Phantom Star: Chapter 13

“Brat.” Aunt Sheila called out, surprising me and I stalled out on my rapid pace towards the air locks.

“Aunt Sheila, what’s up?”

“Before you run off, I’d like a second.” She called out and I shifted my path, turning towards Aunt Sheila's little shop area. I followed her back in, and noticed that a lot of the scrap that once was scattered across the ground was now gone.

The war had been a constant drain on all the resources on the station. Sure we still had plenty of food and water, the military transports with food hadn’t been affected, but we were sending out basically all of the valuable scrap we had. 

Well everything but the stuff I had picked out for the Phantom Star from the pirate ships before they had been cleared out and sent on their way.

“We’ve got a problem.” She started as she stopped at her store counter and dropped into a chair, I noticed instantly she was tense, her fingers tapping away on the steel as if nervous.

“Okay?”

“I’m serious Kat. I just finished talking to Uncle Kyle. He asked me to talk to you about this, since he thinks I have a closer relationship with you. That’s how serious it is, he’s trying to use our relationship to get you to do this.”

“Do what?” I asked instantly, because yeah, this was sounding serious.

“We have a supply shipment, the merchant who was supposed to transport it disappeared. You heard?”

“Not really… I haven’t talked to Marie in a while.” I admitted and that actually earned me a snort from the older woman. 

“Yeah that tracks. Been hiding away in your ship?”

“I’m not hiding… I do have a Captain's Quarters… It’s bare bones, but-”

“No, you don’t have to defend yourself Kat, C’mon. You think if I had a ship I’d be sleeping on station?” She asked and I shrugged and she finally shifted from her seriousness into a laugh. “Ah, you're such a funny girl. Alright listen here’s the deal, and why I’m the one asking you. We need this deal. The longer we wait the more likely it slips through our fingers. Let’s just say the station has been getting sidelined for some parts that we need thanks to the war, and this was our chance to finally get them. We got the start of a deal, but transport became an issue, and a dealer like this is more likely to sell the goods if we can’t pick up.”

“Okay, so it’s important… And you obviously need a ship to go get the parts, but?” I asked, because if it was just that, Uncle Kyle could have asked.

Hell I’m actually kind of excited to go out and travel a bit even if the Phantom Star isn’t finished. I wouldn’t get into a fight, but her hangar space is still there, and she can jump into Subspace without problem. So a short trip to get some missing supplies sounded… Fun.

“Okay I’ll be straight. The shipment is large, not a huge issue, but we’d need someone that can speak on behalf of the station… We’d be requesting you take a few people with you.”

“No.” I denied instantly, my hackles rising. “She isn’t ready for more people!”

“I know Kat.” Aunt Sheila said, hands raised and waving to calm me, and I only felt my desire to run from this conversation grow all the more. But I didn’t. “I know you aren’t comfortable with it. Hell, you’ve told me, your ship doesn’t even have the crew quarters built in yet, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So I get why you’re uncomfortable, but we don’t have anyone else to ask. Merchant transports haven’t been coming through just yet. It’ll be another month or two before word spreads that we are open again, and anyone bothers to stop by… Merchant captains don’t like stopping in a system and being told to leave because the station is in lockdown. It hurt our contacts.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, happens every time we have to lock down. Some captains won’t come back again, some it’ll take a while. Think about it kid. It can sometimes be days, or even a week out of a captain's way to visit us, so for them to arrive only to find out the station is on lockdown?”

“Yeah I wouldn’t come back again either.” I muttered. That’s something I’d have to keep in mind. While it didn’t cost anything really to travel with modern Iris Drives providing infinite power. There were still costs. Time, repairs, food and more. 

Travel wasn’t arduous, but it was still travel.

“So we need you. We’re willing to pay. Uncle Kyle is willing to be generous… For what we have anyways. Just to temper expectations.” She said the last bit apologetically.

I nodded, really just wanted to wring my hands. I didn’t like it! I didn’t like it at all. 

“W-who would be going?”

“Well… Uncle Kyle is thinking of giving little Carter some responsibility. It’ll be him as leader, along with Collin to back him up and handle anything and a few hands.”

I blinked at that combination. Old Collin’s bad attitude usually meant he was kept away from any sort of diplomacy.

