Michael stared at the distant stars through the cracked window from his bed reminiscing about his ordinary life. He often found himself forgetting about his home life while on a journey with his friends, but would find during less stimulating activities and experiences such as the mind-numbing traveling through space he would think back to wonder how his friends were doing. It would be one of those moments when he would think back to all of the things he truly missed. Although Michael had many life-changing experiences here in Nova Galactica he felt both guilt and looked back on what his life used to be. While he may have been looking back with rose-tinted glasses he remembered things being good. It made him think about the question he had asked himself several times before. How was he to find his way back home? Only Ikti Prime holds the answer to this question that is where he must go. Some time had passed and Michael heard the voices of others over in the cabin. He got out of bed and walked over to join them and at the very least listen in on the conversation if not be a part of it. Michael joined Tiki and Ellop at the table to hear in on them. “So, I wonder what we’re going to go and do next,” said Ellop.
“A said not to talk about it,” said Tiki referring to Azav.
Azav had spoken with the crew earlier not to disclose any information in front of Titan that could be used to track them down at a later point such as not using names, and not giving information of where they would go after dropping Titan off. “Sorry, that’s right I forgot,” said Ellop.
“It’s fine. I do know one thing though. Me and you got some work to do on the ship,” said Tiki.
“Maybe you could give us a hand,” said Ellop looking toward Michael.
“Uh, I don’t really know anything about how these things work,” said Michael.
“Well, looks like you’re going to learn a thing or two then,” said Ellop.
“Eh, okay,” said Michael nervously.
“You’re going to learn with us,” said Ellop.
“Right and after our payday we will have enough to do whatever we want,” said Tiki with excitement.
“That’s right, well, not literally anything, but a lot less constraints,” said Ellop.
“What were you guys thinking? Anything ambitious?” asked Michael.
“Well, the exterior is all scuffed up, and we need to replace the frontal window, but I have some ideas in mind,” said Tiki.
“Yeah… and I did such a good job too on the exterior, but oh well,” said Ellop.
“I told you not to worry about it too much because something like this happens all the time. I mean really, count how often we bump into space garbage and it scrapes the exterior,” said Tiki.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, but I’m still a bit bummed about it,” said Ellop.
“It will look better though once we repair it,” said Tiki.
The ship was navigating automatically and began making a pinging sound as they were close to their destination. Azav appeared from one end of the ship and went to take control. “Well, looks like we’re almost here,” said Tiki.
Titan was once again trying to speak with the crew after having previously given up, but this time took a different approach rather than trying to make threats. “Wait, let’s all be reasonable here,” said Titan.
“A little too late to try and talk reason,” said Ellop with a smug look.
“I’m serious. What do y’all want? Credits? I have credits. I can give you all the credits you could possibly want,” said Titan pleading.
“No thanks,” said Ellop.
“You, the one with the black mask. You’re the leader here, right? What do ya say we put this all behind us and go our own ways? I can give you anything you want,” said Titan now pleading with Azav.
“Your offer has been declined and my decision is final,” said Azav not turning around to face Titan.
“Fools, all of you are fools,” said Titan.
Azav’s ship entered the atmosphere of the planet and landed a few minutes later. The climate was similar to the one on Earth. In fact, the whole planet looked very earthlike, both in space and on land. With blue skies above Azav stepped out leaving the crew behind and returned with several officers to help remove Titan from the ship. “I don’t know how to thank you enough,” said one of the officers to Azav who looked back through the expressionless mask. Azav accepted the reward for collecting the bounty and returned to the ship. “So where exactly are we?” asked Michael.
“The Intergalactic Council’s Intergalactic Police Force have prisons all over the galaxy, so we turned Titan in to the nearest one for our convenience,” said Azav.
“Oh, so are we near Ikti Prime?” asked Michael.
“We are not,” said Azav.
“Next stop we should definitely go to Universe Market to go and get some parts for the ship,” said Ellop.
“Universe Market? What’s that?” asked Michael.
“Well, it’s this huge market that’s open all the time, and vendors from all over the galaxy sell anything you could imagine there. The selection of ship parts is wonderful and have anything you could wish for,” said Ellop.
“It may be a worthwhile venture considering our ship has sustained damages from, well, everything that happened. It was good you installed that armor on the exterior Ellop. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to go through the wall like that,” said Azav.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get going to the Universe Market,” said Ellop with excitement.
