AQUILA

1. Unexpected Arrival

Date- April 17th, 2112, Earth-time.

Ship- CSV Aquila, privately owned commercial vessel

Crew- Fifty-six (not including cargo)

Location- Not applicable at jump-speed.

Mission detail- Deliver cargo to earth for payment by Fujiko Corp. Representative.

Time to arrival- Three months.

***

Life in space never grew on Melissa Anders. She had always been told as a child that being on a space-oriented career path would be an amazing opportunity to get out and see the galaxy, to explore and discover new things as you zipped around in a shiny metal starship surrounded by a crew you'd come to call family. While that sounded too good to be true, the reality confirmed that sadly, it was. For the past eight years, she had served on a tattered metal rust-bucket surrounded by assholes who she'd sooner throw out of an airlock than call family. That last part may have been grossly over-exaggerated; she had grown to like a few of the people she was forced to surround herself with on a daily basis, but she would never go so far as to call them family.

The fact of the matter was, the corporations that practically ran the human-occupied planets made life in space sound much more enjoyable than it really was, and she hated that; the fake enthusiasm in the television advertisements were almost enough to make her want to knock the paid actors out. Still, the job paid, at least more so than working behind a bar on the polluted, barren mess humanity called earth. The space industry was all that kept humanity's home world and its inhabitants alive; shipping in billions upon billions of tonnes of resources for the populace to swallow up like hungry birds chirping and shrieking to get at the worms mama bird would fly in with. In a way, it helped make life on the Aquila more bearable; knowing that she was keeping the heart of humanity's façade for a beautiful future pumping just enough to draw breath.

She laid back on her bed and stared at the ceiling of her dull grey room, wondering how long it would be until someone came and knocked on her door asking her to help them with a task they were either too lazy or stupid to do themselves. Surely enough, after maybe ten or more minutes the buzzer to her room rang loudly and she sat up, calling for them to come in. Owen Kidd, the second officer under Melissa, walked into the room,clutching a cup of coffee in each hand.

'Thought you'd want a pick-me-up,' he said as he sat one of the cups down on her nightstand.

'Thanks Kidd. How's things on the bridge?' She asked.

'Well Harvey is still his usual overly loud self, like that would ever change. Also we reached the Argos communication beacon slightly earlier than we expected. He's telling us we should be making it home early by a few weeks, maybe even a month.'

'That's fantastic,' Melissa said as she stood up from her bed and took a sip of the coffee he had brought her. It was way too strong and lacked any sugar, which was something she always made sure she had in her coffee but it was a nice gesture, so she tried her best to keep the black tar down with a smile.

'On another note,' Kidd continued, 'Harvey wants you up on the bridge as soon as possible.'

'Oh, come on. Can I not even get an hour to myself?' She fought.

'Can any of us?' Kidd reasoned.

'Yeah, you got me there,' she relented, 'now, piss off outside while I get changed.'

He left the room, the metal door sliding shut and leaving her to her devices once more. Fucking space life, she thought to herself. After slipping her jumpsuit on she joined her fellow mate and began the trek to the bridge. The Aquila wasn't the largest starship in the galaxy, not by any means, but it wasn't the smallest either, so to walk from the bridge to her quarters only to have to walk back again began to weigh heavily on the poor woman's legs and she found herself struggling to keep up with Owen.