Starborn: Origin of the Stars

The Melody II soared through the sky of Rucasur, flying directly towards the setting sun and still hours away from Beakrath. Robin tested out his new Interface and played around with the different configurations of his new AR-visuals. He saw the states and values of his most relevant systems, like speed, altitude, rotation, remaining fuel and power management, additionally he could activate an overlay of Flight Control’s information. That was why he now literally could see the flight corridor they flew through over Seka.

After his initial excitement, he and Patience had mostly enjoyed silence till now, trying to avoid the topic looming over them.

“Why are you going so far for some extra credits? Where does that sudden need for money come from?” Robin finally broke the stalemate.

“So far? I thought this trip would go by with a whoosh?” Patience exclaimed with fake horror.

"Seriously? You just got your foot in the door of the big studios and will get better training. That is your chance to rise in Seka, why take any risks now?”

“I want my upgrade of course, do you know how expensive that shit is?”

“Of course you want it, but why the hurry? It’s not like there is a timer on your back…”

Patience sighed and contemplated for a moment.

“You had to save my ass back then. I was absolutely useless. I never want to feel like that again!”

“They had a gun… and you were shot before the fight even began. Also, the first guy didn’t stand a chance at all!” Robin argued.

“I thought back to that encounter a lot. Thinking about what I could have done differently to achieve better results. Ultimately it comes down to two things: if I had better training, I wouldn't let myself get shot so easily and if I had been stronger, I wouldn’t have lost the fight even with such a wound.” Patience explained her reasoning, “The first thing is about to get solved now with the new studio. The second thing… well that is what I need all the credits for.”

Robin listened and thought about it. He could understand her feelings, he also felt absolutely useless in the fight and hoped to become better in that regard. The wild chase with the Sentinel was another story. After he had calmed down, he had to admit, he did quite well there. Hopefully well enough to win some races!

“How much is still missing?” he asked, not questioning her reasons.

“After this job? 26k to go…”

“Fuck…”

“Yeah, fuck.”

Silence returned for some time in the cockpit, just the steady humming of the thrusters remained, before Patience changed their roles.

“So, why are you doing this?” she asked.

“Me? No reason, I just planned to go there anyway, so I didn’t want to let the chance for some quick credits slide.” He shrugged, not giving her any insights.

“Really? I pour out my heart here and you give me that shit?”

Robin could feel he was about to light her very short fuse.

“Ughh…” He groaned and watched the world fly by, “I cannot really explain in detail, but how about this: you know that I want to go out there and travel among the stars, visit other worlds… right?” he motioned at the sky above them.

“Yeah but I don’t think 8k credits will help with that at all. You are working towards a job at the UAS, aren’t ya?”

“Let’s just say, I stumbled over another opportunity, a shortcut so to speak.”

“Shortcuts often have downsides and risks, are you playing with fire?” she pointedly asked.

Robin thought this over and shook his head, “No, I don’t think so. At least not more than we are doing with this job right now.”

With everything said between them, silence took hold of the duo again. Two hours later they spotted the first skyscrapers in the distance. They were about to reach Beakrath, their destination and the most risky part of this transport job.

“Okay, we are about to enter range of Flight Control. We go directly towards the workshop, hand over the package and leave. Keep your temper in check, will you? You only have to stand beside me and look threatening. Do you know how to use a gun?” he gave her an update and reached under his seat.

When she saw the gun, she immediately recognized it, but shook her head.

“I always wondered where it went in the chaos. Keep it for yourself, I have no talent in that regard.”

Robin shrugged and clipped it under his belt, hoping for some visual deterrence factor.

Half an hour later the Melody II descended near a workshop that was at least three times the size of Jim’s shack. When they closed in, a big shutter at the back opened and a guy in sloppy clothes waved them in.

Robin piloted the ship slowly inside the building and stopped it at the first spot big enough to park it. While the building was huge, it was still cramped in there. He could see dozens of CTVs and PTVs, some planetary ships and deeper in the dark workshop he believed to recognize the shadows of a huge vessel, probably for planetary cargo or interplanetary travel.

To the backside of the Melody were big trash containers, only filled by half. To the other side he could see a big generator of sorts that caught his attention, even more than the four men that walked towards them from the same side.

‘That is an old nuclear electric generator! Fuck, what are these guys doing here?’ Robin's heart accelerated, the technocrafter in him was elated and wanted to run over to check it out with his senses. However, the reasonable side in him screamed very loud that it was time to get out of here - now!

These generators are an original Earth technology, they were developed on the basis of mankind's achievements in nuclear fission research and can produce an enormous power output. But that comes at the cost of stability. Today they were only used in interplanetary ships as backup in case the main generator had a failure. As long as they were offline, there was no risk at all, but as soon as they were powered up, you really didn’t wanna have any mishaps. Still, it was better to use one of these than just drifting through space without any power at all.

However, this one here? It wasn’t installed in a ship and probably ran in a test mode for maintenance. There weren't even containment fields set up to prevent external interference. This was not something allowed to be in a city or near any populated region at all.

‘This is madness!’ He thought as he listened to the low humming of the machine.

*wrr* *wrr* *wrr* *wrr*

As Robin and Patience climbed out of the ship, one of the four men stepped forward and gave them a friendly wave. He wore a typical technician suit and was stained with different mechanic oils all over. His goons to the side all had weapons, but they kept them in their holsters.

“Hello there, you should come from Seka, right? I’m Gumvar and I’m in charge of this workshop.”, he pointed at his fellow men, “These are some friends that work with me. You have a package for me?”

Robin gave Patience a nod and she climbed up to the little cargo hold to get the box.

“Yup, just send Slice the confirmation to fulfill the contract and we will be on our way.”

The guys only had to finalize the contract as the receiver, so nothing much was left to do.

“I better check the box first, don’t I? Making sure it's still fine and dandy…” Gumvar grinned.

“Sure, have it your way.” Robin watched as Patience came back down with the case under one arm.

“A nice bodyguard you got yourself there, is she performing full body inspections, too?” One of the goons laughed with a lecherous grin on his face. Robin ignored him but his mood fell and his heart began to speed up. He really hoped Patience wouldn’t do anything stupid.

The guy stepped forward to take the box and gave Patience a dirty grin. He looked everything like the typical brute you would expect. Short dirty hair, reinforced work-boots and his sun tainted upper body was only covered by a vest with lots of different badges pinned to it.

He handed the box over to Gumvar, who turned and walked to a small room at the side.

“Give me a moment, I’ll just check the contents.”

Silence fell over the remaining people, the tension slowly rising.

“How is it, beauty, do you have any hobbies?” The idiot just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Patience remained unusually calm but couldn’t let this slide completely.

“Yeah, I use my weekends to beat up dudes that have more brawn than brains. Lucky you, today is the 6th.” She mocked him a bit and his friends began to laugh.

“I like her!” One of them actually gave her a thumbs up, “Now, Lope, leave her alone and don’t make a fool out of yourself.”

The idiot scowled but restrained himself a little. Before long, Gumvar came back with another box in his hands. He put it on the floor and took out a datapad. He tapped a few buttons and Robin got a notification, informing him of the completed contract.

“It was great doing business with you. We’ll be on our way, maybe till next time!” He cut the chase and hurried their meeting to an end.

He really wanted to get out of this workshop, but unfortunately it seemed like these guys had other plans.