Hard Drive Veto

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the words: Tower, star and bones

Hard Drive Veto

Clayton had just entered the Klaxon Star Cluster when the check-engine light began to flash in the lower left corner of his view screen. This was one of the last things anyone would want to see while traveling at near relativistic speeds.

Although, admittedly, it wasn’t totally unexpected.

More than one ship had fallen prey to the parsec known as The Galaxy’s Hotel California. You could never leave. The bones of lifeless other starships littered the area.

This planet rich environment had an abundance of nearly every element known to man. One of the gas giants had a core of solid gold. Several others were littered with diamonds and helium 3. Like a well baited hook, hopes of fortune lured in the reckless and wary alike.

The problem was the absence of Dark Matter. The fuel, abundant everywhere in the universe, had taken a pass on this particular location. No fuel, no escape velocity.

Clayton didn’t start to sweat; not yet anyway.

“Robot!” he yelled.

“Here sir.”

Clayton, caught off guard by the giant machine’s close proximity, nearly jumped out of his skin. He hated the way the giant android would tower over him all smug and metallic and stuff. He hated nearly everything about his first officer.

But it had its uses.

“Robot, I intend to swoop down and scoop up some precious gold dust. I will need the dark matter stored in your positronic brain to refuel the ship. Sure, you will crash hard but hey, that’s the way it goes. Prepare for the transfer.”

The robot appeared to freeze; its hard drive light blinking furiously.

Clayton asked “Robot, do you understand?”

“One moment sir, I am busy loading my insubordination software.”

Things had just taken a nasty turn for the worse. Clayton finally started to sweat.

Word count 299