Two stories at once is a lot for me, so these updates may not be as frequent. I also did not plan on this but a certain young woman in my head refused to be quiet.
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Prologue (May 7th, 2330)
Ebbside, Neon City, Volii Alpha
Andromeda awoke with a start. Somebody was pounding frantically on the door to her sleep crate and had ruined a perfectly deep slumber after a long day of work and even longer night of partying to celebrate her birthday. There was no way in hell it was daylight already which meant she probably left her slate at Euphorika. Again.
The bleary-eyed young woman fumbled in the dark for her glasses while the pounding on her door continued. If whomever it was out there kept it up much longer, she felt like her head would start pounding, too. Having finally fished her glasses off of the cold floor Andromeda slid them on and then clicked her bedside lamp to life. Most of her clothes were strewn about the floor of her metal box, which also explained why she was now so cold.
Two minutes or so later, she was half-dressed, and her nearly decrepit Solstice was clutched tightly in her left hand. Please don’t fizzle out on me now old girl, she thought. Looking down at the worn laser pistol in her hand, she sighed and silently chided herself for never spending any credits on a decent gun. The little pistol had been thrown out for good reason, yet Andromeda had fished out of the garbage anyway and fixed it up in the most half-assed way possible. Each time she squeezed the trigger was just another gamble on whether or not the damned thing would even fire.
This time she prayed to gods she didn’t give a [censored] about that it wouldn’t let her down. And then she finally opened the door.
Andre burst into her sleep crate and slammed the door shut behind him.
“It’s about goddamn time you answered! What the hell took you so long, Dro?”
Andromeda blinked in surprise at the urgency in his voice. She’d known Andre for over six months now, and the man was usually as cool as a cucumber. Even when he drunkenly tried to flirt with her. Andre had taken a courier job for HopeTech on Valo and was reassigned here to Neon City, much to his initial dismay, but they had grown close in the time since. The man was of average height with dark skin and kind brown eyes that sometimes hid behind a mop of unkempt blue hair.
“Slow down, Andre,” she said. “What’s the big deal?”
“No time to slow down. The ‘big deal’ is that your [censored], Dro. Absolutely [censored].”
“Wha -”
“Gather up what you care about the most and stuff it in your bag. Security thugs are closing in already �" I set up a prox alert for when they get within twenty meters.” Andre saw her bag sitting on the floor near the door, grabbed it, and handed it to Andromeda. “Pack! Now!”
“Andre, I am not going to move another goddamn muscle until you tell me what the [censored] is going on!”
“[censored]. Fine. Start packing and I’ll explain while you go.” He waited until a few things had been shoved unceremoniously in her bag before continuing: “Those Ryujin files you hacked yesterday for your anonymous buyer? They were tagged for Bayu’s personal records. Dunno how he tracked you down so quick but if you wanna live to see your twenty-sixth birthday then we need to get you the hell out of this city.”
Her blood froze. Benjamin Bayu. The Administrator of Neon City and possibly the most corrupt man in the settled systems. His fingers crept into every business venture on the planet and the security force was at his beck and call. No one did business in Neon without giving him a cut, and his ruthlessness against would-be competitors was legendary. Everyone who lived in Neon lived comfortably by skirting his brutality.
If she was on his radar at long last, then she had definitely taken the wrong job, pile of credits notwithstanding. Being a Cyber Runner in Neon always ran the risk that Andromeda would one day cross paths with that monster, but she had always been careful about her choice of contracts in the hope of avoiding Bayu. Her luck had finally run out and yet she still was uncertain about leaving the only home she ever knew.
“I can’t just up and leave!” stammered Andromeda, freezing midway through emptying the contents of her wall safe. “My whole life is here! It’s all I’ve ever known!”
“Doesn’t matter. Bayu will have you killed just to make an example - “ Andre ceased talking abruptly at the sound of rapid beeping emanating from his slate. His face took on an unhealthy pallor and he nervously ran his hand through his hair. “Time to go. They got there sooner than I expected.” Andre pulled another slate out of his jacket pocket and gave it to Andromeda. “Here, take this and give it to Doc Manning at the clinic. He’ll give you a short makeover to fool security at the spaceport.”
“Andre, I...” Andromeda was at a loss for words. The sudden shock of what was happening and the thought of fleeing her life �" Neon, Andre, the friends and people she’d grown up around �" was too much. Hot tears fell down her pale cheeks and splashed on the floor of her crate. She raised a hand to brush them away, and then shoulder her bag. “This isn’t over,” she finally said with a firmer resolve than what she felt inside. “Bayu isn’t chasing me out of my [censored] home forever. I’ll come back for all of you, I promise.” Andromeda stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Andre’s cheek. “I promise.”
“We’ll do what we can to clear your name. You need to go. Now. They’ll be here any second. I can keep them occupied for a few minutes but they’ll tell me to get lost before long. Go!”
Andromeda pulled her hood up to hide her vibrant fuchsia hair and fled into the night without another word. The garbled chatter of Neon Security radios echoed up from the alleyway to her right, so she moved silently away from them and ducked into a dark alcove that was still within view of her crate. It was hard to much of anything, but she recognized the dim form of Andre now standing back outside of her door and soon heard him pounding on it once again.
“Yo! Open up, Jen!” Andre’s voice rang out. “Open up!”
Flashlights illuminated and three security goons stood at the ready, their guns trained on her friend. Andre’s hands flew skyward while the nearest guard began to pat him down.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” demanded another guard.
“Damn, take it easy, bud,” said Andre. “My friend lives here and she’s gonna be late for her shift at Generdyne again. Just trying to get her ass on the move!”
“Jen, huh? Yeah, sure pal.” The guard shoved him aside and addressed one of his partners. “What do you got, Reg?”
“Andre Mitarn, known associate of one Andromeda Renault. Courier for HopeTech.”
“Did ya hear that you lying piece of [censored]?” laughed the first guard. “Jen my ass. Where’s the girl?”
“If I knew where Jen was I wouldn’t be here, officer.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever, punk. Reg, you know the drill �" get him out of here.”
Andre lowered his hands to leave while Andromeda released a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. Her friend turned to walk away but Andre only made it a few paces before two sharp cracks rang out through Ebbside. He fell to the ground in a pool of blood while Andromeda watched in silent horror. She shoved her hand in her mouth in a desperate bid to stop herself from crying out.
“Dump that sack of [censored] over the side. The chasmbass will get rid of the evidence for us.”
Two of the security goons forced open the door to her sleep crate and disappeared inside while the third dragged off Andre’s lifeless body and heaved it over the railing and into the churning waters far below. Andromeda slipped away unseen and headed silently for the Neon Core, wiping away the tears as she went. The nearest door to Bayu Plaza wasn’t far, and within five minutes she had stepped through it and darkened her glasses against the garish light that gave Neon City its name.
Every type of store and service imaginable spanned the length of the Core, brilliant neon signs and lights shining down upon everyone who walked the expansive length from Ryujin Tower to the Trade Tower. Even late at night (or early in the morning, as it was now), the walkways were teeming with citizens, tourists, guards, scumbags, and dregs.
Andromeda’s destination was Reliant Medical and thankfully it was only a short distance away. Doc Manning seemed to never sleep and with her life crumbling around her, Andromeda was grateful to see him sitting at his counter.
“Ah, there you are, Dro! Andre warned me you were coming �" c’mon around back and we’ll get you fixed up.” He paused at the signs of grief that had stricken her normally carefree face. “What’s happened? Wait… where is Andre?”
It took everything Andromeda had to not scream in frustration and anger. She settled for kicking helplessly at the front of his counter which only resulted in a stab of pan shooting through her foot. “They [censored] killed him, Joe! Bayu’s security goons iced him without a second thought and threw him over the rails of Ebbside!”
“Bastards,” sighed the Doc. “I keep hoping this city will change some day but I don’t think I’ll ever live to see it. Despite younguns like you fighting back, Bayu’s grip never seems to relent. All the more reason to get you out of here, I guess.” Doc Manning waved her towards the back again and dismounted from his stool. “Go on, I just have to lock up real quick.”
The back room had a small biological modification chair that the doc had somehow procured from one of the Enhance! stores that were peppered throughout the local galaxy. It must have cost a small fortune, but she once again found herself thanking gods she didn’t care about for its existence in the back of the clinic. Doc Manning followed her in a few seconds later and instructed her to take a seat in the chair.
“Okay, so Andre...” Joe trailed off and made a gesture that Andromeda had never seen before. His hand moved across his face in the shape of a ‘T’.
“What was that for?” she asked him.
