Space was sometimes a lonely place. Light years of bleak nothing punctuated by flashes of war, supernovas, and solar flares. When one had the time to think about such things, they had the faintest comprehension at how big the galaxy was. When you were a sector away from a habitable world in all directions, that feeling of enormity only grew. It also made logistics an issue. Do you have enough fuel and supplies to not die in a floating derelict in absolute zero? Hopefully. War also made this problematic. Not all ports are friendly ports. For ships of the Alliance, the number of safe harbors is very few. You find the ones you can, or you find the ones that take all comers.
"Well...that's cerrtajinly a space statjion."
More or less. What lay before the Novgorod was a sprawling, slap-dash cobblework of airtight structures that hung motionless in the ether. Some bits were new. Some had a patina of rust that had somehow managed to etch themselves on in a past life whenever the superstructure was in an atmosphere that allowed for oxidation. All over the big ugly hulk, pin-pricks of light could be seen from windows, so the thing had power. If you didn't get that clue from the windows, the hundred or so neon signs blinking around the damn thing made sure of it. One in particular, which hung separate in the reaches of space a few kilometers away, announced where you were.
"Grrognarr's Last Chance Shop & Gulp, huh?"
Captain Raurrssatta flashed an uneasy grimace at the thought. His ship needed fuel. They were a ridiculous leap away from official Alliance support, and since it was their business to fly sorties, a lot of their upkeep had to be done on the fly. That included fine establishments like these.
Of course, the crew would relish the notion, even if it was a chance to stretch their legs for a few hours on a piece of shit like this. Getting off the ship was an imperative that was unavoidable at times.
"Malljin, get us clearrance to dock, jI guess. Make arrangements to rrefuel."
Cirr tapped his comm, patching him in to the rest of the ship.
"All hands, thjis jis the Captajin. We'rre puttjing jin to dock. Grrantjing a two hourr furrlough to all crrew."
He paused, and added.
"Don't get jinto too much trrouble. Raurrssatta out."
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