“Don’t give me that look. Collin knows his shit. Besides, he’s there to be Carter's backup. If Carter messes up, we’ll need a hardass to fix it.”

“Gotcha.” I said and then sighed, reaching up and scratching at my messy hair with my gloved hand. I really didn’t want people on my ship. She wasn’t ready! “I don’t even have everything set up for more people… My toilet is already…” I started and Sheila just laughed.

“Listen Kat. It’s your ship, and your choice. I’m of course of the opinion you should help out, but it’s up to you. But, and take this as honest advice? You’re the captain. If you want them shitting out of a bucket and chucking it out into space, then that’s your decision.” 

“I don’t!” I said wrinkling my nose and Aunt Sheila just laughed harder. 

“Well if you accept, it doesn’t have to be right away. Give it some time to fix up what you need, or even drag them into working for you if you need it. Could install some emergency toilets wherever you plan on setting them in. You don’t need to overthink it.”

“I’ll… I’ll think about it.” I said, definitely going to be overthinking it.

“Alright. Just let me, or Uncle Kyle know once you’ve made a decision… We do need this Kat.”

“I… Got it.” I said and turned to escape. 

What was I going to do now?

—--

I traveled back to the ship, all the while as I drifted through space helped around by the Crabbit on my shoulder I considered what was going on.

Travel sounded fun. Sure the Phantom wasn’t ready yet, but just a transport job sounded pretty fun. A flight out of system, give myself a chance to really test warp travel on my ship, but…

But, I didn’t want to have other people around! I’d have to lock down the engine room and make sure no one could get in. I’d have to find some way for them to live. Hell, my own quarters were basically an empty room with a toilet, near the bridge. I didn’t even have the rest of the bathroom installed. I had skipped all the pleasantries trying to get the ship combat ready.

I still had a shitty chair too.

So if I was going to bring people along… The hangar would be the best space. There just wasn’t enough finished room on the ship to have anyone wandering around.

As I floated I realized I had already come to the decision to help out. I was running through what I would need to make the trip actually safe for people. Instead of ways to say no. The hangar would need the lights double checked most of them weren’t installed. I’d need sleeping space, and food. Water.

Uuuu.

As I floated I pulled out my Tab and started checking the work orders.

It wasn’t entirely followed to a T by the Crabbit, sometimes things needed to be done in a different order as situations came about. Yet, now I would have to add even more to the seemingly endless list.

I reached the massive hangar ship and floated in through the forcefield enjoying the feeling of gravity returning as I fell onto my feet and looked around.

“Are you guys playing again?” I asked, because the Crabbit were all flying around not working.

“Bully! Kaaat! They are bully!” One of them screamed as she raced over and buzzed around my head and it only took a moment to notice that her backside had a big red streak of paint.

“Slow down, slow down, why are they bullying you?”

“Trouble!”

“Makes more work! Worst worker!”

“Clumsy! Clumsy!”

“Hey!” I called out as the crowd gathered around me. “That is being a bully. Stop that.” I told them and looked at the Crabbit that was floating behind me peeked out around my head to wave her hand at the others.

“Blegh!”

“Hey don’t start it either.” I warned, but I had to ask. “Why do you have a red streak on your back?”

“Red Zone! She’s a red zone! Danger!” One of them called out and I felt my jaw drop.

“That’s not what Red Zone means! You can’t label anyone a Red Zone!” I called out. Okay this is my fault. Should have made sure they understood what a Red Zone meant a bit more clearly before I left it for them to figure out.

“Aww. I thought we had it that time!”

“Yeah me too, The Red Zone label means a dangerous area and requiring more attention was a good idea I thought?”

“I guess not-”

“Hey! That’s actually pretty close!” I jumped in because holy shit the Crabbit had actually almost got it this time! “But we don’t label people as Red Zone! It’s an area not a Crabbit or a person… So who marked her?” I asked, and they shuffled for a minute before one of them floated up. The fact she had a paint sprayer in her hand told me she was definitely the one.

“Uuuu… I thought it was right?” She offered to get out of trouble and I sighed. 

“Okay, you're the one who is going to clean her up then… Wait. Where did you get a paint sprayer?”

