Fiction Friday - Chapter 1

Perimeter system, The Forge

I was watching ships dock while waiting for my brother. The viewing platform was large and almost always busy with tourists gawking at the shuttles from the planet below and frieghters coming in from points unknown. I admit I was a tourist gawker too at the time.

It wasn't my first time in space but it was my first time away from Vahunomi, and the viewing deck on the State & Region Bank Vault station was always empty except for employees on breaks looking for solitude. There just wasn't much traffic in Vahunomi.

Just as a golden ship I didn't recognize came out of warp and starting to approach the station my older brother ran up, red in the face form exertion and puffing and wheezing.

"I'm here!" he gasped, sucking in gulps of air. "Let's go!"

I didn't move from my place leaning on the railing. "Relax, Kor. I sent you a message, didn't you get it? The shuttle to the planet was rescheduled until 1630." I pointed at the golden ship and asked, "Do you know what kind that one is? Its Amarrian, right?"

He dropped his travel bag and pulled out his comm. "Shit! I left it off again!"

I chuckled as he cursed to himself and checked his backlog of messages. It wouldn't take long; he didn't have as many friends as I did. He was three years older and taller than me at just over 185 centimetres while I topped out at a 176, but he was gangly with long arms and legs that seemed to go opposite directions all the time. His face was long and at only 25 he already had a receding hairline making it seem longer.

"That ship?" I prompted.

"What? Oh yeah," he drummed his fingers against his leg for a second. "Its an Amarrian Bestower, a transport ship. You really should know that by now, Kirith, if you want to be seen as a serious businessman."

I rolled my eyes with a smirk on my face. My brother was always telling me to be more professional, to know more, to study facts and figures and recall them instantly like he could. Back then I didn't care about studying anything except the female form. I could get by on my smile and a knack for making people like me. That's one of the reasons our father like me more than Korannon.

Don't get me wrong; Korannon was not a socially inept loser that spent all his time on the networks with weird hobbies and obsessions. He just lacked... a certain grace of movement and comfortability with others. He had the business sense and ability to wade through bureaucratic red tape better than anyone I knew (except Father perhaps, but he had decades of experience). Yet despite his strengths Father seemed to focus on his weaknesses and constantly held me up as an example of a budding entrepreneur. It bothered both of us; Kor because he wanted to make our father proud and yet he couldn't change who he was; and me because I felt bad for my brother and embarrassed by my father's praise.

And ultimately, that was why we were here in Perimeter, far from the backwater system we grew up in. I had a plan to show our father how we were a great team, Kor's brains and my charisma. And a make a small fortune in the process.

Too bad I ruined both of our lives in the process, but I'm getting ahead of myself.