The Zephyr limped into Petrov station, trailing a thin line of smoke from its port ehe smoke came from the ruptured eleics systems along the side of the ship and not the fuel system, thankfully.

  An undoted asteroid, that was too small for their ser to pick up, puhrough their deflector shield. The shield slowed it down signifitly, but the foot-long rock still tore a rge gash down the rear of the ship. The Zephyr was an old ship, so it had its fair share of patches, and this wouldn’t be anything new, except the rock had broken apart on impact, and peppered the port engine e, damaging the engine in the process.

  They shut that engine down to prevent further damage, which also forced them to shut the starboard engine off to keep the ship from stantly drifting to one side. This left them with only the tral thruster for propulsion. So their trip had taken two weeks lohan inally scheduled.

  “Ease it in, Wilkes.”

  “I’ll treat it like my very own child, Captain Daniel,” the pilot responded.

  “Didn’t you skip out on your wife and kids?” Sierra asked.

  “They weren’t mine,” grumbled the pilot.

  “Let him trate, Sierra.”

  “Sorry, Captain,” the sensor operator responded. “You sure this station even fix the Zephyr?”

  “I doubt it,” Daniel sighed. “But we might be able to get a rept engine. I know a guy who runs a salvage yard here. As soon as we’re secure, I’ll go have a chat with him.”

  Jasper Daniel didn’t usually travel this far out to the edge of human space. There were a few reasons for that. The biggest being there wasn’t a guarahey would return safely. Pirates were only one of the s out here, the Zephyr ran into the other kind. Undoted rocks were a real hazard. Had that asteroid struck the bridge zone instead, they might not be here to have this versation.

  He should have knower than to take this tract. Yet even with them being so te, the payout would still have been profitable. Except now he would have to spend all that profit and likely more to fix up the Zephyr.

  Jasper watched the main s as the ship slowly passed through the rge hangar opening. The view was skewed, making it seem like the ship was ing in tilted. It was a good thing they didn’t rely on the cameras for dog. He made a mental o have someone go out and adjust the camera oop of the ship. It had probably been knocked loose by the impact.

  White es of vapor shot into view as the retro thrusters fired to slow the ship even further. Soon the main e out and a soft puff could be heard as the vertical thrusters fired t the ship to the deck. There was a dull thud that resouhrough the ship as the ndiouched down and the faint hum of the station transferred over the physical e.

  Ever since he was a young child, flying aboard his father’s old mining ship, he had ehis moment.

  Jasper flipped on the ship . “Alright, secure your soles. For those not on cargo duty, I’ll need you to help with mainteasks. We're going to go over every po before taking off again.” There was a chorus of groans following that statement, but nobody pioo vocally.

  The ship was their only prote against the harsh vacuum of space. Leaving a possible issue from the impadiscovered simply wasn’t an option. Jasper had knotains who skipped these steps. And well… a lot of them weren’t around anymore.

  As soon as he got the signal that the hangar ressurized again, he exited the ship from the open p. He o the creere busy unloading the cargo. They all nodded back.

  His port liaison was already busy chatting with the er, and he skirted aside to avoid aas. Some of their ers wao speak with him directly, but Jasper hadn’t hired Naomi just for people to bypass her and e to him. He liked being the Captain and running the ship, but that didn’t mean he liked having to deal with the minutia of er iions. That was Naomi’s specialty, and she was worth every credit.

  They had docked at the fourth ring, so he headed for the elevators and made his way to the third.

  When he arrived outside of where the Sokolov Repair and Salvage had been located, he found it wasn’t there anymore. In its pce was a business called Anton’s Spaceworks. He khat the irascible Yuri wouldn’t have sold off his yard to the station. That meant only ohing. The old man was dead.

  Jasper let that sink in for a bit. He had known Yuri Sokolov since he was able to recall faces. His dad had frequehe station back when he was mining this system. This was before his father met Anya, his stepmother. She eventually vinced his father to give up mining and go into a safer profession. Although being a space hauler wasn’t much safer.

