The life of a junker...

[Serval]

Chris hit the airlock control panel, cursing under his breath "Blasted peice of scrap!"

"ya dont gotta be so rough with 'er cap, here..." Kaylee brushed him aside and jogged the airlock switch a few times, taking only seconds to get the door closed. "Just needs some love is all!"

"Kay... sometimes I wonder about you." he said, turning around and heading towards the cockpit. "Get the reactor fired up, I owe some dangerous folk a lot of money and I dont intend to die for it. We're headed to Walker."

"The nebula? Dangerous out there..." Kaylee remarked, with a nervous hint in her voice.

"Mayhaps, but where there's danger, there's fortune. A lot of ships have gone down in that nebula and I intend to find something worth selling." Chris turned around and continued to the cockpit. "One million credits... Gotta be something out there worth that debt."

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Chris opened a comm link to Bornholm while powering up Serval's systems; "Bornholm, Serval detaching moor."

A crackling voice full of static replied over the comm "Roger Serval, good Junking!"

Chris deactivated the mag-clamps holding Serval to the station and gently backed the ship away, spinning her around at five-hundred meters out. It took several minutes to pilot out of the scrap field - one mistake and a peice of floating wreckage could tear off an engine, cause a hull breach, or fry the ship's reactor. More modern ships had sufficient armor or shielding to withstand minor impacts, but Serval was a Firefly-class transport... one of the oldest ships still running in Sirius space. She was reliable, but fragile, despite all the refitting sustained over recent years since Chris salvaged the ship from the Pequena Negra.

Chris opened the inter-ship comm; "Kaylee, we're clear of the field, fire up cruise"

Her high-pitched and cheery voice replied over the speaker imbedded in the ship's dash "aye cap'n!"

The engines whined and sputtered a bit, sending vibrations reverberating through the interior of the ship until cruise finally kicked in, lurching the ship forward at 350 meters per second. Despite interial dampeners onboard the vessel, Chris still felt the G-forces suck him into the pilot's seat as they lunged into cruise speed.

He hit a switch on the dash, causing a holo-map of the system to be projected in front of him. One gentle turn later and they were headed right for an arm of the Walker nebula.

He spoke over the shipboard comm again "kaylee, we'll be inside Walker within ten minutes, head down to the cargo bay and ready the salvage equipment."

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Pilot and Owner of the firefly class ship Serval, salvaged from the Dallas Incident and now employed by the junkers as a trade vessel.
http://www.myspace.com/cstek