"Five million credits?"
"Yup, and you'll be getting a share. Everyone on board will," Ashley said, scooping at the last of the synthesized apple sauce in her cup.
“Except for Burke. He didn't bother running any code cracks on the Ferret even though the Captain specifically told him when and how he'd be doing it. Refusing a task is the surest way to blow your share.”
“That's not the first time, he's been getting under the Captain's skin. Oh well, more for us. A lot more.”
“How much are we getting?” Finn asked quietly.
"Well, the Captain gets fifty percent, then ten percent goes to ship stores and general upkeep. Crew gets a share of the rest. Sometimes the Captain will give someone a little bonus out of his share, but it's only happened a couple times I've heard of. I got one for saving his butt once. Frost gets bonuses for finding us work all the time, he has a lot of connections," Steph said with a smile. "Unlikely you'll see a bonus of your own, but if you do see a little extra, just keep it to yourself. Thank the Captain when you see him alone if you have to, but he doesn't really need to hear it. He knows you're thankful, trust me."
"Wow, that's over sixty thousand each."
"Yup, about enough to live on a nice green world for three months." Steph said with a smile.
"Only one month if you rent a beach front condo," Ashley added.
"What will you do after this?" Finn asked.
"I'm buying a spot on a Lorander Colony ship and heading out to Elysian. Wanna come?" She asked with a wink and a smile. "We could settle in and start making babies."
Finn turned red and took a long sip from his ice cold slush drink.
Stephanie and Ashley both burst out laughing. "Be nice Steph, no teasing the newbies."
"What? He's cute and Lorander needs people to start having kids as soon as they make landfall."
"I don't think he can afford the ticket, Steph."
"Yup, eleven million is a little steep."
Finn stopped drinking and cringed, squeezing his eyes shut hard and holding his head to the surprise and amusement of his companions.
"Aw look, you're making him cry!" Ashley said through uproarious laughter.
"He's going to blow!" Said the other.
Finn wiped a tear away and massaged his temples. "Worst brain freeze ever."
The Retrieval Centre
"Have you ever seen a drifting station Ashley?" Asked Captain Valance from the command chair. The bridge was fully manned for once. Frost was at the tactical station, Lawrence Silver sat quietly in the co-pilot’s seat, Finn was at the engineering station, and Carl Burke was at the communications station while Ashley sat in the pilot's seat.
"No sir, I've heard of them but never seen one."
"Ever come out of hyperspace into a straight trajectory at fifty five thousand kilometres per second?" Asked Lawrence, he ran his hand over his bald head, it was something he did when he was nervous.
"Yup, faster and near a planetary body too."
"Thank God."
"Sorry sir, what's a drifting station?" Asked Finn from behind Captain Valance.
"It's a station that moves through space between solar systems and major sources of gravity at high speed. They normally follow something like a rogue planet or asteroid. This one follows a cluster of asteroids so it can harvest rare materials. Oh, and stop apologizing," Captain Valance replied.
"Sorry sir, yes sir."
Jake took a look around the bridge. All the other seats were built into their stations, so the crew were reclining comfortably as they controlled the ship. It was more like an extra large cockpit than a bridge and the command chair was the center. He checked over the navigation calculations, ship system status and sent the signal ahead to the retrieval station so they wouldn't take aim and fire the moment they approached.
"Coming out of hyperspace in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1," Ashley counted down. The Samson emerged from hyperspace, the exotic particles that surrounded the ship dispersed and were joined by the waste materials from the engines to cause a dissipating trail behind. Waste matter from the engines had to be collected during hyperspace travel. If they leaked too much it would disrupt the energized particle field around the ship and they would slow down disproportionately. The ship would be torn to pieces.
The station was a bulbous collection of segments, like bubbles of metal that had been crushed together to form different sections. There were engines everywhere. The whole thing was just over two kilometres long and too irregularly shaped to guess its width.
It followed the trajectory of several asteroids that were each many times larger than the station. The cluster left a white and gold glittering trail behind as it moved through space. Several segments from the station were moving back and forth with loads of resources from the collectors built onto the nearest asteroid.
"Shields up," reported Frost. "Don't wander into that trail, it'll shred us in seconds."
"Don't worry, I know enough to stay clear," Ashley said as she looked at the holographic image of the asteroids, station and other objects in the area. "Wow, I've never been this close to something like this before, it's incredible. Smaller than I expected though."
“It only looks that way because it's beside something much bigger,” Silver replied.
“I know the laws of perspective hon, just sayin',” Ashley replied quietly.
"Sir, we're cleared to dock. Sending trajectory to navigation," Burke reported from communications. A moment later a clear flightpath appeared on the main holographic display at the front of the bridge.
"Flightpath shows clear. You have a go for docking manoeuvres," Silver said after checking the flight path for debris or other disturbances. He was rubbing his big hand over his head again, slowly from front to back then back to front.
"Everyone sounds so official all of a sudden," Ashley said with a smile as she entered the virtual pipeline that represented their flight path. Her piloting style was aggressive. "I'm getting some drift on the lower port side, are our stabilizers all right?" She asked as the station started to draw nearer. They were less than a kilometre away from the debris trail.
"You're right, we have an underpowered stabilizer," Finn reported.
"Think you can compensate Ash?" Asked Captain Valance.
"Sure can, I was just sayin'."
"Okay, put it on the maintenance list. I want that fixed before we take off."
"Aye sir, top priority," Finn replied.
Everyone kept quiet on the bridge as they closed the distance between them and the station, it loomed larger and larger until docking bay doors opened and the ship touched down. "Best landing at fifty five thousand thirteen kilometres per second ever," Ashley said, leaning back and cracking her knuckles.
"Nice work, buy you a drink?" Asked Silver with a smirk.
"Oh yeah," Ashley replied. "It's been awhile."
"As long as it's something from the galley I'm happy. I don't think we'll be staying long," Captain Valance stated as he stood up. "Frost, make sure the station personnel decouple the maxjack properly then inspect it yourself. If they so much as pull a single arm out of alignment I want you to document it and tell me right away, I don't want to see what happened last time."
"Me neither, I didn't exactly enjoy spendin' three days in a suit repairing it with half the crew in dead space."
"Finn, run a system wide load test, if anything burns out replace it. We get a discount on new parts here, so let's take advantage of it."
"Shouldn't someone with more experience run the load test sir?"
"You have the most training and have to learn about this ship sometime. Here's your chance."
"Yes sir."