SuperBat's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

SuperBat had missed the recruiter by two days. The notice pinned outside the spaceport office was already curling at the corners: Voyager crew intake closed at this location. He read it three times, then tore it down and shoved it in his pocket. He had sold his apartment for the passage fee. He had told everyone he knew that he was leaving to serve on the USS Voyager. He could not walk back through his own front door and admit he did not know which moon to fly to next. He found Seven of Nine on the lower promenade, waiting for a shuttle in a red-shouldered captain's uniform. He knew her by the Borg implant above her eye and by the small delta pin at her chest. He stepped in front of her before his courage could turn. "Captain. I'm trying to enlist with Voyager. The office here is shut. I need to know where the intake moved." Seven of Nine looked at him for a long moment. "Voyager is recruiting cargo crew out of the forest moon waystation this cycle," she said. "Passenger berths are full. If you want on that ship, you sign as cargo hand on a freighter bound for the Vega belt and you get off at the lodge. Ask the innkeeper." She paused. "Port authority scans cargo crew harder than passengers. Bring nothing you cannot explain." She boarded her shuttle without waiting for thanks. SuperBat stood on the promenade with a destination in his mouth and a new problem in his hands: he had to pass an inspection he had not planned for, on a freighter he had not yet booked.