Hortan was buzzing with energy. Finally, he thought, I get to take the Ole Sloth Moth out for a mining trip. He had packed his daypack and was skipping along the access corridor to Moda's workshop when he bumped into Vardonx, who was headed in the opposite direction with a pair of very pretty blonde girls on his arms.
"Hort, hi mate, long time since," he beamed at Hortan. "Are you going to the party tonight?"
Hortan looked at Vardonx slightly bewildered. "Party?"
"Yeah, Mor Isil is throwing this party to celebrate his new class XVII level trade license. It's gonna be a blast"
Hortan looked at Vardonx, at the two girls, immediately looked into the floor and blushed like mad when he realised that one of the girls was wearing bodypaint instead of a top, and muttered, "don't know, sure, if I can make it, gotta go mine, Helio can't wait, must fill one moth full.."
Vardonx put one finger under Hortan chin, lifted his face and looked directly into the baby blue eyes. "You come if you feel up to it, ok? Girls, you are embarrassing my man here, lets go." With that the giggling trio side-stepped Hortan and left him standing in the corridor alone.
Shaking his head slowly, he started trotting down towards Moda's place again.
The entrance to the hangar was framed by two banners of black synth silk with a painting of a happy smiling skunk with its arms folded adorning each sheet. As usual, loud Heavy Metal was competing with the sounds of various machines stationed at seemingly random places around the shop. The hard distortion guitar and drums had an almost intoxicating sound to it, and coupled with the deep raspy voice of the singer "Sleep my friend and you will see, the dream is my reality. They keep me locked up in this cage, can't they see it's why my brain says Raaaage" made Hortan stand still and listen intensely. He would probably have stayed still for the rest of the song, if it wasn't for a loud laugh that turned into an almost nasal guffawing. Fearing that someone was choking, Hortan ran quickly over towards the sound and spotted Zathras and Moda. Moda holding one arm on a bulkhead to stabilise himself while laughing, and Zathras standing with a puzzled look on his face, and a hydrospanner in his right hand that had very obviously and catastrophically malfunctioned. The hydraulics fluid usually contained inside such a device, was covering most of Zathras, the bulkhead and some machine that was split into its component parts.
"Are you ok?" Hortan asked half waiting for an explosion of rage to come from Zathras. Instead, Zathras tossed his head back and laughed as well, while tossing the now defunct spanner into the spreading pool of hydraulics fluid. He pointed one greasy finger at Moda.
"Ok, point to you for that one. What is the score then?"
"Thre, thre, three two ha ha.." Moda managed to squeeze out between laughs. Noticing Hortan, he winked at him and pointed towards the refrigeration unit that was placed between three large comfy chairs. "Get us a beer, will you?" he asked while holding his side and looking at Zathras who had started cleaning his face and hands with a rag.
Hortan fetched two Serco Ales and one Nyrius Dew. Moda looked at the soda with distaste, and accepted the beers for him and Zathras.
"Still going dry, eh? Cheers anyway" Moda raised his beer and gulped it down in a couple of swallows.
"Yeah, I have to, at least until I stop on the Lithium pills." Hortan had never really been a heavy beer drinker, but he had always been willing to drink one in good company. Helio Mists on the other hand. Another thing he was longing for when he didn't have to take the pills.
"So, what brings you here son?" Zathras asked while sipping his beer. "He is here for his EAPRS, you know that." Moda's voice was almost completely drowned by the clinging noises from the refrigerator, that he has stuck his head into in the search for more beer. It didn't help either that he had stuffed his mouth with some leftover BioCom Natural Flavoured Imitation Synth Pork Rinds, better known as Pork Candy.
EAPRS, pronounced JAPPERS was a new invention that Hortan was testing for Moda. The Enhanced Automatic Pilot Recovery System was supposed to take the person it protected, and quantum teleport that person to a designated facility upon catastrophic failure of life support. This should supposedly allow the person to remain conscious all the time and eliminate the minutes normally needed after recovery.
"Oh yeah, we installed that like a month ago. It is ready for testing," Zathras smiled and nodded in the direction of bay five, "but you don't have to, you know, test is on purpose."
Hortan looked at the bright yellow Behemoth with its matte black mining beams inside the bay. Ye Olde Sloth Moth XXIV, his favourite mining ship.
"So, where did you put the buttons this time Moda?" Hortan asked, remembering last time he tested something for the tinker.
"No buttons man, it is all automated. Life support stops, JAPPERS kicks in. You see the cute face of the nurse and runs off to get another ship," Moda grinned, beer in one hand and pork candy in the other.
Hortan went over to his ship and stroked it with his right hand all the way from the nose along the flank to the large engines in the back. He went inside and checked the cockpit, made sure the dice's were at their usual spot in the window, and downloaded his favourite music to the computer. Satisfied everything was just as it should be, he dumped the daypack inside and jumped outside again.
"Can I take the ole gal out now Moda?" he asked
"Sure, it is after all your ship. Enjoy, and don't test the JAPPERS too hard, you hear," Moda was shouting from the other side of the hall. He was bent over some engine or other with only Zathras's legs sticking out.
Hortan sent a notification to the dock master, and ran off to find John Eldritch. This day was becoming better and better. What could possibly go wrong?
