31. Docking at Ashen Port

Twenty-two days had passed since the living cores chose their destination. According to the galaxy map, they were currently outside of the view range of Ashen Port— close enough to reach the port at a moment’s notice, but far enough away to not get spotted. Or at least, Abyssal thought it was far enough to not get spotted. Their next step was to obviously dock at the spaceport. However, before they could do so, they must settle a few things first.

“Are the preparations done, my dear maid?” Abyssal asked Kuon. The two Living Cores floated near the big escape pod. In the escape pod, one could see two humans in it, banging on the tempered glass, yelling at the two drones. However, only their incomprehensible muffles reached Abyssal and Kuon.

“Yes, Master. A custom made escape pod with enough supplies to last them two weeks. Distress signal included,” Kuon gave a slight bow.

“They will really survive two weeks out there, right? You didn’t set it to blow up after we eject them?”

“You have my word, Master. The last thing I want is to stoop as low as these scum,”  Kuon gave the two smugglers a glare. She controlled one of the construction drones to bang on the pod, causing the two to shrink back— effectively stopping them from making any more noise.

“Alright. I trust you then,” Abyssal said before moving closer to the pod. She then pressed a button that was on the pod.

*Kachik

A rumble was felt as the button was pressed.

“Well then, gentlemen. It’s been an honour travelling with you guys, but it seems that our time for parting is at hand. I wish you good luck on future endeavours. Thanks for the ship by the way,” Abyssal said to them before giving them a wave.

Abyssal’s last sight of the two smugglers was them trying their hardest to bang open the pod. Their efforts were futile as they were soon ejected out of the S.A.S. Abyssal alongside all their contrabands. The blue shimmering dust formed a sort of pale cloud with the pod as the nucleus. Ejecting a pod into deep space usually means death. It was fortunate for the two smugglers that they were ejected near to a port in a sector with high traffic. They’ll hopefully be found within a day or two.

“Alright then. Now with those two goons out of the way, let’s discuss how we are going to dock at the port,” Abyssal said as she made her way to the bridge.

“Do we not just dock?” Kuon asked as she followed Abyssal.

“I mean… we can. But like, I want to be safe. I’ve noticed I have been much too careless recently. So far I’m pretty lucky to be alive, but I don’t want that to be the norm. I just want to get things right for once. You know, be prepared for a worst-case scenario.”

“I see. That’s a commendable approach.”

“I just feel like I should start being a more responsible person and all that,” Abyssal said as she let out a sheepish laugh.

“I see. So what is our plan then?”

“... that’s what I want to ask you actually. Anything you think we should do to prepare before we dock? I was thinking of hiding our identities as Living Cores. I got a nice idea prepared for that. I’m just worried if we have peacekeepers scanning our cargo or people asking for identification or something. I want to know your thoughts on the matter.”

“...”

“What’s wrong?” Abyssal asked when Kuon went quiet all of a sudden.

“Please forgive this useless self, Master,” Kuon said before giving a slight bow. ”I have not a single clue on how to advise on this matter.”

“Huh..?”

“I’ve never once docked at a civilian port, only ever docked at military bases. I have no idea what are the procedures and what is necessary for a safe and smooth dock.”

“I see...”

“What about you, Master? You sounded confident when you said we are going to Ashen Port, so I thought you had a plan.”

“Well… I kinda do… but...”

‘My only experience in docking is in games though…’

“Should we have gotten more information out of the scums? We can still pull them into the ship.”

“Nah. We’ll figure it out, no rush. I’ll just stay outside the range of the station for now. Keep a low profile and stuff.”

“Understood.”

“You know… there is a person we can ask. She’s pretty knowledgeable about space stuff.”

“The cat?”

“Yes, the Nekomi.”

“How would she know? She said she’s never been to space before.”

“Let’s just say something inside me is telling me that she knows. Besides, even if I’m proven wrong, there is no harm in asking.”

“...Understood,” Kuon replied. One would not miss her annoyed tone though.

