The Urite Crystals of Oberon

Michael Alexander’s Journal

The Hijacking

Many have said that memories are fleeting, but this particular memory needs to stick around for awhile, or at least long enough to figure out if any value can be extracted from the mayhem and pain of it.

Maybe it’s all a bad dream and not a memory at all, but the excruciating pain I feel in my left leg says other. Maybe this is what death feels like, but why would this particularly painful memory be the only thing playing in my head right now if I were dead?

Meditation has always served me in times of uncertainty and now is apparently one of those times. Just relax and let the memory refresh itself again without the personal introspection or any questionable narration. Just let the memory waves rush over you and accept the pain and anxiety as if it were actually a bad dream that will eventually pass.

Memories of hijackers announcing themselves as mayhem broke loose on the Urite Crystal transport keep playing and repeating in my head like they were looped up. All I can do is let them play once again from the top and pray that these painful memories lead to something useful.

My mind falls back to the calm routine of reviewing the transport departure checklist with things going as planned. We were being assisted by an interplanetary transport prep crew assigned to get our cargo transport off site after completing a six week Urite Crystal mining project on Oberon, Uranus’s second largest moon. The ground crew had communicated over loud speaker the transports fuel and integrity status to our pilots, this was the last check listed event that occurred before things went sideways.

Major Anderson, the transport ship captain, strode through crew seating towards the cockpit, bypassing a member of the flight operations prep crew and also two flight crew members, which included Silvia who was sitting across aisle two seats to my right. As the captain passed me he remarked that all systems were go and requested that all flight crew members should strap themselves in… then the flash bang occurred. As the event unfolded, the hijackers then revealed themselves by calling out to the pilot that the transport was now under command of captain Xenon, and that any attempts to countermand this claim would be met with death.

Memory of what happened next is disjointed, but the hijackers, after initially posing as members of the interplanetary transport operations prep crew, were now wielding weapons. I’m fairly certain the hijackers on board numbered three and my instinctive reaction was to subdue the nearest of the three who stood 1.5 meters to my left. My reaction must have been anticipated, because no sooner than it took me to launch myself out of my assigned seat towards the hijacker, I felt a sever jolt of pain in my left leg and instead of arresting the assailant, whom I felt in my grasp momentarily, I fell numbly off balance towards the floor.

My mind went hazy after that, partly due to the smoke from the flash bang, but also due to the searing pain I felt in my left leg. I heard a few more commands from the same voice I assumed to be captain Xenon. Then in a moment of clarity I heard Silvia shriek at the top of her lungs that she would take responsibility for the crew members safety by remaining with the hijackers. Silvia’s action most likely saved my life and those of the other crew members that were no longer needed by the hijackers.

Multiple security protocols are used to protect Urite shipments, but three person integrity safeguards are used as deterrence against hijackers or even the lessor attempted mutinous travesty. The hijackers had to know about these shipment security safeguards prior to the incursion, so they knew they would have to take key crew members along with the cargo. They would have to identify at least three members that possessed the codes to accomplish the task, but Silvia quickly averted their plans by insisting that she would be one of the three members that would accompany the hijackers but would not comply unless all non-essential crew members were released prior to departure.

Memories are fleeting, and my memory of the hijacking abruptly ends with Silvia’s voice trailing off into a fog that I’m apparently still in. For some reason I don’t think this will be a fleeting memory nor do I actually want it to be. This memory need only come into greater focus as I replay it and reconstruct the account. I want this memory to be the single focus that helps me get back what was taken from me, namely my health, pride and reputation, my companies precious cargo, but most importantly, my friends.

Next Stop: Lunar Base 3 [Michael Alexander’s Origins]