Jump Port

"Jumping!" The captain instinctively said as he pressed a purple button on the console. Daemon suddenly looked back into the other side of the main sections in one of the compartments. He felt a deep rumble throughout his body as space twisted and distorted the space vessel until suddenly, the entire ship phased. He felt the spacial distortion immediately calm down and the rumbling to stop, however, something in one of the compartments at the back seemed to be drawing in him. All the while he could feel the unusual energy inside him slowly grow and expand, increasing in volume which would allow him to manipulate more of it.

"Hey Cap, what's in the compartments at the back?" Dae asked without once taking his eyes of its general direction.

"Mostly just supply and weapon storage, but also the unidrive" The Captain responded.

"The unidrive huh" Daemon muttered under his breath.

'Could this weird sensation be caused by the unidrive?'

"Come look at the view, I'm guessing you've never seen what the 1st universe looks like. " The Captain called.

Dae moved to the front of the vessel to where the cockpit was, and upon entering it, was greeted by an incredible scene of a mix and mash of flashing colored light clouds that formed the inner lining of a seemingly never-ending tunnel outside the cockpit screen.

He was instantly mesmerized by it, the scene of flashing lights was almost hypnotizing.

"Snap out of it kid, we're exiting"

The vessel shook for a second before the flashing lights outside the cockpit screen instantly disappeared, instead, revealing a small space station orbiting a small grey dull planet.

"That's the Jump Port, while we're here, let's stop by to stock up on supplies"

The jump port was comprised of a large rectangular construct with a flat arm that extended outward about 500 meters. The arm contained the ports where space ships and vessels could dock and passengers could exit to a life supported enclosure that led to the main area down the arm.

Pressing a few buttons on the console, the Captain initiated a connection to the jump port comms, a standard procedure before docking at any jump port.

"Jump port comms, this is Veranes contacting from a light hunter vessel, permission to board?"

"Yea whatever go ahead" Whoever was on the jump port comms responded lazily.

The Captian moved the yoke and guided the vessel onto one of the unoccupied light vessel docks. The entire dock arm consisted of multiple docks of different sizes for a few different spaceship sizes. In total there were 14 different docks but only the first four light vessel docks were already occupied.

Upon entering the dock, the Captain pressed more buttons and lined up the vessel to the docking tunnel, which when lined up, automatically extended to attach to the walking platform entrance of the space vessel. The ship abruptly stopped moving as it was being held in place by the docking tunnel extension.

"Alright, let's move"

"Finally!" Dae exclaimed. He would be able to see and interact with many different people!

The walking platform opened into a short tunnel that led to a long enclosed platform. The Captain walked out onto the platform, with Dae close behind. As they made their way down the platform, Dae started involuntarily breathing heavier.

"It's stale air. Remote jump port like these doesn't have any fancy life support systems or tech so they have to rely on crude recycling and the occasional supply drop off to sustain itself" The Captain assured Dae.

They continued their way down until they met with large doors and a secped. The Captain initiated the Secpad, which confirmed his identity, and open the sliding doors to reveal a large open hall with what looked like a few shops open. Dae and the Captian made their way over to a reception that had the words 'Coord Reception' over it.

The Captain approached the bored-looking receptionist and greeted her.

"Hello, I need a direction card to the Pholzane system"

"That'll be 30 Credits" The receptionist lazily replied.

The Captain gritted his teeth as he unlatched a small bag from his belt and pulled out six red-painted counters which he handed over. Upon inspecting the credits, the receptionist inputted something into the reception console which then outputted a small square ship from one of its slots. The receptionist grabs the chip and rudely throws it to the Captain, who effortlessly catches it.

"Nice catch" she noted as the duo turned away and left.

"Is 30 credits a lot?" Dae quizzed the Captain.

"It's a legal robbery!" The Captain bitterly responded.

"Our ship doesn't have precise enough maneuvering systems to be able to jump very large distances, which is why we have to use jump ports. Because they're our only option, they like to charge absurd prices!"

The Captain only had around 180 credits left, which after this transaction, left him with only 150 credits.

"How does maneuvering systems affect how far we can jump?" Daemon asked being confused.

"It doesn't affect how far we can jump, but it does affect the precision. If our ship is only a few centimeters off the target direction, over large distances we could end up millions of kilometers away!"

"How much would new maneuvering systems cost?"

"For light vessels like ours, it's built into the vessel so we can't replace or upgrade it. Our only option is to buy a new ship which is far too expensive. Let's get some supplies."

The Captain led the way into one of the unmarked shops which seemed to contain food and equipment. Other people who were likely from the other docked vessels were also browsing the wares. They noticed the Captain and Dae approach the shop.

"Well if it isn't the tough guy from before, what happened to the dumbass kid from before? You swap him out for another one?" One of the larger members with snake tattoos on his arms mocked. He had two rectangular metal protrusions from his bald head to resembled cutt-off horns.

The rest of the members who also had black snake tattoos laughed at them as well, throwing insults at both the Captain and Dae.