Chapter 2: Training Day

Tex sat in the office of his super on his ten minute break. Ideally, contractually, he had to be showing the kid the panels himself, at least talking him though it himself, but he figured the kid would figure it out. He couldn’t let it stand, however, and that brought him face to face with a hollow looking woman, a representative of the Pilots Federation she said. Tex was leaned back casually in the office chair, a leg jutting out and a slouched eye toward the spook.

She was pale and wrinkly, with dark hair in a classic bob cut down to her shoulders, salt through it as well, and round dark glasses even in the dim of the single desk lamp room. Her claws were perched on her executive chair at the elbows, and interlaced in front of her. She was engaged in her own posturing posture as well, staring back with what were no doubt beady and evil eyes behind her glasses.

Tex shot first, “The fuck we doin here?”

“Training commanders. Please do try hardar.” She easily replied.

He leaned in with a sneer, “Trainin? You call less than an hour of flight time over a courtesy call trainin? To be a commander? I spent a fucking Month in the sims before they let me drive my ship! And that was after a childhood of playin P-Fed sims! I had tests! It was the only reason I ever paid attention in school, to, take, those, tests!”

Tex ended his diatribe with and angry finger pointed at her, but it was no matter for the supervisor sitting across from him. She said, “The galaxy needs commanders, commandeer Tex. With the introduction of the Frame Shift Drive, there has never been a better opportunity for the Pilots Federation to expand, save for the invention of the organization itself. This effort you take part in is the culmination of years of planing and negotiation with the super powers, Commander Tex. Rank triple elite of the Pilot’s Federation, when there was only a triple to elite in.”

Tex leaned back, “Fuckin sports huh? Sports and child soldiers for that new fancy combat rank. The kid can barley fuckin read, and the only reason I’m not recyclin him outright is that he somehow has a head on his shoulders. This is who you send me? It’s not like others have been much better either.”

“There is also a new exploratory rank as well, and the professional CQC circuit funds the orphanage where he came from. Perhaps if you are dissatisfied with its quality, then perhaps you could donate to the cause. Doing so would quickly earn you reputation with the Pilots Federation Local Branch, a faction that did not exist when you drove, Commander Tex. Perhaps you get back in the game, Commander Tex, if you do not like the quality of new commandeers the Pilots Federation licenses. Show them up, as it were.”

“I’m retired.” Tex shot back. He had his day, and now he was rich and mostly quiet. He loved being a commander, but it really was about being the first of his family to break fed corpo enforced poverty, wage slavery. Then, return and kick the corpo out from his backwater home system by undermining them with his space ship. Tex knew from a young age commanders did that kind of thing all the time. There weren't just sims and holos, but real historical accounts, real local news articles in far away systems. Even backwaters had a nav beacon and therefore GalNet. It was possible, he knew early on. He remembered fondly the time during and after that in his cobra.

The supervisor smiled, showing her lack of belief in his words either because she saw something in his eye, or because she simply knew he would drive again. She said, “As it stands, I will toss you a treat like I do my cats when they make some good points. The Club turned their eye toward, quote, the kid.”

Tex’s eye twitched. He didn’t want to know more, but dammit they were just sending the kid out there with barely anything. Barely proper letters. He wouldn't just let that happen, not with shadows over top of him. Someone had to speak up on his behalf.

“Why? And I’m calling bullshit on him bein from one of the orphanages. I do donate regularly, and the orphans are by far the best trainees. Like they actually been trained.”

The supervisor’s sharp eyebrow arched behind her glasses, genuinely surprised that the unruly and nosy commander hadn't just conceded the point. As most would do when an obvious proxy for the Club, he thought, mentioned the Club.

Then she smiled as sharply, a small bit of fang hanging from her lip, “He caused a stir in the balance of power before reaching the Pilots Federation, commander Tex. Contrary to what some may think, the Club does not mind a stir every so often. In fact, they prefer it.”

Tex eyed her for a moment more, then conceded that it really was out of his hands, and far above his rate. She was right, of course, because if maintaining static balance was their goal, then the FSD would have never hit the market for any one of the powers, let alone every power. He kept up with news, and knew that things got even more hectic than what it was under the old 2b galactic order.

He huffed while looking down somewhat in shame. Just more meat for the grinder, he guessed. That really was what he had become, in the end. A piece of the machine. The supervisor smiled wickedly again, “Now, I believe our ten minutes are almost up. Your trainee will be waiting for you. The one you are supposed to be training right now, rather than giving insubordinate lip to your boss, commander Tex.”

He hadn’t taken an order in ages, since his last actual boss before he was a commander. He gave that man a middle finger as he passed him on the docks to a strategically placed cobra, after his license finally cleared. He shot up from his chair with a small rock, and stood straight up at attention just like he had to do all those years ago.

