone approaching us. It is a Navy drone and is flashing a high priority message status.’
Forgetting her family supper for a moment, Tina approached Duharto’s workstation and looked at the message being displayed on one of its screens.
‘’A flash priority message, ‘Captain’s Eyes Only’, addressed to me. Alright, Mister Duharto: switch on our approach beacon and open our drone arrival airlock.
Once that drone will be connected to our secure network, I will read its message from my command chair.’
‘’Understood, Captain.’
Returning to her command chair and sitting in it, Tina gave an apologetic smile to Dana Durning, her second-in-command, who occupied her own chair next to Tina’s chair.
‘’Sorry, Dana: you will have to endure me on the bridge for a few minutes more.’
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‘’No problem, Tina. I wonder what that flash priority message could be. The last time we received one was when the Space Predators attacked Nordland.’
‘’Such messages rarely announce good news, effectively.’ recognized Tina. She then followed on the holosphere of the bridge complex the small symbol marking the approaching courier drone, which was now some 632 kilometers away. Then, three electric blue rays of energy typical of disintegrator cannons straddled the drone, hitting it and vaporizing it after half a second of firing. Both shocked and surprised, Tina shouted at once orders around her.
‘’POWER THE SHIELDS! ACTIVATE OUR BATTERIES! FIND OUT FROM
WHERE THOSE DISINTEGRATORS WERE FIRED!’
Before her bridge crew could fully react to her orders, the voice of their central AI computer, SPIRIT, came up on the intercom.
‘’Belay those orders, Tina. These were the disintegrator cannons of the AEGIS.
I just got an electronic data transfer from my android avatar, telling me that this fake Navy courier drone was in reality carrying a matter converter warhead recently stolen from the Navy Central Arsenal on the moon of Providence, a warhead meant to destroy us.’
‘’What? How could they know that? Open a link to the AEGIS, please.’
‘’Link established, Tina. You have my avatar on the line.’
Looking down at one of her two display screens attached to the armrests of her command chair, Tina saw the head and upper torso of SPIRIT’s avatar, which was looking back at her with apparent relief.
‘’Thank the stars: we were able to save you. Let me explain quickly to you what is happening, Tina. Basically, when we returned from our mission in the past on Sunday afternoon, two days from now in the future, we found out that the NOSTROMO had been vaporized by the explosion of a stolen warhead placed in the courier drone which was just approaching you. Armed with the exact time of the destruction of the NOSTROMO
and with orbital surveillance data which saw a courier drone enter the ship just before the explosion in question, we decided to make a short temporal jump to this date and time, in order to wait for that courier drone and destroy it before it could enter the NOSTROMO. We have the recordings taken by other ships and orbital stations which had been in sight of the NOSTROMO when it exploded. We also have telemetry data intercepted from the courier drone in question. The Navy has established that this drone was a fake Navy drone which used stolen Navy codes. While we have succeeded in
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saving the NOSTROMO from utter destruction, I am afraid that we had in the process to violate one of the cardinal rules you established for Project Tempus: we changed History by our actions today.’
‘’Well, between that and us ending up as hot plasma, I think that I will be lenient and forget about that violation, SPIRIT. But who could have wanted so bad to kill us and destroy my NOSTROMO?’
‘’Someone who positively hates your guts and who also hates us androids. I believe that it is high time to pay a visit to that asshole, and the hell with the Spacers League’s criminal laws.’
21:09 (Universal Time)
Private island luxury estate of Paul Stein, CEO of Stein Mining Group Planet El Dorado (Tau Boötis Ac)
Tau Boötis System, 50.8 light years from Earth Paul Stein wished that the automated courier drone service covering the various worlds of the Spacers League could have run more frequently than just two times a day, Earth time. However, only the central government and the Navy enjoyed the use of priority courier drones dedicated to the circulation of flash information considered of vital interest. He was thus stuck with having to wait for the arrival of the next courier drone, scheduled to arrive on El Dorado the next morning. Hopefully, that drone was going to bring the news that this Tina Forster bitch and her cursed NOSTROMO were now gone, vaporized by the warhead stolen from the Navy by his henchmen infiltrated inside the Navy staff. To console himself from having to wait, he was now sipping a cocktail while watching in his private study a most illegal (by the Spacers League criminal code) pornographic video featuring very young girls and boys. A sudden gust of fresh wind coming from the large patio doors giving a view of the ocean surrounding his private island made him swear and twist his head to see if those patio doors had opened because of the wind, something that happened on occasions. His swear words then strangled in his throat on seeing three women now standing just inside his study, having obviously entered via the balcony of his study. Two of them were quite tall, while the third one was actually a small but stoutly built teenage girl. All three wore dark gray light spacesuits, with their helmet visors opened. They also were pointing heavy disintegrator
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pistols at him. Stein immediately recognized one of the two tall women, a mature brunette who was looking at him with undisguised hostility.
‘’Forster! What the fuck are you doing here, in my private mansion?’
‘’I’m certainly not coming here to bed you, you bastard.’ said Tina, who then looked with disgust at the pedophilia video playing on Stein’s holoview unit. ‘’What’s the matter with you, Stein? Can’t handle grown women? To answer your question, I came to make you pay for your attempt at destroying my ship and killing me and my crew.
Flash news: it didn’t work!’
‘’You won’t be able to prove anything against me, Forster: I covered my tracks too well.’
With Paul Stein having just involuntarily admitted his guilt without realizing it, Tina shot a dark look at him.
‘’I know! But you won’t get any time in court, you bastard.’ said Tina before firing her disintegrator pistol. The energy beam hit Paul Stein squarely in his chest and enveloped his whole body in a blue halo before the mining CEO was vaporized in his easy chair, leaving only some ashes and a half-incinerated chair. Tina then contemplated for a couple of seconds what was left of Stein before speaking.
‘’From dust to dust... Have a nice time in Hell, you bastard. Alright, girls, time to go back to the AEGIS.’
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NOSTROMO - FRONT, SIDE AND REAR VIEWS
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NOSTROMO - SIDE CUT VIEW
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