Chương 18: Moving Freight

Breakfast, this morning, seemed to be an individual affair. Felix had slept in, compared to the rest of the crew. Despite the familiarity, he had to admit the capsule was actually a terrible place to sleep under the ship's gravity, with the padding around the interior only making it acceptable for a mattress. Just enough to get the necessary sleep, but not a minute more. In the captain's quarters, however, with the new mattress…..

It was hard to feel guilty about the luxury when he'd slept a full night, unbroken, for the first time since he'd arrived in this universe. Felix dispensed the coffee into the now prophetic mug, giving it a brief stir with a hint of creamer and sugar before taking a long sip. The tart fruitiness wrapping with the earthy bean was growing on him. The ship's mess was vacant aside from himself, and he took a moment to explore the cabinets spread throughout.

The cabinets had indeed been replenished yesterday—filled with boxes of unfamiliar foods and unrecognizable cans—but one cabinet yielded a box of local cereal flakes mixed with dried fruit that at least seemed appetizing on first glance. The picture was a lie, as they always seemed to be. He settled into a seat with a bowl soaked in reconstituted milk, prodding at the mixture with his spoon. At least one fruit was diced chunks of date, and another's texture suggested it might be pineapple-related.

As Felix finished the first soggy bite, he allowed Crew Sense to reach through the ship, getting a feel for what everyone was getting themselves up to. It was that, or focus on the bowl of slowly dissolving bachelor-chow. He'd had enough disappointment as of late. Gavin and Misty were nearest, in their quarters. He scratched the back of his neck, cheeks turning flush involuntarily with awareness that he should be cautious before checking on those two particular crew members in the future.

Right now, at least, they were at separate workstations, but he really didn't need to know more than that. Ever. Doc, Kyra and Bates were outside, though Kyra was actually easiest of the three to sense as she was in physical contact with the top hull of Magpie, near the now-repaired aft right hardpoint. Presumably she was installing the new module they'd brought back last night, putting Bates likely in the crane while Doc likely worked a spotter on the ground.

Hopefully there'd be time to see at least one installation, once he was done with the Taggarts this morning. Felix took his time finishing the soggy flakes, swirling the spoon in the bowl as he delayed the inevitable conversation. Being a day removed from The Entrapment provided a small measure of emotional distance, but the anger toward these two spacers in particular still smoldered. It would have been satisfying to kick them to the landing pad, over to Hirelane's attention, but again, who would replace them?

No one worth having on the crew. He sighed, then drained the bowl, making a mental note to get Bates or Kyra to take him through the ship's pantry before the next time he had to fend for himself for breakfast. If nothing else, they could steer him away from making a soggy mess his first meal. At least I still have coffee, he thought as he took another sip. The friend had changed flavor, but the heart was still there as the buff timer refreshed, ever loyal.

Cleanup was a moment, and then a handful of steps brought him to the Taggart's quarters, across the corridor from his own. He held the doorbell key to the count of three, then crossed his hands in front of himself as he waited. Their response was not instant, and he thought briefly about ringing again before the door opened to Misty, tablet in hand.

"Good morning, we missed you at breakfast. Gavin said you'd be there this morning." Her tone didn't hold any judgement, just stated his absence as a matter of fact. Felix shrugged.

"Didn't realize how tired I was." He looked around Misty's shoulder, into the room. It was organized and clean, with a made bed of similar size and placement to his own, though it seemed to dominate the space more thoroughly. One wall featured a print of an enormous ship, drifting in the black of space, a nebula in the background casting a blue-red light onto the hull. It sat above Gavin's desk, who only looked up at Felix from his own tablet, face carefully held neutral.

"Sorry if that was a disappointment." Gavin looked back down to his work, Misty shifting over slightly and giving Felix a thin smile.

"No, it gave me time to finalize a few options. I was about to send them to your computer, though I did want to…talk about how we should look for work in the future."

"By all means then, step into my office." Felix wavered a moment between the command deck or the galley table. In the former, the captain's chair would place him above her, forcing her to turn and look up. The other would put them at the same level, side by side or across from one another. Each would send its own message, for both their places in the crew and his own attitude toward her. He led her to the galley, where he took a seat on the further side of the table, facing the door.

Misty hesitated before sitting on the opposite side. Flipping her tablet over, she slid it across the table. It featured a star chart with three different systems highlighted and a list on one side.

"These are our options, thanks to the deal you made yesterday. While I appreciate initiative and looking to saving the ship's money, you taking the deal with Al restricted what I could offer." Felix's eyebrows shot up.

