Phantom Star

I slipped down the ladder into the hold and rolled my eyes at the Crabbit tantrum I was witnessing here too.

“Oh Kat, umm?” Marie asked, looking at the spectacle in concern.

“Don’t mind them.” I said as I walked over to the Crabbit on her back who was crying as I just flipped her with my foot.

“Ah! Nooo! Heavy!” It whined and then to my amusement flipped herself back, and continued to cry and flail.

“Hey knock it off.” I warned her, this wasn’t the time for tantrums.

“Uuuu.” It whined at me pitifully, but I rolled her back on her legs again.

“Get used to the gravity, you should all sync up and practice moving like this. It’ll be important whenever we land. Go on now.”

“Your drones are weird.” Carter said suddenly as he appeared at my side.

“They’re just children… And act like it sometimes.” I shrugged it off, and instead started walking, I could hear the others follow me as I reached the rear of the hold, and I nodded.

It was time.

I walked over to an access panel, and flicked the digital lock upwards.

Suddenly the hold shifted lightly, the rear armored doors adjusted opening, and then a light burst into the hold.

Real sunlight, slipping through the slowly opening crack as the hold ramp descended.

I took in the sight and felt a smile come to my face as I had done it. Traveled across the stars and now visited a new world!

But then I jerked back my hand running up to my face, Carter was the first to cough, and we all recoiled.

“What the hell is that smell!?” Marie screamed as she backpedaled. I was just in shock because whoa. That was rank!

“Heh. Get used to it, brats.” Old Collin offered, definitely amused at our reaction. “This is an industrial city, there are billions of people mashed together here all working in factories to produce for the whole sector. That’s the stink of a working city.” He explained as he walked past us towards the entrance, and then I felt my eyes narrow.

“You have your suit forcefield up. You’re using stored oxygen!”

“Course I am! This sort of place stinks!” He laughed as he definitely hadn’t told us on purpose.

Ass!

“Old Collin, sure is a jerk!” I called out loudly enough he could hear and I saw the way his shoulders twitched.

“I’m not old!” He snapped back and I nodded. Revenge successful.

But first. I adjusted my jumpsuit, activating the integrated forcefield generator using the small control panel on the sleeve of my jumpsuit, and an invisible bubble stopped air from passing through around my head, despite not wearing a helmet.

The others did the same thing, and I watched as everyone breathed sighs of relief as the smell was processed out.

I fiddled with the small Tab control panel on my sleeve making sure it was on a low range just to keep the air ‘in’ and not much else.

Jumpsuits with emergency force fields were super useful and everyone on board UNK-L got one as a just in case measure.

It had saved lives over the years.

Plus you could re-use the electronics pretty easily. It was just a Tiny Iris Drive, in a padded section, and a force field emitter, usually implanted around the jumpsuits collar. Connect it to a Tab in my case I had one sewn into my wrist as a just in case.

Yep, definitely because I was worried about forgetting my Tab and not being able to adjust settings, and not because I had forgotten my Tab at home too many times and Mom had laid down the law.

“There, everyone ready?” I called out, and got a few surprised looks as the other kids had been staring out the now opened ramp at the sight of the city beyond.

They hesitated so I rolled my eyes. I was about to walk out but I realized I was Crabbit-less. I walked over to one of the Crabbit that had gotten herself on her feet and was walking around weakly, and picked her up.

“Cling on.” I told her as I threw her over my shoulders, and with her little legs she clung on like a backpack. It wasn’t quite as comfortable as having them hovering on my shoulder, but it was fine.

And so I walked out, following after Old Collin that was waiting at the base of the ramp. The man sent me a dirty look as I approached, he then looked away, and then sent another one.

Yeah he was still sensitive about his nickname.

“That’s the Port office. You’ll need to speak with them, get the docking fees paid, and we can get our work done.”

“How much is the fee?” I asked, because I hadn’t really thought about that! I mean sure I had Creds, but!

“Depends on the dock. Don’t worry about it this time. Marie’ll be clearing that. It’s on us. But you should still be there, get a feel for what it’s like if you want to keep flying this beast.”

