End of Journey

Almost a week had passed since Kita had left on this journey. The Star farer had just completed it's first jump and was now in a star system known as the Jitimer System. The Ship was headed towards Jitimer III space station. It was a scheduled stop for the journey.

Many different people would get off here and other's would get on for the next step of the journey. The ship needed to fill up the seats that was about to empty up.

As Kita enjoyed his morning coffee, the Black cat was back. He jumped on his lap and enjoyed the petting. Kita had become a frequent at the Café for the last few days. For some reason, coming here calmed him down to a greater extent. Every time he came here, the same black cat would come to him. Kita enjoyed petting him, and the cat enjoyed his petting. So it was a win-win situation for both of them.

After having his morning Coffee, Kita said goodbye to the cat and went outside. His plan for today was to go and see the job market.

He needed to crew for his ship. He couldn't possibly operate the ship alone. Maybe if it was a Corvette, he could try to operate it alone, but he couldn't possibly hope to operate a Heavy cruiser on his own. For that he came back to his room, and opened up the galactic net.

As he searched up the Galactic net, he found quite a few groups of people who were looking for employment. They ranged from fresh university graduates, to old timers who were just looking for a stable income.

As he browsed through several hundred profiles in a matter of few hours, Kita finally closed the projection. Although he had gone through so many profiles, none of them matched what he was looking for.

So he decided to give up for now. He would continue later. And Kita went on about his day.

When he woke up the next day, the Star Farer was already in FTL towards it's next destination. It would take another week or so before it transitioned back into realspace.

Although FTL technology had made Interstellar travel available to almost everyone. Not only that, it also made it more accessible. Before FTL travel, people would need to spend decades to travel from one star to another. A typical human could only maybe travel 1 or 2 times in their lifetime.

But FTL travel has made everything more faster. Not only that, Companies like Kbom Hi-tech industries made it even better and faster.

Although Humanity now took FTL travel for granted, it wasn't originally a Human invention. FTL technology was stolen from an Stranded Alien vessel, Then reverse engineered till humans could manufacture it themselves.

There were a lot of abstract theories about the high-technology involved that only a few people like Dr. Kbom could understand and make sense. So most of humanity didn't really have any idea on how a FTL drive really worked. And they didn't need to. All they needed to know was that it would allow super luminal travel that would make interstellar travel much faster.

That was all one needed to know about FTL travel. Only engineers who worked with maintaining the performance of the FTL drive needed to know a bit more about them.

The Star farer boasted 2 FTL drives inside it's hull. that allowed it to travel without waiting for the FTL drive to finish cycling. It made it more economic and faster.

After a couple of weeks, the Star farer announced that it was about to transition into the Krister system. It would drop of a few people here before going on it's own way again.

As Kita prepared to depart the ship, he suddenly remembered something. He looked at the time, he still had a couple of hours before the ship would dock at the station. So, After he finished packing his stuff up, he quickly went back to visit the Cat Café for a last time. As usual, he ordered a Coffee. And as usual, the Black cat had joined him.

As it hopped onto his lap, Kita turned his focus to him. Over the past few weeks, he had bonded with the cat quite deeply. Coming here and petting him helped Kita calm down and relax for a bit. The cat was also an excellent companion. It never misbehaved and was intelligent enough to never get in the way of anyone.

Kita balled up the Cat's face in his hands as he looked straight into it's eyes.

"Hey buddy, I'll be leaving today. So, this will be the last time I meet you."

"Meow." The Cat said.

"Yeah, I'll miss you too.", Kita said as he gave a small smile. He quite enjoyed the company of this cat. He wished he could take the cat with him.

That's when he got an idea. He picked up the Cat, and went on to the counter. He quickly asked the attendant.

"Hey, Can I buy him?" Kita said as he held the cat up with his hands.

"Huh?" The attendant was caught off guard by the sudden question.

"Sorry for startling you. I was just wondering if I could buy him from you guys. I quite like him, and have built a bond with him during the last few weeks. And I would love to take him with me.", Kita said with a smile.

"Umm... I'm not sure I'm authorized to answer that question. Let me get the manager for you." the girl quickly said as she ran to the back to grab the manager.

A few minutes later, a dignified looking lady came out of the back. Kita could tell from the demeanor that she was the manager.

"What seems to be the problem?" The lady asked Kita.

Kita repeated his request to the lady.

The lady thought for a moment before replying.

"Although we don't get that request often. There have been a few cases in the past where a customer has offered to buy one of our cats. We do have a policy that allows one to buy the cat. But I'm afraid it's gonna be a bit costly."

"How much?" Kita said without flinching. He wanted to take him with him. So money wasn't a issue for him.

"The standard fee is 10,000 Credits for a cat his age."

"Done.", Kita said in a heartbeat.

"I'll transfer the credits right now. Kita said as he opened up his comm."

"Wait. Before that, I need to confirm the Cat wants to go with you. If he refuses I'm afraid that there's nothing we can do."

"There's something like that huh?" Kita said as he put the cat down on the counter.

"I forgot to ask you. I'm going on an adventure to see the cosmos. What do you say buddy? You wanna come along?", Kita asked in a sincere voice with a smile on his face. He looked straight at the cat.

The cat looked around for a few times before replying.

"Meow." It looked like he understood the question and gave an affirmative reply.

"Will that be enough?" Kita asked the Manager.

All the staff in the café was looking at the scene in a daze. They didn't realize they would get to see something like that today.

The Manager looked at Kita and then at the cat for a few times fore nodding.

"Great. Here's your credits." Kita said as he fiddled with his comm and transferred a 10,000 credits.

"Thank you guys. It was nice meeting everyone.", Kita said before turning towards the cat.

"Let's go buddy."

"Meow", The cat replied before jumping on his shoulder.

Kita walked out of the café with the cat on his right shoulder.

As the staff watched them walk out of the café. the manager asked one of the staff.

"Was that cat always that intelligent?"

"That's the first time I'm noticing him to be honest."

"I thought he was a lower breed though. Did I underpriced him?"

"Who knows?"