[IC] Fantasy Space Quest

[deadpixel101]

Pria did count herself very lucky. Anyone would jump at the chance to make such a short and easy flight for 1000 credits. "I can appreciate the sentiment, the thing you want most in a business partner is someone reliable." She was glad he didn't dump her immediately for the cheaper option. Honestly she wouldn't have even blamed him if he did, but 1000 was a bigger number to her then it was to him.

A fact punctuated when the hanger was opened to reveal the Mattiz. All at once conflicting thoughts and feelings filled Pria. On one hand she was ever so excited to fly that thing! She would love to root around in it and figure out as much she could. She had never flown anything terribly high-class and this was cream of the crop. On the other hand, there was no way she could mess up now. Even the smallest mistake and she'd never be able to make up the repair. She mentally crossed her fingers hoping this would all be easy as it should be.

"I-is there anything you'd like to tell me before we board and take off? Job details or special instructions?"

She was doing her best to mask the swelling nerves. A sense of dread was forming a black cloud above her head. She was starting to feel like this day was going to be a long one. One that was full of unexpected turns and conflict. Not the sort of day where you make an easy buck.

[Blue2]

Henswn paused to watch you take in the Mattiz. "Quite impressive, isn't it?" Then he grinned. "My dad would kill me if I even thought of borrowing that one. We're taking the Cervi. Over there."

He pointed to the back of the hangar. Way back tgere, in the shadow of the Mattiz stood a shuttle, maybe just big enough for three people to get comfortable on. The Cervi was still a relatively high-end shuttle. It had all the latest technology on tge inside, meaning you gave it your deatination and it practically flew itself. But it was much smaller, much less luxurious and much, much less expensive than the Mattiz. The small shuttle could fit in the Mattiz' cargo hold.

Hensen walked towards the Cervi, openes the roofdoor above it for lift-off purposes and opened the door to the Cervi for you. He gave the shuttle his authorisation codes and let you at the helm. "I inserted the destination last night, including the parking lot I reserved for this. It's a two and a half hour flight, though I expect parking will take some time since the convention starts today so everybody will be arriving."

He took the passenger's seat at the helm and left you to get acquainted enough to get this shuttle off the ground.

[deadpixel101]

Pria's cheeks flushed ever so slightly. She had maybe gotten a little too hopeful. Of course she wasn't going to fly the Mattiz! As she wandered over to the Cervi she felt stupid for being disappointed, it was still a beautiful ship she'd get to use.

She waited as Hensen prepared everything for takeoff then entered the helm as well. Taking a look around the station she got situated with where everything was. She imagined this would be a lot more familiar with this setup then the one in the Mattiz anyways. Who knew what that thing had inside it. Pria felt a need to rush so they could take off as soon as possible, but she also wanted to make sure she was comfortable first. Making a mistake while flying would be a lot worse than waiting around for a few seconds.

Once she was comfortable with the controls she set her bag beside the seat and settled into the chair. "All right, we're ready and set to go then?" She asked to Hensen for confirmation before setting out.

[Blue2]

Hensen noddes. "I'm ready when you are!" There was definitely anticipation in his voice. He was looking forward to this convention.

[deadpixel101]

"Then off we are."

Pria started the engine, reviewed the lights on the console to confirm everything was working as intended, tightened her hands on the controls a little, and into the sky.

The ship flew beautifully. Certainly smoother than she was used to. It felt less heavy then other ships she'd practiced with, which was a pretty nice feeling. She tried her best to remain not overtly excited, but a small smile had formed on her lips. She loved the feeling flying gave you. It meant you were in control. The skies were clear and soon they'd be breaking through the few clouds in the sky. Not long after they'd be off into space. And in a simple matter of hours another planet.

Sure beats walking.

[Blue2]

Hensen remained silent for the liftoff procedure, for which you didn't have to do much. While piloting lessons had instructed you how to compensate for gravitational pull and bad weather, this ship was equipped to do all that by itself. When you'd left orbit and put the thing on autopilot you basically had two hours of waiting while the ship flew itself.

"I'm sorry the job isn't much more excited than this." Hensen said, watching you. "It's just that I'm not old enough to fly myself yet and our regular pilot's got the day off, so..."

