All Gummed Up

     The Dark Star Bar, haven to an array of grubby miners, greedy merchants, and the cold-hearted mercenaries that patrol these outskirt belts and trade lanes, a place where the opportunistic prey on the idealistic in a gritty parody of those same ancient terrestrial struggles. Therax tried to disregard the painfully wide grin growing on Nuri's face as the two of them approached the broad main entrance of the busy establishment.

     The Dark Star was not Therax's favorite place to spend his time or ISK. The clientèle was rough and boisterous, and the prices were inflated to compensate for the damage caused by the occasional brawl or unruly patron. Despite this, Therax came here often. The owner had made some spectacular contacts and regularly stocked some of the best synth-foods in the region. This combination of quality and grit brought in a lot of folks who were the "real deal", like Therax, but it also lured a constant swarm of groupies, posers, and hangers-on. Social parasites who leeched a sense of style and belonging from the raw spacers who frequented the bar, these sycophantic kids were usually too scared or too stupid to sign on with real a crew. The gaggle of dyed, inked, and pierced girls that Nuri immediately gravitated towards certainly fell into this category.

     A momentary look of disapproval twisting Therax's face as Nuri tickled one of the vibrant vixens and was slapped in return, the scruffy miner turned towards the back-lit bar, choosing a stool at one end. The synth-wood laminate surface of the bar was marred with ring-shaped stains and blackened scars made with pocket fission blades.

     "Evenin' Therax," boomed the tall bartender, "What can I get'cha?"

     "Bell peppers and beef," grunted Therax, looking up at the athletic man, offering a polite nod of acknowledgment.

     "Hmm, we're all out of beef," stated the bartender simply, waiting patiently for another order.

     Therax curled his upper lip in annoyance and scratched the stubble on his cheek. He had already been driven to surliness by Nuri's ceaseless banter as they unloaded their cargo of compressed gas. He had kept his mind on task by focusing on the dinner he was about to have, and this denial did nothing to improve his mood.

     "Just bring me a pork ramen," said Therax, dejectedly, "And a bottle of that black cider."

     The local planet was home to a strange, swarthy tree that bore a fruit the size and shape of an apple. But the similarities ended there. The hard, near-black fruit were waxy, with a harsh, bitter taste and smell. However, if one allowed the fruit to ripen in brine for a score of solar cycles before juicing, bottling, and shelving, it made for a heady, flavorful beverage that sparkled on the tongue. Therax occupied himself with the frothy, black drink while he waited for his noodle bowl.

*   *   *

     Despite his disappointment at the Dark Star, Therax was feeling much better. The hot bowl of noodles had filled him up and calmed his nerves. Even the goofy laugh of Nuri as he blathered on about the girls he had dumped his pay into wasn't enough to bother Therax as they slowly walked back to the ship hangar.

     Therax planned on heading out to their last location to clean up the few clouds of gas that remained, and the prospect of more income had been all that Nuri needed to drag him away from his harem. One could never be sure of a strike remaining for more than a standard solar cycle. If the gas didn't dissipate or move away, it was only a matter of time for other miners to find it and pull it into their own hungry cargo holds. The two miners were wasting no time.

     Entering the ship hangar, Therax and Nuri walked down the wide lane towards the berth where the Gandalf was docked. As the gray hull came into view, Therax noticed a man in the jumpsuit of a station repair technician standing beneath the cockpit, an assortment of starship components organized into rows on the floor a few meters away. As the two miners approached, the technician, equipped with a tool akin to long scissors, probed inside a hole where the left gas harvester used to be.

     "What's this?" announced Therax, his sated demeanor melting away at the sight of his dismantled ship.

     Spinning around, a few spindly metal rods clenched in his fist, the repair tech seemed startled. "Oh, hey! I had to take your harvesters appart."

     "You did what?!" spat Therax, "I asked for a routine maintenance checkup before we headed back out."

