“You said you had a plan for this?! Flying into the port with no approvals is not a plan.”
Taelew looked over at his co-pilot. Yivonn was not one for breaking the rules, which is why he hadn’t told her of the plan until they were on the final descent.
“I do have a plan,” he said, flicking the engine switches above him so they could begin the cooldown manoeuvre, “it involves docking at Port Langen.”
“Which we don’t have approval for-“
“We don’t have approval anywhere,” Taelew said, “its called being on the run, Yiv.”
Yiv growled a number of curse words in her native language. She hated when he was right, and she hated being backed into a corner.
“Fugitives should be someone who has actually done wrong,” she hissed, as she pulled their ship to begin the final approach down to the orbiting Port, “not people who are trying to do good.”
“Depends who wrote the laws,” Taelew said, “which in this case, is the United. And they write shit laws.”
Yiv grumbled some more swear words. If anyone hated the United more than Taelew, it was Yiv. In some ways, she hated them even more for the fact that her moral code kept having to be bent to extremes.
They swung their craft down into the same orbit as the Port, following its wake along with the steady stream of ships that were looking for a docking bay. It was a busy Port, with a lax Overseer who enjoyed the finer comforts of life rather than running an efficient port, which is why Taelew had selected it for the handover.
The radio buzzed to life as the port tower picked up their beacon.
“Ravine IV,” a lady’s voice hummed through the speaker, “please provide purpose for visit and clearance code.”
“We’re here to trade with Elat d’Aalac,” Taelew said, his voice sounding more confident than he felt, “she has submitted the paperwork. The clearance code is 23-FTU”
There was silence over the radio as the desk agent checked the filings against their code. Yiv stared straight ahead, focussing on keeping the ship in the docking lane.
And giving us a quick exit if needs be, Taelew thought.
“Thank you, Ravine IV,” the lady’s voice crackled over the radio, “you are cleared to land. Please use docking bay 393”
Yiv let out a sigh. Taelew wiped his brow.
First hurdle, done, he thought.
The radio clicked off. Yiv pushed the stick down and the ship glided into the queue for the lower docking lanes.
“Now to hope Elat will be there to greet us,” Yiv remarked, “she’s going to kill us for this you know, turning up unannounced.”
Taelew smiled.
“Better she kills us than the United,” he said, “she might actually provide us something to drink first.”
Featured image credit: Casey Horner on Unsplash
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