"Sam, get to the cargo bay pronto."

"Why Tony? You got a problem the great Ace fighter can't handle?"

"Sam, for once in your life, stop the sarcastic comments and listen to me."

"Fine." I could hear the hurt in his voice but right now I didn't care. Sam soon came down the cargo bay ramp.

He threw up his hands when he saw me. "What. What do you want?" I said nothing except to point at the mineral scanner. Seeing it, Sam groaned. "Now I see why you were so short. Fine, I'll try and fix it." I shook my head and pointed at the scanners viewscreen.

Sam glanced at it for a second. He leaned forward, seeming to take it seriously now. After looking at it for a few seconds, his jaw went through the hull. "T-T-Tony? Have you seen these reports?" I nodded. "This thing says within a thousand miles there are three thousand tonnes of gold, fifteen thousand tonnes of platinum and a couple thousand tonnes of other precious metals."

"I know Sam, that's why I called you. While I fly by the asteroid field, you keep an eye on the this things readouts, record it on a datastick." Sam nodded a bit stiffly like he was still in shock. Heck, I was still in shock!

Leaving the cargo bay for the cockpit, I deactivated the autopilot once I arrived. I kept the asteroid tracker on though. Using the software, I was able to avoid asteroids on the fringe of the asteroid field. After ten minutes of slow flying, Sam called me on the intercom. "Tony, the readings aren't changing. They are actually picking up denser deposits."

I just kind of fell into my chair. This discovery was.... I wasn't sure how to describe it. All I knew was that this was going to change our lives forever. Whether that change was good or bad, I could only guess at the moment. Finally I replied back. "Sam, we need to meet in the mess hall."

"Sure Tony. This.... This requires some planning." We both arrived in the mess hall. By some unspoken agreement, we avoided the mine laden topic of the scans. Instead I started brewing coffee and Sam heated up some food. After it was done cooking, we sat down and ate, saying nothing. Everything tasted like sand.

I burped and sat back in my chair. Swirling my coffee, I gulped down the last mouthful. I surveyed my plate. It was empty, even the chicken bones were picked clean. I sighed. Looks like I couldn't put it off any longer. I glanced up at Sam. He was in the same predicament.

Finally I took the plunge. "Pretty unbelievable huh Sam? All those tonnes of ore just sitting there in a huge ring of space rock."

Sam sighed and nodded. "Definitely. So, what do you think we should do about this?"

"Well, what are our options? Let's start with that." I said, nodding decisively.

"First option, ignore it. It's illegal to go beyond the border into unexplored space. Not to mention information on a resource like this is deadly. Bigger forces have been killed for far less."

"Second option, tell the U.F. (United Federation). Even though it's illegal they would probably pardon us since it was an accident. Plus we could expect a nice paycheck thrown our way. There is a shortage of metals since the fourth galactic war, so such a discovery like this would really help bolster our economy. The downside is that they may kill us instead so that they can keep the deposit secret but I doubt it. They know you can keep a secret since you were in the military before this plus you are a hero."

"Another option is that we sell it to a private party. Some mining corporations would pay dearly for information like this. Again though, it would be dangerous. They could easily kill us to keep it secret."

"Finally, we could mine it ourselves. Take a couple tonnes here or there and get rich off of it. We would have to keep it secret, maybe buy the rights to mine some asteroid fields to disguise the fact we are mining here." Sam spread his hands. "That's all I got so far. Any suggestions."

I shook my head. "No, I think you covered it all."

Sam leaned forward on the table. "So what do you think we should do?"

I shrugged. "No idea. All of those are feasible plans. I haven't been following the military news recently so I don't know the political situation. It's also been two years since the war, so most people have forgotten about me being a hero, especially since I was purposely trying to hide. I'm not sure how well received we would be if we told the U.F. about this mineral deposit."

Sam nodded. "Alright, I agree. So I say we mark this spot down on the map and get out for now. We need to make our deliveries on time otherwise we'll look suspicious. I can replace the hard drive for the mineral scanner and replicate the software so that the scans aren't found on it. If they're found we would be in deep trouble."

I nodded. "It's best that we do it quickly. We can always use the excuse that we checked up on the cargo after the pirates attacked us. It is true and we have the records to prove the pirate attack."

