Echo Station - Upper Levels - Jon Avor’s Suite.

Aden sat there and let himself sink into the leather couch as Meren cleaned up the dishes around him. The full stomach and drinks had almost put him to sleep but Jon Avor’s speech had given his mind a jolt of electricity.

My own starship?

Aden looked down at the stolen prosthetic, curling and clenching his fingers. He had been so focused on coming to Echo Station that he hadn’t taken the time to consider his new arm. He remembered losing it on The Battle of Halenyx. He remembered the panic as he tried to escape a Beryon ship and wound up smashing the side of his fighter onto a piece of debris outside his view. They called him lucky considering what happened to everyone else and of course Aden tried to take it to heart. He never let the thoughts occupy his mind but it was only now with the possibility of losing this arm that he realized something.

He hated being left out. After the war he wanted to come home to family. Make money. Just enjoy life for once. Instead he could only watch others live his dream. Only when he could no longer bear it and the last of his money ran out, when he was at risk of starvation did he call Julian. It’s why they took this job in the first place.

But now? With his own starship? He could call that shots. He could go anywhere. Do any kind of job and not just have money but to make money forever after that. Not just be a refugee but a traveler or explorer or anything else he wanted to be.

And yet when he looked at Julian he saw something in his eyes that he knew Julian wanted to hide.

Fear.

Julian had kept quiet all this time, he didn't dare speak for him on stuff like this. It was Julian who had saved him from his damaged ship after Halenyx. He wouldn’t force Aden to do anything, but he would follow him.

“No” said Aden.

Jon Avor looked at him with his eyebrows raised.

“No?” he said.

“I mean I can’t.” Said Aden. “I’m sorry its just too much. I can’t just leave a new life on the table.”

“Don’t you at least want to know what the job is? I promise you I won't ask you to steal again.”

“Believe me I’d love a starship but at this point I just need something stable.” Said Aden. He could see the muscles in Julians jaw unclench. In his mind he could see the younger version of himself screaming to take the deal. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t ask anyone to risk themselves for him.

Jon Avor gave a long sigh and rubbed his temples. The artificial sun on the screen had moved further down the horizon so now only a quarter of sun was left and the light coming into the room was a deep scarlet. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed, it is difficult to find men as capable as yourselves, but I do understand.”

“Still I intend to go keep my word.” Said their host. Jon Avor stood up and Aden was a little surprised to see him beckon towards the door.

“I apologize for the rudeness gentlemen but we must get you going. Normally I would invite you to stay the night in the guest rooms and recuperate but my enemies are getting bolder and we must get you off this station as quick as possible.”

“Enemies?” asked Julian. “You never mentioned anything about enemies.”

“You don’t believe that KhazorCorps was going to take theft lying down did you? No, they might not know who stole their arm; but even the Board of Directors are smart enough to figure out who ordered the theft and I don’t intend to jeopardize your safety.”

“Meren mentioned something like that but I thought you had enough money to buy off the station security?” asked Julian.

Jon smiled sadly at them. “Sometimes revenge is a more valuable commodity for humans than money and unfortunately there are a lot of pent up frustration among Humanity right now.”

“So when were you going to explain all this? After we agreed to your offer?” said Julian.

“Understand that I’m doing this to protect you. Had you shown any interest in my offer I would’ve explained the whole thing in detail. Now that knowledge will only be a liability. For both of us” Said Jon Azor.

“What about the arm?” asked Aden. It was one thing to talk about the enemies and plans not taken but none of that would matter if they didn’t get this thing off him. “Where are we even-”

A knock at the door silenced them. Everyone stared at the door to the suite. Meren appeared from some room and glided to the door with silent steps.

“Already?” whispered Jon Avor.

Did someone follow us in the Upper Levels?

He was sure he didn't but Meren did say that things were different.

Meren took a look at the terminal next to the door and input some codes. He opened the door just a peek before gesturing to the person on the other side of the door. Aden could hear a familiar voice echo into the room.

“What’s taking you guys so long? I can’t exactly hang around-”

It was the blonde pickpocket from the starship! Aden tried to remember her name. Was it Cass? Something like that. When she came into the room Jon Avor exhaled and shook his head.

“There you are. What happened? Did I break up your little party?” said the girl.

Meren looked annoyed. Or maybe angry? For all of the human gestures with his hands the Khrynau was surprisingly stone faced. His large black eyes remained still but he was rubbing his temples.

“Cassandra we asked that you wait for us downstairs.” Said Meren.

The pickpocket shrugged her shoulders. “I got tired of waiting. You said you’d be right down and if I spend any more time on the Upper Levels you’re gonna have to give me an allowance to spend.”

Aden was surprised to see her out and about. Julian had said the guards had run after setting off the explosion in front of the starship.

“Nevermind that now. Cassandra these are our guests that I want you to transport. Their names are Aden and Julian.” Said Jon Avor.

Upon hearing Avor speak she glanced at the two men with a sheepish smile.

“I know them” said Cassandra.

“You know them?” said Jon Avor.

“I- uh- may have stolen one of their terminals. And I might’ve accidentally blown it up to create a diversion for me to escape.”

