403 WORLDBREAKER PART TWO

The woman with short black hair behind the desk sucked in a sharp breath when she saw me. She licked her lips twice before she spoke in a tone of voice she was trying her best to make sound sexy, only it came out as more squeaky than anything else. “How may I help you, sir?”

“I'm looking for the very first flight out to one of the colonies.” I said and sat down across from her.

She smiled and typed on her computer. “That's simple enough to set up.” She said, happily. “Where would you like to go? Mars? Saturn? Maybe even all the way out to Neptune?”

“No, I don't want an intra-system colony. That's way too close to home. I want to leave the solar system behind and start my life over somewhere else.” I clarified.

The smile disappeared and she stopped typing. “Why would you want to leave a good stable life behind?”

“Because my life is anything but stable.” I said and handed her my ID card.

She took it and scanned it, and her face reflected the red screen that appeared. “Your flight status has been revoked and you're under psychiatric observation for the next six months.”

“Yes, and it can be reviewed by any psychiatric officer every month and every colony has one.” I said and she nodded. “There's nothing in my orders or restrictions that state I have to stay here for that, only that I report when it's mandated.”

She looked worried as she handed me my ID card back. “Um, I... I'm not sure I should help you.”

I sighed and put the ID away. “This isn't a company sponsored operation, since they use their own ships and the USCMC for transports. Why do you care?”

She blushed and didn't answer.

“Can you tell me when the next interstellar ship is leaving the system?” I asked.

She did some typing. “Next week there's a slow hauler leaving for deep space after dropping off their payload at the mining facility on Ganymede.”

“Any fast flights out to Jupiter?” I asked, knowing what she was going to say.

“The next intra-system shuttle isn't for another two weeks.” She said and looked guilty, because it was actually tomorrow and it was the next flight that was in two weeks.

“Can you tell me what ships currently docked to the station are capable of interstellar travel?” I asked and she looked embarrassed and shook her head. “You know if you don't tell me, I'm going to go to them myself and ask anyway.”

She looked back at her screen and cleared the red warning. She did some typing and her face flushed red again as she looked up from the screen to meet my eyes. “The Daedalus is at docking port 67.”

I knew from her thoughts that it was a military ship and she knew I would be in severe trouble if I approached them. I smiled warmly at her. “Thank you.” I said and stood. “You won't regret helping me with this, I promise.”

Her face showed extreme guilt as I walked to the door. She didn't call me back or warned me when the door opened, so I stepped out and blew her a kiss just before the door closed. My X-Ray Vision showed her as she dropped her head into her hands and she started to cry, because she had just arranged for me to be captured, interrogated, and possibly send to prison or to my death.

I walked away from her office and across the spaceport. It took no time at all to locate DP-67 and I walked right down the hallway. I didn't bother trying to make myself invisible or used a notice-me-not, because of all the cameras and hidden microphones on the station. Two privates, with first class rankings, stood at the end and guarded the gate entrance to the boarding tube.

“Howdy, fellas.” I said casually as I walked over to them.

The one on the right put his hand on his hip near the holstered pistol there. “This is a restricted area, sir.”

I chuckled and pretended that I wasn't a threat to them. “I know it is. That's why I'm here.” I said and pointed a thumb back down the hallway. “Gail back at the travel agency told me to come here and ask about catching a ride out of the Sol System.”

Both men looked surprised and then the one on the left turned and pressed a button on the small device by the airlock.

“Sir, this is Private First Class Jenkins on duty at the personnel airlock reporting in.”

“Go ahead, PF1.” A stern make voice answered.

“We have a situation here with a civilian claiming he was sent here by a travel agency official.” Jenkins said and briefed him on what just happened and what I said, word for word.

“She was crying when I left her office.” I offered, loud enough for the man over the intercom to hear.

“So, she knew what she was doing.” The stern voice said.

“Probably.” I said. “So, who can I talk to or bribe to give me a ride away from this place?”

All three military men went quiet at that.

“I thought about buying a ship, except there are none for sale locally. Yes, I checked.” I said and reached up for my shirt pocket, so they knew I wasn't going for a weapon, and pulled out a gold coin. It almost gleamed in the light. “I'm also not waiting for six to eight months for the company shipyard on Earth to build me one or to find a crew for it. I want off this station as soon as possible.”

“Did you know you're breaking the law with both approaching us and offering to pay us off?” The stern voice asked.

“I didn't before I asked about a transport at the travel agency.” I said and then added something in case they checked. “However, I did know that the military comms are off-limits to civilians when I went to the communications center to see if I could call you guys first to set up a meeting.”

It was quiet for several seconds before he spoke. “Hold him there for a few minutes.” The voice said and the intercom clicked off.

The private on the right drew his firearm and raised it to point it at the center of my chest. He looked surprised that I didn't react, because he expected me to flinch, shout or yell, or tell him calmly that it wasn't needed. I didn't, because he was only doing his job and I was pretending I couldn't tear him apart with my bare hands.

