JUST A MEET UP

'It's been two hours now, and as usual, I've received no report yet. Sigh.... I think that there's a serious need to fire some people. If not the easy way, I know a lot of hard ways to get the work done.', Not knowing if the mission was a success or not, I connected to Albert, the rude motherfuc*ker.

He joined my crew recently on a recommendation letter from the union. It's clear that he's climbed up using money. I did a background check on him, and I was right; his family holds major assets in the black market and has obvious relations with higher authorities.

Being a non-male captain is already hard, and existing as an independent operator really puts you in a tight position. I have to think many times before making any decision, so that I don't oppose anybody related to the union. And that's why I have yet to take any serious action against him...I'm just waiting for a good reason, he makes just one mistake, and I'll devour this scum inside out.

"Dooooot...click!"

"What?!" He answered, in the usual, unpleasant way.

"What's the mission report so far?" I asked, not wasting any time to correct his behavior of speech.

'I really want to meet those occupants; how did they take over the planet in just a month? It's close to impossible if you ask me.'

"O-oh that! They haven't reported anything out of the ordinary yet, I-I'll try communicating with the commander.", He said, with a noticeable flicker in his voice, and abruptly ended the call.

'.... he's hiding something...'

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Albert- POV

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"Tooooooot"

'Ah fuck! This bitch makes my blood boil. How can Union even allow a woman on board? I need a transfer; I'll also file a complaint against her. Haha, it'll definitely feel great seeing this whore begging me when her ship pass gets revoked. And once she's out of the game, it'll be effortless to officially take command of the ship.'

'But right now, I need to get the report on the mission.', I unmuted the coms.

"Bzzz....commander, do you copy..."

No response came by.

".. Commander?... ", I asked again.

'What's taking this ass so long?', I looked over at other crewmates to connect to.

But they were showing-[CONNECTION LOST], written in red. My whole being, been in panic, went for the only green, commanders' connector.

I was just about to reconnect, when a response came from the said person,

".....Buzz..... Curse you, Albert...", He said, as his green piece of writing, also turned red;

[CONNECTION LOST]

"...."

'Wha-what happened.... Oh no. Fuck no! I'm done for. Shit! This is bad. I know this feeling.

I....I need to do something, something about the communication archive. Delete it…no, no, that'll be too suspicious. I have to impair the whole program, especially that archive. But how? I don't have access to the system junction. Fuck!

Burn it all.....y-yes I'll burn the entire software memory room. Then....about cameras....shit!

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CAPTAIN-POV

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Sitting on the heavily cushioned chair, the lady in white seemed tense about something. Her expression seemed in suspense of an incoming, a long-awaited piece of news, when a sudden connection rang on her com-device resting on the table. She literally dashed to pick up the com, but paused abruptly.

'Seeing no ID on the device, I paused for a moment, but the anticipation of receiving the word, of how Albert fucked up, made me disregard the hesitancy as I picked the incoming call'

"Hello?", a male likely of a very young age said, as to confirm if the call connected or not.

"...."

'I didn't respond, still trying to remember if I ever accepted a young worker on my spaceship.'

"Umm...Hello?", he whispered. Wanting him to continue on;

".... Now would you mind continuing further, Mr. Hello?.", I said, adding a little bit of authority in the tone.

"Oh...um...who's this?" he asked. He asked me, the captain, who was I?

"....Pft...hahaha....", I laughed. I don't know, but the way he asked was somewhat stupid.

It's been a while since I've laughed. He doesn't even know who he's called. Does he even work on the ship?

"... Well, MR. Hello, would you mind not wasting Captain's time any longer?", I said, catching a sudden flinch in his breathing.

'He's startled to know that I'm the captain.'

"Ah...um... I wanted to have an important face to face with you, captain.", he said. At first, I was confused, but later I inferred that he wanted an appointment with me.

"..... What's your rank? And your name please", I asked for his rank level. Nobody can connect me below commander rank, but then why don't I know anybody of the rank by his voice? And then he asks for an appointment too?

"You see, I'm from below, captain", he said. So, is he from worker level? But it doesn't make any sense, how did he get my com ID?

"What? From workman levels?", I wanted to confirm.

"Oh, not that. I meant below you, the planet.". This guy was spewing bullshit. Literally. He speaks, I don't know, some nonsense stuff.

"What does that mean? Stop wasting my time, I'm cutting the call." I was tired of all this. Noting down his com ID, I decided to connect to the intercom controller for a little chit-chat.

"I think you still don't understand. You're in a spaceship, right? It's passing by a planet. And I live on that planet. Now the thing is, that some people attacked me, so I seem to have killed all of them.".

'Hmm, now that was something....., what did he say again? Like he hacked through the intercom, to threaten me or something.'

"So, I was asking if they had anything to do with your crew or your spaceship?"

A shiver ran down my spine. His tone was suddenly dead, frightening. His genitive manner of speech convinced me that he truly was from the planet. My stomach turned cold, when I thought how to answer his question. From his tone, it felt like I had wronged the innocent him.

'B-But it's clear that he's the criminal, he's the occupant. It's illegal to operate a desolate planet without Union's pass, and he clearly doesn't have that. I have the upper hand here.'

"You want to negotiate, then?", I asked, at last catching his purpose of hacking into my com.

"Ah Yes, if that's possible. I can come right now if you have time," he answered immediately. He was eager, much eager to meet me. But he should be aware that he's clearly a criminal. Then why's he not afraid of getting caught?

Sensing something off, I chose to do some preparations before meeting him.

"No, give me some time. I'll privately visit your home in a few hours.", I decided to go with that.

"Eh? You'll come? Are you sure?", He was confused about that too, but I need some things cleared out first. I'm not falling for any kind of plan he has.

"Yes.....(CLICK!)…", I disconnected. And hit the com directly to the security unit head.

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TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT CHAPTER: