untitled
emm, enjoy? this section is introducing the characters, the plot dosn’t start to build until after this bit.
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She stood in the doorway, one arm hanging off the warm metal lintel, her shoulder leaning against the door-frame. The scent of hot circuits drifted over to her on the current of air that flowed from the warm cockpit into the cool access passage. The pure white light of solar lamps illuminated the ship’s control panels. Above the technical display a window showed the vast interior of the Xilsayari space port. Docking piers jutted out of the domed upper section of the port making it look like some kind of inverted porcupine. A clear central area accommodated the ships that were docking and exporting from the station. Zarkia idly glanced over the display to ensure that the ship systems were in good working order. They were. The ship felt anxious to be off into the freezing, lifeless depths of space, where it could out-speed and out-manoeuvre nearly every other ship that traversed the stars.
The journey would have to wait though because at that moment there were quite a few ships lined up for departure. Zarkia sighed at the thought of having to join that queue. The Xilsayari officials were less than efficient and it would take them most of the third quadrant to sort out the flight permits of the ships and their owners.
Zarkia walked over to the main control panel and flipped the switch that would change the display on the window to a control screen. She also called up the ship’s intelligent control. The blue tinged face of a delicately beautiful woman appeared on the screen. She looked around as if getting her bearings and focused on Zarkia. She smiled down from her holographic abode and bid her friend a good quadrant. Zarkia smiled back and returned the greeting. Aeyree was entirely made up of complex programming and little pixels on a holographic screen, but at times she seemed more human that most humans Zarkia knew, she was also a better and more loyal friend than most of those humans. Time spent conversing, joking and laughing with Aeyree made the wait to export bearable and even enjoyable.
“I reckon we’ve got quite a wait before take off,” Zarkia pointed out. “Anything you’d like to do while we wait?”
“We could count the ships in dock!” Aeyree joked. Her fine-tuned sensors had already told her how many ships were in the port and the enhanced programming that Zarkia had written for her let her know exactly who the ships’ crews were and what they were doing in the port. The information was highly illegal, but Zarkia’s profession meant that she was skilled at subterfuge, stealth and stealing secrets.
“Yea right,” Zarkia replied. “Have any interesting ships come in over the last few quadrants?”
“No. All the ships in port are on official business and boring business at that.”
“Oh well. I had hoped one of them might offer an interesting diversion by having some steal-worthy merchandise on board. But I guess we’ll just have to find some other way to entertain ourselves, Aeyree.” She rolled her eyes to the ceiling, mentally searching for some mischief that would pass three hours. She snapped her fingers, her lips curving into a smile.
“I’ve got it,” she said. “Lets hack the port’s mainframe and read all the private files of the people who live here.”
“Awh, come on, Zarkia,” Aeyree replied. “That’s got to be the most boring thing ever. The likelihood that we’ll actually find something interesting is zero to one.”
“You’re right, I suppose. Will you put on some music instead, please.”
The next few hours ticked by very slowly, until close to the fourth hour a hesitant young voice asked for permission to open comms with the ship.
At last, Zarkia thought as she flicked the switch that would replace Aeyree’s beautiful face with that of a pockmarked young man.
“Yes, what is it?” she asked.
“Uh, Lady Zarkia?” the port official stammered. “You are clear for exit. So if you will push off from the pier, we’ll have a tow-team escort you to the central export area.”
“Excellent.”
Aeyree’s face flashed back onto the holographic screen.
“Well, you heard the man, Aeyree” Zarkia said. “Let’s get out of this dump.”
The hum of the engines shifted up a tone as the starglider eased away from the pier it had been magnetically tied to. They cleared the pier limits and were picked up by the magnetic beam of the tow-team. Zarkia cut the engines and let the bigger ship drag her light starglider to the exit point. Through the window in the cockpit Zarkia could see the piers and other ships moving past. She liked to pretend that her ship was stationary and they were the ones moving.
They reached the main export field and with a light jolt the magnetics cut off. Zarkia fired up the engines to full power and turned the ship so that the bow was facing the long tunnel leading out of the port. It was customary to proceed down the export tunnel at a respectful speed and hyper-jump a safe distance from the port but Zarkia had waited long enough to get away from this junk-heap of a spaceport. With a nod to Aeyree the ship was aligned perfectly with the tunnel and engaging the jump-drive she blasted through it at full speed. The second she was free of it she flicked the switch to hyper-jump. The starglider surged forward eating up the parsecs toward their destination.