[Erick Sanders]

“Wait how many?” I asked. Looking at the image on the console.

“Ten thousand at any one time. It’s a way station, what did you expect,” Petra said, leaning on the back of the captain's chair.

We were in the cockpit of the G.S.C two seven seven, a cruise ship nicknamed ‘the flair’ Jack laughed at the name openly, considering the how grey the ship was.

We had travelled the whole day in FTL after leaving The Explorer and within a few more hours would be docking at the way station. At the edge of the system that encluded the earth.

The image on the screen was captivating. This way station was built upon a small moon, though Petra had said, that like all way stations within the galaxy, the moon had only been the building block. Now It was a spoked ball of metal. Towers of steel and glass extended out into space. At the end of each tower were thousands of ships, all docked at the edge of space.

This was only the image of the waystation that the ship's computer had on record. We were still too far out to see it with the naked eye, Though the captain, a man whos robotic arms were inserted directly into the dashboard of the ship, had said that we would arrive within the hour. I thanked the crew quietly and left the room as Petra started to send comms to the station, informing them of our arrival and requesting docking location.

I wandered the halls back to the ships mess hall and common room, it was the same size as the one on the Dutchess. The others were laid out on the couches. Reading from their scanners or making idle conversation. Right where I had left them. I had grown bored with flipping my coin to training my time dilation implant and headed off to find out how far we had left.

“Captain said it will be a few more hours,” I said, sliding to the floor with my back to the couch that Mia was on. There was a hiss as Keg blew air from his puffed-up cheeks.

“it’s the edge of the system right? Does that mean another long flight to Nerion?” Keg asked, showing the boredom we all felt from having to sit around all day. We were passengers on this ship, despite still being in the Grey Scarred Company. The crew did not trust us to use all the training facilities unsupervised, as though we were a group of children. If it was the same on the way to Nerion then we would be pulling out teeth in boredom.

“We’ll have to see, its public transport, so it might be like a cruise ship,” Jack said, from behind his scanners screen.

Keg huffed again, “Like a fun cruise or one of the ones full of old people. Will they have a widow dance class?”

“Is that on the fun one or the old people one?” Sam asked with a smirk.

“Never been on a cruise?” I asked, remembering that I hadn’t been on one either. Ever since I was a kid the idea of being on a boat at sea scared me shitless. My parents had gone on a cruise with Jack while I was a kid, I had screamed and shouted so much while they were planning it that I had been left with my grandmother for the week. Thankfully. Boats on the ocean were nothing but floating coffins.

“No, Sam and I didn’t have those kinds of luxuries,” Mia muttered from behind my head. I made a reminder for myself to ask her about her childhood when we were somewhere more private, her tone bitter signified that it wasn’t a pleasant topic.

I leaned back against the chair as the others began speculating on the next leg of the journey.

I pulled the virtual holographic planet from my bag and turned it on. The city of Breston was now thriving. The settings on the world had accelerated the time while the device was shut off, and now the queen sat on her throne as a middle-aged woman, her grandchildren playing on the floor beside the throne. The city itself was thriving, the woman walked the streets in bright flowing dresses, hair styled with matching ribbons.

I nodded at their progress, the death of one king had changed everything about the city. I wondered how hard the queen had to work to gaining control of the court. Whatever the struggle, it looked to have paid off.

I zoomed out and looked at the continent. There was a small flashing red dot against the coast. I tapped on it and it zoomed in to show the middle of a siege. Hundreds of ships were pressed into rows within the harbour, mounted trebuchets flinging flaming pots of oil against the walls and into the city proper. Fires raged within the city and people scrambled to douse the flames and retreat from the docks.

I tapped on the city banner. The city [Trepien] and controlling territories were allied with Breston, while the attackers were from the western shores of the landlocked sea. The first of the boarding boats reached the docks and attackers stormed the edge of the city. Ranks of the city guard and armed civilians, stood in rough ranks, waiting for the attack. The small armies clashed, and very quickly the residents and guard were overwhelmed as more attackers landed. The back ranks retreated through the gates, blocking the docks from the rest of the city.

