Chapter 52: 52. Connections

Mel smiled and started to reach out to shake Jenny's hand, when the shipyard owner caught himself. His smile faltered for just a moment, and he asked "You're a hologram?"

Our AI crew-mate replied, "This avatar is a hologram, yes. Using one of the HPDs you provided, last time we were here."

Rebecca was watching her friend closely for any sign of a problem. After a few moments she suggested, "Mel why don't you join Jenny and I up on the main deck? The three of us can have a private conversation there. I'll even open a bottle of the good stuff if you like."

There was a slightly wistful look in Mel's eyes as he grimaced, "I don't drink anymore Rebecca. I'll come up with you though, I'm sure this is going to be an interesting conversation."

The captain looked at me and Sarah and asked, "Can you two get the grav-sled down and prepped in the meantime? I'll join you both after Mel and I are done."

"You got it boss," Sarah replied.

Rebecca led Mel and Jenny aft so they could take the lift up to the main deck, while Sarah climbed up the starboard ladderway then crawled out along the shelf so she could unhook the cargo straps that were holding the grav sled secure.

"Be careful," I said as I watched from the deck.

My girlfriend just grinned as she quickly got the straps clear then made her way back down the ladder. She grabbed the hoist controller off the wall, and less than two minutes later she had the grav-sled sitting in the middle of the deck facing out the cargo doors.

Then while she was stowing the hoist mechanism and putting the controller away I slipped into the grav-sled's pilot seat and started going through the checklist. Sarah settled into the passenger seat next to me just as I started the vehicle up for the very first time.

"You know how to drive these things?" she asked me.

I grinned, "Of course. I was driving the family grav-sleds around the farm when I was ten."

Despite my confidence I didn't actually take us out for a spin. We lifted up a half meter above the deck then I took us slowly out through the cargo doors and off to the left, and finally set the small craft down again. It was enough to know the thing was operational, and got it out of the way so Mel's people could get to work as soon as they arrived.

Sarah and I got back out of the little vehicle but we ended up standing next to it while we waited. Apart from the smells of the shipyard it was nice to be out in the unrecycled air. And even better was the feel of the sunlight on my face and arms.

About ten or twelve minutes later Rebecca and Mel finally emerged. The shipyard owner had a serious look on his face, but our captain's expression seemed neutral.

Mel was talking into his little pocket commlink, probably calling for some staff to come over and start unloading the salvage, while Rebecca joined Sarah and I.

She climbed into the grav-sled and got behind the controls as she asked, "I take it this is good to go?"

"It all checks out," I replied. Then as Sarah and I climbed onto the bench seat in the second row I asked, "How'd it go with Mel?"

The captain replied, "It was fine. We'll talk when we get back to the ship."

A half minute later we were fifty or sixty meters up in the air, speeding towards the nearby city at about a hundred and fifty kilometres an hour. Even though it was an open-top style the design meant there wasn't that much wind around us which was nice.

In less than fifteen minutes we were slowing down over the city as we approached our first stop.

"That's the place," Rebecca said as we started to descend. "It's called Vesfar Urox FTL Services, they handle public FTL messaging in several frontier sectors, as well as back into Imperium space."

The building in question didn't stand out in any way, apart from the impressive-looking array of communications transducers on the roof.

Sarah frowned as she stared at the elaborate assortment of dishes and antennas, "They can't really be using that old gear, right?"

The captain laughed, "I think that's just for show? Better than a sign, it tells you what they do here."

She landed in a designated parking area, then turned to look at me as she explained "There's a few other places that do the same thing, but this one has the best track-record for getting FTL messages into the Imperium. It's not the cheapest option, but apparently they have affiliate offices on some Imperium worlds, and that makes all the difference."

Rebecca continued, "So they send the message to one of their affiliates, and from there it's forwarded to the destination using Imperium-approved channels. Otherwise you're just sending an FTL and hoping someone in the Imperium accepts it and processes it."

