Although chapter 3 was done as part of the unbroken chapter 2 before I decided to split it in 3 parts, this chapter took a while to get release-ready because I was planning the battle scene in chapter 4. That took a while so I couldn't add some of the finer details to chapter 3 until recently. But now it's ready (or so I hope :)
In any case, remember the usual stuff. This is the first time I'm putting one of my stories online. So please give me feedback, point out flaws in my writing so I can fix them & tell me how I can improve the story in pacing, technique, dialogue, characterization & whatnot. Also give me ideas on the name.
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Chapter
3 – Teg’rysen
The
planet Teg’rysen orbits the class K orange dwarf star Rethios at a distance of
about 1.6 eyn. The planet had native life forms in the evolutionary stage of
early mammals before being colonised by zoltan settlers almost a hundred
styears ago. Despite the sector later coming under the control of mantises,
Teg’rysen freely operates as a traders’ hub mainly thanks to the planet’s
indigenous plants, of particular the plant culsiryne, whose fruits make one of
the tastiest soups in the cossverse.
The
Space-Kite’s destination was the moderately large town of Jyoven. Located at
18° latitude south of the equator in the delta of the river Jyov, Jyoven is one
of the oldest settlements on Teg’rysen & houses one of the three spaceports
on the whole planet.
Being
a ranger ship, The Space-Kite doesn’t sport any sort of Federation markings
which helps in their clandestine operations deep in enemy space and to dock on planets
or stations in such regions. In fact, this is one of the main reasons why ranger
ships are almost exclusively generic civilian ships like the Kestrel or the
Torus.
The
crew of The Space-Kite was gathered at the bridge discussing their next move.
Lagardy showed that immediately after The Space-Kite docked, a ton of advertisements
for the many trading shops in the town was transmitted to the ship, among which
a rather flashy one was for Gukiyo’s Trade Post. The shop was situated just
outside the medium sized spaceport.
Lagardy
was talking. “So Sofia’s definitely going to Gukiyo’s since she’s the customer.
Pomeroy and I’ll try to check out the spaceport authority’s building and see
what we can find. This being a small settlement planet, I think we can pull off
some flight data with relative ease. What do you say Pomeroy?”
Pomeroy
nodded in agreement. “Insufficient data to compute accurate probability.
Extrapolation of current data estimates greater than 35% chance of success.”
“Good
enough for me. Zekko & Rafiq, you two hold the fort and..”
“I
think the greenie should come along”, said Sofia, cutting off Bear.
“I’m
sorry what?” Rafiq asked, completely taken aback.
“What?
You need to learn how to go about doing business in a shady place like this,
Fick. It’ll do you good.” Sofia responded.
Rafiq
spoke nervously, “But there are mantises. Shouldn’t Zekko be a better choice?
And besides, why can’t we just call them up & do our business online from
the ship?”
“Okay,
look Fick. You know that ranger ships don’t have any Feder insignia so we can
go about our tour of duty while appearing as messengers or mercs, right? Well
that ain’t all.”
Zekko
started explaining, “Every ranger ship comes equipped with false mercenary ids
which we use extensively to gather information. It’s that very thing that allows
us to dock on planets like Teg’rysen or stations deep in mantis space.”
“In
fact, we’ve actually been hailed by mantis ships a few times & offered merc
jobs to go spy on Feder bases. Right before we opened fire and caught them by
surprise”, Sofia spoke with a chortle.
Lagardy
explained further, “And those fake ids are the reason it’s better for us to go
shopping in person. If we contact them online, we’re basically giving them an
invite to poke around in our computers if they happen to have any hacking
softwares. With this likely being a black market store, that’s most likely the
case. And regarding the mantises here, you know that our war is with the 2
mantis clans Plinok & Sevril, not the rest of them. Well, Teg’rysen is
under the control of the Kilik clan. They have no beef with the Federation but
they’d much rather side with their brethren than us if they find out.”
“Okay,
but that still doesn’t explain why Zekko’s not a better choice.”, Rafiq
protested.
“Two
humans, an engi and a rock coming out from a Kestrel class ship?” Zekko said, “That’s
too much of a coincidence and we’d be pressing our luck. Mercenaries usually
don’t employ many varying species.”
“But
I…” Rafiq started.
