The slave restitution service deposited Kit and Capra at Baker’s Prospect, a planet-side outpost in the Asellus Primus system. They took possession of a basic Sidewinder and a meagre one thousand credits.
“Well, that’s disappointing,” Capra said. “I thought we could sell some of the equipment, like the weapons, to raise some cash. But the modules are only loaned to us.”
Kit was scarcely paying attention; he was sitting in the pilot’s seat of the Sidewinder and finding his way around. He liked the way his hands easily found the throttle and the stick and the other controls, whatever they were for.
Capra sighed. He sensed Kit’s excitement; the thrill the young man must be feeling of taking control of a ship and heading off into space. He would have to allow Kit the freedom to enjoy the adventure, but this worried him; there were dangers ahead about which Kit knew nothing – the hazards of routine spaceflight were compounded by the menace of piracy and indeed the temptation of the rewards available by travelling on the wrong side of the law.
He, Capra, must do all he could to prepare the youngster, but there were so many skills to learn – flying and managing the ship; keeping out of trouble; choosing missions and dealing in the commodity markets efficiently. He knew that only so much could be taught; the rest would come from hard-won experience.
It certainly didn’t help that he had been blinded by laser fire during their rescue. He couldn’t demonstrate any techniques to Kit, only tell him about them; he would have to draw on the memories of his own early days as a rookie commander. He shuddered at the thought of all his near-misses and lucky escapes; situations that could so easily have gone the other way. But that, after all, was the life they had chosen – more satisfying by far than a planet-side existence with regular hours stretching out into the distant future.
Kit looked at the mission board while Capra listened.
“There’s no job here I can do,” Kit complained. “They either need more cargo space than the Sidewinder has available or I need weapons to do them. Look at this one; it says I need to have a reputation with the faction of cordial. How can I get a reputation without completing a mission?”
“Patience, Kit. It will happen – slowly at first I admit, but you’ll soon be getting those five and six figure missions.”
They watched and waited as a steady stream of ships came and went. Every day, Kit took the Sidewinder out for flying practice and soon he was adept at take-offs and landings and preparing to enter supercruise. The first time his altitude exceeded two kilometres and the ship was released from mass-lock, he felt suddenly light and free, and a strong urge rose in him to punch the FSD control and explore the local system.
“I think you’re ready for that,” Capra told him the next day. “Keep your head down, don’t hit anything – human or astronomical – and go have some fun. Cruise over to the Nav Beacon and see what’s happening; Forrest Research Lab is an outpost worth a visit, just to see its architecture – labs sticking out in all directions; then there’s Beagle 2 Landing, a High Tech Coriolis station, orbiting Asellus 3a, if I recall correctly; you could go take a look at its mission board and commodity market – there might be something there we could pick up. The chances are it’s also got better outfitting than here, so you could take a look at pricing and availability. Our first priority is a 2A frame shift.”
Kit couldn’t quite believe it was happening. Flight control announced he was clear of their airspace and wished him a safe journey; he aligned the Sidewinder with the escape vector; and the moon that had been his recent home was shrinking beneath him.
Eager to get started and earn some reputation, he flew to Beagle 2 Landing, feeling very professional as he received his docking instructions from Traffic Control.
The next interaction was a little more embarrassing but it was a good lesson.
“DeLacey Kilo India Tango – reduce your speed to below one hundred metres per second or face the consequences.”
Even as he received this message a Cobra sped past him and was in a head-on collision with an Eagle of the security services. The more solid Cobra smashed the Eagle apart and, in an instant, Vipers and Eagles swarmed around the Cobra and fired on it until its commander was returned to stardust.
Kit throttled back to ninety-nine metres per second.
Old hands said there were two types of commander: those who had landed with their gear up, and those who hadn’t landed with their gear up – yet. Kit soon got this lesson out of the way, too. He had been so fascinated to see the inside of a Coriolis starport from the pilot’s seat that he didn’t pay attention to the job at hand. There were ships everywhere: sitting on pads loading and unloading; queueing to get out through the slot; scattering like frightened birds when a Type-9 Heavy came in at high speed.
Fortunately, the ship’s systems were more alert and warned Kit just before he pancaked into the landing pad. He lowered the gear but still hit the deck too hard, suffering one percent damage to the hull.
I should buy some shields as soon as I can afford it, Kit reflected.
The status of the busy port was mirrored in the mission board; there were dozens of jobs fetching and carrying, rewards for taking out pirates who were bad for business, and requests for investment money by way of donations.
Finally, Kit saw something he thought he could do; it was a Boom Data Delivery mission paying over eight thousand credits for transport of confidential financial reports. No cargo space was needed; he just had to fly to the destination and drop off the data. It sounded easy. Moments later, another mission popped up with a different faction but going to the same location. This one was paying twelve thousand. Kit grabbed them both.
Then he looked at the galaxy map. The destination was only fourteen light years away. He plotted the route, the way Capra had told him, and was shocked to see that he had committed himself to fifteen jumps. Without a fuel scoop he would need to stop every few jumps at a starport or outpost to refuel.
He checked his jump range and found that with a 2E frame shift and E-rated modules he could jump a little over seven light years. I really need that 2A FSD, he thought.
Just then, another Boom Data Delivery mission popped up that was only two jumps away. He took it and set off. He made the first jump, to Dahan, and was greeted by his first pirate.
“The rumour was right; I’m glad I found you first.”
That made no sense to Kit. What rumour? What was so special about the data he carried, he wondered. It made no difference, the pirate tried to pull him out of supercruise. Kit’s reactions were fast; with the throttle at fifty percent he was able to evade the interdiction. Feeling proud and self-confident, he made the second jump to Morgor and flew without incident the rest of the way to Romanek’s Folly.