“Guys look at this,” Mia said from over my shoulder. Jack, Keg and Sam looked over.

“What? Erick’s toy?” Jack scoffed.

“Doesn’t look like a toy... That guy just got disembowelled!” Mia said, shuffling in her seat to get a better view. The others all rolled form their seats to stand behind her.

“Wait, that’s a full on war,” Jack said, taken aback, “ I thought this was just a kids video game,”

“You don’t want kids seeing this shit,” Keg said, leaning forward.

Mia leaned on my shoulders as she watched. “Is that a battering ram?” She asked. I adjusted the view as a group of thick men dragged a contraption from a boat as it reached the dock. They rolled it along, raising shields to stop the onslaught of arrows fired from the walls. A man stumbled back then fell into the sea, an arrow sticking from the base of his neck. I zoomed out a little so we could watch the battle at the walls.

Through a mixture of fire and force the gate was eventually battered and ripped into splinters. Then the flood of soldiers was let loose into the city, The civilians still trying to salvage their belongings were cut down in the street. The Citys defences were woefully unprepared for the vast number of enemies. We watched in silence as the city was sacked and burnt.

“Fuck me, Some kids toy.” Keg said, coming around the chair to sit beside me.

“There is a rider, can you zoom in?” Jack asked.

I moved the hologram until it zoomed in on a lone rider as he charged past the fleeing citizens.”Where is he racing to?” Keg asked.

“For help?” Mia speculated.

“Let me look,” Jack said, leaning right over the arm of the chair to zoom the image out. He pushed my face aside in the process as he leaned on me.

“Get the fuck off me,” I grumbled, pushing him away.

“Well zoom out, I want to see where the nearest town is.” He said.

I swiped at the hologram then activated the setting to show settlement locations.

“There. Garensden.”

We all looked at the image, there was one road through a set of mountains leading to the east of Garensden. If the army did try to push inland, we all bet there would be a battle within the pass. It was the most defensible spot to stop an invading army.

We were all torn from our fascination of the battle when the ship lurched suddenly then began shuddering under our feet.

“Are we out of FTL? Should go have a look,” Jack said.

We were out of FTL, but that wasn’t the reason for the shuddering ship. Petra was swearing at the console when we entered the cockpit.

“Hostile ship. This is the Grey Scarred Company Cruser Two Two Seven. I say again, If you continue with your hostile actions, we will be forced to defend ourselves.” He said, then swore again.

“Why the fuck are you warning them? Just start shooting back!” Keg said, staring out the viewing window.

Outside the ship were several massive asteroids, we were drifting between them. And directly in our path was a long thick red ship, and it was firing at us. Gripping the back of Petras seat as the ship rocked, I was now painfully aware of the fact that a space ship was far too similar to a ship at sea. And that the thin metal walls were the only thing between me and the cold suffocation of empty space.

“I’m not allowed to just shoot them.” A female crew member said, exasperated. “This is a protected system. We’re on G.S.C business and therefore have to follow these idiotic rules,” She tapped on her console and I could see a red box fixed directly over the attacking ship.

“Don’t worry,” said Petra, “They won’t break through the shielding any time soon.”

He keyed his console and spoke again, “I repeat for the last time, If you do not cease we will retaliate,” he released the consoles comms key and leaned back. The aggressive ship halted its barrage.

There was a crackle over the unit then a voice. “We will stop firing if yall bring your ship about, and allow us to begin docking. We want that ship and any cargo yall are carrying. There doesn’t have to be any bloodshed.” The person on the other end spoke with a thick southern united states accent.

“They’re from Earth,” I said in surprise. But my excitement started to peak. I had been worried that every hostile person we would meet while with the Grey Scarred company would be like them. Too strong for us to be of any use, but someone from Earth would be manageable.

My excitement diminished when I realised that this would be a battle between ships and that I still wouldn’t be of any use. Petra held the comms unit again and spoke, “This is not a possible outcome or solution, we recommend that you leave this area of space,” before releasing the button. Then he turned to speak to us, “Want to see something cool?” We all nodded.

