Credit Rush OutPost Krone
Read Credit Rush OutPost Krone Online
Authors: Simon E Bond
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the...
Credit Rush
Outpost Krone
Simon E Bond
Copyright © 2015 Simon E Bond
All rights reserved.
ISBN:
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to say a big heart warm thanks to my wife Katie, and my lovely five children for giving me confidence in each project.
INTRODUCTION
Charlie works as a Kromtic digger by day and a hacker by night on Outpost Krone. He has no commitments apart from a devotion to his beloved Android Richard, but their latest digging assignment takes a turn for the worse.
Charlie’s life is about to change.
The despicable corporate weasel, Volax Stout, catches Charlie trying to hack into his credit account and decides to hunt him and Richard down.
For Stout's pleasure, he is going to blackmail Charlie into carrying out survival tasks.
A journey from the mining wasteland of Outpost Krone takes Charlie into space, and from there he becomes Stout's personal pet. Charlie must make the right choice in order to survive or pay with his life…
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception”.
Carl Sagan
Chapter One
The twin moons shone upon the harsh surface of Outpost Krone, their light glistened across the rocky lunar landscape. Connected together like veins, craters covered the harsh surface, rivers and lakes. In the distance, four huge towers illuminated the skyline of the city and separated it from the barren landscape.
Outpost Krone was awakening to a new dawn. Above the horizon, the odd spaceship could be seen disappearing over the lunar hills. Within every crater was a rich substance called Kromtic, a life sustaining mineral used to power the atmosphere on certain planets that sold for a high price. The outskirt of the city was where the digging occurred. A great number of diggers made their living off the lucrative trade.
Drilling was the only way to retrieve it and although a low risk method, accidents could occur if excessive high pressure was involved. It didn’t happen often but if the pressure was not calculated correctly, Kromtic could easily splinter into thousands of fragmented pieces.
Mining was the main line of work for Charlie Bosak and as luck would have it, he had not experienced a Kromtic splinter. He considered himself a happy man even when the time for his next dig had arrived yet again.
“Wake up… wake up, Charlie,” spoke the naked woman at his side.
Charlie slowly rose up in his bed, dreary eyed and exhausted.
Holding his head in both hands, he then rubbed his eyes and looked upwards to face the dim lit ceiling. His hair was overgrown and needed a cut, he thought as he scratched his beard and yawned
“Ugh, shit my head hurts. Jesus… how much did I have last night?” he grumbled, pulling the bed sheet over him to leave the naked body of the woman silhouetted against the wall from the moonlight outside.
“You had quite a lot of drink, but you did win your prize and your credits were transferred,” replied the woman with a sly grin.
Charlie returned the gesture and laughed. Punching his fist into the air with excitement, he quickly pressed his hands to his head to cover his migraine, when the woman rolled over to kiss his bare chest.
“What's wrong? You still have me for a little while yet; you paid up front if you remember?” said the woman with a harsh tone.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Charlie placed the palm of his hand against a scanner. A blue light emitted from two tiny holes underneath and slowly moved from left to right, then repeated the action again.
When a holographic screen appeared just above him, Charlie began to log into his account.
“Please, Charlie, this again? Why don't you believe anyone when they say credits have been paid to you?” asked the frustrated woman.
Not bothering to reply, Charlie just kept on staring at the credit counter on the bottom of the screen. He had to make sure he was paid in full; his obsession for credits took over everything. After a couple of minutes, the counter had stopped and the credit balance displayed, Charlie was more than pleased with the final amount he had incurred.
“Well, that was one hell of a poker game. I must have placed a hard bet to begin with,” he scoffed and then stood up next to the bed causing the holographic screen to disappear.
Walking over to the nearby table, he decided to grab a bottle of water from the fridge. He was dehydrated and he drank fast before taking a quick break to swallow some painkillers.
“You drink too much, Charlie. How you manage to dig out there with no energy and focus at the same time I’ll never understand,” said the woman.
“Don't you worry about that, I’ve been doing it long enough. Besides, there are only a few of us in the same job on this barren planet,” replied Charlie.
He turned his back to her and grabbed the water bottle, taking in another drink to quench his thirst.
“Orlan? That’s your name is it… well, your human name?” he asked, as the water dribbled down his chin.
“You don't remember from last time? You really do need to quit drinking,” she replied as she placed her evening dress back on.
“Oh, I remember alright,” Charlie replied.
He walked to Orlan, reached for the zip at the back of her dress, and slowly fastened it. His hand touched her soft skin, and he rubbed his fingertips around each soft spot between her shoulders.
“Stop it, please…” she gasped as he tilted his head letting his lips work their way along the surface on her skin.
“Now this is what I love about your alien kind; you have more soft spots then any human woman I know,” said Charlie, pausing for a brief second.
Turning around to face him and laughing, she moved her fingers in his hair and pulled him closer when they were interrupted by a buzzing noise from the side of the kitchen table. Charlie turned around, grabbed his boxer shorts and shirt from the end of the bed, and quickly put them on.
“Who is it, Charlie?” said Orlan.
