I could feel every inch of the ship, and she was in a lot of pain, I could feel the engine sputtering and almost dying. However, we were in space and I had already used what little directional thrusters we had left to turn the ship and start heading towards the gate attached to the station. I was going to have to pay to use it to jump home, then I could slide this old girl into the dry dock where we could start properly fixing her. I wasn't sure, but I felt like I was going to need to buy a frigate licence and blueprint to do that. Flying this Frigate was not like flying the Drop Carrier, that was for certain. I only had a few cameras that worked, luckily a forward facing one was one of the few that did, and I could see where I was going. There was one in a toilet somewhere, figures that would be one that would survive, two were in the eco habitat and I now knew that there were no pillow beds and all the hydroponics were shattered. However, I was pleased that a few of the aeroponics were in working order and I could grow food or herbs on them now. The last working camera was at the rear of the ship, letting me see what was behind me. Luckily, the sensors were mostly intact, and I could sense most things in the Solar System. I say most because I could sense a few ships that kept popping in and out like I had a sensor that was malfunctioning and would catch them for a few moments before losing them again.

I turned my attention to the gate that I was starting to approach and felt the radio terminal on the bridge switch on as I tried to route power through it. This was so I could access the radio and contact gate control. However, before I could, the radio started receiving a transmission I instantly hated.

"Come in, unknown Frigate, this is your last warning, you are hereby ordered to heave to and prepare to be boarded! Respond immediately, or you will be fired upon, I repeat, this is your last warning!"

I quickly accessed the radio and responded. "This is the unnamed Frigate, we are having radio and well everything issues, but first, under whose authority are you attempting to board my ship?"

There was a long pause and when the gravelly voice that sounded like it had been smoking for a few centuries finally came back it was at a slower, more smug tone and pace.

"Ah, finally, the captain ordains to speak with us, well captain, I am Commander Josiah Francis of the Galactic Federation and you are suspected of galactic crimes, therefore I am ordering you to cut engines and prepare to be boarded for inspection."

I felt myself frown as I tried to think of what crimes I could possibly have committed since leaving the scrapyard. I came up empty and immediately moved onto thinking this guy was a pirate or in cahoots with the scrapyard to reclaim purchased ships to sell them again, or perhaps this was a shake down. I shifted the radio to gate control, knowing what was metaphorically written on the wall and wanting no part in it. I requested clearance to jump and quickly received it, the guy from gate control sounded worried, which shifted my anxiety up an extra notch. It cost me my last thousand credits, but I had my clearance and was trying not to panic too much as I continued to head towards the jump point. I switched back to the channel that had Commander Francis on it.

"I am confused, what crimes exactly am I suspected of that would give you the authority to board my ship for an inspection? I just purchased this ship, and it has been sitting in the scrapyard for decades. Plus, the engine's so old, I'm not entirely sure that I can even get it started again if I did turn it off."

"Now, now, no need to get aggressive, the scrapyard you purchased the ship from is suspected of smuggling stolen items inside ship frames. Considering your ship is barely functioning, we are suspecting the ship is smuggling Illegal, perhaps stolen items or equipment."

I switched the radio to mute for a moment as I turned my attention to the readings my sensors were getting and noted every other ship was giving the scrapyard a wide berth. "Should have noted that on the way in," I muttered to myself, but a moment later I remembered how old that hunk of junk was, and I hadn't gotten any sensor readings at all. I then made a mental note to bitch at the general for sending me to this shithole trap. A moment after that thought, six small ships popped up on my sensors before vanishing again. I slowly frowned as I processed what he had said, and a memory slowly surfaced of that stuffy, stiff ass book of conduct that Zeo had made me read. I switched the radio back to broadcast and spoke.

"Query, please identify, under which clans authority do you impede the diplomatic passage of a celestial clans' diplomat?"

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"What? You don't have any diplomat onboard, and no celestial clan member would ever be found out here in the Territory of a sector baron. Now, stop talking gibberish at me, this is the last chance you get, cut the engines and unlock your ship for inspection!"

I paused, taking his threat seriously as I considered the angles and what the book of conduct had said.

"Query, are you taking hostile actions against a ship with a celestial clan members onboard? Informative, doing so would break oath article G-B-57 of the rank wars, this entire Solar System can be declared a combat zone and cost the territory owner greatly in reimbursement fees. It could even cost them the entire sector."

