Cal woke terrified and struggling as grimy hands held him still and his mouth shut.
"shhh, it's all right, calm down." a gentle voice whispers into his ear. Cal slowly stopped struggling and biting at the hand in his mouth and was let go.
"sorry, I..." Cal started
"You were having a nightmare." Soph pressed a scanner to the ribbed walls of the room and sighed with relief as the screen showed nothing unusual on the other side. Cal didn't blame her. This was the first time they were hitching uninvited on a ship since the incident and they were not going to take any risk, no matter how small. They both had bags under their eyes from their constant vigilance but neither wanted to sleep. The moment anything came up on their shuttle's scanners they were jumping ship.
Soph sat down and used a clean patch of a tattered cloth to wipe his saliva of her hand. She was unharmed, of course. Her infusion had granted her resilience. No-one could predict what talents the process would grant any particular human but Soph liked to think it was a practical joke from the universe that her talent was reminiscent of the Gorm's innate abilities. She especially hated that while she could only grant herself true resilience for a few seconds, a well fed Gorm with their thick membranes and rocky exteriors could survive practically anything, short of the destruction of their ship and a full bombardment, for days or weeks on end.
Cal wasn't infused yet. They had enough Seren growing that he would be able to infuse himself by the next gathering though. It was supposed to belong to his cousin but sadly Steve was never able to claim it. It would be a scourge on his memory if the precious compound remained unused. A true skipper never wasted anything.
The room slipped into an uneasy silence once again with Cal's eyes on the shuttle and airlock and his sister checking the hall every so often. He always thought the shuttle was magnificent. It was originally an advanced zertain missile. The warhead had been replaced with a liveable space and the engine upgraded with human tech. As an intercept missile it had a greater acceleration and lower hyper- jump delay than basically any standard ship, perfect for a skipper. It was also rated for atmospheres. The problem is it was never designed to jump that far, the engines only allow forward movement and turning and the hyper jump engine runs on the non-renewable guak rather than the renewable pure seren fuel. Again, good for a jumper vessel.
Eventually Cal saw a blip. It was another ship. They were nearing their destination. Even On the established routes for star ships it is rare that you can detect other ships with the old passive scanners. Cal was watching. Even if they were passing another ship the chances it would be in adjacent phase with their own ship is miniscule. The only exceptions to this is when passing anomalies like black holes and when approaching a hub. In this case the hub should be a trade station.
Cal had never been on a true station before. He had seen them in passing and waited on docked ships but large groups of humans are never welcome on busy stations. Living and storage space is a valuable commodity and humanities tendency for population growth could ruin the longer term investments in a particular station if they settle in.
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Another object appeared on the scanner. That more or less confirmed it.
"We're almost there!" Cal half-whispered excitedly scooping up the synthesiser, using the intake to recycle the grease and packaging from their last meal before placing the device in the appropriate compartment of their shuttle. Soph was making the last checks for jumping ship. They were home safe. The Duura were not completely friendly but they didn't mind hitchhikers. There were no standard checks to stop them hitching a ride so long as they didn't steal and humans never needed to steal. We were weak, slow, stupid and altogether the least of the advanced races but we could survive off nought but the most common materials in exitance.
"lets go." Soph called from the cockpit as the drive hummed to life. Cal was onboard before the words left their mouth and closing the hatch ensuring the proper seals were in place. "Door secure" he called.
Soph continued "We should have the fuel we need... Send us out now." Cal pressed the button on their band and the small room flashed in an array of colours with a static alarm blaring and the clear words "Jettisoning cargo" plastered across one wall. If they were not safe in their ship this would be when they would leave the room for the safety of the corridor. The command center of the large ship may be flagged with a small error despite their precautions. Neither Cal nor Soph were true hackers, but the systems know nothing is stored here and the tiny flag would near certainly be missed as the crew performed their own landing checks and routines.
Finally the door slid open and the shuttle was ejected. The gentle hum of the engine hitched slightly as the shuttle stabilized and began propelling itself under it's own power Soph looked at their dials with trepidation. They were low on fuel but all they needed was a single shift into material phase there was no issue. Cal tapped the scanner, setting the scanner to active suddenly the resolution increased as a holographic image of the local space popped into view around them.
"We have a few traders around. Nothing dangerous. The station is off bearing 0.4 and 1.3."
"I see it" soph replied, spinning to enter the commands in the nav. "I'll be pulling us out a little ways from the station. We'll be alone for a little while as we drift in. You ok?"
Cal glances around. "I'm ok." he replies.
Soph nods as the shuttle lurches slightly letting out a series of soft creaking noises as if upset at the change in phase.
Soph relaxes, checking the console one last time.
"You know how everything is going to work as we come in right?" she asks turning to face Cal.
"Yep I got it."
"No, repeat it back to me one more time. I promised dad I'd protect you and this is the way to do it."
Cal sighs "Ok, We dock, we are refugees looking to refuel and move on. They give us temporary passes. We leave before they run out. You look for anything we might need and help getting to the gathering, I get us fuel. I be polite, don't haggle to hard, speak to noone I don't need to and we leave."
"good"
The pair then settle into a comfortable silence for a while as the optical viewport shows the station slowly growing from a speck as they approach. Cal opens a compartment and ensures the valuables are safely hidden before they prepare for their final approach. Soon the station is the only thing visible, looming over even the largest of ships as a huge construction of metal, rock and various synthetics.
They send a handshake to the operator who directs them to a landing bay for visitors. Soph takes a deep breath to calm themself. They are just doing a simple transaction and standard repairs. Nothing could possibly go wrong.