Lost to the wind

[Serpentis]

Sergei walked into the mess hall, where some of his crew were, he nodded at Alice as he passed her, he remembered that she used to work as a cargo worker for Kruger once upon a time. With Alice sat Morgan, Sergei only knew that he was a smuggler once in the past, he was sure he could use his experience at some point, especially if they were gonna go play up in Kusari. And at the end of the table sat Karl, reading an old book while sipping his coffee, “Morning, Karl.” Sergei said as he poured himself a mug of coffee and sat down opposite of Karl.
The man placed a bookmark in the book and put it down, he offered a smile and a nod at Sergi. “Morning, boss, got some good sleep?”, he poured some more dirty bean water into his mug and sipped it. “Yeah, I did, just some issues with my implant.”, Karl tilted his head, looking confused, “Implant?”. Sergei nodded as he sipped the coffee, nearly spilling some, “Yeah, some kind of implant that the Coalition put in, like ten years ago.”, Karl nodded, “Yeah, I heard you were in the Coalition. Couldn’t Heinrich help with the implant?”. Sergei took a few moments to think, then shook his head, “Nah, it’s a bit too advanced for most people it would seem, not even the Zoners had much success with it, well.. The ones I met at least.” he chuckled and tapped the side of his head where the implant was. Karl chuckled. “Well, I mean there’s that.. Uh.. Auxiea? Auxia? Aux? F*ck, the technocracy I’ve heard about? They deal in high tech, right?”, Sergei thought about that for a bit and shrugged, “Not sure to be honest, not had any contact with them.”.
Karl made himself a sandwich with cheese and sausage, “How very Rheinland of you.”, Sergei chuckled and nodded at the sausage, Karl just chuckled and ate. They drifted off into idle chatter, about their pasts and eventually they found themselves at the topic of Kusari. “So, what do you think of going to Kusari?”, Sergei asked as he refilled his coffee, Karl shrugged, “It’s potential work, right?”. Sergei nodded, “Yeah, that’s true, but you’re my right hand man, so, I need your opinion on what to do, we’re just waiting for Heinrich to need us again.. Right?”. Karl quirked an eyebrow at Sergei, “Right hand man?”, Sergei grinned, “Yeah, you’re the obvious choice for a first officer, saw you work after all, you got a good head on your shoulders.”. It took Karl a bit, he chewed on his sandwich while thinking, then after swallowing asked, “Does it come with a raise?” and offered Sergei a wide grin. “F*ck yeah it does.”, Sergei just chuckled and nodded. “Settled then, we don’t have a huge crew, but it’d be good if you kept an eye on stuff for them, you know them better than me after all.”, Sergei looked over at Alice and Morgan then waved them over, after a bit both of them walked over with their own coffee and breakfast, they sat down next to Karl. “Sir?”, Alice asked and looked over at Karl, then back at Sergei. Sergei smiled at them both, “Well, just wanted to inform you that Karl is second in command and will be dealing with most day-to-day stuff. But, we’re a small crew, so don’t hesitate to come to me with anything either, ok?”. Morgan chuckled and nodded, “Got it sir, we’re in for the long haul, besides, beat working the hangar at Northeim.”, Alice quickly agreed. Sergei chuckled and then pulled out his tablet and transferred a percentage of the profits they made, to all crew’s accounts, each of their own tablets beeped and they checked it, they all grinned at Sergei and then at each other, “Fair percentage of the profits, you’ll get paid each week and we’ll make stops for R&R when we get time. Sounds good to you guys?”, all three of them nodded, “Sounds good, boss.” Karl said and Alice and Morgan gave thumbs up. “We were thinking of heading to Kusari, got a tip of some Chrysanthemums having some opportunities for freelancers, which is what we are now.”, Sergei took a few moments of silence before he continued, “We’ll have to.. Ignore our pasts a bit if we are to make some money and get opportunities from others, there’s a lot of money to make out there and who knows what kind of stuff we get to get our hands on. But, we’ll still be in these areas and we are going to make a few more jobs for Heinrich in the future, but.. After that, we’re free to do what we want. Are you all good with that?”, each of them took a while to absorb the information, then they looked at each other, “Yeah, boss, we’re in.”, the other two nodded in agreement. Sergei smirked, “Good, we’ll stay here another day to patch up the Lindwyrm and get some more supplies, we’ll be off to Kusari after that, just got to reach out to this Li Hana and check if she really did have an opportunity for us.”. The others nodded and then the conversation began to turn to other things, some stories and experiences through their lives, they asked and got some answers from Sergei as well, not too much of course, he was careful to tell too much to too many.

