18TH AUGUST 2460 (EARTH GREGORIAN CALENDAR)

BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET (CENTRAL RAILWAY HUB)

----------------------------------------

Almost six-hundred years after its establishment, it was such a wonder how the hell New Street was still standing. Best way I could describe it was as a shining, glorified lump within an endless ocean of atmoscrapers. You could search it up, not like it had changed much. Still was a bitch to navigate, you might as well have been the Maze Runner.

Honestly, I'd have expected it to have become a train museum or something, like the remains of Buckingham Palace. But no, functioning as always. Without much of a revamp in its white architecture.

Though, since then, the only thing that did get a revamp was the shopping centre above the station. And it was just a change in brands over the years.

Except for John-Lewis. Fuck knows how they were still around.

Anyways, where'd we leave off? Oh right, I was on my way to meet up with the two offworld weirdos. The card Ezek gave me hooked me up with an Australian guy, their first officer, name was Bryce McMullen, he was nice. Didn't bother with whatever appeared on an application form, her just wanted to know my military experience and familiarity with places across the stars. After that, he talked me through stuff about a VISA, passport, insurance, grav-meds prescriptions. Yeah, when travelling through space, paperwork was a must. Especially when we were moving from nation to nation, planet to planet.

Turned out they also had a website. But it didn't seem to be properly taken care of and looked like it was designed in the twentieth century. Just contact details on there too, wasn't like I was given any extra info on my job or the workplace itself.

I had about everything from my flat that wasn't the size of a chair being pulled behind me in a conglomerate of four chained suitcases. How the hell that took me two days to pack was completely beyond me.

"Nolan, over here!" Ryan called, standing near the bathroom with a packet of crisps.

I moved over. "Where's Ezek?"

He gestured to the door.

"Right, okay then. You enjoy Birmingham?"

"Like every other city on Earth. I mean, you've got a lotta nice landmarks, but it just gets... it's basically the same thing over and over again. Except for the accents though. Seriously, your accents are weird." Well, the comment was better than what we got from Londoners, or frankly anywhere else in the country.

"Not your first time on Earth, then?"

"The ship has a lot of stuff going on here. So yeah. Plus my Dad's actually from here. He was born over in LA."

"Why'd he leave Earth?"

He paused for a second. "It's uh... it's a long story."

Ezek came out of the toilet.

"Ryan, I advise you do not enter there if you wish to ensue any defecation," he said, still straightening his massive cloak. "Ah, Nolan. You've made it. We have already purchased the train tickets for you."

"You mind telling me where we're heading? I wasn't actually told anything."

"Apologies for not informing you. The train we are taking will transport us to the White Cliff Shipyard."

"White Cliff Shipy- wait, Dover?! You parked your ship on the other bloody side of the country?!"

"We had things going on in London," Ryan said.

"London's still like an hour away by train!"

"We would have landed in the United Commonwealths' capital. However, Heathrow Shipyard was closed for repairs, I believe. Dover was the closest in the region, so that is where we landed."

Right, there was that bombing last month wasn't there? My sister actually wasn't that far from there when it happened. They still didn't find out who did it, so the government just blamed it on some of the desert natives on planet Anubis again as an excuse to increase the UC's influence in the striarium trade (it was the substance we used to access subspace, it's how we got around).

Anyways, the time came and so did our train. We stepped on, and so began the two-hour journey to Dover.

----------------------------------------

The great green fields of Britain were truly a timeless sight, endlessly stretching as far as the observable sky. It was one of the many things on Earth that had not been tainted by heavy urbanisation. And Ryan couldn't seem to take his eye off it. I mean, he'd probably travelled beyond the fifty or so explored solar systems, and all of that seemed completely meaningless to him when staring at this sight. It wasn't exactly the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Angkor Wat, or anything like that, but to each their own, I guess.

