NOVEL FROG Chapter 14: Solitur Transportation
Chapter 14: Solitur Transportation
Location: Estriduros Republic; Estriduros System; Mage Academy Station
A week later I get a notification on my tablet. It’s time to board my shuttle. The freighter has arrived at the station. They obviously don’t let a private company enter the hangar bay of the station. So I find myself inside a shuttle just 30 minutes later. The flight takes another 15 minutes before the viewscreen shows an ugly piece of dark metal holding together a bunch of biiiig containers.
I've read about interstellar containers. They are all the same size 50 meters long, 10 meters wide, and high, fitting 5000 cubic meters of material. But it’s still another thing seeing hundreds of them stacked next to each other on a freighter. Well, actually the freighter only consists of a cabin for the bridge and the crew in the front, and the engines in the back. The middle and main part of the freighter is just a bare metal construction held together by a big spine running the length of the ship. The empty parts are filled up with containers.
We fly closer to the front of the freighter and an airlock lights up. After docking I say goodbye to the shuttle crew, take my stuff, and cycle through the airlock. Let’s see what awaits me on the other side. It’s just a stopover on my way out of the republic. The airlock opens and I put on a confident smile.
A smile that drops when I see what awaits me. Two heavyset men with greasy hair and gruff faces. The hallway behind them looks like it was cleaned the last time when the freighter was put into service. I gulp. That’s not what I expected. I wonder if my parents’ freighter was the same…
“Follow us.” The bearded of the two men barks and they turn around and walk inside the ship, leaving me standing in the airlock. I gulp and leave the airlock behind. Warm welcome, I guess. They set a brisk pace and I have to hurry to catch up to them. Five minutes later we stop before a door. A tap on a panel beside it and the door opens, showing a room with two beds.
“You bunk with the engineer’s assistant till you transfer as she is the only other woman aboard. We jump in about two hours make sure you are on the bridge a few minutes earlier to watch and learn. And welcome aboard the Solina.”
They leave me standing at the door and before I fully catch what the shaved one said, they are gone. I just stand there for another minute before I make the step inside the room. Warm welcome indeed, at least I now know the name of the ship… I just have to figure out how to find the bridge. I walk over to the bed that looks unoccupied and sit down with an audible sigh. I hope the other crew members are friendlier.
After standing back up, I begin unpacking my stuff – not that it is much. Half an hour later a silent hiss jerks me out of my thoughts. I barely manage to turn my head to the door before… “What? Who the fuck are you?” A black-haired young woman with bulging muscles is standing inside the doorway, looking mad as hell.
I start to stutter. “Uh, I… I’m S…” Before I could finish she interrupts me.
“That was a rhetorical question,” she rolls her eyes. “What are you doing in my room?”
I clear my throat. “I just came aboard, they led me here, saying there’s only one other woman aboard. Guess I’m your roommate now for the next few days.” That sounded more confident than I feel! Confident Sara for the win.
The woman notices my collar and her eyes widen a fraction. “You’re the Mage chick Steven told me about.”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m Sara, nice to meet you, and sorry for taking your uhm room.” I flinch at the sound of my voice. So much for confident Sara. The woman chuckles and sits down on her bed.
“Naahhh, don’t be. It’s all good, I don’t mind another woman aboard. Was just surprised finding you unannounced in my… our room.”
She slaps her knees and looks me in the eyes. “Let’s start anew, name’s Beatrix, but call me Trix, everyone does.” She holds out her hand and I take it and we shake. She almost breaks my fingers. Strong! I have to open and close my fist a few times to get some feeling back in my fingers.
Hmm, she is actually quite nice, just a bit direct. I look at my watch. Shoot it’s almost time to go to the bridge and I have no clue where to go. “Soooo, Trix, do you know how I can get to the bridge?”
She bursts out laughing. “Are you kidding me? How big do you think the front module of the ship is?” The heck, she wipes away an actual tear from laughing so hard.
“It’s my first time on a freighter, you know? Also big guy one and two didn’t exactly give me a grand tour of the ship…”
That makes her laugh even harder. After finally calming down a bit she continues. “It’s quite easy, just follow the signs to an elevator and take it all the way up. You can’t miss the bridge there as it has the only reinforced door in the front module of the freighter.”
I thank her and tell her that I’ll be back after the jump, then I leave the room and there are indeed signs pointing to the elevators. I take one and make my way to the top deck. The reinforced steel door is really hard to miss, thanks Trix. I enter the bridge and am greeted by the Captain and the resident Space Mage. Both are men way past their prime and they both don’t care much about my presence. I’m ordered to sit in a corner and observe, so that’s what I do.
The jump itself is nothing important besides the fact that I can feel that the Mage is creating his space bubble almost in the exact form of the freighter. Wow, I didn’t know that was possible. I thought you could only make it less wide but longer. When I ask him he just snorts and calls it years-long experience. Looks like that is all he’s going to tell me, so I say goodbye and return to Trix.