"Agreed. I'll get started on changing the hardware right away. You go ahead and plot the course for the Delgatho system while I get everything done."

"Yeah, it's best if you let me put in the coordinates." I elbowed him lightly in the side. "I don't want to warp to another section of uncharted space."

Sam smiled at me. "Well maybe it would be better if I put in the coordinates. Who knows? We might discover another alien civilization!"

I smiled back at him. It was good that Sam was back to his usual sarcastic, goofy self. It was a lot better than that serious face he had on earlier. "Yeah well, I'm still putting in the coordinates." I left for the pilot bubble and started inputting the coordinates in preparation of the jump. We were already beyond the warp boundary otherwise we wouldn't have been able to warp in.

I pulled up the comms after I was done with my preparations. "Hey Sam, you switched the hard drive around yet?"

Sams annoyed voice came out of the comm speaker. "Of course not! It's barely been ten minutes. I just finished getting all my tools together to take off the case of this mineral scanner."

I shrugged. "Well, I can take off any moment now. So how about I reroute the power that would maintain the artificial gravity in the cabins so that you can keep working on it in warpspace."

"Uh, no! You do realize that I have some things in my room that I can't have just floating around. My vanilla milkshake for example."

"Vanilla milkshake? You said we were out of it when I asked yesterday!"

"Uhhh. About that... So anyways, could you delay the warp by about twenty minutes."

"Yeah I can. But don't think you're getting away with this! I'm still mad about that milkshake!"

"Anyways, bye!" Sam's comm signal disappeared.

"Lying, cheating, thieving sonovagun. Bet he hid some other things too." I muttered under my breath. I really was upset about that. I bought the milkshake mix when I was on the last station we stopped by. I'd been looking forward to getting the last portion when a certain snake must have taken it.

I sat in the cockpit bubble, waiting for Sam to get back on the comms. After seventeen minutes, Sam finally called back. "We're ready to go. Luckily this things computing systems are common. The only thing that makes this thing so expensive is the scanners and they don't store any information. I had to tear out the computing system from one of the other things back here but I checked the shipping label on it. We were supposed to deliver it to the Starlon System on our way back in two weeks. We have time to buy a replacement. Also, it's only a computer. It isn't too expensive to replace."

I nodded. That was Sam for you, checking everything thoroughly. "Why didn't you just wipe the computing systems instead of installing a new one." I had to get this clarified. That's what I would have done, so I didn't see why he hadn't done that.

"Well I could have.... except the gig would have been up if they had pulled the hard drive. Data is never erased from a computer, just the way to access it can be destroyed. If they did a deep scan of the memory banks, they would have found it. It would stick out like a sore thumb since it would have been the only deleted scan as well. It's better to say that the computing system got damaged from a pirate attack but we replaced it, then to risk them finding it. Also, I incinerated the computing system using the MFB (Magnetic Fusion Bottle)"

"Great Sam. With that done, no one should be able to find out what we discovered. Anyways, I'm activating the tachyon drive. We should reach the Delgatho Mining System in twenty four minutes."

"Alright. It's your turn to monitor the ship while I finish up the programing transfer down here."

"Fine, see you in a bit Sam."

"You too buddy." With a click, he signed off. I activated the tachyon drive, listening to the whine as it kicked in. There was a flash of white light that covered my viewscreen. It dimmed automatically though, so there wasn't blindness from the intense light. The white light didn't disappear, staying prominently displayed on the viewscreen.

It was a clear signal that we were, indeed, in warpspace. Letting out a deep breath, I leaned back in my chair. For next twenty minutes I just sat there. Trying to come to terms with what had happened.

I only came out of my reverie when a tone went off. Stretching my hand out, I shut down the alarm. It was the one that came on to alert the crew that the ship would be exiting warpspace soon. I activated the comms. "Hey Sam, we're exiting warpspace in less than a minute."

"Alright Tony, I'll go ahead and get to my bubble in a second." Not soon after he got off the comms, I heard a thud followed by Sam cursing. I smiled. Funny how he always seemed to hit his head on random things when he was in a hurry.

The solid white of warpspace that covered my viewscreen pulsed once brightly before it suddenly turned into the black of space with stars randomly dotting the vast expanse. I checked the radar. Nothing was close enough to warrant immediate attention. I turned towards the coordinates and compared them to the ones I had written down on my smart watch.

