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LK310.

* * *

The Linear Cruiser in the galaxy was decided not to be shown to anyone. Secrecy. There was one small thing - reactors of such power were not made in the local galaxy, and could be made after a very, very long time. Although hyperdrives were in use, the efficiency of fusion reactors in the galaxy was much lower than those that came from the Empire Galaxy. So the locals had their limitations - for example, low hyperspace travelling speeds. The journey from Earth to Xandar took a standard ship two months. An Inogalactic cruiser could cover that distance in two days. The galaxy was in an early stage of development, as the Captain had told Roma. The intelligent had already gone into space, the intelligent had already spread technology, had already begun to fight each other, but the galaxy in which the Captain had been born had passed that stage fifty thousand years ago, and by the time LK310 appeared here, it had already been united into a single galactic empire. Unified by diplomacy, by money, by power. Roma knew nothing of the history of the galaxy around him - he only realised that he needed to implant a translator to understand the language of all the aliens. The captain also told what their galaxy was like in the era of wars of planetary empires, alliances... Most of all it resembled the Wild West. The reasons for the emergence are the same - gigantic, colossal territories, where it is impossible to maintain power in a centralised manner. A lot of political forces, a lot of reasonable people with their own ambitions... As a result, the attributes of the Wild West appeared, both film and real, only with the flavour of space opera. Ships travelling through space, planets with different laws and degree of respect for the law, from fully civilised to those where there are no rules and laws. Weapons are allowed to everyone and everywhere. Nimble guys can always settle down, earning money in many different ways - hired killings, hunting for criminals, exploring space, searching for various valuable things... the galaxy is big, and in space there is no authority other than the order of the ship's captain.

Wild Wild Space - that's what Roma understood from the captain's stories. The captain, or rather, his illusion, took it upon himself to think over the situation. And he decided - the Big Ship should be hidden somewhere, so that no outsiders would not find it. The only way to fly in space is in a small corvette, no other way. And the first thing Roma needs to do is to use his power - to study the supply of metals and materials on the market, to assemble the ship and sell it. Of course, the rate of production of the ship is rather low, but if you take an existing one as a model and stamp your clone ships, sell them a little cheaper than the original... then yes, you can get rich.

Roma agreed with the captain's plan - it was a way to provide for himself for the first time, and to hone his Force skills.

* * *

Roman.

* * *

Now the decisive moment had arrived. From above, the planet looks almost identical to Earth. Too bad I don't know the local language. But that's all right, with a gun on my belt and a blade behind me, what else do you need to be safe? The Imperial corvette was coming down, coming down fast enough. I stood up and leaving the controls to the seeker, went to get ready to leave.

The corvette inside was pretty clean, stylish, not as uncomfortable as a Line Cruiser. The seats were certainly better. The corvette's hangar could fit only one fighter or a couple of aerospiders, no more, but without knowing the local rules, trying to move around the planet in a speeder was fraught with consequences. So I checked my gear. The ship landed on the surface - clanking on the concrete and swaying slightly. The ramp went down. The composition of the atmosphere was Earth-like, so it was possible to do without a spacesuit...

The spaceport was quite.... impressive. There were thousands, hundreds of thousands of ships of all different shapes and forms, but mostly primitive freighters. They were in the majority. I went down the ramp and looked around - what a planet... an idiot's dream come true!

* * *

2012. Hyarty.

* * *

I listened to the space. Phenomenal sensations - along with the Force... the corvette dangled not far from the station, immovable for now. Yeah, I can feel it. I feel the right way, but I can't put it into words. I've got to get in the pilot's chair.

Sighing, I went from my quarters to the bridge.

- You're early, Captain.

- Everything delivered?

- Aye, Captain," the mechanical voice of the seeker replied, "the supplies are already being sorted out.

Well done. That's a smart ship I've got.

- Let's go. I'll lead the hyperloop, - I sat in the chair, taking the wheel and typing the launch command on the remote control. The ship sprang to life - it twitched slightly, checking the manoeuvring engines and began to start the reactor at full power, necessary for entering hyperspace.