“Thanks Collin.” I said surprised at how nice he was being. Collin was usually a massive jerk!

“Yeah yeah, brat.” He grumped at me, but while he still seemed to kind of hesitate I stepped forward off the ramp and then onto the large landing pad. We were pretty high up, on a massive building that was a starport, so it wasn’t like I was looking at grass, instead I was practically in the clouds, and in between the massive buildings that sort of made a funny bowl shape around the star port I could see far out in the endless distance more and more buildings spread out as far as I could see.

I didn’t head straight for the port authority office, instead I walked over to the edge of the landing pad and looked out.

Down at the base level streets there were thousands of tiny vehicles moving around, looking like rows of ants, then above that were the smaller ground buildings. None of them looked less than four stories, all of them belching white smoke into the sky. The smoke trails entwined into a misty cloud layer that was constantly being torn apart by the shuttles, or whatever the flying vehicles in this planet were called running through it.

And then the massive buildings broke up even that. Some of them looked residential, some might be industrial belching smoke, or even a mix.

I could see far down a street was a terrace with plant life, real or fake, and people were eating at some sort of cafe hanging off the side of a building. Shuttles coming up and parking alongside to let their passengers off.

So many people.

But it wasn’t that, that had me entranced. A sci-fi city was something amazing, and I would have happily stared at it for a long time, but it was the song that entranced me.

It sounded like a jungle beat, but made of industrial noises. Hammers hitting steel, the hiss of steam and smoke, and the rumble of engines.

It was a song utterly unique to any other I had heard. I’dheard the song change, but I hadn’t realized until that moment that different places would sound so different. UNK-L had its unique song, and I realized that it was utterly unlike any other place.

“Kat?”

“Hmm?” I asked, turning my head but not tearing my eyes off the sight, as Carter had called me.

“You okay?”

“Yeah just enjoying the view, and the sound of it all.” I breathed in and out and shook it off. Turning to see the boy as he seemed almost wary of the edge leaning back like the edge was going to snatch him off.

“You okay?” I asked back and he grimaced.

“I don’t know what it is! It feels like something is pushing me! But the Gravity is weird!” He hissed and I realized what it was with a laugh.

“That’s wind Carter.”

“It doesn’t feel like wind!” he argued back looking like a startled cat.

“No, it feels just like wind, you’re just used to the breeze of the oxygen units on UNK-L. Wind can get really strong on a planet. C’mon.”

“Yeah… How strong?” He asked in a whisper and I just laughed. Hopefully he’d never find out.

Everyone was gathered up and the kids were looking around in shock. Old Collin was hiding it, but even he seemed a little uncomfortable on the planet.

Huh. I guess when you spend your entire life on a space station, a normal planet must be kinda strange.

It was strange for me too. My body wasn’t used to the wind, or the way everyone just felt different with Gravity being so… Firm?

I don’t think I had ever really registered that gravity plates, for all their effectiveness, weren’t quite… Right.

But for station kids that was how gravity felt.

I walked past them into the Port Authority building and looked around at the massive room that was like a ring around the building. Then there was a set of circle stairs that led to a large round desk where a person was sitting.

There was actually already another… Captain? Ships crew? At the desk seemingly doing their paperwork.

“C’mon.” I called out to the group behind me, as I walked to the stairs and took them carefully. My balance was a bit wonky as gravity was different. Striding across the room I reached the circular desk, and ended up just waiting at the spot that was marked for the Docking Pad we had landed at.

There was only one woman manning the desk so I just started waiting.

“What do we do?” Marshall asked, looking around as he joined me at the counter and seemingly getting annoyed at the wait.

“Just relax.” I told him firmly, I didn’t want him being rude!

Finally a few minutes later the woman pushed a button and her chair actually shot across the inner ring of the large round desk until she slowed and stopped in front of me.

“Welcome to Elinai! Can I have your Ships transponder information please!” She greeted and I nodded grabbing my Tab and a moment later she had what she wanted and nodded. “Phantom Star, registered! Welcome to your first visit to Elinai! Docking Fees are listed here, and all payments must be made before liftoff.” She warned and I nodded at her rapid fire explanation.