I sighed in relief. They matched. This was, indeed, the Delgatho mining system. For some reason, I didn't trust Sam with putting the coordinates in anymore. Actually, I should have checked them before he put them in. Come to think of it, it did seem like a bad idea to manually put in coordinates and not have someone else check them. Seems like my military training was starting to fade a bit.

I grinned. Well, I could do with less regulations. Though some regulations make sense, like checking the atmospheric regulator before take off, others made no sense at all, like making sure there wasn't any damage to the paint after landing. Useless regulations made up by lazy bureaucrats was the exact reason why I decided to leave the army.

"Hey Tony! Stop spacing and get going. We need to dock soon or they might get suspicious, ya know?"

"I know Sam, I know. Stop nagging me will ya? Sheesh." I fired up the engine and headed towards the Galactic Surveying & Orbital-mining Corporation (GSOC) station.

Funny. According to normal logic, the 'Delgatho Mining System' should belong to a corporation called Delgatho. But if we went according to that, there would be multiple systems that were called 'GSOC Mining System 001, GSOC Mining System 002', and so on and so on.

Instead whoever discovered the system would name it and the surveyors would then come in and check what the system was viable for. If it was only good for mining, then it would become the 'xxxxxx- Mining System.' If it was a system not good for anything it would be the 'xxxxxxx- Void System'. Things got a bit more complicated if there was a habitable planet. If there were aliens than the entire system would become secluded, not that there were many planets like that. There were a few though and some were on even terms with humanity as well.

If the system was habitable, then ten years after the system's population reached10,000 the population would then vote on the name of the system. Of course, many systems gained some weird names from that. Seriously weird names. I mean, who names the system they live in 'Sparkly Unicorn System'!? I could at least handle the 'Here Be Dragons System' but definitely not the 'Goo Goo Gah System'. That was just too much idiocy.

A tone went off that was combined with a red button flashing. I locked the heading and thrust before reaching over and tapping it. "This is GSOC Mining Station B-1937, you are approaching us at vector 3.09 horizontal and 50.8 vertical relative to our position. Please state your purpose in approaching or be considered a threat to this station and its inhabitants."

I rolled my eyes. Great, I was just thinking about how much I hate bureaucratic nonsense and then these guys start on it. I just HATE it. I linked the comms to Sam. "Hey, buddy, you know the drill."

"Sigh. Why do I have to deal with these paper pushers?"

"Just look at it this way. I respect you for being able to understand more than half the things that come out of their mouths. So, my man, just work your wizardry."

"Sometimes I get the feeling this was the only reason you let me come with you." Oops. Did I let too much slip? I can't let him figure it out!

"Whaaat? Of course not, I also kept you for your amazing engineering skills."

"Uh-huh. Just patch them through to me."

"Will do, thanks bud!" Score!

I patched the motor mouth from GSOC Mining Station blee bloo blah and let Sam talk his heart out. I was thirty minutes away from docking with the station anyways. Most mining stations were located fairly close to the warp boundary to speed up deliveries. Of course, it also helped that most asteroid belts were close to the warp boundary as well. When the first tachyon drive had come out, ships had to travel to Saturn before reaching the warp boundary.

As a testimony to the long windedness of desk jockeys, I was eleven minutes away from the station whenever they finally got done talking. "Whew. They sure can talk your ear off if you let them." Came Sam's exhausted voice.

"Wow Sam, I didn't know that nineteen minutes could be so exhausting to you."

"How about I let you experience it for yourself next time."

My face twitched."Uh, how about no."

"That's what I thought, tough guy." While we were joking around, I could still sense an underlying tension. No matter how much we tried, we couldn't forget our discovery. My shoulders wouldn't come loose even after I rubbed them for a full five minutes. I shook my head, time to get back to business.

"Anyways Sam, where do I dock, what's the speed, you know, the usual."

"Ah don't worry about it. I got the path up on the guidance system. Go ahead follow it you dumb pilot."

"Yeah well, if you want this 'dumb pilot' to turn down the inertia dampener just enough to knock you out, continue by all means."

"Hehe. Bring it on, you dumb pilot."

I rolled my eyes. "I would, but with your tendency to bonk your head on the ceiling, I think you'll knock yourself out without my help."

