“Captain to the bridge, please!” The harsh wake-up call emanated from the desk terminal’s speakers. Waking with a jolt, Jeremy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, groaning.
“Captain, we need you on the bridge, please!” Victa was shouting through the speaker, clearly annoyed. Jeremy slid out of bed groggily, wiping the crust from his eyes. Stumbling over to the terminal, he punched the response key.
“Alright, I’m up, I’m up! Quit yelling.” He exited his room, jogging to the tram. The brief ride to the bridge felt too short to come up with any real defense against his first mate’s inevitable tirade.
He stepped through the door before it had finished sliding open, squeezing between the
two halves and onto the bridge, where his crew was already gathered and waiting for him.
“How good of you to finally join us, Captain.” Victa fixed him with a stare that was nothing short of evil. He wilted under her gaze, slinking his way to his chair in as unassuming a manner as possible. Looking forward, the viewport revealed a bright pinprick of light, shining with much more intensity than the stars around it: their destination, Tremere. Sitting down, Jeremy addressed his crew, speaking with a bravado he did not feel.
“Alright, let’s get ready to land. Victa, Kell, you guys are in charge of refueling and resupply. Tala, Jai, brief me on the jump drive. What sort of damage are we looking at?”
A pregnant pause followed the question. He turned to look at his engineer, whose eyes darted away from his own. “It’s…pretty bad, boss.” she admitted.
Jeremy frowned. “How bad is pretty bad?”
Tala finally met his gaze. “Really bad, Jeremy. Like, irreparable. The drive is completely wrecked, we’re lucky we completed that jump.”
Jeremy buried his head in his hands. “Damn it all…” The jump drive was the single most valuable, and as such, expensive, part of any ship. With their depleted funds, buying a new one would be nearly impossible.
“Alright…” he groaned. “When we get down there, start looking into getting us a new drive. Whatever you have to do, just do it. I’ll see if I can call in any favors.”
The Fox approached the planet, its fore thrusters slowing it down as it skimmed the atmosphere. The vessel aimed just above Tremere, heading for a sprawling space station holding orbit above the planet. It was a jumbled mess, appearing to be cobbled together from all manner of different space vehicles and satellites. Debris hung around it in a cloud, parts of the station that had broken loose that nobody had bothered to reattach.
As the Fox got nearer, a voice crackled through on Jai’s headset. He turned to Jeremy.
“Traffic control on the line, cap. Putting ‘em on.”
A rough, slightly garbled voice came through the bridge speakers.
“Fox, you’re here early. What’s going on?”
“Had some trouble with the job. A bit of outdated intel put us on the wrong end of a ta’keshi broadside.”
A gruff laugh echoed throughout the bridge. “Bit off a little more than you could chew, eh?”
Jeremy ignored the comment. “Do we have permission to land?” he asked, failing to hide his exasperation.
“Yeah, yeah,” came the reply. “You can dock in bay 23. Come on in and lick your wounds.”
Jeremy cut the channel. He had didn’t take ribbing particularly well, and the botched job had already put him in a foul mood. He wanted to go about his business while dealing with as few people as possible.
The Fox sailed in, retro thrusters firing as it decelerated. Ahead, the doors of bay 23 slowly slid open; exposed gears and cogs, exposed to the vacuum by long since missing hull plates, rotated reluctantly as the thick steel doors shifted out of the way. The sleek vessel glided through the opening, landing gear extending out from the hull. Ventral rockets fired as the station’s artificial gravity took hold of the Fox, and the ship gingerly touched down on the floor of the landing bay.
Behind the Fox, the gates locked shut, sealing off the massive room from the vacuum. Air began to leak in from overhead pipes, pressurizing the airlock to create a survivable environment. Finally, the freighter’s thrusters powered down, and the dock had a breathable atmosphere.
Aboard the ship, the crew prepared to depart. Victa and Kell left first, carrying empty duffel bags and a list of needed supplies. Jai and Tala soon followed them, discussing where they might search for a new FTL drive as they walked out the ship’s airlock. Jeremy was the last to leave, locking the airlock behind him and boarding the station proper.
The dock was awash with movement, people scurrying to and fro as passengers embarked on and departed from starliners, and cargo was loaded and unloaded from freighters. Jeremy wove through the crowd, avoiding eye contact with everyone he passed. Tremere was home to some unfriendly characters, and Jeremy had seen people shot literally just for looking at someone funny.
Jeremy walked through a large roll-up door, exiting the docks. He set out into the station’s main plaza, vaguely aware of the sad state of the station’s interior. The bulkheads were rusted and stained, and a few broken down vehicles lined the central street. He swerved around them instinctually, having memorized where each one was. Homeless were scattered throughout the plaza, some begging for money, some simply laying in the trash.
