Chandra Sidhu

== Backstory ==
=== 1. Homeworld ===
Chandrasekhar "Chandra" Sidhu was born on the farming world of Debica and spent his whole childhood wistfully looking into space and hanging off every word of the traders who stopped by to sell the tech the world was desparately lacking, or the occasional troop ship visiting from the nearby naval base. He was still a young lad when he decided that his best shot off this dead-end farm-rock was to turn his natural propensity towards tinkering into an engineering career. From then on, whenever he had the chance, he would be taking apart bits of machinery from around the farm and (mostly successfully) putting them back together. What at first was an annoyance to his uncles, tediously familiar with the sight of an abashed ten year old sitting next to what had been a perfectly operational electric shaver only a couple of hours earlier, became more and more of a blessing as his proficiency grew. One of the proudest moments of 15 year old Chandra's life was when Vijay Agarwal from two towns over came to seek him out to fix his harvester, as he'd heard of the lad's prowess with a wrench.
Book-learning, on the other hand, was never his strength. He knew if he could just get the academic side to stick he would have a better shot at a career on some fancy spaceship, but no matter how much he tried to force himself to sit in front of the books, it was all just lines and symbols, and by the end of the evening he'd find himself covered in oil and surrounded by cogs in the part of the barn his uncles had let him convert into a "workshop." 
Still, he tried his damnedest, and applied optimistically for university hoping that this would be the next step in his path to the stars. 
The rejection letter crushed him. For weeks he barely left his room. His uncles, initially sympathetic, grew increasingly incensed at his sloth. 
"If you're not going to help out round here, and you're not leaving, you'd better get yourself a job," Uncle Sanj bellowed at him in the third week of despair. "You're not moping around here all day eating our food and contributing nothing. You're not a child any more."
Practically pushed out the door by his uncles, Chandra hitched a ride to the spaceport to see if any maintenance or engineering work was available. 
Nothing doing, though. The manager was apologetic as he said he'd keep Chandra in mind, but there simply weren't the jobs available. 
But as he mentally prepared to slink back to his uncle's farm, he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Excuse me mate, did I hear you say you were an engineer?"
Chandra turned around and found himself face to face with a short, pale, straw-haired chap with an inquisitive grin.
"Yes," he replied, "are you looking for one?"
"By the strangest coincidence, we do find ourselves a crew member short right now," the youth replied.
"Wait, crew?"
"Yup, that's us." The lad nodded towards a slightly dented looking Far Trader a couple of bays over with The Scumtown Seraph stencilled on the side. "Come meet the captain."
=== 2. The Scumtown Seraph ===
In almost no time, the ship felt like home - quickly taking a liking to the rough but amiable crew, and in particular his bunkmate Carter, the lad who had introduced himself on the dock. The plucky young scrapper was always egging Chandra on, and was a special favourite of Captain Fendt with his unerring nose for profitable salvage ventures.
And for eight years, life aboard the Seraph was great. Chandra travelled the stars, seeing sights he had only dreamed of as a kid - sure, they took the normal local jobs, but their real specialty was going slightly further afield for the "big jobs" - larger ships, stranded more out of the way, whose ransacking brought way more profits than the average salvage ship could hope for. The crew would work whatever they could get for a few months, and then all of a sudden Carter would get a mysterious tip, and they'd find themselves at the edge of their range, hauling lavish riches off the yacht of some rich stiff who'd gotten himself stuck drifting empty in the void. Hell, sometimes the best part of these jobs was the reward the family would pay when you brought back the body. But either way, a big haul meant a big payday meant months in the bars and brothels of Praodelf, until mounting debt forced the crew back aboard the Seraph.
It was a little after Chandra's 26th birthday, on the return from one of these debauched shore leaves, when it all went wrong. Either way, they had only been off-world a few days when the m-drive started making clearly unhappy noises. Chandra tried to divert power, but the clanking continued. He went to touch the side panel, when there was a sudden burst of sound and the wall suddenly came rushing up behind him. 
His head splitting and searing pain running up his left side, he looked hazily around the room as his vision cleared. Everything was fuzzy and he was dizzy and he didn't know why Carter was shouting at him and why was Carter here anyway he was never in the... Oh Gods. Carter was standing over him yelling as he slumped against the engine room wall. The Captain was in the doorway bellowing. The cacophanous clanking wasn't just in his head, there was something in the room making it. He tried to stand but was astonished to find a shredded mess where one of his legs had been. The room swam in and out of focus and snippets of shouted phrases started to assemble themselves. "...you hear me? Are you..." - that was Carter's voice. "...to my bloody ship!" That one was the captain. Behind Carter, sparks and were flying from what Chandra realised must be the m-drive.
This was no good. It almost certainly shouldn't be sitting there, side open to the world, mysterious clanking coming from inside and showers of sparks shooting out. Chandra leant forwards and started pulling himself towards the ruined m-drive. Carter, seeing him move, put a hand under each armpit and dragged him over to the engine. Reaching inside, Chandra found a couple of key cables and yanked.
