A new Chapter

[Anghor]

[font=Times New Roman]New York System; Norfolk Shipyard

Aboard the IEV Mary-Lou

Evan stretched his arms and rose up from his chair. "I should check how Andrews is doing" he tought. He looked into his mirror. A little tug on his uniform here, a little tug there - perfect. He made sure his beard didn't give away the fact that he had rested his head on his left hand for the last 38 minutes and tugged a few strands of his long brown hair back to where they belong.
He then stretched again and made his way to the bridge.
"Aaron Andrews, pilot. Zoner from Bethlehem Station. Turned 20 a few weeks ago. Hired and paid by Paul Winters, brought to the Mary-Lou by a freelancer who was hired - also by Paul - to bring him here. I know Jeff is behind this and I appreciate that he got me a pilot, but what the hell is that guy planning again?"
The same line of thoughts that had crossed Evan's mind dozens of times already since Andrews boarded the Mary-Lou a few hours ago, crossed his mind again.

He was barely done thinking about it, when the door to the bridge slid open. The only other person on the bridge was Andrews, who was sitting behind the steering controls, flying the ship through a simulated asteroid field. The observation screens were showing the scenery of the simulation and all other screens were off.
Evan stepped behind Andrews and peeked on the instruments before speaking.
"Soo Andrews, how does she handle?"
A few seconds later, Andrews answered without moving his eyes away from his instruments. "She is a bit bigger and clumsier than an Osprey, but if this simulation is in real-life-detail, I can't wait to fly her for real."
Evan didn't know why, but Andrews statement made him chuckle. "You'll fly her soon enough, don't worry."
He looked at the main screen and watched the simulated asteroids pass by.

After a few seconds, a light on the communication console started to flash and the console started beeping - an incoming call. Evan walked over to the console and pushed the green button to accept the incoming comm-channel.
"This is Evan Morris of the IEV Mary-Lou. Who am I talking with?"
"Ahh Captain Morris. Cargo Management here, someone just brought a delivery for your ship."


20 minutes later...

Evan rubbed his temples as he watched his chief engineer connecting the delivery, which turned out to be military-grade high-performance scanning equipment, with the ship.
He was thinking about calling Paul and asking him, if he knew what Jeff was planning, but his thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the ship's communications officer, echoing through the ship's internal comm channel.
"Captain Morris, incoming message, highly encrypted, origin unknown. I'm rerouting it to your cabin."

A few minutes later Evan was standing in front of his desk, greeting his old friend.

"Hey Jeff. Haven't heard anything from you for quite a while. Are you calling to tell me what you are planning?"

"Maybe Evan, maybe..."

Evan sighed.
"So you want to talk?"

"Why not? It's been almost half a year since we talked and almost two and a half since we've seen each other. But for starters... what's your opinion of Andrews? Was he good choice?"

"So far I have no reasons to say he isn't. How are the contracts doing? Endless demand for your services I guess."
Evan dropped himself on his chair.

"Endless demand, indeed. I haven't finished the paperwork for my current job, but already have dozens of new requests."

"Heh, that's one of the downsides of being one of the best."

Jeff laughed.
"Yeah, you're right."

"Say, SPL is doing quite well too, right?"

"I'd have to ask Paul to be sure, but I think so. Well I think that's enough talk for now. Get the Mary-Lou over to Corfu. I've got a surprise waiting for you there."

"So you won't explain to me what's behind the scanner?"

"Mmmmmhnope.

Evan sighed again.
"Well, Corfu it is. Seeya."

"Safe flights, Evan."

Evan closed the commlink and opened the ship's internal comm channel. He cleared his throat and started talking
"Alright everyone. Get your stuff together, we're heading to Corfu Base in the Omicron Theta system as soon as the new scanner is operational."
He was about to close the channel, when he added
"I told you, you'd fly her soon enough, Andrews."