Day 12 of the 30 Day Blog Challenge

Dear Blog,

Here is my Day 12 entry for the 30 Day Blog Challenge.

Day 12 — Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

I created a character a while back for a forum I joined. The board had an established set of planets, characters, rules, etc. I had to write a character description and illustrate a scene. The group didn't go too far, but it was enjoyable while it lasted. Here was my character/entry into the world.
I would like to note that I wrote this a while back and I hope my writing has improved. And that I'm pretty sure this character is a fictionalized version of me, but in space... and with a backbone.

Name: Nicholas Havic
Alias: Nick
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Age: 23
Physical Description:
Eye Color: Hazel
Hair: Dirty blonde hair, usually messy
Height: 5'11" (180 cm)
Weigh: 165 lb. (81 kilograms)

Body and Face Structure: Nick is about as normal as normal can get for a human. His hair is hardly ever styled. You can tell that he has a rather soft face. No scars, no blemishes, no stubble. He never opted for artificial enhancements, and remains 100% natural. And he's proud of the fact, as well. By no means ugly for a human, but he doesn't consider himself attractive one. He never works out, but he's active enough to stay in good health. Not a muscle bound fellow, nor a scrawny guy. Not at all intimidating. An average looking guy.
Distinguishing Features: Nothing out of the ordinary.
General: He's a regular human. No special abilities beyond skill with a keyboard or tool, which merely comes from training and practical use over the years.
Clothing: He usually wears a simple, black shirt. On top of that, a light-weight, black vest which has a few pockets where he carries anything from tools for his ship to simply a few spare credits. As for pants, Nick likes a certain pair dark denim jeans for some strange reason.

Psychological: Nicholas is a good guy who means well, although sarcastic and condescending at times. He always lives for the moment, and rarely plans more than a day or two in advance. He tends to keep to himself, but he'll join a group for a night out on the town if asked. / To him, friendship is more than a relationship; it's a promise. A promise he believes few deserve of him. But if he ever makes that promise, he believes that they are entitled to the most he can provide for them. / He's usually in an upbeat mood and never mad, unless when working on his ship or Andrew. If he is working on either of them, something he would normally shrug off with a sarcastic joke might make him lose his temper, mainly because the guard he puts up to other people is lowered to get a better feel for whatever he's working on. / As for beliefs, he briefly studied most major religions at the academy, yet never really adopted any as his own. Although he has morals and obeys the law, he'll occasionally bend a few rules to get his way. It's not like the government is watching his every move, right?

History: Nicholas Havic has had a pretty good life compared to many in the galaxy. Nick's parents, Richard and Samantha Havic, lived and worked on the Amor, a space freighter which journeyed to many places, re-supplying outposts, colonies, and space stations. Of her crew of 37, Nick was the only person ever born on board and remained the only child as well. As such, the crew grew to be Nick's family, teaching him many different things that a normal education could never provide. Over the years as Nick grew into an able young man, and had visited a great deal of planets and cultures. He studied the areas he visited, as to not offend anyone he might come across if he ever got the chance to go planet-side.
A few weeks after turning 18, the ship approached Capitol to pick up new supplies for the mining operation on Loe. While on the ground, Nick and a few other crew members took the public tracks to a local bar they all enjoyed going to whenever they were planetside on Capitol. Soon after boarding, the track car began losing traction due to a hydraulic line being cut. Nick soon identified the source of the problem and fixed the transport in a matter of minutes, saving the crowded tram line. A government official riding the tram as a method to confuse any enemies by varying his routine saw Nick complete the amazing feat and offered him a spot in the military academy as a reward for performing such a selfless act for the public good (and more importantly saving the official's life). After discussing the idea with the entire crew, Nick set off for two years of formal education. Nick applied, and received admission for all computing, robotics, and flight classes, all of which were only hobbies until now. But, only after a month at the school, he received word that the Amor had been destroyed in orbit by pirates who had just robbed one of the mines on the surface of the planet below and were trying to escape. The report cited the reason being that the pirates saw her as a threat. Needless to say, Nick was in a state of shock for everything in his life had just vanished. He quickly reasoned that just because his experienced a great loss, there was no need to bring others around him down with a depressed attitude. With that state of mind, Nick went on to complete the school with a positive outlook on his studies, for that was the only thing that really mattered to him now. And at the same time, without realizing it, he limited his ties to the other students.
After graduating second in his class and serving one year in the military (a perk the official on the tram failed to mention to him), Nick took the money left to him from all the bank accounts belonging to the crew of the Amor and bought his own personal ship, which he named the Amor II. Using his newly attuned skills, Nick revamped nearly all of the ships systems to an unprecedented level for its class. And with those same skills, he built his own personal android, who he officially named Andrew. Ever since completing Andrew and his ship, Nick has taken on several jobs, all temporary, ranging from personal transportation to major overhaul for other ships, using his academy diploma as a way give him a professional front to gain more customers, and of course, more credits.

