Chapter 1: Mostly Harmless

John Doe woke up ground side in La Cosa Base of LHS 3447 A 2. It was a high metal content world, not taken to volcanism, yet close enough to it’s humble K class star that it reached over double the boiling point on it’s lit pot marked face, save for the bastion of the port. Doe knew none of that, only that when he got up and took a couple morning steps back and forth it didn’t feel hard enough to walk. They said it was gravity, how hard it was to walk he thought. He didn’t know if he would get used to it, because it was even worse up in the black.

He took a deep breath, something he did to center himself often, and made way for the small kitchenette he didn’t know the name of, only the purpose. They showed him how to wear his suit sitting on the table, and how to press the button for the food dispenser. He already knew that last part, but didn’t get angry at being shown again. Anyone could use a food dispenser though. Everyone knew what it was. It dispensed the food, that you eat. Food wasn't hard, even if it usually wasn’t good, but walking was hard. Or rather it wasn't hard enough.

He took another deep breath as food dispenser dispensed. It gave him three slices of pizza, is what they said, with pepperoni. He knew it was meat, he had some before, but the new stuff was much better. It was actually good. They also told him he would need a little more food now that he was getting food from what they called regular carts. Carts that go in the food dispenser so it can dispense food. Food wasn’t hard, he decided as he sat down with his first meal of the work shift.

The first slice was savored for how good it was, but the second and third slices were devoured for his hunger. Then it was washed down with some water. He hated the other drinks they let him try, and just stuck with basic fare. It even tasted better than the water he used to drink. Not like metal.

Then he waited. Then waited a little more. He eyed the door to the small apartment suspiciously. He waited for the work boss to come in and start the work shift. For it to all come crashing down, the fantasy he had so far in the couple months that had passed by. He didn’t even know the words to describe his feeling, joy and fear at the terrible prospect of freedom. He brought a hand up to his brow, and felt the bumps of the dominating tattoo on half his forehead, that of cybernetics and circuits stitched into his skin with a dark ink as a base. One in a million, they said.

Doe eyed the door for a moment more, then flicked his eyes down to the flight helmet beside the flight suit on the table in front of his empty plate. There were a couple crumbs and some grease left there, and he didn’t feel the overwhelming urge to finish them off the first time he had tried the new carts, for the food dispenser.

A light was pulsing, a little brighter than back to it’s normal din. A little brighter, then normal. It was trying to get him to talk. He forgot what they called something like that, or he simply hadn't learned yet. His eyes went back to the door in the artificial light, though shadows seem to descend on it all the same, and his vision tunneling to it. Where is the work boss? Where is he to start the work shift? Even the last place had some kind of boss, even if they didn’t make them work, just to get moving and out of their bunks.

He closed his eyes in a snap and took another deep breath. Then another, and one final for good measure. Then he got up and dropped his sleep clothes to put on his flight suit. He slipped into his as they showed him to, then did a pad down as well to smooth out the rough edges of the fit as they showed him as well. Then he lit it tighten around as they said to, and he felt the seal across his body as they said it would.

Then he picked up his helmet and look back at the reflection that greeted him. The hollow eyes, pale complexion, shaved head, a face as pot marked as the surface above. He knew he looked and felt older than he really was. He had been alive enough to see what getting old looked like on some others. He hadn't been alive long enough to get that way, he knew.

Doe took other deep breath and then slipped the flight helmet onto his flight suit, as they said he should. It sealed as well, then the lights flashed across it for the...He didn’t know. And he didn’t understand most of what he saw, but that light was still pulsing, but he didn’t know how to answer it. He flicked his eyes around in a near panic, and then saw various parts of it light up and move around as he did. A couple more passes should him it responded to where he was looking.

So he looked at the pulsing dot, and it pulsed only once more. The voice from it had a drawl to it, “Heeey there kiddo. Almost though I lost you, was about to send someone.”

Doe panicked, “Sorry. I-I didn’t mean-”

“Hey, hey, it’s alright. I was just worried about you there tiger. You good?”