By the way, the place was already tidy - the droids were good for something after all. Asking for tea, I pressed the hyperdrive control lever. The ship entered hyperspace abruptly, and I relaxed, closing my eyes and orienting myself by my senses. Navigation with the Force is available, the main thing is to concentrate well, visualise your goal correctly, stay focused and keep everything under your control. We flew, faster than any local ship, past all the hyperspace routes, straight to my goal. Yes, the Force's abilities - creating machinery, throwing blocks at the enemy, and so on... primitive. Searching, on the other hand, was worth a lot of money. The key was to find the target quickly, the fastest in the galaxy.

We were out of the hyper in four hours - we dropped out as I tidied up the hyperdrive lever. I relaxed in the chair - too long concentration flights are not pleasant. It felt good in the chair, but I was getting tired of sitting - so I got up. Nearby stood a cube with an old acquaintance.....

- Have you arrived? - The Captain's hologram appeared above the cube.

- Yes. Iskin, where are we?

- Sector Meldab Four. Melanian colonies. The nearest planet is Shash-Ror.

* * *

Roman. Three months later.

* * *

My throat was a little sore. Thank the Force that the locals had no defences against forsusers, or they would have burned me long ago, and badly. But strangely, there weren't any Forsuiters in this galaxy. At least, I hadn't encountered any. I sat at a table in a local cafe and eyed a dish that looked suspiciously like pizza.

When Earthlings imagined a galactic civilisation, they always transferred their vision of the world to the galaxy. No sci-fi writer could truly imagine an Other civilisation. With different orders, different ways of doing things, with different values and a different view of the world.

Xandar is one of the most technologically advanced planets. And one of the most open, law-abiding. That's what attracted me. After stashing the battleship on a far, far away planet, I took the corvette, having previously renovated it. It was a wasted effort. The locals are not very advanced in shipbuilding. The Captain's predictions were justified - he had been in this galaxy live, so to speak, eight thousand years ago and found out that tens of millennia of technical evolution separated them from the locals. Why did he not stay in the galaxy, but hid on earth? It's more accurate to say he only hid a ship on Earth.

A large, not-young man walked into the tavern. He wore an armoured suit with a blue stripe on his right side, a blaster rifle behind his back, and a cloak made of an obscure material that looked like rough leather. The man was completely human in appearance, though he looked like an alien against the infantile Xandarians. The rough, weathered face was proof of that. The café was very ordinary - a nook in one of the back alleys, a dozen tables, infrequent customers, but a good menu. The waitress was a Xandarian, only pink. Her skin was a deep pink colour, but otherwise just like humans... She approached the man, asking him something. It was surprising to see the confusion on the face of such a mighty warrior. I rose with a wave of my hand:

- Vigo!

He turned round. He stared at me.

- Oh, there you are," he walked over to my table, ignoring the waitress, which offended her.

- As you are, Vigo.

Vigo sat down at my table:

- So you were offering a ship? May I inspect the goods?

- No problem," I nodded, drinking my lunch, "Shall we go?

- Let's fly," Vigo hummed.

We walked out of the café and onto the street. It was a big, wide street, meant for pedestrians only - the transport was flying. Vigo looked like he was doing me a favour by agreeing to see the ship. I was surprised he'd agreed at all.

He headed for one of the aerospiders outside the café. I had come on foot, so I climbed into his speeder. This vehicle was similar to a car, because of the similar tasks, except it had no wheels and had engines in the back for atmospheric flight. Inside, it looked like a car, except that it was controlled not by a steering wheel, but by handles, like two joysticks. Vigo only used one, though.

We took off over the neighbourhood, heading towards the spaceport. It was a short distance away, only a few minutes' flight. Vigo, relaxing in his chair, asked:

- Why are they sending you to sell ships? Isn't there anyone older?

- There's no one behind me. The ship is mine.

- Well, where is it?

- Sector six hundred and seventh.

Vigo took off sharply and in a minute we were outside my ship.

