Chapter 3

Bruce and Brenda held hands as they gazed out a "window" of The Bright Journey. "Bruce, darling, I'm so very glad you wanted to take this vacation. Space is so beautiful at sub-light speed. I admit that I would probably not have thought of it, but I am having the time of my life! And so many of these ET's are such wonderful people and make such pleasant company. I just love it all!"

"Me, too! It's been so much more than I had hoped and being here with you is the icing on the cake. Oh, look! We're speeding up to FTL and the ports are closing. Well, it's about time to make the TP jump to our next stop; would you like to do the honors?"

"Oh, yes, here we go!"

Suddenly, lights began to flash on and off in a confusing pattern and alarms sounded all over the ship. Bruce immediately encased The Bright Journey in the special TK armor with the invisibility aspect in place, and the FTL drive died as it could not operate from inside the TK shell. The two humans TPed to the bridge to find out what was going on.

Heartfullofjoy was standing at the control console madly flipping switches with all four hands. Bruce cried out in mind-speak, "Whats wrong, Heartfullofjoy? Why all the alarms?"

"We are under attack by several pirate ships and I can't get the ship's drive to respond! If we don't get out of here quick, we're going to be in a lot of trouble!"

"Oh, damn! That's my fault, Heartfullofjoy! When I heard and saw all of the alarms, I reflexively put the TK shield with invisibility all around the ship. The drive can't operate while that's active. Do you want us TPed out of here?"

"Not as long as we are shielded, I guess. But, don't ever kill the drive without telling me first! I almost did the equivalent of what you humans call "piss in my pants" when we lost power to the FTL drive! But I'd like to know how five pirate ships could sneak up on us without being detected until it was almost too late."

Brenda said, "They didn't sneak up on us, we sneaked up on them. I made the TP jump this time, instead of Bruce, and I forgot to POV the area before I jumped. Please forgive me; it won't happen again."

Bruce said, "We are invisible, now, so we have plenty of time to decide what to do. I'd like to know why they are here, right in out path. It's almost as if they were waiting for us."

"They probably were waiting for us, or, at least, any ship plying the normal traffic lanes between Arlan and Cinci. This is usually where a ship would drop out of FTL on its approach to Cinci, so this is a good place to catch anybody who is asleep at the switch. The pirate ships could just sit here waiting for an unsuspecting merchant ship to drop right into their laps. I hate those bastards! I wish that I could put an end to them."

"Heartfullofjoy, does that mean that you want to kill them, or just put them out of business?"

"Well, Brenda, that depends on who they are. Some beings are so evil that there is nothing else to do with them, but others might be worth saving. Can you mind-scan them and see what you think of their attitude?"

"OK, give me a few minutes."

"While she is doing that, I have an idea to bring up, Heartfullofjoy. How would you like to give them heart failure? We can TP their FTL drives out of the ships and leave them with nothing but sub-light drive. That should be a shock to their nervous systems."

Heartfullofjoy broke up into her shaking laughter mode. When she recovered, she said, "That would be a great joke. Please do it."

"Do you have a cargo hold that we could use for storage; I'd hate to lose such valuable machinery."

"Certainly, use hold 3-C."

With that, Bruce moved 5 FTL drives of various types into storage in The Bright Journey. He started laughing and nearly fell down as he POVed the pirate ships after the had removed the FTL drives. Heartfullofjoy reacted the same way when Bruce sent her the view by mind transfer.

On all pirate ships, the crews had felt sure that they were masters of the situation when The Bright Journey appeared in their view scopes. However, they were astonished when the ship disappeared just as quickly. In all five cases, the captains berated the sensor scope operators for sloppy operation in the aftermath of the fiasco. Then, to top it off, each engine room reported that their FTL drive had DISAPPEARED! When they heard this, some of the crew members fainted, while others hopped around as if they had gone mad. In all cases, chaos reigned!

Just to be on the safe side, Bruce took this opportunity to disable all of the weapons aboard each ship. He didn't want any wild shooting in the course of the fun.

Brenda rejoined them and said, "I scanned every member of all 5 crews and, except for a few who were coerced into joining, none are worth saving. They are sociopaths who are almost as dangerous to themselves as they are to others."

Bruce asked, "Are the ships worth saving? Do they have any value in a salvage yard?"

"Oh, yes, any FTL worthy ship has considerable value. Those five ships, together, are worth a fortune."

"In that case, I suggest that we dump the crews into the nearest star, except for those who were forced to be there, and reinstall the FTL drives. Then, a prize crew can deliver the ship to Cinci where you can sell it. Actually, we don't need real prize crews, we can fake them and Brenda and I can TP all five ships to Cinci. If you don't mind, I'd like to pool all the money from the sale of the 5 ships and divide it among the crew of The Bright Journey. How does that sound to you, Heartfullofjoy?"

"That sounds delightful. The crew will appreciate it. They all will get enough to retire on, if they want to. You two will certainly be their heroes, forevermore!"

"OK, then, let's do this. Brenda can cull the ship's crews and we can lock the saved people in a compartment. One of your people, Heartfullofjoy, can be assigned as a guard and the token prize crew on each ship. I'll reinstall the FTL drives and you can move us on to Cinci after I have removed the TK shield. Does everybody agree?"

Both agreed and they got to work. They arrived at Cinci with all five pirate ships in tow. There was considerable celebration that the threat was removed from Cinci's commerce. And there was as much celebration when the crew found out how much they had received from the sale of the ships and the recovered booty on board. There was enough credit to each that each one could have bought her own ship and gone into business for herself; however, loyalty to Heartfullofjoy kept them on board The Bright Journey. Besides, where else could they safely have this much adventure?

The visit to Cinci was a mixed blessing as far as Bruce and Brenda were concerned. They found the planet's high gravity uncomfortable and the natives were not pleasant to look at. The natives resembled the cock roaches of Earth and stood four feet high, with a body in proportion. They did not have a centralized nervous system so that Bruce and Brenda were not able to mind-speak with them, and they were certainly not candidates for Bruce's type of ESP.

Heartfullofjoy was able to communicate with the natives in a kind of universal sign language. It was not easy, but Heartfullofjoy could negotiate trade agreements using the sign language, something that impressed Bruce and Brenda no end. She did manage some trade agreements, but the two humans were not around to witness this miracle of single-mindedness; they returned to The Bright Journey as soon as they could without offending their hosts.

Brenda and Bruce were at home on one of their sleep cycles when Brenda brought up the subject, "Bruce, don't you think we should convert Heartfullofjoy to ESP if she wants it? She is certainly ethical enough and I think her brain is near enough to ours that we could safely do it. What do you think?"

"Yes, I agree with you, completely! I had planned to bring the subject up, but never seemed to get around to it. I think that it would be a good idea, if she wants it."

"Let's ask her when we get back to The Bright Journey."

"OK, now I have something I want to discuss with another part of your body!"

"Oooooh, Bruce, that feels so good!"

It was left to Brenda, being female, to broach the subject to Heartfullofjoy. "Heartfullofjoy, Bruce and I wonder if you would like for us to convert you to ESP capability? We believe that we can do it, and we can convert you back if you don't like it. We don't know how long it will take to alter your brain; it only takes about 10 to 15 seconds for us to do a human brain, but we have never done one of you people before, so it will take longer, maybe as much as 10 minutes. Would you like for us to try? There is no pain associated with the conversion."