chapter 208

“Dean, you’re coming with us. Sam, you hold down the fort.” Immediately, both jumped into action. Dean had his squad ready in less than a minute, with Bob having his own entourage meant to help us bring back whatever we purchased.

We walked the streets with every head turning to watch us pass. When we reached a more populated area with a lot of shops, that lessened, but not by much. This whole place gave me the feeling of a countryside village where we were the tourists and everyone else knew each other.

We didn’t go far from each other, but all of us drifted apart a bit as we reached a more open marketplace. The place was filled with people trading and arguing about prices. While most used credits, it was quite common to see bartering as well.

None of the stuff for sale was new, and plenty had burn marks on them or other types of damage. It was a stark difference from the other stations I’ve been to. Most likely, anything that was actually manufactured here was sold in more established shops.

My eyes scanned everything I could, trying to find valuable or interesting stuff for sale. A message came from Bob. He wanted me to come where he was. As I reached it, my steps nearly faltered as in a large tent there was a lot of space monster crystals for sale.

“Captain, do you see those four there?” Bob said as he sent my AR a ping. My mind instantly made the connection as those four were big enough and had the right composition.

“Those would do excellently. Definitely get those, and if you can, more.” Bob smiled at those words and immediately got to the haggling.

Those crystals had already been cut and obviously were part of the same ship’s shield array. Those shields would be too big for us and require too much energy production, but we weren’t going to use them for shields. No, if we cut them a bit more, we could finally get our main railgun to also shoot hard light.

The haggling took a while, but we ended up getting all four and some extra crystals for only about 8% of the station’s credits we got, eight tonnes of water, and one tonne of actual food that isn’t processed into powder. Apparently, that was the main food source here, powdered food, and no one enjoyed it.

We basically got these crystals at a 99.3% discount if we were to try to buy them outside this system. We were basically stealing. In fact, I think stealing might actually be more expensive than what we did, as you always need tools and bribes to steal something this valuable.

We made a trip back to the ship and then came back here, as Bob didn’t want to risk us dragging those crystals along while we continued our shopping trip. I had to agree with him on that.

FH also sent me some data while we were near the ship, which I am going through right now. She had focused on this system and its anomalies. Running some rough calculations, I realised there was no way of escaping this system with our current ship.

The wing areas were simply too weak, and we would lose our side engines as well. While I didn’t know the exact requirements and getting them would take a while, as FH needed to calculate a lot of variables, it wasn’t hard to guess about how much structural strength was needed.

We weren’t too far off. We needed to survive going against the current. There were also worse areas inside the current, but there seemed to be a path out. However, Forward Horizon needed to be stronger.

That was a tall order. We could strengthen the inside, but even that wouldn’t be enough for the wings. There was an option of getting rid of the wings, but we needed the thrust of the side engines; otherwise, we would fall short and be pushed back by the current.

There was an option of making a new ship and transferring FH over. It would take a long time. The new ship wouldn’t be better in combat, but it would get us out of here. Building an overall better ship than Forward Horizon would take even longer. That’s if we could find the right materials, and even then, our database, while large, still felt too shallow for my liking.

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I had drifted a bit away from Bob, who was currently haggling once again, purchasing something incredibly valuable outside this system, but here its only value was that it was valuable outside.

As I looked around, my eyes met someone else's. They were mostly black, but they widened as she saw me. The shock on her face seemed strange, as it was so human. This species’ skin was lilac-coloured, something I hadn’t seen before.

The strangest part, and something that threw me for a loop, was that she was dressed like a 21st-century e-girl. Oh, I had a bad feeling, which got worse as she almost rushed towards me, seemingly shocked and happy.

“Oh my God, are you a human?” Her voice was so sweet and gentle. Literally, why was she wearing a mini skirt and a white tank top? Every other part also looked incredibly human-like except for the tail. She also seemed to have makeup underneath her eyes, but it seemed to shift like it was biological.

“Hello, do you speak?” she asked as I had been staring at her.

“Sorry, you just look... yes, I’m a human, but how do you know that?” Just in case, I checked my privacy settings. My species tag was indeed hidden.

She literally squealed as I confirmed her guess. “Oh my God, this is literally the best! But I haven’t seen you before, or wait, did you come on that new ship? Are there more humans? This is so exciting. Never thought I would be able to meet one of you!”

