Spring

[Dane Summers]

The gleaming colours of the Cambridge skyline flashed past, a rush compared to the placid blue afternoon. The cold grey rainy morning had burned off almost completely in the sun, leaving whispy white clouds that swirled amidst the azure sky.

Dane sat in the passenger seat of a car as Ashley piloted it deftly through the civilian sky-ways. They were on the hunt for a good place to eat, and all the while, Dane couldn't remember a time when he was this hungry. A soft electronic melody played through its radio, as he stared out the window at the city.

"So, whats our next move?" Ashley kept her eyes on the vehicles ahead of her, occasionally glancing at the MFD's displaying rear word views, or the holographic readouts keeping track of speed. But the look on her face betrayed an insatiable curiosity. She had agreed to leave everything she had known, or even cared about, to journey into space. Dane had to wonder if she had lost her mind, but he wasn't going to say otherwise - he didn't want her to reconsider.

"Food first."

"Yeah, I know, duh, I mean after that?"

He smiled. "Well, first thing we have to do is buy a ship."

"You mean you don't have one?" She sounded a bit forlorn. Glancing at her, he saw some of the excitement ebb.

"I did, a while ago. But right now? No, nothing."

"What about your old Rhino, the one Jim helped you buy, what happened to that?"

Dane watched as they passed a crossroads in town dominated by a large sculpture constructed of gleaming steel. From this distance, it looked almost like smooth liquid, as if an entwined fountain of quicksilver. He thought about his old Rhino, that old creaky thing that didn't even have a name.

"Sold it, years back."

She was silent. Looking over, she was flipping through screens of navigation directions, and having settled on a location, began descending the car toward a cluster of streets, lit by neon signs. One of them was displayed a holo-sign flipping through various plates of food, all looked delicious. Most notable was the prominent Liberty Flag worked into the logo, and the whole place had the look of a retro diner.

"I checked, it's the best place on Cambridge you can get Liberty food - close enough to the University, so this whole area is pretty international. Used to be some good Kusari restaurants but they got torn down a while back."

Dane frowned "How you know all that?"

"I asked around in the hospital before we left."

He grunted his ascent. As the car came to land and the engine shut down, he hopped out. The air still had a brisk bite to it, despite the sun. The smell in the air was exhaust from vehicles and that light tinge of wet pavement after a rain. Overpowering it all was the scent of cooking meat over a broiler, and the rumble from his stomach competed with the last whines of the engine powering down. A button press on handheld control set the car's locking and security features, and together they headed into the diner for some food.

The smell was thick and heavy inside. Only a few patrons dotted the tables and booths. A bright holographic sign greeted there entry, informing them to seat themselves, so Ashley them to a booth next to the large floor to ceiling windows, overlooking the city street, and skyline beyond.
The next few minutes revolved around a holographic menu, and perky waitress taking there orders. Ashley ordered coffee, and a side plate of pastry's, still wondering what she actually wanted for a meal. Dane wanted something with sugar and ordered a cola, then picked out the largest burger on the menu "The Mammoth Burger" that contained two quarter pound beef patties, tons of cheese, slices of roast beef, lettuce, tomato, and any assortment of condiments one wished. After the waitress left with Ashley's order, and they both had their beverages, she started in with more questions.

"Ok, so, buying a ship. Do we have the money for that?"

Dane took a long pull from his coke, and let out a long breath with all the carbonation.
"I do, a bit anyway - and I've got some folks who can help me out. Really, it depends on what we buy - I doubt I could afford something big and heavy, but most anything else...yeah, it's doable" He nodded thoughtfully and looked around impatiently for his food. "But really," he said, after seeing no sign of it appearing, even though he had just ordered a few minutes ago, "thats not the important question."

Raising an eyebrow, sipping her coffee, "It isnt?"

"No, the important question is...what are we going to use it for, and thats only one of the important questions to ask. What were gonna do with a ship determines whats the best to buy - I've flown just about any kinda ship there is."

"Ok, so what are our choices?"

He picked up a plastic bottle of condiments, this one was red and had a big synthpaste logo on it. He gave it a dubious look and set it down, to go about fiddling with his silverware, all while composing his thoughts. "Well, you ask anyone whose a real spacer, and theyll tell you, there are two main things you do with a ship - make money or fight. Im not interested in fighting,"

"Me neither."

He nodded "So, making money would be the only thing, yeah?" She sipped her coffee, and made to nod, but saw he was smiling. "It isnt?"

"Nah, there's other to do out there. For one...exploration."

