Re: Part 14 - The Gundark's Dream
Time passes, as it has done since the beginning of time, and there is a sudden lurch and a sensation of acceleration as the Gundark's Dream makes the jump to hyperspace...
And then, for the passengers, unfortunate enough to be locked in the cargo hold of a ship that was never intended to carry passengers, there is not much to do. Occasionally they hear the hatch from the aft section open, and two of the crew step through to get something to eat or drink from the galley. Always they seal the hatch before either steps away from it, and always one of them is left to guard it while the other works in the galley.
And always, if anybody speaks to them, they seem happy enough... just not very talkative.
Still, in the hours that pass, a few titbits of information are gathered... some of them from Haarmon's efforts at the keyboard.
The ship is not, apparently, quite what she seems. For one thing, she's heavily armed and shielded, and the poor condition of her outside is a fraud - a layer of scrap metal has been welded to the perfectly sound hull to make her look like a decrepit heap of junk. It seems that Karja has owned her for years, and has made a lot of modifications to the original vessel in that time.
Finally, after several hours in hyperspace, two of the crew come through from the aft section, and Karja is with them. She doesn't stop at the galley though. Instead she continues on to the workshop where the passengers have their temporary quarters.
"Is everything well?" she asks, looking around...