Cargo Bay Conundrum

 

The Cargo Bay Conundrum

Jonno Virek had never trusted other people’s packing jobs. And now, standing in the Peregrine Queen’s main hold, he was reminded exactly why.

Mara Linskey scanned the labels on a dozen stacked crates, each one plastered with stickers reading “Delicate Scientific Equipment — Handle with Extreme Care.” Her expression was somewhere between amused and wary.

“They could have at least mentioned what was inside,” she said.

Jonno folded his arms. “They paid for secure freight, not a guided tour. Still, a hint would have been nice.”

He knelt to check the seals. The crates were locked tighter than a Martian tax inspector’s wallet. He frowned. “One of them’s warm.”

Mara raised a brow. “Warm?”

He nodded. “Look.” He touched the side of the largest crate, where faint heat radiated through the packing foam.

She sighed. “That’s rarely good.”

They left the hold to fetch a thermal scanner. Jonno’s gut told him the Peregrine Queen might soon play host to something more exciting than microscopes and lab slides.

Back in the cargo bay, he carefully powered up the scanner. “Definitely a heat source,” he confirmed. “Could be a power cell… or a reaction chamber.”

Mara set her jaw. “Shall we crack it open?”

“Best check,” Jonno agreed. “If this explodes halfway to Callisto, no one will be pleased.”

The lid unlatched with a metallic hiss, revealing layers of foam and shock gel. Buried within was a spherical device about the size of a football, softly pulsing with blue light.

Jonno leaned closer. “That’s… no microscope.”

Mara squinted at a manufacturer’s plate. “Experimental particle stabiliser,” she read aloud.

Jonno felt the hairs rise on his neck. “You mean an unstable particle stabiliser? That would explain the heat.”

She winced. “And why it’s humming.”

They watched in uneasy silence as the device thrummed steadily, its gentle glow cycling through a worrying spectrum of blue to green.

Jonno scrubbed a hand across his face. “Options?”

Mara checked her comm. “We’re two days out from Callisto. No maintenance ships nearby. We either stabilise it here, or risk the whole hold cooking itself.”

He sighed. “Here it is, then.”

Working side by side, they removed the outer panels and isolated the emergency shutdown relay. Mara read out diagnostic codes while Jonno adjusted a tool the size of a cricket bat, tracing cables like a surgeon.

A thin whine rose from the stabiliser.

“Jonno…” Mara warned.

“I see it!” he replied, reaching to bypass the failing capacitor.

The whine climbed higher. Then, with a faint click, the glow dropped to a steady green.

They stared at it, breathing hard.

Mara exhaled. “That’ll hold.”

Jonno chuckled, weak with relief. “And to think, people pay to transport this junk.”

They resealed the crate with fresh shock gel and reinforced foam, labelling it in Jonno’s scrawl: “CAUTION: HOT.”

After a pot of restorative tea in the crew lounge, they let their heart rates slow.

Jonno raised his mug. “To cargo we actually know the name of.”

Mara laughed softly. “To cargo that doesn’t try to end us.”

He grinned. “I’ll second that.”

Outside, the Belt drifted past their portholes, indifferent and glittering. The Peregrine Queen moved on, ready for its next delivery, partners steady at the helm.