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I had received a hot tip. A Caterpillar floating lonely and abandoned in the orbit of the moon Arial, just waiting to be utilized. The ship was in the shadow of a huge asteroid. The searchlights on my Vulture could only illuminate part of the hull. That was all I needed to remove the hull. Piece by piece, the lasers milled their way across the Caterpillar’s outer skin, liquefying the valuable alloys and sucking them into the Vulture’s belly, leaving behind a bare skeleton.

While the lasers hummed monotonously, I tensely watched the red dots on the radar. There were enemy ships on the other side of the asteroid. I suspected they were Slicers, a pirate group from the Pyro system that was currently wreaking havoc in the Stanton system. As long as they left me alone, I didn’t care what they were up to. After all, I could utilize what was left after their raids and turn it into profit.

There was a wild ballet on the radar. The red dots danced like flies around a yellow dot. Then I heard a familiar voice on the open radio channel.

“Cease fire. This is Friedrich Winters. Stop firing.”

I couldn’t contain myself and replied.

“Hey, who’s shooting around so pointlessly?”

“Zero?! What are you doing?”

It was Brubacker’s voice.

“I’m salvaging the ship behind the asteroid,” I replied.

“You better get over here and help us.”

Brubacker’s voice sounded almost panicked.

“I can’t. I’m only traveling with a Vulture.”

“Zero, get your ass over here already.”

This couldn’t be true. Now I had to help them out with the little salvage ship. What you don’t do to help your friends. My only chance was the element of surprise. I switched on a Buccaneer with the targeting computer and rushed out of the shadows, firing wildly at the small fighter. It worked and my opponent was quickly eliminated. In the concentrated fire of the Vulture and Friedrich’s 600i, we finished off the rest.

I refrained from commenting on the fact that my little Vulture had saved the ass of Friedrich Winters’ mighty “Silver Arrow”. Instead, I got back to work and continued stripping the Caterpillar’s hull. Friedrich and Brubacker had boarded the Caterpillar in the meantime. I could see several containers through the open cargo hatches. More loot. Inwardly, I rubbed my hands together. Bru and Friedrich were certainly not interested. But what did they want on board?

Suddenly I heard Friedrich on the radio.

“That’s the Beluga. I know the ship and its crew. They occasionally take on cargo jobs for me when I’m preparing a cruise.”

That was a thing. It sent shivers down my spine. Then the cargo belonged on board, presumably to Friedrich. Overwhelmed by the situation, I forgot to operate the laser. The hot beam kept penetrating the same spot on the ship’s hull. Meanwhile, Friedrich and Brubacker searched the ship and puzzled over what had become of the crew.

Suddenly Brubacker radioed me.

“Zero, can you stop that now?”

“Why? You can’t let anything go to waste,” I tried to justify myself.

“…just turn the damn laser off.”

With the press of a button, the Vulture’s laser fell silent. My God, Brubacker was touchy again. He just didn’t understand that it was normal in my culture not to let anything go to waste. That people followed the law of the desert and utilized everything that was lying around without possession. OK, the cargo probably belonged to Friedrich, but not the ship.

I left the Vulture and floated over to the Caterpillar. While Bru and Friedrich started to reload the cargo, I looked to see if I could salvage the components. However, they were too big to remove on site. At least I was able to copy the logs and flight recorder data from the on-board computers. Then I helped the two of them to reload the cargo. I tried to make it clear to Brubacker once again that you can’t let anything go to waste in the desert or in space. It was an act of survival.

“Shut up for once! Those were Friedrich’s colleagues,” he whispered at me.

“Bru, stay away from me with your morals.”

It was pointless. Bru didn’t understand. Maybe he should spend some time in the desert. But he wouldn’t last two days there. On the other hand, I could understand Friedrich. He was worried about the crew of the Beluga. Nobody knew what had become of them. And Bru? He came from a different world to me. But he was a helpful guy and was there when you needed him. He probably couldn’t help himself.

After we had reloaded the containers, Brubacker and Friedrich flew with the Silver Arrow to the Everus Harbor space station. I returned to my Vulture. But somehow I was reluctant to continue salvaging the Caterpillar with the name “Beluga”. Then I remembered the wreckage of the destroyed Slicers spaceships.

I quickly found the remains of the Buccaneer that I had shot down. I set to work in complete darkness. I skinned the pirate hunter in the spotlight. Blinded by the bright spotlight, I didn’t notice the black outlines of the asteroids around me.

“Zero…?” Brubacker reported over the radio.

“Yes,” I replied tight-lipped.

“Where are you?”

“I’m still at the ship.”

“Jesus, are you going to turn out the last light bulb?”

“I’d better.”

At that moment, the hull was also dismantled, shredded and recycled. I gave a short burst of momentum with the thrusters. The impulse briefly pushed me into my harness. However, the Vulture’s backward movement was abruptly interrupted with a loud bang and I fell back into the backrest of the pilot’s seat. All the warning lights in the cockpit suddenly lit up red. I cursed. The ship drifted to one side. I frantically steered against it. To no avail. Another bang. My scream was drowned out by the screeching and crunching of metal.

First the lights went out, everything on board was dead. Only a few sparks from the console provided some glimmering light. Then the acrid smell of scorched cables penetrated the cockpit.

“Everything is about to explode,” was my only thought.

I quickly put on my helmet and left the Vulture via the cockpit door. As soon as I was outside, it became light. Stanton’s star came around the moon Arial, making its atmosphere glow yellow and illuminating the asteroid field. I could see the Caterpillar a few kilometers away. My only hope, my lifebuoy in the cold, hostile desert of space.

I hoped to be able to establish a radio link with Brubacker and Friedrich on board. At the moment I was cut off. The radio in the helmet didn’t have enough range. Then I started the long EVA to the Caterpillar. The only question was, would I reach them and did I have enough oxygen?

It was a strange feeling to float in weightlessness for so long. To be virtually naked, without the protection of a ship’s hull. I felt so close to space and yet everything was so unreachably far away. I had no sense of speed. I wasn’t even sure if I was really moving forward. Completely free from the constraints of gravity, I turned around and saw the Vulture getting smaller.

After what felt like an eternity, I reached the Caterpillar. In the cockpit, I tried to restore power. To my surprise, not only did the radio wake up, but the engines also began to hum. I carefully pushed the wheel forward a little. A jolt went through the ship. My cry of joy traveled through the entire ship in several echoes. Full of enthusiasm, I radioed Brubacker and Friedrich.

“Guys, sorry, I was just offline. My Vulture is scrap. But never mind. I’m on the Caterpillar now. And, you won’t believe it, it’s still flying… I’m now the owner of a Cat…”

Brubacker’s indignant reply came promptly.

“Zero, man…”.

“I’m keeping it…”

“No. It needs to go to Advocacy and be investigated. So we can find out what happened here, what happened to the crew.”

My good mood turned into the opposite.

“She needs to go to Advocacy and be investigated….,” I mimicked Brubacker with the radio switched off.

I looked around the cockpit for a moment. What a shame, it would have been so nice. Then I radioed a short, curt “Okay”.

In the meantime, the Silver Arrow appeared on starboard and escorted me to Everus Harbor. Did they want to make sure that I was really handing over the Caterpillar?

After we had handed the Cat over to the authorities, I took care of recovering my Vulture. Brubacker and Friedrich first had to find out what had happened on their own.

The perspective of Brubacker (german only): https://sternenwanderer.org/jahr-2954#S26

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)