"The manoeuvre pack's right side thrusters are underperforming"
"Got it, give me a few moments to tune it Victoria"
Victoria stood ready inside the airlock which had already been depressurised, and from the pre-spacewalk test she had discovered a flaw in the manoeuvre pack she would use on the spacewalk, however this proved to be little more than a tuning problem which was solved within 30 seconds
"I've redone the tuning, please test it"
"Alright…"
Victoria redid the pre-spacewalk manoeuvre test once more and found the problem solved, then she opened the outer hatch and floated out into the dark, after attaching a tether rope to her belt Victoria steadied her breathing before she reoriented towards the artificial asteroid made of frozen bodies
"Tether attached, I'm heading off"
Victoria started floating towards the artificial asteroid when Bob sounded out in her helmet
"Alright, I'll keep an eye on the local traffic"
Victoria continued flying towards the artificial satellite and soon arrived at the first target, slowing her closure to a halt she retrieved a tool from the side of her manoeuvre pack, then she placed it against the corpse, the suction cup head soon sealed against the frozen skin before she scanned the targeted organ
'... No dice'
"First probable is a miss, moving towards the next target"
As Victoria floated towards the next target Bob's voice echoed out in her helmet
"Got it, the scoop is clear so far"
As Victoria continued floating around from corpse to corpse Bob's voice sounded out on the net
"Ellen, the airlock is acting up again"
Victoria gazed flipped herself around and gazed back towards the ship where she saw the outer door open
"Bob, the outer hatch is open"
"I got it, Ellen suit up"
"Yeah, I'm on it"
Victoria spun back around again and continued her job, attaching the suction cup on the stomach of the corpse Victoria waited for the scanner to do its thing and finally got a positive
'...Sorry'
Offering a silent apology Victoria activated the device that punctured the corpse with a thick needle which expanded in a set of vires that quickly minced the surrounding tissue before the sample was suctioned up into a sample container and sealed
"I've collected a sample from the last probable, moving on to the 4 promising"
A moment passed before Bob's voice sounded out
"Nice, scope is clear so far, how does the airlock look Ellen?"
Victoria pushed away from the corpse and began flying towards the next one, from the image data and laying her eyes on the corpse she was mostly sure it would be a hit too
"I'm done, the hallway is repressurised"
Victoria felt a chill, there was something about Ellen's voice that was slightly off and she wasn't the only one that felt it as Bob's voice soon echoed out over the net
"El, is something wrong?"
Ellen remained silent which, even after Bob called out to her a 2nd and 3rd time, Victoria felt a pit form in her stomach before she spoke
"Bob, I am heading back"
"No, focus on the harvest"
"Bob, I am a doctor"
"...Right, get back here, we're leaving as soon as you are boarded"
"I'm on my way"
Victoria started heading back towards the airlock at once while she spooled the tether in, however she only made it around halfway back before the ship suddenly began spinning as Bob's voice sounded out on the net
"You..!"
Victoria was yanked ahead as the tether attached to her manoeuvre pack was pulled along by the suddenly spinning ship
"Ugh..!"
Getting pulled along Victoria quickly attempted to release the tether and managed to hit the release on the 2nd try which sent her flying along the inertia of her path, however within half a minute the maneuver pack had managed to stabilize the disorienting spin she had been caught up in enough for her to zero her speed, after catching her breath she called out
"Bob! Bob, are you there!?"
Victoria operated her wrist mounted console and quickly found the direction of the ship, however no response came from Bob, and looking at the ship she saw it stabilize and stop spinning, as it did Victoria felt the pit in her stomach deepen
"Bob, this joke isn't funny…"
The silence continued, however it was soon drowned up as Victoria's hearing was muffled by the sound of her own hammering heartbeat as she saw the ship reorient itself… Right towards her, then an unknown male voice sounded out on the net
"Hi there doc"
Victoria heart continued hammering ever louder as she pulled back on the manoeuvre control, however to her horror the ship's drive powered on as it began closing the distance and the voice sounded out again
"Come on now, why are you running?"
"W-Who are you! What happened to Ellen and Bob!?"
