The Pit Fighter

Part one: Into Svalbard

     After a few days of travel from a distant quantum gate, Jammer, Silver and Arrow of Team Sentient were finally in visual range of their destination; a dark icy body in the scattered disk named "Svalbard" by it's ancient Nordic colonists.  A week ago Jammer had received a message from a local requesting for a chance to become a member of Team Sentient,  and their record with the local militia made them a worthy candidate.  Bored with the idle of the peace talks in Patroclus, Arrow gathered his mate Silver, and Pilot Jammer to journey to the planetoids to work out a deal with the recruit.

     Not wanting to take the company's frigate, Arrow decided to do the trip in a troop carrier with his two friends but regretted it about 24 hours out, there was very few places to stop for food or supplies in this distant region of the solar system and the three had to make do with rations and hard bunks, as well as the obvious inconvenience of having to share one small bathroom and a limited water supply.  Having reached the world, Arrow was anticipating a good meal and a chance to relax before meeting his recruit.

"Svalbard control, this is Troop carrier Endurance requesting entry to cap locker." Jammer said,

"Rodger endurance, send security clearance and intended destination, match orientation and join the line."

Jammer sighed, after three days in the troop carrier he wasn't looking forward to a long wait.

"Roger that control, how long is the line?"

"We have a passenger liner and a freighter in front of you, won't be a long wait."

"Good, I'm hungry." Silver grumbled from a seat behind Jammer. "If i gotta eat one more biostabalized food puck I'm going to lose my shit!"

"Sending along security clearance documents." Arrow said.

     Jammer spotted the round same of the cap locker on the dark, icy surface of Svalbard, a ring of light with the winking lights of a few ships around it.  In his visual readout a blinking line of lights guided him to the line, just behind a pill-shaped passenger liner and a hulking, mismatched cargo freighter that was currently slowly making its way into the lumbering doors of the cap locker.  Floating billboards brightly advertised hotels, resorts, restaurants and casinos in the long line, announcing the places to go and things to see in the civilization inside.  Jammer lined up the shuttle a respectful distance behind the passenger liner, and puffed retro-thrust parking the ship relative to the rotation of the asteroid and waited for the freighter to finish entering.  Jammer leaned back and relaxed, having been flying the ship for hours to properly find Svalbard in the solar system's expansive Scattered Disk.

"What's local time in there, Jammer?" Arrow asked.

"About one in the afternoon, they go off Johannesburg time." Jammer explained. 

"Right on time," Arrow said, looking at a document in the window. "We're meeting our recruit at her job at about 1900."

"We have time for dinner with Mom and Dad!" Jammer said with a smile.

"Jammer, are you absolutely sure your parents are okay with us staying with them?"  Arrow asked.

"We could just get a hotel." Silver offered.

"We're going to Nande, it's a small town.  There' only one hotel and the rooms are more cramped than this shuttle." Jammer said. "Besides, my Mother would be angry if we didn't stay on the family estate."

    The liner in front of them slowly slid through the large doors ahead of them, and Jammer took the shuttle into Svalbaard's docking bay.  Beyond the sizable doors was dozens of ships docked with great gantries where their passengers and Fargo could be unloaded.  Flitters and small lancers puttered around the bay taking passengers and goods between ships.  Jammer took a direct course through the bay, heading for the second door that led into the asteroid's interior.