“Ever thought about leaving Rocksea behind?” It was me who asked the members of the Copper wing. It wasn’t that I had any desire to leave this place. I was simply curious.
“I am from outside,” said Aktug.
“So am I,” added Tylarr.
“Yeah, I am, too,” answered Vavaina, and Kelomoria nodded along.
Fuck. Everyone is from elsewhere??? Well, we were in another VIP room. Apparently, such rooms were free of charge for escorts working directly under the Duchess’ boobs, so it did make sense to make good use of this. Besides, these VIP rooms were nice. I wouldn’t pass up a chance to use rooms like this if they were free especially.
“So, you are a local then?” Tylarr asked while taking a sip of his drink. Whatever it was, the transparent straw was fluorescent orange. It was probably a cocktail of some sort. I learned from my mistake from the last occasion and wasn’t going to order whatever the hell they were drinking.
“I am.”
“That’s pretty rare as far as I know,” Aktug said. “In fact, you are the first local I’ve ever met.”
It has … never occurred to me that the majority of residents here were outsiders. Come to think of it, it actually made sense. Why would anyone raise their children in Rocksea? Other than not paying taxes…, I didn’t really see any other benefits although I did believe some residents from the Oreo station were locals. Yating was probably a local like me. At the same time, it did make me wonder why my folks chose to raise me here.
“Then how did you guys end up here?”
The four members of the Copper wing glanced at each other with Aktug speaking up first after clearing his throat rather uncomfortably.
“Most of us have some criminal records and came here to escape the time.”
“For second chances,” Tylarr added.
Even Kelomoria? I wondered. She looked more like a fashion model although being unable to speak may have prevented her from pursuing such a career.
“I don’t have much to hide actually,” Atkug said with a shrug and a crooked grin. “I pulled several frauds and was being chased. My initial sentencing was 90 years in prison. I figured starting my life anew in Rocksea was a better choice than rotting for 90 years.”
“A murder gets less than that,” Tylarr said with a whistle. I guess he never told his mates about his past.
“The dude was a rich ‘entrepreneur’,” Aktug replied while making a quotation gesture on the word, entrepreneur. “But the reality was that his parents were rich. The guy was stupid as fuck. It was so easy to scam him.”
Tylarr, Vavaina, and Kelomoris all snickered in unison, showing no displeasure in his deed. I wasn’t sure whether I should laugh at the matter but grinned along.
“The judge was a pal of his parents. You know how it is. The justice system has never been fair anyway.”
“Yep, sure do,” replied Tylarr. “I told my deeds to the others, so they know.”
“What’s your story?” I asked.
“Slept with the wrong woman. I met a woman in a nightclub. We got along really fast and ended up sleeping with her on the same night.” Then he shrugged with a crooked grin. “It turned out that the woman was married and planned to have an affair to spite her cheating husband. When he found out and was reacting far haisher than she thought, she placed all fucking blames on me and even claimed that I raped her.” Then his smile vanished from his face at once. “It was consensual, I swear.”
“I am inclined to believe his words,” said Vavaina. “Because he has never lusted over me or Kelomoria.”
“I don’t touch women unless they let me,” Tylarr said firmly. “I didn’t want to serve any time for something I didn’t know, so I fled.”
I nodded along and moved my attention to Vavaina.
“And your story?”
She took a deep breath. “I also told the others, so they know the story. I … murdered my stepson. And, unlike those two who are questionably guilty, I am fully guilty.” Kelomoria comforted her by tapping her shoulder. With her eyes downcast, she explained.
“I married a guy with a young son. I was fine with that and knew what I was getting into.” She snickered. “Or at least I thought I did. I found out some years later that it was not his son but a fucking clone of his own.”
“... What?” I blurted, not understanding what the situation was.
“You may not know, but cloning oneself is a highly illegal matter,” Tylarr added.
“I had my suspicions because the kid was growing up looking exactly like his father, so I conducted a DNA test. It was a 100% match.”
“So…, you killed his clone?”
Her shoulders started to shake slightly. “I, I didn’t mean to. When I regained myself, I had a knife in my hand and the boy was lying down on the floor, bleeding massively from his neck!!!”
….So, you are a nutcase, huh.
Stuttering badly, she continued, “I, I, j, just ran a, away afterwards.”
I figured that her husband couldn’t ask the police to pursue her, given the fact that he had issues of his own. If he reported his son’s death, the authorities would find out that his “son” was a clone. I didn’t know what punishment he would get for that, however.
