Stellar Survival Quest

by Jalf Whitemage

  Boov smiled, “That is a good idea master! This one thinks she can have the systems reviewed and begin working in no time!”

  Nathan frowned and turned to the grey girl. “Didn’t you hear me? I’m going to assign the robots to it. That way we can do something else.”

  Boov’s smile faded, “Yes, master…”

  Nathan saw Boov biting her lip, “Oh out with it. What’s on your mind?”

  “The robots will still not be enough to do this work master! They can run a diagnostic and maybe even safely take apart structural parts of the craft. But it is simply beyond their ability to work on these kinds of systems. The ships are simply too high of a class, master!”

  Nathan froze finally realizing what she was getting at. Spinning around he minimized the main screen. On his home screen a message notification flashed. He ignored it for the moment and went to the store.

  Pulling up the ships area, he went through to the small craft, then the fighters section.

  “Holy shit! The best the store has to purchase is G class!” His mouth fell open at the price tags for these ships, which ran in the millions of QOBOP each!

  He could literally sell each one of those ships as is, for enough QOBOP to supply electricity to Earth for the next Decade.

  For a few brief seconds he considered it too. But, two things stayed his hand. First was a bit of realistic thoughts. Sure, they would make him rich, but he was not sure he cared about Bubba back on Earth. Yeah maybe he might be able to buy himself a decent working ship with the funds too. But, if that was true couldn’t he try to fix one and sell it for more?

  Second, well if this station had the ships just laying around what else would it have? Really, this was just the tip of the iceberg for the station. So why cash out now? He could keep the ships for now and sell them if he needed in the future. It was not as if they were going anywhere.

  Thinking through the second thought process made him remember that he was not alone on the station and there would be more showing up soon. With that in mind he began to secure the various areas of the module. Some areas he made it simple to enter with a keycard. Others had the full security suite engaged. A hand scanner, followed by an optical organ scan, and finally a key card. Only bay D, Bay E, and the control room were placed with this high of a security. Still though he hoped that someone wouldn’t have some impressive hacking skills and still be able to get in. But really that was all he could do for now.

  That settled he went back to the homepage and the blinking message. Clicking it, the video screen popped up with Bubba frowning at him.

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  “What the hell man! I know you’re me and all but what the hell are you thinking? Why did you free those lizard chicks? They could of fucking killed your sorry ass! Then I know it has been awhile for you man, but think of what Katherine would say if she found out I… You had sex with those lizards! Hell, you could have at least tapped that grey-skinned chick! She at least looks Human and has some massive tits to boot!

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  Nathan growled as Bubba continued to rant, “This fucker thinks he knows what was going on? He thinks he is all high and mighty telling me this shit!”

  A voice from off screen cut both versions of Nathan off. Bubba nodded after looking over. Nathan just waited to see what was being said.

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  Bubba looked back at the screen frown still in place, “yah well, I’ve been saving this message since the last milestone, for something important. Something like this. You have been spending all kinds of Credits...”

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  “They are called QOBOP you self-righteous idiot!” Nathan muttered.

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  “… on everything but the kitchen sink! Sure, I see the importance of some of it, but why did you need so many robots and those repair bays? Come on man! That is why your there to do the work!” The voice spoke off screen again cutting Bubba off before he could begin ranting again.

  “Yeah sure. Anyway, if it isn’t too late you should use the remaining 10k to start a Galactic Entity. The only ones around here who have done it so far is the big nations and companies. But all of them have seen huge changes from doing it! Like fuck man, The North American Union claimed South America hours after registering. The people there were given a vote and do you know fucking what?”

  Nathan replied in a bored tone at the same time Bubba answered excited, “They voted to join!”

  “Yup, 51% voted yes. Just like that, the union became the largest power on Earth. Both in population and territory!”

  “Both the Chinese and Russians tried to do similar things but the states they tried to cede voted not to join. So the fuckers just declared war! Yeah man the whole Asian continent is a fucking mess right now!”

