The brothers thankfully didn’t follow, and I think my sudden and hasty departure saved me from anyone thinking to follow me, as I rushed back onto my ship as fast as my long legs could take me without breaking out into a sprint.

I immediately hit the hold door, watching as the armored wall of metal that would laugh at any handheld weapon these… Assholes! Would have!

Yeah! Assholes!

Only when the door shut did I realize I was pressing my back against one of the containers and then I weakly slid down until I was sitting.

“Scary.” I breathed out, my heart hammering a mile a minute. Someone had pointed a gun at me!

A gun!

Scary! It was scary!

What was I supposed to do? Sure I had a gun too, but that would just lead to a gun fight! I didn’t have armor! Or a shield! I barely knew how to shoot a gun!

“I could have died.” I whispered to myself in realization.

“Bad. Red.” Came from my back and I looked over at the Crabbit that was still holding onto me.

“Yeah.” I agreed, and her face shifted into a glare.

“We should shoot them. Main battery!” She offered and I blinked at the words, before snorting, I couldn’t help it.

“That’s a bit overkill, but the guide lasers would do fine.”

“Hmm… No boom.” She told me, and that helped me relax. I took a breath and let it out in a loud exhale.

“Alright. Let’s get everything locked down. I’m sure the assholes are going to be around. I’m letting the locals figure this out, and we aren’t opening the doors until I have some assurances.” I stood up a bit shakily, my knees felt weak, but I marched to the back of the hold and climbed the ladder. A nice comfy captain's chair would make me feel better.

But… What was I going to do? That had gone from normal to dangerous in a heartbeat.

—--

“Comm Message! Comm Message!” The Crabbit called out and I stirred from where I had been staring out into the sunny day.

“Go ahead and patch it through. Let’s find out what they want.” I said, perhaps a little darkly.

“Uhh. Captain Katherine, you uh, there?”

“I’m here.” I said, a bite to my tone that I could hear made it through as there was an audible silence on the line.

“Right. Forgive me Captain, that was… Not the side of Stark Point I wanted to share. I’ve managed to settle the issue with the Hauler, we are just… Waiting on your leave to retrieve the cargo.”

“I’ll open the doors then. I’ll be keeping an eye on things and won’t be joining you physically. I think you understand.”

“I see. I apologize, Captain. I understand. I’ll ensure the cargo is offloaded swiftly.”

I considered responding but instead just hit the button on my Tab ending the call.

“Open the bay doors, and keep an eye out. I want to make sure no one gets any bright ideas about stealing anything.” I told the Crabbits who cheered and waved their arms at my orders. To them this was just a fun game. To me, it was… Bitter. So much for a fun adventure.

I pushed the Tab and accessed the feeds some of the Crabbits hiding in the hold were sending. There wasn’t much in the hold that could be taken easily, but it could still be taken, and I was no longer giving this planet the benefit of the doubt.

I settled in, watching as the people brought the floating hauler up the now descended ramp. The boy that was driving wasn't the one that threatened me. Instead he was a much younger boy who guided the hauler up carefully, as a few men swarmed the container.

Releasing the locks, the Hauler moved in, and took the first container slowly backing it out, and then away.

Looks like they had a place for it all, but it meant a longer wait on my side.

I sighed as I just kept watching. The fun of delivering out into the far frontier of humanity having lost a lot of its luster.

Next job would be more normal, I decided.

—--

Once the hold was empty, I closed the door, and made ready to leave. Of course before I could actually jump I got another comm message.

“This is Phantom Star.” I said, bluntly, and this time the response wasn’t cowed.

“Thank you Captain, for coming out here, these supplies were desperately needed. I understand your position, and I know you will leave soon. If… If it isn’t too much, we do have messages, we’d like to be sent to the net?” Stark asked, speaking carefully.

“I’ll deliver them.” I pointed at the Crabbit on communications and it wiggled as it started partitioning out some space for it.

“Thank you Captain. I’ve left an… Apology, although it hardly matches the crime, in your hold.” I blinked because I hadn’t actually noticed that.

“I’ll take a look.”

“Very well. I wish you luck in the verse. Maybe we’ll see each other again.”

“Doubtful.” I said firmly, because I was never coming to this place again.

“I see. Farewell then.” He offered, sounding weary.

The comm line ended, and I quickly started prepping for liftoff, no way did I want to be here any longer.

“What did they leave in the hold?” I asked, and the Crabbit all seemed to humm a bit, obviously sharing the data with the ones in the hold.

“Ah, it’s a box? Little orbs?”

