"Melody," said Nate, hoping he had written down the correct contact number. "It's Nate from the bar the other day. I want to join up."

"That's great. Meet me down at the docks and we can get you signed on as part of the crew. I got the feeling that you were more interested in a date than a job when we last spoke, what changed your mind?" said Melody.

"I've seen enough of the Alliance for a while. Maybe enough for a whole lifetime, it's time a for a change."

Nate put his data tablet on standby and tucked it into a pocket before walking back to the hotel where his family was staying. The station seemed different somehow, all the bright lights and polished floors felt forced, like everyone on the station was trying too hard to convince themselves that everything was fine and that this was a nice place to live. It was early morning and the station was starting to come to life, halls filling with an eclectic mix of people rushing off to menial jobs with long hours and little pay. Walking against the stream he made his way into the hotel and up to the suite they'd been offered. It was quiet, the kind of quiet where he could tell that the hotel was mostly empty, the kind of quiet that always gave him the sense that he was somewhere he didn't belong.

"Oh Nathan, you're okay!" his mother shouted as he stepped into the suite. "We've been so worried about you!"

"Yeah I'm fine Mom, listen, I have some news. I got a job" said Nate walking towards the bed and grabbing his suitcase. He hadn't even bothered to unpack.

"That's good news then" his mother said with a smile. "Is it with the Intelligence Agency? Is that what those soldiers were here for?"

"No," said Nate with a derisive snort. "Those assholes were investigating the attack on Caldania. I found a explorer ship that's looking for pilots, I'm leaving Alliance space for a while."

His mother's smile quickly faded and tears welled in her eyes. "You're going into the uncharted regions?"

"I can't stay here, not anymore."

"You sound just like your grandfather, he did four tours in the Void Corps after fighting in the Construct Rebellions, he could never stay in one place for too long" she took a step forward and wrapped Nate in a bone crushing hug. "Be safe out there son. We'll miss you."

He gathered the few things he'd been able to save from Caldania, some clothes, an old beat up guitar, and a photo of the planet he'd taken from orbit and made his way down to the docks. Melody was waiting for him, she was dressed in a navy t-shirt and cargo shorts, which most likely served as the ships uniform. Most people thought space travel was cold but in reality ships had a hard time venting excess heat, there was no matter for the heat to radiate into in the vacuum of space, and with nowhere else for the waste heat to go ships could get uncomfortably warm.

"Nate," said Melody with a warm smile. "I'm glad you could make it. Follow me on board we'll get you settled in."

Nate nodded and followed Melody through a short airlock and into a short corridor. The corridor was empty and silent, with light beige walls, dark faux wood floors, and soft lighting set into the ceiling. It was a colour scheme shared with the old farmhouse he grew up in, the ship already felt like home. Melody led him into a small room filled with a large square table, four chairs, and a narrow cabinet. She pulled a wide screened data tablet from the cabinet, set it on the table and motioned for him to take a seat.

"First I have to say welcome aboard the Dauntless. Now, I hope you don't mind but I did a little digging into your history after we met." she said, turning on the tablet and typing in a four digit code to unlock the device.

"No, that's fair I suppose. So, is this a job interview? If it is I'm terribly underdressed for it." he said. He was still wearing the same clothes he'd had on the day before, a faded red shirt and a pair of jeans with tears in the knees.

"No, we just need you to sign the contract and I'd like to learn more about you."

"Fair enough, I suppose you already know that I'm a pilot then?"

"Yes that came up in our search. I am curious why your military career was so short, I understand it's common practice in the Alliance to serve for a few years before moving on."

Frowning, Nate slapped his prosthetic arm down onto the table. "Medical discharge. The Alliance doesn't see cyborgs as combat capable personnel. I could either take the discharge or be stuck in sanitation or riding a desk for the rest of my career, the discharge seemed like the better option."

"Interesting, a cozy desk job doesn't sound too bad to me."

"Cozy isn't the word I'd use for it. Now I understand the galaxy needs it's desk jockeys, and I get that that's a fine job for some people but I can't stay behind a desk my whole life, hell I go nuts when I have to sit still for more than five minutes."

"Okay, how come you want to join this expedition?"

