Gaylen again approached the booth in Port 12, and was again greeted by Per.

“So, you’re setting out?” the man asked.

“Sure am.” Gaylen tapped his backpack. “Got everything I need.”

“Including your crew. I let those four folks through.”

Per pointed at the door to Dock 3.

“You’re the last one.”

“Good. Then I’m signing out.”

Gaylen touched the DNA scanner, and Per signed the Addax up as ‘Departing’.

“I’ll need you to leave inside of one standard hour,” he said.

“I know.”

Gaylen slid him a few extra bills.

“Thanks for looking after my ship.”

“My pleasure,” Per said with a grin that matched his words.

Good relations with port managers were a fine future investment.

Gaylen walked through and into Dock 3. Inside waited his new ship, and outside it stood his new crew. All had varying degrees of luggage. Bers had a great big camping bag. The white-faced Ayna had a single satchel bag. Herdis the soldier-medic combination had a rifle case over one shoulder, a medical bag over the other, and two cases at her feet. And Kiris had a medium-sized soft bag. Jaquan was simply relaxing with his back against the airlock.

“Welcome!” Gaylen said, powered by excitement for a moment before getting a grip on himself. “I see there’s nothing to wait around for. So Jaquan, if you would...”

His friend opened the airlock and was the first inside, while Gaylen was the last. Herdis and Ayna looked about with strong interest as they entered. Bers touched the exterior in some weird, meaningful way as he put his foot inside, and muttered something inaudible before continuing.

“Right. I’ll go through a quick introduction,” Gaylen said. “This is the entry area, and there on the opposite wall is our medical station.”

It consisted of a table that could be folded out of the wall, as well as various panels holding medical supplies. Herdis put her two larger bags down and walked over to it, pulling the panels open in quick succession.

“Good,” she declared. “I see you have the basics.”

“Yes. Of course, the best treatment is to simply not get into trouble.”

Gaylen turned to one of the two doors into the aft section.

“That’s the cargo hold.”

He entered and the others followed. The space within was largely empty, and took up both floors of the ship. Up above was a small balcony, and loading equipment dangled from the ceiling.

“So we’re transporting air?” Ayna asked with a grin.

“Yes. Yes we are.”

Gaylen crossed the entry area and went through one of the two opposite doors.

“Here we have the engine room, Jaquan’s little paradise...”

The heart of the ship hummed away, keeping alive all the big and little things needed to pass safely between star systems.

“... and opposite is the storage.”

He pointed at the two opposite doors, lined up perfectly with the others.

“That’s where we keep the spare parts and the backup rations.”

He led the group back into the entry area, then pulled on one of the two strings dangling from the ceiling. The hatch above opened and down unfolded a narrow ladder.

“All quite standard. These two lead up into the quarters. But let’s use the stairs.”

He turned to the steep, space-saving stairs and walked up.

“Here we have the living room. Again, quite standard.”

Cabinets lined most of the available wall space, save for a spot on the left that held pulleys, a bar and an extendable treadmill, all for keeping in shape shipboard. The centre of the floor was a red circle, and Gaylen pressed a big, yellow button.

“Here we have the table,” he said as it rose from the floor. “But keep it folded when not in use.”

He pressed the button again, then pointed to the two hatches on either side of the table.

“There’s the quick route down into the engine room.

He walked through one of the two doors on the aft wall.

“Here are the quarters.”

In sight were the bunks, the hatch leading down, a basic shower unit, and a thin wall that divided the room in two.

“The wall is detachable. We set it up earlier. This is the men’s bunk, the women’s is on the other side. There is a shower there as well, and we each get 50 seconds of warm water a day. And there’s the door to the cargo bay balcony.”

He pointed.

“Store your belongings underneath your own bunk. And now back to the kitchen.”

Bers dropped his bag on the floor, then they all followed him back.

Gaylen put the centre table back up and indicated the rack of folding chairs up against a wall. As they each arranged a seat for themselves he opened a cabinet.

