Slipspace

When morning finally broke on the station, I woke to my alarm, but my body was rather unhappy about it. I groaned as I stretched out, my body cracking and popping loudly. It seemed that I had slept hard. Apparently I wasn’t the only one to have awakened so early as my comm panel was blinking with a notification telling me about a message from Captain Erickson. 

The text only message was short and simple, informing me that he had finished his talks with the gate authority people and that Ratatosk would be departing from the system later in the day. Included as well was an invitation to come aboard to say goodbyes. 

My heart ached somewhat, knowing that it would likely be a few weeks at least until I saw Echo and her father again. I imagined that the captain would give me details on the timeline for starting my new job and how I would join up when the time came. 

Knowing that the Ratatosk was docked to the salvage arm, I decided to visit there first before going the rest of the way down the arm to the Torgal docks so I could board the Oxide and head out myself. 

Of course before I could go anywhere else, I needed to get breakfast and some coffee. The cafeteria was crowded, but since I wasn’t going to be dining in, I just went through the line and got a breakfast wrap. As I wasn’t springing for the extra cost associated with actual meat, the wrap was synth-eggs, hash browns, synth-cheese and avocado with pico. It was a tasty and fairly filling meal on its own and was, most importantly for me that morning, easily portable. 

When I got up to the counter for the coffee vendor, I nearly started ordering my usual bitter black cup of java, but with a slight smile and a chuckle, I gave in to fancier desires and ordered an incredibly sweet concoction that still had similar caffeine content to my usual. 

Upon taking my first drink of the brew, I almost went cross eyed as the sheer sweetness hit my taste buds. Again I laughed and knew that I would inevitably have a sugar buzz on top of the caffeine hit.

The walk through the salvage arm was longer than my standard lift ride to the Torgal docks, but provided ample time for my drink to help me shake off the last dregs of sleep from my system. Soon enough I came up on the correct docking port and stepped through the stationside airlock into the space bridge connecting the ship to the station. Respectfully, I paused at the ship airlock and called in to the captain.

Marcus answered quickly. “Miss Matson! Good morning to you! I assume you got my message?”

“Yes sir I did. I’m currently standing at the airlock. Permission to come aboard?”

“Permission granted, of course. Come on in. I’ll have one of the crew show you to the galley.”

Immediately after the call ended, the ship airlock cycled and swung open. A short moment later, a young woman in a simple grey uniform appeared. “Crewmate Elise, here to escort an Adresta Matson to the galley?” 

She gave me an appraising glance but made no comment. Meanwhile, my heart bubbled after hearing my chosen name come out of the mouth of a total stranger unprompted. 

“Yes, that's me.”

“This way then.”

She led me through the corridors and down a staircase into a large room with tables and chairs, a kitchen situated behind a buffet table off to one side. Several other crew members were sitting at various tables eating their morning meals, but in one corner sat a larger table that bore the ship’s crest. It was obviously the officers’ table and the captain and members of the senior crew including Echo were already seated and talking amongst themselves. Sitting at the head of the table, Marcus noticed me first and motioned for me to sit.

“Thank you, Elise. Go ahead and enjoy your meal.” The girl nodded and walked towards the food line. “Now then, Adresta, welcome aboard once again. I thought it would be best to inform you of my plans in person rather than just over comms. I hope you don’t mind that I do it here?”

The others looked up at that point and turned to face me. To my surprise, a number of them including the chief engineer gave me a respectful nod and murmurings of ‘welcome’. Echo didn’t say anything, but also gave me a wave, her mouth full of food.

“Yes sir, that’s fine.” 

Marcus stood and grabbed a nearby chair, sliding it over to the table beside his seat. I thanked him and sat down. 

“Well,” the captain started. “As I said, we are going to be setting off today. My crew haven’t seen home port in several weeks and deserve some decent shore leave. We also need to replenish supplies and I prefer to do that at Illume Station. The locals there give me good prices. Hopefully, your contract draft will be ready to go within a few days and I can send that over via the relay.” 

During that time, I don’t plan on being idle though. With your consent, and I think I mentioned this, I believe I have a source for that computer you need. I’ve already contacted him with the required specifications. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to dispatch a shuttle here to deliver it within the week. Is that acceptable to you?”

I had to quickly shake off the shock. “Absolutely, sir! I’ve been trying to find one for more than a year, but just wasn’t able to, not at any sort of affordable price at least. If you think that you can get one delivered that soon, I’ll gladly accept. I must ask though, who do you know that can get it?”