“Calm down,” I said while lightly chuckling as she was talking so fast. “How do you know humans, and why do you look like that?”

“Oh, do you recognize it? And tell me, is it authentic? A couple of years ago, someone recovered data that held TV shows. There were 59 seasons of a show called E-Girl House and a few spin-offs as well. I loved everything about it, especially the aesthetics of the girls, so I mimic them.”

She then seemed to remember something and looked about. She grabbed my hand. “Come, follow me and pretend that you are thinking of buying my services.”

I didn’t realize that she wasn’t alone here. There were other girls as well, moving to talk to other men and women who walked by. Oh, this was that type of establishment.

Before she let go of my hand, she used her other hand to touch my biceps. She looked a bit confused and then looked between my two hands. “They are different. Why are they different?”

“One is biological. The other is bio-cybernetic.”

Her eyes widened, and she started to touch me even more. “That is so fascinating.”

She then stopped as she realized what she had been doing and stepped back, blushing. “That seems real. Are you actually blushing?”

“Not entirely. My species can control our faces.” She then made the makeup she had change a bit. Now it looked like she had white stars underneath her eyes.

“So tell me about Earth. Is that show old? They didn't seem to be following the galactic standard timekeeping.”

I don’t know why, but I told her what happened to Earth, about the corporations and the collapse, and how they eventually escaped with too few humans. She listened, tears in her eyes.

“That is so incredibly sad, but at least your species is still surviving. Mine wasn't as lucky. Our homeworld had two intelligent species. We were the subservient ones. We simply liked serving; that wasn't a problem. The problem was an expansionist civilization close to us.” Now it was my turn to comfort her.

“The species we were serving did their best in trying to save themselves and us, but the war was brutal. It took multiple wars, but our defenses were broken, and only a few of us managed to escape.” We stood there silently for a bit before she continued.

“I know it might not seem like it, but I would like to know more about you, and not for my job. Would you like to get some food? I’ll take a lunch break.”

She seemed sweet, but there was something odd. Every once in a while, she seemed fidgety and looked around like someone was watching her. She basically dragged me to a food stall not far away.

I was still in shock about seeing someone who reminded me so much of Earth. She talked a lot but also asked questions. She seemed genuinely really interested in me, which was weird because she seemed to be quite well-adjusted, and I usually attracted the opposite kind of women.

Most likely, that means that she wants something from me, and the questions she kept asking seemed to be probing my ship's capabilities and my own strength.

“Bob, I need you,” I sent to him, as I was pretty sure she was soon about to ask me something, and that cute face and smile of hers probably meant that I was going to help her if it wasn’t something too crazy.

Bob appeared almost immediately. It took him only a moment to look at the situation. His shoulders drooped, and he sighed out loud, which made her look at Bob. Wait, I didn’t even know her name.

“Oh, Bob, you made it. Let me introduce you to...” Both she and I looked at each other, which made her realize that we hadn’t exchanged names.

“Oh my God, sorry. I was so excited. My name is Melly.”

“Nice to meet you, Melly. I am Remi, and this is Bob.” Bob stretched his arm out to shake hers.

“Captain, go and check on what I’ve purchased,” Bob sent to me so he wouldn’t be overheard. It was his nice way of saying get the hell out of here.

“Melly, I’m sorry, but duty calls. I leave you in Bob’s hands.”

“Wait, what? Do you really have to go?” I gave her an apologetic look and got the hell out of there.

I had promised Bob that I would call him whenever I had woman problems. I happily focused on what Bob had purchased. There were some good, strong materials, but we were going to need more of them, no matter what plan we ended up with for getting out of here.

I was more excited about the different components that would help make the three new crew members I was going to make even better. Some of these parts weren’t even for sale in the rest of the galaxy, as they were too tightly controlled. Some of these connectors were going to work brilliantly.

I lost myself for about ten minutes before I felt Bob approach. “How did it go? Did you get...?”

As I turned around, I stopped speaking because she was next to Bob. “Bob?” I said, not understanding why she was still here. Why was Bob looking so guilty?

“So, Captain, we have a quest,” he managed to get out. Melly smiled sheepishly.

Son of a bitch. Bob, you were supposed to be the rock that didn’t fold. Why did I have a feeling that this was going to be troublesome?