Owen strolled into the spaceport's main entrance and looked around. The passenger terminal was virtually empty, the port appeared to deal mainly with freight, which bore resemblance to the rest of Davlos III.
"Hey!" a shout came from his right.
He looked around to see Ash standing beside the door to the landing area and walked over to him.
"Come on!" Ash shouted. "I've got a schedule to keep, anyone would think we didn't have to do a hundred lightyears!"
Owen quickened his pace slightly, his rucksack not really affecting it much.
"Light traveler?" Ash asked as he approached.
Owen nodded, "Always have been."
"Good, there's hardly any room on board anyway," Ash replied laughing.
Owen followed him to a Raven Class ship which appeared carefully placed in a 'parking' bay on the landing area. They walked up the ramp and inside the ship as they did so the ramp began to lift and the hatch closed. The pair walked into the command center of the ship where a female was standing at the controls.
"We're cleared," she said sternly. "So we're leaving."
She tapped the command panel and the ship shuddered as it lifted off the area and headed to the sky.
"Chris!" Ash complained. "Let me introduce our guest Owen."
"Hi," the woman replied. "Nice to meet you."
She seemed somewhat sarcastic in her tone, but Owen didn't mind, he had a ride, a 30 day one at that.
"Warp in two.... one..." she called out and tapped the console.
The ship's engines seemed to scream to life and then quieted to a buzz, the viewscreen showed the ship jump to warp speed and the particles accelerate around the warp bubble.
"Next stop Serenity in 27 days time," she said and walked over to Owen and Ash.
She extended her hand, which Owen shook, and said, "I'm Christine, Ash's other half."
"Ah rite, Owen Williams," Owen replied.
She smiled. "Sorry for my ignorance, but with a 27 day trip, I don't have minutes to spare getting us to speed, otherwise we loose a day."
"Yeah, I can imagine," Owen said.
"I'll show you your room, it's the only one with some space," Ash said and led him into the bowels of the ship.
Owen sat watching the viewscreen as the helm display showed them to be 5 minutes from entering the Serenity system. He had mastered the command room of the small ship within his first day aboard and had soon become bored of wandered between the dining room, his quarters and the command room. The corridors were full of crates, the other quarters were full of crates, the cargo bays were overloaded with crates, Ash and Christine were certainly transporting cargo. It turned out that it was mainly agricultural equipment and Ash and Chris were indeed farmers, not traders, their intention was to settle on Serenity to avoid the rush of the major Federation worlds.
The helm console began bleeping, the ship was set to autopilot, but occasionally bleeped or squeaked to indicate various course or speed changes. This time the bleeping meant they were slowing to impulse, they had arrived. The hum of the warp drive slowed as the ship dropped to impulse power. The viewscreen flickered to life and displayed a distant blue marble with a silvery star just to it's upper right.
As they drew nearer, Owen could make out the major landmass on the planet and the silvery star had become clearly visible as a Federation starbase. The ship seemed to drift towards them, their size increasing gradually.
The door to the command room opened and Ash and Christine burst in, seeming quite happy.
"I take it we're here?" Ash asked. "Thanks for telling us."
"Oh sorry," Owen replied. "I was admiring the view."
"Don't worry about it," Chris said. "You can tell when we slow down because the deckplates outside our room stop shaking."
The three of them laughed. The ship was in such a state after the high warp journey, the plasma coolant had threatened to leak on one occasion due to the vibration caused by the makeshift field inductors fitted to the drive, to allow the ship to travel beyond warp five without damage to subspace. All-in-all it had been an interesting trip from one side of Federation space to the other.
Chris tapped the command console, opening the hailing frequencies.
"Serenity Control from SS Lomond," she began.
"Go ahead," the controller replied in a clipped precise voice.
"Permission to land on Serenity air field."
"Granted, stand by for automated landing system."
As the ship entered the atmosphere of Serenity and passed the Starbase it rocked slightly. The automated landing system guided them down to the surface and parked the ship in the correct bay of the spacedock, much faster and more efficient than that on Davlos III.
"Right, matey," Ash said. "We'll see you around."
Owen began to walk towards the door to the ramp and Ash stopped him. He handed Owen a PADD and said, "That's where we're setting up home, if you want somewhere to stay just come over, or visit anytime."
"Thanks," Owen said and smiled. "Thanks a lot."
He walked through the door picking his rucksack up on the way. As he stepped off the ramp it began to lift and close and the engines started whirring to life. He walked clear of the landing area and the small ship took off with a blast of air swirling around him. As it disappeared towards the horizon, he turned around and headed for the spaceport exit. This was the start of his new adventure.
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