I made it back to Belt Station in a little under 11 hours. The ore contract had gone off without a hitch and upon calling the ore hauler for the last trip I received a message that the contract was considered complete and my payment had been issued. I checked my account and true to the contract conditions I had been paid 12750 ICU which brought my total balance up to 14444 credits. Yeah, funny number but it just turned out that way.

In addition I had increased my standing with Solarwind Trading Consortium. By an amazing 1%.

Nothing great yet but not bad either. I missed the bonus pay but I knew that going in so I wasn’t really sad about it. In total I had spent under 60 hours on the contract. I smiled considering how long it would have taken me to make that kind of money while I was still under contract with the Quirt. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves to be grateful.

Plus I had some more ideas on how to increase my cash flow.

I was well rested and fed when I stepped into the Rambler and gave it’s bartender a nod. He in turn indicated a table in a corner that was slightly hidden from view and already held one other occupant.

I frowned. This was a lot of cloak and dagger and I had the feeling I was about to step into something I didn’t really want part of. But then again I had a feeling I could not really walk away from this meeting. Ralgau was counting on the credits coming in from the job as I had offered him 5% of any money made from jobs he found me.

Plus, any ship upgrade was at least another 10 mining missions or about 600 hours sitting in Rustbucket alone in an asteroid belt away, which right now did not seem appealing. Plus I wanted to know what all of this was about and see how things played out. So instead of turning around and walking away I stepped to the table and took a seat.

Not a second later Ralgau joined us with two glasses and a bottle. He placed the glasses in front of me and my contact and poured us a little more than a shot each.

“Malcolm, meet Nirazera, Nirazera, meet Malcolm. Malcolm is a pilot looking for work and Nirazera is an employer looking for a pilot. Please let me know if you need anything else.”

Then he turned and walked away.

“A pleasure to meet you.” my contact said with a smoky but melodious voice. She, for some reason I assumed it was a she, had an olive green skin tone, white hair that was shaved on one side of her head and hung to her shoulder on the other side. Her lips were painted in a dark purple and she was wearing a tight fitting suit, that looked like leather, in the same color. I guessed her height at around 120 cm and while I was sure that she wasn’t human, her looks made my heart beat a little faster.

“The pleasure is all mine.” I replied. “How can I be of service?”

“How very polite!” she laughed quietly. “No, I am not used to that.”

My brow furrowed on its own accord.

“No worries, I am not making fun of you, I am simple delighted.” she told me. “Please Malcolm, tell me a little about yourself.”

“Not much to tell really. I was pressed into contract work with the Quirt but managed to finish my contract and now I am simply an entrepreneur with a ship looking for work. I just came in from a mining job because I need to restock and repair. Ralgau said he might have a job and I decided to check it out.”

She nodded. “That is what I have heard. But I want to know about you. Not what you do but who you are.”

My frown got deeper. What the hell was I supposed to say? I didn’t have any more backstory to the character I was playing. But then again, I am playing myself. So…

“Well, I have done a whole bunch of different things in my life. I go where my interest takes me. I value my freedom and not being beholden to anybody. I like to try new things and see where it takes me. I have my own moral compass and follow it until it needs updating. I don’t care too much what people think about me but I am always curious about them and what makes them tick. I try to do what is right and normally I am really good at listening to my gut.”

“Normally?” now it was her turn to raise a brow.

“Yeah, normally. When I walked in here I felt this all was too cloak and dagger and that I should probably walk away from this. However, Ralgau has so far played an honest hand and not let me down. So I decided I hear you out.”

“Malcolm, I appreciate the honesty. And I will be honest with you in return. The job is an errand that I have to run but I am tied down here and can’t do it myself. Normally wouldn’t do it myself but there are circumstances that make it vital for the recipient to get the information. The job is also not without risks but it will pay well.”

“How well exactly?”

“Very well.” she replied and gave me a wink. I guess I should have seen that one coming.

“And what is this job exactly?”

“How much do you know about galactic politics?”

“Not much to nothing.” I answered honestly.

I had some information about the three big factions from the character creation and some more from news reels that I came across when I was researching life and money values but that was more or less it. On top of that since I hung up my uniform I became very disinterested in politics.

“Crash course it is then. Are you familiar with the three major alliances?”

I nodded.

“Good. I am representing an organisation that is working for all Alliances and none. You could say our goal is a stability across the settled universe. Said stability is at risk at the moment. As you probably know, the Free World Alliance, in which space we currently are, is not exactly a cohesive populus and most of the time its members do what they feel like doing and not what is important for the greater good. My organisation has come into possession of information that needs to be given to the FWA council on Frieda so that the Alliance can prepare and pull together. Now your part in all of this is to go to Frieda 16, meet another contact there and hand the data package over to them.”

“Okay, enlighten me, what is in that data package?”

“That, I am afraid, I cannot divulge.”

“Hm, why me then?”

She sighed and tapped her fingernails on the table. It looked like a poker player trying to decide if they should call or fold. I wasn’t sure what there was to call or fold or if there was anything that I could do about it.

