What was that?” Alyssa gasped.


    “We’re picking up an emergency distress beacon” John replied over the din of the xon. He pushed a button reducing the volume to a much more subdued level.


    John looked at the monitor for more information. “It looks like it’s a freighter experiencing engine trouble. They need a tow or spare parts.”


    “Are we going to help them?” Alyssa asked, excited at this unexpected turn of events.


    “It could be a trap” John frowned.


    “They might be genuine though!” Alyssa replied, eager to ride to the rescue.


    John tapped his chin with a finger, looking thoughtful. “Ok, let’s be cautious. We can approach under minimal power, so we won’t appear on scanners. If they look legit we can help, if not, we pass them by”


    Alyssa’s eyes shone with excitement as she pped her hands happily. John smiled at her and rolled his eyes theatrically. “We can’t stroll in there naked though, we will need to sort you out an outfit” he said to the delightfully nude teenager.


    “Unfortunately someone sted my outfit into deep space!” She grinned at him.


    John smiled right back “I doubt it would have fitted you any more anyway!” he said, admiring her pert bust and shapely curves.


    Alyssa arched her back and thrust her chest out, her perfect D cup breasts standing high and proud with no sag whatsoever. “Perhaps so…” she smiled at him, enjoying the attention.


    They had a look through John’s spare gear. Most of his outfits were much toorge for her, sized as they were for his broad shouldered 6’2″ frame. They eventually found a form fitting body sleeve, that he would normally wear under a space suit. It hugged the contours of Alyssa’s body in most interesting ways, but at least she wouldn’t bepletely naked.


    John then turned toward his weapon locker. “Have you got any experience with firearms Alyssa?” he asked the nubile young woman.


    “I’ve never fired one before, sorry” The teenager replied apologetically.


    He pressed his thumb to the lock and the locker door rolled backwards to reveal the racks of weaponry. He looked through the guns trying to decide what would be the most sensible to give to her. He eventually settled on the auto shotgun and made sure it was unloaded before handing it to the girl.


    He pressed a couple of buttons on the grip to increase the auto-damper, which would reduce weapon recoil. “It’s still going to kick some if you fire quickly” he warned her “so be careful!”


    They went through reloading and clearing jams, the best way to hold the weapon and how to use the infrared scope. Alyssa was an eager student and after an hour of intensive training, he felt reasonably confident that she wouldn’t shoot him identally.


    John grabbed a dangerous looking assault rifle and loaded the bullpup magazine with hollow point ammo. You had to be extremely careful firing weapons inside spacecraft, as one stray round punching through the hull could depressurise the ship. Using armour piercing ammunition was asking for trouble, so he hoped they didn’te across anyone unfriendly in tactical armour. He held the high tech weapon to his shoulder and looked through the integrated scope to check everything was fully operational. He donned his ownbat gear which consisted of a Ker weave jumpsuit with ceramicposite tes to protect his limbs and chest.


    They headed back to the cockpit and powered down almost all of the ship’s subsystems to keep as low a profile as possible. John let Alyssa plot the course and the darkened ship crept towards the source of the distress beacon.


    An hourter and they were close enough for visual contact of the ship transmitting the distress signal. Arge old freighter filled the viewscreen, but it seemed that John and Alyssa were not the only ones to respond to the signal. They could see a sleek Terran Federation Corvette had also docked with the troubled freighter.


    “Oh, they beat us to it” said a deted Alyssa.


    “Hmm” John replied as he took in the scenario in front of them. “Something isn’t right over there”.N?velDrama.Org owns ? this.


    His finely tuned senses and years of ship to shipbat experience were all warning him that there was danger ahead. John had learnt to trust these instincts, as it was usually his subconscious picking up tiny details that all pointed to something being wrong. As he studied the scene, he realised what had been bothering him. The navigation lights on the Corvette had not been set for a docking manoeuvre, which would be unheard of, considering how most Federation Captain’s were real sticklers for protocol. Unfortunately that meant the Corvette was in trouble and John had a certain number of obligations to the Federation, in exchange for some useful privileges. He blew out a deep breath in a long sigh.


    “Ok. We’re going to have to investigate and I’m sure there’s going to be trouble” he informed his young shipmate.


    Alyssa nodded in reply, looking wide eyed and apprehensive.


    “Don’t worry Alyssa, we’ll be ok” he said reassuringly. “Just stick close behind me and I’ll keep you safe”.


    John set up the docking solution to connect on the opposite side of the Federation Corvette to the freighter and the Fool’s Gold slid silently into position. He led his youngpanion down to the cargo bay which housed the ship’s airlock and they performed a final weapons check before he opened the door seal.


    They stepped inside the airlock and John produced a small chrome device from a container on his belt. He hooked up the device and it hummed happily to itself when he ced it on the airlock door to the corvette. After a few moments there was a dull “Thunk” from the door in front of them and the sturdy airlock door rotated upwards, granting ess to the ship. He retrieved the device and stashed it back on his belt.