The qualifications for becoming a fully fledged starship pilot often took around a maximum of two years, depending on the course you were taking. I very much knew this at the time, but, given the fact my drunk self had seemingly ascended beyond any form of logic, I got slightly cocky. Those DVDs were enough for me, I thought. Of course, this was the equivalent of watching a couple episodes of Bargain Hunt and thinking you were suddenly a professional entrepreneur. Two days after watching them all, the real world decided to give me a great big slap in the face.

I crashed on the planet, spending both a day in a coma and more than half my earnings on repairs. The second attempt above orbit, muscle memory from the bygone intoxication prevented me from flying out through the cockpit's window. I managed to get the hang of navigation, but failed to take into account the fact the laws of physics existed. But then again, I was someone who worked in tech support, not the incarnation of Isaac Newton.

Most of the month I had spent understand the basic areas of the controls, navigations. Software was easy enough to deal with, even some of the hardware within the walls had a similar structure to Joseon Computers. I hadn't immediately become... what was his name? Nolan watches it all the time... Han Solo. I hadn't become Han Solo. But, for a space taxi, it would likely have been tolerable.

It took about a week for me to come to terms with my situation. The fact I likely wasn't going to see my parents, friends, cowork— actually, I was fine with the latter. Vernadsky, I didn't really get used to. The whole city just felt like one gigantic motel that was ready to be demolished any day now, and the people were just waiting for it to happen. It could be worse, from what I heard, the Loreqi lived in a state of absolute poverty. An alleged friend of mine described it to be 'A medieval kingdom coated in metal', even the stories from some of them reminded me of something out of a Water Wars documentary.

Sometime after I finally figured out how to somewhat fly, Sacha offered a job to me. Well, it wasn't an offer, more a reminder. Apparently I had been contracted to some health organisation, the Cross, to act out a bunch of jobs. This one was simple, just deliver some qmedicine and other supplies within two weeks to Karanos VII, a twenty light-year journey. It didn't sound too hard, but Sacha paid one of the mercenaries, apparently we worked together one time, to help me out.

He was a Welshman, Harry Breckon. Tall, bearded, muscular, almost as if he was ripped straight off the cover of a gym magazine. And standing at the side-entrance to my ship.

"Mila," he greeted, placing a machine gun down to the side and taking off his rucksack.

"Are you Harry?" I said, chewing on a toastie."

"Right, they told me you had memory loss."

"Basically." I held out a plate. "Do you fancy a toastie?"

The Welshman gave a surprised glare, probably the first time I had been respectful to him. "I'll pass, thanks," he said, before staring around the place. "The ship has certainly improved."

"You know, the whole glass hazard and alcohol smell was not really what I wanted with the place."

Harry gave what I think was a chuckle. "Still have your sense of humour, I see."

"I mean I haven't forgotten everything, you know," I said to him, before glancing over at his machine gun. "That's a bit excessive, don't you think?"

"Mind you now," he stated, "There is no situation out here that is free from the chance of a firefight."

"I mean it is just a quick drop off, isn't it?"

"Twenty light-years. An old vessel like this—" He stepped outside to have a look at the engines. "At most, a week with the parts you have. And a lot can happen in that time. Plus, Karanos VII isn't the best of places."

"Have you been there?"

"It certainly makes Vernadsky look pretty, I'll tell you. Take my advice: deliver it to them, accept the payment, and run back before some arsehole clamps your vehicle down."

I nodded, and within the hour, I flew the ship above orbit. Subspace I had not had much practice with at this point, but the main gist of it was to entire where the ship detects a stream (or starline) and then activate the drive. The ship (hopefully) should have rode along it automatically.

It did take place, the whole thing stayed together thankfully, and I was met with an eternally colourful sight that made me nauseous enough to run to the loo.

Harry was much better company to have over than J'Kkreh. Just easier to socialise with. He was even a good help with some of the malfunctioning doohickeys on board. Not much happened, as opposed to what he speculated a few days prior, it was mostly talk and repairs. He told me the story of the last time we were together, apparently drunk me was crazy enough to drop him and his friends off on a 'Dominion Dreadnought'. A quick extraction. It was me and him keeping the escape route clear for the main team to do their job. It was a weird thought, me taking a life. Plenty think about doing so, maybe to their sibling, or their nagging mother, or maybe that one person who was being rude to the teenage staff member at Argos for no reason. But the idea of having real blood on your hands was just... sickening to me. I guess I wouldn't be able to avoid it here, the best way to deal with it being to simply not think about it.

After a few more stories, our conversations got stale. People talk about the wonders of swimming in the stars, but they don't really consider the actual size of space. Being stuck with the same bloke for a whole week with only a call with someone in Vernadsky... as nice as Harry was, it was exhausting after a certain point. I did have some old Polish sci-fi film, really old - in black and white. But it was dubbed in Italian for some reason. Only film I had on board, no other tv shows or movies saved. The only other thing that kept my sanity were some video calls with Sacha and other alleged friends from Vernadsky. Some were nice, others I questioned if they were even right in their head.