  With a sigh, Jasper ehe establishment. He didn’t have high hopes though.

  The first thiiced was that the racks upon racks of junk that Yuri had refused to part with were gone. In its pce was a white space that looked freshly painted. At least a dozen workers were moving about and w on multiple projects. Jasper imagined what Yuri would say if he saw this many people in his yard at the same time. The old man probably would have blown a gasket.

  A well-dressed man approached, which was the sed warning sign for Jasper. “How I assist you today?”

  “On our way here, my ship took an asteroid strike. I was looking to get a quote fine repairs.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope your crew is all okay?”

  “They are, thank you.”

  “I certainly assist you with that. What model of engine is it?”

  “It's an Omni 456.” At the mention of the manufacturer, the man’s fake smile dipped for a moment, but Jasper still caught it.

  “I see. Well, we don’t carry any Omni parts I’m afraid. So we only offer you a direct rept. We have a Sinorus vosem’sot.”

  He wasn’t surprised that this outfitter didn’t hahe Omni models. Not after Omrayed the Coalition for an exclusive STO tract during the war. It wasn’t on knowledge as Omni did their best to suppress aion of the betrayal, but any captain worth their wings knew of the ope.

  Most of these outer systems were made up of expatriates of the Coalition. He didn’t bme them for their dislike of the STO’s main engine manufacturer. He didn’t much like Omher, but they sold the fastest and most effit engines out there. If you wao stay petitive in the core systems you had to buy from them.

  “How much is a rept gonna run me?” Jasper asked, knowing it robably going to be outside his budget, even with the arguably inferior Sinorus engine.

  The slick-dressed man gave Jasper a quote that made his eyes bulge. “What! That’s three times the cost of a brand-new Omni engine.”

  At that, the salesman lost all pretense of friendliness. “I’m afraid that is the price. If you don’t like it, feel free to shop around.” With that, the man turned a, leaving Jasper fuming.

  He did just what the man suggested, but every pce he stopped at, either refused to work on it or quoted him even more than the salesman at Anton’s did. It was infuriating.

  Jasper returo the ship and gathered up the crew to tell them what was going on.

  “Buncha slimy bastards!” one of the cargo handlers yelled. He didn’t catch exactly who said that, but he agreed.

  “There has to be someone on this station that is willing to take on this job,” Naomi spoke.

  “I agree,” Jasper said. “And I want you all to b the station for any leads. There has to be someone willing and able to do this for a reasonable price. I know these people don’t like Omni, but if they think they're going to force us into buying substandard junk, they float out an airlock.” That got a round of chuckles from the crew.

  ***

  Wilkes was chewing o of assed for a protein bar on this shit hole of a station as he made his way down to the bott. He had been born on a station, so he knew who to talk to to get information.

  It didn’t take him long to find a young boy hanging out near a vending mae. Much like Wilkes had been before joining the Zephyr’s crew, this boy was a ward of the station. You could always tell the differeween orphans and those kids with parents. It was in the eyes. He didn’t walk up to the kid though, that would just spook the adolest. Instead, he made for the vending mae. The kid eyed him warily but didn’t leave. So he was cautious, but not afraid. That was good.

  You could tell a lot about how stations treated orphans by their attitude trownups. He spent a few minutes pretending to pohe options in the mae before purchasing two bars.

  “Aw shucks, I didn’t want this one.” He turo the kid. “Hey, you!”

  As expected, the kid focused on him. “Me?” The kid asked, pointing to himself.

  “Yeah. I actally purchased two bars and I was only pnning oing one, you want the other?”

  The kid narrowed his eyes. “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch, but I could use some information if you’d rather trade.”

  The kid shrugged and stepped away from the wall. “Bar first.”

  Wilkes smiled and tossed to chalky protein bar to the kid, who ope and quickly ate. “Whaddya wanna know?” the youth spoke around a mouthful of the snack.

  “Know ahat do engine repairs?”

