Taking Space

“Wahooo!” Michael yelled as he leaned back in his chair. Daniel pushed away his virtual controls, “Wooot.” “Good job, everybody,” Steven said as he clicked through some statistic charts. “That’s the sixth Galactic Empire tournament we’ve won now, isn’t it?” Catherine asked. Stephanie put her hand over her eyes, letting them rest. “Yes, though the competition in this one was a lot harder than the last five.” “Yeah, but we creamed them!” Daniel happily proclaimed. Catherine stood up and walked over to where Daniel was sitting. “Only because of your amazing piloting and gunning skills.” Daniel blushed a bit. “Nah, you’re the one that knew exactly what to do. I would’ve got all our ships destroyed in the first quarter without you.” Catherine lovingly touched the back of Daniel’s head, “honey, I’m a ‘who,’ not a ‘that’. And, even though I’d like to take the credit, it was Michael’s strategy and Steven’s engineering ability that enabled me to give you the right tactics.” Daniel swiveled his head to look at Steven, “talking about that, that thing you did with the dynovamator directly connected to the beam cannon was pretty awesome. I’m surprised the game actually let you do it.” Steven smiled. “It wouldn’t normally, but Stephanie found Duralumin almost at the very beginning, so I didn’t have to spend a long time working around with the default construction systems enabling me to spend most of my time in the game development matrix.” Stephanie turned off her monitor and stretched, “That was actually pretty easy, because the game’s last update made it closer to reality, enabling me to do things a lot easier. In fact, it’s so easy now, I’m surprised, so many people are having trouble with it.” Michael finished looking at the end game statistics, “that’s because most people are not professional minors like we are,” Michael looked down at the time in the bottom left corner of the screen, “we have quite some time left before the next pickup. What do you guys want to do?” Daniel clenched his fingers. With a very eager smile, he said, “Let’s jump into a random match.” Catherine shook her head, “No, the last game was quite stressful on me. I’m out for a while.” Daniel spun around in his chair, “that’s because they were the best of the best. If we jump into a random match, we’ll have fun creaming some noob’s butts.” Catherine sighed. “I guess. Mike?” Michael shrugged, “sounds kind of fun to me. How about you, Steven?” Steven pushed away from his desk and stood up, “Nah, I’m out. The game’s fun but its development matrix is too limiting.” Daniel gave a quiet laugh, “of course it is to YOU. The stuff you do with our mining equipment is years beyond anything on the commercial market.” Steven rolled his eyes as he walked over to a table that had hundreds of little odds and ends which belonged to his engineering experiments, “so you keep saying, but I don’t care if it is. I just like the thrill of discovering new possibilities. The game doesn’t really have that for me, so I’m out this time.” This time it was Daniel who sighed, “I guess. How about you, Stephanie? We can still do it with only four people.” “No. This game is fun for you guys, but it’s exactly like work for me. The only difference is that things happen faster in the game than they do in real life. Speaking of which, you guys need to start helping me out more!” Daniel crossed his eyes at her, “Steven automated everything. There is nothing really to do.” Stephanie glared back at him, “yes, but it still takes over an hour every day to queue everything up and make sure the machines are mining the right places.” “Bah.” Daniel waved his hand, dismissively at her. Anger flared up in Stephanie, “BAH me, do you? Well, I won’t make you, lunch then!” “I don’t care. Catherine will make me food. She makes the best, don’t you, Kitty?” Catherine didn’t answer. Daniel glanced over towards her to see her lips pressed together, and her eyebrows scrunched in a concentrated frown. “What’s wrong?” Daniel asked anxiously. Catherine put her hand out, letting her ring and bracelet project a holographic image above her palm, “THIS.” A floating head of a man in his late forties who was sporting a reddish-white goatee coalesced above her fingers. His lips started to move as he started to say something. “Looks like it’s from Marvin. I am guessing if he sent a message, his pickup will be delayed?” Michael asked. Catherine shook her head. “No, it’s much worse than that. The ship he sent was attacked and taken by pirates. He’s in the middle of trying to buy it back from them, but he says he will not be doing businesses with us anymore unless we can guarantee his ship’s safety.” “What!? How in the universe are we supposed to guarantee his ship’s safety?” Daniel blurted. Michael looked out one of the mining station windows, “we can’t.” “Wait! Isn’t Marvin our only buyer right now?” Stephanie asked, worriedly. “Yes, he is. Ted and Max left the sector, and Carlin went bankrupt last quarter. So we won’t be seeing business from any of them.” Catherine answered. Steven put down what he was doing, “so wait, are you saying we have no income now without Marvin?” Catherine nodded. “For the time being, it seems that way. I’ll try to negotiate with Marvin or find a new buyer. But if there are indeed pirates around, I don’t think we will have anyone buying from us for a while.” Distress set itself firmly in all their faces. Michael, seeing this and being the oldest, decided to try to make things better. “It’s not that bad guys. Thanks to Steven’s energy collectors and our Aquaponics, we don’t really need to buy fuel nor food. We also have some credits saved up. If we sell what we just won, we’ll have more than enough to get us through the rest of the year. By that time, I’m sure the Pirates will move on to greener pastures.” Dania’s eyes filled with horror, “I’ve been looking forward to winning the GTX 4000 pilot virtual control system ever since they announced that it was this year’s reward, and now that we actually won it you want to sell it?!” “Sorry Daniel doesn’t look like we really have an option.” Daniel threw up his arms, “Ah, man!!” Catherine put an arm on his shoulder to comfort him. Stephanie, on the other hand, laughed as she said, “well maybe you three boys should actually get a job.” Daniel glared at her, “I have a job! I’m the best space pilot, and gunner there ever was.” Stephanie rolled her eyes “in your dreams.” Daniel ignored her and continued complaining, “Ah, man! I wish someone would do something about them, stupid pirates. Can't we complain to the Almandian police or something?” Steven laughed. “Yeah we could do that, but they’d be more likely to help them than to stop them.” Catherine put down her arm and walked over towards one of the viewports, “true that. Remember, they seized our cargo shipper for no reason and have yet to give it back.” “Yeah, of course, I remember. Steven’s been using that stupid space box with an engine jerry-rigged onto it ever since.” Daniel got up from his chair and strode over to where Catherine was. “I wish we didn’t live in such a corrupt sector of space!” “Oh, and where would you like to live? Maybe the Caldor Sector? Or even better, the Adolphian Empire?” Stephanie asked sarcastically. Daniel looked grumpily over at her, “No, of course not. I would just like to live in a place that’s not so corrupt.” Stephanie crossed her arms. “There is no such place. Mom and dad have traveled the universe, and you’ve seen the holos they sent back. There is nothing out there but crookedness.” Michael sighed. “True. I think we have a better life than ninety-nine percent of the entire galaxy.” Steven rummaged through the junk on his engineering table. “Sad but true. Makes you wish someone would do something about it but oh well.” Daniel’s countenance lit up. He pivoted toward Steven, “you’re right! Someone should and that someone is us!” Catherine stopped gazing absentmindedly out the viewport, “What!?”