Chapter 8- Lucky Airic

As Airic begins his journey through space, on Sartren planet the Moonstone family observe his ascent until he is out of sight from their control room.

N'yall stands at the side of his aunt Airide, as a call tone is heard in the room. Airide gestures from her head to a blank wall in the room as the call connects, revealing the face of a man her age on the makeshift projector screen, he would be incredibly handsome if his countenance were less stern. Everyone in the command room stands up and salute towards the figure, including the two Moonstones.

His figure is the desirable upside-down triangle, with broad shoulders, muscled arms and a thin waist leading to powerful legs. He stood in front of a large wooden desk with a panel on the right with various buttons displayed, a half-empty cup, and paper files- for the sensitive missions that do not allow digital records, providing another layer of security- with his hands behind his back, as his stern face looked at everyone in the room. He gave a nod and the rest of the room went back to their stations, leaving the Moonstones to talk to the man.

"Ms Moonstone, has the refugee left the planet?" The man said.

"Yes General Runes, he has just gone past the planet's atmosphere." She responded to the man now identified as General Runes.

"Did you install the device discretely?" General Runes said.

"Yes sir! I placed the remote access bomb under the cabin of the ship, as instructed, I also placed the traveller bot which will stay with him in case his story is proven true, which I hope will be no problem. I would feel bad if he was indeed taken away by traffickers, and we almost kill him, without a way to apologise. If his story is false then the bot was a wasted apology. To ensure that the traveller bot will not prevent his extermination, I have it piloting the ship until we receive a signal from the scouts which confirms that he was captured." Airide said.

The General does not look shocked to hear that Airide Moonstone has prepared something as a silent apology. Instead, he gives a wry smile and says:

"I see, very well. Let us hope that the new identity we have placed into the records is put to use and remains alive before the day is over. We have also created a backdated account under his and his 'parents' name with a reasonable amount of money, which he would have received from successful traveller 'parents' once they die. The sum should be enough for him to live comfortably for years as a traveller, that is unless he decides to settle down and never travel once on Coree, then he will need to find a job.

"I believe you left a learning station in his cabin for accelerated learning? This should help him towards that if he decides to join the workforce on Coree." The General said.

N'yall looked confused, as he could not understand what the General meant. He understood that the general gave Airic some money as his form of compensation, but he did not understand how the money was needed for a job on planet.

"Permission to speak, sir?" N'yall said suddenly.

"Granted Officer Moonstone."

"Could you explain what you mean regarding his arranged funds? I must admit that I have a general idea on travellers and only know the basics of their lifestyle, as well as the funds required to lead such a life, nor how they leave that life and become part of the rest of society."

"Hmm... Was this not covered under training?"

"No sir, this was not covered under training." N'yall said firmly.

"Very well. A traveller is someone who explores the far reaches of space, which I am sure you know, but you may not know that it is now a job adventurous people can do. Travellers explore the known and unknown areas of space, including the planets which we have not explored but are aware of, and the planets we are not aware of as a nation. This means even the top leaders of the Federation are unaware of the planets they discover.

"I shall give you a brief history lesson on Travellers. Before this they were 'the jobless people' who would travel with what remained of their funds from previous employment, some would quit their jobs completely and rely on temporary work once they land to restock, others would get remote jobs to have funds to buy more food, like designers or other jobs that can be completed remotely.

"However, at some point, the travellers started to leave the protected areas of the Federation, which as you know are the inhabited planets and their surrounding areas, and started to go to the uninhabited planets. They would explore the planets, with great risks to themselves and would find new planets which were inhabitable or uninhabitable and send back the data to the relevant departments of the government, and continue on their way.

"This went on for years, and as more planets were found, more travellers lost their lives in the process. Then, one of the leaders in the Federation received a report that his only child had gone missing while travelling with friends, but was later saved by a Traveller at the cost of his life. In gratitude, he suggested that Travellers should be considered a job as they acted as unofficial scouts for the Federation. This included many ways to make their lives easier, if you want to know more on the proposals Officer Moonstone, then I would suggest that you read the Travellers Act.

"Now, it is an official job with the opportunity to gain merits within the military as is possible for a scout. Travellers know this, that is why they go to increasingly dangerous planets to earn enough merits for a title, usually so that they can return from their years of adventure a hero."