“Let me see!” Marie called out as she walked up and looked at my Tab with the fees.

A moment later, her own Tab was out and she made a few rapid fire presses and tapped my Tab with her own.

“Thank you for your payment! You have 21 standard hours before additional fees! Do you have any questions?” She asked, and I just shook my head, because most of it was all on my tab, the fees, and what caused them and everything else. I’d have to look it over later.

“Excellent! There is a comm number if you need assistance, if you find yourself unable to reach your ship and renew your fee, please contact us through that number before your time is up! The elevator to the bottom floor is right there, and if you hit floor six, you’ll find the ride service area!” And that was that. Much faster than the time she had taken with the other group.

“Do you know where the supplies are?” I asked Old Collin who nodded.

“We do. It shouldn’t be far, let’s take a shuttle, it’ll be pricey, but I don’t want us getting lost.” He said despite the fact this was supposed to be Carter's mission.

Carter didn’t interrupt, only when Collin was finished did he speak. “I agree, planets like this can be dangerous.”

“Then we can stick together for now. First stop should be the supplies right?” I asked and Carter nodded.

So we turned towards the elevator and we all followed Carter as he led the way.

Old Collin I noticed had purposefully stepped back to let Carter lead for a bit.

We all stepped into the elevator which didn’t feel much different than the ones on earth. No fancy tech or anything.

Just a lift that went up and down.

We hit the button for the sixth floor and everyone but me and Collin jumped as the lift shot us down. I felt the tingling in my belly as we dropped,, but couldn’t tell how quick, but it was causing the others a lot of trouble.

“Relax.” Collin offered. “That feeling is normal. It just means we’re going down quickly.”

“Right. Nothing to worry about.” Carter added throwing looks to Marie, Marshall, and I.

I threw him a thumbs up and then the door opened and we all flinched back at the noise.

It sort of looked like a train station, if I could describe it as anything, but instead of trains there was a section in the center of the room cut out completely open to the sky, letting the wind kick up and around. And Shuttles idling near the edge seemingly waiting.

“Yo! You lot need a ride! Cheapest rates you’ll find!” A large man called out, massive beard covering most of his face, and slightly greasy looking shirt tucked into half hazard pants.

Yep. This felt like calling an Uber alright.

—--

We all tumbled out of the shuttle once it landed, with an urgency.

The driver was right. It was certainly the fastest trip we could pay for, but it was also the fastest trip we could pay for.

“We’ll find a new driver after.” Carter demanded looking a little green and I nodded along.

Marshall was more… Effusive in his complaints.

“Fat fuck! Go die in a Black Hole! Learn to fly! Ass hole!” He roared at the bearded driver as laughed it off, the man just smiling and waving at all of us.

“If you need a ride back I’ll be here!”. The man just laughed harder as all of us looked like we would attack him before getting in his shuttle.

“That wasn’t something I want to ever do again.” Marie whispered and I reached over to rub her back.

“C’mon. We’re here. Let’s get our deal done.” Collin said, looking the best out of all of us. We walked into the large building, and I noticed everyone was rubbernecking hard.

There wasn’t much to see though. It was a storage yard for freight moving through the star port. We were here to talk to one of the workers here.

We entered the front office, and instantly a panel came down that was over a desk and an obvious AI face appeared.

“Welcome to the Elinai Solar Storage! Please state the nature of your request!”

“We’re here to speak to a sales manager. Potter?” Carter asked firmly.

“Understood! I will inform Manager Potter of your presence, please take a seat and enjoy the wonders of Solar Storage! We have-” I very specifically tuned out the ad spiel.

That was a VI, not an AI. I knew with just a glance, her song wasn’t alive enough to be an AI.

Before I could even start getting settled into the chairs around the little front office, a man stepped out.

“Hello, I’m Ian Potter.” He greeted Collin first after taking a look at the group, but Collin looked to Carter who jumped up from the seat he had just been settling into.

