"This is Yuson II's Port Authority, your docking request has been approved. An investigator will be there to meet you when you land."
Upon dropping out of lightspeed travel near the colony he lived in, Avery contacted the Port Authority to not only register his new ship, but also send over the data he had obtained from the pirates as well as the deadly situation that had occurred aboard the SCXD-011 a little over a year ago.
Thankfully, he had lived on Yuson II ever since he had been born nineteen years ago. Being a local meant that there were plenty of records on him, and the Port Authority officer had recognized him from his frequent salvaging trips.
Had he just been some unknown person that had shown up and said he found an abandoned ship with seven dead bodies on it, there was a good chance his docking request would have been denied until someone came over to check things out.
There had been one issue that needed to be sorted out, though.
Avery's account was practically bled dry, and he at first did not have enough funds to pay for the docking fee and other services.
To rectify this, he had sold off his old ship that used to belong to his father. With his need for quick cash and the upgrade he had just obtained, it did not make sense to keep ahold of the vessel any longer.
It had some sentimental value, but that was it. In the face of Avery's need for an fast infusion of Krenin, sentimentality was easily discarded.
"I got forty-three thousand Krenin for the ship and all the equipment on it that I didn't transfer over. That should keep me going for a while. Plus, I'll be able to turn in the bounties of the two pirates I took down had. One had a four thousand Krenin Bounty, while the other had a five thousand three hundred bounty. A pretty tidy sum. Although, I did have to rink my life for it." Avery said, mentally going over his finances.
He normally would not make more than a couple thousand Krenin a week from salvaging. Of course, the difference in danger between fighting space pirates and searching for lost items of value floating around was vastly different.
Once he had received specific instructions on where he could land, Avery input the data into the ship's computer and let it chart the course. Only fools and showboats attempted to dock manually. An accident could cost several tens of thousands of Krenin, or possibly even more depending on the severity.
The second his new vessel touched down in the hanger, Avery let out a sigh of relief. He had just gone through quite the harrowing series of ordeals, but he was now back home.
Sadly, he could not relax for long. Within just a minute of his arrival, he received a message from the ship's computer that someone had arrived outside the main hatch.
When Avery booted up the exterior camera to see who it was, he saw a young woman in the uniform of the colony's police standing there.
She had long black hair and piercing purple eyes that Avery felt could see through anyone's lies.
Behind her were four other officers that were clearly her subordinates.
"They must be the ones sent over to collect the bodies and ask me questions about them and this ship."
Avery felt a knot in his stomach at the prospect of being interrogated by a professional investigator, but he knew that this was necessary. Getting everything cleared up quickly so that he could go about his business in peace was his best option.
After inputting a few commands on the console in front of him, Avery got up and went to greet his guests from the colony's authorities.
"Avery Asteria, I presume?"
"Yep, that's me. You're all from the colony's police, correct?"
"That we are. I'm Sergeant Jasmine Iralus, and behind me are officers, Bekker, Foss, Jorgensen, Overby. Would it be alright for us to enter this vessel and look into the matters that you brought to the Port Authority?"
Avery nodded his head and welcomed the five members of the police force onto his ship. He wanted the seven bodies onboard taken off of his hands and any matters of the ownership of SCXD-011 taken care of promptly so that he could go about his business.
Once onboard, the five officers followed Avery directly to where the seven bodies were stored.
"The man in the environmental suit holding the gun is who I believe the one that led to the deaths of the other six are. Of course, I'm sure that you will be able to do a far better job investigating what really happened than what I can come up with." Avery said, directing the police to the likely culprit.
Sergeant Jasmine told him that they would look into in any everything regarding this case, but that if the weapon the man was carrying matched the wounds on the victims, that Avery's supposition was probably correct.
"Now, could you allow us access to the ship's main computer? We want to download the data directly from it. With such a delicate matter such as this, we want to make sure that everything stays aboveboard."
Without any resistance, Avery agreed and gave the sergeant full access to the ship's records. He had already transmitted all of this to the Port Authority, but while slight, there was a possibility that some of the information could have been faked.
Obviously, Avery was far from skilled enough to do such a thing. Nevertheless, allowing the police access to the ship's computer would only benefit him. It would serve as concrete proof that everything that he said was the truth.
"Everything appears to be in order with what you already sent the Port Authority. The records from your previous ship have also been confirmed and proved that you found this unregistered Storren Corp. fighter craft abandoned in space. As such, it belongs to you, and we've confirmed that you had nothing to do with the murders that happened onboard over a year ago." Jasmine said after looking over the information she had collected.
Avery felt put at ease to hear this. Some places might have tried to pin the deaths on him and take the SCXD-011 away.
Fortunately, Sergeant Iralus and her subordinates appeared to be upright individuals intent on following the law without bending it in any way.
Once he had finished signing a few things, the matter of the murders and his ownership of the ship were concluded. Neither were problems that he needed to worry about any longer.
"Thank you for your cooperation. Here, take my contact information. Should anyone approach you about the murders or your possession of the ship, please contact me. I doubt that Storren Corp. will simply ignore a lost vessel of theirs reappearing. If they try to give you trouble, know that I, and the law are on your side. Don't let them pressure you into something that you don't want."
With these last words of assurance, Sergeant Iralus and her officers took their leave along with the seven bodies.
Now, Avery was left alone on his ship, with a new message on his terminal with Jasmine's direct line attached.