Traveller - The Glisten Mystery And Other Tales

[ptolemy]

The Glisten Mystery

225-1099 - New Rome, Glisten, Spinward Marches

You know the Event Horizen, right? Well, there we where - . What do you mean “Which Event Horizon, the Imperium is a big place?” The Event Horizon on New Rome Highport, Spinward Marches. Yeah, that Event Horizon. Try to keep up! So there we were, in the bar, staring into our drinks. That’s me sitting with my back to the entrance but facing the doors to the back rooms. I’ve never really been one for the “don’t sit with your back to the door” thing. The guy on my right, that’s Noah. Noah was a police officer until recently and is a “don’t sit with your back to the door” kinda guy. Something went down, his department had been accepting too many free doughnuts or something and Noah had ended up out on his arse without any pension. A handy man to have around but a little intense, not least of all due to the huge cannon he likes to strap to his hip. To his right and opposite me was Fox. They were some performer/writer/journalist type. Noah knew them from somewhere, I can’t remember where. I’m not sure Fox is their real name. I think Noah said they took it from some classic Terra DataNet show called Fox Force Five about private investigators who dress in haute couture or something. Easy on the eye, gregarious and currently explaining to me why they should never have studied astrogation at college. On their right and my left sits Tristan. Apparently, Tris and Fox used to get high and blow things up together back in the day. He comes across as some raver into academia chic or something. A medical doctor with a penchant for weird animal experiments. He’s spent most of the evening trying to score drugs.

It was noisy and I was down on my luck. Remember the Disappearing Duchess Mystery from, what, 18 months ago? Yeah, that was me. No, obviously not me on my own, but I was part of the crew. Yes, we skanked the high-class liner and jumped to, well, you don’t need to know where. And then we liberated the posh guests of their credits, jewellery and tech and bugged out. I jumped the ship and piloted the get away ship. Why am I standing here today? I was working for, let’s just call it an Imperial Agency. But the mother of Luis Adorania Jesten, Duke of the Lunion sub-sector, was onboard and he was not happy that “You put my mother through all of that”. It was made pretty clear that my career was effectively over so I put in for an unpaid sabbatical and there I was, at New Rome, drinking second rate cocktails in the Event Horizon.

Fox was still celebrating the publication of some work which had gone down well across the sub-sector but Noah and I were at a low ebb. Something had appeared to peak Fox’s interest at the next table, but as she stood up, eyes glued on a rather rough looking older guy haranguing his colleagues there was a lull in the music and the tele-screens flashed up a news report. Three prisoners had escaped from the prison on Mithras and were at large. You will have heard of Jekki, but maybe -. Whatdya mean Jekki who? Kelerin. You know, the Net Bandit from a few years ago. Used to rob banks and whatever and then post gloating messages to the Imperium, inviting them to try and catch him. Yeah, after that thing on Vilis when they blew up that old Ancients temple or something. He did what? All his crew? Wow man, that’s brutal.

Anyway, along with Jekki there was one Rolva Mayteriss. Yeah, she was the one who was Ine Gvar. She was that ex-laywer who they picked up, yeah, Extolay or wherever. They had someone called Marin Parvolen as well, some nut job mass murderer from the Core or wherever. Damn straight! Why does the Core dump its crazies this side of the Claw?

I watched Noah’s eye brighten as we listened. “I wonder what the bounty is” I asked and was answered by Noah: “I wonder if there is a bounty”. Ever practical. The music came back on and the room unfrozen a good deal noisier, buzzing with speculation. Mithras is only 3 jump-2 jumps from New Rome. Fox drifted over to the next table and soon we were signing on with a Captain Varpad Miskom who had just sacked his entire crew and wanted a new one. If we could crew a spacecraft and be at Bay 2 Pad 5 by 6 am he’d take up on. Becoming crew on the Helena really was that simple...

 

[ptolemy]

It was already late in the evening so we had to hurry. I paid the bill and as we left we asked a few questions about Miskom. We didn’t get anything other than he can’t keep a crew because he is a drunk. We headed out to the mall and picked up some last minute shopping. The barman had told us that Miskom liked vodka from Lousy (Sheesh) so I went to pick a couple of bottles up. Fox bought a robobar! Tris went to buy something from a medical supplier or something. He’s a bit odd, but ok. He was talking about rats in mazes or something. An army of rats? Super rats? It was a bit weird, whatever it was. I found a gun shop and picked up a shotgun with a gyrostabiliser. Tris, Fox and I picked up snub pistols and Fox grabbed an ACR. I don’t think they have ever fired one so I’ll be standing behind them if that gets broken out. Noah sloped off somewhere, I’m not sure where, after agreeing to meet at Bay 2 first thing.

We all returned to our various digs and packed up. I doubt it took any of us long. We certainly all made it to Bay 2 in plenty of time. You know what it is like at New Rome, like most places - a cursory look at us was enough for security and they pointed us to the Helena. She was an A2 far trader, newly painted and looking pretty trim. She was 100-200 years old. You know how these tramp traders can be, so I was pleased with what I saw. Miskom was there and he quickly led us to the bridge and sorted out our clearance. We bunked down and got the tour. You’re right, it was a bit depressing. A few years ago I had command of a patrol corvette, I’d distinguished myself fighting Sword Worlder’s and I was looking for command of a destroyer. Now here I was being told how the loading crane has been replaced by grav pallets. All the same, beggars can’t be choosers and everything looked ok. Engineering looked good but a little overdue its monthly maintenance. It was fine though. We have an empty dock for an air/raft. Yeah, that’s right, I need to pick my new one up at Glisten. Where was I? Oh, yeah, we got the tour - we have a turret but it doesn’t work. Apparently Miskom got stiffed by Bracero Industries who fitted it. It will fire and even launch a missile but it can’t move so if we want to shoot something with the laser it needs to be behind us. Not that it bothered me. My first ship was a light cruiser with a spinal mount. I’m not relying on a beam laser to stay alive! Then deliveries arrived.

You know how Bracero control a lot of the ship’s food around Glisten way, anyway, Miskom won’t have it aboard. So we had a delivery of fresh food, which was really good to see. Then some liquid polymers arrived and I had my first play with the grav pallets, which was quite fun. We also picked up a mail drum. Yeah, one of the off-network 5t things - that’s right, we weren’t technically eligible. We really needed a functioning turret to carry mail but Miskom slipped a bundle of credits to the guy delivering the drum. We also had 20t of atmospheric condensers already loaded. No, just the polymers are speculative, the condensers are haulage. So we have 45t in our hold and that leaves 15t empty, which is not ideal. I’m hoping Miskom can pick up some more when we drop the converters off at Egypt. Our contract is for 4,000 cr per month or 8% of profits each, whichever is higher. Miskom wants to make it to Mertactor via Egypt and be back in the Glisten system within 8 weeks of today. It is - am I the only one who doesn’t know about corporate contract allocation day? Anyway, Miskom wants to be back so he can bid for some. We need to make at least 5 jumps so we have plenty of time assuming we don’t dawdle.

We each have roles on board. I’m reserve pilot, Fox is astrogation (university wasn’t such a waste after all, eh?), Tris is engineering, although his main experience is with life support, and Noah is gunner. I think Noah is going to have an easy time of it. I bunked down next to the airlock and ship’s locker. Yeah, of course, there are vacc. suits for all of us. In good condition, well, good enough. A few shotguns and the usual bits and bobs. My cabin, the airlock and the bridge all lead into a common area.