“Yes ma’am.” He said almost like he meant it.

Then he swung around and marched out of the opening door. The supervisor never dropped her smile and joy. Another commander in the black, all according to plan, she thought. Her celebratory laugh began just as the door slid shut. Tex wondered what in the hell he had gotten into.

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Doe waited patently in his pilot’s chair after going though the panels thoroughly. Some, maybe most he didn’t understand just yet, but he would learn. He did know some of it. It was thirty seconds past the ten minutes Tex had allotted, but Doe took a deep breath and didn’t let it bother him. Free. He was free. So was Tex. Doe though he might have had to use a wash, or some such. He had to think different. He could think different.

“I’m back kid. Sorry bout the wait there, had to handle a few things. Did yah get though the panels?”

“Yes.” Doe immediately answered. “I have...i need to ask things.”

“Shoot.”

He though that must have meant ask, so he asked, “On the left, I have, Nav-i-gashun. That's where to go right?”

“Where you can go, local in system, or the other systems you could plot to. Go ahead and open that up real fast.”

Doe opened the nav panel, and scrolled up once from the top so it took him to the bottom of the list, the other systems. He scrolled up the entries with the cockpit keyboard until he found the one he wasted to ask about. There was a small symbol beside it’s name he didn’t see anywhere else.

“What’s that letter?”

Tex chuckled, “Not a letter, kid, a symbol, and just what I was going to have yah look at. It tells yah that’s the next star on yer route, so yah can target it without having to bring up the full galaxy interface, block yer vision while you fiddle with the controls. Yer route has been pre-programed, so ago ahead and select that system and target it.”

Doe selected the system, and there were more buttons to chose from, but the first one did what he wanted. He targeted the system, then locked around the cockpit to find his lock. He found it at his feet, below the floor. He doubted he could jump though a planet.

“That’s one of the other advantages of using your helmet in conjunction with your HUD. You get the full range on where your targets are, look at where they are in relation to you. Not just relying on your compass and radar.”

Doe nodded, “Next panel, Trans-ak-shuns. What are those?”

“Missions yah take, bounties yah take, fines and bounties yah have on yah. Stuff like that.”

“Contacts. Like other people? I think those are other people.” Doe asked as he flipped the tab again.

“Can be. Or stations and ports like yer at. Yah have to request docking permission to land anywhere though it. Or it could be salvage, cargo, basically anything yer ship can see with its sensors. Now, if yah scan a ship, the next tab will let you see more detailed information about it, like specific modules yah can target, like power plants if yah know what yer doing. Yah don’t have a ship targeted, so yah can’t use it right now. How bout the next panel?”

He looked over to his right and the holo screen lit up when he focused on the right area of the ship. He said, “This is like a terminal. Not as good.”

“No, it doesn’t have full access, just some basic GalNet functions every commander needs. A little bit about yah, yer ranks, credit balance, rebuy and notoriety.”

“Notoriety?”

“If yah commit a lot of crimes. A bit of a tip? Never pay off bounties in systems yah owe them too. Find an interstellar factor far enough away. That guy doesn’t give a shit, he’s just there to facilitate a transaction. The place yah owe it to will send yah to a detention center, have yer ship impounded, yada yada. That’s if yah get a bounty of course. The notoriety is so yah can’t start going wild, and think it’s just a matter of credits. Someone will hunt yah down if you go high enough. Even in my day there were wings dedicated to that, cuz they always had the biggest bounties.”

“So, don’t get bounties.” Doe reasoned.

Tex chuckled, “Yeah, not a bad outlook. Up next yah’ve got modules, fire groups for yer weapons, information about the ship itself, inventory for cargo and mats, and status for yer reputation with the locals, as well as the super powers. More detailed financial, and finally system permits.”

“I saw the one permit I had.”

“Yup, for the starter systems. Lets go though a flight check. It helps to do those every once in a while, even though most of the time yah just skip it cuz you can. It can help detect a problem or two before it gets yah killed. I’m going to trigger it from my end, just do what it tells you to on the checklists that come up. Ask if yah don’t know something, but yah don’t got to be told that.”

The pre flight checklist flicked on and overtook other HUD elements. It had boxes beside each control, and it was obviously Doe’s job to fill them. He went though each control, sometimes having to tap and move around to zero exactly what did what, but first the basic flight controls, then others as he figured out how to work his ship.

“Yaw?” Doe asked. Just because he knew the control now didn’t mean he knew what it did while locked in a pad bay.