Sofia
cut him off with a pat on his shoulder and said with a grin, “C’mon Fick,
what’re you afraid of? We’re just customers looking for a crew teleporter.”
Rafiq
realized that he’s not going to win this debate. So he resigned with a sigh.
“Okay, fine.”
“That’s
the spirit.” Sofia patted his back.
“By
the way, Pomeroy”, Bear asked, “What’s the status of our hull? The engine room
took quite a beating in the last fight.”
Pomeroy
replied, “Total hull integrity, 76.67%. Engine room hull status, minor
fractures.”
“Well
that won’t do. Right then, Zekko, you stay aboard and refill our water supply. Pomeroy
and I’ll contact the spaceport repair crew at the SDC and have them sent your
way.”
“Sir.”
Zekko gave a short nod.
“We’re
doing pretty well on fuel for both the FTL and the impulse drive so I don’t
think we’ll need any more for now. Anyway, time’s wasting. Let’s move it,
people.”
“Let’s
go Fick”, said Sofia cheerily as she all but pushed Rafiq out the cockpit door.
***
Rethios
was setting over the horizon as The Space-Kite was landing. Now the dusk sky wore
a soft greenish-blue hue slowly turning dark.
The
4 of them walked down the ramp. Sofia and Rafiq headed towards the gate
straight ahead while Bear & Pomeroy headed right towards the SDC building,
walking past 3 trading ships.
Up
ahead, there was a lone mantis guard at the gate staring down at a datapad in
his hands. Being a small spaceport catering mostly to traders, many of them
disreputable, and the occasional mercenaries and pirates, a security guard is
almost just for show. But they do help to break up the rare but occasional
brawl that takes place between rival mercs or pirates.
Although
he had seen them many times on videos, this was the first time Rafiq was seeing
a live mantis with his own eyes this close. The green skinned insectoid was
roughly the same height as him. The guard was wearing a light purple shirt and
maroon coloured 4 legged pants called tuarts. The guard sat on a slightly elongated
chair with his 2 back legs in a crossed position up on the chair and his 2
front legs on the ground in front of it.
As
they walked by him, the guard took a short glance at them with his two large
eyes and two small antennae before turning back to his datapad, presumably
reading the evening news.
As
soon as they were out of the guard’s hearing, Sofia said, “See Fick? Just keep
your cool and everything will be fine.”
Immediately
outside the gate was a large terminus area with a few brown coloured oblong
buses plying passengers to and from different parts of the city. The 2 of them
took a left turn & walked beyond the bus terminus to a row of shops selling
everything from the local indigenous vegetables to little statues of the Great Eye.
They
walked past the shops until they reached a 2 storey yellow brick building with
the sign Gukiyo’s Trade Post hanging in front of it. Walking inside they saw a mantis
standing guard at the door, an engi behind a counter to the right doing some
calculations of purchases and at the centre were 2 mantises haggling with a zoltan,
a humanoid species slightly shorter than an average human with bioluminescent
green veins covering their entire body to the point where their whole body
appears to be glowing, standing behind the counter.
The
zoltan, clothed in business attire, looked past his prime, apparent from the dullness
& pale hue of his bioluminescent glow. But he was definitely holding his
ground in bartering against the two mantises.
“Look.
80 surgs is my final offer for a shield charge booster. Take it or leave it.
But you know very well what happens if you don’t have one while asteroid
mining. Your call.” The old zoltan spoke, ending the two mantises’ bargaining
attempts.
The
2 mantis looked at each other. Then one of them sighed and said, “Fine. You win
Gukiyo, you sleazebag. Argh…” and started counting out square money-chips from
his bag.
“Sticks
& stones, boys.” Gukiyo spoke with a chuckle as he collected the chips. “You
know how it goes in this business.”
The
2 mantises scowled as Gukiyo finished counting the chips. As he finished, a
mantis came out of a door behind him. Gukiyo turned to him and showed him a
datapad and spoke, ”Jart, grab these items from storage and take them to the
ship at spot 4. And make it fast. They leave within the hour.”
Jart
took out a datapad of his own and copied the list. And then with a small
“Roger” stepped back out the back door.
“There
you go.” Gukiyo addressed the 2 mantises again. “Jart will deliver your items
shortly. Have a profitable mining trip, boys. Now if you’ll excuse me, it looks
like I have new customers.”