What the fuck was a tiger? The others at the last place taught is some curses, and it felt appropriate. He said, “I don’t fucking know.”

The voice rumbled a deep chuckle, then it turned to a laughed. Doe met it with a couple chuckles himself, trying to retain his reactions out of deep habit. It said, “Yeah, I know what that’s like kid. I was a new commander once too, back in the day. And not to yell at a corona or anything, we didn’t have what you got in front of you. Don’t sweat it kid, we got a whole starter area just for you.”

He didn’t believe that, “Just for me?”

The voice chuckled again, “That’s the right question there kid. Now I know you’ll be fine. No, not just for little ol’ you, but yes you and other greenhorns like yah. It’s heavily paroled, permit locked, and plenty of stuff to do so you can learn how things work. Make a little money before you leave too. But, the problem is you’re currently outside this mythical land you should rightly be suspicious of. You need to get there, and first you got to get to your new space ship. Another thing us elites didn’t have back when we were starting, you youngins with your fancy FSDs and whatnot.”

Doe smirked, but took another deep breath then walked to the door. Then it opened, and he stood for just a moment before walking out, and taking yet another breath. The voice stirred him, “Alright, now take a left and keep walking, I’ll guide you to your pad.”

Doe did as tool, and walked down the corridors just beginning to be traversed by morning foot traffic. The hall in the central tower was facing the outside, the reinforced windows dotted the outside wall on his right. He took a moment to slow and look, and saw the ring of pads around it, ships going to and fro from them, and the smaller buildings below around the base of the tower he was in, spreading out towards the ring.

He quickly turned away from the inducing sight, and walked again towards the pad. The voice on the other end of the dot kept guiding him, first to a lift, and then what it called a tram out to the rings where supposedly his new ship was. He still kept a wary eye out for the work boss. He would kill the man if he saw him again.

He got off the tram, then walked a little more at the direction of the voice until the area opened up some. Stores, Doe though they were called.

“Now this is the concourse kid, it’s got most of what a commander would need when they enter a port of call. You got food, mission boards, mission givers from the local factions willing to sell you a line in person, stores for restock, weapons ammo, clothes, ships and modules even. Then you got places to sell data, commodities, sign up for local disputes, yada yada yada. Stock from place to place may vary, but most places have most of the same layouts. And Every self respecting concourse has a bar, but that’s not our target right now. Now, you see your ship. Just head on to the other end, and take the lift I’m marking on you’re HUD with a mission tag. You’ll see them if you take a job from somewhere.”

Doe nodded and continued working his way though the concourse. It was busier from the morning rush now that people had time to commute from place to place. They said their time was based on something from some place called Earth. He knew what time was before that, but didn’t know it’s origin. The clock read around 0900.

He weaved though the concourse, doing his best to avoid others and stay out of their way. It wasn't the easiest thing due to his slightly larger relative size to others, but he managed all the same from long ingrained experience. Doe got to the other end, and activated the marked lift on his HUD with a hand. The lift opened, and he stepped inside before it closed and commenced it’s work. He was whisked up, and it felt better on his bones before it stopped again, the acceleration against them no longer there.

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Then finally the door opened, and he was looking at the rear of his new ship. It was a boxy end, more than the other one he kind of flew, smaller by a large margin. There were two small thuster nozzles on the sides, and the main airlock on the rear, with a ladder hanging down to it.

“Alright kid. You are looking at the beautiful be-hind of a SideWinder Mk1, a tested craft with over three hundred years of service. Originally, it was supposed to be a cheap light local patrol craft, and it does that well. Never meant to jump though, but the FSD was such a breakthrough that Faulcon DeLacy was able to fit one in and make her really fly. Not a great ship by those standards, but better than no ship, and perfect for new commanders to learn a little. Go ahead, and take a full walk around then hop on in with the door on the ass end.”