"Well the woman passed out when she saw me, and I had to choke out Bob… You properly won't believe me when I say this, but I mean you no harm"
"H-How am I s-suposed to believe that!?"
The ship increased its closing speed towards Victoria as the manoeuvre pack's low fuel alert sounded out in her helmet
"Well, if I wanted to hurt you I would just have powered on the weapon systems… That or simply powered on the FTL drive and left you out here to suffocate once you ran out of air, oh I could also crush you on the windscreen like a bug if you would prefer that instead?"
Victoria felt her heart sink, she briefly considered biting her own tongue or shattering her own helmet, but the kind face of her father flashed in her mind as a determination settled over her which calmed her down, steading her breathing for a few moments she spoke
"Alright, I believe you"
-
Mark gazed at the determined face of the doctor through the sensor feed of the small spaceship for a few moments as he felt a smile form on his face, the determination she showed and the speed at which she had wrangled and taken hold of her fear was worthy of respect
"Good, then come aboard and we'll get out of here"
"...Got it"
Mark watched her for a few moments before he let out a sigh and zeroed the ships velocity before he let go of the flight stick, and he powered down the drives to idle
'I should find some pants… Eh, forming something like it will do for now'
With a little effort Mark remolded his body and eventually formed a layer which covered his legs and groin before it transformed and changed until it was indistinguishable from a pair of leatherwork pants, down to the traditional sowing and decorations
'...This might be a little too foreign'
Mark glanced at the imitation pants he had transformed for a bit before he shrugged, they might be imitations of leatherwork from a different reality, but he had grown too used to them to care much about fitting in completely
'...Besides if I wanted to hide completely I would break the necks of these people and dump them in an asteroid field somewhere'
Mark glanced over at the unconscious pilot he had choked out for a moment before he reached out and checked his vitals
'Hmm… He's not entirely good, but he should make it… I might have squeezed a little too hard'
Mark let out a casual shrug before he looked back at the control panel of the ship and ran his hand over it, finding a few screws Mark quickly loosened the panel before he pulled it off and placed his hand on an exposed piece of Ficer crystal
'Alright, easy does it…'
Starting to interface with the ship directly Mark immediately found several areas of it in need of maintenance and repair, he had thought it looked like a beater from the worn-down paint job and scratched plating, but it seemed like a bigger problem than he had anticipated
'Well, that can wait a bit'
Opening the door to the internal hallway that connected to the airlock and the 3 pirate rooms aboard the small ship Mark spoke out without turning around
"Grab a neck brace for the pilot doc, he might have a strain"
"...Alright"
Then Mark pulled himself out of the pilot seat before he pushed himself into the hallway to check on the female that had passed out when she saw him, however before he could make it there the doctor returned to the hallway with a medkit, as she was suddenly face to face with Mark he could sense her unease and fear, but he simply brushed past her and checked on the passed out woman
"This one should be fine, her vitals are steady"
"I'll check her in a bit"
Mark nodded and laid her hands in over her chest before he pulled her along into the cockpit and handed her over to the doctor that had finished securing a neck brace on the pilot, Mark watched her check over the woman from the hatch
"So, why do you guys cut organs out of frozen bodies?"
The doctor kept working as she answered
"Why does anyone do anything at all? Of course it's for the credits"
Mark nodded
"Right, of course it is… I guess something never changes"
"...You are pretty chatty for a corpse"
Mark showed a smile and responded
"That's because I wasn't dead to begin with, I was simply playing dead… The name is Mark"
The doctor glanced up at Mark and scanned his face for a few moments before she let out a sigh and spoke
"My name is Victoria… This is Ellen and that is Bob"
Mark flashed a friendly smile and offered his hand for a handshake, the doctor, Victoria gazed apprehensively at his outstretched hand for a few moments before she reached out her own and shook his hand, however, she quickly tired to let go as Mark fed on her negative emotions
"No, not yet"
Having her hand grasped tightly by Mark Victoria eventually stopped struggling before Mark finished feeding, then he released her hand and stated with a refreshed smile
"Isn't that a lot better, Vic?"
Victoria narrowed her eyes at him, she tried to be mad, however, she really did feel better so eventually she just grumbled
"Don't call me that"