It was a few sleep cycles later when the ship would arrive at the planet home to Universe Market. From space the ship pointed toward the planet with grey blobs surrounded by seas of sand on a spectrum from light gold to dark orange. The grey blobs being those areas settled by vendors made visible by the unending sand. The airspace near the planet was a lot more busy than the others they had visited as several vessels were both entering and exiting the planet’s atmosphere. Azav steered to arrive at the planet but turned around to ask Ellop a question. “Apologies, but which sector of the planet were you looking toward visiting?” asked Azav.
“Sector 186 is where the parts I wanted to buy were at,” said Ellop.
“That’s also where the computer parts are at, just saying,” said Tiki who seemed likely to make more purchases now that she had more money.
“But what about that drone? Didn’t you get it on a loan?” asked Ellop.
“I did, but I did the math, I have a budget to stick to,” said Tiki.
Ellop had already rented a garage in the area to park Azav’s ship in order to make the repairs and upgrades. Azav landed the ship in the sector and navigated using coordinates to the garage before turning the power of the ship down low and inching the ship in. He powered down the ship. Sheerya and Azav opted to each explore on their own while Michael, Ellop, and Tiki formed a group. The sun was immediately beating down on Michael, and within a few minutes he purchased a drink from one of the vendors. As Michael walked with his drink he walked along past the different parts of the ships unaware of what each of them did. “We don’t need any of that,” Ellop said as Michael looked through some seat covers.
“Oh Ellop, relax he’s just taking a look. Besides, if he wants that rolli leather seat cover he can buy it,” said Tiki.
“Sorry, but we’re specifically looking for new window panes and body panels,” said Ellop.
“And what about guns? I’ve always felt like we’re vulnerable not having any guns on the ship, but I could set them up if we found some here,” said Tiki.
“I guess, considering it may prevent my handiwork from being treated as a battering ram in the future,” said Ellop.
“So, are we just going to stay here until the ship is upgraded?” asked Michael.
“Well, I was thinking of doing that initially, but after surveying the ship it’s all held up apart from asthetic details. So, since the ship is in working condition I was thinking of just delivering the parts back to the garage and loading them in so I can finish the repairs and upgrades back on Zogan,” said Ellop.
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“Plus, we don’t have access to all the tools here that we ordinarily do back at home,” added Tiki.
“Fair enough, I don’t know how much longer I can tolerate the heat,” said Michael.
“Yeah, the heat can be brutal here,” said Tiki.
Ellop and Tiki continued looking around the market as Michael also explored with them. Nothing particularly caught his eye as he didn’t have any skill in engineering and bodywork on spaceships. As the sun was setting the three returned to the garage where the items purchased earlier in the day would be arriving the following morning. Sheerya had ordered dinner from a local restaurant and had food ready by the time everyone arrived back at the ship. It smelled wonderful and sweet. “Wow, this smells wonderful,” said Michael.
“I thought you’d like it. The locals on this planet have a sweet tooth, and well, you can never go wrong with a bit of sweetness,” said Sheerya.
The meal consisted of some type of meat in a sweet sauce as well as bread and caramalized fruit. Better than all of that garbage they usually ate on Azav’s ship that was space friendly. The following morning the parts they ordered arrived and were loaded onto Azav’s ship before they left and would return to Zogan. When they arrived at Zogan everyone left the ship after feeling all cooped up and took the day to relax as it had been a few intergalactic weeks since they were last at home, so Azav went easy on everyone and didn’t give any orders when people got back. After a day of relaxation the following morning Tiki and Ellop were up early and woke up Michael. “Hey Michael, we’re going to go work on the ship right now, wanna come?” asked Ellop.
MIchael was tired and at first was going to decline, but he soon reminded himself the experience and knowledge would be valuable, so he agreed to tag along. Ellop Tiki and Michael entered the ship. “Okay, buckle up,” said Ellop.
“Oh, we’re not doing it here?” asked Michael.
“No, our tools aren’t out here, they’re in another part of the jungle,” said Tiki.
Michael and Tiki buckled their seatbelts and arrived a couple of minutes later at the other part of the jungle where they did work. It was similar to the other deforested area Azav would park his ship before the stone building, but over in the working area was a large shed with solar panels attached to the roof and another larger patch of deforested land. “Alright, first things first, we need to take the new side panels from the ship,” said Ellop.
“Can we carry them? I remember that robots loaded them in back at Universe Market,” said Michael.
“No, they’re too heavy, but follow me,” said Ellop alluding to something.
