The Pirate Boss presses the buttons responsible for shooting with all his strength and anger, but he still can't hit this nimble target, which makes him even angrier "Fuck. After I catch you, pray that you don't survive otherwise I will skin you off "
While the leader of the pirates tore pieces of hatred out of himself towards Gordon, the voice rang out over the voice link, "Boss, the target has stopped firing from the cannons, do you think he's surrendering?"
Calming down for a moment, he shook his head "Be careful, keep maneuvering and firing, maybe he's trying to trick us."
Then the boss saw that this ship, which made him seriously angry, suddenly turned to the left. The leader frowned, then he looked at his radar, after which a vein popped out on his forehead "Damn him, he's trying to hide in an asteroid field."
The main reason for the discontent and anger of the pirates - Gordon was currently maneuvering with concentration among the rain of bullets, gradually approaching the hysterical field.
If he wanted to escape, he would continue his flight in the direction of the nearest space base or fleet, but these pirates pissed him off as hell, and on top of that it would be great space combat practice where he would find such an easy target.
Approaching the asteroids, Gordon began to deftly move between many blocks of rock in space.
The Pirate Boss growled, "If you want to play, we'll play with you. Use rockets "
An uncertain voice was heard from the communication channel "B-B-Bose are you sure? The debris can also hit us "
The leader of the pirates shouted "If I said rockets, then you are using ROCKETS!"
The pirate pilot sighed and, having no other choice, switched his main weapon to missiles. And then trying to aim well, he pressed the start button.
Gordon, who was already coming up with a plan for how he would destroy the pirates, suddenly heard a squeaking sound from the radar. He did not expect these pirates to have missiles, Gordon thought they only had cannons firing bullets.
Biting his lip, Gordon ducked between several large asteroids, dodging a volley of rockets.
In the depths of the asteroid belt, a silent explosion occurred, which shook this already not calm place. Huge chunks of rock split into small pieces, scattering in all directions like shrapnel, transferring kinetic energy to other asteroids.
The leader of the pirates watching the explosion smiled broadly. "Try to dodge it, bastard."
The pirate pilot who was closest to the explosion with fear in his voice sent the message "DAMN. I can't dodge the asteroids, boss .. AAA, the asteroid tore off my engine, I can't maneuver ... BOSS, HELP .. AAA. "
Then the Pirate Leader saw how a large asteroid turned his subordinate's ship into a real ball of scrap metal "Tch, I never liked this slobber. It is a pity that Jimmy died, he was a good guy ... .. "Leaning on the worn leather seat, the pirate leader continued to talk to the void." Now again I have to hire new people. I hope this time I come across someone smart. "
While the last pirate was talking about his future, unnoticed by him from behind one of the asteroids, a spaceship took off.
Gordon pointed the bow of the ship, as well as all the guns, directly at the pirate corvette. Shouting "Get it, scum" Gordon held down the shot button. The pirate leader didn't even have time to react, and the last thing he saw was a multitude of green and red lumps of energy approaching his ship.
After only a few hits, the pirate ship exploded in blue flame and shattered into many pieces of various alloys. To avoid getting hit by the debris, Gordon pulled the wheel towards himself and [Eclipse] dived up, bypassing pieces of iron and asteroids.
After flying a sufficient distance from the battlefield and making sure that no one was around, Gordon began to conduct a quick diagnosis of the ship. At the time when the pirates blew up the asteroids, he was really scared, especially when he saw the charge of the reflectors falling rapidly, which means that he was also hit.
But to his relief, the diagnostics showed that all the systems were intact and the skin was not damaged, which means that the reflectors did their job and the ship received only minor damage.
Relaxing, Gordon quickly reached the hypercorridor and his ship went into the hyper tunnel. Sighing in relief, he left the cockpit and walked into the common room where Sienna was now sitting, examining some of Gordon's plans.
Gordon said "The pirates are over and now we are heading to the next system."
Sianna nodded silently as she continued to examine the diagram. Stanfield just shrugged, picked up a random scientific book, and began to read.
After a while, Sianna could not stand it, "Ugh, I still don't understand. This circuit is driving me crazy. I certainly know that humans are far ahead of many races in engineering, but it's just…. "
Gordon looked up from the book and raised his head "Oh, this is .... Well, I just have a little fun when I'm completely bored and don't feel like reading."
Sianna nodded. "Indeed, to me it looks more like a drawing of a madman than something meaningful. What it is ?"
Stanfield smiled wryly. "That was insulting." He stood up, approached Sianna "When I started my career, I immediately realized that I was missing something."
"Tell me, if you are in some unfamiliar city, where can you find the information you need?"
