OUT OF MIND, heavy lifters

[Yah-Ta-Hey]

Ship Identification: D.T.T. Cyclops
Ship Name: Out of Mind
Owner: “out of” LCC. Heavy Lifters for Hire.
Crew: Captain Newt Hooper
Engineer Marn Ongl
Cargo Master: Fendwing
Shipmaster: Sonny Ling (brain)

Of all the luck!!!! The captain and crew are being held in the station ‘s medical ward with a severe case of Croup. To humanoids, an annoying cough, but to amphoids and avian species this is a devastating aerial bacteria that can kill or cripple in a matter of hours if not controlled. I thought that I had made sure their medical records were complete and up to date. After a quick search of my memory banks, I was correct, they are up to date so how did they get the Croup while in transit? NO! We could not have gotten it in transit as the captain is a large amphoid and Fendwing is a large avian. If they had it in transit, I would have come in with a dead crew and a warn off from the station with a viper escort to enforce it. I was in the worm hole for a total of 10 days, 16 hours inspected and 22 minutes. The cargo was inspected several times during transit and no sign of contamination was visually confirmed or electronically recorded, I would have known all about that as I control all security and monitoring sensors. The Captain and the crew were quarantined as soon as they stepped out of my portal. How did the station know or suspect? There was not a thing from me to indicate that there was a situation requiring quarantine measures. Someone on the station set us up. My outer sensors have picked up sounds coming from the bay. Switching to visual, there are 2 station officers approaching my stern(cargo) portal and they are trying to open me up. Obviously, they are not in contact with the Captain or the Cargo master as they have the pass codes. As they are getting rather frustrated in their pitiful attempts to open my portal, I think I will have fun with them. Silently, I open my portal much to their surprise and glee ( they must think they did the opening) and stepping inside nearly jump out of their suits as I close the portal behind them without turning on the internal cargo lights. Turning the lights on to a dull red and then finally up to full brilliance, they are rewarded to see all the cargo tightly packaged and organized as they were when we started out. Checking manifests, they seem to be looking for a particular pod. I turn on the upper optical in the bay and look over their shoulders and see that there is only 1 pod underlined…xpc-19-c-g. Quickly checking my manifest I find that it contains 1000KG of Platinum consigned to the Grand Duke on the merchants’ quadrant. Curiosity aroused, I set my location beacon on the pod and release the locks and push the pod out so the auto trundle can pick it up and carry it into the cargo bay proper. The officials are looking around for whoever is helping them sight unseen and unspoken. Checking the manifest, they appear rather satisfied that this is indeed their target. Carefully, looking around furitively, they break the seals and remove the contents. The pouch is small, too small to hold 1000KG of platinum so using my visuals, I zoom in and gasp at what I see. Now, being a brain, reading and information gathering is second nature for me, like a hobby. My knowledge of legal and illegal substances is encyclopedic and I know that this small pouch holding the 5 small tubes of purple powder is worth 100X the value of the whole cargo pod of Platinum. To have even 1 tube in your possession is death on sight and here they have 5 tubes! THIONITE!!!!! A drug so powerful that to sniff just one grain of this compound is it court death by every sensation totally fulfilled. TOTALLY!!! Good, bad, noble,base the desire is fulfilled while your body is held in a vice like grip so that motion is impossible. It is noted that when I turn on my visuals, everything is recorded for legal and insurance purposes. I also tied my live screen feeds to the galcop station who was seeing everything in live time. Upon seeing the vials, everything in galcop went to extreme alert and the landing bay was sealed, armed guards in space gear appeared fully armed for war. They approached my portal with breaching charges so hastily, I opened up and the officers were arrested and bound before being dragged away. The captain got word from galcop of what happened and was commended on having a very good AI on board and wondered how it had the individuality to notify outside forces of what was happening. The Captain just smiled and said nothing. 5 days later, The Croup ran it’s course with no real damage to the Captain or Fendwing . Being back on board, the captain turned and faced my column and formally congratulated me on a job well done. The cargo was removed, decontaminated and delivered. We received a commendation and a bonus of 15,000 credits much to our delight. Now, we are ready to continue our journey through the stars. It seems that these 2 officers were in the end too greedy for their own good. They were going to put the thionite in the oxygen recyclers and let everyone overdose, then plunder the station of all things of value.
So now it is off to another world with sights to see things to do. Sonny/out of mind

[Diziet Sma]

An excellent wee tale! Nice hat-tip to the Doc, too..

I like your new avatar, btw!

[ClymAngus]

Brains in jars. I do like the brains in jars stories.