The Ships Inn ... Wall Street Station, Honshu

[Zukeenee]

Andrew Harris, pilot of the Casual Friday, walked into the bar looking dejected.

"Oh, what a day I've had..." he said as he sat down at the bar. "Or is it night? Whatever. It's space, it's irrelevant. Hey, Sophie, get me a... ah, I don't care. Get me a something. Something stiff."

Andy looked about the bar. There weren't many people there, and certainly not many of the regulars he'd come to know. Regardless, he felt he had to tell his story to whoever was present. He turned to the man closest to him.

"So I was on New Berlin, right? I was doing the usual diamonds-niobium run between there and Kyushu. Y'know, pulling the Kyofu Burn and all that... But as I got into Sigma-13, I ran into these two guys. Guess who they were?"

The man sitting next to Andy didn't respond. In fact, he didn't even really seem to care. Andy went on with his story, anyway.

"Phantoms. Just my luck. Phantoms! Those crazy... I made my way fast as I could to the Chugoku jump hole, but one of 'em followed. Disrupted me and proceeded to beat the crap outta me. Although don't get me wrong, I gave him a good fight. I, uh..."

Andy stared into space for a moment, as if focusing on a point somewhere a few inches above the bar.

"Nah, I didn't give him a good fight. Who am I kiddin'? He really did beat the crap outta me. Took out my engines, popped my hull with a torp, blew up my ship and left. One of the Blood Dragons picked up my pod, lucky I paid for that bribe. They set me up for transport back to Bonn Station in New Berlin. They were nice enough to go so far outta their way..."

Sophie arrived with Andy's drink. He took a few sips and put the glass down again. "So yeah, I got to Bonn," he continued, "And borrowed one of Interspace's ships. I'm one of their employees, technically, so it's just as much mine as it is theirs, right? Well, that's how I figure it. Hope Interspace sees it the same... But, uh, yeah, so I took it back the the planet, figured, 'Well, I ain't going that way again,' so I decide to play it safe. Stick to the tradelanes with a different run.

"I loaded up on engine components and headed off to the Stuttgart jump gate. I was gonna take 'em to the Mollys down in Dublin... but then the tradelane got disrupted. And sittin' there was on of those creepy "Wild" guys, started shootin' me on the spot. I dodged as best I could, then thought, 'hell with this.' I dropped like two dozen countermeasures and cruised all the way to the next tradelane. Didn't even bother gettin' back in that one. But thenyou wouldnt believe itthen, the guy was there waitin' for me. I guess he took the tradelane and got there 'fore I did."

Andy stopped and took another gulp from his drink. "So he blew up my ship. Well, Interspace's ship, y'know... I ejected again, and I think the guy had all intention of destroying my pod, too, but a battleship patrol came around and scared him off before he could. They picked me up, offered to take me back to Bonn, but I told 'em to drop me off at the planet. Hell, I wasn't about to tell Interspace that I'd 'borrowed' one of their ship and got it blasted to pieces."

Andy put his face in his hands and groaned. "Lost my ship, lost someone else's ship, got no money to show for it." He looked back up, took another sip of his drink, and then chuckled softly to himself. "Y'know," he went on, "I used to travel without nanobots and shield batteries. I figured, 'pfft, when will I ever need those?' Well, I'll tell ya now, I'm not leaving another station without 'em" Andy turned to the man sitting next to him, only to find that he was no longer there.

Andy looked to Sophie. "Uh, when did he..." Andy began.

"A while ago, hon," Sophie answered before he could finish

"Ah..." Andy said to himself. He continued to stare at the bar stool where the man had been for about a minute longer.

"Some day," Andy finally muttered, and went back to his drink.

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