"I do not." A smile crept over my face at Sam's indignant tone.

"Of course you don't. Anyway, I gotta dock with the station. Be right back."

"That's right, you dumb pilot. Just follow my plan."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, like all your plans work out." When I said that, a silence descended upon us. The accidental discovery simply weighed on us too much for me to even attempt to make a joke of it, even if it had only been a reference.

Taking advantage of the stifling silence, I glanced over the trajectories Sam had laid out. Adjusting the ship and putting the thrusters on a steady backwards burn, I prepared for docking with the station. We were getting put on Deck 60 Bay 12, the lowest deck. Decks were just like floors in a skyscraper while bays were parking garages.

The station was a very simple rod floating in space, made of dark grey metal with white lights blinking on the outside. The station wasn't meant to be pretty, it was a mining station after all. The path Sam gave me required me to fly into the large open section at the bottom of the mining station.

I flew into the open space. Multiple pads were displayed in front of me.Virtual overlays on my screen showed me the bay numbers. I quickly found the landing pad with the number 12 on it. I flew in close, firing the thrusters continuously to slow down the ship. I came to a slight hover just above the landing pad.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

I activated the landing gear and applied a small amount of thrust from the top of the ship. The stumpy metal legs from the bottom of the cargo hauler extended. I felt the thud as they made contact with the station. The magnets on the bottom of the legs allowed the ship to remain stuck to the floor instead of floating off.

In the loading and unloading bays, stations usually didn't have artificial gravity. This made it easier on pilots since we didn't have to worry about gravity shifting on us. It also helped keep the station's costs down due to not needing as much power.

I unbuckled my seat harness and walked back to the cargo bay. Even if gravity wasn't on in the station, we still had it on our ship. I walked to the very back of the cargo bay. I pulled up the ramp's control system with the holo-projectors. Motors whirred as the ramp started to descend. I tapped the tablet embedded in my suit's left arm, activating the magnets in my boots.

I could feel the gravity disappearing as I walked down the ramp. My body pushed against my suit, wanting to float upwards. My boots kept my feet anchored to the ground though. Quite a strange sensation. Even after all these years, I still couldn't get used to it.

A man dressed in a dark grey space suit was floating towards me. He was coming in at a diagonal, aimed towards the floor next to me. Upon nearing me, he slung his hands downwards towards the floor. This caused his body to flip around, his feet making solid contact with the floor. I could hear the metallic thud as his boots latched onto the ground.

The man stood up before turning towards me, extending his hand. I shook it firmly . "My name is Robert Den and I'm the inventory manager of the Delgatho Mining System GSOC Mining Station B-1937 Deck 60 Bay 12."

I grasped his hand, giving him a firm shake. "Captain Delgado of the cargo vessel Lone Wolf."

Robert nodded as he let go of my hand. "I've been expecting you. You're behind schedule though, by about a half-hour. Run into any trouble?"

I sighed. "Yeah. We had some pirates attack us while we were cycling our tachyon drive. The Navy came in and took the pirates out but we had to inspect our cargo afterwards."

Robert sighed. "The pirates are starting to get pretty bad back in the core sectors. Luckily, the fringes aren't feeling it too much. Odd, huh? You'd expect more pirates to be attacking us. Wonder why."

"I can answer that. The fringes are too spread out. It can take days traveling from each possible hit and the colonies are often just starting out. Takes too much to get there and for only a little gain. The core though, their defenses are weakened after the galactic war and they have a lot more credits. It's easier to take out a transport convey in the fringes, but it pays a lot more in the core."

Robert nodded. "I see the logic. Guess pirates are willing to risk their lives for more money."

I nodded back. "That's why they're pirates. Anyway, should I send you the manifest?"

"Please do."

I pulled up the documents on my suit before tapping my left arm to Roberts. The files were transfered on contact. Robert looked at it for a while before nodding. "Everything's in order. Give me a minute and I'll have the workers down here to unload the cargo."

"Will do."

I clambered back on the ship. Sam was waiting in the cargo bay. "Did he suspect anything?" Sam asked hurriedly.

I wiped off my forehead as I leaned against the side of the cargo bay. My entire body was covered in cold sweat from when I had talked with Robert. I'd kept calm but it had still been nerve wracking. "No. He asked why we were late but I told him about the pirates. He understood, thankfully."