We didn’t have long to acclimatise to the ship. After our tour and then loading the hold we had an hour or so before our launch window. Miskom stood over my shoulder as I took us out and set off in the direction of our jump point. Fox set to the maths for our jump and Tris was in engineering. It all went pretty smoothly. Miskom gave orders for us to be going slow when we jumped, which made it a little easier for Fox, and Tris pushed us into jump-space right on cue. You can say that again! On a naval vessel it’s never boring, but on a trader? Sheesh. I spent some time reading up on brokerage and trade. Stop laughing, I need to know this sort of stuff, or at least I will at some point. If I can get the hang of it while on the Helena then I might apply for a mortgage for an A2 or an Empress.

Before we jumped there was a little excitement. Miskom hadn’t informed us that Jekki had been, Jekki, the Net Bandit who had just broken out of prison and I told you about, keep up. Miskom hadn’t told us that Jekki had served on the Helena 20 years ago. This was before Miskom owned her. I think she was the Olivia back at then. Miskom served with him! Naturally the navy were covering all bases. Yeah, but it was quick and efficient. The corvette the 25th of July ordered us to stand too and sent over a boarding crew. One Lieutenant Itsurin led the inspection, I hadn't met her. I was a little more nervous than I would have been as Miskom grabbed a case from somewhere and told Noah to stash it in a secret compartment in cabin C. But Itsurin wasn’t looking for smuggled goods, she was after the three on the lamb. Miskom ordered the astrogation re-calculated after our run-in with the IN.

Fox did her side of things well - we came out of jump just were Miskom told us to. I set a course for Nût - Ophelia, that’s it! What, no, sorry, I mean the Helena was called the Ophelia back when Jekki was on it. Apparently he was the steward, which is hilarious given what he ended up doing. Anyway, stop interrupting. We came out of jump and I set a course and accelerated into the void. I was about to open a comm. link with Nût - Nût, not Newt, come on, its Egypt highport - when I picked up a message. It was a kind of distress call but not in a normal format. I scanned for the origin and found an old mining platform not far from our jump point. It’s transponder was disabled, which wasn’t a good sign. I set off towards it and looked over at Miskom. He nodded - he might be a bit of a rogue but he's not a monster.

As we got closer we were able to take readings from the platform. It was leaking rads at an alarming rate! The distress call was being continually repeated and we felt confident that someone was broadcasting it in real time. We hailed them a couple of times and them moved in to dock. We thought that in our vacc. suits we would have around 45 minutes to play with on the platform. Any longer than that and we would regret it. Miskom took us in while the Fox, Noah and myself suited up. Miskom docked smoothly and I led the way onto the derelict. Rads were high but no worse than we expected. The emergency power was barely able to keep dim flickering lights on. The first room was a sort of control centre. Sitting at a panel a figure was sitting in vacc. suit sans helmet. As we approached they looked up and we saw the blisters on his exposed head. I took a geiger reading and it was grim. It was hard to say but he looked like he was hardly a day over 20. I stepped forward to give him a shot of anti-rad but he waved me back. He knew it was too late for him and he said so. He carried on tapping out his distress call as we spoke.

I tried to find out what had happened from Tarim, as he turned out to be called. He was one of four students recruited for a study from Aventine University, New Rome. The study was being conducted by Dr. Papel, head of neuroscience at Aventine, on behalf of Axon Medical. They had been on the platform for 6 1/2 weeks. The research was into psionic amplifiers. Tarim claimed that when three of the subjects - and they rotated - were hooked up they could send a telepathic suggestion which even psi-shields or a psionic blocker couldn’t prevent. Then last night the doctor had sabotaged the platform while they were all in bed. By the time they had woken up and tried to clamber into vacc. suits it was too late. I already knew that Fox and Noah, exploring the rest of the platform, had found three corpses. It was amazing that Tarim had lasted this long. It only took 30 minutes or so for Fox and Noah to walk round the ring that made up the platform. When they had completed their loop and re-entered the control room we joined up and tentatively explored the reactor room. Fox’s history blowing things up came in handy as they were able to identify that the damage was caused by an explosive device, almost immediately.

We were getting close the end of the 45 minutes which was the max time we could remain safely. Tarim told us that his room mate had trialed for the study but hadn’t got on - Japsin. He had also given us some CCTV data - the main data chips having been taken by Dr. Papel. I lied to Tarim telling him that his girlfriend Netta had managed to survive as there didn’t seem much point in adding to his anguish. At this point we had to leave and we couldn’t take him as he was dangerously irradiated. He knew he was dying and didn’t make any attempt to come with us. We were all pretty angry. Even Noah commented that he was used to challenging situations but this was too far.

We knew the names of the students; along with Tarim Pinoir there was his girlfriend Netta Meecho, Grassin Lethor and Stavrou Condor. The woman running the experiment was called Drasser and they had all arrived on her ship the Dame De Coeur. We sat down to watch the video of the crime. It was a poor picture and we had no sound. We did have a clear enough image of someone in an armoured vacc. suit and carrying a rifle setting a bomb in the reactor room. There were two more armed figures with a woman who were forcing someone we assumed to be Dr. Papel into the airlock. It looked as though the doctor wasn’t the villain we thought he was. He did, however, carry out illegal research on a bunch of kids, so we weren’t very kindly disposed to him. The woman was obviously in charge and I was very interested in finding her current whereabouts…

 

[Tristan Desmond]

Rly nice written good understandabel even for me , i like reading it. Just this Tris dude seems wierd , hope he can be proof that he's more the just a cruel drugaddict.
Jokes beside, poor Tarim feels bad to let him alone, but you choose right, life is heavy sometimes.
Looking forward to read more.

 

[ptolemy]

I’m getting to that! Seriously. As you can imagine, the flight to Nút space station was somber. Fox got to work cleaning up the media we had picked up and I guided us in. Things were not at all good on Nút. We ran straight into an industrial dispute. Hey yeah, you know us too well and yeah I should have put industrial dispute in inverted commas. We docked and went through security - it’s pretty high at Egypt and while I went through with my blaster and sabre the others only had a stun stick between them. I know “that’s everywhere these days” but if I left it out now then you would be asking why later, it’s relevant. We also found out why Miskom struggled to keep a crew (apart form the drinking). He was talking about dumping the 20 tons of atmospheric condensers we had contracted to deliver to Egypt if the strike meant he was delayed in getting to Mertactor. I know, right? Over 20,000 cr. What? Yeah, you’re right , over 30,000 cr. And that as well! He can be a dick at times. And he sent us to look for fresh provisions, sheesh.

The station was exactly as you’d expect, given the circumstances. Everywhere was shut, apart from the bars, and groups of unhappy looking Jonkeereen mooched about. I didn’t see any, and I don’t think there were, no. But the tension was palpable. We met Miskom and Karl at… Karl, keep up! Oh, didn’t I? Okay, Karl is a friend of Miskom’s who we met at Egypt. I know, but he does. I’m not sure why, either, but Karl seemed to genuinely like Miskom. To be fair, so do I, but the whole if-I-can’t-unload-my-haulage-I’m-dumping-it bit had annoyed me. They were drinking in some bar which seemed to be an unofficial union office, judging by the Jonkeereen there. Introductions over we saw that Karl had given Miskom another case which we assumed had to be delivered to Zol on Mertactor. That’s the one, yes. Karl had some tickets for something called the Charter Ball or… That’s it, yeah, the Charter Gala, you know it? Ok, it’s held back on Glisten after the contracts and such like. Miskom didn’t want them so I might give it a whirl if I get a chance.