Gukiyo
gestured at Sofia and Rafiq and said, “Welcome folks. I’m Gukiyo and how may I
be of service on this fine evening?”
Sofia
walked up to Gukiyo as the 2 mantises walked out the store, still grumbling from
their transaction. Sofia leaned over the counter and said, “We’re looking for a
crew teleporter.”
“Well
now. That’s an interesting item you’re after. People don’t generally look for
one of those unless they’re looking for a fight”, spoke the zoltan.
“Let’s
just say it’ll help us in our specific line of work.” Sofia replied with a
smirk.
“I
see.” Gukiyo gave a knowing smile. “And any businesser worth their salt
wouldn’t pry into the affairs of their customers. But I must ask. Where did you
get the idea that my shop might have one, hm?”
“We
were referred to you actually.”
“Oh?”
“We
ran into a scouting ship for the Sevril clan a few jumps out. They mentioned
they’d just visited your shop and got an auto weapon reloader. From their talk
we got the implication that your shop was very resourceful and so we decided to
check it out, just in case.”
Rafiq
was impressed at how Sofia lied without faltering. He surmised that she must’ve
had that story prepared beforehand.
“Ah
yes, I remember the scout party. They were here this morning. Fine folks. They
were looking for a teleporter themselves but sadly didn’t have the money to
afford one. I hope you do.” Gukiyo spoke cheerily.
Sofia
smiled. “So we did come to the right place. But I’m sorry to say that we kinda
blew it on our last job. Quite literally I’m afraid. Would you be willing to
trade in scraps?”
“That
depends. What do you have?”
Sofia
took out a datapad from her pocket and handed it to Gukiyo and said, “Here’s
our cargo list. Well, the ones we’re willing to trade.”
Gukiyo
took the datapad and started browsing through the list. A little later he said,
“There’s an escape pod on this list.”
“That’s
right.”
“You’re
willing to trade in your escape pod for a personnel teleporter?” Gukiyo spoke
in surprise.
“It’s
not ours” was Sofia’s short reply.
“I
see.” Gukiyo looked over the rest of the list before handing the datapad back
to Sofia and said, “I’ve marked the things I’m willing to accept for a crew
teleporter.”
Sofia
looked over the list. “That’s quite the haul you’re making here.”
“I
have to stay afloat in this market. I’m sure someone of your profession can
understand the effect of the war on the economy.” Gukiyo replied smugly while
adjusting his suit.
Gukiyo’s
gesture worried Rafiq. He didn’t see what the zoltan marked on Sofia’s datapad
but he could tell that they were being overcharged. However he couldn’t ascertain
from Sofia’s voice whether she was worried or not.
“Tell
you what Gooky.” Sofia spoke, showing Gukiyo the datapad, “Here’s my
counteroffer. You skip the reactor parts and the impulse drive shunts and we
have a deal. I think that’s fair considering you’re getting a whole escape pod.
We all know how much those sell for.”
Gukiyo
took a glance at the new list and asked, still having the smug smile on his face,
“And if I refuse?”
Sofia
shrugged her shoulders and said, “We can always find someone else offering a
crew teleporter but how often do you come across a pristine escape pod?”
Gukiyo’s
smile vanished. The old trader was now in a bind. He certainly didn’t want to
settle for a lower price but that unscathed escape pod was an exceptionally
rare find in a backwater planet like Teg’rysen. He could easily make a fortune
on that from some passenger ship and this female human knew so. His veins
started glowing in frustration.
Rafiq
knew Sofia’s gotten the upper hand when Gukiyo spoke. “You drive a hard bargain,
human. I’m willing to agree to your offer if you include the reactor casing parts
and 2 of the impulse shunts. But that’s my final offer.”
Sofia
thought for a second and turned towards Rafiq, “How much ammo do we have?”
“Not
too much. Just 7.” Rafiq replied with a grimace as he remembered how the
autofire got jammed at the start of the battle with the Sevril scout earlier, wasting
2 missiles.
Sofia
turned back to Gukiyo, “Okay Gook. You throw in, say, a deci of kinetic ammo
and you can have your starting offer.”
“TEN
ammo? Now that’s profiteering, even with all 5 shunts.”
“I’m
sure someone of your profession can understand the effect of the war on the
economy.” Sofia winked.