Petra tapped on his console for a moment before the comms channel crackled again and Petra laughed, “Its always too easy with the new species,” he said.

Through the comms channel, we could hear the conversation of three men,

“Just keep firing, They are stalling. Fuck ‘em.”

“Those cannons don’t look like toys, and we’re not doing shit to their shielding,”

“I don’t give a fuck, what am I paying you for. This is only the fourth ship we have seen since we came this far out, I’m not going home with only a half-full cargo,”

Jack looked at Petra, “You hacked their comms?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Petra said with a chuckle. “They hardly have any security at all. It’s always the way, hold on they are transmitting again”

The comms unit cracked again, “That’s not happening. Have fun being dead.” Then the ship started firing again.

“That was three warnings, Crack the hull and disable weapons.” The captain spoke from his command chair, his eyes still closed as we manoeuvred between the asteroids.

“Copy that,” The woman beside Petra said. Then the floor shuddered as two torpedos zipped through the space between us. One in front of the other. Through the hacked comms channel, we could hear the other ship fill with curses as their radars pinged our attack.

The first rocket slammed into their shield and it rippled, shattering the blue skin that coated the ship. Then the second torpedo slammed into the nose of the ship, ripping apart the front cabin. There was no burst of flame or explosion, a small fire hissed for a moment in the exposed interior of the ship before it was snuffed out by the vacuum of space. Then the bodies floated out into the void between us.

I didn’t understand what the woman beside Petra had said about this being a protected system, but I could understand the requirement to dissuade conflict. It was like an adult playing with children. Grey Scarred Companies ships were far above anything someone from earth could acquire, that it was like swatting flies. Two missiles had ended the fight while The Flair had absorbed multiple rounds without incident.

“Should we board and check for survivors?” Mia asked the crew.

“Nah, there is no signs of life, it would be a waste of time. Here.” Petra tapped his console and sent another barrage of missiles out towards the ship as it floated, dead in space. They slammed along the length of the ship, ripping it apart in small bursts until nothing by fragments of the original ship separated, tinging off the asteroids.

Two and a half hours later the captain closed his eyes and the ship twisted to move into the dock of the way station. There was a slight bump as the ship slid smoothly into place.

“How does he steer with his eyes closed?” Sam whispered to Petra.

“He has a neural link to the ship. He sees and feels from the ship's sensors and cameras.” Petra explained.

“Petra, We’re going to sort the shipments, can you show them to their accommodation and the station's transport hub. Make sure they know where to go, Mendera will knock our heads if we lose the newbies.” The captain said to Petra as we left the cockpit after watching our arrival to the way station.

The station was far brighter in the sunlight that the image had shown. The tall buildings reflected the sun and forced us to squint and shield the windows upon approach. When we stepped from the loading bay doors into a sealed docking chamber in the tops of the skyscrapers. We shuffled from the doors and down the ramp, at the doorway into the building stood a man in a tight blue robe, he waved us forward, one at a time and tapped a console pad against our scanners. After we cleared their version of customs, rode an elevator down to the surface and stepped out of the building into an enclosed street.

The ceiling was panelled glass showing the towering buildings. The road itself had no vehicles, instead, there were hundred of carts, racing past in the centre of the street. They looked like simple mine carts, except for the plastic-coated seats.

Humanoid aliened pressed shoulder to shoulder at the streets edges, hurrying between stores selling anything and everything you could ever need. We followed Petra onto a cart that had pulled to the side of the street. Petra tapped a small panel and it zipped through the streets, arriving outside one of the steel buildings.

“This is the hotel, it’s one of many throughout the galaxy we have an account with. Just down the street is the tower to the public transport hub. Take the lift to the top and they will sort you from there. You guys have all the information and tickets on your scanners.” Petra said, not disembarking with us.

“Thank you. Do you know how long it will take to get to Nerion?” Jack asked.

“Should only be two days.”

“Two days? Won’t it take weeks to reach even the closest other system through the empty space?”

“If you were to take the normal approach, But the public transports use the portals, so shouldn’t take too long at all.” He said, before waving us off and disappearing into a cluster of carts.