“Orbs?” I whispered before realizing. “Are they sort of blue?”

“Yes!”

“It’s that fruit of theirs then. Alright. Lock it down, I’ll figure out what to do with it later.”

“Yes yes!”

I flipped the switches and only once I checked the external sensors to make sure nothing was going to be blasted, I engaged the engines.

Time to leave.

—---

“What the hell am I going to do with these?” I asked, staring at the little transport package full of fruit.

I mean, they were nice enough, but they would definitely go bad if I just left them. I sighed and moved them towards the cold box. At least I had a place where they would last a bit longer. I guess I’d be getting some extra vitamins from fruit with my meals for a while.

Once it was packed away I headed towards the hold again.

I needed something to protect myself, and I had a long flight back to civilization to figure it out.

Unfortunately as I started digging through the boxes of junk I had collected, I realized two things. I didn’t have a good location to work on things myself. Most of the parts for the ship had been built out of nanopaste, or had been something I had a functioning scrap station to work on.

I had tools. But most of them were packed away, and I didn’t have a workbench, or some place to tinker.

The hold was a terrible place to do it too.

Realizing it was time to get some things set up, I called out to the Crabbit.

“Alright! We need this moved up, to the starboard supply room. That’s going to be a workshop from now on. That means it’s a red room!”

“Eeeee!” An electronic squeal echoed out and I blinked as I looked over at a familiar Crabbit unit.

She already had her paint sprayer and was rushing out of the hold.

“Don’t make a mess!” I called after her, but didn’t get a response.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

—--

“Okay bolt that in?”

“Yes yes!” I held the workbench stable and nodded as the Crabbit pushed in the bolt and just spun their little grabber around to tighten it up.

With that done, I looked over the bench I had made. It had just taken a bit of Nanopaste, and it was done. I pushed it up to make sure the hinges would work, and it secured to the wall giving the supply closet turned workshop a bit more room.

“Alright, looks great. Good job!”

“Hehe! I’m the best!” The Crabbit agreed and then floated around me in happy circles.

“Hey, don’t grow an ego on me.” I grumbled, but let her have her moment regardless.

Now to get back to the entire reason for this project. How was I going to protect myself? Armor? Shields?

Personal shields did exist, technically my forcefield projector in my suit was like that, but there was a difference between a forcefield to keep air in from a vacuum, and something that would stop bullets or lasers.

I lowered the work bench and grabbed the first object I was going to tinker with.

An old Shield Emitter. This one thankfully, wasn’t even a spare, just an old junk part.

Tearing it apart, I looked at all the components, and came to the same conclusion I had known from the start.

These components were way too large to make some sort of personal shield.

It was one thing to move these things around in space, with a Crabbit helping. But in atmosphere? These things weighed a ton, and there was no way I was moving around with one.

The Shield Emitter was made up of a few different parts. The sync controller. That let the shields all form into a single solid wall. The emitter which shot out the energy that formed into the shield. Which if I tried to hold this thing and activated it…

It’d probably be like holding onto a firehose. I didn’t really want to be launched around the room, as the output of the emitter tried to move me. So it would have to have a stabilizer…

I rubbed my head. The ship used Gravity Panels like most things to keep the shields from knocking a ship around. But this was meant to be an atmospheric piece of gear.

If I walked around with a ton of metal on my back, it wouldn’t exactly be inconspicuous.

I knew it was possible too. I had seen a small personal shield emitter myself, the Baron had one, a fancy one shaped like a medal. But the components for it.

I’d have to start from scratch, try to figure out a much smaller emitter… Miniaturization would be necessary. That was going to be tough. I closed my eyes to listen to the song, yeah that was going to take some work. Without even touching on the stabilizer…

“Alright, enough of this.” I grumbled, pushing the old emitter away. “I’m getting lunch.” I told the nearly empty room, and the Crabbit floating around me chirped in acknowledgment.

—--

The gentle jolt as the umbilical attached to the Phantoms docking port was a relief.

It had been nearly ten days before I hit a system that had a station that was open to the public that had net access.

I was going to have to send Stark Point’s messages, and finally be done with that task, and more importantly, it was time to get paid! The Transport Guild would be hearing from me, about my jobs completion, and then payday!

Well, not much of one, but it was enough.

I headed off the bridge, leaving the Crabbits to monitor everything. Once I made it to the hatch I hurriedly opened it and stepped onto the station's docking ring.

It was… Well, about normal for a station out on the frontier. I wasn’t the only ship docked, and the spacers that moved around, were armed, and looked tough, but mostly keeping to themselves.

