Phantom Star: Chapter 20

“Marco!” I called out slowly walking through the hallways of my ship. 

I heard some of the Crabbit that had already failed the game, tittering all around me, but finally one called out from down the hall. “Polo! Green!”

“Oh you think you’re green do you?” I muttered darkly as I hurried down the hall and then came into the empty crew room. The light was off, which made sense because I didn’t have a light installed yet. I flicked a flashlight from my belt and looked around the room.

The quiet titters of silly drones did not help my search at all, but it was to my benefit that the Crabbit hadn’t quite figured out sneaky yet.

I took three steps in and instantly knew what had happened.

“Hmm. Where could my Crabbit be hiding? In… Here!?” I faked spinning around and looking up at the ceiling above the door.

Instantly I heard titters, and the Crabbit that had been badly hiding their attempts to follow me thought it was hilarious, peeking their head around the door and giggling.

Of course I had found all of these Crabbit already, and with how many of them I had grabbed it was getting harder to find the last few because of all the giggles following me.

But I had already spotted this one, I was just giving her a bit of fun.

I rolled my eyes, took two steps back and then reached out and grabbed the floating floor plate that I don’t even want to know where she grabbed it from.

“Or are you here!” I called out and she shrieked. Her face plate spazzed out a bit at her surprise.

“Nooo! I got founded! Not Green! Red! Red!”

“Hehehe! Red!”

“Totally Red!”

“Alright alright.” I called out to keep them from bullying each other… Themselves…. Seriously, these Crabbit were silly. “That’s everyone right?”

“Yes! Got us all! Captain is too good!”

“Too good!”

“Well that’s why we’re doing this! Now you have some data to learn about hiding with. Why don’t all of you share that data and try to figure out even better hiding spots for next time.” I said and they all cheered because that meant more games.

There, that had been an hour or so of playing around the ship, and it would keep the Crabbit busy for hours as they tried to figure out how to hide better.

Giving me a bit of time to relax.

Well, I can’t say it wasn’t fun for me. Long distance travel was boring, especially by yourself. Watching TV and reading books in between fixing up more of the internals of the ship got pretty boring when you couldn’t just float over to the station and get a warm meal around people.

But… It was also kinda nice. Peace and quiet, outside of my Crabbit causing trouble.

I stretched up and let my hands brush across the ceiling as I groaned for a moment, before relaxing. That had been fun, but I should do a full check on everything. I pulled out my Tab and looked at the bridge status. Everything was good. We were still on course, and there were no issues.

I walked over to the engine room and relaxed at the noise of the Diamond Drive. It still sounded terrifying, especially the larger Diamond Drive, but it was still a soothing clash of noise. It sounded dangerous, like something out of a horror movie, but it was still obviously music.

That checked I closed back down the engine room, noticing the splash of red was on the door, and shaking my head. 

The Crabbit that had found the painting sprayer really liked marking the color level of each room.

I was gonna have to get her to redo most of it though, it was still a little messy.

I headed down to the hold and slipped down the ladder about half way before looking over the containers. Everything was solid, and there wasn’t any shaking or rattling. I continued all the way to the bottom of the hold, and then went towards the forward most section of the hold.

There was an upraised section here, that would be the safety section for people coming out of the elevator…

But I walked to the elevator door and opened it to the shaft. 

Then I stepped inside, and straight across. 

This little section had been something I’d come up with a long time ago, the entire back wall of the elevator shaft wasn’t a shaft, but actually a blast door. 

The door here would be covered in red if not for the fact it was meant to be hidden.

I knocked on the door and a moment later it opened. 

“Passcode!”

“There is no passcode.” I told her, and the Crabbit that opened the hidden door cheered.

“Yes that’s true!” I stepped into a small room, but it was only small because it was full.

A short path led all the way to the back of the room, and along the sides of the room the entire room was filled with massive metal vats. “How are the little ones?”

“Growing growing!” The Crabbit told me. As she floated around. Just like the bridge, or the engine room, a Crabbit was always assigned to this room as well.

I closed my eyes and listened to the song, feeling my smile growing as I did. 

It was a mechanical ever growing beat. With every tiny addition that was built the song grew more and more complex.

