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Ariana Harkins strode cheerfully through the airlock onto her transport ship, Seraph. That thought gave her a giddy thrill. After years, it truly was her ship now.
Two members of her small crew stood waiting on the other side of the airlock. Her Echanic engineer, Vlasa, frowned in response to her jubilation. With a cybernetic replacement for his right eye marring the grey skin of his face, many of his expressions were hard to read. But he never failed to express displeasure.
“Captain, I take it from your expression that you have found us a job?” Vlasa asked.
“Yep.”
“Does it involve more musk oxes?” Noah Ramirez, the ship’s cargo handler, asked concerned. A human in his mid-thirties, Noah drummed his fingers on the pistol strapped to his hip as he talked, “Please say it doesn’t involve more musk oxen. I just got the smell out of the cargo bay.”
“I thought you said we should get more cargoes like that?” Ariana asked.
“Cargoes that pay like that. But not that smell like that.”
“Well, you don’t need to worry. This job doesn’t even involve cargo. Just a passenger.”
“That doesn’t sound like much of a job.” Noah frowned.
“Pays better than the musk ox job. In fact, it paid enough that I just zeroed out the outstanding debt on Seraph.”
“And why would anyone pay us that much money for passage?” Vlasa asked.
“His name is Javi Wester, and he’s an old friend. Was something of a mentor to me at the Naval Academy.”
“That’s some friend,” Noah said skeptically.
“Is this the same Javi Wester I’ve read about? The one behind that crazy political organization that wants to see the PUG dissolved?” Vlasa asked.
“LFD is not crazy. They’re just opposed to PUG having too much power. Since the end of the AI war, their control has only gotten stronger.” Ariana said. In truth, she agreed that some of Live Free or Die’s (LFD’s) rhetoric did border on the crazy. But no one else spoke out openly against the Planetary Union of the Galaxy (PUG), so she felt some sympathy for them.
“Considering PUG saved us all from extinction by AI, that seems warranted,” Vlasa said.
Ariana waved a dismissive hand, “None of that really matters. The important part is that he is an old friend and we’re going to get him where he needs to go.”
“And where is it exactly, that we’re going?” Vlasa asked.
“Triask.”
“Triask? That’s PUG headquarters.”
Noah shrugged, “Meh, if he paid, then I say we take him wherever he wants to go.”
“Says the man who would do anything for a credit.” Vlasa said.
“Hey now, I wouldn’t do anything.”
“Name one thing you wouldn’t do for money?”
Noah considered the question for a moment. He seemed to reach a conclusion but then shook his head, “I’ll let you know when I find it. But taking a good friend of our fearless captain to a nice, safe, if boring, planet, isn’t it. Is that where you draw the line? At helping people?”
“I never said we shouldn’t help. I just...” Vlasa fumbled, while Noah gave a triumphant smile.
“If you two are done, we need to get ready to depart. Noah, assemble the gear we’ll need for a planetary excursion.”
Vlasa tilted his head sideways, “Why are we going down to a planet? Isn’t the job to go to Triask?”
“That is the job.” Ariana said, “This first stop has nothing to do with Javi.”
“Did Jasper finally talk you into take that survey job?”
“No...”
“Then what...” Vlasa said and then groaned, “ You’re not going to refuel?”
“The Hub charges outrageous fees for something you can find anywhere. I’m not falling for that scam.”
Vlasa sighed, “Hydrogen is one of the cheapest things you can buy.”
“Right, because it’s everywhere.”
“Why are we going down to a planet then? Aren’t gas giants just made of that?” Noah asked.
Vlasa turned an appraising eye toward Noah and then turned back to Ariana, “He makes a valid point.”
“We also need to restock on water.”
“But we have a full tank.”
“Had. I kind of ran the water supply through the electrolyzer to make the fuel we’re going to need to get there.” Ariana said sheepishly, “But on the plus side, the oxygen tanks are full.”
Vlasa’s cybernetic hand clanked against his eye implant as he facepalmed. He slowly shook his head side to side as it rested in his hand. A groan quietly drifted into the silence of the room.
“I can dig it.” Noah said with an appreciative smile, “Sticking it to the man. Why pay for something that should be free? So, down to an unexplored planet? I’ll get a big gun.”
Noah strode out of the room whistling. Ariana remained where she stood, waiting patiently for Vlasa to recover himself. After a moment the groaning upgraded to muttering and finally, he lifted his head.
“You realize that if we leave port without enough fuel to reach our destination, plus fifteen percent, we’ll be in violation of PUG regulations. You could be subject to fines and the potential loss of your shipping license.”
Ariana waved a dismissive hand, “First, we have enough fuel to reach our destination. Second, we’re not in PUG space right now. Third, how little do you think of me? We have enough fuel for five jumps. It will only take three to get where we’re going. Leaves plenty to get us back to the Hub.”
“But you said it would take us three to get there.”
“We could do it in two. But I’d only want to go through PSR-J0108 if we really, really had too.”
Vlasa squinted his one real eye as he thought and then it widened, “That’s a pulsar. If we lost shields, all of our organic components would fry. For you, that would be everything.”
“Exactly why I’d rather avoid it.” Ariana said with a small exasperated shake of her head, “Anyway, you’ll probably want to stay up here. I know how you don’t like your implants getting dirty. How do you think our noob pilot would handle it?”
She referred to the ships only other crew, Olivia Ryans, their helmsman. She had recently hired the sixteen-year-old human girl. Normally, Ariana never would have considered hiring someone so young. But Olivia had beem so irrepressibly eager, she had relented and let the girl prove her skills on a few simulations. After such a clear example of raw talent, she had hired her despite the age concern. Since then, Vlasa had taken the lead in training her and getting her settled in on Seraph.
Vlasa’s voice returned to his usual even tone, “Olivia appears to be competent at her duties, even if her inexperience has led to a few minor mistakes. But that does not give me any metrics with which to gauge her response to an unknown alien planet. I know she is considered young for your people.”
“Wow, that’s high praise. You must actually like this kid.” Ariana said with a smirk.
“I have no opinion of her that is not fundamentally tarnished by my distaste for her predecessor.”
“Randolph wasn’t that bad.”
“He used Seraph to smuggle drugs and refused to pilot us any further once we were stranded in the middle of nowhere unless you gave him a raise. What part of that is ‘not that bad.’?”
“The part where I got to watch Hub security arrest him.”
“Something I missed.”
“Told you you’d want to see him off.”
“I’ll remember that next time.” Vlasa said with a small smile, “But for now, I should see to the engines and ensure we do indeed have enough fuel not to get stranded in the middle of nowhere.