Story of Jason Bates.

[J.Bates]

The name of Jason originates from the Greek Mythological Hero, who went after the quest for the Golden Fleece. This quest set by the order of King Pelias would rightly place Jason on the throne of lolcus in Thessaly.

This story will compose of a similar plot, with the background of Sirius. It's an idea I had been thinking of for a while and I hope all readers enjoy and perhaps we may come across one another in space. Enjoy!

ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM, 0800 HOURS, DATE: 29/10

Jason awoke to the vibrating sound of his PDA. Slowly he opened his eyes and grabbed the device on the table next to his bed and read the newly arrived message. LINK

He sat there for almost an hour, listening to the logs, tears slowly crawling down from his eyes and falling to the sheets on his bed. At the end he let a sigh. He wasn't expecting a message like this to come. He was worried his mother was trying to contact him. Instead he didn't know what to think. He never heard about his Uncle, his mother's brother. Who was this mysterious relative of his? Who was this Markus Rixus?
Slowly he crawled out of bed and made his way to the bathroom in his hired room. They were small rooms, mainly for travellers that only need to stop by for a night or two and only provided a small cot, side table and side bathroom with meagre facilities.

He washed his face and dried his forehead, cheeks and chin with the provided towel. The towel itself looked no cleaner than an grease rag but that didn't matter. It had been almost 3 weeks since he'd left home on Planet Erie. Back there he had been living with his mother, a retired captain of a lawful shipping firm in Liberty. His parents had been doing well with their supplies that they had over the course of their careers earned enough to retire to a peaceful estate in the northern districts of the planet. It was unfortunate though when his father was killed in an accident on one of their final runs. Jason had only been 5 back then.
His mother had wanted Jason, like all of his siblings to attend pilot schooling and earn themselves degrees so that they would become pilots of some shipping firm. However Jason hated the idea of being controlled by some fat cat of society, his grades began to fall as he spent more time flying then sitting exams to train as a pilot. As a result he was kicked from his course. Furious his mother had denied him use of his own ship until he learned to "grow up". It was then that Jason decided to leave.

He had found himself shipping captain, a Junker in the city district in Erie. Luckily for him the captain had believed his story of been capable of flying and so he was given a position as a ship hand upon his hauler. They had made their way around liberty, delivering basic supplies to Rochester, Beaumont and Allentown from the major populaces of Manhatten, Erie and Houston.
They would only stay overnight whilst the ships supplies were offloaded and they'd be back out in space again, making their way to the next port of call. Jason had began to appreciate this kind of livelihood. Perhaps in few years time he could earn himself enough credits to get himself started with a basic Combat Service Vehicle and start a simple scrapping business. It was the kind of life he was after, Freedom and Profitability.

They had been his plans until today, when the news of his Uncle had reached him. He looked at his watch and realised the time, 9:30am. His ship was destined to leave half an hour ago. It was one thing his captain had mentioned to him when he took the job. They stuck to a time frame and they wouldn't wait for anyone.
"Well... I guess there goes that job..." He said to himself and he chuckled a little. He walked back over the bed and sat down. He looked over the logs briefly this time, noticing his uncle mentioning his entire estate had been left to him.

His eyes widened. "Why me?" Almost immediately he began to look through records of ships that belonged to his uncle. He noticed there had been a large database of ships docked at almost every single Junker base throughout Sirius.
Had been however... His excitement died almost as quickly as it left him. All of the ships, crew, gear, everything had been stamped with "Assets Liquefied." He began to look through records on his uncle's stocks. They had fallen so far and fast within the past two days. It seemed to him that his uncle's disappearance had collapsed his empire to almost nothing.

Jason let a sigh. "Well there goes that... Who ever my uncle was he sure didn't work out a system to take care of his assets when he passed." He wished now that he could of been warned sooner but something just didn't seem to be right here.

---

ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM, 1000 HOURS, DATE: 29/10

A knock at the door caught him by surprise. "Come In." A stout looking man was standing outside as the door slid into its crevice. "The dockmaster want ta see ya, and yer gotta be out of here in 5. I got a shipload of passengers comin' in, and they need beds." He said. "Very Well." Jason replied as he bundled up his belongings into to worn backpack. He then proceeded out the door and followed the innkeeper out to the bar.

The bar was a lot emptier now than it had been the night before and appeared to have calm aura about it. The kind before the storm of drunkeds arrive and fill the place with sounds of shouts, laughter and maybe the odd smash of glass when a brawl starts up. Jason smirked as he saw the bartender and cleaners, hurriedly polish up tables and prepare glasses and kegs for next night.
They approached a table next to the window that overlooked Planet Sayre, the Gas Giant Planet that Allentown orbits. "He'll be with ya in a sec. Want somethin ta drink?" The innkeeper asked. "Nah I'm fine. Cheers." The innkeeper shrugged and left. Jason sat at the table and looked out. He could just see Planet Erie off in the distance. Once his home but now just a memory. He sighed and looked back towards the bar and saw the Dockmaster approach.

"Mornin'... A stroke of luck for you that you missed your flight I guess Jason." He chuckled and proceeded to sit opposite of Jason. "How so?" Jason replied.
"Well lets just say today is your lucky day..." The man smiled at him. Jason couldn't help but chuckle a little, "Is this about my uncle Markus Rixus that passed and left me his bankrupt estate?" He smirked a little as he looked at the dockmaster. "Quite so. A shame about that... Kinda odd how that happened. A lot of credits were lost there. But I was capable of holdin on to something of his. A Combat Service Vehicle in fact. Quite new, engine is in good nick. All yours ta fly. If you hadn't been around when I got the keys cleared I may have had to give it away. But here..." He handed Jason his PDA. "There's the key... and its holding up well in Dock 36. Want to go below and grab it?"
Jason smiled a little. "Well I guess that's not too bad. Saved me a few years as a ship hand to make this kind of money so I can get my own ship. Lets go check it out then." The dockmaster nodded. "Right this way then."

ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM, 1100 HOURS, DATE: 29/10

Jason looked up his new ship, "Heh its not much better than what they gave us in pilot school. How well does it handle?" He asked.
"It's not gonna make miracles happen and don't expect to do any long voyages to the Borderworlds or anythin' in it. It's a beaut for scrappin and can get most simple things done. I had to change its registration things over, a lot of pilots use em as skip bins of space for junk and all. Thought it was appropriate to name it so."

"That's fine. A Skip Bin. Heh well I guess this is where it all begins. I have you to thank sir." Jason smiled.
"Don't mention it... Only doing what's right. Oh and before I forget, you'll probably need to call up The Junkers Congress. They've asked for you."

"The Junkers Congress... Hmm. Yea my uncle mentioned something about that... Was he a Congressman?" Jason asked.
"Oh you bet. He flew with them for a quite a number of years. Quite an interesting life he lived. Anyway I gotta get moving. Chores to do here and there. I'll be seeing you Jason."

With that Jason looked back up at his newly acquired ship. He climbed up the rungs of the ladder on the side and entered the cockpit. He allowed himself to get a feel for the stick, pedals and controls in the compartment. When he felt confident he alerted the control to undock and proceeded through the airlock and out into space once again.