“I found it!” She chirped, waving the little paint spray gun around and then after a few moments I realized she wasn’t actually intending on adding anything more I decided to do the smart thing and not ask any questions.

If I don’t know where she stole it from, I certainly wouldn't be an accomplice… Actually since she’s a drone I would be blamed regardless, but I was going to stick to my happy ignorance here. 

“Okay. Clean her up, and no spraying anything without permission.”

“Aww… I like painting.”

I almost managed to stop myself from asking, but I had a feeling I needed to know.

“What are you painting?”

“Hehe! You want to see Captain? It’s amazing!” She cheered and then flew away. As I grew more and more concerned, I relaxed when she came floating back with a chunk of plating from the hangar…

That was certainly… Something?

“Do you like my art?” She asked, rubbing her claws together nervously. Her question shook me out of just staring and I smiled. 

“I love it, Crabbit. It’s very you.”

“Yay!” She cheered and I looked at the paint on the plate. It kinda looked like old Fractal Camouflage.

Tons of tiny dots and things making a weird distorted sort of image. It didn’t look like anything I could recognize.

“Can you tell me what it’s supposed to be?”

“Huh? Oh Captain! Don’t be silly! It’s a digital message! I’m practicing implementing digital code into an image! I want to paint them on the ship! This one tells any missiles shooting at us that they are big dumb stupid heads!”

I looked from the weird distorted pixels, to the Crabbit and then just laughed.

“You’re such a cutie aren’t you?”

“Wha!? Me?” It gasped in shock and grew embarrassed as I walked over and gave her a hug. 

That was hilarious. I loved it.

“Yay! Good job!”

“Yeah! Way to impress the Captain!”

“I still think marking the clumsy one a Red Zone was better than that art.”

I sighed as I heard that comment and looked over the crowd that all quickly looked away to hide who had just said that.

“Alright! Listen up! We’re taking on a new job soon! We need to get some amenities set up for human travel! That means we need to get the Phantoms hold cleaned up and some space secured for bunks and bathroom facilities. I’ll talk to the station about getting some bunks, but it means we’re changing some of the planned upgrade order.”

“Aww. I wanted to finish!”

“I know. Just bear with it okay? I’ll start adding the jobs onto the list, so let’s all get some work done! You’re all doing great!”

“Yay! We’re doing great! Did you hear that?”

“Yeah!” I smiled as that simple praise had raised the Crabbit’s spirits. They really were cute.

“And… I have to get to work too.” I muttered staring at my Tab. I would have to make a call. Figure out how many were coming along with Carter, and Collin, and then figure out living space.

I took a deep breath in and out and decided to roll up my sleeves. I can’t be afraid of just having people on board. Even if the Phantom Star was barely half finished, and the insides looked terrible, and people might think I’m a crappy engineer with how much of everything was left open and-

—--

“Hmm. I understand. We can spare the Sleeping Pods for everyone, and we will give you food and water to last you for your trip, but I’d suggest loading up on supplies when you reach your destination.” Uncle Kyle said his fingers entwined as he looked over at me from behind his big station boss desk.

“Okay?”

“I don’t mean it in a bad way Katherine, but you want to travel the stars? Get used to buying the necessities. It’s not easy to find food in the dark of space. So it’s a skill you should learn quickly.”

“Oh, yeah I should probably talk to some people.”

“Luckily your destination is a higher tech planet. Elinai is an industrial hub. Since you’ll be visiting for the first time, it might be a good time to spend some of your creds to get supplies for your ship. Things we don’t normally carry.”

“What? Like what?” I asked, honestly surprised at the comment. Sure I had intended on checking out what was around, I mean… A whole new world. An actual planet. I hadn’t set foot on an actual planet in this life!

Uncle Kyles lips twitched a little despite his stern demeanor. “Unless you want to eat manipulated protein straight from the compression tube, I’d suggest getting some cookware. And there are lots of other things a ship captain might find useful on their journey.”

I nodded slowly, that was a good point. Also something I hadn’t considered. Sure the food the Baron had offered had been… Yucky, but raw manipulated protein looked like pink goo, and was about as appetizing. It needed to be cooked, and season packets added to make it into something edible except in emergencies.

