"I feel amazing!"
John had just woken up and stepped outside the Auto-Doc. He rotated his right shoulder around and tested it a few times, and felt no pain.
Even if it is only while in this world, I feel I can accomplish a lot more than I used to. Now I wonder if I could bring that back with me, or make it permanent.
He was excited. Between his improved cardiovascur health and now this, he could operate like a normal human being again. He did a few squats, and even dropped to the floor and did twenty push-ups. He didn't feel any pain in his shoulder or legs at all.
"This is great. I can- ahhh!" he started to think he was in his twenties again when he tried to stand up a little too quickly. Pain shot through his back and he couldn't get his torso to move upright. He leaned on the Auto-Doc for a moment and after the pain started to fade, he slowly brought himself up to a vertical position.
Right, my spinal issues weren't fixed. Still this is worlds better than I have been in years...Now what was I doing?
*GRUGLE*
"Well, food sounds good right about now."
He made his way over to the kitchen area, a small sign above the door that he missed his first time through read 'Galley'. He looked around for ten minutes in different cupboards, drawers and shelves but couldn't find any food. There were implements for cooking, some he recognized but others he did not, but no food. Several shelves were full of weird unbeled cartridges that he had no clue what they were for at all.
He leaned on a weird looking microwave like appliance while inspecting another one that kind of resembled a juice machine, when a holographic screen like the ones in DEN popped up on it.
John recognized a few of them and after pressing a few buttons, he had selected a Chicago-Style Meat pizza.
The machine started humming, and he got a better look at it. It resembled a rge microwave, and had a couple of those cartridges hooked into the side. The juice machine did as well. After about a minute the machine stopped making noise.
*Ding*
John opened the door and there in front of him was a ten inch pizza, already sliced and sitting on a pte. He tentatively touched the pte and it was surprisingly cool to the touch. He pulled out the pizza and yeah, it looked like a perfect pie.
"What in the Jetsons kind of magic is this? I love it."
He took his meal over to the dining area and picked up a slice. The gooey cheese pulling away from the other slices like it was from a television commercial. He took a bite.
He paused.
He sat the pizza slice back down, a horrible, disgusted expression on his face.
"This isn't a pizza."
"This is a mistake."
"THIS IS AN ITALIAN TRAGEDY!" he bemoaned loudly to himself.
He still ate it though. One did not waste food in the Wayne household. If one did, they were sure to be smacked by a slipper or worse.
His wife had been scary at times.
After finishing up his soggy cardboard and wet gym sock pizza, John wandered back up to the cockpit. Was it a cockpit or a bridge? He wasn't sure, but he supposed it didn't matter really.
After he settled back down in his chair, he leaned back and closed his eyes.
I need to figure out what to do. Maybe if I think on it more I can come up with a pn...
With a full belly and nothing but the vast starry void to see, John fell asleep, the gentle hum of the engines the only thing to be heard.
[...Please respond]
A loud noise coming from his headrest startled John awake. He was dreaming about bunny ears and a sexy blonde. Or was it two blondes? He wasn't sure, and the dream had faded before he could recall what it was about.
"What was that noise?" he said confused for a moment, before the fog finally left his brain.
He sat up a bit, and looked at his radar. A yellow contact was right beside his ship. He looked out the window and there was a small space craft there. Long and angur, the main body looked like a wedge, with six glowing engines attached to the back. Two rge rectangur arms were attached to the sides, covered in what his new memories called missile pods.
Thankfully, they were not aimed at his ship, as the fighter craft was more in an escort position.
E - [Unknown vessel. This is Lieutenant Eligan of the Parrax Naval Police Force. Please respond] a female voice could be heard across the comms.
John scrambled with his controls to respond to the dy. Unlike the pirates earlier, this was the police. He could probably get some help.
J - [Hi yes, sorry about that, I was asleep. My name is John, and I am kind of lost. Could you provide me with directions to the nearest station? I don't have anything in my navigational computer for this system.]
There was a pause, then she came back.
E - [Are you the Captain of that vessel?]
J - [Yes, It is called the Phoenix Hawk. I am also the only one on board] As far as he could tell he was the Captain anyways.
Another long pause.
E - [Understood. I will transmit to you the co-ordinates to Parrax Station. You will not arm your weapons and maintain only the minimum level of shields for navigational safety. Once we arrive, you will be permitted to dock at the police hanger and you will submit to a complete debriefing there Captain. Is that understood?]