He made a beeline for the taxi services kiosk just outside the port. He gave a frustrated sigh as he saw that the line went out the door, and grudgingly walked up to the end. Pulling out his phone, Jeremy opened his contacts list, selecting “Riley.” He pressed it to his ear, waiting for an answer while listening to it ring.
After three rings, someone picked up. A somewhat high pitched voice answered.
“Jeremy! How’s it going? How’d the Anne-Marie job go?”
“Like Hell, Riley. I’m back, I’m heading over in a little bit.”
Jeremy failed to hide the anger in his voice. There was a short pause on the other end before Riley responded.
“…Alright, talk to me for a second, man. What went wrong? Are you okay?”
Jeremy took a breath, calming himself. He didn’t want to spook his contact. Riley was a bit skittish; any sign of aggression, and he thought you had it out for him.
“We’re alive, so that’s something. But your intel was way off. There was no cargo, and on top of that, we got shot at by a Tribal frigate.”
Another pause answered him as Riley processed the information.
“Alright, come on over. We’ll go over it when you get here.”
“Got it Riley. Bye.” Jeremy hung up, sliding his phone back into his pocket. The line had moved up during his call, and he was now through the door frame of the tiny building. Of the five help desks open, only one was actually manned. Figures, he thought bitterly.
He used the time to think on their current situation. Without their jump drive, they were in a lot of trouble. All of their income depended on them being able to travel, but buying a new jump drive would drain their savings to practically nothing. Sure, they could do odd jobs on the planet, but it would most assuredly be dangerous work, given the type of people who lived here.
Jeremy was broken away from his thoughts when a voice shattered his reverie. He had arrived at the desk, and the clerk was giving him an annoyed look.
“Hmm? Oh, sorry, yeah. Taxi for one.”
Jeremy was pointed through to the door in the back, which opened up into a small hangar. A number of small surface-to-orbit taxi craft were cycling through the dock, picking up and dropping off passengers. He walked up to one of the stops, mashing a button indicating that there was someone waiting. He didn’t have to wait particularly long, as one of the newly entering taxis pulled up to the stop and slid open its door.
A rai woman sat in the driver’s seat, looking exhausted. She shot Jeremy a quick glance as he got in, then returned her dull gaze to the craft’s stained window.
“Where to?” she asked unenthusiastically.
He gave her the address, and she lifted off, taking the taxi back over to the same airlock it had just emerged from. As the oxygen was cycled out, Jeremy was once again out in the void. The craft spat out of the open airlock and accelerated towards the planet below. He looked through the window towards Tremere, the world a sphere of dusty brown, dull grey, and sickly green.
Streaks of fire began to trail across the nose of the taxi as it entered the upper atmosphere. The craft rattled, clearly in need of some work. Jeremy grabbed his overhead handhold tightly, eyes wide as the cabin vibrated. The pilot seemed unperturbed, shooting an annoyed glance at her passenger. Jeremy failed to notice, too busy worrying to himself.
Despite the fears of its passenger, the taxi made it through the atmosphere in one piece. Jeremy looked out the window as they emerged through a layer of steel grey clouds, observing the familiar city below. Lacking any large skyscrapers, the city of Navigator’s Point sprawled across the surface for hundreds of miles in every direction.
Shooting down towards the surface, the taxi completely ignored the packed skylanes. Orbital taxis had their own dedicated routes and traffic control, separate from the tightly controlled planetbound air traffic. The craft sailed further downwards, until it was less than a 50 meters above the rooftops. From this height, Jeremy could see the rundown hovels that served as people’s homes, and the open air markets that were perpetually set up throughout the streets.
The taxi decelerated as it approached its destination. Switching from its main thruster to its maneuvering jets, the craft eased down towards the street, and deployed a set of stubby landing gear to support itself. Dust swirled into the air as the thrusters scorched the street, though it made little difference to the pockmarked road. It landed outside of a grimy one story office building; though its boarded up windows and peeling paint job suggested it was abandoned, Jeremy knew otherwise.
“50 credits.” the pilot called back to him. Jeremy cringed, putting the transaction through on his neural implant. In hindsight, he probably should have made everyone take the same taxi ride to the surface. He slid his door open, slipping out and onto the street. As the taxi noisily lifted off behind him, Jeremy jogged to the building’s door and pulled it open.
The inside was just as dingy as the exterior. Some of the lighting was out, the floors needed to be swept and mopped, and the walls were stained with all sorts of things that Jeremy would rather not know about. Ignoring the decrepit conditions, he walked past the empty receptionist’s desk at the front, taking the hallway past it.
The corridor split off in a few different directions, but Jeremy ignored the offshoots, undeterred from his path. He knew where he was going. Arriving at the last door on the left, he rapped his knuckles against the wood. “It’s me.”
A high-pitched, somewhat raspy voice answered him. “I know it’s you. Come in.”
