The Inattentive Pilot
24 Feb 2018Fenrah Iniat
Of all the things Fenrah considered with his latest job, the simple things are often the most overlooked...It'd been a great haul, all things considered. His new set of gigs hunting Pirates in Asellus Primus and it's outlying systems was great! Money was flowing quite well, enough so that he could finally get the new internals he needed on the Aegis, his Cobra Mk III. It wasn't much to look at, but there was definitely something iconic about flying a Cobra, even if it was that swanky new Mk IV. Seems like you need and exclusive license to buy one of them, but... No matter, it wouldn't be hard to look at upgrading to something bigger and better, maybe Asp perhaps, or possibly a--
Alarm klaxons sounded as he crossed the threshold into the "mailslot" of the station he'd been operating out of. Normally going into the mailslot would never be a problem, after all, he's done so on several occasions, often at great speed (speeding in space has never been a true crime, despite the dangers it poses), gracefully gliding his way to the pad often in a matter of seconds, not minutes. This time however, he forgot the most basic of rules with docking at a station, one which would be harshly learned today.
"Alert: Trespassing" his ship's computer Betty warned, flashing a crime notice along with a small 200 Cr fine.
Immediately his comm buzzed with the all-too familiar voice of the Flight Controller, damned if he could remember her name though. However he did remember the voice;
"Commanda, you need to request docking with the station before landing, please leave and request docking, now!"
"Uhhh, can I request docking now?", it was a stupid request, but, sometimes it worked, this time however...
"Da fuck no, get your ass out, now!"
"Argh, fine, fine..." He started moving full reverse on his Cobra, backing out the way he came in, which usually had no issue, except his speed meant he was already in at an odd angle, which also meant that...
A moderate BANG pushed him forward, and a new fine appeared on his screen: "Fine Imposed: Reckless flying, 400 Cr".
"God fucking dammit" he muttered under his breath, there goes the paint job. Realizing he needed to move, he started to rotate his ship the opposite direction, however, this only made the problem somewhat worse.
Realizing that he didn't just get stuck on the interior of the Aulin Enterprise, he got stuck embedded in the SENTRY GUN, which existed to end the very thing he was doing; blocking the mailslot for others to dock. Slowly, surely, he rotated the ship to port, the ship groaning and screeching as he tried to move away from the gun.
"Fine Imposed: Reckless Flying, 400Cr"
"Fine Imposed: Damage to Station, 500 Cr"
"Fine Imposed: Impeding Entrance, 2000 Cr"
The last one really worried him, knowing how stations hate dealing with blockers. "Comeon, fuck, fuck, fuck!". A second later and he got loose enough to throttle out of the mailslot, his ship thankfully intact. A sigh of relief, but also an awkward moment, exactly when could he enter the station?
He keyed in another docking request. Betty beeped back "Docking Permission Denied".
Again, "Docking Permission Denied".
Once more? "Docking Permission Denied".
Surely, they'd bring it back sometime right? "Docking Permission Denied".
"Oh fuck it!", he thought, realizing this could get any more embarrassing, or worse. Then he remembered the salvage job he did, and thought; "oh... shit". Sure enough, Betty said "Scan Detected".
The day was about to get much worse.