Writer’s Note: The Second Run: A Sorri Lyrax Delivery (Part Two) was published originally in Jump Point 4.2. You can read Part One here.
Part 2: Never Stop Thinking
[ 59:43:11 ]
The station provided a soothing background noise to my private pity party as I leaned against the cold glass facing the glowing arm of the galaxy. The view was pleasant, but most certainly not helping me figure out how I was going to make a delivery to Tyrol IV in less than sixty hours.
The obvious choice was to find Betrix LaGrange, who was probably lounging in a public place, readily available, waiting for me to come crawling back, begging her to take the delivery. She’d probably only offer at most ten percent and truthfully, I’d be stupid not to take it.
To give myself something to focus on, I started repeating the rules I’d invented for my work.
“Rule one, never travel empty handed. Rule two, nothing illegal. Rule three, official routes are for suckers. Rule four, never get distracted. Yeah, I guess I should have remembered that one. Rule five, never stop thinking . . .never stop thinking . . .”
I raised my mobiGlas to review the ships in the station for the fifth time when I felt a gentle tugging on my arm. It was the woman with her child. Her dark face was streaked with the saltlines of old tears, but she looked content holding her daughter against her leg.
“Thank you . . .” said Alara Gorane.
“Sorri, which is my name, not the apology,” I said, realizing I was letting myself get distracted by her again.
Her lips creased with an exhausted smile. “I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me and Greta. I don’t know what I would have done if he’d taken her on that ship.”
My face warmed with embarrassment. “Don’t worry about it. It was an old trick I used from my father’s bar. Nothing confuses a person more than official mumbo-jumbo.”
“Oh?” she asked. “You work in a bar?”
“No. I’m a courier. Not a very good one at the moment, but a courier.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “A courier? Really? Actually, could I hire you? I need to file my divorce papers on Sol, so he can’t come back and take Greta again.”
“I won’t be able to get there for a few weeks,” I said, fidgeting with my mobiGlas.
“I think that would be okay. He won’t be back for a few months. He travels a lot. I was going to use FTL, but I’d rather you earned the delivery fee,” said Alara.
I nodded and accepted the datastick from her, tucking it into my backpack.
“Log onto the ICN network, and file it. My name is SILVERKHAN,” I said.
“Thank you again, Sorri. I don’t know what I would have done if I lost her,” said Alara, as she gave me an awkward half-hug, before moving away with her bleary-eyed daughter in tow. Mixed emotions ran through me. I was happy for the woman and her kid, but the distraction had cost me my ride. Still, it wasn’t the woman’s fault I’d stopped.
Standing in one place wasn’t helping, so I started walking, checking the ship list yet again as I walked. Eagle’s Talon was heading towards Sol; maybe if I went with them I could hop on one of the more direct transfers back towards Tyrol, but it wasn’t scheduled to leave for at least another day since it was waiting for a cargo pick-up. Golden Hart was a fuel pusher contracted with Cry-Astro. With the amount of stops it would have to make in the area, it wouldn’t even be worth it. Vita Perry was leaving today, but it was headed towards Ferron. Dornado was a single seater, so unless I wanted to . . . my eyes drifted back up the list to the previous entry. Vita Perry. Something about the ship’s reg stuck in my head this time. Vita Perry. Where had I heard that name before?
A few steps away, the answer came to me.
I took off at a dead run toward the other side of the station where Vita Perry was getting ready to depart, a plan quickly forming in my head. Vita Perry was the name of the founder of the Church of the Journey, a benign religion that believed in journeying for the sake of the travel itself. I could hardly disagree with them since I’d joined the courier service to see the galaxy. I brought up a comm-link as I ran. An older gentleman with laugh wrinkles around his eyes and mouth answered.
I said, “Greetings, follower Sojourner! Have room for another traveler?”
“Why certainly, we’d love to have you along for the ride. There is a donation required, but it’s quite nominal,” he said.
I had it transferred over before I reached the airlock. A smiling woman was waiting. She was missing her left arm past the elbow and had a burn scar on her jaw. Somewhere in her past, she’d survived a terrible fire.
“Greetings, Sojourner Sorri Lyrax,” she said. “I’m Adeline, first mate on Vita Perry. It’s so wonderful you could join us. You have wonderful timing. We were just going to pull away from the station.”
The inside of the Aegis Reclaimer was quite different than I expected. The cargo bay had been modified for more passengers, like a commercial transport, but more . . . cultish. Pasted to every wall and ceiling, and even painted on the floor, were maps. Even the cloth seats had maps as their designs, and not generic ones, but real star and planetary maps. It was like a library of atlases had vomited over the interior of the ship.
At least fifteen people were seated, all Human except for one Banu wearing cream colored robes, in back by himself. I found a spot across from the Banu, shoved the silvery case beneath the seat after assuring myself it’d be safe on the ship, and settled in as we moved away from the station. Once we were headed towards the Ferron jump point, I maneuvered through the seats towards the front cabin.
“Permission to enter the cockpit?” I asked.
The door swished open. The first mate, Adeline, slipped past me to join the others in back.
“Greetings, Sorri,” said the Captain. “I’m Captain Lemmie. Did you want to watch the approach to the jump point?”
“No, I’m good. Any special reason that you’re headed to Ferron?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Not really.”
“Any chance that you could change that destination to Kilian?” I asked, trying not to sound too desperate.
“One destination’s as good as another,” said the captain.
He toggled the comms, “Anyone object to heading to Kilian?”
When no one answered, he said over the comms, “I guess we’re headed to Kilian then.”
A murmur of excitement passed through the other passengers.
Relief filled my chest. “Thank you, Captain Lemmie.”
“Don’t mention it. Though I hope you will increase your donation to the Church,” he said with a wink.
“Certainly, of course,” I said. “I’m going to head back to the seats and catch a nap. It’s been a long day.”
After making another small donation and watching my dwindling funds dip a little bit lower, I found my seat again. The reclining chair made me think I was lying on a warm marshmallow. The followers of the Church sure knew how to travel comfortably. The Davien-Ferron jump point was relatively near Cestulus, while the Davien-Kilian jump point was further away, so it was going to take longer to reach it.