Earthbound - Chapter 8
This story revolves around a human starship captain, a fox, and their adventures.
The week passed in a blur, Spark managing to repair 6 of the 42 damaged grav plates by scavenging the rest. She also familiarized herself with the entire ship layout, only sleeping when Rick forced her or when she was too tired to continue, curling up beside the machine she was working on. Rick spent the first day on the vid link talking to banks. Using the ship itself as collateral he was able to get a loan for the amount they needed plus a bit extra to purchase some of the more immediately needed parts. The rest of the week he kept an eye on Spark. He got worried the first time she worked herself to exhaustion, insisting that she take one of the empty rooms and make a bed to get some rest. He found her asleep next to one of the machines half a day later, and propped her head with a pillow before returning to the cockpit to continue running systems checks. He had also had to remind her about her lessons, and she seemed distracted until he reminded her that the conditions for her to remain with him included her taking and passing these courses, though he purposely neglected to mention that there was opportunity to retake those she had difficulty with. After that, Spark dove head first into her studies, Rick finally able to take a breath, or so he thought.
The day came when their ship was loaded with the cargo for Earth, Rick and Spark lifting off and starting the 5-day round trip. Rick has scheduled a stop by Neptune along the way in to check out the scrap yard, allowing enough time for Spark to take an exploratory run at the derelict of her choosing. Spark busied herself with her lessons, her ability to memorize and store information making the process easier but there was still so much to do. She had forced herself to go through the most boring classes first to get them out of the way and was making good progress. She wanted to be back on the transport, her familiarization of the ship was going slow but she felt she was learning a lot, especially about how Twills designed their systems. Everything seemed to have a redundant backup to prevent failure and a secondary system to take over the function if it became damaged or was lost. That sort of meticulous design reassured her that their ship, HER ship, would operate even in the direst circumstances. She finished her test, a course on politics on Altair 6 and turned off the terminal. She had taken a test to clear the early learning classes, opting to start with the intermediary courses since she already had the basics of reading and writing and didn’t see a benefit to spending the time to complete such simple courses.
Spark headed to the cargo bay, the area just inside the door, up the walls, and across the ceiling had been affixed with the grav plates she had removed from the transport. One of the techs from the spaceport was able to rig them to the ship power system, their power output too low to be useful on the transport but they were suitable to create a running track that ran all around the interior of the cargo bay and took up little room. She spent the next hour getting used to the feel of running on walls, ceiling, and floor and keeping her orientation as she would need to do in a zero grav environment. She had become somewhat of a celebrity at the station, the only one of her kind that anyone there had seen and she was determined to be as polite and ingratiating as she could be. Everyone, at least the humans, had wanted to pet her, some of them offering treats though she had politely refused. The petting she took in good stride, enjoying the attention even if it did mean a mad dash to the facilities sometimes, since the ones on the transport were designed for Trill physiology and were unusable by either her or Rick. Still, she had made friends and they had set up this wonderful exercise track for her in their spare time so she was grateful.
Two days in, Spark ran to the bridge as she felt the early deceleration. She looked out the main viewer, the planet Neptune filling the screen and rushing towards her. A fleet of ships floated beside one of the moons, the dark hulks of countless ships glittering in the light cast by the Sun. She watched as Rick navigated their ship up to an orbital station, requesting and receiving landing clearance. They docked with the station at one of the docking pylons, a short umbilical linking the ships and providing air for them to enter the station. Inside, Rick brought Spark to the first desk they saw, asking the attendant if they could speak with someone to discuss the acquisition of some parts. The receptionist, a bored looking man in his 5th decade, was apparently used to such requests and tapped an intercom, asking for a representative to approach the desk. He then turned to the duo and nodded to them. “So, what can I do for you today.”
Rick was unamused, though Spark uttered a confused mewl at the response. Rick pointed to the field outside and addressed the man. “Forgive my assumption, we would like to procure some parts to repair our ship. We are willing to make the extractions and perform the labor and are willing to negotiate a price for anything we retrieve or damage in the retrieval.” The merchant gave Rick a bit of a surprised look, glancing around the empty room a moment before responding with a single word question. “We?” Rick patted Spark on the back, moving her slightly so that she was more visible to the man. “My chief engineer here is the one who will be doing the work, anything we need to go over before we can proceed?”
The man stood up and looked over the desk at Spark dubiously. “I wondered why you were bringing your pet here, but chief engineer? That's a new one on me.” He laughed, the sound seeming to grate on Sparks ears which she turned away, already disliking the man. He looked up at Rick, noticing the stern serious expression on his face and his laughter died. “You’re serious? Well, I don’t think I have a rental suit small enough or with the suitable modifications one of their species would require. Do you have a pressure suit for your engineer? Most of the ships don’t have atmosphere and it would be too expensive to raise one just to scrounge for parts.” He stressed the word engineer, Spark resisting the urge to growl though she did bare her teeth at the man slightly for the insult. Rick apparently noticed because he placed a hand on her shoulder warningly. “You know what, she is a new addition to the crew and we haven’t yet had the opportunity to have her fitted for one, so we will have to return at a later date.”