"Got it," I nodded. "Ok, I don't know how long this'll take but I'll try and keep it quick."

Sarah offered, "Want me to come with you?"

I shook my head, "No thanks. I think I can handle it."

She and the captain stayed with the grav-sled while I climbed out, then made my way around to the front of the building and in through the main doors. The interior was set up with a half dozen employees sitting behind a long counter.

There was a short line, then I finally got to talk to one of the clerks. She was polite, but just barely. Not that she was rude or unpleasant, but I got the impression she was busy and didn't particularly enjoy her work.

So I kept it brief and got right to the point.

"I'd like to send a private message to someone in Imperium space. What's that cost, and how quick can you get the message through?"

The woman replied, "Video-messaging is the most popular option, but you're looking at one thousand ecks for a two-minute vid. You can provide your own pre-recorded vid file, or if you want to record a vid here we have private message booths you can rent. The rate is a hundred ecks for fifteen minutes."

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I did my best not to look too shocked at the price. A thousand ecks, or twenty-five hundred credits, just to send a two-minute video message. That was almost a fifth of a year's pay for me in the Navy. Though to be fair I was comparing the price to the subsidized rates I got in the Navy. They let you send up to three FTL messages home for free every year, and after that it was five hundred credits each.

The woman continued, "Delivery time varies, but it's an average of six hours to reach a destination world in Imperium space. From there delivery times depend on local customs and infrastructure. We can't guarantee your recipient will get the message inside a specified time, but you're basically looking at six to eighteen hours."

Finally she added, "If a vid-message is out of your price range there's a cheaper data-only option suitable for sending text, images, that sort of thing."

It didn't take long to make a decision. It was expensive, but I had the money and I wasn't really using it for anything else. And if I wanted to get a message home I didn't have any other choices really. So I nodded, "I'll take the video option, and a booth rental please."

The woman motioned to a payment terminal, and I tapped my plastic token and paid the fees.

After the payment went through I had to set up an account. Basically they needed to know who I was, but it wasn't that big an ordeal. I gave her my name, told her what ship I was signed on with, that kind of thing. I was assigned an account number and given a card that I could use to speed things up next time around.

After that we moved on to the message recipient, so I had to give her all the contact info they'd need to deliver the message to my little sister.

That was a bit embarrassing, since my home-world never got around to implementing proper addresses or anything else. And I was sure Nyssa had her own personal communications codes registered by now, but she didn't when I left so I had no idea how to reach her directly. The best I could do was provide my family info, and hope they'd see it was addressed to Nyssa and respect her privacy.

The woman asked if I wanted to save Nyssa as a regular contact, which I did. That way I didn't need to go through the whole ordeal again in the future. And finally I was directed to one of their little booths to record my message.

It was small, but functional and private. There was a seat, you could adjust the camera position, and some basic video editing controls were provided. Nothing too fancy but it was enough to let you record a video then make minor edits, like to remove any bloopers or trim it down to the required two-minute length.

I got myself comfortable and adjusted the camera to the right level, then took a few moments to sort out what I wanted to say.

I knew there was a possibility that Nyssa wouldn't be the only one to see my message. My parents or other siblings might have a look at it too, and for that matter anyone else along the way could potentially see it. So I wouldn't say anything too revealing. There'd be clues and hints, but nothing definitive. I was pretty sure my little sister would understand, but I doubted anyone else would. Maybe not even my parents.

When I was ready I tapped the red button to start the recording, and my pretty foxgirl face appeared on the little screen.

"Hello Nyssa," I began. "My name is Amanda Voss. You're probably wondering who I am and why I'm reaching out to you. You can probably guess by the last name that we're related? Anyways, I wanted to contact you because you may have received some upsetting news recently. Or if you haven't yet, then you probably will soon. I'm really sorry for that news by the way. I hope you and the rest of the family aren't too upset."

