Chương 10: Hard Landing

The cruise lane spat Magpie into open space near a very large, muddy blue-green marble. The ship drifted away from the twinned rings, above a queue of waiting freighters. Many of the departing ships shared similar profiles, but each one had their own unique protrusions, mounts and some even had additional engine pods.

This close, Felix noticed many were painted in similar schemes, matching to different shipping companies, but others sported more garish colors, matching the independent personalities of their captains." Magpie, Albany Approach. Clear the lane and proceed direct. Will you need the Tower or can you land?" Felix brought the thrusters to full power and slid around a larger, slower cargo-hauler three times his size.

The position lights blinked, green, red and white, and he kept his distance, in case the bigger ship decided to unexpectedly pivot. Misty returned the call to approach.

"Negative, we don't need the Tower. We'd like to land at Buffalo."" Affirmative, Magpie. Entry will call your vectors to Buffalo when you hit the beacon." A blue light, much like the one that had directed Felix to the cruise lane, sprang to life in the distance. It should have blended with the planet backdrop, but something in the way the system highlighted it caused the beacon to stand out for him. Clear of the larger freighter, he lined up on the marker and led the ship toward Albany.

"Place looks kind of wet," Felix observed as his awareness collapsed back to his own body. Misty smiled at him gently.

"It's a lot of swamp, especially near the oceans, though once you get far enough away from the equator it gets a bit nicer." Felix regarded the planet through the magnified image projected above his console. Three large, interconnected oceans wrapped around the world, separated by splotches of brown, grey and green. Starting about halfway up the northern and southern hemispheres, the land masses turned more green than grey, splattered by lakes and rivers flowing out of squat, weathered mountains.

Since the night-side was nearer at that moment, a handful of bright jewels could be seen scattered across the surface. He pointed at the largest clump of light, which happened to be roughly in line with the marker beacon.

"I assume that's Buffalo?" As soon as he asked every city visible was highlighted, name displayed beside it, in the same sort of overlay the System applied to anything he focused on. A set of messages burst into the patch of his vision he'd begun to think of as 'notification corner.' [SYSTEM CAPITOL DISCOVERED – YORK SYSTEM!] [NEW PLANET DISCOVERED - ALBANY!] [SYSTEM MAP UPDATED] Felix sat back in his seat, taken by surprise.

"The System cheers for just visiting systems?"

"One of the perks of being a captain," Gavin said. He didn't bother to look up, rather continuing to stare at his own console. Misty nodded.

"My understanding is it helps early progression for captains. It also encourages them to get out and explore, though they generally tend to stick to systems closer to the core worlds. Safer."

"Core worlds?" Felix cocked his head to the side, glancing at her.

"Is that anywhere near where Earth was?"

"Mitch told me you asked about Earth." She gave a slow, sad shake of her head.

"No, it's somewhere halfway across the galaxy. The core worlds are the heart of humanity over on this side." Felix blew out a puff of air, remembering what he saw when the System had rebooted his brain. The images were slippery now, hard to grasp and even tougher to fully comprehend, but left an impression of how much space human reach had covered.

"We're really spread out, aren't we? Every time I think I've got the scale…"

"There's a lot out there." Felix watched the world spin above the console. Soon the terminator would cross Buffalo, bringing with it dawn and their arrival.

"So, what happened to Earth?" Misty glanced up to Gavin, but the man kept his head down, appearing to be engrossed in a report. Misty sighed.

"It's a long story, and everyone grows up with their own national version. Someone from Frieland would tell you it was just war and starvation, while someone from Aquitaine would add environmental destruction. Others, like Asiatica, claim it was greed, and a handful claim it was little green men." Misty made a face at that one.

"The one thing everyone agrees on, however, is Earth had to be abandoned."

"A thousand years ago?"

"A thousand years ago. Give or take a few." Felix's eye drifted to the ship's clock, displayed beside the planet. August 28 th, 3147. Doing the math, it meant Earth was lost roughly a hundred years after he stood on the beach with Ana. Would she have been around when the cataclysm happened? The implications troubled Felix and he found himself reaching for the controls, wrapping the Magpie around his body.