But it also sounded perfectly in sync. There were no disruptions this time. “Looks like you’ve been doing a good job managing them.”

“Yes yes! All growth must follow code! No bad builds!” The Crabbit chattered as she floated around checking the vats. I joined her climbing up the ladder and looking in and nodding. The chunks of scrap metal that had once filled the vats now looked like a bubbling goop. The vats were connected to channels that could release the Nanopaste onto the section of the ship that needed repair. 

I had decided to make it all into a secret room, because Nanopaste was something that tended to get people upset. This entire room like the engine room was covered in sensor dampening materials, and it should make anyone that scans me think the entire thing is just more armor. Mostly because there was already a lot of armor covering this section.

With that done I was satisfied the nanomachines were producing themselves properly. When I had first cracked the nanopaste I had gathered from UNK-L I had known it was dangerous, and had completely remade the programming that formed the nanomachines ability to create more of themselves.

There was a reason I made sure a Crabbit was in charge of them. The tiny nanomachines didn’t have the processing power to do all the checks and tests they needed to make sure there wouldn’t be a problem, but a Crabbit, even a lone one did.

So there was always a Crabbit minder offering a large chunk of its processing power to the nanomachines. 

I looked down into the vats and the grey goo inside was actually trillions of nanomachines and some clean water. The nanomachines used the water molecules as a heatsink and it made them look like a goo.

“Good work everyone.” I whispered into the vat, and climbed back down and out. That was all the checks. Maybe I’d go up to the bridge and sit in the comfy chair and read a book.

—--

The appearance of the star system was a relief, just from the tedium of nonsense that normally flickered across my view in subspace. 

“Sensors… Clear. Nothing here?” Navigation questioned and I giggled at her.

“Stark Point is just a little colony. They won’t have anything in orbit yet. Can you search for a landing beacon?”

“Searching!” It chirped, and I nodded as I looked towards the planet we were already accelerating towards. It looked pretty good to my eyes. Plenty of green, and clouds floating around… Why they were purple hued I didn’t even want to ask. The Kenish Duchy fascination with the color purple showed up in the oddest things.

I ignored it and simply continued heading towards the planet. We’d get a hit on their location soon…

“Anything?” I asked, and the Crabbit buzzed out a little hum and then she turned to me, and donked her head with her grabber. 

“I don’t see it! Teehee!”

“Don’t teehee at me. I’ll search too.” I offered and looked at the floating screen that was connected to my chair. Perks of the new chair was an actual Tab integrated in. I hit a few buttons to pull up the sensor reports, but I wasn’t getting anything.

Huh. Nothing. There wasn’t a beacon. Had they damaged it or something? That was super unusual. All planets had a landing beacon near cities and things. No one wanted some crazy pilot to land in the middle of a park or something.

“I’ll open up a Comm channel and just call out to the void if I have to.” I said and worked on doing just that. Grabbing the communication equipment on the Phantom Star I opened basically a broadband channel, with zero security. 

This is Phantom Star Transport coming to Colony Stark Point. Please respond.

Then I just kept flying towards the planet, still not seeing any point where I would actually want to land. What the heck was going on here?

Finally I got something back. A muffled weak comm message, that I couldn’t make heads or tails out of with all the static.

Please repeat Stark Point, that didn’t come through.

I fiddled with my own settings giving the comm system a bit more power, and shifting the entire ship towards where the signal was coming from to try and pick it up a bit easier.

This is Stark Point, Black Hole you gave us a fright! The voice said as the static mostly cleared. 

Sorry about that Stark Point, but I’m not seeing any landing beacon, or signal, I have a delivery.

Well I’ll be we didn’t get completely forgotten about after all? Sorry to say our Landin’ Beacon is long gone. I can give you some coordinates? Or you can follow this signal, I’m Stark, the Governor of this little colony.

I blinked, and altered my course to start coming into the atmosphere.

This is Phantom Star, I’ll head to your signal. Any particular landing area?

Oh damn, anywhere that isn’t my fields’ll do. Look for old Beth, The colony ship. She’s become the storehouse. You can land at her nose. That’s just a bit of empty we don’t use much.