John figured this was for the best. He was not sure what he was supposed to do here, and having the police escort him somewhere that had people would probably at least give him an idea of what is going on. She did sound kind of intense though.
J - [Yes Ma'am.]
His computer received a burst of information, and he plotted a route to the station from it. It really did most of the work for him, so in a few moments, John and his escort were heading towards the Parrax station, and he got to enjoy the brightly coloured lights of traveling faster than light for the first time.
Several Hours ter...
John was sitting in what looked to be an interrogation room. It was small, the grey steel walls surrounded him with only a single door that slid sideways providing an exit. He was sitting in an uncomfortable metal chair, in front of a metal table that was bolted to the floor.
Across from him was a short, middle aged man with an almost comical looking combover. He had kept John in this room for well over three hours at this point and John's patience was getting thin.
Parrax III was the pnet the station was orbiting, looking like a bright green ball of gas with swirling areas of red and purple clouds mixed throughout. The station itself was interesting, consisting of three rings, each of greater size spinning around a central pilr. They all spun at different speeds but had some sort of weird system of braces connecting them to each other.
Docking at the station was quite easy, the Harbour Master, who was woman with a deep, throaty voice who might have a career in Jazz if she decided to switch occupations, was very helpful in guiding him into the police station. He still wasn't sure exactly what his ship looked like on the outside yet, as the dispy screens just showed a wireframe picture of the vessel, so he was grateful for the guide.
Lt Eligan was not the one to meet him at the dock however, rather this unsavory man who introduced himself as Swind, an agent with the Parrax Police. He then brought John into the station to this room, and continued questioning him on his origins and where his ship and cargo came from, and if his intention was to sell it or not.
The cargo surprised John. He realised he hadn't finished exploring the ship once he went to light speed, but with Parrax Station only about ten minutes away, he didn't have time to look around. Apparently he was carrying around a small fortune of rare, processed metals used in a lot of engine, reactor and electronics manufacturing.
"Captain, with your current status, I am afraid we cannot allow the sale of these goods unless I can verify where they came from."
And he started again. It was enough to make John wonder who the one with Alzheimer's was here, the agent or him.
"Swind. I am sorry, but I don't have an answer for you. I just kind of woke up in the cockpit of my ship. I don't member getting on it, I don't know how I got there, and I have no idea where the metals came from. Why does it matter anyways? Don't people sell you metals all the time anyways?"
John didn't have time to come up with a decent lie, so he just told some half-truths. If they insisted on investigating further, the could put him in an Auto-Doc and it give them his mental diagnosis. It was a slim hope, but he hoped if it came down to it, that would let him get out of this office and back onto his ship. He was starting to get custrophobic.
From what John could tell, the police didn't just handle criminals here, but also gave out trading permits for merchants, identification for people who lived and worked in Parrax and the Kestrel Empire as a whole among many other things. They were the police, the military, and part of the bureaucratic arm of the Empire.
"Yes, many people do sell us metals and salvage, but they all have the proper permits or are part of the various guilds. You are none of those, a stranger who showed up at our doorstep, behaving erratically, and seemingly not from anywhere. Right now you don't even have the basic rights of a citizen of the Empire, so you are not exempt from any of our tariffs, import fees, handling cost, and taxes. This is why I need proof of origin of these rare materials, else I may have to use other methods to have them identified." He said, a dark, greasy smile spreading on his face at that st part.
"And what is the cost of these fees?"
"seventy percent." He said with a straight face.
I am not even sure what is going on here anymore. How did we switch from talking about how I arrived to selling my cargo? I don't know if he is trying to get a bribe, or if he is trying to get an excuse to detain me and seize my cargo and impound my ship. I just want to go rex in a bath and have a nap. My brain hurts.
He wasn't good with negotiations like this. It was one thing like he did back at the adventure's guild in The Great Cleric, where both parties were fairly upfront with what was wanted from the arrangement, it was another thing when dealing with Swind's type, who kept their cards close to their chest so to speak. It was just mental torture for John.
"Speak pinly and tell me what you want Swind, cause I am ready to just leave the station instead at this point. I have done nothing to warrant this interrogation so spit it out." He said to the man with a bit of anger in his voice. He knew that he was surrendering the advantage of the negotiations by letting his emotions get out of hand, but he was spent.
"Now, now, don't be so hasty. I was just informing you about-"
The door slid open just then and a striking beautiful woman stepped through.
