Chapter 127: The Distress Call
"We are receiving a distress signal from a fleet of Alliance ships," said Jun Li, interrupting my concentration. I was currently in the library trying to find everything I could on the Ethawainians. I would have to admit what I had managed to get my hands on was not making me feel overly hopeful for my future.
I guess I would have to carve out a future of my own then. Starting with my own power base.
"Who and a what now?" I asked, confused.
"A fleet of Alliance merchants have sent out a distress call," said Jun Li, like he was expecting me to know exactly what he was saying.
"Okay? And?" I continued, not sure how them sending out a distress call was any concern of mine.
"We are the only ones in this sector around to be able to answer it. And it is space law that any and all distress calls need to be answered, no matter who they come from," answered Jun Li.
I scoffed at that. "And who is going to know if we go and answer it or not?" I asked, completely serious. I was already toeing the line when it came to the confines of the law; what would one more black mark against me really do?
Jun Li was silent for a second before responding. "You are right," he mused. "It is not like anyone knows we are here, and even if they did, we can always claim that we didn’t get the signal. You go back to your studies."
I grunted and turned my attention back to my book, trying to figure out what my next step should be if I was going to get through the next 50 years with my life intact.
"Wait," I said, my head shooting up as I turned to look at the camera. "Did you say, merchants? As in supplies?" I continued.
"Well, yes," replied Jun Li. "But I thought you didn’t care."
"Oh, Mei Xing doesn’t care about some stupid distress call, but Merciless definitely cares about supplies and anything I can loot off those poor, distressed ships," I said with a smile. Standing up, I strolled out of the library and back to my room. "Set a course for the fleet."
"But—" started Jun Li, more than a little confused.
"But why are we going?" I answered, entering my room and quickly going to my closet.
"Exactly," the AI grunted. "I also don’t understand what you mean by Mei Xing and Merciless. You are both people, so how could one not care, but the other can?" I needed to keep reminding myself that as intelligent as he was, Jun Li was essentially only a one-year-old child, and a lot of things needed to be explained.
"Mei Xing, the human female, doesn’t really care about going to save a fleet of ships," I started as I pulled out my arms dealer uniform out of my closet and threw it on the bed. "Especially when they belong to the Alliance. However, the arms dealer, Merciless, likes the idea of going over there, finishing off the fleet and whoever is attacking them, and taking all the loot for myself. Do you understand?"
"Is this like ’The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’?" asked Jun Li, putting two and two together.
"Exactly," I replied with a nod. "And in this case, we are the oriole," I continued with a smile as I held my helmet under my arm and strolled out of my room. Heading to the command bridge, I hugged the fur I had left of my chair and placed it out of sight.
"Open communications to the ship sending out the distress call, audio only, no video," I said, sitting down in the captain’s chair. Putting my helmet on, just in case, I got comfortable.
"Communications open, audio only, no video," replied Jun Li as his body came into the command bridge and went to sit down at his normal console.
"This is Captain Jun Li of the Sisalik ship L11042. We have received your distress signal and are on our way to your location. What can you tell us?" I said, trying to sound as formal as I could.
There was a moment of silence before a voice cut across the link. "That is Captain Xyrix of the Dryadalis merchant ship Shaahnex. I am unaware of a Sisalik captain with your name. Turn on your video feed so that I can verify your identity."
I let out a snort of disdain. "I am coming to rescue you, and you are worried about my name? Clearly, you aren’t as distressed as you claim you are. If that is the case, I am going to return to what I was doing. Best of luck with... whatever is going on with you," I said, nodding to Jun Li to cut off the audio feed.
"Should we return to our original course?" asked Jun Li, his head cocked to the side.
"Nah, he will be calling back in the next few seconds. Just make sure that when you answer, it is only for audio and not video," I replied, shaking my head. Unless the distress call was pure bullshit, there was no way that they would not be calling us back right away.
"Incoming call from the Shaahnex," said Jun Li, looking at me impressed. I waved my hand. It really didn’t take a genius to know that they were desperate for help. They were between a rock and a hard place. Too bad for them; I planned to take them for everything they had.
"Captain Xyrix, what an unexpected call," I said as soon as Jun Li connected us. "Is there something I can help you with?"
"You know damn well what you can help us with," snarled the captain. Clearly, the male was under a lot of stress. Maybe I should recommend yoga for him. It might help clear up all that negative energy.
"I honestly don’t," I replied. "After all, you are the one who implied you didn’t need our help."
"I need your help, please," returned the captain through gritted teeth. I almost wanted to turn on the video so that I could see the look on his face.
"We will be more than happy to come help," I said, keeping my voice even and calm. "Can you tell me what we are flying into?"
