Summary: Among The Stars
06 Nov 2015Calteru Taalo
(This is getting a little ahead of myself, but I figured I can still do that while so few people are paying attention to the storyline so far.)MMP 1337 emerged from witchspace smoothly, the welcome sight of New Horizons Orbital zooming up to greet the ship and its road-weary pilot. He smiled at the sight, then hit the boost. "Finally," Sid Taalo thought to himself, "home".
Glancing over to his right, he hit the comm and paged the station's control tower. "Sirius Corp MMP 1337, requesting permission to land," he said into the mic. A bright, cheery female voice replied, "Good to see you, Sid! You're cleared for Pad 10. Welcome home!"
The pilot grinned tiredly. "Thanks, Andi," he said. "It's good to be back."
The comm fell silent as the hulking Type 7 made its way sluggishly toward the station's entrance. Taalo kept a watchful eye on the rangefinder as he approached. At 5km, he activated the auto-pilot. The system hummed flawlessly to life, playing some relaxing Old Earth Classical music as it guided the large mining vessel through the "toast rack" and into the station proper. The landing pad seemed to rise to meet the vessel as it hovered downward. The ship's landing gear deployed and locked just in time, and MMP 1337 made a soft touchdown. Maglocks engaged with their trademark kaCHUNK, securing the craft as the pad disappeared below the hangar deck.
The slight jostling of the landing pad settling into its resting spot below deck seemed to shake the pilot from his tired reverie. He checked the ship's external atmospheric sensors, comparing them with the station's sensors on the wall - both confirmed the hangar was good to go.
As he rose and stretched, the comm chirped to life. "You still on board, Sid?" a deep, gravelly male voice asked.
Sid tapped his comm. "Hey Morris," the pilot responded. "I am, unless you're sending me straight back out there," he said with a yawn. "I at least need some real food first."
The booming laugh of New Horizons' station manager rang back clearly through the comm. "I can imagine - I'm not a fan of robochefs either!" Morris replied. "No, I just need to get a quick debriefing on the Brewer job, close out this record for corporate. Looks like you did pretty well for 'em in a short timeframe. Good job."
The pilot smiled. "Thanks, man, appreciated," Sid said into the mic. "Your office, then?"
"That'd be fine," Morris replied, the comm crackling slightly. "See you in a few."
"Roger," Sid said, closing the conversation with a tap. He turned, exited the cockpit and walked down the ship's main corridor to the rear exit. "Orion, I'm debarking for a bit," the pilot said to the air. "If you don't mind grabbing the door for me? We're home, obviously, so no security protocols needed."
The familiar slight metal grate of the shipcom's voice processor replied, "ACKNOWLEDGED." Just down the hallway, the crew's door airlock pressurized with a harsh hissssss, then both the interior and exterior doors opened. Allowing his eyes to adjust to the comparative darkness of the terminal's interior, he stepped on the platform that slid out just in front of the doorway, and waited patiently as it lowered him to the hangar floor.
* * *
The station manager noticed his aging reflection in the bezel of his datapad as he looked over his latest messages from corporate. He sighed a bit to himself - quite a few more wrinkles in the past few weeks, or so it seemed, anyway. He returned his focus to the missives from Research and Development that were causing him concern. The burly, red-bearded man sighed again, reading and re-reading them. Eventually, he was going to have to do something about this.
Morris Anders looked up suddenly as the door chime softly announced the presence of a visitor. Looks like "eventually" would have to wait just a little bit longer. "Enter," the station chief called. The door slid open with a quiet schiss, revealing Sid Taalo on the other side.
"What's crackin', Chief?", the pilot said as he entered, plopping down on the chair in front of Anders' desk with a friendly smile. "Man, I am BEAT."
The station manager returned the grin, sliding a finger across his datapad's screen to get to the corporate debriefing form. "I imagine, Sid," Morris replied. "Thanks for going out there on short notice. Everything go all right in Kaushpoos?"
The pilot snickered at the mention of the system's name. "Whatta name for a star," Sid grinned. "Who names these things? But yeah, everything went fine. Maybe one or two interdiction attempts, nothing successful. Apparently the anti-pirate initiative did wonders."
The station manager nodded, tapping away merrily at his datapad. "Good, I was a little concerned about that given the Mobile Mining Platform's lack of offensive weaponry." Anders scrolled down a little bit. "Find any new mineral sites that weren't claimed?"
