Call Me Moss – 4 – The Fighter

“I just wanted to thank you for offering me this opportunity, sir.”

I shrugged. “Eh, think nothing of it. And call me Moss.”

“I guess what I wanted to know is why did you choose me?”

Reese Hatfield had trained as a fighter pilot, and had been in a few scrapes, but thankfully, not too many.

“You’re wondering why I gave up a decent sized cargo hold just so you could ride around virtually in a fighter drone?”

“Well, I looked over your background, sir, I mean Moss, and… you seem pretty risk-adverse.”

“True.”

“I don’t see you with a single ship kill to your name.”

“Ah, but you should see my rating in the sims. Trust me, I can fight if I have to.”

“I saw that too, which is only more confusing. Why cut your cargo capacity in nearly half for a ship-launched fighter and pilot you don’t intend to use?”

I frowned. “Who says I don’t intend to use you? Naw, I got long-term plans, and if you’re up for it, you’ll be part of them. See, I’ve been doing cargo runs to an Anarchy system. Don’t much like the guys in charge, want to see if I can help change that. I figure we can cut your teeth on the pirates that are staking out the local mining rings, while I take it easy scraping some ore and listening to some tunes. I’ll even give you your pick of SLF type and armament. With that virtual rig, you’ve got zero risk involved, and can work your way up the ranks. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

I could smell the naïve optimism of “someday I’ll be the best!” all over her resume. Kids.

“Well, yeah…”

“So what have you got to lose? You’ll be doing some good, and you won’t find yourself in an early grave… probably. The secondary ejection pod has been a bit buggy. You might want to have someone look into that.”

“But why a rookie?” she asked. “I mean, I’m rated Harmless. I saw you speaking to Jan Forsythe before me, and he’s an Expert.”

“Eh, I got a soft spot for kids with big dreams,” I said. “I’m in no rush. Besides, bringing on a Harmless co-pilot will attract less attention. So, what do you say?”

I pushed the contract towards her. Hopefully, she didn’t look at the fine print too close.

Reese smiled and signed. “Thanks for the opportunity sir, I mean Moss.”

“Don’t mention it,” I said.

Also, don’t mention the rate-to-rank credit increase clause… that Jan guy was good, but by the time Reese is also an Expert, I’ll only be paying her half as much.

Hey, I got overhead to consider.

“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 😉

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