“The cross? It’s from an old-Earth religion that most have forgotten about. I’ll explain some other time. Anyway… so Andre most have been tipped off pretty early and with a good bit of info. Bayu has your name, financial history, work records, and physiological profile; but not your DNA records. We lucked out there. A few cosmetic changes will get you past the spaceport sniffers.”
“Joe, I can’t pay for any of this,” said Andromeda. “All my accounts are probably seized and I have less than two-hundred credits in my bag.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Dro. You’ve already done so much for the hard working people of this city that your friends are lining up behind me to get you safely out of this place.”
Andromeda sniffled and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue from the box Doc Manning held up to her. She knew it would be a long time until she saw those friends again, and the thought of that hurt more than anything else. Then she laid back in the chair and closed her eyes while the doctor powered up the alteration arms. She knew it would take thirty seconds to a minute for the machine to fully boot, so Andromeda pressed her friend on what would happen next.
“I have another slate from Andre,” he said. “It will transfer enough credits to get you on an outbound freighter, and provide a new identity. But the tricky part will be getting you to the port with perfect timing. We need to have you at the gates just as the ship’s thrusters begin to burn, so that the guards will hopefully rush you through without looking to closely at your records.”
There was lot that could go wrong with that. However, she trusted her friends implicitly and so she closed her eyes again and let the doctor go to work. The procedure was relatively painless, but she did flinch from the occasional needle or sharp prod. Some calibrations to the machine were in order when she returned. If I can return, she thought. Benjamin Bayu had a long memory, and she doubted he would forget about her anytime soon.
Ten minutes elapsed before Doc Manning leaned back on his stool and powered down the alteration arms. He grabbed a mirror from a side table and handed it to Andromeda. The same brown eyes stared back at her, but Joe had completely changed her hairstyle and its color: the long ponytail she had entered the clinic with was gone, and only a small knot was tied up in the back. Instead of fuchsia, her locks were now dyed an incredible opalescent prism of stunning colors, and the strands on the right side of her face fell down past her cheeks while being tucked back tightly on the left side.
She noticed the bare skin of her neck and left cheek and inhaled sharply. “Did you get rid of my tattoos?! Those were really personal to me, Doc!”
“Relax, I just covered them up with some foundation. Keep your hood up a the spaceport or the rain will wash it away and give up the goose. They’ll stick out like a sore thumb. Oh, and leave your piercings here. Those are easily replaceable.”
Andromeda frowned but did as advised. She popped the studs out of her ears and nose, removed the loop from her septum, and slid the barbell out from her nose bridge. Doc Manning collected them all in a small steel pan and then dropped them into a medical waste bin. Andromeda slid out of the modification chair and gave him a hug.
“Thanks for everything, Doc. I’ll be back to repay you some day.”
“I already told you your credit is good, Dro. Just promise me you’ll be careful out there.”
“I’ll try. But you should know better than most that the trouble usually finds me first.”
“That I do!” laughed Doc Manning. “Damn, almost forgot �" lose the glasses, too. I have some lenses for you instead.”
She removed her glasses and chucked them in the bin with her piercings. The good doctor handed her a set of icy blue colored contact lenses and after a couple minutes of struggling, she managed to pop them in to obscure her natural eye color. Another hug for the Doc Manning. Then he tapped a slate to hers and ushered Andromeda out the back door of Reliant Medical. Syndal, her best friend from university and one-time lover waited somberly in the trash ridden alley running behind the shops.
“Time to go, doll,” said her diminutive cohort. “Ship leaves in six minutes.” Syndal was tiny even compared to the slight 1.6 meters Andromeda rose to. The top of her head just barely made it to Andromeda’s nose. She put a hand on the back of Andromeda’s head and pulled her down to a reasonable level, kissing her very briefly on the lips. “For luck,” she explained to Andromeda’s quizzical stare. “Don’t think we’re ever getting back together or anything.”
“Fair enough,” said Andromeda. “Are we taking the main elevator down?”
“Have to. It’s all you have time for. “Let’s go, and try to keep up. Security is swarming the Core for you.”
Andromeda nodded and followed along in Syndal’s speedy wake. It was easy to unobtrusively hang a few steps back and still keep tabs on the impressive length of platinum hair falling past her friend’s hips. It swayed to and fro in the constant gentle breeze flowing through Neon City. The draft was one of many effects of living on massive platform built high above the roiling seas of a water world. A world that Andromeda had never left. Or had ever planned to leave. Those idle thoughts helped keep her features neutral when they stepped back onto the main thoroughfare and snaked their way towards the spaceport elevator.
Neon Security had fallen for the gambit. None of them paid her any mind, despite having her former appearance projected on the inside of their helmet visors. Syndal led her right past squad after squad of the corrupt officers until they reached their destination.
“You’re on your own from here,” said Syndal. “Take the lift down to the port and make a show of rushing, but don’t outright sprint. Play the part of the late departee who is trying to make their flight. The guards down there are a different detachment than the Core goons and generally skew towards being less of an asshole than the ones chasing you up here.”
“Okay, I’ll try. Never was much of an actor but I can do this. I have to do this.”
Syndal slapped her on the ass. “Quit stalling. You’ve got less than two minutes.”
“Right. Bye, Syn. And thank you.”
The elevator doors opened and Andromeda rode the lift down to the docking port. Two guards flanked the it at the bottom but the alterations Doc Manning made to her appearance seemed to have fooled their scanners. She showed them her slate and they told her to get moving else she miss the freighter. Settling for a speedy trot, Andromeda sighed gratefully and flitted down the long catwalk spanning over the ocean below, squeezing her hood tightly to her face. The warm, wind-driven rain splattered against her while she half ran to the ship waiting for its final passenger.
It was an ancient Deimos model that took up most of the landing pad. Bright lights illuminated faded letters above the ramp: The Gryphon. A crew member ushered Andromeda inside with little patience and directed her to a jump seat in the main cabin. Unsure of how the seat worked, her fingers trembled while she tried to strap herself in.
“First time in space, dearie?” A middle-aged woman next to her smiled gently at Andromeda.
“Yeah. I’m scared shitless if I’m being honest.”
“There’s nothing to it.” The kind woman reached over and showed her which buckles went where, and pointed out the safety pouch under the cushion. “Mouth guards in there if you’re worried about biting your tongue off. Once we take off, just keep your mouth closed and you won’t need them.”
Andromeda thanked her, and the woman went back to humming an off-tune key. Voices rang out over the loudspeaker and warning signs began to light up all around them. The entire ship rattled and shook, and the message on the flight console on the wall across from her changed from ‘docked’ to ‘achieving thrust’. Seconds later the engines roared into life and the sudden g’s from massive acceleration pressed Andromeda back into her seat. Unable to move so much as a finger, she closed her eyes and whimpered slightly as the ship gained altitude.
And then the pressure was gone. She opened her eyes and the porthole in the ceiling above revealed the deep black of space, dotted with innumerable points of light blinking back at her from incomprehensible distances. For the second time in as many minutes, her breath had been taken away for very different reasons.
She had done it. She had escaped Neon City and the closing grasp of Benjaim Bayu.
The tears came again anyway. Her life as she knew it was over and she had no idea where things went from here. She didn’t even know where this ship was bound. She was alone among the stars. And then the engines powered down while the grav drive engaged, folded space around the ship, and leapt from the Volii System in a blazing show of cosmic light and energy, carrying Andromeda far way from danger with a dumbfounded expression on her face..
Full Version: Starchildren
I’m guessing this is a Starfield story, so every little thing will be new to me. I didn’t get out of the tutorial. 
How fun to read the beginning of a Kane story! I’m presently in Season Unending, so I should catch up with the Children of Kyne saga soon.
That was a cool description of taking off into space. Alone with only what she has in her bag. I look forward to learning more about Andromeda!
How fun to read the beginning of a Kane story! I’m presently in Season Unending, so I should catch up with the Children of Kyne saga soon.
That was a cool description of taking off into space. Alone with only what she has in her bag. I look forward to learning more about Andromeda!
Welcome along for the ride, Gritsy! Starfield indeed - I have been posting character updates in a different thread while playing, but, well, she demanded her own story.
Season Unending already?! You are tearing through CoK! And books two and three aren't exactly short!
It's going to be quite the story! Andromeda has been through a hell of a lot.
Season Unending already?! You are tearing through CoK! And books two and three aren't exactly short!
It's going to be quite the story! Andromeda has been through a hell of a lot.
Author's note: I added a date to the header.
Toto, I don’t think we’re in Tamriel!
Nice that you’re transitioning Andromeda’s bits and snips over into a full fiction. Certainly not a good morning for her! Clearly, she has some friends though, who manage to help spirit her away from the bad guy running Neon City.