Again, this left him baffled. He tried to understand what the General meant with the title newly granted to successful Travellers, as he heard that they travelled until they were old and grey.

"Pardon me, General, could you elaborate? Why would they care about the title? I assumed that they did so for the thrill of travelling the universe, not merits from the military." N'yall said looking confused once more.

"You would be right, but since the Travellers Act, we found that a lot of teenagers or young adults were enamoured by the idea of travelling and achieving merits, but their parents disagreed with the job title 'Traveller' and so tried to persuade them to do something else. Of course in the spirit of rebellion, they would secretly save their money from the job that their parents would prefer and then buy the space ship, there are a good number going to prove parents wrong. Now over 60% of travellers are made up of these youths and the rest are a mix of thrill lovers, old couples going out to enjoy the last of their youth, young couples going as a honeymoon and a mishmash of other groups of people. Only about 10% are the original Travellers, who enjoy the lifestyle and would create families while living it.

When we looked at the figures, we were shocked and eventually, we created a system to allow the travellers, who saw this as a job and not a lifestyle, to reintegrate with society. We have them use their funds to buy land on the planet of their choice, with some of the newer planets discovered by them included in their choice, and if they are short of money to build a house arrange a loan from The Bank, to either build it themselves or hire a company to do so for them. During this time, they may continue to travel, but once the house is complete then they must give up their travellers ship to allow a different batch to take over. Some have saved a lot of money through years of travelling so the loan is unneeded for them, but others may only do this for a year or two, so we set up the loan option."

The General concludes his lesson on the history of the Travellers position. He looks slightly exhausted as he drinks from the glass of water on his desk, filling it up once empty with the tap of a button which summons the nozzle that pours out water before he finishes that glass as well.

"So what you mean, sir, is that you gave him enough to buy a small plot of land but not enough to build a house? "

"Yes, that is exactly what I mean. As the price of land is relatively stable, except for the formal and informal capital, it would be possible for him to get the smallest plot available on a new planet like Coree, with the funds arranged. Though, if he stays as a traveller for at least 2 years, he should be capable of buying a larger plot with enough for a house even if he finds nothing new and just wanders about. If he does end up finding a lot of new planets, or oddities in the universe then he may be able to afford a large home on the informal capital. It depends on his luck after he starts, as well as his ability to survive as some planets are hostile. He would need to find and then survive through each planet exploration before anything can happen."

"I see. Thank you, sir."

"It's always a pleasure to teach young inquisitive officers."

As they were conversing, those who had nothing to do listened into the lecture gaining some knowledge which benefitted them later. The others who were working also listened and did their best to multitask, which caused a delay in the reporting of news to their superiors. Once the lecture finished, they immediately focused back on the assignments on hand and discovered that some of the work was incorrect, causing them to redo their work. One of them was in charge of communication with the scout team. He went over the data sent and found the report of a crashed escape pod which had the symbol of one the most notorious trafficking group. Included was a picture of the ship and some dead people in the crash who seemed to have died on impact, suggesting that they were not experienced, pilots. He stood abruptly, created two copies and sending another one of the report, and walked in the direction of the Moonstones and General.

At the approach of the officer, the room went quiet as everyone tried to listen to the report. He saluted before presenting a copy to Airide and the other to N'yall, the General walked behind the desk and pushed a button on the panel, which opened up the desk to reveal a mini projector. The projector was similar to the one on Airic's ship, meaning it was in a 4D format, which meant it stood like a piece of paper being held up and not being displayed on a wall.

The room was quiet as the leaders read the report which confirmed the fact that Airic was the only survivor of an escape attempt from the trafficking group. The dead people at the scene seemed to have protected Airic once they realised that they would crash, as he seemed to have mostly strains and bruises while the others were in horrible states, which were identified by the scan on the way to the ship. Some made it out of the pod but died on the way out due to internal bleeding, leaving Airic as the only survivor. The report suggests that he was protected due to his age, as the younger people had less damage than the older ones, and he was the youngest according to scans which showed he was 18.

At this moment, Airic received a shock as B'tlar explained his data collected from his scan and the recovery pod. Once Airic heard his age, he fainted. Sending the traveller bot into a panic and re-activating the recovery pod to treat him.

He was incredibly lucky.