Fraya blinked and found herself back in the escape craft she had stolen from the Empire. It had been over two weeks in game and looking out the armored windows saw a large starport with all deferent kinds of spacecrafts around her mostly in the same size as the one she was one. It was also overcast and drizzling.
“Minerva where are we?”
Minerva ever helpful explained “You are on Benton in the Benton Alliance. The section of the starport is for small crafts. The starport is roughly circulator with small crafts at 12 o’clock, midsize crafts at 3 o’clock, large crafts at 6 o’clock and extra-large crafts at 9 o’clock. Some ships though are so massive that they stay in orbit. Like the Empire ship we fled from.”
Fraya took that in. If every wedge was the same size then it stood to reason that the small craft wedge would be the busiest because they could cram in more small crafts than any other wedge. On the other hand if an extra-large ship was a passenger ship then that one could have more people filling it. Fraya needed to disappear before she was associated with the Empire’s ship which would mean all her effort and face alteration would have been in vain. Speaking of distancing herself with the craft.
“Minerva is there a way to sell this ship anonymously?” The ship had to be worth something.
“Affirmatively. There is an auction site that you can list anything for sale and the funds are routed through several dummy accounts that are permanently deleted and scrubbed after the money is transferred out. After ten transfers it is almost impossible to trace the finale receiver.”
Fraya grinned. “So it is a pirate and illegal goods site!”
“Not specifically but it is a high likelihood that most of the goods are form questionable sources.”
“Okay so how much is this ship worth?”
“Going through the ships database and finding similar specs on the auction site I would estimate this ship is worth around 30 million.”
“30 fucking million! Goddam! How can people afford that?” Fraya was shocked she thought 10 million was a lot.
Minerva was quick to answer. “There are many ways to raise the funds. One is to get a loan, there are a lot of lenders out there. The next one is to start a company or association and have the members contribute. You can also make a lot of money by doing jobs, mining can be very lucrative. Then there is your way and steal it.”
“Hay now that was enemy action! It is not stealing if you are at war.” Fraya defended herself. Minerva declined to respond.
“Okay so anything worth taking on this tub?” Fraya hurriedly moved on.
“The only thing of high value in the database is the resurrection pod.”
Fraya blinked at that. “The resurrection what pod?”
“The resurrection pod. In starlight people are printed in the pods and their minds transferred into the printed body. It is much like printing food in the real world, add biomatter into the pod and nanos will assemble it into whatever form is needed.”
“Okay but how does your mind get copied?”
“That goes into the realm of quantum mechanics, quantum resonance, the quantum observer effect, and quantum states. You need a pod to scan you and once that is done the quantum copy is set into a specific quantum state form the quantum observer affect, in essence the quantum state is in flux until you observe it and once it is observed the quantum state is set. Than you and the quantum copy are in specific resonance with each other, if you die the resonance is stopped and it knows to produce a copy of you and resurrect you. It works on the same principle of quantum entanglement that is used for faster than light communication and how the Empire knew you hijack the ship so fast.”
Fraya took a moment to process the long and complicated explanation of Minerva’s.
“Also this is very important to the Starlight game, every copy is not universal, each region and power has their own database of quantum copies. The quantum copies cannot be copied themselves because it would change the quantum state of the new quantum copy and collapse it into quantum flux. This means that if you get scanned again in another region the new quantum copy has a deferent quantum state then the old copy and so the old quantum copy collapses into quantum flux and is deleted. This means there can only be one copy of you at one time and so each power has a central database that is heavily guarded. Some years ago there was a large and powerful Federation in the game that terrorists manage to smuggle in a nuke into the central database of and detonate it wiping out all the copies of Federation citizens. This lead to the Federations collapsing as a rival power invaded and those killed were killed permanently.”
“Will shit..” Fraya was stunned at how complicated the resurrection process was. That people could be killed permanently was another stunning revelation. That led her to another immediately relevant question.
“Is the commander getting resurrected here?” Fraya started walking to the cabins, one had to house the resurrection pod.
“No.” Minerva reassured. “The pod is inactive. You have to designate the area you want to be resurrected at and I deleted the pod form the list of active designations. This is done if the pod is in use, maintenance mode, or automatically if the pod is destroyed.”
Fraya sighed in relief but still hit the open button on the first cabin behind the cockpit. The door whisked open and Fraya saw a cramped room with the bed stretching the length of the forward bulkhead on her right, on her left on the rear bulkhead, a dresser with three draws on the bottom and a roll up top on the top half, a very cramped shower and bathroom next to the dresser, and a tiny desk and chair wedged in between the bathroom and the bed across from the door she just entered on the port bulkhead. If you pulled out the chair form the desk you would block the entrance to the bathroom.
“The resurrection pod is under the bed.” Minerva guessed what Fraya was looking for.