“I hadn’t thought about that. I’m so used to food just being there.” I admitted a little embarrassed at how naive that was.

“Hah.Tell that to Henry and he’ll smack you with his spatula.” He said and I couldn’t help but break into a smile at the thought. Henry loved cooking, and he was good at it, and he brooked no argument about the importance of good food.

He also made hamburgers, which always reminded me of earth.

“Thanks Uncle Kyle.”

“Don’t thank me Katherine. You’re the one doing us a favor this time.” He said and then slumped a little his usual put together appearance showing some seams as he looked tired.

“What exactly am I picking up anyways?” I asked and he looked up and then nodded. 

“The package has a few things, parts for the docking ring airlocks. You know some of the seals are bad.”

“I’ve fixed them a few times.” I agreed, docking seals were supposed to last a long time, but like all things that was in a perfect circumstance. If a ship docking with us came in too hot, or had a bad docking port it could damage our equipment.

“While things are quiet, I’ve been trying to get some real repairs done. It won’t be long before trade picks back up, slow as it might be for a while, but I’d like to get everything back up and running, but also, parts for the oxygen scrubbers, and the atmosphere adjuster. The water refiner. The-”

“I think I get the picture.” I said, with a laugh. That was half the integral station systems right there. “Is there anything else? Maybe some new sheets for the sleep pods?” I joked, but then I winced and hunched over, because Uncle Kyle wasn’t joking.

“You aren’t aware, because I make sure the children don’t know, but things have been tight for the station for the last few years. As I’m sure you noticed before this war, the scrap field was expanding.”

“Yeah… Oh.” I realized and he nodded. 

“While we make Creds from parting out and scavenging equipment, most of our income is selling the ship hulls, but that’s been slow over the past few years. Some new shipyard has been set up in the Kellin sector. They’ve been selling off cheap ships for the last decade, and so it’s been cutting into our income.”

“Are we okay?”

“We are okay. It made things tight, not dangerous. We are still useful as this war has shown. And with the sale of nearly all of our useful hulls to the Duchy, we are quite fine. But that’s why we need to do some of these repairs now, while everything is good.”

“I see. Okay, right, I get the seriousness.” And I did. I hand repaired a lot of those parts after all. Or at least helped out. Sure I had never needed to really kludge together anything for the Atmosphere Generator, but that didn’t mean the system was good. It was a mess of old repairs.

“Then Captain Katherine, I thank you for accepting our job request.” Uncle Kyle offered semi formally, his smile ruining the official sounding wording.

“Sure… Sure… I should have everything sorted for the hold space in a few days. I mostly just want to set up some toilet stuff, and maybe move a real bed into my own quarters too.”

“Talk to Collin about anything you need, and he’ll make sure his crew prep it for transport to your ship. Don’t hesitate to make them install things as well.”

I nodded, but I didn’t plan on letting a bunch of people install things on my ship.

—--

The Phantom Star pushed off from the old freighter, almost a little sadly. Leaving behind the massive wings of the ship, floating in the hangar as they were still being formed from nanopaste, the massive vats of paste mostly having broken down the ship hull I had picked out to supply the material. 

Some Crabbit would continue working as best they could while I was gone, but if they ran into any trouble their orders were to stop working on that. 

Hopefully I’d come back to the completed parts of my ship, but I had my doubts.

Then with just a simple throttle I soared out of the much diminished scrap field and headed towards the station. The Octavius still docked, was flown past as I settled into one of the lower docking rings, and with just a few careful movements, settled the Phantom into place and the airlock clamped on, locking us in place.

Then I took a deep breath and got up, heading down the ladder and then hurrying across the ship until I was at the airlock.

The Crabbit were ready. Hovering around agitated. They had picked up my own discomfort, and were reacting to it.

I opened the airlock and stepped out a small gaggle of people waiting. Old Collin, and Carter in the front, Carter was wearing a nice looking jumpsuit, not the usual working coverall space suit that most of us wore. But then behind them were two more people and I was surprised at the group.

I was stuck between happiness and anger as I looked between two of the people coming with.

“Why is he here?” I asked bluntly, and I noticed Marshall hiding behind Old Collin wince before he looked away.