Skills: Nick has a great deal of knowledge in the area of engineering, specializing in robotics and vehicle repair. Specifics can be described as the construction of cybernetic components and computer programming/hacking, among other lesser fields of study. And as for repair, Nick has a deep understanding of the mechanics of transports, ranging from Hover Cars to space cruisers. Also, Nick has acquired the skill of piloting a wide range of vehicles, space vessels being his specialty (not to mention his favorite, as well).
His profession can be simply described as a delivery man; since he has no official job and most tasks he does involve transportation of some kind, whether it be transporting materials, people, or even sometimes information.

Other: Nick has his own personal ship, the Amor II, and android, Andrew.
His ship is a small, but heavily modified, freighter, easily piloted by one person; therefore he has no need for a crew to man her. The Amor II has a cockpit from where all the ships systems are monitored and controlled by the pilot, a lounge for recreation during trips through hyperspace, an extremely small kitchen, the captain's quarters and two other rooms for "guests" Nick may be transporting, a refresher (bathroom), a medical station, a workshop, and a cargo hold. The hyperdrive system on board the Amor II was nearly twice the size of the hyperdrive in a standard freighter of her size. As a result, the hyperdrive class was also double to any ship in her class. The secret to her speed were Nick and Andrew's modifications that "streamlined" the ship in hyperspace by controlling the warp of the space-time continuum around her. Several other ships have tried to match the Amor II's speed without these "streamlining" modifications and have blown themselves into space dust. Along with the enhanced propulsion systems, Nick has installed six automated defense turrets (each of his design), forward and aft guns controlled by the pilot, top-of-the-line solar energy converters, two layers of reinforced armor, and a deflector shield. And as an additional "feature," the ship lacks the required tracker to prevent the government from pinpointing of his location, due to his rather questionable passengers he might have on board. Nick has memorized a few critical points, but, Andrew can perform the needed calculations and can input the coordinates into the ship for anywhere else.
Nick's android, Andrew is an incredibly unique machine. From the drawing board to completion, every part of Andrew has been created by Nick. Nick molded Andrew's appearance into that a normal human of a height of six feet, three inches, but to avoid confusion with people he and Andrew might interact with, he changed a few details as to make him seem less human. Andrew seems to have normal skin, but it is a certain flexible alloy of a grayish tint, able to withstand most blades and ammo; he is also bald, lacks ears, and has a digital view screen on his back for software upgrades Nick may come up with. Andrew was originally design to be a personal guard for Nick, since Nick himself lacked any combat expertise beyond firing his revolver, but grew into a more complex being. Once Nick has installed his newly created semi-sentient, positronic brain into Andrew, he realized that this android could be taught to do a multitude of tasks beyond its initial programming. From then on, Andrew followed Nick everywhere he went, learning things from simple ship repair, to advanced fighting techniques, to even having a sense of humor, a feature pretty much all other known androids failed get a accurate grasp of.