Sam sighed. "Thank god."

"Anyway, the workers will be down here to unload everything."

"Alright, I'll go ahead and mark everything they need to take with them." Sam pulled up cargo manifest with the holo-projectors. The cables that previously strapped down several containers unlatched themselves and retracted into the floor. A soft green light shone in front of the containers that were unlatched. Now the workers would know exactly what to unload.

Sam turned towards me. "So, what should we do now?"

I sighed. "I don't know. How about we go to Sigma System? I still have a house on Bonth that we can hang out at. Then we can decide what to do. They have mining equipment for sale there if that's what we decide to do and we need to refuel as well."

Sam nodded. "Fine. It'll take around eight days to get there, if I'm remembering correctly."

"It is, but we still need to deliver the other packages before we can leave. Plus, we're still meeting Anna "

"Oh yeah, almost forgot. I'll try to take a nap then, the chase with the pirates tired me out."

"See ya later." I watched as Sam left the cargo bay before I shook my head. Sam didn't handle stress well. I'd noticed it during the war whenever we were going to battles that were extremely dangerous. He'd get nervous and start experiencing some anxiety. Not only that, he would also become extremely tired.

That was the reason why I had volunteered to stay down in the cargo bay. Just by looking into his eyes, I could tell how much it had tired him out, even if it had only been an hour since we found the asteroid. I knew he'd need a break and I wasn't going to force him, we were too close for me to try and push him.

I sat down on one of the crates nearby while I was waiting for the workers to get there. About ten minutes later, there came a knock. Walking over to the ramp, I could see five men standing by my ship. A large mover was lay on the ground beside them. The one in that had knocked on the ship waved at me. "Captain Delgado, laborer Hank requesting permission to board."

I waved them inside."Come on in." The whole requesting permission thing was a courtesy that was taken quite seriously throughout the entire galaxy. It was considered massively disrespectful to get on a ship without asking for permission first.

Once they climbed into the cargo bay I turned towards Hank. "All the crates that needing moving are glowing green like this one." I pointed to a crate beside me. "Any that aren't glowing are going to somewhere else."

Hank nodded. "Great. That really helps." He turned to the four men behind him. "You heard him, get to work fellers."

The five men spread out, finding all the crates that had a green light in front of them. Once they saw all the boxes, they got to work. Two of them would grab a box, starting with the large boxes.Then they would haul the box outside to the mover, their magnetic feet constantly activated to prevent them from floating off when they stepped into zero-g. The fifth person, Hank, would grab the boxes and strap them down to the mover, preventing them from floating off.

The work went quickly while all I had to do was supervise. I simply made sure they were grabbing the right boxes. In about twenty minutes, they had unloaded all fifty boxes. Hank presented a tablet to me. It had a document with a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo about how I had overseen each package removed and that I confirmed they were the right ones. I signed off on it before going back into my ship. I closed the ramp before going back into the ship.

We would have to stay until they confirmed the cargo's contents and cross-checked them with the manifest. Afterwards, we would probably go and deliver the rest of our packages. Then we'd go to the Sigma System and decide what to do about the asteroid field.

I went back to my room and put my E-Glasses on. Pulling up a game, I lost myself in the digital world. I had just got done ordering my farm to harvest the apple orchard when the tone went off. The mining station had just sent the confirmation and sent the funds to my bank.

Sending back a short confirmation of payment, I went to the pilot bubble and opened the comms. "Sam! Time to leave!"

A groan came from the comms before Sam's sleepy voice sounded. "I'll be up in a second Tony. Just, just give me a second to wake up.

"No pressure buddy. Don't fall back asleep though."

"I won't."

About five minutes later, I heard Sam cursing as he knocked his head against something. I smirked. That was the Sam I knew. That simple gesture was the most reassuring thing I had heard all day.

The comm activated as Sam said "Alright, I'm ready. Prep for take off while I get the navigational data pulled up."

I nodded, even if he couldn't see me. I reached up and started flipping switches. I started announcing the steps as I prepped. "Warming up engines." The ship hummed as I powered up the magnetic fusion bottle. "Checking ship integrity." On the screen to the left of me was an outline of the ship. A green line passed from one end of the image to the other. The outline, which was previously black, turned green. "Ship integrity at a hundred percent."

