Friday, May 24th, 2261, 06:50. Spirit of Exploration, Delta Flight M23X1
The Spirit of Exploration, one of the newest void liners added to Delta’s space fleet, had twelve first-class apartments. John Lief was sitting down in a criminally comfortable brown leather recliner, tablet right in his face, and laughing at something. His wife, Alice, was giving him a weird look as she was getting her hair ready for the day from the small vanity in their room.
“Ok, why are you giggling like an idiot,” Alice couldn’t wait any longer.
John smirked and transferred the message his friend and former classmate Jacob Andern had sent him. Alice chuckled and shook her head. The young men were acting like little boys. She looked back at John and smiled.
“You sent him a short video tour of our room. Then you showed him the bar down the hallway and a picture of our first meal…”
John interrupted her, “Which was fucking delicious by the way.”
“It was, and don’t interrupt me. That’s rude,” Alice grinned, “This is eight paragraphs of basically just swear words.”
“Yeah, I can translate that for you if you’d like,” John was now the one grinning, “He’s pissed that he has to work on that shakedown cruise. Meanwhile, for the last five days, we’ve had some delicious meals, watched as many movies as we wanted to, gotten busy here, and generally had a fantastic time.”
Alice shook her head, “You know my brothers are all older than us, and aside from Paul, they still act like ten-year-old boys most of the time,” she then pointed at John, “You are no different than your brothers-in-law.”
John chuckled, “Maybe that’s why I get along with them so well. Plus, I’m not the one that revealed way too much detail to Terry.”
Alice sighed in defeat, “Ugh. I don’t want to remember that.”
John grinned, “Want to have breakfast? Looks like the pilots did a shitty job transitioning back into real space. We’ve still got four hours before we get to the station.”
Alice walked over to John, bent down, and kissed him. She then pulled on his hands.
“Lead the way, my dear.”
The couple left their room and walked to the dining room on board the ship. Both were anxious to get some food in them to get the day started on the right foot. But they also were looking forward to starting their unknown futures in the Navy.
Alice would get a Ph.D. sometime in the near future and have substantial employment opportunities in or out of the Navy. John’s lost psychic potential removed most of his opportunities outside of the Navy. Unless one considered being a contract killer a legitimate option, his future was now largely tied to military service. Though a worst-case scenario for the couple would be to work for his father-in-law, something Alice would not be appreciative of him doing.
12:15 St. Mary’s Station, Commercial Flight Ring 3A
Six baggage carousels were in the large room. Four void liners’ worth of baggage was spinning about them with the owners of said bags crowding around them. Naturally, John’s lone bag that he checked was nowhere in sight. The couple had been waiting for forty-two minutes long and useless minutes. This was an overly common and irritating occurrence for John.
Without Alice being a calming influence, John was absolutely certain that the carousel would be broken at this point. Not wanting to make her sad was more of a motivating factor in maintaining his composure than the optics of a recent academy grad having a manic episode.
John was laser-focused on his tablet. He was dialing an executive at Delta at their headquarters back on Earth. It was 03:00 back on Earth, far too early for anyone to handle a customer service call, much less from someone that was brimming with incandescent rage.
“Good morning?” the tired voice said.
John smiled, “Kacey Guetta?”
“This is, to whom am I speaking? Do you know what time it is?”
“John Lief. I’m a double-platinum member with Delta. I also spent just under three million credits on a trip from Earth to Proxima Ceti, specifically to St. Mary’s station above Manchester. And wouldn’t you know it, my checked bag still hasn’t shown up.”
Kacey audibly groaned and knew what was about to happen, “Have you seriously been waiting for your bag?”
John flipped the camera on his tablet and showed the room he was in, “Fucking yes, I have been waiting that long. Every fucking time I fly with you my shit is offloaded last. Do you know that all the first-class passengers are long gone here? Except of course my wife and I because your fucking company can’t put my gear in the first-class cargo hold. Hell, most of the peasant class passengers have already got their shit already,” John was holding nothing back, “I spent literally millions of credits for this trip, and this is the service we get. We are technically late checking in with our new positions on the station because of the rank incompetence of your employees. Once again it has bent me over and is fucking me in the ass again.”
