Beasts of Steel

The chair bounced back half a metre as its owner leaped to sit on it. It was so depressingly white here, so maybe it was good that the environment brought out the inner child in everyone. At least they all had the little joys after work. If they ever stopped, that is.

The figure in the chair grumbled. His phone had started to beep, and that could only mean one thing: more work. And he had only just gotten back to his room. It paid well, but everyone out here was a slave to the job as long as the contract stated. The man bounced up in one motion. Being one of the newer employees, he still had trouble casually sitting up from a chair. The legs were used to more force, but here, that just sent you flying. He barely regained his balance as his feet hit the floor.

He deliberately slowed each step as he walked. He still couldn't get used to the horizon here either. The ground bent upwards. Upwards! That wasn't a proper horizon. He knew full well why it was like that, but he still couldn't get used to it. Not after his 2 year stay in a perfectly terrestrial prison. He checked what the message on the phone said. Great, more robots trapped. He briefly wondered why those things screwed up so much. Ah well, if they didn't, he'd be out of a job.

He finally reached the skeleton storage room, only to see another one of the workers there already. Looks like it was a pretty big screw-up, if it needed two people in skeletons to fix. "Hey Jane." Richard waved to the woman climbing into one of the metal frames. She just waved back without even glancing at him. She fidgeted around with the motion sensors for a bit, waving the oversized arms of the frame for a test. Then the 300 kilogram machine walked up to a hatch and jumped up into it, climbing towards the center of the facility.

Richard realized he still needed one of those pressure suits, like she had. It was practically vacuum up there, and the lack of atmospheric pressure caused some seriously uncomfortable swelling if you didn't have one on. He needed to change. Luckily, the designers of this station had been utilitarian. The pressure suits were in a changing room next to the skeleton storage. Most people might have been uncomfortable with the prospect of trusting their lives in a skintight flimsy piece of clothing, but not Richard. It was hardly the first time, and not being scared of the vacuum of space stuck with someone a lot longer that being used to mining station "horizon" and gravity. Changing didn't take long either way.

He grabbed the skeleton, moving it to the center of the room, so it'd be easier to climb into. Its weight wasn't a problem here, but the center of mass still was. Richard kept feeling like the machine was moving him, instead of the other way around. Still, it worked, and he climbed into the frame, placing the helmet on his head and sealing the edges against the cloth. Then he jumped up into the hatch, closing it behind him. He knew no-one was going to come after them. They never ordered more than two people on robot-screw ups. Then he just climbed the ladder, somewhat clumsily due to the massive mechanism. But the ever reducing gravity made it easier.

He stepped out of the other hatch and into the depressurization chamber. He was now surrounded by vacuum. He sprung towards the central tube of the station. It was just a small distance away. Of course there were handholds and such, but it was just so much more fun this way. He grabbed one of the handholds to slow himself down and gave himself a little push to float himself to the centre, grabbing the tether floating still in the centre. Three other tethers were already extended across the rounded corridor, extending into the asteroid itself. Must be Jane, Richard thought. He hooked the tether to the skeleton and jumped off the wheel holding the rest of the tether, holding the tether in his hand. He could lock the wheel remotely to stop himself at any time.

The station, while securely embedded into the asteroid, didn't extend very far into the thing. Eventually, the gray inner wall of the space station was replaced with rock, that of the interior of an asteroid, only visible at all thanks to his flashlight. He glanced at the other tethers, looking at which tunnel they went into. Then he realized something. There had been five robots down here, yet he could only see three tethers apart from his own. And one of them was Jane. That meant that three of the robots had somehow had their tethers cut, which in turn meant that they were floating in a practically weightless space without being affixed to anything.

Richard cursed. It wasn't exactly dangerous, but it was very annoying. The damnably stupid machines could be anywhere in the tunnels by now, since without tethers, they'd have had no way to stop whatever momentum they had. They'd keep bouncing around off the walls for quite a while. He wondered what could've cut the tethers in the first place. They were made specifically to stop this kind of thing from happening, because gathering loose machines inside an asteroid was just a royal pain in the ass.

