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Bad Ideas: Chapter 1 Colin~

The black waters of space provided a tranquility that heavily contrasted with the chaos Colin knew was awaiting planetside. They were now orbiting about 402 kilometers above the beautiful Ginger Planet, its burnt orange atmosphere churning slowly below their vessel as Colin waited for a landing bay to open up. With one ear pressed against the speaker console, he rested his head upon the only non-touch sensitive area on the entire console interface. There was an incredible large amount of traffic heading into Ginger, not surprising seeing as the planet’s most popular religion would be celebrating its largest holiday tomorrow. However, Colin probably couldn’t give less of a shit about the pilgrims clogging up the ports. What he did care about was perhaps getting some shut-eye before air control gave him clearance to-

“Bad Idea, report” a voice screeched through the speakers and straight into his ear canal. The pilot winced in pain before reaching up onto the holoscreen to slide the volume down.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding-” the pilot muttered while beginning to pat around for the transmit button in order to respond.

“Bad Idea, reporting,” he responded while straightening up and stretching a bit, the last of his words accented with a yawn.

It didn’t occur to him that the air control officer was a woman until a very feminine giggle bubbled through the comm.

“Bad Idea, we know you’ve been in queue for touchdown for quite some time now so we’re going to expedite you to Commerical Bay 117. Do you feel comfortable with making it there in a timely fashion, given your current trajectory?”

On the main holoscreen, a request to receive a file popped up. Colin tapped the accept button and was immediately met with a map pointing out the location of the aforementioned bay along with an entire slew of other information. Scanning over the statistics as they scrolled by, he understood what she meant by their current trajectory. The land wasn’t impossible but it wouldn’t be smooth either. The young pilot was a bit hesitant. The silence on the comm must have shown this because the officer’s voice came again.

“Bad Idea?”

“Yeah it is,” he responded subconsciously.

There was a short stretch of silence again.

“I was referring to the name of your vessel,” she countered, the tone of amusement not lost to the helmsman. With a slight eyebrow quirk, the pilot made up his mind. He noted that the basis of air control was close to their designated bay, judging from the map. If he managed this difficult landing, it could land him some serious impress points. Which could lead to him landing some serious ass. Afterwards, he could just mosey on over to their base and-

A hand connected with his face and shoved him his head out the way.

“We will be in that bay before you can spin around twice in that comfy little seat of yours, toots,” Meridian spoke out while mashing the transmit button. Colin struggled to remove her grip on his face, his limbs flailing in surprise.

Once he finally managed to free himself, he sent a heated glare in his captain’s direction. He was met with the unabashed smirk of Meridian O’Malley. She leaned against the control console, twirling some sort of glass contraption between her fingers.

“Why must you always interfere with my plans?” the irritated helmsman leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. Meridian was studying the map rather intensely. Her right hand rose to grab her chin in thought while the other simply waved her pilot off.

“You were taking too long so I responded for you.”

Colin rolled his eyes, though it would have been hard to catch from beneath his curtain of brown hair. The slightly annoyed man sat back up, looked towards his captain and asked, “What are we delivering here anyway?”

With a long, dismal sigh Meridian berated the young man. “Were you not paying attention at all during the debrief session?”

“Nah.”

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “In the mission file we received, it explicitly identified the cargo as being stardust. You know? Stardust? Socrates's Blow? The Good Good From Up Above?” The young woman explained while continuing to twiddle the glass contraption in her hand.

“I still can’t believe that the Federation is allowing- no- assisting this. It’s ridiculous.” the annoyed captain added while looking out the viewport of the ship’s bridge. Colin contemplated Meridian’s profile. “Well, in that case, I guess this mission’s integrity is a little...questionable.”

“Alright, Bad Idea, you are clear for Commercial Bay 117. Please begin approach.” This time the officer was a male with a loud, low voice.

