Haika ran lightly through the narrow maintenance corridor. Its walls were mostly covered with conduits that carried nanites and coolant outward to the ship's hull. A few years ago some maintenance work had been done on a section of the Nomad class freighter's hull, and she knew that access tube had never been removed. A ship this size, with a crew compliment of almost 7000 lives having been docked for almost a decade, almost became part of the station. Still, she had to know her way around, and get her timing right, to avoid the official checkpoints disembarking. Haika looked over her shoulder, and then quickly checked the air pressure on the console before opening the airlock and beginning her descent through the access tube. It wasn't as if she was breaking any rules by leaving the ship, she just didn't want her parents to know how often.
Haika ran down the Level 9 Street 477 of Jita Station and almost tumbled over the cleaning bot as she approached the entry portal. She swiped her hand over the access panel and Luko's face appeared.
"What are you doing here? Your parents will be pissed if they find out!"
"I got it! I got it! Let me in!"
She brushed a lock of tightly curled hair out of her excited face. The door hissed open and she practically lept into Luko's arms.
Finally she released him and waved the datachip "I was accepted to the JU!"
"Oh congrats!" and he hugged her tight once again.
"This means we can be together, Luko."
"You mean you intend to go stationside?"
"Why wouldn't I? The ship has been parked here more than a decade. Why should I study by net if I can go to class with you? After all, you can carry my netpad!"
Luko looked at the floor. "But your father, he will say..."
Haika put a finger on his lips, and then replaced it with her own. Later, as they floated twisted in each other's arms over the gravbed, Haika thought about how she would tell her parents that she wanted to study stationside. She knew they would come up with all sorts of ridiculous arguments about tradition and culture, and what would happen if this or that. Despite that, she was certain they just had to be proud of her and would eventually cave.
The next day, Haika walked into her father's office. "Hey Pops!"
"How is my little girl today?" He grinned as he looked up.
Haika put her arms around him and gave him a big hug, "Well.... there is something I want to tell you."
"Hmm... What could that be? Perhaps that the station crew neglected to remove the access tube to hull section 1047?" Maalik grinned as Haika stood there with her mouth open. He relished any time he could spend with his daughter, and these days those times were fewer and farther between. It was not like when she was a little and would spend hours just playing on the floor of his office. "Do you think I would keep my job as First Officer if I didn't know the comings and goings on this ship? Sit down, tell me what's up."
"You know how you have always encouraged me to not only do my best, but also to pursue my dreams, right Daddy?"
"Of course, you know I just want you to be happy."
"I took the JU entrance exam."
"Maalik raised an eyebrow, "Jita University? Honey, you know your metrics are good enough for officer training, or any number of university curricula the ship has licensed."
"I want to study stationside, Dad."
"We have talked about this honey, and even if you did pass the entrance exam, you know the stationside program would be too much risk. We might get commissioned right in the middle."
Haika's face contorted, "Dad, this ship hasn't left its moorings since I was a little girl! Besides, I passed!" She placed the data chip on his desk and the document flashed onto the glass surface, complete with the colorful seal of Jita.
Maalik looked at the document, and when his eyes moved back to hers they were blinking away tears and he was trying to smile, "I am so proud of you." He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close. He knew his daughter was smart and ambitious, but he had always thought it was a father's bias. Now it was confirmed. How many Thukkers had been admitted to the Caldari University of Jita? He touched the Thukker tattoo on her face, "Just remember who you are, and keep your bags packed." Haika rolled her eyes, "You mean repack them. I don't think the 13 year old clothes in them now would fit anymore. I will be graduated before this ship goes anywhere Daddy!"
Haika gave him a kiss and then ran for the door as he answered an incoming comm. Just before she closed it she heard him call out, "You get to explain this to your mother!" Haika groaned.