He bounced off the wall into one of the tunnels, seeing Jane just ahead. She had stopped the tether, and was just standing there, floating. Richard had to be careful not to accidentally hit her. He forced his hand into the wall, the immense strength of the skeleton allowing him to deform the rock wall for the oversized mechanical fingers. He stopped the tether, also floating in the darkness. Then he radio'd the woman floating just meters ahead of him. Sound didn't travel in a vacuum after all.

"Loose bots, right?" Richard said. He could hear the exasperation in her response. "Yes. No idea where they could've gone. Hopefully none of them have found their way into the second tunnel." "Couldn't we just check their locations with the station control?" Richard asked. "No use. The things are apparently deactivated, and so are their cameras and radio signatures." She spoke. "Deactivated? How does that even happen?" Richard questioned. "No clue. I suppose we'll find out once we find them." Richard saw the skeleton ahead of him shrug while she spoke. "If we find them." Richard muttered into the radio. "C'mon Rick, this place isn't that big. Lets check this tunnel first."

Jane swung herself to a wall by the tether and kicked off for speed. Richard did the same. The flashlights on their helmets illuminated the tunnels ahead of them, but there still wasn't any sign of the errant machines. The two other tethers still extended ahead of them. If Richard remembered anything about these tunnels, it'd split up soon, in which case Jane and Richard probably should do so as well. That is, unless they found something before that.

Then, they did. One of the tethers led up to a wall, where one of the robots had been crushed against it. Jane stopped her tether, and stood there, floating. Richard allowed himself to advance another meter closer to the robot before stopping himself as well. "It escapes me how this could even have happened." Richard curtly commented. "Lets have a closer look." Jane said. Richard reached the oversized mechanical hand to the wall, pulling himself to the damaged mining robot. "This has... holes in it." Richard commented. "Perfectly cylindrical too. They look like drive knife marks." Jane cocked her eyebrow in response, though it couldn't be seen under the helmet. The drive knife was really the only thing that could have caused this, yet the mining robots didn't even have any with them.

Jane started moving forward. It seems she didn't even notice it at first. Richard glanced at her, the flashlight in his illuminating what should have been a tether. It had been removed. There was a hint of movement, and Jane started moving faster towards one of the tunnels. She had no handholds within reach. No way to stop herself. Richard swung from the wall and followed her into the darkness...

"Can you stop yourself?" Richard spoke over the radio. "No, the walls are all too far." They were both remarkably calm, though only because they knew that their air supplies would be more than sufficient. Richard got a good grip on an outcropping in the walls. He pushed forwards against it, picking up more speed. He was starting to catch up to Jane. After that, they could just retract the tether to pull themselves back to the station. "Closer..." Richard muttered. Whatever had detached Jane from her tether and shoved her forward hadn't used too much force. "Reach behind." Richard advised, and Jane twisted in the skeleton. It was just enough. Richard managed to grab onto the metal arm, and stop the tether.

Richard grabbed a more secure hold of the frame itself as they started to slowly move back, the tether retracting back into the wheel. Jane opened her radio again, this time to station control. "Hello? Anyone there?" She hailed into the radio. "Yes. Control is listening." A deadpan answer sounded into the radio. "Good. We have a rather strange issue here." Jane grabbed the robot from the wall with one hand, retracting its tether as well. "We found one of the mining robots. It has drive knife holes on it." Jane turned the boxlike automaton in her hands. A thin, mechanical pincer lolled out of the machine.

"Drive knife holes? That doesn't make any sense." The operator answered. "Yeah, it doesn't, but I don't know what else could've made these holes. They're completely round." Jane continued. "You have the robot with you, right?" The operator asked. "Yes, we're just coming back." It was a rather awkward setup. Richard was pulling them both by his own tether, while Jane was holding the robot that was also being tethered back. The tethers had tensed around a corner and Richard slowly turned in place to move them away from the wall with his feet.