Story:
It was a day like any other. No; that day was slightly different. While in orbit over Capitol, Nick received a transmission from an unknown location asking for him to transport some special cargo to another ship, the Avenger. No more information other than their offer: 30,000 credits. Nick was no fool, knowing good and well a price so high only meant the task was going to be far from easy. But as of late, he'd been running low on credits and this was a healthy amount to last him for at least another month and perhaps buy something special as well. He accepted and received another message saying to meet at the given coordinates in three days. He inputted the information into his command console and blasted away into empty space to the rendezvous point.

That was three days ago. For now, Nick and his ship sat still in space. Waiting. Nick took the down time as an opportunity to try and upgrade his android, Andrew, to be able to compute and analyze space charts to act as a substitute "tracker" for the ship. Also, he wanted to see if he could find the reason how it came up with the nickname "Andy" for itself. He wasn't about to change the new behavioral pattern, simply study it.

"Hey, Andrew, you buckle of bolts, get over here!" shouted Nicholas, despite the fact the machine could as easily heard him if he whispered his…its name.

"Call me Andy," came a reply as it stepped in the workshop, "it's much easier to say. Wouldn't you agree, Nicholas?"

"Andrew…Andy….same difference," said Nick, in total agreement with the android's logic, yet not wanting to admit it. It was the same reason he like to be called Nick. Maybe the thing was actually taking on a personality of its own, now. "Turn around so I can gain access to your panel. I just want to give you a new code sequence so you'll be able to plot accurate course through space, instead of using old ones from last year. That alright with you, Andy?" continued Nick, with heavy emphasis of the last word.

"Certainly, Nicholas…or would you like me to call you Nick? You seem to want other organic beings to do that. And if you're so kind to call me Andy from now one, I see it best that I return the favor."

"Call me whatever you think would be appropriate for the situation, buddy," answered Nick, wanting to gauge Andy's response and try to locate a pattern from the readouts on the view screen. "you don't owe me any kind of favor anyways. You've already proven a great par-"

And that instant, a sensor gave a beep as it picked up a ship entering its range, followed shortly by a voice that came through ship's speakers, interrupting both Nick's sentence and train of thought, causing him to get upset, but a degree of excitement as well as it proved to be someone he could release his anger on. "Unidentified vessel, this is the captain of the battle cruiser, Avenger. State your purpose for being in this sector or you shall be destroyed."

Nick closed the panel, securing the view screen on Andy's back, and turned to the android and gave a side smirk. "Look, Andy! We have some new friends to play with. Go down to the cargo hold and wait my signal. Knowing these guys, they'll want me to send the cargo via shuttle pod." Then Nick ran up to the cockpit and turned on his communications console to contact the Avenger, and sent a visual transmission. "I'm sorry, Avenger, we're not in right now, but if you leave your name and planet in which we can contact you, we'll give you a call as soon as possible. Beep!"

A few seconds after, an obviously puzzled (not to mention portly) man in a uniform associated with one of the pirate groups of the galaxy came up and replied. "What do you mean you're not in, I see you clearly on our….oh, and I get it, now. This is the so called "Havic Humor" my superiors warned me about."

"The only kind in the galaxy! You should be honored to hear it. Not many people have the pleasure of listeni-"

"Just give us the cargo, Havic!" shouted the man, who appeared to be easily frustrated at the amount of sarcasm Nick was already giving him.

"Come on, Captain, calm down a bit. No need to be upset, eh? Besides, who do you think I am? A pushover? I need the credits first. No credits, no cargo. Even a man like you should be able to figure out something as simple as that."

"Fine. Sending the creds to your account now. As soon as you get confirmation of the transfer, send the cargo over to us via a one man shuttle. Surely you little excuse for a ship has at least one of those. Ha ha ha!"