Understood. I focused back on flying, as the rumble of the atmosphere had already overtaken my ship. But this wasn’t the Phantom that struggled to reach Elinai. The plasma thrusters kicked in, and assisted the Gravity Engines in keeping her nice and stable. And soon I’d slowed down enough that I wasn’t fighting the atmosphere anymore, but instead just flying through completely blue skies. 

I couldn’t help but feel like I needed a little fun, and I kicked the engines up a bit and suddenly we were roaring through the sky under heavy thrust and I was laughing as I arced a bit left and right just to feel the wind under my wings.

My ship. My spaceship. This was what it was all for. 

I overshot my target a bit, but that was okay, it let me turn sideways a bit and looked out the window to see the town below me.

The large colony ship was landed, and it looked less like a ship now, and more like a building, being torn apart for the town to consume. 

I could see houses, some prefab, and some farther out looking like they were wood. What a wild thing. To see wood homes even from this distance, after decades of never even seeing something with a wooden handle. 

But finally I came back around and down, letting the sky airbreak me a bit as I came in slow.

Checking the exterior sensors, I got a view of what was below me in a perfect image, as I slowly let the Phantom come straight down, the field looked like a park..

I guess parks were the best place after all? Who knows. I wasn’t a dirt runner anymore after all. Who knows what their common sense was.

I couldn’t help but goggle a bit as I watched what looked like a soccer ball, or something of that sort rolled away from the light backwash of the plasma thrusters through the sensors. It was kinda funny even so.

Then with a quiet groan, the Phantom touched earth, its landing gear flexing as it distributed the weight.

“Landing successful! Landing successful!” The Crabbit cheered but then whined as they realized they couldn’t float anymore.

Hadn’t gotten around to fixing their atmosphere mobility yet. 

I sat up and noticed the difference in depth to the gravity and then walked through the ship to the Hold.

I didn’t open the doors right away. Instead I walked down the safe paths around the containers until I was at the entrance. And activating the ramp and doors.

Reaching down I flicked my suit controls as well. I had no idea what this place smelled like, and would test it when I wasn’t about to meet the locals. Nothing quite said hello, like puking all over the floor at the smell.

Elinai had taught me that one well enough. 

The doors opened to a brightly lit day and I had to shade my eyes a bit as the ramp finally landed. 

A crowd was already there. To my shock, they were actually riding horses. Real actual horses… Well they seemed a bit short. More like a sort of pony?

I tore my eyes from the animals and looked at the crowd. Men and women dressed in… Well I wouldn’t call them fancy dress, but it looked like actual cloth, and probably handmade. Leather looking boots, and things.

It felt like I was stepping out of my spaceship into the wild west. The styles weren’t the same, but the actual materials were.

Jeeze. This place really was a backwater.

The man in the front had a big hat, an odd mix between a cowboy hat, and a sun hat, but it wasn’t cheap looking, well made and clean.

“Captain?” He called out, and I nodded.

“Katherine, Captain Katherine of the Phantom Star, but you can just call me Kat.” I greeted and the man's rugged, sun baked cheeks grew into a smile. Five o’clock shadow going gray matched by gray almond eyes. He and all the others had some Asian blood in them.

Or maybe not, who knows how crazy the human genome has gotten over thousands of years. 

“Governor Stark Euwyne. Just call me Stark, we aren’t much for fancy titles here.” He offered, climbing off his horse and walking up to offer me a hand which I took and shook. “Heavenly stars, is it good to see you. We thought our last transport failed to put in the request for more supplies.” He said and I couldn’t help but notice I was a good food taller than the man, and most of the people were equally short.

“It was in, just behind. A war started up.” I admitted and his eyes widened and then he looked serious. “Who?”

“The Dominion.” I answered equally as quickly.

“Oh.” He offered seemingly chewing on that before nodding. “Thankfully that puts us out of any trouble with that. But enough about that. Come why don’t we go inside and get something fresh in your hand?”

“Maybe after.” I said and looked to the containers. “I’d rather be here to supervise as we pull all of this off… Do you have a forklift?” I asked suddenly, worried that it was going to be horse powered.

“Ah, not to worry. We do still have a hauler. Doesn’t get much use, but it’s still functional. It’s already on its way. We’re waiting for it to arrive before we can properly move the containers…” The man offered and then smiled at me, as I couldn’t help but wipe my forehead. 