Gukiyo
stared at Sofia’s face for a few seconds and then his green veins dulled down
to their normal level as he started laughing. “Well played human. It’s a deal.
Hey Beroos, get in here.”
An
engi rushed in through the door in the back. Gukiyo told him, “Grab a crew
teleporter and ten k-ammo and take them to the ship in spot.. what was it?”
“7,”
Sofia replied. “And I’m sure it goes without saying that we’d prefer if you
keep this one off the books?”
“But
of course.” Gukiyo turned back to the engi again, “Copy the list of scraps
we’re trading from her datapad. Jart will be at the ship in spot 4 so ask him
to help unload the materials from their ship.”
Beroos
took a short glance at the pad, copying the list in its memory and replied with
a short, “Acknowledged” and walked out the back door.
Gukiyo
addressed Sofia again, “Well that’s that. One thing. I know your team is on a
business trip right now. But do you have any spare time in the near future? I
may have some business proposals for you considering your… discreteness.”
Sofia
replied, “We’ll have to take a look at our schedule and get back to you on
that. Till then you can consider the answer as a maybe.”
“Excellent.
I look forward to your response. Have a profitable trip, folks.” Gukiyo said
with a smile.
Sofia
nodded, turned around and gestured Rafiq to exit. Once outside and some
distance between them and the shop, Rafiq blurted out, “Woah! That was awesome!
I know you guys do this often but I can’t believe he really thought we were a mercenary
crew.”
Sofia
gave a big smile, “I’m just glad you kept your mouth shut in there and didn’t
say something stupid and blew our cover.”
“What?
I’m offended.”
“Well
you ARE a greenie. Honestly, I had a hunch you knew when to keep your mouth
shut. That’s why I made you come along. But I was still afraid you might prove
me wrong. Anyways, forget about that. Have you ever tried culsiryne stew?”
“Are
you crazy? That thing’s super expensive. I remember one of my classmates in
first semester bragging about how he had some at his rich uncle’s place.”
“Yeah,
I’ve never tasted it either. They’re pretty affordable here since the plants
originate on Teg’rysen. C’mon, let’s find out if it really is that good.”
***
A
few minutes later Sofia and Rafiq entered the spaceport, each carrying a bag
containing some culsiryne stew and other foodstuffs. The mantis guard was
standing a little distance away from the chair, smoking something in a small
pipe.
“Hey
Fick. Not getting tired already, are you?” Sofia asked on noticing Rafiq
falling behind a bit.
Rafiq
was shaken awake from his thoughts. “No. I was just thinking.”
“About
what?” Sofia slowed down her pace to walk alongside Rafiq.
Rafiq
stopped and stared at Sofia’s face.
“What?”
Sofia stopped also, puzzled.
“Can
I ask you something?” Rafiq queried.
“Shoot.”
Rafiq
looked around to see if anyone was within earshot. “How many mantises have
you…uh…you know…”
“Killed?”
Rafiq
nodded.
“I
don’t keep count. Every day can be your last so I like to fight one battle at a
time.”
Rafiq
gave a small “Oh!” and started walking again, as did Sofia.
After
a little while Rafiq stopped and asked again. ”How did it feel like when you
killed your first one?”
“So
that’s what this is about.” Sofia said as she stopped beside Rafiq, “That last
fight’s hammering on your conscience ain’t it?”
Rafiq
nodded weakly. “I just can’t stop thinking about that body of that mantis
soldier floating near that escape pod you hauled in. I’m afraid that I’ll have
nightmares about it when I sleep. He was almost to the escape pod. If it was a
few seconds later he might have even survived but I…I killed him. Just inches
from survival, I killed him. And he won’t be the last.”
Sofia
felt uncomfortable seeing Rafiq’s eyes getting moist, unsure of how to calm the
poor greenie. “Well… why didn’t you talk about it with Bear?”
Rafiq
blinked his eyes clear. “Um…because I think the captain would tell me things that
I want to hear, to calm me down. But I think it’d be best if I knew what he was
actually thinking and…I…”
“And
you thought since I’m the badmouth fighter stereotype, I’d tell it to you straight,
with no sugarcoating, eh?”
“I…um…”
Rafiq fumbled.
