chapter 152
There were no runways in this system; everyone just accelerated in relatively clear paths. The AIs in charge of collecting sensor data were having a lot of fun, as this was the first time they’d experienced such a chaotic solar system.
Anomalies were brought up on the main screen. The first few were a strange collection of space stations, obviously converted for food production. The fact that there was so little radiation in this solar system seemed to give opportunities for different types of growing setups.
There were a lot of ships that were entering the solar system and leaving, but the biggest traffic was between the main population centre and the gas giant.
The gas giant itself seemed to have the biggest concentration of ships and large equipment. They seemed to be bringing up a lot of material from the gas giant. It made sense; without that planet, there would be no food production, and everything else, from breathable air to water, would be way too expensive.
FH was getting some more data on the system’s net, although it was slow going as we were still quite far away from the main population centre, which was aptly named The Last Hope Station. This was the last place—if you made it here—where you could possibly get your ship fixed. If not, it would be drifting amongst the millions of wrecks in this system.
Altogether in the system, there lived about 50 million people, with 12 million of them on the Last Hope Station. Everyone else seemed to be dispersed around the system, mainly working on processing wrecks or growing food. The main export of the system was ship supplies, which made sense, as this was the only kind of safe system for hundreds of light-years.
Another anomaly was brought up, this time a ship that was moving at almost 100G. Sponsorship deals showed up as we queried info about the ship. It seemed that this particular ship was some type of racer that was currently testing its capabilities.
The ship was small, only 35 meters long, with most of it being one large engine that was not the standard fusion engine, as otherwise it would have run out of fuel a long time ago. Unfortunately, all its technical details were hidden.
Not too long after that, another anomaly was brought up as we had gotten closer to the asteroid belt and could get more detailed scans of the ships.
To everyone’s surprise, it seemed that there were some living creatures amongst some of the wrecks. At first, we thought they were just scavengers, but no, they were something the system inhabitants called wreck roaches.
“Lightspeed communications are way too slow,” I heard Sam say, and I agreed. It was agonising to wait for the information about these wreck roaches.
Their origins were unknown. It seemed that they might have been here even before civilization touched it. Their population, however, had exploded afterwards. They seemed to be quite the menace, although they were categorised as low threat, at least if you were facing a singular one.
Their main diet is crystals. That at least explained why they were attracted to the wrecks, as a lot of technology used some form of crystal. It seemed like there was more than just other people as competition to salvage the wrecks, although they were, from what FH had gathered, quite cleaned up even before being let loose in the system.
“We might not be able to salvage much,” Bob said as he also looked over the data we had been gathering.
Another anomaly showed up, this time a new ship that dropped out of FTL. This one was quite large, close to 3 kilometres in length, and also quite wide. It soon started broadcasting its ID and the services it was offering.
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It was a freight ship, not as big as the ones we saw near Haver Prime, but still quite huge. As soon as it dropped out of FTL, the ship activity in the system spiked by more than 1000%.
To my surprise, the freight ship actually started to slow down. It seemed that it was going to stay in the system for about a week. Everyone who wanted could sell them their materials that they had collected while clearing space portals.
We weren’t slowing down particularly fast, so we got to enjoy all that was going on for a few days until we were slowed down enough for our final approach to the Last Hope Station. Currently, it was incredibly busy, but a lot less than it had been when the freight ship entered the system.
“Yes, I’m looking for a berth where I can do some ship repairs and modifications, so it needs to be pressurised.”
“Of course, Captain Remi Graves, that would not be a problem. Unfortunately, the current wait time is two months. I can send you the registration link. Until then, would you like long-term docking, as that is available right now?”
The traffic control was quite professional, although they were a bit hesitant at the start because of the Adventurers Guild mark on my ship. The one that indicated that this ship might be run by rogue AIs.
“No need for long-term docking. I’m just here to verify myself with the Adventurers Guild, like I told you before, and sign up for that berth. After that, I would like to take a chance on hopefully salvaging something good from the wrecks in the system.”
“An excellent plan. There is a nominal fee to get a salvaging licence. I will send you the links needed where you can register immediately.”
It seemed like there was nothing free here, but I guess that made sense. The space station itself looked kinda crazy. It reminded me of a huge three-dimensional spider web. The central asteroid was quite large, with a lot of docking arms spreading out of it in all directions.
There were also quite a lot of weapons. Enough that I would guess that to take this place, you would need at least a dozen battleships. If you just wanted to destroy it and had some more specialised weaponry, it would of course be easier, as it was a stationary target, but still, it was quite the fortress, even if it wasn’t exactly that.
While I knew that I could manually fly this ship, just sitting back in my captain’s chair and letting the AIs basically perfectly control the ship was definitely a better way of going about this. The docking went off without a hitch, so I moved to the first floor, waiting for the permissions to process so that I could walk onto the station itself.
Currently, we were using the airlock function of the ramp. This way we could easily move cargo in and out, as it was designed to do, in case we couldn’t land properly in a pressurised area. We didn’t need anything anyway, not even to top up on our fuel.
I was basically the only biological who actually needed food, and with us mainly using our side engines, the only fuel usage was keeping the fusion reaction going, which, compared to using the main engines, used only a tiny fraction of fuel to keep us going.
Now, with the expanded space given to us by inventory skills, we could easily stay out in space for years without having to resupply. Finally, the airlocks opened up, and what greeted me on the other side was a squad of eight people of different species with their weapons ready.
We already knew that, as FH had hacked the nearby cameras. I do not know what they expected, but I simply walked out of the ship, stopping them from moving inside.
“What is the meaning of this?” I asked, with a decent amount of menace in my voice. I finally had a good enough grasp of the popular common languages that I could now properly convey my feelings.
The reactions I got confirmed to me that they understood I was not happy. What, were they expecting me to be pleased to see them here with guns basically pointed at me?
“We are here to conduct a rogue AI investigation. Move aside and allow us to board,” the obvious middle-management-type idiot said.
“I am the only one you’re going to be checking. You do not have the authority to do anything else, especially board my ship.”
Oh, he did not like that. Before he could do anything else, I placed my hand on my revolver, which made the already tense situation ramp up a few levels.
A smart guard, who was obviously an adventurer, but definitely a rank lower than me, put down his gun and took out some scanner. I gave a nod to him—or her; it was difficult to figure out, as there weren’t a lot of features that would indicate a certain sex.
With the permission, he came close to me and scanned me. It took a few moments, and the scanner, which was obviously meant to ascertain if someone was biological or not, gave back happy beeps.
For a moment I wondered if I could hack it and fabricate the results fast enough to pass if I were not biological. Better not try, and anyway, it was already too late.
“I believe that satisfies the Adventurers Guild’s needs. I am expecting my marker to be gone within the hour.”
There really was nothing better than middle management being furious, but not able to do anything about it.
“Yes, everything is cleared up. Next time, please do so faster.”
“If possible, of course I will.” And with that, the problem was finally solved as I watched them all leave. Always got to be some power games; I was tired of it all. After dealing with that Duke’s court, I had had enough power games for a lifetime.
Walking back into the ship, I lit up a cigar, which helped with the annoyance. The cigar itself wasn’t the best, as I never liked the fast-growing types that were genetically modified to bring as much profit as possible. Fortunately, it shouldn’t take too much longer to get some proper old-school tobacco.
“FH, let’s not move before we get that confirmation. After that, sign us up for an appropriate berth, and then we go out, and I will finish up the hard-light weapon prototypes. We should have plenty of targets to test while we’re out there.”
“As you wish, Captain.”
Time to get to work.