Alex

I entered my cabin, feeling more dejected than when I almost got kicked out of the mech training program for almost killing my instructor. God, what a day that was. I’ll have to tell Aeva that story, they’ll probably get a kick out of it.

Shaking myself from the recollections of the past, I wheeled the mech over to its stand. I looked up at the hooks used to keep it from falling over before deciding it wasn’t worth my time to try and get it onto the hooks. Besides, if the mech fell on the floor, then I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it unless I got a crewmember to help me with that issue, so I just left the mech in the wheelchair. With a hiss, the hatch opened once again, and I was treated to ‘fresh air’, or at least air that hasn’t been recycled to hell and back by the life support systems inside the mech.

I’m certainly not skipping out on my exercise today, I thought to myself as I strained to climb down the mech and onto the bed, where I lay for a time before finally drifting off for some restless napping, a time-honored tradition of Terrans everywhere.

It’s always a very interesting experience when I sleep, because I don’t really have dreams, or at least dreams that I can remember. However, I could always figure out what kind of dream that I was having based solely on what kind of emotion that I was feeling at the time, but when I woke up an hour later, I didn’t feel anything besides despair. Damn brain, give me at least SOME happy chemicals every once and a while. Today’s been bad enough without them!

I looked over to the mech. “This is all your fault, you know. If you had been strong enough to resist that blast, then there would be no war, humanity’s secrets would still be intact, and most importantly, I WOULD STILL HAVE A JOB!” I shouted at the top of my lungs at the unmoving machine. “I haven’t even finished paying you off yet!” I said softer. I tried to throw my phone across the bed at it only for it to land twenty feet away, while the mech only gave me the emotionless featureless face that the outside world, at least until recently, saw me as. I walked over to my phone in a huff and picked it up.

Wait a minute, I thought to myself, freezing in the process. If I could get my hands on the schematics for a few things, and get it all working, then the captain would HAVE to let me back on the security team! I rapidly dialed a number that I hadn’t dialed in at least a year. I impatiently waited for a few moments as the call was finally answered by a human male with beach blond hair and a broken nose sitting in a mech sized workshop. I gave a weak smile. “Hey David, it’s been a while.”

David’s face went from serious to wearing a shit eating grin faster than it took for me to blink. “Alex! How the hell have you been? I haven’t seen you since we both graduated out of the mech training program!”

“Well, I could be better, since I did kind of kick off the entirety of today’s events. I’ve also been kicked off the security team on the ship that I’m in because my mech got ruined.” I said with a sigh.

“Damn, that sounds pretty rough. What happened to it?” he asked. I turned the camera so that he could get a better look at it. “The hell did you do to it? It looks like it went through an active warzone!”

“Well,” I said, turning back the camera to me, “that’s kind of what happened. I was fighting off a pirate raid with my team when the pirates managed to get me with an IED. The chest armor is completely done for, I had to replace the battery just for it to start working again, and the movement matrix for the lower half is completely destroyed.”

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He gave an impressed whistle at the damage that it took. “Damn, that’s some serious damage. So, what, do you want me to put in an order for a new one?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I’m going to have to get a new one anyway, if I ever pay this one off, but I was wondering if you could possibly get me some schematics to get it into working order again? I still have three weeks in transit before I get to The Strength Through Diplomacy, after all.”

He scratched his five o’clock shadow. “I mean, I can probably get you a schematic for the chest armor, not the latest model but still better than what you have, but the movement matrix is a no go. Proprietary technology and whatnot, you understand.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I do, but I was also wondering if there was a way that I could motorize the wheelchair setup that I have right now and have it respond to my commands, so I’m as mobile as I was before everything went to hell. It would also help if it were in a format that the galactic community’s fabricators are compatible with, because I had enough trouble with trying to get the battery made.”

He continued to scratch at his five o’clock shadow. “I can see what I can cook up, but it’ll probably take at least an hour or so before I can get you some kind of working prototype. Also, if you could send me the schematic for the wheelchair that you have, that would help move this process along significantly.”

“I’ll definitely do that right now, because I don’t really have anything else going on right now.” I said as I sent him the schematic of the wheelchair. “Oh!” I exclaimed. “I just remembered, could I also get the schematics for a jump pack or something for when I don’t want to use the mech?”

He gave a smile. “I can do that. I can’t imagine your captain will be too pleased about that, though.”

I rolled my eyes. “Bold of you to assume that she isn’t already pissed about this to begin with. Anyways, thanks for letting me call you and give you an entire engineering project to work on instead of you doing work.” I said with a chuckle.

“Think nothing of it,” he said with a dismissive wave. “Just remember, you owe me, and you owe me big time, once again.”

I nodded and we said our goodbyes. I laid back down on the bed as I groaned in frustration. That man could remember debts better than any other man that I knew, and he would hold it against me as the debts mounted.

I was taken out of my growing whirlpool of emotions by a message from the captain that read, “Would you please meet me in my ready room, we have some things that need discussing.” I shot off a quick message saying that I was coming. I stared up at the unyielding face of the mech. Once more into the breach.

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Captain Elluge

Tribunal damn this Terran! Why is he so high maintenance? I thought as I looked over the instructions that I had been given by high command. “Due to the sensitive nature of the Galactic Community’s relationship with United Terra, it would be in the best interest of all parties for Alex the Terran to be removed from his role as a security personnel aboard the trading ship Shooting Star. It is theorized that if he remains in that role, then he will be at greater risk of dying (especially with the report of his ruined ‘mech’) and further degrading Galactic Community/Terran relations.”

I didn’t like it any more than Alex did, he was one of my best security officers, after all, and was one of the reasons that the pirate attack earlier today was repelled so effectively. Why couldn’t he just stay in his cabin until we got to the Terran ship? Why does he insist on working so much? I reached for the cup of tea that I had made this morning and took a sip. An involuntary shudder went through my body as I tasted the ice-cold liquid. Damn this eventful day. I didn’t even get a chance to enjoy my tea, I thought as I dumped it into the recycler. “Come in!” I shouted as I heard a knock on the door.

The armored Terran himself rolled in the room until he was sitting in front of my desk. “You wanted to see me, Ma’am?”