Two Sides of One Coin [Luke - Part 1]
19 Jan 2017Luke3107
He'd be lying if he said it hadn't been a tough day, but he'd done it and he was proud of what he'd achieved. Luke opened up is datapad and read the latest announcements from the Buckyball Racing Club.Some stuff about other Buckyballers racing to Sag A* and back. Regulars, far more experienced than him, but right at the bottom, there it was:
Finally for this time, we welcome Cmdr Luke3107 in the Asp Explorer Insert Name Here (and believe me, I was tempted to do just that, but I'm not quick-thinking enough to come up with something suitably witty!). Luke3107's run set two milestones: both the first recorded XB1 run, and the 150th pilot to complete the challenge. In the process Luke3107 set a very respectable time of just under 13 hours 48 minutes. Well done on all three counts!
Luke swelled with pride at the article written. It was a 26,000 Lightyear trip from Sol to Sagittarius A*. It had also been 6 months since the people behind the Pilots Federation had released their XB1 Cockpit software and he'd been surprised to find out that no pilot had completed a run as of yet using it. 46th Place too!
To an outsider, this wasn't a big deal. Heck, it wasn't even a big deal inside the Buckball Group. But it meant a great deal to him. Looking over at his jacket, his Pilot Rankings were clearly visible on the sleeve. This came across as arrogance to most. To him, it was just self reminders that he could achieve what he set out for if he put his mind to it.
None of the ranks were Elite... yet, But he was always glad for how far he'd come since his distastrous crash during his Pilots Licencing Course.
****
Piloting the basic Sidewinder, he had been instructed to leave the station, jump to a nearby system, collect a package and return it to the starting station. All the while an Anaconda would be folowing him closely, just in case. This wasn't his first space flight. But it was the last stage towards getting his licence before being allowed out on his own.
Everything had been going well, he left the station, jumped, maintained visual and radio contact with the Anaconda, and was just getting ready to dock when out of the blue, a Type-7 Transporter came barging towards the mailslot of the station. Luke instinctively dived the ship downwards, narrowly avoiding the Type-7, but not the control tower below him.
Broken Femurs and L4 Vertebrae was what he was told. Lucky to be alive they kept saying. All he knew and cared about was that he'd get walking again, eventually piloting too. Several months, and some surgery later, he was in fact, walking and this time he passed his test easily. He never did find out what became of the Type-7 Pilot. Didn't care either. All he was interested in was the cockpit of his own Sidewinder and the statutory 1000Cr bonus given to help new Pilots get started.
****
Fast forward several months and here he was, in the bunk of his Asp Explorer. The Insert Name Here had served him well. But she was going to be given a good seeing to with rest and repairs. 52,000 Lightyears took it's toll on any ship and Pilot. So he'd docked her at Serebrov Station and requested his Vulture be prepared for take off.
A few hours later, he'd sold nearly 20million Credits worth of exploration data, fitted his Vulture with some nice Beam Lasers, a Kill Warramt Scanner and some defence measures, before long he was boosting away from the Mailslot and into the black. He figured after a long stint of jump, honk, jump as explorers liked to call it, he could do with a bit of dogfighting. So he made his way to a nearby system with a Haz Res Site, a common stomping ground for pirates looking to catch some easy prey unawares.
However, the Universe had other plans for him and he never did make it to the Resource Extraction Site. He wasn't one to investigate every single Unidentified Signal Source, but something about this one seemed very unusual. He slowed his Vulture down, got within range and disengaged Supercruise.
And THAT was the point in time his life took a very strange turn indeed....
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Authors Note: Follow Liliths perspective here, Two Sides of One Coin [Lilith - Part 1], or alternatively stick with Luke by clicking 'Newer Logbook Entry' below. Thanks for reading!!