  “Odder still is Google, Amazon, Facebook Media, Vivid Entertainment, and Disney all went together and created a Mega company! Then promptly took control of India and South Africa! Something about employing the largest number of people there. I say it was all the damn call centers!”

  Bubba took on an extremely bad Indian accent, “Thank you for calling Comcast technical support my name is Uither”Polli erm I mean George. How can I help you today?” Bubba broke out laughing at his own joke.

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  Nathan however frowned, “Idiot.”

  Nathan was about to close the video when Bubba finally stopped laughing.

  **SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  Wiping his tears from his face, he gasped, “But I was saying. Create a fucking company man! Only 7 Human controlled entities have been made yet. Everyone is scrambling to get the 10k credits needed to form one and your just sitting on them!”

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  Nathan snickered, “If you think 10k is a lot to be sitting on, I’d like to see your face when you see those fighters! And Bubba when you watch this video think before you start telling everyone about them. People do stupid things for that kind of money. It is in our best interest to keep them secret for now.”

  Nathan stopped talking and began considering the Galactic Entity idea. For the first time in a while, Bubba’s thoughts and Nathans were the same.

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  “I’m not really sure what it will do. Hell it might really be a waste of creds. But, there has to be something special to it, right? Hell! Why else would everyone be keeping so closed mouth about the whole thing?” Bubba said. Before going on trying to convince Nathan.

  “Heck even if it turns out to be nothing special, we can just sell it or what not. But fuck man we would be the Human owned entity! The first one that I know of for a single person! That alone will make me famous.”

  ***SYSTEM MESSAGE***

  Finally, Nathan saw Bubba’s real angle. He wanted the fame and recognition. He didn’t really care about the real effects. Heck Nathan figured that to him even the QOBOP Nathan would have to spend would be little more than play money anyway.

  Nathan knew otherwise though. “Still there might be something to this.” He mused.

  Boov who had been standing behind him spoke up so Nathan spun to look at her. They both ignored Bubba who was still talking on screen.

  “If master wishes this one can tell him what little she knows about the options.”

  Nathan smiled. “Yes please Boov. Any information will help. It is a lot of wealth to spend on something that may be useless to us after all.”

  Boov nodded, “She thinks so too.” Boov closed her eyes for a moment and chewed on her lower lip.

  “She was still a young plasma. Just big, enough to fit into a test tube when she heard others talking about some kind of hostile corporate takeover and the war raging on a planet. One of the …” Boov paused, and then shook her head.

  “One of the ones who created us was confused about the big deal. So the other gave a bit of an explanation. If she recalls there are three main options when forming an Entity. They are a State, an O
rder, and an Enterprise.” Boov took in a breath concentrating on her memory. However before she could continue, an alert pinged on the monitor behind Nathan pausing the video of Bubba.

  Nathan expecting it to be the respawn of the other Humans swiped the video closed. He quickly read the alert and smiled. “Sweet the MESO delivery is here! We won’t have to meet the others naked!”

  Pushing off he rushed to his bay followed closely by Boov and Tsk whom had been standing guard outside the control room.

  Rushing into the bay Nathan frown, “Oh, there is an issue.”

  The two women stopped behind him. “What is wrong master?”

  “How are we going to open the outer hatch now that we have atmosphere? I guess we can go to Bay B, close the inner hatch. That way only the one bay loses pressure. Only things in there right now are those cargo crates.”

  Boov still smiling her wide toothy grin strode past Nathan. She stopped at the outer hatch control panel. With a few clicks of the console, a dusky grey shimmer materialized over the door. Then a moment later, the door began to slowly open.

  Nathan had a moment of panic. Seeing the doors open sent his heart rate racing and his blood pressure soring. With the thunder of his blood in his ears and his breathing heavy, he had images of everything in the bay being sucked out into space. As his body simultaneously froze, and exploded, he had visions of all his possessions floating into the vacuum.