     "Sure," replied the tech, nodding as he moved to set the rods down in a pile of similar items. He shooed away a pair of genegineered Siamese kittens that had run over from beneath one of the neighboring vessels. Genetically modified cats were a common sight in hangar bays, doing a better job of keeping the vermin population down than any poisons or automated devices ever did.

     "I was checking over your systems, as you requested, and was looking for scars in the teflon sockets on your harvester pivots," he wiped grease from his hand on a rag tucked into the pocket of his stained jumpsuit. "I don't know what you guys got into out there, but it looked like someone had been throwing marshmallows into your intake manifolds. It's going to take at least a solar cycle to clean up."

     Therax stared stunned, then stammered, "Wha...wha....a whole cycle? You can't be serious." But he knew it was true as he looked around at the bits and pieces of his ship strewn about the hangar floor. He growled a quiet obscenity, shoving a thumb under his belt.

     "So...were not going out?" Nuri asked sheepishly. The glare Therax shot his way curtailed any further dumb questions.

     "Alright then," Therax addressed the repair technician, "But you better not find any more things to tear apart on my ship."

     Therax turned to leave, Nuri following close behind. Frustrated, Therax found himself walking towards the station's coffin hotel. A good rest would clear his head and put him in the mood for scouring out a new gas site once his ship was reassembled.

     Upon reaching the hotel, Nuri stuck his hands on his hips, "I don't really feel like sawing logs." He shot a hinting glance at Therax.

     "Eh, don't worry about it," Therax waved dismissively, "I know where to find you, go have your fun."

     Nuri bolted off towards the Dark Star, Therax watching after him for only a moment before heading into the front office of the coffin hotel.

---

This is a combined entry for the Eve Friday Flash Fiction hosted at Eclyptic Rift and the Wordzzle hosted at Views from Raven's Nest.

I used all the words in the Wordzzle list, making this entry a Mega. The list of words and phrases is:
Main
   beef
   idealistic
   kittens
   marshmallow
   opportunistic
   sawing logs
   scissors
   slapped
   teflon
   tickled
Mini
   goofy
   laminate
   ripen
   shelve
   Siamese

A Miner's Desires

     The frozen void. Stage to amazing ballets of energy and pressure. All the needs of industrious people can be met in the matter that flies aimlessly through the emptiness. This is the mantra of the miner.

     The Badger II hung casually amidst a hazy cloud of cerulean gas, its cockpit, emblazoned with the name Gandalf, was flanked by the undulating cones of vapor being siphoned into the cargo hold. The two men in the flight chairs seemed to be distracted from their work as one gestured excitedly and the other held his head in exasperation.

     "Come on Therax, roll out the barrel!", exclaimed the animated man in the cockpit.

     "Roll out the what? Are you kidding? You've been reading too many of those old docs", retorted Therax, looking tired, "No one talks that way, and, besides, I don't think you're even using it right."

     "Whatever", grumbled the first man, poking aimlessly at the glowing console in front of him, "I just wanna get back to the station and have some drinks with that pack of pixies that have been hanging around the Dark Star Bar. Halcy dyed her hair green the day we left."

    Therax waved dismissively. "We'll be done here in another few hours, Nuri. The gas harvesters are in top gear, and the harlots aren't going anywhere. You'll get yer lovely cup of tea after we're done paying the bills."

     His enthusiasm dashed on the rocks of reality, Nuri fell back into his flight chair, arms crossed and feet kicked out before him. The life of a miner was not turning out to be as entertaining as it had first seemed.

---

This scene is an example of a 9-word Wordzzle using the word/phrase list:
  amazing
  badger
  frozen
  Gandalf
  a lovely cup of tea
  pixies
  pressure
  roll out the barrel
  top gear

Read other Wordzzles at Views from Raven's Nest: Saturday Wordzzle Challenge

The Price of Patience

     Nighttime. Darkness. Here it was always night. Though distant stars lorded over the daytime of a billion planets, their sparse glimmer sat like dust on the obsidian void. Pinpoints of blue and white floating in the incalculable darkness, the subtle ember glow of red stars washed out by their hotter neighbors. All this was displayed in perfect accuracy on the holographic screen hovering before Celia Aysen, Captain of the Caldari Naval Carrier, "Altus Novus".