Standing around five foot nine inches tall, she had dark skin, a heart shaped face with ruby red eyes that almost seemed to glow. Vibrant purple hair parted on one side almost reached her shoulders, and an athletic body covered in a green and purple flight suit. She had a modestly rge chest, probably around a D-Cup, and a thick ass and thighs that the skin tight flight suit was showing off. She was probably in her early twenties, though maybe a bit older.
She was gring at Swind, the intensity of her gaze reminded John of some of the adventurers he met in the other world. He was gd it wasn't directed at him that's for sure.
"Agent Ling, what is the hold up? You have been in here for over three hours." She said, her voice, though not nearly as deep as the Harbour Masters, contained a commanding tone that almost made John sit up straighter.
It did make Swind jump nearly out of his seat though, which made John chuckle a little.
"Oh, my Lady! I did not know you were here today," he said, sweat starting to pour off the man.
"And where exactly should I be Ling?" she retorted.
"Oh...ahhh-" he started before being interrupted.
"And its Lieutenant Eligan. I don't use my noble title here."
"Of course Ma'am."
"So tell me, what is the dey?"
"The Captain here has no paperwork for proof of origin of the metals he is trying to offload."
And I repeat, I don't remember even trying to sell him them in the first pce. I do need money though...
"And?" she said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"And we have no information on him or his ship either." He said, still sweating.
"So?"
"Well we need to identify the cargo in case it was stolen."
"Has he docked now?"
"Well yes."
"Does he have identification now?"
"I am still working on that, but yes."
"And he has cargo to sell, cargo that we need?"
"Yes, we were just discussing that and the taxes and paperwork involved." He said sweating.
John broke into the conversation then, the short exchange they had giving his brain a moment of respite to catch up. "Yeah, I won't be selling at this station with the abhorrent taxes you levy. I will find someone else to purchase my cargo."
"What? We charge a fair rate of taxes in my...in Parrax." She said, changing her gre to John.
"Seventy percent is fair? In what world?" John shot back.
"What?!?" she excimed, looking very confused for a moment. She then redirected her gre back at Swind.
"Yeah, this guy was telling me all about a ton of taxes, tariffs and fees for someone independent from the guilds like me needs to pay when selling materials here."
She reached over and grabbed Swind by the arm. "Come with me Agent Swind Ling, we have something to discuss. Captain, please wait here." She said, and dragged Swind off.
Haha serves him right...wait Swind Ling? Is he a pun?
A few minutes pass while John waited for them to return. His back is in pain from sitting so long, so he started to massage it.
Oh I remember, I was suppose to try this when I arrived here and forgot.
"Heal!" He said quietly, and he could feel his magic leaving and re-entering his body. His back felt a tiny bit better which he was happy about, but he was more than happy that his magic apparently works in this world.
Just then Lt Eligan returned.
"My apologies for- What are you doing?" She asked.
John realised just then he looked a little weird, leaning over the table with part of his shirt pulled up rubbing his back. "Nothing, just an old injury the Auto-Doc is having a hard time taking care of." He quickly pulled his shirt down and sat back in the chair.
"Right...ahem... Anyways, Agent Ling had a sudden family emergency and will not be returning today. I will finish your processing and get you out of here." She said. John wasn't sure due to her darker skin tone, but he detected a slight bit of rosiness in her cheeks.
Is she embarrassed she saw my back?
"Such a shame, we had such a good repertoire going too. Seriously though, that man could talk circles around anyone. Was he trying to extort me or was he looking for an excuse to detain and seize my goods?"
"Probably the former, he is too zy to want to actually do the work of seizure and search of a ship." She said, sitting down where Swind was before.
"Now, I am Katrina Rose Eligan and am part of the Imperial Police Navy. I am currently in charge of this facility, though I am normally just a fighter pilot. I am the one who came out to meet your ship earlier today."
Her new, rexed tone set John a little more at ease. He hoped they could finish this soon so he could be on his way.
"Captain John Wayne. Pleasure to meet you and thank you for earlier."
"Don't mention it. It got me out of the office for a couple hours. Standing around supervising people really isn't my thing so I jumped at a chance to escape. Now, Agent Ling said you had lost your memories, but can you tell me what you do know?
"Certainly." John went over his half truth story one more time. She nodded along, thanking him for shooting the pirate too. They were apparently a pgue in the Empire.
After his story concluded, she handed him a bracelet. It was a simple grey band with a bck rectangle attached to it.