“Turning the nose of yer ship left and right, mostly fine control for targeting yer fixed weapons. Yah roll and pitch into any direction yah want to turn, the yaw would take forever to do that alone.”

Doe nodded as he finished of the controls, finding the toggles for various things like cargo hatches, landing gear, even the FSD and its two modes. He pulled his hands from his throttle and stick to flex them some and get ready for launch. It was the second time he had done it, but now it was on his own ship.

“I know yer probably excited and whatnot, but auto dock is going to take yah out here. Station regulation that no one without a pilot’s license can operate a ship in its vicinity, and yah don’t have yers quite yet. That wont be a problem in the starter area, so yah will have to land.”

“Okay, so,” Doe looked down to where his radar should have been, at the station panel, “Hit auto-launch then?”

“On the ball kid.”

Doe tabbed down to it using his throttle hand on the keyboard beside his chair, linked mainly to a larger holo screen currently deactivated. A tap of the keyboard and his was on the move.

“Yah just hang tight now.” Tex reassured, though Doe didn’t need it. He already knew what was happening.

The cover of the small docking bay lowered swiftly down to almost level with the actual pad that the ship was on. It was only a cover, not meant to land on. The pad slid forward from the bay and over top the lift, then rise up to the surface of the planet. The sun was up, though not harsh on his eyes thanks to the canopy, and his helmet filtering out the harshest rays while retaining full contrast and color of everything around him. The world was barren and airless, with a dark shine and muddy brown accents to the high metal content ground. The tower of the surface port rose up over a kilometer, was boxy and functional rather than any kind of stylish, and so were buildings surrounding it. He could just make out some people standing guard, an SRV though he didn’t know what it was driving around the perimeter of the settlement proper.

The ship detached from the pad and jolted only slightly as the magnetic pads disengaged. The voice comms clicked on autonomously, flight control having that ability by law.

“Faulcon DeLacy, sierra india delta, you are clear for automated departure.” The flight control called out to him.

The ship rose under the light grav, and then pitched it’s nose up and put full throttle to a perpendicular climb. After a kilometer or so of it the ship began a rapid deceleration as the throttle cut. Doe almost just as rapidly pushed the throttle forward back to full, and kept up the climb.

“Yup, yah got it. Just keep doing that for a minute. Your mass lock should, yup there it is. Don’t fly away just yet though. Keep going up.”

Doe did as told and simply let the ship do what it was doing. After another couple of kilometers of climb the comms clicked on again, “You are exiting the no fire zone. Safe travels commander, flight control signing off.”

The ship comms clicked back off, and Doe smiled behind his helmet. He didn’t know it, but Tex smiled behind his communications helmet as well in his...office. A commander, an elite, in a fucking office, Tex thought.

“To use the FSD yah need to make sure yer hard points are retracted, yer landing gear and cargo scoop are retraced, and yah aren't mass locked by something big like a station or planet. Yah check all those boxes, so punch it kid. Hit the supercruise. Yah need an angle for yer jump.”

Doe hit the button on his throttle he didn’t know to hit until the pre-flight check. The cockpit voice assistant spoke up for the first time in the flight, “Frame shift drive charging.”

A bar came up on his hud indicating the progress, and it was fast he thought. Faster than the last bar he saw. Time overtook it as soon as it filled, “Four, three, two, one, engage.”

A faint blue tunnel was winding around him, Cherenkov radiation bleeding from the very fabric of the space time around him being warped by his FSD. As soon as it engaged, the tunnel finally settled, and popped as the energy from the warping fabric settled into a stable state. The SideWinder shot forward, its speed measured now in kilometers per second. He accelerated faster and faster as the ship left the influence of the gravity well. Doe hit millions of meters per second as any hope of seeing a planetary horizon vanished behind him, replaced by the stars and constellations relative to the bubble.

Then finally fractions of C, an excess of thirty million meters per second. Point 1, point 2, a quick jump to point 5. Further and further the space behind him contracted into a gravity wave to launch him to C itself, mostly free of surrounding gravidic influences that would hamper the flight. Doe took a deep breath as he kept the throttle pushed forward for more speed.

One thought crossed his mind, now that he knew things. He stumbled around the controls the first time, not knowing what to do, only guessing and trying, only even getting out of dock because there was an assist for it. He figured out he was going to another star by the letters, no symbols, beside them alone. He picked the first target he saw on the screen after jumping, the nav beacon he now knew, and had another close mishap. If he had hit the wrong button the first time, guessed wrong and not jumped, he would have died in the black. He would have thought nothing wrong, and supercruised until he ran out of fuel. Not even understanding what was happening, maybe not caring. He was thinking different. More. Because he could.

“There you are kid. Faster than light officially. How’s it feel?” Tex called out over the line.