They swung around the corner just as Richard's tether whipped back, moving to Richard's side. Another tether had been cut. "Something just cut Richard's tether." Jane spoke into the radio, tightening her grip on the robot. That was the only working tether they had now. She was getting nervous. Carbon nanotube composite tethers didn't just snap at random. They had ridiculous tensile strength and they were generally hard to break. The only quick way to cut through one was a... drive knife. Nothing was resistant to having a piece of itself transported inside a star.

They had cleared the corner on the machine's tether now. Jane carefully waved the machine. The tether didn't stay tense. It looped around on itself. Cut as well. Luckily, they were close now. They'd make it without a tether. "The depressurization room camera just went dark." The operator spoke into the radio. "There's someone here.." He continued. Jane and Richard were now at the central room. They let go of each other, floating towards the wall. Then they bounced towards the depressurization room.

Nothing odd to be seen. The chamber closed and the pressure became normal again. They glanced at the camera in the room. There was a hole. A perfectly cylindrical one. "The camera was broken with a drive knife." Jane spoke into the radio again. Finally, they could hear each other without having to use the radio. However, the gravity was still nonexistent. They sprung towards the wall and grabbed the ladder, one at a time. It was always harder to climb down, since the gravity was constantly increasing, especially given how clumsy the skeletons were.

The jumped out of the hatch into the skeleton storage. One of the other workers was there waiting. Jonas. One of the veterans to the station. "Care to explain?" He started, looking at the destroyed mining robot. Jane glared at him, though the helmet made that gesture completely pointless. "Found it in the tunnels. Someone's been having a riot with a drive knife." Jane deadpanned. "So.. found the others? Like you were supposed to?" Jonas continued. "No, our tethers getting cut put a stop to that." Jane muttered something unflattering under her breath. Jonas was the last person she wanted to debrief this to.

Richard started to climb out of the skeleton as Jane set the robotic remains on the ground. He removed the helmet and Jane started climbing down as well. Jonas just stood there. "Don't you have something you ought to be doing? Doesn't take a genius to figure out there's a stowaway so go on, get!" Richard waved his hand at the door, gesturing Jonas to leave. "Criminal." He mumbled, walking out. "What was that?" Jane cocked her eyebrow, this time visible as she had removed her helmet. "Long story. Anyway, we have bigger problems now." Richard said. Jane took a second rearranging her ample hairdo. It had gotten quite squashed in the helmet.

Suddenly, a sound erupted from the internal speaker system. "A Vanir, spotted in the docking bay." Richard blinked. How did one of those get in here, and why? He started jogging, motioning Jane to follow. There was no security on asteroid mining stations. Every security breach and problem had to be handled internally, at least to start.

Jane picked up her radio again. "Might want to tell them he probably has a drive knife." She told the operator. "Warning. The Vanir is most likely in possession of a drive knife." The internal speaker system blared again. "Good enough?" The operator quipped. "Yeah." Jane closed the channel. Richard pushed a door open in front of them. They were nearly at the docking bay. Then another door in front of them suddenly slammed shut, as did the door behind them. Richard pushed one of the doors, to no avail.

"Ah, sorry about that!" The internal speaker system blared again. "I figured that locking the place down would be the best way to catch this little Vanir!" The operator spoke. "Now, if it moves, I'm pretty sure I can see it, and if it breaks the camera, wherever it is, We'll know where it is." The operator sounded quite pleased with himself. Jane opened the radio again. "Err... Drive knife. It can just cut through the door if it's not seen by the camera." She spoke to the operator again. "Blast!" The speakers blared again. "Oh, this is still on?" The speakers quieted down, and the operator continued on the radio frequency. "Well, maybe it'll reveal itself.." He suddenly switched on the speakers "There it is! One door away from the launch corridor! It's punching holes in the door!" The operator yelled into the speakers. "Arm yourself and stop it, I think it's trying to run for our shuttle!"