Kit was thrilled when he received the eight thousand credits for the job. This business of trading and running missions didn’t seem so hard after all. He had about nine thousand credits, so he took the ship to outfitting. After reviewing the meagre choices, he decided that a 2D frame shift was the way to go. It raised his jump range to 10.75Ly which made him feel like a long-range explorer.
The mission board had an opportunity to try out the new FSD. He would need to deliver two units of silver to Lalande 18115. He plotted the route and found it would need only five jumps. He felt like a real trader as the cargo was loaded into his tiny hold.
Once outside Romanek’s folly, Kit lined up for his first jump. An inbound Orca was on a reciprocal course while Barnard’s Loop was straight ahead. He couldn’t stop the memories from surfacing – the trip to the Loop in his parents’ Orca had been the holiday of a lifetime for him. An ache gripped his body; a yearning to see his parents once more momentarily paralysed him; he sat, frozen, in the tiny, lonely bubble that was to be his home for the foreseeable future. He had a glimpse of what space madness might be like.
“You have left Federal Starport Control, Commander, and may continue with your journey.”
The message jolted him into the present. The only way I can avoid this pain, he thought, is to get far away from the places that trigger the memories; as far away as possible, and as soon as possible. He punched in the first of his five jumps, forcing out of his mind everything except the job in hand.
“Incoming mission critical message,” said the only voice he had heard since leaving Romanek’s Folly. He was in the Lalande 18115 system and on his way to the target station. Like Capra had taught him, he was flying a little outside the busy shipping lanes; it was still a fairly direct route but he would be much less likely to encounter pirates.
The message told him that there would be a 12.5K bonus if he could deliver the silver in the next thirty minutes. I’ll take that, Kit thought, and he made a course correction to bring him to Karlsefni Gateway in the shortest time. When he picked up his 67.5K credit reward, he felt loaded. After splashing out on the best fast-food the starport could offer – described on the menu as Animal Meat – and buying a new pair of leather boots, maybe even from the same animal, Kit took the Sidewinder to an outfitting workshop to see what upgrades were possible.
It was good to be talking to people for a while and he discussed frame shift drives with an engineer.
“So, you want a 2A?” the engineer said, looking at Kit’s new boots. “They come in at 160K, but that’ll get you to 19.29 light years with your current loadout.”
Kit was dismayed; that was more than twice the money he had available; he suddenly didn’t feel as loaded.
“What else have you got?”
Clearly disappointed he wasn’t going to make his monthly quota with this sale, the engineer showed Kit a 2B.
“This is a solid piece of kit,” he said. “It costs 53K and will get you up to sixteen light years; that’s quite good for a Sidey that’s still E-rated everywhere else.”
Kit was dazzled by the thought of sixteen light year jumps – he could see the galaxy and its opportunities expanding before him. Without even trying to haggle he asked the engineer to fit the drive, but the salesman in the engineer hadn’t finished yet. He looked appraisingly at Kit’s loadout.
“Just starting out, huh? I’ve helped many a commander like you. Can I suggest something for you?”
“Yes, please,” Kit said, innocently.
AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action; the salesman’s acronym was as important in 3302 as it had ever been.
“You’ve got a really nice ship here and the beginnings of a lucrative career as a trader; but if you want the really big bucks – and who doesn’t – you need to expand your cargo capacity. Think of all the missions you can’t take because you’ve only got a two-tonne hold; I’m sure you’ve seen them in the mission board.”
Kit recognised the truth in the engineer’s words. He really wanted some of those bigger missions that offered correspondingly large rewards.
“What have you got?” he asked.
“Well, for this orbit of the starport only, we have a special offer on four-tonne cargo racks. I could fit two for only 5,999 – you won’t get a better price this side of Lembava. You’d have a ten tonne capacity. Take a look at the mission board on this screen here, and see what opportunities open up to you.”
Kit looked. He saw missions offering over 100K credits, not noticing the distances he would have to fly and the remoteness of some of the outposts. He was also blind to the warning: “Hostile ships may be sent against you”. He wanted those rewards, so he bought the racks.
After the refit, Kit looked once more at the mission board. “Source and return three units of gold”, looked like his best choice. What could be easier: fly to a nearby system with extraction and refinery operations, pick up the gold, and fly back.
He chose his destination and flew with great exuberance out of the starport. His new jump range meant he needed to make only one hop to pick up the cargo. He landed at the target refinery and went to the commodity market. It was a good job nobody was there to see Kit’s face as he looked at the price of gold and realised that he didn’t have the credits to buy three tonnes. He would need approaching 26K and he simply didn’t have it.
Kit had assumed the 65K he would receive for the mission was pure profit; he didn’t realise that you had to buy the goods with your own money. Another important lesson was learned: don’t take on a mission like this one unless you’ve got the funds to complete it.
But he had committed to the mission so he must fulfil it. The only way was to run another mission to pick up the cash to buy the gold. There was a Boom Data Delivery available and he took it. It was his first surface mission, and the memories intruded once more as he guided the Sidewinder to its destination; but it was only a small moon with 0.2g and he had little trouble.
He now had the funds to buy the gold he needed.
Gold is to pirates as honey is to brown bears.
The interdiction was over quickly. Kit learned that reaction time wasn’t always enough; against a skilled interdictor you needed anticipation, guile, and luck.
[Taxacher] “Empty your hold. Give me everything.”
Kit could think only of what Capra had told him: don’t join a fight you can’t win; your best choice is to run. He turned the Sidewinder away from the pirate, ensured there were four pips in the engines, and pushed the throttle hard forward. He tapped the booster whenever the capacitor showed there was enough charge. Okay, he wasn’t so manoeuvrable, but it helped to increase distance and made him a smaller target.
[Taxacher] “So, you choose death. I’m going to boil you up.”
Kit suspected there was nothing he could say to change the pirate’s mind so instead he concentrated on flying the ship. He jerked the stick around randomly trying to make it harder for Taxacher’s weapons to strike home, but without success.
