"Aren't you calling the rest of your crew?" Marten asked while I was leaving the hangar.
"Ah… I may have lied about that part… I wasn't sure if you guys were trying to jump yet so I didn't want you to know I was alone."
"Ha! Smart girlie! I suppose the next thing you're going to say is that technically you did not lie, because the others you were referring to were the dead bodies of the pirates?"
I shrugged, neither denying nor affirming his words.
That was enough to tell him that he was right although he chose not to rub it in my face at least.
Right now we were moving through a relatively narrow and tallic corridor that is just barely wide enough to fit two people side by side.
There were also several exposed piping here and there and I could hear tallic clangs coming from the pipes from ti to ti.
"So… At the risk of sounding like an idiot… What is this place?" I asked.
"We're on our way to the log room right now."
"I ant the station. Like what are you guys doing here?"
I know it's a mining station of course, but I was curious just what exactly they were mining.
Marten answered without slowing down his pace, "I wasn't lying about this place being a Mining Station, you know?"
"Oh, I know that. The map data I downloaded from their ship did mark your station as an Orbital Mining Station."
That made him stop to turn back and give a worried look, "Wait… The pirates have this place marked?!"
"Err… Yes? That's how I found this place after all…"
"If they have this place marked… Then it ans that there is a possibility of them hitting this place… But why?"
I raised an eyebrow at him, "Is there really nothing of value here?"
He scowled slightly, "Of course not. We're literally just mining the helium gas from the planet below us, who the hell wants to rob a station for helium gas?"
I an… I wouldn't know… And I guess that answers my question at least.
"Maybe they want to get ransom from your employers?" I suggested.
He sighed, "They must be really desperate to co all the way here to do that then. Whatever, I guess it isn't a problem anymore since you dealt with them."
"Ah… But they have a base in this system as well though."
"What?! Where?!"
"In the asteroid field around the fourth planet in the system… I'm guessing that's bad?"
He groaned and ran his hand down his face, "If they already had a base here… We most definitely ca here after them in that case… It does make our situation slightly better as it is very likely that they aren't here for us specifically… But the problem is still there… Do you have the map data?"
I nodded.
He then continued walking, "If you don't mind… I'll need you to show that map data and hopefully I can get a security patrol down here to deal with them."
I don't really know how bad having a pirate base in the sa system as your Mining Station is so I kept my mouth shut and followed after him.
He brought to a small room with several console panels pushed up against the wall and a screen mounted on said wall that showed a map of the system.
Marten then gestured to the console, "You can connect your personal terminal to the console and upload your map data. Also, go ahead and download our map data too while you're at it."
I nodded, moving closer to the terminal and tapping my finger on my Codex, navigating the nus until I had wirelessly connected my Codex to the terminal.
I did as he requested and uploaded my map data into the terminal, which caused the map displayed on the screen to change slightly.
Originally, the screen showed that the fourth planet was empty aside from an asteroid field surrounding it.
Now that I have uploaded my map data to the console, there was now an extra marking there that revealed the location of the pirate base.
"Damn… So they really are in this sector…"
I turned to him while starting the download of the map data they had, "So what are you going to do?"
He sighed, "At first when we received reports of pirate activity here, we were expecting only one or two ships hanging around here… We thought that they might just be here to escape from security forces and would leave sooner or later…"
He then pointed to the screen, "But if they have a base here… That ans they're not leaving this place any ti soon… I don't think they will attack our station directly but any ship coming here would most likely be robbed which could an no supplies for us…"
Ah… Well… Now I see how serious this problem is…
This station is definitely not self-sufficient from what I could guess so they most likely rely on other ships to bring them supplies.
But if there are pirates in this system, then there's a high possibility that those ships carrying their supplies would get attacked by said pirates which result in this Mining Station not receiving anything at all.
I turned to him, "So I guess you're going to call soone to deal with the pirate base?"
He started tapping away on the console, "I'll contact a representative from our corporation and they should arrange for a security team or so rcs to co deal with them."
He pushed one of the buttons on the console and the screen changed from the map to display the words "Calling".
There was the sound of static before another voice ca from the screen, "Marten? What's up?"
"Hey, I've got so bad news. We have a pirate base located in our system. Seems like they were here before us. I don't know how the survey team missed them."
"A pirate base? Are you sure?"
"I'm sure, a rcenary fought one of their ships and gave the map data she took from them as proof."
"Damn… Ok… I'll see what I can do, hold on tight and just continue with the mining operations for now."
"Got it."
The line was cut and the screen changed back to show the previous map of the sector once again.
I gave Marten a look, "So I guess that's dealt with?"
He nodded, "Hopefully, yes. As long as the pirates don't do anything within the next few days of course…"
"Right… So err… You ntioned about getting up to speed or sothing."
"Ah, that's right. Forgive . Knowing that there's a pirate base put on edge. I suppose I should ask what do you rember first?"
I pretended to think, "I… Hmm… I guess I rember travelling in my ship… Then I think I blacked out and found myself on the floor. I didn't really have much ti to think after that before I got a warning about a pirate ship coming towards ."
"I see… You ntioned you ca from the Sol system?"
"Yes? And I noticed you guys reacting weirdly when I said that?"
"That's because the location of the Sol system has been lost for ages after the Machine War."
"The Machine War?" I parroted.
He gave an odd look, "Oh wow, did you travel through ti or sothing? Have you not heard about the Machine War?"
"I'm afraid so…"
"Ah… Unfortunately I'm also not the best person to tell you about it either. But I can tell you that after that war, the location of the Sol system was lost. There have been people who have tried to search for it but all attempts have resulted in failures so far. So for soone to claim that they co from there…"
"Must an that the person is either a liar, crazy or just plain delusional?" I completed for him.
He gave a wry smile, "Or that they went through an anomaly that ssed with their mories. It's happened before."
Hmm… That's quite frightening…
"Is it a common occurrence?" I asked.
"Not exactly. But there's enough cases for common people like ourselves to know about it. But I'm afraid to tell you that most people who experience this don't get their mories back…"
Well… Good thing that I didn't go through that but was sohow sent to this universe instead…
But I'm curious about the Earth of this universe though. He said that the location of our solar system was lost in a war but there have been attempts by others to find it. What would happen if I were to sohow find its location and return there? Would I find my old Earth or a new one?
I suppose logic would say that it would be a new one since this was clearly a different universe but who knows? Maybe my old Earth had also crossed over to this universe too?
I suppose that's a question for the future anyway. Right now… I'm a little hungry.
Please tell that they don't eat space slop or sothing…
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