Anyway, they left to get some food and we decided to pay Minex Recycling and Refurbishment a visit. Didn’t I? Minex was the company which renovated the mining platform which Drasser used to conduct her experiments. We checked Nút’s data base and were in a turbo lift to their office a few minutes later. We were shown through to speak with a Mr. Swano, company manager. We had expected stalling and prevarication but Mr. Swano was polite and compliant. A doctor by the name of Popel had contracted Minex to find a platform and bring it up the required standard. Mr. Swano showed us some video footage and in this case “Dr. Popel” was Drasser posing as him. This took place maybe 6 months ago and the whole job cost 8.5 million credits, which was paid by Sylvester Finance, a company registered in Glisten. The work was completed around 12 weeks ago and the platform was towed to position. Since then Minex had nothing more to do with it.

It certainly looked that way, and I was a little downhearted. Things took a turn as the turbo lift sped us back to the Helena. A broadcast came over the intercom to the effect that Davor Regly, the Imperial Liaison office (who Miskom had suggested was corrupt), had seized control of Nút using his own “security forces” with the intention of breaking the strike. In turn we had no intention of crossing a strike line, especially an obviously illegal operation which was going to bring the Imperium in to disrepute. We saw the evidence of the coup as soon as we stepped out of the lift. Gangs of dodgy looking thugs dotted the concourse. While they had some kind of uniform they looked like they were the scum of the planet. Apparently, Regly had shipped them up earlier and was trying to take over. None of them seemed particularly interested in us, but we didn’t like the situation. As we passed the bar which Miskom had met Karl one of the thugs came staggering backwards out of the door. He had obviously been forcibly ejected. We had a look inside and saw a group of security officers all wearing the same uniform that the customs officials had been wearing when we initially arrived. We went in to find out what was happening. Yeah, the same idea had occurred to Noah and me. But getting access to Nút’s record by helping put the legitimate authorities back in control didn’t look easy. As we tried to listen in to their conversation a station-wide broadcast drowned them out:

“This is Ral Kanvar," the voice, sounding very strained, yelled "Chief administrator of Nút Starport. I have been illegally imprisoned by Davos Regly and I am being held in the station’s control centre. If anyone is hearing this know that Davor’s actions are not lawful. Resist him at all…”. Ral’s voice was cut of by what sounded like a gunshot. The broadcast finished and the regular adverts started playing from the telescreens in the bar. The stunned silence which filled the bar didn’t last very long before it seemed like everyone was speaking at once.

Will you stop interrupting and let me finish, I’m getting to that. Yes, we approached the security officers and offered support. Their leader was Alattie, a Jonkereen, and she didn’t hesitate.

“We need all the help we can get. As I see it we have two jobs, secure the weapons locker and take back control of the control centre where Ral is being held.”
“If he is still alive,” interrupted on of the officers.
“If he is still alive,” repeated Alattie, “and he better had be or it will go badly for Davor.”

Do you want to hear or not? Stop interrupting then! Of course we agreed to fight, did you have to ask? The arms locker was shut down but Alattie was concerned that with enough determination Davor’s thugs could break in, so one group was going to prevent that from happening. Alattie, her two remaining guard and us set off to reclaim the control centre and affect a rescue. I traded my stunner with Noah for his stun-stick as he is the better shot. We found two thugs guarding the turbo lifts which provided the easiest access the centre. Fox and Tristan took the lead, walking around each guard so they could come at them without getting in the way of Noah’s stunner or my direct charge. Their role was essentially distraction. The thugs called on them to halt when they were still a few metres away and Noah did what he does best and shot them. The first took a full beam to the face and dropped without a sound. The second tried to pull their stun-stick but Noah got them, too. We dragged their unconscious forms in the lift as Alattie set us in motion. We came out in a corridor from which we could get the lift which leads to the control centre. Alattie came with us in those lifts and her two guards hurried round to secondary lifts which go directly to the centre. We kept a comm link open so we could coordinate.

Our lift opened into another corridor which ran straight from the lift to the centre. The thug waiting near the doors of the lift was taken completely by surprise as Noah opened fire. Tristan leapt on the fallen and snatched up his stunner. With Fox close behind I sprinted along the corridor and fairly flew up the steps into the control centre proper. This consisted of a raised operations area with a service space, about a metre wide and 60 cm deep which ran all the way around the operations platform. Fox took off to the right, keeping her head down in the service space while I carried straight on up the stairs. Dammit, I need another drink! Thanks! Where was I? Ok, yeah, up the stairs. Hold on, will you, stop pushing. It was a nightmare. The security guards had entered at the same time as I ran up the stairs. I had my naval sabre in my hand and as I ran a voice called out something to the effect of “Shoot them” - that was Davor. The nearest thug was scrambling with a holster and I swung with all my might. Blood sprayed the room as his right arm clattered to the floor, still clutching the autopistol he had drawn. Fox vaulted up and lounged at another with a knife. Noah had been hot on my heels and had taken the left service space. A crazy combat erupted as Noah took out another with the stunner and hit yet another with a glancing blow which was shocking enough for me to land an easy blow which downed that one. No! Well, yes. No, not two. The guy who lost his arm bled out before the fight finished but the one I decked with a slash to the front made ok. It seems like it lasted about an hour but looking back it must have been over in less than a minute. One of Alattie’s guards was shot and seriously injured. Another of the thugs was stabbed by Fox. I know, who’d have thought she had it in her? But apart from the two I hacked and the sercurity guard the Davor shot no one else was seriously wounded. I put my paramedic training to good use and kept the thug I slashed across the chest alive while Tristan did a quick triage and set to work. Station medical staff arrived soon after Davor issued the command for his men to stand down and return to the planet. We won. I felt sick.

Well, yeah, naturally, it was thanks all round and “Anything we can do to return the favour” and the like. Yeah, but not straight away. Ral needed some medical attention for the gunshot wound he has sustained earlier (although it was only a flesh wound) and had some things he had to take care of immediately. He asked us to come back in an hour or so so he could thank us properly. I went back to the ship and threw up. I changed my clothes, what do you think? Of course I was covered in blood. The guy I chopped had sprayed. I know I’ve seen action before, but that was ship to ship. It got gory back in [REDACTED] and I saw corpses and nasty injuries, but I had never hacked someone down in melee before. It’s gruesome!

Noah, Fox and Tristan went straight to a bar. Tristan was busy explaining how he didn’t ever want to be involved in something like that again, thank you very much. Noah was rolling his eyes and, I’m not sure, but I think Fox was mentally trying to write it up - she needs material for her next publication. We sat and talked. Some time passed and Ral sent Alattie to get us. He looked pale but his arm had been freshly dressed and he didn’t appear to be flagging. After thanking us he asked if there was anything we could do for us. We asked for some repairs to the Helena, and for information. He dispatched a team to the Helena and started going through files. The Dame De Coeur had been at Nút 24 and 8 weeks ago and most recently 3 days ago. This all tallied with what we already knew. Her full name is Valdrasser Reando and she was the only registered passenger on the Dame de Coeur. So either the real Dr. Popel had been soaked or staying onboard. We asked if we could check through Davor’s accommodation but Ral wasn’t willing to give permission for this.

As soon as we left Alattie turned to us and said “Jonkereen always pay their debts” and sent for someone to open Davor’s office. As I sat down infant of his computer and the guys clustered round suggesting password Alattie sent for some plastic and Fox blew the door of Davor’s safe. Alattie scooped out the 65,000 cr in there while we got the comms device. It had one number in it - Valdrasser Reando’s. Davor had sent her a message that morning let her know a ship, ours, had approached Nút from the direction of the platform and that he was going to check us out. We had to think about that a little.