Michael followed Ellop with Tiki also trailing behind. Ellop opened a large metal garage door to the shed and fluck the lights on. “We have our own little helpers,” said Ellop pointing to two androids standing on charging ports. “These two can do all the heavy lifting for us. It really was a great purchase that one time we bought these,” said Ellop looking at Tiki.
“Yeah, and Azav said not to buy them, but they’ve come into so much use over the years it’s hard to imagine what it would be like without them,” said Tiki.
“Go and remove all of the ship parts from the ship,” commanded Ellop to the androids.
The two androids sprang to life and walked over to the ship to unload the new materials. “While they’re doing that let me show you around,” said Ellop.
They walked into the garage and Ellop pointed out his machines and industrial equipment. “Plasma cutter, CNC machine, lifting crane, welding machine, hydraulic press,” said Ellop giving Michael a tour and pointing out all the tools.
“Wow, this is a lot of machinery,” said Michael having never experienced anything quite like it.
“Yeah, I’m quite proud of the collection we’ve accumulated over the years. You’d never know how much of Azav’s ship was mine and Tiki’s doing,” said Ellop.
“Well, it seems very impressive,” said Michael commenting on the workshop.
“Well thank you. The androids should be done now, let’s see if they’ve taken all of the parts out yet,” said Ellop walking back out of the workshop.
The androids had taken the parts and organized them into a neat row so that all parts could be visible and none were stacking on top of one another. “Perfect, so the first thing we’re going to do is fix those broken windows,” said Ellop.
“But how are we going to fix the windows if we didn’t buy a new one?” asked Michael seeing as the androids haden’t removed panes of glass from the ship.
“You’ll see in a moment,” said Ellop.
Ellop walked over to a cabinet and grabbed out three drills and handed one to Tiki and to Michael. “So, this is very simple, you know how to use a drill right?” asked Ellop.
“Yeah I know how. Leftie loosey, righty tightie,” said Michael.
“WHAT?” said Ellop with shock and surprise.
“What?” said Michael confused.
“No, absolutely not, it’s never been that lefty loosey nonsense. Who told you that?” asked Ellop.
“My dad said it to me a couple years ago,” said Michael.
“Well your dad is wrong because that’s never been how it is,” said Ellop.
“Ellop, he’s from a different planet,” said Tiki reminding Ellop.
“Oh yeah. Sorry, I forgot about that. Just note that here the industry standard is actually turning to the right,” said Ellop.
“Got it,” said Michael.
Using a raising platform Michael, Tiki and Ellop climbed onto the ship and began unscrewing all the bolts around the windows. Once they had completed it Ellop gave the next directions. “Now, here’s the fun part, we have to use the crane to remove the cracked window,” said Ellop.
They moved the crane into position and Michael was tasked with attaching suction cups to the glass so that when the crane raised once again the window would pop out. The crane removed the window and Ellop moved the cracked window into a pile. “Now we got to move it over to that machine right there,” said Ellop.
The glass was transported into a large machine. “What does the machine do?” asked Michael.
“Well, I’m glad you asked. It crushes the glass down and blends it meaning we can recycle the old window to create new panes. We will essentially have a brand new window using the recycled material from the old one,” said Ellop.
“We’ve done this many times in the past,” said Tiki.
The machine crushed the glass down into tiny grains before using a mixer to mix the glass. In the meantime Michael, Tiki and Ellop returned to the ship to remove all the damaged body panels. When the panels were removed they installed the new ones as the androids held them in place. Once the new panels were installed the machine that had blended up the old glass window had produced new panes which were all loaded on with adhesive in between each layer. The ship looked good as new with the newly added panels and glass windows. “One more thing, as Tiki wished,” said Ellop.
Holes were drilled on the bottom of the ship in order to create a new compartment of smaller guns allowing the ship to fire lasers in a few directions. When the guns had been installed Ellop commended Michael for his help on the ship before they send the androids back to charge. They turned off the lights and closed the garage doors and returned back to the base. Sheerya and Azav both came out to take a look at the ship. “Oh wow! It’s wonderful,” said Sheerya.
“Your talents never fail to disappoint me,” said Azav.
As the crew winded down they finally got to take in their victory. They had located Titan with minimal information, escape his prison, capture and arrest him, and repair the ship. The crew were fond of each other in that moment, and as they talked in the main area sitting on couches they each dozed off one by one. Some leaving to go to bed, but others ended up spending the night on the couch.