He quickly ushered Spark back into the ship, keeping his broad smile until they were safely back aboard. He scowled once the door was closed, cursing under his breath at both the rudeness of the merchant and his own stupidity. He bent down and hugged Spark, scratching behind her ears where she liked it best. “Not your fault, never occurred to me that you couldn’t use a standard pressure suit. Just one more thing we will need to add to the critical list, huh?” Spark leaned against Rick, letting him comfort her as she calmed down. She too hadn’t realized that she would need a special pressure suit for working in vacuum. The thought had never occurred to her that such an event would be necessary though now that she thought about it, the lack of having a suit that she could use as a safe haven in an emergency distressed her terribly.
Rick waited for Spark to pull away first, then headed to the cockpit to resume the trip to Earth. Spark took a detour to the emergency locker and looked at the two suits that hung there. One was definitely Ricks, and looked to be in better condition than the other suit. The second suit was too large for her, made for an adult human and the helmet would never work with her features. Even in an emergency, the suit would be useless to her and there was no way to modify it enough to change that. She replaced the suit and closed the locker, heading to the bedroom to work on her studies and take her mind off the possibilities that could arise with any deep space journey.
They arrived in Earth space, an unmanned defense satellite starting to turn towards them though it stopped when Rick transmitted his identification codes. He also transmitted his flight plan to the nearby station as well as his security code and merchant’s license. Upon receiving clearance Rick set a course for the orbital station where they would unload the shipment from Drakon and load the containers heading back. He never liked visiting Earth, having to submit paperwork in triplicate was bad enough without having to keep his various licenses and papers current with the local authority. He reminded himself that renewing expired documents would have been much more expensive and was grateful he had kept them renewed while he was working outside the federation. It also reminded him that he would need to register the transport if he intended to bring it into Earth’s space and that sort of paperwork wasn’t fast or cheap. He sighed, adding it to the list of expenses and wondering if he had taken out a big enough loan to cover their rising costs with the transport ship.
Rick landed the ship on a medium sized platform as directed by traffic control. He had been assured that he would only be charged mooring for a small platform, but since the station was over crowded at the moment this was the only available place for him to set down and the shipment he had on board would clear three other pads as shuttles took the cargo down to the planet. He stepped out of the ship; Spark still busy with her work at the terminal. He watched as a team drove up with loaders and a large grav sled to unload his cargo. He signed the forms and added his thumb print to the pad before opening the hatch to the cargo bay and letting the workers begin. The process took almost an hour even with two loaders alternating trips and Rick was antsy by the time they finished. He checked his pad and frowned; the return cargo wouldn’t be arriving for another 4 hours. Turning off the pad he returned to the ship, closing the doors and heading to the bedroom.
Spark heard Rick approach, saving her lesson and turning off the terminal just in time to turn and see him walk in the door. He gave her a grin and glanced at the dark terminal. “All done? The delivery is delayed so we have a few hours to wait. I was thinking we could get you fitted for a vacuum suit up on level 3 if they do custom jobs.” She gave him a smile, hopping down from the chair to follow him out of the ship and into the station. Rick led the way across the docking bay, entering a lift and taking them up to the third level of the station. The shop they wanted was located on the far side of the inner ring, Spark gripping Rick’s hand tight as they traversed the crowded hallway. Rick situated himself before Spark as the crowd thickened, shouldering his way through the crowd until they emerged into the near empty storefront.
Spark managed to keep up with Rick, holding tight to his hand until they were inside the store. She looked around at the suits lining the walls, most were adult suits but one section had smaller child sized ones. She went over to the rack and was about to activate the data screen by one of the suits when a worker stepped out, uttering a cry of disgust and ran towards her shouting. “Get away from there, you are going to break something! Sir, control your pet, why isn’t it on a lead?” She turned to Rick, glowering as she grabbed at Spark’s arm but Spark twisted away, managing to dodge back from the irate woman. Rick took one step towards the woman, raising his voice and startling not only the woman but Spark as well with his intensity. “Control YOURSELF woman! Spark is NOT my pet; she is my daughter.” He relaxed his body, now speaking softly to the woman. “Now, you will treat her like a customer or I will take my business elsewhere, are we clear?”
The woman, obviously the one running the shop at the moment glared at Rick, her initial shock turning to incredulous disdain. “You want me to believe this, this thing is your daughter and that you want me to what, find a pressure suit that will fit your pet? You’ve got to be kidding me!” She threw her hands up, glaring over at Spark who was keeping her distance from the irate woman, tail tucked and ears pressed flat as she cautiously attempted to maneuver herself to put Rick between her and the woman. Rick just sighed and moved to Spark, scratching behind her ears and speaking softly. “I’m sorry sweetie, looks like I messed up. We will go back to Klixxt, I’m sure they can help us with everything you will need. I’m sorry to have put you in this situation, I should have thought ahead.”
The woman had retreated to the back of the store and was glaring at Rick and Spark. Rick glanced at the hallway then suddenly picked Spark up, resting her against his shoulder as he carried her through the crowd back to the ship. Spark’s heart was racing, all her instincts told her to get somewhere safe. She felt Rick pick her up and leaned against him, listening to his heartbeat as he carried her through the crowded hallway. Once out of the crowd and in the lift Spark began to calm down, her rapid breathing and heartrate dropping to normal by the time the doors of the lift opened onto the landing bay. Rick carried Spark back to the ship, laying her on his bed and heading to the terminal she used for her lessons. He opened up a vid link and contacted Klixxt, letting them know that they would be visiting soon and what he would need.