Time on my Hands

One thing travelling on a bucket of junk like this is time... there's really nothing to do but sit and think. The Captain is keeping an eye on me, and it's still a while until we make it in to Whitefall. My only real occupation is to make sure I keep playing my little "I'm a dumb low-class - and above all else, uninteresting - smuggler" role, and making sure that nobody gets curious as to what I'm smuggling, because they'd sure have a shock to see the little stockpile of very high-tech weapons I'm travelling with. I suspect when I catch up with x0x0 there'll be shooting and explosions of one form or another, and I have no intent on getting whacked by anyone. The best motto for combat: get your retribution in first.

Sitting on top of my little crate in the hold, I've gotten to watch some of the other misfits on this ship. There are two children on board, who on occasion run screaming twixt the cargo, throwing a ball around. When they see me watching, they run off, or are lead away by their shrew-like Mother. She doesn’t like me, I can tell; she wouldn't like me even not in this smuggler garb. I asked her where she was heading, and she just looked at me and walked away.

Others on the ship are mostly drifting their way across the verse. Some honest workers and settlers, in a for nasty surprise when they reach their new Eden. Mostly roughnecks though, who can read the look in my eye and stay well clear. Out here, it feels like we're just flotsam, bobbing around, waiting for an island to wash up on.

I'm starting to think about seeing x0x0 again. With further reflection, I'm now sure I'm right. Svenksa's bound to head to Whitefall, the challenge will be working out where he'll put down. That said, he's such a creature of habit. If I was him I'd head back to familiar ground. Somewhere private, but in public. Somewhere where there's a strong incentive for his buyers to not cause a scene. Somewhere where he can't get sniped from a distance... and that, to Svenska, is going to mean a bar. I'll have to work out which when I get planetside. I do know that he isn't going to be pleased to see me; my loose plan is to stay at a distance and only step in if things look bad...