My dad use to say that it was great to start at the beginning and never be tempted to give up half way through. I began to realise how true that was as I started working in Mondo's shipyard: I had a ship but no crew and no money to hire them with.

I tried getting work around the station but everywhere I asked I got a firm No, with a capital N just in case I didn't get the message. I guess this had something to do with the number of "station bums", who were guys that hopped from station to station scraping a living at being not very good at anything at all. After a day or two's searching I trailed back to Mondo's yard with my tail between my legs to beg him for a job: it was either that or suffer the ignominy of selling my ship back to him at a loss.

"Can you fix things up kid" Mondo said to me after I'd pleaded my case.
"Sure I can, I was pretty good at mechanical stuff planet side"
"Okay" He said as he picked up a box of components from beside his desk and gave them to me
"If you can put this collection back together you got yourself a job."
So this was it: my life had come down to whether I could make sense of the contents of a box of spare parts. I felt like someone up there was rolling the dice and having a good laugh at my expense.
"Well there's no sense in wasting time staring at it kid" Said Mondo as he left his office.

I stared at the contents of the box a little longer, then busied myself with assembling the bits and pieces he'd given me into a recognisable piece of equipment. I have to say I was panicking as I sorted out the bits and pieces but the panic began to subside once I'd found a few bits and pieces that I recognised. When I finally realised that this box of bits went together as a high voltage back feed suppression circuit I was so relieved I jumped up, whooped and punched the air. I would have danced round the office but Mondo, a man with exquisite timing, poked his head round the door of his office just as I was in mid Whoop.
"So you've finished huh?" He was smiling at me, which was the first time he'd done since I'd met him.

I proudly handed him the finished circuit and even managed to scrape up a few facts and figures about circuit design from my night classes in case that impressed him. He turned the freshly assembled device over in his hands whilst we had a quick discussion about mechanics and ships and then he handed the circuit back to me saying:
"Kid, you're hired. Go see Geoff the foreman and he'll set you to work. The first five days you get paid by the hour, if you last longer than that I'll pay you weekly." And that's how I got hired by Mondo.
After two jobs, night class and a mini adventure getting to the station, it was a refreshing change to work on ship's equipment in the yard and I picked up a lot of useful tricks from other yard hands. Five days passed in the blink of an eye and to be honest I was so busy learning about fixing equipment that my search for other crew members went to the back of my mind. I was reminded that I had to do something when I got summoned to Mondo's office at the end of my first week.
"So, you found a crew yet?" Mondo enquired.
"Ah I said," Squirming a little, "I kinda got lost fixing stuff during the week but I have been looking..sort of"
"So, more time in the yard huh?"
"It's tougher to find guys to fly with than I thought Mr Mondo " Okay that was a weak excuse, but the truth was that I was flat broke, didn't know anyone and spent most of my time ripping ships to bits and repairing them with the other yard hands.
"Well you've got a puzzle haven't you: there's the ship which is your biggest asset but then there's the pilot who's the biggest liability seeing as you're a rookie"
I gave him a puzzled look.
"I'll spell this one out shall I," Mondo said, steepling his fingers "No-one wants to get killed flying with a rookie on the promise of being paid at the end of a trip but people will risk it if they have a share in the ship."
I thought about this for a bit and it made sense but to give up a share in the ship when I'd just bought it: the thought killed me. Mondo wasn't finished though, he could sense my disquiet
"It's a tough decision: stay here for as long as it takes to scrape the cash or find some rookies who want to give it a shot. If you've had no luck with the data pad try looking around the other yards. You never know: you might find a few like-minded adventurers." Hmm, it was like he already he a few people in mind but wanted me to find them myself, which was I guess, part of the game. I agreed to give it another few weeks and he was quite happy to keep me around since I was developing a knack for fixing guidance and control systems, possibly because of my interest in being a pilot, and maybe because I'd seen what happened when one of them went wrong.
I followed his advice and in my limited spare time began asking around the other yards in the station to see who was new and most importantly keen to "get a ride" as I'd heard it called and that's how I bumped into Kzen. In the shipyard next to us, it was Partink's den I think, I'd got friendly with a few of the yard hands and one of them told me about a wiry Minnie guy by the name of Kzen Tovenburg. He had a talent for improvisation and after a few drinks late one night in a bar, he agreed to sign on for a third share in the ship. We both agreed we were crazy and drank a toast to it. About a week after that Kzen ran into a friend of his, by the name of Podie who liked the idea of signing on for the final share in the ship and had a reputation for being a good shot planet side.
Well the day came, sooner than we thought, when we decided it was time to take the Imparior out for a short spin round the station. We'd got our days off all straightened out and one by one we assembled on the cramped flight deck of the ship.