Managing to switch starlines in the Janari System, we managed to arrive to Karanos. It was a binary star system, with its seventh planet being its only habitable world. According to Harry, there were a few settlements there, and the one we were meant to head to was a Loreqi settlement known as Ta'Manai, somewhere in the north of the Jo'Pa continent. Sacha apparently had a friend there too, Mikhail, he told me to look out for him to deliver the crates.

Before entering the world's orbit, I took a few minutes to gain the courage to inject a dose of gravity-medication into myself. Karanos VIII was apparently thirty percent larger than Earth, and I certainly was not in the mood to end up with a half-snapped spine by the end of the day.

The shields were up, glitching slightly against the gravity of the planet. Jo'pa had seemingly been going through one massive ice age, heavy snow had engulfed the forests and mountains as far as the eye could see, which with the fog wasn't really so far. I had to rely on my navigation systems and just hope I didn't crash.

What I assumed was Ta'Manai had just come into sight, but barely. I figured out how to scan the terrain, and did so, finding a suitable place to land near the town. The thrusters were rotated downwards upon landing, melting all the snow below.

Harry had already activated the hover-trolley, and put an armoured winter coat on. I did the same, grabbing a handgun. I had dabbled in the shooting range every now and then in Vernadsky, my aim was... okay. But really, most gunfights were just two sides suppressing fire and hoping to hit.

"You're taking that puny thing?" Harry said, referring to my handgun.

"It is less of a hassle to carry. Besides, this is just a drop off isn't it?"

"I saw the town out the window, it looks like nobody has lived there in years."

"Probably just the snow, Harry." I put my hood up and wrapped over my goggles.

"I'm serious. There were no lights at all down there, it doesn't really seemed like a lively settlement to me."

"Not every place has to be lively, you know."

"You know what I mean. I'm just saying, keep your guard up." Harry then passed me some headphones, saying to me, "It'll be quite loud out there."

I pushed the button on a remote I had, and the large door slid open. Snow immediately flushed into the ship, so we went out quickly. I pressed the button again, closing the door behind.

The coat made this place feel like wearing only shorts and t-shirt in a room with the air conditioning on maximum. My only main problem here was the gravity medication. It helped greatly, but it still felt as if I had been carrying a heavy rucksack all day. The town was just up ahead, and the closer we got, the more I realised Harry might have been right. There were no lights, and the roads seemingly lacked any salt.

My leg went straight into the snow, tripping me over. Probably a large pothole or something. "You good, Abdi?" Harry asked over the headphones.

"I'm fine." I pulled myself up, luckily the trolley remained in place. We continued onward. Ta'Manai appeared... deserted. Absolutely deserted. "Hello!" I shouted out.

I heard Harry grunt in discomfort. "Don't shout on the microphone, you idiot."

"Sorry."

There was no response anyway. The lamps lined on the side of the roads were barely functioning, one of them even fell over. A few stripped offroad vehicles were here and there, nobody inside them of course. Some of the buildings had their doors open, some ripped right off. One even had a large hole in a wall.

Harry crouched down, picking something off of the ground. "What did you find?" I asked him.

"Bullet casing." He stared around. "Some of the buildings look hit with plasma damage, at least a couple days old. Are you sure you didn't land in the wrong town?"

"The coordinates were pretty clear. And this is the only major settlement on this part of the planet as far as I know."

"Well, it's not a settlement anymore. My best guess, some raiders came around, killed everybody here. My problem is, where are all the bodies?"

"Probably buried."

"No, you would see some popping out here and there."

A disturbing thought came to mind. "Cannibals?" I suggested. The environment was harsh enough and I doubt you would be able to grow anything here.

"Probably. Loreqi are related to us after all. I don't think you're getting paid anytime soon."

"So we came here for nothing then?"

"You're free to scavenge, we won't have enough supplies for the trip back. I'll take the crates to the ship, come back after that."

"That's fine by me."

The next ten minutes had been spent searching through the buildings, finding practically nothing. Everywhere had been completely cleaned out, from fridges to sofas. I found something that was the equivalent to a granola bar, I guess, a stale one. A few books and things had been kept around, but they were all in whatever languages Loreqi people speak. I did find a DVD somewhere, something actually in English for some reason. It was old, but not as old as that Polish film, this one at least had colour. I thought I saw something in one of the buildings, but it was just one of the native rodents.

And then there was this one three-storey building, a block of flats. After skipping each empty room, one on the top floor caught my attention. A smell came from there, someone had been cooking something. I stepped inside, this place certainly hadn't been abandoned. A stained mattress, a steaming pot on the hob, even a couple weapons and maps on the wall, the latter of which had been annotated in what looked like Russian.

I took the lid off the pot, it seemed like some sort of stew. Not a good stew from the smell. I spoke over the headphones, "Harry, there's someone living here."

"Say again. Yo— br— fucking h—" The stammering continued until there was just the sound of static. By movie rules, I was about to be hit in the back of the head.

I quickly looked behind, and there it was, a bald man just about to to hit me on the back of the head with the butt of his rifle. He was frozen in place once I saw him, like a painted, likely alcoholic, weeping angel. We continued awkwardly staring at each other for about half a minute.