The noise stopped. The sparks stopped. So did the ship. They were drifting in space.
=== 3. Legless ===
The shipboard medic hadn't been able to save any of his leg. It was a couple of days later, and Chandra was making the finishing touches to the m-drive. The captain kept walking into the room and glowering at him while he worked, and then disappearing to the other side of the ship. Chandra was pretty impressed with the work he had done, all things considered, but the captain was clearly unimpressed. A few times now he'd heard Carter and Captain Fendt conferring in his cabin, and appease as Carter might, the captain's stance seemed unbudging. "I'm not running a daycare for a ruddy Disabled" was a frequent refrain. "If he'd just dried out properly before doing pre-launch checks" was mentioned, along with other insinuations about planet-side negligence. Chandra felt it was pretty unfair, he was at least 80% sure it was just one of those fated, unfortunate flukes which he couldn't have predicted no matter what state he was in when he signed the ship off as ready for flight. OK, maybe 70%.
Anyway, he flicked the switch, and they were back in motion, turning back towards Praodelf - Chandra in search of some more in depth medical care; the captain in search of "an engineer who doesn't try to blow up my damned ship."
As Carter helped him off the ship and to the spaceport medical centre, he was apologetic and consolatory. "I tried mate, the captain just wouldn't hear of it. Look, you get this leg sorted out and I'll see if I can put in a good word for you with anyone else who might be looking for an engineer. I can't leave, you know how it is, I got a good gig here, but you hit me up if there is anything I can do. Still brothers, right? Carter & Chandra?"
"Still brothers" Chandra replied, as Carter helped him into a medcentre waiting room chair.
"Look buddy, I gotta run, captain needs me back as soon as possible, but stay in touch yeah?" Carter hurried away.
=== 4. The Ninth Albion ===
The medical facilities were actually pretty good on Praodelf. Chandra was able to get a cybernetic leg fitted in surprising time, although the recovery was neither quick nor painless. It was months before he was walking well enough to really be able to work again, but as soon as he could he headed back for the spaceport. He needed to get back into space and paying off this medical debt. One of Carter's friends had been able to put him in touch with the crew of a ship called The Ninth Albion, under Captain Estringham. Similar work, but over the next few years there were few hauls of the magnitude that had marked his time aboard the Scumtown Seraph. Still, it was good solid work, and while he missed his old friends part of Chandra was kind of glad to take it a bit easier and not have entire months disappearing in narcotic and alcoholic hazes. Now his shore leave involved seeing a lot more of the planet by daylight, instead of the same old joints from sundown to sun-up. As Chandra hit 30 he was definitely starting to take things easier.
Until one day, looking for a small lost ship that had missed a rendezvous near Eskandor their sensors picked up an unexpected ship on the edge of Rift space, way bigger than they had planned. Whatever this ship was, it was massive, and it had clearly been drifting for some time. When their cursory pings weren't responded to, the captain ordered The Ninth albion back planetside to register the salvage as quickly and discretely as possible. Chandra, excited to finally get a good haul again after all this time, penned a quick note to Carter:
Carter, you'll never guess what! We've only gone and found a Fat Trader floating at the edge of the Reft! No idea what it's doing out here but we're heading back out as soon as possible. Sending this to Praodelf but I'll come and find you there after this job - drinks on me - I'm definitely owed some decent time off after this one!
When they got to Eskandor the ship was a hive of activity. The captain rushed off to register the discovery, and the crew set to making sure restocking was done and that there was as much space aboard as possible. While ashore, Chandra also dropped his note off to be sent to Praodelf on the next mail ship. And in hours, they were back aboard and preparing to depart.
=== 5. Fat Traitor ===
The work on the fat trader was going to take some time. A ship this size had a tonne of storage, where the a Far Trader like The Ninth Albion could only take a fraction. Normally they'd just pick through for the most valuable cargo, but there was a whole mess of value packed into this one. It would be a two trip job to get the most valuable stuff off alone, and then they could weigh up whether it was worth the fuel costs to pick through the last of the scrap.
Filled up, the crew returned to Eskandor and unloaded as quickly as possible. The captain spent some time putting out feelers for sale of the cargo, and promising further deliveries to merchants who were prepared to buy in bulk, but most of it they loaded into storage so that they could get back to the fat trader before someone else happened along and they had to split their cut.
A couple of days later, though, as they approached the derelict trade ship again, they saw a gutting sight. Someone else had clearly somehow also discovered this ship, and seemed to be in the process of undertaking just the same ransacking as the crew of The Ninth Albion had been preparing for.
But the sinking feeling in the captain's stomach as they approached was nothing to the gut-plummeting dread Chandra felt as the screens displayed the name of the ship attached to the side of what was to have been their cash cow - The Scumtown Seraph.
As they got nearer, the captains of the two ships signalled each other. 
As Fendt's face appeared on the screen Estringham started in immediately. "We have already logged this salvage with the local star system. What are you doing here?"
