Free The Portal (Novella) by S.E. Gilchrist

Star Time: Darkon Year 6035
    Janni leaned closer to the viewing panel and squinted at the sudden flash of brilliant orange that burst through the wispy space dust. Then, it was gone.
    She slumped against the navigational chair. Tapping her fingers to a quick beat against the metal armrest she stared at the ceiling, blind to the crazy lines of twisted wiring and metal tubing above. Unease played tootsies with her bowels. She shifted her weight, the hard plastic squeaking from her movement. Had it been another ship?
    Frowning, she turned her head and asked, “Did you see that light?”
    Her partner in crime, co-owner of The Orion , the rusty, limping salvage ship Janni called home, raised his head from an examination of a schematics display. “What light?”
    She sighed. “Must have imagined it. Okay, Bansell, how are we looking?”
    “The prize should be coming up on our port side now.” Bansell rubbed a hand over his bald, spotted head.
    Janni swivelled her chair and stared out the small porthole for several beats before giving a low whistle. “Wow. What a wreck. She must have been drifting for some time by the look of the damage to her hull.”
    Her partner grunted. “It appears the ship at one time passed through an asteroid belt. I recognise the damage pattern.”
    Janni pinched her lower lip between her index finger and thumb while she scrutinised the data flow. “System check reveals no heat signatures, so no life forms on board. That’s kinda weird. I’ve never heard of the Darkons abandoning their ships before, have you?”
    “Negative. But many strange things occur out here on the Rim.” Bansell rubbed his hands together, making a rasping sound like coarse sandpaper and tossed her a grin. “If she was abandoned in a hurry, there will be much on board for us to salvage. This past cycle has been too lean with pickings with the war escalating.”
    Janni thought of the strange light she had seen and mumbled, “I’m not so sure about this one, Bansell.”
    Bansell laughed, a sharp harsh bark of sound. “No choice. We need that cargo. None of our crew has been paid for four standard months. We are down to our last few creds and rations are low. If we do not obtain a payload, the crew will jump ship the next station or planet we come across.”
    “Yeah, I know. You don’t have to remind me of the parts we need to repair the hyper space drive.” Janni shot a quick look at her partner. “Any sign of those bloody patrollers?”
    “None so far. Our systems reveal the stars are clear.”
    “Alright then, let’s do it.” For what choice did they have? If they stayed out here on the Rim any longer, they would starve or fall victim to space fever. It would do no good revealing to Bansell that prickling sense their ship was being followed. This payload may be too rich to ignore.
    Janni launched from her chair and clattered down the metal rungs to the vast hanger bay beneath. Already suited up for the job, she jogged across the runway slapping one of her crewmen on the back as she passed. She grabbed the handholds clamped on both sides of the small spacecraft’s open hatch and heaved her body into the airlock. The hatch closed behind her and after punching in her personal code, the green light flicked on and another door slid open. She hurried through the cramped interior towards the tiny flight deck. A few moments later, strapped into the pilot’s chair, she performed the flight checks, and then waited for the all clear.
    The hanger door clanked opened.
    The flyer’s engine fired into life. Janni rotated the controls with the palm of her hand and the machine zoomed down the runway and into the black depths of outer space.
    Within seconds, she had the power boosted to full mark and saw directly ahead the dark misshapen shadow of the battered wreck.
    It was a long distance voyager, its hull blackened by cycles of traversing the wormholes that linked the known universes. As a former slave on a similar voyager,