They awoke the next day and dressed quickly before heading up to the bridge. The Invictus was about to arrive at Karron and they were all keen to see their destination after almost two weeks of travel. The cruiser left Hyper-warp and Alyssa plotted a course that would dock them directly with the mining colony.


    There were only three avable docking bays avable at Karron and the Invictus was toorge to fit into two of them. They had to wait 20 painfully slow minutes until a huge heavy freighter pulled clear of thest bay and headed off into the ckness of space. Alyssa skilfully docked the huge cruiser, guiding the ship carefully into the tight fit of the bored out tunnel that opened out into the docking bay. As the cruiser glided to a halt with the aid of retro thrusters, massive airlock doors creaked closed behind them and a force field sprung into ce over the tunnel as an extra precaution against depressurisation.Têxt belongs to N?velDrama.Org.


    “Ok then, let’s get moving.” John said to Alyssa.


    They had decided earlier that Cra would stay back on the ship, to keep watch over their home. An assault cruiser was a whole lot more tempting that a small, worn old freighter like the Fool’s Gold, so John was far more wary of leaving it undefended. Cra was disappointed not to be able toe along too, but she understood his reasoning and didn’t make a fuss. She kissed her lovers goodbye, with warnings to stay safe and be careful.


    “So where too first?” Alyssa asked John, as they exited the airlock in the side of the Invictus.


    They hadnded in a huge rough hewn docking bay, designed to load the hulking freighters that came to take away the thousands of tons of valuable ore that were mined from the asteroid. Loading equipment and Storage crates lined the darkened edges of the bay and loomed in the shadows, making the loading dock seem sinister and foreboding.


    “I thought we could go and meet your friend.” he suggested. “We’ve waited two weeks for the Tyrenium, a few more hours won’t hurt.”


    The beautiful young blonde nodded eagerly and led him out of the docking bay through a towering set of doors and into the dusty and grimy spaceport that guarded the way into Karron. The couple were dressed in street clothes, as wearingbat armour and carrying assault rifles would have attracted too much unwanted attention. Goingpletely unarmed would have been foolish though, so they each carried a heavy pistol on their hips.


    They crossed through the initial huge open cave areas, which housed the docking area and the mercantile district. There were no aliens to be seen here, the crowds bartering noisily around the bustling market consisted entirely of pale skinned humans, or “worms” as they were known to the less than polite visitor. John wove through the throng of people, following behind his beautifulpanion as she skilfully navigated the crowds. She led him away from the central hub of the colony and soon the tunnels got smaller and more ustrophobic, as they wound their way deeper into the bowels of the asteroid.


    John would have beenpletely lost without his infallible teenage guide, who seemed to know these tunnels like the back of her hand. His mind flitted back to her tragic tale of her life on Karron and his heart felt heavy at the thought of his wonderful girl having to go through so much at such an early age. They eventually reached Diablo territory, which he could tell by the red jacketed, pasty white gangers slouching insolently at every intersection.


    “Aren’t you worried someone might recognise you?” He whispered to Alyssa.


    She turned slightly to face him, a gleaming white smile on her tanned face, her golden hair tumbling past her shoulders and down her back. She was a picture of vibrant health and beauty.


    “Ok silly question.” he said, grinning wryly.


    Alyssa finally led him up to a closed steel door, nked by two heavily scarred men in gang jackets.


    “Hey chief, what do you want eh?” One of the ghostly pale gang members asked John, watching him warily.


    Before he could speak, Alyssa cut in “We’re here to buy some custom gear from Sparks, we don’t want any trouble.”


    She handed the man a credit stick for one hundred credits “For your assistance…” she said, smiling disarmingly.


    Powerless to resist such a beautiful woman bearing gifts, the ganger let them through with a casual wave of his hand. His dour facedpanion punched a button on a wall mounted panel and the locks on the reinforced door nked open and swung open for them with an ominous creak.


    John followed along behind the blonde, the darkly lit tunnels reverberating with wolf whistles as she strolled elegantly past gangers. The flirtatiousments and whistling grew quiet in her wake as the gangers spotted John and eyed him suspiciously. They eventually reached a workshop cut into a side tunnel, the bright light from a welding torch casting dancing shadows through the entrance and on to the wall of the tunnel opposite.


    “Hey Sparks! You got a moment?” Alyssa called out in a friendly, familiar manner to a small, wiry figure bent over a workbench.


    The welding torch cut out a momentter and the figure stood upright, lifting the heavy welding mask from her face as she half turned towards them. John could see a pasty white face looking hopefully in their direction for a moment, before the hopes were dashed and reced by a dark scowl.


    “Custom gear’s over there Blondie.” she said dismissively as she waved a finger over at weapon racks on the wall before turning back to continue with her welding.


    John followed the direction of the girl’s pointing finger to see a surprisingly clean and well cared for set of weapon racks, filled with borate custom pistols and sub machine guns. The weapons gleamed in the dull light of the workshop, looking sleek and deadly. He walked over to look at them more closely and saw that the sinister looking ck and chrome weapons were actually the work of a highly skilled gunsmith. He picked up a heavy bore pistol and was impressed by its excellent craftsmanship as he turned it carefully in his hand. Even the scope was surprising, with its powerful zoom and infrared capabilities, far beyond anything he expected to see in a colony like this. He carefully reced it on the weapon rack, feeling a newfound respect for its creator and turned to focus on the reunion in the workshop.


    Alyssa moved closer to the tetchy figure and tried again “Don’t you recognise me Sparks?” she asked tentatively.


    The wiry girl seemed to tense with irritation before turning off the oxy-acetylene torch and pulling off her cumbersome welding mask and turning right around to look at them squarely. Now John could see her clearly, he noticed a livid looking red scar all over the left side of her face and running down her neck. The girl could have once been considered pretty, if not for the disfiguring burn that looked to be many years old. The girl was ghostly white like all the locals at Karron and the small figure had a shock of short, spiky red hair.