Junk Mail
26 Jul 2023Ryuko Ntsikana
Planet A 12 F – Icy Body, Eoch Flyuae UO-X c2-294 System
_____________________________
Trouble loves company and hence the saying that all things happen in threes. For Xochitl, two were paying a visit. The port strut of her Dolphin explorer’s landing gear had developed a stress fracture. Not enough to stop her movements but it would restrict the terrain she could land it on until she made repairs.
The carrier was over seven hundred light-years distance, leaving her with few choices. She could attempt to make repairs in the field or abandon her path finding and return to the carrier. As a highly rated ship mechanic, limping back was unthinkable in all but the worst-case scenarios, which for a mechanics ego, could be anything ranging from hull breaches and missing modules, or a debris cloud and resident escape pods.
Xochitl could only smirk at the situation, finding small humor in her plight. Before becoming a fleet carrier owner and later leader of a nomadic clan, she enjoyed her role as an independent ship mechanic, traveling and contracting to whomever she felt like working for. In between these ventures, she would respond to distress calls, flying to its source to repair or recover errant equipment. Her ships purchased or recovered and refurbished before becoming a fleet carrier owner showed her mechanics roots. Each was well equipped with parts printers, portable machining tools, chemicals, gases, and a complete set of tooling.
The Dolphin weighed 233 tons, with a full load of fuel. On the surface of the planet she had landed on, the micro-gravity was only 0.04g. That reduced the total weight of the ship to only 4.6 tons. Needing to lift the port side strut off the ground, would reduce the weight enough for her Scarab ground vehicle to support.
The only downside to the situation—aside from time lost—was the 94 K (-179°C/-291°F) temperature. Her suit could protect her for a short time, but not long enough without a secondary heating source. Fortunately, she had a Scorpion combat vehicle in the hangar, that could be used as an anchor point for a makeshift extension, attached to the port side thruster, and directed toward the gear. She only needed to raise the temperature of the work site to -100°F, and her suit could compensate for the remainder without becoming over-stressed.
The second event to impact Xochitl was the messages filling her inbox. They were not from her clan or the carrier but from various agencies wanting to hire her for their own exploration purposes. This boon was spawned by the Pilot’s Federation upgrading her exobiology rating to a geneticist.
She could care less about the rating and didn’t want anything to do with any of them, yet here she was, the next hot commodity for every sleazy marketer in the Milky Way.
Eagle's Landing, Planetary Outpost, Eagle Sector IR-W d1-117 System
_____________________________
Monty was sharing a similar inbox experience, as his supervisors were sending an almost endless stream of messages, wanting to know his condition and whereabouts. The medical facility informed them of his admittance and subsequent release, yet he had not made any efforts to contact them. He realized that he had not thought of them until now. Referencing the time and date stamp of the messages, Monty was shocked to see the date and time stamp of their notifying his department was today, not when he was first admitted or the day of his release.
They would have sent personnel to the medical facility to ascertain what had happened and investigate why one of their own had been admitted, only to find that the information was dated and he had been released two days prior to notification. This would start a cauldron of unpleasant events for a Federal medical facility, and start a series of events at locating their now missing inspector.
Monty reflected on his past life and all the years he served as a Federal investigator. A life he knew he would likely not see again. Reflecting on what he now considered his past life. He felt a pang of depression, at how he would never fulfill his dream of one day retiring from that life. He had hoped to save enough credits to invest to one day be able to find a nice woman, raise a family, and enjoy the fruits of a fulfilling career.
His face twisted into a smirk, as he looked out the cockpit window at the hangar space around him. If what the entity inside had shown him was true, then perhaps the trade was worth it. He fantasized about what his future would be, once the entity had completed its directive; if he was still alive. Huffing he stood up from the chair, knowing that dwelling on what-ifs was not healthy and would get neither of them closer to their goal.
They had only stayed a short while on the carrier the entity had booked them passage on. While it had been scheduled to take its passengers all the way to Colonia, both Monty and the entity knew they only needed to get 7 to 10 thousand light-years away to begin searching for Xochitl’s trail. The best place to begin the search would be along the network of Starports, Outposts, Surface Ports, and Megaships that stretched across 22,000 light-years to connect the Core Systems to the distant Colonia Region.
Reaching into his suit pocket, he pulled out a credit card and his old badge. The credits on the card were more than he had ever dreamed of seeing. The entity was efficient in maneuvering through thousands of encrypted networks, transferring small monetary amounts from each, into a central account in his name. He could buy a fleet carrier and crew of his own, but that would be counterproductive.
Monty turned the badge in his hand, examining it. The old inspector he used to be knew, a lot of these credits would be needed to loosen lips and purchase information. The best place to start was out in the hinter regions where their quarry had vanished into. Dropping the badge into the seat, he made his way off the bridge of the ship and down the corridor to the back exit ramp.