Stargun Smuggler

Wasting no time after leaving Orion, Zoey made her way to the cockpit with haste initiating the take-off protocol; the engines came roaring to life. It was a lengthy process getting all the necessary components ready and working, along with countless fail-safe checks for safety. Once the spaceship's systems were fully operational, the craft shook violently as it slowly lifted off the ground with downward thrusters. Lurching forward immediately increasing in acceleration as the main drives took over the workload; from the landing/take-off engines. The spaceship moved through the sky faster than lightning.

Upon clearing the atmosphere of the tiny planet "Novak," they had stopped at for a few days for supplies and much-needed social time off the spaceship.

A females voice began echoing around the ship, "Engaging The All-drive! Space pinch in Three, Two, One." Barely a moment later, the spacecraft underwent an immense amount of pressure, like that of two massive, powerful, positive magnets colliding into each, with them in the middle—the repelling forces pushing them faster and faster to speeds otherwise unattainable. While fast, "The All-drive" had its drawbacks. Even the slightest errors in calculating the route through space would often have catastrophic failures/crashes.

Traveling through space, they headed for the small moon called "Diago-Tu," the second moon of three, to the planet Diago located in the (Dia System). It was the leading planet for trade opportunities to the lesser planets in the system. Being the only planet in the system that FOG (The Federation of Goods) had certified.

FOG (The Federation of Goods) was the single largest corporation in known existence with almost limitless reach and power. Their purpose was to maintain free and fair trade by building and establishing at least one if not multiple trade stations in every system. These trade exchanges had customs, regulations, and laws to help balance trade, making it easier for smaller systems to compete. At the same time, they actively tracked and cracked down on exchanges/sales that weren't adequately processed or not filed/done correctly. Harder to follow were the ones that didn't occur in their markets at all. The punishment for this was hefty fines and marks against your trade exchange card. After so many strikes, they would either sentence you to a cell or a slave planet for free work.

With bans on specific goods and materials deemed "dangerous" or "harmful" by FOG (The Federation of Goods), they spent a lot of time and resources tracking down smugglers and illicit traders who specialized in moving illegal goods across the galaxies undeteceted. It was a brutal battle for them because of the enormous size of space; no one can be everywhere. Frequently, they would hire freelance bounty hunters to track smugglers that were elusive, obscure, and hard to find/catch. Upon finding a smuggler or someone traveling with illicit goods, the punishment was death.

Orion sat alone at the oversized strategy table (awkward and matching nothing, he loved its natural wood beauty) on the bridge with a portable computer in front of him. Having spent a while thinking about what had happened decided to distract himself by browsing both the black market—not looking for anything specific and the smuggler's "Shadow listings." The listings weren't current, but it was still something to occupy his mind. At first, looking at a variety of weapons listings, then armor/gadgets. Nothing was catching his attention as he aimlessly scrolled, looking at things that were interesting to him, but to his dismay, he couldn't forget what he said to Kate.

Giving up on the black market, Orion exited out of it and opened the "Shadow listings" program on his laptop instead. Impatiently groaning loudly, he threw himself into the back of his chair, staring at an empty black square on the screen with a "/" symbol at the top left corner that flashed every other second. Each flash becoming more annoying than the prior; he began trying to time the moment in his head.

Flash.

Flash.

Flash.

Sighing, Orion looked away from his computer, scanning the room for anything to occupy his mind. His eyes were darting from object to object until, finally, something caught his eye.

It was a communication device that Jace had made for him. It was unique in its nature. Jace had designed and created it himself. Even begged and pleaded with Orion for months to give him the plad needed to make it swearing that he wouldn't regret it. Orion was reluctant because it was simply a two-way video call device. What finally got him to agree to spend; what he had considered an absurd amount of Plad. Was Jace had claimed that it would even get a signal while using "The All Drive." Orion thought it was impossible because of the speeds that "The All Drive" could achieve, and Jace proved had him wrong, as he did pretty frequently.

Standing up, Orion walked over to the opposite side of the bridge, where he had spotted the device. Picking up the device, he checked to see if it had power. To his delight, the battery was full. Carrying it back to the table, he took deliberate, slow, and controlled steps, turning it into a workout to burn time. Hoping that by the time he got back to his computer, the program would be loaded.

Setting the communication device next to his laptop Orion glanced over at the screen. Still nothing but the flashing "/" symbol. Pfft, what a piece of shit. Returning his attention to the communication device, he flipped up the screen up; disappointed with his computer. Various lights activated, glowing and blinking as it powered on. He waited for all four lights on the right side to lite up solid green. Pushing the only button on the device, he waited for Jace to answer. Plopping down into his chair, he adjusted the video device to face him in the chair.

