This was what he'd left the Milky Way for, Reyes thought as he navigated his way back to the Nexus after making a supply drop and material pickup on Eos. Not the tensions rising amongst the colonists, not the panic that had broken out at the death of Jien Garson. Just him, his shuttle, and the dark beauty of space.
He set the autopilot, then double-checked the manifest the harried researcher had given him. A good deal of fluorite, but also some nickel, aluminum and iron. They'd be able to start refining soon, building converters, solar arrays, and other tech to make life easier. At least, he hoped they would. If Nexus leadership kept stubbornly refusing to listen to the settlers, nothing would get done at all.
Reyes shook off the thought. He was flying. Sure, it wasn't skirmishing with the Alliance but even the simplest of runs thrilled him in a way not much else did. And when he returned, he had a date with some whiskey and one of the other pilots, an intriguing redhead named Cordier. So far, they hadn't been able to do much more than exchange innuendo, but Reyes had a private room and he was more than ready to take the edge off.
As he dropped out of FTL and keyed his approach vector, his comm channel remained dark. He gave it a minute or so, then hailed Nexus control. "This is N-503 Anubis, requesting clearance to dock."
Nothing. He tried again, and got a recording. "No approach vector available. Hold for instructions."
Reyes knew that not enough ships were commissioned to fill even half of the bays, so he decided to take the shuttle in manually. Once he reached an open bay, he set the shuttle down and observed from the cockpit.
Things were dark, but he could see people scurrying through the docking stations. As he stepped out of the shuttle, he engaged the lock and kept a hand near his standard-issue sidearm. 'For kett or pirates,' the quartermaster had told him, but Reyes had only seen either from a distance and was always able to outrun trouble.
This time, it looked like he'd flown straight into it.
Operations was full of angry settlers, but Reyes wove through the crowd until he made his way back to the closet he called a room. His footlocker was too big to pull through a crowd, so instead he hastily packed a smaller duffel bag with a couple changes of clothes, his personal datapad, some toiletries, and the real reason he'd come back: his sketch pad and pencils. As an afterthought, he took the bottle of whiskey he'd been saving for his date. Once he was out of here, he thought, he'd need a drink.
On his way back to the docking bay, he ran into the redhead herself. "Zia," he greeted her tensely. "I was just on my way out. Things are about to get ugly."
She laughed, the sound just a little wrong to his ears. "I know. Stay, darling. We could use you when it's time to fight."
He shook his head. "I already gave up one life to come here. I'm not risking another for a stupid fight."
"Suit yourself." She gave him a patronizing kiss on the cheek, then she was gone.
For one insane moment, he considered staying. But the stars called to him, and he had a copy of the cluster map. Rumors of a place called Kadara had reached him, and it was time to see what they were worth. Out of sheer habit, he opened a comm as he prepared to take off. "Nexus control, this is N-503 Anubis. Over and out."
It was only a little bittersweet to know he would get no response.