Corvid Grin

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REVEAL. It is night time and the world around me is cold unforgiving desert. In the distance the only point of light is a glowing phone booth. SERVE. 

I cannot find purpose on my own without the interference of some other person or force. I am essentially reactive.

I pulled the coordinates I was given. While the journey was straightforward it would be long. I ran through all my charts and plotted what seemed like the best course through the drifts. I aimed the Second Chance toward the sky and pulled us into orbit around Morricone. More than ready I pushed the throttle forward.

When we came out of FTL all around us was fire. An energy storm lit the skies around us. Impossibly beautiful it raged. The shield held up but we were tossed like a rag doll through the void. It took an additional two hours to recharge the e-drive before we could set out again, from diverting power to the shields. We set out again, staying vigilant.

FTL dropped and we were surrounded by a mineral asteroid field. We surfaced moments away from a rogue asteroid that battered the ship. I began repairs immediately but we had sustained serious harm to the hull of the Second Chance. I would have to space walk for us to continue our flight. It took the better part of 20 hours to repair the ship to working. More stops like this and we would be in serious trouble for supplies. We would have to move at speed to make up time. 

We arrived at a white dwarf star shining with spectral light surrounded by a frozen asteroid field. Another asteroid field so soon? I’d heard that travelling the drifts was dangerous. But not like this. Space doing everything in its power to swiss cheese my hull. Someone blasted their way out of here recently as the asteroid became a cloud of meteoroids. Infinitely more dangerous. I carefully sped the other direction but the storm was quicker. We were set back again as I diverted all power to the shields. In the cabin a ringing filled my ears that threatened to shatter my ear drums. Not from my instrument panels but some sort of primal shriek from the white dwarf itself. We took off at speed again.

“Lower your shields and disable your weapons or we will open fire,” barked my comms. “You are unauthorized to be in orbit around Esen and you must dock at Weyland.” Fuck. On first looks Weyland seemed as rustic and backwater as you’d hope never to stumble across. Clearly Weyland was a company town run by the Esen Mining Corps; a gas miner outfit with angles in the energy sector. I docked as I was told. We were greeted by a sheriff in a too clean uniform. Harrow glowed a pale violet. He was afraid.

“I sure hope everyone is doing alright. I know it can be a real shocker when you enter the system. We have to be firm on account of the pirates. But I assure you, no one is in any real danger.” He fidgeted and looked around but his hand never left his pistol. “Now who are you?”

“I’m Eren Talin and this here is Harrow.” The sheriff looked me up and down. “And who am I speaking to?”

“Sheriff Halia Kaan. Now, you may not be in danger but you are in a heap of trouble. The Esen Mining Corps doesn’t love it when new faces come around. I’m going to need to take you in to get a better idea of how to handle all this mess.” Over the walkie on his chest a voice screamed, “Do you have him Kaan?!” The sheriff winced at this. Safe enough to assume this was his boss. But as a sheriff his boss could only be someone from the mining corps.

 Airspace Management sat in a hallway of identical offices with identical android assistants at identical desks. How the Sheriff got me to the right door on the first try showed I’ll never know. A clear creature of the system here. What followed was a labyrinthine maze of bureaucratic bullshit. Dizzing in its scope, I hoped only to get out of there within the day . The recycled air of the space station smelled stale and created an immediate throbbing behind my right eye. My nostrils dried out and I felt my heartbeat in my temples. I stroked them as I waited for yet another form to fill.

“The problem we’ve encountered here is that using this airspace is not free. And I see here you have no resources for remuneration?” I offered my assistance as an explorer but they flat out refused stating they, “had enough men and surveybots to explore every part of this system needing exploring.” If I wanted to get out of here, I’d need to work. But I had no intention of working as a gas miner for any length of time.

“I’m also something of a seer. Could that help?”

“As it happens it might. We’ve located a pocket of a gas that will be roughly 2.5 times as profitable as the argon we’re already pulling. If you can provide us with any sort of aid in that endeavor we’ll let you go and you will get a pass to move through our airspace, provided we are notified beforehand.”

“Well I’m here to help,” I just wanted to move on and explaining that visions are hard to manage like that wasn’t worth it. I returned to my ritual chamber and set up the dead air still ringing a cacophony inside my head.

Whale song soft and in harmony played through my mind as a droplet of water evaporated in reverse. BREACH. Over a car’s radio came a faint whispering of names. They repeated over and over with static hissing and salt smell hung in the air. Kade. Kai. Shepherd. ADVANCE. 

My tranquility can only ever be built naturally over time. I became trapped in a memory of my father taking us on a scuba expedition as a child where I stepped on an anemone and needed to be taken to first aid at the resort. 

When I woke from my reverie a full day and night had passed. I had sweat through the cushion. Sheriff Kaan sat opposite me and offered me a glass of water. They’d thought this would all be much quicker and had now revoked the offer to use their airspace in the future. I relayed the vision and the sheriff wrote it all down. I’d soon be on my way at least.