Over the next few earth days Shige sorted the boxes, They had been hastily packed, but everything seemed to be there. He slowly took home what he needed, making one or two trips a day. The repeated walks from the docks to the accommodation pods, or tubs as the dock workers called them, and hospital meant he was starting to find his way around the station. He got to know a few of the crew at the dock and even made friends with Shane to Kathys surprise. Kathy explained that he didn't like strangers much, or any change, or any responsibility really. He showed Shige his vibrotronic bike. He had crashed out riding the dunes and was saving up to get some parts.
"There's nothing like these bad boys on earth. A group of us go and ride the dunes on days off, I can't wait to get out again. I lost control and hit a rock, the bike spun off into a one of those bloody cactus fields, luckily, I went over the top into a sand dune. Check these out" he produced a dozen long spines.
"The cactus here shoot out these nasties at anything that comes near. They contain a neurotoxin that kills most things pretty quick. The decaying bodies feed the cactus. Vicious aye. A bunch of spines punctured the speaker unit that keeps the bike in the air."
That afternoon, using the workshop at the docks, Shige managed to mend some of the broken panels and a lever on the bike. Shane came over after his shift.
“Shit mate that looks great, maybe Kathy wasn’t wrong to let you keep your gear here after all." he said with a grin.
“We need Paul here, he is a pro at electronics, he will be out in a day or so" Shige told him.
"To good. If you like bikes you should try for a runner's job, I can show you the basics on my bike, maybe one of the team will let you ride theirs. I will ask around." said Shane.
Soon he had another broken panel to repair for a mate of Craigs in return for some lessons and riding time. The loading bay was big but not big enough to ride the bike at high speed. Which was good for an over enthusiastic beginner. The bike's owner told him he had saved him a bunch and transferred 12 credits as well as the promised lessons. Shige was stoked. he thanked him while trying not to show his ignorance about how much the credits were worth. Later he met up with Trice and walked with her back to the tubs. She told him his credits would buy him 10 liters of water, one basic takeaway meal or around 6 meals of tube rations. He had enough food and water to get by, so he decided to look into the price of thermoplastic patches and heating tools that he could use to fix the bikes panels as well as bonding agents to stick them together.
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His next bike fix turned out to be the key to a new job. A runner came through the docks to pick up some boxes and complained about a loose panel on his vibrobike to Kathy. He was a Shubanta, one of the blue ram's horn aliens. The set up on his bike was basically the same as a human model but shorter in the driver's seat to suit a Shubanta body size. Shige was able to pop off the panel and re shape the dent in it with a blow torch borrowed from the docks workshop. He chatted to the rider about the runner's job while he did the repair. Two more credits! It wasn't long after that that he got a visit from Trice at his pod.
"I have been finding you. My cousin said you fixed his bike for him and that there was a job available at the runners, and you should go to it"
The job was for 20 hours riding out of every 100 in five-hour shifts with extra credits for repair work. The owner was a yellow insect, kind of like a giant stick insect but a myriad of metallic colors. Resssssht constantly sucked on a cylinder of gas through a straw thought the interview. He gave Shige an uneasy feeling but was straight to the point offering him a trial period to start off. Thankfully Shige didn't see much of the boss after that as all the jobs were allocated online. The other riders said Resssssht was a fair boss but that he was pretty strict if anyone fucked up.
The delivery bike was dialed back to station speed limits. Slower than Shige had hoped for but still loads of fun. What the job did do was to open the entire station to him like some giant interactive movie. He met beings he could never have imagined and quickly improved on his mental map of the Red Scar. Shige was thrilled. The day before his friends were due to wake he was on a run delivering bottled water and sea salt crisp's when he got a vine mail from Teshine.
"You come quick; Paul is awake early today".