I liked the makeover chair and, like Grits, enjoyed the description as the old space ship took off and transitioned to ‘Oh Wow!’ speed.
Wherever she ends up, looks like she’ll be going from modest means to almost nothing to start with.
Nice that you’re transitioning Andromeda’s bits and snips over into a full fiction. Certainly not a good morning for her! Clearly, she has some friends though, who manage to help spirit her away from the bad guy running Neon City.
I liked the makeover chair and, like Grits, enjoyed the description as the old space ship took off and transitioned to ‘Oh Wow!’ speed.
Wherever she ends up, looks like she’ll be going from modest means to almost nothing to start with.
One – The Secrets of Vectera
(June 13th, 2330)
Moon of Vectera, Narion System
Three months into her stint with Argos Extractors revealed many things about Andromeda Renault. Only one of them really mattered though: she was a terrible miner. Her thin frame could barely handle a cutter, and years behind computer screens provided her with very few useful skills outside of hacking into encrypted mainframes. Or cracking safes. None of which mattered when you’re in a dusty mine fifty meters beneath the surface of a lifeless moon.
Why had she signed up at Argos? Because that was her only option. The ship that spirited Andromeda away from Neon City made its first stop at The Den; a rundown starstation in the Wolf System. She foolishly decided to get off the ship there and regretted it almost immediately. There was little to offer on the station, and after spending some of her dwindling credits at the local dive bar, she tied one on and stumbled back upstairs only to find that the ship had left without her.
Andromeda was understandably upset by this latest setback, and the fact that The Den offered no lodging only compounded the issue. Since she didn’t feel like getting arrested by the United Colonies for being a vagrant, Andromeda crawled into the nearest air vent and slept off the booze on the cold duct work floor. The next day brought with it a new transport ship docking at the station, and a recruiting officer for one Argos Extractors. Her options were limited and so she signed on for a mining tour just for the free ride off the station and back into the unknown.
And here she was. On Vectera. A useless lump of rock orbiting a useless gas giant in a backwater system. Her shift started ten minutes ago and her supervisor, a woman named Lin, was not-so-subtly dressing her down for being late while an elevator slowly descended into the mine.
“Get a move on it, dusty,” chided Lin.
Dusty. What an insensitive term to use on a young woman such as herself. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go blame Troy for clogging the toilet and leaving me to clean up the mess. That guy needs to skip burrito night next week.”
“Thank you for painting that lovely imagery,” said Lin.
Behind her stood Heller, who was laughing heartily. Heller was Lin’s second in command. A very handsome second in command who swung the other way, much to Andromeda’s chagrin. He carried a confidence that was endlessly attractive and had the charisma to back it up. All in all, a big loss for team female. Oh well.
“Just get suited up, Annie,” chortled Heller. “And check my seals. I don’t want any alien particulates in my respiratory system today.”
“That implies there’s something on this piece of [censored] rock that’s worth breathing in,” said Andromeda. “Which would be news to me. And I told you not to call me that.”
“Hah. Couldn’t agree more, Annie.”
She punched him playfully on the arm. For as much as she hated the work, Andromeda really enjoyed the people here. Most of her coworkers were a good time. They usually played cards after their shift ended and there was no shortage of tales to swap. Some of them, like Heller, even took the time to show her the ropes. Get her on the right footing for this new career field. And no one seemed to care that she was less than forthcoming about her past.
The lift clanged to halt at the base of the mine.
“Okay, go earn your keep, Dusty,” said Lin. “Heller and I have our own work to do.”
Andromeda un-holstered the mining cutter from her the hook on her back and trotted down the mine shaft to her sector. Other miners toiled here and there, blasting away at ore veins with the specialized laser cutters, hoping to pry out anything that would pad the bottom line. She’d been working a hefty beryllium vein for the last week with Calvert, another coworker that thought he was a hotshot.
Calvert stood near the end of the tunnel, nonchalantly blasting away at the rock wall. Fragments of stone and ore clattered to the ground in a heap at his feet narrowly missing his legs. The bulky (and horribly unflattering) mining spacesuits they wore could take a beating but were not impervious. Sooner or later the wannabe rock jockey was going to have a problem.
She approached Calvert from behind and tapped him on the shoulder. “Watch the debris, dumbass!” she chattered over his helmet mic. “You’ve been doing this job a lot longer than I have and you should know better! Quit showing off – it’s not working for you!”
“Whatever you say, Annie!”
“[censored] you. I only put up with Heller calling me that because he’s the boss.” Andromeda grabbed a tube of machine grease from her utility pouch and squirted it all over Calvert’s helmet. It was petty, but she’d had enough of his faux macho attitude over the last few weeks. “Good luck getting that off, dickhead.”
The disgruntled miner flipped her off and trundled away to find a bottle of solvent. Andromeda stepped down a small side passage and fired up her cutter, aiming it at the last vein in that sector. It was dull work. The dullest work Andromeda ever had the displeasure of doing. Ten hour shifts with this heavy tool in her hands, and the suit weighing her down. All because she hacked the wrong goddamn files. She missed her friends terribly and spent the first week in exile constantly on the verge of tears from the grief of losing Andre especially.
Andromeda took a few deep breaths. Crying in a spacesuit just meant the tears ran wherever they pleased. It wasn’t a good time to go down that road. Probably never would be. The feelings fell to the back of her mind where they’d taken up residence and she started picking away at the beryllium deposits again.
She’d barely been at it for ten minutes when Lin’s voice rang out in her earpiece. “They’re ready for us, Dusty. Get back up here.”
“On it, boss,” replied Andromeda. Back up the tunnel to the main cavern she went.
Lin and Heller were about thirty meters deeper into the mine, walking alongside a massive mobile drill that chewed through the bedrock of Vectera like papier-mâché. He held a scanner in his hands and relayed the data from it to Lin.
“We’re just about through!” he said. “Getting some really strange readings though, boss.”
“Problem?”
“Not if you consider a spike in gravity readings a problem.”
“I don’t.”
They kept talking about clients and anomalies but Andromeda didn’t catch most of it. She was too busy craning over Heller’s shoulder to peek at the data for herself. It was a long time since she’d taken physics classes at university, but Andromeda still recognized some of the figures and readings. And she was damn sure the data on Heller’s scanner was not supposed to look like that.
Lin smacked her helmet. “Wake up! It’s time for you to earn your keep. Go see what’s in that cavern ahead of us. If something goes wrong in there, we’ll come get you.”
“Goes wrong?” asked Andromeda. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Just do your job. Client is on the way.”
“Whatever,” said Andromeda. “Something happens to me in there and I’m stealing your bonus.”
A narrow ridge of stone wove through the open air cave and into the blackness beyond. Andromeda clicked on her helmet lamps and took a tentative step forward. Then another. Soon enough, she was halfway up a slope and her light revealed a small crevice leading further in. Further down the winding path she walked until the cavern opened up again to a very strange sight.
Glittering minerals coated just about every surface of the rock walls, lit by an odd form of bio-luminescence that Andromeda had never seen before. She opened her own handheld scanner and pointed it the nearest cluster of ore nodes. Caelumite? She thought to herself. That’s one of the rarest resources in the galaxy… why the hell is there so much of it here? There were some other elements that Vectera was known for mixed in, but the Caelumite was everywhere. And it was very dense near a column at the center of the room, so Andromeda turned her headlamps in that direction.
“What the [censored]?”
The lights reflected off of something impossible. Or at least improbable. Small cubes of the rare metal were floating in the air. They moved about under the influence of the air currents circulating throughout the room, but they were floating nonetheless. She reached out and touched one and it floated away as if gravity was only a suggestion, rather than a reality.
What in the hell are we being paid to retrieve? Lin didn’t say anything about the Caelumite, so it couldn’t be that. Against her better judgment, Andromeda stepped closer to the column she’d scanned a few minutes earlier. More of the rare element floated in the air nearest to it. And something… else... glinted from beneath a heavy deposit. Something with clean cut lines arranged in a pattern. An artificial shape. She hung the scanner on her utility belt and got her cutter back out and charged it up. Aiming carefully at the strange object, she blasted away the bits of metal spread over the top of it until it came free and remained floating in place.
Andromeda reached down to pick it up. Her gloved hand closed around it and in the blink of an eye she was pulled across the never-ending expanse of infinity. The entirety of the universe flashed through her mind in a dazzling array of cosmic colors, lights, and sounds.
And then only darkness remained.
“Dusty! Snap out of it!”
White lights blinded Andromeda when she opened her eyes. She turned her head to find Lin and Heller standing over her and looking immensely relieved.