He looked round the ship:

- This one?

- That's the one," I nodded.

In front of us was a corvette of my design. Well-armed and well-equipped, designed for one or two crew members. Coal black, with a smoothly contoured fuselage - a fuselage slightly curved like a claw, and two small but thick wings at the back that provided extra space for fuel tanks, balance, and good aerodynamics. The ship was beautiful. Vigo whistled:

- Yes, I've never seen anything like it before. Why is it black?

- To reduce visibility," I shrugged, "Of course, the armour is covered with stealth material that absorbs most scanners' radiation, but still, optical visibility is not nothing.

- I see," Vigo looked at me suspiciously, "can you show me what's inside?

I started to tell him before I reached the ramp:

- "A thermonuclear reactor, identical in its characteristics to the E-600 model from the Zana Corporation. One hundred and twenty thousand units at peak, at jump.

- Where's it going? - Vigo wondered.

- Hyperdrive. Class eight hyperdrive. From Xandar to Oblivion in five days, four hours and twenty-two minutes. It was a test flight, so I measured it..." we entered the hangar. A little unusual for a ship of this class. It was more like a cargo hold and the main entrance....

- I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes," Vigo said flatly.

- You will.

He began to look around. Here, in the cargo hold, was the armoury.

I kept talking about my goods, since Vigo was the only customer at the moment. I didn't have people queuing up for me.

- Atmospheric velocity is 3,000 kilometres per hour. In space, two hundred and twenty units of acceleration with afterburner, three plasma engines. Afterburner burns fuel too fast, cruising mode - ninety units, but if you need to catch up with someone, then ...

- I got it, I got it, Vigo waved me off.

We exited the cargo hold into the main corridor that ran through the ship.

The corridor was quite unusual in that it looked like a yacht, not a warship, which it was - neat white and beige walls, no dirty dark corners, everything inside was rank and proper. Only there was no decor. We walked down the corridor. My ship, designed in the past three months by me, was quite unusual for the local galaxy.

Vigo asked:

- What's down there?

He pointed to a side corridor.

- 'There's one main fuselage, in the centre of it is a chordal corridor, there are only two branches from it, these. These corridors lead to the engines, reactor and fuel tanks, for easy access for the engineers. There are two decks on the ship, we're on the top deck now. There's a small med bay, no equipment, two cabins, kitchen, deckhouse. On the lower deck, there are four prison cells, engineering bays, supplies holds, and so on....

We reached the end of the corridor. The door opened and the security force field that isolated the pilots' cabin was removed. Vigo sat in the copilot's chair and I sat in the copilot's chair. He thought about it for a while:

- Well, I like the ship. If the specs are what you say they are, it's--

- It's the perfect ship for a bounty hunter, sir. That's exactly what we had in mind. It's a customised design, there's no other like it in the galaxy, I can guarantee that.

Vigo grinned:

- Took it right off the tongue. What's the price?

I switched on the engines, started the manual control and lifted the ship above the ground. We were already up to Mach three, at Mach 3, at a steady climb. The clouds flew past us very quickly, space was approaching.

- Two hundred thousand dollars.

I laid down a couple of turns, the ship obeyed strictly, easily performing even the most complicated pirouettes. Vigo tried not to look overboard, where the land and sky flashed by quite quickly.

- Why are you selling?

- Huh? - I was even confused, - because... - I thought, - what do I need it for?

Vigo laughed at that answer. He laughed and suggested:

- "Kid, where did you get it from?

- That's a secret. Where I got it, it's gone.

- And you know your way around a ship, don't you?

- I know everything, every last screw.

- Would you like to come work for us? - Vigo smirked, "We could use some good technicians in the hangar.

I was confused. Just like that?

- I don't have citizenship," I shook my head.

- It's no big deal," Vigo waved his hand, "the important thing is that you have your head on straight. You're not selling your ship for a good life, are you? So come and join us, it won't be boring! I'll take this one from you, but let our technicians inspect it, so that there are no surprises.