The stillness of morning.
02 Dec 2020Teafox
There are times when the galaxy is black and uninviting, and there are times when a view will leave you forgetting to breathe for a moment. There are folks that will pay a billion credits for a home with a perfect view in the morning. In our case, we just camped out behind a rock in a planet's rings. Best views in the universe, and all it costs is a few minutes to scoop up some fuel.I couldn't resist the temptation. Remlok doesn't want people going out on space walks these days, it makes sense, if they're the folks who have to come and rescue you, but most belters learn to disable the prox sensor on their suit pretty quickly. You learn to space walk responsibly pretty quickly after that too, it's a certain, brown coloured creek out there... Don't forget your paddle. I really should just learn to use a camera drone, I guess, but it's not the same.
Speaking of Remlok suits, I really need to get the kid his own one. We've put him in my old mark 2, but aside from keeping him alive if the canopy breaks, it's just not up to snuff. Besides the fact, it was made for a thirty year old guy, not a twelve year old boy. Some cable ties have adjusted the sleeves and legs to about the right length, but the gloves are the wrong size, and he can barely see over the chin plate in the helmet. Getting him imprinted is going to be tougher. He's not old enough for the pilot's federation yet, but maybe since I'm a member?
I can think of someone who can help, and I owe 'em a big favour already, maybe they'll consider making that three favours.
But, I guess this is all assuming we don't figure out who his family actually are. Somehow a story that starts off the way his did though? "Boy comes to consciousness in hard vacuum after slave trade explosion and is scooped up by local asteroid miner"? Somehow that doesn't feel like it ends with "And then he went back home and lived a normal life with his parents."... Heh... I guess I should hope for that, but I'm kind of growing fond of him. I caught him drawing faces in the frosted canopy glass this morning before we heated the cockpit up again. It annoyed me at the time, but when the sunlight hits the glass just right, you can still see that goofy little drawing.
Still, the engines are hot again, and I'm letting the kid take the stick for a bit. He picked up the basics just as quickly as an imperial picks up an attitude problem. It's weird, he's a surprisingly good gunner too. We had some rounds left over in the multicannon so we made a game of my bumping a rock with the nose, and him seeing how quickly he could hit it. Just who's kid have I picked up here anyhow?
On the plus side, he's healing up nicely from the vacuum exposure. He can hear just fine and, well, everything else is about where you'd hope it is, healing wise. He's more hurt from the cargo pod he was stored in rupturing than anything else, but we changed his bandage today, and it's all looking good under there. No signs of infection and it might not even scar, but if it does? It'll be one to be proud of.
But that's not the only mystery either. Both the empire and the feds called off their bounty hunting projects last night, I guess they don't need us 'protecting the urgent and important cargo transports' anymore. Except, guess what? They're still getting anyone who will haul goods for them to bring in materials, but now? Well, normal law enforcement has it all covered. Just what were they using their local law enforcement for whilst they had us doing their job for them, I wonder?
Actually, I'm not sure I want to know. We stopped in at Miyasaka to bid farewell to the ground crew that was assigned to us, and I guess to touch base with a few of the other pilots that aren't drinking themselves stupid. It seems that production of the capital ships has fallen behind quota. If we hang around too long, no doubt there will be some kind of edict demanding we re-purpose to a cargo hauler and help out.
Thankfully, there's enough ruction going on about them trying to walk back those bounty prices that no one is going to notice us when we slip away. It's time to get some distance from the empire. Need somewhere nice and neutral for a few days.
P.S.
The kid caught me writing this thing. He insisted I include the photo. This might take a few attempts. Paper and sticky tape was so much simpler.
