stevedover1965

“Look Captain this goes on and on, the short of it is we are over our manifested weight total by 1100Kgs, I simply can’t account for it?”

Emilio Martinez, looked at Tavi, then Adham.

“Well don’t just stand there, search the cargo hold…I want whatever it is we are carrying illegally found…As in YESTERDAY!”

“SIR” came the joint reply, turning on there heels Adham and Tavi went to muster a search party.

Martinez reached for Adham’s Coffee…”Waste not want not” He said and drank the contents before retiring to his quarters.

stevedover1965

“You know Tavi, this is strange, we have to be exact about weights flying the McPhee, last thing we want is to run the gauntlet fat…our tail-ass to heavy to run! I checked those manifests and this has cock-up written all over it”

Tavishi looked thoughtful, “What if this is not a cock-up, what then, I mean what if we are carrying black market shit, some stuff our Captain don’t know about…Look we have done a little bootlegging before right, no big deal! Supposing someone wants a top notch carrier to take something past regular routes, could be bad news for us”

“Could be” they both looked at each other, then made sure there firearms were fully loaded,
Adham spoke into the squawk box and relayed orders for security guards to meet them in the cargo bay. “Better be safe than sorry” he said, hand resting on his holster.

“You got that right” Tavi smiled and started down the access ladder into the McPhee’s cargo bay.

The McPhee’s cargo bay was unusual for this type of airship, apart from the main storage bay, there was a large hanger for the hornets, a workshop for all of the maintenance tasks and running all engineering was the ships Head Mechanic…Hao Shi, his name betrayed his Chinese origins, his appearance was that of a tall wiry middle-aged man, grease on his hands and a little on his face was quite usual for Hao and the hornet engine laid out in pieces on the workshop table along with the odd expletive showed he was busy as usual.

“Goddamn piece of junk, those pirate bastards really toasted us” Hao looked up and nodded toward Tavi.

“Hao, we need to go and check on something in cargo, you still got that old scanner handy?”

“Humph wanna check the fridges right?”

“Yeah something like that, just would rather not open sealed units, less we have to, get my meaning?”

“Yeah, got just the thing, class 2 micro scanner, graphene screen, just hold it up to the fridge, hey presto, contents show up here, has a built in chemical analyser”

Hao handed the scanner to Adham who was standing closer.

stevedover1965

Before I continue is anyone actually reading this or am I posting this in vain. this is an experiment to see if I can actually write a story) I always wanted too. But if no one is that interested I kind of feel silly!!

indigo

I'm enjoying this story a lot! Would make a good movie. But I like this kind of stuff, maybe it's not for everyone though. Anyway, it's up to you... hmmm wonder what's in the fridges, see you on the bridge. :]

stevedover1965

Thanks Indigo, if anyone else has had a read of this story please leave a comment let me know you were here because I'm not psychic and without comments I will think no one is interested. (I do realise that this kind of fiction is not to everyone's taste though). Just out of interest some famous authors wrote some extremely popular books in similar ways (of course not using the internet ha ha) Charles Dickens serialized popular works (The Pickwick Papers), posting his stories chapter by chapter. I also believe Rudyard Kipling did a similar thing with his stories and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who published his Sherlock Holmes stories for the Strand magazine. Surprisingly I also found out that Uncle Toms' Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was released in a serialized form too.

stevedover1965

Hao handed the scanner to Adham who was standing closest and turned back to the hornet engine pieces on the table, “Won’t fix itself, let me know if you find anything…see yuh” and with that became engrossed in his work again.

Adham and Tavi headed towards the waiting guards at the Cargo bay hanger and scanned the first fridge unit for contraband.

The scanner showed a smaller image of the refrigerated container on it’s pull out screen, a series of blips came from the handheld machine as each pallet was highlighted and scanned with the results stored for analysis. A close-up image showed one of the sealed polymer bags and it’s contents…”Oh my God!” Tavi swore under her breath, religion had long since died out but the terminology was still in regular use, some habits don’t die easily. Adham and some of the guards were all shocked at the obviously human body parts stored in bags.

Adham’s squawk box spluttered into life, it seemed Martinez was monitoring.

“Adham clear the guards, all except one and Tavi, find out how many…organs there are.” The Captain was struggling not to cough, this was unexpected.”

“And Adham”

Yes Captain, Martinez voice had softened

“Keep this as quiet as possible, I will speak with the other guards myself, I need time to think”

The squawk box went silent and Tavi was busy scanning the other units, her gasps betrayed more of the contraband had been loaded illegally.

sandm

Hi, steve, I am writing this comment to let you know, I was here. I didnt read the whole story, just a few paragraphes. Sure, you can write! I guess, you already know about your talents...
I for myself dont read science fiction, because from my point of view, there is so much sci-fi in "normal life" , so I dont need additional stories.