There were a great many expenses involved in starting up a business like this, even when he was essentially being given a ship. Even so, skimping when it came to the celebratory wine hadn’t seemed right.

He returned to the table with the bottle in one hand and stacked glasses in the other.

“Here,” Gaylen said, and began pouring into each one. “I’m sure you’ve all gathered by now that Jaquan and I are just starting up our own operation. We have plenty of experience on the lanes, just not with our own ship. So we agreed that the occasion called for a celebration.”

“I appreciate a good celebration!” Ayna said cheerily. She still wore her shades, of course. Starship interior lights were designed to imitate Sol-type light.

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Bers took his glass with a grunt of acknowledgement, then dipped his tongue into the contents to test them.

“Congratulations,” Kiris said as she got hers. Then with a bit of effort she added: “I know you’ve wanted this for a while,” and squeezed forth a smile.

“Yes, congratulations,” Herdis said.

Jaquan just took his with a smile and knocked it against the last glass as Gaylen filled it.

Bers produced an unlabelled bottle from somewhere within his cavernous coat and added some brown liquid to the wine. It smelled more like some chemical solvent than booze. Gaylen decided not to let it bother him and just stay on topic.

“To new beginnings!” he said with a smile and lifted his glass in the air. “And a successful run!”

“Sure!” said Ayna.

“I’ll drink to that,” said Jaquan.

“Skals,” said Herdis

“Rerrit!” shouted Bers.

Kiris nodded, and then they all had their first sip. Or gulp, in Bers’s case.

“Now, to make a few things clear...”

Gaylen sat down.

“As I’ve told you all, you get paid 800 upon completion of the run. I’m not planning any diversions, but you never know what is going to come up. If we do happen upon salvage or in any other way earn some extra money then fifty percent will be divided between me and Jaquan, and the rest is divided between you four. And one thing before anything more happens...”

He pointed at every one of the new crewmembers.

“You meet all kinds of folks on the free lanes. All kinds. Now, I don’t care what you’ve done before coming here, as long as it didn’t involve kids, but I absolutely need to know if you’ve incurred any bounties, or have enemies we might need to worry about in the Nearer Fringe. Anything that might affect the job and put the rest of us in danger. If you hide something like that and I find out, then you’re off the ship at the next stop.”

He leaned back in his chair.

“So, let’s hear it.”

“Welll...”

Ayna shrugged like a naughty child.

“I did get into some trouble back on Jokk. It’s really a nothing planet, but they are a part of the Mawan Enforcement Treaty.”

Gaylen nodded. She was hardly the first person he’d associated with who lived under that mark.

“What’s the bounty?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s just 500.”

He nodded again, and wasn’t worried that she was underselling the amount so as to not give them ideas. Only licensed individuals were able to cash in bounties under the treaty.

“I don’t think they’re going to send any Kavian Hunters after me for that amount,” she added.

“No, they’re not. But in the interest of not being a hypocrite, I should warn you all of something.”

He cleared his throat.

“Our cargo... its owner warned me that a mercenary team named Blue Strike would want to get their hands on it. But that’s only IF they find out we are the ones transporting it, and IF they figure out when we’re leaving AND where to be on the lookout for us. Me and Jaquan talked the route over, and we won’t be taking the obvious lanes. Overall, I’d say the chances of encountering them are very minimal. But that’s no reason not to keep our eyes open. From what we understand they wear top-to-toe strike team armour at all times when in view, complete with blue faces on their helmets, and a blue stripe running down each limb.”

He and Jaquan had discussed this and felt it was only right to come clean. But why not wait until they were already on board, and far less likely to walk away?

“Just so you know.”

The four looked at one another, but as he’d expected there were no desertions.

“So, what do we do on board?” Herdis asked.

“I’m glad you asked. I’m the pilot, and Jaquan is the engineer. Kiris, during leaps I want you helping him out with the engine.”

“Alright.”

“Herdis, are you a qualified gunner?”

“I was given the basic course, yes.”

