Down in the docking and cargo bays, Brighand found himself in front of a man known as the Quartermaster in his presence, thieving miser elsewhere. Normally he'd be out directing workers at this time. Instead, he was sitting in his office with the shutters almost all the way down with an old-style camera in the top right corner of the shutters facing down on Brighand.
"Why couldn't you have stayed in with the rest of the sick? My precious cargobay is the first line of defense against disease. Yet here is patient zero strutting around just because those wackjobs in medical cleared you. What if the disease is still in you but dormant?" asked the quartermaster.
"I'm pretty sure it'll be fine. I'd like to be pointed to where my ship is, sell its cargo and buy some fuel, preferably liquid state. I need one or two new crewmembers too," said Brighand.
"Here, the code to get into your ship, the bill of sale for your cargo, your designated work sector, and prices for solid fuels," said the quartermaster as he slid a tray under the shutters.
"Bill of sale? They're already sold?" asked Brighand as he perused the documents.
"Yes, your whole ship got decontaminated and we had to screen through all the cargo to make sure it wasn't the source of the plague that you brought upon us. We smelted and recycled it all after to make doubly sure of it, that's the proceeds from the sales," said the quartermaster.
"That's a lot more money than I expected. I'd like to exchange it for fuel. Liquid not solid. Filters broke on the ship's fuel to plasma intake converter. Solid fuel has too many impurities and will gum the engine," said Brighand as he tried pushing the slip of paper with solid fuels back.
"Then just buy the radioactive solids," said the quartermaster.
"Can't. Old model ship. No lead plating around the engine. Radiation will kill me. I need liquid fuel state," said Brighand.
"Then just go with gas state," said the quartermaster.
"I would if I was being sent to the same work area as last time. However, I'm being sent to the fifth solar system. The farthest one with the huge natural asteroid belt. Gas state is only enough for one week of operation when full, one day there, five days work, one day back. It takes ten days to get to this work area. Gas state is a death sentence. Liquid is enough for a full month. I'd much rather just get a new work designation as my ship is not designed for that area. No mining tools for asteroids or big clumps of debris, just an airlock and spacesuit for digging through by hand," said Brighand.
"I'm sorry but the higher-ups want you gone for a month, not a week. No change to work designation and liquid fuel is already sold out. Next shipment is in three days. All the ships that normally got gas state instead went liquid to stay out for longer after this disease news got around. We're out of filters for engines too before you even ask. Lots of other ships had theirs broken for ages too," said the quartermaster.
"Fine, solid fuel, the kind with the least rads and least byproducts even if it costs a bit more. Enough for a month minimum. Now about those crewmembers," said Brighand.
"Also a no. Think of your ship as a month-long quarantine to make sure you really recovered. As a side note, what blood type are you?" asked the quartermaster.
"Really is a suicide mission. A month where every time I sleep or take a break, instead of another crewmember taking over, the ship'll be idle. And I'll have to waste time driving out of the asteroid field every time I sleep or quitting halfway through a salvage to dodge asteroids. Unless I hit big, it won't be worth the trip at all, will just lose money. Will my blood type change anything, it's AB+?" asked Brighand.
"Oh, that's depressing. Had you been blood type O, I would've paid for a vial of your blood and sold it as a vaccine. Not that you really need cash right now. The things you want to buy are sold out. I'll get my men to load your engine up with supercondensed coal, the good stuff," said the quartermaster.
The good stuff meant that it would actually be mostly coal with a large amount of pressure used to make a much larger amount fit in a smaller space. It was not uncommon for the outside to be condensed coal with a hollow inside or worse, random garbage tossed in the middle to make sure it passes weight inspections. Good stuff was when they actually shoved an auger in to pull out a large cylinder of material to confirm it's legit all the way through. Just because humanity reached the stars and far more efficient machines and energy sources, did not mean fossil fuels fell out of use. Such convenient sources of energy instead became mass-produced in factories converting mass amounts of organic materials into fuels that were meant to be emergency backups when other fuel sources failed but quickly became popular as the main source after finding ways to compress massive amounts of fossil fuels into small cubes that would expand as they were used up.
The fuel source would be used to generate enough heat to convert some secondary material into its plasma state which would be used for propulsion. Engines were designed to use as little fuel as possible to maintain the necessary temperature consistently. Rather than being able to turn off the engines, the expulsion of plasma to generate propulsion would reduce temperatures and require more materials to be heated to plasma levels. So releasing no plasma at all would allow for the lowest fuel consumption. Turning an engine fully off and back on would use up as much fuel as half a day of intermittent propulsion.
This is why all ships had at minimum three crewmembers to maintain three eight-hour shifts. One sleeps, one drives, and one works in rotation. With some leeway here and there for meal and bathroom breaks. A crew of five allowed them to take their time to teach how everything is done and maintain one or two scavengers grabbing debris from space. Brighand would have to fill every role in a more dangerous territory that was farther away and all alone.