[deadpixel101]

Pria looked over to Hensen and offered a polite smile in return. "It's more then okay. I still don't have my own ship so flying in any way is nice." Plus you can't beat 1000 credits for a few hours of waiting. "I really should be thanking you, finding work can be hard at times." She kept her eyes ahead of her if she could help it. Even if this was mostly automated she wasn't about to mess it up by looking away for the one second she'd need to.

[Blue2]

Hensen nodded. 'So, do you do this often, finding odd jobs on a job board? I mean, it's not exactly a regular thing."

The ship continued flyinf as it did, on automated pilot, a soft hum telling you the systems were working. It had alarms everywhere if even the slightest thing would go wrong so you'd be notified the moment something woyld go amiss.

[deadpixel101]

Pria hummed a little in response, trying to pick her words. He almost made it sound like it was a bad thing, and maybe it was? There's something to be said for a stable job or dedication to an employer. "Not to sound greedy but I try to find work that get me money fast. I can't wait to have my own ship." She smiled at him, hoping she did't seem to desperate or sad in his eyes. She didn't really care what the rich and famous thought of her but sympathy was just as bad. "Regular work isn't something I've avoided or anything, but a stable job gets in the way of doing things like what i'm doing now. Flying experience under my belt and some extra credits are better then flipping burgers all day for peanuts."

A lot of minimum wage jobs were automated of course, but somehow that saying stuck with Pria. And it's not like every job was open to her. She spent all her life traveling, she didn't actually have a fancy degree or anything, despite the academic feeling she tried to give off.

[Blue2]

Hensen nodded, seemingly understanding what you were saying."Sounds cool, a life full of adventures, never knowing what will come next. Kinda like the people in my comics."

[deadpixel101]

Pria smiled at that, giving him a look of youthful glimmer. "That's pretty close to the real thing, I like to imagine." She didn't make it too well known to her friends or anything, but she was pretty big into comics herself. A part of her wanted to get into the convention they were heading to, but it wouldn't be right. She didn't have a ticket or pass, the lines would be crazy, it'd be smart to watch the ship, and worst of all, she would spend SO much money.

"Speaking of comics, that's what this convention is based in right?" She feigned ignorance. "What sort of comics are your favorites?" She did her best to make it sound like idle chatter, but her interest was showing.

[Blue2]

"The superhero ones." Now you'd done it. Hensen's eyes started glowing as he started talking. He unzipped his bag and showed you different comics, all of super heroes. He loved the ones that used science to enhance their natural abilities especially, though some of those where certain choice events gave a person super powers were alright with him as well. He didn't like the magic ones much. He preferred imagining the super heroes could be real in this world and the magic ones were often so over the top, well beyond how magic worked, that he didn't like those. If you let him, he could talk about it the whole trip and if you talked about what you liked in comics, he would think you were the most amazing woman alive right now.

[deadpixel101]

It made it hard to focus on the flying with Hensen that excited. Sure she didn't even need to do anything for the most part, but she needed to seem professional. That being said his giddiness was drawing her in too. As he went on about his favorite heroes, arcs, characters and so on, Pria couldn't help but have her favorites come to mind too. She noticed he didn't have any magic based characters in his collection here but that didn't stop her from bringing her favorite up.

"I'm a fan of Red Thunder myself." A female super hero lead based on destructive magic, all done in fancy water-color illustrations. She was pretty popular with Pria's demographic. Young up and coming mages, especially of the female persuasion. "I know she doesn't have as many issues or as long a history as some of your guys, but she's so well written! Her powers are crazy and are honestly one of the reason's I practice magic myself." She was pretty much off the controls at this point, and slipped further and further away as she got into her spiel.

"Have you read any of her stories? If you haven't I'd really recommend them, heck I could send you the digital copy if you need convincing. I'm so excited for her crossover with Mind-Jack coming up, aren't you? You have a few of his books in there!" She was getting just as excited at this point, totally swiveled around to focus on the conversation instead.

[Blue2]

The ship just continued on towards Veridian. When it became close enough a warning beep sounded, alerting you that it was close enough to the planet for you to resume control. There were several lines towards the parking grounds, but the ship even showed you which line you had to follow.