Usually, Nick would be taking pride in the fact he knew how the pirates wanted to make the transfer, but at this particular point, Nick had only one thing on his mind: Little excuse for a ship? Did he just say that? "Andy, I just got confirmation. Drop the shields, send over the cargo, then raise the shields again. I've got a bad feeling about this." Then he turned to the console and said, "One more crack like that about my ship, and you won't have a ship. Understand, Captain Cellulite?"

Before he even began to talk, Nick saw in the captain's eyes that he planned to attack the Amor II as soon as he got what he wanted. He didn't even register the gloating coming from the captain for he was too busy planning an attack of his own. "Understood, Havic. But, what I understand is you just threatened an M32 Algon Battle Cruiser equipped with eight manned cannons, all belonging to the Brothers to Free the Capitol Coalition. You hover car doesn't stand a chance. I'll wait for the cargo before I attack. It'll give you a chance to run away." Then the Captain started laughing, sounding similar to a madman.

Nick stopped in his tracks, staring at the Captain. "Hover car?" shouted Nick in disbelief. "I know you didn't just go there, Captain!" an angered Nick growled into the console. He knew the Captain would insult the ship again, but was just plain cruel. "Because if you really did, then I'm sure this won't do any affect, being that your shields are still up. What's that you say? You forgot about your shields?"

He heard the man's laughter stop, for indeed the Captain had forgotten to raise shields again in his moment of ecstasy. The man called for his crew to raise shields immediately, but it was too late. Nick pulled in close behind the Avenger letting lose a barrage of fire from his forward guns towards the Avenger's engines, leaving the opposing ship dead in space, and her crew stunned. He then jetted away from the Avenger, but before he engaged his hyperdrive to travel towards Vend where he planned to spend his newly acquired fortune, he sent one last message to the crew of the pirate vessel in his normal, calm voice:

"Don't worry guys, I'm not heartless." Nick then gave his classic, and sarcastic, smirk. "I'll send a government convoy to your location to help y'all out."

Later on:
"I blame you, Tin Man!" A phrase that seemed to echo through the Amor II. A phrase that could possibly have become Nick's favorite over the past two days. Was there any truth to it? Of course not, but it was the only way Nick could let go of his anger without damaging the ship further.

After their encounter with the pirates, Nick had disabled the 'enemy' vessel and sped off. Unfortunately, Nick's ship hadn't had enough time to properly configure itself to make the jump to lightspeed and her main systems virtually turned off under the stress. He was lucky the ship was in one piece. An error like that could have easily turned him and Andy into cosmic debris. But instead of being thankful for his ship to hold under the conditions, Nick was enraged, since the 30,000 credits he had just added to his name was about to be used to, once again, repair the ship. That is, if he ever got her up and running again.

But it wasn't really the work he had to do, or the fact he just lost a great deal of credits that made Nicholas mad. It was the fact that he made a mistake. A simple, rookie mistake. He wouldn't openly admit to it to anyone, and would rather blame his android, but he made a mistake and knew it. And in Nick's mind, the only way to fix the mistake was to fix the ship.

Nick had not slept or eaten since the ship had shutdown. It wasn't on purpose, it was that it simply didn't occur to him that he needed to do either. He kept on working to the point where anything he did was close to an automated state, moving from system to system, never thinking, only acting. Along the way, he managed to turn on Andy, to try and speed up the repairing process. But it wasn't long before Andy noticed this strange pattern in Nick's behavior, and his positronic brain registered it as abnormal. It then arrived to the conclusion that Nick needed to rest or he might, put in the way his brain worded it, 'cease to function properly.'

As Nick stepped up from working on a panel which relayed energy from the solar panels to the main engines, Andy approached him. Before Nick could throw any words in Andy's direction, Andy clearly stated, "Nick, you need to rest. Stop working or I'm going to have to force you to sleep." Nick glared into the robot's eyes. His last thought was something along the lines of 'Why did I make him taller than me?' Apparently this change in brain activity exhausted Nick, because he then collapsed towards the floor and fell into a deep sleep. Andy caught Nick inches before he hit the deck and carried him to the "Captain's quarters", where he then laid Nick on his cot. Before he left the room, the mechanical man wondered: It's almost as if he's trying to impress someone.