"Here. This is a Link. It functions as your ID, communications device, as well as a wallet for your GSC. You can also use them to purchase things and have it sent to your ship online. I noticed you didn't have one, so I grabbed it on the way back after punishing...I mean sending Agent Ling home to deal with his urgent family issue. We have them for when refugees come into the system with nothing. Speaking of, that is the status I put into your ID. You are welcome anywhere on the third ring of this station with it, and can join one of the local guilds if you so choose."
"Well thank you. I appreciate it. So, can I go now? This has been a hell of a day."
"Just a moment please. I would like to offer you three million GSC for your cargo."
Three million? That was...what did Swind offer again? It was less than a million anyways. Is this a good deal? or a weird good cop bad cop py?
"You might be able to squeeze out another two hundred thousand more by selling it to buyers directly, but selling to us means you don't need to hunt down buyers, and guarantees you can sell it all."
"Sounds good. Lets do that then."
She showed him how to do the transaction on the Link, and suddenly he was rich. Well he hoped he was anyways, he didn't know what things were worth. He was actually grateful he didn't need to go around hawking his wares, he was no good with things like that, hence why in his st life he hired a guy to do his investing for him.
She showed him out of the offices they were in and out to the hanger where his ship was docked. It was a long probably over seven hundred feet, but a fairly narrow ship, its graceful curves widening in the back where the engines were mounted. Large bay doors were on the side along most of the center of the ship, presumably the hangers. A rge cylindrical tube was attached at the bottom of the ship running nearly the whole length, the barrel of a cannon of some sort sticking out of it. He assumed it was the MAG, and it looked like it fired rounds the size of his pickup from HOTD from the diameter of the barrel. It definitely gave the impression of a hawk in the middle of a dive.
"You have an impressive looking ship Captain." Katrina said beside him. She was looking on it in awe as well.
"Yes. It seems to be. It feels like home going into it." He said, and it kind of did for some reason, though he wasn't sure why since he just got it today.
"Well, I'll leave you be then. I would like to go over the rest of your status tomorrow with you if you are free. Does lunch time work?"
"Sure. It's a date."
"D-date?" She said, this time he knew she was blushing, no amount of dark skin tone was going to hide that one. "It's not a date! It is a...a business lunch!"
"Sure thing Lieutenant. I am new here, so where do you want to go?"
"I'll message you. I already grabbed your Link info."
"Sure see ya tomorrow then cutie."
It was lost on John as they separated that she had already grabbed his contact information. He was going to go rex in that bath then sleep until his date...err...meeting tomorrow with the chocote goddess with purple hair.
She just stared at him as he walked back to the ship.
"A date?" She murmured to herself.
In a room near the Navy Police docks...
Katrina couldn't sleep.
There were various reasons why. New job, ck of shore leave, constant training and fighting for the st four years. Her father trying to pressure her to marry some noble she didn't care for and suspected worked outside the w for many things.
It could have been anyone of those, but right now all she could think about was that handsome, silver haired man.
When she saw him leaning over the table that afternoon, she had the sudden thought of being underneath him on the table, him tying her down to it and ravishing her body. She had banished the thought quickly and worked with him through the paperwork that Agent Ling should have completed hours prior.
Refugees were not new to the region, and the man was a human so he obviously wasn't a Javarian spy. Those insectoid monsters didn't do espionage well, they were more of a swarm a region with numbers in a straight up fight kind of race.
She had more to go over with him, but he seemed like he just went through hell, so she summed it up and walked him back to his ship and it was quite the ship.
Her father and the navy had rger ships sure, but most private owners could never afford such a vessel. Even if he was lying about losing his memories to protect his identity, well he must have been someone of some significant influence to have gotten ahold of such a ship. Kestrel wasn't the only humanoid empire around, so he must have come from somewhere.
She had mentioned going out to lunch to go over the rest of the information on his status, and he accepted and called it a date. It made her excited again, an attractive man paying attention to her. There were so few of them left that she barely had any interaction with men outside of work, and the few that were in the military were scared of her title, so she was treated almost like a princess and not an officer most of the time, even by those who outranked her.
Of course she corrected him, that it wasn't a date, but a little voice inside her head wouldn't let it slide.
So there y Lady Katrina Rose Eligan, Daughter and Heir of Earl Andrew Eligan, the nominal ruler of the Western sector of the Kestrel Empire, contempting dresses to impress the Refugee John Wayne for their not-date tomorrow.