Jeremy turned the old-fashioned knob, pushing the door in. Walking inside, his eyes took in the familiar features of the dusty, unkempt office space. The room was dominated by a huge oak desk, which at one point Jeremy was sure was quite beautiful, but now was stained and worn from years of abuse. Stacks of paper practically drowned the piece of furniture, which confounded the captain in this age of digital information. A small waste basket sat by the desk, overflowing with crumpled papers and discarded fast food containers. From the smell, Jeremy guessed that some of them weren’t quite empty.
Sitting behind the desk in a battered office chair was a thin, gaunt man with a shock of red hair pulled back into a ponytail. He had a sharp, angled face, and had a cigarette between his thin lips. Jeremy withheld his snort; between the wooden furnishings and the rolled paper cigarette, Riley tried to give off an air of class and good taste. The scavenger, however, knew better.
Not waiting to be asked to be seated, Jeremy plopped down in the rickety metal chair in front of the desk. The aluminum frame groaned under his weight as he leaned forward, a hard glint in his eyes as he appraised his usually reliable contact. Riley appeared unphased, but Jeremy could see how the man wilted ever so faintly under his gaze. Knowing he had better get it over with, Riley spoke first. “Alright, lay it on me. What happened exactly?”
Jeremy recounted the tale, informing his associate of how they’d found nothing of value aboard the Anne-Marie, despite having been assured of its supposed priceless cargo. Then, he told of the tribal warship’s attack, and how their deal with the ta’keshi warlord had been nullified by his grisly demise at the hands of a rival, culminating in the Fox’s ruined jump drive as a result of the hasty jump.
Riley rubbed the back of his head, nervousness setting in. He’d been responsible not only for finding the score, but also helping to negotiate the deal that would allow them into tribal space. He’d manage to botch both, apparently, and cripple his client’s ship in the process.
Biting his lip, Riley came clean. “Okay, so, I knew about the fightin’,” Jeremy’s eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in anger, his mouth opening to retort. Riley hurriedly continued, interrupting the forthcoming tirade. “-but, but, hold on, I did my homework! Everything I looked up said the Gashad had the upper hand, they should have been winnin’, easy!”
Jeremy’s face remained hard, but he said nothing else. He knew Riley took these jobs seriously; he depended on commission from his clients’ hauls, afterall. The broker couldn’t afford to mess them up. Besides, his track record had been pretty good up until now. Riley had given the Fox’s crew some excellent hauls in the past.
Noting Jeremy’s unchanged demeanor, Riley continued. “Alright, here, lemme make it up to you. You said you blew your jump drive, yeah? I’ve got a rip drive stored up at the docks; you can have it.”
At this, Jeremy’s dropped his stony expression. “A rip drive?” he asked in disbelief. “Where in the hell did you get that?!”
Riley waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry, I got it legitimately. But I don’t have a use for it. It’s yours, man.”
Jeremy’s mouth tightened. Rip drives were extremely advanced FTL drives. While a jump drive simply accelerated a ship past lightspeed, a rip drive tore a hole in the fabric of reality, traversing an alternate dimension to cross distances in realspace in otherwise unattainable timeframes. It was awfully charitable of his usually stingey contact to offer him such a valuable piece of technology free of charge. He never trusted people when they acted out of character.
“What’s the catch?”
Riley shook his head. “No catch, for real. Trust me on this, this helps me. I’ve got no other use for this thing. I can’t sell thst kinda tech on Tremere, that’ll attract me unwanted attention. Besides, you’re one of my best scavs. Giving it to you is a way better investment than just selling it.”
Rubbing an eye, Jeremy considered the offer. While he had his suspicions about the methods Riley had used to obtain such an item, he was in a tough spot right now, and a free rip drive would be a massive boon. Without significant funds, a free, upgraded drive was not something he could afford to turn down.
“Alright, fine. We’re in bay 23.”
Riley breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll have some guys drop it off by tomorrow night. You’ll be good to go, Jeremy, believe you me!”
He extended his hand, flashing an artificial grin. Jeremy hesitated slightly, a calculated move to showcase his displeasure, before accepting the handshake.
“Alright, Riley. Can you get me a gig soon?”
Riley nodded enthusiastically. “No problem, bud, I’ll see what’s open. Don’t worry, I’ll get you something with a proper payoff this time.”
The scavenger wasn’t fully convinced of that, but didn’t have much choice but to accept it for the time being. Not putting any effort into hiding how forced his smile was, Jeremy took his leave. He exited the office, and then let his fake smile morph into a genuine one, relief flooding his face.
As angry as he had been over Riley’s mistake, getting such a valuable piece of equipment for nothing was huge. It would be a massive improvement over their old junker of a jump drive. No doubt Victa and Tala would be ecstatic to hear the news.
————-
“A rip drive?!” Tala exclaimed. “What do you expect me to do with that?” She gestured towards the engine equipment around her. “You think I can just plug it right in to all of this?”
