Merchantman, Snippet II

Welcome to another edition of SciFi Fantasy Saturday - our little web-ring of fab SciFi & Fantasy writers and posters. Check out snippets from other SFFS authors here: scififansat.blogspot.ca.

Posting from my WiP
THE GIRLS FROM ALCYONE: MERCHANTMAN
(a novelette from the world of Alcyone)

The Girls From Alcyone is the continuing story of two very special girls who find themselves at the heart of a conflict spanning more than forty worlds.

THIS WEEK: Last week we left Sigrid tumbling through space with a little less than nine minutes to live. This week, let's roll back the clock forty-eight hours.




read part one here

Part Two of Merchantman (48 hours earlier):

White light gave way to the blackness of space; like snow melting away, large white droplets scattered forming into billions of individual stars. Her warp jump complete, the Ōmi Maru swung around, blasting toward the heart of the alpha Phoenicis system and her destination, the Konoe Transfer Station. Few ships were in orbit; the small outpost appeared a cold and lonely place, a dull metallic disc drifting alone in the barren wastes of deep space.
     It was here that they would find the only people outside Federation space still willing to trade with them; the Merchantmen.

The Chief nudged Sigrid directing her attention to another ship moving into a berth off their port beam. She was a freighter, but far grander than the likes of the Ōmi Maru. She looked close to one hundred and fifty meters, roughly the same size and tonnage as their ship, but she had a stately flair to her, her thrusters painted in bright gold and red, her long hull featuring distinctive red piping. Sigrid scanned her markings; she registered as the Merchantman.

"Our contact," the Chief Engineer said. "Right on time."