The door clanked and hissed as it slid aside and opened to reveal a tall man wearing captain markings on his hat and uniform and a very tall blonde woman was next to him and she wore Executive Officer and Commander markings on her collar and shoulders.

I held out the coin to him and he gave it a very pointed look. I made sure he could see the dragon face on the front of it and he gave me a very subtle nod.

“Have that checked to determine if its a forgery or a fake.” The captain said to the woman and she stepped forward to take the coin.

“It's almost pure gold with just enough impurities to keep the coin shape and to stop certain unwashed masses from biting into it to ruin the finish.” I said with a smile.

The two privates chuckled and the one with the gun didn't holster it, because he wasn't ordered to.

The captain smiled briefly and looked at the private on the left. “Go to the security station and get the camera footage of the travel agency. If it shows what I think it will, hand the woman over to them for interrogation.”

“Sir.” The private saluted and jogged down the hallway and out of sight.

“You don't seem nervous about having a gun trained on you.” The XO said.

“You don't seem nervous about having an unknown man trying his best to buy passage out of the system on your ship and no one's asked him why yet.” I responded.

“We can discuss that after your story's proven.” The captain said and nodded to the woman. The XO left to do the materials analysis on the coin and the three of us stood there and waited. The private's arm wavered slightly, even with bracing it with his other hand. The captain's orders didn't change, though.

The other private jogged back down the hallway and stopped at attention and saluted. “Story confirmed, sir.” He said and handed him a piece of paper with some information on it.

“I see.” The captain said and glanced at the soldier on the right. “Stand down, private.”

The man with the gun let out a groan and barely holstered his gun before he rubbed his arm with his other hand. “Yes, sir.”

Not surprisingly, the captain didn't enlighten me as to why the woman tried to have me taken care of. I did pluck it from his mind, though. She was hoping for a transfer from her dead end job to one of the company's offices elsewhere on the station. It didn't take a genius to figure out that dealing with me would have increased her chances to a phenomenal degree.

The captain folded the page and tucked it into his suit coat's inside pocket and nodded at the private nursing his arm. “Escort this man to the meeting room.”

“Yessir. Right away.” The man said and winced when he saluted, then he motioned for me to follow him. The captain entered the still open airlock first and he went in a different direction than we did.

I was brought into a moderately spacious room with a table that could seat eight people. It had a holographic display, probably to go over tactics and building schematics. Instead of returning to his post, the soldier stood just inside the door and guarded the exit, as if I was going to go anywhere else.

I ignored him and turned on the table and frowned at the very limited LCD display. I could understand a colony having limited resources and not being able to afford the best displays; but, a military ship? They should have had a medium-level quality display and connectivity to their onboard systems. Using the keyboard on the side of the table, it didn't take me long to hack into the thing.

Apparently, despite this being a futuristic society, there wasn't much invested into computer support. They had gone in a different direction to advance technology and developed androids instead of going for fully sentient AIs. That was a huge bonus for me, because there was no ghost in the machine to stop what I was doing.

The guard watched with fascination as I took out a few tools from my pockets and pretty much pulled apart the table, right down to the computer-like innards, then I rewired a lot of it and rewrote some of the programming on the fly, thanks to my tinker powers.

With some slight of hand and my copy powers, I easily tripled the memory and quadrupled the processing power, using transfiguration to alter the necessary circuit boards. I then used transfiguration on the limited physical connection to the ship's database to increase the cable's thickness and the bandwidth. The table now worked like a secondary server for the ship's main computers and it automatically backed up everything.

Just as I snapped the upgraded display back onto the much heavier table, the door to the room opened and the XO stepped inside and the captain entered right behind her. The both of them stopped and stared at the high definition display as it went through a much more thorough diagnostic program. I put my tools away while they were distracted and only the guard noticed.

“It seems your story checks out.” The captain said as the display finished and then changed to show a full schematic of the ship. It also showed all the errors in the data feeds and the various repairs needed. The marked areas showed up as yellow and red respectively, marked for importance. “How did you do that?”

“My commercial flight license was revoked for no reason and I had to make myself useful.” I said and neither he nor the XO looked surprised, so they knew about the license already. I didn't bother trying to find out if they knew about why I had lost it.

The XO looked at the captain and he nodded. She walked over to me and held out the gold coin. “You can earn your passage as a technician during our out-system deployment.”

I smiled at her and reached out a hand to fold her fingers back over the coin. “Consider it a thank you for not having me shot immediately.”

The soldier choked a little when he stopped himself from barking a laugh.

The XO glanced at the captain and he nodded slightly again. “I will accept it as a gift.”

“I'm glad.” I said and started to dig into my pockets. I pulled out six more coins and placed them on the display. “You wouldn't believe the things that can be found in small out of the way places during long deployments.”

Surprisingly, they didn't ask me directly if I had any more. That didn't mean they weren't going to fish for the answer, though.

“Do you have any luggage you need to bring with you?” The XO asked, probingly.

“If I'm allowed back onboard, I might have a suitcase or two to retrieve from my cubicle apartment in the civilian sector.” I said, as if I didn't want to admit what was in those cases.