Karl was loading a mail canister onto the Lola when we got back to the docking bay. It was galling that the message that Davor had sent about us was in that mail and that Miskom’s friend was about to fly it to Glisten for delivery. Apparently he had planted a transmitter on the Helena somewhere, or intended to. We put our heads together and decided to send as message to Drasser of our own…

Miskom was pleased with the repair crew assigned to the Helena. We must have saved him a good 100,000 credits as they pretty much fixed the turning error of the turret. However, an afternoon’s work couldn’t repair the mess which was the beam laser. We saw to the unloading of the atmospheric condensers and welcomed the three passengers which we were to take to Mertactor.

 

[ptolemy]

Our new passengers consisted of two “bounty hunters”, Wol and Domir, and a zero-G/vacc. suit instructor, Mennol Sinar. We didn’t take on any more cargo at Egypt and wanted to get going as soon as possible. As usual, I took the helm and Fox plotted the cause. I guided us out of Nút station and towards Fox’s coordinates. It wasn’t long before it became apparent that the flight to jump wasn’t going to be as smooth as we hoped. A pinnace was barreling towards us - there was no doubt that they were on an intercept cause. I pushed our engines but it was no contest. A pinnace is a fast, manoeuvrable craft and a Far Trader is a lumbering elephant by comparison. One which is a lot sturdier than a pinnace, but a lot slower. This wasn’t my first rodeo and it would take a very skilled pilot to take on an experienced pilot Imperial Navy trained pilot in these circumstances. Still, ship combat is always a risk.

I put us through some evasive moves and Noah got a lock on with the missile launcher. We were loath to fire a missile costing thousands of credits but after they opened fire Miskom yelled “Shoot the goddam thing down!” Noah didn’t need telling twice. He fired a fragmentation missile which did what it was designed to do: it detonated just in front of the speeding light craft and threw a cloud of shrapnel into the face of our enemy. The pinnace exploded instantly. “Let’s get out of this system” barked Miskom and within minutes we were back in jump-space. It was the guys first time being attacked in ship combat and I could see they were very relieved.

During the jump I spent some time giving Fox a working knowledge of stunners, as she had never used one before. We had a chance to get to know our “bounty hunters”. They brought an air/raft with them and intended to jump-ship as soon as we were in the Mertactor system. I’m putting the words bounty hunters in inverted commas as they had a contract from Bracero Industries to bring Jekki Kelerin and Marin Parvolen in dead. They were essentially assassins. We had pulled together as a crew quickly and the jump went as smoothly as you would hope. We jumped back into real-space bang on the coordinates Fox had coded for and the lads left us in their air/raft.

Fox and Noah became suspicious of Mennol. As the four of us left the ship and headed to the shuttle to the surface Noah peeled off and followed Mennol home. He turned out to be exactly what he had said he was, a contractor who had been hired to teach the use and maintenance of vacc. suits and was on his way home. We joined up back on the planet and after I had checked into the local TAS hotel we headed out for some fun. Mertactor is not a particularly pleasant planet and the law level is low, but it does have a great amusement arcade. We won some money on the shoot ’n fly game and where suitably scared in the haunted house - I thought for a moment that Tristan was going to try and burrow his way through the wall to get out!

We also went shopping. We realised that we were up against some well trained and equipped opponents in the form of the mercenaries which Dressor was running around with. So we wanted to tool up. Fox was like a child in a sweet factory and Noah wasn’t much better. We all bought a flak jacket each and the others all picked up some good quality stunners. Noah and Fox couldn’t resist the grenade launchers on sale and between us we bought a few regular grenades as well. Fox gleefully purchased a shiny new laser rifle which is illegal on most planets in the Imperium. The grenades and the plastic explosives were delivered to the Helena the next day and the rest we walked out of the shop with. We stayed the night in the TAS and just as we were making a move towards one of the local museums we got a call form Miskom asking us to meet him back at the ship. It was time to deliver the packages to Zol!

Zol was actually three people, in a sense. Zol the information-broker and two Zol clones. There were also a couple of goons flanking him. Miskom knew Zol of old and made introductions. Zol laughed to see Miskom with another crew. Zol owed Miskom and as we had helped Miskom out with the repairs to the Helena he let us ask some questions. Tristan wanted a copy of Dr. Popel’s restricted research and I wanted to know more about Dressor. The paper was duly supplied and Zol told us that Dressor was rumoured to be the daughter of one Soledar Bracero of Holex, founded of Bracero Industries. That sobered us up as we realised the power set against us. Zol also introduced us to two mendicant monks of the Brotherhood, Brother Herric, a man in his late 60’s who was confined to a wheel-chair and Brother Lorgar, another middle aged man with a scare from his chin and across his neck who had to sign as he couldn’t speak. Miskom groaned - Monks of the Brotherhood usually take vows of poverty and didn’t pay for transport.

Miskom had sold the 20 tons of liquid polymers and after our trip to Zol’s we had to fill our hold and spare cabins as best we could and, we hoped, make good speed to Glisten. We picked up 50 tons of liquor as standard haulage and Miskom bought 5 tons of somewhat dodge biochemicals. We also got paid. Miskom didn’t want to dock at Nút station on our way back after we had blown up a ship in the system. We didn’t want to answer any questions about it either, even though we were innocent of any crime - they attacked us and we only had missiles to defend ourselves with. We would have had our ship impounded for the duration of the investigation, which is right and proper, you can’t have people blowing each other up without checking on what happened, but it is a pain in the arse and we couldn’t afford the delay. That meant fuel skimming.

Our first two passengers were a young mum, Venice Ligiure, and her daughter Thanier, who was about 10 and couldn't speak. She got on well with Lorgar who signed perfectly. I could make out a few words and tried to chat to her but to no avail. Venice and Thainer had booked to New Rome as the university there was a sector centre of excellence in the treatment of hearing difficulties. Along with the mendicants and the family we had two other passengers for Glisten and two for New Rome. Rock Redburn and his agent, Karin Vipar, needed passage as Rock was hosting a section of the Gala we were going to. Rock was a faded DataNet star who was the lead in the Blade of the Spinward Marches until he was unceremoniously dumped for “inappropriate behaviour”, and I think we all know what that means. Tristan had grown up a big fan of “the Blade” and gushed a lot. Which was handy as Rock gave us tickets, not just to the Gala event he was hosting but to the dress rehearsal the day before. Slowly, our plan started to take tangible shape…

Fox was going to put together a short but damning documentary and we were going to use our access to the venue to hack the hardware and instead of some naughty word funny clip during Rock’s presentation we were going to broadcast live to millions just what Drassor and by association Bracero Industries had been up to - murdering kids and breaking the Psionic Repression Laws. We didn’t think we had enough to make the charges stick in court but we wanted to prevent Bracero from getting the Naval contract and becoming a MegaCorp. As we relaxed in jump the old monks couldn’t resist Fox’s charms and talked her into helping them put together a DataNet video about their Brotherhood. Old letches!

Skimming went well. I scanned the gas giant at Egypt and plotted a course avoiding the worst of the hydrogen “storms”. We noticed another trader, the Brusheer, was following an excessively steep decent into the atmosphere of the giant and I told them so. They told us to mind our own business so we did. They ended up with some hull damage but our sensors told us that they weren’t compromised to we let them set course for Nút and dived in. It was one of the smoothest skimming runs I have ever made. Miskom was suitably impressed and we were soon floating towards our jump point as our ship processed the raw gasses taken on board into useable fuel. And then we were off to New Rome.