“Hurry up and land the ship, Colin. The sooner these drugs are off my ship, the better. We all know the only reason we’re being ‘expedited’ is because they need their fixes from out of our cargo,” Meridian said sternly and exited the room, probably to wake the rest of the crew up. The sound of her steps were silences after the main bridge door closed with a pneumatic hiss.

Once his higher-up was gone, he muttered a few unsavory comments before returning his attention to the task at hand. If he corrected the ship’s alignment and took it slow, the land wouldn’t be too shaky. With bored movement, he readjusted the ships position and engaged the thrusters in order to begin the descent. The orange surface of planet drew nearer as he focussed on keeping the ship level, despite the odd angle he was forced to approach on. With a smug grin, he landed the vessel with only minimal jostling. It helped that the bay was designed for cargo ships and therefore was much larger than the ones he was accustomed to.

“Welcome to Ginger,” the gruff voice said once air control recognized their safe landing. The helmsman wondered why Meridian had to go and scare the woman officer away.

After successfully landing the ship, Colin walked away from his pilot station to join the rest of the crew. When he reached everybody else, his captain began to give orders. “Colin, go with our newest crew member, and start unloading those crates. Jasmine and I will go and check in with Imports and hire a shiphand to watch the ship.”

Colin slid his gaze towards Cece, who simply gave a slight nod in recognition. He spun on his heels and began the trek, noting that the newest addition to their ship had fallen in step behind him.

The two walked in awkward silence down to the cargo hold. The young woman appeared to be adamant on looking everywhere else but at him. The only sound that filled the walkway was that of the pilot’s large boots. It seemed as though they were going to traverse the entire ship in silence until Colin cleared his throat and asked, “So, you from Earth?” Cece glanced at Colin before answering, “That’s where you picked me up, wasn’t it?”

Colin grinned at Cece and kept walking towards the cargo hold. “I mean, you could have grown up somewhere else, you know.” She didn’t respond.

They finally reached the large area filled with unmarked crates full of the “stardust”. Colin had never tried the hallucination-inducing substance and was adamant on keeping it that way. He’d heard stories about some of the drug’s more...powerful effects and they didn’t sound all that pleasant. The young man got to work by beginning to lift the crates onto the hover-dolly.

Cece followed suit and began to load the crates onto another dolly. There were a fair amount of crates in the hold. Eventually, Colin loaded the last box before walking over to the keypad that controlled the bay hatch. After inputting a short code onto the touchscreen, the hold shook and the large doorway slowly opened. Outside the cargo hatch stood Meridian and Jasmine waiting for them. The latter stood with her bionic arm crossed over her natural one and a scowl on her face.

“Took you guys long enough,” Jasmine said, “We’ve been waiting here forever.”

“It’s not my fault the Feds gave us so many crates of this crap,” Colin complained loudly as he ushered one of the hover dollies down the ramp, closely followed by Cece with another .

“Colin, shut up. People can’t be allowed to connect the dots between this shipment and the Feds, man,” Jasmine admonished him while warily scanning the expansive bay they were stationed in.

“We aren’t alone,” the half-cyborg announced lowly while quickly turning to her captain.

All of a sudden, the crew found themselves surrounded by a large number of armored women and men.

The Blazes. The planet’s highest law enforcement.

Colin recognized the bright red of their uniforms and the weapons they were currently pointing at his fellow crew. The young man glared at the soldiers while subconsciously reaching for the sensor that would activate his boots…

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” Meridian said under her breath. The ranks of officers stepped aside to make way for a rather attractive, older man dressed in an expensive-looking pinstripe suit. He was a thin, caucasian man with the looks of a fox. His fiery red mane fell all the way down to the nape of his neck in perfect fashion. Colin wasn't sure how he felt about the fellow.