  Instead, the doors ground open, and nothing happened. Still it took Nathan nearly a full minute to get his breathing rate and speeding heart to a reasonable level. By this time, the hatch door was open and the delivery bots were bringing in a large palette. The palette had two similarly sized crates wrapped in silver metal about a quarter the size of the larger Cargo container sized crates from yesterday.

  As Nathan watched n open mouth shock, the delivery bots went through the grey shimmer like it didn’t even exist. He watched them climb back on board the delivery ship and it turn to fly off.

  Nathan’s eyes fell to the area right outside the station. The solar arrays were now lit up by landing lights on the pads. Then the walkway between the station and pads had more lights fully illuminating it. But as Nathan looked closer his brain still only partially out of panic mode, did he realize how bad of shape the area was in.

  They had spent a lot of time repairing the inside of the station, but outside was just as big of a mess!

  As his mind started categorizing workloads for the robots, he finally came back to himself. Only then did he remember reading about the Static Electron shields that covered the large hatches like this one. They were huge power hogs literally using nearly a full QOBOP per minute to run. But their charged particles created a minor ionic repulsion field around them. It wasn’t strong enough to stop anything with enough kinetic force from passing. However, the repulsion was perfect for keeping in a stable atmosphere.

  Seeing the wonder for the first time though just sent thrills of excitement through him. As he moved up close to the barrier, he took in a huge breath. Then with a forceful push, he blew the air out of his mouth. He was amused to see a fog appear on the other side of the shield as his breath forced its way passed the barrier and froze in space.

  Smiling like a kid Nathan turned to Boov who returned his smile. “May this one close it now master?”

  Nathan took one more look at the rapidly dispersing cloud and then nodded. “Go for it. Then help me unpack our gear. Tsk, those two larger crates are for you and your girls! I want you to figure out which one is best for security in the station and are geared up. The other set we will move to one of the secured bays.”

  Tsk flashed her teeth and turned to her squad issuing hissing and growling orders.

  Chapter 11 – Unwanted Guests

  A couple hours later and a new skill injector used; Nathan had just hung up his last change of spare clothes. Smiling he slipped on his new left hip holster. Then reached for a lovely “Earth kinetic weapon” A shining smith and Wesson six-shooter, when he heard some new voices… A lot of them.

  As Nathan approached the air lock, two raised voices stood out over the low thrum of the others.

  The first was a deep southern drawl that made Nathan think of someone from the state of Texas or New Texas. “Hit Son! Look here at this shiny glowy thing!”

  The responding voice was soft and spoken really quickly as if the speaker was used to a language from which rapid sounds was common. “Do not touch that you stupid hick! That is a fusion reactor!

  “How the hell do you know you squinty eyed bitch? You just got here like the rest of us!”

  The quiet voice retorted clearly denoting it as a woman’s, “Because I have brains somewhere besides my pants. Or, maybe because I am a Physicist!”

  Nathan stepped outside the air lock intending to stop the argument, but he froze. He had expected the ten or so Humans that he had cleaned up the other day. Indeed standing next to the air locks controls was a nude man Nathan remembered had claimed his Transport. However there was many more in various types of clothing, moving around the bay. Looking at things, touching things, and generally acting inconvenient.

  Nathan was so busy staring at the mass of people that he missed the naked man slip past him and into the open Habitat air lock. The man slid past Nathan quickly and silently, but, instead of making it into the interior as he planned he ran straight into Boov who had been right behind Nathan.

  The man collided with her causing them both to make surprised sounds. Nathan spun around eyes narrowing at the man. While others in the bay also had their attention drawn to the incident.

  “Hey! What do you think you’re doing? You’re not allowed in there!” Nathan growled.

  The man clearly in the wrong, immediately spun on Nathan and shouted, “Who says? You? How did you get in there and why shouldn’t I go in to? It is not like you own it!”

