The cheerful pilot, however, was undeterred by this and did not abort the maneuver. Robin did not comment on her decision, but was somewhat relieved when he noticed that the speed was at least reduced further.
“What’s wrong?” He asked the copilot.
“Uhm, the scanners just failed. I only get some random static.” Alena said and quickly added another update for Happy.
“10 m/s”
“It’s fine, I’ll manage.” Niu said, her eyes focused on the docking port they could see through the window.
Robin opened the scanner screen on one of his displays and saw that Alena was right. He kept quiet for the time being to not disturb Happy.
After a few long moments a small jolt went through the ship and Happy let out a breath.
“Huh! That was harder than expected. Who would have thought that this baby wasn’t made for flying with only half of its thrusters?”
“Or without the scanner.” Alena added.
“You did well, thanks.” Robin said, “Any ideas what’s wrong with the system?”
“Well, the Hubble is pretty wrecked. I’m not surprised that we see some of its systems failing.”
“Yeah, but the scanners weren’t damaged last time I checked…” Robin muttered.
“We are about to leave behind the ship anyway. Nothing gained by wrecking our brains now.” Alena said and Robin had to agree. There were more important things ahead right now.
“I hope everyone has packed their stuff. We won’t stay for longer than necessary.” He said and stood up.
“Let me go first.” Happy suggested, “I’ll look for the hangar administrator and directly head for the new ship. When it is prepared for take-off, I’ll give you a call and you all can come directly to the next dock without stopping on the station itself.”
Robin thought about that and due to his nervousness was inclined to agree immediately. However, he threw his security officer a questioning gaze to get a second opinion.
Landom didn’t need to think long before he nodded.
“I’ll come with you. Let’s go.” He said and Robin could only shout a short “Thanks” before they were gone.
“This is the life you are about to live. Always on guard, trusting no one and each visit to civilization is a major risk.” Alena said after they were alone on the bridge, “Are you sure you want that?”
“Want?” Robin asked with a scoff, “No, of course not. But it seems like that’s the price I have to pay. Too many secrets have piled up. I won’t be able to come clean with the UAS and still go my way.”
“No, that seems implausible.”
“It’s just that right now it is my first time in such a situation and I don’t think we are well prepared if shit hits the fan. Going to Rucasur will be another risky move, after that it will be us who decide about time and place. That’ll make it easier.”
Alena looked at him for a moment and then just nodded once, giving Robin no clue if she agreed with him or not.
Time ticked by slowly and with each minute without hearing from Happy or Landom, Robin got more anxious.
After fifteen minutes he called everyone to the hangar, prepared to leave. It took twenty long minutes more before he finally got a call from Landom.
“Robin, we have finished dealing with the administrator. Didn’t seem like he had a hidden agenda and quickly sent us to our new ship. You can come to dock B016.”
“Good to hear from you, thanks!” Robin said, “We are on-”
“Fuck! What the hell is this shit?” He heard a shout from Happy in the background and his heart fell.
“Stop this, crazy woman!” Landom scolded, “Robin is probably getting a heart attack right now!”
“But don’t you see this… thing? What is that even? A bathtub? I thought we would get a new ship!” Niu cursed.
“Ugh… Robin? Still there?” Landom asked, his voice weary.
“Uhm, yeah?”
“Good, no worries. You can get moving, there aren’t any problems. Our entitled pilot is just not agreeing with the ship we got. For free! After we crashed our old one!”
“Ah come on! This is an insult! What if someone sees me in this flying piece of shi-”
“Okay, Landom out!” Landom quickly interrupted Happy’s rant and cut the connection.
Robin’s head throbbed and he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“You heard the man. Let’s go!”
Timothy and Alena were the first to step out of the ship. They were followed by Sevastian and Patience. Robin came last, together with Ang’Tue, and over his head flew the BWT drone, silent as ever.
“You were a great ship and kept us alive during more than one crazy citation.” Robin muttered and patted the scratched and battered hull of the Hubble.
The ship has been their home for the last months. It had braced the brutal storm in the Mystic Sea to rescue them and saved their asses when they were chased by the Cetro. The Hubble not only brought them safely through the dying star system, but even after a crash landing and two lost thrusters it didn’t break but ensured that they could flee the planet, saving all of them from a dire fate.
While Robin wasn’t as attached to the ship as he had thought, it still had proved itself to be a trusty companion.
“You’ve set the scale quite high for the next ship in line. Take good care of the Melody II, one day I’ll come to fetch her!” He muttered his goodbyes and turned to follow the others to the elevator. In his mind, the image from the black Keeper ship flashed.
“I hope you can keep up with the Hubble!”
Normally they would take the elevator to the main hub of the station but since they already had their new destination, Alena quickly chose port B016 as the next stop.
When their quick transport came to a halt, Robin nearly burst out laughing.
