Welcome to Limbo Phantom,
Enjoy the Stay
By PhantomChajo

(March, 2844)

In the starry darkness of space, a brightly colored ship floated. It's pilot rested back in the seat, just watching for now. Music was playing softly over the speakers, quiet and subdue compared to most of what was played. With a quiet sigh, the pilot reached forward taking the controls and bringing the ship to life.

"Time to get the show on the road Phantom" she muttered to herself. There was a long line of places she needed to stop at so that she could make sure her license were in the clear and legal. Even though she operated out of Fense, she still wanted to make sure her work within the Limit would not be questioned.

She knew that she'd have to start out on Bedlama, other wise she'd be criss-crossing Limbo worse then anything and that might just bring attention she didn't want. Toggling the right switch on one control she flipped though the music selection she currently had loaded into the main computer. Once she settled on the music, she feathered the throttle open, gaining speed.

The ship she flew was designed for speed, grace and combat. A lethal combination in the right hands. And she just happened to be that someone. The ship was her 'Baby' as it were. Custom built for her using the base plans for a combat fighter she had once flown. The only thing not of her choosing was the color. Someone had decided it would be a joke to paint the ship in the same color as the creature it was named for. A Hummingbird, a scarlet throated blue and green hummingbird at that. Jewel bright when resting nearly motionless, a colorful blur when it was in flight.

As she crossed the Light Year Limit, entering Limbo 'proper', she noted the planets she passed on her way to Bedlama. The first was a dreary and foreboding place named Brim*star, which was in line with the second place. More of a dark star then a planet. That was the infamous Moon*Star of Limbo, the source of the Local Mob Boss's power if she had heard right. She made sure she was at a good speed when passing those two. She also noted the time between crossing the Limit and passing the two. Nearly thirty minutes. If she went to full throttle she could cut that down to about ten minutes with no problems.

It was another twenty minutes before she came within site of the next place worthy of mention. The Penal Planet #10. The place was misnamed, it wasn't a planet at all, but a ring shaped orbiting prison. Designed for some of the most dangerous criminals anywhere in the galaxy. She'd have to come back to this place to register with the Warden as a Bounty Hunter for here in Limbo.

It didn't take her long to pass Automata, but then again she was heading straight for Bedlama, not zigzagging back and forth between planets either. In the distance she could see Dolar, the bank world. She needed to stop there first to set up her accounts, both business and private. Other wise someone might question why she was carrying around so much money. Though most of it was in Intergalactic Travelers Checks, it was still quite a lot. A round about figure of half a million Limbo bucks. To be split between the two accounts. Most of it would go into her private account, the rest to go into the business account.

She smiled as her com flashed. She had an incoming message it seems. Toggling in on she listened to it.

"Dolar to unknown ship, please state your business. I repeat, Dolar to Unknown ship, please state your business."

"Dolar, this is the Hummingbird. I'd like to set up several accounts today. Would that be a problem?" she sent back.

"Hummingbird, this is Lord Cash speaking. It would be a pleasure to do business with you. I'll send you a homing beacon for one of the landing pads."

"Thank you Lord Cash, I look forward to meeting you. My ETA is about 10 minutes."

"I'll have someone meet you Hummingbird. Lord Cash out." With that the com went silent. A moment later a steady signal was received. The landing pad homing beacon.

It would have been less then ten minutes if she had kept her speed, but instead she slowed to about half her speed. Didn't want to upset the natives as it were. She was sure that Lord Cash had contacted the local Law Enforcers about her arrival. Can't blame him with as many times as the place seems to have been hit by the Mob over the years. As she arrived she feathered back even more on the throttle, tapping the landing gear switch.

Unlike most ships of similar design, the Hummingbird used a four point landing gear system with claw like pads that could also act as grapplers. There were no wheels on those landing pads since the ship could hover, just like the bird it was named for, a foot or so off the ground. It could also go backwards and side to side without using any forward thrust.

Once she was landed, she switched all systems to standby. Another feature of the ship was that the Pilots seat slid back so that it could be turned around to face the back of the ship and the second seat there. She got up and headed to the back to retrieve both the backpack and the satchel she brought on this trip. Once those were in hand she hit the canopy release switch. There was a familiar hiss as the seals disengaged and it slid back.

The Hummingbird sat low enough to the ground she didn't really need a ladder to enter or exit it, though one did emerge from the side and extend to the ground. Disembarking she waited for the person that was to meet her to step forward. It was a Sentry Droid rather then a living person that greeted her. Thankfully her expression was hidden behind the helmet visor and mask she wore. She'd have to get use to the fact that droids and robots had equal right as living beings around here.