All doors became unlocked except for the one the Vanir was trying to break through. Jane and Richard looked at each other. "There are coilguns in that room." Richard pointed at one of the doors. They ran in and picked up one pistol each. They quickly slapped batteries and ammunition into their weapons before starting their run towards the docking bay. The launch corridor door was pretty heavy, but nothing could stand up to a drive knife. That vanir would get through, it was only a question of when.

They barged into the room as the other doors to the room also burst open. The sealed door to the launch corridor had almost been breached, but not quite. It was a few holes short. The twelve that had entered pointed coilguns at the vanir. It turned around, allowing them to properly see it. It had a small face, and it looked almost insectoid, given its lime green color. Its eyes were set into a rectangular face, seemingly opening at a 45 degree angle, though covered by lenses extending from a cap and its chin had two small protrusions downwards. Its mouth was covered by something that might have been metal.

The creature turned slightly on its four, stunted legs. They were disproportionately thick compared to its body in general. The body itself tapered off to a point and looked leathery, though there was more of the stuff that might have been metal on the creature's back. It wore what was probably a vanir analogue for pants, the sleeves fitting around his legs, the cloth strapped around his back. Despite the horizontal body, the creature's torso was upright, and one of its arms still held the drive knife, a deceptively simple looking baton. The arm might have looked human if it wasn't spined and four-fingered.

One of the workers flicked off the safety from his coilgun and shouted "Drop the knife!" The vanir just stared. Its eyes changed shape a little, and its face turned to a slightly deeper shade of green, but it didn't answer. The rest flicked off their safeties.

Jane held up one hand. "Wait." The others kept their guns trained on the vanir, but did not fire. A few looked at Jane. She cleared her throat and spoke. Or at least, the others guessed that she might have spoke. She breathed out a stream of syllables so utterly lacking in aesthetics that they drowned out the very voice that spoke them. Jane coughed. The vanir immediately dropped the drive knife. "Anyone know how to safely restrain a vanir?" Jane asked. One of the men slowly walked up to the vanir to pick up the drive knife. "The law permits us to detain it for quite a while, but not kill it. Then we have to bring it to C.H.A authorities." Richard noted. "How long can we keep the thing here? We could just send it with a supply run." One of the women said. "We'd have to send someone with it then." Richard said. "Usually, supply runs are unmanned." He continued. Then Jonas piped up. "Not just anyone. We'd have to send it with a ferryman." The vanir just looked around, standing immobile in place. "Do we actually have to send for a ferryman just to pick this bastard up?" One of the women, named Cassandra, spoke up. "How long can we keep it here anyway?" She continued. "With these supplies?" Jane started. "About 3 weeks." She finished. "And when are we making that supply run?" Cassandra continued. "About a week." There was silence for a few seconds. The Richard spoke. "I have a ferryman's certificate. It's good for... one more month."

"Then you and Jane will have to go bring it in." Cassandra spoke, looking at Richard as she did so. "Why me?" Jane immediately piped up. "Okay then. Anyone else speak intermediary?" Cassandra asked, looking at the group spread in a half circle around the room. "No? Looks like you got the job, Jane." Cassandra finished after a brief silence. "So, in a week, me and Jane will board the supply shuttle with the Vanir and leave it with the C.H.A:s, and then return." Richard reiterated. Jane switched on the radio to operator. "Do we have a free room? Sealable?" He asked into the radio. "Yes, why?" The operator answered. "We need to detain the vanir until the next supply run." Jane spoke again. "Got it. No one is using room number 5." The operator responded, turning off the frequency. Jane turned to the vanir and said something, once again using the language designed for all, and thus, designed for no-one. Richard kept a coilgun trained on the creature as Jane started leading it through the corridors, the rest of the station crew scattering back to their duties.

Finally reaching room number 5, Jane pointed the vanir inside, closing the door behind the creature. Then she sighed, leaning to the wall. "That thing is going to be a pain, isn't it." She muttered. Richard was quick to agree. "At least we'll get a week of normal operation in." He said. "Normal, right. That'll work great while detaining an alien." She lightly pushed herself off the wall. "We need to affix some replacement tethers, and go find the rest of the bots, intact or not. I doubt there's a second vanir up there." Richard looked at her for a second. "If there is, I am finding a gun. Anyway, back to work."