Sam's voice came over the comms. "I've got the nav-data. Go ahead and launch."

"Alright. Releasing clamps." The ships magnetic landing gear turned off. "Minimal thrust deployed." Small jets of iridescent plasma fired from the bottom of the ship. It started to float upwards from the miniscule thrust.

I double-checked the heading the Sam had laid out for me. "Secondary engine at 10% thrust." I felt a brief pressure before the inertia dampeners kicked in. Announcing everything I did was a throwback to my days in the Navy. It was comforting, having that training to rely on. Of course, I'd ignore all of it if I ever had to go into combat but it was still nice to slip back into old habits every now and then.

We slowly slid out of the space station. After we were a couple hundred miles away, I activated the engines at a hundred percent. The inertia dampeners weren't sluggish this time. They were programmed to kick in once a certain g-force had been reached. If it hadn't passed .9gs, the inertia dampeners would leave it. We normally kept the ship at .8g, a high setting since both of us were born on low-gravity fields.

We still had a way to go before reaching the warp boundary so I double checked the manifest. Just after I finished, we reached the warp boundary. "Alright Sam, next stop is the Warden System. Dropping off some high-end electronics."

"Sweet. Any pressing delivery stops after that?"

"We've got two more after that and then we can end for the day. Need to top off our atmo and fuel when we get to Warden though."

"Fine. What's the last stop? I think shore leave would be great."

"The Voltrax Mining System."

Sam's voice was filled with outrage. "A mining system? Ugh. Those places are always so dull though!"

"We could probably get a Zero-G court though, play a few games? Whaddaya say?"

Sam sighed. "Okay. It isn't the worst suggestion I've heard all day, though I doubt it'll work."

"Oh come on, don't be such a pessimist. I'm sure we can get a court."

I punched in the coordinates and activated the tachyon drive. The viewscreen darkened before showing the bland white of warpspace. It would be two and a half hours until we arrived at Warden.

"Hey Sam. What are you going to do to pass the time?" I called out.

"I was thinking about taking a nap but I could play some chess if you're interested."

"Great. Let's do it."

I unstrapped my harness. Sam met me in the hallway and together we walked to the gally. Once there, Sam opened up a cabinet and pulled out a worn box with glass chess pieces inside it. It was our go-to when we were on long trips. I had found that if I couldn't destroy Sam in the beginning, he would always win in the end game.

We set up the board and started playing. I used my knights and bishops to blitz Sam's pawns. Sam used his rooks and Queen to set-up a solid defense. Soon, we had both suffered many losses. Unfortunately, most of Sam's losses were pawns and a few more important pieces. I was definitely on the losing end.

Sam was boxing me in, his queen constantly putting me in check. I was edging towards the inevitable when the alarm went off. Relieved, I ran out of the galley towards the pilot bubble. Sam raged behind me. "You coward! There's still a minute left, come back and finish!"

"No way!" I called over my shoulder, "I say we just call it a tie.

"Why you! At least have the decency to pick up your pieces!" I laughed as I strapped myself into the seat. The countdown for the tachyon drive had just reached 50 seconds.

"Sam, might wanna strap in." I warned him. "We're coming in two hundred miles from the planet." Sam curses flew down the hallway. I chuckled before getting serious. Soon, we exited warpspace.

Before us was a brown marble hanging in space. This was the planet Warden, the Navy Outpost for the Frontier, this section of it at least. The planet was actually only a hundred miles from the warp boundary. That meant that the Navy, with their better engines, could actually jump straight to the planet.

Most Navy outposts were within a thousand miles of the Warp Boundary, easily allowing Navy ships to jump to the outpost right away. This allowed them to patrol areas far easier and react to distress signals faster. It was a regulation that I agreed with whole-heartedly and it had saved me during the war as well.

A stern voice came over the comms the second I dropped out of warpspace. "Attention unidentified vessel, this is a restricted space. Lockdown all turrets and send verification. Any sudden movements will be classified as hostile threat and we are authorized to take action."

I raised my eyebrow. This was a little over the top for the Navy, normally they simply requested that the ship remain still until they could provide verification. The warning about firing on us if we moved seemed paranoid. "Sam? You got this?"

"Yeah. I just gotta get everything in order here."

The comm lit up again. "You have one minute to provide verification. If you cannot or will not comply, than be prepared to be boarded."

