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Chapter 25 - The Golden Nori - Arrival

The Nori's database had this to say about Haradhere shipyard:

'Located in the far end of the perseus spiral arm of the galaxy, it sat in on a tiny planet that had originally been home to a plethora of planet side evolved interstellar species and alien invaders. Its rich asteroid belt had been fueling the wealth of its inhabitants to a degree that was considered unhealthy by many of the more sophisticated species. It did eventually lead to several periods of great wars. Mighty war ships were build on Haradhere that dominated on a galactic scale. Until their neighbors had enough of the haradian aggression and decided to set an end to it by bombing the planet into oblivion and threw all their own ships back down their well for good measure.

Since then it had become a bit of a galactic past time to drop old junk somewhere into haradhere's orbit that eventually went down.

The native population had for centuries been subject to this treatment and had developed a few essential traits that dealt with the problem of huge chunks or random metal junk falling at blistering speeds from the sky like rain on a sunny day. For one, they lived mostly under ground. And that they had basically become the galaxies most brilliant scrappers and second hand mechanics.

It took a considerable amount of training and ingenuity to dismantle disassemble clean and repair or re-purpose parts of old spaceships that had crashed through an atmosphere onto solid ground.

But they had had the time to learn the skills and the raw junk to make it all happen. They knew that everyone knew that they were the best, even though they would never allow themselves to show it in fear of junk rain retribution, or so they thought. The rest of the galaxy had already moved on a long time ago but had gladly honored the tradition by keeping the junk coming.'

Blomar was the first to set foot on haradhere. His back still hurt like mad from the entry burn and he ached forward wondering if it were his feet or his hips that made the weird metal on metal crunching sound.

Kumar and Sibil followed him down.

'What now captain?'

'Now we wait, we have a rendezvous here with a friend of mine that will take a look over the Nori and coordinate the repairs and upgrades to the ship.'

They stood in silence as the rest of the crew followed them down onto the junk plain and immediately started throwing stuff around and enjoyed themselves like children in a daycare.

Someone cried. Some others laughed. One of them was already missing a shoe. Another had decided it would be a good idea to climb into one of the Nori's exhaust cones but was quickly scared away after Nori flared up the engine for a second.

A moment later a small shuttle landed next to the Nori and a its single passenger made his way over to captain Blomar.

'Oye Blomi, como esta!' a dirty looking unnaturally tall man jogged up to them and hugged Blomar with his elongated arms.

'Que quieres aqui en el déposito de chatara?' the man asked with a slobbering grin.

'Hey George how s it flapping, still going with the wind I see'

'is Jorge now cabron!'

'Jorge now' wildly gestured in awe of the Nori's size. The last time he had seen a ship this size, this intact he had still had his diapers changed. He grabbed Blomar by the arm and impatiently dragged him up the flight of stairs and into the ship. Kumar trotted along.

Sybil rounded up the crew, bid some of them goodbye as they had decided to part, and issued them the shift plans and job assignments for the coming weeks . It included a week of shore leave for everyone and was generally thought of as a good thing.

When she was done she spent some time looking for a suitable hotel for the ships officers.

But all she even considered was a suspicious looking bunker complex that promised 'bipedal friendly' housing and room service at a discount.

She shrugged and booked two rooms for Kumar and the captain, turned around and enjoyed a workout session in the Nori's gym.