"Please follow me" the droid said in a voice that blended a base rumble with a tenor hum.

At least it was a pleasant sounding voice Phantom mused to herself as she followed the droid to a lift that had transparent walls. The decent into the vaults of Dolar where Lord Cash's office was located was both smooth and fast. As they headed down, Phantom reached up and undid the latch on the bottom half of her helmet. She then reached up and slid the visor up out of the way. She'd pull it completely off later.

When she was shown into Lord Cash's office, he was standing in front of his desk, waiting. His staff was firmly held in one hand as his other rested by his side. "I'm Lord Cash. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Lord Cash." Phantom said as she removed her helmet and nodded a greeting. "I'm here to open several accounts. Private and business."

"Good, good, please have a seat." He said as he moved around to take his own seat behind the desk.

"Before we get down to business, you do accept Intergalactic travelers checks, right?" she asked as she stood behind one of the chairs.

"Indeed I do, Ms?" he said.

"Phantom." She said sitting down, placing her helmet in a second nearby chair. Pulling the satchel into her lap she opened it and removed all the necessary papers and ID cards. She put them on Lord Cash's desk. "If you would like to look though my papers before you start anything, that way I can dig out the checks." Setting the satchel down and pulling off the backpack.

Lord Cash shuffled though the papers, looking each over as he did. "Well everything seems to be in order Ms. Phantom."

She laughed softly. "It's just Phantom. No prefixes." She paused a moment while unzipping her backpack. "Actually, Phantom is just what I go by, as you can see from my papers. I'd prefer being called that if you don't mind."

"Oh, dreadfully sorry about that." He said as he clasp his hands together on the desk. "How many accounts would you like to open?"

"Just two. A personal account and a business account. Checks and Cards for both if possible." She started setting stack after stack of Intergalactic Travelers checks on his desk. "Oh, and a stamp for the business account so that I don't have to sign anything before depositing it."

"That should be no problem at all." He was already started setting up the account information. "How much would you like to open the accounts with?"

"Umm. $100,000 in the business account and the rest in the personal account. Roughly $400,000 in the personal I think." She said as she brought out the last stack of checks. Each booklet held ten $100 checks. There were a total of 500 booklets. "Do you have several pens? I think it's gonna take a while for me to sign every one of these so they can be deposited."

Each check required a signature as well as a thumb print. There was a space for the thumb print just next to the signature line that was heat activated. But still it would take time.

It was over an hour later she finally finished with the last one. "I wish a stamp could have been used for those." She said massaging her hand eyeing the several discarded pens that lay to the side.

"I can understand that. But they needed to be signed." Lord Cash said with a chuckle as he gathered up the last batch and put them in the stack with the others to be processed.

"Yeah, I know." She sat back in the chair watching him shuffle though a second stack of papers.

"Here, take a look though these. They are the current designs that are offered for the Checks. Unless, that is, you wish to go with the plain ones."

She took the folder that had the sample designs in it and flipped through them. For the business checks she settled on a simple design. Pale gray with abstract dark gray patterns on it. For her personal ones, she couldn't find one she liked. "Is there any chance I can have the checks custom designed?" she asked looking up as she closed the folder.

"Well, yes. I don't think it would be a problem. What design do you have in mind?" he asked once again clasping his hands together in front of him.

"Let me show you" she said as she reached for her satchel again and dug around. A moment later she came up with a patch. "this one if possible." It was kite shaped. The lower half was dark blue with a spear standing upright and feathers hanging off of it. The top half was red with a black half-sun and rays. The letters W and H were on either side of the spear point. "A light sky blue for a background if possible."

"Hmmmm.May I borrow this a moment?" raising from his seat.

"No, not at all." She said as she sat the satchel back down on the floor.

"Thank you." He moved to one of the computers and laid the patch face down on the screen. Tapping a few keys it hummed softly as it scanned in the design. A moment later a larger picture of the patch appeared on the screen. "How's this?" he asked motioning her over to join him.

She stood up, joining him. "Looks good." She smiled.

"Good, the colors will have to be faded somewhat so that the writing will show up against it, that shouldn't be a problem though." He tapped a few more keys, fading the colors, as well as adding all the information needed. Once it was finished, he taped the key to print out a sample check. "It shouldn't take more then about 10 minutes or so to print up the checks, if you don't mind waiting that is."