“I knew it! Cassandra you almost cost us these two mens lives! I specifically told you to sneak aboard using a freight.”

“Have you ever ridden in a freight ship? Sleeping among boxes and packages? It’s torture!” she said, “And anyway it was just a flashbang. Honest! Nobody got hurt.”

That explained why she did it. But wouldn’t theguard still be looking for her? Aden really didn’t like the idea of sleeping on a freight ship for the next couple of weeks.

“Right, can we delay this reunion for just a little bit?” said Julian, “Whats our plan? If hanging out with you is as dangerous as you say then we need to get the hell out of here fast, maybe to the Lower Levels if we can.”

“The plan is I take you two boys to Jon’s personal starship and we spend some time out in space while we remove that gizmo there. ” said Cassandra.

Jon Avoy nodded. “I planned to do this all here on Echo Station but while you were on the voyage here I realized that my enemies are closer to my location than I initially believed. Our new plan is for us to board my personal starship and perform the procedure there. Once Aden has recuperated I will drop you off at whatever colony you wish.”

“Things just keep getting better and better” said Julian.

“I’m sorry. I could not communicate with you in slipspace and once you arrived within range of Echo Station I was too afraid to discuss this over comms lest we get overheard.”

“C’mon boys I don’t get paid until you get to your new home” said Cassandra.

Guess we don’t have much of a choice thought Aden and with that they all huddled out of the suite.

They made their way back into the streets but this time it was Cassandra who led them through. She kept an even faster pace than Meren did and would take them through the back alleyways. It seemed they were climbing to another level of Echo Station entirely. They had to save their breath just to try and keep up with Cassandra but Jon Avor was undeterred.

“Cassandra here knows this station inside and out.” He explained, “I had the pleasure of seeing her get kicked out and come back onto the station no less than three times. Someone like that was an invaluable ally when I first set up here. She’s been running messages and escorting me across the station as needed.”

“And now I’ve graduated to escorting the entire party. I’d say a pay raise is in order Jon.” Said Cassandra

“Any concept of a pay raise went out the window when you stole from my clients and almost blew them up.”

“I said I was sorry didn’t I?”

“No I don’t believe you have”

“Well I am sorry OK? They were performing searches on the ship, I couldn’t just wait and let em tag me.”

“Don't say to me. Maybe you should say sorry to the person you stole from first?”

Eventually the shiny silver walls gave way to more rustic metal and dimly lit hallway that mercifully ended in an elevator. When Cassandra pushed the button their was a long creak of metal and on metal before they could hear the elevator move.

“Not many people know this but there’s a second port near the very top of the station for residents. Of course even among the Upper Levels there are only a select few of us who have private starships. This is the service elevator which should allow us to make it to the top without drawing any attention”

They were all still catching their breath when Julian sputtered out his question.

“So whose going to be doing the surgery? I take it none of us here went to medical school.” said Julian

“No need. I have medical bots and a stasis chamber on the ship. It’s a better setup than even that old facility on New York where you first recieved the arm.” Said Jon Avor.

Julian whistled, “And here I was joining the military. Should’ve stayed on Earth when the war started.”

“Sometimes I wish I was in your place instead” said Jon Avor.

While the two men swapped stories the elevator arrived with a thud. They all huddled into it with Cassandra moving to the wall next to Aden on purpose. It was a tight fit and her shoulders were squished agains the wall but she had that same sheepish smile on her face once again.

“Uh sorry about stealing your terminal” said Cassandra.

Truth be told Aden had forgotten all about his terminal. The sheer volume of information that he had to deal with in the last hour or so had taken root into his mind and chucked everything else out. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, with the money that he was getting from Avor he could buy an even better terminal.

But he wasn’t going to tell her that.

“So you know how to disarm and blow up stuff? Are you sure you didn’t fight in the war?” asked Aden.

“Everyone fought in the war. Just some of us managed to come back with a good attitude.”

“How do you know my attitude wasn’t from being stolen from?”

Cassandra laughed. “Fair point. But if thats true than a new terminal should make up for it right?”

At that moment the elevator doors opened up to a large hanger dotted with machinery and boxes. There were about a dozen starships. Most of them were on the smaller side, only a little bit bigger than a standard hoverbus. They were all roped off and towed to the side with their own little decals and coloring on them.

At the center of the hanger sat the crown jewel. Bigger than three hoverbuses it looked more like a house than a starship. Coated with a rich blue paint and graceful curves. It was the most beautiful starship Aden had ever seen.

Jon Avor ran ahead to the machinery on the side of the ship controlling the fueling station.

“We call her the Nighthawk. She’s got two powered reactors to feed a larger slip-engine making her the fastest ship in her class. I bought her to get back to Earth faster on my business trips. If you really pushed her she’ll get you from here to Earth in one third of the time of the next fastest ship.”

Aden watched as Jon Avor walked around the ship inspecting it’s points. He watched Avor himself remove the fuel lines from his ship. And Aden watched as Avor was blasted by gray light followed by a large crack.

Before he could open his mouth to scream or run a body knocked him onto his feet.

“Get down!” screamed Cassandra.

She dragged him behind one of the small starships and they managed to get behind it just in time to watch as armed guards flooded the hanger from the same elevator they had just left.