He had no shields, so every direct hit inflicted damage on the hull. Kit saw ninety-five percent and then eighty-two percent on the hull strength indicator before turning his attention to the frame shift cooldown timer. Why, oh why, was it taking so long to cool down; it normally took only eight seconds or so but this was painfully slow.
Every thump on the hull was like a blow to his self-esteem. Was his mentor correct about always running away? Kit wanted to fight back. Pirates had sold him into slavery and now a pirate was trying to take his cargo – his very livelihood. He didn’t want to cower and run, he wanted to turn and fight. He didn’t have the means of course…but one day he would.
“Frame shift online.”
Those three little words that the trader on the run so wants to hear.
Kit started charging the FSD. He needed to survive another eighteen seconds before he could escape Taxacher’s punishment. Sixty-four percent…fifty-eight percent…by the time Kit was back in supercruise, his hull was down to fifty-two percent; but he had survived.
He delivered the gold and found that, after repairs, his balance was 97K. That no longer seemed a lot of money, and Kit had to remind himself that he had improved the ship, bringing it closer to the loadout he and Capra would need to head out to Jaques Station.
Kit now took on a range of missions that lifted his balance to 185K. He delivered non-lethal weapons; he took on more Boom Data Delivery missions; he sold the meagre cartographic data that his Basic Discovery Scanner picked up; and whenever he received commodities as a reward, he sold them.
He evaded one interdiction attempt but Commander Frankton dragged him out of supercruise and reduced his hull to forty-nine percent before he escaped. The repair cost him over 550 credits and he resented the delay to his departure that this would cause. He thought again about weapons and shields but for the time being he shrank from the life of a committed bounty hunter – not because he didn’t want to; he simply realised that the cost of repairs while he learned the craft would drain away their funds.
He sold more cartographic data and longed for the Advanced Discovery Scanner that would mean they could depart the bubble and would provide their start-up cash when they got to Jaques Station.
So far, Kit had done very little trading on his own account; he had always taken missions which were straightforward deliveries or of the ‘source and return’ variety. He was in a system, not far from Asellus Primus, and thought that the gold looked quite cheap. The galaxy map told him that his ‘home’ system was High Tech/Refinery.
Didn’t High Tech pay a high price for gold? He decided to try it and bought nine tonnes.
He felt space-hardened as he steered his Sidewinder to the designated landing pad at Baker’s Prospect. He longed to tell Capra of his adventures: his successes; what he thought were his shrewd outfitting decisions; and what he thought of pirates.
He took the ship into the hangar and was looking at the commodity market as Capra joined him in the cramped cockpit, wearing an elaborate cybernetic suit. This had been donated by a charity and it acted as his eyes giving him a running commentary of the surrounding events.
“Buying or selling?” Capra asked.
“I’ve got nine tonnes of gold,” Kit said, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Have you now,” Capra said, playfully. “What did you pay?”
“Only 9,100,” Kit said like it was a throwaway amount of cash.
“I’m impressed that you could afford nine tonnes. Let’s see what the market’s like here,” Capra said, still using the verb for the sense he no longer possessed.
Kit scrolled down to the metals section of the commodity market and experimentally offered to sell one tonne.
“What! A loss of 532 per tonne! How can that be? This is supposed to be a High Tech system, isn’t it?”
Crestfallen, Kit was glad that Capra could not see his embarrassment, but immediately regretted the thought.
Capra was understanding. Market fluctuations were a fact of life and trade data were soon out of date. However, he had an explanation that would calm Kit somewhat.
“Kit, don’t feel bad; this outpost is a planet-based refinery; it produces gold for export. Beagle 2 Landing is the place to take your cargo; you’ll get a better price for it there.”
Kit was somewhat reassured that his first trading venture wasn’t a total failure.
“Now, then,” Capra said, “tell me everything you’ve done; it seems like you’ve been gone forever.”
He didn’t tell Kit that his suit had scanned the list of missing pilots every hour since his protégé had begun his space adventure.
As Kit gave the account of his travels he regained his composure and became as confident and optimistic as before. He had made only thirty hyperspace jumps but already he felt like a veteran.
“While you were gone, Kit, I did some local research; wherever I searched, I found that the systems hereabouts are described as tiny and poor; we should think about relocating.”
“We could start by taking this gold to Beagle 2 Landing and planning our next move from there.”
“Sounds like a plan, and while we are there let’s look at upgrading to D-rated core internals; you’ve earned the cash to do that.”
At Beagle 2 Landing, Kit was pleased that his gold sold for over ten thousand credits per tonne, giving a total profit of eight thousand, and a new balance of 192K credits.
“I have an idea,” he said. “I could just go back and forth between here and Baker’s Prospect shifting gold. I wouldn’t need the basic scanner so I could take twelve tons…and if I could take something back there would be profit in both directions.”
“Now you’re thinking like a trader; problem is, even if you could make 10K per round trip, you would need…let’s see…one hundred and fifty trips to afford the advanced scanner. I’ve done stuff like that and, let me tell you, a grind-fest is soul destroying.”
“You’re right; we both have pressing reasons to be on our way to Jaques Station. We need some big payoffs.”
“Certainly there’s a long way to go to buy the scanner we want, and I’m sorry that it’s you who has to take all the risks. In the meantime, let’s set about reconfiguring the ship before you go out again,” Capra advised.
Together they selected the new loadout. There were still no weapons and no shields, to Kit’s chagrin, and the discovery scanner was swapped out for a fuel scoop; Capra said he would be happier knowing that Kit could always top up the tank.
Then they turned their attention to the core internals, and fitted D-rated modules throughout, except for life support which was not in stock. They watched as the unladen jump range climbed to 21.77 light years.
“That’s quite respectable,” Capra said.
“What is it about Lembava?” Kit asked. “The engineer at Karlsefni Gateway mentioned it.”
