2952-01-24 – Tales from the Inbox: Kel’s First Mate 

I still do not have any good on-location insights from the attack on Farthing’s Chain. By all reports I can find, between one-quarter and one-half of the Incarnation main fleet is participating in this offensive, with the remainder remaining at Håkøya, probably hoping to exploit Fifth Fleet’s reaction to the attacking force. 

So far, Admiral Venturi has not deployed any portion of her battle fleet to deal with this new offensive; I am seeing reports that Fifth Fleet’s light scouting formations are being employed to force the attacking force together rather than spreading out to attack multiple systems at once, but that is, as far as any of my contacts know, the extent of the response. 

Since I have no good information about this development, I will instead bring you the story which I had to push back last week, which has nothing to do with Farthing’s Chain. If true –and I have no reason to doubt it – it suggests that there is a crew operating out of The Sprawl which is captained by a xeno of no officially classified type, and whose ship is a mix of tech from that xeno’s culture and our own technological stack. I would be very interested to meet this “Kel” and would happily extend him an interview on Cosmic Background. 

Sadek Sherburn grumbled as the food-fab machine extruded a greasy pile of beige goo into the dished receptacle on his meal-tray, then capped it with a translucent dome. The machine wasn’t wholly broken, at least – it was still applying flavor agents and heating the food, but the texture protein subsystem was clearly broken again. 

“Sorry ‘bout that.” Arnie Chance, the company mess-hall technician, waved a spanner above his head without backing out from the innards of the second machine. “It’s on my to-do list.” 

“I bet it is.” Sadek picked up the tray, scowling at the food. “Didn’t you just fix this?” 

“That was...” Arnie grunted and strained, and something inside the second machine came free with a shriek of distressed metal. “More than two weeks ago.” 

Sadek rolled his eyes. Any machine that didn’t stay fixed for more than a few weeks was not actually fixed, at least not in his book. Arnie was a good-natured sort, but he was getting old, and his technical certifications were certainly several decades out of date, if he had ever held any. Captain Kumar famously never looked too hard at any candidate’s C.V. when filling a specialist role on his crew. The skipper was, in a very real sense, a believer that any spacer could learn any other spacer’s job, if he was properly motivated. 

“It’ll work again tomorrow or the day after.” Arnie continued absently, still half-buried in the second food-fab's workings. “If I can’t fix it this time, I’ll pull the texturing module out of this one.” 

Sadek shrugged and sidestepped the tech, heading for his preferred seat at the far end of the long, mostly-empty mess hall. The mining platform Thaddeus Wall had been built and fitted out to carry a permanent crew of almost three hundred, but later modifications had automated out more than half of those crew positions, and nobody had bothered to scale down the dining facilities to match, except for the natural downsizing brought on by un-replaced, broken equipment. 

“I’ve been looking for you.” 

Sadek started at the rasping voice behind him and nearly dropped his tray. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he turned around, plastering an insincere smile onto his face. “Kel, I didn’t realize you were back aboard!” 

The creature standing significantly within Sadek’s personal space bubble was vaguely humanoid, hunched forward with its bulbous-eyed head perched at the end of a nauseatingly long neck that projected it forward of its body. Its arms ended in three-digit appendages more claw than hand which, despite appearances, Sadek knew to be quite prehensile, and its toes splayed out and forward from its flat, duck-like feet. 

“My vessel is now operational, and I may go where I wish.” Kel waved one hand. “The human authorities accepted my data records as trade for the refit.” 

Sadek nodded, suppressing a wince. “I thought they might.” He hadn’t, but apparently someone in the Naval chain of command had thought the navigation records of a crude alien computer core worth parting with most of a starship’s propulsion equipment. Sadek had figured that Kel would be left in limbo for months while there was a war on. Apparently, he’d been wrong. 

Kel scurried past Sadek to the table in the corner, then beckoned him over. “Sit, eat. I will talk business.” 

Sadek grudgingly followed the xeno to the table and set his tray down. “Kel, you have to take business up with Captain Kumar.” 

“Not so.” Kel’s oversized, watery eyes flicked across the mostly empty mess hall. “This is a matter only for one I can trust.” 

Sadek winced. He’d found Kel’s crippled ship drifting among the asteroids, and hauled it back aboard Thaddeus Wall expecting he’d hit the jackpot and could retire off the profit. Discovering a living, emaciated pilot aboard had crushed that dream; Kel’s ship was his own, and not a scrap of it had become Sadek’s. That Kel was a member of a previously unknown species had hardly seemed important compared to the fortune snatched from Sadek’s hands. Now he would be a footnote in the history of human space exploration, an answer in trivia contests for all of time, and would still be a poor mining-rig pilot for the rest of his life. 

Kel took Sadek’s silence for assent, and craned his long neck over the table. “I have a ship, and no desire to return to my home-world. But I lack experience with human customs and economic activity, and without such my travels among your people would be short.” 

“You need someone to help you make travel plans?” Sadek shrugged as he lifted a spoonful of unappetizing goo. “Can’t help you much there, I’m afraid. I haven’t seen anything but asteroids for almost twenty T-years.” 

“Oh, no.” Kel lifted one of his hands over the table and dropped something onto its pitted surface. “My ship was never designed for one occupant. Now with human tech, I am told it is best crewed by four. I am looking to fill that number.” 

Sadek looked down at the object on the table, and his eyebrows shot up. He had only seen credit chits of the ten-thousand denomination in holovids, but there was no mistaking what it was. Where had Kel found that many credits? Did he have any idea what that amount of money was, on a seedy mining vessel like Thaddeus Wall? 

“I am told this is what your people call a signing bonus.” Kel dipped his head. “There will also be a regular salary, of course. I will make sure it is commensurate to the duties of a first mate.” 

Sadek set his untouched spoonful of food down. The safe thing to do was to refuse the offer, but a ten thousand credit signing bonus was beyond generous. “Of course.” 

“So you are interested, then?” 

Sadek knew he should have asked Kel where the money was coming from, but somehow he knew that no answer he got would be satisfying or reassuring. “I think I am.” In one swift motion, he palmed the chit and stuffed it into a pocket, careful not to raise it too high into the air lest its silver and crimson glint draw unwanted attention. “Let me guess, my first duty is to help you hire two more... trustworthy spacers?”