Through the window of the docking port he could see a Jingur, the same ship he had used to travel to Gaunus on his first interplanetary trip. However, he saw small bumpers added to its edges and a reinforced landing gear. This ship was modified for pilots in training, students that were just starting their career.
“No wonder Happy was so upset.” Sevastian laughed as they approached.
Landom waited for them to enter and when Robin reached him, he grabbed his arm.
“I have bad memories with this ship.” The man growled, “We are nearly at home. No bullshitting around, no crazy weapon-tests!”
“No promises!” Robin laughed and patted his shoulder.
Last time they got intercepted by pirates and Robin had to use the ominous weapon he found in the Drel facility to buy them time to escape. Landom nearly got killed and the disaster ended with the total annihilation of the pirates.
“I wonder if the UAS already managed to get it working…?” Robin wondered when he thought back to the drill-like gun that could destabilize space.
***
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Happy had already taken place in the cockpit and readied the ship for departure when Robin entered.
“Hmmm…” She grumbled, seemingly lost in thoughts.
“Come on, it’s just for a transfer to Rucasur with a quick stop on Seavis.” He said and rubbed his pulsing temples.
“Huh? Oh, hey Rob!” She said, only noticing him now, “No it’s okay. It’s just some strange anomaly.”
“What do you mean?” He asked, his guts churning. Had the UAS prepared some hidden trap or something after all?
“The scanners still aren’t working.” She explained and showed him a screen with lots of unreadable static.
“Oh?” Robin mused, “So it wasn’t the Hubble but something is interfering with the scanning systems near the station? What can cause this?”
“I don’t know…many things - and most of them are bad news. But what’s more concerning is that we weren’t warned by Flight Control. They should know about atmospheric interferences when it affects all the ships in the vicinity.”
Both fell silent, each thinking about different reasons and ideas. Robin even tried to check the atmosphere with his G-Anomaly and looked for any disturbances in the atmosphere like what he felt on Terulos or in the Mystic Sea. Aside from the ship and the station itself however, he sensed nothing.
When they came up empty handed, Niu shook her head.
“Well, it can’t be helped. Should we get out of here?”
“Yeah, get us away from here as fast as possible.”
Soon, the flight school ship undocked and left the space station. Robin, standing in the cockpit behind Happy, finally let go of the breath he had held without noticing. The further away they got, the more his nervous mind calmed down; it seemed like the UAS hadn’t planned anything and was content to wait for him in Seka.
At some point, Happy interrupted his wandering thoughts.
“Three kilometers, that’s the range of the disruption. A really localized event.”
“Well, at least scanners are back online. Please put us on the direct route to Seavis.” Robin said and turned to leave.
“Uh, Captain… Rob!” Happy began but stopped.
“Hm?”
Robin waited in the doorway for her to continue.
“Can you take over for the time being?” She muttered hesitantly, “I’ll turn on the QVT so you just have to monitor the systems. Would that be possible?”
Robin hesitated for a moment, not because he didn’t want to take her seat but because he was pondering her shifty mood.
“Sure, just do what you need to do.” He finally said and switched places with her after they had fully entered superluminal travel.
***
“Since when did we raise you as someone who doesn’t respect the rules?” An annoyed voice snarled on the comm, “We had an agreement and after you failed your part, you just ran away? That’s not how our family conducts business.”
“Oh? You’re talking about rules and how the family does business?” Niu scoffed, “No worries, I’ve learned quite the lesson, mother. That much I can assure you. The Alaris family obviously likes to look for loopholes in their contracts; rigging the game after the terms are set while demanding that others follow along without complaints. Thanks for the valuable lesson!”
“Child, don’t talk bad about your family. Many generations have worked hard to get where we are today, while you had fun running around playing pilot like some backwater nobody. Flying ships? There are people for that, they are called staff and we are paying them.”
“Oh please, do you ever listen to yourself?” Niu said, disgusted by how her mother was seeing the world. She knew that many members of her family held their nose up way too high, but normally those were the young and arrogant ones, not those in charge. Especially her mother, she always conducted herself cheerful, gracious and approachable in public.
“Niu, there are duties waiting for you here. You were born privileged. A privilege that many yearn for but never can reach. However, there are obligations that need to be fulfilled to remain on top of society. You have to do your part in this, like every Alaris does. We’ve reached the peak by doing business, hard work and strategic decision making - not by playing pilot or adventuring with lowly riff raff. You should know better than this. Those ‘friends’ are nothing but vultures that are waiting to get a piece of the Alaris family. Just throw a few thousand credits to their feet and watch them scramble after it. They will be happy and you have time to return to your proper place.”
With each word, Niu felt her stomach churn. Bile tried to force its way up. She had never heard her mother talk like that and unfortunately she understood what that implied: her parents’ patience had reached its limit and they no longer saw a way to reign in their daughter with sweet talk - so they just dropped the act and put it all on the table.
Part of that relieved Happy from a weight on her mind. While she knew that her family had screwed her over with the flight academy and even staged an attack to get her caught, there always was lingering a bit of guilt for being the “unfilial child” that went against her parents. If push came to shove, they were family, weren’t they?