The captain went to the table display and the keyboard, then started typing up an inquiry. The instant response shocked him, then he gave the XO a very pointed look. “Please assign Alan Ripley the VIP quarters for diplomats and send an escort of at least lieutenant rank with him to carry his luggage.”

None of us missed the implications of what the lieutenant would actually be guarding.

“I'll expedite the immediate repairs and defer the lower priority ones for after departure.” The captain said and glanced at me. “I have a feeling having an unregistered technician onboard is going to be beneficial for this ship and my crew.”

“Sir! I'll escort him myself.” The XO said and saluted, motioned for me to follow her, and did an about face and walked out of the room. I quickly followed her and didn't have to look back at the table to know those six coins were now gone.

“Call the cargo hold officer.” The captain said to the PF1 as the door started closing behind me. “We need to make room for more provisions and for that APC he's been begging us to requisition...”

The blonde woman didn't look back to see if I was following her until we reached the personnel tube where the airlock was to leave the ship and we boarded the station. “Did you know we were shorted during the last overhaul budget?”

I shook my head and didn't speak until we were out the airlock and walking down the hallway. “Every military outfit I've ever met or known about, has always been underfunded.”

The XO sighed. “It's always difficult, especially with having to cover hazard pay, combat pay during skirmishes, medicals and early retirements, then reloading ammunition for the ship and the troops.”

“In that order?” I asked and she nodded. “Then I'm doubly glad we could come to an agreement.”

She gave me another look and smiled before she schooled her face and no one paid us any attention as we walked all the way to my cubicle apartment. I prepared a briefcase in my inventory and filled it with golden dragons on the way, just to keep up the pretense.

After we arrived at the apartment, I wrote a message to the personnel manager of the station and told him I was vacating the closet I was assigned, because I was leaving. I set it to delay sending until I approved it, which I wouldn't until after I had already left the station. I didn't want anyone from the company to interfere with my plans any more than they already had.

The XO's eyes widened when I finished and opened up the bench seat under the table. I pulled out a silver briefcase and handed the heavy thing to her, to her surprise, because she did not expect me to actually obey the captain's order. I pulled out a suitcase next and tossed the few things I had left out into the case, as well as some non-stock food items, and I was all packed.

She nodded at the efficiency and we made our way back to the ship. Again, no one paid any attention to us. That was the benefit of having a higher ranked officer as my escort and I would have to remember it if I ever boarded another company space station again. We made it back without incident and she led me to her own office instead of the meeting room.

It didn't take her long to adjust her records to put me into the diplomat's suite and she escorted me there. The ship was relatively large, with clearly marked areas, and I was given a set of rooms near the bridge. She gave me an odd look when we entered and then she very reluctantly put the silver suitcase down on the living room table.

“You can open it if you want.” I said as I unpacked my things by tossing the unopened suitcase into the bedroom without looking at it. It was all just prop stuff, anyway.

“I... really shouldn't.” She said and looked really conflicted.

“How much is an ancient gold coin worth, anyway?” I asked and she clamped her mouth shut and shook her head. I chuckled at her not wanting to admit it and I opened the briefcase and showed her the perfectly lined stacks of coins on both sides.

She looked faint and started breathing heavily.

“Like I said, I could have bought a ship if I wanted to.” I reminded her and closed it, then I carried it into the bedroom and left it beside my unopened suitcase on the bed. “Is there a data terminal I can access nearby?”

The XO shook herself and pointed to the side of the room and the fancy setup I had missed.

“Oh, that's perfect. Thank you.” I said and walked over to her, took her hand, and kissed the back of it. “Let me know when the major repairs are done, will you? I'll go out to start on the minor ones when the main crews are off the ship and I can work without getting your ship and crew in trouble.”

The blonde woman nodded several times and startled herself when she realized she hadn't let my hand go. She gently pulled hers out of mine and gave me one more nod, then she did an about face and left the diplomat's suite with a quick stride.

I held in my laugh at her fleeing until the door shut behind her and I let it out. With the work I had already laid down with the upgraded display table, I went over to the data terminal and it was easy to do some upgrades to it as well to take advantage of the connection.

When I was done, I had full access to both the ship's military database and Gateway Station's database, which just so happened to also give me access to the Wayland-Yutani company servers. I started copying everything onto a thumb drive and could plug it into a tablet to read up on all the technology humanity had access to.

A quick check let me estimate the main repairs to the ship would take several days and then we would be boosting out of the system. That was fine with me, because it took almost no effort to add a certain terraforming colony's coordinates to the ship's patrol route.

Because they were active the whole time, there was no hypersleep option for either the soldiers or the crew. That was okay by me, because even with the roundabout route the Daedalus would be taking, we would arrive about a month before the original time when the company lost contact with the colony and the colonial marines were called in to investigate LV-426.

With luck, this ship would arrive right around when the initial outbreak happened. I just hoped it was before the rest of Newt's family was captured, along with the other colonists, so they wouldn't all be infected with alien eggs. None of them needed the memories of being captured and entombed into the walls to wait for their chests to explode and their inevitable deaths.