As the workers got finished on the Lindwyrm, the crew took a good look at her from the hangar and Sergei, for once in a long time, felt a pretty damn positive feeling. The crew were good, the others besides Morgan, Alice and Karl were newbies, they barely passed twenty and most were just happy to get away from the boring duties on Northeim, where most just got stuck. But in the back of his head, he was wondering when sh*t would just fall apart, he expected it but really didn’t want it to.
As the crew went back onboard with their supplies, Heinrich grabbed Sergei’s arm and led him off to a corner of the bay, “Look, Helena might still be after you, believing you got some information that applies to her interests, keep an eye out, ja?”. Sergei frowned at that, but nodded, “Got it, keep an eye out for a secret organization woman that may want to board and steal our sh*t.”, he chuckled and so did Heinrich, “It’ll be fine, Heinrich, just keep in touch when you need us, ok?”, Heinrich shook his hand and nodded, “Alles gut, good luck Sergei.”.
And they parted ways. Sergei walked back onto the Lindwyrm and took it all in, the bulkheads and the occasional rust patches along the walls, he stopped by one of the crew that was fixing with a panel by the crew quarters, “Jurgen, right?”, the young man turned around, “Ja, I’m Jurgen, can I help you captain?”, “Captain.” Sergei thought, “God f*cking damnit, I am gonna be called captain now?”, he chuckled and nodded at Jurgen, “It’s fine, just wanted to check in on you, got all your stuff with you?”. It took a moment, but Jurgen nodded, “Yes sir, I got all of my gear and such, it’s in my bunk.”, Sergei nodded, “Good, chat later, Jurgen.” and started to walk off, but Jurgen piped up, “Captain?”, Sergei turned to the kid,
“Yeah?”, he sort of looked uncomfortable, “Thanks for taking me along, really needed to get away from there..”. It took a bit before Sergei reacted, “Thank you?”, Sergei didn’t often hear anyone truthfully thank him for something.. “All good, Jurgen, you’re part of the crew now. Chat later.”, he winked at him and headed back up to the bridge. Karl was waiting for him by the navigation console, “Got a good route for us to take?”, Karl nodded, “Yeah, got one through the Sigmas, think it’s the safest.”, Sergei nodded at that, “I am gonna send a communication to Li Hana as soon as I get a chance, then we’ll head off to wherever they need me, we could see if we can pick up some goods that sell well in Kusari. Can you check the net for good trading opportunities?”, Karl nodded, “Sure boss, I’ll check as you make the communications.”, Sergei gave a thumbs up and headed back up to his quarters, he sat down in front of the comm display on the wall, he checked the numbers he got from Heinrich and tapped them in to see if he could send a message to this, Li Hana.

The transmission got sent and after ten or so minutes a drop dead gorgeous Kusari woman appeared on screen, Sergei slightly smiled, she on the other hand looked awfully unimpressed. “Yes? Who gave you this frequency and who the hell are you?”. Sergei took a moment to collect himself and responded with as much charisma as he could, “Well, who gave it to me doesn’t really matter, but, I did hear through contacts that you might be in need of a freelancer to run some cargo for you? If I am wrong, I’ll be on my way.”. The woman stared for a few seconds and then nodded, “What’s your name, can I get that at least?”, Sergei smirked, “Sergei, got a good ship for this kind of work and I don’t hold any allegiances.”. Li nodded, pleased with the response, but tilted her head at the end, “Coalition? The name I mean.”. Sergei nodded, "Formerly, a long time ago.”, she in return nodded, “Fair enough..” she took a few seconds and looked away to the right to tap on another screen, or so he guessed, then turned back to him. “Morioka station in Shikoku, sector 7-E, in four days, does that work for you, Sergei?”, he nodded, “Absolutely, we’ll be there. The ship is a Black Market Frigate named Lindwyrm, so your sisters don’t shoot me down.”, she grinned at that and nodded, “See you in a few days, Sergei.” and clicked off the comms.
He sat down by his desk and let out a sigh, “Ok, got four days, four days to explore and get to know Kusari then.”. He clicked the comms panel on his desk, “Karl, we have four days until we’re meeting Li Hana, so, let’s check the net for additional trade routes, ok?”, it took a bit before Karl’s voice came through, “Got it sir, got a good ware to trade, Rheinbier from Stuttgart to Tokyo and we could link in there and check their prices for our next run?”, Sergei nodded, “Go for it, set course, I’ll be up in a few minutes.” and the line cut.
Sergei turned to check his console and looked up some information on news in Kusari, he hadn’t been much up there, even in his Rasputin days, he only kept to independent systems, which was where he needed to be. He remembered getting in combat in the Taus a few times, especially against the Crayters, one powerful memory was when he f*cked up a fighter with a nuclear mine. He chuckled to himself as he remembered, but right afterwards the implant started to hurt and he doubled over for a moment. “F*ck this thing..”, he grabbed his coffee and drank the rest of the cold cdrink and headed to the bridge.

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