“Sorry Kat. I know you and Marshall had a thing. And I wouldn’t bring him along if there was any other choice. But everyone is still pretty busy. I promise We’ll be keeping a close eye on him. He’s mostly here as an extra pair of hands for transport.” Carter offered apologetically. And I felt my lips thin as I pressed them together tightly.

“He also fucked up, so he’s our whipping boy during the trip.” Old Collin said abruptly and smacked Marshall on the back of his head earning a yelp. “This trip isn’t meant to be a reward for him.” 

I took that in for a moment, my obvious unhappiness on full display. Yet, it was Marshall who didn’t react besides rubbing the back of his head that surprised me. I expected some sort of aggravated exclamation.

I shifted from him to Marie. 

“Why are you coming?”

“I’m logistics Little Kat. If we need to make any deals, I’ll be the one to handle accounts and things.” She explained proudly and even threw me a wink.

“Fine.” I grumbled accepting her presence.

“Well… The Hangar door is open.” I explained and then shuffled a bit as Carter was just looking at me, and Marie then spoke.

“C’mon Little Kat. I’m not going on a spacewalk to drop off my stuff.” She said pointing at the bag she had at her feet. They all had a bag like it… My shoulder slumped. There goes the easy way.

“Fine… C’mon follow me, and only follow me. The ship isn’t complete, and don’t go exploring. If you are caught anywhere I’m going to throw you off the ship.” I said firmly and Carter nodded.

“I’ll make sure such a thing doesn’t happen.” He offered and I just shrugged.

I took a breath and then turned around, but didn’t make it more than a step before Marie was there, shooting her arm through mine.

“C’mon little Kat. Don’t be down. I know you’re still fixing it up, but I’m so excited to see your ship! I’ve never been off station before you know? So show me around.”

I grumbled a bit but walked back through the airlock and waved off the swarm of Crabbit. 

“Geeze Kathy, think you have enough drones?” Marie asked as the Crabbit filled up one of the hallways that split off from the airlock.

“They’re security. To make sure no one tries going somewhere they shouldn’t.” I said making sure to speak loud enough that everyone could hear me. 

Old Collin offered a grunt seemingly agreeing and then pushed Marshall forward. Marshall turned to glare but Collin just threw up an eye brow as if daring the boy to try it, and Marshall slunk forward.

“C’mon the Hangar entrance is this way, you’ll have to take the ladder though. Freight elevator doesn’t exist yet. Or any stairs.” I offered and then we turned a corner into one of the hallways and the absolute mess of it made me twitchy. “Just be careful about the cabling, and don’t fall into the holes.”

“Relax Little Kat. This isn’t that bad. Marie said with a gentle smile as she started moving her way through the hallway.

“Girls right, I’ve seen worse.” Old Collin said and that was that. Everyone sort of clambered through the hallway until we reached the ladder that led down into the bottom of the ship where the hangar was.

Then when I made sure everyone was down first I followed.

The hangar door was open with the forcefield active and I joined them at the bottom and slowly relaxed as they all looked around the large open space.

“Well this is it then! We’ll bring everything over, but get used to it kids, this is your home for at least a week.” Collin called out as he walked over to the section with the sleeping pods and dropped his gear.

“Yeah yeah.” Marshall grumbled but otherwise everyone seemed fine with the space, and I showed Marie where I had already installed some storage spaces for them, she dumped her bag inside the cubby and then looked around.

“Bathroom?” She asked and I nodded walking over to one of the walls with a newly created door, and popped it open. Inside were four more doors in a hallway that would lead to four toilets, because it wasn’t really any harder to make four considering the piping was the hard part.

“This is the bathroom, four toilets just in case. Please don’t make a mess.” I pleaded and she smiled and laughed. Then I pointed towards the end of the small room. “That’s a shower room. Sorry they’re a bit close together for piping reasons. So it might be a bit awkward, but the shower room has a lock.” I explained to Marie who flashed me a smile.

I hadn’t known if it was going to be all boys or who would be coming so I set it up for mixed.

And that was that. I watched as everyone got their stuff situated, and then headed back to the station to start transporting the beds and other cargo they would need.

We’d be leaving in the morning.