Fraya eyed the bed that was four feet off the deck. Looking at it she saw just a flat black panel. Taking a step to it Fraya grabbed the hatch the mattress was resting on and lifted it up. It smoothly lifted and showed a white pristine interior, much like the pod Fraya was in out in the real world.
Closing the hatch Fraya turned and looked at the desk. As she turned a glimmer flashed in her eye. Looking at the desk Fraya saw nothing that would have caused the flash. Turning back to the bed she turned again faster this time and saw the same glimmer. Stepping to the desk Fraya felt the port bulkhead just above the desk. Fraya’s hand passed through a holographic concealment projection and hit a metal handle. Turning the handle the projection shut off revealing a safe built into the bulkhead and with a tug Fraya opened the small concealed safe.
Inside was a data cube and a money chip. Picking up the money chip Fraya asked Minerva how much was inside.
“Focus on it and your neuro implant will display the amount of victual credits.” Minerva helpfully supplied. This derailed Fraya train of thoughts.
“Wait I have an implant?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“A very basic one, everyone in the game gets a level 1 implant. It only acts as an identification and basic scanner. More complex ones can be bought that go form scanning for attackers and weapons to the ones that have a high end AIs installed that are certified to fly capital ships.”
‘Dam…” Fraya whistled. “I bet the high end one cost a mint.”
“The high end ones can go form a million to hundreds of millions. The capital ship that you took over probably had a few pilots that had high end AI implants that each cost over a hundred million each. That only is needed if you are flying a very advanced ship and those ships cost billions of dollars. The carrier was the Empire’s flag ship and had an estimated cost of over 500 billion dollars.”
“Wholly fucking shit! I should have asked for way more money!” Fraya lamented.
“Indeed.” Minerva agreed.
“Not fucking helping!”
Fraya focused on the money chip and saw a million dollars in numbers float above it in green. Grinning Fraya had Minerva transfer and wash the money. No need to leave a trail. Then Fraya focused on the cube and got an unauthorized access prompt.
“Any chance you can hack this cube Minerva?”
“I believe if you take the command necklace off and hold it to the cube it will unlock.” Minerva helpfully said.
Fraya had become so used to the necklace that she had forgotten about it. Pulling the necklace off, she took Minerva’s advice and held it to the cube, unlocking it and proving Minerva right.
Looking at the holographic projection the implant sent to her visual cortex Fraya saw a star map and lists of code words associated with each.
“Wholly shit! I think this is command access to the Empire star systems!” Fraya said excitedly.
“I believe you are correct through they have probably changed the code by now.” Minerva warned putting a damper on Fraya’s excitement.
“Dam it Minerva way to ruin the mood.” She admonish jokingly. “Still I couldn’t have used it anyway and if I had sold it here it would have sent a neon sign out that I was on Benton anyway. Still could you transfer the data onto my implant? Also make sure to scan if for viruses and firewall the hell out of my implant just in case.”
“Processing. The level 1 implant barely has enough data to store the information and if transferred you will not be able to store any more information unless you upgrade your chip.” Minerva warned.
“Do it, who knows if this data will be helpful down the line. The star map alone would probably be worth something.” Fraya said decisively.
A few moments later Minerva said. “Done. I have triple firewalled your implant form both inside and outside attacks, I have also created an isolated partition that is heavily firewalled off the main data section and transferred the data there.”
“Okay now scrub the data form this cube. Wait now that I think about it scrub the data from this ship too. Before that, is there any data we could use?”
“I have scanned the crafts database and find no unique information. I suspect all the important data was on the cube. I am proceeding to scrub the cube and ship.”
After Minerva confirmed that the data was scrubbed and could not be retrieved even by the best data reconstruction, Fraya place the cube, the money chip, and the command necklace into the vault and shut the door, locking it. The holographic concealment automatically turned back on.
With that taken care of, Fraya turned around and walked to the dresser. Rolling up the top Fraya saw uniforms hanging on a rod, with shoes on the bottom. Fraya went through the hanging cloths and saw a nice leather trench coat. Fraya left it hanging for the moment and started pulling out draws. In the top and middle ones she saw neatly folded ship suits and the bottom draw contained a pistol with holster and belt along with plastic boxes of both loss ammo and filled magazines.
Pulling out the pistol she was reminded of a desert eagle pistol, though it was matt black and lighter. Grinning Fraya holstered the gun then stood up. Fraya then started to change her stolen officer’s uniform for a black one piece shipsuit. Donning two pairs of thick socks Fraya took out the large black armored combat boots and with the socks they fit decently enough. Fraya wrapped the gun belt around her waist and the thigh belt that stopped gun and holster form moving if she had to run around her thigh then took out the leather coat. What would be knee length on the commander, who was a foot taller than her, was ankle length on her. Putting it on Fraya had to roll up the sleeves three times for her hands to be free.
