Challenge #01627-D166: Desperate Invention
“The reasons that would not work are outnumbered only by the reasons it would be a disaster if it did.” -- RecklessPrudence
The ship's human took a moment to stare at Thorassik. "You and I have very different definitions of 'disaster'..."
"Yes! There is significant loss of profit in all scenarios, but if we die, the company loses the least."
"Well," sighed Human Steff. "I'm not about to lay my life down for the company."
"You are not a model employee," chided Thorassik.
Steff smiled. "No. I'm a model human. And y'all knew that when you hired me. So I plan on saving our skins and as much cargo as we can. However I can make that happen."
"But our margins!"
"We can tack on an Embuggerance Surcharge, now hand me that Spline Spanner." Human Steff was already up to hir elbows in a construction project made out of scrounged bits from all over the ship. And now it looked like there was going to be more of it.
"What are you building?"
"Something to blow those [HUMAN EXPLETIVE] out of the sky." Ze said it so calmly, as if humans spent any free moment building weaponry.
"Weapons are forbidden on Galactic Shipping Lanes," objected Thorassik.
"Hasn't stopped them," countered Human Steff. "Gangway. I need to get this into the airlock before I attach the final couplings."
Human Steff was just one human. With a handmade gun. Against a small fleet of Vorax pirates. Ze should have lost her life. Ze should have been captured, eaten, and used as a trophy by whatever Vorax killed hir.
But that just didn't happen.
Humans don't go down without a fight. And many humans fight dirty. It took Human Steff a handful of minutes to learn the vulnerable points of the Vorax fleet, and after that... it was a massacre. Only three Vorax ships made it to the wormhole from whence they had come, and even then, it was under heavy fire.
And it only cost Thorassik five percent of his total cargo, rather than the ship, its crew, and all of the cargo.
As Human Steff re-entered the airlock with hir gun, Thorassik began calculating what the Embuggerance Fee would be. And he ordered Th'tesh to set the debris sweepers to maximum radius. This trip may well be profitable after all.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / AlgolOnline]
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