Memoirs of a Merchant of Mirdhr - When destiny finds you
26 Apr 2022Cerbervs Blackwood
When I first started out in my Transporter-6, I fitted the colloquialism "all the gear, and no idea" perfectly. The new-found fistful of credits had burned a hole in my pocket the size of UY Scuti and now I had a capable ship and some high-grade equipment.
Similar to my first day in the Sidewinder; I ventured out into the adumbral void without any real direction. I think I thought I knew what I was doing, but like all things in the harshness of space, I was exposed to fates beyond my control.
It was a great temptation to fill my hold with as much cargo as I could. After all, more space meant fewer trips and essentially more credits.
Call me sentimental, but my Transporter-6 already had a space in my heart. Where the Imperials focussed on elegance in their design, my Lakon Industries T’-6 was certainly the 'ugly duckling' in anyone's fleet. I didn't care, this box with thrusters was my ticket to making it to the big time.
On more than one occasion, when I saw those credits start rolling into my account after a successful, and pirate-free delivery, I usually found myself thanking my 'old man' for that Sidewinder. The experience with those pirates had certainly made me more savvy and allowed me to pick and choose what I hauled across the galaxy. The boom state that Kareldt found itself in ensured I was never without numerous well-paid jobs.
With the assurance that a healthy credit stash brings, I began to feel more adventurous and there was also something protective and reassuring about the angular nature of my Lakon T'-6.
Maybe it was a whim or the very first spark of curiosity that saw me equip my ship with a Planetary Surface Scanner. I didn't know then, just how much a simple; albeit expensive, piece of tech was going to shape my future quite so transformatively.
After I'd had my fill of delivering various goods with little to no recognition or appreciation, I decided to take a week off and see what this Planetary Scanner could do.
I had completed my deliveries for the day and thought I'd give the nearest planet a bit of a look. Remaining in Cruise, I came to an 'all stop' and floated like a goldfish, in space before this seemingly uninteresting astral body; its enormity almost as intimidating as space itself. There we were, floating in an abyss. Facing off against one another in silent observation.
I cast my mind back to the casual chat that the egg head scientists would say to each other in the Concourse Bar; their voices always laced with mild undertones of superiority and arrogance… Especially the Imperials!
"No, no! You always have to take into account the surface's gravitational pull!" They'd taunt the new academics. I thought I'd send the first probe slap bang in the face of this planet, the name of which escapes me now. The scanners lit up and showed me what I was working with. After a few attempts, I started to get a knack for it.
I started to develop a method after the fifth planet: fire one to the offside of the planet, then three more in a 'Y' formation on the outer circumference and finally one or two on the face. Now, hey, it didn't always work, but it worked most of the time.
Just as I was finding my feet a strange message came through on my Holofac a few days later.
A lady by the name of ‘Farseer’ told me she could help me out with my planetary exploration. At first, I thought it was some kind of marketing call until I realised just how curt she was. With an attitude like that, I wasn’t even gonna buy a metre of copper wire from this old bird. That was until I started doing some research on her… I soon changed my tune when I read her resume. It seemed she could really breathe some life into an FDS and really boost my jump range. I was pretty excited, to say the least.
Perhaps things were starting to go my way. You could say the planets were aligning nicely.