Bee in a hive.

Location - ice fields, sector P6H49, quadrant 7

Mining transport: Arborat 1

Captain - Alsai Quaw

Current activity - ice extraction

Number of mining modules deployed - 6/6

Time since begin of journey- 496 hours

Cargo capacity - 12%

"Module 1 this is module 4, what's your status?"

"This is module 1, my ore-holds are almost full and I'll be returning to the hive soon."

"Roger that, module 1. By the way, how long are we out here?" "About 6 hours, y'know you can see that on the top right screen, yes?"

Jack blinked his twice before answering. "I didnt mean how long we are out here mining, I was asking how long it was since we left Salida."

"Oh I see, its been about 20 days, why? I hope you're not nul-g sick, if you're not feeling well you should drop by the infirmary. Doc could give you something to alleviate the symptoms."

"Here he goes again" Jack thinks to myself before finaly shuting him up. "Im not gravity sick I'm just... currious"

"Oh okay?"

"I want to have this channel free. Refrain from unimportant chatter." Says the captain cutting them both off.

"Yes sir." Says Jack turning the comunicator off. "As strict, as ever." He thinks to himself, concentrating on the ice crystal in front of him once again.

*20 minutes later.

"Arborat 1, this is module 4, both ore-holds full, I'm returning to unload. Give me a number."

He says carefuly disattaching from the crystal and turning his module around.

"Copy that module 4, exchange port 2 is ready to recieve your cargo. Standard approach path." Says the coordinator.

"Understood, I'll be there in 7 minutes." Jack says, folding the robotic arms on themselves and sliding them towards the back end of the module and letting the main engine burn for 20 seconds. Usually it would only take 10 seconds to accelerate but he is heavier because of the 15 tons of ice in the ore-holds.

*5 minutes later.

"Arborat 1 we have a visual contact, begining docking procedure." Jack says reducing the speed with front maneuvering thrusters.

"Okay almost there. Now I just have to..." Everything was going smoothly until...

"Get outa the way!" Another module comes in at high speed, nearly crashing into him! And who else would it be than...

"This is module 6 to Arborat, can ya get this pipsqeak outa my way so I can unload and return to the mining site?"

Of course its Dalfen the biggest moron the universe ever had to bear, or so Jack thinks. And of course he's drunk on the job, he doesnt even realise that he is speaking on an open channel, everyone in range can hear him.

"Cool off and get in the line, Dalfen, I've been here first." I say continuing the docking procedure.

"Not a chance, move it!" He yells and tries to overtake him, resulting in them both almost colliding into each other and the ship as well.

"What the hell?!" Jack yells as he narrowly evades the collision with a hard pull on the controls. "Are you crazy!? You could have killed everyone on the ship!!!"

In this case Jack has every right to be mad, if they collided the port could start leaking and the ship would start to lose atmospheric pressure, that would be seriously dangerous.

"Sod off kid, before someone gets hurt!"

And on top of it all he's threatning him now.

"Alright I've said it before and I'll say it again, cool off and get in the line, if you don't then I'll send you to cool off into vacuum!"

He says unfolding the robotic arms to underline the threat.

"That's enought, both of you!!" Yells the captain into the comunicator, just in time before Dalfen gets a hole drilled into his module. "Soto, the docking port 6 is now ready to receive cargo, fly under the ship and unload there. That's an order!"

Jack just give out a sigh and say. "Yes sir, on my way." When he turns around, Dalfen to his further annoyance starts laughing on the open channel.

"See kid? Told ya, should have moved!" But to Jack's satisfaction captain then says, also on the open channel.

"Dalfen once you unload the cargo, report to the infirmary immediately. Afterwards go straight to my office!"

One could only say: Justice served.

*3 hours later...

"This is my last cargo today." Jack says as he docks again, this time untill he is sent out again.

"Ok, no problem here, you can exit the module safely now." Says the head mechanic.

"Oh man, today was rough. I didnt expect Dalfen to make a scene again." Jack says as he stretches his back and legs.

"I did, the man's a bad egg." Says another mechanic, who is currently running a diagnostics on Jack's module. Its true that this is not the first time Dalfen did something like this.

Jack leaves the dock section and heads straight for the canteen to grab a quick bite, afterwards he just wanders around the ship, enjoying some small talk, with the rest of the crew along the way.

After some time he fatigue finally catches up with him and he heads to the sleeping quarters.

They're going to be moving to a new mining site today, the engines are supposed to start in about 2 hours from and then they are supposed to jump to the next destination, the right thing for him would be to get a bit of sleep until then. (1.)