 

[ptolemy]

Venice and Thainer were useful cover at New Rome as we offered to escort them to the University. Naturally, we wanted to pay Popel a visit and we wanted to interview Jaspin Mectol, Tarim Pinoir’s roommate, if we could. We dropped off the mother and daughter and found Tarim’s room on campus easily enough. As it was the summer break no one was home but we found contact details for Jaspin. He lived in a luxury apartment in the ‘burbs. We had a moment of disquiet when we got there. His door had a hole punched in it and we expected the worst. Entering we found the place in disarray. Fox, who had spent more time partying than the rest of us (although I’m not sure if that is true of Tristan, you know medical students) realised that the place hadn’t been searched, it was just the aftermath of a student party. We found Jaspin alive and well in the swimming pool.

Jaspin was shocked to hear that Tarim was dead. I don’t think they were close but they did live together and it was sudden. He had secretly filmed the whole interview process when he had applied to be in the study and Fox got a lot of usable footage showing Drassor and Popel. We realised that they had chosen people who wouldn't be missed - Jaspin had parents, Tarim no family. The bastards intended to kill them from the start. We then talked Jaspin into driving us to Popel’s place, out of town. And that’s when everything got completely out of hand, although I have to say, my people handled themselves like pros.

We found Popel’s house easily enough. It was a two story detached building surrounded by a garden with a gentle hill behind and a vacant lot to one side, while another house stood on the other. An armed drone was hovering above the roof and was saw at least one merc. patrolling the grounds. At this point were weren’t certain whose side Popel was on. We had seen him being pushed onto a ship by the goons on the mining platform where the kids had been experimented on and died. Was he as much a victim as the kids? We didn’t really believe that but we couldn’t ignore the possibility either. As we stood debating it we saw a delivery van drive up to the house next door and made our decision. We ran through the empty lot and hide behind the Popel’s. We guessed correctly and as the delivery van turned into Popel’s driveway we moved. We ran to the backdoor, entered via a utility room and came across the open plan ground floor. Looking out of the window facing the front of the house was a guard. Various furniture littered the room and a workstation occupied what would have been one corner if the room wasn’t round. The dominating feature was the wide spiral staircase in the centre of the space. I whispered to my team to concentrate fire on the guard - we could assume they were wearing armour and that meant even the most accurate shot with a stunner was unlikely to take him down in one. Tristan was close to panic but was holding it together - he had asked us to not put him in a situation like this again after the fight on Nút but I needed everyone in my team to perform.

Noah and I opened up on the guard who fell with a cry. I sprinted to the staircase and took up a portion there. Noah ran towards the fallen guard, Fox remained at the archway between the utility room and the open space and Tristan took cover behind a couch. I hear a muffled voice upstairs and then the command “hit them”. Laser fire bisected the room and shattered glass flew through the air. Noah ditched his stunner in favour of his hip-cannon and opened up with armour piecing rounds on the mercenary who appeared to be running to enter via the utilities room which we had used. I gave the order for the team to focus on bringing him down and we score some glancing hits. Fox dropped a smoke grenade and we put out infra-red goggles to good use. I heard the tell-tale sound of a grenade bouncing down the stairs, yelled “fire in the hold” and ran to take cover by the outer wall, behind some furniture. Fortunately, the mercs. had thrown a smoke grenade as well! We all had breathers on and - although we didn’t realise until later - we had the advantage due to coming equipped with IR tech. Fox took down the guy who entered the utilities room and Noah and I stormed up stairs. I took the lead having moved first. It was filled with smoke but I could see the heat signature of a body to my left and an open hatch in the roof. I moved towards the hatch but had to dive out of the way of a laser carbine shot. Noah caught up with me and, having re-loaded with incendiary round started putting some suppressing fire into the hatch. The dull metal of a hover tank came into view and Noah plugged away at it to put them off firing the carbine at us again. I got to the body. It was Popel and he had a hole right through the centre of his body so I could see the carpet beneath him. I began emergency first aid and called for Tristan to bring his first aid kit. Popel had a silvery circlet on his head, which appeared somewhat incongruous, but we ignored it as Noah fired his gun and Tristan and I worked to keep Popel alive. Shortly, Popel opened his eyes and lips perfectly still, I heard his voice in my head saying “They set a bomb in the utilities room, get out”. Getting over my shock in having been telepathically communicated with I barked an order to my team to get out as there is a bomb. The words “This is a prototype, be careful with it” appeared in my head followed by “It’s too late for me, go”. I snatched the circlet, which had a strange box of circuitry on the back and ran. I paused to grab some data chips from the desktop in the living room and sprinted out of the front door, my team hot on my heels. Noah and I dived over a line of shrubs as light filled the world behind me. Tristan and Fox were blown off their feet and the house disappeared. I gave them a quick once-over - minor concussions both - and looked round for any remaining mercenaries. I found one body outside, took his laser pistol and called Miskom: “Get over here and pick us up, things have gone pear-shaped”. Noah checked the garage. It had one side smashed as they had driven the tank straight through it in their haste. Inside he found a car wand a data stick with what turned out to be an audio recording by the late Dr. Popel.

The Helena appeared shortly after and we set off in pursuit of the grav-tank. Miskom forced it down by ramming it - were weren’t about to launch missiles in the atmosphere of an imperial planet! They crashed heavily and one survivor crawled out. It turned out that Bronin, the mercenary leader, was still alive. At gun point he admitted Drassor was behind it and insisted “It was just a job.” naughty word mercenaries. Fox and Noah found some mobile devices and set a charge to blow the black box of the grav-tank. They dragged the corpse of the driver out of the tank and left it so at least the police would find a body with traces of the explosive that blew up Popel’s house (and so their family would have someone to bury). Miskom gunned it almost vertically.

I moved quickly. I gave Fox and Tristan another once-over, changed my clothes to some which weren’t dust covered, calmed myself and checked on the passengers. Rock hadn’t noticed the impact of ramming the tank but his agent had. She was easily convinced that it was the normal difficulties of take off when the air-traffic control kept rescinding orders abruptly. The monks had watched our actions on the ground after the tank was knocked down but didn’t share their thoughts. I took the pilot seat as we left the atmosphere and Fox plotted our jump to Glisten. Then things really got interesting.

A couple of days into the jump, as we all worked on going throught the data that we had got from Popel’s and the grav-tank and Fox worked on her “documentary” Miskom casually leaned over to me, sitting by his side as I was, and mentioned that the monks, who didn’t even have personal mobile devices, were using unusual amounts of power at night. Too much for it to just be for charging Brother Herric’s grav-chair. “Check it out” was the last he said on it. During the next meal time I slipped in to their room and ran my EM probe over pretty much everything. In their locker something was giving off an electromagnetic signature but it didn’t look like a weapon or bomb. My interest was piqued. Noah set a “bug” to watch their door and later set one inside their room. Thinking of Fox and her holographic disguise it occurred to us that the energy use might be charging up similar devices - the object in the locker could be spare hologram emitters.

Returning to his room Noah picked up a conversation coming from the monk’s room. Two voices, two voices when only one of the occupants were meant to be able to speak. The new voice was distinctive. When Noah told us we looked up some old DataNet footage of Jekki Kelerin, the recently escaped gangster and the voices matched. He had a very distinct intonation and we guessed that this was why he was not speaking in public. The words overhead by Noah included “you’ve been talking me to death for seven years…” so we assumed that we had two of the escapees: Jekki and Marin Parvolen, the infamous ringleader responsible for the Holex Atrocity 20+ years ago. 8,000 people had died when he and his gang had attempted to rob a bank but ended up compromising the dome over the town. We were correct.

