Echoes in the Void

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Echoes in the Void
Product information
Type Short story
Author Randall N. Bills
Pages 11
Publication information
Publisher BattleCorps
First published 13 September 2004
Content
Era Civil War era
Timeline 3066

Description

"Echoes in the Void" is a short story written by Randall N. Bills and published on BattleCorps.

Teaser text

Most stories take place on known worlds under any of a thousand different suns. But what about the darker stories that slip in between stars? And the dark souls who would ever journey into the void...

Plot Summary

On 6 July 3066 the Voidjumper III, a Quetzalcoatl-class JumpShip under the commmand of an obese and foul-smelling man adressed as (the) "Cap", has moved to a specific point in deep space between the Silver, Gibraltar and Manotick systems in the Abbey Disctrict of the Free Worlds League. Its crew of pirates and space scavengers includes pilot Colt Stevens, the apparently slightly retarded Jiptom, a woman named Santora (who is unresponsive to Stevens' avances), and at at least two other persons (Teddy and James).

Scanning the vincinity for a derelicted JumpShip that Cap was told could be found here, they find nothing and Stevens, who has been considering mutiny for some time, confronts Cap. This earns him an assignment to perform long-range sensor scans in a shuttle for hours on end together with Jiptom. When they finally notice something on the radar, they move in to investigate and discover the derelict they were looking for.

The derelicted JumpShip turns out to be in very bad shape, having obviously suffered a misjump and explosive decompression at least to some sections following an internal explosion in the engineering section. It is of unknown type and has uncommon features such as interplanetary drives, but no Jump Sail array. Stevens notes that it must be extremely old. They board the derelict and retrieve the logbook to confirm Stevens' suspicion: They have found the wreckage of the infamous 22nd century JumpShip Liberator.

Back aboard the Voidseeker III, Stevens deposes Cap and has him spaced, then assumes the post of Captain himself. His plan is to put the derelicted Liberator up on auction - it is an ancient archeological find that will fetch a substantial price, and totally legal at that.

Featured Characters

Featured BattleTech

  • Liberator, ancient 22nd century colony ship
  • Voidseeker III, Quetzalcoatl-class JumpShip
  • unspecified shuttle described as delta-shaped and some 20 meters long, possibly a KR-61