Despite
the wetness of Rafiq’s eyes, Sofia couldn’t help but laugh a little at the
rookie’s spunk. “You’re sorta right. You may not fully know the captain yet but
you’re quite right about what he’d tell you. In fact, since you weapons guys
are trained to be smart, I think you’ve already processed in your noggin the
things any of us would say. Pretty accurately too, if I might hazard a guess.
So I’m honestly not really sure what more I can tell you.” As she said this,
Sofia put a hand on Rafiq’s back and started walking again, gently pushing him ahead.
Rafiq
walked quietly. Sofia was right. Weapons controllers like him are trained to be
strategists – to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of an enemy ship, to
figure out multiple ways of attack, to predict the flow of a battle, to have
multiple backup plans – to overthink. He had indeed thought about what each of his
crewmates would say to him, even Pomeroy with its weird speech patterns. So he
wasn’t even sure what he wanted to hear from Sofia.
Sofia
gave Rafiq a small pat before withdrawing her hand. “We all start somewhere
Fick. My first kill was hard on my mind as well. But you know what they say, the
first one’s always the hardest and it only gets easier. The thing is, it’s true.
A few battles down the line you’d be surprised you even thought like this. And let
me tell you, that’s the real scary thing, how your mind can suddenly accept
murder as easy as breakfast.”
Rafiq
walked slowly, digesting Sofia’s words. It didn’t make him feel any better but
he was relieved to know that even someone like her once felt what he’s feeling
right now.
Sofia
spoke again, “I’m glad you talked about this with someone. Keeping stuff like
this bottled up in you can lead to all sorts of mental breakdown and the likes.
Zek was right you know. You got real spunk. You wouldn’t talk to me about this
otherwise. So I know you’ll figure it out.”
The
two of them were now near the ramp of The Space-Kite. They could see 2 engis
working on the rear hull of the ship. As they walked up the ramp, even though Sofia
didn’t say anything particularly helpful, Rafiq felt calmed. He found himself
accepting that this feeling he’s having is a natural part of becoming a soldier,
even though he’d surely have nightmares the next time he sleeps.
“So…
was that what you expected me to say?” Sofia asked as they reached the top of
the ramp.
“Not
exactly. But it kinda helped. Thanks Sofia.”
Sofia
gave a wink. “Just wait till you have a couple of mantises ‘porting in the
weapons bay. You’ll know your answer then.”
***
An
hour later, Jart and Beroos carried the escape pod, the last of the scrap
materials that was part of the trade, off The Space-Kite. Lagardy and Pomeroy
had returned with moderate success about half an hour ago. The spaceport
authority didn’t have any sort of intranet so Pomeroy couldn’t remotely hack
the log data. And since the data was stored in a mainframe computer in an
off-limits area, the two of them couldn’t reach it.
However,
Lagardy did manage to smooth-talk some information from a human janitor. The janitor
didn’t know where the mantis scout was headed but he overheard one of the
mantises talking about a bomber ship stationed near the FTL beacon at Sedocho VII
waiting for some supplies before heading into Federation space.
Sofia
and Zekko familiarized themselves with the controls of the crew teleporter and
Rafiq inserted the new batch of ammo in the Kinetic Payload Preparation Chamber
while Lagardy and Pomeroy planned the jump route. Half an hour later, the crew
of The Space-Kite was all set and the unassuming little Kestrel class ranger
ship took off from the planet of Teg’rysen.
Footnote:
Cossverse:
Portmanteau of cosmos & universe. I later noticed that coss can be a
backronym for Civilization of Sentient Species. I had to come up with a term
for the section of the universe that is featured in the game. I can’t expect
the whole universe to have been mapped because the crystals exist in a hidden
sector. So it’s a section of the whole universe but definitely bigger than a
galaxy. So I needed a new term.
I’m
not using the normal earth units of measurement because I find it unlikely that
the standard human units of measurement will be prevalent in space with
multiple alien species.
Styear:
Short for Standard Year. Fixed measuring unit of time in the cossverse.
Hour:
The actual term is Standard Hour but it’s shortened to hour by humans since the
time length is nearly the same as an earth-hour.
Eyn:
Unit of length for measuring distances within a star system.
SDC:
Spaceport Docking Control.
Great
Eye: Mythological deity of the zoltans. However, many zoltans claim that the
Great Eye is more than just a myth.
Surg:
Local currency in the Rethios subsector.
Businesser: Should be obvious. The
species-neutral term for businessman.
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