Intrepid Iv's Maiden Voyage.......Sort of.
26 Apr 2019Cyrus Hade
I stood in the hangars of Mawson Dock staring up at the Delacy Sidewinder. Suzanne Ellis, my academy combat instructor and Intrepid IV's previous owner stood next to me with her hands on her hips. She was both the most beautiful and the ugliest thing I had ever laid my eyes upon. The ship I mean, not Ellis, whom by the way is just plain beautiful. Ellis had retired from the black to teach combat flight and tactics at the academy eight years ago, and poor little Intrepid IV had been gathering dust at Mawson dock ever since. I had needed a cheap ship to get wings under me and Ellis was tired of paying docking fees for a ship she wasn't flying anymore. This was an arrangement that suited us both, except I wasn't going to be doing any long range, deep space exploration in Intrepid, she lacked the range and systems I would need for that kind of work. So as thrilled as I was about finally owning my own ship, it was tinged with disappointment that I would not be using her to fulfil my life long dream of becoming the next great galactic explorer.
"Outfit her with a surface scanner and and SRV bay", Ellis sighed from beside me, as if reading my mind," and she'll serve as a short range survey ship well enough. Those greedy bastards at Universal Cartographics are always willing to pay for up to the minute system and planetary data so long as you're far enough away from it's source to make it worth their while."
I knew she wasn't wrong but with only about a thousand credits left to my name after academy fees and the cost of Intrepid IV there was no way I was outfitting her with half a million credit's worth of upgrades without finding some paying work first, and truth was, despite my eagerness to be underway I had no clue where to start.
Again with the mind-reading Ellis smiled," I know you're going to hate this idea, that you have no interest in becoming a combat pilot but you were damned good at it in my classes and the Pilots Federation has been having some pirate problems in the Sharur system. Mawson has a large number of open contracts out on the Raven Corsairs and they'll already have open bounties on them as it is. A days work, however unpleasant it might be, and you'll have the funds you need, and a good chunk of pocket money left over."
I hate it when she's right, which is all the bloody time by the way.
"Standing here and staring at her all day isn't going to get it done, pilot. Be on your way", Ellis chuckles as she gives me a farewell hug," Good luck out their Cy, stay safe."
With that she is gone, sweeping out of the hangar and leaving me alone with Intrepid IV. I climb into the cockpit and the minute I plant my backside in the pilot's seat and cycle up the power for pre-flight checks that sense of disappointment disappears and I'm giddy as a drunk left unattended in a brewery. Eden, my COVAS, cheerily announces that all systems are green in a pretty lilt that's either Scottish or Irish in origin. It's hard to tell but I like it all the same. Despite her assurances though, I still quickly run through my own system checks only to find that she's spot on. I connect the Intrepid's info-link to Mawson Dock's mainframe and just as Ellis had said, there must have been more than a dozen contracts targeting the Raven Corsair threat in Sharur. I accepted them all, six requesting the elimination of specific members of the pirates senior leadership, the rest just attempts to cull the ever increasing number of minions appearing in the system. I radio traffic control a request a departure window. Clearance is granted almost immediately and as the docking platform grinds towards the surface I powered the engines to idle.
The docking clamps release with a clang that vibrates through the little Sidewinder and I simultaneously apply vertical thrust and withdraw the landing gear. I roll Intrepid into alignment with the exit lane and throttle forward with the the throaty growl of the tiny engine ringing in my ears. I'm pretty sure that I was grinning like an idiot as I cruised through the station portal into open space, if anyone had seen me they probably would have thought me totally insane. Damn this was going to be fun.
To Be Continued........