Chapter 1: Mercury, Part I
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Uncharted space; somewhere in the Earth Solar System

 

I was a little bored with my classes. I have been constantly revising the same thing over and over again. What happens to the economy when this happens, how does the artificial gravity work, how many watts can a fractural generator produce. These questions kept getting drilled into me, one after the other. I wish you were still here sister. Why did you have to run away and leave me here alone?

“Sūki! Are you even listening?” My tutor scolded me.

“I already know all of this.” I felt stuck, like I’ve only seen a small fraction of what this world had to offer. I looked out the window peering into the stars, longing for adventure.

“You need to memorize these things. It’s important for the only remaining successor of the family business.”

I put my head down, automatically going through the lesson.

When the lesson was over, I headed off to my bedroom. I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling. I didn’t want to stay in the cramped space station any longer. I closed my eyes, thinking about the green fields described in the books I read, about the planets in the system.

“Ojou-Sama. It’s time for you to wake up.”

I slowly opened my eyes, turning to look at the time to see that it was early in the morning. I grumbled a bit. “It’s still early.”

“Ojou-Sama. Your father is demanding you see him in his office.” One of Father’s maids was standing beside my bed.

I got out of bed, heading to my closet.

“Let me, Ojou-Sama.”

I sighed. “There’s no need. Please leave the room while I get dressed.”

The maid bowed her head respectfully, something I never saw them do to my sister. “As you wish, Ojou-Sama.”

All the clothing choices I had were dresses that mother picked for me. Most of them were made of expensive satin and had a lot of ruffle and lace frills. I tried to pick the one with the least lace, as lace annoyed me. The dress I picked was mainly red, matching my red hair, but it was uncomfortable for me, being too restrictive for my torso and feeling like every step I took could be on the dress.

I sighed, heading for the door. When I opened it, the maid was waiting for me outside. She led me down the hall to my father’s office. As I passed my sisters mother’s room, I heard smashing glass with a muffled scream before quiet crying. She must have been drinking again.

“Karumi-Sama. I brought Sūki here as requested.”

“You can leave.” Father dismissed the maid.

Father’s office was relatively small compared to most of the rooms in the home. Both walls either side of me were covered by bookshelves stretching the room, ending at the back of room, the back wall had a window looking out into the stary expanse of space. My father’s desk was covered in documents, one specifically catching my eye. My father covered them up, but it was too late, I had already seen them.

“Sūki. I would like you to attend a meeting with me today. I want you to understand your responsibility as heir to the Karumi business. I will also be giving you an English name, so take good care to memorize it.” Father handed me a business. On one side it had all the company’s contact details and my name written in Japanese. On the other was the company’s contact details in English, my name listed was Bobby Calmi.

Father stood up, heading to the office door, myself following in tow.

As we were reaching the meeting room, I asked. “Who’s the meeting with?”

“The meeting will be with Liam Keel, a board member of PhasCo.”

As father opened the meeting room doors, I entered a room filled with directors all sitting around a table, a projection of Liam Keel on the other side. I stood by my father as he sat down, starting the meeting.

The meeting was held in English, something that only me and my father didn’t struggle in understanding. The meeting was a discussion on the progress of quarterly goals for both sides. It seemed that the business relationship between PhasCo and the Calmi family was that the Calmi family provided PhasCo with technology lost to the planet bound civilisations while PhasCo pays a premium fee for said products. PhasCo also acts as a medium in which the Calmi family sells its products, primarily spacecraft, from Cruisers to Flagships. Our latest project was the Kyōsō Model Crew Ship that could disable fighters without posing any risk to the pilot, a ship both PhasCo and the Calmi family were planning to sell to earths government. Father said that the ship was still in the prototype phase, but still on schedule.

Once the meeting concluded, my father left the room. I left the room after him, heading towards the study hall for my lectures.

That night I snuck into father’s office, looking through his paperwork, looking for the document I saw earlier. I found the documents I was looking for, taking a closer look at them. They detailed the progress of the Kyōsō Model Crew Ship, listing that it was completely operational but still missing the ‘REP modifications’ and security systems. Its location was listed in the Calmi hanger.

If I could reach it, I could commandeer it using the poor security system to my advantage. Father would probably keep the key to the hanger in the office.

I rummaged through his draws, unsuccessfully locating the key. The remaining draw to search was locked with an old pin tumbler lock, so I grabbed a pen from the desk, disassembling it, and took a hair pin out of my hair. I fiddled with the lock for a while until I heard a click. I opened the draw, finding a pistol, a taser, one of father’s bank cards, and a key card with the family business’ logo on it and ‘hanger key’ written on it. I grabbed everything out of the draw and left the house as quickly as possible.

Although I didn’t know the exact location of the hanger, I headed in the direction it would reasonably be. I wandered the space station’s halls for a while looking for a hanger with my family’s logo on it.

Hearing the shrills of police whistles, I hid, officers’ heavy footsteps running through the streets. I followed them, assuming they were looking for me. They led me to the hanger I was looking for, police officers and security surrounding the section. Waiting them out would be pointless, charging in would only get me caught, and sneaking in was near impossible.

I pulled back the slide on the taser, releasing a stun bullet from its chamber. I fiddled with the bullet for a while trying to figure out how it worked. Once an arc of electricity was sparked at the end of the bullet, I got up and snuck around to a spot closer to one of the side doors. It was guarded by a solitary officer, looking around with a flashlight in hand. Once the light wasn’t shone on my path between me and the officer, I ran towards him. He took a moment to assess what was going on before reaching for his whistle. Before he could blow on the whistle, I stabbed him with the bullet’s small charge electrodes. He collapsed to the floor, unable to move, curled up in the fetal position.

I opened the door with the hanger key, the lights in the hanger automatically turning on. The hanger was full of spacecraft of all types, from the Kyōsō Model Crew Ship looming overhead, to a collection of Fighters and Cruisers. I quickly closed the door behind me, locking it. The Crew Ship’s wings were folded upwards, stretching high into the air. The belly of the ship’s hull was just high enough off the ground for someone at average height to walk under comfortably.

I tried tiptoeing to reach the button that manually opens the hatch, but I resorted to jumping. The hatch lowered revealing a spiral staircase extending like a slinky. I ascended the stairs up into an empty, large ship observatory, standard for a Kyōsō Model Crew Ship. I navigated myself up another floor to the flight deck.

“Hello? Is there an AI installed on this ship?”

“Please provide identification.” I jumped, not fully expecting there to already be an AI installed on the ship. The AI spoke in English.

“Karumi Sūki.”

“Please place your finger onto the scanner to confirm your identity, Bobby Calmi.”

I placed my thumb on the scanner, a carriage brushed up against the skin.

“Calmi DNA detected, welcome aboard, Bobby Calmi. My name is Aal”

The engines started to whirr, the dashboard lighting up. The flight deck screen showed the outside view of the ship. Outside the ship, the security and police were swarming the ship.

“By any chance, is the ship prepped for space travel.” I started to panic a little.

“The ship is fully operational, this ship can function exactly as designed.”

“Can we take off?”

The police had brought in an EMP cannon.

Aal promptly prepped the ship for take-off. The ship lifted slightly off the ground, the force of the thrusters creating an immense gust, knocking the security and police off their feet. The ship turned to face the dry dock. As it entered the dry dock, the doors behind the ship closed, the chamber depressurizing. The doors opened, revealing empty space. With this, I felt free, the stars were only an arm’s reach away.

“Aal. Calibrate orbital speeds for Mercury.”

My adventure is only yet to begin. I will find you sister, and I will finally be able to apologise.

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