Active Duty - Time for Prep
14 Mar 2022Aurora Bael
I woke up this morning to Barrett pounding on my cabin door at Bresnik terminal in 31 XI Bootis wondering where the Hell I've been for the last two weeks. Jesus, has it been two weeks already? That can't be right... anyway I told him flat out I had been earning his paycheck running supplies into MacDonald Settlement in Alcor, and would have continued doing so mining, but got called to active duty. To fight Alliance Defense Force Pilots. Ones I used to hang out with. And 24 of whom were now dead because I had been ordered to fight. That after murdering several of my friends in open combat, the Federation had seen fit to grant me a promotion. Congratulations to me.
He was quiet a minute before pushing past me into the room. You ever have someone barge into your grief or depression nest? It was like that. He had that look on his face like "Damn, you live like this?" and yeah... Yeah I do. It's awful and ugly but not as ugly as it had been the previous day. Without a word of disparagement, he grabbed a clean flight suit out of the closet, tossed it at me and told me to get dressed, we're going mining. Why mining? "Because you need a flight where nobody dies." I didn't stop whining about not wanting to until we were in the fields together. He prospected and managed the limpets and refinery, I shot the rocks. And you know something? It was really nice. We made money hand over fist and had a fun time joking and complaining about the tedium together the whole time. As we're setting the course to jump off to a buyer he finally asks how I'm feeling. I say I'm good. It was a lie and he saw right through it.
"There are other ways you can get ahead," he said. "Nobody has to die." I ask him what he knows about it and he rolls up a sleeve to show off a Federal Navy tattoo. Says he worked his way to Captain running the mail until he got bored and started doing something else. So when we came back into the system, we hopped into Paimon together and took on some basic low-rent courier work. Not a huge deal that it didn't pay. I certainly don't need the money anymore. But the high-sec courier work did earn me a lot of brownie points for the chain of command. Between that and the humanitarian aid I provided to a few worker parties, I bought myself another stripe. I'm a "Midshipman" now, whatever in hell that means.
After a good sleep and a shared workout, we set out for Shinrarta Dezrha to pick up our ship: a brand new bone stock Asp Explorer. It didn't stay that way for long. By the time we left the station, it was A-rated in all the right places and properly fitted for a long term deep space mission. We had mats on hand to start on some of the engineering I wanted. Dropped by Felicity's place to tune the drives and the FSD. And can I just say? I adore this little ship. It's the fastest in my fleet by more than 20m/s. It feels solid as a brick like all my other Lakons always have, something I sorely missed while flying Asmodai around. The bridge isn't as spacious and doesn't have as many consoles or screens, and the holo-cluster is the same bland injection-molded and stamp-milled spartan metal as Bradbury, Ashtoreth, and Mammon have, but somehow I don't mind. It's what happens when I move the stick that holds my interest. That feeling I get pulling a tight drift into the mail slot or easing her down to the surface of a planet. That's what matters.
Apart from that, it's plenty of ship for the lab equipment I purchased, plus living quarters, and a footprint that doesn't run us out of breath when we have to chase an error. She's tight, fast, strong, eager to please, and just big enough for the job she's been given. Just like her Momma. We're calling her "Rory's Gambit" on account of the big gamble we're taking that capturing bio-samples from all corners of the Galaxy will actually net us something actionable. Some kind of path we can take to derive a unified source for all life everywhere. Barrett is so excited. He's like a kid at Christmas who just knows he's getting that new bicycle AND a new gaming rig this time. It's adorable. Even managed to make me smile.
There's something about this guy... I just trust him. Implicitly. He has one of those faces, I guess. The kind that just puts you at ease, fills you with thoughts of warmth and safety. I'm still torn up about this last duty stretch and how in Hell I'm going to make working for Zach Hudson ...work. But for some reason it feels doable right now. I've been trying to run alone for a long time, even when others have stuck their necks out for me in the past. Maybe I need friends in my life more than I thought.
...okay, I know it's corny and sappy. Seriously though...what the hell am I so obsessed with th tough girl loner act for? Am I that damaged? I can't even remember half the terrible shit that happened to me, so why is my history ruling my choices so hard?
I don't know the answer to that question yet. But if this mission works out? Maybe I might.
Fly Safe. Go easy.
-Aurora Bael