He did as told, and walked around the left side of the ship. The flat back end with a slight arch on the top arc turned into a simple wedge, cutting off to a thin vertex. Two hatches were on the front, just below the cockpit. The struts were three, and looked on the thin side compared to others he’d seen, but the voice said it was just a light patrol craft. He knew what light was, the various meanings, and he knew a craft was a ship. Of course things would look thin and less study on a light ship. There was a white paint job, with a red stripe around the perimeter, crossing the front face and meeting the rear with a perpendicular angle.

Smaller outcroppings were on the corners of the side faces he saw. Overall the ship was a triangle. The showed him the basic shapes, he knew them. Triangles were easy. Was flying a ship easy? He had already done it once knowing even less than they knew now. Maybe. He decided.

He last noted some places flaring up from the sided on either side of the cockpit. He didn’t know what those were, but he guessed he would learn from the voice. Doe completed his lap and climbed up as told into the ship. His ship, he reminded himself. Things were different. He had to think different. He could think different.

There was a small landing, and he actuated the airlock door. It slid open after breaking in half, and he entered his ship. The door slid shut, and the small airlock was a tight fit. There was some sterilization steam that washed over him in the claustrophobic space. Not much different from normal, he decided. The other doors opened then, and revealed the inside of the small ship.

“Now get in the habit of making a test step when you get on a ship though the cargo hatch. Could be lose, usually is loose, and might be a widow making fall under grav.”

He stepped off from the main entrance down the short set of stairs to the cargo hatch floor, and put as much force as he could under the lighter grav. It still wasn’t right to him, but the flight suit made it bearable. The footing was sound and he stepped on the cargo hatch proper to start looking around at, his, new ship.

“Alright kid, this is your brand new space ship.”

“Cost. That’s a word I know.” Doe replied as best he could.

The voice chuckled again, “Bang on kid. But this one really is free. Every new commander nowadays gets a stock E rated SideWinder. If you get blown out of the black in one of your fancier ships, and don’t have the credits for you’re insurance premium? You go right back to a free stock Sidewinder, just to keep you in the sky.”

He knew most of those words. What the hell an insurance premium was he didn’t know. The voice continued, “Look to your right now.”

Doe did as told and eyed the box standing on its end beside the hatch. On it was the label Class 2E FSD. “That’s your frame shift drive kid. That little thing alone is better than the best 2b drives we used up to a few years ago. That one will take you about 7 light years in 20 seconds as is. Not the biggest leap today, but I assure you that is still fast.”

“7 light years. I-dont know how far that is.”

“It’s alright. It can take a minute to appreciate the scale of the cosmos. Its big, even when you see it all, you still ain’t seen nothing. You’ll pick it up as you go. Alright, look to your left, that's the Class 2 power plant. On either side of them are the thuster pods. Just little things that will take you to point a and b.

Doe looked to his right, then spied to more...modules in front of them. The inside was more spacious, plenty of room to move after the tightness of the single occupant airlock. The ship was 15 meters long, 21 wide at the rear, and 5 and a half tall.

“Okay, now comes some goodies. In front of your power generator is your shield generator. It’s placement was intentional. While you can put an optional like it anywhere, you can only put core modules like the power generator in one place.”

“Less work. Does the shield generator take a lot power, from the power generator?” Doe asked. He knew a little bit about machines.

“Sure as shit does kid. Sometimes a lot, though not always depending on what you’re doin. The distributor is also tucked right in with it. Sometimes it helps not to be stubborn about things. Work smart, not hard when it comes to outfitting your ship. The modules aren't quite a perfect system like everyone makes it out to be. They just ignore a thing or two because it is so robust.”

“Robust?”

“No one’s come up with something better in 600 years, lets put it like that.”

“Ah. What other modules are here? Refinery. That word is...something I might know..”

“They not teach you how to read partner?”

“Some?” Doe said. He knew only a few words before, mostly around the food dispenser that were the same letters every day.

“Oh,” The voice chuckled. He knew there was a push for new commanders, some plans he heard were at the millions in the next few years, tens of millions of new faction pilots, but they really were giving licenses out to anyone with a pulse now like some were saying. He didn’t hold it against the kid, but maybe a little against the P-fed that pulled him out of retirement on the Founders World to pep talk and train new commanders and pilots. They’re throwing him to the fucking wolves. Is that what he had become? What he was doing? It didn’t matter at the moment, the kid needed his attention. Nothing was stopping him from getting to the black. His license was already cleared pending his trainer’s approval, and as long as he didn’t blow up the ship he was supposed to approve.

