Chapter 1 - My ship's where?

The airbrakes groaned as Sy pulled them bringing the mass of his Aerostar MCC to a slow stop. The mammoth van housed everything he owned and would likely play a crucial role in his future endeavors with his old acquaintances. He kept his abode clean, though it was lived in. From the silver paint to the heavy machine gun mounted on top the van said "I am a professional" and this van was where he delivered his self help training courses to people around the universe. But that was a part time gig. His full time dream of course like anyone on the psychedelic front line was to explore the universe. This opportunity brought a smile to his face as he whistled the Imperial Corps marching cadence "Two By Two, Hands of Blue."

The cacophonous ambient noise of a High Port can be quite overwhelming to those unaccustomed to it. The voices of travelers arriving or departing mixes with sounds of transport vehicles, advertisements, and the whine of hundreds of air scrubbers working overtime to keep enginee fumes from poisoning the stations breathable atmosphere. Beneath it all, the low thrum of spacecraft M-drives provide a deep bassline that is more felt than heard.

Cas is no stranger to space travel. As a scout (or ex-scout as it where) she has visited many ports but years of solo piloting her small ship through the inky black of space has made her more acclimated to the mute sounds of traveling the drift. So, she is not prepared for the roar of sound that assaults her ears as she steps off the transport vessel into to Flammarion’s High Port. Hastily, she finds a quietish spot off to the side of a thoroughfare just behind a stanchion displaying a digital map of the port. There she collects her wits and fights down the anxiety growing in her gut by breathing slowly and with focus, as her therapist Sy had taught her.

Having successfully staved off a panic attack, she readjusts the straps of the small backpack shed carries, which holds the sum total of her worldly possessions in it, and forces her way into the throng of travelers heading into port. Although she is small, she holds her ground charting a path through the crowd of arrivals toward a cafe favored by members of the scout service. She hopes the proprietor’s goodwill might lead to a meal or a cup of tea because she certainly doesn’t have any Creds to spare. Those will come soon, when she gets her ship back… or at least that’s what she tells herself. As she walks she surveys the crowd looking for any crew mates who have arrived before her. They had planned to meet at a common area which she could keep an eye on from the cafe.

Sy recognized her immediately though they had never met in person. Ever the anxious but brimming with confidence, he saw Cas from a distance and honked twice Stepping out of the Aerostar and waving. "Zǎoshang hǎo. Howdy Pardna over here!" He called by way of greeting, as was customary in frontier worlds using both Mandarin Chinese, and American English.

Life support can be a shitty occupation sometimes, literally so when the chief engineer has put off maintenance of the solid-waste systems for far too long and then assigned the work to the temporary assistant working for his passage to Flammarion. But that job is done at last, and as the ship makes its way to the highport docks Avi is already looking forward to better times ahead.

The starport seems busy but orderly, and Avi is comfortable wearing just his usual ship fatigues, hiring a secure locker to store his armour and weapon, carrying his other gear in a small travel pack. Some might notice the absence of ship's insignia or company logo from his clothing, but otherwise he doesn't stand out among the many ship crew and dock workers here.
His first priority would normally be to check the boards for job vacancies, and then the bars where the merchant crews gather, to listen for opportunities that haven't made it to the boards. But this time is a different: he already has something lined up, friends to meet, and he heads for common area instead. Spotting Cas and Sy talking together by a large vehicle, he can't quite keep the grin from his face as he makes his way over.

The familiar cadence of Sy's particular accented greeting eases some of the tension Cassia was feeling. She had grown quite used to his particular way of speaking through numerous video therapy sessions and hours of meditation recordings she listened to obsessively during the trip to Flammarion.
She smiles warmly and greets him, " Sy, It's so good to finally meet you face to face. I already feel better with you here. I can't tell you how much your teachings have helped me - I actually used one of those breathing exercises when I arrived. It realy worked." As she speaks, she runs her hands through her short black hair, styled in a way favored by scouts and spacers who often wore vacc suits.