“W-what happened? Where am I?” She tried to sit up and fell right back down onto a clean white bed. She closed her eyes against the overwhelming dizziness and fought the urge to vomit all over herself.
“Take it easy, Annie,” said Heller. “You were out cold. No physical damage but we did have to drag you back here and cut your suit off. Hopefully you weren’t too attached to it.”
“How are you feeling?” asked Lin
“Like [censored].”
“There she is,” grinned Heller. “I’d say you just need a few minutes to relax and then you’ll be good to go. And hey – you got the sample! Client’s on his way and then we all get paid.”
“What the [censored] was that thing?”
“Beats me,” said Heller. “Worth more credits that we’ve made in the last three months, though.” Then he looked down at Andromeda’s distraught face and placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. “Sorry, I’ll shut about the money now. You’ll be okay. Just take a few deep breaths and try to sit up again. Lin will stay here with you while I wait outside for the buyer.”
He left the medical hab while Lin took a seat nearby to keep an eye on her charge. Andromeda laid still for a moment and reflected on what she had seen after her hand clasped the object. What little imagery of the sensory overload she could recall rushed back to the forefront of her mind with a torrent of sickening vertigo and this time she did vomit. All over the floor and even a little on Lin’s legs. Andromeda found that she didn’t really feel bad about that. It was her boss’ fault she was in this mess anyway.
The queasiness subsided and Andromeda felt much better. She sat up and looked around for something warm to wear. The thin bodysuit she preferred to wear under her spacesuit didn’t offer much in the way of temperature regulation. Made her tits look great though, which is why she’d rather not have any of the other grunts stroll into the infirmary for a gander. A utility jumpsuit hung in a nearby locker and after slowly getting to her feet Andromeda plodded over to it and began to pull it on. Wasn’t a perfect fit but it did the job. Lin followed her progress with a concern that Andromeda found touching. The boss may act like a hard-ass, but, in truth, she was a big softy for her crew.
“Right, I feel much better now,” said Andromeda. She did a few stretches to work out any kinks and then nodded her head towards the door. “Let’s catch up with Heller. I want to meet whoever the hell it is that’s looking for that thing. They owe me some answers.”
Andromeda and Lin filed out of the infirmary hab and made their way through the mess hall, stopping by the living quarters so that Andromeda could requisition a new mining spacesuit. It dipped into her own credits but Lin assured her that she could file a compensation request later and that she would sign off on it without question. They both donned their suits, checked each other’s seals, and headed for the airlock. The outer door opened and the dim glow of far away star bathed them in a thin light. A surface level team of technicians and procurement specialists scurried about the platform affixed between the separate operation and command habs, and connected to a lagre landing pad at the far end. Crates of equipment and carts full of ore were scattered about. Andromeda caught the bulky form of Heller standing near the pad and headed his way with Lin.
“Our contact is inbound,” said Heller, pointing at a dark smudge in the sky that grew closer and closer. It didn’t take long before they recognized the outline of a small spaceship. Andromeda didn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground when it came to ships, but Heller seemed unimpressed by it. “Is that… a Discovery class? That piece of junk must be older than this moon!”
“It’s not old. It’s a classic,” said Lin.
The ship roared into landing range and nosily set down on the pad. The thrusters cut out and a ramp underneath what Andromeda guessed was the cockpit lowered in time for a man and his robot to exit the ship.
“Wait, this guy’s from Constellation?” asked Heller. “I thought they were kind of a joke?”
“Not a joke. You’re just too young to know better,” Lin chided.
The man approached them, pushed a few buttons on his spacesuit control panel, and linked into their local comms. “Lin! My favorite miner! Good to see you again!”
“Hello, Barrett. Been a long time.”
Andromeda stood quietly to the side with Heller while the two seemingly old friends exchanged their greetings. She didn’t know who or what Constellation was supposed to be, but the man seemed amicable enough. He had an outgoing personality and charm that was quickly winning Andromeda over, despite what had just happened to her.
“So, you found something?” Barrett asked Lin. “And everything went… cool? Just like grabbing those… minerals on Bindi?”
“Ka’zaal. And no, Barrett. NOT cool. The poor girl passed out after the extraction. Woke up in a haze and puked all over my legs.”
“Is that right, cowgirl?” said Barrett, now looking at Andromeda. “Went on a trip, huh?”
“Cowgirl, really? Do I sound like some hick from Akila to you?” Andromeda eased herself forward so that she was standing in between Barrett and Lin. “You seem to know all about this so you owe me some answers, pal. That piece of junk knocked me on my ass. And what the hell was up with the gravimetric distortions in that cave?”
“Hey, just take it easy, miss,” appeased Barrett, raising his hands in a show of calm. “I know it wasn’t the most gentle push into the great mysteries of space, but hey… been there myself!”
Lin stepped in before Andromeda could respond. “Look, just hand over the credits, and I’ll be happy to never see -”
She was cut off by the robot looming behind Barrett. “Captain. The scanners on the Frontier are reporting a ship coming in hot from orbit."
“Holy [censored]!” yelled Heller, pointing at the approaching craft. “That’s the Crimson Fleet!”
Andromeda’s not-so-clean background in Neon meant she knew exactly that that meant. Pirates. The worst kind of Pirates. And she also knew that guns and spacesuits didn’t mix well. Barrett, Lin, and Heller were yelling at each other but it was just noise to her at this point. Andromeda wasn’t a solider. She barely knew how to use the laser pistol tucked away in her personal locker. What she did next may have been cowardly but she didn’t care – this wasn’t her fight.
The ship roared into view and touched down violently on the ground at the opposite end of the mining complex while Andromeda ran and hid behind a towering pallet of supply crates.
(June 13th, 2330)
Moon of Vectera, Narion System
Three months into her stint with Argos Extractors revealed many things about Andromeda Renault. Only one of them really mattered though: she was a terrible miner. Her thin frame could barely handle a cutter, and years behind computer screens provided her with very few useful skills outside of hacking into encrypted mainframes. Or cracking safes. None of which mattered when you’re in a dusty mine fifty meters beneath the surface of a lifeless moon.
Why had she signed up at Argos? Because that was her only option. The ship that spirited Andromeda away from Neon City made its first stop at The Den; a rundown starstation in the Wolf System. She foolishly decided to get off the ship there and regretted it almost immediately. There was little to offer on the station, and after spending some of her dwindling credits at the local dive bar, she tied one on and stumbled back upstairs only to find that the ship had left without her.
Andromeda was understandably upset by this latest setback, and the fact that The Den offered no lodging only compounded the issue. Since she didn’t feel like getting arrested by the United Colonies for being a vagrant, Andromeda crawled into the nearest air vent and slept off the booze on the cold duct work floor. The next day brought with it a new transport ship docking at the station, and a recruiting officer for one Argos Extractors. Her options were limited and so she signed on for a mining tour just for the free ride off the station and back into the unknown.
And here she was. On Vectera. A useless lump of rock orbiting a useless gas giant in a backwater system. Her shift started ten minutes ago and her supervisor, a woman named Lin, was not-so-subtly dressing her down for being late while an elevator slowly descended into the mine.
“Get a move on it, dusty,” chided Lin.
Dusty. What an insensitive term to use on a young woman such as herself. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go blame Troy for clogging the toilet and leaving me to clean up the mess. That guy needs to skip burrito night next week.”
“Thank you for painting that lovely imagery,” said Lin.
Behind her stood Heller, who was laughing heartily. Heller was Lin’s second in command. A very handsome second in command who swung the other way, much to Andromeda’s chagrin. He carried a confidence that was endlessly attractive and had the charisma to back it up. All in all, a big loss for team female. Oh well.
“Just get suited up, Annie,” chortled Heller. “And check my seals. I don’t want any alien particulates in my respiratory system today.”
“That implies there’s something on this piece of [censored] rock that’s worth breathing in,” said Andromeda. “Which would be news to me. And I told you not to call me that.”
“Hah. Couldn’t agree more, Annie.”
She punched him playfully on the arm. For as much as she hated the work, Andromeda really enjoyed the people here. Most of her coworkers were a good time. They usually played cards after their shift ended and there was no shortage of tales to swap. Some of them, like Heller, even took the time to show her the ropes. Get her on the right footing for this new career field. And no one seemed to care that she was less than forthcoming about her past.
The lift clanged to halt at the base of the mine.
“Okay, go earn your keep, Dusty,” said Lin. “Heller and I have our own work to do.”