***

"Today's the day then." Jane said. "Nearly out of supplies, and need to send that vanir off to the authorities. Is the shuttle loaded?" "Yeah." Richard spoke. "We were also supposed to pick up some more bots to replace the five broken ones. Then hope we don't have to delay too long testifying against that rat bastard. Hopefully we won't have to hire a ferryman to take us back." Jane stopped for a moment. "You don't really think they'll hold us there for two whole weeks do you?" "You never know about the C.H.A." Richard mumbled. "Depending on what his vanir was doing, the proceedings could take a while, and they might need us at various points during that. And if it takes longer than 2 weeks my certificate will expire." Richard continued. They both got up from their seats, making their way towards room number 5. Jane shouted more intermediary through the door before opening it. "That actually sounds painful for the throat." Richard commented. "It is for beginners." Jane responded. The vanir was laying on its stomach, its four feet crossed under it. It stirred, carefully walking towards the pair of humans. "That critter still creeps me out." Richard said, half-whispering despite the fact that the vanir had no way to understand what he was saying. "Lets just go." Jane said. Then she spoke more intermediary, and the vanir followed.

Making their way to the launch corridor, both of the humans glanced at the holes still in the door. They didn't exactly have replacement doors here, and whether the interior doors were intact or airtight was mostly irrelevant for safety. Still, the near complete circle of drive knife marks wasn't exactly aesthetically pleasing. The door opened to their passing as the vanir glanced back at its earlier handiwork. They walked through the open shuttle doors, the much heavier doors closing off behind them before depressurizing the space left between them. Without saying much, the pair did a final check on their cargo. Then they walked over to the control room, the vanir following them. It wasn't the height of prisoner security, but they all knew it would be rock-stupid to do anything Richard wasn't planning on doing in the first place. They strapped themselves into the chairs before Richard pushed a button. The shuttle started drifting off from the asteroid and its mining station, moving with the meager speed given by a physical push. There was no gravity now, as they were not accelerating.

Richard punched some more numbers in, and pressed another button in confirmation. The engine kicked in, starting a rapid chain of hydrogen fusion powering the high-speed expulsion of propellant. The gravity reached that of environments usually found on earth as the shuttle accelerated steadily, the asteroid mining station now safe from the white-hot propellant they were expelling. Jane then broke the silence. "Ugh. I've been in mining station gravity for too long. I'm starting to feel heavy." She unstrapped herself from the chair, standing back on the floor. The vanir let out a few sounds. "What's it saying?" Richard asked. "No idea. That isn't intermediary." Jane responded. Then she turned to the vanir, clearing her throat. Richard turned around. Intermediary really was an ugly language.

Having left Richard with the shuttle controls, Jane led the vanir to one of the few rooms in the shuttle designed for use by living beings. Most vessels were at least tolerable to all of the three known sapient species, but they were definitely more comfortable to those of the species it was designed for. The vanir awkwardly sat down on one the bunk while Jane sat down on the bench-like construction on the opposite wall. She couldn't help but be unnerved by the creature. It looked at her with eyes nearly fully white, only broken by the jagged circles of black around the black slit that seemed to make up the pupil. There were hints of other colors at the edges of the black circles, but Jane couldn't make out what they were. The creature looked, simply put, disturbing. Perhaps she looked wrong in some way to it as well.

To her surprise, the vanir spoke first. It had been quiet for the whole week prior. "What will happen?" It asked, straining its throat against the unfamiliar syllables of the intermediary language. "We are bringing you to the central station in this star system. There, the local authorities will handle your extradition or prosecution." She curtly answered, watching the vanir intently for a reaction. She could see in its face color and what was probably expression, but she couldn't figure out what it meant. "What were you doing in the tunnels?" Jane felt that the gravity of her question would have warranted some profanity, but intermediary was terrible for anything other than the expression of basic terms. "I boarded a shuttle on accident." The vanir spoke. Jane raised her eyebrow. On accident? How did that even happen? "How did you evade notice in our station?" She continued her line of questioning. "I am good at hiding." The vanir said. How informative. "What did you expect to accomplish by kicking me into the tunnels?" Jane asked. The vanir's attitude was beginning to annoy her. "A distraction." The two looked at each other. Then Jane stood up, marching out of the room.