Alice shook her head at John’s crass language, but she knew that once he was in one of these moods nothing was stopping him. She also knew when he was ranting like this it was highly likely that he’d end up with some money back or free tickets for the company’s mess up. That it happened after a commercial flight was no big surprise.
Kacey had walked into his study and checked his work email. An investigation had already been opened because of an email John sent ten minutes ago. Five minutes there was another email from John that displayed a video of an employee tossing his bag carelessly into the wrong container. How John had acquired that video was the least of Kacey’s concerns at the moment.
“I already know what happened, and I’m terribly sorry to inform you that it was loaded into an economy container.”
“Obviously, so what is Delta going to do to remedy this fuck-up?”
Kacey paused, “We’re really sorry this happened, but we’ve already refunded a significant portion of your past trips.”
“I’m aware. But these refunds are justified because the company you’re in charge of continues to fuck me over somehow. Curious how it happens every bloody time I travel. I honestly don’t want to complain to anyone about stuff, but this is bullshit.”
“I’ll approve a twenty-five percent discount on your next flight.”
John immediately answered, “That’s not good enough. I was thinking how a pair of round trip tickets back to Earth, first-class, with all the extras comped, would be an appropriate apology. Especially since your company failed once again to live up to the common carrier contract as well as the Commercial Void Act of 2213. If I’m not mistaken a successful lawsuit, of which would be a slam dunk given the video you and I both have. A successful suite would entitle me to anywhere between three and eighteen times the damages incurred.”
“I’ll get the board to sign off on your round-trip request provided you are willing to forgo any legal actions.”
“That’s not good enough. For eight long years, I’ve been dicked around by every major common carrier. My bags need special treatment. I don’t care how you do that on the back end, but that needs to be done before I travel with y’all next time. And I expect a message from you or whomever you assign to this task ensuring that this situation isn’t going to happen again.”
Kacey sighed quietly once more, “I will work with my team to find a solution to this issue and keep you updated accordingly.”
“Don’t try to find a solution, create a solution. Anything less is unacceptable to both me and you. I’m involving lawyers if this shit continues,” John hung up the call and very nearly threw his tablet into the pillar near him.
Alice squeezed John, “You know, I would have told you to save the money had I known the upgrade cost was what you said right there.”
John leaned down and kissed his wife on the forehead, “Yeah, but you know how I am with those credit chits.”
“Yup, you get like a sugar-crazed child in a toy store and can’t control yourself. Still, a free flight is rather nice for when we go home next time.”
At long last, the final bag slowly fell down the ramp onto the spinning carousel. There it was in all its annoying glory, John’s green bag was slowly and finally moving toward the couple. Seeing it just caused John to swear under his breath. Alice let him go just as he moved forward to pick it up. After picking it up from the carousel he looked back at Alice.
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“Knowing my luck, the assholes probably managed to wreck something in the bags too,” John said as he unzipped it and scanned it carefully, “Appears my pessimism was wrong for a change.”
“What’s next? Check-in or go to our apartment?” Alice grinned as she looked back at her husband.
John pulled his watch up to look at the time, “Check-in isn’t required until 17:00. Let’s get to our place to put our stuff away and get cleaned up first.”
“Am I correct in presuming you know where everything is here?”
John laughed, “Am I correct in assuming you didn’t bother to look at the station layout?”
Alice smiled and twirled her blonde hair all pretty like, “Well, do you know where things are?”
John walked over to Alice with a smile and leaned down to give her a quick kiss, “Yes, my love. I know where everything is here. Our first step is to leave this ring by walking over there.”
John pointed at the exit sign behind Alice. She turned and looked for it. Then she reached back to grab John’s hand as the couple headed out of the baggage claim and into the central portion of the station.
The hallway was covered in advertisements and screens. John noticed that nearly half of the remaining flights that day were listed behind schedule. Virtually none were on time, including their flight. Today, the tides within slip space were very fickle in Proxima Centauri space, but it was not that it really mattered since they were going nowhere else.
John made several notes to himself about the different eating establishments that were advertised. Both the mom-and-pop style places and the higher-end ones. While he knew where the different rooms and departments were on the station, what businesses were there or where they were wasn’t something he had spent much time learning. It wasn’t exactly a pressing need like understanding where his ship would be docked and what the most efficient route was to and back from their living quarters.
After a five-minute walk, they were walking to an immigration line. John pointed to the military line and the couple walked over there, avoiding some rather lengthy lines. The first time on the station so far that they would actually save some time.
