5 Minute Freewrite: Space Pirates Pt 2: Her eyes seemed closed

The magnetic boarding harpoons pulled the Murphy's Law close to the disabled freighter as my squad of space marines readied themselves for whatever horrors were onboard. Dealing with the kind of piracy found on the Outer Systems planets could be unsettling to say the least, lack of resources and desperation drove people to commit atrocities in the name of survival. Supply ships passing close to uninhabited planets and asteroids were easy prey for the fringe elements of galactic society.

The magnetic airlock connected to the derelict ship with a dull thud and we stacked on the airlock, weapons ready in case hostiles were waiting on the other side. The door shushed open and we were met with dead space and silence.

"Move out, teams of two. I want this ship cleared on the double," I whispered into the throat mic.

"Aye-aye Sarn't!" The others replied and split into pairs, their weapon lights illuminating the eerily silent ship interior.

The scattered paper and debris floated in the ship, the life support systems had been off for a short time and the gravity generator was offline since the reactor was shut down or disabled. Other than the two meter hole in the hull, the ship seemed to be in working order. We quickly swept the empty cargo bay because most of the remaining scraps were floating in vacuum along with what appeared to be some of the crew.

"Report in," I keyed to the marine squad.

"Crew bay is clear, no survivors or hostiles so far," Pvt Guerra replied for his team.

"We're next to the cryo bay," I replied.

The crew storage lockers were emptied of anything useful, and none of the escape pods were deployed. The others searched the engineering section and the bridge with nothing to report. Hope of finding survivors were becoming less and less, the remaining section was the cryogenics bay used for long voyages or for storing injured crew when proper medical care wasn't available.

My mag boots clicked as I strode into the open cryo room and saw rows of empty pods.

Surprisingly, there was one in the corner occupied by a woman who didn't look like a member of the Merchant Marine crew running the supply ships. She was dressed in a pieced together spacesuit with a mix of new and old components, her eyes seemed closed and peaceful under stasis...

Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash