"Almost two hours huh?"

Sherry looked at the countdown timer as everything outside of the cockpit of her ship was filled with white, speckled only with grey and black blotches fading in and out almost rhythmically.

"The lore did state that travelling through hyperspace was almost a hundred thousand times faster than the speed of light." Hawkins remarked to the other's idle words though his cockpit's speaker.

"Even though all the jumps only took a few seconds in game?" Susannah complained.

"You'd think that a hundred thousand times light speed would be faster than this." Kelly added.

"Space is vast. We already crossed the distance of our entire solar system. The expanse of space is incomparably larger."

"I mean, I know that, but it's hard to image." Kelly retorted to Hawkins' calm explanation.

After all, the scale of things beyond Earth were, for such people bound for life to the planet, next to impossible to imagine. Even the moon, the fact that it took Apollo 11 three days to reach it despite moving more than seven times faster than most commercial flights or more than fifty times faster than typical highway speeds wasn't enough to make people understand just how far it was. And the moon was magnitudes closer to Earth than any other notable stellar body.

The fact that flying to Mars from Earth made a rocket feel as slow as a sail boat was telling at the astronomical distances between objects in space that were even considered close, let alone ones that were considered neighbourly in astronomical terms.

Space fundamentally redefined the idea of distance to the point that it was practically a word from a different language.

"Do you remember that quest, [Infiltrating the Black Baron]?" Hawkins asked.

"You mean the one where you spend over twenty minutes supercruising to the Black Baron's base?"

"Right, that one. Did you know, I got bored waiting so I started watching a movie on a second monitor?"

"Ah yea. I got a snack when I realized how long it would take to get there, even though it was inside the game." Kelly recalled.

"Yea. But the thing was, I forgot I was in supercruise, so when I remembered, I had to turn back and wait another twenty minutes before I got to his base."

"Hahaha! Seriously?" Slapping his lap, Kelly's laughs echoed through his cockpit.

"I alt-tabbed and forgot the game was running. By the time I went back, I had to do a jump because it was way faster than supercruising all the way back." Sherry sheepishly admitted.

"Wow, that must've sucked."

"I already heard some stories like that when I did it, so I watched my game carefully. But it was so boring I half fell asleep and banged my head against my keyboard. It crashed my computer so I had to do the trip all over again when I managed to log in."

"You...you didn't get hurt, did you?"

"Well, my forehead hurt for a little while, but that was it." Susannah gave a wry smile back to Sherry.

The four close friends continued to banter until an incessant beeping interrupted their conversation, wherein they soon transitioned back to real space.

"Ugh, seeing a star jump into view so suddenly is always a bit disturbing." Sherry complained.

"I once freaked out and my ship burned up that way." Kelly shook his head over the memory.

"Me too." Susannah admitted.

In Stella Nova, when one performs a hyperspace jump, the exit point is always close to the target system's star to allow the exploration of uncolonized systems. Though predetermined navigation coordinates can be used as well, nearby gravity wells unpredictably skew hyperspace navigation, though once those gravity wells grow strong enough, they make hyperspace navigation itself impossible and dump the travelling ship back into real space if they attempt to pass through it.

The navigational computers, thus, use those gravity wells as a beacon, then transition the ship out of hyperspace into real space just before they get too close to the gravity well.

"Well, a lot of people did that, so it's nothing to be ashamed of. But be careful not to do that here."

"I know. It's been years since that."

"Same with me."

"Hey, I got a hit on my sensors. It looks like there's a nav beacon here!" Looking through her sensor's display, Sherry excitedly reported her finding.

Confirming what Sherry had seen on their own sensor readings, the four ships turned towards the artificial satellite orbiting closely around the star and engaged supercruise, a form of enhanced movement that allowed ships to speed through space defying common concepts of momentum. Though it didn't allow for superliminal movement, the fact that it allowed a ship to navigate accurately while accelerating far past what the fusion engines couldn't even approach, it was the preferred method of movement within a system.

It only took the group a few minutes to approach the nav beacon, where they all dropped out of supercruise.

"Let's each scan the beacon. It's better for all of us to save a copy of the beacon's data in case we get separated."

Agreeing with Hawkins proposal, the four ships initiated a basic scan of the nav beacon, which responded by transitioning a set of prerecorded data.

"Hmm...seven planetary bodies, two asteroid fields, and there. A single space orbiting the second planet."

"Jackpot!" Kerry cheered at Hawkins's discovery as he stared at the exact same piece of data.

"It's only 0.7 AU away. Carkul Station, orbiting Carkul Two. So this system's called Carkul." Sherry murmured at what she saw.

"That's pretty close. I'm glad the station's not at Carkul Seven." Susannah remarked as she looked at the marked distance to that planet: 819 AU.

"I don't want a repeat of the Black Baron." Kelley grimaced at the thought.

"Okay, okay. Now that we know there's a station nearby, let's fill our fuel tanks before heading off. We don't know if there'll be problems docking or anything."

The other three agreed, and reactivating supercruise, they activated their fuel scoops, using the high speed combined with the magnetic collectors to effectively ram the wispy outer layer of the sun's corona, filling their ships' internal tanks. And a few minutes after that, they quickly made their way to the target space station.

Along the way, they analyzed the data they had received a bit further.

While the only point of interest that the nav beacon gave them that they really cared about was the one medium sized station in the system, the system itself also housed a few minor mining bases. Most of them were situated on the various moons of Carkul Two.

But experience told them that Carkul Station was likely a minor trading hub, and the mining bases were probably the system's primary industry, suggesting that this was a relatively recently colonized system.

As they approached the station, their long range sensors picked up on a small number of signals, each belonging to a ship. Most were travelling between the mining bases and Carkul Station, but a few were appearing from behind, on the same heading as the Section Nine squadron.

But as none of them seemed to be acting suspiciously, none of them paid too much attention to them. As long as none of the ships suddenly changed course or speed, there was no reason to be concerned. They were all too far from them to be of worry.

And, several minutes of cruising later, the four of them dropped out of supercruise, the target station appearing directly ahead.

Orbiting around a dull red planet with white motley spots was a single artificial satellite composed of a series of rectangular and cylindrical modules connected together almost haphazardly at a glance. Whether the design was deliberate or caused by a series of poorly planned expansion from some sort of no longer identifiable initial design, the group couldn't say. They could only hope that the thing was secure enough that some minor accident wouldn't cause the entire thing to tear itself apart.

"Carkul Station. This is, umm, Commander Susannah, of Section Nine. Four ships on, uh, approach. Requesting, umm, docking permission."

"Confirmed. Docking for four ships will come to 480 credits, plus an additional 160 credits a day."

"Oh, umm, we're a little short. Can we pay with goods? We should have enough in cargo."

"Not possible. However, we can put it on loan, using one of your ships as collateral. You can use our commodities market to sell your goods or go directly to another trader to sell your goods. And pay off the loan afterwards."

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

"Which ship would you like to use as collateral. Remember, we cannot allow that ship to launch until your debt is paid."

"Oh, umm..."

<Not my Headhunter!>

A text message from Kelly immediately appeared on each of the pilots' message screens.

<Fine. We'll use my Serenity.> Hawkins ended up giving in after a pregnant pause.

<Sorry.> A quick message from Sherry showed up moments later.

<Thanks.> Susannah responded as well.

"We'll put it on the Serenity."

"Confirmed. Sending you your docking information. The Serenity will be on lockdown until the docking fees are paid off or it is determined that you are unable to pay."

"Umm, understood."

With that, the comms were closed as the docking information was sent directly to the ships' navigational computers.

"Thank you, really Hawkins."

"One of us had to do it. Fortunately as long as we can sell the materials we brought, we should have more than enough to pay for the docking fee."

"Umm, really. Thanks." Kelly meekly added.

"I know how much your ship means to you. How much each of our ships means to each of us. As long as we pay the debt back quickly, all will be fine."

And with those words, the four members of Section Nine followed the docking procedures with practised motions and landed in their designated spots in a row.

"Mmmm! Ah, It feels so good to stretch my legs!"

Speaking through an active comm link connected through their ships, Kelly stretched his body immediately after hopping out of his cockpit once he touched down.

"I told you. You should've come in a different ship."