Ezek was probably sleeping, or hibernating, recharging? I didn't know what the hell he was under that cloak but it definitely wasn't human. And he was doing a poor job of acting like one, too. I'd've asked Ryan, but he didn't really seem too keen on explaining it to me in a public place.

And me? I was just chilling on my phone, browsing Spacebook, and liking some memes. So the trip so far was pretty boring.

The holovision on the wall wasn't broadcasting much, just some holiday advert to Thailand or an archeological trip to the Martian Empire ruins for a kid's Summer trip. There was even something about a new Synapse Game Server (It was like VR but you play it in your mind) finally opening up in the United Commonwealth. Tried one of those out one time in America, left with one throbbing headache. It was a prototype, though. They might've fixed it already.

Ryan, soon enough, got bored of staring out the window. "Nolan?"

"Hmm?"

"What was it like in Masat?"

"I don't remember."

"What? How do you- how do you not remember?!"

I thought about my response for a few seconds. "They call it 'Selective Neurone Erasure'. Basically, if we get back to a main base, we're given the option to get any trauma we had erased. Bunch of scientists hook you up to a machine, go through your brain, and poof! You're completely fine." It was something like that, I don't know I'm not a neuroscientist. "I decided to proceed with it, since I didn't want to pay fifty digicreds for a therapist. Unfortunately, the operator (I heard) flogged it up and wiped out about over half of my memory of the battle. And my Wi-Fi password. Actually I forgot an awful lot of passwords."

"Your company was praised by your nation's military for it, and you don't remember a thing?"

"Not entirely true. I watched a video recorded from my helmet. Lots of gunfire, screaming, one of our soldiers deserted, idiot civilians running in the streets 'cos why not, there was a tank that came to support and blew up the Separatist leader. Actually, I've got it saved on my phone if you wanna watch."

"Sure, but later. Why d'you leave the military?"

"That SNE messed my head up for quite a while. I was given an honourable discharge during that time. And never rejoined since."

"What did you do after that?"

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Once my head went straight, I became a journalist for this online indie news magazine. Travelled the stars, wrote articles, opinion pieces. Actually did pretty well."

"At least you know your way around. You still know how to fight, right?"

"Definitely, mate. You think Masat was my only battle? Didn't get promoted to Lance Corporal for nothing now, did I?"

"Good to hear," he gave a thumbs up. "We have a couple veterans on the Artemis. My dad was in the AUAR." That was the Army of the United American Republic, for those of you who don't give any attention to military feed. "Fought the Zoraks on Persei Prime."

"It was mostly just anti-UN rebels with me. Haven't fought any dinosaurs yet." We had many names for those aliens. Officially, they were called HET-As, but that didn't have a nice ring to it. So we settled on terms like 'Zoraks' (practically their N word) or things like 'Dinos' or 'Two-dicks'.

"They are terrifying," he laughed.

Silence overtook for a couple more seconds, then I asked, "What happened with your arm?"

"Oh, this thing?" Yes, the microwave on your arm, you moron. What else would I mean? "I had a bad dosage of gravity-meds, screwed up my arm, needed it amputated."

"Jesus, okay," I said. "Why does it look like you stole it off the set of a terminator movie?"

"Terminator?"

"You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger, killer robot, 'Come with me if you want to live'," I tried explaining.

"I'm a colonial."

"It's one of the most famous franchises of the- you know what, just forget it."

----------------------------------------

So, we finally arrived at White Cliff Shipyard. Titled that because, well, it was basically a massive shipyard built into the White Cliffs of Dover because why the fuck not, all right? The whole place was originally a military airbase before the UC was the UK near the end of the twenty-first century, according to some of the posters on the walls. Got purchased by some starship company in the late twenty-second century once humans got their shit together and here it was.

We passed through security, through the queues, through the lobbies, and into the hangars. Hangar Seven, Ezek told me the Artemis was docked. Passing by, starships of all shapes and functions docked in and out from the massive clamps on the ceiling, their endless thrusters and clanking machinery echoed throughout each bay which drowned the crashing waves of the glistening English Channel below.

