Chapter 2: Chapter 2; Vargas Station

In the center of the Korlath expanse when the trailing edge of the Ring Star nebula and the foremost edges of the Korlath Planetary belt just threaten to touch there is a mining asteroid turned space station locked in place by the gravitational forces of both stellar bodies, Vargas Station. It is a hellish place that has a smell that doesn’t just seep into your cloths but given enough time would stain the skin and never leaves you. I had to take seven different pond hoppers to get there and as soon as my boots hit the floor I wanted to spend a week in a decon chamber. I had thought to arrive only a day before my job would start but I had gotten “lucky” and picked up a jumper who made near perfect time and got there with a two days to wait. Since I hadn’t planned on killing any more time than a few hours I hadn’t made plans for a room to sleep but finding one wasn’t too hard but it also wasn’t too pretty. I had to share the room with a trilarian who snored, with both heads, outside the damn place never even took a nap, they were doing near constant repairs and addition since the entire station was inside of an asteroid which had been mined for its resources before become a permanent home for near to a thousand of the Alliances less wanted citizens. The markets weren’t much better than the sleeping arrangements the hawkers sold thing so hot you could cook on them at prices that would make a calibatus weep, I think one was a calibatus it was running a food stall.

I really didn’t have much right to complain so much since being dishonorably discharged I’ve been forced to take on any and every job I could just to survive. I couldn’t even go back to my family on Riku and work the farm like I had as a kid since the last time I had gone there my father pointed his hunting rifle at my head and told me that if he even though he smelled me anywhere on the planet he would personally put me down with a full metal jacket right in between my eyes, my own father threatened to kill me. So I took to navigating courier ships through areas of Black Space.

Before you say anything I know you don’t know what Black Space is, it’s human slang for those places where humans have been forced to set up our colony worlds. Places where the Alliance doesn’t patrol and the Sol Planetary Alliance doesn’t have enough ships and people to patrol and secure permanently. Very few of them have access to the Corridor portals, in many cases they are five to ten light years from the nearest access points even though without the discovery of the Corridors we would still probably only be focusing on colonizing our own solar system and be worried about food rationing and child birth restrictions, not out here in the galaxy with all of you.

When I started this job I left the room I rented with all of my stuff, and left the trilarian snoring on the bed, everything I owned in this universe in a single rucksack, excluding my gun which I wore prominently on my hip, on Vargas Station it was a necessity. I made my way to meet the ship’s captain at the Glacial Casino, the only human casino on the station. It was a lively place and it made a damn good gin and tonic and pulled a better pint, plus the bartenders don’t act like damn shrinks, they just serve drinks. I didn’t know the captain from Adam so to make the meet possible and so that I knew who I was supposed to meet in the first place I had him send me a digi of his face but I didn’t send him one of my face, I never sent one of my face encase they decided to run it, the doctor assured me that no one would be able to find out I was still me but I didn’t want to take the risk, I just told him to look for the lady with the tattooed eye, it’s my calling card, and ask for Alexis. He set the meet for the Iceberg bar, and I was glad I had come early and taken the time to scope the place because when I showed up it was full and lively, and more than a bit dangerous.

I bumped into a xelvrin and almost got into a fight right there, lucky for me he was well on his way to being completely and hopelessly drunk making his moves slow and sloppy, it also made him think I was piece of the door frame, by not moving and while he blinked I ducked, and he walk right on by me instead of biting my head off and eating it.

Besides myself there were only three humans in the place, two of whom were working. The last was the captain. The digi he had sent me with the contact information was old and barely matched the man I was looking at but it was close enough to work with. He was maybe a hair over a hundred and seventy-five centimeters tall and from the looks of him he weighed maybe a hundred kilos. By the time I got there he already had two empty glasses in front of him, turned upside down, and the Bar keep was handing him a third. “Thanks Mac.” His speech was showing signs of slurring, but for the most past was steady but I wouldn’t want to fly with him when he was though. When I got to the bar I leaned on it to get a better look at him, His hair was slicked back but still a strong black given the worry lines and wrinkles marking his face like a map, though his rough cropped beard with sporting a salt and pepper look. His clothes looked as if they had seen just as many miles as he had, the leather was real but worn down in the joints, and his pants weren’t much better, sporting patches at the knees and shoddy stitching.

The barkeep tried to get my attention but I waved him away absently and focused on James. “You James Logan?” I asked knowing full well who he was.

Before he answered he took a long swig of his beer and licked the foam from his lips and then turned in his stool to look at me. He squinted, to focus on me I guess, and then spoke. “I don’t owe you money do I, or has my cow of an ex-wife sent you to try and take my ship from me, again?”

I gave him a quizzical look but answered none the less. “More like the first one, my name’s Alexis you hired me for the Black Space run.”

I saw a light go off in his eyes as the name I used clicked with something in the back of his mind and he seemed to sober enough to realize what was going on. He put down the beer and clapped his hands as loud as he could. “The new navigator.” He quickly wiped his hands on his legs and then gave me one to shake. “Put’re there.” I looked at the hand for a moment before I took a hold of the wrist instead, he didn’t miss a beat though and took a hold of mine in turn. “James Logan at your service, pilot, and de facto owner of the Black Star, that is until my wife finds a way to take her from me.”

I looked into his eyes before I let go of his wrist and asked. “You sober enough to fly?”

He was quick on his feet and took about half a heartbeat to answer me. “This is only my third round, wait till I get another three or four in me and then we’ll take about me being able to fly.”

“Then before you get any more beer in you maybe I should sign into the crew list, while you’re still sober enough to remember me doing it.”

“Damn you’re up tight.” He said taking his glass again and pouring another mouthful down his throat. “There’ll be more than enough time for all that formal stuff later, have a drink with me for now.”

“If it’s all the same to you I would rather get it over and done with now.”

“Alright.” He said with a roll of his eyes. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a data tablet and passed it to me.

I took it from him and gave it a quick looking over. “This your standard contract?” Thanks to my implant I was able to read everything as well as memorize it with the merest glance so I knew it wasn’t I just wanted to know if he would be honest with me.

I hadn’t expected him to be honest with me but he was. “More or less this one just has one major change compared to ones you’ve probably dealt with, as a member of the bridge crew if I am killed or in some other way end up turned into a fine red mist to decorate the halls and or cockpit of my fine ship it’s legally yours. That is as long as you live and complete the contract, given that you weren’t the cause in that case the Alliance can arrest you and convict you of theft.”

“Which Alliance?”

“Both of course.”

“What if I’m turned into fine red mist with you?”

“At that point who cares, you’ll be dead.”

I had to admit he was right about that, if I was dead what would I care about a ship or money, or anything really. “Fair enough.” I put my thumb to on the tablet and waited as it scanned my thumb print and as I had every time before I worried if the surgery would slip up or the scanner would catch something and my old files and name would come up on the contract and in the crew manifest instead of my alias. I held my breath until I saw my alas come up on the screen “Alexis Jones of Terra Beta” and let go of the breath I had been holding despite myself.

James clapped again and waved the barkeep back over. “Now that the formalities are over with let’s have a drink.”

“I’d rather see the ship and stow my gear.”

James gave a signal for one more beer and waves me off. “Suit yourself. It’s in docking bay Omega twenty-three.”

“I’ll have my gear stowed and be ready to leave by the time you show up.” I told him fixing the pack better on my back.

“Yeah whatever.” He said absently before draining the rest of his glass.