Andromeda un-holstered the mining cutter from her the hook on her back and trotted down the mine shaft to her sector. Other miners toiled here and there, blasting away at ore veins with the specialized laser cutters, hoping to pry out anything that would pad the bottom line. She’d been working a hefty beryllium vein for the last week with Calvert, another coworker that thought he was a hotshot.
Calvert stood near the end of the tunnel, nonchalantly blasting away at the rock wall. Fragments of stone and ore clattered to the ground in a heap at his feet narrowly missing his legs. The bulky (and horribly unflattering) mining spacesuits they wore could take a beating but were not impervious. Sooner or later the wannabe rock jockey was going to have a problem.
She approached Calvert from behind and tapped him on the shoulder. “Watch the debris, dumbass!” she chattered over his helmet mic. “You’ve been doing this job a lot longer than I have and you should know better! Quit showing off – it’s not working for you!”
“Whatever you say, Annie!”
“[censored] you. I only put up with Heller calling me that because he’s the boss.” Andromeda grabbed a tube of machine grease from her utility pouch and squirted it all over Calvert’s helmet. It was petty, but she’d had enough of his faux macho attitude over the last few weeks. “Good luck getting that off, dickhead.”
The disgruntled miner flipped her off and trundled away to find a bottle of solvent. Andromeda stepped down a small side passage and fired up her cutter, aiming it at the last vein in that sector. It was dull work. The dullest work Andromeda ever had the displeasure of doing. Ten hour shifts with this heavy tool in her hands, and the suit weighing her down. All because she hacked the wrong goddamn files. She missed her friends terribly and spent the first week in exile constantly on the verge of tears from the grief of losing Andre especially.
Andromeda took a few deep breaths. Crying in a spacesuit just meant the tears ran wherever they pleased. It wasn’t a good time to go down that road. Probably never would be. The feelings fell to the back of her mind where they’d taken up residence and she started picking away at the beryllium deposits again.
She’d barely been at it for ten minutes when Lin’s voice rang out in her earpiece. “They’re ready for us, Dusty. Get back up here.”
“On it, boss,” replied Andromeda. Back up the tunnel to the main cavern she went.
Lin and Heller were about thirty meters deeper into the mine, walking alongside a massive mobile drill that chewed through the bedrock of Vectera like papier-mâché. He held a scanner in his hands and relayed the data from it to Lin.
“We’re just about through!” he said. “Getting some really strange readings though, boss.”
“Problem?”
“Not if you consider a spike in gravity readings a problem.”
“I don’t.”
They kept talking about clients and anomalies but Andromeda didn’t catch most of it. She was too busy craning over Heller’s shoulder to peek at the data for herself. It was a long time since she’d taken physics classes at university, but Andromeda still recognized some of the figures and readings. And she was damn sure the data on Heller’s scanner was not supposed to look like that.
Lin smacked her helmet. “Wake up! It’s time for you to earn your keep. Go see what’s in that cavern ahead of us. If something goes wrong in there, we’ll come get you.”
“Goes wrong?” asked Andromeda. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Just do your job. Client is on the way.”
“Whatever,” said Andromeda. “Something happens to me in there and I’m stealing your bonus.”
A narrow ridge of stone wove through the open air cave and into the blackness beyond. Andromeda clicked on her helmet lamps and took a tentative step forward. Then another. Soon enough, she was halfway up a slope and her light revealed a small crevice leading further in. Further down the winding path she walked until the cavern opened up again to a very strange sight.
Glittering minerals coated just about every surface of the rock walls, lit by an odd form of bio-luminescence that Andromeda had never seen before. She opened her own handheld scanner and pointed it the nearest cluster of ore nodes. Caelumite? She thought to herself. That’s one of the rarest resources in the galaxy… why the hell is there so much of it here? There were some other elements that Vectera was known for mixed in, but the Caelumite was everywhere. And it was very dense near a column at the center of the room, so Andromeda turned her headlamps in that direction.
“What the [censored]?”
The lights reflected off of something impossible. Or at least improbable. Small cubes of the rare metal were floating in the air. They moved about under the influence of the air currents circulating throughout the room, but they were floating nonetheless. She reached out and touched one and it floated away as if gravity was only a suggestion, rather than a reality.
What in the hell are we being paid to retrieve? Lin didn’t say anything about the Caelumite, so it couldn’t be that. Against her better judgment, Andromeda stepped closer to the column she’d scanned a few minutes earlier. More of the rare element floated in the air nearest to it. And something… else... glinted from beneath a heavy deposit. Something with clean cut lines arranged in a pattern. An artificial shape. She hung the scanner on her utility belt and got her cutter back out and charged it up. Aiming carefully at the strange object, she blasted away the bits of metal spread over the top of it until it came free and remained floating in place.
Andromeda reached down to pick it up. Her gloved hand closed around it and in the blink of an eye she was pulled across the never-ending expanse of infinity. The entirety of the universe flashed through her mind in a dazzling array of cosmic colors, lights, and sounds.
And then only darkness remained.
* * *
“Dusty! Snap out of it!”
White lights blinded Andromeda when she opened her eyes. She turned her head to find Lin and Heller standing over her and looking immensely relieved.
“W-what happened? Where am I?” She tried to sit up and fell right back down onto a clean white bed. She closed her eyes against the overwhelming dizziness and fought the urge to vomit all over herself.
“Take it easy, Annie,” said Heller. “You were out cold. No physical damage but we did have to drag you back here and cut your suit off. Hopefully you weren’t too attached to it.”
“How are you feeling?” asked Lin
“Like [censored].”
“There she is,” grinned Heller. “I’d say you just need a few minutes to relax and then you’ll be good to go. And hey – you got the sample! Client’s on his way and then we all get paid.”
“What the [censored] was that thing?”
“Beats me,” said Heller. “Worth more credits that we’ve made in the last three months, though.” Then he looked down at Andromeda’s distraught face and placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. “Sorry, I’ll shut about the money now. You’ll be okay. Just take a few deep breaths and try to sit up again. Lin will stay here with you while I wait outside for the buyer.”
He left the medical hab while Lin took a seat nearby to keep an eye on her charge. Andromeda laid still for a moment and reflected on what she had seen after her hand clasped the object. What little imagery of the sensory overload she could recall rushed back to the forefront of her mind with a torrent of sickening vertigo and this time she did vomit. All over the floor and even a little on Lin’s legs. Andromeda found that she didn’t really feel bad about that. It was her boss’ fault she was in this mess anyway.
The queasiness subsided and Andromeda felt much better. She sat up and looked around for something warm to wear. The thin bodysuit she preferred to wear under her spacesuit didn’t offer much in the way of temperature regulation. Made her tits look great though, which is why she’d rather not have any of the other grunts stroll into the infirmary for a gander. A utility jumpsuit hung in a nearby locker and after slowly getting to her feet Andromeda plodded over to it and began to pull it on. Wasn’t a perfect fit but it did the job. Lin followed her progress with a concern that Andromeda found touching. The boss may act like a hard-ass, but, in truth, she was a big softy for her crew.
“Right, I feel much better now,” said Andromeda. She did a few stretches to work out any kinks and then nodded her head towards the door. “Let’s catch up with Heller. I want to meet whoever the hell it is that’s looking for that thing. They owe me some answers.”
Andromeda and Lin filed out of the infirmary hab and made their way through the mess hall, stopping by the living quarters so that Andromeda could requisition a new mining spacesuit. It dipped into her own credits but Lin assured her that she could file a compensation request later and that she would sign off on it without question. They both donned their suits, checked each other’s seals, and headed for the airlock. The outer door opened and the dim glow of far away star bathed them in a thin light. A surface level team of technicians and procurement specialists scurried about the platform affixed between the separate operation and command habs, and connected to a lagre landing pad at the far end. Crates of equipment and carts full of ore were scattered about. Andromeda caught the bulky form of Heller standing near the pad and headed his way with Lin.
“Our contact is inbound,” said Heller, pointing at a dark smudge in the sky that grew closer and closer. It didn’t take long before they recognized the outline of a small spaceship. Andromeda didn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground when it came to ships, but Heller seemed unimpressed by it. “Is that… a Discovery class? That piece of junk must be older than this moon!”
“It’s not old. It’s a classic,” said Lin.
The ship roared into landing range and nosily set down on the pad. The thrusters cut out and a ramp underneath what Andromeda guessed was the cockpit lowered in time for a man and his robot to exit the ship.
“Wait, this guy’s from Constellation?” asked Heller. “I thought they were kind of a joke?”
“Not a joke. You’re just too young to know better,” Lin chided.
The man approached them, pushed a few buttons on his spacesuit control panel, and linked into their local comms. “Lin! My favorite miner! Good to see you again!”