“Damn you all. All of you are messed up,” I remarked rather gleefully, and they all smiled back, even Vavaina who seemed pretty shaken up. “Kelomoria, what’s your story?”
Tylarr responded in her stead, “She came from a very abusive family. She made her abusive father braindead and fled here.” And she nodded repeatedly in agreement clearly. Espers were really good at making people braindead or so I heard, so I wasn’t too surprised. We continued our drinking and chit-chat for a while before the eventual question popped up.
“Anyway, when is our next job?” It was me who asked. I earned a lot from the last convoy. Along with the increased payment due to the fact that there was one less person, I earned an Akabasa 2 freighter as well. Yeah, I had to spend 110k to restore it, but I could sell it for 300k, a bit more if I haggled. I didn’t sell the ship yet since it could prove to be useful.
“A big job like our last one doesn’t come often,” Aktug said. “It comes like once every two or three years.”
“Damn,” I replied. Come to think of it, it was about five years ago when I did the first fish convoy with the mining gang.
“Have you sold the Akabasa yet?” Tylarr asked.
“No. It’s being repaired.”
“How much did it cost you?”
“About 100k.”
He whistled. “And you can sell it for much more, right.”
I nodded.
“You having a cargo ship does raise some opportunities, though…” Vavaina wondered aloud.
“True, we could go on our own convoy run.” Aktug nodded in agreement.
“Would that be worth the trouble?” I, too, wondered aloud. I didn’t feel like the money was going to be worth the trouble. Whatever payment we’d get, it would need to be divided into five. It would certainly be better than nothing, however. Wait a second …
“If I were to keep the ship and use it, wouldn’t we need to hire another person?”
“If it’s just for convoying, you could keep it computer-controlled,” Aktug replied.
“The Akabasa doesn’t accept remote signals, though,” Tylarr pointed out. “And hacking that ability in is a bit too dangerous.”
The room fell into momentary silence. He was right. We’d need to hire someone new. The only people that came to my mind were Rabinovich, Santino, and Yating. Juno said repeatedly that she did not want to experience battles, so she was out. Well, the real reason was that I didn’t want to see her at all. I wanted nothing to do with that woman, especially if Rabinovich was telling truthfully about her having a crush on me. Oh, no, no. As for Santino, I had no idea where he might be. Now, Rabinovich …, I wasn’t sure about him. He had addiction issues. Bringing him back to the Duchess’ boobs where his problems originated …, it really didn’t feel like the right call to make. Finally, Yating would fit okay, but was it really alright to bring her back out here for a mundane job like this? Besides, the Akabasa 2 was a fragile ship with barely any ability to evade shots. At this point, I was leaning toward selling the ship.
“I feel like I should just sell the ship unless you guys know someone who can be hired for cheap?”
“Well, cheap or not, that someone would still be entitled to his or her share anyway,” Vavaina pointed out.
“Bugger, it really doesn’t make sense then.”
“If we want to become more independent, we need a frigate. The best ideal one for the purpose is the Lightwave class 2 frigate,” Tylarr said.
Ah, yes, like the Old Lady…
“The Lightwave class 2 is … what, 100 million brand new?” Aktug wondered aloud while taking a long sip.
“I think it’s 80 million brand new. If it’s second hand, the price will greatly vary, but I’ve never seen it going down below 25 millions,” Tylarr replied.
“We could easily afford a second hand one if we really want to go down that path,” Vavaina said.
The Old Lady cost us around 30 millions. It was “a deal of the century” as Santino used to brag about. While they were conversing about a possibility of a new venture, I was searching for the Old Lady by using the tracking key Santino gave me. It wasn’t on the market and it didn’t look like it was destroyed, either. I searched the used ship market briefly by using my memory implant and found that the average price for a used Lightwave class 2 was 45 millions.
“There is another ship we could use,” Aktug pointed out. “The elephant freighter.”
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/3899/j4Yh69.png]
The elephant freighter was a small frigate-sized ship that was over-engineered in its time which was around the year 7000s. Yeah, it was the similar era where the badger was born. It was developed by the United Solar System Federation to showcase their ability to design a new ship from the ground up. Now, the freighter was a much smaller sister of the Mammoth freighter which ended up becoming a huge failure that it was removed from the universe after just several years of its debut. It was supposed to be the largest freight vessel ever constructed until structural issues showed up after just a few years of real world usage. In the end, the overall size was cut down significantly to resolve its structural issue, coming down to a frigate size. And the odd child was the Elephant freighter. While it was no longer as glorious as it was, it had an advanced system such as shields which was the feature we were looking for. Without shields, small ships went down too easily. In order to protect investments, it was a required feature.