The hum of the engines warmed his suddenly chilled core, and he watched the planet's approach through the eyes of the ship herself. Its more immediate needs dulled the mournful longing that had ambushed him, taking the edge off the still-raw emotion. Albany had grown much larger, now filling much of his forward view, and near the edge of the horizon a brightly lit sphere crested into view.

It was a glittering jewel sitting at the top of a structure reaching down to the surface, covered in dazzling lights along the entire length. A long, just as brightly lit cable extended far beyond the station, at the very end of which hung a polished counterweight reflecting the distant light of this world's sun. The System popped up a notification pointing at the station-sphere, calling it Albany Tower—the final stop of the space elevator from the surface.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. A whistle escaped from Felix, and Gavin chuckled from his workstation.

"Tower-rise is rather impressive, isn't it? I'm convinced part of the premium to park there is because of the view." Misty didn't seem so enthusiastic.

"The convenience is just an excuse for them to upcharge everything and then scalp your margins when you can make a sale. Only fools and the rich corpos on a tight schedule go there, and the latter because at least they've got contracts already." Felix could almost hear her shake her head.

"Heavens help you if you're an independent and stop up there."

"Well, it sounds like it's a good thing we're landing then." Felix took a moment to enjoy the view the Magpie fed him through his connection to the ship. The station glistening ahead, the planet drifting below it, and the jeweled lights of other ships coming and going hung all around him and the Magpie, brighter and more beautiful than anything he'd have likely seen aboard the Tower itself. Below, a thunderstorm flashed in the night's shadow, sending incredible arcs of cerulean light tearing through the sky.

He urged the ship into another gentle roll, absorbing the beauty around him.

"I thought you said you were going to fly casual?" Gavin muttered.

"Just wanted to enjoy the view." The comms spoiled his moment.

"Magpie, Albany Approach. Changeover to Entry approved."

"Affirmative, over to Entry." Misty swapped the channel, listening for a moment before she called.

"Entry, Magpie, on vectors for Buffalo." A new waypoint appeared in front of Felix, this one directing him toward the north side of the Tower, away from Buffalo. He ignored the continued conversation between Entry and Misty, as the flight path generated automatically. A guilty corner of his mind complained that he should have been listening, but for the moment, he'd trust Gavin and Misty to do their jobs and he'd just be a pilot, floating over a globe and savoring the experience.

The entry path he'd been given took the Magpie around the far side of Albany, and the ship pierced the atmosphere just west of sunset. He'd wondered how entry would go, but just like controlling the ship itself, the understanding was just there, courtesy of the System's meddling in his brain. He couldn't help but feel some awe as the ship's shields, somehow, diverted the heated plasma around the ship, though for a minute he was still blinded by the whorl of energy enveloping the freighter.

The ship only shuddered a little as it was buffeted by the thickening air. As the last tendrils of plasma slipped away, the sky turned a brighter shade of blue, and the matching ocean below was replaced by rough, swampy land. An occasional clump of trees, not unlike the mangroves of the south— how did I remember them? — littered the landscape, larger hills rising out of the brown-green-blue muck, covered in short, scraggly evergreens.

A flock of birds, decorated with mud-brown and black feathers, flapped their four wings on a path toward the south. Felix took advantage of the Magpie's optics and took closer look. Three eyes lined each side of their elongated heads, and large teeth protruded from their flat bills.

"Biblically accurate geese…" Felix chuckled to himself, as he focused back on the waypoint dancing in the distance ahead.

"Magpie, Buffalo approach. We've got you on scopes, cleared to land at pad eighteen. You may proceed direct." The dancing waypoint moved again, and Felix gave chase as Misty responded. It was nice not having to make the radio calls himself, for a change, and having someone else worry about that. Between Gavin dropping fresh markers and Misty handling communication, he could focus on the fun part: being a pilot. The swamps gave way to plains and hills, and the hills gave way to farms.

Some fields were checkerboards of crops, while others hosted cattle and what appeared to be small, mobile anti-aircraft emplacements. Felix highlighted one and pinged Gavin.

"What's with that?"

"Dire Geese get a bit aggressive with the cows around here." The landscape below changed again as Felix continued the descent, and ahead the tell-tale reflections and hard lines of a bustling city grew out of the rough ground. The blinking waypoint turned to an arrow above a wide-open pad, one of twenty-four in a line near the outskirts of Buffalo. The pad itself was what appeared to be concrete, a worn and chipped '18' painted across the majority of it.