Tex didn’t need to know the answer to that, Doe decided. He simply said, “Good, but I gotta jump to get were I’m going.”

“HA! That's a good one kid. Man I wish I had a drive like yours, I really do. Would have saved me ages burning around systems by thuster power alone. Getting to where I was from, well, I was about the only commander to make that particular burn for a reason. Now it’s child’s play.”

Doe smirked with a huff, and look around, and look at his compass as well. He saw where his target was, then saw how it looked on the compass. He had to think different. He could think different. He knew he had more directions to move in, and so did others. When he was satisfied he could look at his compass without having to turn his head to know where something was in relation to him, as Tex said, he jerked his stick forwards to bring the nose down and get it closer to his center front.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Not bad, don’t forget the roll too, so yah don’t have to yaw to line up, unless yer just making a small course correction. Rolling and pitching is always faster than yaw. And elite tip, keep yer throttle in the blue zone on yer speed meter when yer making big maneuvers. Even when yer not in supercruise.”

Doe nodded, deciding to finish the maneuver as he was rather than muck things up, but also pulling his throttle back. The radius of the turn shortened dramatically as the velocity of it lowered with it. It wasn’t long before his target was at his front, and he yawed some to bring it center as well. All the while he eyed how the now bright dot moved as his ship moved. Then he did a few more maneuvers, another pitch up then down. A roll completely around while the target, Matet, was off center to see how it moved.

“Ahhh, I see what yah were doing kid. Wanted to get a handle on that compass, and direction without complicatin things. Fair enough, my apologies for thinkin yah didn’t know what yah were doing.”

“I don’t. But now I know. Roll until the dot is center, then bring it up or down with pitch.” Doe chuckled a couple times as he lined the target back up front and center. He was moving though the system at a clip and a planet had passed him by, it’s gravity well only marginally slowing him down.

Tex returned it, “Exactly. Okay, now for the good stuff. The jump I would have killed to make back in the day. Yah need full throttle to get her going, just like supercruise. I’ll lose yah through it though, but I’ll be waitin on the other side.”

“Alright. To the other side.” Doe said as he hit the button on the throttle for the jump. There were several on it sticking out perfectly for his thumb to hit, and a couple of the buttons were knobs as well. One for each finger griped around its top too, necessitating a somewhat careful touch when driving.

The bar came back up and began charging again, and there was a bit of information about the system as well. He knew the star class, though not what that meant itself, the owners of it, Pilots Federation, and a security state of high though he wasn't sure of that exactly either.

“Four, three, two, one, engage.” The COVAS intoned.

The low hum of the charge became a harsh and high pop as the ship launched itself into hyperspace though the wormhole. It was formed from the contracting space in front of it, throwing off it’s own Chekernov radiation as the FSD did its work. Speed had lost all meaning in the higher plane, only direction mattered. The speed meter couldn’t process the data, and he didn’t even try to read it’s flickering numbers.

He only paid attention to the sight in front of him and the sound around him. The ship swirled in a roll though the clouds and stars and nebula that passed him by. Was it in hyperspace? A projection from real space? He didn’t even have the words to describe it, or think of things such as that. There was a crack of lighting far off in the black of hyperspace between it’s clouds. The whispers. He remembered the whispers the first time, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

The star he was jumping towards was center vision, and got closer and closer as the jump nearly completed. Hyperspace burst open and threw him back into real space, the red dot becoming an M class star nearly on top of him in less than a moment. He knew what to expect this time, and pulled his throttle back as soon as the ship started lurching towards the star. He didn’t know what the line on his HUD around it was called, but he knew if he crossed it he would drop out of the supercruise.

He thought again, that if a security patrol in an anaconda hadn’t been close by and seen his maneuver, he would have died then as well. He was trying to pick the nav beacon target, and didn’t realize the ship would move so fast towards the star while he did it. The pilot dropped in on him to see what had happened, and found him frozen, starting at the star in front of him.

Doe eyed the pulsating surface of this one as well. The granules danced next to and around each other from the convection heat cycle of the stellar core, though he didn’t know the nature of the natural art he was admiring. There were plenty of dark cool spots dotted here and there, and small arcs and jets flashed from it’s surface, guided by the erratic magnetic field of the star. He watched a corona ejection form, then arc back down to one of the dark spots he counted before he noticed his ship comm going off.

He looked up to the comm panel and accepted the direct comms request. Comms seemed to be easy. So did flying a space ship, so far. The line connected, “That’s a sight, ain’t it?”

“Yeah.” Doe replied, “What’s the line around the star called? You drop out if you touch it.”

