CHAPTER 49: CHAPTER 49 PIRATE SPACE STATION

After entering the Pirate Space Station’s dock.

The first thing Chen Ming saw was the ship positions of varying sizes occupying the entire space arm.

The ratio of frigates to destroyers is roughly 100:1, and there are only two cruiser-level docks; no battleship docks were designed at all.

About one-fifth of these berths have spacecraft in them, indicating that the traffic at this Pirate Space Station is still quite high.

Chen Ming controlled the Iron Ore No., following the signal’s guidance to dock at a frigate’s berth.

Wondering if anyone would contact him through the communication channel.

But no one did, no one contacted him, no one checked, and no one cared about this little ship they’d never seen before.

The Space Station seemed only responsible for guiding the ships outside to come in and nothing more.

This is the Pirate Space Station.

In Chen Ming’s memory, although he had never been to the Pirate Space Station, he had learned about it through other means.

The Pirate Space Station is different from specialized small Mining Space Stations.

Its main function is similar to those of the large central space stations, acting as something akin to a settlement.

Although its overall volume is smaller compared to the large central space stations, it is still much bigger than a Mining Space Station, generally possessing all necessary functions.

Chen Ming hadn’t expected that the management of a settlement where people live long-term could be so lax.

But Chen Ming didn’t dwell on it.

After all, seeing the dock in such a peaceful state, at least it seemed peaceful, indicated that necessary management was in place.

The station’s current relaxed management was also beneficial for him, so there was no need to worry.

Chen Ming looked out the porthole.

Many spacecraft in the dock were taking off and landing.

A spacecraft was just docking at a nearby berth.

Chen Ming could see people on board wearing ordinary protective suits, not even wearing helmets, walking down.

They quickly headed to one end of the dock via the transverse elevator on the dock channel.

A door leading to the core area inside the Space Station.

A giant "1" was written above the door, possibly indicating that the dock was on the No. 1 space arm.

While observing others’ actions, Chen Ming’s terminal suddenly detected a network connection.

Chen Ming thought for a moment and used the doctor’s terminal to connect.

Then a map of the Space Station’s open area was sent to his terminal, awaiting Chen Ming’s reception, signed off by the Space Station Administration.

Upon receiving the document, Chen Ming’s first reaction wasn’t to open it and view the Space Station map.

Instead, he wanted to switch to his terminal and check if his savings card had been frozen.

But Chen Ming restrained himself; if this record were traced, it would definitely cause big trouble.

Rather than checking something dangerous and unusable, it was better to check something else.

Chen Ming operated the terminal, opening a search engine that was still somewhat used thirty years ago.

Fortunately, the company hadn’t gone bankrupt and appeared to be doing well.

Chen Ming could use this search engine to look up information he was interested in.

So Chen Ming first searched for information on the star system where Rimu Star is located.

A piece of public information immediately appeared at the top of the search results.

It stated that an unknown danger had appeared in the star system, causing a military blockade, and ships were instructed to bypass it, prohibiting hyperspace channel jumps from this star system.

The information was from thirty-two years ago, the time when the Space Station faced the insect disaster.

However, thirty-two years later, aside from the star system’s blockade announcement, the military hadn’t released any further information.

It seemed the blockade would continue.

Upon discovering the military hadn’t issued a lift announcement, a question popped into Chen Ming’s mind.

How did he escape the military blockade?

How could a civilian ship fly out of the star system so brazenly without being stopped? Is this normal?

Did the military not notice him? Or noticed but didn’t care?

Chen Ming doubted it was the latter.

He was merely an obscure Maintenance Master, with no background or connections, insignificant enough to be dispensed with.

Without knowing if he would leak information about the Space Station’s current state, they had no reason to let him go.

So the real situation was likely the former.

But it shouldn’t be. Chen Ming knew the military’s technology all too well.

After all, many of their equipment was sourced from external companies through bids.

Sinda Corporation’s advanced detection equipment was naturally purchased by the military in significant quantities.

Although Chen Ming wasn’t involved with those things, he was well aware of their capabilities.

In just one star system, the military had no reason to miss such a large mining civilian ship.

Let alone the Iron Ore No. which he constantly used intensively, repeatedly entering and exiting Rimu Star’s atmosphere, how could they not have noticed him?

Chen Ming pondered for a long time but couldn’t figure it out, feeling that he lacked some crucial information.

He could only temporarily suppress this question in his heart.

At least the military not finding him for now wasn’t bad news.

Chen Ming continued searching for information about the Mining Space Station, trying to search through the exclusive numbers for each public Space Station in the Empire.

But unlike the star system, Chen Ming didn’t find any information related to the Space Station.

It was as if the Mining Space Station he worked at and the Pirate Space Station he now inhabited did not exist.

Frowning, Chen Ming searched for his affiliated Sinda Corporation.

The first search result was Sinda Corporation’s homepage, indicating that Sinda was still thriving, unaffected by the Space Station’s destruction.

The indelible star system remained, and the enormous company that couldn’t collapse easily also remained, but the Space Station within the star system had entirely disappeared.

Chen Ming memorized these search results firmly in his heart, further solidifying his determination not to get involved with anything related to the Mining Space Station.

At this point, it was about enough. Chen Ming didn’t continue searching.

Anyway, since he’d decided to abandon his past identity and avoid involvement with the company, the military, and the Space Station, knowing these rough details was sufficient.

Chen Ming sighed, put down the terminal, put on his protective suit, and stood at the hatch.

Just then, Little Stone suddenly scurried out from the captain’s cabin, climbing onto Chen Ming’s shoulder in a flash.

Holding onto Chen Ming’s helmet, it looked at him eagerly.

"Er."

Chen Ming recalled that Little Stone was just sleeping in a hole it had dug in the ore.

It must have slipped into the captain’s cabin when he wasn’t paying attention, saw the novel Space Station outside, and wanted to follow him out.

"I really can’t help you."

Chen Ming took off the protective suit’s helmet and placed Little Stone inside.

He activated the helmet’s shading feature, confirming that his face was not visible from outside, and neither was Little Stone sharing the helmet with him.

Chen Ming checked again to ensure the company-specific markings on the two terminals he carried had been erased.

Then he opened the hatch and stepped off the spacecraft.