“Carter Ferrous of Scrap Station UNK-L, we have a shipment stuck here in holding.”

“Hmm. Let me check.” The man said as he pulled out a Tab and started searching. After a moment he nodded. “I’ll need a verification code?”

“I have that.” Marie offered as she headed over and flicked something at the man from her Tab.

I stopped focusing on the conversation as it wasn’t really important, and instead paid attention to the Crabbit that was tugging on my shoulder.

“Yes?” I asked her quietly, and she pointed at the VI.

“Strange.” She whispered back and I felt myself laugh a bit.

“Looks like a business VI. What’s strange?”

There was a quiet whisper from the Crabbit, but I couldn’t hear it, so I adjusted her a bit.

“Say that again?”

“She’s not nice. Not saying hello. Rude.” I had to bite my lip and look away to keep from giggling.

“She’s not being mean, Cutie. She just doesn’t have the process to do that.”

“Hmm?” She whispered, and I started explaining the difference to her about a VI to an AI. Something she should know, but sometimes the Crabbit would still get confused about basic stuff.

Especially if she was alone, like this one was. The more Crabbit connected the smarter they were… Usually.

“Kat?”

“Coming!”

—--

Thankfully we didn’t need to hire Beard guy again, or another shuttle to get back. The shipment was in a large shipping container. Carter and Collin broke the seal on it once we were brought to it, and we all checked everything to make sure it was what we had ordered.

I had even gone through and double checked the components, only to find that everything was what it was supposed to be, and working fine. The song inside a quiet symphony of functional parts.

But it was too large to throw into the trunk of a shuttle of course, so the Solar Storage guy set up a large transport to move the unit, and we went along with it. Mostly because I don’t think anyone wanted to risk beard guy again.

So we landed back on the pad where the Phantom Star was located, and I relaxed as no one had come by according to the Crabbit that were walking stiffly around the hold.

“Glad to hear it.” I said to the one that told me and it chirped happily and sent me a lazy salute before turning to start walking away and instead just constantly going sideways like it was drunk until she hit a wall.

Cute. My little drones were the cutest!

“Alright Captain. The container unit is locked down.” Collin told me, and I looked over. The hovering forklift vehicle that had pulled the storage unit off the transport and then floated it into the hold had set it into place. The boys had finished locking it down with a mixture of Gravity Panels, and actual locking components.

“Then that’s that.” I said with a firm nod. I reached for my Tab and poked at it, and nodded. “Alright everyone! Lift off is one hour before our docking fee is up. I have some errands I want to run, for some stuff for the ship. Anyone want to come?”

“I’ll come!” Marie called out waving happily and I nodded, but Marshall shook his head.

“Hell no. I’m not babysitting.” He said and if he had been closer he would have earned a slap upside the head.

“Hey easy. We still need to stick together… But if we want to split up into different groups that's fine.” Carter cut in, and Marshall looked like he was going to argue, but Collin broke in.

“Groups or no go.” He said straight at Marshall, who scoffed but nodded.

“Alright well… Marshall and I then, Collin, will you stick with the girls?” Carter asked, and I saw Collin’s eyebrow shoot up.

But he didn’t argue, just nodded.

“If that’s what you want.” He rumbled, and scratched at his five o’clock shadow.

“Fine, but don’t be a loser Carter.” Marshall said as he stalked off the ship, and Carter sent a shrug to the rest of us as he raced after him.

“Huh. I wonder how much trouble they’ll get into?”

“Hopefully not too much.” Collin offered. “Now I’m coming with you two, neither of you are armed.”

“Wait, You're armed?”

“Of course.” Collin answered back, shooting me a look like I was an idiot.

“Does that mean Carter is armed?” I asked, and got a smirk from Collin, but not an answer.

Huh. I guess as the leader of the group he would have been given a blaster or something. I hadn’t noticed it though… Wait, the Crabbit should have. And they should have told me!

I’d have to add that to their programming to inform me if anyone guest or not got on the ship armed. What was the point of having Type 4 sensors, if I wasn’t being told what they found?

But first? Time for a shopping trip.