But now she recognized the truth that she had avoided: this wasn’t family. It was just a big corporation with members connected by blood. Happy could see that now and it was time to break this connection once and for all. How? Well, it was all about business, wasn’t it?
She took a deep breath and arranged her thoughts.
“Fine. Mother,” she whispered each word, slow but determined, though sadness seeped into her voice, “please arrange a buy-out contract for shareholders that want to exit a business.”
“Oh? Who are the involved parties and what business are we talking about?”
“The daughter of the second head of the Alaris family, Niu Alaris, wants a buy-out. Please calculate what the family has invested into this shareholder and make an offer for a mutual agreement.”
“You can’t be serious? Are you trying to insult the family?” Her mother said, her voic pitched.
“I’m not insulting the family, I’m just trying to speak your language.” Niu said, “Oh and mother? Whatever you’ve paid the UAS to get me kicked from the academy will not be part of the restitution. See it as a failed investment in an attempted scam of one of your partners. I’m sure the family has a dedicated cost center for that.”
“Child!” The woman on the comm was outraged, “I’m your mother!”
“Yeah, too bad, right?” Niu said crestfallen and then took a deep breath before she continued, “See if you can include something in the agreement to change that.”
Without waiting for a reply, she cut the connection.
For a long time she just sat there, staring at the wall on the other side of her small room. Her mind was blank and she played with her long, silver hair, not knowing what to do for the moment. Time and time again the argument with her mother played through her mind. When she decided to break ties with the family, she thought it would hit her hard but no tears wanted to drop and no remorse could be felt. Just… relief?
“How can I feel relief after cutting ties with my family?”
She fell back on her bed and noticed the datapad next to her head. She picked it up and looked at the device’s wallpaper. It was a picture of the crew sitting around a campfire on Terulos. She had taken it after their big fight. Alena looked like a mummy, all wrapped up in bandages. Sevastian and Patience leaned into each other like the lovebirds they were and Ang’Tue was poking the fire while he explained something to Landom. Timothy was taking notes on a tablet and Robin just waved to the camera with an awkward smile while the red blood on his suit still told the tale of a bloody fight. A fight they had won.
“Family, huh?”
Finally, a small tear rolled down her face as she looked at her friends.
“It’s not about people being connected by blood, it’s about people connected by companionship… care… and love. A place to call home.” Happy mumbled, her voice cracking.
She ran her finger over the picture of the smiling Robin.
“Let’s see where your crazy adventures will take us next!”
***
“What are we looking for?” Landom asked.
He shared the small space in the cockpit with Robin while Niu was back in the pilot’s seat. Robin had noticed that she seemed to have pretty much on her mind ever since she came back, but decided to not pester her with questions. He trusted her to open up when she was ready. Also, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t guess that she must have had a fight with her family. He just didn’t know how bad it had gone.
“I don’t know yet. The High Priest just pointed us to this patch of forest on Seavis. Nothing more.” Robin said, “You should tell me! Aren’t you the investigator?”
“Well, TechnoBlood is hiding, so there won’t be any records of their arrival. They’ll need access to supplies and food however, so they won’t be too far away from the next settlement.”
“That would be nine places to check.” Niu said.
“And we must get lucky to find a trace of them, even if we came to the right place.” Robin added, “Can you load me as much data as possible on this tablet?”
He handed Happy a datapad.
“Sure, give me a moment.”
“What are you up to?” Landom asked.
“Let’s give ROMAS a chance to find an anomaly. It’s a long shot but since we have no better plans for now…”
“Here you go!” Niu said and returned the tablet.
He quickly opened all the files and scrolled through them as fast as possible. There was information on flora and fauna, settlements, politics and the flight reports.
It took ROMAS only a minute before he came up with something.
“Seems like we got lucky!” Robin said after he read the message.
- Irregular pattern detected
- Ship ID: HU65FVFASN8621JKMND
- Reports pointing towards…
…
“So basically, someone was hopping from settlement to settlement, staying exactly one night before going to the next?” Landom asked.
“Yeah and after they stayed here,” Robin said and pointed at a small village on the map, “they headed deep into the forest.”
“That looks like the strategy we would have used if nothing else came up…” Landom said.
“Yeah. It’s not that much of a surprise that we aren’t the only ones looking for the rogue Cetro community. It’s worth a shot.” Robin said, “Happy, can you try to scan for this ship in the quadrant over there?”
“Found it!” Niu shouted with excitement after a short moment, “I didn't find traces of anyone else nearby, but we expected as much. If the Cetro don’t want to be found, you won’t be able to sniff them out with a scanner. But this other ship, yeah it's glowing like a beacon!”
Robin took a deep, long breath. He could only hope they weren’t too late.
Slowly he calmed his mind and fought down the rising anxiety.
“Let’s go.” He said, determined, “One last adventure with the crew fully assembled!”