My eyes opened slowly as I woke up in the soft bed on the Vagabond. My long, fluffy white tail was curled up between my legs, and I absently began to run my hands through its fur. The last day had been rough on me, confined to my Homepage. I’d sent Lea a message saying that I’d be taking the rest of the day for a nap as my coffin refreshed its suspension gel. That was a lie of course, but one I needed to get used to given that I wasn’t actually able to leave VR for the next six months.
I gave a soft sigh, closing my eyes again and wishing I could just go back to sleep. I’d spent most of my time alone going over the articles Syl had recommended for me, reading about people’s experience being transgender and their descriptions of how the emotions felt. It sounded an awful lot like what I was experiencing, but I still refused to believe that was me. I just enjoyed being a girl in VR. I could go back to being a guy at any point and I’d be happy with it.
A growl escaped my throat as I buried my head into my pillow so I could deny the tears I could feel welling up. I eventually forced myself up and into the bathroom so I could splash cold water on my face. The face of Kaela looked back at me in the mirror, visibly just as exhausted as I felt. Maybe I could find some makeup to cover those dark circles?
I turned away as that thought crossed my mind, pushing it down into its own little corner and moving on. We would be arriving today in Yau Paula, and I didn’t have the time to deal with this strange gender confusion that I was feeling.
I quickly got dressed in my new hardsuit. Hardsuits were underwear for your typical spacesuit, featuring a flexible synthetic material and a number of sensors for medical diagnostics across the body of the suit. It was a lot tighter to my body than my grey jumpsuit had been, but the white hardsuit was part of the starter equipment I’d picked up on the first day. Thankfully I’d had the wherewithal to remember to order something to go over it when I was in my isolation phase, having opted for a loose-fitting set of black cargo pants with a hole in the back for my tail and a loose white bomber jacket that I threw over top. Neither would be good armour if I got into a firefight, but allowed for a lot of flexibility since I wasn’t much one for tanking hits anyways.
The ship’s intercom came to life just as I finished dressing, “Pilot Kaela, please report to the bridge for return to realspace.”
I groaned softly. Soren was up to his usual shit again, roleplaying like the ship was something real that needed rules and procedures. Not to say multi-crew ships didn’t benefit from some structure, but announcing something like that on the PA system felt overboard when he could have just sent me a quick text. He insisted to me at one point, on a different ship of his when I was still running solo, that it was vital to help the people on the crew understand the importance of their job. I told him that I thought he just got off on the silly powertrip.
I didn’t want to waste time though, quickly getting myself up to the bridge. I slipped into my pilot’s seat at the front of the bridge, nodding to the short captain as I stepped past. The bridge was full again today, with both our guests taking up their place at the back of the bridge. Alex was once again at the sensor station, and I gave him a nod. We hadn’t really gotten the chance to speak, since he got back yesterday and I had still been busy with my reading. Troy was at the mirror station on the other side of the bridge, where he could manage the ship’s weapons systems. He didn’t even look at me as I sat down, and I was getting the distinct impression the older soldier didn’t like me much.
It didn’t matter to me at the moment, my brain having shifted into ‘work mode’ as I slipped my hands around the yoke.
“Realspace transition in thirty seconds, Captain.” Alex said from where he sat.
“Sounds good, Mr. Alex. Give me a warning at five.” Soren replied, nodding in a way I’m sure he thought looked stoic.
Quiet descended on the bridge. I had my hands ready to take the controls once Novaspace was done with us. It was weird, I could feel how much longer the jump would take. It was like I could feel the Novaspace energies washing over the ship’s slipspace shielding, and I could feel us getting shallower. I didn’t really even need the countdown from Alex as we made the transition into the Yau Paula system, and I disengaged the Novaspace navigation system.
Soren gave a soft hum of appreciation, “That was smooth, Ms. Kaela.”
“You know I am, Captain. Realspace transition complete. Exactly where I calculated, all navigational systems show no damage.” I replied back, a proud satisfaction in my heart, “I can begin the approach to Avalon Station now, if you would like?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Yes please. Mr. Alex, see if you can get in contact with Avalon Station and let them know I want to speak to whoever is in charge when we get there.” The captain said, turning his gaze back towards Koal. “Provided you have no issues still with my current plan of action?”
The tabby catboy shook his head. “Please go ahead, Captain. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d have the same confidence going in, but you have your… Charms.”
“Excellent.” Soren grinned wide, rubbing his hands together with glee. He pressed a button on the arm of his chair, and brought Lea up on a video feed from her position down in the engineering section. “Alright team. Here’s the plan.”
