Memoirs of a Merchant of Mirdhr - That 'new ship' smell
21 Apr 2022Cerbervs Blackwood
I've come some way since my "Sidewinder days" and still look back on registration CBS - 6 with fond memories.
After tending my wounds and honing my 'smarts', I started to make a bit of a name for myself.
I didn't want the pity stares that came hand in hand with my father's reputation, so I opted to do business as 'Cerberus'; with the 'U' written as a 'V', like the ancient Roman spelling I found in the terminal archives, and that the high ranking Imperials sometimes used in official documents.
I had to keep my wits about me, but it generally wasn't bad for business to allude to some connection of Imperial hierarchy, despite them almost always being callus, pompous arses.
It was something of a tradition in the station to "wet the deck" of a new ship. In part the tradition was there to farewell the old ship and bring blessings to the new one.
The Sidewinder had been entrusted to the cheapest hangar I could find; which turned out to be owned by an old buddy of my father's. And with the old ship set aside in case of an emergency, we set about raising a glass to my new Transporter-6.
Mike; who everyone called "Mixer" had brought his husband along, and he, in turn, had his sister Elaine en-toe as well. The matchmaking attempt on their behalf was as transparent as the white rum and Scorpio vodka, but I was grateful for the company and spent the evening devising new and exciting ways to earn extra credits and talking tech.
Come to think of it; the last thing I remember was kicking a ball around my enormous cargo hold and running from end to end like we were in pre-school again.
That cargo hold helped increase my earnings ten-fold. On a quiet day I could barely fill it. Luckily, she had a fuel tank as big as a small moon, so the fear of being stranded in the gloom soon became a distant memory.
Surviving the pirate attack, combined with owning a very capable vessel meant that I was starting to make a bit of a reputation around Bondar Gateway, which extended to the reaches of the Kareldt system.
For the most part, my father's name didn't walk beside me, but there was the odd occasion that a Longshoreman, or "crate monkey" as we called them, would recognise my surname from the manifest sheets and begin to regale me with stories of my father's knowledge of tech.
I'd upgraded the Transporter's Frameshift Drive and slapped an SRV hold at the back as I'd heard there was good money to be earned if you could touch down and salvage wrecks from the surface. This also meant I had to dig deep into my dwindling credits and equip her with a Surface Scanner as well. I didn't know back then, but this was going to be the start of what shaped my career as a pilot.
(Elaine and I in silent appreciation for eachother's hangover)