Charlie picked up the pager and studied it; it was his work. New areas of Kromtic had been detected on the north western side of the planet and they had a new contract ready for him,
“New job for me; it looks like I should be in the credits yet again," Charlie said.
“It's time for me to get going to my job too. I have to meet a client later and it's nearly dawn,” replied Orlan as she made her way towards the door of Charlie's apartment.
“Come on; don't be like that. We can still have some fun; I got a couple more hours to kill,” Charlie replied, leaning back against the wall.
“I don't care. You won me the second time round and that’s enough. You have your credits so we can call it quits,” Orlan replied. Her eyes flashed from blue to a dark green colour in a split second as she shot him a look.
Grabbing her high heels from the floor she then made her way out the door and left.
“Well… okay, that was quick; I suppose Flecs are more honest than humans,” Charlie said referring to Orlan's race. Flecs were illegal immigrants on Outpost Krone; the planet was heaving with the pale skinned foreigners. Flecs were a unique kind of shape-shifter—the physical build of the body did not change, but eye and hair colour could change in appearance many times over. Charlie didn’t care as long as they were the female kind. To him, the shape-shifting female Flecs were better in bed than human females.
Some more pain killers were needed as the headache still buried itself deep inside his head. Charlie emptied the last of the painkillers into his mouth before throwing the bottle onto the kitchen floor. Outside, the two suns were starting to rise over the lunar horizon, daylight slowly making its presence known.
“That’s one good thing about living on this rock, the sunset is always welcome,” said Charlie as he slid his canopy door open.
The warm breeze from outside hit him in the face, each of the sun's in the skyline glowed upon the rocky craters below to give the surface a glistening warm orange colour.
“Still lots of fortune out there to keep me going; hell, I could retire early if I hit the dig big time,” he said, leaning over the balcony. Below him, the lunar traffic passed by.
“Suckers,” shouted Charlie as he looked on. The usual transporters could be seen carrying people to work; the majority of them were working under slave labour contracts for the big corporations. The workers under those contracts were less fortunate; they didn’t start off with any credits at all. Even if they did, once they ran out that was it.
The contract workers spent most of the day keeping the furnaces burning in exchange for living space in the slums on Krone. Most of them had been transported to the planet as an alternative to spending their final days living as outcasts, or being deprived of oxygen within the ever thinning atmosphere back on Earth.
Only powerful wealthy citizens now inhabited the once blue planet; Old Earth was almost gone and along with it, the once seemingly normal civilization. The higher classes lived in domes in remote areas away from the harm of the elements and human dangers.
“Shit, this heat is building up early today,” said Charlie as he glanced at the temperature gauge fixed on the wall.
It was already pushing past 37 degrees Celsius and rising fast every couple of minutes. A booming sound could be heard in the distant hills on the lunar surface as the temperature warning system activated.
The atmosphere had sprung to life early and with the rising temperature it was far better to be inside. Charlie slid the patio doors shut behind him and went to get dressed before he read his work brief. He could en The twin moons shone upon the harsh surface of Outpost Krone, their light glistened across the rocky lunar landscape. Connected together like veins, craters covered the harsh surface, rivers and lakes. In the distance, four huge towers illuminated the skyline of the city and separated it from the barren landscape.
Outpost Krone was awakening to a new dawn. Above the horizon, the odd spaceship could be seen disappearing over the lunar hills. Within every crater was a rich substance called Kromtic, a life sustaining mineral used to power the atmosphere on certain planets that sold for a high price. The outskirt of the city was where the digging occurred. A great number of diggers made their living off the lucrative trade.
Drilling was the only way to retrieve it and although a low risk method, accidents could occur if excessive high pressure was involved. It didn’t happen often but if the pressure was not calculated correctly, Kromtic could easily splinter into thousands of fragmented pieces.
Mining was the main line of work for Charlie Bosak and as luck would have it, he had not experienced a Kromtic splinter. He considered himself a happy man even when the time for his next dig had arrived yet again.
“Wake up… wake up, Charlie,” spoke the naked woman at his side.
Charlie slowly rose up in his bed, dreary eyed and exhausted.
Holding his head in both hands, he then rubbed his eyes and looked upwards to face the dim lit ceiling. His hair was overgrown and needed a cut, he thought as he scratched his beard and yawned
“Ugh, shit my head hurts. Jesus… how much did I have last night?” he grumbled, pulling the bed sheet over him to leave the naked body of the woman silhouetted against the wall from the moonlight outside.
“You had quite a lot of drink, but you did win your prize and your credits were transferred,” replied the woman with a sly grin.
Charlie returned the gesture and laughed. Punching his fist into the air with excitement, he quickly pressed his hands to his head to cover his migraine, when the woman rolled over to kiss his bare chest.
“What's wrong? You still have me for a little while yet; you paid up front if you remember?” said the woman with a harsh tone.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Charlie placed the palm of his hand against a scanner. A blue light emitted from two tiny holes underneath and slowly moved from left to right, then repeated the action again.
When a holographic screen appeared just above him, Charlie began to log into his account.
“Please, Charlie, this again? Why don't you believe anyone when they say credits have been paid to you?” asked the frustrated woman.