“Good evening, Captain O’Malley. I see you’ve made it to our fair planet just in the nick of time,” the man greeted the woman while clasping his hands together. The pilot noticed the way his captain clenched her fist and narrowed her eyes. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am her Royal Highness’ business director. My name is Falk Hamm.” the leader continued with a smile while reaching out to shake the captain’s hand. “We are here to escort you and your crew to her Royal Highness. My men will take care of the cargo you have so graciously brought us.”

“That sounds just lovely,” the woman answered, her words seeming to mock the clipped accent that most Gingers talked in, “but you wouldn’t mind if I saw your badge and the documents. Can never be too careful.” The last of her words was accompanied with a slight sneer, although if Mr. Hamm noticed her obviously dubious feelings on the situation, he didn’t show it.

“Why of course, captain. How very responsible of you,” the man commended while seemingly producing a small metal emblem from the inner folds of his tailored suit. **********

The wary captain removed her hand from her holstered gun and finally shook the business man’s hand then gestured for her crew to follow.

The crew followed behind their captain who kept in step with the confident man in the pinstripe suit. The group was led towards a long and sleek looking vehicle resting on the concrete of the bay. With almost practiced finess, Mr. Hamm reached to press a sensor towards the back of the vehicle. A door slid to the side, revealing the luxurious tan leather interior.

“After you,” the business man prompted while stepping aside to allow the guests to get into the vehicle. Colin stepped aside to let Cece, Jasmine, and Meridian into the car first and followed soon after, making sure to flash the man a warning glance before climbing in. The door slid to a close with a soft click, instantly muffling the sounds of the loud port.

The vehicle steadily rose off the ground and began to move forwards, leaving the ship port area. Colin watched as the large ugly facility that was the Megiro Port faded into the distance. The flat lands of sprawling deep orange seemed to go on for forever. After around 10 minutes of high-speed hovering, they passed through a series of suburban areas. These eventually gave way to large towers that glittered gold in the setting sun of Alpha Deltri. When they finally arrived within the heart of Inferno City, the capital city of Ginger, the sun was relinquishing itself to dusk. A number of street workers donning reflective suits cleared the way for the sleek vehicle. *****

“Our great city is preparing for the festival of The Giving,” the man explained to the planet's awestruck guests, “It is the incarnation of our socio-religious construct.”

Cece’s eyes lit up at the man’s words. “Wow, you know, Gingerism was one of my favorite topics back when I studied the universe’s major theocracies. The intricate political and spiritual levels that it dictates are incredible.“ the young officer gushed while looking at the incredibly strong jawbone of their escort. The jawbone was so strong that she had to look away again, in reverence.

The hovering vehicle eventually made it way through the city. They covered an expanse of burnt orange forest before turning down another road. Eventually the gargantuan trees gave way to a beautiful mansion. The hover eventually landed in front of the impressive structure. Colin squinted his eyes as the evening sunlight hit his face upon exiting the hover. To his surprise, he saw that there were no high walls surrounding the property. Additionally, he had yet to identify a single guard on duty. Was this not the queen’s homestead? Once the entire party was ushered out of the vehicle, the tall golden doors of the front entrance swiftly opened by a pair of servants and the group was led inside. The foyer of the mansion was huge and glittered of golds and reds. The group of young adults were sat down in an elegantly decorated room.

“Listen, we really ought to be going,” Colin could hear Cece trying to talk to the staff. He glanced, taking in the new surroundings. The port air had reeked of burned out fuel cartridges. Contrastingly, the interior of the luxury hover was filled with a incredibly strong incense that reminded him of his childhood. He hadn’t smelled clean, non-recycled air since picking up their new crew member.

“No, no, no.” A loud voice boomed. Colin’s attention shifted to a confident woman walk through the doors they had just come through and walk in front of his group. She looked familiar but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The woman continued, “The queen intends to meet you all but before that happens you have to make yourselves… more presentable.”

The young man suddenly became a bit self-conscious about his looks.

The young woman started to call upon servants and order them what to do. While the servants were running about, the woman introduced herself to the group. “My name is Tess, I am here to make you beautiful.”

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