“Ah, Lembava,” Capra reminisced. “I spent a good part of my early career there. It’s the headquarters of Li Yong-Rui, and the thing about it is that you can get a standard fifteen percent discount on ships and modules without even pledging allegiance.”
“Sounds like we should go there.”
“Definitely. First, though, I’ve got a follow up appointment to adjust this thing,” Capra said, indicating his cybernetic jacket. “Why don’t you go out again and pick up some more local work before we visit Lembava.”
Capra left and Kit watched him walk slowly away. He was developing a strong fondness for the man, and he guessed that Lyra must be missing him terribly.
Kit looked at the mission board and couldn’t believe his luck; there were three high value missions available: source and return six units of Consumer Technology, worth 93.5K; source and return six units of Progenitor Cells worth 100K; and a mission to return ten units of Hardware Diagnostic Sensors worth 111K. Kit grabbed them all.
The first two were straightforward; two short return trips to Abe Works on Ovid were soon completed. Sourcing the Hardware Diagnostics Sensors was another matter; Kit thought he could simply go to any industrial system to pick them up, but it turned out he would have to go eleven jumps to systems near Lei Jing to find them.
To make eleven jumps he would need a fuel scoop, but because he had committed to return ten units, he would need the size two slots and one of the size one slots for cargo racks; that left room for only a 1E fuel scoop; it was going to be a tricky journey, especially on the return when he would be heavy and vulnerable to pirate attack. But he must do it, or lose reputation; it was his improving reputation that had brought him the higher value missions.
The outward journey was scary enough. The fuel scoop was painfully slow, the heat in the cockpit was unbearable, and the ship shook so violently Kit thought it might break up. Gradually, he learned to keep the ship cooler and found a sustainable angle of attack that was less unpleasant.
There was one interdiction attempt on the way to Xiripa, which was his chosen industrial system. It happened as soon as he jumped into a system along the route. Kit was ready; he had been thinking about these pirate attacks and thought he had a plan. He knew that the pirate had to get behind him for the FSD interdictor to work so, as soon as the pirate was visible to his sensors, he throttled to fifty percent thrust and simply threw the Sidewinder into an endless loop while the FSD cooled down; then he stayed in the loop while it charged up for the next jump. Try as he might, the pirate could not get into position. The special trick Kit had to learn very quickly was not to fly into the primary star while looping.
When the FSD was fully charged, he came out of the loop, aligned with the next system, and throttled up to one hundred percent. It worked like a charm; he was gone before the pirate even came close. Of course, a persistent pirate would have a wake scanner and could follow him if they wanted to. Kit hoped this one was lazy and would prefer to wait, like a spider, for its prey to come to him.
He arrived at Kanwar Gateway in the Xiripa system. It was there that he received one of the mission critical messages that he was getting used to seeing. This one said that a contract killer, Steve Rawlings, had been hired to intercept him. He saw that the commodity market would provide him with the necessary Hardware Diagnostic Systems but instead of buying them Kit decided he would meet Steve Rawlings head-on.
He bought a 2A shield generator and two beam lasers; he checked the power requirements and bought a 2A power plant. He left the station hoping that Rawlings would assume he had the cargo. He jumped to supercruise within Xiripa and, sure enough, Rawlings was there waiting for him. This time, instead of trying to evade the interdiction, he submitted by throttling to zero.
Kit had rehearsed this. As soon as he was in normal space, he deployed his lasers, put four pips in weapons, and waited for Rawlings to appear. He didn’t have to wait long.
[Rawlings] “Prepare to…”
The word “die” was never uttered; Kit was already advancing on the pirate and firing both weapons. They entered a brief, turning snake-fight, each ship trying to outturn the other to get their weapons on target. Kit’s Sidewinder was much more manoeuvrable than the Cobra MKIV that had been sent against him. He found he was able to get behind Rawlings a good proportion of the time. The Cobra was a tougher, more resilient ship than the Sidewinder, though, and it took a good deal of battering to bring down its shields.
When Rawlings turned flight-assist off, Kit did the same. He took a fair bit of damage to his shields but they held on. It was a battle of attrition, each brief encounter taking a few more percentage points out of the Cobra’s hull.
[Rawlings] “I can’t believe this is happening.”
[Kit] “Believe it…and here’s an end to you.”
Kit said this as his next twin bursts of laser power destroyed the Cobra’s hull. There was a bright flash and a frightening explosion; the Sidewinder flew through the mess of debris that was shooting out in all directions. The anonymity of destroying the ship was shattered when Rawlings’ body crashed into the canopy. At least Kit could not see the expression on Rawlings’ face, which might have haunted him for a long time.
Kit felt the guilt; he had taken a life; that was against everything his parents had taught him. Then he reflected that Rawlings would have killed him without a scruple.
That was the way it was in space – run if you can, but if you can’t run, fight.
Kit returned to Kanwar Gateway to reconfigure the Sidewinder as a trader and pick up the mission cargo. He was reluctant to part with the weapons and the shield generator, but he recognised it was the only way to finish the job. He also had mixed feelings about picking up the 44K bounty on Rawlings and almost didn’t take it – it felt dirty, somehow. Seeing his balance climb above half a million, however, focused his mind on the importance of working towards the advanced scanner, and he felt better about taking the money.
Kit returned to Asellus Primus without incident and picked up 161K for the mission which included a further reward for eliminating Rawlings. He decided not to tell Capra about his venture into space combat.
Capra didn’t seem to be around, so Kit took a mission out to Chango Dock on I Bootis, a regular delivery run. He went for a walk around the station and sensed the unease of the people he met. He thought he would go for a meal, but the cafés and restaurants were all closed up behind steel barriers.
Kit returned to the ship and looked at the local news and at the mission board. Chango Dock was in a state of famine and civil unrest; something about crop failures on the Earth-like world around which the station orbited.
There were several missions seeking to alleviate the famine. Instinctively, Kit took missions to return food and water and a few other commodities to ease the lives of the suffering population. He knew it was the right thing to do, but he also knew he was trying to compensate for the life he had extinguished.
