Among Stars

Tech Hall

Naina walked back to the elevators after spending another hour or so browsing other delicacies and stocking up on non-perishable food. In the elevator, she scratched her left ear tip and scrunched her eyebrows together, as she somehow could not find her next destination.

"Uh, Floor H-20, please?" she said tentatively.

There was no reply, nor did the elevator move at all. She looked at the information tablet and grinned, because she remembered that she doesn't have to translate anymore. There was no access to H-level at all, from what she could gather.

Frustrated, she huffed and told the elevator to return to the entrance and lobby area. She leaned against the wall and tugged at her left ear. After a brief ride, the elevator stopped at the lobby, and Naina stepped out. She walked back to the large information panel she had stood in front of not that long ago.

"Let's see... It was definitely floor H-20..." she muttered to herself and scanned the panel with her eyes. "There!" she said aloud. "It definitely says H-20, but... oooh. So not with the main elevator. I need to use the docking area elevator for that?" she said, poking her chin with her index finger.

She shrugged and walked towards the docking area. As soon as she turned the corner into the inner area, she saw a bunch of shifty-looking men who were huddled together close to a nearby hangar door. Something told Naina that these were not nice people, and she ducked back behind the corner.

Her curiosity won her over though, and she tapped her wrist a couple of times, and whispered, "Quera, can you send me any feeds? I have a suspicion that I need to know what those guys are planning."

"I'll see to it, Captain Melcey," Quera answered. After just a few seconds, a camera feed appeared on her wrist screen, and a quiet audio feed was sent to her earpiece.

"Did you see that tin can?" one man said.

"The one that looks like you put two empty toilet paper rolls next to a soda bottle?" another one said.

"Yeah, that one," the first voice said.

Naina cursed. Of course they meant the Travelstar. Though try as she might to call them out on slandering her ship, she had to admit that that was probably the most apt description you could give for the Travelstar in so many words. She grimaced internally and continued watching the feed.

"I saw her coming. She's been in the deep for a while. There's no mention of the ship here in at least three years," one of them said.

"Three years?!" another yelled.

"Yeah, imagine what she's holding. There have to be charts to navigate there. We could sell them for a tall amount to basically anybody," another said.

"Daew," Naina muttered under her breath. "What am I gonna do with these creeps? I can't shake them with the Travelstar in that condition. We won't last three blasts of any weapon with our shields that low," she said.

"Do not worry, Captain Melcey," Quera said, and almost, almost sounded smug.

"Quera, what have you done?" Naina asked.

"I am sensing that the security patrols around the station and the two Valkyrie vehicles currently closing in on their ship are founding this feed as entertaining as you are, Captain Melcey," Quera said.

"You what?" she almost yelped, but caught herself in time. "You're sharing the feed with the Valkyrie security?" she asked.

"Yes, and no, Captain Melcey," Quera said, and Naina could swear that if Quera was a living being, she'd have a very smug smile right about now on her face. "I'm redirecting the feed on the galactic broadcast frequency. Anybody with a screen can see it."

Naina had to stifle a laugh. "You are a devious person, Quera," she said, trying to suppress a giggle.

"Incorrect, Captain Melcey. I'm not a person," Quera said, and the smugness was almost material.

Naina sighed, got up, and turned in the other direction. "I guess we have to take a detour until those are detained. I'm not getting into a firefight now," she said and started walking.

After what seemed like hours and, but in fact, were probably closer to twenty minutes, Naina arrived at a hub that had dozens of elevator doors. She sighed deeply and scanned the area with her eyes.

The area was filled with machines, robots and workers going every way, with several ground vehicles cruising around the large floor. There were so many, and so loud sounds, that it was almost impossible to hear your own thoughts. Naina wondered if there was enough interference to stop her from connecting with Travelstar and Quera.

"Quera, do you read me?", she said aloud while her eyes darted up and down the panel, searching for something she was looking for.

"Loud and clear, Captain Melcey," came the voice of her on-board computer through her ear-piece.

"Alright, great," Naina said. "Send me the specs of that M-Tech converter and if you can access the Empire's public link, try to find out what's happening in this region of space. I'm rather out of touch," she said.

"Sending the data now, Captain Melcey," Quera said. Naina nodded, then her eyes found what she was looking for. "A-Ha!" She said triumphantly and walked into the elevators. "Floor H-20, please," she said.

The elevator ride took a sweet while, and Naina watched herself from the mirror on the wall. She tried to poke her hair but gave up after stubborn curls snaked away from her fingers every time she lifted her hand, even for a second. She gave her mirror image a shrug and scratched her long ear.

The elevator made an entirely too happy sounding "bling!" when it reached the floor and the doors opened. Naina walked out and was met with a positively massive hall. It was hundreds of meters in every direction and it was absolutely filled to the brim with different shops and stands and people.

There was a smell of electricity and grease in the air, and a loud hubbub lingered everywhere. Naina smiled. She walked into the hall, her eyes looking left and right, searching for something that only she knew.