Sam's annoyed voice came on over the comms. "Just hold it for a second. I was in the mess hall when we jumped alright? Here, I just sent you the ship license and cargo manifest. We just so happen to be delivering cargo to you, be a little happier."

There was a pause before the stern voice came back on. This time it was a little softer, but it was more like a downgrade from broken glass to sandpaper. "Verification checks out. You are clear to land on Warden. I'm sending you a vector to the spaceport. Follow it or you will be shot for violating United Federation airspace."

I sighed. "Captain Tony Delgado of the cargo hauler Lone Wolf acknowledges the request and will follow your directions." After answering, I turned off the comm.

Sam's irritated huff showed just what he thought of our greeting. "Tony, did you hear that guy? I don't normally get so irritated but he managed to do it. If he knew he was talking to the hero of Kaleesh, he wouldn't be so smug."

"Sam, knock it off. If the Navy is being so cautious with even a cargo hauler, than something must be wrong. That guy was just trying to do his job, it's nothing to get worked up about."

"I know but it still rubs me the wrong way."

I sighed. "Get over it Sam. We've still got some stuff to do."

"Fine." Came Sam's curt response. I didn't pay any attention to it. So long as Sam stopped harping on the dude, I didn't mind. Complaining was fine, I didn't like the guy either. However, I was more concerned with the raised security than anything else.

During the voyage to Warden, we passed by five frigates and two destroyers that were currently holding above Warden. It was a fairly good number of ships for such an out of the way outpost.

The ship started to shake as we hit atmosphere. Our cargo ship was shaped like a brick and was simply not meant for aerodynamics. I let gravity pull the ship downwards, not wanting to waste the fuel. The navigational shields helped disperse the friction from the plummet but even still, the belly of the ship turned slightly red as the heat from entering the atmosphere overwhelmed the shields. The ship shook as we fell through the atmosphere.

I activated the thrusters when I was six miles above the surface of Warden. The ship was able to overcome its velocity by the time we were a mile above the spaceport. Following the navy-officer-with-a-stick-up-his-butt's flight plan, I extended the landing gear and brought the ship to a slow hover above the designated tarmac below. Lowering the thrust, I landed gently on the runway. I could see close to twenty fighters parked on the tarmac around us.

It was pretty much the standard operating procedure after that. A navy officer along with several workers came out and greeted us before boarding our ship. They took the military-grade processors and computer chips using the simple pallet they brought. After confirming payment, I asked for a departure flight path and soon we were on our way.

We had just cleared the atmosphere when Sam decided to pipe-up. "Hey Tony, I thought we were going to get some fuel and atmo at Warden?"

I face palmed. "Yeah, yeah we were." I groaned before glancing at the system. "Well, we should be okay by all standards. We'll be running kinda low but we'll definitely have enough to make it to all our stops. How about you remind me next time?"

Sam's impish voice came over the comms. "How about you pick up your chess pieces next time."

I grimaced. "Touche." He was certainly getting cheeky, that much was for certain.

The next stop was Void System 0319. The system had a binary star and two rocky planets. Due to the planets' closeness to the sun and their surface temperatures, mining operations were considered limited. A research station was holding orbit above the twin suns. I wasn't quite sure what they were researching, but I knew they paid a lot to replace their equipment.

We didn't touch down this time but attached to clamps on the outside of the station. I decompressed the cargo bay, venting the atmosphere out. A person pushing a large rectangular object flew out of an airlock on the station. The person's flight adjusted as he closed in, a jet of iridescent plasma from the object slowing him down.

The comms activated. "Hailing the ship Lone Wolf. My name is Garret Houldon and I am currently doing EVA with a hauler outside your ship. Please open your cargo bay to allow me to board and transport our tools."

Huh. Scientists are a really wacky bunch. "I read you Garret. Cargo bay is decompressed but please allow us a moment to get everything ready for transportation."

"Will do, Lone Wolf. Over and out."

I tapped on my suits left arm, activating the helmet. The black suits we had on were actually quite sophisticated. The entire suit was composed of carbon-fiber nanites, very sturdy and strong. An oxygen reclaimer was located on the base of my neck and would provide around two days worth of air without any resupply before failing. The nanites of the suit stretched and remolded according to the suits settings.