“Man, that is a really old model. If possible, I’d go for a second hand Lightwave class 2,” Tylarr said.
“Well, it’s just a thought,” Aktug replied. “We are just exploring our options. We aren’t committing anything yet.”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Anything on our next job?” Vavaina asked.
“Ehka said nothing for a while. We aren’t the only squadron after all.”
Crossing arms, she sighed. “We need money,” she complained. Well, everyone needed money. We had to save up while we could and climb up whatever ladder they had to.
“Is being convoy escorts the only option?” I wondered aloud. “Do we have to work with Ehka exclusively?”
They looked at each other, looking a bit surprised. “No, I don’t think there was any exclusivity in our contract,” Aktug replied with his fingers on his chin. “But the jobs she has given us have been all excellent. The bar has been pretty high that I am unsure we are willing to take jobs from an unproven source.”
That made sense since our lives were on the line. They wanted a trustworthy source… Hmmm, perhaps…
“I do know a trustworthy person, She is a local like me.”
I told them about Yating and how she was associated with the station Oreo. How I worked with her for years and how easy it was and so on.
“I think she holds a high enough position within the station. I honestly don’t know whether she could give us jobs, but it won’t hurt to ask.”
The others looked skeptical. I mean, I wouldn’t blame them. I was a new member to boot. I bet they didn’t trust me fully yet either. Glancing at Aktug, Tylarr told me.
“You could ask the woman and see what comes up with. No harm in acting.”
“Yeah, that’s what I think.”
Since this was a rather trivial matter to discuss, I figured that I could contact the station from where I was. There would be some lag, but it shouldn’t make the conversation unfeasible. There was a small problem. I wanted a video communication, thus calling the station Oreo from my badger wasn’t possible. Therefore, I had to rent a room for a day and call her from there. It cost a few hundred credits.
“This is Station Oreo. Who is this?” A man answered my video call. I recognized the man on a holographic screen in front of me. It was the guy I met back in the dockyard office. His name was Mercello or something.
“Is that you, Mercello?”
“It’s Marcello,” he replied with a firm voice.
Right, whatever.
“Hey, could I talk to Yating?”
“Again?”
What do you mean again? I haven’t talked to her in years. But, for some permanent space dwellers, time flew slower. Or it could be that he was messing with me.
“Could I talk to her?” Not wanting to get involved with him any further, I pressed. With a clear throat clicking as if he was displeased, he redirected the call,and I got her on the screen soon enough. What’s his problem?
“Hello, Vazken,” she said softly with a grin. The woman was an angel. “What can I do for you?”
I explained to her earnestly what I’ve been up to and what I was expecting from her.
“So, if you’ve got any jobs for us, please share,” I concluded.
“Do you know what our station does?” She asked me a question instead.
“I do not.”
Come to think of it, despite having worked for them for over a decade, I never actually tried to find more about them. What did they do for a living? What was the purpose of the station? I had absolutely no idea.
She replied, “We do two things. I can tell you one but cannot tell you what the other is.”
I nodded along.
“Our primary job is that we do metal works. We manufacture custom-ordered frames and whatnot. This is something that doesn’t need escorts because they are scrap metals to those who don’t want them.”
True, pirates want goods that have some value to others. Custom frameworks wouldn’t have any value in an open market. This made the perfect sense why they were always seeking miners to get them resources they needed. This got me interested in what their other job is. Given the fact that she was unwilling to disclose, I assumed that it must have been something sketchy.
“So, you don’t have any jobs for me.”
“I am afraid not. It’s good to talk to you, though. You must be doing well.”
“Well, I am not dead. That’s good enough, I guess.”
She chuckled weakly. “Obviously,” she replied.
“Do you have anyone or any place that could give us some jobs, though?”
I didn’t expect anything really. I was grasping at straws to be honest.
“Hmm…” She fell into thoughts, downcasting her eyes. It took her perhaps ten seconds before she replied. “I don’t know for sure, but I can refer you to someone else.”
My eyes lit up at once. “You do?!” I inadvertently raised my voice in excitement.
“There is a station called ‘The Hole’. It’s another station very similar to ours. Find a man named Kamen. Give him my name, and he should trust you a bit more than he would normally trust strangers.”
