Challenge #00610 - A245: One Stormy Afternoon in a Spaceport Drydock
…but for all that they’re effective, they’re about as far from efficient as trying to run a car via rocket motors.
The geiger indicators were still rattling like a drawer full of loose beads as crew working on the dilapidated vessel did what they could to reduce the risk to other citizens on the station. They were dressed head to toe in anti-radiation armour. And worked in shifts of ten minutes at a time.
In the nearest emergency med-bay, similarly-clothed medical technicians ran every procedure and protocol known to intelligent life on the pilot.
She’d literally risked her life to get away from a planet she called Pit.
The witness in the next booth was talking fast. “We found her trying to boost past point nine cee, crosswise to the established trade lanes. If we hadn’t picked her up, she’d have hit someone. Did you know that ship is just a life pod with nukes up its butt? That’s-that’s… human!”
The pilot was unresponsive. What she thought of her engineering in comparison to the witness was not yet, and might never be a matter of permanent record. What sort of world would be so toxic that a resident would risk permanent damage just to escape?
“Nukes,” Sherlock repeated, on the other side of a comm-link. “Effective, yes. Dangerous, also. But for all their efficacy, they’re as efficient as trying to run a car with rockets…”
The geiger counters sizzled like cicadas as technicians removed the glowing fuel cells, and quieted down once they were in safe storage. Dangerous stuff. Best left in the core of a planet or the heart of a star.
“What hope is there?” he asked.
“The Cogniscent Rights Committee is already back-tracing her path. Not hard since it practically glows in the dark. She travelled all the way in real-space and her supplies were still high, so… it’s a near enough star. We might save her planet.”
“And what about her?”
The medtech looked grim. “Do you pray, sir?”
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