I don't remember saying your holiday cruise was to be in the Orca, sir...
23 Aug 2018Ratkatcher
There are still times when I think I should have sent that message to spam... "Free Ship!" - At first I'd thought it was the usual "but I need 5,000Cr for the paperwork" scam, but the unknown sender knew my name, where I was and what I did for a living!I guess we've all been there, a Sidewinder that can hardly jump out of the station if the cargo hold had more than a bag of sweets in, low-paid courier and data missions and wondering why we gave up that nice, comfy desk job for the chance to step out into the Black.
Here I go, home again, the usual warm welcome from station control (and the less formal invitation to meet up in staff hospitality coming in over the private channel) and handing over the ship to the Docking Computer to get us into the station.
The Orca glistens brilliantly white in the station lights as she glides gracefully onto the pad, out here in the sticks very few liners are seen, there just isn't enough credits here to make the 'big boys' want to risk scratching their beloved Beluga's paintwork coming through the letterbox... Of course, that is why I'm here - all First Class cabins too - because folk see the ship and dream of faraway places...
Let's be honest - I'm a con-man really - if I can't fill the Orca with reasonably well-heeled (and willing to pay the price) punters I'll just grab a handful of folk wanting a one visit sightseeing tour and swap ships on them, it's almost immoral to take a group on who have just watched the precisely choreographed docking of the Orca out into the Black in a scruffy Type 6, but it's still a First Class cabin for them and they don't see the outside of the ship when we're out in the Black anyway, do they?
One day I'll have earned enough to take a Beluga into the rich tourist systems, but for now it's just scratching a living from these lovely folk out on the edges of civilisation and enjoying the times when the passenger cabins are ditched for an SRV bay and the call of unknown systems far, far away.