"No way! The Headhunter's my favourite!" The burly man shot back at Hawkins though his terminal.

Unlike Kelly, who came flying a small fighter, the others all flew larger ships. Hawkins and Sherry both chose medium sized fighters as their ships of choice, though of vastly differing styles, and Susannah went for a large sized luxury liner as her preferred ship. Though it was designed to be used to accommodate first class passenger suites, the ship itself was versatile enough to even be used in a combat role, which was how Susannah used it.

Kelly's Headhunter only accommodated a single seat in a small cockpit, not allowing much physical movement while flying, all three of the others rode ships that had what could pass as bridges to varying degrees. Sherry, the one with the smallest interior space, still had enough interior area to lay down behind her pilot's seat and take a nap if she chose to.

Kelly was also the only one who couldn't expand the interior space of his ship to add passenger suites. So no matter what, he was stuck with the cramped confines of his cockpit regardless how long the voyage ended up taking.

"Well, once we get the Blue Steel fuelled up, it won't really be a problem."

"Right? Right?" Kelly instantly lit up in response to Susannah's timely aide as she climbed down the ramp of her White Star.

"Except any time we have to wait for someone out in space, or whenever we're searching for something." And in a flash, his body drooped down to Sherry's ice water bath.

The cybernetically armed man couldn't help but remember all the times in Stella Nova he spent waiting to meet up with other players or an NPC spawn in some random asteroid field, or all the hours spent searching for hidden quest objectives and rare spawns.

Spending lots of time on your ship just waiting or looking for stuff was a fact of life in Stella Nova, no, in any game. And there was little doubt to any of them that it would apply even more so when those game mechanics got translated into real life. And without space to move your body, such ordeals were not something to look forward to.

"It might not be that big of a problem. Depending on the jobs we get, we might not have to idle around in our ships too often, and in the worst case, Kelly can just go EV or wait in my or Susannah's ship anyways."

Since Stella Nova was not only a game about space ships, but also included extra vehicular activities, as long as movement wasn't involved, the possibility of taking advantage of the empty space outside of one's ship was always there. Or in the worst case, simply towing Kelly's small fighter while he rode in someone else's ship as well.

Not everything translated one to one from the game, nor all the bad simply made worse.

"Right? Right?" All at once, the large framed man perked up.

"Anyways. I've accessed the station's network and found their market." Wanting to get the debt off of his shoulders, Hawkins moved on to more pressing matters as he appeared from inside of the Serenity. "I checked the current market prices for the stuff we brought."

"Hmm...kinda figures, but most of the raw materials aren't going for good prices here."

"It's not surprising. There's several mining bases. There's no way the supply of them would be low."

Kelly and Susannah remarked at the numbers shown on Hawkins' arm mounted terminal.

"On the other hand, the mechanical parts and semiconductors are going for good prices. More than enough to make up for the low value of our metals and minerals."

"All together...not even six thousand credits. Geez that's shit." Kelly quickly tallied up the numbers Hawkins showed, but due to the high percentage of high supply raw materials, emptying their completely filled cargo holds still didn't amount to much money. Especially compared to what they were used to.

"It'll cover our docking fees. That's what's most important." But Hawkins was undeterred. After all, it meant that the lockdown on his ship would be lifted and they wouldn't have to worry about dealing with this issue in the future.

"I guess. But six grand isn't even close to enough fuel to jump the Blue Steel to this system."

"Actually, it looks like the price of antimatter is pretty high here."

"We could try looking around, to find a system with lower prices, but I think we should prioritize earning some real money first." Hawkins redirected the other two's attention to what he thought was more important.

"How about we look around the station first?"

"Oh yea! It's our first time on a station outside of Stella Nova! It'll be neat to see what's around!"

"From what I saw, it seems like there's no real restrictions for all the public areas. Just common sense rules." Hawkins reported what he had already found to Susannah and Kelly.

"Alright! Let's go, let's go!" Excited, Kelly already started heading towards the hanger's exit.

"Sherry! Let's go have a look around!"

"I, uh, wanna look some stuff up first. I'll wait for you here." But Susannah's invitation of exploring the station on foot, Sherry chose to stay behind.

