“So you’re not really a Fuel Rat…”
“Whatever gave you that idea?”
“The fact you have no refueling limpets on your ship.”
“No, I mean, what gave you the idea that I was?”
“Oh, the big honking logo you have on the side of your Keelback.”
The mechanic and I had been shooting the breeze on Azer Port, some nothing little outpost in the middle of god-knows-where. Out here, it wasn’t unusual for a pilot, usually some unseasoned welp, to wind up stranded in a system without enough fuel to get them to the next system, or the next station. Heck, it happens to some of us salted types as well.
That’s why the Fuel Rats were formed.
“It’s a sign of support for the cause!” I said, shrugging as if it was no big deal. “Some folks put stickers up saying their kid went to Cambridge… I got this.”
“But you’re not one of them.”
“I used to be.”
“Really?”
“I was there when it all began. Ever heard of Surly Badger? I was there when he came up with the whole idea, looking for feedback. I said it was great. The Feds and Imps and even the Alliance can’t find their asses with both hands when it comes to helping people out, so its up to us pilots to look out for each other.”
“So, how many rescues do you have?”
I looked to a scratch on my ship’s paint job. “Hey, how did that get there? You think you can have your guys touch it up?”
The mechanic frowned. “How many?”
I looked to the rotating fans over head. “Is it getting stufy in here?”
“How many?”
“One.”
“One?”
“Well, technically two, but the second one never got registered properly.”
The mechanic shook his head.
“Hey, it was enough to get the patch, okay? I got it legitimately!”
“And you feel justified in displaying that logo – the ORIGINAL logo, I might add, like you’re some hardcore grognard?”
“Like I said, it’s in support of the cause.”
The mechanic glared at me until I cracked.
“Hey, if my clients see the logo and assume I’m one of them and see fit to offer me more for my services as a result without actually asking me any follow up questions, that’s entirely on them, okay?”
The mechanic raised an eyebrow.
“You’re going to charge me double for the tuneup, aren’t you?”
“Call Me Moss” is not set in the Get Lost universe, per se, but the game that inspired my love of the genre: Elite Dangerous (which is where the screenshots come from). Writing little bits like this is just one way I get in the right mindset for the next big adventure in my world. Consider this Moss as being from an alternate universe 😉
Ha! That smart mouth of his is great.