We decided to confront them. Noah felt that his conversations with Jekki and Marin about their Brotherhood had been sincere so we wanted to know what was going on. We thought about the reward money for handing them, which was in the millions. But if they had genuinely found a new way to live then we might not want to trade a reputaion for reliability for one of being snitches as we were starting our career as traders. When they saw us all crowding around their cabin door they realised that the game was up and took off their holo-disguises. The story came out. Marin told us about the Atrocity. Bracero was the one who got away with the money, and the one who had introduced a worm into the software they used to get into the dome at Holex. This caused the failure of the dome killing 8,000 people including 6 of the gang one of whom was Marin’s wife. Recently, as gang members came to the end of their prison sentences the 12 of the gang who had survived the incident and were incarcerated were turning up dead. Bracero didn’t want any loose ends. So Marin and his cell mate Jekki had made contact with the terrorist Rolva Mayteriss who had useful links with the Ine Gvar to escape. Marin wanted his money and to make sure Bracero got what he deserved. Fox sat down and started recording Marin for the documentary. She’s going to be a star, that one.

 

[Tristan Desmond]

The Glisten Mystery

225-1099 - New Rome, Glisten, Spinward Marches

You know the Event Horizen, right? Well, there we where - . What do you mean “Which Event Horizon, the Imperium is a big place?” The Event Horizon on New Rome Highport, Spinward Marches. Yeah, that Event Horizon. Try to keep up! So there we were, in the bar, staring into our drinks. That’s me sitting with my back to the entrance but facing the doors to the back rooms. I’ve never really been one for the “don’t sit with your back to the door” thing. The guy on my right, that’s Noah. Noah was a police officer until recently and is a “don’t sit with your back to the door” kinda guy. Something went down, his department had been accepting too many free doughnuts or something and Noah had ended up out on his arse without any pension. A handy man to have around but a little intense, not least of all due to the huge cannon he likes to strap to his hip. To his right and opposite me was Fox. They were some performer/writer/journalist type. Noah knew them from somewhere, I can’t remember where. I’m not sure Fox is their real name. I think Noah said they took it from some classic Terra DataNet show called Fox Force Five about private investigators who dress in haute couture or something. Easy on the eye, gregarious and currently explaining to me why they should never have studied astrogation at college. On their right and my left sits Tristan. Apparently, Tris and Fox used to get high and blow things up together back in the day. He comes across as some raver into academia chic or something. A medical doctor with a penchant for weird animal experiments. He’s spent most of the evening trying to score drugs.

It was noisy and I was down on my luck. Remember the Disappearing Duchess Mystery from, what, 18 months ago? Yeah, that was me. No, obviously not me on my own, but I was part of the crew. Yes, we skanked the high-class liner and jumped to, well, you don’t need to know where. And then we liberated the posh guests of their credits, jewellery and tech and bugged out. I jumped the ship and piloted the get away ship. Why am I standing here today? I was working for, let’s just call it an Imperial Agency. But the mother of Luis Adorania Jesten, Duke of the Lunion sub-sector, was onboard and he was not happy that “You put my mother through all of that”. It was made pretty clear that my career was effectively over so I put in for an unpaid sabbatical and there I was, at New Rome, drinking second rate cocktails in the Event Horizon.

Fox was still celebrating the publication of some work which had gone down well across the sub-sector but Noah and I were at a low ebb. Something had appeared to peak Fox’s interest at the next table, but as she stood up, eyes glued on a rather rough looking older guy haranguing his colleagues there was a lull in the music and the tele-screens flashed up a news report. Three prisoners had escaped from the prison on Mithras and were at large. You will have heard of Jekki, but maybe -. Whatdya mean Jekki who? Kelerin. You know, the Net Bandit from a few years ago. Used to rob banks and whatever and then post gloating messages to the Imperium, inviting them to try and catch him. Yeah, after that thing on Vilis when they blew up that old Ancients temple or something. He did what? All his crew? Wow man, that’s brutal.

Anyway, along with Jekki there was one Rolva Mayteriss. Yeah, she was the one who was Ine Gvar. She was that ex-laywer who they picked up, yeah, Extolay or wherever. They had someone called Marin Parvolen as well, some nut job mass murderer from the Core or wherever. Damn straight! Why does the Core dump its crazies this side of the Claw?

I watched Noah’s eye brighten as we listened. “I wonder what the bounty is” I asked and was answered by Noah: “I wonder if there is a bounty”. Ever practical. The music came back on and the room unfrozen a good deal noisier, buzzing with speculation. Mithras is only 3 jump-2 jumps from New Rome. Fox drifted over to the next table and soon we were signing on with a Captain Varpad Miskom who had just sacked his entire crew and wanted a new one. If we could crew a spacecraft and be at Bay 2 Pad 5 by 6 am he’d take up on. Becoming crew on the Helena really was that simple...

So exciting, i hope u are fine that i hacked me into your log. And while i'm here, why not add some notes, privacy is just trustblocker, i sure we agree there right. I just remeber being excited to hunt these criminal bastards and get rich, but i didn't manage to convince you, happy to hear that u are actually also thought about that a litten bit .

 

[ptolemy]

It did cross my mind to go for the reward money. But I think we are glad we didn't, eh?

 

[ptolemy]

I was pretty relieved when we came out of jump space. We were close to our desired coordinates and almost immediately new mail flashed up. Less of the sarcasm, please. Do you want to hear the rest of the story or what? The first was from Karl who said that someone called L’Orca was in town and was looking for Miskom with a mysterious package in tow. Damn right it was! And we all rolled our eyes at the thought of whatever Miskom was going to get us into. The second was to the crew of the Helena in general. One Qual Velhom, an employee of Tarlet Industries, a rival of Brocero Industries, wanted to discuss something, apparently to our mutual benefit. I’ll say. We all had suspicion in our eyes at that point, although I’d say we couldn’t help but be intrigued at the same time. Of course he didn’t. But we found out anyway. Yeah, you’re correct, L’Orca is a Aslan name, but I didn’t twig at first. Not until we met him, to be honest. Less of the cheek, if you want to hear the rest.

Customs boarded us, haha very funny, child, and checked our manifest etc. Miskom thought this was suspicious and said he had never been searched at Glisten before. We’re pretty sure someone (Drasser) organised the search, hoping to cause us some problems. True, but not this time. After those shenanigans we mosied over to the Lola but Karl was no-where to be found. Hortal was supervising a delivery of some parts for their M-drive. You’d think, right, but no, it’s still in the same shape as ever. He was clearly worried and hadn’t heard from his boss for a couple of days. True, we didn’t like the idea of what he could tell certain people and Miskom was particularly worried. He had his own problem to deal with, first.

Miskom contacted L’Orca and arranged a meet. Let me tell the story, sheesh. He led us through the teeming city of Glisten towards Downtown. Things got shabbier and shabbier as we got farther away from Uptown, although the tube system was just as, ok, well not everyone has been to Glisten. Our goal was a dive called the Drop. We arrived first and ordered drinks. Miskom looked anxious. He told us not to interfere regardless of what happened. Soon after L’Orca and his crew arrived, all seven feet of him. Sieben, alright? That’s well over two metres. Miskom had already put on his spiked gauntlet and flexed his shoulders a few times. L’orca carried a huge longsword across his back! What? Yeah, or Conan!

