The feds can party!
01 Mar 2016Sinaarrgghh
I've got a sore head this morning, my new allies have seen fit to promote me to warrant officer. This clearly called for a celebration, who would have thought M.Gorbachev could be such a party capital?I woke this morning half on and half off a bed (I don't know whose, it was that kind of night) looking out of a window at Earth. Nice enough I thought but very blue. I was wondering if I'd ever lived on a planet when I had a sudden memory.
I was small, or at least surrounded by very tall people. We were looking into a red sky at the rings of a gas giant, all pink and brown and beautiful. It was cold but we weren't wearing breathing or any other special gear. I think there was a moon visible, dark with glowing bands of volcanic lava glowing eerily just near the darker side of the giant.
It didn't last long but sobered me up. The doctor had told me they'd probably start as I pieced myself back together. The stagger to the bathroom that followed suggested I hadn't sobered up as much as I thought, had we really had a round of Indi Bourbon last night? No wonder I felt so rough! I'm pretty sure Rear Admiral Cook had bought us all one. I was his little 'project' after all.
A coffee seemed a good idea, barring suicide, so I headed out onto the concourse. My favorite haunt the Evil Eye coffee lounge was fairly deserted at this time of the morning but I did recognize one sorry looking individual in the corner so I headed over and sat down.
"You breathing Andrews?" I asked.
"Just, regretting it all the time." mumbled my hungover friend.
Maintenance Chief Andrews was a friend ever since I'd dragged the remains of a Sidewinder through the mail slot. He reckoned he'd never seen anything in so many pieces but still heading in the same direction. He'd been one of the few who had been in touch once I'd woken up and had came to check up on me as soon as his shift had finished that day.
"Don't you have a shift this morning?"
"No, took this one off once I heard your good news. Thought I might not trust myself to handle a spanner."
I had to admit he was right, neither of us were much use today. He could never quite switch off though and there was something I wanted to ask him.
"Asp Explorer, any good?"
He looked up, interested dispite himself. It was a shame he couldn't fly as he loved ships.
"It's not too bad. A lot of potential, what do you want to do with it?"
He excelled at this, could spend hours fine tuning a loadout. A very handy friend to have.
"Well eventually a bit of exploring. But probably just a bit of trade. The Vultures a nice bird but I fancy a gentler pace for the next few days."
"Though you found out you had an Adder at Lave for exploring?"
I'd visited that particular system a few days ago to check out my Adder. It had been a wreck, I certainly wasn't flying that anymore. The same had been true of the Type 6 I'd had docked here. I don't know what I was doing before the accident that had put me into a coma for a year but I'd been pushing my luck.
"Err.. no. She was a bit of a state. Do you want another coffee?"
His second love, coffee, not a bad idea for either of us right now. I went and bought another round.When I got back to the table paper and a pencil had appeared.
"I've been thinking about this Asp..."