Challenge #02518-F328: Specific Listing Please
Traveling with Humans was, or rather is, a dangerous prospect. Freelance Freighter captains quickly learn that it is usually best to keep your human away from anything that can, could be made to, or might explode.
Hauling volatile chemicals? Heck no!
Mining equipment? That's just ASKING for trouble!
Precious metals? Why not just let the pirates know you're coming and save some time?
Logging equipment? Like, to record data? Seems harmless enough. Even fledgling colonies need some way to keep track of goings on.
Havenworlders quickly learn that there are two very different types of logging and when the pirates come, the significance of the most intimidating tool/weapon ever created by humans.
The Chainsaw -- Paladin
Just as Humans have many words for the same thing, they also have one word for many things. Sometimes, the same-sounding word may have a different way of spelling in their own language that makes everything perfectly clear. Alas, such fine details don't make it to GalSimple manifests. Always pay attention to the units. It might save your life.
For instance, the Human soft dessert or the hair treatment comes in volumetric units. The wide-horned cold-climate ungulate comes in 'heads'. Unfortunately for Hox, units of measurements do not always help when there is a difference between creating journals and cutting down trees. Not even when such items come in shipping containers.
The Humans escorting the cargo didn't bother him, they kept to themselves and didn't try to pack-bond with him and that was the way he liked it. So when the pirates attempted to attack, Hox warned them about the Humans, told them about what he assumed to be journaling materials, and let nature take its course from there. He expected a brief tousle between pirates and Humans, followed by some minor property damage that could easily be paid for by the bounty on the pirates' capture.
He did not anticipate hearing the revving of engines and the mad cackling of Humans over the comms systems. Safe in his survival pod, Hox prepared for emergency ejection and dared not ask what the Humans were doing.
He did find out, though, after it was all over.
The Humans were not carrying journaling supplies. They were carrying tree-felling equipment. More correctly, they were carrying live chainsaws.
The pirates didn't know what hit them.
"We're sorry about the wreckage," said the spokesHuman. "And the riot. And the fuss." That was a nervous grin. "At least we're sure those pirates won't be quick forgetting us."
This was not the salve Hox had expected. Hopefully the bounty and credit from the captured pirate ship might actually help him break even.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / sad]
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