Chapter One of the Black Swordsman Far Far Away.
"Defective clone 001, do you wish to be put to sleep or pay your worth to us?" a weird alien asked.
"I'll pay my worth. How do I do that?"
"You will work with either our planetary or interplanetary shipping corporation for two full years. After that, you will be released from our hold. Though you have to chose a new template for your outward appearance."
"Fair skinned, black hair and my name will be Kirigaya Kazuto."
"Accepted. Please lie down there and wait for the update to be done on your body former DC001."
It was a normal day at work for Kirigaya Kazuto "Kirito". They were testing another prototype for a full dive. A full dive involving the mind and soul, or so the theory led them to believe.
Kirito was strapped on a metallic chair, a complex looking headgear donned. His family was informed on the experiment that were done on that day. Things were looking good until the countdown for the dive started.
A consecutive explosions happened from the lab next door. The lab commonly called as the Time Lab.
In the commotion that ensued, Kirito Dived.
Up until the year 2030, it is hypothesised that Kirigaya Kazuto's mind and soul were absorbed into a time warp. The body died because of the lack of presence of mind and soul. The only thing that the scientist managed to prove is why the body died, they never find out why and what exactly happened to his mind and soul.
Kirito remembered the dive. He was supposed to dive into a world themed by the warring era of historical Japan. Not this extremely advanced sci-fi world. The clean sterile environment of this some sort of medical bay was not tested prior dive, which is a very big reason to believe that this environment is not one that he was to experience in the dive. The supposed NPC are speaking in English, whilst he is the one in the lab with the best grasp on the foreign language. Another proof that something is definitely wrong in this dive.
Then he remembered the explosions before the dive. The explosions that came from the "Time Lab.".
He finally conclude that the accident from the Time Lab, combined with his dive, caused his mind and soul to somehow be transported in this defective clone.
Of course, this is only one of the most probable possibilities. The lack of log out methods led the only possible way to log off by death. Which is very risky to test.
So he decided to just go with the flow, and wait for the people at the lab to log him off if it is possible. If not, then he might as well do his best to live in this world, he survived Aincrad, surely he could survive this too.
After the remake of his outward appearance, Kirito now resemble a Japanese. Somewhat. A bulky strong looking Japanese.
"I look like a fake Japanese" thought Kirito about his new appearance.
Following the instructions given by the Kamino alien, he rode an elevator going very far down from the level that he originally came from. Then he changed to another compartment that moved horizontally with extreme speed.
Roughly three times faster than the fastest train in Japan. The ride took three hours. Kirito is confident that he is now very far from the place where he starts.
"Kirigaya Kazuto, welcome to the Kamino Merchant Trading Academy. Your classes starts in 8 hours. Karuna will show you to your accommodation."
Time passed extremely fast there. The trainings were just strictly individual trainings. He learnt how to do cargo operations, how to pilot both planetary and interplanetary crafts, and also a thorough planet Kamino economy, with a basic on the inter-galaxy economy.
The advancements that exist in this weird world totally baffled Kirito, though him being him, take all these information in strides. Before long, he started his service as one of the minor officer serving under the Kamino Planetary Shipping Corporation. Apparently, it is one of the biggest shipping corporation in the planet.
K01477. This is the name of the cargo craft that Kirito served on. She is 300 metres long, 100 metres wide, with a staggering 6 cargo hatches, each hatches capable of carrying 45 tonnes of grain cargoes in the Kamino planet gravity.
Grain cargoes, are defined as cargoes like wheat, maize, rye, oats, barley, rice, pulses or seeds whether processed or not, which when carried in bulk, has a behaviour characteristic similar to grain in that it is liable to shift transversely across a cargo space of a craft, when subjected to normal planetary movements with constant gravitational pull.
Carrying cargoes from one direction to another is easier than interplanetary destinations. The constant gravity made things far less complicated for the safe carriage of the cargo.
6 months had passed with Kirito onboard K01477. By this time, he had done several hundred planetary cargo operations, which most of them involving barleys and high grade oats as these are the customary foods taken by the Kaminoans.