“Hello, Barrett. Been a long time.”
Andromeda stood quietly to the side with Heller while the two seemingly old friends exchanged their greetings. She didn’t know who or what Constellation was supposed to be, but the man seemed amicable enough. He had an outgoing personality and charm that was quickly winning Andromeda over, despite what had just happened to her.
“So, you found something?” Barrett asked Lin. “And everything went… cool? Just like grabbing those… minerals on Bindi?”
“Ka’zaal. And no, Barrett. NOT cool. The poor girl passed out after the extraction. Woke up in a haze and puked all over my legs.”
“Is that right, cowgirl?” said Barrett, now looking at Andromeda. “Went on a trip, huh?”
“Cowgirl, really? Do I sound like some hick from Akila to you?” Andromeda eased herself forward so that she was standing in between Barrett and Lin. “You seem to know all about this so you owe me some answers, pal. That piece of junk knocked me on my ass. And what the hell was up with the gravimetric distortions in that cave?”
“Hey, just take it easy, miss,” appeased Barrett, raising his hands in a show of calm. “I know it wasn’t the most gentle push into the great mysteries of space, but hey… been there myself!”
Lin stepped in before Andromeda could respond. “Look, just hand over the credits, and I’ll be happy to never see -”
She was cut off by the robot looming behind Barrett. “Captain. The scanners on the Frontier are reporting a ship coming in hot from orbit."
“Holy [censored]!” yelled Heller, pointing at the approaching craft. “That’s the Crimson Fleet!”
Andromeda’s not-so-clean background in Neon meant she knew exactly that that meant. Pirates. The worst kind of Pirates. And she also knew that guns and spacesuits didn’t mix well. Barrett, Lin, and Heller were yelling at each other but it was just noise to her at this point. Andromeda wasn’t a solider. She barely knew how to use the laser pistol tucked away in her personal locker. What she did next may have been cowardly but she didn’t care – this wasn’t her fight.
The ship roared into view and touched down violently on the ground at the opposite end of the mining complex while Andromeda ran and hid behind a towering pallet of supply crates.
First the good news. Looks like Andromeda has made it pretty far far away from the threat she was running from.
The bad news however is most everything about where she’s found herself. At least she has a bit of rapport with her fellow miners – more or less. And you did a nice job with the banter among therm.
Whatever mystery she found down in that spooky cavern remains a mystery, except that it appears to be valuable and sought after by clients and pirates alike.
Good choice to try the run and hide tactic as those pirates arrive.
The bad news however is most everything about where she’s found herself. At least she has a bit of rapport with her fellow miners – more or less. And you did a nice job with the banter among therm.
Whatever mystery she found down in that spooky cavern remains a mystery, except that it appears to be valuable and sought after by clients and pirates alike.
Good choice to try the run and hide tactic as those pirates arrive.
Yikes, whatever the cool floaty thing is just got pushed to the back burner. Pirates! And Crimson Fleet sounds like they have a lot of friends. Good idea to hide.
Andromeda’s co-workers came to life in just this one episode. I hope they’re going to be ok.
Andromeda’s co-workers came to life in just this one episode. I hope they’re going to be ok.
For pete's sake; I swear I miss a typo no matter how many times I proofread. Read Acadian's reply and picked out "worse" instead of "worst" in the last few sentences of chap. one.
Anyhoo. She definitely made it pretty far into obscurity. For now. Those pirates are about to test her mettle, though.
Anyhoo. She definitely made it pretty far into obscurity. For now. Those pirates are about to test her mettle, though.
Two – A New Frontier
Moon of Vectera, Narion System
The sound of gunfire echoed across the surface of the small mining outpost. Laser beams blistered across the causeway. Bullets thudded into supply crates and ore bins. The occasional small explosion of a fuel tank shook the ground beneath her feet. And the screaming… Andromeda had to switch off the comms in her helmet to drown out the screaming. She couldn’t tell if they were screams of fear, or screams of adrenaline.
She hoped that no one had seen her dart behind the pallet of supplies. That none of her coworkers knew she hid and cowered while they bravely tried to fight off the Crimson Fleet pirates. But one person did know. Barrett ducked for cover behind the same towering barricade and nearly toppled Andromeda over.
“Hey, you alright there, Cowgirl?”
The man was smiling. He was actually smiling in the middle of a gunfight while their lives hung in the balance. Somehow her life had gone from bad to boring and now to terrifying, and that last part had everything to do with Barrett.
“NO, I’M NOT [censored] ALRIGHT!” she heard herself scream. “THESE ASSHOLES ARE SHOOTING AT US AND IT’S YOUR FAULT!”
Barrett’s helmet mic screeched with feedback under her aural assault. The man at last had the courtesy to look upset at her words, despite his early nonchalance. “Look, I’m sorry… Andromeda, right?” He waited a split second and then continued after her curt nod. “I’m sorry, I truly am. The fleet thinks our ship is full of treasure or credits or exotic goods. It’s a rumor that’s persisted for years, despite having been boarded by pirate scumbags at least twice now. But, hey, they’re just that: scumbags. And they can barely shoot straight.” Barrett then popped his head up from the small shelter and looked around. “Hang on a sec, I’ll be right back.”
Andromeda couldn’t help but count the seconds under her breath. It offered a distraction from the chaos around her. She also switched her comms back on and tried to make sense of the noise. Something told her a pep was coming with Barrett’s return and she planned on being ready for it and whatever followed.
Right on cue, he ducked back behind the crates with her. “Here, take this.” He held a shiny new Eon pistol in his hand. Andromeda recognized it – it had been collecting moondust on top of a crate for weeks just a few meters away from where they crouched. “If you want to help, flip off the safety and come join the party. If not, no one will judge you any differently. Not all of us are cut out for this sort of thing. But I’m going to go help Lin and the others. Stay safe, cowgirl.”
He was gone and Andromeda was alone with her fears once again. This time, her eyes were fixated on the pistol lying on her open palm. And then more screams crackled through her comms. She couldn’t bear them anymore. Barely able to believe what she was about to do, Andromeda took several deep breaths to steel her nerves, and then she got to her feet and aimed her gun at the nearest pirate. Her finger squeezed the trigger and to her amazement the 7.77mm round that erupted from the end of the barrel found its mark and sailed straight through the helmet visor of her target.
Blood spewed out through the shattered helmet and the pirate slumped face-first onto the ground while the crimson liquid continued to pool around the lifeless body. Staring in abject horror at the life Andromeda had just taken, two things happened in rapid succession: she vomited into her helmet at the same time a pale blue laser bolt struck her shoulder. The world went dark for the second time that day.
* * *
Narion System
The second coming of darkness did not last long however. Lin roused her not five minutes later by unceremoniously shaking Andromeda’s helmet from side to side. More concern filled her supervisor’s eyes, followed by relief that the young miner was awake again.
“Get up and shake it off, dusty. It was just a stun bolt. One of the pirates must have wanted prisoners.”
Andromeda didn’t like the feeling of being stunned any less than she would liked to have been shot. And her suit smelled like sick from vomiting onto her visor. She counted to ten and waited for the dizziness to subside and then heaved herself up onto her feet. Dead pirates were strewn about the causeway, but Andromeda didn’t see any dead miners. They must have been driven off.
“We were lucky,” said Lin. “Without Barrett and Vasco, those scumbags would’ve overwhelmed us.”
“Did we lose anyone?”
“No, just some minor wounds and one or two broken bones. They’re all getting patched up now. How are you feeling?”
“Somehow this is in the running for worst day of my life. And I’ve had some pretty [censored] days.”
“Well, get used to it. Sounds like the fun isn’t over.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Lin gestured over her shoulder at Barrett. He was talking with the robot again and pointing in Andromeda’s direction. She didn’t like the look of that and it only raised more questions in her mind. What did he want with her? What does that old explorer’s group have to do with any of this? She had a feeling the answers were going to be spoon fed.
Time would soon tell… Barrett was heading their way again. “Okay, we’re all set! Vasco has initiated Protocol Indigo and it’s time to get off this rock.”
“Oh no, Barrett.,” exclaimed Lin. “NO. You think you're just going to take off after the mess you caused?"
Lin began to argue with Barrett again, but Andromeda’s attention drifted to the ship he’d come in on. It really did look old compared to some of the Taiyo or Stroud-Eklund ships she’d seen on Neon. Like Heller had said: it really was ancient. And it looked like it had seen its fair share of space encounters. There were scorch marks, dings, chips, and patched holes all over the outer hull.
"Get out of here, dusty."
Andromeda looked back at Lin. “Um. What?”
“Weren’t you listening?”
