3308-11-17 Yembo
17 Nov 2023TechnoNomadic
I awoke to thumping. There was something off about it. When Lewis is throwing shells there isn't much sound but I can feel the concussion in the deckplates. It was also far too cold if the quadruplets are awake. The noise was overhead and seemed to have a voice. It sounded distant, but it was persistent that it kept me from falling back into blissful oblivion. I struggled to open my eyes, and as I did so, light scorched my retinas. Someone from the ground crew was standing on top of the canopy. They were shining a powerful light down on me and hitting the plasteel with a large spanner. I was docked in a starport and recognized the angry red docking guides of Naddoddur. Reflexively I pawed at the terminal to make sure the powerdown sequence had been completed.I made the signal to the worker for repair and rearm and they waved an emphatic negative. Then I looked around. The floor of the cockpit was littered with empty ration and nutrient packs, the console was warped and the hull around the canopy was littered with scorch tracks and dents. Comms glowed steadily with messages about pushing back the enemy and the war being won. I must have lost track of everything and at the end zombied the ship home, passing out from exhaustion the moment the docking clamps engaged. I waved the worker off and pulled the release on my harness. I wasn't really rested, but I wanted something that didn't come out of zero-g packs. Everything in the cockpit stunk too. Overheated components, my stale endorphins, and even my own Remlock felt cloying and clammy. I just wanted out of the ship.
Down on the pad, the engineers were standing over consoles tethered to the ship systems. They glared at me. I didn't care, I needed food, a shower, and some peace and quiet. I hitched a ride on one of the transports over to the lifts and went to the pilots' lounges. I paid a few credits to get a private suite for a couple of hours. I went in, turned on Galnet, and listened to the recent goings on while I took a long hot shower. Now was not the time to think or remember.
Clean and refreshed, flight case in tow, I made my face as neutral a mask as I could as I went back out to the lounge. I didn't even look at the menu, just ordered the first thing at the top and ate it without thinking. I flagged down the bartender again, pointed to a few more things on the menu, and ordered them in RTH trays along with a few bottles of whatever had interesting sounding names. I headed to the hangar storage area. I wanted away from everyone and a degree of comfort. The only place I could think of was my Mark II. The berths were bigger than the Phantom.
I looked up the stairs leading to the hatch of Tanngrisnir, shouldered my flight bag, and provisions, and trudged up. I stepped in and sealed the galaxy out.