It was cold in the passageway, but then it was always cold in this corridor as there wasn’t much need to heat the ship outside of the living quarters while in transit.
But Jacob liked roving around the corridors, cold or not, it meant he got away from the rest of the crew … and his Dad - it also meant he got to think about things. At this moment he was thinking about the station they’d be arriving at in a few hours; relishing in the thought of seeing new people.
People is what Jacob missed most during the long transits between systems where his father's merchant transport carrier took cargo. It almost always took days, and sometimes weeks, to move the goods - time mainly consumed by the slow crawl from a jump point at a systems edge to the planets and stations in systems to drop off and pick up new cargo, before turning around and doing it all again. There wasn’t much need to be fast in a merchant transport, you always got to your destination and the money was the same - fuel, after all, was costly as were the faster engines. The large liners and mil grade ships did have better engines, in fact almost all ships had better engines that this trawler - but that was life. Jacob’s life anyway.
Moving through the passageway at a reasonable speed, in part just to keep warm, Jacob could see one of the rare ship viewports up ahead on the left side. He paused briefly for a moment to look out. As always the endless ink of space was shown sprinkled with the countless stars - along with one closer star representing the system they were in now. Looking at the star through the viewport didn’t hurt Jacob’s eyes as it would do if he looked directly upon it because the viewport was filtered. The star was still very small and wouldn’t grow that much larger as it was a dwarf star... just enough heat to make a cold life sustainable on one of the mining planets in the system... but not comfortable by any means.
Catching his reflection in the viewport as he began to turn away he saw a thin boy - almost a man at 15 and three quarters - with dark messy hair, large ears and dusty-brown eyes. His skinny appearance still apparent despite the copious amounts of clothing he was wearing to keep him warm. He wasn’t tall, nor was he short - he was average. That about summed up his life, average - he had never excelled at school but he wasn’t bad either... it was just that he wasn’t interested in what they were teaching... although he did find math and anything computer related came easily to him.
Moving on again through the rough hewn metal corridors - there wasn’t much need to make them pretty here where no one was going to see them, then again there wasn’t a lot of spare material around to make things look pretty with almost everything being consumed by the war effort.
The war was a long way away, everything was a long way away, but the war especially so. Almost on the dead opposite side of colonised space to where Jacob was now. It didn’t really affect him, his Dad or the business much - but it did mean that things cost more because almost everything was bought or consumed to support the ongoing war.
No one really knew why the Inari had attacked the colonies on the outer edges of space or why they had continued to attack. According to the news feeds the central government had tried to contact the Inari without any success so the war had gone on for years, ever since Jacob was a small boy.
It had affected everyone not only with the rising cost of goods but also at the cost of people. Jacob’s mother had been called up when he was seven as part of one of the drafts - his father had escaped the draft due to a rare blood condition - and they’d had a report of her death less than three months later. It didn’t hurt Jacob to think about that anymore, not like it used to... he had, in part, become used to the fact his mother wasn’t around anymore - but it took years to get over it. Besides, his Dad was always there for him but he always thought about his mum and he silently wished she was still there to give him a hug or encourage him in whatever he was doing.
Reaching a door in the passageway Jakob put his palm on the palm reader to the left and it slid across with a silent whoosh letting the light and, more importantly, heat wash over him. After moving through the door he turned to his left towards his room - this corridor was more homely than the last and there was a thick carpet, so he took off his shoes and carried them along letting his feet feel the thread of the carpet. His father always kept the gravity at just over standard so that the crew and he didn’t get soft during the long voyages - his father said it would make him strong and, on the whole, Jacob didn’t really notice it anymore.
While on his way to his room he didn’t meet anyone, they’d all be in the rec room chatting and getting food ready - it was Jacob’s day off today; his job was normally to prepare the food for everyone. It wasn’t a bad job really and gave him plenty of time to himself which he liked most of the time. Entering his room he glanced at the screen to his left on which he had set a tracker of their voyage towards the station so he could see how much longer it would be - four and a half hours more to go, an eternity to his waiting mind. Sighing he took off the extra clothes and changed into his work gear, he’d be helping to unload the cargo and then load new cargo before getting to explore the station. After quickly changing he stepped back out into the corridor to walk to the rec room for food.
Walking through the open and wide door he could see that Ben and Manny were in the Kitchen finishing off the food preparation - they were brothers and you could see the similarities straight away when looking at them. Both young, tanned skin, clean cut sporting dark short military haircuts - they’d both served their ten year stint in the mil, but had now been released... they never talked about it though, when asked they would just stare and stay quiet until someone changed the subject. They were fairly fun to be around, if you didn’t ask about their time in service, but sometimes Jacob caught them staring off into the distance not really looking at anything.
On the other side of the room were Jazz and Pete playing cards with his father - more than likely the game called “Stars”, a widely played betting game. Jazz and Pete were about the same age as his father and had been working on the ship forever - it was almost like having two more Dad’s around... a good thing most of the time. Jazz was very blond and stocky, while Pete was completely bald and also well built, they both spent a lot of their spare time in the small weights room on the ship.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Looking up at his entry, his father smiled and waved him over to the table pulling out a chair for him to sit on. “Come on Jacob, si-down, it looks like we’ve got time for another couple of rounds o’stars before food’s up”. Smiling and taking a seat Jazz dealt the hexagonal cards out to everyone around the table, five cards each of which you had to combine with three other cards dealt to the middle of the table throughout the round to make the best score possible - grinning Pete gave a sidelong glance to Jazz and said “Not again, best get your thinkin’ hat on Jazz or Jacob will have all your creds away from you before we get station side to spend’m”.