The Hole… I wasn’t aware of such a station in Rocksea. But then, there were hundreds as far as I knew. There was another small issue. I would need to meet him in person. Contacting him from a distance wouldn’t leave a good first impression.
“Sending the coordinates,” she said. “It’s about five days away from where you are.”
“Thanks. I mean it.”
She beamed a smile. “No problem. Visit the station sometimes.”
Before ending the call, I grew an urge to ask a question. “Are they still there?” I was referring to Rabinovich and Juno because they were still present on the station when I visited there the last time.
“Yes, both of them are here. Juno has gotten into a new mining group. Rabinovich is still a solo miner.”
Well, it’s good that one of them moved on at least. Should I invite Rabinovich to pilot the Akabasa 2 in spite of the issues? I knew how boring solo mining was. I was surprised that he hadn’t gone insane yet from boredom.
“And you?”
She joined the group to get a refresher. That didn’t last long. While it was not my fault, I did feel sorry about what happened.
“I am staying put. I joined your group because I’ve seen all of you for a long time that I could trust you guys. It’s hard to put my life in the hands of strangers and questionable characters.”
I understood that perfectly.
“Again, thanks. I will visit the station soon-ish.”
Then the communication ended.
“Okay…, the Hole, huh, and Kamen…” I looked the station up on the market. It was indeed about five-day away. It was on the other end of the zone. The Duchess’ boobs was on a closer side to New Earth. The Hole was much further away from it. Security would be worse there.
“Is it even safe to go there alone?” I wondered aloud. I contacted Aktug right away and informed him about the new development.
“The Hole?” He raised his voice a bit. “I know the place. The area is pretty sketchy.”
“So, I shouldn’t go alone?”
“Well, you’d be in a badger. I don’t think anyone’s going to bother you. I can see why they might need people like us.”
“So, I am assuming that we will see combat more frequently if we do take jobs from there.”
“No doubt about that. This area is really tame compared to there.”
“Can I ask someone to tag along with me?”
He took a moment to answer me. “Tylarr is probably the one you should take. He’s a tough guy. I will ask him.”
“Thanks.”
A minute later the call ended, I received a call from Tylarr. A screen popped up in front of me, displaying his face.
“Hey, got the call from the leader. You heading to the Hole, I was told?”
“Yes, are you willing to go there with me?”
“Why not. Just let you know that it's a pretty harsh place. We should be fine, though.”
“So, you have been there?”
“All of us have because we were working for the Hole before coming here.”
“I was told to meet up with a man named Kamen. Ring any bell?”
“Kamen? Nope. We were given jobs from their office or whatever. Never really talked to a specific person in the first place.”
My mining group was the same. We were given jobs from the station to carry out. Until I met Yating, we never really talked to specific people.
“Anyway, when are you planning to depart?” he asked.
“Let’s depart in twelve hours unless you have objections?”
“That’s good enough for me. Let’s meet up at the docking bay at 11:00.”
After ending the call, I pondered whether to inform Ehka. Technically, I was no longer working for her because I was now a part of the Copper wing. She was no longer my direct superior in other words.
“Nah, this has nothing to do with her,” I concluded and went ahead to check out the room I rented for a day. It was time to take a shower and get myself ready for a semi-long voyage in space.
“I’ve set the course. You follow me, yeah?”
“Sure thing. I am just going to play games during the journey.”
Tylarr was in a formation with me as I set an automatic course toward the Hole. There would be nothing for me to do during the five days. I set a proximity alarm in case anything hostile might show up. Since it was just the two of us, we’d likely try to flee.
“Oh, yeah, Tylarr, by the way, can you help me a bit?”
“Shoot.”
“I wasn’t able to shoot down any pirates last time. Got any tips for me?”
It did bother me although I comforted myself that it was my first time.
“I thought you did well. I mean, you survived. But I get what you mean. You feel useless, yeah?”
I nodded although he wouldn’t have been able to see me. It was voice communication after all.
“Well, the thing with the badgers is that you need to do almost everything manually. And here is a kicker. None of the skills you learn with the badger is going to be helpful once you move up a bit.”
“What?”
“SSS Robin will kick any badgers in numbers. Any combat frigate will defeat Robins with relative ease even in numbers.”
“I wonder why they are sticking with the badgers only.”
“It’s probably an unspoken rule of this place. The bottom line is that you will need experience.”
