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Post by Milo Dakota Lark on Aug 12, 2013 2:10:44 GMT
Maia Pleiades Space Station
Quarter Sun Cycle, Earth Year 5322
It took Milo a couple of days to remember why he recognized the ship. When he first spotted it fueling up on Arcas, he couldn't help but feel he'd seen it before. It wasn't like it was a particularly common ship for this area - much nicer and sleeker than the rust buckets most of the local merchants used. No, this was a venture fleet hoping to get in on the ground floor of the newly discovered Uranium trade.
New and bountiful sources had been discovered on Arcas, and they said it was a matter of time before hundreds of ships were taking away resources and bringing with them the high civilization of the wealthier planets. They said within a few Earth years, Arcas would be as rich as Dardanus or Lycus, even. The Pleiades government would also be taking a stronger interest in Arcas, put more law enforcement on the ground, and things might get very difficult for Milo before long.
It was the impending civilization in combination with the odd familiarity of the ship that drove Milo to stow aboard. These types of crews hired and fired workers on every docking, trading out for the cheaper local workers, so he was able to just grab a cargo container and walk on board with the rest. Sure, he looked young, but child labor laws hadn't reached Maia yet, and he kept himself carefully hidden in the masses of grunt workers. After a day or so, he slunk off to find a storage compartment to sleep in, and then it hit him:
New Lagos, Arcas
Completing Sun Cycle, Earth Year 5317
It was cold this time of year - for Arcas, at least - so Milo slept curled in a brick recess under the registration building. The nook was cramped and filthy, but it kept him warm, out of the wind, and safe from any police that might be patrolling. It seemed he needn't have worried about that, though, because he heard a shout for help down the alley with no audible response from anyone.
This was a dangerous neighborhood at night, he knew, and the voice sounded young like his own. Milo crawled out of his hiding place enough to peer into the darkness and see two figures at the end of the alley, a big one and a small one. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a knife in the big one's hand, and saw the smaller was just a boy, around his age. The boy was wearing nice clothes, nicer than anyone around here would wear. He was from off-planet, it was clear.
He debated with himself for a moment, tempted to just crawl back into his nook and ignore the ordeal, but the second voice he heard, the one that demanded and threatened, was familiar, and Milo would take any opportunity to take that asshole down a peg.
Creeping quietly up behind the guy, he motioned for the other boy to remain quiet. He pulled an old, used shock rod from his pocket and jammed it against the guy's lower back. Immediately, the electricity pulsed through him, he convulsed, and fell to the filthy ground. "Asshole," Milo snorted.
After that, he walked the rich kid back to town, his eyes going wide when he saw the ship they stopped at.
Milo wondered if the kid he'd saved that night was still on the ship, or if he'd gone off to bigger and better things. He'd never bothered to ask him much. He was thinking about this, almost nodding off in the storage room he'd found, when the door swung open and a grim face frowned at him. It was a worker, but not one from Arcas.
"What the hell are you doing in here?"
He stood up quickly, trying vainly to stammer out an explanation that this guy was totally not buying. He felt a meaty hand on the back of his collar, hauling him out into the hallway. "You stowing on?"
 Outfit: Clicky! Tagged: Ze! Notes: omg too excited for this ahhhLyrics: Pretty Vacant by Sex PistolsCredit: Chloe!
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