“Alright, a refinery is a module that refines raw ore into stuff you can store in your cargo bay.”

“Okay, I know that then. Refinery, cargo, how the pods work.”

“Outstanding. Well in front of your shield and refinery, you got four class one slots. On the bottom you got cargo racks, two each totaling four ton. On top you got your flight assists, but those are optional as I said. A docking computer that can take you off and land you, then a supercruise assist we’ll go over a little later. If you think you’ve had enough of a look, go ahead and take that ladder up front.”

He had taken enough of a look, then did as told again up the ladder. It was an easier climb under the lighter gravity, and a hatch opened above his head to let him though before closing when he got his feet on the top rung. Doe stepped back down on the hatch and took a step into the small commander’s quarters and office.

“This is your new home kid, at least until you upgrade. Its actually pretty snazzy for a ship like the SideWinder. Sometimes you had to burn for days to get from place to place in system, or hours at least to get to your patrol spot. The quarters had to have a few creature comforts. You got a bunk tucked in, I recommend getting that bed upgraded to A rated as us commanders say, especially if you like sleeping under any kind of grav like I do. You got a desk with a terminal, a closet, and a small food synth. It’s already got a cart ready to go, but that’s one of those little things you need to get stocked yourself, something that doesn’t come with a regular rearm in a dock. If you go out deep into the black, you’ll need at least a couple ton of cargo space to carry supplies like that. A ton of food carts can last a lone pilot a while though.”

He looked around and identified each piece the voice pointed out, then slowly picked up a hand and ran it over his chair in front of the terminal. It was his chair. With the suit, the first things he really ever had. He took a deep breath again to settle himself, and the leaping in his chest.

“Yeah, about how I felt when I got my first ship. If I may grumble, I actually had to spend my life savings to buy a well used cobra. It was easy to make creds after that, but still.”

Doe chuckled, and the voice matched it, “Alright kid, now to the cockpit. Where all the real action happens.”

Doe turned and stood in front of the cockpit door, and actuated it to the wide canopy facing up to the docking bay lid, and the commander’s chair in front of him. He had sat in one before, but never one that was actually his. He steeped into the tighter space, and got around to the right of the seat, opposite the keyboard mounted to a swing arm.

He finally got around, and slowly lowered himself into the nearly form fitting seat. It registered an occupant, and she ship HUD started lighting up and overtaking his suit HUD in the program priority. The seat snatched around him, his back and the thighs of his legs, and almost sucked him into it for a more secure fit. The last seat he sat in did that, but he didn’t have a suit on, and the process left large bruises and some pain that lingered in on his back and legs.

“I’m sure you see your HUD lighting up. It’ll overtake your suit HUD, prioritize it until you get up, cuz well you need different information on the ground than you do in the black. The ship has holo projectors, but they would need turned on, and if you’re trying to be stealthy for whatever hopefully legal purpose, your cockpit would be lit up like and old Christmas tree in the dark. So maybe keep your helmet on most of the time, especially if you get into a fight where your canopy could pop. You ain't faster than explosive decompression, that's age old experience talking.”

Doe nodded. He got helmets before sometimes. It was always good to wear them so their investment wouldn't be wasted, the work bosses sometimes said. Doe said, “Helmet on, got it.”

“Okay kid, we’re going to take at ten minute break here. Go ahead and move around the various panels you got. Take a look at that kind of information they have, navigate though all the tabs, don’t change anything just yet though. There are some settings that come default for a reason.”

“Just look. Alright. 10 minutes.” In ten minutes he would know the panels inside and out, Doe decided.

“See you in a few kid. When I get back, we’ll get you driving. Tex out.”

The comm clicked off and Doe began his work, ready to drive with a better understanding than he had before. In ten minutes, Tex would be back to give him the order.