Have you been in space? Maybe you looked up into the stars a few times at night (or tried to if you lived in the middle of LA) but only looked. I have to tell you it's just…amazing. The vast emptiness, the blinking stars everything about it! Hundreds of ships cluttered the area between the Moon and Earth. I gawked at a ship that looked like four aircraft carriers and a couple cargo ships put together slowly waddled its way past everyone.
"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the massive ship. "A carrier star-fort" Andre answered. "They're can be used by anyone and that one looks like a corporate model."
"Okay..what's it do?"
"They work like mobile bases for space craft. Can go anywhere and maintain geosynchronous orbit over a planet. Slow though. Looks like one of the smaller models. Definitely corporate then."
I couldn't help but stare at the fat thing as it slowly made its way past us, several massive engines on its back-glowing red as they pushed it along. Other ships flew alongside it, completely ignoring the behemoth. That was one of the smaller models? The hell did the bigger ones look life? Moon sized with guns on them?
I could watch this forever! I never was much into space stuff, but this is just amazing! Like fireflies, ships darted this way and that, some flying to the surface, others hovering and some moving…just away. It was a hell of a sight. So far away that I couldn't be sure what I saw, but it looked like a blue spark. It was there, and then it was gone. What was that? Maybe I was just seeing things. I mean it is the twenty-sixth century and everything.
"Okay! So, we're in space." Andre said cheerfully. "What now?"
"Now we find a job." Vega said with finality.
"Sounds good. Where?" I asked.
"TITAN STATION!" Cat screeched over speakers. I flinched but as ever managed to keep it cool and act like I totally didn't just flinch. Andre jumped and facepalmed while Vega nearly left her chair. She somehow twirled around in midair to glare at the speaker box thing.
Rubbing his ears, Andre growled "Not the worst idea. Everything happens there."
"And for us that don't know what it is?" I asked, slightly irritated.
Vega chuckled. "Titan station is the largest and oldest space colony in human history. It's a huge port and if there's one thing that we can find, it's a job. A few million people there, we can be in and out before anyone notices." Vega tapped her lip as she thought.
"What about Ganymede? Or Mars?" Cat asked, this time at a much more reasonable volume. Vega shook her head even though Cat wasn't here to see it. "Ganymede is ordered. They actually have a police and government that isn't crippled by corruption. Titan it is!"
I sighed. Some future. According the data-pad things that Cat had given me, Mars and the moon Ganymede were the first planet colonies that the United Earth Alliance (UEA) had set up. For some reason they hadn't collapsed into the corruption and other problems the other colonies and Earth would have. The texts were deliberately vague about why or how this happened, but however it happened, they are constantly referred to as the "Jewels in the Earth Crown." Or variations of that.
If Vega wanted to go to Titan instead, then those places must be the exact opposite. "Wait hang on. Titan station is next to that big-assed moon, Titan, right?"
Vega and Andre nodded at me slowly and I glared at them. "How are we supposed to get there before we turn a hundred?" Andre looked confused and then laughed. "Oh, that's right. Your time didn't have space travel. Musta taken years to get anywhere."
"We didn't go anywhere." I corrected. Andre and Vega both shuddered. "That must have been boring." Andre said sympathetically. I shrugged. I never thought about any of this stuff. I only knew this much because my dad liked Star Wars and Star Trek. I occasionally listened with to what he and his geek friends were talking about. I still remember my dad and step-brother geeking out about that Tusk? Rusk? Musk? Whoever talking about putting people on Mars. I guess that guy's dream became a reality. Lucky bastard.
"Well you don't have to worry about that." Vega said and beamed at me. I returned her smile with a level stare and she didn't even falter. Plucky girl. "STC this is Nostromo, are we cleared to jump?" Vega asked to the air.
"Nostromo this is STC, you are clear. Have a good trip. Out." A slightly stressed voice answered. "Poor guy. Traffic seems like it's heavier than usual these days." Vega said sadly. She shrugged and then said "Cat, get that drive ready. We're jumping in ninety seconds."
Andre clapped his hands excitedly and begin messing with the controls. "Cat?" Vega asked expectedly.
"Good to go Cap!"
"Jumping? Who's jumping? Jumping where?" I asked. Both of them looked back at me and Vega went "Oh shoot! Forgot about you! Here, sit here and strap in." I sat down on the chair behind Vega and faced the dead wall mounted system thing while I strapped myself in.
"Nostromo isn't singing the way I like." Cat reported. "It's fine, we're strapped in for a reason and it's only a single jump. We'll get them fixed at Titan." Vega said. She took a deep breath and said "Jumping in five. Four. Three. Two. One."
I didn't even try to play it cool. Blue-white streams waved and zigzagged over the ship for a second before everything seemed to suddenly disappear and we were in a blue white tunnel!
"What is- I don't" I stammered and couldn't get a single thought out. Vega giggled. "Welcome to faster-then-light travel! Discovered at the dawn of the twenty-third century and it's how we're going to reach Titan in just a few hours." Vega giggled again. "What?" I snapped.
"You're cute when you're all flustered and stuff." I glared at her, or tried to as my eyes kept shifting back to view. "It looks bright as hell. Why aren't we going blind?"
Andre spoke up, still concentrating on the instrument panels in front of him. "The all of the windows on ships polarize automatically whenever something bright appears. Safety feature."
Makes sense. I couldn't believe this. Isn't this kind of stuff supposed to be impossible! Every second that we traveled was going faster than any person in the twenty-first century could dream of doing! I was so mesmerized about the fact that I was millions of miles from Earth and asking a shit ton of questions that I didn't realize that we had reached our destination until Vega announced "Jumping back in five. Four. Three. Two. One."
