Julius started leading Chris back to the ship, but Chris could tell his cousin was struggling to stay on his feet. "Here, Julius." he said reaching into his bag and handing Julius a pill he found there. "Detox tablet. One of the few things that aren't overpriced on Earth, mostly because the government and the companies keep the cost artificially low so that their employees don't come to work stoned or drunk. It'll clear your head."
"Sho you do know how to have a good time." said Julius. "I was shtartin' ta think you had got boring."
"Actually, I sold them. People are willing to pay more when the boss is nearby."
Julius shook his head and swallowed them, and by the time they had reached the ship his speech had cleared up and he could walk well enough on his own. When they got to the airlock he noticed the crates sitting there and asked his cousin about them. "Crystal power cells." said Julius, with a bit of disappointment in his voice. "They were supposed to be low grade when I bought them, but when I try to sell them myself the test cell overheated and almost exploded. I figured out that the man who sold them to me had bought factory defects on Venus and recrated them. Now I'm out five hundred thousand credits, and the most I can hope to get for scrapping them is one hundred thousand."
"Have you tested them?"
"No, why would I test them?" asked Julius. "They're sub-quality cells. The factory already tested them."
"Yeah," responded Chris, "but they kicked out any that couldn't meet output requirements and storage requirements. Not everyone's standards are that high."
"And who'd want a bunch of half-bad cells?"
Chris reached into one of his bags and pulled out half a dozen power cells. "I got these on Earth. There, practically everyone carries cells on them, because they need a way to store what the government gives them. Now some of these were rejected by the factories, who I assume uses the manufacturers standards, but fully charged they are still worth seven or eight credits."
"So people on Earth use any cell that will work because the cells are in such high demand?"
"Yeah, pretty much." responded Chris, and Julian nodded.
"I'll have to check into that."
Just then three men walked up and introduced themselves, and the Captain shook their hands when offered. "Welcome to the ship." he said. "I still haven't gotten around to naming her, and it's been almost 5 years."
Chris stood there and analyzed the others. Two mercs and a cook? Well, from what Julius had told him about their more colorful missions the mercs would come in handy, and with a crew this size, it made sense to get someone who knew their way around a kitchen. Then things started to get weird. First came a giant green alien who looked like he could rip you in half without much trouble, then, when he left, a cyborg-pirate. [i]if that's what aliens are like, it's going to take a bit of getting used to.[/i]
Luckily, that seemed to be the last of the unusual species for now, as a rather attractive human woman walked up and started teasing the captain. Griszma nodded at something she said, and the woman, Amanda, introduced herself. Shortly after that another atractive human woman walked up, though this one looked a bit more "punk" than the others. Chris smiled. [i]Leave it to Julius to fill his crew roster up with good looking women.[/i] He also suspected that the Russian mercenary would take notice of that as well. When Eliza had finished introducing herself, and the Russian had finished hitting on her, Chris got her attention. "You're the navigator. So, does that mean you get stuck showing us around the ship?"