To love an Alien - Sholan Alliance 1

Chapter 1

~~~ Earth Orbiting Space Dock

Billy was more than pissed when the safety inspection came back as a down check for his ship. He knew the hyper tubes only had a bit more in them before they would have to be overhauled. He had wanted one more run before having to do the work. Billy had a friend who could help him with it only he was elsewhere on another job. He really didn't need this at the moment. If he had been able to do one more run his friend would have been available.

At the moment he was talking to one of the repair companies on the station, "Great, how much will it cost to have the hyper tubes taken care of?" He winced when they quoted a price to him.

"We are looking at about thirty thousand credits and that is assuming the techs don't find any other issues. Then the price would go up of course." The quote was to repair the hyper tubes. If they had to replace one or more the price would go up.

Billy could do the work but he would be walking along the edges of staying in the black. It would take him a minimum of two months to get the work done and probably longer. That was if there weren't any other problems he found doing the work. One annoying thing was he knew that there was at least one problem that the safety checks hadn't found as of yet. He sighed, "I will get back with you after I look at some options."

He called the Space Com inspectors, "Do you think your bosses would mind if I dropped the ship down to my property while I repair it?" If he could get the ship down to the farm he knew he could do the work and save a bit. It would take more time but he could do it and he had the money, barely, from the last run. Landing was something he could do from orbit and not impact on the Hyper Tubes.

The Inspector took a quick perusal of the report and nodded at Billy, "I will send an authorization to the flight controller for a de-orbit burn to your property. Do not deviate or you will face potential legal actions." He added the last simply because the free traders could be such a pain in the fins at times.

"Fine I will land my ship and work on it. Once I get it done I will call for a safety inspection." Billy tried not to glare at the Inspector for the unneeded comment, "Will that be okay?"

The man looked at Billy and sighed. He hated dealing with the free traders since they were all squirrely at times, "Fine that works. Call when ready." He sent a message to the ship. It generated a seal on the hull indicating that the ship was not safe for the transfer of goods.

Billy snarled before calling the tower and was connected to one of the controllers he knew, "Permission to release connections and shift orbit to earth." God he hated this but he had to admit the ship needed work.

"Permission to deorbit and land at your ranch. I would say don't do anything I wouldn't do but..." The controller laughed.

"Kiss my fins man." Billy was not in a good mood as he unlocked the clamps and dropped from orbit. At least now they didn't have that tiny window to enter the atmosphere and could almost point the ship down. He used a gentle de-orbit burn. It took some time before he eventually landed in the cradle on his property. Once the roof of the dock closed he extended the landing ramp and walked off the ship with a bag of clothing.

~~~ Deep Space Sholan Scout Ship

Satasha was not a happy camper. She had been in the middle of a sleep cycle when a number of alarms went off in her cabin. That brought her awake with a start since she had been deeply asleep. As she was checking the readouts her thoughts turned to the ship itself. She was the only crew onboard at the time being. Currently they were searching for the Others who had attacked and destroyed one of their heavy combat ships. Since the attack their resources were being stretched thin and especially with the scout crews.