“Okay, let’s stick with playing honestly. Simply put, I need a pilot and a ship that is unaffiliated to my organisation and unknown in this region.”

“You keep talking about your organisation. Who are you working for?”

“I am sorry but I can’t say. I am already taking a huge chance with a pilot I know so little about but time is of the essence I simply can’t wait around any longer.”

I gave myself a mental high five. She had just put me into the strongest position possible for any price negotiations.

“Okay, let me summarize. Shadowy organisation needs data transported from here to Frieda 16. The job might be dangerous. The cargo is information that is important for the greater good of the FWA? Sounds about right?”

She nodded with a serious face. “Not sure I woud have summarized exactly like that but I guess it works. Although you forgot the very well paid part.”

“Okay, put up or shut up - how much are we talking for this great adventure?”

She watched my face carefully. “50k upfront, 50k on delivery.”

And there went my poker face. I could barely stop my eyebrows from crawling into my hairline.

“That’s unexpectedly well paid, I have to admit.”

“Well, there are some unique requirements that you would have to need to meet and I am sure you don’t yet. So some of that money needs to go towards meeting these.”

“Oooooohhhkaaaay!? What requirements?”

“The data is not stored on a crystal. They are too easy to steal. This data needs to be kept as safe as possible.”

“Uhm and in what form am I supposed to transport it then?”

She tapped her excellently manicured finger against her temple. “In here.”

“Pardon me?”

“The data will be transmitted directly into your memory banks and downloaded by a specialist on Frieda. That is why the courier needs sufficient memory capacity.”

“And what would be sufficient?”

“The package requires 5 memory and until it is downloaded it will block that amount.” She grimaced.

Wow, that was a hard thing. I had looked up information on the sysnet while looking into implants and enhancements. So, yes, I knew that there were implants to increase stats. You couldn’t go crazy on them but they would be good for up to +7 on each stat. However, the high level ones were crazy expensive. And I mean battleship in your head crazy expensive.

Now given the fact that 2 memory was needed to remember which way to put your pants on, having 5 memory blocked seemed really rough. That meant if I wanted to take this job I needed...

Name

Malcolm Solo

Callsign

n/a

Faction Allegiance

Free Worlds Alliance

Current Scenarios

Quirt Starting Scenario

Current Wealth

14444 ICU

Personal Statistics

Strength

3

Raw physical strength

Constitution

3

Endurance, Resistance to damage

Intelligence

5

Complex problem solving skill, Logic, Comprehension

Charisma

5

Attractiveness to others

Perception

5

Awareness through senses

Willpower

4

Ability to make decisions and override impulses

Memory

5

Ability to recall information and experiences

Implants and Enhancements

Neural Link

Gen 7

Allows direct neural interaction and learning

Skills

Small Arms

4 / 100

Piloting

3 / 100

Coordination

3 / 100

Team work

4 / 100

Basic Space Mining

12 / 100

Survey

8 / 100

Skills

Standings

Solarwind Trading Consortium: 1%

At least a +3 upgrade. From memory I knew that +3 to any one stat ran north of a 150k ICU. And even a +2 was still about 70k.

But there were other concerns on my mind as well. For one, I wanted to upgrade my ship first and would be looking into stats much later. Plus there was the ship in the asteroid that I wanted to get my hands on sometime soon.

Then there were the concerns of jumping in bed with an unknown shadowy organisation that I would not be read in on and the need to have my head messed with, to be able to transfer the data package. I had seen people become unwittingly mules for criminal organizations IRL and in other games. Which usually led down a path that I really didn’t want to take.

Was the money good? For sure! But aside from that, I couldn’t even afford a connector or the insurance for my ship. Well, I guess I could get a bronze or silver policy now but the connector was still out of reach. On top of that, Rustbucket couldn’t get the upgrade to leave the system.

“Nirazera, I am sorry but I have to decline. I neither want nor can take the job you are offering. I appreciate you telling me so much but for one I have concerns about the legality and what path your job would set me on, I don’t have the memory capacity and I don’t have a ship that would allow me to leave the system.”

She took a breath to respond and I raised my hand to forstall her interjection. “And even if you could give me a ship and upgrade my memory and to any kind of other things, I am listening to my gut right now. And it tells me to decline your offer. I admit, the money is tempting and knowing that I will have to mine quite a bit to make up losing out on this job, I feel much more comfortable with the path I am on than going on this mission.”

She sighed. “Okay, I hear you. I would have offered you more money but I don’t think it would change your mind.I appreciate you hearing me out, be honest with me and I hope you will treat this discussion with confidentiality. I have the feeling I can trust you if you give me your word.”

“I appreciate your trust and you won’t be disappointed. Yes, you have my word that I will keep our meeting and the things we discussed to myself.”

‘Not that I have anybody to share the information with,’ I added in my mind. Although I was curious just how high the offer would have gone.

While getting up from the table she flicked her hand and my interface notified me that I had received contact data.

“If you ever get bored of sitting amongst spinning rocks, contact me.”