Andy walked into the cockpit and checked which systems need to be repaired in order to jump to lightspeed again. He arrived in the room, sat in the particularly large captain's seat, and punched up the needed diagnostics. To his surprise, the end results indicated that only a few minor modifications were needed to get the ship to the needed level to perform the short jump from their present location to Vend, a planet where he and Nick could buy some replacement parts for all the parts beyond repair. After about half an hour working out all the minute details, Andy got the ship up and running again. Before he calculated the jump, once again, a thought crossed the machine's mind. Incredible, thought Andy, he actually did most of the work himself; not bad for a human.


Over ten hours later, Nick finally awoke from his much needed rest. For a few minutes, he stared up to the ceiling. Although, after looking, he figured it was more of a bulkhead than a traditional ceiling. And after further thinking, he entertained the idea of being seriously injured; because that's the only way he'd want to think about a ceiling.

He then laughed out loud, both in the humor he found in his ceiling pondering and to try to wake up. He threw his legs over the left side of the cot and hopped to his feet and surveyed the room. It was rather bare, dirty, with patches of dull colored metal surrounding the place. The same could be said about every other room on the ship, save the cockpit and "guest quarters." The only difference separating this room from, say, the cargo hold was its contents. It hosted a single military cot, a cabinet which held his clothes, a mirror above the cabinet, and a small end table near next to his cot with his wallet and revolver on it.

Still drowsy, Nick walked over to the refresher and splashed some water on his face. It cleared his vision a bit, but his thoughts were still fogged up a bit, thinking about a wide range of topics, some a bit unnerving. When was the last time I had sex being among those thoughts. Why in this world (or any other) would he care about that? He shook the thought from his mind, disrobed, and hopped into the shower. He let the warm run over his face for a few seconds, and then washed the rest of his body. All the oil, grime, and dust from working on the ship the day (or was it days) before slid off his body and out of his hair, finding a way to the drain. After about 15 minutes of cleansing, he turned off the water and walked back to his room, naked and dripping the entire way there.

He grabbed a relatively clean shirt and some jeans. Ran back to the refresher to pick up his shoes and vest, and put them on in there. He filled the sink up with some hot water and tossed his dirty clothing into it. He then went back to his room, slipped his wallet into his back pocket and tucked his firearm into the holster on his vest. He started to walk out the door, but he took a few steps back and looked at himself in the mirror above his cabinet. Nick flashed his smile, shook his still wet head, causing a few droplets to land on the mirror, and said "Man, can we say 'perfection'?"

Nick then head over to the cockpit, where he met up with Andy. Like clockwork, Andy immediately began giving as many details as possible for…well, everything.

"Nick, we landed on Vend about an hour. We need several parts repaired, and then some totally replaced. But I believe we can find them here on Vend. Don't you have a contact here?"

"Why, yes I do," replied a casual Nick. "In fact, one that owes me, too."

About an hour later, after eating a small breakfast at one of the cafés surrounding the spaceport, Nick and Andy found the shop there were looking for; and more importantly, the shop's keeper, Harold Il-gory. It was like any typical store on Vend, with the bulk of the store within the building, and a very few select items outside on display for potential customers. Il-gory specialized in custom made space equipment, and Nick had come to find he made some of the best stuff around. At a high price, naturally. But today, Nick had the advantage, as Il-gory owed him few thousand credits for smuggling some illegal components half-way across the galaxy to some small outpost.

Nick walked up to some of the display items, picked up a few, but paid no real attention to what he was holding. His gaze turned to the back of the shop where he saw movement, but he patiently waited in the front of the store. No sense barging in and being rude, he figured. Finally, Il-gory came out. It was obvious the little Sandman had been seriously thinking about avoiding Nick altogether. He approached Nick and tried to speak, but failed to find the right thing to say. Nick had always found it amusing that this Sandman fumbled his words, unlike any other he'd met before.

