After wandering around the station for a while, Jack had to admit to himself that he had lost sight of the security. He stopped at the corner of a building and tried to reorient himself, but it was useless. He was lost.
Not knowing where to go, he sat down and tried to find a map of the station on his wrist computer.
After some back and forth, he realised that either there was no map or he was too drunk to find it. With a sigh, he switched off the computer and looked around again.
On closer inspection, one of the streets branching off looked a little more familiar than the others.
With some difficulty, he stood up again and began to follow the new path. nice and slow. one step at a time. and holding on to the wall.
He could not say how long he had been wandering through the streets and alleys of the city, but at some point, he found himself at the gates of a large glass building complex.
The structure reminded him of the headquarters of a bank or a large company from his old world. The entrance to the building was blocked by a high gate made of metal bars.
Jack leaned his back against one of the gate pillars and closed his eyes for a moment. Instantly everything around him began to spin and he quickly opened them again. Simultaneously, he had to hold on to the pillar to avoid falling. His stomach began to rebel and he had to use all his willpower not to throw up.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
Jack cautiously raised his gaze, trying to figure out who had shouted. It took a moment, then he saw a security guard looking over at him from the entrance of the expensive-looking building.
"Go on, get lost and sleep it off somewhere else."
On the one hand, he wanted to comply with the guard's request, on the other hand, there seemed to be an earthquake on the space station because the floor beneath his feet began to sway and Jack had to cling tightly to the pillar to avoid collapsing.
"You can't be serious, do I have to come out first?"
The guard's voice sounded extremely annoyed. Jack wondered how the man could remain so calm during a natural disaster. He would not move from the pillar until the station had stopped swaying so miserably.
The guard on duty in the foyer couldn't believe his bad luck. First, his colleague had fallen ill and now he had to take over the sick person's shift after his regular one. To make matters worse, some drunken troublemaker was hanging around in front of the main entrance of the trading house. On top of that, the man was not easily intimidated.
Normally this wouldn't have been a big deal, because the trading house was only visited when the big convoys came and the next one wasn't announced for a few months, but his supervisor had told him to pay particular attention today. A voidfarer had laded on the station. The captain of the ship was supposedly a personal friend of one of the rich traders and the probability was high that he would visit the trading house.
After checking the proper fit of his taser and rubber truncheon, the guard walked over to the drunk with a determined look on his face. The man at the pillar was still fully occupied with himself and did not seem to notice the guard's presence at all.
"Hey, I said"
When the drunk man raised his head, the rest of the words got stuck in the guard's throat. It was the guest whose arrival had been announced to him.
"Sir, can I be of any assistance?"
The man raised a finger to tell the security guard to wait a moment. Then he slowly straightened up and took a step towards the other. The guard could smell alcohol and stomach acid in his breath.
"Do ya hav a map?"
At the same time, Maya and the rest of the crew were sitting in a holding cell after being lectured by one of the security officers on how to beave on the station and why punching people you don't like was not the right option in any given situation.
The older voidfarers all simply laid down or sat on the bunk beds, some tried to catch some sleep with the rest of them watched the young security officer walk the aisle between the beds while mumbling to herself.
"What got you so worked up, shorty?"
Modred, the brawny engineer asked. He had taken the bed closest to the cell door and now sat on it with his legs crossed. One of his eyes was slowly becoming blue and swollen, but he didn't seem to care.
Maya stopped walking and stood before the man.
"What do you mean what got me worked up? Fucking dickheads hating Hybrids for no reason. They don't even know me."
"It's not the first time, we had idiots like this right? What's different now?"
The girl started walking again before she answered.
"It's just, ahh... I don't know."
She hesitated and kept walking.
"Hey, If you don't want to tell, that's fine, We just can't help you in that case."
Maya walked another few rounds in silence, then she threw herself on one of the bunks and covered her eyes with one arm and mumbled something, too quiet for the others to hear.
This time it was Sandria, the electronics tech, that continued the conversation. Sandria was about 1,5m tall and had a black ponytail, her red eyes seemed like a rare mutation, but in reality, she wore contact lenses that filtered specific light waves and she needed them for her work. Or at least. that's what she told people.
Sandria had taken the bunk above Maya and was letting her head hang down on the side, to look at the girl.
"If you want us to answer, you have to speak a little louder, my dear."
The girl took a deep breath before she spoke again.
"Why didn't he help us?"
After a moment of silence, there was a chuckle coming from the other side of the room. It was a deep and warm sound and one could feel it was not meant to harm the girl.
Still, Sandria felt the need to step in.
"Hey stop it, you stupid gorilla"
She reprimanded the laughing man.
"It's a fair question."
"No, you are right."
The man chuckled.
"To answer your question, the captain didn't step in, because there was no need for him to do so. Also, as you should know he's not the brawling type. Your father likes to sit back and watch things play out. He only ever steps in if he sees no other option."
"Yea, I know. Still, it doesn't feel right for him to just take the insult and don't say anything."
"So what would you like him to do? Call station security?"
Now it was Mayas' time to laugh. That was actually something she could see her father do.
"Not really I think. That would have taken away the satisfaction of beating those idiots."
"If I remember correctly it was more like they beat you."
Someone from another bed chimed in.
"Oh shut up, back there. If I had my weapons I would have taken them all down on my own."
Now everyone was laughing and Maya could feel her mood rise significantly.
"Imagine if we had to wait for the captain to answer, before starting the fight. We would still be sitting there."
Another round of laugher erupted and the jokes and friendly barter continued until some guards came by to check up on the commotion.
When they had all calmed down and the guard had left again, Sandria looked down from her bunk again.
"By the way, there is another important reason, why your father doesn't join in those fights."
Maya just looked up questioningly.
"Someone needs to pay the bail and get us back out of this shitty cell."
Maya just closed her eyes and groaned while the rest of the crew started laughing again.