She walked over to the control room just as Richard stepped out, having checked the course already. "Well?" He asked. "Got nothing useful out of that thing." Jane said. "It answered, but in the most unhelpful ways possible. I'll have to ask it again later, but I don't have the patience for it right now." She finished. Richard pondered for a moment. "Well, we do have six more days before we reach the central station." He finally said. "And most of those are going to be boring as hell." "Oh tell me about it." Jane muttered in response. "I remember my original shuttle ride here. We were like sardines in a can, and your fellow human being isn't exactly pleasant company in those conditions." She explained, sighing at the end. "What about vanir?" Richard asked, though the sarcasm in his voice wasn't very well concealed. "I'm starting to hate that thing." Jane muttered. "I have for the last 2 weeks." Richard spoke back. Then they fell silent for a second. Richard turned on the external cameras, granting a view to the outside of the rapidly accelerating ship. "Up for some stargazing?"

"So. This time I want actual answers." Jane spoke, making her tone as stern as it could be, not even trying to hide her annoyance. However, there was no reaction Jane could detect from the vanir. It bluntly said. "Why would I give them?" Jane stared at the creature, narrowing her eyes. "You're on a ship controlled by humans. Angering us can only worsen your situation." She explained, still unable to find any trace of emotion on the creature's face. It was frustrating to be completely unaware if her speech was having any effect. The vanir spoke in turn. "Old song and dance. I have heard it all before. You are not an official. You can do nothing." Jane was quick to retort. "Hardened criminal then? I'm sure that knowledge will aid us." The vanir just sat, looking like a veritable bastion of calm. "This discussion is useless to both of us, as well as everyone else." The vanir, for once, made a gesture of sorts, looking around the small room. "My bones grate in this air and gravity. I must adjust. If you would leave, so we may end this reciprocal waste of breath." The creature made a low rumbling sound from its throat, though it was no language this time around. Jane stood up. "So be it then. It is unlikely to matter in the end." The vanir did not even acknowledge her as she walked out of the room.

She sighed, walking over to the ladder leading to an upper floor in the spaceship. That creature could spot her lies from a mile away, despite the fact that it should have had the same difficulties reading her face as she had reading its face. Perhaps she was just that obvious. Climbing up the ladder, she heard Richard speak from above. "No luck?" Jane hauled herself over to the floor. "No. That thing keeps alternating between contradicting itself and just refusing to say anything. I don't think I'll try again. Talking to that thing is a waste of time. Speaking of which, do you know who we should hand that thing over to?" She asked. "The human authority on the station, though it doesn't actually matter much here." Richard said. "They'll quickly transfer the case over to the vanir presence in the station. Of course, our boss will probably be suing, so they'll turn it over again to the common justice. The bureaucracy will take a while. I hope they don't judge us to be necessary for the prosecution, because that might well delay us until after my ferryman's certificate expires, and then we'll be stuck until we can find another ferryman." Richard finished, turning to walk the short distance to the dining room of the spaceship, Jane walking behind him. It was probably time to eat, though the concept of a daily rhythm was rather nebulous in space. "You have radio'd the boss about all of this, right?" She asked. "Yes." Richard said, sitting down to eat. He had already done the meager work of preparing it, having had nothing better to do while Jane was interrogating the vanir.

