Chapter 2

"Captain?"

No response.

"Captain? Taryn, what's wrong?"

"Huh? Oh. Nothing's wrong, Elena. We still have the cargo...but that's not it. It's the ship. I'll miss her."

"It'll be alright...At least they fell for it...so far...I just hope they don't come back for us after they realize it..."

"They won't...and even if they do, they won't find us. And even if they do, we'll be ready...We have enough money to get a new ship...but finding new crew, and paying them...that'll be a bit more difficult..."

"We can manage with the amount of crew we have now, Captain," assured Elena, "We'll do fine for a while, as long as we stay out of trouble."

"We'll see about that. Until then...let's go to dinner. We'll round up the crew in a week. I'll get the new ship tomorrow."

"You sure about this?" inquired Elena.

"Yep. Positive."

"Well, let's eat."

"No, I want one that'll hold up to a little bit of a beating," Taryn said, irritated, "I don't want to have to upgrade it entirely on my own. I have neither the time, nor the money for this."

"Well, this is the best I can do for you."

"Bull. Come on, you've gotta have something that'll stand up to this," Taryn was almost ready to give up, but she sure wouldn't ever let the dealer know that, "Okay. What have you got besides a Light Freighter? A Bulk Freighter's too big, but what do you have that'll stand up to what I'm foreseeing?"

"Well, there is something..." The dealer looked thoughtful, "Follow me."

Taryn followed the dealer into a back part of the lot, towards a large hangar of sorts. "What you got hiding in there?"

"Oh, nothing, just a new shipment we got about a week ago. I'm technically not supposed to sell on until tomorrow, but I'm sure I could make arrangements."

"Oh, good...arrangements...so what is it?"

"You've no doubt heard of CDX Starworks?"

Taryn nodded.

"Good. Well, they recently came up with a new design of ship, and just started distributing it. I happened to get an order in with my contact just before the release. Let me show you."

"Please, enlighten me. This sounds very tempting."

"Alright then. Come on in," The salesman opened the small side door of the hangar, and walked in. The lights slowly flickered to life, casting shadows off into the corners, and under the big hulk in the middle of the room, "You ready?"

"Yep, I think I'm ready."

"Alright," with that, the salesman touched a pad on the wall. The hangar door slid open, not all that gracefully, clanking as it went. "This," The light slowly filtered into the hangar, briskly outlining the beautiful graceful curves of the starship enclosed within, "is the CDX Starworks Argosy class Light Freighter. Top of the line components, brand new sensor technology. Maximum speed 200 AU/h, slow acceleration, average turning, 35 shields, 40 armor. A maximum of 3 gun emplacements, maximum of 2 turret emplacements. 60 Tons of weapons and upgrade space, 130 Tons of cargo space. 4 jumps worth of fuel. 52 meters long, 215 Tons, and on-board crew space of 28, with space for more. The minimum operating level is 19 crewmen. 2 laser turrets standard."

"Oh," Taryn was completely shocked, "Wow," she swallowed it, "Um, so how much is this again?"

"Oh, not too much more than the Light Freighter. But since it's new, and pre-release, you'll either have to wait, or put in a little extra up-front."

"I'm sure that won't be a problem," Taryn replied, still stuck to her spot on the floor, "How much more is it than the Light Freighter?"

"Oh, this one runs at around 750,000 credits, barebones. No upgrades included."

"Oh my gosh. That is a bit up there...I'll have to get back to you on that," Taryn replied, a bit shocked by the price, "I'll probably wait until next week. Still, with the Argosy, the speed and other things are upgradeable, correct?"

"Oh, I sure hope so. Otherwise, these ships would never get better, now would they?"

"I suppose that's true. Silly me. Right. I'll go discuss this with my crew. I guess I'll just have to wait," said Taryn, a hint of sadness in her voice, "Thanks a ton, anyhow." Taryn turned to leave.

"No problem, ma'am. I promise I'll try to hold one for you, but seeing as I only have two...well, no definite promises, but I'll try."

"I appreciate that. Thanks again." Taryn turned on her heel and walked off the tarmac.

"No problem. See you soon?"

Taryn raised her hand in salutation as she walked off into the distance.

"So, like I said: 750, all in advance. Only problem is, we've only got 400,000. Just enough for another Light Freighter, plus some upgrades..."

"Taryn," Elena paused, "We can do it. We'll just have to stay land-bound for a bit, put the whole crew to work, and pool our money. It should only take a couple of weeks."

"But the shipment's already overdue as it is! We don't have two weeks..."

"We can do it Taryn. Let's at least try. Heck, with this new ship, we could even do a little pirating of our own. We'd make some money real fast with that. Kestrels only run ten million or so, it shouldn't be too long until we can afford one and start making some serious money. I say we go for it, Taryn. What do we have to lose, I mean, besides the obvious?"

"Alright," Taryn admitted her defeat, "I give. Let's give it a nice hardy try. I'll inform the crew. Let's start job-hunting tomorrow."