“Well, that’s disappointing,” Capra said. “I thought we could sell some of the equipment, like the weapons, to raise some cash. But the modules are only loaned to us.”
Kit was scarcely paying attention; he was sitting in the pilot’s seat of the Sidewinder and finding his way around. He liked the way his hands easily found the throttle and the stick and the other controls, whatever they were for.
Capra sighed. He sensed Kit’s excitement; the thrill the young man must be feeling of taking control of a ship and heading off into space. He would have to allow Kit the freedom to enjoy the adventure, but this worried him; there were dangers ahead about which Kit knew nothing – the hazards of routine spaceflight were compounded by the menace of piracy and indeed the temptation of the rewards available by travelling on the wrong side of the law.
He, Capra, must do all he could to prepare the youngster, but there were so many skills to learn – flying and managing the ship; keeping out of trouble; choosing missions and dealing in the commodity markets efficiently. He knew that only so much could be taught; the rest would come from hard-won experience.
It certainly didn’t help that he had been blinded by laser fire during their rescue. He couldn’t demonstrate any techniques to Kit, only tell him about them; he would have to draw on the memories of his own early days as a rookie commander. He shuddered at the thought of all his near-misses and lucky escapes; situations that could so easily have gone the other way. But that, after all, was the life they had chosen – more satisfying by far than a planet-side existence with regular hours stretching out into the distant future.
*
Kit looked at the mission board while Capra listened.
“There’s no job here I can do,” Kit complained. “They either need more cargo space than the Sidewinder has available or I need weapons to do them. Look at this one; it says I need to have a reputation with the faction of cordial. How can I get a reputation without completing a mission?”
“Patience, Kit. It will happen – slowly at first I admit, but you’ll soon be getting those five and six figure missions.”
They watched and waited as a steady stream of ships came and went. Every day, Kit took the Sidewinder out for flying practice and soon he was adept at take-offs and landings and preparing to enter supercruise. The first time his altitude exceeded two kilometres and the ship was released from mass-lock, he felt suddenly light and free, and a strong urge rose in him to punch the FSD control and explore the local system.
“I think you’re ready for that,” Capra told him the next day. “Keep your head down, don’t hit anything – human or astronomical – and go have some fun. Cruise over to the Nav Beacon and see what’s happening; Forrest Research Lab is an outpost worth a visit, just to see its architecture – labs sticking out in all directions; then there’s Beagle 2 Landing, a High Tech Coriolis station, orbiting Asellus 3a, if I recall correctly; you could go take a look at its mission board and commodity market – there might be something there we could pick up. The chances are it’s also got better outfitting than here, so you could take a look at pricing and availability. Our first priority is a 2A frame shift.”
Kit couldn’t quite believe it was happening. Flight control announced he was clear of their airspace and wished him a safe journey; he aligned the Sidewinder with the escape vector; and the moon that had been his recent home was shrinking beneath him.
Eager to get started and earn some reputation, he flew to Beagle 2 Landing, feeling very professional as he received his docking instructions from Traffic Control.
The next interaction was a little more embarrassing but it was a good lesson.
“DeLacey Kilo India Tango – reduce your speed to below one hundred metres per second or face the consequences.”
Even as he received this message a Cobra sped past him and was in a head-on collision with an Eagle of the security services. The more solid Cobra smashed the Eagle apart and, in an instant, Vipers and Eagles swarmed around the Cobra and fired on it until its commander was returned to stardust.
Kit throttled back to ninety-nine metres per second.
Old hands said there were two types of commander: those who had landed with their gear up, and those who hadn’t landed with their gear up – yet. Kit soon got this lesson out of the way, too. He had been so fascinated to see the inside of a Coriolis starport from the pilot’s seat that he didn’t pay attention to the job at hand. There were ships everywhere: sitting on pads loading and unloading; queueing to get out through the slot; scattering like frightened birds when a Type-9 Heavy came in at high speed.
Fortunately, the ship’s systems were more alert and warned Kit just before he pancaked into the landing pad. He lowered the gear but still hit the deck too hard, suffering one percent damage to the hull.
I should buy some shields as soon as I can afford it, Kit reflected.
The status of the busy port was mirrored in the mission board; there were dozens of jobs fetching and carrying, rewards for taking out pirates who were bad for business, and requests for investment money by way of donations.
Finally, Kit saw something he thought he could do; it was a Boom Data Delivery mission paying over eight thousand credits for transport of confidential financial reports. No cargo space was needed; he just had to fly to the destination and drop off the data. It sounded easy. Moments later, another mission popped up with a different faction but going to the same location. This one was paying twelve thousand. Kit grabbed them both.
Then he looked at the galaxy map. The destination was only fourteen light years away. He plotted the route, the way Capra had told him, and was shocked to see that he had committed himself to fifteen jumps. Without a fuel scoop he would need to stop every few jumps at a starport or outpost to refuel.
He checked his jump range and found that with a 2E frame shift and E-rated modules he could jump a little over seven light years. I really need that 2A FSD, he thought.
Just then, another Boom Data Delivery mission popped up that was only two jumps away. He took it and set off. He made the first jump, to Dahan, and was greeted by his first pirate.
“The rumour was right; I’m glad I found you first.”
That made no sense to Kit. What rumour? What was so special about the data he carried, he wondered. It made no difference, the pirate tried to pull him out of supercruise. Kit’s reactions were fast; with the throttle at fifty percent he was able to evade the interdiction. Feeling proud and self-confident, he made the second jump to Morgor and flew without incident the rest of the way to Romanek’s Folly.
Kit was thrilled when he received the eight thousand credits for the job. This business of trading and running missions didn’t seem so hard after all. He had about nine thousand credits, so he took the ship to outfitting. After reviewing the meagre choices, he decided that a 2D frame shift was the way to go. It raised his jump range to 10.75Ly which made him feel like a long-range explorer.