"I don't think we should operate separately for now." On the other hand, Susannah bluntly refused her suggestion.

"Umm, but it'll be better if one of us stays behind. Like, umm...if something happens! What if someone tries to break into one of our ships?"

"Our terminals are connected to our ships so we'll know if someone tries something. And on top of that, our ships do have proper security systems installed according to the game's lore." Hawkins countered.

"No but...it's not like we know if it'll definitely work, right?"

"I dunno about you, but isn't car jacking normally only done where the area's security is pretty bad? This hanger's security looks pretty good and a lot of the other ships docked around here aren't cheapos." Even Kelly couldn't understand why Sherry was being so insistent.

*Bang bang!*

"Sherry! Sherry! C'mon! We're going together!" Having noticed something, Susannah started banging on the hull of Sherry's ship, the Valkyrie, even though she knew well that the sound probably wouldn't reach all the way inside.

"It's okay. I just want to check some things out from here."

"What is that girl even doing? Let's just leave her."

"Hmm...No, I think it's better if we all go together."

"Why? If she wants to stay behind, why don't we let her?" Kelly asked back to Hawkins' insistence.

"This is an unknown world, or rather, universe. But we're all people living in this universe now. It's better that we all get used to it."

"And why can't Sherry just get used to it holed up in her own ship? You were able to download a map from your ship, so why can't she just spend the time checking out what she can find on the station's network?"

"Because Sherry was only a step away from becoming a shut-in on Earth! If we let her get away with this, she'll become a shut-in here instead!" Getting fed up with the situation, Susannah shot back at the others before turning to her terminal. "Sherry! Get out! Now!"

"It's okay. I'm fine."

"You're not fine at all!" Susannah shouted at her arm mounted terminal. "Look...alright. If you won't get off, at least let me come on board."

"..."

Stuck between digging her heels and not wanting to disappoint her only friends, the fact that Sherry froze was apparent even through the other three's terminals.

But rather than push her too hard, they simply waited quietly.

And after a few minutes, the landing ramp under the bridge of Sherry's ship silently lowered. The moment the ramp touched down, a small hiss indicated the ship's airlock seal was broken as the air pressure equalized and Susannah was able to climb into the ship.

The airlock lead to a small personal storage compartment connected to the back of the ship's tiny bridge. The door to the bridge silently slid open as Susannah touched the access button beside it and she entered the small area overlooking the hanger space the Valkyrie was assigned.

"Sherry?"

Turning the pilot's seat around, the wing's commander saw her fellow pilot sitting there, hugging her knees as she avoided eye contact.

Ignoring the silent treatment she was getting, Susannah leaned down and pulled Sherry into a warm embrace.

"I know it's scary. It's scary for me too. But we need to face the world outside. We need to get used to it."

The younger woman combed the older's fine black hair with her fingers as she softly spoke.

"I'll be there. We'll all be together. Always."

 

"So according to this...oh, looks like they're done."

Turning away from Kelly, Hawkins remarked on the sight of the two figures as they descended from the Valkyrie's ramp.

"Umm, sorry about that." Sherry sheepishly started.

"Heh. Don't worry about it." Giving the small woman a big grin, Kelly just shrugged off her earlier behaviour.

"Well, if everyone's fine with the local price, I'll sell off the goods and pay our loan then." None of the group was against Hawkins' proposal, so with a few quick taps on his terminal, he did just that.

When he did, there was a faint rumbling sound underfoot, and square plates on each of their landing pads opened up, revealing industrial mechanisms that attached themselves to the bottoms of their ships.

"Oh, so that's how goods are transferred from ships."

"Now I wish I thought of checking it out on the Blue Steel too, rather than transfer it all from inside the ship." Hawkins added to Kelly's remark.

"Well, it's nice and easy for us at least."

"It is." Sherry nodded after Susannah.

"Well, let's hurry and get a move on. Even if we can sleep on our ships, we're still paying a daily docking fee." Ignoring the fact that Sherry only came off of her ship while holding Susannah's hand, Hawkins pushed to deal with more immediate concerns first.

Following the tall man's directions, the group of four made their way from the hanger deeper into the station.