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Stories from the Verse
A Dozen Verses
Chapter 27: Cooper 81
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 259
Toko grasped him by the arm, and towed him to a halt. He spoke an order to a nearby sailor.
“Ren, open this box.”
“Aye, first mate.” Using a double sided lever with an internal metal spring, the indigo-skinned manling popped open a wooden box.
“I don’t see an inertial belt,” Toko, the First Mate, observed to Cooper, who shook his head. Toko looked confused.
“No, I mean you’re right, I don’t have one. What is it?”
“Well, you may have wondered why we did not use guns, or not. An inertial belt projects a field around the user which causes things moving too fast to halt in the field.”
“Bullets? Darts? Thrown knives? Thrown Axes? Lasers?”
“Yes, yes, probably yes, maybe not, and what is a laser?” asked Ren as he looked up at the two of them floating above him.
“Ren is an engineer, and so he works on tuning them when they need it. So if he says so--”
“It's true,” Cooper nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
“Ah, I work for a living. Call me Eng, or Ren. Either will do. I hear you’re a passenger but you’re good with that sword.”
Cooper shrugged, a bit embarrassed. “I had a good teacher.” Even as he listened, Ren’s hands were busy cranking the spring back to potential.
“You do have a good main weapon, but considering your part in the fight you’re due more. You can choose a dagger, or hatchet, or knife. The Treasurer also has some gemstones you earned in the ship safe in his room.”
Cooper looked through the available weapons, but nothing remotely compared to his Sword. Even the better items were often ill tended. He supposed that was the pirate life, as the weapons he had seen on that ship were in better condition. He passed on taking anything from the weapons. After this, the two men helped him put on the heavy solid inertial belt. It was made of eleven metal boxes, each half the size of a playing card box, plus six more twice that size, with a solid buckle and a turning dial for ‘warm up’, ‘full power’ and ‘off’. Putting it on gave him a strange feeling as if he were now part of the crew. It was not disagreeable even if he had yet to find out the name of the ship.
Going with the first mate down one more hatch with similar warning signs led him into another reactor room much the same as the pirate’s. There were two men here, one a green-skinned man, and the other Angle. Angle greeted him happily, and bubbled out that ‘not only do the food pills not be spoiled, but I’m learning so much from Zait. He’s been doing this forever, near two decades.”
Cooper chatted with them both a while, and then headed back with Toko up the ship, and into the corridor area near the front. They went past his room, and the first mate checked the bridge.
He turned back to Cooper.
“Captain is sleeping; the second mate, whom you already met, has the com. Why don’t I introduce you to the Nav, who other than the Doc is the only other officer on board?”
Cooper realized that he should say more than yes, so he went with a crisp as he could ‘Aye, aye, sir.’ The smile from Toko showed that it was appreciated. Evidently, he thought, the Treasurer was not an officer. That was curious. He determined to find out about that later.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
