Free No Man's Space 1: Starship Encounter by Nate Duke

and captured five enemy frigates, and we’d flown out of them before their self-destruct systems had triggered. A spaceport was well-armed and easy to defend. It could be no more difficult than what we’d just done.
    What else could go wrong?

Chapter 8
    “I wouldn’t have let Banner land first.” Flanagan looked out of the shuttle’s windows with worry. “He might be plotting something, sir.”
    “I’ll buy you a drink if he starts a mutiny once we land,” I said.
    Flanagan grumbled. “Won’t be of any use if he takes the Star away.”
    Flanagan distrusted Banner, but the man was unlikely to seize command by force. At least not yet. We didn’t know the people aboard Aurora. They had informed Banner that the Cassocks blockaded them and destroyed many of the supply ships that got there. The Admiralty hadn’t heard the news because their communications were under constant attack. They were in more trouble than it seemed, but at least they hadn’t been attacked. The government would notice the lack of reports and they’d eventually send someone to check on the port. Naval bureaucracy slowed things down, but everything came to term sooner or later.
    I would’ve landed first aboard the port, but the acting captain couldn’t leave the ship until we knew the port was safe. I’d sent my acting commander to check and to speak with the locals. He’d sent a brief message telling us that we could land without any problems. The North Star remained in orbit, and we’d soon make her land to perform the repairs. The landing process was slow and dangerous, so captains and officers generally stayed out of the ship while it landed.
    As for Banner’s loyalty, I wouldn’t have any problems unless he’d bribed everyone aboard the port and asked them to imprison me. Banner was rich enough to buy a spaceport, but he wasn’t bright enough to realize.
    Once I started the landing maneuvers, Flanagan adjusted his magnetized boots to walk out of the shuttle without losing one of his shoes. He wore magnetized gloves and clothes too so that our bodies felt a pull towards the floor. They weren’t exactly magnets; they were complementary materials with mutual attraction properties, but they didn’t interfere with the control panels.
    Modern ships used rotational speeds because it allowed the men to live normally. Eating or drinking aboard a shuttle could get messy if you forgot that you didn’t have any gravity.
    We landed on the port’s central hangar, which wasn’t rotating, so lacked gravity. We had to attach the shuttle to the floor so that it didn’t float away, but it simplified the approaching process because we didn’t need to match the outer deck’s rotational speed.
    Port control sent us a couple of remote-controlled horizontal elevators coupled with our clothes. We entered and they pulled our clothes as if we were aboard our own shuttle. Our clothes made gravity almost equal to Earth’s, but you felt the pull around your body instead of within it.
    The elevator first approached the first rotating deck following a straight line. The elevator then adjusted to the target deck’s rotational speed and reduced the artificial pull to our clothes so that the clothes’ pull seamlessly turned into the centripetal force. The rotational acceleration was slower than aboard a normal spaceship, probably to accommodate for younger and older passengers.
    Flanagan’s hand instinctively went to the handle of his gun. He tensed and got ready in case someone attacked us as soon as the elevator’s doors opened.
    “Are you planning to kill someone?” I asked.
    “I don’t trust them,” Flanagan said, “and you’re trusting them too much, sir. I’ve seen captains kill each other to get credit for a battle, and I won’t stand aside while an acting commander kills an acting captain.”
    Was he really scared that someone would kill us to get command? Considering the pox, the fevers, and the lack of proper nutrients aboard most