“Exclusion zone, cuz well yer excluded from the zone. Bit of P-fed safety programmin, so people don’t run into stars or planets.” Tex didn’t mention that in his day if you ran into a star or planet you died like the fool you were. But they also didn’t fly like the kids do nowadays. How the hell did you get that close to a star in the first place, and why. Even the nav beacon was a few light seconds out, more than enough space for old thuster burn maneuvers. Not for the speeds they were at, he guessed.

“Where am I going here?”

“The first belt cluster you see on your nav panel kid, I’ll update it with a mission so you see what that’s like.

“Mission critical message, received.” The COVAS said.

He looked up to his comms panel again, even pitching his ship to Tex’s chuckles to get the star out from behind it. He tabbed over to the messages and saw what Tex had sent him. Opening it up he saw a job offer to mine on ton of X for 100 thousand credits. Tex sent him the job, so he took it easily by selecting the green check. He didn’t mind if Tex gave him a job.

“X?” He had to ask though.

“Whatever you find. Just mine a ton of it, and bring it to a station. Usually the missions would be more specific.”

“Okay.” Doe said. He looked over to his nav panel, and saw the mission symbol beside Matet A Belt, the first on the list. It was also highlighted in blue so there was no mistake. He targeted it, then pitched and rolled while putting the throttle in the blue zone like he was told. By Tex. Who would only be around for as long as Doe was training, probably until he got to the station. He almost panicked at the lost of his first real friend, but took a breath and centered himself. Tex had other commanders to help. Commanders were Independent pilots. That he knew.

He completed his spin and turn, and was lined up with the target just a few light seconds out. Tex spoke up, “This is a short hop, so you don’t need the assist, just keep the throttle in the blue and drop out when it says so by hitting your supercruise again.”

Doe did just that, and in not long he was activating, or rather deactivating his supercruise. It was at 1 million meters of distance, and as he hit the button the tunnel formed again, awash with blue as the space unfolded and flattened out, dumping him finally a few kilometers out from the belt cluster.

Light brown rocks, larger than his ship for certain, rotated and orbited around one and other, and then around the star itself. Two roughly spherical rocks smashed together, and threw chunks off one in other in their bout, ending with both sides deflected roughly equally due to the nature of physics in a vacuum. Doe pushed his throttle forward without prompt, but only half way towards the cacophony of cosmic violence.

“There yah go kid. Just ease into this one. As yah see this ain't the safest place. Miners by in large are not combat junkies, that’s why they mine instead of fight, but their track ain't the safest either. Go ahead and pick a rock that looks shiny. That means its got some metal in it, and metal is usually somethin good.”

Doe saw a rock he liked the look of and navigated his ship to in front of it. As he got closer he slowed more and more until his throttle was at zero, and he was as well. He asked, “Now what?”

“Tap yerprimary trigger. That will deploy your hard points.”

Doe tapped the button, and the paneling on the front of his SideWinder flung open. The ship’s machinery pushed the hard point platforms out and into their firing position. After a moment he had two dots in the center circle of his HUD, his gun sight that he didn’t know the name of, and they were pointed straight at his target.

“What yah got are two class one fixed mining lasers, kid. No good for combat, but perfect for chunking that rock. Go ahead and give em a fire until you break a piece off.”

Doe depressed the trigger, and purple beams lanced out and touched the rotating asteroid. Then they began to boil it’s surface. Doe noticed the bar for wep going down as he fired. Weapons. He thought. Weapon power. There was a thumb pad on his stick, and it was used to change his power...the power the chose to put into it. He put all four pips to weapons, and saw how it took pips away from other things. His...engines...sys...sys…

He huffed with annoyance, “Sys?”

“Systems. Yer shield mostly, but other things as well. Modules yah have and such. Good job kid. Yer a natural at this.”

Doe smiled as more than a single chunk was broken off as he tried to think, talk, and mine at the same time. He quickly released as soon as he noticed, and Tex chuckled on the other end of the line. Doe looked at some of the chucks directly, and hit one of the buttons on his throttle to target the boxes outlining them highlighted at his gaze.

Information about it lit up on his dashboard to the left, and he saw the name of the chuck was, “Well look at that, palladium. Lucky you kid. It seems this rock is full of the stuff.”

Doe remembered what Tex said earlier, and looked over to his nav panel. His ship obviously saw the chunks. He navigated to contacts, “There yah go kid.”

The few that he had mined so far were all palladium, so Tex was right. He asked, “So that’s good?”

“Oh yeah. Palladium is one of those top credit metals. Harder to find, and usually mixed in with other stuff. The contract was only for one ton, but since the stuff is valuable, I would fill up that hold of yer’s while you can. Dropping into this belt cluster again and finding that same rock to carve up is a snowballs chance in hell.”