The mission board had an opportunity to try out the new FSD. He would need to deliver two units of silver to Lalande 18115. He plotted the route and found it would need only five jumps. He felt like a real trader as the cargo was loaded into his tiny hold.
Once outside Romanek’s folly, Kit lined up for his first jump. An inbound Orca was on a reciprocal course while Barnard’s Loop was straight ahead. He couldn’t stop the memories from surfacing – the trip to the Loop in his parents’ Orca had been the holiday of a lifetime for him. An ache gripped his body; a yearning to see his parents once more momentarily paralysed him; he sat, frozen, in the tiny, lonely bubble that was to be his home for the foreseeable future. He had a glimpse of what space madness might be like.
“You have left Federal Starport Control, Commander, and may continue with your journey.”
The message jolted him into the present. The only way I can avoid this pain, he thought, is to get far away from the places that trigger the memories; as far away as possible, and as soon as possible. He punched in the first of his five jumps, forcing out of his mind everything except the job in hand.
“Incoming mission critical message,” said the only voice he had heard since leaving Romanek’s Folly. He was in the Lalande 18115 system and on his way to the target station. Like Capra had taught him, he was flying a little outside the busy shipping lanes; it was still a fairly direct route but he would be much less likely to encounter pirates.
The message told him that there would be a 12.5K bonus if he could deliver the silver in the next thirty minutes. I’ll take that, Kit thought, and he made a course correction to bring him to Karlsefni Gateway in the shortest time. When he picked up his 67.5K credit reward, he felt loaded. After splashing out on the best fast-food the starport could offer – described on the menu as Animal Meat – and buying a new pair of leather boots, maybe even from the same animal, Kit took the Sidewinder to an outfitting workshop to see what upgrades were possible.
It was good to be talking to people for a while and he discussed frame shift drives with an engineer.
“So, you want a 2A?” the engineer said, looking at Kit’s new boots. “They come in at 160K, but that’ll get you to 19.29 light years with your current loadout.”
Kit was dismayed; that was more than twice the money he had available; he suddenly didn’t feel as loaded.
“What else have you got?”
Clearly disappointed he wasn’t going to make his monthly quota with this sale, the engineer showed Kit a 2B.
“This is a solid piece of kit,” he said. “It costs 53K and will get you up to sixteen light years; that’s quite good for a Sidey that’s still E-rated everywhere else.”
Kit was dazzled by the thought of sixteen light year jumps – he could see the galaxy and its opportunities expanding before him. Without even trying to haggle he asked the engineer to fit the drive, but the salesman in the engineer hadn’t finished yet. He looked appraisingly at Kit’s loadout.
“Just starting out, huh? I’ve helped many a commander like you. Can I suggest something for you?”
“Yes, please,” Kit said, innocently.
AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action; the salesman’s acronym was as important in 3302 as it had ever been.
“You’ve got a really nice ship here and the beginnings of a lucrative career as a trader; but if you want the really big bucks – and who doesn’t – you need to expand your cargo capacity. Think of all the missions you can’t take because you’ve only got a two-tonne hold; I’m sure you’ve seen them in the mission board.”
Kit recognised the truth in the engineer’s words. He really wanted some of those bigger missions that offered correspondingly large rewards.
“What have you got?” he asked.
“Well, for this orbit of the starport only, we have a special offer on four-tonne cargo racks. I could fit two for only 5,999 – you won’t get a better price this side of Lembava. You’d have a ten tonne capacity. Take a look at the mission board on this screen here, and see what opportunities open up to you.”
Kit looked. He saw missions offering over 100K credits, not noticing the distances he would have to fly and the remoteness of some of the outposts. He was also blind to the warning: “Hostile ships may be sent against you”. He wanted those rewards, so he bought the racks.
*
After the refit, Kit looked once more at the mission board. “Source and return three units of gold”, looked like his best choice. What could be easier: fly to a nearby system with extraction and refinery operations, pick up the gold, and fly back.
He chose his destination and flew with great exuberance out of the starport. His new jump range meant he needed to make only one hop to pick up the cargo. He landed at the target refinery and went to the commodity market. It was a good job nobody was there to see Kit’s face as he looked at the price of gold and realised that he didn’t have the credits to buy three tonnes. He would need approaching 26K and he simply didn’t have it.
Kit had assumed the 65K he would receive for the mission was pure profit; he didn’t realise that you had to buy the goods with your own money. Another important lesson was learned: don’t take on a mission like this one unless you’ve got the funds to complete it.
But he had committed to the mission so he must fulfil it. The only way was to run another mission to pick up the cash to buy the gold. There was a Boom Data Delivery available and he took it. It was his first surface mission, and the memories intruded once more as he guided the Sidewinder to its destination; but it was only a small moon with 0.2g and he had little trouble.
He now had the funds to buy the gold he needed.
Gold is to pirates as honey is to brown bears.
The interdiction was over quickly. Kit learned that reaction time wasn’t always enough; against a skilled interdictor you needed anticipation, guile, and luck.
[Taxacher] “Empty your hold. Give me everything.”
Kit could think only of what Capra had told him: don’t join a fight you can’t win; your best choice is to run. He turned the Sidewinder away from the pirate, ensured there were four pips in the engines, and pushed the throttle hard forward. He tapped the booster whenever the capacitor showed there was enough charge. Okay, he wasn’t so manoeuvrable, but it helped to increase distance and made him a smaller target.
[Taxacher] “So, you choose death. I’m going to boil you up.”
Kit suspected there was nothing he could say to change the pirate’s mind so instead he concentrated on flying the ship. He jerked the stick around randomly trying to make it harder for Taxacher’s weapons to strike home, but without success.
He had no shields, so every direct hit inflicted damage on the hull. Kit saw ninety-five percent and then eighty-two percent on the hull strength indicator before turning his attention to the frame shift cooldown timer. Why, oh why, was it taking so long to cool down; it normally took only eight seconds or so but this was painfully slow.
