Part of USS Tomcat: Just a Quick Spin Around the Block

Setting the Stage

Leaving StarDust City
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Stardust City was too famous or infamous as it may be. Too many big players were known to be conducting business there. There were other, better suited locations for Revar to launch his enterprise. He had been under Smeezo’s thumb for too long. Revar earned his reputation as a broker through trade in assorted oddities. His activities resulted in the wrong sort of attention and he had been ‘encouraged’ to step out on his own. That ‘encouragement’ included a change in venue.  Revar acquired a freighter, not fancy, but functional and nondescript. Nondescript was the key. There was no profit in battle. At least no profit in his freighter going into battle. It needed a boring name, but not too boring, he didn’t want it to be too obvious that he was trying to make his freighter unnoticable. The SS Drab Duck is what he settled on for the name.

Opportunity didn’t come along just by chance, you had to look for it. The act of looking for opportunity caused it to manifest. The opportunity was to transport some collector’s junk. People (all sorts not just hoomans) held on to all sorts of crap. Most of it was seemingly worthless, but they would pay for him to haul it from one place to another and the price was right. It never occurred to Revar to question the legality of the junk he was transporting. All he cared about was that it would turn a profit.  

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The cargo was loaded. It was on the manifest as ‘medical supplies.’ Revar figured that looked moderately legitimate. He wasn’t a doctor or even a vaguely ‘medical’ type so it could be elbonian slugworms or bandages for all he knew. He wasn’t being paid to ask questions, he was being paid to move cargo from one place to another. Life was simpler that way.

It was time to get underway. A parked ship doesn’t earn latinum and he had bills to pay and profits to acquire. He looked over to his helmsman. “Let’s get going.”

The helmsman, a Romulan named Mulak, nodded. There destination was known, an old space station orbiting the mining colony of Asphodal, aptly named Asphodal Station. It was a little off the beaten path and Asphodal didn’t really mine anything overly valuable, but it was a destination and one that could legitimately need ‘medical supplies.’ No questions and it could be a good base of operations for Revar and the Drab Duck.