I grew up on a manufacturing station where most people worked on assembly lines, in cargo bays, or on maintenance decks. My first job was checking incoming shipments against manifests. By the time I left, I was keeping production moving through late deliveries, failed machinery, and orders that changed after the materials were already committed.

A missing shipment once stopped an entire line. I spent two shifts following transfer records before finding the containers sitting in the wrong station. Getting them back took longer. After that, I started checking where things actually were before promising when they would arrive.

Qualifying for capsuleer training meant leaving behind a job I understood for something I had only watched from a docking bay. At the academy, ship systems and fitting theory felt familiar. Flying was another matter. I could explain what every module was supposed to do and still struggle to use them together. I stayed in the simulators until the controls began to feel natural.

My first agent contracts paid for ammunition, repairs, and enough mistakes to fill a notebook. After a particularly expensive return to station, I began recording what I had fitted, what had happened, and what I would change before accepting similar work. The notes became useful. Eventually, the wallet started growing.

I bought a small collection of blueprints and returned to manufacturing, this time on my own account. Early production runs were small enough to haul myself. I spent the time between jobs comparing material costs, collecting orders, and finding buyers for the next batch. Profits went into more materials, then more blueprints, then a ship that could carry the finished goods without several return trips.

Expansion brought a different kind of mistake. I misread an order, bought the wrong components in bulk, and tied up most of my working capital in stock I couldn’t use. For a while, agent work paid the bills again while I sold the excess a little at a time.

The operation recovered and grew. These days there are production jobs running while I’m out collecting materials, with finished goods waiting when I return. I still handle the fittings, check the manifests, and make the deliveries when I can.

A few components from that bad order remain in storage. They’re on the inventory. I check that too.

o7