She looked it over, running a finger along the design. Her name was in ornate script in the upper left corner along with her ID number and Com number. "It's perfect." She said softly. "I'll only need about 500 for now. I don't foresee writing that many checks." She said with a chuckle.

He smiled and saved the data to the file on her account. "I saved it so that when you need to re-order them, all you will have to do is ask and they can be printed up." He handed the patch back to her as they returned to their seats at the desk. He took the two cards and activated them before handing them to her. "There, that's the last thing that needed to be taken care of. Your deposit stamp will be ready in a few days."

"Thanks, I'll pick it up when I have something to deposit." She said with a chuckle as she tucked the cards away in a safe place. She then took the time to put her helmet back on and pack all her papers away. By the time she was done her checks were ready.

When all was said and done she had spent over an hour and a half setting up her accounts on Dolar. Her and Lord Cash exchanged pleasantries then she left.

Once she retuned to the Hummingbird, she stowed everything away and brought all systems up from standby. She saw a shadow pass over head and glanced up though the canopy. A ship had passed over head, apparently the local law out on patrol. She settled back and waited till they had left before she took off herself.

The trip to Bedlama was quiet enough. When she got there she landed at the spaceport and took the time to transfer everything into her backpack. Disembarking from her ship once more, she made sure it was secured before heading off towards the governmental complex. It was a pleasant walk, giving her the opportunity to stop at a local café and sample the drinks they served.

She sighed softly as she left with a cup of Bedlamian coffee in hand. Wasn't no where as good as New Eden coffee that was for sure. Another item on the mental list of things to start importing.

The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon was spent in the governmental offices registering her courier, shipping and importing company. Like all things, there was a lot of red tape that was time consuming. Good thing she had everything needed before hand, other wise she'd be running around for the next two weeks.

By the time she left there, her stomach was grumbling that it was empty. Ignoring it though she headed to the Military headquarters. She wanted to be sure that she was registered with them so no one would complain that she went around armed all the time. Some people were so finicky about that, she thought to herself with a chuckle.

Her time in the Military HQ was, thankfully short. At least they knew how to get down to the point. A few questions, some time on their range to prove I knew how to shot, let alone hit what I was aiming at, getting a picture as well as fingerprints on record and paying the fee. It was all done.

The return trip to the space port was just as boring as the first time, again I stopped at the Café, this time to add a sandwich to eat on the way. That covered the meal for the day.

"I can here Lisa nagging me now about my current eating habits." She muttered in between bites. It's not like she didn't have time to cook a full meal, she just had other things to do first. "besides, leftovers and cold cuts are just as good"

Tossing the empty cup and wrapper in the garbage as she passed it, she paused looking up as another shadow crossed over head. Actually several shadows. Seems the Local Law was after a local criminal again. She glanced at the scattering Bedlamians and shook her head. Apparently property damage was standard in the chase.

She made sure her helmet was on and the visor was down as she started walking again. She'd been though worse so it didn't bother her as debris started to fall. Which was soon followed by the vehicle that the criminals were using. They went flying, hitting the ground pretty hard and the vehicle exploded into a fireball. A moment later a group of figures dropped down out of the sky, alighting on the ground and proceeded to gather them up.

One of the criminals happened to be sprawled in her way so she just stepped over them and continued on, ignoring the momentary looks of puzzlement from two of the approaching figures. Not her concern either way. Though she did snicker softly as the sound of blaster fire ripped though the air. Apparently that one that was sprawled wasn't as out of it as one would think and took advantage of the law's momentary distraction.

When she reached the space port she boarded the Hummingbird and brought all systems up to green. Making sure she had clear space she took off and headed spaceward again. As she climbed another ship came into her flight path, forcing her to veer slightly.

Needless to say she was a little annoyed so made sure when she spun the Hummingbird, the sunlight flashed off the thousands of thumbnail sized 'mirrors' that covered the top of the ship. It created a sun flare right in the other pilots eyes forcing that one to veer away or be blinded.

She was sure she saw that one giving her the dirtiest look possible. She just howled in laughter, boosting away into space.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly from there. The last thing she had to do before heading home was stop by the penal planet and registering as a bounty hunter with the Warden. Needless to say she crossed paths with that same pilot as she left. Apparently this time he was with his fellow Law officers.

Oops, seems they are the law about this place. Oh well. Hehe. Just someone to annoy while I can, she thought to herself as she headed home. She had a feeling she would cross paths many more times with that group during her stay here in Limbo.

"Welcome to Limbo Phantom, Hope you enjoy your stay" she said to herself with a grin, vanishing into the Light Year Limit.