Small steps
04 Dec 2020Teafox
I wouldn't call the trip to Enayex a total loss, but it wasn't the smartest idea I ever had. What with half the pilot's federation all hunting down those extra bounties, those with criminal leanings are being driven into the anarchy systems. The trip to Watt port came with it's usual helping of the locals pecking at the new arrivals to see if there are any tasty morsels to pick off.No meat on these bones, boys, but there's teeth to spare.
But still, coming was a risk which only partly paid off, but at least I didn't get us killed. The downside to all that dog fighting is that it leaves you feeling invincible, which is just great until you meet a dog with bigger teeth than yours.
It turns out that my contact, Morgan, got busted, which is going to be problematic in light of the fact that the Pilots federation said no, in regards to getting the kid imprinted on my pilots license. Still, getting a decently made Remlok suit for him was a bit easier. Better yet, this is the kind of place where you can get all the firmware properly broken and all of the best third party modifications installed without having to do it yourself. Kid looks good in it. I figured he'd ask for some of the extra jackets and pants that folks wear over the top of their skinsuit, but no, he just wanted one the same colour and style as mine, said it made us look like we were in uniform, like a ship's crew.
I gotta admit, that made me laugh. So, since the guild only gives out the rank of Commander, and they won't let him join up for a few years, we figured a field promotion to Lieutenant Commander was in order. Figured we'd get some real food to celebrate. That was the second mistake of the day. I've seen food rejection before, but this was the worst case I'd ever seen. Thankfully, Watt Port has a good medbay response time.
Now, I don't know if you folks who read this are gonna be space faring folk or not, or if they'll solve the problem in the future or something, so I'll explain it here just in case. If you're going to be in a small ship, or worse still, a vacsuit for a long time, food and what happens when you're body's done with it are a problem. Anything with a decent cabin is going to have a head, but ships with just a cockpit? Well, until the nutri-pill was invented, you wouldn't really want to be stuck in one for more than a few hours without stopping off for a bathroom break.
What the nutri corp came up with was a way to pack enough nutrition into a capsule that'll keep you going pretty much forever without ever needing to take a dump. They'll even break down what's already in there into stuff the body will absorb too. Problem is, if you rely on them, your digestive system kinda shuts down past the point where it's needed to digest the stuff. If you then try and stuff something natural in there, your body will panic and send it right back out again.
The medic on duty said it was the worst case she'd ever seen, it was like the kid had been drip fed all his life. I've gotta admit, from her point of view, what with us being quite obviously not related, her wanting to call station security wasn't unreasonable. But when it comes down to it,
We stayed stationside for a few hours with the kid on a medi-lert wristband. Doc said we'd have to keep him on real food for a few months and to start with the really easy to digest stuff, give his guts a chance to work out what they're supposed to do with themselves. It could be worse, kid could have been barred from flying or worse, taken into protective custody. Perhaps it wasn't so dumb coming to an anarchy system after all. The results from the blood works should get us some kind of ID in a few days, if only faster than light data transmission wasn't so expensive. Galnet can afford the bandwidth to transmit galaxy wide same day. We'll have to make do with couriered data packets. I'll have to remember to see if any of those are on our way, maybe we can speed things up a little.
Managed to lift the kid's spirits a little with shopping for supplies. There's all kinds of 'starter foods' for 'new digestive systems' on the market, and he was amused by the idea that whilst he knows what all of them are. He has no idea what any of them taste like. No reason to not take a bit of everything.After loading up the cargo bay, and taking a few jobs for the locals, we just sat on the observation deck, watching the locals dog fighting in sidewinders. They probably made a tidy sum, considering how cheap those ships are now, and what with telepresence piloting at such short range, I guess it's harmless really... Unless you try and take your ship out through the middle of it.
Gave me a chance to have a think about our next step at least.