He smiled. “I have some friends that I work with at the Alterra shipyards. That shuttle you ripped the rear end off of looks like an old Centurion military transport. They are no longer in production of course, but my friend thinks he can use a unit from a more recent line of ships and adapt it to work with the older hardware. Upside is that it will be a brand new computer with all the most recent computational abilities and star charts.”

I boggled at his response. I hadn’t attempted to go that route because I knew that doing it that way would be even more expensive than finding a used computer. “That would be incredible. Are you sure you are okay with hoofing that kind of money, though?”

Marcus gave a dismissive wave. “I only go with the best for ships in my company. Besides, getting a used computer carries risks of age related issues. We completely avoid that possibility this way. As soon as you can get it installed and certified, I would only ask that you bring the Oxide to Illume so that you can more easily get set up there before you join up with the gate project ship. I’m sure you will want to have a space of your own on the home station and my office staff will be able to get that taken care of. I’m sure there is a hangar that you can lease as well so that you can have a new workshop.”

I shook my head, a broad smile on my face. “Why is it that every time I talk to you, I get more and more excited to work with you?”

He laughed as well and I heard a couple chuckles from around the table. One voice rang out from the other end and I turned to see an androgynous looking person with short hair. 

“That’s because he’s a good man to work for. Aint nobody else treated me as good as him. Casey Meyers, senior pilot here. I heard what you did in engineering. Scared the void out of me when things went dead stick in the middle of manoeuvres. Really appreciate you helping out and look forward to seeing you around the station. I kinda want you to let me feel out that quirky little rust bucket you call a ship someday, too.”

I shrugged back. “Maybe. I don’t let just anyone handle my rust bucket though. and I’ll have you know, she is a wonderful ship despite her appearance.”

A few more laughs rang out. Marcus picked the conversation up again. “I do my best to be a fair boss. As I said in our meeting, I want the best for my employees and am willing to do what it takes for them to be comfortable in life. Besides, after my… negotiations with Mr Kruger, I don’t see why you would want to spend any more time than absolutely necessary working under him.”

“You aren’t wrong there, captain. I want to get out of here as soon as possible, I just don’t want to leave my ship behind.”

“Of course not, Matson. I can absolutely respect that. I’m hoping to get that remedied as fast as I can get the unit to you.”

“Thank you sir. I look forward to it. I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally finish the Oxide. It was always my hope to get the stardrive working and knowing that I'm so close now is exhilarating.”

I let out a sigh. “Unfortunately though, I do need to get some work done today. I want to get every last credit I can from Torgal before I jump ship, metaphorically speaking. I just wanted to come by and say goodbyes and wish safe travels to you.”

“Much appreciated, Adresta. I hope to be seeing you again soon. I’ll have Echo forward my contact card in case you have any concerns or questions regarding the contract.” Having said that, Marcus stood and offered a hand. 

I got up and shook it. “Wind at your back, Captain.”

“And at yours, Miss Matson.” He nodded.

Echo stood as well and wrapped me in a chaste hug. “See you soon, Addy. I’ll keep in touch over comms, alright?”

Hugging her back, I answered. “Yeah, me too. Goodbye for now, I guess.”

She hugged me a bit tighter and then let go. “Be safe out there today. We can’t exactly work together if you go off and get yourself hurt.”

I chuckled. “Don’t jinx it, Echo.” She only laughed. The rest of the assembled senior staff all waved at me as well and I departed from the Ratatosk, a bounce in my step. 

I finished my coffee on the way to the Torgal docks and eventually got into the hangers. As was usual, workers milled around, keeping up with operations around the docks. A couple of the fueling technicians that I recognized were near the door that led into the berthing area where the Oxide was sitting. One of them saw me approach and waved a hand.

“Hey Soren! Haven’t seen you in a hot minute, everything alright? You’re later than usual, too.”

“Yeah,” I said, slipping my masculine mask (masc?) back on. “Just took a couple days off to take care of some personal matters and ship maintenance. As for being late, I had a meeting to attend this morning.”

“Well, I hope it went well for you. Watch your step though, the boss is in a MOOD. Not sure what crawled up his ass this time, but everyone is feeling it the last couple days.” His companion nodded vigorously in agreement.

“Thanks for the warning. I’ll try to avoid him if I can. For now though, I’m going to suit up and head out. You got my girl ready to go?”

The other responded this time. “Uh, I don’t think I topped your tanks off yet, but I’ll make sure it gets done before you finish your preflights.”

“Works for me.” The two workers nodded and I turned around and walked into the berthing area over to where my ship sat. It was large compared to basically every other vessel in the mostly vacated hangar and downright dwarfed some of the smaller craft. The pad was clear though and I did my visual inspection before opening the hatch.

“Just a few more times and you're done, Adresta,” I told myself. “You’re almost there.”