Grain for Ay Indi
18 Oct 2020Lakshmi Bai
Curled up in her bunk under the orange glow of a large data slate and letting her eyes and thoughts drift away, it was a random chance that Lakshmi stumbled upon the anomaly in the marketplace.The past few days had been monotonous at best, shuttling food and supplies across the reach of the Pilots' Federation. If not for a few kindly Mentors in Droni who'd inspired her to find ambition amongst the stars, she'd be well content in the mediocrity of being a typical 'trash hauler' - a freignter pilot, in the parlance of elite starfighter jocks. She would be safe in the high-sec areas of the Academy, a region of space isolated from the turmoil of the galaxy where pilots had their first taste of life amongst the stars.
"Grain is selling for 3.1k creds in Ay Indi," she frantically keyed to the System channel, oblivious that she'd literally just jumped out of bed in a moment of decision. "If anyone wants to finally leave this newbie zone."
"Thanks for letting me know," came the dispassionate reply a few moments later. There were no takers.
What could have possibly happened, to cause a common commodity to fetch a sale price a hundred times above normal? War? Famine? There's no way to know. News channels never covered backwater colonies, not even one mired in dangerous poverty and famine just ten LY out from protected space. That must be it. Famine.
She twirled her fingers round and round. Thinking. Scheming. Planning.
Forcing her consciousness past the fog of sleepiness and the clearly artificial mental blocks against her decision.
If Mankind could do one thing in this Century it was to soar between the stars faster than light, there was nothing then, stopping her from leaving Academy space for good. She packed her meagre belongings and sent ahead the order to load the Adder's cargo bay full of grain from Coelho Station's vast hydroponic bays. A trio of fixed-forward pulse lasers and a full tank of fuel for what come may.
And just like that, with the barest of farewells to her mentor as the converted exploration shuttle burned for deep space, Lakshmi started her adventure amongst the stars.
***
There was no time to cringe, nor scream, as the Sidewinder - or what remained of it, barreled towards her. Keeping the triggers mashed down was all she could do, until the lasers ran out of charge. Autocannon shells burst all across the bow shields, most harmlessly skipping off but deadly shrapnel skittered across the armoured hull with a crack of a passing hailstorm.
She closed her eyes just before the wing of the smuggler's ship smashed into the final layer of Class 2 shields in a great flash of light, and then what remained of the enemy craft slammed into the Adder's physical hull in a terrible rending and grinding that whipped the pilot's head first down to her chest then back into the head restraints.
So violent was the impact that the stricken craft spun out of control for some minutes before the automated cruise system by chance locked on to the STC beacon at Soper Hub, a shady planetary hub run by the local drug cartel...