That got a response. She smiled ever so slightly, but the look in her eyes said it all.

"There's a lot out there you haven't seen, and hell, me neither. But I ain't as rich as I used to be, so we'll have to do something to keep us running, some kinda way to make money."

She set her coffee down. "So I guess that would mean running cargo? Passengers?"

He nodded and was again looking for his food. "Pretty much, but cargo hold determines the amount of money you make. If we wanted big payout's, we want a transport. Best we could hope for under an independent licence, and that I could afford, would be around three thousand to thirty six hundred cargo. Honestly though...not what I'm suggesting. Transports make good lane flyers, but poor as hell once you make way off the beaten path."

"So what do you suggest?"

"We go smaller. Freighters."

She raised an eyebrow dubiously, and was about to protest when there food had arrived. Dane's burger was huge, and layered with greasy beef and melted cheese. A plate of crispy fried potatoes was piled next to it, still gleaming with the frying oil they were pulled out of. In contrast, Ashley had ordered a salad interspersed with breaded chicken. She gave out a chuckle and pointer her fork at his plate, "You know thats gonna kill you someday, right?"

Dane smiled, taking the burger in both hands "Then I'll die happy!" He bit into it with gusto, and could not look more content.

"So, why do you wanna go Freighters? There only designed for inter-system travel..."

He smiled, wiping grease from his lips. "Thats what they say, and in some cases, its true - My old Rhino was great for making way between Liberty and Kusari, but I remember I tried to run through the lower omega's once - got cut up pretty bad."

She nodded emphatically, spearing so more salad. "Exactly."

"Yeah, but not all freighters are like that." He started counting off fingers "For one, there small - some are barely bigger then fighters - gives it a combat edge, since big transports tend to be flying targets for pirate ships. Two, there fast - in essence, they have a transport engine plant, which gives them cruise speeds past three fifty. Three, guns, and they can mount the same stuff as snub's - large transport guns have a hard time hitting speedy fighters and bombers. And last, compared to transports, their agile, so with the guns, they can actually fight off pirates fairly well. All this makes for a great exploration craft. Large enough to be a home, small enough to squeeze past a three, armed and agile enough to fight, and a large enough hold to make some money...depending on what we haul."

He took another huge bite of his burger while she thought about it. "Plus," he said, still chewing out the last of it, "Freighters are cheap."

"Ok, so what are our choices?" She was starting to get excited again. Dane was too honestly. All the ships he had flown had kinda come around naturally. The Rhino because of price. His old BWT, The 101 Express, because Lyle had one, and he was envious. He found the Summer, and when it was destroyed, he flew a Roc bomber because thats what was at FP1, and most everything else came from that. This was the first time since...ever really...that he was choosing a ship completely at random, from a long list of whatever he wanted.
His burger was half eaten, and he could already feel fullness in his stomach. Switching to the fries, and already holding up his empty glass for a refill. Pulling out his portable neuralnet pad, he brought up a list of known ship classes around Sirius. Sorting by freighter class and performance, he was surprised to see a few ships he hadn't seen before, and didn't recognize.

"Hmmm..." He clicked through a few, beeps of new pages followed by noises of thought, or his face twisting in appreciation or lack thereof. Scanning through spec's as well as looks.
Coming through the middle of the list, a new ship he had never seen came up, and his mouth slowly curled in a smile...

"I found it..."

Ashley perked up, finishing up the last of her salad. "Lemme see..."

Keying in a few commands, he displayed his search page through the diner's holographic menu projector.
It sprang to life with the image of the vessel. Suspended in midair, rendered in a ghostly three dimensional image, it looked even more beautiful then it did on the screen. Keying in another command, he set the image of the fuselage to rotating. It hung between them.

"What do you think?" He said, with a wide smile. She stared at it, taking in its lines, and looked at him through the image.
"It looks expensive."

Dane laughed. "No, it looks perfect. I've already flown two GMG ships - Karasu, their Heavy Fighter, and the Kaichou, their bomber." He ignored the quizzical looks from her when he mentioned fighting vessels. It must have come as odd to think of him at the helm of something that dispensed death. Maybe thats what made her face so hard to read.
"Gotta imagine this thing has the same sorta interface...it would be easy to fly..."

She let out a deep breath, and then smiled, "I gotta admit...it does look very pretty."

"Oh yeah...I think we have a winner. Now, I just got get in contact with the GMG and see if they'd sell me one..."

He rose up and signaled for the perky waitress

"Check please!"

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