Every New Beginning

Every New Beginning is a short story by Jamie Ibson, published in We Dare: No Man's Land, from Chris Kennedy Publishing. It details Chief Mick Mitchell's first employment with a ShipCorp, the Righteous Work, when they are attacked by pirates in the Parker-Barrow system.

Chief Mitchell's first duty, as ship's engineer, is to maximize their reactor's output to boost their ship's performance and repair damage. The six Vulture fighters overwhelm the ship's bridge crew, who manage to destroy four of the six fighters before neutralizing the ship's turrets and knocking the ship's engines offline. With the Work helpless, two of the Vultures clamp onto the hull of the ship, and assault with a boarding party.

Mitchell and Silver defend the aft end of the ship. Silver is, as it turns out, a bit of a Homeball star, and kills several of the pirates with a specially made bat/mace he's nicknamed Eir, after the Norse goddess of mercy. Mitchell seizes weapons and ammo from one of the first pirates, arms herself, and manages to take out the rest of the boarding party. She and Silver swim up the ship's long spinal corridor to the bridge, to defend it from attack.

At the bridge, however, they discover that the bridge crew (Dack and Beth Nova, Bjorn and Nicola Tyr) have all been killed, but Bjorn took out the last two attackers with a hidden grenade. Silver congratulates Mitchell for her promotion to Captain of the Righteous Work.

The Work has been severely crippled by the pirate's attack - one engine completely gone, the other damaged, no turrets and no comms, so Mitchell gets to work repairing the ship with what she has available. While in EVA, torquing their damaged gravity drive nacelle back into place, a hull plate tears loose and sends Silver dutchman and helpless. Mitchell reacts quickly and manages to catch him before he's drifted too far from the ship, but is hurt herself in the process when she makes herself a part of the rescue tether.

As they work on the ship, Mitchell learns a bit more about her alien crewmember - including the fact that the Jotunn physiology requires that they eat fresh fruit from their homeland, or drink human booze, to remain healthy. Unfortunately, the booze (whiskey, bourbon, or vodka, but not spirits distilled from fruit sugars like gin or tequila) affects him rather dramatically, for a short time. Mitchell is initially angry that Silver would get drunk on duty, but Silver soon apologizes, and explains.

Mitchell rigs the Vulture's gravity drives to give their ship the extra push they need to brake before they miss their rendezvous with Parker-Barrow VI. A short time before they arrive, however, the Work's surviving gravity drive tears loose and the ship is once again engineless. Mitchell realizes, with Silver's help, that she can use the Vulture's comms to send a mayday. Parker-Barrow's system patrol receive the mayday, send a rescue craft, and Steverson Void Salvage and Recovery save the Work from an endless trip through space.

Once back in human civilization, Mitchell sells the cargo the Work was hauling, both Vultures, and the Work itself. She uses the funds to buy passage for herself and Silver home to Cardiff where, at Silver's insistence, she goes looking for a new crew. The story concludes when Mitchell (accompanied by Kari Castel, Ben Faolain, Silver, and Thunderpaws) takes possession of their new courier ship, delivered to Cardiff direct from the Attika shipyards. Bellerophon of Myrmidons Inc marches his PMC out for the official handoff, congratulating Mitchell and their crew. Mitchell welcomes everyone aboard the ICS Pandora's Hope.