I decided to break it, saying, "Your stew smells off."

"You are Human," the man said in a Russian accent.

"Are you..." I tried thinking back to what Sacha told me. "Mikhail?"

"Who is asking?"

"Me."

He paused. "Perhaps."

"That's an obvious yes, by the way."

"What you doing here?"

"Dropping off supplies," I said, "I was meant to look out for you."

"Right, I forgot." He finally lowered the rifle. "That is your ship outside town, yes?"

"The McSpaceyFace, yeah."

"I remember now. Sit, please."

There were no chairs, so I sat down on the mattress. "Where is everyone?"

"Gone."

"Yeah, where?"

He looked to the maps. "I am trying to figure out. Raiders came few days ago. Took civilians, killed all who resist, try to escape. Took corpses too."

"How come you're still here?"

"Ah, too many. I hide. My shuttle was torn and stripped. I could not communicate for help."

"Well, we're here now. You can come with us, if you like."

He looked at the maps, hesitating for a bit, before saying, "Maybe."

I stared at the maps for a bit. It seemed like he was concocting a plan to save the people here. They seemed quite a while out. We could have taken my ship, but there was no way we were fitting everybody that populated this town onto there. Maybe they could have taken some vehicles there and we would go our separate ways, they should have vehicles, no way someone would raid in this horrible weather.

Then I realised any attempt as a rescue plan was a terrible idea. If Harry agreed, we would be heavily outnumbered, especially since him and Mikhail were the only combat ready people here.

"Do you want to come back to my ship?" I asked.

He looked outside, the snow was still patting against the windows. "Anywhere seems better than here."

Once we were outside and he had his things quickly packed. The storm had already died down, so anything in earshot was easily audible. Eventually, the headphones came back on, and his loud voice pierced my eardrums.

"GET THE FUCK BACK TO THE SHIP NOW!"

In the distance, faint, repeating bangs managed to break through the howling of the wind. "Suka. They must have seem your ship!" Mikhail said to me.

"The raiders?!"

"Indeed. We must move."

I pulled my handgun out, turning the safety off. We moved around the outskirts, quickly heading to the McSpaceyFace. In front of is was a small group of repurposed jeeps, figures with guns had been laying down fire upon it. Harry appeared to have been retaliating, but there was over a dozen people here shooting from nearly every direction.

Mikhail did not hesitate, and fired his rifle, injuring one of the raiders. My heart raced, this was my first ever sober firefight and I was hesitating to pull the trigger. One of them noticed us, but luckily missed me. I took cover behind a container, thought 'screw it' and began randomly firing in their direction. Another shot, this one I think was plasma, just about grazed my coat. I noticed the raider, aimed my gun, and upon a few misses, I saw them drop like a fly, with loud moaning just about audible. They squirmed for a bit, and honestly, the only thing I felt there was guilt. I still kept in mind they were absolute dicks, but I knew this wasn't something I would get used to.

I saw Mikhail move further up, firing a few shots. He looked at me, gesturing his head to follow him. I ran after him, taking cover behind the jeep at the back. Mikhail easily shot two more raiders, one had the ever-so wise idea and attempted to charge him with what I think was a bayonet. The Russian dodged, and their bayonet got stuck in one of the jeeps. Mikhail finished him off, shooting him twice in the back. Me however, I never shot anyone else, just dodged the rest of the raiders and hoped for the best.

Carefully navigating my way into the open, closer to the ship, I unfortunately took a hit. A great sting occurred in my thigh, and I fell over. The pain slowly, but greatly, increased down there as I noticed a flow of blood pouring out of my thigh, with the gravity medication barely holding back the extra pressure. I saw my attacker not too far in front of me. He was about to finish the job before Harry fired a barrage of bullets upon them. He ran over, and began dragging me onto the ship. Mikhail followed on, causing Harry to drop me and raise his gun.

"I am a friend! I am a friend!" He shouted, his face entering the McSpaceyFace's light.

"He's with us... shit." The stinging intensified on my thigh. Harry didn't say anything, tossed his gun to the side and dragged me inside my ship. He pulled something out of a box, I'm sure it was a first aid kit, and jabbed something into my thigh. "Jesus Christ, Harry!"

"It's just regen, all right?" He assured. Slowly, the bleeding stopped, with the bullet leaving my thigh, and the stinging faded away. He pulled me up onto a chair, taking my headphones off. And afterwards confronted Mikhail. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"I am Mikhail. You were supposed to deliver crates to us," he said, dropping his things off on the side.

"What are you doing here exactly?"

"Surviving." He reloaded another magazine into his rifle. "I will search perimeter, raiders should be mostly dead now." Mikhail then went off.

"On your own?! Hey!"

"Bloody hell," I said, my heart still racing, "That was... God."

"Trust me," Harry replied, "They will be getting worse. You stay here, I'm going to make sure our new friend here keeps his brains in his head. Keep the ship on standby too, I don't feel like staying here any longer." He pulled up his machine gun, and went to find Mikhail.