It was hot. Even my forcefield wasn’t keeping the heat from affecting me.

“Inside with something fresh sounds good.” I offered and the man laughed jovially and waved me forward, but I stopped to look behind me.

The Crabbit were hiding like I told them to. And the one on my back just looked like an odd backpack with her antenna down, and her grippers closed.

I smiled and nodded and followed.

I took two steps and wobbled a bit. The dirt here was weird. 

“Ah, watch that. The topsoil of the planet is very loose, but we have incredibly mild winds, and there are vine networks just under the soil that keep the whole thing held together. It’s why this planet was chosen to be colonized. It’s perfect for agriculture.”

I nodded and stepped a bit higher, just like moving through snow almost.

I followed Stark back towards the crowd who were looking all excited at me, and the cargo, but I stalled as the horse that Stark had been standing beside trotted forward and nuzzled him and I couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable.

It has been a long time since I’ve seen an animal even half as large. Pets weren’t really a thing on station.

“Ever seen a horse before?”

“Yes, even ridden one, a long long time ago when I was a kid. Just been a while.” I offered and he laughed, and waved me forward. “Well let’s get inside then. We’ll just walk if that’s alright?”

“Yes please.” I agreed, I had no interest in testing the tiny amount of knowledge I had about riding a horse…

Which was basically just sit in the saddle and let it follow the horse in front of it.

“Welcome to Stark Point!” A voice shouted suddenly from my side and I looked down, and then farther down to see a little girl wearing a cute little blue dress, and bright green almond eyes smiling up at me with a whole chunk of teeth missing.

“I’m happy to be here.” I offered back and she smiled back twice as bright as she ran off, and a moment later I could hear her shout.

“Mama! The giant space woman talked to meeeee!”

I couldn’t help but snort, at that description and I quickly followed to catch up to Governor Stark who had stopped a bit to wait, he had a smirk on his face at the interaction as well.

“Sorry about that. It’s been so long a lot of the little ones don’t remember the last visitor.”

“Aren't there more towns?”

“There’s only one other town on the planet, and it’s not far. A mining town that was built up, we found some useful minerals, and decided to dig a bit of it up for what we needed.” He explained, and I nodded as we walked.

The moment we got out of the field I was parked in, we hit a dirt road that wasn’t squishy anymore, and that led down a hill and into the town.

The buildings we walked past at first were prefab, made out of a material I vaguely recognized. It was basically concrete foam, you can build whatever you want with it, and it hardens into a sort of rock. Solid stuff.

But those buildings did look older, and from what I could see many of them, had faced a few conversions. Government buildings, into homes by the look of it. 

“The original fabs were supposed to be for all sorts of things, but we grew fast, and didn’t really have enough contact with the verse. No need for a starport control when we don’t get more than one ship a year.” He offered, pointing to one building, and I’m pretty sure the antenna on top was part of the comm array the town should have, but it was currently covered in some kind of line with clothes hanging from it.

“Here we are.” He said turning to another one of the buildings, which even had a horse post outside, and tied his horse to it, as he waved me inside. 

The doors slid open, which was really incongruous to the almost western surroundings, automatic doors. And we entered with a wave of cold air, into what looked like a mix between a bar and a restaurant.

“Welcome to the Watering Hole. Bit of a joke, but it’s where we hold our social meetings, and grab food.” He offered and moved to take a seat at one of the tables in the center of the room. I noticed that our entrance wasn’t alone, as I followed him in, plenty of the crowd joined us, and it wasn’t more than a moment, that half the people in the room were sitting close and looking over at me.

Ah. They were going to listen in.

Stark sent them a look but just sighed and shook his head. “Don’t mind the evesdroppers. They’re just as interested as I am, about any news you might have… But where are my manners. Before I ask you to speak to a full room, let me offer you a drink.” A moment later a pitcher was brought over and two glasses were poured.

They were glass, and I could see the almost purple liquid inside swirl around.

“What is it?”

“Heh! Our main export. Well it will be. We call it Vinefruit. Because it grows on the vines under the ground. It was an odd mutation from some of the seedlings we brought and the native fauna.” He explained and I looked at the drink a little warily.

“Is it safe?”