"Initiative? I'd call it captain's prerogative." Misty pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I understand you're new to Maggie, but as part of our deal coming aboard Heigel left finding the work to me." Her tone took on that of speaking to an unruly child, which immediately grated on Felix. He did not have much patience for the Taggarts anymore, and he sought to get a hold of his rapidly decaying attitude.

"I'm not Heigel," he said, crossing his arms.

"I'm all for allowing you to continue, but you'll forgive me if I have any hesitation trusting you with everything in that arena." Misty froze, hand still on the tablet as Felix smiled grimly at her.

"There weren't any other options," she whispered.

"You could have asked." He stared at her, letting the moment stretch out before gently pulling the tablet from her still hand to examine the list. She withdrew, hands in lap, looking down and examining them, while he scrolled the list of work.

"We didn't know what else to do," she said, her voice small, quiet.

"We needed help." Felix laid the tablet on the table, jamming his finger into the center of the starfield.

"So did I. And I was probably a fool for trusting the first people to fish me out, but that's on me. Just like I should have gone back and read what I agreed to during that fight, too. Not expecting a bunch of strangers, no matter how kind they seemed, to set me straight." That was the heart of his bitterness, and why he was truly angry. A failure on his part to take responsibility, allowing the opportunity for them to take advantage of him.

It did not sit comfortably on his heart, and he wanted to toss the predicament wholly upon the Taggarts. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Misty shook her head.

"We should have said something." She did not offer anything else, and didn't seem like she could.

"Can you still work with us?"

"I have to. Maybe once I've helped dig us all out of this hole, that'll become something else. But for now, you're going to have to earn my trust." He jabbed at the tablet again.

"Starting here."

"Starting here," Misty echoed, letting out a breath. Her expression shifted, settling into something less raw and unguarded.

"Working with Al's needs, I narrowed down a set of contracts. The chit he gave you left us options, at least." Felix scrolled through the list as she explained how she'd grouped the possibilities, ranging from simple load-a-cargo and go somewhere and hope to hauling someone's contracted goods. None of the details and names really held any meaning for him, seeing as he hadn't set aside the time to learn the…what would it be called, astrography? He would have to fix that… He stopped.

"Ohio?" Misty made a strange face, curious but still reserved.

"Something catch you?"

"Maybe…" The listing appeared to be a straightforward three-leg round-robin. Deliver a cargo from Buffalo on Albany to Firewater, on Rust in the Ohio system. From there, a hop to New Berlin to trade a cargo bound back to Buffalo.

"I should have asked, do you base every job out of here?"

"We try to. Keeps things simple, in case someone needs to find us for a job." Felix scrolled by the Ohio job, examining a few more multi-leg jobs, but eventually returned. It paid almost triple what the others were offering at nearly two million credits, and he pointed it out to Misty.

"This seems strange. Is that an error?" She took a deep breath.

"It depends on what you're willing to do. It's an old client, I haven't worked with them for a long time thanks to Heigel's…fragility, but they do offer lucrative opportunities for people who don't ask questions."

"And it works with Al's shopping list?" Misty nodded.

"One of his suppliers is out of there, which isn't surprising considering what he sold you for the ship. For the main job, though, we have to actually land in Akron anyway to drive the cargo to Firewater. The weather there is too dangerous for even Maggie, so everything they get is overland. And I'll warn you, Rust sees a lot of… traffic from people who don't really like to talk a lot and the system can get a bit rough. But with a pilot like you…" she trailed off, watching his reaction. He leaned back, musing.

That could be why Miranda's pickup was there, though he couldn't help but feel an itch at the convenience of everything lining up. Not to mention running what was probably a shady cargo both from her and Misty's contact. Though the rewards, if Miranda was on the level, stood to be worthwhile. He thought of the small hands trying to fix the pile of nuggets again, and that familiar ache returned.

"Just cargo, not people?"

"Absolutely not," Misty shook her head, sharp and almost angry.

"I won't work with anyone in the flesh trade."

"Is that a common problem here?" Felix leaned forward. If Buffalo Chips was a front for that…well, he'd make sure to find a way to break that ring, but whomever he was asked to get would be a victim, as well. It could be worth going just as a rescue. Misty gave her head another shake.

"No, they avoid York these days. Too many people know what to look for and are happy to report on them." Curious. What was Miranda and her organization up to? Whomever they were asking him to get might know, and even might be able to lead him to a clue toward home. Either way, it was a lead worth checking out, and the planet already held a payday for the Magpie. He cracked a smile.

