Minerva Trading Outpost

DW01 Beyond The Frontiers/03

Minerva Trading Outpost, Rebus Quadrant The Docking tube: A gritty gray tube to some stairs. It was a few models old, and it creaked as they walked. Nickie had seen even older models in worse condition stand up to cannon fire. Still, she suppressed the urge to jump just to get the tube to sway. Even from the distance of the docking bay, the noise and the bustle of the rest of the outpost was still audible.

DW01 Beyond The Frontiers/04

One of the main shopping areas. It was lit in every shade of neon, the signs of the shops that lined the walls almost entirely drowning out the lighting on the ceiling that loomed far above the cavernous area. There wasn’t an inch of wall space that wasn’t occupied by some sort of store, and there were even more stores. They were stacked on top of each other, lifts and escalators leading to the walkway that passed the front of the second row of shopfronts. Even so, that wasn’t all of them. Carts and tents and stands were propped up all over the floor in the center of the room. It looked like chaos at first glance, and Nickie couldn’t help but wonder just how many people had been trampled in the crush. At second glance, though, she could see the order of it. Each pop-up shop took up only a very specific amount of space, and though there were no lines on the floor, she could recognize the grid system they were set up on.

There was cosmetic tech, home appliances, luxury tech, holoconsoles and wrist holos, tools and upgrades of every shape, size, and utility, real estate depots, cars, and even civilian ships. Carrier bots would help her carry things once she started purchasing. The hands-free shopping carts dogged her heels like puppies. Vendors shouted back and forth, some trying to attract customers and others just trying to be heard over the noise as they bartered.

Residential units—not many, and mostly they belonged to the shop owners and their families.She had to squint past the light to see them. Two-thirds of the way up the towering walls there was a broader walkway, where she could make out the doors to the apartments. She could even see a few people on the walkway, coming and going.

Her shopping list: Fuel cells? Check. Console covers? Check. Wireless network extenders? Check. Holobrighteners? Check. Auxiliary radiation dampeners? Check. Shielding capacitors? Check. A high-quality deck of playing cards? Check.

Finished her shopping, delivered to the ship, half up front, half on delivery, and thought of hiring more crew.

GRIM's SHOPPING: The outpost made all the canned goods back on the ship seem even less appealing. He dwelt on whether he should aim for quality or quantity before ultimately deciding on the latter. It wouldn’t matter all that much if the food was fancy if there wasn’t enough of it to go around, and Grim liked to think he was the practical sort. The outpost smelled like every single food Grim could think of, all at the same time.