"Is there enough money leftover for food or water supplies? Are the oxygen tanks filled?" asked Brighand.
"All topped off. Those were taken apart, tested, filled, and then tested again. I ain't gonna lie and say it's top of the line, but the water is clean and the food isn’t off visually. If the higher-ups really wanted you to die, they'd have us drain it all out after. Which means you should have some leeway. Don't rush and don't sleep in the asteroid fields. Just come back with your life intact after a month is good enough. A full ship hold isn't worth the risk. Fill it up with junk or even rocks on the last day if it makes you feel better," said the quartermaster as the shutters closed down fully.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Taking this as a cue to leave, Brighand followed the directions on the document given to find his ship. "3rd level bay 64x16" with the quartermaster's office being the second level bay and there being sixteen rows and sixty-four spots for ships in each row, some ships taking up more than one spot or row depending on size. In other words, he had to go down one floor then go all the way to the back corner to find his ship.
There it was in all its glory, much cleaner than he remembered. All the paint, graffiti and other decorations were scraped off leaving behind a cool metal exterior that would make it look brand new if not for all the dents and scratches. It was the size of a planetside one-bedroom studio apartment with most of the space taken up by the engine, life support, and control systems. With all that accounted for, the interior was the size of a queen-sized bed not counting the airlock which added a twin-sized bed space separated by an airtight door.
As he climbed aboard, he couldn't help but reminisce on how he used to argue with the others, trying to get the airlock as his sleeping spot while they were traveling and not using the area for work. It was the only spot on the vessel with any privacy. Then inside the cockpit, he sat down on the chair he only got to sit in while he was being taught how to fly and rubbed the torn leather that the previous captain insisted was premium quality artificial leather and not a knockoff mass-produced variety.
At that moment, Brighand went over the controls in his mind while thinking about all the good times he had with the others. He had always wished for his own ship and more alone time, but never like this. What he imagined was hitting a big haul and then pooling their money together to buy a larger ship with tools specialized for areas like the one he was going to. Tearing apart asteroids with mining tools and being able to sleep in private quarters. Now they were all dead and the ship was thoroughly cleaned, destroying the last remnants of their existence. Photos of planetside once hung on the back wall, chalk drawings on the ceiling were scrubbed away, and even the box in the corner where they kept unique-looking pieces of scrap that wouldn't sell for much for themselves was gone, most likely trashed or sold off.
"Requesting permission to leave cargo bay. Position 64x16 third level. This is Brighand, I mean Captain Brighand," he said into a headset from the control console.
"Undocking procedure initiated for Captain Brighand. The diseased one is leaving the bay, I repeat, diseased one leaving the bay," said a voice through the headset, one of the deckhands under the quartermaster.
"Please don't call me that. I was given a clean bill of health by the medical team," said Brighand as he started up the engine and was moved by the station's system to an airlock at the front of the station's dock.
After a ship lands in the docks, an arm attached to a rail system with a magnet at the end would lift up the ship and transport it to a designated spot. Being suspended in the air makes it easier for its crew to inspect the ship for damage while a small sensor on the magnet arm will check for damage where the ship is picked up to leave no spot hidden. Even one hole left unrepaired could become bigger and if the insides are breached that means instant death to all crew. With the exception of any crew in the airlock of the ship or wearing a spacesuit.
Around the halfway point, Brighand was shocked to see that propulsion was ready on the controls. This meant that the engine had already heated up the air within the plasma chamber to the point of generating plasma, enough to move the ship. He started up the engine right as he requested undocking as normally it wouldn't be ready until after everything was finished and the ship was launched out of the station adrift for a minute or two. This either meant that the coal given to him was truly good stuff, there was something mixed in with the coal letting it burn faster and hotter, or that this ship was changed in some way. He recognized the dents and scrapes on the ship's hull, so if the ship was changed in some way, it was likely that they took apart and searched the engine while performing maintenance and cleaning before putting it back together.
Whatever it was, Brighand simply hoped that this faster startup didn't come at the cost of fuel efficiency or he was screwed. Undocking happened a few minutes later as the airlock behind closed, all the air was siphoned and then the front airlock opened. The magnetic arm went forward before turning off the magnet, detaching and launching the ship forward. Instead of drifting and tilting about in space like it had in the past, Brighand gave the ship a bit of plasma thrust to straighten it out and ride out the momentum of the launch towards his destination. The solar system with the massive asteroid belt that had only gotten bigger over the years as debris and dust gathered together to form new asteroids over the years.
Most of the money in this area was mining these asteroids made of metal and selling them to the smelters in hopes of finding ship alloys or rare metals. That and ships, not ships from the battlefield as those were long since gone. Ships of other salvagers were hit by asteroids and then towed by whoever found them back to the station for a big payday. Back during the first round of salvaging, many people turned to piracy, adding rams to the front of their ships to smash into scavengers to steal their haul and their ship. Such practices were no longer done as there was only the one station. Hundreds of years ago, there was dozens of nearby space ports and pirates could just shift their location after being banished from one part.