Getting banned from a station could be a serious problem if you lived your life in that area.

But I ignored all of that, and headed into the station's comm office.

The room was a bit small, just four comm stations that were hooked up to the galactic net, in little cubicle areas. I settled into the uncomfortable little chair, and tapped the Tab. Instantly a price popped up.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the expensive use for just an hour, but that was just the way of things, and flicked my personal Tab to transfer funds.

Then I was in. Instantly I uploaded the messages from Starks Point, and once that file was off, my duty to that shithole was done.

A quick update to the Transport Guild, and the Creds were added to my account. It was a paltry sum, for what I had just dealt with and how long it took.

So this time I decided for something that would pay better!

Marie would be proud!

I started searching for offers, and there was plenty to choose from. I had thought that maybe I wouldn’t be able to find an expensive job easily, but even a quick search of jobs that the Phantom Star could handle opened up a lot of work.

The fact was, there were only two types of transporters. Freelance, and Corporate.

Corporations usually only did the same routes over and over, and it cost a lot to get them to add another route into their rotation.

Freelancers, like me, were rare, super rare. There were only so many privately owned Spaceships this far out into the frontier, and most of them would be doing more gainful work than transport. They’d be mercs, hunting pirates, or fighting in the war. Or pirates themselves.

A heavily armed Corvette like the Phantom with a large hold, and the willingness to do direct transport jobs?

Time was money after all, and Creds talked.

So I scanned through the jobs, grabbing a few that caught my eye and then comparing them all.

Then I added them into a map, to see which I was closest to.

“Vickers it is.” I muttered, as I looked over the listing. Vickers was a system only a day or so away. It was well within range, and the delivery was a rush job, extra Creds for me.

I sent in a response, and waited.

Normal jobs would go through the Guild, and they would have control of the entire contract but this one was a private request which meant my information needed to be handed over including a timeline for how long it would take for me to get there before they accept.

So I settled back for a moment as I waited for a response. I stared at the Tab screen for a while before deciding to do something productive with my time. What could I find out about personal shields on the open net?

I guess I was about to find out.

—--

Nearing my hour long time limit I got a response back from the Guild, which was good, because I hadn’t learned anything.

There were plenty of mentions of the technology, but nothing on the net I could find about setting up personal shields, or the tech needed.

I guess I should have expected that, but at least I had looked.

Glancing at the response I frowned a little. I had been hired, but the conditions on the supplies being transported were a little tight. Nothing I couldn’t do.

I read through all the conditions and in the end just shrugged. Most of that was standard stuff anyway. So I sent off an acknowledgement and a general time frame of my arrival to Vickers.

I logged out of the net and headed out of the Comm room. I stopped on the docking ring, I could still see the Phantom, but down the way I could also hear the sound of spacers having a good time in a bar. I considered heading in, meeting new people, maybe finding a crewmember?

My boots took me back to the Phantom, and I was undocking not long after. I just… Wanted some peace and quiet for a while.

—--

Vickers was an interesting system. Not an industrial hub, or a total Frontier like Starks Point. It was more like a mid system. One that had grown out of being a frontier, and was becoming a burgeoning population world.

You could find a little bit of everything here.

I had sent a comm update to my employer once I entered the system, and was coming into land at the starport at one of the largest cities on the sixth planet in the system. The one most populated and rich.

There had even been a pretty spaceliner arcing through the atmosphere that passed me as I came down. If there were tourists, it meant this world was comfortable enough to have them.

As I gently dropped in on the star port I couldn’t help but take a while to just look at it. There were no massive skyscrapers, instead, the star port was just a massive flat area, with a large building connecting all the star docks together. As I flew in I could actually see another big freighter belch plasma as it lifted off, and started its slow ascent.

Nothing like the gentle glide that the Phantom had!

I landed on the concrete lot, with a gentle pressure and that was that. I quickly lowered the engine outputs and calmed down the thrusters. Turning the Phantom off while we landed.

“Aww. Heavy again.” Grumbled the Crabbit on Tactical, and the others all agreed, with an electronic whine.

“Just for a while girls. After this job, we’ll take a bit of time in space okay?”

“Oh! That would be nice!” They chattered, looking at each other. “Do you think we’ll win hide and seek this time?”

“Aww. I don’t know. Captain is really good.”

“Yeah Kat is good.”

“Okay you lot, my hide and seek skills pushed to the side, keep an eye out.” I told them as I left the bridge to their happy responses.