"How do you know so much about hub-station law anyway?" Jane asked. "Well..." Richard leaned back on his chair. "I went through it a few years back." Jane arched one eyebrow. "I was jailed for a 14 months after a rather lengthy process. It included a lot of stupidity between the vanir and human authorities, mostly because they were unclear on what calendar they were using. They accidentally extended the sentence to 178 months originally because of that." Richard spoke. "What were you arrested for anyway?" Jane asked. "Fraud." He said. "I was a major shareholder in a mining business, called Tonpick. When the whole thing started going belly-up, most of our investors withdrew with as much money as they could. But I was pretty tightly tied to the operation. So when I realized the whole thing was unsalvageable, I shifted some records around to obscure my level of financial responsibility for the company's debts, withdrew all my investments and left the whole thing to sink." Jane shifted in her seat, taking in the story. Richard continued. "Our creditors were pretty pissed when they realized that the company that owed them didn't exist anymore, and the records indicating who was responsible for any existing debts were contradictory or nonexistent. Eventually, they caught me and off to jail I went." He finished. "And how did you end up working here?" Jane asked. "After getting out of jail, I didn't feel like going back to administration, and I still had a degree for this stuff." Richard said, between eating. "I don't think the boss had too many options on workers though, it's probably why he was willing to hire an ex-con.” Jane nodded absentmindedly, finishing her meal. ”What about you?” Richard asked. ”Any skeletons in your closet?” Jane rose up from her seat, stretching her arms. ”Oh, dozens.” She said. ”But right now, I think I need a nap.” Richard rose up as well. ”Was it that boring?” He asked. ”Oh no, I just get sleepy after eating.” Jane said, turning to leave. ”Sleep well then.” Richard said, turning to move back to the control room.

***

"I haven't done this in a long, long while, so don't be surprised if something goes wrong. It'll probably just be a nuclear explosion." Richard said, strapping himself into the seat. "That isn't funny." Jane muttered. The vanir was also there, but the humans barely acknowledged it anymore. The cameras showed a massive spinning wheel, originally white, but now painted partially to tones of dust by the detritus of space. It must have been at least 2 kilometers across, lazily swimming on the orbit of the planet below. "Decelerating at 1.1G, otherwise we hit." Richard said, and the group felt slightly more pull at their bodies, the engine expelling more propellant to bring the spaceship to a faster stop. The force of gravity suddenly disappeared as the engines stopped, leaving the vessel slowly drifting due to the near-exact stop of the deceleration. This is why they had strapped in. The altitude jets kicked in, slowly pushing the vessel towards the spinning station. The computer calculated and turned the jets, sending a radio message to the spaceport administration, requesting docking permission. They immediately received it, and the computer calculated direction using the revolutions per minute value of the spinning station. It lazily drifted towards it, imparting barely noticeable G-forces on the humans and the vanir. The meager mass of the spaceship barely disrupted the rotation of the station as it slid smoothly into the docking port.

The force of gravity was once again at a comfortable 1G, this time imparted by the rotation of the space station, and the three passengers unstrapped themselves from the seats. They walked over to the exit of their ship, only to be swiftly accosted by docking authorities. "This vanir is a prisoner, correct?" The man, clad in a black and yellow uniform asked them. "Yes." Richard said. "And your origin?" The man asked. It was just a formality, as they could easily track the route anyway. "Asteroid DTA45952." Richard said. "Yes, sounds about right." The docking officer muttered. "Well, we'll need to take you to the office, clear up this vanir business. We'll take it off your hands." The officer said, slapping small handcuffs on the vanir. He led them out from the small docking port into the station proper. As most travel was conducted on the inter-system transportation halls, the docking ports did not receive nearly as much security. They walked right out into what was pretty much an alley inside the station, one mostly occupied by doors to storage halls.

They kept walking, finally reaching the end of the brightly lit hallway. It curved subtly upwards as they walked, much less than on the mining station. The hallway opened into a larger area, clearly one of the seedier parts of the station. It was like a compressed city, and this part was a mix of the worst. It was lined up with various drinking establishments, and they could see a vanir and a human arguing as they passed. Jane could hear it was likely about some off-handed insults. She turned away, seeing their prisoner looking in the same direction. The officer pointed. "The office is that way." He walked slightly faster than perhaps necessary. "Welcome to the hub." Richard muttered.