We finally made it to Omega Zone without another incident. Seeing as how it was an empty area of space that held the largest grouping of Jump gates, I knew we weren’t at our destination. “We’re in Omega Zone, Fred.” I called over the general intercom.
He showed up within minutes of the announcement. “Alright, we are headed to Aurora Jump gate. Call me up when we get to it and don’t go through it until I am on the bridge.” He then left.
I sort of understood the need for such a clandestine run. If he kept his pilot in the dark and the pilot was taken there was no way that I would know exactly where we were going. It took six hours to actually get to Aurora. Shortly before I reached the navigation point of no return for heading through the gate, I called Fred up to the bridge again.
“You see the station off to the left there?” He asked me, indicating Aurora space port. I nodded. “Dock there.”
I pulled us in to port smooth as you please. When we were safely and securely docked I turned to him. “What’s the plan?” I asked him.
“The plan is that all of you are going to stay in rooms at the station while I take the other crew and head to the mine. When we get back, you guys load up, the other crew leaves and we drop off the load.” Fred nodded to himself, then headed off rather quickly.
This hit me like a ton of bricks. We were supposed to hand the ship over to another crew? In the middle of nowhere? There weren’t any habitable planets anywhere near Aurora. In any direction you had to go through a minimum of three more Jumps until you got somewhere that could support a breathable environment. At least as far as I knew. My maps were only up to date as of about two years ago.
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Moron's Guide to Surviving the Space Race Page 5