Folding arms, I groaned weakly in my pilot chair.
“Nothing is ever straightforward,” I grumbled. I’d be very, very, happy if anyone could give me a straight answer to my internal problems. Alas, it wasn’t so. Well, I would have been more than happy to have stuck with my original mining group. I really didn’t want them to be disabled. Will this group end up with the same fate? Anyway, for the five-ish days, I slacked, playing games predominantly. The journey, as expected, was a quiet one. Nobody would bother a pair of badgers.
image [https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/1387/whYmk6.png]
“Well, I can see why the station is called ‘the Hole’,” I remarked when I saw the station. The station was constructed within a hole of an asteroid. They named their station literally. And here I thought that they were being mischievous.
“Yep, that’s the Hole,” Tylarr replied with a chuckle. “By the way, we are being hailed.”
“Badgers, your ship signatures are not on our friendly list. Identity yourself within 30 seconds or we will fire,” said a male voice through a public channel.
“My name is Vazken. I am looking for Kamen. We are not hostiles.”
About ten seconds later, the voice responded, “He does not know you.”
“We haven’t met. Yating referred me to him.”
Another ten seconds later, he responded, “You may dock but you won’t be able to enter the station unless you are approved for further access.”
“Understood. Thanks.”
Because they did not provide us with automatic docking data, we were forced to dock manually, which wasn’t an issue with badgers. They were small and nimble crafts after all. The docking bay was just a very vast empty hall where ships could land down at their leisure. When I was docking, I encountered a very familiar frigate.
“That’s … the Old Lady!” I inadvertently blurted and smiled. “Long time no see!”
I knew that the frigate was sold to someone in Rocksea. I just didn’t know where she ended up exactly. I was so glad to see her that I even had a tiny bit of tears in my eyes. I so wanted to get a closer look, but we had something more urgent.
“Sup,” said Tylarr as he saw me exiting my badger.
“Sup,” I replied casually. He gestured his head toward a direction where I saw a man walking slowly toward us. There was only micro gravity here, so we were using magnet boots. His face was really rugged as if he had been through a lot. He had dark hair gelled up and had a stubble with fairly dark skin.
“The name’s Kamen,” he declared. “Which one of you knows Yating?”
I pointed at myself. “It’s me. I am Vazken.”
“Tell me how you met her.”
I explained to him earnestly. How I was originally a free miner for the Oreo station. How she ended up joining my mining group, which eventually ended up being disabled. I didn’t tell him everything, though, and skipped some details such as why it was disbanded.
“Okay, that sounds like her enough.”
“What is she to you?”
“A very distant relative of sorts,” he replied curtly. “Doesn’t matter. Anyway, fine, so what do you want?”
“We are looking for a job.”
“It sounds like you already work for Duke?”
“The jobs are scarce. We are looking for some additional credits,” Tylarr added.
“How many of you are there? And are you willing to relocate here?”
“There are five of us in total,” I replied and glanced at Tylarr who shook his head very subtly. “And, no, we are not willing to move here.”
“Then your job opportunities will be greatly diminished. We tend to trust and prioritize those who are with us.”
I understood his reason. He didn’t totally turn us down either.
“Keep us in your mind. If something comes up, you can contact me.”
Clicking his tongue, he looked displeased. “Personally, I’d just let you go. But, because of Yating, I will give you a job some time soon. We will see how it goes after that.”
“Thanks. Give us a chance. That’s all I am asking.” I handed a tiny chip over to him. It contained the necessary information on how to contact me. Taking the chip, he glanced at the both of us and turned around quickly, leaving the docking bay.
“Well, I don’t think it got off well,” Tylarr remarked.
“He wants us close by if we are going to work for him. I do understand where he is coming from.”
“The same. Looks like he will give us a job at least.”
My eyes inadvertently moved to where the Old Lady was. I walked toward her slowly.
“Do you know that frigate?” Tylarr asked, following me.
“Yeah, she is the ship we had to sell after my mining team disbanded.”
He whistled. “Was the turret mod you guys’ idea?”
“Yeppers. We had no badgers and wanted a way to fight back pirates.”
“Not a bad idea. Would have cost quite a bit, though.”
I chuckled as my response. It took us two years or something to save up. I kind of miss that time. We had a common goal and worked hard for it. Not that my current situation was worse… I couldn’t understand why I missed that time.
“Good to see you, Old Lady,” I said to the ship, an inanimate object that had no consciousness. I hoped to buy her back one day.