Carrying grains is pretty easy, though there are several things to be aware of which Kirito gave special reference during the cargo operations. When grain cargoes are loaded, compartments filled with them will have void spaces below the hatch top. During the voyages, the grain cargoes will slowly "settle" down, accentuating the void spaces. Thus, creating a hazard to the craft stability if "grain shift" occurs, causing listing (a horizontal tilt of the craft caused by inner forces) to occur.
Kirito experienced excessive listing once, while k01477 was en-route to a trading port at the far end of the Kamino south pole. They had to go through several rough storms. The anti-heavy weather system malfunctioned. The grains shifted, causing the list. A clever manipulations of the thrusters by the Master(captain) allowed them to arrive safely to the port.
"Sir, at the next port of discharge, we can acquire longitudinal plates to insert in our cargo compartments as shifting plates-to reduce the free surface effect". Kirito normally kept to himself on the cargo craft, but as the situation calls for it, he voiced his opinion on the matter.
The Master, an old looking Kaminoan gave Kirito an amused look, a smile in his wizened eyes. "It might work young one, but not as practical". He later proceeds to explain to the officers how acquiring the plates are expensive, whereas the alternative that he suggest requires no credits to be spent, other than those for repairing the anti heavy weather system. He suggests covering the top of the grain cargoes with tarpaulins. Bagged grains are then to be put on the tarpaulins. This, according to the Master will also prevent grain shifts, and is far cheaper than using longitudinal plates, seeing that they have tarpaulins in k01477's forward store.
On board k01477, Kirito is the youngest in terms of experience as Merchant Shipping Officer, and as a sentient. Though the latter is only because the clone body that he uses does not grow like normal sentient. When Kirito first woke up in the sterile hospital like lab, he was in a body resembling that of a 10 years old fit South American. Only soon afterwards, before the remodelling of his outward appearances that he learnt that the original template for his body is from a Mandalorian bounty hunter-a race famed with their fighting prowess(who also seems akin to these south american that he saw on the Net before) The Kamino responsible for his rejection, Antaur, had givn him a brief explaination of why he is considered a defective clone-the first of many.
There are some problems regarding his growth factor and his medochlorian counts. The clones that the Kamino produces had a growth rate such that they will all be adults when the buyer wants them to be. Kirito's body had an irregular growth rate, at times, he grows as fast as the other clones, though often his growth rate became slower than that of his template. This is the reason why, even though serving as an officer, Kirito is essentially a fair skinned "SAO Kirito-like" 12 years old fit looking kid. It is rare for some so young to work, there never was any problem that occurs because of his physical age, as most sentient(he no longer uses the word men or women) are happy as long as the jobs are done. Well, it is not to say that there are actually that much things to do onboard the craft, the systems and specific purpose robots(droids) made things extremely easy to Kirito.
The medochlorian counts are an another matter entirely. It simply means that he have the capabilities to use the Force. An energy that Kirito never heard of before. Antaur, trying to explain, told him of the abilities of the Jedis, telekinesis, telepathy, an a weird ability to made the correct on the spur of moment decisions. Kirito still fail to understand it, but, he do starts trusting his gut more-more than he already did.
Working on board a cargo craft can be extremely repetitive and dull. Especially so when those on board are stiff and silent like Mount Fuji. Kirito himself is a very quiet keep to himself kind of guy, but as weeks turned into months, he starts to long for conversations and or actions. Around the second month on service, Kirito grows closer to Bagura, a middle age male Kaminoan officer who relieves Kirito's duty shift. He taught Kirito how to trade spaceships, as he trades them during his holidays.
The endless chat on countless spaceships that Kirito, who is yet to go outworld, are informative. It filled his time, but not his needs for action. A problem, which Bagura helped him with when he gave his fighting simulator to Kirito as payment for taking over his watch when they went to a port nearby his home. He went back home while Kirito took over his shift.
