Keyes Orbital Mining Station

"Aren't you calling the rest of your crew?" Marten asked while I was leaving the hangar.

"Ah… I may have lied about that part… I wasn't sure if you guys were trying to jump me yet so I didn't want you to know I was alone."

"Ha! Smart girlie! I suppose the next thing you're going to say is that technically you did not lie, because the others you were referring to were the dead bodies of the pirates?"

I shrugged, neither denying nor affirming his words.

That was enough to tell him that he was right although he chose not to rub it in my face at least.

Right now we were moving through a relatively narrow and metallic corridor that is just barely wide enough to fit two people side by side.

There were also several exposed piping here and there and I could hear metallic clangs coming from the pipes from time to time.

"So… At the risk of sounding like an idiot… What is this place?" I asked.

"We're on our way to the log room right now."

"I meant the station. Like what are you guys doing here?"

I know it's a mining station of course, but I was curious just what exactly they were mining.

Marten answered without slowing down his pace, "I wasn't lying about this place being a Mining Station, you know?"

"Oh, I know that. The map data I downloaded from their ship did mark your station as an Orbital Mining Station."

That made him stop to turn back and give me a worried look, "Wait… The pirates have this place marked?!"

"Err… Yes? That's how I found this place after all…"

"If they have this place marked… Then it means that there is a possibility of them hitting this place… But why?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Is there really nothing of value here?"

He scowled slightly, "Of course not. We're literally just mining the helium gas from the planet below us, who the hell wants to rob a station for helium gas?"

I mean… I wouldn't know… And I guess that answers my question at least.

"Maybe they want to get ransom from your employers?" I suggested.

He sighed, "They must be really desperate to come all the way here to do that then. Whatever, I guess it isn't a problem anymore since you dealt with them."

"Ah… But they have a base in this system as well though."

"What?! Where?!"

"In the asteroid field around the fourth planet in the system… I'm guessing that's bad?"

He groaned and ran his hand down his face, "If they already had a base here… We most definitely came here after them in that case… It does make our situation slightly better as it is very likely that they aren't here for us specifically… But the problem is still there… Do you have the map data?"

I nodded.

He then continued walking, "If you don't mind… I'll need you to show me that map data and hopefully I can get a security patrol down here to deal with them."

I don't really know how bad having a pirate base in the same system as your Mining Station is so I kept my mouth shut and followed after him.

He brought me to a small room with several console panels pushed up against the wall and a screen mounted on said wall that showed a map of the system.

Marten then gestured to the console, "You can connect your personal terminal to the console and upload your map data. Also, go ahead and download our map data too while you're at it."

I nodded, moving closer to the terminal and tapping my finger on my Codex, navigating the menus until I had wirelessly connected my Codex to the terminal.

I did as he requested and uploaded my map data into the terminal, which caused the map displayed on the screen to change slightly.

Originally, the screen showed that the fourth planet was empty aside from an asteroid field surrounding it.

Now that I have uploaded my map data to the console, there was now an extra marking there that revealed the location of the pirate base.

"Damn… So they really are in this sector…"

I turned to him while starting the download of the map data they had, "So what are you going to do?"

He sighed, "At first when we received reports of pirate activity here, we were expecting only one or two ships hanging around here… We thought that they might just be here to escape from security forces and would leave sooner or later…"

He then pointed to the screen, "But if they have a base here… That means they're not leaving this place any time soon… I don't think they will attack our station directly but any ship coming here would most likely be robbed which could mean no supplies for us…"

Ah… Well… Now I see how serious this problem is…

This station is definitely not self-sufficient from what I could guess so they most likely rely on other ships to bring them supplies.

But if there are pirates in this system, then there's a high possibility that those ships carrying their supplies would get attacked by said pirates which result in this Mining Station not receiving anything at all.

I turned to him, "So I guess you're going to call someone to deal with the pirate base?"

He started tapping away on the console, "I'll contact a representative from our corporation and they should arrange for a security team or some Mercs to come deal with them."

He pushed one of the buttons on the console and the screen changed from the map to display the words "Calling".

There was the sound of static before another voice came from the screen, "Marten? What's up?"

"Hey, I've got some bad news. We have a pirate base located in our system. Seems like they were here before us. I don't know how the survey team missed them."

"A pirate base? Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, a Mercenary fought one of their ships and gave the map data she took from them as proof."

"Damn… Ok… I'll see what I can do, hold on tight and just continue with the mining operations for now."

"Got it."

The line was cut and the screen changed back to show the previous map of the sector once again.

I gave Marten a look, "So I guess that's dealt with?"

He nodded, "Hopefully, yes. As long as the pirates don't do anything within the next few days of course…"

"Right… So err… You mentioned about getting me up to speed or something."

"Ah, that's right. Forgive me. Knowing that there's a pirate base put me on edge. I suppose I should ask what do you remember first?"

I pretended to think, "I… Hmm… I guess I remember travelling in my ship… Then I think I blacked out and found myself on the floor. I didn't really have much time to think after that before I got a warning about a pirate ship coming towards me."

"I see… You mentioned you came from the Sol system?"

"Yes? And I noticed you guys reacting weirdly when I said that?"

"That's because the location of the Sol system has been lost for ages after the Machine War."

"The Machine War?" I parroted.

He gave me an odd look, "Oh wow, did you travel through time or something? Have you not heard about the Machine War?"

"I'm afraid so…"

"Ah… Unfortunately I'm also not the best person to tell you about it either. But I can tell you that after that war, the location of the Sol system was lost. There have been people who have tried to search for it but all attempts have resulted in failures so far. So for someone to claim that they come from there…"

"Must mean that the person is either a liar, crazy or just plain delusional?" I completed for him.

He gave me a wry smile, "Or that they went through an anomaly that messed with their memories. It's happened before."

Hmm… That's quite frightening…

"Is it a common occurrence?" I asked.

"Not exactly. But there's enough cases for common people like ourselves to know about it. But I'm afraid to tell you that most people who experience this don't get their memories back…"

Well… Good thing that I didn't go through that but was somehow sent to this universe instead…

But I'm curious about the Earth of this universe though. He said that the location of our solar system was lost in a war but there have been attempts by others to find it. What would happen if I were to somehow find its location and return there? Would I find my old Earth or a new one?

I suppose logic would say that it would be a new one since this was clearly a different universe but who knows? Maybe my old Earth had also crossed over to this universe too?

I suppose that's a question for the future anyway. Right now… I'm a little hungry.

Please tell me that they don't eat space slop or something…