Jacob found Stars an easy enough game to play, it was all about probabilities... and also working out what the other players were likely to have. As the rounds passed on and the cards were added to the discard pile the game became easier to predict and consequently the stakes got larger. They weren’t far through the game at the moment so the bets were small, a few creds at the moment - his Dad slid a small pile over to Jacob to play with, he always got to keep whatever he won. Looking down at the cards he’d been dealt he saw he was easily going to make a System, possibly a Nova if the right cards came up... but it was a good start. He put in his creds to continue the round.
“Oh no, he’s only gone and bet... what’ve you got there Jacob... another double-cluster like last time... I don’t know how you do it” said Jazz with a grin but nevertheless putting his creds in the middle of the table. Likewise everyone followed suit except his father who put his cards on the discard pile - face down - indicating that he didn’t have anything worth going with... his Dad was a good player, he’d taught Jacob everything he knew but always played it safe.
The first card was dealt out to the table and placed face up. Jacob knew without looking at his cards again that he was nearly at a Nova, all he needed was another asteroid and he’d get it, a one in seven chance... but not too hard to get with two cards remaining. Pushing forward a few creds - double the lowest stake - he began the next round of betting. Everyone else followed suit and the next card was turned up - it wasn’t what he needed, but he needed to show he was confident, so bet the same again. This time Pete cringed and put his cards on the pile again “I just know he has another one of those magical hands he pulls out so I’m out”. Jazz just looked on and said with a grin “nah, he’s bluffing, you can see it in his eyes... nervous looking”.
Shrugging Jacob just waited for the next card - and, as hoped for an asteroid was turned up, he was careful not to make any sudden movements or do anything out of the norm … he just pushed the same number of creds forward again and then pushed another in on top - “It's worth a go, an even chance...”. Jazz eyed him mock suspiciously then smiled and put in the same number of creds “let’s see’m Jacob, you can’t have got me this time”.
Laying his cards out on the table he could see his father smiling to his right and Pete let out a laugh “Reck’n he has Jazz”. Grunting Jazz just put his cards face down on the discard puzzle “Maybe I just feel like givin’ him a few creds to spend at the station?”. Jacobs father leant in close to Jacob and spoke just quietly enough for him to hear “Very well played son, but don’t over do it, remember, keep them keen enough to keep coming back” then, louder to Pete and Jazz he said, while nodding a head towards Jacob, “I reckon he has the Malcowitz knack just like his old man”. Mock groaning Jazz said “‘cept he wins unlike his old man...”.
Laughing Jacob waited for the cards to be dealt out and the game continued on for a few more rounds until Ben and Manny brought over the food for everyone.
Looking down it was the standard food recon that they generally had during transit, it tasted alright, but nothing like real food - yet another reason why visiting the station was going to be good.
The meal time passed by reasonably quickly and Jacob helped clear away and clean up the dishes in what he supposed was a time old tradition and then made his way up to the bridge to watch the final approach to the station.
The bridge was a small room compared to the rest of the ship, but had enough seats for all of the crew and more should they be needed. Jacob slipped into one of the seats at the back of the room to watch his Father pilot the ship towards the station symbol on the head-up-display which was projected across the view port. The station wouldn’t be visible for another thirty minutes or so yet, but Jake could see that the space surrounding the station had a flurry of ships transiting to or from it.
The call-outs for each ship were displayed next to the ships on the view port - giving information about their vector direction and speed as well as the type of ship they are and the priority they were given depending on their job. As a transporter they were almost the lowest priority on the scale, just above civilian transports, but that wouldn’t matter too much in this system meaning there shouldn’t be too much waiting before docking.
Time passed by slowly as Jacob continued to watch the display and strained to see the first glimpses of the station. His father had, at about thirty minutes away from the station, opened a comms link with the station port control - although only confirming the information that the ships automatic transponder was already transmitting and also receiving docking instructions.
The station began to take shape, a massive structure providing housing and work for nearly half a million people - although it was nowhere near as big as the biggest stations, but Jacobs father tended to take contracts for the smaller stations. The towering hab blocks were visible at the top of the station, as much as top could be defined in space - top was the upper side of the system plane, based on the position of the star and the planets travelling around it. All the industrial and docking facilities were built at the bottom of the station - it was also where the lowest paid workers were housed, close to their work. A small middle section of the station was lit up brightly by millions of view ports and behind the thick station walls would be the commercial zone with shops, food and people. Lots of people. That was what Jacob was looking forward to, looking around the shops, although there wasn’t really anything he was interested in buying at the moment.
A while later Jacob’s father slowed the engines and the nearly constant engine hum disappeared. The view from the view-port showed a gaping opening into which the ship was being piloted towards, other ships were transiting into and out of the opening - but the size of the opening was so big that hundreds of ships could be moving through it without any chance of their being a collision.
The darkness began to brighten as the ship finally entered the opening and Jacob’s father moved the ship deftly to the left and into a docking bay. The docking bay doors closing behind the ship by the port controls and, with the landing gears extended, the ship settled with a noticeable bump to the deck. The engines were completely powered down and the ship lights brightened as the ship hooked up to the station power supply.