“Sounds like a good...idea, yeah.” Doe said.

“But first, scoop up what yah have. Drop yercargo scoop, and use the compass to guide the bit in. Then yer refinery will do it’s work. You’ll see what it does when yah do. Take it slow and keep it under 40 on the throttle.”

Doe flicked the switch for the cargo scoop, as he learned from the flight check, and the light when hot next to it’s name on his HUD, telling him it was open. He aimed his ship, lining the chuck up with the holo depiction of the scoop giving him a target to aim with and for. He pushed forward ever so slightly and eased the chuck into his hold, immediately taken in by the refinery. He looked over to his right, and to the inventory tab. He didn’t see palladium, but that was cargo, not refinery. He scrolled down until he saw the tab we wanted. There was now palladium in his refinery, waiting for more to process. There was a thirty four next to a symbol, a slash between two circles, and the same as the number he saw next to the target name on his HUD.

“Thirty four, what.” Doe said.

“Percent. That means that chuck was thirty four percent pure palladium.”

“100 is best right?” Doe asked.

“Depends on the context, the situation, but for mining yes. Once that hits 100, about three more chunks, then yah got a ton of pure Palladium. Keep at it kid, I’ll be right here with yah.”

Doe scooped up all of the chunks, and finally had a full ton with a bit left over. That would be used for the next ton, he decided. He fired his mining lasers until he got a few more chunks, scooped them, then another volley with his lasers again. As he was scooping the third round a loud crack jolted him in chair and drew heavy breaths from him. The crash was close by, and it induced memories he preferred that it didn’t. He would have to try to not think about that time anymore. He was on new time now, and it was his own time. Not the work boss’s.

“Yer alright kid. Just a love tap further in the belt. There, technically is no sound in space, as space is a vacuum that sound can’t move though. However yer ship can take sensor input, like two rocks crashing together, and make a sound out of it so us humans don’t lose an entire sense out in the black.”

“The whispers. In the jump. I heard those.” Doe said.

Tex rumbled a couple times in chuckle, “Best not go around blabbing about that. Everyone hears the whispers, but the sane folks don’t like talking about it. They think it’ll make them space mad if they do, especially us elites that had to sit with it for hours or days at a time. Its just our heads seeking patterns, and making them out of stuff that aren't patterns. Legends say that they’re the ghosts of the early spacers that didn’t finish their jumps, but that's just a scary story for youngings like you. Pay em no mind. It’s just how witchspace is kid.”

“Witchspace or hyperspace?”

“Either or. Hyperspace is the legal name. That ghost story is why they call it witchspace, and well it is a little creepy compared to what we’re used to in real space.”

“The whispers don’t help.” Doe said.

Tex laughed, “No, they don’t kid. Finish up, and follow the mission tags to get to the target system for that contract. There aren't actually stations in this system.”

Doe nodded and continued his work. After a final round he had four full tons of a valuable metal, and smiled as he looked at the full hold. He looked back over and scrolled though is nav panel, finding the system he was supposed to go to highlighted in blue. He targeted it, then maneuvered his ship towards it. He remembered the lights on his HUD, the things he needed for a jump, and closed his cargo hatch and retracted his hard points. The trigger actuated two ways. In to fire or deploy, or out using the tab on the bottom of it to retract.

He could go though the belt, but he saw the chaos still churning inside it and decided against a straight though approach towards his target to break mass lock. Doe angled his ship perpendicular to the flat of the belt, a normal angle, and shot up at full speed along the outside of it. Much faster to break a mass lock that way, he decided. He wouldn't have to maneuver around the rocks crashing the in thick of it.

Doe used the thumb pad to put all his pips to engines, not caring about the state of weapons or systems. Then he hit the boost to the humble maximum speed of an E rated SideWinder, but the joy was A rated certainly when the chair pushed against him It also felt better on his bones for the moment his body needed to catch up to the acceleration. It wasn't long to break mass lock, then angle to engage the FSD. The turn felt sluggish, and his momentum still mostly carried from his previous vector. The computer strained against the ordered command, and his ship slowed to near zero before his full throttle overrode the slow speed, and accelerated once again in his desired direction.

“That’s why you stay in the blue to turn like that.” Doe said out loud.

“Yup. Yah can overcome that with boost a bit, and get good with yer directional thusters, but yah’ve got to be a decent pilot to work against the ship computer. Really understand the six degrees to keep your ship moving though them, while it always wants to come to a stop in a straight line. FA off is more advanced. Twitchy, sensitive. You’ll be a better pilot if you really practice that however. Especially in combat.”