[deadpixel101]

The two continued talking, Pria only half payed attention to the controls the whole way. She hadn't even looked ahead of her for a solid 15 minutes when the beep went off, telling her it was her turn to fly. She took over happily, the flight had seemed a lot shorter then it really was, which made everything nicer. She pulled into the correct line and after tearing through some red tape, they were parked in the reserve spot. She and Hensen said some goodbyes, and off he went to his convention. She decided it would be smartest to stay with the ship, should anything happen. She took the chance to get fully acquainted with the small interior, as well as some of the inner workings. She only dug as deep as she thought was safe, removing panels that were made to be easily accessible without tools. She made crude drawings in her notepad and took notes, until that grew boring.

She spent the time doing little things, having access to the internet helped. And after what felt like a small eternity, Hensen came back. He seemed excited about the whole thing, but was pretty obviously bummed out about not being able to stay longer.

The two took off again, and after not long the auto-pilot took over again, leaving Pria to listen to the sights Hensen got to see inside. Again the two chatted, until something stopped them. In the middle of nowhere space, Pria's earlier feelings of things going less then perfect came to fruition.

[Blue2]

It was late on this side of the planet when you left the conference. Most people with just day tickets had left earlier and the people still there now stayed overnight. As with so many systems only small parts of the planets were actually inhabited and those parts followed roughly the samedaily cycle. Late on the conference sote of Veridian was also late on the habitated parts of your current home planet. And the shuttle was nearly alone in the vast darkness of space.

Another shuttle had been flying close to yours for a couple of minutes. The sensors had picjed up on it way back. It had just seemed a shuttle whose top dpeed was slightly higher than yours and had thetefore slowly been gaining on you. Now that it had reached you, however, it adapted its speed and hailed you.

[deadpixel101]

Pria's brows furrowed as the ship came close by. And remained that way as it kept getting closer and closer. The thing could obviously pass them, and there was no reason for it to fly so close regardless. It clearly wanted something.

The fear was marked true when it began trying to make contact. The nervousness building in Pria started to bubble in her stomach. "Uh, Hensen. They want something from us...I don't think we could outrun them either. We're stuck with them if they want us to be."

She wouldn't answer them until she had his input. This was his ship, and he was the client here, if anything it should be his say. But Pria's hands gripped the control's tightly. Nothing about this was good.

[Blue2]

Hensen who'd been half asleep, tured from the long day at the convention, woke up. He needed a moment to realise what's going on. "Uh oh..." He said, when he understood your clipped version. It was still a good hour until you'd reach the planet's atmospere. "Answer them?" He asked. "Maybe they just want directions." He didn't sound very convincing. "Or maybe they just wanna letbus know our lights are broken?" You could prepare a distress signal. If this were bad, maybe someone was close enough to answer. You were hailed again.

[deadpixel101]

Pria looked at Hensen nervously. Obviously neither of them exactly planned for this situation. The idea of preparing a distress signal seemed like a good one, just in case. She configured the settings as fast as she could, and looked to Hensen once it was set up.

"Okay. So now it's just a button press away. If, knock on wood, they aren't asking for directions, one of us just slams that button key and we sound out the distress signal."

She took a deep breath and pulled her mirror out, as well as he collapsible staff. She wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but preparing for the worst was never a bad option. With one more look of reassurance to Hensen she answered the other ship. It's not like she had any other option.

[Blue2]

A man's face became visible and though he was smilimg, it looked very unpleasant. "Quite a ship you have thee, missie." He said to you. "How about you let a real pilot fly it home?"

Space pirates.

At that moment the ship beeped and a second shuttle appeared in front of yours. Your shulttle's automatic systems decided it was too close and to avoid collision it slowed down and stopped. The ship behind you parked itself closely as well. The shuttle now assumed it was in a traffic jam and wouldn't budge anymore. You'd have to override the automatic flight and get out yourself.

If you tried to send out a signal, you were too late. Some kind of scrambler had been activated. "Now now," said the man on the screen. "No need to worry. Just let us aboard your ship and we'll allow you to use an escape pod." Weapons were activated on the back shuttle as a warning you'd better co-operate.

Hensen looked at you, terrified.