“Then I want you in the cockpit with me. We have a defence cannon. It can be operated by the pilot, but if there’s trouble I’d prefer to focus on flying.”

She nodded.

“And you two...”

He pointed at Ayna and Bers. The latter had some of that foul wine/liquor mix in his beard.

“I want you to generally help out. Keep the ship clean. Prepare the meals. Keep an eye on lesser systems. That sort of thing. If you see something wrong, fix it.”

“Mm!”

“And that’s all when we’re in flight. When we’re at stops we all keep a private channel open, check in regularly, and stay ready to back each other up in case of trouble. Because that’s what crews are supposed to do. It takes a fool to roam the lanes alone.”

He was silent for a few breaths.

“Are there any questions?”

“I have one,” Herdis said. “How do we address you?”

“Not ‘Captain’, and certainly not ‘Sir’,” he said with a grin. “Just ‘Gaylen’, if you’d please. Now then: We are to leave within an hour. Stash your belongings. Jaquan, give Kiris a basic rundown on the engine, and Herdis; I want you to familiarise yourself with the cannon controls.”

“Understood.”

For the next twenty minutes everyone went about various little tasks. Jaquan unplugged the charger cable from outside, then sealed the airlock. Herdis made herself at home in the copilot’s chair. And Gaylen went over the systems and controls one last time. And finally there was nothing left to do.

“All good,” Jaquan said through the intercom.

“Then we’re off,” Gaylen replied.

He sent the signal to open the dock door, then started up the engine and gently lifted the Addax into the air. He’d done a few hours of simulations in the cockpit before, and it had captured the feel of the real thing quite well.

He checked for traffic signals, then glided the ship out of the dock. Without further ado, he began arcing for the sky. In time the planet lost its grip on them, and they were off

“All still good,” Jaquan said.

“Goody,” Gaylen said, and couldn’t suppress a giant grin. “Going into leap,” he added to everyone on board.

The leap-reactor hadn’t been fired up in days, and so its systems charged up in moments.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you welcome to our first flight!”

# # #

Per was bored. He usually was, but the feeling was hitting particularly hard this evening. It had been hours since the last departure, and more hours still since the last arrival.

There was the usual selection of entertainment options on the screen, but he found himself continually switching between comedies and documentaries, somehow in the mood for neither.

At least the extra money had been piling up pretty well lately. In a little while he could afford to visit that parlour again.

He had switched to documentaries again, one about the rise of extremist rhetoric within the Hegemony, when something caught the corner of his eye.

Per turned his head sluggishly. The little screen on the far left of his station was dead. It was the one showing the entrance area. He turned to the one next to it and caught movement for a second before it too went black. That left only the third, showing a feed from right around the corner.

It went black. And now he heard footsteps. Multiple sets of footsteps.

He didn’t like this. It was straight out of the wrong sort of movie. The sort that wasn’t kind to people like him.

Per took up the main comm, the one linked directly to Traffic Central, but found it dead.

“What...”

Up to his booth walked a five-man group. They wore head-to-toe combat armour; hard plates over heat-absorbing weave, gauntlets, and full helmets with blue-painted faces.

Without a word being spoken they strode into the booth, filling the limited space to an uncomfortable degree.

The one in the lead, a stocky man with officer’s pauldrons on his armour, stepped up to Per. He took the comm out of his hand and put it in its cradle.

Per cleared his throat.

“What can I do for you, friend?”

“I am not your friend,” the man said, his voice made harsh and grating by the helmet’s filter.

Per stared at him, but saw nothing through the darkened lenses the helmet had for eyes.

“Well, then what-”

“We want the Addax,” the man told him. “And we know it left here not long ago.”

“And why would I know anything more than that?”

“People like you notice things,” the man said.

His voice never lost that calm menace, any more than his men moved or spoke. They just waited.

“You pick up little clues. And failing that you can describe the crew; their types, their clothes, their equipment, so we know who to look for. And ask for. There are many ways of finding people, and you are going to help us with at least one of them.”

The man took two steps back.

“Break his knees.”