….…...

“Nyaa? You want to know what happens during docking?” Meica asked.

Meica was currently relaxing within her workstation on the bridge when Abyssal asked her that question. Next to Abyssal was Kuon who somehow, despite being a drone, gave Meica a serious glare. She was not happy that Abyssal went to Meica for advice.

Meica, who noticed Kuon's dissatisfaction, let out a grin, her fingers were on her lips.  “Heh, Maid-drone unable to give advice?”

Kuon didn’t say anything, she just kept quiet.

“Yeah. We are not experienced in these matters. You see Meica, we aren’t exactly from around here.”

“Abyssal never docked before?”

“Wh-what? That's a silly question. Of course I docked before!”

‘In games that is,’ Abyssal thought to herself.

“It’s just that it’s been quite a while since I last dock. I just want to know if there is anything different this time,” Abyssal said to Meica. It’s not exactly far from the truth. It has been more than a year since she last docked at a spaceport.

“Nyaa? Anything different? How Abyssal dock last time?”

‘Eh, um…” Abyssal flinched slightly at the question.  ‘Just how did I do it in that game again?’ She thought to herself.

“I… just contact the station and ask for permission to dock.”

“Nyaa? It’s the same here nyaa. Just dock Nyaa. Abyssal said Ashen Port is neutral port right? Just contact station and ask for docking permission.”

“Just like that…? I don’t have to do anything special? Don’t need any special ID or go through scanning of sorts?”

“Don’t need any ID. Neutral port doesn’t care. Abyssal weird, nyaa. All nano-drones like Abyssal?”

“Ehehe…” Abyssal gave out a sheepish laugh.

‘I see...Could it be that I’m being a little bit too cautious here?’ She thought to herself.

“Ah! Wait, nyaa. Meica almost forgot that Abyssal alien nanomachine. No access to money!”

“Oh crap, you’re right! I almost forgot about that too. How does money work here?”

Meica pulled a small card out of her pocket before showing it to Abyssal. “Use wallet card Nyaa. This card attached to galaxy-wide bank account.”

“Ohhhh. As expected in a future society, money is all electronic base now,” Abyssal replied with amazement as she observed the card from every angle. It’s just a normal-looking card with a black stripe on its back. On the front of the card were Meica’s name and a serial number.

Her full name was Meicanika Libera.

Keeping the revelation of Meica’s full name hidden, Abyssal turned to look at Kuon. “Hey, Kuon, is it the same in New England? Do you have any wallet card, as well?” she whispered.

“I’m afraid I cannot answer that question, Master. I was never in charge of money matters.” Kuon whispered back as she gave a respectful bow.

“I see,” Abyssal nodded to Kuon. She then turned back towards Meica.  “So how does the card work? Do you just swipe it at a terminal or something?”

“Un. Just swipe at the terminal or at the cashier.”

‘Just like the E-wallets back when I was on earth, huh. I wonder if you can track someone’s location through this thing…’ Abyssal went into deep thought.

“By the way, Meica. How much money do you have? Is it enough to buy you supplies for the trip?” Abyssal asked when the thought of a child like Meica having enough money to buy months worth of supplies came to her mind. ‘Even if she worked as an engineer, she can’t have that much money, right?’

Meica gave back a bright smile, her canine teeth sprouting out of her mouth. “Meica not much money, only allowance from mother.”

“...of course.”

‘The curse of hardmode continues…’ Abyssal thought to herself as she massaged her imaginary temple.

*****

Having asked Meica all the particulars she needed for a safe docking, Abyssal turned her ship around towards Ashen Port. Truth be told, Abyssal was still a little bit unsure if she could just dock without any identification, but she doesn’t have much choice in the matter, anyway. She would have to dock somewhere when food supplies run out eventually. There was also the matter of refilling her warp fuel as well.