“Good morning,” John said as he handed his and Alice’s passports and orders, “We’ve been assigned to this station effective 17:00 today.”
The young officer appeared to be half asleep, “Oh, good afternoon. Do you have anything to declare?”
John opened up his bag and pulled out a humidor, “Just these cigars. We had some wine and whiskey bottles that we had shipped here previously and those had already cleared customers,” John paused a moment and gestured to the immigration officer to give him a moment, “That would’ve been embarrassing. I also have these credit chits.”
The officer took the humidor and scanned the contents quickly. He then took the Ziplock bag and gave John a concerned look. There were nearly five hundred chits in it. The officer pulled out a couple and checked their amounts. Thirty-six point twenty credits were displayed on the first he looked at. The second had less than that. Each one the man checked had less than a hundred credits on them.
“You’ll have to forgive my husband. He’s as frugal as he is forgetful. He has been telling me for six months that he’d go to the bank and get the transferred into one or two chits before we graduated,” Alice rolled her eyes and hammed it up for the officer, “But no. He waits until the last possible second to try and do it at the airport just when we were supposed to start boarding.”
“Please, for the love of God take care of that. If for no other reason than to not lose all that money,” the officer put the two back in the bag and slide it under the window to John, “Ma’am, do you have anything to declare?”
“I do not have. Everything that would need declaration has already been shipped and inspected.”
The officer brought up their information and then quickly rubber-stamped the orders, “You are clear to enter the station. I would strongly recommend reading up on the current station laws. The orders do not clear you for leave on the planet below at this time. Any attempts to go to the surface will result in the MPs detaining you.”
“Understood, the less we go to the surface the better,” John winked at Alice.
“Or at least be as far away from the bloody palace as possible,” Alice almost hissed the sentence as she took their documents back from a confused-looking officer.
“Head right through here and hang a right at the end of the hallway to get into the commercial district. You’ll need to hoof through that to get to your residential area. Chow is served three times a day at the mess hall in the Naval Barracks at the north end of the commercial zone.”
“Thank you very much,” Alice said as she pointed the hallway to John.
John smirked, “You’re pointing the way like you think I don’t know exactly where we’re going.”
“Doesn’t hurt to have a second set of eyes honey,” Alice whispered, “How did he see such a small amount of money on those chits?”
John grinned as he pulled one out of a bag and flashed the amount on it, “You think I’d let anyone I don’t trust see, or even use, the full amounts on them?”
“Then to confirm, those are the full ones?”
“I mean, not all of them, but they have a hell of a lot more money on them than that hoser saw.”
The couple walked down the hallway and turned the corner. John held the door open for Alice and followed her out into the commercial district without looking out at what was happening. They were instantly mobbed by a number of paparazzi. Several reports instantly put microphones in front of John.
“Mr. Lief. Mr. Lief, what’s your response to the wedding plans?”
John dropped the bags and let off an animalistic snarl at everyone. He swore under his breath and held up his hand and pointed at his wedding band. The paparazzi zoomed in on his hand and took pictures of it.
“I’m already married, our wedding was just under two years ago,” John put his hand down, “Now I can’t legally call the princess a delusional bitch or imply that she’s a fucking idiot, despite my god-given right to free speech. You know what, fuck it, I don’t care. You Manchesterians may take a dim view of any negative criticism of the royal family. But she is along with the rest of her family, in fact, quite delusional if anyone thinks a wedding will ever occur between her and me. If she or her family are actually planning one, then they are wasting their time and efforts in doing so. Now I’ve given you my answer, disperse and move out of our way. We’re on official Naval business and have orders to report to our stations.”
“We have it on good record that a royal wedding will happen this week,” another reporter said.
“Cool. I have it on good authority that over the next week I’ll take fat shits that would be more enjoyable than a royal wedding would be. Now, we have this thing called work to do, which involves protecting all of you dumbasses so that you can peddle this bullshit you think you call news. Your questions have been answered, I am not going to ask for you to disperse again.”
One of the paparazzi laughed, “What makes you think you can do order us to do anything?”
“If you don’t get out of my way, then I’m going to take his camera and shove it sideways up your ass. I won’t kill you but I’m going to make sure you shit pancakes for the rest of your life,” there was malice in John’s speech as he grinned at the gaggle of idiots in front of him, “Trust me when I say that I’ve done far worse things too much more deserving people.”