"Stupid rich little shit, just because you know some pretty phrases from some long forgotten book doesn't make you Galactic Nobility. Fuck, why can't you just listen to your betters!" he screamed before disconnecting.

"Oop I think I went too far."

The next second, a ship popped up on my sensors and dropped five missiles before vanishing again. I watched the missiles head for me as I quickly added more thrust to the rear in hopes of making it to the jump point before I had to find out if the laser defence grid actually worked or not.

I quickly started fiddling with the radio, trying to get a hold of Brendan, as my sensors remained keenly aware of exactly how much distance those missiles were chewing up.

"Kenna?"

"Brendan?"

"Ha, finally managed to get through to you, so I have good news and bad news for you. The engine came online by itself. I was actually a little scared to turn it on. By the way, you told me to lock myself down, I went right ahead and assumed you found a control centre of some kind and have a mental link to the ship. The bad news is it's so fried and slagged down here, that the engine could die and melt down at any time, if it does shut off unexpectedly I strongly recommend you eject it immediately, preferably before it explodes."

He paused to take a breather as he had started yelling, I guess the stress of being so close to something that might explode at any second was getting to him. He continued after a few moments.

"Kenna, I hope you're on the bridge and can open the door because I can't get in and as far as I can tell the rest of the ship is in vacuum. Bright side, the jump gate can get us anywhere in half a day at most. So if you can't open the door, then at least we are not going to run out of air before we limp into the Blossoming Terranova Dry Dock. Ya know, you really should just rename that locally as the shipyard, like everyone else does."

"Brendan, we have missiles on our ass!" I screamed. I knew I sounded slightly panicky, but to be fair, I was seriously freaking out. This was a very expensive, at least it was to me, ship I had purchased with my own money and hadn't even gotten it battle ready let alone flight ready and someone was already trying to blow it up.

"Aaah," I screamed in frustration as I glanced back at the ship scrapyard, noticing the next time those six ships popped up they had moved to put themselves between the ship scrapyard and myself. "I swear to God, Brendan, if that sleazy fuck had anything to remotely do with these idiots hunting me, I'm going to nail his ass to a wall and crucify his balls!"

"Well that's going to give me nightmares, uh, how about you leave this one to me, I mean I don't really have anything to do with my spare time, and you have an entire Clan and guild to run."

I let out a huff of annoyance, but I also knew he was right. I did have a lot on my plate. Maybe it would be better if Brendan took this one. I had been neglecting home and really should focus a little more on it. Plus, dad always said delegation was how any business or team of people managed to function long term.

"Alright fine but when you get your hands on him make sure you save some for me, I still need to crucify him and stick him through a wood chipper or something." I grumbled as I checked the sensors. I was getting closer to the jump point, but the missiles were getting close to me too.

"Oh god, Brendan, I hope you are somewhere secure, like the centre of the bloody ship." I whined into the ship wide comm. The missiles were starting to get a little too close for my comfort, the rear thrusters had also begun to sputter, and I wasn't sure anymore if they were going to get me to safety. A single laser suddenly fired from the rear of the ship, slicing through a single missile, but no other lasers joined it in the defence as the other four continued on their path towards me. The single laser tried to continue putting up a defence, but I quickly understood that the first shot had been a lucky one and more than one laser was needed to mount any kind of decent defence against these missiles. In a last ditch effort fuelled slightly by panic I attempted to route all power to the main thrusters to give me a hard push, they fired for a dozen seconds then cut out along with the engine.

I swear I heard Brendan wale in horror as the engine died. I had nothing left, so I did what Brendan had recommended and forcefully ejected the engine, sending it hurtling out into space. I had no power, no radio, no weapons, nothing, I was dead in the water with only a few camera feeds to watch and a sensor array to tell me the missiles were closing in fast. But… it had worked, we had reached the jump point, a bright light went off behind my ship and I swear I heard a big boom, then I watched the stars turn into streaks of light as I hurtled through subspace I'm not sure how long I was there before those streaks of light abruptly returned to normal stars again. I looked down at the planet Earth as a shit eating grin spread across my face. I was home! I turned my attention to the radio to hail the orbital station, only to remember without the engine, it was dead.

My cameras showed me Earth, that toilet, some damaged equipment in the eco habitat and stars. I let out a sigh after I disconnected from the ship and slowly stood up as I looked over at the start of that long ass staircase.

"Well, I'm dead in the water and I would really hate for this room to become my tomb."

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