Sleipnir Colony - A Short Story Collection

The radio on the main console crackled into life before him, Jump Gate, or J.G. as he was known to his crew and friends cast his eyes over the asteroid belt and rather brown looking sky of the colony before him. It had been a long trip from the previous sector, and he was looking forward to putting his hooves up for a day or two before moving on. He leaned forward in his chair, and picked up the receiver, a voice on the other end was asking for confirmation of landing codes and to identify himself.

“This is captain J.G. of the E.M.F Unity, on schedule to make touchdown at the docks on time. Can I presume I’m talking to gate control?”

The voice at the other end answered. “Gate control here, we’ve received your codes Unity. On time? You’re a few hours behind schedule.”

“Ah yeah, sorry about that - some of the cargo...I mean customers insisted we took a small detour to a lane service station...somethin’ about being hungry, again. We’re a lil’ late so they could stuff their fat faces with more food.” He finished, his voice dry and lacking any sympathy for his paying customers whatsoever.

“Understood Unity, take your ship through the gate as per usual. You’re to touchdown at docking point six, Sleipnir welcomes you and your crew. You have 48 hours with us before departure. Gate control out.”

The radio went dead and J.G. leaned back in his chair, if he was a farmer he’d be chewing on a piece of wheat right now. His expression rather nonchalant. It was the same at the arrival to every colony, a bored out their brains gate control dispatcher who had to sit and wait for incoming ships to shepherd down to the planet. Long gone were the cowboy days of just being able to slam your ship down through the atmosphere and land where you pleased. Now there was rules, regulations. Some bright spark had gotten the idea of equipping every colony with the gigantic orbiting gates that sat hanging in space above every world. Any ship trying to touch down without passing through the gate would be immediately quarantined upon landing. He thought he better do the right thing, and set coordinates on his console for the gate.

It took mere moments, the Unity was equipped with some of the latest engines available after the retrofit a few months back. She was an old girl, but nimble and able to haul cargo like no other heavy hauler. J.G. had inherited her from the previous captain, after working his way up on the crew to navigator, he had become the next likely candidate. When captain Liberty had given up her mantle, it had fallen to him, and now the Unity was all his - plying the stars full of fat and jiggly cargo. Ponies were always worth more, as food was such a common commodity to shift, unless he found a particularly lucrative contract.

The gate loomed before him, he always marvelled at them, despite how much they annoyed him. Through the front window a gigantic singular ring that took up most of the field of vision, and he positioned his ship to descend to the planet.

The two gigantic metal beams that blocked his path whirred into life, almost like two titanic teeth that parted to open the gate. The inner ring of the structure rotated and the ‘teeth’ shifted position, and a set of green landing lights illuminated to indicate he was all clear to land the vessel. Ironic that the ship had to enter through what looked like a huge metal maw. He started his descent, and the gate faded behind him as the atmosphere gave way to clouds and then a landmass below.

At this point the autopilot was doing all the work, and the ship glided into the docks with little commotion. There was a gentle bump as the landing struts extended, and finally the ship touched down. J.G. picked up the receiver again, and flicked a switch on the console labelled Ship Wide Broadcast.

“Good afternoon, this is your captain speaking. We have touched down on Sleipnir a few hours behind schedule. Final checks will be made and disembarking can begin in roughly 10 minutes time. We hope you had a pleasant trip with the Equestrian Merchant Fleet, please do fly with us again.” He finished, still holding the receiver, and flicked it to connect to the crew quarters. “Es? Es are you there?”

There was a short pause as he waited for his second in command to pick up on the other end. But it always came. “Yes captain! Normal disembarking?”

“You got it Estuary, meet me on the passenger deck when you’re done. Just wanna see what this world has to offer.”

“Sure thing captain!” The pony at the other end hung up, and J.G. moved himself from the seat. He started to stroll out from the bridge and through the crew quarters towards the passenger deck. He stopped on a gangway above and just observed. Every single one of them, even the colts and fillies that were travelling with parents...fat. J.G. was a slim pony, in fact he was probably one of the last slim ponies to exist save a few others he ran into on extremely rare occasions when he touched down on a colony.

He marvelled at how society had become what it had, the obsession with eating. It left ones like him behind in its wake as ponies stuffed themselves fatter and fatter with every passing moment. The Unity kept him slim, she was an old bird built before ponies started getting immense. Of his crew he was the only one who could still fit through the doorway to the bridge, he liked it that way, kept ponies from bothering him with stupid questions in flight like “How many meals are there in this flight?” or “Can we stop off for something to eat?”. He was mildly annoyed one of his crew had gotten on the intercom and asked for that stop, but couldn’t be helped. Directive of the E.M.F...customers were payin’ and got what they wanted, long as they paid.

The ship itself had been retrofitted so many times J.G. had lost count, spacedock round the various colonies loved him, but he didn’t love them. Plying his wallet for just that extra bit of space in the guest quarters or an upgrade to the dining area. He had a very old photo of captain Liberty with her when she got the old girl. She looked finer...slimmer. Not bloated and fat like her cargo, but it paid the bills.

The bay doors clicked opened, and J.G. watched the passengers disembark. Eager to waddle or drive their pads off the ship, likely to stuff their faces. He watched from the gangway as one young colt looked up and caught a glimpse of him before he could move back into the shadows. There was the expected gasp before his mother put her pudgy hoof round him and dragged him off the ship with her. J.G. sighed, and made his way down onto the now empty passenger deck. Estuary was waiting there for him.

“How much we make?”

The small tubby pegasus flipped her way through the passenger manifest. “Around 1500 bits, an extra 200 with that stop for food but, they ate their way through 500 bits worth of food. Higher than normal but this was a longer voyage. Guess we’ll have to stock up.” She said.

J.G. sighed yet again, he also hate the fact that the biggest expense of any run was the food bill. Not even the fuel for the ship came close to touching it.

“Well, suppose we’ll just have to take that. What is Sleipnir known for?”

Again his second in command looked through her notepad. “Not much...it’s a fledgling colony still, founded not many decades ago. They have a booming food trade supposedly. Other than that, too young for any interesting landmarks.”

“Fine well..I’m still going to see what it has to offer, I’ve not been here before. Make sure the ship is fueled and inspected before we leave and then explore the place yourself. I’ll be back to the ship tonight. See you later Es.”

He trotted out the bay doors and felt the cool breeze on his mane, it was always a small joy of his after being stuck in the Unity for so long and this had been as Es had said, a longer than normal voyage. After a while oxygen recyclers started to feel stale on your lungs, but it was the only way to keep ponies breathing in the metal monstrosities that moved them across the stars. He knew as soon as he walked out those Dockyard gates he was going to get stares, maybe even questions, but he had to stretch his hooves. J.G. trotted on, determined to find something of interest on the colony, even if Es couldn’t find anything in her notes.