“Yeah, no. I was looking at the ship.”
“Well, quit looking and get on it. Barrett is staying to help in case the Crimson Fleet comes back. You’re on to bigger things.”
Andromeda looked at her, mouth agape. And then she looked back at the ship. The Frontier Barrett had called it. She was going in that thing? Where? “Wait wait wait wait,” sputtered Andromeda. “I can’t go in that ship – I don’t even know how to fly it! What about the rest of you? I’m a miner, not an explorer! I didn’t want any of this bullshit!”
“Hold on, cowgirl,” said Barrett. “It’s not a big deal – Vasco here will get you off-world and set on your destination. You won’t have any problems and you’ll be on your way to New Atlantis in a jiffy.” Then he reached into the utility pocket on his spacesuit and pulled out some more ancient technology. A watch. “Take this: you’ll find it useful out there. And it even tells the time!”
She looked at the watch in her hand and thought this must be some sort of elaborate joke at her expense. How could this be more useful than the HUD in her suit helmet? Chalking it up as one of the least weird things to happened to Andromeda on this day, she strapped it over her wrist with a resigned sigh. To her immediate surprise, it lit up with a very useful readout: o2 capacity, cardinal directions, and basic information for the moon she stood on. And, like Barrett said, it even told the time.
“Thanks, I guess,” said Andromeda. “No. [censored] all of this. I need answers, Barrett. Not trinkets and not more spaceship jaunts. What the hell did we dig up from this rock and what the [censored] did it do to me? I’m not going anywhere until you shed some light on this stupid piece of junk.”
She tossed the object at on the ground at Barrett’s feet and stood waiting with her arms crossed.
“Alright, look, Annie. Uh, can I call you Annie?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Okay, then, Andromeda. I really wish I could give you an entire dissertation on this Artifact, but the truth is we just don’t know enough yet. The scientific papers alone that I could pen… Er, sorry. Anyway, this is the third one we’ve managed to dig up and you and I are the only ones to experience that fancy light show. The way I see it, Constellation needs that Artifact, but they also need you. This mystery is only getting bigger each step we take, and you're a part of it now."
“That was a really long winded non-answer, Barrett. But I guess it’s all there is. Whatever. Just gimme the damn thing and I’ll try to get it back in one piece. No promises about the ship, though. I’ve never flown a day in my life.”
Barrett handed her the Artifact and clasped Andromeda warmly on the shoulder. After exchanging a few more pleasantries and goodbyes with Lin, she turned and followed Vasco up the ramp and into the Frontier. The robot led her up to the cockpit and asked her to strap in while he commenced the pre-flight check. A bunch of displays lit up in front of Andromeda and they all read nominal.
“Captain,” said Vasco.
Captain? Andromeda rather liked the sound of that, but corrected him anyway. “Just call me ‘Dro’, Vasco. Captain sounds too stuffy.”
“Very well. I understand, Dro, that in addition to not having combat experience, you do not have flight experience either.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you people.”
“Understood. In that case, we will proceed directly to New Atlantis. Please pull the flight screens in front of you to a more comfortable and accessible position.”
Andromeda grabbed the bank of screens and adjusted them to her liking. Despite having never piloted a ship, this felt more natural to her. Computer screens and a haptic joystick. What more did a Cyber Runner need? She spent this next several minutes going over the various systems with Vasco until she felt comfortable enough to fire up the landing thrusters. They roared into life and lifted the Frontier high above the Argos outpost until reaching a safe altitude for the main engines to kick in.
The changeover wasn’t noticeable until it was. The ship went from steadily lifting to hauling ass while the onslaught of g-force drove Andromeda into her seat as they tore up through the thin atmosphere of Vectera and into the vast expanse of space.
“I will begin spooling up the grave drive,” warbled Vasco. “Please use the starmap on the left-hand screen to select our destination.”
“New Atlantis, you said?”
“Correct.”
The starmap reoriented from the input of Andromeda’s search parameters until the planet Jemison in the Alpha Centauri system was highlighted.
“Got it.”
“Very good, Dro. Engaging the grav drive now.”
They leapt across the stars in the familiar stupefying array of folded spacetime and once the cosmic light show concluded its captivation of Andromeda, the cockpit window loomed out over a blue-green planet that encompassed her vision.
Jemison. The capital planet of the United Colonies and the seat of government for countless worlds in the Settled Systems. Only the Freestar Collective, which included Andromeda’s home world of Volii Alpha, came close to matching the scope of the UC. But before she even had time to remark on the majesty of the view, a voice broke over the ship comms and demanded they remain on their current trajectory.
“This is UC Security. Please remain on course while we scan your ship for contraband.”
“Uh, is that something we should be worried about, Vasco?”
“No. The cargo hold of the Frontier is mostly filled with spare parts, dust, desiccated food particles, and a variety of species of ant.”
“Charming.”
“Scan complete,” finished the security captain. “Enjoy your stay on Jemison.”
The guard ship moved off to resume its orbital patrol. Andromeda stared absentmindedly at the planet waiting for her below. A few thoughts fluttered in and out of her mind, but one took hold more than the others: what if I have a bounty on my head from Bayu? Would the UC recognize that when they check me in? The thought of being tossed in jail for her past was alarming and for a few fleeting seconds, Andromeda considered punching some far off star system into the navigational console and taking her chances out there in the unknown.
Instead, she sighed heavily and activated the landing maneuvers Vasco had programmed for her. “[censored] it. New Atlantis, here I come.” Answers, here I come.
Author's note: I skipped the back nine of the first quest entirely. It's unrealistic to expect that Andromeda, with no flight or combat experience, could take out multiple ships in a space battle and then land on Kreet to wipe out a pirate garrison. All on her own.
Moon of Vectera, Narion System
The sound of gunfire echoed across the surface of the small mining outpost. Laser beams blistered across the causeway. Bullets thudded into supply crates and ore bins. The occasional small explosion of a fuel tank shook the ground beneath her feet. And the screaming… Andromeda had to switch off the comms in her helmet to drown out the screaming. She couldn’t tell if they were screams of fear, or screams of adrenaline.
She hoped that no one had seen her dart behind the pallet of supplies. That none of her coworkers knew she hid and cowered while they bravely tried to fight off the Crimson Fleet pirates. But one person did know. Barrett ducked for cover behind the same towering barricade and nearly toppled Andromeda over.
“Hey, you alright there, Cowgirl?”
The man was smiling. He was actually smiling in the middle of a gunfight while their lives hung in the balance. Somehow her life had gone from bad to boring and now to terrifying, and that last part had everything to do with Barrett.
“NO, I’M NOT [censored] ALRIGHT!” she heard herself scream. “THESE ASSHOLES ARE SHOOTING AT US AND IT’S YOUR FAULT!”
Barrett’s helmet mic screeched with feedback under her aural assault. The man at last had the courtesy to look upset at her words, despite his early nonchalance. “Look, I’m sorry… Andromeda, right?” He waited a split second and then continued after her curt nod. “I’m sorry, I truly am. The fleet thinks our ship is full of treasure or credits or exotic goods. It’s a rumor that’s persisted for years, despite having been boarded by pirate scumbags at least twice now. But, hey, they’re just that: scumbags. And they can barely shoot straight.” Barrett then popped his head up from the small shelter and looked around. “Hang on a sec, I’ll be right back.”
Andromeda couldn’t help but count the seconds under her breath. It offered a distraction from the chaos around her. She also switched her comms back on and tried to make sense of the noise. Something told her a pep was coming with Barrett’s return and she planned on being ready for it and whatever followed.
Right on cue, he ducked back behind the crates with her. “Here, take this.” He held a shiny new Eon pistol in his hand. Andromeda recognized it – it had been collecting moondust on top of a crate for weeks just a few meters away from where they crouched. “If you want to help, flip off the safety and come join the party. If not, no one will judge you any differently. Not all of us are cut out for this sort of thing. But I’m going to go help Lin and the others. Stay safe, cowgirl.”
He was gone and Andromeda was alone with her fears once again. This time, her eyes were fixated on the pistol lying on her open palm. And then more screams crackled through her comms. She couldn’t bear them anymore. Barely able to believe what she was about to do, Andromeda took several deep breaths to steel her nerves, and then she got to her feet and aimed her gun at the nearest pirate. Her finger squeezed the trigger and to her amazement the 7.77mm round that erupted from the end of the barrel found its mark and sailed straight through the helmet visor of her target.
Blood spewed out through the shattered helmet and the pirate slumped face-first onto the ground while the crimson liquid continued to pool around the lifeless body. Staring in abject horror at the life Andromeda had just taken, two things happened in rapid succession: she vomited into her helmet at the same time a pale blue laser bolt struck her shoulder. The world went dark for the second time that day.
