Duty, 13: Clean Intentions
11 Sep 2022Meowers
What possibly can go wrong with so many civilians concentrated in one place? Well, everything. Hah. But, looks like we got lucky this time, with that our little Throw-a-Thargoid attraction. Transports were pulling them out of the ground, carrying to roughly 150 km altitude and then accelerating towards the atmosphere in a shallow descent, while our part was to hammer them with Gauss rounds to let the hulls fall apart and then burn completely in the atmosphere. Locals set up a radio broadcasting and some transport pilots were commenting on that like it was a kind of a sports game, hah. And I've heard people cheering and laughing on the background. It was... heartwarming, you know? Laughing people. Happy people. Even if the show was that specific.
All patrols were put on a halt for several days, maybe weeks, we were relying on the network of long-range sensors and their FTL comms to know what's happening around and, thankfully, there was nothing new or odd, just some bunches of Thargoids few systems away moving here and there, without them concentrating or making a distinct move at one direction.
And, yeah, those civilian vessels, or, to be more correct, transport ships that were refitted to accommodate passengers. In 'passengers', not 'human cargo' conditions. However, they had an old Orca liner as well, with those fancy panoramic glasses. So. That local community here, apart from growing their own food, is also making a living by repairing and trading ships, ship parts and other machinery they can get their hands on. Maybe that's why their logistics was so messed up; were they just taking whatever parts they had to repair their AX vessels without counting them? Who knows. Ah, whatever. A couple of weeks before the event they spent some on buying several transports for their trading fleet, and now that little show was also used to let people know how many ships they actually have. Like, for strenghtening the spirit, maybe? But, that one particular ship...
It's a Python. I know there's many people out there who completely love Pythons, but I'm not the one of them; for me, a Python is a boring dull tin can that can be outfitted to do anything... And none of that will be done effectively. Maybe except mining. But I don't know much about mining. If you want to buy a ship, but you have no little idea what for, or if you want a ship to do some shitty job, or you want to punish yourself for something, the Python is your choice. So, a guy who bought that Python and brought it home, sent a message over the long-range comms, saying that, he found a ship that was in almost perfect condition, 'just clean it up a little', and has a history of serving as a luxury passenger liner somewhere. And it looked awesome. So... when he finally got home, on that Python, everyone felt a massive urge to say him how big an idiot he is.
Aaaaawww... That was so awful that it even felt funny! Whoever sold that ship, painted it thickly with cheap spray paint, without any preparations, cleaning and polishing, and now, after a long flight, parts of that paintjob were falling off or hanging from the ship like a ragged cloth, exposing the old, worn off painting and signs of rust and collision damage. Gaps between the hull panels were clearly indicating that the frame itself was damaged several times too by those impacts. Ship still had mining equipment installed, but something told me that the old owner just decided not to bother with removing it. They just... Mined the crap out of this ship and sold it cheaply. Awful stench of dust, rust, soot and smoke was filling the cargo bay and was so dense that I thought I could lean on it. A... former luxury liner? Yeah, I saw pieces of passenger cabin mountings hanging from the walls... Hm. An engineer part of me wanted to take a look at the onboard computers and logs to figure out what kind of piece of crap those folks just bought. Pythons, in general, are quite crude, they can be repaired with any piece of rubbish you can find in the hangar, and will withstand doing unpleasant work for a long time, giving mediocre performance in return, and people like that trait of them more than any other. If there's something more than that in them, of course.
Oh my oh my, what a mess it was! Originally, the shi... Khm. The ship was bought by someone to actually perform short passenger trips, was properly outfitted for that role and... Sold after less than a week. With a comment 'that sucks' left in the logs. And the next owner was your average classic Python miner, they just removed everything crudely, put that mining stuff inside and started working the crap out of the ship to utilise all the resource it had. To get rid of it fast and cheap when it starts to fall apart. It was commonly named 'Road to Riches' by the second owner, but when I got out of the ship, ranting about the whole suit air filter cassette been spent in an hour, techs were already in the middle of removing that painting, exposing the original, first name of the ship. 'Necessity'. Whatever that meant.
So, when the event started and we were already sitting in our cockpits, I even chuckled a little, seeing that Python being prepared for a take off. When everybody got on board, one of its engines emitted a popping sound, letting a dense cloud of black smoke out, and the exhaust nozzle fell on the ground with a loud metal clank. Then, the left landing strut cracked under its own weight at a full gravity. No, you're not going anywhere on that, wait for the next turn.
While we, pilots, were having fun and making a show on the orbit, those who decided to stay on the ground, military and civilian, were cleaning everything up, filling several cargo containers, that were especially placed on the streets, with various rubbish they found. They also had some light construction machinery and now it was busy with digging out the once contaminated and then deactivated soil around the impact sites. Looks like the town authorities had an order to remove this place from whatever Thargoids have for sensors, so they couldn't even 'sniff' a familiar 'scent'.
Local sun was already almost on the horizon when we returned, and the starscape of the Pleiades started to paint the other side of the sky with its blue dots, blots and streams, and I was... You know. Enjoying the nice late summer evening, warm, soft and pleasant. Got myself a cup of coffee, some cigarettes and sat on the bench at the little paved square between the edge of the town, where the first buildings, including my living block, were placed, and the hangars. Watching the setting sun and the skyline, formed by silhouettes of ships and buildings. Silently, distant. Floating in my own thoughts.
Thoughts about how beautiful this place is, actually. Even having a military installation size a half of the town. But breathing the fresh air, staring at the sky, seeing people finishing their honest daily work and walking around the streets, and lights in the windows that are slowly appearing here and there... And it will be autumn soon in this place. And I always liked those first autumn weeks, from my very young days. That interesting feeling they give me, it transcends through years, it repeats, and it's immensely pleasant. Like... I'm becoming less bothered by everything I carry in my mind daily, maybe even that 'feeling myself younger' moment. It's... Making me more free, maybe. Free of troubles, free of memories, free of the weight on my shoulders. Making me look at the life, at the form it truly should have, and carefully try to meld in, to become a part of it. Life that you can enjoy. Not the season, not the week, not the day, not the particular evening, but the life itself, in whole, vast, long, many seasons and many years. And now, here, in this moment, I'm a part of this life, I'm living it, no matter the year and the place. It's remaining the same; as it was fifteen years ago, as it is now. I'm just... alive.
So... I sat like that, gazing at the sky, for several minutes... Until my communicator sounded with a melodic bleep, and, when I got the device out of my pocket and looked at the screen, well, there were several unread messages already. How did I miss them?.. And what's so special about the latter that made me notice it?
Few local broadcasts about that clean-up, a weather forecast for tomorrow, several muted-blocked advertisements, persuading me to buy 'everything for my kids going to school'... And the next one... Ah, locals, I mean, civilian part of them, are throwing some kind of big party tonight and it's about to start, and we are welcome too. And the very last one was from Mion, she wrote that she just spotted me sitting there and knows a place from where I can gaze at the sky a 'bit better'. Even attached a little cartoonish hand-drawn map... With the line ending up on the balcony, on the third floor of a living block. Is that the place where she lives?
Wasn't much to ponder about, really. With me staying away from loud and crowded places in general, her company would be a welcome part of the evening. Certainly better than my classic 'doing nothing'. Sent messages to my folks saying that they can go and unwind a bit with Christine being 'in command' of that 'ground operation', hah.
I'll better go follow that map, I guess.