A decade later Lucius had grown into a strong young man. Growing smart and cunning learning to hustle the cheap streets and the docks.

As soon as he was of age he wrote a letter to his Aunt Daff and left for the docks, seeking passage out into the stars.

Determined to follow the compass.

All in the hopes of one day finding his father out there in the stars. He had heard many stories of the fabled dreadnought.

With its huge, sharp triangular sails and hundred canons that jutted from its black balkan wood hull.

Stories of this ship and its merciless crew captained by legendary pirate Darius Vorpal had surged through the Galaxy, leaving merchants trembling, governments shaking their jowls and hammering their fists.

He had the galactic military as well as thousands of bounty hunters sailing through the starry void in search.

But to no avail.

Lucius knew it was his father, captaining the dreadnought. He knew his father had broken from the chains of the oppressive chains of the Galactic order and had found freedom in the stars, hopping from system to system, planet to planet, taking what he wanted and not answering to anyone.

He knew if he listened to what his father said and followed the compass he would eventually find him.

It had been so long since he had left that he had forgotten the relative amount of cycles it would have been for his Aunt Daff who was still slaving away on the cheap streets, strutting about the docks, trying to keep the both of them alive, whilst also making his life a living hell.

Bringing home new ‘daddy’s’ for him every other month who for the most part had no problem in showing him the rough side of their palm, as well as the floor on occasion.

He ended up having to evict his would-be step fathers when he was old and big enough but by that time he had enough, he took his compass that tinkled, wrote a note half promising to come back to his aunt and rushed out the door, straight to the docks.

He began on a small private merchant schooner called ‘the nimbus’, where he said to the rotund little captain.

“I’ll do anything you want, just get me off this orbiting shitheap!” To which the captain responded;

“Here's a mop boyo, if I can’t see my face in these decks by lift off, you’ll be cannoned back to your hovel in the slums ye hear! Oh and cut that hair, the lads might get a little too friendly if you come on board looking so pretty!” He had said, limping off with a coarse hearty laugh.

And so Lucius tied hair up with a determined smile and began his journey.

He worked on the crew of the nimbus for a whole year's worth of backbreaking, deck swabbing and tough talking to eventually arrive at Fuego Prime.

A man made trading station that was known as the central hub of fruit, grain and staple trade throughout the galaxy.

It was also known for its jungle bars, for which a gigantic man-made tropical jungle had been built into the orbiting station to better accommodate its land-lubbing visitors.

It was here where young Lucius was first acquainted with the deviously distracting treats of sex and substances of leisure and pleasure.

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It was here after a long year of hard labour he let loose a little and dived into debauchery.

Drinking, gambling, scrapping and fucking his way through every gin joint in the jungle.

He went so wild even the eight eyed, six armed monkeys, captured, bred and evolved to add to the aesthetic of the orbiting would go quiet as he rampaged through the station acting as if every day were his last and not even the devil himself could stop him from having his fun.

Until one day he reached into his pockets to find nothing but a sound;

‘Tinkle, tinkle’ He sobered immediately remembering what the compass meant.

That along with the fact that he was flatout of cash urged him again to the docks, only to find out that the nimbus had left a week prior without him.

“Saw him runnin off into the bushes with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a giggling pleasure bot over his other shoulder, probably dead if you ask me.” Were the words of the first mate when the captain had asked what had become of the boy the day they had left.

Not letting himself be deterred and grovelling in the fact that his only friends had abandoned him alone on the station, he quickly pulled up his bootstraps and strutted over to the nearest captain heading closer to the galaxy's center.

The SS Sungrazer was where he found passage.

This time as a carpenter and labourer on the large mining galley.

If he had thought the trading galley was rough then he was in for quite the shock.

The backbreaking work done on those galleys to mine asteroids and plasma storms was near unethical and the payment meagre.

It was there where the boy had to learn to work harder than he had ever worked before.

Or at the very least, be crafty enough not to have to.

Often opting for the latter option, Lucius eventually found himself in the brig after the quartermaster found him dodging shifts during mining hours and stealing from the captain's secret savoury section when it came time for the crew to eat.

After three standard weeks and barely a bite to eat he was let back out onto deck, but a very different deck it was now.

The sailing folk of the stars seldom appreciated someone who didn’t pull their weight, and if done so intentionally… The consequences were grim.

The rest of the boy's journey on that Galley was a living hell.

Every crewman reminded him of how much they appreciated his efforts in stealing apple pie and not sharing whilst dodging work.

He was fed on gruel and worked tirelessly, if not for the promise that the ‘tinkle, tinkle’ of the compass meant he would have withered away into a hollow husk of a man.

Instead he gritted his teeth, steeled his soul and pushed on, turning from a carefree boy, wandering the cosmos into a man, chiselled from the stone of his suffering.

After eighteen long months of service the SS Sungrazer finally made port.

Les Royale, God’s summit, a man made planet so refined, so luxurious so dazzlingly opulent beyond comprehension that most thought it was just a myth.

Like a diamond floating in the void, this wandering city-state shone with glorious light but every diamond has a rough side and down on the east side of the southern hemisphere lay the industrial and agricultural precinct, where in which lay the docks.

They made port there and after getting paid for their eighteen months of dangerous drudgery, the crew was frothing at the mouths to get into town with their mini fortunes.

Even Lucius who was paid the least due to his shenanigans had let the aches of the journey wash through him as he saw the bright shiny marble structures that ornamented the mighty metropolis.