The bottom half of the '1' had been badly scorched, making it look like an upside-down lollypop. A handful of vehicles, some obviously recognizable cargo haulers with flat beds and others looking meant for repair and maintenance, sat on the adjoining service road, yellow beacon lights blinking. Again, the System's enhancements allowed Felix to take the ship into a hover, and a thought about landing caused massive landing pads to extend from the belly.

He let the Magpie settle onto her gear, feeling the ship creak and groan as she relaxed. Satisfied, he cut the engines and cut the ship over to maintenance power. The last thing he saw as he released the controls and shrank back into his own body were the maintenance vehicles pulling up to the ship outside. When Felix entered the cargo bay beside Misty and Gavin, he was hit by a wall of humidity and ozone. The bay door had been opened, and a ramp extended from it to the landing pad below.

A breeze whipped up into the ship, and he caught a whiff of something pungent and earthier, like vegetable compost. Misty noticed his nose wrinkle at the odor.

"The whole place smells like that, when it doesn't smell like mildew or cow. You get used to it." Kyra looked up from the crates she'd been securing to a cargo lifter and stalked over, wiping her hands on her coveralls and eyes locked onto Gavin.

"You two taking Felix into town to deal with…" she paused, giving the man a very sharp look, "…with everything?" The emphasis she put on the last word caught Felix, who glanced to Gavin.

"Doc and me, actually. Misty's going to track down some work." Gavin said, refusing to look either Felix or Kyra. Bates stood up from his own pallet.

"Make sure it's something good this time. Salvage is a lot of work for what we get selling this scrap." As Misty reassured Mitch that, indeed they would look for something more interesting, and yes, it would hopefully involve less scrap and more money, Doc wheeled a gurney into the bay. A black bag, long and vaguely human in shape, sat on top, causing the bay to fall silent. Heads bowed, and Felix looked away.

"Do we need to get things for next of kin?" Felix asked, once the moment of silence had passed. Doc shook his head.

"He doesn't have any, or at least any he cared to tell us about. Probably wise, all things considered." Felix raised an eyebrow, but Doc shook his head a second time.

"Not right now. Gavin will give you the details once we're done handing…the body over." Something tickled it's way up Felix's back and tugged on his stomach. The way the crew kept looking at him, then away, dancing around subjects, he'd put it down to discomfort with the situation, but the near-constant deflection finally set off a warning inside his head.

"There's something you all aren't telling me, isn't there. Something about him and the ship." Felix pointed at Heigel's body, then the ship. The guilty looks between the crewmembers caused the simmering pot inside him to boil over.

"What is it?" He began to shout.

"What are you hiding?"

"Captain Felix Conway!" He whirled at the voice, to three men trudging up the slope of the cargo bay ramp. The two men on either side were uniformed in black with blue trim, each one carrying a large, obviously military-grade firearm. Their faces were hidden by black, reflective helmets, and Bates instinctively raised his hands and stepped away from the pallet he'd been loading.

The man they were escorting also wore black, in this case what looked to be a suit cut and tailored to a millimeter of its life, as well as a pair of black, leather gloves. His face was an open book, hard and wrinkled, head bald and waxed, expression filled with disdain. Stopping at the top of the ramp, he repeated himself.

"Captain Felix Conway?" The crew's eyes turned toward him, then looked down at the deck.

"I'm Conway," he growled.

"And you?"

"I am Frederik Goff, representative of Hirelane Holdings." He pulled an actual piece of folded paper from inside his jacket and held it out in one hand. Felix took the offered paper and opened it as the man continued to speak.

"The System has notified us of the demise of Karl Heigel and the voluntary assumption of all Captain duties of this vessel by you, Mister Conway. As you have accepted the legal contracts and responsibilities, per the agreed to System prompt, we have come to collect on the overdue balance of this…" the man sneered this time as he surveyed the bay, "…vessel's debts." Felix looked at the paper, blinking. The world wanted to spin, but he forced himself to focus on the man, failing to find any words.

"You, and your crew, Captain, owe Hirelane twenty-two point six million credits, of which ten percent is due today." The men flanking him adjusted their weapons to a lower, ready position.

"Or legal action will be required."