* * *
Narion System
The second coming of darkness did not last long however. Lin roused her not five minutes later by unceremoniously shaking Andromeda’s helmet from side to side. More concern filled her supervisor’s eyes, followed by relief that the young miner was awake again.
“Get up and shake it off, dusty. It was just a stun bolt. One of the pirates must have wanted prisoners.”
Andromeda didn’t like the feeling of being stunned any less than she would liked to have been shot. And her suit smelled like sick from vomiting onto her visor. She counted to ten and waited for the dizziness to subside and then heaved herself up onto her feet. Dead pirates were strewn about the causeway, but Andromeda didn’t see any dead miners. They must have been driven off.
“We were lucky,” said Lin. “Without Barrett and Vasco, those scumbags would’ve overwhelmed us.”
“Did we lose anyone?”
“No, just some minor wounds and one or two broken bones. They’re all getting patched up now. How are you feeling?”
“Somehow this is in the running for worst day of my life. And I’ve had some pretty [censored] days.”
“Well, get used to it. Sounds like the fun isn’t over.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Lin gestured over her shoulder at Barrett. He was talking with the robot again and pointing in Andromeda’s direction. She didn’t like the look of that and it only raised more questions in her mind. What did he want with her? What does that old explorer’s group have to do with any of this? She had a feeling the answers were going to be spoon fed.
Time would soon tell… Barrett was heading their way again. “Okay, we’re all set! Vasco has initiated Protocol Indigo and it’s time to get off this rock.”
“Oh no, Barrett.,” exclaimed Lin. “NO. You think you're just going to take off after the mess you caused?"
Lin began to argue with Barrett again, but Andromeda’s attention drifted to the ship he’d come in on. It really did look old compared to some of the Taiyo or Stroud-Eklund ships she’d seen on Neon. Like Heller had said: it really was ancient. And it looked like it had seen its fair share of space encounters. There were scorch marks, dings, chips, and patched holes all over the outer hull.
"Get out of here, dusty."
Andromeda looked back at Lin. “Um. What?”
“Weren’t you listening?”
“Yeah, no. I was looking at the ship.”
“Well, quit looking and get on it. Barrett is staying to help in case the Crimson Fleet comes back. You’re on to bigger things.”
Andromeda looked at her, mouth agape. And then she looked back at the ship. The Frontier Barrett had called it. She was going in that thing? Where? “Wait wait wait wait,” sputtered Andromeda. “I can’t go in that ship – I don’t even know how to fly it! What about the rest of you? I’m a miner, not an explorer! I didn’t want any of this bullshit!”
“Hold on, cowgirl,” said Barrett. “It’s not a big deal – Vasco here will get you off-world and set on your destination. You won’t have any problems and you’ll be on your way to New Atlantis in a jiffy.” Then he reached into the utility pocket on his spacesuit and pulled out some more ancient technology. A watch. “Take this: you’ll find it useful out there. And it even tells the time!”
She looked at the watch in her hand and thought this must be some sort of elaborate joke at her expense. How could this be more useful than the HUD in her suit helmet? Chalking it up as one of the least weird things to happened to Andromeda on this day, she strapped it over her wrist with a resigned sigh. To her immediate surprise, it lit up with a very useful readout: o2 capacity, cardinal directions, and basic information for the moon she stood on. And, like Barrett said, it even told the time.
“Thanks, I guess,” said Andromeda. “No. [censored] all of this. I need answers, Barrett. Not trinkets and not more spaceship jaunts. What the hell did we dig up from this rock and what the [censored] did it do to me? I’m not going anywhere until you shed some light on this stupid piece of junk.”
She tossed the object at on the ground at Barrett’s feet and stood waiting with her arms crossed.
“Alright, look, Annie. Uh, can I call you Annie?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Okay, then, Andromeda. I really wish I could give you an entire dissertation on this Artifact, but the truth is we just don’t know enough yet. The scientific papers alone that I could pen… Er, sorry. Anyway, this is the third one we’ve managed to dig up and you and I are the only ones to experience that fancy light show. The way I see it, Constellation needs that Artifact, but they also need you. This mystery is only getting bigger each step we take, and you're a part of it now."
“That was a really long winded non-answer, Barrett. But I guess it’s all there is. Whatever. Just gimme the damn thing and I’ll try to get it back in one piece. No promises about the ship, though. I’ve never flown a day in my life.”
Barrett handed her the Artifact and clasped Andromeda warmly on the shoulder. After exchanging a few more pleasantries and goodbyes with Lin, she turned and followed Vasco up the ramp and into the Frontier. The robot led her up to the cockpit and asked her to strap in while he commenced the pre-flight check. A bunch of displays lit up in front of Andromeda and they all read nominal.
“Captain,” said Vasco.
Captain? Andromeda rather liked the sound of that, but corrected him anyway. “Just call me ‘Dro’, Vasco. Captain sounds too stuffy.”
“Very well. I understand, Dro, that in addition to not having combat experience, you do not have flight experience either.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you people.”
“Understood. In that case, we will proceed directly to New Atlantis. Please pull the flight screens in front of you to a more comfortable and accessible position.”
Andromeda grabbed the bank of screens and adjusted them to her liking. Despite having never piloted a ship, this felt more natural to her. Computer screens and a haptic joystick. What more did a Cyber Runner need? She spent this next several minutes going over the various systems with Vasco until she felt comfortable enough to fire up the landing thrusters. They roared into life and lifted the Frontier high above the Argos outpost until reaching a safe altitude for the main engines to kick in.
The changeover wasn’t noticeable until it was. The ship went from steadily lifting to hauling ass while the onslaught of g-force drove Andromeda into her seat as they tore up through the thin atmosphere of Vectera and into the vast expanse of space.
“I will begin spooling up the grave drive,” warbled Vasco. “Please use the starmap on the left-hand screen to select our destination.”
“New Atlantis, you said?”
“Correct.”
The starmap reoriented from the input of Andromeda’s search parameters until the planet Jemison in the Alpha Centauri system was highlighted.
“Got it.”
“Very good, Dro. Engaging the grav drive now.”
* * *
Jemison, Alpha Centauri System
They leapt across the stars in the familiar stupefying array of folded spacetime and once the cosmic light show concluded its captivation of Andromeda, the cockpit window loomed out over a blue-green planet that encompassed her vision.
Jemison. The capital planet of the United Colonies and the seat of government for countless worlds in the Settled Systems. Only the Freestar Collective, which included Andromeda’s home world of Volii Alpha, came close to matching the scope of the UC. But before she even had time to remark on the majesty of the view, a voice broke over the ship comms and demanded they remain on their current trajectory.
“This is UC Security. Please remain on course while we scan your ship for contraband.”
“Uh, is that something we should be worried about, Vasco?”
“No. The cargo hold of the Frontier is mostly filled with spare parts, dust, desiccated food particles, and a variety of species of ant.”
“Charming.”
“Scan complete,” finished the security captain. “Enjoy your stay on Jemison.”
The guard ship moved off to resume its orbital patrol. Andromeda stared absentmindedly at the planet waiting for her below. A few thoughts fluttered in and out of her mind, but one took hold more than the others: what if I have a bounty on my head from Bayu? Would the UC recognize that when they check me in? The thought of being tossed in jail for her past was alarming and for a few fleeting seconds, Andromeda considered punching some far off star system into the navigational console and taking her chances out there in the unknown.
Instead, she sighed heavily and activated the landing maneuvers Vasco had programmed for her. “[censored] it. New Atlantis, here I come.” Answers, here I come.
Author's note: I skipped the back nine of the first quest entirely. It's unrealistic to expect that Andromeda, with no flight or combat experience, could take out multiple ships in a space battle and then land on Kreet to wipe out a pirate garrison. All on her own.
Once she got a pistol in her hands, Andromeda acquitted herself well. . . until she threw up and got stunned, that is. 
Though her hacker skill did not help in a fight, it did seem to help make her more comfortable flying that old ship with her robotic copilot.
I chuckled over Vasco’s report of what their cargo hold contained.
If I follow right, it seems Andromeda has the mysterious artifact for delivery to something called Constellation in New Atlantis on the planet she’s setting up to land on.
Though her hacker skill did not help in a fight, it did seem to help make her more comfortable flying that old ship with her robotic copilot.
I chuckled over Vasco’s report of what their cargo hold contained.
If I follow right, it seems Andromeda has the mysterious artifact for delivery to something called Constellation in New Atlantis on the planet she’s setting up to land on.
That's right on the money!
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