Jeremy’s face fell. He had hurried back to the Fox to tell his crew about the new drive, but his good tidings were not quite receiving the reaction he had expected. “Isn’t it an improvement over the last drive?”
Tala shook her head disapprovingly at him. “Do you have the slightest clue how complicated a rip drive is? I have no clue how it works!”
“B-but you understood the jump dri-”
“A jump drive is simple!” Tala yelled in exasperation. “It’s just about power management and redistribution! That, I can do. But rip drives punch holes in reality! I’m an engineer, not a dimensional physicist, Jeremy!”
Jeremy hung his head, sighing dejectedly. “Well, did you guys find anything then?”
Tala’s face caught slightly, losing some of its menace. “No,” she admitted. “No, we didn’t. Nothing affordable anyway. It would take us a few months of running odd jobs in-system before we saved up enough to even afford one of the cheaper units.”
Jeremy leaned up against the bulkhead, mulling things over. Even with what had to appeared to be a brilliant stroke of luck, they were back at square one. He couldn’t afford to chase small fish on Tremere for months; they didn’t have the supplies to spare, and couldn’t earn enough to keep stocked and save up for a drive at the same time.
Of course, they didn’t seem to have much choice. “Alright,” Jeremy said, “I’ll have Victa see what she can find us. Hell, maybe we can sell that rip drive for some extra cash.”
Leaving the engineering bay, he shot a message to his executive officer asking her to look for local work. He didn’t particularly want to stay long on Tremere, and especially didn’t want to take any jobs from the type of people one might find here. Tremere’s residents weren’t known for being safe or friendly types.
Jeremy meandered through the ship, slowly making his way to his quarters. He knew the Fox’s layout by heart, and hadn’t really been consciously trying to reach his room. Nevertheless, he walked in, tossing his jacket haphazardly on the floor. He dropped onto his bed, landing heavily, and looked around.
His room was a bit of a wreck: heaps of clothes lay on the floor, his jacket being the latest addition to the pile. Paperwork was stacked on his desk, some of it months overdue. He kept telling himself that he would get around to it, but it had been a few days, and nothing had changed.
Eventually, his gaze settled on his desk, lazily eyeing the mound of documents he needed to work through. With a groan, he lifted himself off of the bed and shambled over to the desk. He sat down in an oversized office chair, picked up a pen, and started on the first sheet. He set about the mind-numbing task, filling in line after line as his mind began to wander.
The drive problem continued to roll around in his head. He supposed he could try and sell the rip drive, but putting out an ad for it would definitely attract some undue attention; such tech was more than likely contraband, and if any Collective, Combine, or especially Imperial authorities caught wind of it, Jeremy and his crew would have a serious issue on their hands. He already was wary of accepting the drive for free and off-the-record, and was loathe to take any further risks.
Setting down his pen, Jeremy stared blankly ahead. The issue had bubbled its way to the forefront of his thoughts, distracting him to the point where he couldn’t even devote enough attention to continue his mindless task. His eyes were practically boring holes into his terminal monitor, when the thought came to him: if he couldn’t put an ad out to get rid of the rip drive, why not put one out that would let him use it?
Flicking on the computer, Jeremy opened up the GalNet application. He selected the search bar, and typed in ‘rip drive operation requirements.’ A list of results appeared, the page full of encyclopedia entries, discussion forums, and manufacturer home pages. A note at the bottom told him that the browser had found 12,346,286 results. He furrowed his brow, and selected this first link.
He trawled through page after page, sifting through what felt like an endless stream of information. He jotted down notes as he read, searching for what seemed to him like important points. Bleary-eyed, Jeremy checked the time, and groaned as he realized he’d been researching for nearly three hours.
Shutting down the browser, he looked over the compiled notes, scribbled on the back of a rather important tax form that was likely due some time last year. Satisfied with his accrued knowledge, Jeremy reopened the GalNet app, and went to Tremere’s local job site. Instead of searching for potential work, he picked another link titled “Post a Job.”
Jeremy set to work typing up his advertisement, being sure to avoid directly mentioning the rip drive itself, and only talking about the requirements he had gathered. He wasn’t necessarily sure Tremere would have the kind of people he was looking for; after all, how many thugs, career criminals, and poverty-stricken beggars knew anything about interdimensional physics?
Nonetheless, he figured it would be worth a shot. He had faith that Kell could handle any trouble the ad attracted; the man had been a career soldier in the Verran Republic’s Army before joining this little operation. There was a reason Jeremy had hired him on as security officer.
Checking and double-checking his work, Jeremy smiled, satisfied with the ad. He was fairly certain he had gotten the requirements right, and he would be sure to put this on every job site affiliated with Tremere. If someone who met his standards was on the planet, he was reasonably certain that they would see it. He hit the “POST” icon, and leaned back in his chair.