"What's happening?" Nico asked all of us.
Strife together with C.H.R.I.S. searched through the charts for alternative routes. Celestine on the other hand tried to contact Garner hoping for an explanation and alternative.
"The guards are here. And they're not supposed to." I answered Nico.
"Well isn't that a good thing? I could talk to them and prove my identity, then they'll have no choice but to follow my command and bring me to my uncle."
"It's not that simple Nico." Celestine told Nico.
"Why?" Nico asked yet again.
With Strife still looking for an alternative route and Celestine still waiting for a callback, I felt the responsibility to answer all of Nico's questions.
"Well the place we are right now, is actually a sector of your planet where smugglers could freely go in and out without any of your planet's officials catching anyone. And this is because this sector is under the jurisdiction of some private firm with-"
"We're in one of the privatized trading routes?" Nico interrupted my explanation with an answer that renders my explanation useless.
Everyone of us eyed Nico. We were surprised but not that surprised, after all she's a princess and she must've learned about these topics.
"Yes…" I answered in a meek voice.
"Are we on one of those illegal trading routes? My father told me about those. He said even if they have the same route they have different entrance and exit points that change at certain intervals. They usually carry either smuggled good or undoccumented aliens."
"Uh huh, everyone here knows about that, so we didn't need the exposition." I gave Nico a sarcastic response.
There was nothing that added to the conversation. We waited in silence as Celestine tried again to contact Garner. As every ring raised our anxiety levels, I found myself tapping the side of my chair like a drum.
"I'm sorry I didn't get back to you, see I'm in a pinch right now." Garner's long awaited answer moved around the ship's speaker. "Someone tipped about my trading routes. Most of them are guarded by local forces, I'm still taking calls from different client complaints."
Garner looked at the monitor with a calm and collected look. Even in these types of situations I know he's having a meltdown, but I know the man, he's just keeping a very convincing poker face. And I know his tell, his voice will show a subtle hint of distress and the corner of his mouth would be tense.
"Well I guess you knew why we called?" Celestine asked.
"I do. And I hope that the princess isn't disappointed with my failure." He gave a tense chuckle.
Nico walked up near Celestine's chair. She looked at the screen to see if she was in the view of the camera.
"Is there any way we could enter my planet?" Nico asked.
"There is, but it might take a while." Garner replied.
"There's no need. I have a plan." I told everyone.
Everyone looked at me with a bit of discomfort.
"What? I do have decent plans from time to time. Just hang up Garner, I'll talk to my team" I raised my point.
"Whatever." Celestine sighed under her breath.
"Okay, if that's what you want then I'll go now." Garner said as he hung up.
All eyes turned to me. Gave them a quick eye roll and turned my attention to C.H.R.I.S.
"Hey C.H.R.I.S., I'm thinking of a career change."
The AI beeped in acknowledgment, then he flashed a destination for us as he took control of the ship. We entered about five warp points until we reached one of the Rechargeroid, or Recharge Asteroid as it's called. It's a place where people could refuel their ships, take a quick bite, and other stuff located on a large asteroid. Think of it as a pitstop on an asteroid.
"So why are we here?" Strife asked me.
"We're waiting for someone to help us."
"Are they good?" Celestine asked.
"Yeah, obviously."
As we parked the Swift, we waited for a while. It didn't take long until we heard a knocking on the door. The three of us except Nico walked near the door, Strife prepared his guns and Celestine shot me with a doubting gaze. I simply rolled my eyes again as I opened the door.
Right when the door opened, it slowly revealed the person we've been waiting for. Strife lowered his guns and Celestine couldn't believe her eyes. I simply smiled ear to ear and welcomed our back-up, Julia.
"Hey, long time no see. I've got C.H.R.I.S.' message. Is she here?" Julia asked, referencing Nico.
"Yeah, she's right inside. Also I'm sorry we didn't get lunch together." I replied as I pointed to where Nico is.
Julia walked to where Nico is all the while greeting both Strife and Celesitne. She got to see the Princess of Kyatto, who underwent quite an event. If there were any other journalist here, they would go straight to interviewing Nico, yet Julia ignored that and consoled Nico.
I didn't want to sound like a party pooper, but I cut their conversation off. I then brought Julia up to speed with everything we discussed about Garner trading routes, Nico's plan, and our current problem that needed her help.
"I see. So how do I fit in all these?"
"We need you to bring us inside of Kyatto." I went straight to the point.
"And how is she going to do that?" Celestine asked.
"Scavengers and other citizens need a lot of red tape to get in, you know who doesn't need one? Journalist." I told them.
Everyone is starting to have a faint clue of my plan.
"We're a production team looking for the latest development on Kyatto. Julia's the reporter, Strife's the pilot, I'm the cameraman, and Celestine's the director. We could cover the civil unrest due to the royal family's assassination, how do the citizens process what happened, more importantly if this works. Julia gets an exclusive of how the duke betrayed his family and how a group of scavengers helped the princess…" I expanded my point to these examples
It didn't take for everyone to go onboard with my win-win plan. Strife, Celestine, and Julia made quick work on forging our ID's and permits. I took a quick tour on the Rechargeroid to buy a big enough camera, I also bought clothes and a wig for Nico, just in case she needed to get out of the Swift.
We did our last preparations, made sure that we are a convincing new crew. Satisfied with our new cover I simply smiled and piloted the Swift back to Kyatto, to continue this little coup we just planned.