Taalo shook his head. "Nah, did most of our mining out of one of Marias Corporation's sites. They were pretty cool about it though - wasn't harassed or asked to pay anything. Good folks."
Anders nodded again, his eyebrow briefly rising and falling at the mention of Marias. "Very nice," he replied. "We'll have to see if they're maybe interested in future partnerships, then, if opportunities come up." He scrolled down some more. "How much tonnage did you bring in?"
The pilot briefly glanced down at the screen on his wristpad, then back up. "563 tons, it looks like."
The station chief looked up and at the pilot, surprised. "You only had a few working hours out there," he said. "You were able to find that much Palladium? Nice work!"
The pilot grinned. "Thanks, but isn't that weird? All Brewer Corp wanted for their station was palladium. No beryllium, silver or anything else." Taalo settled back in his chair, throwing an arm behind the backrest with a smirk. "That's gonna be one blingy station, yo."
Morris laughed. "Maybe they needed them for... oh, what were those things, on Old Earth. They went on cars." The station manager's bushy beard shifted a bit as he scrunched his face slightly in thought.
"Rims?" Sid answered.
Anders brightened. "Yeah, those!" he said with another laugh.
Taalo grinned. "Hey, maybe they're going to add all that other stuff too - hydraulics and what-was-it... ground effects!"
The station chief shook his head, still laughing. "Man, that'd be something to see," he said with a chuckle. He turned his attention back to the datapad. "Oh, right, this thing," he said, smiling. "Anything else to add, any problems, suggestions, etc.?"
The pilot thought for a second, then shook his head. "Nah, other than getting the call sooner," Sid replied. "We could have done a lot more if we got in a lot sooner."
Morris nodded in agreement. "I told Corporate the same, and they DID respond with some other gigs, if you're interested."
Taalo sighed tiredly. "I dunno, man," he said. "I kinda just wanna grab a real burger and some real fries and take a very, very real nap..." He thought for a second, then shrugged. "But I suppose two out of three ain't bad, and I can always grab the nap later. What we got?"
Anders flipped a finger across the datapad's screen, bringing up current jobs. "There's three, it looks like," he replied while reading, "but two are combat-related - you probably won't want those."
"You're probably right," the pilot replied with a look of slight disgust. "What's the third?"
Morris furrowed his brow as he read. "Well, it LOOKS like a simple explosives delivery contract, but it's written pretty strangely and there's a note here that says 'possible terrorism'?"
Sid tilted his head slightly, his interest piqued. "POSSIBLE terrorism?" he replied. "If it's even possible, why are the local authorities allowing the contract to be posted?"
Morris shrugged, still reading. "No idea, but the goods are system-legal and there's no red notices from any faction or major government, so it's a legit posting."
Taalo sat there for a second, lost in thought. Finally, he nodded and shrugged. "Sure, why the hell not? I can't get in trouble, right?"
Anders shook his head. "Nope," he replied.
The pilot stood. "Right, then at least I'll get to figure out what the story is out there. I admit to being a little curious."
The station manager held up a hand to stop the pilot before he turned to leave. "This contract just came in with plenty of time on it, so go grab some food and a nap," he said. "That will give me time to line up a navigator and weapons officer for you."
Sid's eyebrow shot up at the mention of crewmates, an incredulous look on his face. "Wait, what? I don't need any of that. I'll take Guarantor and I'll be fine."
Anders shook his head again. "Nope," he said, "With the nature of this contract, the cargo and the area of operations, it behooves the company and you if extra crew is present. Multiple witnesses are always better than one, and besides you'll need their help getting the cargo secured. Standard procedure on any dangerous cargo contract."
"But..."
The station chief shook his head once more with finality. "No, end of story," Anders said flatly. The pilot's face fell as he resigned himself to his fate. "Go grab some grub and some shuteye. I'll comm you when your crew is lined up."
Taalo sighed. "Fiiiiiiine," he said petulantly. "You know where to find me and such." He rose, slowly, then turned and left with an air of dejected acceptance.
Anders watched as he left, the door schissing shut behind his newest pilot. Finally looking back at his datapad, he hit Send on the debriefing and flipped back over to his messages.
Maybe there was a way to buy a little more time...