Chp 1a

A spaceship hurtled through the dark void of space, its engines screaming at an angry whining annoying pitch that shouldn’t have happened because sound shouldn’t travel in a vacuum. Or does it? Well, sounds definitely travels within the confines of the piece of le se of a ship. No, that wasn’t fair, Ben thought. He lived on this ship. It was home. It was a mite old-ish and in danger of falling apart. That was why he thought of it as trash. However, he did buy it 2nd hand. Actually it might have been 100th hand for all he knew, used-spaceship dealers were seldom upfront about what their stuff had gone through. Still, it had been cheap.

Sitting at the helm, Bert kept his foot on the pedal that kept the fuel pumping into the engines of the ship that kept the ship hurtling through space that kept them on schedule for their current delivery job. Ben may have bought the ship but he was certain that he couldn’t fly it very well, especially when there were gears to be changed. So Ben had found Bert at the usual seedy bar-type cantinas depicted in all the old sci-fi classics. Bert had been regaling the anyone who would listen to him talk about his exploits in the great war piloting the renown Millennium Falcon. He was drawing great laughs because EVERYBODY knew it was General Han Solo and Chewbacca who piloted the Falcon, except during the attack on the 2nd Death Star when General Lando Calrissian took the helm. It was only after Bert got off the stage that Ben realised Bert was a stand-up comic.

However, Bert did have a legitimate driving license and his own cramped crate, out of which he lived and relied on for travelling to his sets, was becoming decrepit. So when Ben approached him to be the pilot of his ship, Bert readily agreed. It was a good deal because Bert could keep his job as a comic, have a place to stay, and earn a little commission from the delivery service they provided.

Ben sat huddled over his navigation console. If there was anything he could do, it was to read a map. Well, the nav computer helped. Besides the falling prices of technology made Galaxy Positioning Systems affordable. Still, one had to either purchase star maps or find them via utorrent.