Aria stared at the image hovering in the middle of the bridge. She'd been struggling for hours to get her ship back in working shape, a fuse had blown in the navigation computer while her ship had been in Slipspace, forcing an emergency reemergence into reality. Aria had been blind these last few hours, with the ship's sensors down she could have slowly been being dragged into the orbit of a star, and wouldn't have realised until the heat burned through the layers of hull and she was cooked alive in her own ship. She shuddered at the thought, it came second as every spacers worst nightmare, next to a power failure leaving them to slowly freeze to death as the heat bled out of the hull, or to asphyxiate as the oxygen recyclers ceased their function and the air slowly became toxic around them as they breathed.
Aria shook her head, chiding herself for falling into the simple trap of anxiety induced thought spirals. She had lived, the sensors were functioning again after she'd repaired the damage that had been done by the emergency jump, and most interestingly, the sensors had locked onto a structure. As far as she could tell, she was in deep space, with her long range sensors and navigation computer slowly building up data to pinpoint where exactly she was in relation to the galaxy, but no solar system was close.
The space station sent no hails, and preliminary scans showed it to be derelict, but still fully functional and sealed, with ancient generators powering the weak shields that faintly glittered whenever a small passing chunk of rock struck them. Aria could hardly believe her eyes, the readings indicated that the station was enormous, large enough to house millions of people. This was a salvagers dream! She could go in now, find enough salvage to entice a few investors and then come back with a full crew, maybe hire a couple of dedicated transport ships and walk away with enough credits to secure a nice lifestyle for the next few hundred years, or she could spend it to hire a few salvagers like herself, fund their expeditions and hopefully make some real permanent money, enough that she could afford to live pretty for the rest of her life!
Subconsciously Aria licked her lips, her body spurring to action as she ran to the cockpit, she'd spent long enough idle. Aria keyed in commands to the flight computer, setting a casual pace to the station that'd get her there in about 30 Nubeni standard hours, better to take it slow, rather than pushing for a hard burn and damaging the ship's engines, or causing another system to blow a fuse. She collapsed onto her chair, suddenly feeling the sweat and grime of the last few hours worth of work covering her body.
Aria had scoffed at first when she bought the ship, a shower? Hello, 26th century calling, they want their outdated technology back. But after the last few decades with it she could see the appeal. Sure, when you wanted to get properly clean quickly they weren't very good, but damn if they weren't relaxing. She stood under the stream of hot water, feeling the aches of the day fade under the heat and pressure, she ran her fingers through her short black hair, and felt the grease and grime wash from her body. Aria glanced across at the clear mirror across from the shower, the heated steam from the water flowing around the mirror but refusing to latch on to the surface, her ebony skin stood out in stark contrast to the white of the shower's walls, her tattoos forming whorls across her chest and down her arms, with more curling around her legs. She half turned, checking out her ass in the mirror, Aria gave it a small smack, letting out a small giggle at the sound of the wet slap that echoed around the room. It was a shame that out here there was nobody to share a hot shower with. Aria groaned a little, knowing it'd be weeks at least before she could find a port and a warm, willing body to share a little time with.
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Aria fidgeted with anticipation, her close range sensors had located the primary hanger on the station, and she was aboard a small shuttle, gliding slowly through the void towards the shimmering portal that separated interior atmosphere from the cold vacuum of space. The scans had indicated that the false gravity of the station had been set to 1.876 g, which while higher than human standard at 1g, was completely safe for her to spend time in. Aria shivered as she drew closer to the station, now she was close enough, cameras on the shuttle and her ship were feeding her visual data on the station, it dwarfed everything she'd ever seen, it was orders of magnitude than the largest Imperium derelict she'd ever seen, and those derelicts were gigantic compared to anything that had been built in the last 5 thousand years.
Aria double and triple checked her gear, the sleek form fitting space suit hugging her body, and the small armoured helmet connecting snugly to the seal of the space suit. She let the computer run a final diagnostic check, assuring that her oxygen recycler was fully functional and her suit formed a perfect seal. Bounding with excitement, Aria bounced to the airlock of the shuttle, already adjusting to the heavier gravity of the station, she tapped her fingers along the wall of the airlock, impatient for it to finish cycling the air so that she could get to exploring the massive station. As soon as the airlock's lights flashed green Aria slammed her fist down on the door controls, and leapt out of the doors, rushing over to a nearby table, it sat slightly below comfort level for her, meaning she had to bend over to open the case she had brought over, inside sat a plethora of shiny silver drones. Carefully, Aria removed each batch of drones from the case and activated them, sending drones scurrying through the halls and vents of the station to map it out. Quickly a detailed map of the nearby corridors appeared on a HUD integrated into Aria's vision, it might take days for the drones to scan something so large, but when it was over she should have an accurate map of every nook and cranny, leaving no potential loot anywhere to hide!
Aria's computer sent a soft ping to her, the atmosphere of the station had been thoroughly studied, and found to not only be breathable, but also completely free of toxins, in other words; safe. Aria excitedly disabled the seals on her helmet, ripping it off as fast as possible, breathing in atmosphere's long untouched by other beings was her favourite part of exploration. Breathing deeply, Aria let out a grin, the air was cold, and unlike the usual smell of disuse and decay on derelicts, this ship smelled sweet, for some strange reason, the smell of some kind of sweet fruit permeated the station. The smell soothed Aria immediately, causing her to loosen muscles she didn't realise she'd been tensing. Softly grinning, Aria began to hum as she strolled through the hanger, idly letting her feet take her where they would while exploring the station.
Aria kept one eye on her display, the map slowly expanding as her drones filled it in, the other basked in the wonder of the ancient station. It had clearly been designed for a race that stood smaller than the average human, they seemed to be bipedal with three arms ending in 9 fingered hands. As she was walking, Aria couldn't help but feel her mind dragged away from the station and back to her growing isolation from people, she hadn't been back to a port for almost 5 years now, stopping only at unmanned deep space stations to resupply. The loneliness was growing on her, she'd always been a lone wolf, more happy to spend time on her own in deep space than talking awkwardly in a port, but at times that growing need for a warm body by her side grew too much to bear.
Walking along, Aria felt the heat slowly increase, checking her display, she saw that it held at a cool 292 degrees Kelvin, and it had since she left the shuttle. Shrugging, she removed her space suit, peeling it off her body to allow the cool air to bring her temperature down. Removed from her space suit she stood in her underwear, a pair of jet black lacy underwear and a simple grey sports bra, a sudden blush overtook Aria's face as she imagined someone finding her like this, half naked in an ancient alien ruin, what would they think of her?