Doe nodded, satisfied with the answer. He would just have to drive more. Get better at it, and learn. He said, “Alright, I’m jumping. See you on the other side.”

“Adios partner.”

Doe tapped the hyperspace button, and the COVAS spoke up, “Frame shift drive charging.”

The bar filled, and the countdown began again, “Four, three, two, one, engage.”

The tunnel opened up to hyperspace, and this time he ignored the whispers in his ear. They had nothing to say to him. They were unimportant. The jump completed, and he was cast out with a crack in front of a class G star the HUD said. Dromi.

The voice comms request came though from Tex, and Doe activated it as soon as he could navigate to it. As soon as he accepted it, he immediately looked over to his nav panel. Tex let the kid work, being constantly surprised. For not reading very well, no education, he was obviously quick on his feet. Maybe even quicker than he had ever been, and certainly quicker than some on the other trainees he’s overseen.

Doe locked his target, then angled his ship. Mawson dock was to his rear, so he put the throttle to blue and pitched around in a loop to line up. Then he simply let the ship do its work, and waited to finish his when it came time to drop. He pulled his hands off the throttle and stick some to flex them, and put some strain into them so he remembered he had them. Even with the suit he felt like they would detach and float away in the zero gravity.

“Okay kid. Yer on your way to the last stop of my ride with yah. Out-standing work so far. Let’s let the assist drop you out on this one to celebrate. Go back to yer nav panel and find the supercruise assist. It’ll be under the selection for the target”

Doe looked over and selected his target again. The first button on the pop out panel was all he ever needed, even on his first drive. He tabbed over to the second, and found what he was looking for by mentally sounding the word out. Super-cruise-assist. He selected it and glanced back to the front to see the blue words denote that it was active. Then those words popped up in the info panel to the top right, a scroll for changes to various ship states.

The trip was short, only 60 light seconds, and after a minute or so the ETA hit seven and then stayed there for a moment as the assist decelerated on a controlled path. Seven. Seven. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The space unfolded and snapped him to his target destination in a blue haze, with a streak behind his ship as he did.

Before him was Mawson Dock, a Coriolis star port. It was a tested design, and a mainstay of system colonization for centuries. He was mostly in line with the cubotahedron mail slot. Each face of the two kilometer wide station had towers set into, and rising from them. They were either for housing or industrial purposes. Lights flickered at every line and vertex, and ships scurried around it. There were meaner looking ships patrolling, an anaconda like the one he saw before, but also plenty of SideWinders like his. Other new commanders.

“Now this is a real test kid. Can yah get into that mail slot without hittin anyone else? There's some heavy traffic, and yah may not even get a small pad.”

“I can try.” Doe said.

“That’s the gumption right there partner. As long as yah stay under 100 meters per second, the station speed limit, you won’t get dinged if you get dinged, unless I see you obviously ramming someone, but yah wouldn't do that. If yah do hit someone over the limit, then yah go to remedial. Be another week to get yer license. “

“Don’t want to wait.”

“And yah shouldn’t have to. You’ll be a damn good pilot once you have a chance to breath and learn a bit. Now approach to at least seven and a half kicks, and request dockin from yer contact panel.”

Doe moved his throttle forward to half, and it was still to fast. He looked down to his power management HUD, and saw the RST below all the pip. He didn’t know what that did, so he hit his down button on the trigger pad. It reset his pips to default, and he was satisfied that the speed slowed as power was removed from the engines. It was still a bit to fast, so he brought the throttle back a touch on the he was at 95 on the speed meter.

“To make a recommendation, put full power sys, for your shields just in case. It makes them a bit stronger, not invincible, but it could be the diference between a shield pop and not under fire, or when getting rammed by greenhorns that don’t know how to fly.”

Doe put full power to shields, following the recommendation, and waited a moment for to come in range to request docking. He tabled over to the contacts panel, then to the button that was clearly to request docking.

As soon as he hit the button the COVAS said, “Docking request, granted.”

Then the station control took over the comms, “Faulcon DeLacy Sierra, India, Delta, you are cleared for approach. Docking pad 1-8. Welcome to Mawson Dock commander.”

Doe kept his pace and got closer and closer to the mail slot. SideWinders were flying in and out, and some, most Doe thought, were not following station regulations. He stopped a bit out and tired to wait for an open path in. None presented itself as other new commanders were simply going in, and attempting to do their best to stay out of each others way. So he joined the fray as well, accelerating to an even slower speed than he was originally approaching at. Other ships passed around him in and out of the mail slot.

Doe tucked himself in with a small group of three other commanders and did his best to keep their faster pace to avoid falling victim to the overall flow of traffic. Tex kept silent and let the kid concentrate. He did his best to not fly like a jackass on the way in, and he was still doing it even though he had to fly outside regulation.

