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Hawk · 11-30-2010, 02:35 AM,

Jack led the other two down a series of streets turning in different directions as they went. As they turned down one street Maria noticed two things. First that they seemed to be headed away from the commercial shuttle docks, and second that the smell was getting progressively worse. Soon there were less and less buildings around them and the ones that were there seemed to be falling apart. She looked at her watch and realized they had been walking longer than she realized and moving at a good pace. They were now well outside the spaceport. 'Where exactly are we going?' she asked.

'Welcome to the town dump.' Stephen told her.

'I'm beginning to rethink my first impression of you two. How exactly are we going to get off world here?'

'It's really quite simple,' Jack told her. 'Tax paying Libertonians would never stand for trash accumulating in their cities. All this scrap won't be here for very long. The Junkers will be hauling it out of here. You have to keep the people happy and that means keeping the size of the trash piles small at all times. That means the Junkers will be making regular flights out of here with the scrap.'

'So'¦..we're riding out of here in a trash bin?'

'Something like that. I told you that you would most likely find it unpleasant.'

'You weren't kidding.'

'I never do when things are this serious.'

'How will this get us to your ship.'

'Patience my dear Maria all will be fine. I actually have a plan.'

Jack walked up to a series of small landing pads and began talking to a man standing near by. 'You're flying scrap to Rochester right?'

'Just what concern is that of yours?' The Junker answered him.

'Well, we're actually looking to make your pockets a little heavier if we can pretend to be stowaways.'

'Sorry, I've got no use for this. I'm not running a passenger service. You've come to the wrong part of town.'

'My friend, this is exactly the part of town where I want to be. How about forty thousand credits for not doing anything extra and simple letting us take a ride?'

'You've got cash up front?'

'Yes, I believe we can handle that.'

'Ok. You stay quiet in the back and you get off quietly at Rochester. I don't want to see you around here again.'

'I understand.' Jack turned from the man and walked back to Stephen and Maria. 'Well, I just took a rather big chance. Let's see if I was right. Maria, that's a large sack you've been carrying on your back and you did offer us a good bit of money. Would I be right to assume that you're carrying a good bit of money on you now?'

'I've got no where near the amount I promised you but I can get that easy enough.'

'Yes, I rather suspected that. Can you come up with at least forty thousand in cash right now?'

'Maybe, why is that important?'

'That's what it's going to cost us to get out of here.'

'That's a lot of money to ride with the trash.'

'Maybe you'd like to go back to the spaceport.'

'No. No I really wouldn't.'

'I didn't think so. I'm not trying to take advantage of you. This is how it's done. If you want to get out of here quietly, this is what it takes.'

Maria reached into her bag and fumbled with some smaller bags. Then she handed some credits to Jack. 'That should be what you need.'

'Excellent. These Junkers are usually pretty efficient so we should be leaving soon.'
____________________________________________________________________
The three 'stowaways' were sitting in a cramped room near the ship's engine. The room was hot and dirty. 'I thought we'd have a little more room than this on a ship this size.' Maria said as she stared and the grease covered walls.

'There's not much wasted space on a ship like this. They don't make much money hauling this stuff so they have to squeeze as much as they can on here. It's all pretty efficient actually. The ship has its own incinerator so much of this stuff will be fed through the engine and cast out into space as atoms. Anything that can be salvaged will be taken back to Rochester. There will be a little more room to move around by the time we land.'

'And just how long will that be.'

'A rig like this, I'd say about 8 hours. The good news is that my ship travels faster. We've already missed our check in deadline so they should be en route to the same place. In fact they should be ready to depart by the time we arrive.'

'So, is this what I should expect on board your ship?'

'Well, we do live a little better than this. Not much, just a little. We're not really used to taking passengers though. You might find that part a little difficult.'

'Not to mention some of the crew might not like it either.' Stephen cut in.

'Well, that's a possibility.' Jack added, 'They'll deal with it though. We've all dealt with much worse. Anyway, I'd suggest getting some sleep if you can. It's really the only way to deal with a trip like this.'
________________________________________________________________________
Maria opened her eyes slowly. She had a headache and her neck was stiff. She wasn't even sure how long she had been asleep, but she was surprised that she was able to sleep on this ship at all. She thought back through everything that had happened in the past few days. How did she end up here? She had been living a life of luxury, and now she was sleeping on the dirty floor of a trash ship. As she started to look around she noticed that Jack and Stephen were both gone. She stood up and walked around the compartment a little, not that there was much room to walk. Suddenly the door opened and Jack Crow walked back in the room. He was carrying a dirty duffle bag.

'Look who's awake.' He said, 'I hope you're feeling a little better.'

'I feel like I'm ready to die. I don't suppose there's any chance of getting a shower where we're going.'

'Well, there are showers on Rochester, but they're quite expensive. I suspect that might not be a problem for you though. We won't be staying there that long though and I wouldn't be flashing credits around the place if I were you. The good news is we have showers on the ship. Once we get underway water is usually much of a problem for us.'

'From all the stories I've heard water is a very precious commodity in space.'

'It is. It's hard to come by on bases like where we're going because it all has to be shipped in. They end up recycling a lot of what's used. Junkers are pretty good at that. We recycle a lot on the ship too.'

'Where do you get all your water from?'

'Ok now, I'm not going to tell you all my secrets. Anyway, if you want to stretch your legs any there some more room to walk around now. Most of the stuff that's not being saved has been incinerated. There are only a few important things left to incinerate.'

'Really, and what would those be?'

'Well'¦.I'm no expert in fashion, but I'm guessing that's a rather expensive dress you're wearing. It looks like it's seen better days anyway. Besides that, you'll neve blend in where we're going wearing that.'

'So, you think I'm just going to strip my clothes off right here for you?'

'No. I'll step outside.' He opened the bag he was carrying and pulled out a dirty jumpsuit, a pair of shorts, and a t-shirt. 'I think these will fit you. Everything you are wearing now has to go. We'll be able to get you some more later. That designer bag you're carrying too. Use this duffle to carry what you need to save of your belongings. Step out when you're ready.'

Five minutes later Maria stepped out into the corridor wearing the jumpsuit. She had it zipped up to her neck.

Jack looked her over. 'You need to take that zipper down just a little to look right. Also, you've got something on your face let me get that for you.' He reached down and grabbed a dirty rag and proceeded to rub her face with it. She jumped back screaming when she realized he had just rubbed dirt and grime all over her face.

'What was that for?'

'Sorry about that. Now you look like you belong on a Junker base. You did say you wanted to blend in and not be noticed.'

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