Jax managed to avoid his passengers for most of the trip. He’d never thought much about the single bathroom on the Osprey until he had to fight a dozen and a half strangers for the shower every morning. Skip spent most of the trip complaining about his overtaxed resources only to have Jax tell him that they would stock up when they dropped the passengers off and that he just had to make do.
The ReliefCorp station was smaller than Kelso station, by at least half. Where Kelso was many decks above and below a large toroidal space dock, the ReliefCorp station was mushroom shaped and maybe only twenty levels tall. Docking arms reached out like spokes from the large upper section.
Jax pointed out the forward viewscreen. “Guess they wanted to be sure we knew what their mission is.” He grinned as Rudy turned and followed his finger.
“Very clever,” the droid replied. The ReliefCorp station was painted red with a white cross painted across the top of the mushroom cap section above each docking arm. “We’ve been cleared to dock at arm three,” Rudy added.
“Cool. Go tell our guests to get ready to get the hell off this ship,” Jax said, grinning as he thought about the payment that was about to clear his bank account.
“You’re thinking about money, aren’t you?” Skip asked.
“What makes you ask that?” Jax said, his smile vanishing as a blush crept up his neck.
“You were grinning like an idiot,” the ship’s SI replied. “You do that when you think of money. Or watch porn, but I know you’re not doing the latter.”
“You can shut up now,” Jax said as docking arm three got closer.
The Osprey had two cargo access doors, one on each side of the cargo bay. Each large door had a small personnel hatch set in it. Docking arm three was a modern multimodal design, able to adjust its height and width to accommodate most ship’s airlock designs, including the Osprey . The outer edge of the docking arm lit up as the Osprey got to within ten meters of it. The ship thumped once as it nestled against the docking arm, allowing it to latch onto the ship. An indicator on his console lit up green. “Good seal,” Skip reported.
Jax hopped out of his seat and headed for the stairs. “Open us up, Skip.”
“Roger, roger,” the ship’s SI replied.
“Folks!” Jax shouted as he descended the stairs into the crowded, and not very good smelling, cargo hold. “We’re docked with your corporate station.” The personnel hatch set in the cargo hold door popped in, then slid aside. Just inside the docking arm was Mr. Kline, the man who hired Jax.
“Welcome home, folks,” the well-dressed business man said. He stepped out of the way as the tired and foul-smelling aid workers started to file out of the Osprey . He walked over to Thomas Chen. The two shook hands and chatted a moment before the camp manager followed his group off the ship.
From the threshold, Chen said, “Thank you again, Mr. Caruso.” He waved once and vanished into the docking arm.
Kline walked over to Jax. “Thank you, Mr. Caruso. We couldn’t be more pleased to have our people back.” Jax nodded and rested a hand on Rudy’s head when the droid rolled over to the pair of humans. Kline continued, “I’ve authorized the rest of your payment. It should be in your account now.”
Jax looked down at Rudy, who tilted up and blinked a green light on his faceplate. “It was our pleasure, Mr. Kline.” He looked around the hold; loose bits of discarded clothes and various abandoned personal effects lay scattered around. “Any chance we can stock up here at your station? I’d like to top off our consumables and maybe hire a cleaning droid to come through here with a flamethrower.”
The other man wrinkled his nose and nodded. “Yes, that would make sense.” He motioned for Jax to follow him off the ship. “I’ll help you make the arrangements.”
Jax looked over his shoulder. “Rudy, you got this?”
The droid made a mechanical grumbling noise. “Sure.”
“You’re the best!” Jax shouted from further down the docking arm. He turned to Kline. “So, uh, Naomi Himura. What’s her deal?”
The other man looked at Jax. “I don’t know who that is.”