Nanoprep 2023 Day 10: Hugo Moves On
By Robin de Voh on 2023-10-15
He'd been very successful for someone who had as few resources as he had to work with these past few years, but it had all been building up to this. He had to take a public shuttle out here, since he had sold back the ship he'd been using this past 6 years, but even as he felt he had the least amount of freedom he'd had since he grew up earth-side, he knew the next step would open up the galaxy for him.
For the past years, Hugo Vickers had been an indebted miner, out in the Jupiter Trojans, the debt coming in the form of a company ship he would have to pay off. And it had been terrible from start to even more terrible finish. These type of ships have a single compartment for crew, and the crew size was 1. The closest comparison would be a one-person cocoon where you work, eat, sleep, and everything else as well. To describe the shape of the ship, Hugo always felt it would be easiest to compare it to what a tick looks like after an impressive feast. A tiny little head -- the cockpit -- with a huge cargo space -- the body, filled with his blood, sweat, and tears.
He would spend weeks at a time in that cockpit, lying in the same place for all of it. In any type of gravity, being this confined and sedentary would lead to bed sores and muscle atrophy, but without any gravity... Well, there was still muscle atrophy. And you'd think that as a mining vessel, especially as a one-man operation, he'd at least get to do some mining and move that way, but no. The ship came with mining drones, that did the work for him.
The ship didn't even have an airlock. No escape pod. No kitchen. Nothing. He ate-drank protein paste, and sometimes he'd supplement with water. But that was it. Stuck in place, hitting buttons.
And the Ixodida, as Hugo had started referring to his ship, didn't contain much to combat that, other than a very cheap deep "Made on Mars" muscle stimulation system. It wasn't even supposed to help maintain muscle density for Earth gravity, so it was low-power and also badly made. Last time he had taken a day off at Luna, he could feel strongly that even its low gravity was too taxing for his system, and he could hardly enjoy himself there.
He was unhappy already, but that moment of physical weakness made it completely clear to him it was time to get serious about moving on. He'd been saving for a long time, mining more than his official quota and selling it through back channels. The colonies outside the solar system always needed more material than they were being provided with, and he had become very good at hiding his more illicit activities.
Earth liked being in control. The colonies, in turn, did not like that.
He built a reputation, of someone who can get what you need without any nonsense. He never really wanted to know why people said they needed what they needed, even if most would volunteer the information without any prompting. When they did, he tried to forget as soon as he could. He didn't want to know if he was helping build a doomsday weapon. Just in case, he could feign ignorance. If it was in written communications, they were scrubbed.
Some longer-term relationships, however, he couldn't help but get somewhat involved, like the Cygnus colony out in Alpha Centauri. Their contact in solar space, Altin, had provided Hugo with some much-needed R&R as payment as well. He was probably the closest thing to a friend Hugo had at that time.
But now he had paid off the Ixodida, and even sold it back for scrap for some extra credit, and he no longer had to woerry about force fitting himself into a pilot seat half a size too small for him. Or to sit right between two engines, with very minimal noise deadening. Or being out there with 0 defenses or manoeuvrability, but millions of credits worth of raw materials.
Which he'd get a 3.5% commission on on a good market day.
No, now, he had all the leg room he'd ever need on this public shuttle, and having been in the gravity well of Europa for a few weeks, he could feel his heart, lungs, and muscles get a bit stronger already. He hadn't intended to go to a place with an even stronger gravity than Earth, but he needed to train up, and they asked less questions here, compared to when you were closer to Earth.
It would take a while longer for him to get back to truly healthy, but he had the money. His last job had been for Altin, and it had paid well enough that he knew he could buy a proper ship, take time off to train himself back up to strength, and actually rest up as well.
When Altin had given him his payment -- much larger than regular, which Hugo made sure not to ask about -- told him goodbye, Hugo had asked how he'd known they would no longer be working together. Then, Hugo learned something he normally would scrub from his brain permanently, but this time could not, and also realized he didn't want to, either.
Cygnus was cutting Earth off. With all the materials they had purchased through Hugo and a handful of others of a shady disposition, they had managed to become almost entirely self-sufficient. Well before Earth had planned for them to be. They had built agricultural machinery, science labs, had managed to get the minimal terraforming needed done much sooner due to better tools, and they were sick of having to jump for daddy Earth for the most basic of necessities. There were 5000 of them, and they could feed themselves, though only just.
Hugo had nodded in understanding, shaken Altin's hand, and said to not contact him anymore. Altin had grinned and said he wouldn't, but that Hugo would always be welcome to visit. He could even get a bit of land, completely free, if he wanted it. Hugo had smiled and simply nodded back.