"H-h-hello, Nick. How are you?" stuttered the alien, maintaining a sense of both calmness and anxiety at the same time.

"Pretty good, Harold," answered Nick, while watching the ship mechanic's face. Sure, he was of a different species, but that didn't mean Nick couldn't read his face and eyes. "You don't have the money you owe me, do you, Harold?"

"H-how did you know?" spouted the Il-gory, "I manage my own finances and n-never tell anyone else about my earnings, or what I spend money on, or even-"

"Let's just call it a hunch, okay?" interrupted the young man. "But, I know how you can repay me right now. My ship is acting a fool again, and she needs some new gear. That's where you come in. Offer me a…generous discount, and the debt you have to me will vanish. Sound like a deal, old buddy old pal?"

The Sandman suddenly gained a tremendous energy boost and started to jump around, excited by the fact that the man to who he owed money wasn't demanding it, only a few parts. This display attracted a few shoppers to stop and look in Nick's direction. "Sure, a generous discount. No, not a discount. Free! Sure, Nick, you can have anything you want free! Just don't hurt me, Nick, err, I mean, Mr. Havic…sir."

"I'll only take what I need, "said Nick, starting to get worried due to all the attention Il-gory started to bring. "And I would never hurt you. What gave you that impression?"

"Oh, nothing! It just that, you have a gun, so…yes…uh, now, umm, what do you need?" came the quick reply from Il-gory. Nick told him and within minutes, Il-gory retrieved top-of-the-line parts for Nick's ship. Nick then thanked him, handed some of the larger parts to Andy so that he could carry them, and left the store. There was something about the crowd that had started to surround him while at the Sandman's store that made him feel rather uneasy.

On their way back to the Amor II, Nick and Andy heard an unbearably loud crash come from within of the huge transport ships. They made their way closer to the source of the noise, to better get a grip of the situation, should their help be needed. The two came to one the ports that was owned by the VDC, where they saw countless gems and stones bounce around inside the ship docked there. Nick just shook his head and then yelled "You muscle-bound idiots are even too stupid to haul simple ROCKS without messing the whole thing up!" Sure, none of them heard him, but it made him feel a whole lot better. Right before the two headed back to their own ship, Nick spotted a young girl who was dashing away from the VDC cargo ship. He was bound never lay eyes on her again, but the sight of the girl gave him a strange feeling. He tugged on his black denim jeans, shrugged away the sensation, and headed to his ship.

A few hours later, Nick and his faithful android had completed all the repairs needed, plus a few minor modifications (the most important being a feature which would prevent any jump to lightspeed before calculations were completed). Andrew had already plugged into the city database, listening to current galactic events (of which the ship's crew hardly got to hear) and at the same time, recharging. Nick, on the other hand, had stepped outside to wander around Vend.

Seeing that girl in the space port brought back many memories of another girl he had thought he blocked out completely. The fact that a storm was rolling in didn't help too much. She truly loved the rain, thought Nick to himself as he walked the empty, wet streets. Nick was never one to cling to the past, but she had made such an impact on him in such a short time. It got to the point that Nick wasn't even thinking about where he was going; he just walked on. And he would have continued walking if it hadn't been for Andrew calling him back to the ship. He headed back and at the same time, once again, he pushed all thoughts of this influential girl to the back of his mind, hoping he wouldn't have to think about her again.

Those feelings tended to be a distraction at the least opportune time, anyways, thought Nick before he got back onto the ship.

End.

I apologize for the lack of proper italics, poor writing, and overall blog post. It's kinda silly, not very well developed, confusing to outsiders, and a little full of itself (because Nick is a tad unbelievable?).
Well, what do you think? Leave comments?

Until next time!
-Daniel Golden