Arafura

Garj had wasted no more time in preparing his own task force to investigate Arafura. The Deepwell Corporation, whilst specialising in mining endeavours and equipment, nevertheless maintained its own security fleet. Every company had to, lest it fall prey to a particularly short Trade War. Garj' company was lucrative enough that he had been able to save enough money to purchase a Brick-class heavy transporter, which acted as his flagship and base of operations on the move.

It was a fairly large vessel, able to carry enough materials and equipment and vessels for the fabrication of two or three factories at once. It also acted as a light carrier, being able to carry ten fighter-level vessels in addition to its cargo fleet. All in all, it was approximately nine hundred metres long and about a two hundred wide and a hundred and twenty tall. Due to the extremely valuable nature of the cargo, it sported twenty-three two-gun defensive turrets and two en echelon mounted single-gun mass slings. He had named the vessel Reana after his wife.

Escorting the Reana were three Gradient-class corvettes, the Needle, the Lance and the Thorn. These smaller vessels sported three hull-mounted forward-facing ion lances. These weapons were difficult if not impossible to avoid, due their high velocity. Each also sported several turrets for close-in defence. Garj was happy they were available, as their agility and power were invaluable should combat be unavoidable. Also accompanying the Reana was the salvage vessel Tide, though Garj hoped he would not need it. If there was wreckage, however, he might as well recover what he can.

He gave the order for the task force to engage their hyperdrives and the vessels vanished into space. Although the journey would take much less time than using conventional sublight drives, it would still be about a week until the ships arrived around Arafura. In the meantime, Garj seize the opportunity to organise his finances and search for new suppliers, should the Var or the Beyton be destroyed in their tradewar. At least being in transit meant he wouldn't receive any please for assistance or further trade embargo threats. He once again briefly considered creating his own subdivision but shook his head. That would be impossible until her ascertained the fate of his miners. He'd need to wait out the tradewar, too. There was no sense in vending the same goods as the surviving faction.

Absorbed as he was with the myriad documents laid out before him, he almost didn't notice the request light blinking at him. He blinked back once and pressed the button next to it.

“Yes, what is it?”
“Is it a bad time?”
“That depends on what you want Hert.”
“Ditaire?”
Garj chuckled. He was always interested in that.
“I'll be about ten minutes.”
“I'll be ready, Garj.”

Ditaire was an old Earth game between two players that had achieved something of a cult following in the past two decades. It was estimated that between a hundred million and up to one billion people played regularly, whereas thirty years ago the game was almost unknown.

Garj finished organising his documents and took the lift to Hert Hedgar's room, on the first floor. Garj and Hert had served in the military together and had become fast friends from being in the same unit. Hert greeted Garj with a warm smile as they shook hands wordlessly. The first rule was that no words could be exchanged between the players after entering the room where the game would be played until the game was over.

The game was not complicated, but neither, at first glance, was chess. Although it was a card game, skill was the deciding factor in Ditaire, especially at pulling off series of moves in order to gain bonus turns. Garj and Hert could only play against one another as they were better than everyone else on the ship, but that suited them just fine: they were very closely matched in skill and that made every game an enticing challenge.

The game continued on for some time. Eventually Garj placed his cards face up and said “I submit.” Hert smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. The game required a lot of concentration to understand its nuances and tricks.
“Good game,” he said at length, extending his hand, which Garj shook with a wry smile, “a close one, too.”
“It always is,” Garj responded, then frowned, “How's your wife?” Hert's face fell a bit before he could cover it up.
“She's... coping.”
“You're doing everything you can, Hert. She knows that more than you do.”
“I... thanks.”

They sat in silence for a several long minutes before Garj took the cards and dealt another game.