Jace's face appeared on the screen. His long-light-brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, hanging down to his lower back. He was wearing small rectangle-shaped glasses half-covering his blue eyes, set on the end of his long and thin nose with wide nostrils.

"Can you hear me, Orion?" Jace's voice came out of two small speakers, one on each side of the screen.

"I hear you just fine. Can you hear me?" Orion replied, looking at Jace to see if he reacted.

"Good on my end," Jace said, "I'm glad you called Orion. Have you guys left Aro yet?"

"Yea, we took off not too long ago, and we've already activated the all drive. Not sure when we will get there, though. Why? What's up?" Orion asked.

"Well, Edwin called said he has some top quality spice for you at an excellent price, claims it's a deal of a lifetime and a peace offering for how things went last time." Jace rolled his eyes as he said the last words.

"Did he give you the details?" Orion asked.

"Yea, he did," Jace replied, pausing for a second searching around for something. "There it is," he reached for something off-camera. Then began reading from a piece paper, "Ten total crates of high-quality illicit spices for ten-thousand Plats, one-hundred Plats per crate, at four crates of 'Booster Blue' twenty-five per, four crates of 'Muon Gold' also at twenty-five per, and two crates of 'Neutron Pixie' at twenty per."

Orion stated flatly, "That seems way too good to be true." His eyes wandered over to his computer screen. Yet again, he was disappointed that his program still had not loaded.

"If you're already in flight, then you don't have but a few hours to decide. Edwin wants you to meet him at Ara'Aru on the far south quadrant. If you choose to make this deal with him, just head there and give me a callback, and I'll make the precise arrangements. If I don't hear from ya, I'll just tell him it isn't a good time." Jace said.

"I'll have to run it by Zoey and Kate, but I don't see them having a problem with it since it's along the way and a very lucrative opportunity," Orion affirmed.

"Wouldn't expect anything less." Jace said, "OH! By the way, I managed to get that acid particle pistol working!" Reaching off screen again, he grabbed the pistol displaying it on the screen for Orion to see. Scooting to the edge of his chair, Orion leaned in closer to the screen to get a better view. His curiosity was rising as it looked nothing like it had when he had tasked him to fix it.

Jace cleared his throat then spoke, "I see the confused look on your face; let me explain. These pistols were not designed to last. The acid particles build up over time with every shot. After a while, 'Especially' if you don't clean it regularly and immediately after use, it melts the interior components over time, leading to failure. Which is the state that you found it in and requested me to fix it." Jace stopping long enough to catch a breath before continuing, "But you know me, Orion, why simply fix it back to its primitive state when I can improve it. It only fires four acid-tipped kinetic slugs now. I designed a clean-out round that expels an acid-neutralizing gas with various additives down the barrel to help reduce corrosion." Jace was smiling from ear to ear, bragging about his work.

"You never cease to impress me, Jace!" Orion exclaimed, still studying the pistol in Jace's hands. "Do you have any other off-the-wall projects you wanna talk to me about??" He asked.

Jace's smile, somehow widening even further than before, beamed with emotion as he said, "Yea, I do!!" His enthusiasm and excitement were intoxicating, even coming through a screen. "I got my hands on a schematic for a prime shield generator. I wanted to get the specs for it to understand its limitations and capabilities further. I read an article from an anonymous source claiming that if you integrate the A.I.-Attia-V5 into the mainboard of the generator, allowing the A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) to control it, enabling it to do things it wouldn't usually be capable of doing. With a few modifications and enough power going into it, I theorize that you could generate enough juice to shield your cruiser from a direct hit from a Class 1 P.D.W. (Planet Destroying Warhead) if timed right."

Orion sat with his mouth gaping and stared at the screen, speechless. Does this dude honestly expect me to spend two Quid (two-hundred thousand Plats) on a single A.I. chip just to overclock a shield generator... If I time it right- nothing survives a planet destr- "I only brought it up because you asked!" Jace apologized.

"I didn't say anything," Orion stated, confused why Jace was apologizing.

"No, you didn't, but your face did," Jace said, pointing at his screen, "your face went from excited to sour rather quick."

"Does it have to be Attia-V5?" Orion asked, almost pleading.

"Yea," Jace replied with a defeated expression, "Attia-V5 is the only A.I. sophisticated enough."

"I'll think about it, but I'm going to go talk to Zoey and Kate. See what they want to do about the spice deal with Edwin." Orion waved at the screen.

"Alright, dude," Jace replied, "I'll be here; just let me know." Waving bye to Orion and disconnected.