He was not thinking of settling down. Quite the opposite.
When the public shuttle landed in Ciudad de Europa, the capital, he took a land shuttle out to the shipyard.
He entered the front office and a single person was inside. He got up and excitedly shook Hugo's hand. They exchanged the minimal amount of pleasantries, and Hugo told him he was looking for a ship for himself.
"So, what are you looking for in a ship? I've got some nice, small ships perfect for a single occupant. Very affordable, good payment plans," the salesman said as he opened the back door of the office into the actual yard.
"I've spent 6 years in a single-occupant ship. Never again. No, I want a ship big enough for a crew."
"A big crew?"
"About 4 or 5."
The salesman looked back to the office as if he had missed something.
"Is your crew not with you today?"
"Well, I want space for a crew, I didn't say that I want or have a crew."
"Ah," the salesman said as he grokked what Hugo said. "I understand. Yes, being able to move around is important. Let's keep that in mind."
They walked a bit, and Hugo could see big ships, small ships, all brand spanking new-looking. Some had chrome details, or fancy lighting effects. Quite the spectacle, Hugo thought, but definitely not what he was looking for. He wanted something subtle, subdued. Something belying its actual purpose and quality.
He wanted a sleeper. Something that looks shit, but isn't. At all.
"Do you have something less... Obvious?"
"Looking for an even better deal? Can do!"
The salesman immediately started bee-lining towards the back of the yard, behind what seemed to be an actual mountain of mechanical parts.
"Derelict or near-derelict?"
"Well, maybe not derelict, I'd like to fly this year," Hugo said.
"Say no more."
Another 100 meters and the salesman suddenly stopped. He turned to Hugo and smiled broadly.
"It's big. It's ugly. It's roomy. It works!" he said, then dramatically pointed at a big lump of unassuming metal behind him, with a little twirl as he did so. "I present: The Unsightly!"
It was. Unsightly, that is, and also all those other things he said. It was big, for a crew of 1, but whether it worked or not was hard to say. Everything seemed to be almost where it needed to be, but it was hard to tell. It had bulges in the weirdest places, and the engines seemed to all be at slightly different angles, but in such a way that you couldn't be sure if it was intended or not.
"Are you sure it'll fly?"
"Yes! I think! It needs calibration, sure, and probably some small repairs, but we do regular systems checks here and the last time we checked this was a few months ago. Everything came online, no errors, just some warnings."
"And is it actually called the Unsightly?"
"No, that's just what we call it. I think it's called the SSV Norman or something. It used to be a military transport ship, I think." He opened up some documents on his wrist comp, then nodded. "Yes, military issue. Interesting, I didn't read this before, but it was the first of a proposed series of these, but the order was never made. So a bit of an unsuccessful prototype, if you will."
Hugo noticed that the wings had mounting plates underneath.
"Wait, is it actually set up for weapons systems?"
"Oh, you noticed the mounts? If you check, you'll find them in excellent condition. So excellent, even, that you'll realize -- as I did -- they were never used. I think they're regular spec. But I can't officially use it as a selling point. But let's move on from that."
The salesman walked over to it, and opened the cargo hatch, then motioned Hugo to come up and inside. "Let's check it out," he said. Hugo followed him in, and it was as odd inside as it was outside, but it had everything he was looking for, and more. A sizeable cargo space, a few living quarters, a roomy cockpit with space for 2, and an actual bathroom. With an actual toilet.
He was never going to admit it, but the toilet was the part that excited him the most.
When they exited the ship again, the salesman asked him how he felt about it.
It was ugly. It was big. It was unique. It was ex-military. It had a toilet and a shower,. It had a bed. A frickin' toilet.
Then he remembered something he also wanted to know. It wasn't super relevant now, but it would be later. A luxury he'd never had before, since it was so incredibly expensive, and the Ixodida had no space for it.
"One last question -- is the ship wired up for VI?"
"Ah, yes, but that will definitely need some work. The system isn't fully compatible with the commercial VIs, and there's none installed at the moment. Military-issue, you see. But I'm sure a VI mechanic can make it work somehow."
Hugo smiled.
"How much?" he asked the salesman.
"It's been here forever, and I'm not going to lie, nobody else finds it as charming as you or I. How does 700k sound? That's about middle of the range for what I've got here."
"I'll take it. Cash."
"Splendid! Good to know it'll go somewhere it can be appreciated. Then let's go to the office and get the registration transferred."
"Oh, can we also rename it today? I don't like the current name and I'd prefer not to deal with the bureaucracy."
"Sure, that's possible. What are you thinking of calling it?"
He grinned and looked back at the bulgy weird ship.
"I like The Unsightly. Let's go with that."