"Tough question. I've always felt at home in space, there's just something about being out there in a void of infinite possibilities that really speaks to me. Just in the past few hundred years we've made amazing progress with space exploration and I'm really looking forward to a chance to be a part of the next wave of exploration."

Melody smiled. "Right, so I take it you'd like to pilot a ship again if that's possible? We have an old refurbished gunship that we'll be using to ferry our teams to the surface. Interested?"

Nate grinned from ear to ear, he'd be going to down to the new planets himself. This was better than anything he could have hoped for. "Absolutely," he said. "Where do I sign?"

Melody slid the tablet and a stylus across the table. "The salary is listed at the bottom of the document, it is negotiable, of course."

Nate signed the form without reading it. "I get to be part of an exploration and be part of the surface team, I'd do this for free if I had to."

Melody laughed. "Corporate has been trying to cut down on costs. I may hold you to that. Follow me, I'll show you to your quarters." Leaving the small conference room they walked down to a long corridor lined with doors on either side. "There's only one room left, I'm afraid." said Melody, pressing a palm to a small panel beside the dark steel door. The door slid open with a faint hiss revealing a square chamber with a bunk bed on either side, a small steel table to the right of the door, a pair of lockers to the left of the door, and another dark steel door at the back of the room. A young woman sat at the small table tinkering with a long circuit board, she was tall and thin, with shoulder length black hair and obvious Asian ancestry somewhere in her family tree.

"This is Isabelle," said Melody. "She'll be your flight engineer on the dropship."

"Pleased to meet you," said Nate.

"It's Izzy, can't stand people calling me by my full name. Give me five minutes to finish this and I guess I'll show you around. You can put your shit in the locker closest to the bed and there's a bathroom through the door at the back there."

Nate nodded and stowed his bags in the locker. He was impressed, compared to the cramped conditions on most ships this room was luxurious. Once she finished working on the circuit board, Izzy gave him a short tour of the ship. The crew quarters were close to the top of the ship, above them was a small lounge with five tables, a pair of couches and a massive display screen that covered the entire ceiling and showed a live feed from an external camera. On the deck below the crew quarters was the live deck, a cavernous space filled with several species of plants, hydroponic gardens, and three massive water tanks filled with mollusks and crustaceans. The live deck was essential for all deep space vessels, it helped recycle their air, processed waste and provided food for the crew. On the next level down from the live deck was a small hangar, a training area filled with exercise equipment, the armoury and a firing range. The soft lighting and faux wood flooring was only present on the crew level and the lounge, here in the hangar area it was replaced by harsh clinical fluorescent tubes and dull metal plating.

"That's about it," said Izzy. "Only thing left is the engineering level but the other techs don't appreciate it when I bring people down there. They don't want anyone poking the reactor or the artificial gravity. I have some work to do here in the hangar, you can go back to the room if you want or do whatever."

"Is there anything I can help with here?" asked Nate. "I'd love to see our ship."

Izzy sighed. "I guess," she said, sounding frustrated. "You can look at the ship but don't touch anything, it's a relic."

The dropship was an old military pattern. It was thickly armoured with a long hexagonal fuselage, a pointed nose, and a pair of small wings that sloped down from the top of the ship. At the rear of the ship a large door sat open, forming a ramp. Nate strode up the ramp into the ship, inside was a large rover, it was sleek vehicle with six rugged wheels and a long open-topped box behind the cab. Behind the rover was a cargo space piled high with crates and boxes and a small door the led into a cramped passenger area with six seats. Beyond the passenger space was the cockpit. The cockpit was filled with instrument panels and controls. The pilot's and co-pilot's seats sat recessed into the floor in front of a wide curving display screen, behind the pilot's seat was the engineering console. Izzy walked up and sat at the engineering console. With a few button clicks she brought the ship to life, the reactor grumbled as it woke up, sending a gentle vibration through the deck.

"This looks like an Alliance ship, but I'm not familiar with it, exactly how old is it?" said Nate.

"It's not an Alliance ship" said Izzy. "It's from the old United Earth Government, back before the Alliance was founded. It was shot down in the Rebellions. I've been working on getting it pieced back together since I was hired."

"No kidding, does it still have any of its guns?"