Dressed Fraya grabbed the one thing to complete the look, wrap around sunglass. They also doubled as eye protector, enemy designator, and hud projector that supplement her implant. Turning Fraya walked out of the commander’s cabin.
Strolling down the short hallway Fraya came to the rear cabin. Pushing the open button the door slid aside and Fraya looked into a cabin that was smaller than commanders and more cramped. There were three stack beds on both the right forward bulkhead and the rear left bulkhead. Across form her on the port bulkhead was a bathroom that just had a pushed aside curtain for privacy. The toilet had a sink molded to the top of it remaindering her of every prison movie she ever saw. The shower had to be a foot by foot barely enough for even Fraya’s short frame to be comfortable, how a six five commando could take a shower was a mystery. Just in front of the bathroom were ladders wielded to the bedframes of the stacked beds.
Going by her findings in the commander’s cabin Fraya went to the bottom left hand bunk and pulled the hatch the mattress covered up revealing a shallow storage space that was sectioned into three parts. The first part nearest Fraya was a weapons section. It had a futuristic compact P90 assault rifle, magazines both filled and empty, plastic boxes of lose ammo, and a dozen grenades.
The next section was clothes. There was also a combat armored vest on top. Standing up Fraya tugged off her leather duster and laid it aside than grabbed the combat vest and donned it. Fraya than load the bottom pockets with filled magazines so there was a dozen magazines around her stomach. Fraya then loaded the top pockets with grenades. Finally Fraya then grabbed the P90 and clipped it to the vest so it was hanging down the center of her chest.
The last section by the ladder was survival rations and water. Fraya grabbed a few ration bars and stuffed them in the shipsuit’s pockets. That completed Fraya retrieved her duster and donned it again. A quick search of the other bed storage areas didn’t turn up anything new. It looked like the crew was two pilots that alternated shifts and four soldiers.
Completing her search Fraya made her way back to the storage area in the aft of the craft that was also the entrance and exit. The four battle suits tempted her but they were clearly Empire design. The weapons cage on the other hand had a verity of heavy ordnance. Fraya would have also liked to take them but most were too heavy and conspicuous to lug around. What she did find in the locker was an assault shotgun.
Grinning Fraya took off her duster again and throw a strap over her head that held a lightweight pouch much like an arrow quiver that would hold the shotgun with the stock sticking up over her left shoulder. Taking the assault shotgun down Fraya inspected it, then loaded ten shells into the shotgun.
Maneuvering it over her head, Fraya slid it into the shotgun pouch. Pulling her duster back on Fraya grinned and turned to the ramp exit.
Shrugging her shoulders, tugging on the vest, and pulling on the duster Fraya made sure everything was secure and in place. With that Fraya hit the button to lower the ramp.
“Minerva please list this ship for twenty seven million for sale on that net address you were talking about.” Fraya asked the AI.
Minerva confirmed the request as the ramp finished hitting the tarmac. It was still lightly raining and with a deep breath and exhale Fraya forged ahead. Minerva anticipated her request and started closing the ramp as soon as she was off it.
“Thanks Minerva.”
With that Fraya started walking towards the exit of this section of the starport. Weaving around dozens of ships in all shapes and configurations with the only denominator that they were roughly the same size as the Empire ship she had just left, Fraya finally arrived at the gates. There was a guard shack with six heavily armored soldiers standing around looking miserable in the rain. Stopping when one guard stepped forwarded Fraya waited.
“Name and purpose on Benton?” He asked.
“Trading and looking to buy a new ship because the old ones long in the tooth.” Fraya went with her go to method, mixing truth with falsehood.
Nodding he point to her P90. “Using force or killing people is heavily fined.”
“Thank you I will remember that.” Fraya tried not to roll her eyes. If someone assaulted her she would dam well take the fucker out.
The security seemed to know what Fraya was thinking but with a sharp glare he waved her through. Walking out of the spaceport, Fraya found herself on a busy street that catered to the ports needs and the people that came from it. Bars were most prevalent through what looked like whore houses were a close second. Starlight did not shy away from the darker side of human nature and she saw drugs wildly available too.
Fraya started walking just taking in the sights. She was not the only one armed. Being around more people then she had in the past year was a disconcerting feeling that Fraya tried to shake.
As she was walking an invisible wave seemed to hit people and they stopped dead. It was extremely eerier and Fraya too stopped and grabbed her rifle. Then the people started stumbling towards people that hadn’t stopped dead.
“Fraya! A video was just released on Starlight’s main information site!” Minerva was as close to panic that Fraya had yet heard.
Fraya readied her P90. “What’s it say?”
Instead of answering anther voice played as Minerva feed the video’s sound into her implants.
“We are the Borg collective. Resistance if futile…”
“For Fuck’s sake!”