"What exactly does the Artemis look like?" I asked.

"You will know it when you see it," Ezek said. Actually, there were like thousands of ships called the 'Artemis'. So no I wouldn't know unless the name was written in massive bold letters and-

Never mind, it actually was written in massive bold letters.

"Here we are," Ryan said.

It was large Traveller-Class starship, with a pod-shaped hull just about three stories high and about seventy metres long, enough to be manned by just about fifteen sentients.

Within the middle stood the ramped entrance to the storage bay, with another larger entrance on the underside, probably to collect any salvage in space.

On the back was clearly where the Subspace Drive was stationed as well as a possible main auxiliary room for power, shields, and the four large rotatable thrusters lined to the sides, with enough boost to have gotten you from here to the outer systems within a whole month.

At the front was obviously where the main cockpit and probably where the main living areas were.

And at the top was also a shuttle, connected to the ship itself. I had witnessed similar models of it during my service. Though they were more or less used for surveillance and sometimes air strikes when we didn't have any Fighter Jets available.

Diverse weaponry and capable scavenging drones were also patterned over the sides as well, so at least it was prepared for most fights.

No, this wasn't a scavenging ship. As I'd said, it was a Traveller-Class, it was used for... well, travelling. It was just a lot of modifications that made it so.

Outside were what seemed to be several soldiers basking the tactical uniforms of a hired army, overseeing the influx of weaponry and technology being rolled into the storage bay. However, the semi-camouflaged uniforms didn't seem to be properly adjusted compared to official militaries.

"They with you?" I asked.

"No," Ezek said. "Do not fret, this is all merely for a job."

"I thought you lot were a scavenging ship?"

"Officially, yes."

"If you people turn out to be a criminal organisation, I'm quitting."

Ryan wanted to laugh. "We're not."

Standing next to one of the high ranking troopers was a bald, bearded man, in his late forties, with a burned scar etched over the side of his face. His accent was American too, so I assumed this was Ryan's dad.

He turned his head from the conversation with the one in the sergeant's uniform, noticing the three of us. "Hey, welcome back!" He greeted cheerfully. "How was Birmingham?"

"Eh," Ryan said.

"I did not fathom much of an opinion on it," Ezek said.

"Nolan, this is my Dad. He's the captain of the ship."

"Your Dad's my new boss?!" I said.

"Relax, I don't bite. You must be Naakesh, right?"

"Nolan, sir."

"Oh, you changed your name?"

"Yeah, I changed it like... a while ago." Honestly surprised nobody on board noticed that. I'd have thought they found me on social media but even there my name was Nolan.

"That's fine by me. Oh, and don't bother with all the 'Sir' stuff, you can just call me Avery."

"All right, then. Avery, what's with all the 'soldiers'?" I questioned worriedly.

"He's worried we're with a crime syndicate," Ryan said.

"Oh, no. This is just a shipment contract we took up."

"Shipment contract? I thought you were a scavenging ship," I said. Yes, I knew I was a gunman on board, but I thought that was all just for guarding or some shit.

He turned to his son. "You did tell him everything, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Avery wasn't convinced. "Ezek, do you mind taking over with the soldiers here? Ryan, please take his... many belongings to his quarters. Nolan, follow me inside."

We stumbled up the ramp, and into the storage bay. Inside were pretty much an awful lot of clamped down crates, and some military equipment with some more soldiers chilling around inside, smoking their cigarettes. The whole interior was a usual polished metallic, shining cleanly under second-hand lights, surrounding the massive clamp upon the ceiling.

From the ceiling, the voice of some English guy boomed. "Are you the new guy?"

"Yeah, hi. I'm Nolan."

"Nice to meet you, mate. I'm DAVE, the Artemis' AI. But you can also call me Big Brother because I am always watching you." What? "Sorry, that sounded a lot better in my hard drive." Never mind, robot puns were worse.

