Floating Freighter
Chapter - I
Kai fell to his knees. She was dead. No...She couldn't be dead. But that hit to the freighter...It killed everyone on board...
Earlier that day
It was Thursday morning at Starton Eridani, a large space station in the Eridani star system. Kai was taking his wife Louise and his 9-year old son Larry on a short trip to a warm planet in the 5 Indi system called Kentaru. They had breakfast, then left their quarters for the shopping district near centre of the station. They bought food and drink for a picnic and then turned down the corridor towards the hangar bays where their transport was.
Once they arrived, they saw several other groups of people headed for the 5 Indi system. It was one of the new Ei500 Freighters, but had been refurbished so it was more like a small cruise vessel than a freighter. Just before entering their transport, they were interrupted by Hisijo, the manager of the station. He rushed up to Kai, and began talking to him. After listening for a while, Kai learnt that one of the station's engineers had been killed in a firefight against a bunch of pirate ships. Kai knew that particular engineer. He was called Heitor. They had been friends a few years back but had fallen out over a few credits on the floor. Kai worked as an engineer next to Heitor in a hanger bay on the other side of the station, but when Kai was promoted to Engineering Officer he was moved to a different, larger hanger.
Once the Manager had finished talking to him, he left in a hurry. A few seconds later Kai, Louise and Larry boarded the freighter, which was unusually named the Floating Freighter. They reached their quarters for the day, which were handily just a few corridors down from the mess hall, escape pods, and a small shop that sold sweets and 3DVs to watch during their voyage. They read the free in-voyage magazine explaining that they would not be using the stargate to lengthen the journey by about two weeks, then bought Flight of the Orion IV to help pass the time, and, after that, they traveled to the Dazuido entertainment complex taking up a large section of the ship.
When they arrived, Larry ran over to the arcade machines while Kai and Louis played Anti-Grav Snooker against each other. A while later they went to the posh restaurant near the arcade and ate exquisite food for lunch, including a plate Gualamuango Chillis each. Once they had all had eaten enough, they laid back and starting chatting about the rip so far. Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion, and a huge shockwave rocked the ship. They went flying, along with the fizzy after-dinner mints next to them and a pile of plates on the table. Other patrons began to pick themselves up while anxious staff helped out with clearing up.