"Do you want to grab something to eat?" she points to the cafe they are standing near. A large sign reads "Swords and Spoons" in five different languages over the small entryway.
"This place has real authentic Sword Worlder cuisine and serves the best cup of tea in the whole sector. They use real leaves, not that flavored algae everyone else uses. I don't know where they source it... She pause a moment noticing Avi approaching from across the common area.

"AV-EEE, over here! How are you my friend? How was the trip? She shouts and waves to get his attention.

"Hey Cas! Sy!" Avi shrugs off his pack, hugs each of his friends - his soon-to-be shipmates - then stands back for a longer look at their faces. "So we are really doing this, eh?"

From their spot near the cafe Avi can see across the common area to a large viewport looking out on the dry surface of Flammarion below, and in the foreground a section of the docks with a number of jumpships at berth.
"My trip turned out fine, Cas. I got work on the Língyáng for the last leg in," He nods toward the Far Trader with the leaping antelope hull motif. "Spent most of my shifts belowdecks though, in the bowels of the ship you could say."

"Well Bless my Star it is Avi Villa as he lives and breathes. Ni hao ma?" Sy listened to the brief catch up between Cass and Avi. He perused the menu impressed at the variety. Much of his travels took him to places with less, to go to a place of abundance was culture shock.

"The obstacle is the way." Sy offered by way of reassurance to Cass.

"Ooh curried Noodles!" Sy piped and ordered that and an order of shu-mai with a sweet milk tea.

"Wo hen hao, Sy, my prospects are looking brighter than the last time I ate with you. How have you fared since then?"
Avi orders a pot of tea and a basket of spring rolls.

"Find a better offer? Better than a place on a mortgage-free ship crewed by friends? I don't think so." He says this lightly, but Cassia's caution was serious and it weighs on his mind as he waits for the tea to arrive.

He places the teapot and rolls in the centre of the table along with a stack of small cups, pours a cup for himself and gestures for the others to help themselves.
"Are you concerned the ship might be recalled, Cas?" Glancing to Sy and back to Cas, unsure if he is on the right track: "It wouldn't be the same as when you were in the service before. You'd have a crew to back you up, we'd all be serving together if that happened. Isn't that how it works?"

"Well I'm not the recently rescued captive of a group of terrorists anymore, so things are looking up. Actually I recently just completed a tour of the fringe, made a lot of new friends and my guided meditation program has more subscribers than ever! 12.2 million tune in daily. I know its modest still but thats almost 1/4 the way to viral success." Sy's drawl patently grew as did his excitement, he went from collected gentleman to podunk hick very quickly. He downed a glass of ice water as he allowed his new shipmates to process that. "Hope you'll join me as soon as I get the widecast configured i think it'll really add to the viewers experience to see people benefit from it real time. Not that I will be cross with you if'n you decide against it." Sy effervescent as ever didn't seem to be capable of being cross at anyone. He didn't even have a negative thing to say about his time as a hostage. "Sounds like you're both far ahead of when I seen you last. Say I seen a Zeke Di on the crew manifest, think its our Zeke? I hope so, I spent all these years wondering if he died."

Cassia takes a small notebook and pen from her vest pocket and writes "The obstacle is the way" on a page filled with various phrases and words of wisdom she's heard during her travels. She puts it back in a breast pocket and listens to Sy speak about his latest endeavors. She glances at the empty seat remaining at the table when Zeke's name comes up.

"Last I heard, he was supposed to join us but you know how it is, sometimes things don’t go to plan."

She takes another sip of tea and holds the warm cup in her hands before answering Avi.

"I’ve been going over all the ship transfer documents and there is language in the agreement that gives the Service the right to assign missions to the ship from time to time.
Originally, I assumed this was something a lawyer cooked up to keep ex-Scouts from just sell their ships for quick cash. I mean, the Service has deemed me unfit to be a Scout so why would they assign me a mission? But, I don’t know. I guess I'm wondering why they arranged for the transfer to be here at the ass end of the Sword Worlds, so close to the Five Sisters and the Zhodani situation. But, maybe I’m being paranoid and this is a blessing in disguise. I hear there is good money to be made trading in ancient Darrian Art."

