Back into the Void.

[neilan15]

As I stood there and slowly watched the last few components get fitted to my Mercury I could not help but fall in love with it. The Lonely, after Omicron Lyrae, where I died.

Long story short I was frozen in my suit because the liquidatd atmo vented into the suit yet the suit didn't purge. I was picked up two months later by a boron energy transporter (never did get its name) Anyway the Argon Military gave me a choice of a resettlement package (large cash sum, hush money) or, keep on plugging away in the military (with the slim possibility of maybe commanding a wing of fighters or possibly an M6 several years down the line, if I lived that long....)

So here I am looking up a a mass of electronics and ceramics, exotic elements and good old Teladianium panelling. Home, this was a huge investment but I never was a rock hugger, I was born out here and I died out here, and now with this new chance I was going to live out here, freelance, running food and energy too and fro wherever the credits are to be had. Like a leaf on the breeze.

As the last few layers of reactive armour are laid, rare elements designed to evaporate and disperse plasma and laser energy, aswell as bleed off the kinetic energy of projectiles, and the energy shields hooked up to the reactor core, plasma engines flashing on and off in a series of tests, I appreciate, no matter how complex everything seems to be, it's all there for a reason. All I had to do was figure out what mine was; and where else to do it than in the inky black...

I picked out a deck hand who had just slammed shut one of the interface ports on the underside of the ship. "How long 'till shes ready please?"

"Well I'de wait till the seats cooled fella; don't worry there will always be credits to be made through trade, and given the new factories cropping up all the time, or the old ones getting scrapped or destroyed you rarely have to look all that far either, your turn will come to stake your claim, just like all the other impatient pilots before you,"

"You didn't answer my question, how long?"

"Your sharp, keep that wit around and you might make it out there. Come back in about an hour and she'll be waiting for you in the dock ready to go,"

I said my thanks to the construction crew and wandered off to look for a bulletin board. Typically it was crowded by traders and pilots looking for their next easy run. Demand for wheat up, E-cells needed, Argnu restraints failure. It was all rather dull, but one message caught my eye, what do we have here....

[KiwiNZ]

Nice start! I hope you keep going with it.

[Mastermue]

Ay! Good start! Love the term 'rock hugger'. Gives me a mental picture of a planet of hippies!

[neilan15]

After scanning the BB for a good twenty minutes I decided on a Med supply mission, the Silicone virus was sweeping through a mine a few sectors east from here. I put my ships Reg into the system and was quickly reasured by the three toned accepted message. I checked the cargo manisfest of Lonely and saw that the Meds were en route.

I checked the clock three Jazuras left, ish. I shouldn't take half that time. I ran diagnostics whilst still docked, reactor, check, nav, engines, shields, weapons, cargo compression, structual integrity, inertial dampeners, life support, all check, excellent. Everything was 100%, the ground crew earned their overtime.

I requested departure protocols, and waited for the grav sling to release the ship from the docking boom, and in an instant I was free.

I strafed away fron the station whilst slowly accelerating. As Lonely slowly peaked at 100m/s, I keyed in the autopilot to take me to the Silicon Mine. One last check of the systems screen to make sure everything was running fine and I activated the SETA at 6x compression.

I headed aft to the living quarters, I could have taken on a few passengers but I prefer my own company. I put some music on over the broadcast system, and ran myself a bath.

As I soaked I wondered where I was going after the Mine. Maybe see If I could get a discount on some Silicon and run it to a Cystal Fab or Chip Plant, or maybe go to the Northern Boron Sectors. I get a quick ships' head visual and see the Eastern Gate grow in the screen, then as I enter it, the water ripples then that strange freefall feeling as you go between gates grips me...

[Mastermue]

Good continuation.

Being a picky s*d noticed a couple of typo's (ok 3).

2nd paragraph, missed the 't' off whilst and there's only 'f' in strafed and one 'l' in accelerating(4th paragraph)

Looking forward to the next part!

[KiwiNZ]

Have to agree, it is a good continuation! Nice description of little details.

[neilan15]

Thanks for your support and critique, its always appreciated. I am sorry about the typos but I usually miss them whils proof reading because I am dyslexic. I like the little details as they are the ones that make a story that much more compelling and realistic. Keep posted.

I doubt I am the first to use the term "rock hugger" but I envisaged them a ppl who have a space phobia, afraid of, oh, I dunno, getting flash boiled/froze/exploded/imploded, as they eject and realise they neglected to put on their helmet............

[Mastermue]

No worries, you're doing a great job.

I only point out typo's in case you're planning to put your story into pdf format when finished........see kiwinz's site, he has a few available for download.

