Snippet #1389626

Kane was hopeful in the following silence that passed between them, although it was hardly silent with the numerous miscellaneous sounds from the other patrons filling the feeding area. It meant that Grant was pondering his offer. There was a chance the man was actually finding a reason to say no but Kane ignored that fact. If that was Grant's response then he would have to find a solution when it happened. Hope won out in the end as the hulk's broken face split into a grin and he accepted Kane's offer with the simple statement "You got yerself a ship-mate." He stood, towering over the still sitting Kane. Perhaps it was an act of intimidation, trying to emphasise his physical superiority over the younger man. Kane ignored it; On board his ship, he was in charge. He stood remarking "Wonderful." A grin crossed his face "Thank you Grant." He offered his hand as a method of sealing the deal. "I'll give you some time to finalise your affairs while I prep the Artemis. Docking bay two, I'm sure you know this rotting station better then me. Glad to have you in the crew, however temporarily." With that he dropped his hand and walked away. Threading his way back to the entrance he passed through earlier. This time he was prepared for the sudden loss of gravity and pushed off smoothly. He took his journey back to docking bay two calmly, a smile on his face. His first recruit was found, the research and years paid off.

Kane drifted entered into docking bay two and found a very different atmosphere to how he left it. Machinery were active, grinding and whirring. The sounds of station workers organising the transportation of large crates of raw minerals. Kane paused at the entrance taking in the sudden arrival of life. A moment later he pushed off, drifting towards a alien that seemed to be controlling the whole operation. The human arrested his progress and shouted over the thrum of working machinery. "Hey!" He called, causing the multi-limbed black crustacean to turn its attention his way in its alien equivalent of a frown. Kane continued pointing up at the small passenger access tunnel "I'm the owner, is everything here." There was a flash of disbelief in the alien's eyes. Few humans owned ships and obviously the crab agreed with that state. However, laziness overruled its dislike of humans and it responded, hoping to get the job over and done with quickly. "Yes we're just loading the last few tramps." It clicked in its accent of Galactic Standard referring to the tug craft designed to transfer cargoes from loading bay to loading bay. Kane nodded his acceptance but signalling the alien pass the small crystalline datapad it grasped. It did so, grudgingly. The human quickly looked over the manifest, assuring that the numbers were right before handing it back. "I'll open her up" he told the foreman and thrust his way over to the access tunnel and to the Atremis's airlock. Inside the frigate was style very much like its exterior. Tubular, curving olive green organic shapes ran through its spacious corridors and rooms. Although at present the artificial gravity was disabled there was a clear up and down in the design of the interior. Kane proceeded to drift his way down the slender, heavily armored neck to the bridge. Settling himself at the control panel he tapped in the access and activation codes. The idle generator kicked into life, flooding the ship's circuits with energy, activating all the non-essential systems. White lights flickered on in tandem with the life-definition holographic screens that revealed individual images from external cameras. With the press of a button the heavy splash plating concealing the view port slid away, letting the blue and orange glow from the nebula flow over Kane. It was certainly worth it having a actual view rather then a montage of camera images that most ships had.

After the Artemis sparked into life Kane settled into one of the self-installed human scale chairs, watching the screens and waiting for Grant's arrival. He reviewed his plans, after Grant his next stop was another needle in a haystack. There was a woman, Nora Joule, he had to locate on the recently founded outskirt colony of Rystik. Hopefully she wouldn't require payment, Grant would probably neutralise any profit Kane would get from his current haul, meaning that another refit was even further away then Kane had aimed for. Still, such was the price of restoring humanity and Kane bore it without a second thought. Turning back to the observation screens the pilot watched as tramps emerged from the loading bay airlocks, dragging their cargo through the emptiness between frigate and mining base. With the touch of a few buttons he opened the cargo bay and personnel airlock. Standing and leaving his almost omniscient position on the bridge to journey down the neck of the sleek alien craft to wait for Grant at the airlock.