Chapter 49: 3247

The outside was completely black with nothing visible, not even stars; however a few seconds later things started to change as Spector announced to the whole ship.

[Now transitioning to normal space.]

A moment later the blackness on the view-screen was covered in stars as they returned to normal space.

"Where is the subspace relay?" Adam asked.

"According to sensors it is a short FTL jump from our current position, shall I set a course?" Spector replied.

"Let me do it, it will be my first time doing so in my real body." After he replied he located the subspace relay on sensors and plotted a course before having Spector enter FTL using its Star Drive.]

Thankfully Spector's Star Drive was capable of traveling at speeds several times faster than the speed of light so reaching the subspace relay only took a little over ten minutes.

"Long range sensors indicate a ship currently orbiting the subspace relay." Spector suddenly said as they dropped out of FTL.

Adam accessed the sensors and did a scan of the ship and found that it seemed to be transferring data to and from the relay.

"Can you tell what they're up to?" Adam asked.

"Affirmative, they appear to be attempting to hack into the subspace relay."

"For what purpose?"

"It is not uncommon for pirates and the sort to attempt such action to clear warrants or bounties that have been placed on them, however doing so comes with great risk because it takes a great deal of time to hack a subspace relay and enemy ships could appear while they are doing it."

"Like us you mean, are you able to access the subspace relay while they are hacking it?" Adam asked though he could already guess the answer.

"Negative, also it appears we have been detected since they have stopped attempting the hack and are heading in our direction while powering weapons."

"Standby for combat."

"Affirmative" Spector replied as the bridge suddenly took on a red glow.

[Condition Red.]

[Weapons systems online]

[Shields to maximum]

[Defensive systems online]

"Who are you and what do you want? If you know what's good for you then you will scram." An angry voice suddenly said over the comms."

"I'm just here to access the subspace relay." Adam replied.

"Access the subspace relay and why would you need to do that? Actually you have a rather nice looking ship there friend, how about you surrender it to us?" 

"Pass."

"Are you sure, from what my scans show you're not even armed, how do you plan to defend yourself if we just decide to take it?"

What the other ship didn't know was that while Spector's weapons were hidden in their hull compartments they would not show up on any scans because the hull was made from a special material that blocked sensors. While enemy sensors could detect Spector, they could tell very little about the internals of Spector.

When Adam didn't reply the enemy took that as a sign that he had no plans to give up so he locked onto Spector before firing his lasers.

Adam had been ready and as soon as the sensors detected the enemy's weapons firing he gunned the anti-gravity drive and evaded the attack before returning fire with the three front facing laser repeaters. 

These laser repeaters were much more powerful and had a far greater range than the rotating plasma cannons he used in Space Rogue, they still had a similar rotating three barrel design as the plasma cannons but the shot lasers which travel far faster and also packed way more punch.

The laser blasts struck the enemy ship and tore through its shields in a couple of seconds.

"WHAT! I thought you said he had no weapons." The voice on the comm seemed to say to someone else, "How the hell did he punch through our shields so fast then?"

 Another thing about laser repeaters over plasma cannons was that they were not only great against shields but also against armour, very few civilian ships were able to get their hands on these weapons because most corporations that made them sold them exclusively for military use to maximise profit. You needed powerful connections in order to get them normally.

It didn't take long for the laser repeats to shred the enemy ship and cause it to explode as the enemy captain was screaming and begging for mercy.

"Damn, that was way faster and easier than I was expecting." Adam mussed.

"This is why I suggested you start with basic equipment in Space Rogue. As an experimental ship I naturally come with top of the line offensive and defensive equipment to protect myself from those who would want to steal me."

Adam nodded before piloting Spector close to the subspace relay and coming to a stop.

"Accessing subspace relay."

"Accesses granted."

"Synching with universal calendar."

Adam nervously tapped his thigh as he waited on the results of Spector's calendar search.

"Synching complete."

"Universal calendar year is 3247"

"Cross referencing Earth's calendar and calculating the time I spent on Earth based on the universal calender.

"Calculations complete."

"Time spent on Earth is roughly 1200 years"

"Universal salvage law applies, Congratulations Adam Spencer you are my new owner."

Adam sighed with relief and couldn't help but smile as he said, "Thanks Spector, let's work well together."

"Affirmative, Captain."

"So what now?" Adam asked.

"That is up to you since you are the captain, though I suggest we remain here for the next few hours so that I can download any pertinent data."

"Go ahead."

"Affirmative."

"By the way your current ship registration is Experimental Codename: S.P.E.C.T.O.R correct?"

"That is correct."

"Is it wise to keep it like that? I mean won't I have to pass your details to docking control or whoever when we wish to land at a planet or space station? I mean it's kind of a large hint that you're a prototype vessel if we keep your registration like that." 

"What you say makes sense, what do you suggest?"

"How do ship registrations currently look?" Adam asked.

"They are normally broken down into three sections, the first two letters represent the initials of the manufacturer, after them is product number the manufacturer gives the ship and finally the ship's codename comes after a dash."

"For example the registration for the ship you just defeated was TD75B-Reaper which stands for Terran Dynamics being the manufacturer, it's the seventy-fifth ship design they created and the second variation of that design hence the bravo and finally a dash before the codename Reaper."

"Hmmm it's not really a good idea to use the initials of an already existing manufacturer in case it comes to bite us in the ass later. Since you have registered my race as Earthling, why don't we go with EDF001-Spector? The EDF stands for Earth Defence Force."

"I have no knowledge of any company called Earth Defence Force." Spector replied.

"Haha, it's not an actual thing, it's from a computer game back on Earth." Adam replied with a laugh.

"Ah now that you mention it I do have a copy of that game in my library."

"You do? Heh I might have to play it in the future. So what do you think of EDF001-Spector?"

"I approve and will alter my registration data while also registering it on the universal subspace network."

"Hmmm now how am I supposed to make money?" Adam asked.

"There are multiple ways that you could earn credits from having your own ship, such as cargo transport, mining minerals in space, mercenary work where you complete jobs such as protection duty, escort duty or threat elimination, bounty hunter where you hunt down those with bounties on there head, these are generally the most profitable though there are also many others careers." 

"I notice you didn't mention any government aligned jobs such as the police or military?"

"Joining government aligned jobs such as those requires deep background checks, something you don't have which would most likely raise some warning flags about how trustworthy you are, they generally want to know everything about you, your history and family history along with knowing everything about your ship."

"Ah and I don't have any sort of history in the universe, also we don't want them inspecting you to closely, I wasn't really planning on getting that sort of work since they usually have a lot of rules I would have to abide by and I don't really want to work under anyone else, I was just curious."

"Mining is not really an option, while you do have the capability to mine minerals and ors to a certain degree you're not designed for it. Like mining, cargo transport is also out because you were not built for that and lack the most obvious necessity of needing a cargo bay that takes up most of the ship."

"Mercenary and bounty hunter sound like the most promising, but don't mercenaries also get jobs to eliminate targets?"