I paused for a moment as I quickly figured out the next bit, "I guess what I'm trying to say is, tragic news aside things aren't really as bad as they may seem. I doubt I'll ever be able to come visit, but I wanted to let you specifically know that things are ok. My life got kind of rough for a while there, but it's much better now. I'd even say it's almost perfect?"

By that point I couldn't help but smile as I continued, "I've got some really good friends here, I even have a girlfriend now? Her name's Sarah Holloway, actually let me show you a picture!"

I pulled out my little datapad and quickly found a picture I took the other day, of Sarah and myself. It was my favourite so far, were hugging and smiling, we both looked really happy. Then I held the tablet up for the camera, so the image was clearly visible on the screen.

"Anyways, Sarah and I are happy, we've signed on with a civilian ship out here and we're doing pretty well. I'm kind of running out of things to say, sorry Nyssa. Um, oh right! Did you know our family name means fox? I'm sure you've noticed the ears, check this out!"

I reached back and pulled my big bushy floofy tail up into view so the camera got a good look at it as I grinned, "It's real by the way! Yeah, I'm a foxgirl! Didn't plan on that but I'm so happy things worked out this way, you wouldn't believe it! Um, I can't actually tell you how any of this happened, but it's all real and it's amazing and I'm so happy!"

I let my tail slip back behind me again and frowned, "Um, what else? I miss you, I'm sorry things turned out the way they did. Sorry about that bad news. And I want you to know that I'm ok. I've been thinking about you and the rest of the family. I suppose that's it? You don't need to reply, I bet it'd be expensive to get a message back this way. Anyways I guess if you do want to write back that's fine? They say you can just respond back and I'll get a signal, but our work has us travelling around so I might not be back on this world for a while."

At that point there wasn't much else to do but wrap it up. "So yeah. I hope you're well, I hope mom and dad are ok, and Zach and Aiden and Kayla and Luke. Take care of yourself Nyssa. I hope you have a good life. Goodbye, from Amanda."

I smiled once more for the camera, then tapped the stop button. I played the vid back to make sure it was ok, then hit the send button.

The screen asked me to confirm the destination, which I did. Nyssa Voss, c/o Voss Farm, Dunham Junction, Sandlea Province, Kaitor-7, Imperium. Then it asked me to confirm the return address. Amanda Voss, c/o Vesfar Urox FTL Services, Route F9B8-0AA2-41C3, Rolandan-2, Gorath Sector.

The route was actually part of my account number. It would ensure any reply my sister sent would find its way to my account at the company here on Rolandan-2, where it would wait until I came to collect it.

I looked everything over once more, then tapped the transmit key. A confirmation number appeared on the screen telling me my message was queued for FTL into Imperium space, and that was that.

I used my datapad to capture an image of the confirmation, then stuffed the small tablet back into my jacket pocket and headed out. I found both Rebecca and Sarah waiting for me outside next to our grav-sled.

The cute blonde gave me a hug and asked, "How did it go?"

"Ok I guess?" I replied as I hugged her back. "The message should reach Nyssa in six to eighteen hours. I don't know if she'll reply, but if she does they'll save the message till the next time we're back on this world. Then I'll have to come back here to get it."

Rebecca pointed out, "These people have a presence on Ecclestone's World as well. If you don't hear anything before we head off-world then you can check in at our next stop. You can use your account card at any of their offices, to see if there's a reply waiting."

Hearing that put a smile on my face, "Thanks boss, that's good to know. I was a little worried about how long it might take before we were back on this planet again."

"So where to next?" Sarah asked as the three of us climbed back into the small vehicle.

The captain suggested, "Unless you two have anything in particular you want or need, we could get something to eat then head back to the ship?"

"Sounds good," I agreed. "I'm curious enough about how things went with Mel and Jenny I'd even skip the meal and head straight back to the ship now."

The grav-sled started rising upwards as Rebecca smiled, "Eat first, talk later."