Making an imaginary gulp, Abyssal cruised towards the port. Slowly but surely, the sight of a large round satellite-looking object appeared within her frontal cameras. It was small at first, but as she got closer, she started to see just how much the station dwarfed her. Abyssal’s current ship, the Maxwell Class Freighter was only 210 meters in length and 63m in height. Ashen Port, however, was about 20 kilometer in diameter. Next to the space port was an equally as large asteroid. The two objects seemingly in orbit with each other.

Getting even closer to the space station, Abyssal could start seeing other ships of various sizes and shapes moving in and out of the place. Some of them were small and had nice sleek spaceship designs. Some were almost a kilometre long and were shaped like a giant rectangular box. A special looking one was a battlecruiser size ship that had a eastern oriental design to it. In the middle of the ship is a small pagoda. It had a pinkish black metallic colour scheme with pinkish-yellow glowing lines all over it. On its hull were three massive twin gun mounts that looked to be of hundred in meters in length.

‘Woah… I wish I can be as majestic as that ship one day…’ Abyssal muttered to herself in amazement as she observed the pinkish-yellow battlecruiser further. It seemed that the battlecruiser was currently docked in a dry dock outside of the space port.

“Wooow…” Meica said with her jaws dropped as she witnessed the spaceport and the ships in all its glory.

“Amazing isn’t it? The wonders that mankind can create,” Kuon spoke out, breaking Abyssal and Meica from their stupor.

“Yep! Space is amazing!” Meica replied energetically.

Abyssal let out a small imaginary smile at the sight of an excited child. She soon got back to steering the ship when she noticed that the space port contained turrets of its own— some of them were aimed at Abyssal even. It seemed that she had gotten too close to the station. She immediately backed slightly away and prepared her communications device.

Abyssal then steeled her heart and swallowed an imaginary gulp. Once prepared, she used the communication device to speak to the space port.  “Ahem… Um… Ashen Port. This is the… uh… the S.A.S. Abyssal requesting permission to dock.”

No response. Abyssal waited a few minutes for them to reply, but none of the sorts happened. She did nothing the whole time except just orbit the station and avoid the other ships that were flying in and out of Ashen port.

“Um… Ashen Port? This is—”

“Yeah, yeah, we hear you. What’s your ship class and your duration of stay?” A rough voice spoke out of the communication device. It was a male’s voice with a weird accent. Excluding Meica, this man was Abyssal’s first contact with a sentient being in this galaxy.

“I’m a Maxwell class. We’ll be docking for a day or two, I think,” Abyssal replied.

“That’ll be a thousand credits. You can transfer it to the account number that I’m sending to you,” the man said and soon enough, an account number was sent to the top of Abyssal’s consciousness.

“Eh? I have to pay to dock?” Abyssal asked with a bewildered tone.

“Hah?! What, this your first time docking? Of course you have to pay. We gotta pay our bills here lady. We aren't a free port,” the man replied.

“Right, of course. Ha ha ha,” Abyssal replied before muting the communication device.

‘Crap! Most games I play allow you to dock for free! I didn’t take into account that you actually need to pay to dock,’ Abyssal slapped her imaginary forehead.

“Meica! How many credits do you have exactly?” Abyssal asked Meica in a hurried tone.

“Hmm? About twenty thousand or so? I have more in savings account, but I can’t access it now," Meica replied.

Abyssal let out a sigh of relief the moment she heard that.

And so, Meica paid the fees and once the man confirmed the payment, showed Abyssal the directions to a small landing bay in the port.

The docking process was nothing special, just the ship moving around Ashen Port before entering a familiar green barrier. Her landing gear was deployed and she then landed on a large platform. Looking to her left and right, Abyssal could see other ships on similar looking platforms around her. All of the platforms have a path that leads to a large hallway. Abyssal assumed the hallway led further into the space port. Her ship was on the 78th landing bay.

“Have we landed?” Kuon asked once she detected no more movement.

“Yeah.”

“What is our next step?”

“I don’t know. We explore, I guess? See what are our options.”

“Explore? Meica wanna explore!” Meica said excitedly.