Empty Toward The Moon

Chapter Sixteen

Under the watchful eyes of Cade and Gianni Quadrozzi, arrangements were made to take care of the three of us under a semi-formal contract of Walkabout. I didn't really understand this to begin with, as I was not apart of their family or wider clan. But they waved that sentiment off claiming that as a benefactor for the Quadrozzi Merchant Clan, I was classed as family anyway and they wouldn't hear of it any other way.

Over dinner that night, it was confirmed that they would take me and "The Twins" as the dubbed Mocha and Latte, and bring us for a visit to their ancestral home. It was housed in one of the largest sectors of the Merchant's Guild Station, at a hidden location, known to only those in the guild, or those who cared to know where it was located.

An hour and half after we jumped out of the New Calli system into subspace, we entered back into real space, changed headings and jumped again. Nova explained to me that this was the only real way to guarantee that no one would be able to follow us by tracking The Chaser's wake emissions as no one has ever learned how to track wake emissions in subspace. If anyone was following us or decided to track me down, they wouldn't know where in subspace we exited, nor the new headings, nor our final destination.

Because the Quadrozzi Merchant Clan were not third party freighters, they could adjust their navigational pathways when ever they wanted. They were merchants in the true sense of the word. They purchased everything they carried and sold it where they would. Everything that The Chaser held in her cargo holds was owned by Cade, Gianni and their crew.

Cade and Gianni kindly opened their store house for us, making sure we had everything we needed which, to be honest, wasn't much as Nova had purchased all our supplies for us back on New Calli Station. They had us join them at the Captain's table for meals and even gave us temporary work placement positions on board the freighter for work each day. Mocha was dragged away to work in engineering by a Asian engineer and Gianni took Latte under her wing in the hydroponics bay to work with the plants, food stuffs and air filtering. I didn't see or hear anything from either of them all day until they both turned up, happy and tired at the evening meal each night.

I ended up with Cade in his office, looking at his merchandise cargoes for anything of interest. He told stories, speaking often of my old Grandfather and the tips and trade secrets that were passed down from his father that he claims came from Travis Briller. To be honest, it was really hard to see how they described my Grandfather when all I've known is the stoic and professional man that I knew. But I found it difficult working under these very laissez faire conditions.

Talk about culture shock. The Quadrozzi, as a family unit and clan as a whole, were a very open, caring people. They laughed when they wanted to laugh, swore when they wanted to swear. What you saw is what you got, to a greater extend. But they were ruthless when it mattered, like when selling and buying product, haggling prices and bartering goods and services, but they were a happy people. So bright and loud, and vastly different to anyone I'd ever met before, it took all three of us a few days to get used to the different lifestyle.

There wasn't a day go by while on the freighter that I was laughing my arse off, or learning new jokes, or ribbing Mr Cade for his silly antics. It was very similar to how I used to interact with Tomas, my older brother when we were little and before I became the heir apparent.

"What has put that frown on such a lovely face, Cia?" Cade had me in the pilot seat on the bridge going over pilot training simulations. He demanded I take astro navigation and piloting courses after he found out a bit more about how I was nearly lost in space by the Handsill Nebula.

"I was thinking about my older brother, Tomas." I gave him a small smile and turned back to the training material before me.

"When we arrive home, I'll have a shuttle send a message straight to your Grandfather on Briller Corp Prime. I think we need to formalise the arrangements we've made here."