It looked as if a black liquid climbed my head, encompassing everything. There was no faceplate, only a faceless black surface. A display turned on inside the helmet, showing me outside world. It was as though there wasn't a quarter inch of carbon-fiber separating me from everything else. The camera feed was provided in real-time with basically no delay from the nanites of the suit.

The suit was one of the perks from being a retired Navy personnel. It was, mostly, bulletproof and the refractive coating helped with energy weapons. The black painting also helped with keeping a low profile in space. It had saved my life during the war. A heavy blaster round from a destroyer turret had ripped through the fuselage of my fighter.

I had ejected from the ship and cleared the wreckage of my fighter as fast as possible. It was a basic tactic that the Navy instructors had drilled into us. Just because the ship was trashed, didn't mean the enemy knew. Sure enough, three more blaster rounds punched through my fighter seconds after I cleared. Several pieces of shrapnel bounced off my suit, but nothing punctured through the carbon.

After that, I had floated through space until the fight was over. I started broadcasting an emergency signal and was eventually picked up by a Navy shuttle. I loved the suit and was glad that the Navy had allowed me to keep it.

I went to the back of the ship and started sorting out the cargo. The gravity was still on in the cargo bay so I wasn't worried about the cargo floating around. After I sorted everything out, I lowered the cargo bay doors. The man that was floating around the ship flew in, landing on the deck. The box didn't land with him but hovered beside him instead.

Garret waved at me after coming in. "Hello mate. Everything ready for me to ship off then?"

I nodded. "Sure is. Everything lit up green is yours."

"I'll get to work than, much obliged. The payment has been made, but we would like to request that you stay docked for about twenty minutes so that we can confirm everything works."

"We can stay for that long, but any longer and we might not make it to our next delivery."

"Alright. Don't worry though, we'll have you on your way in a jiffy."

There was only three crates for the station. We now had only forty of our original sixty left. We'd had a full load before we were ambushed by the pirates. As Garret was unloading his crates, Sam's voice came on over the comms. "Hey Tony, did you ask about the fuel?"

Crap. Garret was in the middle of loading the second crate and I didn't want to interrupt him. After it was strapped down, I hailed him on the comms. "Garret, is there any chance we could buy some fuel here? We're running pretty low."

Garret cocked his head before shaking. "Nope, sorry mate. We're running pretty low ourselves. Actually, we've got a fuel deposit scheduled for next week. Fraid you're going to have to go somewhere else for fuel."

I sighed. "It's fine Garret. We have enough to go to a few more stops before we run completely out. Sorry to bother you."

"No problem mate. Anyway, I gotta get this last crate and then you can be on your jolly way, alright?"

"That'll be great."

I quickly ended up in the Pilot bubble again, watching Garret going into the station. I twiddled my thumbs and watched the twin suns circling around one another in the distance. The red and yellow flames of the two suns entangled with another, blending together in a spectacular show of stellar forces. Even though they were almost fifty million miles away, they looked close enough to touch.

While I was admiring the view, Garret called and told me that the equipment all worked fine. Signing off, I asked the station to release the clamps and then we were back off into the void of warpspace. Another four hours later and we were in the Voltrax system.

It was another GSOC company station that had requested a supply run. Mining stations usually had fabricators there and would use raw materials brought in to the miners to make anything they needed. The only exceptions to this were food, fuel, and electronics. Fabricators were good for making hull plating, but they weren't so good at making circuits or data chips. Plastic was a very rare commodity in space after all.

All GSOC stations were built the same. Flying into the bay at the bottom of the station, we quickly unloaded our cargo. This time, I didn't forget to ask for fuel. They subtracted the fuel cost from the payment from our shipment and we also paid for docking overnight. Going aboard the station, we split up. I asked around soon found a pretty nice room to stay in. I called Sam but he had already booked a different room.

We were going to play around at a Zero-G court but the court was already booked that night for a boxing match. Sam said it was alright since he was feeling pretty tired anyway. I went out to a restaurant and bought a simple cheeseburger and fries. While our ship had some supplies, the only thing we could use to heat up everything was a microwave. Our food was lacking, to say the least.

After I ate, I went back to the room and passed out. The pirate attack had occured at ten in the morning and we had just arrived at the station at around six in the evening. It had been an exhausting day.