The port buzzed with activity. In the heat of the afternoon, wheeled cargo loaders and horse-drawn trailers moved cargo from the three space ships parked on the flat ground that served as a landing pad up the ramps of the loading docks and through the heavy wooden doors of the long sandstone warehouses.

Alongside one of the ships, a delta-winged converted troop carrier named the Nordic Troll, workers carried containers from the cargo bay doors to the loaders parked along the ship’s side.

Aldous Gavigan, the ship’s mechanic, worked to help two dock workers place a large crate in one of the loaders. During the transfer he had been conversing with the workers about the local eateries in town. Once the crate was loaded, Aldous stood up and brushed off his sleeveless coveralls. Producing a rag from his pocket he wiped the sweat from his forehead and yelled toward the dock “Hey, captain!”

The ship’s captain, a worn but rugged-looking man called Nick Gerrin, stood on the raised dock with the dock master reviewing the arrangements for the storage of the cargo. Gerrin looked up. “What?”

“How come Reilly’s not out here helping with the cargo?”

Gerrin replied “Reilly’s doing something in town. I’ve got it covered”.

“Hope it has something to do with getting paid. I still need that induction coil for the engine soon”.

“Don’t worry”, Gerrin replied, holding up one hand, “You’ll get your coil as soon as we get paid. Just take care of unloading that cargo for now. Shie shie (thank you)”.

“Will do, sir”, Aldous returned to his work, grumbling under his breath “That’s what you said after the last job”.

Several of the Troll's crew worked with the workers unloading the ship’s cargo, including the ship’s pilot, Aldous’s sister, who went by the name “Loomie”. Loomie was helping two workers ma-neuver a large crate into a loader. Loomie had been talking about the jobs the Troll’s crew took on, discreetly leaving out the part that most of the jobs involved smuggling. “We went to Boros a few weeks back, and a couple times we’ve even made it as far in as Perseph-one.”, she continued as the two dock workers listened with a polite pretense of interest. “That’s the best part of being on a ship: You get to see different places all the time”.

One of the men had been having trouble keeping up with the other two, so Loomie and the other man had slowed down a bit. As the three of them finished loading the crate, Loomie brushed the dirt from her olive cargo pants and said “Well, halfway there”. They started back to the cargo bay when the slower man stopped. Loomie and the other worker turned back toward the man after a few steps, asking “Hey, you OK?”

The man grabbed his head, staggered, and fell forward, grabbing Loomie as he fell. Loomie shrieked in surprise and jumped back as the man fell to the ground. Gerrin and the dock master heard the shriek and rushed toward the three, Gerrin toward his crewmember, the dock master toward his fallen man. As they reached the three, Gerrin asked “What happened?”

Loomie’s face was pale beneath her dark skin. “We were just working and he just fell over, like someone switched him off or something.”

The other dock worker said to Gerrin and the dockmaster “He’s been slow and out of it all day”.

Gerrin turned back toward his ship and barked “Get Doc out here, now!” As he, the dockmaster and the other worker rolled the man over on his back, the dockmaster felt the fallen man for a pulse. After a few seconds, he looked up and shook his head. It was only then that all four of them noticed the bruise on the side of the man’s head. Gerrin’s eyes hardened as he looked at the standing dock worker and asked “Just exactly what happened here?”

..........To Be Continued.