Podie sat down in the gunners seat and flipped on the controls, idly toying with the data pads and making funny pew pew sounds. Kzen took over the engineers position and began a methodical check of the control switches. I took to the pilots seat and realised that, finally, this ship was going to fly.
It was at this point that Mondo, a man with an unnerving sense of timing, poked his head around the bulkhead door.
"Now you're not going to fire the engines up in the yard are you?" He said sternly.
"I uh.." I was temporarily lost for words. Come to think of it, how did you get a ship out of the yards? Mondo stood there smiling at me whilst he waited for my next question.
"Okay, I give in, how do you get a ship out of the yards?"
"Weeeel now" He said putting his hands in his pockets "I know a man whose got a tug who might be able to do you a favour. I think you could get him down to maybe five hundred isk or so"
There was a collective cry of "Five hundred isk" from all three of us who were, to a man, flat broke as we'd spent our collective savings, which wasn't saying much, on buying fuel for the ship. We got killed on the price because we couldn't commit to a regular contract.
"We don't have that kinda cash!" We all said at the same time.
"Oh don't worry about that, if you all work hard in my yard for a few weeks you'll save the cash in no time."
A few more weeks was all it was going to take? I briefly toyed with the idea of firing up the engines and saying to hell with it but something told me that Mondo may have already considered that three ambitious young men might do something drastic and had taken precautions. I also knew that Mondo was not a man you crossed lightly and trashing his yard would've put me pretty high on his hit list.
I paused to gather my thoughts for a second "Is there any other stuff that we're going to have to pay for before we fly?"
"Ah well now you ask the question there's a few things that you might want to think about: station fees, docking and undocking charges, a pilot's licence, a fuel contract and perhaps a float for repairs"
My heart sank to my boots: it was going to take us months to scare up enough cash to do that.
"How much is that going to cost us?" Kzen butted in with a resigned note in his voice.
He puffed out his cheeks ; you could see him doing to mental sums and coming to a number that he knew we weren't going to like.
"I'll tell you straight, it's probably not a good idea to fly until you've got another 10 thou or so tucked away."
"Mondo" I was annoyed enough to forget to call him mister "Why didn't you tell me all this before I got the ship?"
Mondo laughed his big, booming laugh.
"Would you have bought this ship if I'd have told you how much more it was going to cost to get it out of here?" He said.
No I said to myself. No I'd have walked away, dreams dashed and probably done something stupid like buy an arable farm. Mondo didn't need an answer from me, he knew what I would have said. His face softened a little and he walked into the cramped command deck.
"Guys come to my yard every few weeks with a wad of cash and a vague idea about flying a ship. I turn most of 'em away 'cos, cash or not, space ain't the place for 'em"
He looked around at us all one by one.
"You guys, you're a different breed: you want to fly anything, no matter how small or what kind of compromises you make to get out there. But before you get out there you gotta know some basics. The kind of basics you don't learn in class but the kind you learn right here, fixin' stuff for me."
We looked at each other, wondering whether he was kidding us or being straight. He held up his hands and carried on:
"My yard's got a nickname: Mondo's Academy. I've had quite a few hopeful pilots come through here and some even make it out into the space lanes." He put extra emphasis on the last few words.
"Face it guys it's good business if you come back in one piece and it'd be heartless of me to push rookies into space without some kinda' practical experience. "
With his little speech still spinning round our heads, he walked off the control deck and back into the yard but couldn't resist a few parting words
"I'll let you guys hang out for another ten minutes, after that I'm docking your pay"
For a second I thought Podie was going to get up and hit Mondo with something but after he stood up he obviously had second thoughts and sat down again.
"The bastard, the old bastard" Said Podie
"Bastard he might be, but I get the feeling he might be right" Contributed Kzen who was the most level headed of the three of us.
I didn't say anything. I was busy rewinding all the conversations I'd had with Mondo and coming to the dawning realisation that the old bastard had, somehow, sold me a ship, got me to work in his yard and on top of all that paid him rent for the ship because I couldn't take it anywhere. I'd also learned a heck of a lot about putting ships like this together again when they went wrong and found a crew I trusted.

"Welcome to Mondo's Academy" I said to no-one in particular "One day we're going to graduate from this frak hole and fly this thing out of here and maybe one day, we'll come back and say thanks to the old bastard and buy a better ship off him".

One day, I thought, one day.