5 years later...

Hammer found one of the few sailing ships that was around before the shattering. At the time it was more a luxury item, where a few of the more wealthy mining consortiums had begun to experiment with hauling in space rocks, but now anyone who had a ship was big business.

The Harpy had been a luxury star sail ship owned by some celebrity. Hammer didn’t know who and didn’t care. Captain Asdrubal had been the pilot and only smiled when you asked about the ship. The Harpy had been reoutfitted as a shard to shard hauler, and business was booming.

Hammer had served as a marine on board a few ships during his time in the military, and when he had asked to join Asdrubal’s crew, the old captain jumped at the chance to have someone with training on board.  Hammer helped with loading duties, and ran security. Which he had to admit was an extremely easy job most of the time. Sometimes when the ship was on a shard, someone might get a little antsy, but usually as soon as they walked off the ship, any plans to run a game on the hauler ended right then and there.  

The few times it hadn't… well… the Harpy had a very well stocked armory.

Hammer was enjoying his usual morning routine of, strangely enough, reading. He found that in the quiet of space between the shards it had become a hobby of his. Mostly philosophical works and military history. He found himself learning what had gone wrong all those times before.

“Hammer,” a female voice said in his estate room.

Hammer stood up and pressed a small red square button.

“Go for Hammer, Fatima.”

Fatima was the co-pilot, a sassy ballbusting woman the likes of which Hammer had never seen.

“We’ve got a derelict,” she said, “Boss wants you to check it out.”

“Affirmative. I’ll be on the bridge in ten. Hammer out.”

Hammer leaned down and pulled up the shoulders of his slightly too small undersuit. He patiently reminded himself that with the vacuum of space this was quite necessary and grimaced as he felt it cling to his muscles.

Next, he shimmied his way down the narrow gangway and pressed his finger on the lock of the door that read ARMORY in big block script.

Inside was the rest of the crew's Zero G gear, along with some of his more specialized hardware. The Harpy had good luck in those early years and once found the flash frozen crew of a military frigate. Hammer had greedily searched the wreck for days making sure nothing of use was left behind.

For this little trip he didn’t opt for the full combat wear, just a light set of armor that had some mechanically assisted capabilities for cutting and removing a bit of the hull if needed.

He slipped it all on and grabbed his wrecker off the wall. The wrecker was a solid metal battering ram he liked to use for entering a space that didn't want him inside it. He had even made his own little modification that turned it into a bit of a boom stick.

One end was encircled with sharpened metal that he could force through nearly an inch of thick steel. The other end was chambered for an explosive round that was just small enough to not require a stand.

The halls of the Harpy, and most other ships making their trade in the lonely spaces between the inhabited shards, were not made for someone the size of Hammer. This was both advantageous and disadvantageous, given the particular circumstances.

Right now as he side-shuffled down a narrow passage to the small bridge, he wished for a bigger ship. The cabin doors opened at his approach and revealed a small portal filled with four chairs, and two were occupied at the moment.

“What do we got, Cap?” Hammer said to the man in the left hand chair.

“Looks like the Shard Runner,” Captain Asdrubal said and manipulated an exterior camera to reveal parts of that name on the side of the ship's hull. Many of the letters were missing as were pieces of the boat.

“Captain Drake?” Hammer said. “He’s a good man,” and the rest of the cabin crew agreed. The community of space faring vessels was a tight one, and while it was growing faster every day, they still all knew the important people and which boats were any good.

“Last I heard he was running mining gear for one of those big outfits trying to join old shards back together,” Asdrubal said.

Hammer nodded and headed for the airlock.

‍