The Andreas had been in flight for over a full day. Del looked around the small cabin he was strapped into the seat of next to the other unfortunate souls on this vessel. The passengers aboard the Andreas were few, but dangerous. Three of them were being transported to a deep security prison in a neighboring system, but the fourth, Del, was being brought to the Andresta system for a diffirent reason entirely. A work order. Del was a specific kind of criminal, one that most hated but those in the highest seats of power often saw use, or rather, opportunity in.
This time particularly Del had been caught smuggling more than enough drugs between planets in Earth's solar system, Copernicus, that he could of easily been imprisoned or exiled from the star entirely for. Such a crime would end most people. Unfortunately for him he'd been caught smuggling H- Carbonine, a drug from the colonized cities of Venus that he'd been caught with en route to mars. The H-carbonine was illegal throughout the entire solar system as well so Del had no defense for his case.
Instead of imprisonment, the council director of the Main Earth Federation (MEF) saw a political opportunity, one that would be beneficial to the MEF and raise their esteem in the eyes of the ever growing Drenzien empire that had conquered four diffirent systems, the most in known space for one group to control. To avoid invasion or any kind of conflict the director struck a deal with the Drenzien high senator, Poulja Maraks.
Del was to work for the Drenzien empire headquarter in Adresta smuggling for them between planets without the knowledge of their adversaries. Most of which being the Adresta systems various gang families or rival political groups. Regardless, Del was stuck on this trip until the job was done, bring four years of this, or he would never see his old home world of Earth again. An annoyingly impossible bargain but Del was forced to take it anyway. For the first time he'd been caught and had his hands tied. This was truly the only way out of the situation for him.
Del looked to Grees, one of the other inmates aboard the ship. He was sat across from him along with the other three on the far right end. He had dark skin and darker, malice filled tattoos but what caught Del's attention was his face was in more or less of a permanent scowl, like he was forever mad at the universe.
The other two inmates aboard the ship, Trys and Rela looked basically the same as one another, the only difference being Relas black hair to contradict Trys' blonde hair. Other than that they could have been twins. Del didn't know what they did in order to be aboard this vessel just as they didn't know what he did. Just like him as well, they were unlikely to just say so. Though he could probably guess Grees was probably here for some kind of mass murder. He shuddered looking at the big man before looking away. He let out a yawn and kicked his feet out, leaning back in his chair he was strapped into to provide what little comfort he could to himself.
That was about all he could do until the ship docked. The inmates weren't allowed to move about the cabin, being inmates and all. They were stuck in their seats until the journeys end. There were a few patrolmen that passed by, one of the three the small ship allowed. Every so often the captain would even show up herself. Captain Robinson of The Andreas.
Captain Robinson had grown a particular distaste for Del, which in turn gave him a yearning to irritate her. He had given her many nicknames but only stick with the ones that seemed to irritate her most… "Sweet cheeks" was one of those nicknames.
"How much longer sweet cheeks?" Del asked upon the captains entering of the small cabin.
"Stop calling me that." Captain Robinson answered.
"I can't help how your cheeks look." Del said with a shrug.
"My cheeks look normal." She frowned.
"Not those cheeks." Del smiled. That got a laugh from Trys and Grees. Rela just rolled her eyes.
"I have half a mind to just jettison you, you know that?" The captain asked.
"As long as you agree to swing by and pick me up later." Del said with another smile.
"It'll get awfully cold out there."
Captain Robinson rolled her eyes and hurried out of the room.
"Why does she even keep coming in here herself, isn't she the captain?" Trys asked the group.
"Progress reports I assume. They want to see if any of us have gone mad at the thought of indefinite incarcaratiom." Del responded.
The two girls chuckled but Grees remained silent.
"Because that always works." Rela chimed in.
"Not with the MEF, no. But the Drenziens? Who can say?" Del shrugged.
That caught the two of them off guard but Grees seemed to be expecting it. Del still couldn't get a good read on him. The man remakes of mystery that was most certainly covering up an insatiable lust for violence, maybe. Due to an abusive past? No, he told himself he wouldn't get invested in these people.
He wasn't going to ever see them again anyway. Unlike him, they were not in a work order. They were being transported to the Drenzien prison where they would likely stay until the end of their days. Because of this, that particular detail was kept from them. Likely more than one of them would resent Del because of that, maybe even enough to try something. Instead it was in everyone's best interest for Del to play the part that he too was headed toward impending doom, which for all he knew, he was.
The group was silent for a while after that. Del stretched his feet out again and finally felt the ship buckle as it jumped into hyperspace, they had finally exited the solar systems outer ring.
"Well, no turning back now." Del sarcastically muttered to himself. The rest of the group remained as quiet as before. Del looked off in the distance wondering what fresh hell this mission would bring as the Andreas coaster through the Hyperspace lane. It wouldn't be long now before the reached Adrestas.