  “Yeah, plenty,” the kid replied after swallowing. “You’re on the wrong floor for that.”

  Wilkes chuckled. “Yeah, we already spoke to those oher rings. They want too much.” He decided not to mention why they waoo much.

  The kid rubbed his in thought. That was a good sign. It meant the kid wasn’t just gonna spew some balo him to get him to leave.

  “Well, there’s Maxim. But I heard he got into some trouble over shoddy work. …Um…”

  “I’ll take anyone kid,” Wilkes pressed when the kid hesitated.

  “There is Alexander, but…”

  “Is he also known for shoddy work?”

  The boy shook his head. “No, he does good work. It’s just, well… he’s a robot.”

  Wilkes bli that. “A robot?”

  “Well, supposedly, he's just sid uses the robot to i with people.”

  “You don’t buy that?” Wilkes guessed.

  “Never heard any rumors of a sick person moving in,” the kid shrugged.

  “ you provide both Maxim’s and Alexander’s locations?”

  The kid rattled off some numbers before walking off. As thanks, Wilkes handed him the sed bar. He was still trying to get the taste of the oe out of his mouth.

  ***

  Jasper and Wilkes left Maxim’s shop, less than impressed. If he thought the man at Anton’s had that used ship salesman vibe, Maxim practically radiated scum. The man promised everything uhe suhe rundown state of his shop and the seeming ck of work spoke volumes.

  “Last stop, Captain,” Wilkes reminded him as they made their way to the final option his people had been able to discover. If this person didn’t work out, he would be forced to take out a loan and have Antons repce the engine.

  As they rouhe st bend toward their destination, the grime-filled corridor vanished, leaving a , if somewhat worn-down hallway ahead. Jasper quirked an eyebrow as he heard Wilkes whistle. “Now that musta taken some elbow grease.”

  “Yeah,” Jasper responded softly. It also showed someone who actually cared about where they worked.

  They arrived outside ‘Alexander’s Repair Shop’. It was a small space, but it en and inviting. The pair stepped in and stopped.

  There was indeed a robot running the establishment. They hadn’t quite expected the little girl, who seemed to be fiddling with something on the ter though.

  “Greetings” the robot spoke. “I will be with you in just a moment.”

  Jasper simply nodded and waited.

  The young girl looked over at them, before quickly losing i and going back to what she was doing.

  After about a mihe girl squealed happily. “Alex, I did it!”

  “That’s excellent, Yulia. How about you run along now?”

  “Ok,” The girl hopped off her stool and raced for the door, f the pair to quickly move aside.

  “Sorry about the wait. What I help you gentlemen with?”

  Jasper stepped forward and held out his hand. The robot extes own and shook the offered appehe grip was firm, but not painful.

  “If you don’t mind, I have to ask.”

  “Why the robot body?” the projected face smiled knowingly. “You must be o the station?”

  Jasper nodded.

  “I suffer from an incurable auto-immune disease. It means I’m essentially trapped inside a life pod. So I use a remote e to this robot to experiehe world, so to speak.”

  Jasper didn’t ask the man if he had tried nanite regen therapy. That was expensive. And going by the cobbled-together look of this robot, and where he was w out of, it was clear the man lived on limited funds.

  “My ship took some damage and we were w if you could repair the engine?”

  “What model?” the robot asked.

  Jasper kept himself from grimag at the question. It would have e up eventually, no matter what. “Omni 456.”

  “Hmm… I am not familiar with that model. Most ships that e through here use the Sinorus engines.”

  Jasper was ready for the man to deny him like all of the others, but he said something else. “I would o add the price of a repair schematic to any work I would do. Is that acceptable?”

  Jasper nodded. “Uh, yes. Absolutely. So you do it?”

  “I’m not sure. I would o see it in person first. The freight elevator leaves in about fifteen minutes. Where is the ship located?”

  Eted by the fact Alexander wasn’t making any promises before seeing the ship, Jasper provided the hangar coordinates for the Zephyr.