"Interflexure VII, sitrep."
"Cloak has been activated, we are enroute to the holding position. Awaiting new co-ordinates, at your leisure Pathfinder."
"Yah, I got 'em. Transmitting now, initiate warp and jump on contact. You know the drill."
"Thank the bloody stars this is the last jump... you podders might be fine, but my boys are hitting their limits. We are going to take it slow on the way home."
"Watch over the cargo transfer yourself. The docking manager is a nosy bastard. Someday I am gonna have to do something about him."
"Heh you are talking about Scotty aren't ya? Well I don't think anybody would miss him. I will take care of business boss, the shipment will go through fine."
"See that it does."
A minor mental nudge deactivated the comm system, bringing precious peace. The torrent of background chatter and open traffic a pilot could tap into provided some level of connectivity to the outside world. At the same time it was akin to having a thousand voices nattering in the back of your skull. Some are better than others at tuning it out, but all pod pilots need to unplug from their comm systems sooner or later.
The black depths stood guard beyond the myriad stars, the sole companions for the still moment. With the cloak active on the small frigate, it was essentially impossible to be discovered. If you loitered near populated areas you could foolishly be discovered by somebody physically disrupting the disguising energy field. In this case, I was floating in the depths of space at a mid-warp safe spot, hundreds of thousands of kilometres from the nearest celestial object.
Interflexure VII, a highly-modified Iteron-class cargo ship, was currently holding a fortune in specialized boosters. Total value for the shipment sat roughly around 3.5 billion Interstellar Kredits, which would easily purchase the equivalent of dozens of fully developed planetary colonies designed to produce cutting edge technology from raw material to finished product. Alternatively that many kredits could purchase a small battleship fleet.
Guaranteeing that shipments like these reach their target is my primary purpose during these smuggling missions. With my own finances invested in these deals, any loss is mine to bear. Of course, the profit is also mine to bear...
