OUTCAST

9

The situation on the 5th planet of the Apollo Z system was displayed on the entire plasma screen. Rather, I was not looking at the situation, but simply towards the screen. It was no longer necessary to read the stats and information from the news feed. There was no point in zooming in on parts of the map, looking at the ruined streets of Kaulnin and its suburbs. It is clear that the Argunians did not immediately take the city, suffered huge losses and got bogged down in prolonged street battles. In a month of fighting along bombed-out roads, the Horde was able to transfer one combined arms division and several support battalions to this enclave remote from its main territory, compensating for the almost complete loss of the 22nd division.

The Argunians still had a double superiority in forces here, but they did not have reserves that could radically change the balance in their favor. This means that they will take the city block by block for another couple of months - no less. Until the fate of Kaulnin is decided, other players will not join the war ... So, I have nothing to do there for at least another two months. I'm not going there right now.

Just in case, I went to my “favorite dating site” and found Maggie - she / he had the “online” icon on. Sent a message: “I miss you a lot, when will I see you?”

- Very busy now, maybe in a couple of months. Can you wait, honey?

I sent OK and a bouquet of smacks, smiles and flowers.

What should I do? Hanging around in space for two months and eating food, air and electricity does not make sense, you need to hit the road somewhere for a short time and it would be good to use it. Visiting the planets is expensive. 6 batteries for takeoff and landing, non-sour parking fees at spaceports, visas, unnecessary questions, etc. You can go to such expenses when you plan to have more on this planet. Now there were no plans, I didn’t want to get involved in anything serious.

A week ago, I stumbled across the web on Joy - a classmate and classmate in Homland. He was never really close to me, but he was fun to hang out with. And he seemed to be talking now with interesting people, there could be useful acquaintances. Joy, a red-haired devil, with a face as round as the sun and an eternal rustic smile, was somewhere in these parts and was about to change edge at the 45th station. Such stations, scattered throughout the galaxy, specialized in recharging the batteries of spaceships and were located at the intersection of busy highways. It was such a flying reactor from which the batteries were charged. At the same time there was a hotel, parking, some kind of party and fun, and you could wait a month or two there. And I yearned for live communication and fresh rumors.

On the flight to the station, I will spend half the battery on the march impulse. There I will replace this charge and recharge the batteries used to provide a living environment on my ship. All this will take 20 gold, I will fill my refrigerators with grub and replenish all types of stocks for 10 gold, the month of parking is still golden. And I'll spend a few more gold on a hotel, restaurants, and so on. That's about how much I earned this month on the stock exchange and on Vastu. Then in two months I will be fully charged, ready to fly to Apollo if anything.

Before the flight, it is not a sin to fully check all the systems of the ship. Many are limited to connecting to an Internet resource that checks the ship. But when exchanging data, there is even a small risk of catching a virus or leaking information into the wrong hands. I did not save and once a year I bought a licensed piece of iron. Now I have connected the disk with the test program to the central control unit of the ship and gave the command for a total check of the entire structure, all systems and all software. The check will take more than one hour. He turned on the navigator program and entered the coordinates of the 45th station, giving the command to calculate the course. This is also a few hours.

During this time, you can knock out the ends. I went to Tradeservice and told the club that I would not play next month. He brought them to the bank their 400 gold plus 12 gold in interest. The Harpy dictatorship on the 7th planet of the X system did not fail, its public debt did not collapse, I withdrew it from the deposit minus the club's share and left myself 8 gold. For two active games on the reports, I earned 7 and 6 gold, having now sold the rest of the goods and shares, I had a total of the initial 100 gold + 27 gold profits on my account.

I contacted Inter-Media (my editorial office-employer) and said that I was temporarily retiring. They dripped 20 gold for a month of work. It turns out that if I don’t want to spend the steward, I’ll spend 30 on the ship and supplies, I still have as many as 17 gold on top. On this you can really walk at the station and light it up as it should. Maybe something else to buy useful - there are duty-free shops at the stations, they are also extraterritorial.