Sianna replied without thinking "I can use the terminal in the space port or just go to the library."
Gordon nodded "What if you suddenly found yourself somewhere on the planet, where there is no terminal, no city, no people, no library?"
This time, Sianna didn't answer right away, "Maybe I would look for the nearest settlement?"
Stanfield replied "Maybe, maybe you would use my new device, which is shown in this drawing."
Sianna asked, "Do you want to make a personal portable terminal? I don't want to upset you, but such devices have already been created before, but they are not very popular, as they are bulky and inconvenient "
Gordon snapped his fingers "Exactly! They are bulky and uncomfortable, but my device is much more compact, and in addition, it is modular. " Gordon embarrassedly scratched his cheek. "Well, I have not yet figured out which modules I should make, but this is not the main thing now."
Sianna thought, "Hmmm, if you can sell these blueprints to some company, I'm sure you can get a lot of money. Unless, of course, everything you said is true "
Stanfield grinned. "Of course it's true. But I do not want to deal with other companies, I would rather create my own company than sell my development, and these drawings are almost worthless. The main drawings of the motherboard, processor and other things are not here, and without them, it is almost an empty shell "
Sianna, still trying to make sense of the blueprints, said, "Looks like you have ambitious plans."
Gordon nodded "This will be my hobby, I'm still young to stay on the same place."
Sianna smiled for the first time in a long time. "Interesting. Do you mind if I study this blueprint a little more? "
Stanfield shrugged "Welcome."
Having flown through many sectors with his client, Gordon got a little closer to Sianna, and he was almost used to her stone face. As he found out, this is due to the culture of her race. It so happened historically that for several centuries, it is believed that all respected Daytons should be in some kind of clan.
The rootless Dayton is comparable to the dirt under the sole, no one respects them. Naturally, over the centuries, many clans diluted their blood with the influx of the rootless, and now this process is quite popular. But to become part of the clan, you must somehow stand out among the rootless.
In connection with this, inside and outside, at all levels of the clan's power, a struggle is waged for resources, power, status, and so on. In addition, due to the high level of development of medicine and genetics, the clans practice a selective selection of various talents.
All this together is consolidated into rigorous training from childhood, where the manifestation of any unnecessary emotions can become a weakness, which enemies can take advantage of.
Fortunately, Sianna didn't turn out to be some country princess who ran away from home. She belongs to a large family, with some power within a highly respected clan, but she got tired of this life and decided to leave their home planet.
According to Sianna, her parents were against it, but they still did not give her problems when she left her homeland. Gordon was only mildly surprised when he found out about the Dayton clans, but this is still not something supernatural for humanoid beings.
Meanwhile, the [Eclipse] ship has successfully landed at the space port on the planet Katya, in the Mara star system.
When Gordon saw, at the terminal in the space port, that 170 thousand credits had been received on his account, he said with a smile on his face, "It was nice doing business with you, Sianna."
The blue-skinned girl nodded slightly. "I was pleased too, Gordon Stanfield. I learned a lot from this trip. And now, I have to leave you. "
Gordon shrugged. "Welcome, if you ever need me, you can email me."
Saying goodbye to each other, they parted with each other and each went about his business. Gordon returned to the terminal and sold all of his goods in bulk to the general market. While he may have spent some time looking for the right buyer at a decent price, Stanfield doesn't want to waste his time on that.
To summarize, Gordon received 170 thousand for working for Sianna, plus about 100 thousand in net profit for reselling the goods. Now Gordon has about 400 thousand credits on his account.
After spending 200 thousand, Stanfield purchased various equipment for resale, took another order and again went into space.
Gordon continued to travel through space, improving his piloting and space combat skills. A few months later, Stanfield stopped taking orders for delivery of cargo, as his cargo hold is constantly filled with his own cargo, which he resells.
During this time, Gordon has made quite good progress in the creation of the PDA and now he even has a prototype, but he still has some defects. Once moving in the direction of a certain system, Gordon suddenly received a notification on his terminal.
Putting all the tools in place, Gordon wiped off the dirt from his hands and walked over to the terminal. Stanfield quickly opened the mail and was surprised. Sianna wrote to him, "Did she miss me?"
Anticipating what awaits him in the message, he opened it. But the text that is written there did not please him.
[Gordon Stanfield. HELP ME. There has been a virus outbreak in Kaiti, many people are going crazy. These madmen are killing by eating us alive. It is almost impossible to hire a ship to get out of here. Most ports are blocked, and pilots of ships in other ports are asking too much of people. I beg you save me. I will pay 700 thousand credits if you help me]