Safely back on the ship, Eirik went straight to the temple room to put up the new statuette and then to the bridge. Not bothering to swing by the armory, he planned to keep his new spear in his room. As expected, he found David on the bridge.
"David, it's time we get work done again. We will offer our services to anyone willing to sign a contract. humanitarian aid and emergency signals take priority and we do not accept military contracts. Get the word out that the *Steel Wolves* mercenary group is ready for hire. When that is done, we head to the smuggler station.
There should be enough readily trained soldiers at this point, that we can start using them to complete contracts. We start them out easy and work our way up based on their performance." Eirik fired off his orders like bullets from a machinegun and David simply took notes on his screen.
"Received. Anything else, Captain?" David responded. Their dynamic was a strange one. Childhood friends, and yet boss and employee. Eirik had complete trust in David and David in return had unwavering loyalty toward Eirik. "Not right now," Eirik replied. "But I suspect it will not be long before we start getting contract offers."
"What should the description of our mercenary group be, Captain?" David inquired
"War veterans for hire. Any job is good enough. Military contractors, please avoid." Eirik kept it short and to the point. There would be plenty of offers with a description like that and soon their reputation would speak for itself. Word of mouth was always the best form of advertisement.
His plans underway, he set out to have a nice evening with Freja.
_________________
Eirik's predictions came true and on the 2nd day of the 7-day journey to his brother's smuggler's station, a message ticked in, requesting mercenary help to evacuate a few colonists that had been left behind by the official transports. They didn't care where they went, as long as it was somewhere they could hitch a ride on a ship.
Seeing as it was only half a day's travel outside their flight path, It was given that they accept. But problems arose when they arrived to pick people up. What had been hinted at to be a dozen colonists, twenty at most, turned out to be nearly 100 colonists of varying ages. Not only that, but payment was a problem. They were not paying in credits, claiming they needed them in the future. Instead, they offered their old hauler ships up for trade instead.
The hauler class ship was intraplanetary, meaning it was not built for the void of space. It was, however, an absolute unit of a machine when it came to carrying goods around. With minimal fuel usage, anti-gravity modules to increase load capacity, and an engine so simple even a mechanics apprentice could build it from scratch, it had solved an ever-increasing logistics demand from an ever-growing empire of Terra.
The crew grumbled when they heard the offer and the colonists shot worrying looks at Eirik, fearing he might turn them down. Looking over the situation, Eirik determined he could use the haulers at a later date, considering his long-term plans of creating his own nation-state within the universe. So he accepted, much to the dismay of his crew who started voicing their opinions about the matter of payment.
"By all the gods, would you quit your whining? I will pay you in credits myself if it matters that much! We will get the haulers appraised and I will buy them out, dividing the credits evenly among the crew!" He cut through their complaints. "As if you don't have enough already, ya greedy bastards!" He added with a smirk to take the edge off of his words.
They all grinned sheepishly at his words, and they made room in one of the cargo bays for the colonists and filled their hangar bay to the brim with the haulers. And so, their journey continued. Eirik was worried. With the rate that food and water were being consumed, he was going to have to order several extra weeks' worth of food and water rations to replace the lost stores.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
The fights started 3 days after they picked up the colonists. One of the engineering crew was caught sleeping with the wife of one of the colonists and all hell broke loose. When Eirik arrived the InSec crews were working their hardest to split the fighting groups apart, but they were fighting a losing battle. Eirik summoned reinforcements from his assault forces. Equipped with batons and shields they waded into the sea of fighting bodies and started swinging their batons with reckless abandon.
The result was a slew of injuries, big and small, and Knud was working overtime, as was the assisting medical staff. It took Jesper and Eirik almost 10 hours of questioning to finally figure out what started the mass fight. The husband of the unfaithful wife had found his crewmember during a period of free time and had immediately started attacking him.
The colleagues he was playing cards with had not taken kindly to this and had made the husband the target of a beating in return. This caused him to flee the scene, prompting a short chase culminating in a mass fight when several of the colonists saw the chase and decided to even out the odds. From there it escalated as more people joined both sides until it was a battleground in the corridors and storage bay.
After talking it over with David and Jeanette in private, Eirik went in front of the colonists with 2 dozen guards and the guilty engineer in tow.
"What is this. What do you want?" The husband asked aggressively as they entered the storage bay.
"This," Eirik responded, "Is first and foremost a formal apology, from the guilty party to you. Second, it is the verdict of your punishment."
"PUNISHMENT?!?" The husband yelled. "I JUST DEFENDED MY HONOR!"
"But you also engaged in violence on my ship. However the circumstances, you chose violence. Now accept the consequence. Or do you deny that you threw the first punch?" Eirik was calm as could be. He had to handle this carefully, but he had weighed his options.,
"I do not." The husband responded after seething for a short while.
"Your punishment is as follows. Normally, a crime such as yours would see you imprisoned, but under the circumstances, and considering the reason you are on the ship, to begin with, I have decided to merely confine you and your family to the storage bay for the duration of the trip." As Eirik spoke, he had seen the faces of the colonists growing angrier, but when they heard of the confinement instead of the brig, they relaxed again.
"And what of the man who started this?" Someone shouted from among the colonists.
"My crew will be punished by me, at a time I deem fit. And remember, it takes two to tango. This young man is not the sole cause of this calamity." Eirik responded while sweeping his gaze over the collection of colonists. Most of them looked away but a few held eye contact.
Turning back to the husband, Eirik said in a low voice that only the 3 of them could hear, "Do not worry, punishment will be given accordingly. On that, you can trust me."
Thrusting the young man at his side forward, Eirik looked at him expectantly. "I am sorry I slept with your wife. I beg for your forgiveness, but understand if you do not wish to give it." The young man said and lowered his head. "I hope we can keep the peace in the future and avoid each other rather than create more problems." He continued and held out a hand towards the husband.
"Shake it!" Eirik growled, which caused the husband to twitch before he reached out and shook hands with the young crewmember.
"Good. Now that peace has been established once more, I shall have arrangements made for your meals to be brought to you for the remaining part of the trip." Eirik said before he grabbed the young man by the arm and stomped off with him and the guards.
___________________
Despite tensions running high between the crew and the colonists for the rest of the trip, no further incidents took place and they docked without issue on the 7th day of travel. As the last colonists were leaving the ship, Eirik felt a soft tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw the husband and his wife.
"Is something wrong?" Eirik asked in a neutral tone.
"I wanted to thank you, Captain. For not putting me in a cell, I mean. I know I went over the line, but love will do crazy things to a man's mind." The husband said. "I know you were only trying to keep the peace on the ship, but I still appreciate it." He handed a business card to Eirik. "If you ever need a good agriculture specialist, feel free to call me."
Without waiting for Eirik to respond, he turned and walked away with his wife. Eirik stood with the business card for a moment before pocketing it with a shrug. Might as well save it. He finished up with the docking preparations and headed to his brother's office to fill him in on what needed to get done as soon as possible.