True, you need to get out of Vastu normally. I logged into the network under the profile of Dr. Fadir. Looking dreamily at the ceiling, I thought about what kind of trouble I want for myself, so that it would be useful, arouse compassion and respect, and explain my future absence. But thoughts were already on the 45th with Joy, booze and whores. I wanted to get rid of the blood and dirt in the Choban Valley as soon as possible. I sent a short message to friends close enough and talkative enough: “I got shot at a gas station on the way to Randan. They are being taken to the international humanitarian hospital in Siyah. It doesn't seem to be a big deal." I pulled a photo from the Internet inside the ambulance on Choban. I enlarged and rotated, the quality was not so hot - and I turned down the light, like night, intensifying the red lights of the equipment. I made a three-dimensional frame out of this and brought it to my wall as a background. He made a face, lost but firm in spirit, and took a selfie. Then, in the finished photo, he paled his face skin, added a beard. Ready.

I threw it on the net on my account, reposted it under the left accounts so that it got into the media. Soon a note URGENT appeared on the native Inter-Media!

“Near Lindach in the Choban Valley, local secular politician Dr. Fadir, who does a lot for international and local civil organizations, helps peacekeepers find common ground with local communities, and provides extensive assistance to humanitarian programs in the region, was wounded by terrorists from firearms. Fadir reports that he is alive and determined to continue the fight. Doctors from the hospital in Siyah say that he was shot in the shoulder and received multiple bruises, but his vital organs were not damaged, nothing threatens his life.” This was followed by my photo in the emergency room. I liked myself.

It is a pity that it is not I who will receive the money for this exclusive, but an unknown author. The unknown drove the mess away, inventing from the bullshit about the shoulder and bruises, but I decided to support. Therefore, when questions poured in chats from worried friends, acquaintances, allies and enemies, I told them that the bullet from the shoulder would now be removed, and the whole body hurts. “But it could be worse. Don't worry, I'll be fine soon."

Major Kloss called. The man was really worried - how I was lucky. I explained that “I was driving to Randan on business, got out of the car at a gas station to buy water at a stall. He received no threats, they fired silently. Who? It is hard to say".

Kloss said that he was leaving Lindach with his battalion, leaving it to the police. But he remembers the widows' camp, and as soon as he meets that knowledgeable madam, he will immediately set me up with her. “Come on, get well, Fadir, you are strong, you are real, you are needed here!” - he said and smiled from the screen. I spoke only over sound, saying I didn't want to turn on the video - not in a suit type. I was too lazy now to fence myself some kind of hospital background.

The checker grunted, showing that he had finished the check, found no violations and offered to clear the extra cache, I quickly looked through the list of unnecessary files and clicked "Delete".

The navigator showed that the course was ready. I logged into Station 45's website and wrote to them that I wanted a connection, parking, and a hotel room for a month, and, of course, refilling the batteries. The site replied: “Dear Br (I worked in space under my real name), Your signal is very important to us. Our manager will contact you soon, you will like it with us.

While I was monitoring the news and chats, did not miss anything interesting. The flight will take two weeks, there will be no communication all this time. Normal channels at such a speed still do not hold, and it is better for the ship and the pilot to switch all their attention to controlling the space through which you are flying. Once in a thousand, when it turns out that you are flying directly into the forehead of some meteorite or other ship. But from what I've seen, once is enough, no one needs a second. Therefore, all the capabilities of the ship's systems are assigned to the control of space and the ability to respond to the threat of a collision. Therefore, I fly without communication.

- Dear Br, we will be glad to see you at our station, your docking port number 76, - they sang on the site of the 45th. This was followed by an offer to transfer them to a gold account for a month's parking. After the transfer, they sent passwords and logins to enter their personal account and set up their docking control center.

I loaded the course from the navigator program into the control unit, turned off all external communications, turned on space control, displayed information from the power plant, course parameters on the large plasma screen, set the internal "newsman" to collect information about the flight and displayed a map of the flight zone.

I put on the windows a program-imitation of stellar space, corresponding to the flight zone. Now the windows will show what I would see if they were real windows - only slightly increasing the landmark stars and boldly displaying possible oncoming ships, meteorites and other unplanned objects.

He gave the command "Start!" In the sensations inside the ship, this is not transmitted. Some, especially those new to space, like to set up imitation thrusters jerking and shaking and stuff, hum and stuff like that. I no longer indulged in this, but sat in my chair, looking at the screen and observing with satisfaction that everything was going well. The marching battery gave impetus. A powerful discharge now released a strong flash of light and energy, which pushed me in accordance with the appointed course to the 45th station. And then we just fly like a stone from a sling, slightly following the gravity waves of distant masses. Quiet and silent.

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