Mark stood in front of a metal airlock in a little barren room with white walls, ceiling and a white tiled floor. The door linked his small spaceship to an abandoned luxury liner he planned on scavenging. He was dressed in a slick, black, micro-thin space suit that covered him from head to toe like the old zentai suits humans used to wear back on Earth for costumes. The difference was that these suits were made from dyqua, a carbon fiber-like material obtained from the Yelabu (pronounced ē-la-boo he’d been reprimanded more times than he could count) people of Rothen 4, instead of spandex.

Despite the fact that it was only about a millimeter thick, the dyqua spacesuits protected the wearer from extreme heat, cold, and pressure while providing a free range of movement and zero vision impairment. Woven into the lower portion of the headpiece was a respirator device that took carbon dioxide and small particles of moisture that the wearer exhaled and reconstituted it into breathable oxygen again. Around his waist was a small utility belt. 

He checked the many pouches of the belt to make sure he had what he needed for every conceivable problem. As his great-grandfather used to say: This ain’t my first rodeo, son. Satisfied, Mark took several deep breaths through his respirator and struggled to subdue the urge to shuffle his feet. He waited for the airlock to go through all the steps it took to open a safe passage between two spaceships in the middle of deep space. He eyed the panel in the middle of the door. STEP 5 OF 10 COMPLETE it flashed at him in bright green letters. He sighed and tried not to think of how long it was taking. 

When he and his scavenger-mate Bill had first come out of warp drive, the stars had gone from streaks of light back into their regular pattern of dots. The problem was, the stars hadn’t formed the right patterns. A small miscalculation had sent them light-years off the course they had intended to take and right into the heart of another scavenger’s territory. As they had prepared to leave, a large spaceship with the name Olim painted on the side of it in faded white letters had appeared.

Mark whistled as he looked at the ship. “I’m pretty sure that’s an old Sohesi class luxury liner.” he said, shutting down the warp drive. We’re not going anywhere.”

“We can’t stay here, this is Johnson’s area,” Bill had informed him. “Scavenging from another’s territory is tantamount to a death sentence. You know that.”

Mark knew. Any scavenger worth their weight in spare parts had their own territory. Sections of space they claimed in order to have first pick of the scraps, but there was no law that patrolled the sections. He grinned at Bill and grabbed his gear. “As long as we can get in and out before Johnson shows up, we’ll be fine.”

Mark started as Bill’s voice intruded into his thoughts. “You alright down there? You’re looking a bit restless.” Mark reached up and pressed the base of his left ear which activated a small mechanical device that connected to both his ear and vocal chords. His implant made a soft chime as it switched to vocal. “Yeah. This damned door seems to take longer and longer every time we use it.” He released the implant and waited for Bill’s response.

“Alright, I’ll get it looked at as soon as we get back to some semblance of civilization. There’s no response from the Olim and no sign of Johnson.”

 Mark nodded. He knew Bill would see his movement over the camera mounted on the wall of the little airlock room. “I didn’t think there would be a response. They haven’t made those babies for several hundred years.” If this really is a Sohesi class luxury liner, Mark thought to himself, this could set us up for a long damned time. He spoke to Bill again. “The big question is: how did it just appear like that?”

“According to the history database the Sohesi class ships were reserved for royalty. Only the rulers of worlds and systems were rich enough to afford them. They came standard equipped with some sort of shield device that rendered them invisible. Maybe it’s been invisible this whole time?”

Mark grinned inside his suit. “Lost tech. Even more reason to crack this baby open. If we could get our hands on that device, we’d be set for life.”

“I’m going to say this again, boss. No amount of money is worth us becoming hunted by Johnson. You know the Serds don’t operate within the galaxy law. There won’t be a place for us to hide if he catches us doing this.”

“The Serds aren’t that bad, Bill. Why are you so afraid of Johnson?”

There was a long pause. The airlock disengaged with a hiss as the final stage completed its cycle. “We have…history…together,” Bill finally replied.