The paparazzi were used to receiving threats. But the calmness and look in his eyes caused many to pause and pull back and away from the young officer. The newer ones in the crowd went along with the older ones, not truly understanding why they listened. While no one really knew how things would have gone had they escalated, if fists were thrown, it would’ve been ugly for all of them.
John and Alice walked by the assembled paparazzi and headed into the heart of the commercial district. Alice thanked John for not getting violent and killing anyone. John grunted in response to her, he was certain the non-royals of this station and Manchester would have thrown a parade in his honor for dispatching their ilk.
Eventually, they came to an intersection and headed right, out of the commercial district and into the residential one. Most new officers or enlisted would simply live in the barracks on the station. Or find a cheap apartment to rent with several of their peers.
Not so with this couple. Both were filthy rich, and while neither appreciated being called rich, they made no secret of their enjoyment of the finer things in life. This time it was Alice spending money, not John. She found a “reasonable” penthouse apartment overlooking a greenspace.
John looked up and saw several balconies and pointed up at them, “Which one of those is ours?”
Alice laughed, “You really don’t like surprises, do you?”
“I do not. What did it cost?”
Alice smiled, “Oh my god John. That’s like the best part.”
“I know right? Spending money is fucking awesome.”
Alice squinted at John and elbowed him, “Honey, now’s not the time to be an ass.”
“You’re evading the question,” John winked back at Alice.
“The list price was five point seven million credits,” Alice paused a moment which let John jump in.
“That’s a rubbish price.”
“Exactly. Not just rubbish, but outrageously bad.”
“Yeah. I saw it listed when we started our senior year. Beyond the garbage price inside it was actually really damn nice. It’s not that ostentatious either which is a plus.”
“What’d you negotiate it down to?”
Alice pointed to the stairwell, “I checked the info on it and the customer was way behind in their payments. Obviously, the price was hoping that they’d find a sucker.”
“Yeah, that’s one way to clear up any debts they’d have.”
“I just let the bank foreclose on the old owner. Then it was just a matter of messaging the station administration and the bank and see how much the admin and I could squeeze the bank’s balls for.”
John held the door that Alice pointed at open for them, “Mhmm, so the price?”
“Snagged it up for a cool three point four million after taxes and fees. It’s probably worth closer to four million as is.”
John smiled, “Not a bad deal at all. Now did you use your money, my money, or our money?”
Alice laughed as she pointed down the hall. No answer was given, which led John to presume that she dug into that pile of credit chits. Whether she did or not didn’t really matter to John. Even if they burned through all those credit chits they could load them back to full without any effort due to his dubiously acquired wealth.
“Here we are. Unit 3-B12,” Alice smiled as she spun in front of John and pointed to the door on his left.
She quickly opened the door and skipped happily through it. Alice dropped her bag two steps into the penthouse apartment and put her hands on her hips and took a deep breath. To say that she was proud of her purchase would be an understatement.
John let the door close behind him and hugged Alice from behind, “Swanky place. Not bad at all. I kinda dig the grey granite.”
“It’s actually textured ceramite,” Alice said as she walked over to a wall and put her hand on it, “Almost hard to believe they were able to make it appear so convincing.”
He walked over to the wall and looked closely at it, “Holy hell, it’s a Damascus style ceramite. Hey, was all this furniture used in the sale listing?”
Alice nodded, “They gave me a list of all the brands. It's all top-notch so I negotiated the price as if the unit were fully furnished. Oh, our stuff that we had shipped here should be in the walk-in closet over there.”
She walked over to the far side of the room and opened a door. Alice squealed as she saw the three containers sitting next to one another. John knew after hearing her that all that precious alcohol was successfully transferred here. Along with a couple of guns, he was keen to keep.
John pressed the button next to the sliding glass door to open it. He walked out onto their balcony. It ran the entire length of their unit, separated by a privacy fence roughly where the wall of the kitchen was. Their master bedroom or at least one of the bedrooms in their penthouse had a semi-private balcony as well.
Alice snuck up to John and hugged him, “Our very first place together that is ours. I’m so excited.”
John chuckled, “I’m not even sure why I worried about you finding a good place. You did well honey.”