“While we are only a colony, we still have medical equipment. It’s completely safe.” He assured me, I was tempted to deny it, but I took the glass and took a sip.

Hmm. Almost sour, but citrusy. Like a mix between a lemon, and an orange. 

“It’s good.” I offered and he smiled. 

“I hope so, we plan on using it as one of our main export crops. You could someday see the flavor of our world across the entire sector… But that’s for the future.” He offered and I nodded, and then suddenly the atmosphere shifted.

The noise of a transport from outside, tracked by the noise it made, had everyone suddenly stiffen, and Stark frowned.

“He’s early.” He commented as he rose up. “Excuse me for-”

That was as far as he got when the door to the bar opened with a whoop from a group of boys as they sauntered in with all the bravado of a group of young twenty somethings… All of them were armed.

And the tension in the room increased.

I felt myself stiffen as well, as the boys didn’t look friendly. They had that sinister smile that spoke of casual violence.

“Well well there’s the Old Dirt. Well, you made a demand, and we’re here Dirt.” The lead young man offered as he sauntered up, very purposefully to my eyes slamming his ass onto the table I was sitting at with his gun belt on full display. “You know I woke up today to little Martin heading into the garage to grab the hauler. You know anything about why my youngest brother’d do such a thing?”

“I called your home Custer. We finally had our-”

“I didn’t ask about what happened here. I asked why my youngest brother was doing such a thing.” He snapped back, cutting the older man off, and then the young man turned a bit to look at me.

Dark hair, and green almond eyes, but these were dangerous, and unfriendly. They roved over me, and seemed to notice my face…

I felt my own eyebrows shift together in irritation.

I know my face was a bit blunt because of the gene mods, and it made me a bit self conscious of my looks.

I didn’t appreciate the harsh eyes roving my face.

“Well well, an outsider well and true. You the one that demands the use of my family's Hauler?”

“I didn’t demand-”

“Shut up, void trash. I wasn’t actually asking.” He snapped back instantly and I flinched from the threat of violence.

What the fuck? I knew frontier worlds could be rough and tumble, but this was…

This guy… He would absolutely shoot me if he felt like it.

I suddenly had the sinking realization that there were no police, or guards here to protect me. I was alone in a strange world with strange men and women.

Fuck I didn’t even have more than an old medkit on the Phantom Star in case something happened. Stupid. Really stupid.

“Custer.” Old Stark growled and the boy didn’t respond to the threat with anything, but turned his eyes from me to the older man.

“Well Old Dirt. You going to explain?”

“I called your home and Martin picked up. I explained that I was calling in the hauler duty as per the law.” He said back and Custer didn’t look like he appreciated it. His hand didn’t quite reach for his gun. But it was close.

“And you think that gives you the right to order around my family? I told you before Old Dirt. If you want something from the Wellings, you talk to me. Not Martin. Not old Nam. Me.”

Stark seemed to mull over how to respond for a moment, and took a swig of his drink, seemingly to buy time.

“I’ll do what I need as Governor when an emergency arises.” He finally stated, and that was a challenge. 

“Yeah you think so? Maybe your oh so important ship captain will end up dead-” He said and I started to rise up as soon as I realized he was threatening me. Nope. I don’t want anything to do with this.

His hand shot out to grab my arm as I rose up, but his hand slipped a bit as he couldn’t quite get a grip, and I just kept going. The motion unbalanced the man.

He nearly fell off the table as I stepped back to try and get some distance and he went right with me, his hand scrambling on the fabric of my jumpsuit.

The guy was only about five foot nothing. And I think he weighed about a hundred pounds soaking wet.

That didn’t make him not dangerous with that gun, but he certainly wasn’t going to stop me from moving as I moved back and suddenly he was on his feet facing me scrambling to hold me still and then.

There was a moment where he was looking up at me, and I was looking down at him.

He let go of me then, and I took a few steps back. I wasn’t about to stick around for a gun fight at the Stark Corral so to speak.

“I’ll be back at my ship.” I stated loudly, and then turned and hurried away the… Brothers? That had been at the door stepped aside in a hurry as I brushed past them. Hurrying past the cargo hauler that was idling out front of the bar. And then I hurried to the ship. Just managing to keep myself from running.

Scary! That was scary!