“You didn’t wait at Mertactor” growled the cat.
“I was in a rush."
“We had an agreement, you broke it”
“Let’s just do this shall we?”

Miskom turned to Tristan and told him to put some of the anti-psionic agent which had developed on the spikes of his gauntlet. Fair, the whole thing felt pretty barbaric to me, too. He took some combat drugs and the duel began. Miskom is around 70 but spry. With the combat drugs L’Orca couldn’t land a blow on him. He feinted a couple of times before he landed a blow with the gauntlet. I know, right. It’s funny when you think about it - Tristan had spent weeks developing his psi-blocker and having seen the test results on Noah Miskom was using it as a poison! I would have laughed if I wasn’t concerned with Tristan’s feelings and the life of our captain. I most certainly did! Only this time it did something else. Where Noah had felt sort of faint L’Orca went blind almost immediately. He fended off Miskom for a few more seconds before the old man plunged his cutlass straight through his chest. A tense moment followed and we all had our hands on our stunners, but L’Orca’s crew accepted it was a fair fight and took the body of their leader, leaving another one of those suitcases which we had last seen when Miskom dropped a couple off at Zol’s. Our jubilation was short lived as Miskom fell back into his chair clutching his chest and left arm. Tristan had his scanner out in a flash and diagnosed a heart attack. We bundled our protesting captain into a taxi and sped uptown to Uptown. As we went he told us about his apartment in Midtown and handed us the key-pass. We couldn’t help but be aware that Drasser might try something and the Helena was an easy starting point for anyone who wanted to follow us. We dropped him off at the hospital, picked up my grad-car from the dealers and flew to the flat to discuss plans.

We had three main tasks before us. One, we needed to find Karl. Two, we wanted to stop by Tarlet Industries to find out what they wanted. And finally, we had to prep for the Gala. Foxx had finished their short documentary but we still needed a plan to get it on screen. They intended to talk to Paulette Condi, their agent. I’ll say, tight as a badger’s arse. But even the tightest security was crackable if you worked hard enough. We decided to check out Tarlet first and, after looking them up online, flew over.

We were shown into the offices of Quel Velhom who introduced himself as a lawyer and went straight to business. He offered 600,000 credits for all information about Brocero Industries which could be used to embarrass their rival and for us to sign over the material and agree to Tarlet’s full ownership of that material. We thought about it, but - I know right? 600,000 each might have had us thinking but this was an insult. And four times would have made us think but it wouldn't have changed the outcome, no amount of money would. We wanted Brocaro and we didn’t intend to stop now. We bid farewell and went to the Traders Meeting Hall while Foxx spoke to Paulette. We bought some food and looked for Hortal. He was sitting in a cluster of captains: Captain Demorden, captain of the Eleana, Captain Grouf a vargr, captain the Maribel, and a few others, Amstril, Durbar and Vacras but I didn’t catch their ship’s names. Hortal was pretty excited and with all the crews milling around and looking angry we wondered what was going on. It turned out that Hortal had received a ping on his comm and thought it was from Karl. He had somehow managed to turn his comm back on and we had a location! Demorden and Grouf were for going straight away and breaking him out of wherever he was. Damn right we were too! Karl was an old friend of our captain’s and we didn’t intend to leave him with whoever. That too, we did feel a bit guilty. If this had something to do with Drasser then we had got Karl involved and should help. The guys had a plan.

Demorden, Grouf and I all had grav-cars and we jumped in and took off. The plan was to fly along the outside of the asteroid that Glisten is built from and re-enter at the closest point to where we thought Karl’s comm was located. Then were intended fighting our way in and getting him. No, we haven’t become pirates. No, I wasn’t kicked out of the navy for turning pirate, arse. Stop laughing. Ok, it’s funny but not that funny. Where was I? Oh yeah. We sped through space, hugging the side of the asteroid. Within minutes found ourselves hovering before what looked like a service hatch, debating how we could open it. We needn’t have bothered as it opened as we bickered. A grav-car came out with 4 people in - one looked like they had a bag over their head. Karl!

A phantasmagoria of a drive followed. Skimming the asteroid we flew at high speed back the way we came and into the rock once more. We stayed close on their heels which must have frustrated them as they opened fire on us shortly after we left the void. I was driving - damn straight I’m not letting someone drive my car. Why are you rolling you eyes? Do you want to hear the story or what? Noah grabbed my shotgun and hit their shooter with a foam round, taking them out in one. As we wove in and out of the traffic more shots were fired at them. That fool of a Vargr hit my car. Why are you laughing again, it’s not funny, there was a metre long scar down the passenger side. Idiot. Tristan lobbed a smoke grenade into the car with Karl and their driving became erratic to say the least. Foxx couldn’t resist playing with their new toy and vaporised the head of the drive! They’re a cold one, that Foxx, didn't bat an eyelid. The car flipped and everybody in it started falling. I gunned the engine and sped straight down. I’ll never forget it! We flew past Karl who still had a bag over his head and we could now see had his hands tied as well. As I flew past him the guys, Tristan and Noah I think, but I’m not sure, I was kind of busy not killing everyone, reached out and grabbed him. The others from that car hit the ground with a splat. We could hear police sirens by this point and I got us out of there as quickly as the local speed limit allowed, as we blended back into the background traffic.

Of course Foxx had the whole things on camera. They had their new PRIS/DDR glasses on, same and Noah and I. They edited as a loop and stuck it on a Datanet feed or something. Miskom laughed his tits off when he saw it. Yeah, Miskom survived his heart attack. We took Karl to the hospital and had made friends of the captains who knew Karl. Hortal couldn’t praise us enough and Demorden was particularly vocal in her pleasure at seeing Karl again. There’s something going on there, if I’m any judge. Anyway, they stuck Karl in a room next to Miskom. Karl was pretty banged up. They had tried to get information about us out of him and he had done his best to resist. One eye was completely shut his face was so swollen. A couple of fingers looked broken, as well. We felt more determined to bring down Drasser and Brocero than ever.

 

[ptolemy]

One unexpected consequence of the rescue was that Foxx was asked to give Karl’s presentation at the Gala. He was due to speak for the small traders association. This made everything much easier. Foxx called Paulette again to tell her about the change. We now knew how we could get the video about Brocero into the feed. We still needed a way to prevent them from cutting off the broadcast. So we paid a visit to Marin and Jekki. They had taken rooms at some old establishment for mendicants of their order. After having had a collection tin shaken at us several times the old crooks joined us in the lobby and we went for a walk. Marin told us that if we wanted to prevent anyone from cutting off the video feed which Foxx had made to denounce Drasser and Brocero we needed some cut-off relay disruptors and foam. The foam was to prevent anyone from being able to physically remove the relay disruptors when they were in place. Not quickly enough to matter to us anyway. We looked all set for the rehearsal.

Tristan was getting nervous having promised Rock Redburn that he would be his assistant during Rock’s presentation bit. The plan was for us to place the relay disruptors in the main media room and the power room during the dress rehearsal. We took our seats and watched as things happened on stage. We had great seats and would be very near both the Duchess’s and Brocaro’s tables. We all laughed at Tristans part in Redburn’s presentation. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It didn’t help calm him! There was a scheduled fire drill during the intermission/dining section of the itinerary. Foxx and I went up to visit Paulette in the video booth and Tristan and Noah set off for the basement and the main power room. During our visit to Paulette Foxx was able to connect the relay disruptor and spray on the foam while I ran interference. Noah and Tristan likewise placed their disruptor in the power room. One interesting thing which came up was Noah bumping into one of the bent coppers from his old force. He was moonlighting as head of security for the Gala and offered Noah work. Noah agreed and we were all set.