The fighting simulator is as good as the Nerve Gear or Amusphere in terms of its responds to the nerves and body reactions. Though the games needs improvement. A lot of them. Though he did enjoy playing the sole game that he had, a one on one fighting game. The simulator is a head gear, and even though there is no Full Dive, it does creates an extremely real looking foes to fight, and also imaginary weapons to be used. The fact that it reacts to body movement made Kirito a far weaker than how he was in Alfheim-a Fighting Fairy Full Dive game that Kirito played before the freak time accident occured. It made the game harder, and also provide a good exercise for him.
After the six months passed, Kirito, with the recommendations given by the Captain of the Craft, are transferred to the Interplanetary departments. He now served on board k305. A spacecraft much smaller than the k01477, and, although the k305 of the k300 series serve under the interplanetary departments, the k305 is only plying between two space stations. One is a trading hub near the planet Kamino, and the other near an isolated moon where "fire stones" are mined.
Fire stones, much like coal on earth are used in the lesser more extreme weather parts of planet Kamino and other nearby planets. k305 is equipped with systems to ensure that spontaneous heating does not occurs- a case that is normal with most fire stones' cargoes. The fact that they only do operations in vacuum atmosphere is one of the major reason Kirito had a calm peace of mind. When he first heard of his second assignment, he was a tad bit wary, as fire stones are known to combust in the slightest presence of oxygen, and also happen to be extremely poisonous to humans.
On this second assignments, Kirito did not get as much free times as he used to as the travel time between the two ports are very short. Five Kamino days. Though he consider it a blessing that they are only carrying one grade of fire stones. It mean that there is no need for them to clean the cargo holds before loading new cargoes.
Busy as he is, ten months passed by and Kirito is once again re-assigned. This time, a real interplanetary spaceships, with inter-sectors trading route.
The interplanetary trading craft that he is on is a Kamino designed multipurpose cargo carrier. Longer than the k305, yet shorter and smaller than the k01477, the kip14 stood proud with a length over all(from furthest aft to furthest forward) of 277 metres, and greatest width of 54 metres. The kip14 exceeds the other two craft that Kirito had been on previously.
There are advanced systems for everything, from cargo handling, scheduled maintenances, and also a fully equipped bridge with state of the art computers and navdroids. The magnificent craft is manned by only 4 sentient-to save operation cost. Kirito, the officer on duty from 0800 to 1200 and 2000 to 2400, Arun the Corellian; 1200 to 1600 and 0000 to 0400, Dadare from Naboo; 1600 to 2000 and 0400 to0800, and the Master of kip14, Captain Tress, an old and experienced man from Alderaan.
It goes without saying that things get lonely at times, but time passes by, and Kirito made good relationships with his senior officers. As the youngest and less experienced, the Captain always made it a point to be on the bridge during Kirito's shift to test him and also share his knowledge and experiences the good and bad with him.
The only way to define Arun, the officer who relieves Kirito is that he is a perfect officer in terms of doing his job. He always clock in fifteen minutes before his shift, his tasks are always done way ahead of the due date, and there are not a single thing under his job description that he do not know. Sometime in the second months of Kirito working with him, he got to know that apparently Arun is considered as one of the best officers in the company. A company with thousands of spaceships and even more so employees. His personal life though, is a wholly different story. If his career success is constantly at the highest point of zenith, then his personal life almost always maintained at the lowest point of Nadhir. He have three wives each on three different planets of different sectors. "I was young, and thought that it's a mark of a great man to have that many spouses..." that, is the reason that he holds to. Though Kirito give him points for doing his best to maintain and provide for all nine wives and the children, even if doing so left him constantly in debt, and always near the point of being blacklisted from various banks in the galaxy.
Dadare of Naboo is a young man at the age of 19. Always calm and composed, he worked hard to perform as well as Arun, his reason being that he plans to wed his fiancée after he signed off from kip14. An honest hardworking man, who also took his time to mentor Kirito.
All three of them are honest responsible officers whom will be sorely missed by their passing, if the plan fails.
end of chapter
If you notice, I include some of my Cargo Work notes. Actually I had trouble focusing, so I lied to myself by writing this piece. Next week is my Final. Then after that, holidays, so I can maybe cover up all the fics that I failed to update.