Every thump on the hull was like a blow to his self-esteem. Was his mentor correct about always running away? Kit wanted to fight back. Pirates had sold him into slavery and now a pirate was trying to take his cargo – his very livelihood. He didn’t want to cower and run, he wanted to turn and fight. He didn’t have the means of course…but one day he would.
“Frame shift online.”
Those three little words that the trader on the run so wants to hear.
Kit started charging the FSD. He needed to survive another eighteen seconds before he could escape Taxacher’s punishment. Sixty-four percent…fifty-eight percent…by the time Kit was back in supercruise, his hull was down to fifty-two percent; but he had survived.
He delivered the gold and found that, after repairs, his balance was 97K. That no longer seemed a lot of money, and Kit had to remind himself that he had improved the ship, bringing it closer to the loadout he and Capra would need to head out to Jaques Station.
*
Kit now took on a range of missions that lifted his balance to 185K. He delivered non-lethal weapons; he took on more Boom Data Delivery missions; he sold the meagre cartographic data that his Basic Discovery Scanner picked up; and whenever he received commodities as a reward, he sold them.
He evaded one interdiction attempt but Commander Frankton dragged him out of supercruise and reduced his hull to forty-nine percent before he escaped. The repair cost him over 550 credits and he resented the delay to his departure that this would cause. He thought again about weapons and shields but for the time being he shrank from the life of a committed bounty hunter – not because he didn’t want to; he simply realised that the cost of repairs while he learned the craft would drain away their funds.
He sold more cartographic data and longed for the Advanced Discovery Scanner that would mean they could depart the bubble and would provide their start-up cash when they got to Jaques Station.
So far, Kit had done very little trading on his own account; he had always taken missions which were straightforward deliveries or of the ‘source and return’ variety. He was in a system, not far from Asellus Primus, and thought that the gold looked quite cheap. The galaxy map told him that his ‘home’ system was High Tech/Refinery.
Didn’t High Tech pay a high price for gold? He decided to try it and bought nine tonnes.
He felt space-hardened as he steered his Sidewinder to the designated landing pad at Baker’s Prospect. He longed to tell Capra of his adventures: his successes; what he thought were his shrewd outfitting decisions; and what he thought of pirates.
He took the ship into the hangar and was looking at the commodity market as Capra joined him in the cramped cockpit, wearing an elaborate cybernetic suit. This had been donated by a charity and it acted as his eyes giving him a running commentary of the surrounding events.
“Buying or selling?” Capra asked.
“I’ve got nine tonnes of gold,” Kit said, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Have you now,” Capra said, playfully. “What did you pay?”
“Only 9,100,” Kit said like it was a throwaway amount of cash.
“I’m impressed that you could afford nine tonnes. Let’s see what the market’s like here,” Capra said, still using the verb for the sense he no longer possessed.
Kit scrolled down to the metals section of the commodity market and experimentally offered to sell one tonne.
“What! A loss of 532 per tonne! How can that be? This is supposed to be a High Tech system, isn’t it?”
Crestfallen, Kit was glad that Capra could not see his embarrassment, but immediately regretted the thought.
Capra was understanding. Market fluctuations were a fact of life and trade data were soon out of date. However, he had an explanation that would calm Kit somewhat.
“Kit, don’t feel bad; this outpost is a planet-based refinery; it produces gold for export. Beagle 2 Landing is the place to take your cargo; you’ll get a better price for it there.”
Kit was somewhat reassured that his first trading venture wasn’t a total failure.
“Now, then,” Capra said, “tell me everything you’ve done; it seems like you’ve been gone forever.”
He didn’t tell Kit that his suit had scanned the list of missing pilots every hour since his protégé had begun his space adventure.
As Kit gave the account of his travels he regained his composure and became as confident and optimistic as before. He had made only thirty hyperspace jumps but already he felt like a veteran.
“While you were gone, Kit, I did some local research; wherever I searched, I found that the systems hereabouts are described as tiny and poor; we should think about relocating.”
“We could start by taking this gold to Beagle 2 Landing and planning our next move from there.”
“Sounds like a plan, and while we are there let’s look at upgrading to D-rated core internals; you’ve earned the cash to do that.”
*
At Beagle 2 Landing, Kit was pleased that his gold sold for over ten thousand credits per tonne, giving a total profit of eight thousand, and a new balance of 192K credits.
“I have an idea,” he said. “I could just go back and forth between here and Baker’s Prospect shifting gold. I wouldn’t need the basic scanner so I could take twelve tons…and if I could take something back there would be profit in both directions.”
“Now you’re thinking like a trader; problem is, even if you could make 10K per round trip, you would need…let’s see…one hundred and fifty trips to afford the advanced scanner. I’ve done stuff like that and, let me tell you, a grind-fest is soul destroying.”
“You’re right; we both have pressing reasons to be on our way to Jaques Station. We need some big payoffs.”
“Certainly there’s a long way to go to buy the scanner we want, and I’m sorry that it’s you who has to take all the risks. In the meantime, let’s set about reconfiguring the ship before you go out again,” Capra advised.
Together they selected the new loadout. There were still no weapons and no shields, to Kit’s chagrin, and the discovery scanner was swapped out for a fuel scoop; Capra said he would be happier knowing that Kit could always top up the tank.
Then they turned their attention to the core internals, and fitted D-rated modules throughout, except for life support which was not in stock. They watched as the unladen jump range climbed to 21.77 light years.
“That’s quite respectable,” Capra said.
“What is it about Lembava?” Kit asked. “The engineer at Karlsefni Gateway mentioned it.”
“Ah, Lembava,” Capra reminisced. “I spent a good part of my early career there. It’s the headquarters of Li Yong-Rui, and the thing about it is that you can get a standard fifteen percent discount on ships and modules without even pledging allegiance.”