When he walks into the room, some guys are already there, he recognises Thomas, Luka and Dimo. Luka and Thomas are illuminated by the light from the corridor, he recognises Dimo from the way he snores.

Jack personaly thinks they're his friends, for example, Luka was a drunkard and a hatchling the same time Jack was.

But he didnt become a drone until Jack finished his first journey with the Arborat. Jack was delighted to know that he's the new mining crew member, and he was glad too, judging by the enthusiasm Luka displayed when he first boarded Arborat and saw Jack.

Thomas is about 3 journeys older crew member. He transfered to Arborat after his ship was decommisioned due to serious technical issues, he's a calm guy, most of the time, but when he gets excited he turns into quite the talker, most of the time when technical things are involved.

Most people on the ship think he is better suited to be a mechanic or an engineer than a miner. The two first properly interacted when Jack's module suffered an unexpected failure during launch, and since the mechanics had no way to get to him in the depresurized launch bay while the module was still inside, it fell to Thomas to help him, and since then the two had been on good terms with eachother.

When it comes to Dimo's past, nobody really knows much, the only think the crew knows is that, he worked as a security officer on few station, both in and out of the Yggdrasil Expanse before he was hired to do the same job on Arborat.

He's responsible for keeping the crew from killing one another so to speak, and to keep them safe, exept for the captain and a few other officer he is the only one on board permanently carrying a weapon.

Jack lays down and straps himself in, soon he's asleep, thanking the stars that he got used to Dimo's snoring, else he would never be able to close his eyes.

*not even 1 hour later...*

Jack's sleep is peaceful for a while. Until hes awakened by someone grabbing and dragging him off his bunk, and throwing him in micro gravity against the wall. (2.) Before he could regain his sences the attacker was already holding him by the throat and punching him in the stomach.

Jack tried to fight back but whoever it was, was stronger and definitely more furrious than him.

The next second he knew, who the attacker was.

Dalfen. It didnt exactly take a genius to guess why he was doing what he was doing, mainly because he was yelling at him for it, but also because Jack wasnt as stupid as not to put two and two together.

Captain must have chewed him out pretty bad for the danger he put everyone in today. And now he blames Jack for his own stupidity and bad decisions. He pauses his assault for just a moment to say.

"This is what you get for making a fool of me." Then he extends his hand and prepares for a major uppercut.

But before it lands, Dimo who was awakened by the sounds of struggle, grabs and twists the hand behind Dalfens back. Then he forcefully leads, more like drags, Dalfen out of the room, while Dalfen yells in impotent rage.

"This isnt over b!tch! I'll fnck you up, assh..."

His words are suddenly cut off as a dull thud echoes throught the corridor, most likely from Dimo hitting Dalfen on the head with the butt of his gun.

But Jack didnt care, everything hurt, and the only thing he could think of was crawling back into his bunk.

When he woke up, the engines were already running, so they had normal gravity again. Afterwards he headed straight to the infirmary, to get a check up. Max, the on board doctor, didnt ask anything, as expected, the whole ship already knew about what had transpired in their sleeping quarters.

Dalfen was placed into custody, and captain made an announcement that he'll stay there until the end of the journey and then be handed over to authorities once they return.

That of course meant that they'd have to make up for the gap in work his absence creates. But everyone was determined to do their best, mainly because they wouldnt have to run into him anymore, but also because he did the least work of them all.

Nevertheless the rest of the journey could not get any better.

And... it really didnt.

(1.) Warp drives, or jump drives as they are called. Was among the first thing the newly joined mankind copied from their new neighbours. These devices enable FTL, Faster-Than-Light, travel. Cutting down travel time of ships, between planets, from months to hours. Most ships and even some older models like Arborat can be fitted with these, with more modern models having one already integrated. While an excelent tool for stellar travel, these drives fail if the ship is located near a strong gravity well like planets and cant serve to travel for interstellar travel, (travel between star systems.) So shipd still need to utilise their main engines and thrusters to get away from said gravity wells to jump in the first place and still need to use the Gates for travel between the systems.

(2.) While more modern or expensive ships come equipped with an artificial gravity generator, Arborat is unfortunately neither modern or (relatively) expensive. Built for work and bare minimum to travel from one place to another while keeping the crew alive, not for luxury. The only time the crew can enjoy gravity is when the engines are running and generating thrust, other times they have to wear magnetic boots as to be able to move around the ship normaly and special overalls that push and press against their bodies to simulate gravity as for them not to fall out of shape and lose their form.