Novu Sol

Chapter 3

Hyperspace
Ionosphere

The Admiral sat on the bridge of her ship, watching the visuals of hyperspace on one of her displays. A mottled black and gray, with flashes of red. At least that is what registered on the screens and in the eyes of humans. Hyperspace was simple. It got you were you wanted to go faster than real space did. Trade Routes, special faster 'lanes' of hyperspace, connected most of the important areas.

She had to avoid the two biggest Trade Routes, the ones that led into Novu Sol's territory. But the other two major ones she was free to use, though she did have to be careful since it was possible for Novu Sol warships to be in system and cause trouble for her. It took her longer to get places at times, but this was why she was headed to where she was.

Her hand ran over a line of commands, activating them to bring the ship bursting out of hyperspace and into a star system. A few freighters slowly trudged their way in system from other directions, but as she watched her display fill with vectors, they all intersected at the same place.

A large asteroid glowed bright on the display as the destination for these freighters, its color green, for a friendly base or unit.

The Asteroid Trading Station, or ATS for short. In a relatively worthless star system between the Nation of the Free and the Treos Clusters, it served as a rest stop of sorts, for merchants who may want to avoid the custom patrols and taxes that passing through Novu Solarian space might bring. It came with more risk, but the profits were worth it to some people.

The Admiral tapped her communications, bringing up a link to ATS and moved her ship towards the asteroid.

"Ah Ionosphere! Its good to see you again."  The voice crackled a little, aging equipment that had probably been stolen or 'damaged in transit.' "You need your dock opened up?"

"Only once I get closer, refuel as well." She said simply.

"Yes Ma'am." With that the communication ended. The other merchants didn't seemed bothered by the Novu Solarian ship in their presence as it swept past the normal docking facilities to a concealed dock  in a deep crater. The hatch expertly painted to look like the surrounding rock, small enough to not be worth a second glance, and hard to maneuver into for any large, civilian vessel. She had it installed 4 years ago, when she got tired of her ship be ogled in the regular docks and an uptick in Novu Solarian patrols in the star system meant the station had lost a lot of business. It benefited them both. She paid good money to the station and they helped her stay hidden.

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Unnamed Star System
Asteroid Trading Station (ATS)

The Admiral walked easily through the crowds of people, small enough to not be of any notice, wearing gray working coveralls and hair twisting up into a bun. She was armed with a sidearm, that was just common sense out here, but other then that, she did not wear her uniform. Today she needed to blend, not needing any extra attention.

The crowds were starting to thin as she continued her walk, less business was being done around this area, this was the station crew, the people that worked here, lived here for the most part.

A guard in armor that looked worn nodded to her and opened an old fashioned door labeled "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.' before her stretched a passage where only a couple people walked and she strode past them, a confused glance from the younger of the pair as she found the hatch for the conference room.

She sat down in one of the well used chairs, rested her arms on the table and waited.

Two minutes later, a hologram popped up with the face of a man, unnaturally handsome with a decorative burn of some ancient Earth language on his forehead.