Location: Estriduros Republic; Bon Delaaz System; Solina
A few days and a short stop to exchange goods later, we arrive at the Bon Delaaz System. I did watch all the jumps we did from the bridge and I think I learned a bit about how to shape the space bubble to a more elliptical form, but we’ll see. Most of my time I spent in my cabin with or without Trix. Now we are on the final approach to the Solano. When I first heard of the name, I had to suppress a snort. They are very uncreative when it comes to naming starships. Every ship they have sounds a bit like the name of the company.
An hour later both ships line up and a connection is formed. That means it’s time for me to leave. I say goodbye to Trix, take my stuff, and leave the Solina behind. After cycling through the airlock, I notice a difference. Well, I noticed a big difference before that: the Solano is way smaller. But what I’m talking about is the reception I get when boarding the new ship. This time the Captain is waiting for me and welcomes me with open hands.
I get my own cabin and the crew is more diverse and does not consist of only men and a single woman. I do hope they are nicer than the grumpy crew on the other freighter. I mean this is my home for the foreseeable future. After showing me my room, the Captain whose name is Amal Shan takes me on a tour through the freighter. We visit the mess hall, game room, and after a long walk along the spine even the engineering section in the back. Afterward, we return to the front and he leads me to the bridge where he shows me my station.
While we were taking the tour, the ship arrived in orbit over the planet Delaaz, where we now collect new containers that are to be delivered to the Blueridge Alliance. Solitur Transportation figured I wouldn’t be able to jump the Solano right away, so we’ll do a few more trips along the enhanced wormhole route the ship was taking before. After a talk with the Captain and a quick try, we were able to confirm the fact, so I have to commend them for their foresight.
Captain Shan figures I should be able to form an elliptical bubble long enough to cover the 200-meter-long freighter after about ten jumps, at least if I’m positioned right in the middle of the ship. That means my location during a jump isn’t going to be on the bridge but right in the middle of the spine with a tablet as a console. I hope I’m able to form my bubble more freely as quickly as possible.
After getting all that information, my first day on the Solano ends and I return to my cabin and fall asleep almost immediately. It’s been a long day! The next morning after breakfast in the mess hall, I return to the bridge to discuss our first trip together through the wormhole with Captain Shan. “Please call me Amal, Sara. We are all on a first-name basis here on the Solano.” I smile in relief at his words. No more Miss Nelson!
Amal continues. “Anyway, we’re about to take the wormhole over to the Blueridge Alliance. For us, this is already a routine trip, but it’s the first one for you. It’s an enhanced wormhole, so we won’t need you technically. But I’ll unlock your power anyway so that you can try to shape your bubble more directly. We’ll also deactivate gravity during the jump. For one to train the crew to the new way of travel and to minimize the interference for you.” He focuses his gaze on me and looks me directly in the eyes. “Do not abuse the trust I give you here!”
I gulp and nod my understanding. “Thank you, Amal. I’ll try my best to be ready to jump the Solano as soon as possible.” It sounds like the crew is desperate for some diversification. Traveling the same route day in and out must be very boring.
With that, he hands me a tablet. “Alright here’s your tablet. It’s directly connected to the ship's computer systems so your AI should be able to work with that. If not let me know. For now, I excluded you from partial command, that’ll come when you can jump us on your own.”
I take the tablet and am about to turn around to leave for the spine. I guess I call him when I’m in position and he’ll activate my magic when we are about to jump. Then he does something that surprises me. He reaches for his holo-console and slaps a virtual button. I feel a very small tingle in my belly. It disappears after a second. What was that? Amal grins at me. “Feeling better with your magic on?”
He did what? Holy cow he didn’t activate my magic just now did he? We are 20 minutes out from the wormhole. Is he allowed to do that? A brown hand waves before my eyes. “Hey, you there?”
“Uhm…” Wow, I completely spaced out. “Uh, yeah I’m here. Just a little shocked that you activated my magic early… Isn’t that illegal?”
He shrugs. “Maybe, but my ship, my rules. Now get in position, we’re 15 minutes out.”
With that, he turns to the bridge crew and shouts a few orders. I turn around and leave the bridge still in disbelief. Taking the elevator down a few decks I reach the spine. There are no cameras… Wait, there are NO cameras and my magic is activated! I can try out my only other spell.
Miss Baker has told me of two ways to do personal teleportation. First line of sight and second jumping to a set of coordinates with the help of S-57. Obviously, I’m trying the line of sight way a few meters along the spine.
I call Amal and ask him if he can deactivate gravity a bit early so that I can get used to the feeling when I’m not buckled up in a chair and he tells me he’ll do it in five minutes. Perfect, that means I have another few minutes before we enter the wormhole.
Exactly five minutes later there is a short countdown, then gravity switches off. I focus on the spell and can feel the magic moving inside me. Once I feel ready, I open my eyes and focus on a spot 10 meters before me. With a mental confirmation, the location is locked in and I will the spell to happen.
Magic surges forth out of my body and with a flash of purple light I vanish, my Space Sense tells me that reality somehow folds and the 10-meter distance is crossed in an instant. With another purple flash, I arrive at the destination. Less than one second has passed. WOW! This is amazing! Then exhaustion hits me and my knees almost buckle. Ugh, that hits almost as hard as guiding a ship through a wormhole. I hope it gets easier with training too.