Aim to Engage 2023, prompt #11: While scavenging on your planet for things to sell, you discover a crashed aircraft. What you find inside has you running for your life.

Word count = 993

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Scavenging was not a glamorous profession, but I had this debt to Big Bubba, who made other loan-sharks seem warm and cuddly. Missed payments carried serious health risks. And I was flat broke.

Decades ago, the Federation pulled out of this cold, backwater planet, taking all the good toys. I sorted through the junk left behind, hoping to find something salable. The most valuable finds were Zurid artifacts, remnants of a long-lost alien culture that proceeded humanity by eons. Even scrap bits were valuable.  

But I scored the ultimate find. There, at the glacier's base, was a never-before-seen intact Zurid ship. Spherical shaped, about twenty meters in diameter, it gleamed muted silver in the mid-day sunshine. The alien propulsion technology was way beyond human understanding, and the ship was as much sub-sonic aircraft as faster-than-light starship.

But most importantly, this find will make me rich. 

When I poked around yesterday, the glacier face collapsed, nearly burying me in an icy grave, but it also revealed my prize. After a few joyous whoops, I marked it with claim flags and rushed back to Tarkus Settlement to officially file the claim.

There ain't much law on this world, but there was the Scavenger's Code, a set of rigorously enforced rules that kept us from complete chaos. Among other things, it contained regulation for transactions and claim legitimacy. And woe to any claim-jumpers.

Long story short: this ancient alien ship was mine!

Now for a closer look. I circled the object, sloshing through thin rivulets of icy melt that tumbled over multi-colored smoothed stones. The fractured blue-white glacier towered above, framed by jagged gray-granite walls.

Nothing blemished the sphere's surface, not even a scratch — amazing after countless centuries. But when I touched it, a strange tingle crawled up my arm, and the surface visibly distorted with tiny ripples as if liquefied. With a gasp, I pulled my arm away, and the surface stilled.

This thing was still reactive!

Then, with a low hum, two cracks appeared, creeping across the surface in straight lines to form a precise rectangle. The metal surface within sloughed down as if melting, then re-solidified to form a series of steps leading to an open doorway.

Alarm bells should have rung in my mind, but I was far too curious to decline this invitation.

As I stepped inside, a dim glow illuminated a narrow white passage leading to a central chamber. But most curious, it warped space — it was larger on the inside than the outside.

I came to a central round room with muted gray walls containing only a single angled panel mounted on a curved pedestal. A small red light blinked on the otherwise transparent surface.

The faint light called to me, pleading me to touch, and I extended a finger. What could possibly go wrong? Lots of things, the rational part of my mind screamed — but like usual, I ignored that.

When I touched the red light, electric jolts shot up my arm and shook my whole body. Pulling back with a cry, I trembled. Rapid fire sensations flickered across my mind — images of alien places, strange sounds, foreign touches. The internal lights brightened.

"What the..." I blurted out.

"Neural acquisition initiated," came a plain voice from above.

An alien presence crept through my mind, invoking a panicked response. This thing claimed me. "Oh, hell no!" I yelled, cupping my head. "Get out of my head!"

I dashed out of the ship, only to find Big Bubba and two armed minions waiting for me. Just my luck...

A sneer formed across his thick lips while he chomped an unlit stogie. His enormous belly shook with a chortle. "Well, well. Look what you found."

"It's mine, by rights of the Scavenger's Code," I replied, standing tall.

"Of course. But let's make a deal. Sign over your claim, and I will cancel your debt. Otherwise, I will foreclose." The way he annunciated foreclose sounded ominous.

Anger boiled up, and I raised my voice. "This claim is worth a thousand times that! And I still have two days 'till payment is due."

With a nod from Bubba, smelly minion number one turned his pulse rifle toward my rover truck and pulled the trigger. The plasma bolt ruptured the power cell with a bright white flash and a sharp bang, turning my rusty truck to smoldering junk.

This kept getting better.

"It's over a hundred klicks walk to Tarkus," Bubba spat, quite literally. "You'll never make it in time, that is, if you survive."

Growling and clenching fists, I advanced toward Bubba, but minion number two blocked the way. I was about to forcefully explain my situational displeasure when their eyes widened and they took two steps back, gasping.

I spun around to deep rumbles to find the sphere hovering just overhead. Jagged blue-white bolts sizzled as they shot out from the ship, dancing across the moraine in blindingly bright display. I'd never seen Bubba run so fast.

"Great." I snarled at the sphere as Bubba's flyer sped over a hill. "Now I'm stuck here."

I jerked at a mental voice. "I am Ship."

"Is that your name?" I asked.

"I am Ship."

"Okay, cool." I replied, kicking a small rock. "Give me a ride?"

Ship set down and opened again. Inside the central room, a reclining chair formed from the deck beside the now lighted panel. Reluctantly, I settled in.

My body tensed as Ship invaded my mind. "Neural acquisition complete. We are joined."

Then Ship became part of me, and I, part of Ship. I sensed everything, and vast memories of wondrous alien worlds filled my mind. But there was also a deep loneliness that broke my heart — Ship had waited so long. We rose, lifting to the sky. With but a thought, I viewed a full terrain panorama, as it the walls became transparent. Okay, this was beyond amazing.

Ship and I, we claimed each other. That's the Scavenger'sCode.