By David C. Daoust
It was early morning by this time. Neo Vir’ees could be seen clearly, its massive orange surface filled most of the pale blue sky, while the light of day was far to the east, having just risen from the horizon, to cast away the darkness of night. Around noon, the massive gas giant would once again blot it out, this darkness, known as ‘black noon’ would only last a few hours and the day would continue, once it passed to the other side of Neo Vir’ees.
The landing itself was a large, enclosed bowl, like an arena, where all the incoming ships had space enough to set down. There were several other ships about, most of which being unloaded by droids from other companies. Colin was one of very few humans on the landing at this time of day, the only others being the soldiers, that lazily made their rounds around the landing, acting as a police force.
Colin walked down to the other end of the line, where the boxes were sorted and reloaded onto smaller vehicles to be delivered to a half dozen shops all over the port town of Grady. Casually, he filled a small plastic cup with water from a small station near his work area, though one eye sought out the patrol of soldiers.
Colin watched as the heavily armored soldiers plodded by, each with a fully loaded automatic rifle at one side. He nodded a greeting, which the overly grim soldiers ignored.
These particular soldiers were a new presence on Twin Crown. The moons ownership had recently shifted from the Royal Alliance, one of the oldest major powers in the system, to the fledgling governing power of the Red Faction.
This transferring of power happened often on outer Belt worlds. They tended to change hands every decade or so. All that truly changed on the moons themselves, was a new barracks-ship full of soldiers, with a slightly different uniform, and of course, the taxes were all signed to someone else.
Colin waited until they passed and were some distance away before he made his move. Abandoning the small cup of water, untouched, he headed swiftly back down the line, though did not bother reentering the cargo bay, instead he crouched down under the ship, and headed for a small port into the diagnostics area of the ship.
The ship itself was completely automated; so, no pilot, no crew, no one to know he was copying star charts from the navigation computer.
He pulled out a small handheld device and plugged it into the ship. It clicked into place with a small electronic beep, and folded open to reveal a long thick cord that wrapped back around his hand, like a scorpion’s tail. The tail split four ways down its middle, each prong glowing as the holographic screen appeared before him, each of its four corners framed by the tail’s prongs.
Colin flipped through the data quickly, hoping these recent updates to the star charts would be the last of what he needed. The blown coil in his ship, also blanked-out his navigation system, which had to slowly be recompiled before he could take his cargo to its proper destination. He could scrimp and save to replace the coil, but a navigation system is not something easy to come by. He had to rebuild it, which meant he needed the most recent star charts of the solar system. No better place than automated star ships, for that.
Why exactly they were called ‘star charts’ escaped him, as there was just the one star in the system, and he pretty much knew where it was at all times. The data he retrieved though, was paramount to successfully travel through the Onion. Maybe orbital charts, planetary charts, or moon charts just didn’t sound right. Of course, there was always the possibility that he was the only one that ever called them ‘star charts’ and he just never noticed the odd looks.
Colin started suddenly from his musings, as something dark dropped down from beneath the ship. He snapped his wrist, releasing the spring-loaded contraption strapped to his forearm, the small powerful gun snapped into his hand as he turned towards the motion.