I guess everything will be cleared up tomorrow. Speaking of which, how many beds you got in that van, Sy?"

"Not too keen on the idea of being watched live by 12.2 million people, no that doesn't sound like my idea of a calming experience, Sy. But then, we are going to be spending a lot of time in jump aboard a very small ship, perhaps it would be good to incorporate meditation into that routine."

"Ancient Darrian art sounds like a lucrative cargo, we'd need a lot of up-front cash to finance it though, to get started we are going to need ..." Avi stops and casts an embarrased look at Cas as a few things click into place.
"I have more credits left after my trip than expected thanks to working passage on the Lingyang. Not enough to make any real difference when it comes to operating a ship, but if you need to get anything before the profits start rolling in from our venture ..."
He checks his credit wallet to see his personal funds have arrived in the starport system, authorizes an outward transfer of Cr2000, and offers the wallet's swipe interface to Cas.

"Lunch is on me, please help yourself. I can always write it off as business expenses." Sy offered and pressed a widget on his personal computer that began counting the minutes. "We are on the clock." He offered with a conspiratorial wink.

Looking directly at Cas, Sy took care to answer her question first, because she asked first and it was work related. "Two bunks and a loft is five beds. As to how many? That depends on how much I like them." Sy offered suggestive, with a twinkle in his eye that suggested he was interested in finding out. "But I bet me plus three would fit in the loft if we all really liked another. And the bunks are large enough that I can sleep comfortably. Though nothing is made for heavy grav worlders like myself unless it is made on a heavy grav world." He quickly changed the subject as to not make it sound like he was flirting with Cas or Avi. Who he found quite physically attractive and made no show of hiding it, but preferred not to mix business and pleasure."We have sonic and thats good for light dirt. But if you do end up using it when you're covered in something sticky. Please clean the filter yourself."

Running his hands together he saw his food coming and offered it to Cas and Avi. "Whoa real fish. And pork! I have missed this!" Taking one of the meatballs, and an ample plate of noodles he sliced the Shumai in half with a chopstick and devoured the half. Swallowing, he cleaned his lips with a napkin. "Ancient Darrian art is a good idea. We might also look at stimulants and medical supplies as well. High profit per kilogram. Though I've heard livestock is also truly lucrative to fringe worlds."

Cassia gladly accepts the food Sy offers, deftly scooping noodles into her mouth. She chews slowly, giving her time to process what Sy insinuated. For some reason, she was having a hard time getting past the thought of changing the filter to a communal cleaning unit. Only now was she realizing that certain things she was used to as a solo pilot, like knowing exactly what was in your ship filters and who was sleeping (or not sleeping) in their stateroom, would be quite different with a crew. She takes out the notebook and writes "communal filters" beneath "The obstacle is the way"

" Med supplies are valuable, especially if we deliver them out to the frontier. But, often those who need them the most are the least able to afford them. I’m not sure about livestock. If the ship is still configured as it was when I last flew her then it’s not really suited for animals. She’s only got 12kg of cargo, maybe a little more if we convert a stateroom, but she’s fast and can go a long way without refueling. If we’re lucky she’ll keep her compliment of probes and maybe even a raft. Theoretically, we can fit the van into the docking bay but I’m not sure." Cassia slurps up another mouthful of noodles and leans closer to her crew mates.

"Listen, there are stories of Scouts who come back from some mission or another and just resign. No explanation, no psychological flags, no injuries, no good reason to leave, they just go. And every now and then someone spots them later flying a sleek little yacht or living in luxury on a resort planet near the core. I know what benefits the service doles out when you leave and believe me, it’s not a whole lot. Rumors are these scouts found something, some tech or new trade partner, I don’t know, something really valuable out there. That’s what I want to find. That’s what this ship is made for."

She leans back into her chair. Another transport has docked and the common area is filling with new arrivals. She hopes to spot Zeke in the throng. "I guess that’s my long term goal... she laughs a little "… finding riches beyond belief somewhere out there." She gestures to the stars visible out the star port window.