"Seems to me," Fendt replied, "that this here is just about on the edge of imperium space. Who's to say whether it counts as Eskandor space at all?"
"You can't do this!" blustered Estringham.
"Au contraire mon frere," responded Fendt, "I think you will find that I already have."
Chandra went to slink away to avoid becoming embroiled in this conversation when a bark of laughter came from the screen.
"Ah," crackled the speakers, "there's my favourite legless lummox."
Estringham rounded on Chandra. "Do you know this man?"
"Of course he does," called Fendt before Chandra had a chance to say anything. "How do you think we found this place?"
Estringham looked at Chandra as if he'd been slapped. On the comms screen behind him Carter stepped into view.
"Sorry buddy," Carter said. "Nothing personal, you're a good guy, but money is money, and a big haul within a jump riftwards from the message you sent from Eskandor? Wasn't that hard to narrow down after that."
Chandra was an eddying mess of emotion - anger at Fendt, sure; guilt whenever he caught Estringham's eye; but mostly betrayal at Carter, his oldest friend.
=== 6. More like Albi-gone ===
The crew of the Seraph hadn't left them that much to pick through. The crew of the Albion docked and started salvaging what they could, but between fuel and upkeep they were barely breaking even. Worse, the captain's negotiations on Eskandor had promised much more resplendent cargoes than they would be able to deliver. 
The crew tried to put a brave face on their despondency, the first haul had still been decent, but between the deflation of their earlier excitement, the awkward position it had put the captain in with Eskandor's merchants, and a few other choice tidbits the crew of the Seraph had offered as Chandra and Carter had begun hurling insults and revealing each others secrets, Chandra noticed that the others seemed to be timing their meals to avoid him, not making eye contact, only saying the bare minimum when communication was required. 
Most of the crew didn't attribute any malice to his decisions, but they did all think he had been stupid, and his sense of Carter's betrayal was complicated by his feeling of culpability for the same happening to his crew.
They flew a few small operations after that, but it quickly became clear that the once trusting dynamic on board had become out of joint with this betrayal. Bowing to inevitability, Chandra and the captain agreed that they would drop him at the next port that had a good industrial sector. Chandra was done with space for now.
And that was how Chandra found himself on the water world Liini, looking for work.
=== 7. Insert planet name ===
Life on Liini wasn't so bad. Chandra quickly found himself work at a factory on the surface, making components that would be sold to starship megacorp GSbAG to use in their drives, working on just the sort of machines he had always wanted - on a much smaller and more assembly line scale, absolutely, but still. He spent his evenings digging into the nuances of the designs of these devices, and felt like he learnt more about M-Drives and J-Drives in this time than he ever had aboard a starship. Not just how to tinker with them to make them work, but on a deep level for why individual components were designed the way they were. Sure, the work was not as mentally fulfilling as he had envisioned, and despite years of hard work he was never going to get to the stage of designing these things, but he was comfortable and reasonably content.
He formed a close relationship with one of the cute girls who worked in an affiliated star-sail fabricator - Bel. He'd seen her at a company picnic, and not been able to take his eyes off her. It was only a couple of years before she became Mrs Belinda Sidhu. He advanced at work - still resolutely proletariat, but slightly less on the breadline, and was able to start putting aside small amounts of money. He became one of the old guard, as he the years went by and he saw new generations join the company, work for a few years, and then move on it seemed faster and faster. His best friend at work, Jasminder Singh, had been working there for only six months when Chandra joined. More than a decade and a half later, they were some of the oldest hands on the factory floor. 
But as the years passed, something started to feel wrong. He was more financially stable than he had ever been, had a wife who loved him, good friends, good community, and OK he didn't look like he would ever save up enough to pay off a house, and retirement was a pipe dream, but the fast cash faster squandered in his youth had never got him anywhere either. He tried to tell himself he was happy, he knew he should. But some nights, at three in the morning, Bel would see him sitting on the apartment balcony watching the sky. And when he closed his eyes, he dreamed of the stars.
=== 8. Adventure again I guess? ===
Bel had cried when she'd sat him down, but she'd also been firm. "You're not happy here. You won't be if you stay here. This isn't good for either of us."
He'd called Jasminder for advice, but to his surprise his friend had already known about the discussion in advance. Apparently it was something they'd been discussing together. Too many end-of-work-week drunken nights reminiscing about his time in space, and then zoning out staring at the sky.
"It doesn't have to be forever," he'd said, but both of them knew the risks. Chandra was 46 now. Even if he could find a ship that would take him, there was no telling how long he would have to sign on for, and space only got more dangerous the older you got.
Chandra felt that he should have felt betrayed, but deep inside him a forgotten emotion was stretching and yawning. Something that felt a little like hope.
And so he packed his bags, said goodbye to everyone he knew, and boarded an x-boat for the big spaceport in Armec-Zamaa.
==Contacts==
Carter, rival - former crewmate
Belinda "Bel" Sidhu, ally - wife
Jasminder Singh, ally - former coworker