Log Entry: The Return
08 Jan 2021Teltin
I don't remember the day. It was sometime after the start of the new cycle. 3306 turned into 3307 and I spent it drinking on Oort- the same station I holed up on the past few years. That sidewinder explosion. I still remember it, though not how I made it back to port with all my bits. The medics said something about a salvager but Iuno. They never do somethin' just because they can or outta the goodness of their hearts. Usually. After that ship went up I bought myself a Cobra. I wanted to get back out there. The risks were plenty but the rewards? Countless rings full of precious metals. Unexplored planets and systems. Fights that filled me with so much adrenaline I wouldn't sleep for a week. But sitting down in that chair? I couldn't bring myself to touch the sticks. It just... sat there, collecting dust and charging up port fees.
I shoved it in storage and started tending bars, making back alley deals in some of the more questionable parts of the stations bowels. Turns out there are a lot of dark alleys in Coriolis ports. The kind of places you could get lost in, or make someone disappear in. The money was good enough thought that I was able to get a small apartment in Zakera ward. It was full of people just looking to get by who didn't want to know your name, or your theirs. It wasn't much. I think the landlady called it a loft, but all I knew was there was a bed in the living room and a TV in the kitchen with a cheap table and two chairs splitting the difference. It wasn't all bad, though. I paid a little extra to be on the inside of the spin where I got a window- it looked out over the port where I could think about all the fees my ship was eating up.
I couldn't part with it though. I wanted to. There were plenty of times I coulda used the extra credits. Gambling debts, drinking debts, drinking money... I'm sure there was more to that list but the highlights will do. I couldn't sell it though. The thought of losin' the last string I had left to a galaxy I could've only dreamed of back on Sol lay down in those docks, holed up in some underground storage locker collecting dust. I'd go down, occasionally, and just walked under her. I'd reach up and slowly drag my fingertips along the lines of her cold armor plating, imagining it running hot as I flew through the debris of some pirate I just zapped outta existence. Then without looking back I'd turn and head for the exit.
I never thought I'd go back out. I didn't really have a say in that, though.