BoTH Chpt 18

==Blood on the Horizon - Chapter 18 -==
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===Truth is stranger than Fiction===
"I just got back from checking the family records. Any luck with Comstar?" Captain Mendez asked.
 
"Most of his story checks out," Lieutenant Lamb replied. "We can see that some hasty repairs were made to the Helium seals. And the Jumpship is an exact match for the records that Comstar has of the ship. Hull himself doesn't show up on those records, but employment records for single owner Merchant Class Jumpships weren't exactly things that they kept after the Succession Wars started."
 
"Truth is stranger than fiction," Mendez shook his head as he snickered. "So we've got a time traveling merchant who hasn't interacted with people in years."
 
"Yeah, that wasn't in any of the training I got, sir," Lamb snarked back. "I'm supposed to deal with pirates and idiots. Not people who are having emotional breakdowns at the sight of people. And to think, you thought it was a ghost ship."
 
"In my defense, my family has some pretty crazy reports from the last few hundred years. And in his defense, we were the first people he's seen in nearly two years if his story is true," Mendez pointed out. "And at this point, it's kinda hard to disprove his story."
 
"It'd be easier if he weren't a mess every time we asked to meet with him," Erika sighed. "He's getting there, but I think it'll take him a few weeks before he's able to have a solid conversation for more than a few minutes at a time."
 
"Guy hasn't had anything to speak to aside from some simulators on board for a few years," Mendez shook his head. "I'd be a wreck too. Anyway, we'll give him a few more days to get acclimated. But, I'm about to mark his story as legit and allow him to start trading. He's still got goods that would be plenty valuable down on Pierce, after all."
 
"Well, I'm near the end of my contract," Lamb shrugged. "Want me to tag along with him?"
 
"If you're willing," Mendez replied. "I know you're aiming to leave the system once your contract is up, but I'd appreciate it if you did me that as a last favor."
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===Where did everyone go?===
A few days previously…
"We're very real," Captain Mendez chuckled. "And boy do you have some questions to answer."
 
The man grabbed onto the first person and latched on, sobbing the whole time.
 
"You're okay," Ensign Hall glared at Lieutenant Lamb from the hug he was wrapped in, his wiry frame disappearing behind the bearded bear that had come out of the Jumpship. "Some help, LT?"
 
"I think you're doing fine," Erika patted the junior officer on the back. "I'd just let him cry it out. Seems like the guy's been through a lot."
 
Looking behind her, she saw Captain Mendez jerk his head over to the docked Jumpship.
 
"Let's see where the rest of the crew is," Mendez said once they were out of earshot. "I doubt he's the only one, and this screams of someone trying to get a foothold into the system."
 
"I don't know, boss," Erika glanced back at where poor Ensign Hall was still stuck. "That guy seems pretty messed up."
 
The two stepped out into the hallway of the Jumpship and noted how quiet everything was, the empty hallways curving their way through.
 
"Where is everyone?" Erika asked as she moved to the bridge. "It's incredibly difficult to get a Jumpship moving alone, that's the kind of scenarios that generate nightmares for spacers."
 
"Don't I know it," Mendez shifted behind her, a chill going down his spine. "Lieutenant, I don't think we belong here," Mendez shook his head and pushed off back into the airlock while making the sign of the Cross. "This is a ghost ship. I'll not have anything to do with it."
 
"You're scared of ghosts?" Erika asked when they were safely back on the station.
 
"My family has owned this station for generations," Mendez replied. "I am convinced that there is more out here in the void than anyone could have predicted. My pops used to show me records of some of his sensor ghosts. Full Taurian Battlegroups that seem there but then vanish, strange signals that seem to be generated from nowhere. You name it, we've seen it. So yeah, a ghost ship with one survivor? I am absolutely certain that it's possible."
 
"Whatever you say, boss," Erika shrugged. "You're in charge here."
 
"Thank God," Hall said once he saw them again. "He fell asleep, but I don't know how to move him without potentially hurting him."
 
"We'll get him a bunk," Mendez helped shift the stranger. "I'm sure he's got quite a story to tell once he wakes up."
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Chapter 18