Into the Black

The Charybdis Station Shipyards were in a somewhat subdued state. While it is true that they weren’t the only shipyard in the system (there were three in total), they were the only one that dealt with less than legal clients, unless those clients had impeccable credentials. This meant that they usually did a fairly good business, either building, repairing, or refurbishing ships for smugglers, pirates, syndicates, or even just ‘former’ criminals attempting to leave their old life behind as a freighter captain.

At the moment, the shipyards were sitting idle, and I could see no less than five ships either full-built or well along the way, just sitting there, without anyone bothering to work on them. Only one ship in the dock was being worked on, and it was a smuggler that had clearly only just escaped the quarantine forces, and was getting repaired. Something was clearly up.

Our presence on the deck was noticed fairly quickly, as we had only just arrived at the shipyard offices when a Gauz male came hustling up from the direction of the ship under repair. “Customers! Good to see ye. Ye’ll be happy to know that we can offer expedited service on any work ye need done while this mess down on the planet’s going on. Crews will be glad for the work, I don’t mind tellin’ ye.”

I chuckled at the swarthy Gauz’s style as we entered the yard office, and said, “Well, the name’s Captain Mollen, and while I’m real happy with the way my ship’s been flying, ships are like women. One is good, but two is better, if you can give them your attention and make sure they got everything they need.”

That got me a laugh from the Gauz, and a playful punch on the shoulder from both Nyna and Jaynie. The gauz said, “Aye, that be true, though sometimes it be workin’ best if they never meet, hmm? I’m Norgeck, and I’m the Chief of the Yards ‘round here. So what kind of ship ye be looking for? We have a few ready hulls, as ye can see. Trouble on the planet meant that demand dried up, especially when several customers got hit by whatever it was that’s taken over the main continent, and the rest were vaporized when the Navy took out the arctic base.”

I nodded. “Yes, orbital bombardment tends to interfere with your ability to keep your appointments, or so I’m told. I hope they at least paid half up front?”

“HA! As if I were some weak-boned Knelfi! Of course they paid half up front, the ones getting new hulls. There’s also a refurb job on an older ship, meant to update the gear to modern specs, and I only took 25% up front on that one, since it was less risk.”

“Ouch. Understandable, but unfortunate. Well, show us what you’ve got in ready hulls, and we’ll see if we can’t take one of those off your hands, before we start looking at fresh construction.”

Norgeck produced a datapad, which brought up an inventory of the ready hulls in the yards, minus the one that still had an owner who wasn’t part of the Legion. “Of course, of course. I think you’ll find the prices quite reasonable, since the ships are partially paid for.”