    It had been eight standard solar cycles since the Navy squadron had landed at the run-down, back-water station. The marine units had spent less than two quelling the defiant locals. Once the vulnerable transport ships had been securely docked, it had become a waiting game. Captain Aysen sat in her command chair, monitoring the star field that had become all too familiar. The tension of the few hundred pilots and crew under her command had become palpable.

    The reports of pirate raids coming from the fringe of Caldari space had finally gotten a response; Captain Aysen and her battle group were that response. The pirate gang was said to have a carrier they used as a logistical outpost, and the station, held in subjugation below, was a common haven. Admirals had decided to make only a small show of force, better to leave the fringe dwellers on their own rather than let them become dependent on military incursions. Thus, the Altus Novus had been refit with a tactical compliment and sent as the sole combat vessel.

    Barely discernible spacial distortions marking its presence, the cloaked Altus Novus sat facing the coordinates provided by the informant that had made this operation feasible. The carrier was fit with cumbersome, signal-ablative cladding to reduce its signature on incoming sensor locks, and was further hidden by the backdrop of the local star's radiation. Captain Aysen felt secure in the element of surprise. Her pilot crew was equally equipped with a flight of fighter bombers, the latest product from Navy R&D. The pilots had all been run through the standard simulations, and each had gotten a chance to try the new ships out on the tactical range, but the tension that had been building up over the last 72 hours was spurred on by the apprehension over new technology.

    But the wait was nearly over. The information Captain Aysen had been given suggested the pirates would be moving through this sector within the next standard solar cycle and the Altus Novus' launch bays were readied with dozens of the torpedo-equipped fighters. The pilots, over-stimmed and on-edge, sat anxiously in their flight couches, awaiting the klaxon that would signal their eminent launch. Many of the pilots particularly anticipated the rush of increased gee-force as they accelerated towards their targets.

    Captain Aysen monitored her crew's status as she monitored the glimmering star field, allowing the calm of the void to release the tension she felt over her nervous shipmates. Her tired eyes scanned the display, overlayed with a multitude of tactical and system information. Something blinked on her monitor, a small grey box that wasn't present a moment before. Sensor clusters swiveled in concert as Captain Aysen queried her scanner display, focusing on the unidentified object. A small HUD window opened in the upper right of her display, showing the signature and silhouette of an Imicus-class frigate. Celia held her breath.

    The launch klaxon had sounded the moment the cynosural field formed, fighter pilots strapping down and bracing for acceleration. Moments later, the bulky signature of the pirate carrier appeared on Captain Aysen's virtual display. Launch bay doors opened, the shimmering distortion field around the Novus Altus lowered, and swarms of angry plasma trails streaked away from the vessel, the thrust vectors displayed on the Captain's monitor all aimed at the incoming ship.

    The pirate carrier released its own swarm of fighters, but their surprise was expensive. The pirate fighters were still accelerating into formation when the first wave of Caldari bombers released their volley. Flares of light danced across the pirate carrier's shields as the torpedoes impacted. With their foes at the disadvantage, it took less than 200 seconds for the bomber flight to dispatch the carrier, the last of the stranded fighters scattering in hopes of escaping to a friendly port. The Navy patrols would likely find many of them, but, like terrestrial rats of old, one could never eradicate all of them.

    Another enemy of the State defeated, Captain Aysen entered a command that brought the Altus Novus' main drives back online and the ship slowly listed towards the station. Squads of fighter bombers filtered into the hangar bays as they returned from chasing the last of the pirates, giddy from the successful operation. All of them would receive medals.

    Pausing for a moment to gaze at the glittering haze of metal composite shards that was once her foe's security, Captain Aysen let out a long sigh and turned towards the minutia of flight preparations for the journey home.

---

Read many other scenes of this sort in the Eve Friday Flash Fiction hosted by Ecliptic Rift.