"This is a capsuleer piloted ship!" her mother almost hissed at Haika and her father sitting at the table in their family quarters. Her eyes moved from Haika to Maalik accusingly, "And you are the First Officer, you know what that means!" Nobody had to say that it meant the ship, which had sat in drydock for most of the last decade, could drop its moorings and undock with but a few seconds notice, perhaps never to return and certainly not for many years due to the affects of relativity and faster than light travel. The two adults understood this on a practical level, and therefore had made few close acquaintances stationside despite the years they had been here. It was the Thukker way to stay with those who shared the nomadic life of deep space travel. But for Haika , yet a teenager, it was merely theoretical. Her mother reached out and touched the Thukker tattoo on the left side of Haika's cheek. "This is who you are my girl; I cannot make you see any more clearly that which looks back at you in the mirror." Tears streamed down woman's cheeks, "But I am so proud of you, and you must make your own decision."
Maalik looked at his screen and called up his calendar for the day. He didn't need it to remember that today he was off duty early to meet Haika for lunch at the University stationside. It was "Parent's Day" or something like that. His daughter was already in her third semester, and was making excellent grades. He then turned to his messages. Along with the usual reports from the crew chiefs, some personal messages, and one from a woman named Steky was one from the ship owner's agent. They normally met once a month. Usually anything outside of that routine meant a potential buyer had a question. Maalik gestured at the agent's message first, and a 3d vid of his face appeared over the desk, "Maalik! We have to meet quickly. Call me asap!" Maalik groaned. Every time some halfhearted buyer had a question about the ship, the agent thought it an emergency hoping for the sale. Usually it was some dimwit who wanted to know if capacitor rechargers could be fit, which of course they could not.
Maalik moved his finger to the screen to initiate the call to the ship's agent when it chimed with an incoming call. The originator was someone named Steky. Beneath her name was the insignia of Atlas Alliance, and a chill went up his spine. He had never received a direct call from someone in one of the alliances that operated outside the boundaries of the Empire. His finger shook as he activated the call.
A graceful female Minmatar face appeared and she smiled, "I assume you are the First Officer of the Burgeoning Intent?"
"Yes Ma'am, I am. What can I do for you?"
"You can meet me at 16.00 on the bridge. The ship's agent will pass along a message to bring along a full report of your ship's systems and crew departments. What I called to ask was that you also come prepared to discuss the crew's moral and readiness, things that will never appear on paper."
"Yes Ma'am, I will do so." Maalik's mind raced at the implications of this meeting and request. Was this lady a capsuleer? Was she legit? If so, he would never make Parent's day...
"Very well, I will see you then.... oh, and Maalik. Don't breathe a word of this meeting to anyone. Our lives may depend on it." The screen went dark.
At first Maalik started thinking about what he would need to do and who aboard ship he would need to query to prepare his report, and then he suddenly panicked. If Steky was a capsuleer, and if she was concerned about readiness, it could mean only one thing. She was purchasing the vessel. And Haika and his wife were not aboard!
Maalik put initiated a call to his wife who was stationside at Jita University with Haika . His call went to messaging, she was probably preoccupied. He typed out a text that could not be misinterpreted, and used his official rank to send it via the emergency channel. He would probably receive a fine when the message couldn't be correlated with a civil incident report, but it didn't matter. It was the only thing that would get his family back to the ship without a long explanation that he could not give across a public channel.
Haika and her mother came out of the concert hall and blinked. It felt a bit like surfacing from a dive, the hall's simulation of the ocean depths of the planet Oricon were so complete. She could still hear the echos of the songs sung by the sentient inhabitants of the water depths. "Mom, did you see the expression in the eyes of the last performer?"
"Yes, and to think his species is now extinct."
"What happened to them?"
"Capsuleers descended on their planet and installed gas extraction sites. They removed so much of the oxygen and nitrogen from the atmosphere that the temperature of the oceans rose, destroying the ecosystem."
"But how can they? What gives them the right?!"
Her mother began to reply matter-of-factly, "The Oricon system is beyond the reach of the empire my dear, where the capsuleers make their own law." Then she noticed the tears in her daughter's eyes and softened her tone, "Oh sweetie..." Her words cut off mid phrase as both women suddenly got a distant look in their eyes. Their comm implants displayed the following text across their retinas.
MEDICAL EMERGENCY ABOARD BURGEONNING INTENT. REPORT FIRST OFFICER QUARTERS IMMEDIATELY.
Haika cried, "Pappa!" and both women ran for the nearest transport.
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