Miskom checked himself out of hospital, probably against doctor’s orders, and declared his intention to come to the Gala to cheer us on. He looked white as a sheet and Karl was badly bruised around his face, so they looked a treat. We took our seats shortly after arriving. The Duchess had a table front and centre. Two concentric semi-circles of tables sat directly behind hers. There was the table with the representatives of Brocero. We finally saw Drasser in the flesh along with her dad and a couple of lackeys. She wore a suspicious looking tiara. There was the Tarlet Industries table, Velhom was wearing an equally suspicious hat. At the table of ministers sat, you won’t be surprised to hear, a woman with a suspicious beehive hairdo. Oh for - try to keep up. Don’t you remember that the psionic amplifier needed three sets to be irresistible. The Naval Table had some scary looking admirals and various MegaCorp parasites sat at the rest.

Haha, very funny, I didn’t “kidnap another Duchess”. The first wasn’t a Duchess, she was the mother of a duke and I didn’t kidnap her anyway. Not really. Well, er. Look, shut up. The show started although the first presentations were a blur as we kept getting stares from Drasser, Valhom and Beehive lady. They watched us, we watched them. The annoying “celebrity” chef at our table kept whinging about something or other, the stand up comedienne completely alienated the Duchess when she did her routine for the charity awards section, but the academic who sat with us, Moira Stark was interesting. She is an astrophysicist or something and was telling us about a star that might go nova in the Trojan Reach soon. Tristan was discretely called to get changed for his thing with Redburn. Noah, while dressed in his best as a guest, had to hover near the stage for much of the night, keeping an eye out for problems. Damn right I wasn’t happy with splitting the party but what could we do? Tristan returned, mounted the stage and called out in a clear voice which barely registered as the same as the one from the rehearsal “I’ve got you know, Redburn” drew his sword and set about Rock with gusto, eventually collapsing with Redburn’s sword clutched under his arm. He called out “Same time next week” after a very hammy death. The room filled with laughter. Dinner was served. It was mediocre at best and the chef we sat with became insufferable. Tension mounted, and so did Swaylor Tift, the musical guest who was to follow the meal. As she left the stage after an elaborate set it was the turn of the small traders spokesperson, Foxx.

Foxx started off with what sounded like the speech that Karl had written, small traders are the backbone of, blah, blah. Small traders create much of the wealth in, blahity blah-blah. It did. They had sensibly not given the Drasser gang any reason to interfere before they started their video. The room watched open mouthed as the information we had put together dripped poison in Brocero and Drasser’s ear. Foxx swayed and put their hand to their head and Tristan curtly, with clear enunciation gave the order “inject Foxx”. The medical auto-injectors that we had rigged up to our comms worked perfectly and although Foxx now had to deal with the side effects (not blindness, you’ll be relieved to know), they weren’t under the influence of the trio of corruption. I heard the Duchess give out the order to a flunkey, go to the editing box and make sure they don’t stop this. We heard chairs over turn and footsteps. Brocero, Drasser, Valhum, the woman with a beehive and a couple of what must have been Brocero’s bodyguards raced towards the nearest door. As they closed in on the exit we saw the startling sight of Miskom and Karl leaping from the balcony to bar the way of our enemies. The three with the psionic circlets stopped, stared and with an agonised look Karl turned his cutlass on Miskom and drove it straight into the old man’s chest. Even with the uproar that had broken out when Foxx’s video finished we all hear Tristan’s scream of “Noooo”. We pounded after our quarry. As a naval officer I had been permitted to carry my sabre. Tristan snatched up Miskom’s sword as we passed the obviously lifeless body of our erstwhile leader. Foxx, in their rage went as far as to snatch Karl’s weapon from the body of Miskom. We headed into the passageway and the cries and shouts of the hall became slightly muffled.

Using the powers granted by the devices Tarim and the others had paid with their lives to help build Drasser and company ripped a section of piping from the wall and hurled it at me, taking me in the ribs. It wasn’t a bad injury but hurt like hell. Another pipe was twisted and cloud of steam scalded me. They burst from the building and made straight for their pick up point. There it was, an armoured grav-limo. They were getting away. They had cleared half the distance to the vehicle when Noah tried to get off a shot. He had taken the anti-psi meds and was struggling to see properly. The door of the limo opened and a familiar face appeared. Jekki the gangster smiled at us and waved before opening up with a gauss sub-machine gun. With deadly accuracy he gunned down the body guards, Valhom and Beehive lady. Marin lunged out of the car and with an expression of glee snatched Brocero into his arms and into the limo. I don't think we'll be seeing him again. The door closed, the limo rose above us and Drasser turned to face us. Her arm twisted in an unnatural way and blades sprang out. Tristan got to her first and swung wildly. I lunged more skilfully but met nothing but air with my blade. She lashed out at me, missing by a fraction. Foxx joined us and hacked at her, taking off her arm. Sparks flew as the robotic limb was cut in two. I embedded my sword in her chest which elicited more sparks as synthetic skin parted. It crashed to the ground as the Duchesses security, reinforced by venue security, took up firing positions and ordered us to our knees.

Naturally they arrested us and we spent some time being interrogated by the Glisten police. They asked a lot of questions about Jekki waving at us but we stuck to our guns and they had nothing. All our information about Bracero was handed over and we were released. When we had our comms returned to us we each found missed calls. Foxx returned Paulette’s call:
“Darling, sensational! I’ve got five interviews lined up and each is paying 50,000 credits for the privilege. That’s 250,000 credits, darling, it's already in your bank. And we have people lining up to buy the book rights, I think I can get you 1,000,000 for an exclusive deal! Darling, when can we meet?”

Tristan’s call was from Karin, Norval Killick’s agent (Norval being Rock Redburn’s real name):

“After the spectacular events at the Gala Rock has new contract for a show. He wants you in it. Call me back on….”

Noah’s call was from his old boss:

“Hey, Noah, old boy, maybe we were premature in letting you go. Your old job is waiting for you if you want it.”

For me it was Naval Intelligence:

“Antigonus, you are being recall to active service. Report to [REDACTED] who will be your temporary handler in 72 hours. Nice work with the Brocero incident, pity you couldn’t have done it more quietly.”

And with that my time on the Helena ended.

We all had another message. Miskom’s lawyers wanted meeting. It didn’t take long to arrange and we met them on the Helena with Captains Demorden and Grouf (arse), who were to act as witnesses. Miskom owned three ships, the Lola, which he left to Karl, the Louisa which a captain called Stadlin inherited, while the Helena went to “the registered crew at the time of my death” along with the ship’s fund which stood at 375,000 cr. The rest of his credits, some 3,800,000 of them, went to the Shore Path Rehabilitation Centre on Dead End. So we each owned 25% of a Far Trader, which could only be sold if all four agree to the sale.

Karl was in a bad way and wasn’t able to attend Miskom’s funeral. I heard the psionic naughty word messed with his head. On top of which he has to live with delivering the killing blow to Miskom, who had been like a father to him. I saw Miskom’s lips move at the last, I hope he said something which will help Karl deal with it all. The funeral was held in space, as it proper. A large gathering of ships escorted us out and fired their lasers or discharged sand casters as we “spaced” his body. I will freely admit there were tears in my eyes and on my cheeks as we said our last goodbye.

I packed up my things, including the “goodie bag” which we had received from the awards ceremony and set off to return to my old life as navy officer, where I belong.

The End of the Glisten Mystery