Reality jumped back at us and I looked around. Vega moved one of the screens to me and tapped it. The screen flickered and then it showed a large orange ball.
"Is that?"
Vega nodded. "Titan. And right next to it is Titan Station itself. We'll be there in an hour." Vega turned back around and started talking to Cat about the engines. A short time later I was looking at what I guess was a space station. It looked like this ever-growing black island right next to Titan. It looked like someone had started planning a design out, then lost interest and started and stopping a dozen new projects before losing interest each time. Even so, it looked like it still ran. Like there was a method to its madness.
"Titan Control this is Nostromo, requesting permission to dock." Vega said smoothly and professionally.
"Nostromo, we read you. Send the dock fee while we chart your path."
"Done. Docking fee paid."
"Received, Nostromo you are cleared to dock in bay 49C. Welcome to Titan."
"Thanks Control, Nostromo out." Vega sighed and leaned back in the chair. "You got this Andre?"
"Oh yea, your basic parking job. No tears or sweat."
Vega laughed and stood up. "Come on Jade. You're going to want to see this." Vega walked off the bridge and I stopped for a quick second and said, "Can you like…brake at the last possible second to scare the crap out of them?"
Andre gasped at me. "Jade that is terrible! Do you have any idea how much trouble that could cause?" Andre grinned and I grinned back. "Just this once, only cus it's funny."
I laughed and walked off the bridge to join Vega. About a half an hour later, there was a rumble and we docked. Guess Andre was telling the truth. Will wonders ever cease? Vega hung up her little phone thing where she had been talking with her dad, and hit a button to lower the ramp. The ramp had barely touched the ground when this angry short pudgy balding toad thundered up the ramp with two guards at his back. Vega was taken aback for a second before she put on a winning smile and walked up to him.
"Are you out of your mind?!" and I shit you not, he literally croaked! He didn't just look like a toad, he sounded like one! I had to bite my lip to keep myself from laughing. "What are you talking about?" Vega asked, somehow not at all laughing at Toadman.
"Cutting your thrusters at the last second like that! Gave us all heart attacks thinking you were about to crash here!" Vega turned and glanced at me and I looked back blandly at her. What? I hadn't done anything. I wasn't flying the ship. Vega rolled her eyes and turned back to Toadman. "I'll talk to my crew." She promised.
Toadman fumed but held out his grunny little hands. Vega looked at it and then him. "Your cargo manifest!" He croaked-snapped. Vega blinked and looked around the completely empty cargo-hold, save for the pack-rat.
"Umm, three people?" Vega offered. Toadman got irritated as the two guards behind snickered. "You just came from Earth, obviously you're carrying something!"
"Oxygen?" I supplied. The guards snickered again as Toady glared at them. Toady grumbled something about hiding something and I rolled my eyes. Toady pushed passed Vega who shot him a glare that should have killed him on the spot. I was actually impressed. Didn't think she had that kind of rage in her.
"Careful Vega, toady here just might find something." I singsonged. Toady glared at me as I leaned against the pack rat. I glanced up to see Cat and Andre watching in annoyance as this pudgy little shit nosed about their home. "Getting warmer." I called. Toady glared at me before moving in the opposite direction.
"What, you didn't hear me?" I asked loudly. "Oh my god. Now you're just as frigid as corpse's tit! Go in other direction you little toad!" Vega nearly doubled over in laughter and the guards didn't even attempt to maintain any dignity as they doubled over laughing.
"Oh, now you're getting warmer! Warmer, warmer! Holy fuck you're blazing hot!" I yelled. I briefly wondered what he would find over in the corner, and then decided that I didn't care. After a minute of searching, toady stood up with a rusty wrench-looking thing in his hand.
"Well damn. You find out. We're smuggling rusty broken tools. The jig is up guys!" I drawled as I held up my hands. Everyone busted out laughing at how stupid this is. Toady looked at the broken tool and angrily tossed it aside and stormed out of the cargo-hold, with his laughing guards behind him.
"So, did he want to actually catch us smuggling like a good worker, or was he looking for something to blackmail us?" I asked.
Vega shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he is honest." Vega frowned. "Either way, he's a gank" Everyone laughed and agreed. "Andre and Cat, stay with Nostromo and get her ready for long trips. Jade and I are going to hit the notice boards and find a job or two."
"We had barely enough money to cover the docking fee, how are we going to pay for the parts?" Andre asked.
"Cat'll figure it out." Vega answered airily. "If you say so." Andre replied. "What's that supposed to mean?!" Cat yelled. Vega grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the ship as those two started arguing. After we left the bay, we walked for a bit before I realized that Vega was still holding my hand. I angrily yanked it back and got a weird look from her which I returned with a pointed glare.
"Where are we going?" I asked. "Looking for notice boards." Noticing my confused look, she explained. "They're places where independent workers like ourselves can get contracts for cargo carrying, bounty hunting, etc."
I nodded. Makes sense. "Got it. Let's go."
Vega beamed and lead me further into the sprawling space station. I don't think I ever felt so lost in my entire life. This was just…I watched a giant pink woman twirled on a pole as other large hologram-ad thing lit up the entire area as cars flew in the air. Titan seemed to loom over the station through the window at the top of the station.
"Definitely not in Kansas anymore." I muttered.
"You say something?" Vega asked over her shoulder.
"No. Come on. We got to find a job."
There was a colony on the moon, but it was swallowed up by the military and turned into a fort. Now the only people allowed there are either part of the military or work for the military industrial complex.
Don't be shy, leave those reviews. They fuel me.
-C.H.
