Light shines on trying times [The Planetskipper Chronicles]
25 May 2016Planetskipper
(Previous episode) - (Next episode)CMDR Planetskipper's Comm beeped again and this time he was awake enough to hear it.
Groggily he moved enough on the couch look at the screen and he fumbled his fingers over the display.
Congratula
He ran his finger on the mute button and fell back to sleep.
----
He had wanted to visit the stars, that was why he left Siddha A 3 years ago and he got as far as Siddha A 2 before his almost brand new Sidewinder dropped him out of supercruise thankfully close enough to Meuron Station to thrust there.
Docked, the repairs would be about 20 kCR.
His POS Sidewinder cost him almost everything he had and what was left of his savings was a meager 100 CR. Crestfallen for having ended his journey so fast, he sold it for scrap, pocketed the 5 kCR chit and left the pad to enter the station.
Dejected and ready to swallow his pride, head home and beg for his job back he passed through a security checkpoint, ran his right wrist above the sensor and pulled aside by the security forces. It seemed like his day couldn't get any worse.
Not knowing what was happening, he was led to a small, brightly lit interrogation room and was told to sit while an elderly man walked in and sat across the table.
"You know of an Agamemnon Planetskipper?" came his elderly voice.
Titus swallowed, "Yes, my grandfather. He died ten years ago."
"Sonofabitch. Sad to hear that, he was a good man. Left a ship on this station twenty-five years ago and disappeared. Wherever you're going, you're taking it with you."
Titus' grandfather was a simple man, loved farming under the dome and Centauri Mega Gin and was known to have been a pilot but nobody in the family knew anything about a ship. A ship! Just what he needed!
"S-sure, I'll take it off your hands," he managed to say without bursting out in joy. "Anything else?"
"5 kCR in storage fees for the past thirty years." the elderly man said after looking at his pad.
"Just 5000? I-I mean, thirty years is a very long time."
"It's not a big ship and that will be to dig it up, clean it off and fuel it. CMDR Agamemnon knew he could keep that ship here with me as long as I lived and that's what I did. Besides it was nice to show the kids one of the first long-range Cobra Mk. III with the classic trapezoid paint job."
CMDR? A Cobra Mk.III? Long-range? Trapezoid paint job?
"You mean he wasn't just a pilot, he was a real CMDR?" Titus asked as he slid the credit chit across the table.
"Hell yeah! He was an Elite CMDR! Fought his way up the ranks of the Pilot's Fed and somehow managed to get his permit to the Founder's System transferred to a 'Titus Planetskipper', something that's not supposed to happen. Anyway, are you this Titus or is it your dad, uncle or something?"
"I-I-It's me," as he pointed to himself.
"Congrats kiddo, by force of your Grandpappy you're now CMDR Titus. I hope you know how-"
"Planetskipper, I was thinking of Planetskipper."
"Suit yourself, CMDR Planetskipper. I hope you know how to fly," spoke the elderly man as he showed him where the ship was.
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