Intruder alert! – #wipitup

I’ve been absent from WipitUp for a few weeks as I get my house in order for the next book – another Sci-Fi. This time its in outer space, a journey, rather like a road trip really. It doesn’t start out that way for Jade, who get’s into trouble when her little spacecraft is captured by a much larger one.

***

Jade zoomed out the view screen, which took its source from the rear camera. She saw a huge black shadow blocking out the stars. It was big and moving fast.
Her spacecraft, which she’d nicknamed Stealth, was basic: no armaments, built for speed and it need only fly her between planets. It also had a good size cargo hold and a few nifty manoeuvring thrusts.
She flicked a few switches and the ship swerved to the left.
A loud clang ended the movement and the violence of the stoppage three her off her seat. “What was that?”
TRACTOR BEAM ENGAGED!
“Who has one of them?” she asked no-one. The downside of flying solo—no ear to bend when trouble arrived.
The military had sophisticated technology, so had some of the Fringe rebels on the edge of the galaxy, but not the relief corp with which she was associated.
The engine cut out. It had to. The force of the beam would rip it apart. It was a mighty ship that had ensnared her. She couldn’t out run it.
“Shut down everything, but life support,” she commanded.
UNDER ATTACK. FORCED DOCKING IN PROGRESS. CONFIRM COMMAND.
“You heard me. Do it,” Jade snarled at the annoying computer.
The lights on the console flickered, then when dull. The flight bridge descended into semi-darkness.
Jade hurried down a passageway towards the cargo bay. She punched the key panel and entered the lock down code. Another deep clang echoed along the corridor. Somebody was attempting to gain access through the airlock.
She ran to the far end of the bay, crouched and pressed her palm to the unlit panel. The hidden hatch released, she crawled into small space, closed the hatch behind her and curled into a ball and waited.
It was her best hope—playing dead. If she could persuade the intruders the ship was abandoned, hopefully they’d leave her and the precious cargo alone.
She waited in silence. More clanging, and strange sounds she couldn’t identify, then footsteps. The stomping footfalls of a solitary person. They stopped, re-started and gradually moved closer and heavier. Jade held her breath, convinced that her heartbeats were so loud they would be audible throughout the ship.
The somebody, the intruder, kicked the hatch door.
“Open it  or else I’ll shoot it open and I can’t guarantee you won’t be hurt.” The deep voice of the man easily penetrated the walls of the bolt hole.
Jade wrung her hands together. What to do?
One trip out. Just one and she’d been caught. But by whom? A bunch of rogues, low-lives who stole cargo or the military?
She was in trouble either way.
“Last warning. I’m gonna count to three. One. Two…”

***

So that’s the beginning – who’s got her?