Rust Bucket Read Online Free PDF Page B

fortunes took a turn for the worse. The Theodore only lasted three months before it was taken by pirates. From what we learned later, she was captured almost without damage because they managed to get some people on board as part of her new crew.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â When she was lost, our ship resumed working the Gabriel route as well as the monthly Blues route. To say that we were hustling all the time to keep both routes running smoothly was an understatement. We also went through a personnel adjustment to make sure that we didn't have anyone unsavory on board who might have slipped through at the same time. I'll admit I didn't mind seeing one or two of the personnel, whom we had, given the boot. They didn't strike me as caring about the work they were doing. I think our efficiency went up as a result. Certainly our morale improved after the devastating loss of the Theodore. But it wasn't the end to our problems.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â The former Theodore was later fought by the Edmund. Both ships were damaged, though the former Theodore, then a pirate, escaped without taking any of the Edmund's convoy. It did put the Edmund into repairs. We were once again covering all the routes. For the next three months, we sweated it as we covered all the routes as best we could while seeing some valuable cargoes go to other shipping companies because we couldn't cover them all. Then the shit really hit the fan.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â We were three days out on the Blues route when the former Theodore showed up again. We immediately went to battle stations. I had just gotten out of the shower with Sarah. We were each clad only in our mesh undies when the alarm went off. We dashed off as we were. I had a premonition or gut feeling then that we were in for a bad one again as I reached my Mark III quad and slipped into the gunner's seat while hitting the exposure button that slid the panel out of the way. I was firing at the former Theodore immediately. My second shot hit her, damaging her badly. At the same time, I felt the vibrations of a hit from her on our ship. I only hoped it wasn't the shower again, not that I was naked this time, but I was nearly so. My fourth shot also hit the former Theodore squarely. It was enough, I noticed, to damage her engines so that she wasn't going to perform any more evasive actions against us. I felt a couple more vibrations in the Thurman from more hits before my sixth shot hit and ripped the former Theodore apart, stopping them from shooting and hitting us anymore. Battle stations ended. I pressed the exposure switch to shut the panel that hid the Mark III quad from sight. Then I made my way amidst some smoke back to the shower area, which thankfully wasn't hit, and put the rest of my clothes on beside Sarah who was actually putting on more than I was.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "Last time we were hit," I said to her, "they hit the shower. I had to do everything on board for two days without a stitch of clothing on. I guess I got lucky this time that they didn't hit the shower again."
    She nodded and continued dressing.

    ***
    We weren't so lucky that time. We were moving at full speed, though the engines weren't running. We couldn't steer or use the engines to reverse the thrust so that we could stay with the convoy. The onboard intercom was in shambles. It took almost a half-hour for the news to reach us all that we were trying to effect repairs. In the meantime, we were headed away from the convoy, whether we wanted to or not. The best we were able to do was notify the convoy by lightbeam radio of our condition and wish them the best of luck as we started working desperately on the damage.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â The lead freighter sent back a message wishing us good luck and letting us know they'd inform the company of our actions. There was no way they could possibly catch up to us. Interplanetary engines like ours were too expensive to put on every ship. We were going at a speed they