  Nathan growled, “I do own it! I own everything here!”

  The man sneered, looking behind Nathan he noticed the audience. They were drawing attention to their argument. “Who says it is yours? You’re nothing special!”

  Before Nathan could answer the man continued, “Where is my Transport! Did you steal it! It was right there, before I died!” He pointed over to where the reactor now hummed.

  Nathan noticed as the people behind him began to whisper and talk to each other. He could sense a growing tension in the crowd. Not wanting this to get out of hand, yet still unwilling to back down Nathan spoke quietly, “You mean my Transport? The one you tried to take from me? I bypassed your simple password and reclaimed it.”

  The man seized on the opening, “So you admit to stealing it!”

  Nathan blustered, “What… no! It was mine!

  ‘Nonsense! Thief!” The man looked at the crowd and shouted, “This man here is a Thief and I daresay a murderer! He arrived here first and then turned off the air systems and opened the doors to space! Just to kill off anyone else later! He is the worst kind of player! He is a spawn camper!”

  The noise of the crowd picked up growing louder and more charged. Nathan opened his mouth then closed it amazed by this man’s guile.

  The man sneered at Nathan, Confident in his victory and ensuing support from the crowd. Menace and greed clearly shown in the man’s eyes as he stared down Nathan.

  A series of growls and hisses from behind Nathan pulled both men’s gaze from their contest of wills. There dressed in full battle armor that covered them from scaly head to claw foot was the Squad of Wipynie Norrik Light Marines. Even covered in futuristic orange and white armor the Wipynie warriors were clearly not human.

  The crowd who the nude man had assumed was growing more agitated at his provoking words was displeased to see that instead they were clearly enamored with the Aliens.

  Nathan took a step away from the man creating some space than half turned, “What was that Tsk?”

  The southern drawl could be heard over the crowd, “Is he talking to that big breasted lizard machine ali
en?”

  “Use those eyes, you stupid chauvinistic ass! That is clearly some kind of suit.”

  Oblivious to the other conversations Tsk asked again, “Is there an issue?” Her eyes flicked toward the man still standing in the Habitats entry.

  Nathan was about to wave her off figuring this was a simple misunderstanding when the man shouted over the crowd, “Look! He is speaking to the devil! Beware the serpent for a forked tongue only speaks lies! We must punish those who consort with demons! Who is with me?”

  Nathan growled, “Oh for fucks sake!”

  He looked at Tsk, “Thrown him out the air lock. Let cold vacuum cool off this hot head!”

  The crowd standing around instantly grew silent and the man turned white.

  Tsk lurched forward grabbing the man by the arms and hissed a command to her squad.

  The man tried to fight off Tsk. Punching at her chest or sending fingers at her eyes. The suit thunked with each blow but the Marine showed no sign of being hurt.

  Half way to the hatch, as one of the marines reached the console and began to open the door he stopped fighting to beg instead.

  “No wait! I’m sorry! I didn’t know it was yours! You can’t do this! Humans have to stick together!”

  The crowd moved out of the way as Tsk drug the still feebly fighting man toward the now half open hatch.

  A woman in the crowd seeing open space beyond freaked out. Calls of alarm came from a few mouths. Others just stared in open-mouthed awe. While a few like the self-proclaimed scientist had more of a curious look to their expressions.

  As Tsk neared the hatch, the man began to fight harder, kicking and punching. In-between he would alternate between threats, begging, and ludicrous bribes. All of which fell on deaf ears.

  Some in the crowd watched not knowing what was about to happen. Others didn’t expect Nathan or the alien to follow through. A few wanted to see for reasons that are more scientific. But whatever their reasons no one spoke up as tsk heaved and launched the man through the nearly translucent barrier into the void. As he passed through his screams instantly cut off. Seconds later blood erupted from his open mouth and his eyes popped from his sockets. The man still kicked and swung his arms. But in the void, he continued to float away not even rocking for all his struggling.