Besides, I'll be having a go at writing a story when my work load drops off, then everybody will have a chance to get their own back.........my 'ms word 2003 spell check' is gonna be working overtime!!!!!!

I envisioned a planet full of hippies with 'rock hugger' for the simple reason, hippies are sometimes referred to as 'tree huggers'......just my warped sense of humor kicking in.

[neilan15]

Sorry its been so long since I have posted for those who were following the thread, here is the next part of the story:

As quickly as it started it stopped and I returned to normal space/time and the ripples stopped. After a good long soak I decided to have a proper look around the ship. I decided to try on some of the new clothes I had bought, most of it nice neutral colours, sand browns and mute greens and reds. I picked out a set of loose fitting cargo trousers and a loose short sleeve top. I decided to put my multitool (a small unit with smart nanomachines in that can be poured to repair electronics or even hull breaches given time or assume the shape of screwdrivers wrences blades etcetc) in my pocket aswell as a vox (small portable comms terminal/PDA)

I double checked the navigation was on route to the next gate, happy I headed aft and promptly walked straight into the door...

After coming round a few minutes later, I decided to check the sickbay first just under the accomodations.

"Computer?"
<Online>
"Assess me for injuries,"
<Mild cranial trauma, bruising of dermis over left Gluteal muscles>
So it wasn't just my ego that was bruised; I took a pain killer and cuntinued left out of the door past the computer core and the provisions store/Galley, maybe I should recruit a crew after I have strarted getting more credits. Then I got to the door to the cargo bay.

Ofcourse you can't just stroll into a ships cargobay since they introduced the cargo compression system, well you used to but when peoples bodies started going into shock or developing multiple cancers and tumours they became much more defended. I had to decompress the bay, and unlock the door and shut down the internal shielding, then I very nearly cracked my heasd again as I walked in.

The cargobay took up about 4 sixths of the ship and, as I soon remembered had no artificial gravity, ofcourse I could really have done with a tether or a recoil gun now.

As the medical crates stayed on the deck, smiling smugley up at me under their straps I slowly floated, unable to reach anything to push or pull against so I tried the multitool, I selected discharge and watched as I slowly floated to the far door, leaving a fine trail of silver mist in my trail, as it went back through the far door the nanomachines puddled at the entrance to the cargobay, waiting to be retrieved.

BOOOONG

that would be the aft hatch, and an other bruised cheek, I'm going to be walking funny for a while, I decided to go through the fuel dec above the cargobay ont he way back, can you blame me?

I was greeted on the otherside by freefall, that was my que to start making a move back to the Cockpit, but not quite yet. Banks of diagnostic equipment relating to the reactor and drive/maneuvering system blinked quietly at me, nothing was red so I continued between the reactors, quietly binding hydrogen atoms to eachother and changing the heat into electricity and then forcing the newly formed deuterium and tritium out of the drive nacelles. And finally the point defence turret, armed, at quite an expense with a alpha phased shockwave generator, quite a suprise for any pirates who think the Lonely looks like a target.

The rest of the journey was nice and quiet, I was scanned by an argon patrol who decided to follow me to the silicon mine to make sure the meds got to where they needed, people never exchange names anymore, I didn't get his, he just sayed he was doing his job, I delivered the Meds, got my pay and left, the mine was sold out of silicone and stopped producing as the Silicone virus took hold of the workers. Not taking it as a down I just sat and listened to the commwaves buzzing the sector...

[KiwiNZ]

Great to see you back in action! I can tell why it took so long: <Mild cranial trauma, bruising of dermis over left Gluteal muscles> Months of research

Nice description of all the traps that such a ship can hold. So first contract successful. What is next?

[neilan15]

I headed towards the fuel deck on my way to the otherside of the cargobay to collect the nanomachines, don't want them getting bored. After falling over in the nearly invisible puddle of silver and reallllly hurting my ass, again, I collect them into the tool and ecide to get some anaesthetic gel for my tender parts.

I scan the nearby stations for product manifests and see that a powerplant had an overabundance of energy cells, and in doing so a severe lack of crystals.

I set the autopilot to dock and turn on seta, an hours journey over in a matter of minutes. I run to a BB and see a request for Crystals, I repeatedly beat the trade icon praying no one beat me to it, then i hear the reassuring 3 tones.

I had 5 hours to deliver 400 crystals. Before I left I rammed the cargobay with e-cells and then departed, only fifteen minutes spent to far. I then realised that the nearest crystal fab was at least 2 jumps away. On the up side that gave me more chances to offload my cargo before I got there. But I started to worry about the delivery curfew...