"This way, Nolan," he directed me to the deck above, down the corridors, passing an old lady in what I assumed was the infirmary and into a kitchen-lounge. Surprisingly, it was pretty modern. Had a fridge, HV, grill, everything.

Both of us sat opposite to each other on some small sofas.

"Sorry, I should've sent someone else to recruit you," Avery said to me in a calmer tone. "I understand that you're most likely not too acquainted with your new job."

"This is a crime thing isn't it?"

"It's not crime... sort of. We do scavenge, you saw all those drones we had out there, right? But officially we're a freelancing business - we take up a multitude of jobs across space."

"What kind of jobs, exactly?"

"It's not like Al Capone mafia kind of crime, no. I prefer to call them... 'off-the-book contracts'. We try not to get too much into trouble with the UN governments, but there are times where we... have to get our hands dirty."

"I- wow, okay." That actually made my job more sense. I mean, what exactly would a scavenging ship need a gunman for? Guarding some bootleg mobiles?

"You're free to go if you're not up for this stuff."

I paused for a couple seconds. Even if I did go back to my flat, I'd have just gone through the cycle of getting hired and fired again. At this point, I didn't really mind having to break some laws. Plus, the pay was well, I had the skills, and Avery seemed like a nice enough boss. And I'd already done all that boring paperwork, didn't want to have had all those hours gone to waste.

"I'm... gonna take the job."

"You sure?"

"I'd have to go through a lot of complications if I wanted to go back home. Plus, the ship doesn't really seem all that bad (probably)."

"Great to hear. Let me just add you to the crew's group chat," he picked out his phone, and opened AllChat.

A blond man about Avery's age entered the room. "You're Nolan right? It's Bryce, we spoke on the phone."

"Oh yeah, hi." Right, I was getting sick of all the greetings already.

"Why do people keep shoving empty containers in here?" he muttered, scrounging through the fridge. "I had a pot noodle in there somewhere."

"That was yours?" Avery asked, just as I got a notification on my phone about the group chat.

"For f- it had my bloody name on it, Avery!" He tried to exclaim, before storming off.

"So yeah, that's our First Officer. And your team's commander, if he hasn't told you yet."

"He didn't." Weren't cases like this illegal? Then again, about half the things they were doing here was illegal. Who knew what was in those shipments, we could've been supporting a terrorist group in the outer systems, for all I knew.

"Okay, that's enough from me. I'll help you settle in later. For now, settle in your quarters, make yourself acquainted with the ship and the crew. Now, I've got a couple more errands to run. So uh, yeah," he got up, and left back to the storage bay.

----------------------------------------

I headed to the bottom deck to my quarters. Wasn't large, but liveable, holding enough room for two people. There was a metal wardrobe on the left, a computer desk, entrance to a small shower, and an android lying at the top of the bunkbed, watching movies on his phone.

"Hi," he said with a typically chill voice, though gave the impression of that one kid you had in your school who failed at being relevant. "I'm Steve. You my new roommate?"

"Yeah, I'm Nolan. You're an Android."

"Mhm."

"I thought your lot needed like a special bed or something. Why are you on a bunk bed?"

"I've got a charging port up here."

"Right, what exactly do you do here? Are you away team?"

"No, I'm the caretaker."

"You're a caretaker."

"That's what I said.'

"On a starship."

"Someone has to keep the place clean," he said.

"But you're sentient."

"Absolutely."

"Okay then? There any other Androids on board?"

"Well, there's me and DAVE."

"I'm an AI, you knobhead," DAVE barged in. "Don't categorise me with your people, thanks."

"But you're literally non-organic."

"Difference is that I'm a ship, you're a tin can with hands."

"That's a bit rude, isn't it?" Steve said, somehow still calm.

"Is the whole ship like this?" I asked.

"Mostly it's just me and the walking Roomba here."

I sighed, and began to unpack my bags.