The ‘plan’, as it turned out, was pretty straightforward on most of our part. Our Captain planned to split our crew up into a couple small teams. Him and Koal were going to be going into a long filibuster of a meeting with the main executives of Elite, intending to distract them from what the rest of us were doing. Lea and Autumn would be going to investigate the security and maintenance practices of the mining company, focusing on the sabotage angle. Meanwhile, Alex and I were going to go speak to the actual miners and the pilots of the ships that brought them out to the worksites to see if there was anything strange going on. Troy would be staying on the ship at the airlock to make sure that no one tried to board the Vagabond.
First things first though, we would likely be meeting aforementioned executives at the dock. Apparently Delanno Group had informed Elite Hardworks that they would be sending investigators, which only served to make our jobs harder. Regardless, we all needed to keep up appearances, which meant backing our Captain when we first met them.
It took us the better part of two hours to transit from our drop point to the asteroid belt that surrounded the single, massive orange star of the Yau Paula system. During that time, Alex had been in contact with the space sector control and was giving me vectors to best approach the station. I was carefully watching out for any tricks or traps that they may be flying us into, but our approach was mercifully quiet.
Avalon Station was pretty typical in and of itself for a mining outpost in the middle of nowhere. There were several large habitation domes made from the same high-strength glass that cockpits and bridges normally used, shaped in triangular patterns that made up the supports. On just the other side of the asteroid was the reactor plant. It was another smaller dome, though this was made from extremely high-strength steel. Just inside would be the fission reactor that provided power to the station and all its necessities. There were nearly two dozen smaller ships, the mining transports, sitting on pads that dotted the surface around one of the habitation domes.
We, however, were vectoring in towards the largest of the habitation sections, which had a proper spaceport tower. It was a tall structure with four long reaching arms with airlocks on the ends. They were designed to put larger ships like ours just outside the gravitational pull of the asteroid.
Docking was a challenge, putting pressure on my skills despite practising this dozens of times. Lining two small airlock rings up exactly and matching the exact speed that the asteroid was spinning was as close to an exact science as piloting got, but after a few minutes of careful manoeuvring we were safely connected. I sighed with relief as I let go of the controls, wagging my tail happily with my success.
“Good work, Ms. Kaela.” Soren said as he stood up, clapping his hands together. “Let's get going! I’m sure they are waiting for us eagerly!”
----------------------------------------
The looks we were getting from the sharply dressed executives of Elite Hardworks said they were absolutely not eager to see us as we stepped out of the airlock. There were three men in total, all players given the boxes the game system brought up above their heads when I concentrated on them.
[Player: ??? | Level: 22 | Status: Healthy | Affiliation: Elite Hardworks]
[Player: ??? | Level: 23 | Status: Healthy | Affiliation: Elite Hardworks]
[Player: ??? | Level: 43 | Status: Healthy | Affiliation: Elite Hardworks]
I narrowed my eyes at the guy in the center of the trio, who was level 43. I was still sitting at level 1, since I’d only really just started using my skills. The first jump into Novaspace had given me a good chunk of experience that nearly put me at the threshold for level 2, but I needed more time actually doing my skills outside of the simulations to continue to boost my level.
Each of the men were bland in their appearance, and I guessed that was deliberate. They were trying to project that detached indifference that so many of the ladder-climbing middle managers pretended made them successful in the real world. They had either black or brown hair with slight flecks of grey, and wore matching black suits with red ties. It was like someone pulled a series of stereotypes out of an old-world sitcom.
“Good day, Mr. Soren. Crew of the Vagabond.” The higher level exec spoke, his voice a deep rumbling bass that hinted at malice and disdain for us. “I understand you are the investigators our parent company has hired? I am Carter Yates, the President of our operations here at Elite. This is Ryan Hedgeworth, our vice president of engineering,” he said as he gestured to the level 23 man, “And this is Nicholas Ryans, our vice president of refinery operations.” He finished off by gesturing at the last.
“That we are, Mr. Yates. Thank you for accepting us on board your humble station, we are quite eager to work with you and your company to help resolve this pressing issue~” Soren replied, his over-exaggerated charm turned up to eleven as he spoke, “Why don’t we get more comfortable? I’m sure there’s a lot we need to discuss~”
I closed my eyes and hid the urge to roll my eyes with a soft sigh. I was starting to regret the large fluffy ears. It was way harder to ignore Soren’s yammering.