Thread: Interstellar Flight (Mr. M & missedstations)

Once she followed him into the commons, and leaned against the wall near the corner where the galley was, Taggart paused in his unloading of the delivery crates and tapped a panel near her, unfolding a seat from the wall. He smiled at her as he gestured for her to sit, then he returned to putting things away as he sought out his materials it was standard rule in small ships, you secured things as soon as you could, in case something went wrong. There's a danger of getting more gear than you need. I'm a one-man contract outfit, usually, and I found that my own ship increased my flexibility, but I didn't want something too large for me to keep up myself. I work well with others, but there's nobody I've wanted to team up with permanently, so anything too big is just too much ship. He finally found the bread, a tub of realistic butter, and the Ekkar-local cheese-like substance that would be perfectly workable. He snapped a grill-surface onto the heating element and started it warming up while he buttered a slice of bread. With the Tears , I can be hired solo, or as part of a team, and I can pick up some extra by providing troop transport, or mission insertion, et cetera, et cetera. Given the kind of work I do, too large also means too visible. So size wasn't the issue performance was. He put a slice of buttered bread on the grill, shook some powder onto it from the spice cabinet, and layered on some cheese slices, followed by a few shakes from a different container. He let that sit while he turned back to Ilena, buttering up another slice of bread. The strength of this whole ship line, every series, is that they're so easy to upgrade. You take a look at any two Dexis vessels out there, and even if their serial numbers are consecutive, they'll be unique as a retinal print. So when I was looking for a vessel, my demands were something I could fly and keep up myself, and something I could modify to suit my particular needs. I bought the Tears used, and she was already in reasonable shape, but it took rather more work to get her to her current status. The cheese was melting, and the grill was sizzling, so he dropped the other piece of bread on the pile, butter side up, then used a spatula he snagged from the magnetic strip on the galley wall to flip the concoction over. The bread that had been grilled was now golden brown and crunchy, and Taggart sighed with satisfaction. Oh, excellent. This side came out perfect. He leaned on the counter's edge, waiting for the other side to brown as he continued, grinning ruefully. I probably could have retired on the amount I've sunk into upgrades on the Tears , and all the specialized equipment, both for the ship and for myself. But she's now one of the best ships in this particular business, and I've got more employable years to go before I have to hang up my gear belt, so if I'm smart, I can make double that amount, just in contract wages, not counting any resale value of the equipment I won't need anymore. Besides, my investments need more time to really mature. He unlimbered a plastic plate from the rattle-proof storage cubby, and flipped the finished sandwich onto it, setting the whole thing on the counter. Taking a knife from the magnetic strip, he made two expert diagonal cuts and spread the four triangular pieces apart a bit. Simple ingredients, judicious application of heat and time it's chemistry and physics, but the end result is much tastier than when I was in school. He fished in the crate and pulled out a reasonable facimile of an apple, which he gave a cursory wash in the galley vacuum sink. After wiping the knife off on a kitchen towel, he sliced and cored the apple with quick, efficient, precise moves, and slid the slices onto the edge of the plate, barely nudged against the sandwich, which was now cool enough to eat. He brought the plate over to Ilena and tapped the wall again, extruding what looked like a chess board built into a tabletop from the wall on the far side of her. He put the plate on the little table and bowed. Your meal, milady! he grinned, then turned back to the cooler to grab a drinking bulb of chilled water for her. Even though the pressure deck had full pseudogravity currently set on Ekkar's Jewel standard, for her comfort, Taggart habitually kept his fluids in closed containers, just in case gravity flickered, an old reflex. He then went back to the galley area to start the process for another sandwich for himself. So how about yourself? If you don't mind me observing, I would have thought your family would have kept you closer to the Central Worlds, kept you away from the edge of the frontier. May I ask what brought you so far out on the Rim?