“Sounds like we should go there.”
“Definitely. First, though, I’ve got a follow up appointment to adjust this thing,” Capra said, indicating his cybernetic jacket. “Why don’t you go out again and pick up some more local work before we visit Lembava.”
Capra left and Kit watched him walk slowly away. He was developing a strong fondness for the man, and he guessed that Lyra must be missing him terribly.
*
Kit looked at the mission board and couldn’t believe his luck; there were three high value missions available: source and return six units of Consumer Technology, worth 93.5K; source and return six units of Progenitor Cells worth 100K; and a mission to return ten units of Hardware Diagnostic Sensors worth 111K. Kit grabbed them all.
The first two were straightforward; two short return trips to Abe Works on Ovid were soon completed. Sourcing the Hardware Diagnostics Sensors was another matter; Kit thought he could simply go to any industrial system to pick them up, but it turned out he would have to go eleven jumps to systems near Lei Jing to find them.
To make eleven jumps he would need a fuel scoop, but because he had committed to return ten units, he would need the size two slots and one of the size one slots for cargo racks; that left room for only a 1E fuel scoop; it was going to be a tricky journey, especially on the return when he would be heavy and vulnerable to pirate attack. But he must do it, or lose reputation; it was his improving reputation that had brought him the higher value missions.
The outward journey was scary enough. The fuel scoop was painfully slow, the heat in the cockpit was unbearable, and the ship shook so violently Kit thought it might break up. Gradually, he learned to keep the ship cooler and found a sustainable angle of attack that was less unpleasant.
There was one interdiction attempt on the way to Xiripa, which was his chosen industrial system. It happened as soon as he jumped into a system along the route. Kit was ready; he had been thinking about these pirate attacks and thought he had a plan. He knew that the pirate had to get behind him for the FSD interdictor to work so, as soon as the pirate was visible to his sensors, he throttled to fifty percent thrust and simply threw the Sidewinder into an endless loop while the FSD cooled down; then he stayed in the loop while it charged up for the next jump. Try as he might, the pirate could not get into position. The special trick Kit had to learn very quickly was not to fly into the primary star while looping.
When the FSD was fully charged, he came out of the loop, aligned with the next system, and throttled up to one hundred percent. It worked like a charm; he was gone before the pirate even came close. Of course, a persistent pirate would have a wake scanner and could follow him if they wanted to. Kit hoped this one was lazy and would prefer to wait, like a spider, for its prey to come to him.
He arrived at Kanwar Gateway in the Xiripa system. It was there that he received one of the mission critical messages that he was getting used to seeing. This one said that a contract killer, Steve Rawlings, had been hired to intercept him. He saw that the commodity market would provide him with the necessary Hardware Diagnostic Systems but instead of buying them Kit decided he would meet Steve Rawlings head-on.
He bought a 2A shield generator and two beam lasers; he checked the power requirements and bought a 2A power plant. He left the station hoping that Rawlings would assume he had the cargo. He jumped to supercruise within Xiripa and, sure enough, Rawlings was there waiting for him. This time, instead of trying to evade the interdiction, he submitted by throttling to zero.
Kit had rehearsed this. As soon as he was in normal space, he deployed his lasers, put four pips in weapons, and waited for Rawlings to appear. He didn’t have to wait long.
[Rawlings] “Prepare to…”
The word “die” was never uttered; Kit was already advancing on the pirate and firing both weapons. They entered a brief, turning snake-fight, each ship trying to outturn the other to get their weapons on target. Kit’s Sidewinder was much more manoeuvrable than the Cobra MKIV that had been sent against him. He found he was able to get behind Rawlings a good proportion of the time. The Cobra was a tougher, more resilient ship than the Sidewinder, though, and it took a good deal of battering to bring down its shields.
When Rawlings turned flight-assist off, Kit did the same. He took a fair bit of damage to his shields but they held on. It was a battle of attrition, each brief encounter taking a few more percentage points out of the Cobra’s hull.
[Rawlings] “I can’t believe this is happening.”
[Kit] “Believe it…and here’s an end to you.”
Kit said this as his next twin bursts of laser power destroyed the Cobra’s hull. There was a bright flash and a frightening explosion; the Sidewinder flew through the mess of debris that was shooting out in all directions. The anonymity of destroying the ship was shattered when Rawlings’ body crashed into the canopy. At least Kit could not see the expression on Rawlings’ face, which might have haunted him for a long time.
Kit felt the guilt; he had taken a life; that was against everything his parents had taught him. Then he reflected that Rawlings would have killed him without a scruple.
That was the way it was in space – run if you can, but if you can’t run, fight.
Kit returned to Kanwar Gateway to reconfigure the Sidewinder as a trader and pick up the mission cargo. He was reluctant to part with the weapons and the shield generator, but he recognised it was the only way to finish the job. He also had mixed feelings about picking up the 44K bounty on Rawlings and almost didn’t take it – it felt dirty, somehow. Seeing his balance climb above half a million, however, focused his mind on the importance of working towards the advanced scanner, and he felt better about taking the money.
Kit returned to Asellus Primus without incident and picked up 161K for the mission which included a further reward for eliminating Rawlings. He decided not to tell Capra about his venture into space combat.
Capra didn’t seem to be around, so Kit took a mission out to Chango Dock on I Bootis, a regular delivery run. He went for a walk around the station and sensed the unease of the people he met. He thought he would go for a meal, but the cafés and restaurants were all closed up behind steel barriers.
Kit returned to the ship and looked at the local news and at the mission board. Chango Dock was in a state of famine and civil unrest; something about crop failures on the Earth-like world around which the station orbited.
There were several missions seeking to alleviate the famine. Instinctively, Kit took missions to return food and water and a few other commodities to ease the lives of the suffering population. He knew it was the right thing to do, but he also knew he was trying to compensate for the life he had extinguished.
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