Doe was almost in, almost to his promised pilot’s license. Then disaster struck him and the others he was with. Other commander had tried to boost though their group. The channel with flight control had just opened again, “You are 1000 meters from tou-”

Then the ship hit, and did so to Doe first. His SideWider was lashed around as is vector rapidly stared spinning while already over the speed limit, and was pushed further past it and into a ship in front of him. His ship beeped harshly, and his HUD flashed that he gained a fine. He only just noticed it while jerking though the mail slot, and started panicking over that and his shields at very low strength, nearly popping. He hit the walls of the slot itself in addition to the ship, and flew though the crowd of SideWinders, almost hitting another one in the process. He didn’t try to control anything, and let the ship zero itself in the docking bay.

The ship that had hit him spun around even more violently than Doe, hit more than Doe, and had no shields when it slammed against the back of the station wall. There was a small flash, then an explosion that scorched the station walls where the pilot hit. Debris began expanding out, and there was no escape pod among it.

“Holy sam fucking hell kid! Are yah alright!?” Tex yelled over the comm.

Doe was taking in sharp heavy breaths, and didn’t respond. Tex said, “Kid! It’s alright. Calm down pal.”

Doe slowed his breaths at the order of his friend. He did have to calm down. He was used to being calm under stress, he had to be. Now it was different. He was different, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be calm.

He let out a last long exhale before asking, “What’s going to happen. Remedial?”

“Hell no kid. First I’m activating yer docking assist to bring yah in the rest of the way.” The assist chimed in response, and Doe’s ship moved of its own programmed volition. Tex continued, “We’ll just say yah brought her home. That, that was not yer fault in any way kid. I already sent a message to the administrative contact, and got an automated response. They’ll be clearing any fines people got from that, and graduating everyone that survived, which was everyone except that Fucking asshole they let in a cockpit!”

“Calm down pal.” Doe returned. Tex needed to be clam too.

“Yeah. Yeah. Sorry kid. I’m all old an cynical. Look, its not a good thing that guy just offed himself and almost took others with him, but my momma had a sayin. She said, son, if you are stupid, you get stupid back.”

“Don’t be stupid.” Doe concluded.

“Direct quote kid. Direct quote. Some people get what they deserve. That's one good thing about this cold galaxy. It’s harsh even to the assholes. It’s fair. You’ll get what yah give to it.”

His ship had landed by that point and locked down on the medium pad, as smalls were all taken. Tex said, “Well, this is about the end. Open up that mission board and turn in a ton of cargo with that contract I gave you. Then sell the rest in the commodities market. With all four tons? That’ll be about 250 thousand credits towards your cobra. You got lucky picking a palladium rock.”

“Cobra. That's what I should get next?”

“Oh yeah. For a guy like you? The perfect upgrade from a SideWinder. There are other small ships, but none do what the cobra does, which is a little bit of everythang. It was my first ship, and I think it should be your first real ship. Another piece of advice? There are a whole bunch of simple little missions on the board when you turn yer cargo in, and they only go back and forth between the starting systems, though double check that it’s not a mission that takes yah out of it. When you leave, your permit is revoked and you can’t come back. Security patrols and new commanders only.”

Doe nodded, “Okay. Do some simple missions, buy a cobra. Go from there.”

“Yah got it. Try out the data delivery first. All kinds of jobs like that all over the bubble. GalNet is a public network, and folks always got nonpublic information that needs moved from system to system.”

As Tex finished talking, the info panel lit up that his fine for reckless flying had been cleared. The next line brought him great joy and he smiled wildly as his commanders license was approved as well. If felt like everything he had gone though is his so far short life had lead to the moment.

“Congratulations, Commander.” Tex said with his own smile on his end.

“Thank you, Tex. Thanks….thank you.”

“No problem commander. Look, I sent yah that contract on my personal line. Not supposed to do that, but yah have it now. If yah got questions, or hell yah get in a real jam, shoot me a message kid. Tex has yer back if no one else in this damned galaxy does.”

“I’ll do that...bye Tex. Thank you my friend.”

“Fly safe amigo. Tex out.”

The comm went silent as his friend cut the line. Doe sat there a moment in abject fear again, then took another deep breath. He was a commander now, and if he needed to he could message Tex. But he wanted and needed to learn for himself. After turning in his cargo and smiling at the resulting credit balance, he decided on a nap after his ordeal. Doe felt like he earned the right to he pad for a couple hours while the adrenaline drained and crashed his system, though the didn’t know about that. Just that he needed some sleep. Then he would work for his cobra by delivering data. Then go from there. The grav from the station felt nice, but still wasn't enough.