"They took away the fun stuff like the missile pods and the tail guns, but it still has a laser and light gauss cannon."

"It has a gauss cannon?" asked Nate incredulously.

"Yeah, Concord Explorations is based in the Second Wave Colonies. Looser weapon regulations than the Alliance."

Nate nodded. "That makes sense I guess, if I had a whole population full of hopped up gene spliced freaks to deal with, I'd want to stay armed too."

Izzy opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by a high, singsong voice calling from outside the dropship. "Hey, Iz?" called the voice. "Security wants to run everyone through another set of drills. Is the new hire in there with you?"

"That's Rowan, our co-pilot. Come on, let's go get these drills over with." said Izzy.

Nate stepped out of the ship and came face to face with a tall man in an olive drab jumpsuit. He was completely bald, with pure white skin and a series shiny metal pistons and cables connected his head to his shoulders. Nate's jaw dropped. He was looking at a Construct, a real AI Construct.

"You must be the new guy, I'm Rowan." The Construct extended a hand and Nate flinched back, remembering his grandfather's stories from the war. Grandad had seen Constructs absorb an entire squads worth of firepower and keep going, seemingly unarmed units could be packed with integrated weapons and they never took prisoners. Even though this thing didn't look dangerous it could have the strength of ten men and Nate doubted it would hesitate to tear the crew limb from limb if it felt threatened.

He kept a close eye on the machine as it led them out of the hangar and into the small firing range. A short thickly muscled man was waiting for them, standing next to a small cart holding three short barreled laser repeaters with thin skeletonized folding stocks.

"You must be our new hire," said the short man. "I'm Raymond Vance, head of security. There's been some nasty run-ins with wildlife on other missions and corporate wants everyone to have some basic defense skills."

Nate tuned out as Vance began a lecture about firearm safety and the features of the laser repeaters. The repeaters were nearly identical to the one's he'd been trained on in the Void Corps, the only difference being that these were larger and more tolerant of improper maintenance. The training session was interrupted by a two-tone alarm blaring over the ship's intercom. The alarm was followed by a tinny voice instructing the security, engineering and flight teams to prepare for departure and report to the hangar immediately. They ran to the armoury where the ship's exo-suits were stored. After a moment of frantic searching Nate found one in his size and pulled on the rubbery under-suit that would help contain heat, followed by the dull orange outer-suit. The outer-suit was made from stiff ballistic fibers that would protect against debris, shrapnel and even light weapons fire. Finally, a set of white armoured plates were attached to the chest, back and forearms, along with a backpack containing the oxygen supply, and the suit was topped off with a domed helmet made of transparent polymer composite. With his suit sealed and pressurised Nate folded the stock on his repeater, hung the small weapon off his belt and ran into the dropship.

He dropped into the pilot's seat and hastily strapped himself down, fumbling with the unfamiliar controls of the ancient dropship. Rowan dropped into the seat next to him with a soft clang and keyed in a series of pre flight checks. The main display light up with long scrolling strings of text, filling the cockpit with a sickly green light.

"Hell of a first day new guy," he said cheerily. "I'll put in the request to open the bay doors."

The Construct tapped another series of keys and Vance's voice came over the dropship's radio. "Good response time flight team, but looks like it was a false alarm. You can stow all your gear back in the armoury now."

Nate shuffled out of the dropship and back to the armoury where he stowed the exo-suit in an empty locker. The armoury was well stocked for a supposedly civilian ship, the small space was packed full of racks filled with short laser repeaters, pistols, long slender laser rifles and even a massive, railgun fitted with a high magnification scope.

"Does this seem like an excessive amount of weapons to anyone else, or is it just me?" asked Nate.

Izzy shrugged. "I never really thought of it before"

Nate frowned. "I mean, I can understand having weapons on hand to hunt or fend off predators, but these rifles are military grade. And just what the hell do we need a railgun for?"

"I always figured the railgun was for big game, big bears or something like that" said Rowan.

"For a computer with legs you're not too bright are you?" said Nate. "A rail gun like that would kill a bear from two kilometers away if it was wearing a full set of combat armour."

Rowan frowned. "So, what are they expecting us to run into?"