I took a stop in my room to use the bathroom attached to my Captains Quarters, and then back out and to the hold. I popped open the hold doors, and breathed a sigh of relief. There wasn’t a bad smell on this planet. I had suspected there wouldn’t, but you never know. Instead I stepped out into the sun peaking through the cloudy sky.

The customers still weren’t here, so I would wait for now.

—--

The approach of a large hauler truck slipping onto the tarmac is what woke me up from where I was just sitting on the ramp up to the hold just enjoying the wind in my face.

I stood up and wiped myself down, I looked clean enough, even adjusted my jumpsuit so I was wearing it and didn’t just have it tied to my waist to look more presentable.

As the truck approached, I blinked because there was a smaller hover car behind it. I only took a single glance to tell it was fancy and expensive.

They both pulled up and it didn’t take long until the driver of the hover car stepped out, a man wearing the equivalent to a suit. Although the weird fact it was all in one piece was a bit odd.

Then again I ran around in a jumpsuit so I shouldn’t throw rocks in my glass house.

The driver opened the door and out stepped another man who looked around before seeing me, and stepping forward quickly. The man was obviously in a rush and he approached quickly.

“I’m looking for Captain Katherine? Of the Phantom Star?”

“That’s me.” I greeted back and he blinked and seemed a bit bewildered for a moment, before his face fell into an easy casual smile as he threw a hand to his chest and then splayed it out.

It wasn’t anything I recognized. A planetary gesture? Or maybe even a weird Kenish thing?

“Forgive me, I don’t know what I was expecting. I am Ian Kettermen, I wanted to thank you for taking on my package and being so prompt about it! Time is of the essence.”

“Well I’ll be taking off and heading directly to the drop off, the moment we’re done here.” I offered back to him, and his smile shifted into something more real for a moment.

“Excellent! Truly Captain you are a ray of starlight. Shall my men load it now?”

“Now is great.” I waved at the hold and Ian turned and waved at the truck which instantly moved forward a bit and started backing up into the Phantom Star.

It was interesting to see what this planet must consider as normal for a large hauler like this. The truck was a weird almost triangle shaped cab, and the package itself was a large container. Sealed and locked down like it was supposed to be.

So I did the correct thing and didn’t ask about what was in it. The Guild would have checked to make sure it wasn’t anything dangerous, and so it wasn’t my business.

“A beautiful ship, when I received your offer I only had the metrics from the guild, I didn’t realize my package would be so well protected!” He offered suddenly, and I tore my eyes away from the truck as it was settling the container in the hold. It had an interesting function as it sort of split apart to drop the container off.

“It’s a dangerous galaxy. I just make sure I’m well defended.” I said, earning another smile.

“Good good! You shouldn’t have any issues, it’s always good to have a big gun involved! Haha!” The man offered and I nodded along. Ian seemed the type to just never stop talking.

Finally the truck pulled away, the package was dropped off, and I would secure it shortly. “Alright, that’s that then. I’ll be heading off immediately.” I cut in, interrupting the man's discussion about the safety of travel routes and things he had dealt with in the past.

I wasn’t a system trucker, I would be jumping to warp so it wasn’t really important.

“Ah! Of course! Quick travels Captain! Quick Travels!” He cheered as he hurried off the ramp and I hit the close.

Time to get this container secured, and then get out of here.

—--

“Okay try it now?” I asked, looking over at the Crabbits that were helping me.

“Ooh! I hope it works!”

“Me too!”

“Yeah this is fun!” They chattered to each other as they all were locked together.

The answer had come to me rather quickly when I realized I was overthinking things. A personal shield emitter was going to be a long term project. I would need to make equipment, to make the equipment so to speak to even hope to get to that point.

So I changed my approach. That could be put on the back burner for now, because right now I needed function, better than form.

I had been planning on making some modules for the Crabbits anyways, so rather than a personal shield, I decided to see what I could do with a Crabbit shield.

This was just a testing version. Four Crabbits grabbing onto each other, forming a square floating in the air. A series of emitters connected together, and what should be enough power between the four of them.

I ducked down as the air crackled a bit, and I looked up to see all of them strewn across the room.

“Ow.”

“Hehehehehe!”

“Look I’m stuck!” They chattered away, each of them responding differently. I stood up and walked over. Distangling one that had gotten wedged in my tool bench, and then checking on the one that had expressed pain.

“You okay?”

“Uuuu. Dent.” It whined at me, poking the top of its chassis that did in fact have a little dent.

“We’ll pop that right out, c’mon. Good work everyone! I'll still need to make some adjustments.” I told them and got chipper responses. The four bounced back from the emitter sending them flying away nearly instantly now that I had checked on them. Kids.