"Let's go to Ohio." Going to Ohio was a lot simpler said than done. He and Misty spent another hour examining cargoes to fill in the extra space, which meant pouring over market data for both Rust and New Berlin, most of which was at least a week old. That lead to volume calculations, profit to loss ratios, estimating demand based off the old data, and no small amount of just pure hope.

On the bright side, thanks to the drive to deliver cargo to Firewater, they could pick additional cargo for delivery there as well as plan for products coming out of the isolated town. After that was route planning, including working within the patrol schedules of Frieland security ships—particularly in Ohio, as it seemed opportunistic raiders also enjoyed the more hands-off nature of the system.

Of course, they couldn't ride too close to the patrol schedules, since their primary cargo could raise questions if checked carefully. Misty assured Felix that was something her brother could handle, if it came down to anything short of a crate-by-crate visual inspection. He finally understood why Heigel had handed that side of operations over to Misty and only signed off on the big jobs.

Felix had no intention of entirely giving up such a wide swath of responsibility, but he could see allowing her a freer hand in organizing the load. Initial resentment aside, Misty seemed genuinely relieved Felix had taken an interest in understanding the work and not merely dumping it on her. In turn, she opened up about her own abilities and how, thanks to his own passive abilities, Under Command and Holding out, their income from the contracts would be increased by thirty percent.

An extra six hundred thousand credits from the delivery job alone would go a long way, especially considering how much the repair and upgrade had cost them with Al. When the session had finally concluded, Misty was smiling and had genuinely thanked Felix as she left to arrange the deliveries. It would take a few hours for the first trucks to arrive, but if there were no hiccups, she assured him the cargo would be secured and the ship ready to lift by supper.

Unfortunately, since she'd spent so much time having to explain the operation to Felix, he couldn't make it outside in time to see the installation of the shield hardener in the new hardpoint. Instead, he had to be satisfied with the system notification about the upgraded damage reduction from the new component. When the pop-up came and he mentioned it to Misty, she'd been surprised—apparently a 25% reduction in shield damage taken per hit was uncommon.

The delay did mean, however, that Bates was available to give him a ride back to the city for his shopping trip as Kyra would be engrossed in working her engineering magic integrating the new parts and Doc was still reaching out to his network about Felix's glitch. By the time Felix had tracked Bates down and arranged for the ride, Misty's contractor had already confirmed the load and sent the first truckload. He only complained a little about chauffeuring Felix as they drove out.

Thanks to the time crunch, the trip was just a swift out-and-back. Doc's running shoes were replaced by a properly fit pair as well as a pair of boots for anything off-ship. There'd been enough time to gather toiletries and other minor essentials, but there was no extra for replacing the bright blue NASA jumpsuits. As long as he stayed out of trouble, the four would serve well enough, especially since he'd found a jacket at the same store as the shoes.

Made from locally produced leather, it was on the more expensive side but would hold off the local autumn chill. It also didn't hurt the bomber-style cut gave him an almost roguish look which threatened to bring out a smile. After all, if he was going to end up playing the part of Space Captain, he thought, he might as well look the part, too. The load to Firewater wasn't the only thing waiting when they got back, in spite of their pace.

Two more trucks had arrived, and Misty waited outside to warn them about a fourth. She did not seem impressed by the jacket, and when Kyra joined them outside, she only rolled her eyes before moving to help Bates begin moving the freight. To his credit, Bates took the early arrivals well and leapt into immediate action without the usual complaint Felix had begun to expect.

The Loadmaster, his official class, pointed at crates and pallets at seeming random and they appeared to move almost of their own volition as he, Kyra and the truck drivers ushered the load into the Magpie's bay. Objects that shouldn't have fit into the various stacks suddenly did, and space which seemed occupied moments before was empty at the next glance as Bates passed.

"Mitch," Felix called, interrupting the work for a moment. He'd been watching the almost magical process as Bates threaded his way around the cargo.

"What happened to the pallet that was right here?"

"Oh, it's still there, just…well, a bit of quantum storage. Magpie' s cargo bay would be twice the size of the ship otherwise." He directed another pallet, full, into the now vacant space Felix had been pointing at.

"Like I told you yesterday, Heigel put everything into cargo upgrades." Kyra said as she looped a strap over the stack, securing it to the deck. This time, when she pulled it tight and stepped back, it didn't vanish. She seemed to smirk at Felix's expression of mixed awe and confusion.

"More of that space magic. I learned not to ask." Felix watched the process for another few frenetic minutes before wandering forward to stow his new gear and rest before they left. At the current pace they were setting, dinnertime departure no longer seemed to be wishful thinking.