Stardate: 10954.5
I have been training for the past week. Traded in the war set up of guns and special equipment for mining lasers, a large shield, and a space leech repair orbiter I lovingly named Asclepius.
Training is a boring tedious business, but necessity for survival for a pilot in my line of work. The monotonous boredom of the war dulled my skills; the endless hours of ambush, long pod rides from enemy territory back to my current homeworld, and the lengthy jumps from one part of the verse to the next. Although such moments lend me time to train my mind with studies and reading, they offer little else. Now that the war was over, it was time to restore the sharpness to the blade. But such work requires endless firing of guns, evasion, and maneuvering against euryales, medusas, energy bees, sparklers, and the likes.
Worst part is my mates from ULF were busy hunting the space lanes, and keeping me abreast of their many kills. Damn I hate skilling sometimes. Seeking a break from the monotony, I flew to the nearest star base to grab some rest and relaxation. The SB was small by any accounts, and barely had a tavern and brothel. Not much, but better than what I had in my ship.
I took a spot at the bar, and began planning the rest of my evening when this punk human kid in a Union recruit uniform stepped up beside me:
“You’re Hope Hubris, aren’t you?”
“Not sure what you’re looking for kid, but you ain’t gonna find it here,” I hissed angrily back, not even looking in his direction.
“I’m sorry to bother you, my name is …” He muttered before I cut him off, growling I said, “look kid, I ain’t interested in knowin’ anything about you. I’m just passin’ thru, ya hear? Now take off, before this gets ugly.”
Red faced, the kid stammered, “I’m sorry Mr. Hubris, I just wanted to buy you a drink, but I will go…” Cutting him off a second time, I replied, “Hold on boy, you should’a led with the drink. Pull out your money and take a chair.”
Nearly an hour later, the kid got up the nerve to start asking me personal questions. Seems he had been flying about the verse for more time than it looked. He tried the different factions before settling with the Union. Now he was thinking about joining the Shadow Syndicate. My membership in TSS is well known, or at least part of the public record, so I don’t deny it. But I also don’t talk about the details of TSS. No one does really. It isn’t that I am afraid Harrison Straw and his ilk, TSS just isn’t something you talk about, whether you are safe alone with a friend or in a crowded bar. I mean, what do you say, “so this one time, when I was engaged in an act of piracy or blowing up a star base or making illegal drugs and testing them on slaves or procuring and trading slaves.” Somehow, these subjects just don’t come up in polite conversation.
Hence when the kid steered the conversation toward TSS, I wasn’t really interested in going further. I am not looking for an apprentice, and openly talking about TSS activities just isn’t in my nature. But the damn kid was just so intrigued by it all, like TSS members were heroic or something. In the end, I told him one story and then went to experience the wares of the SB’s other entertainment establishment.
My story with TSS begins simply. It was back when I was still a member of Three Colours and flying a Pelican named The Jack Crow. I hated that damn ship. It was a death trap. Given to me by a ska’ari. Note to self: never take anything freely given by a ska’ari.
At the time, I was just getting started in the verse. I had little money, but lots of contacts, which explains the free cargo ship. I was moving drugs out of split to whatever customer paid the most. It was good money and constant work, although it only came a little at a time since my hold was small. I was the public face for the drug operation, so I was a little surprised when I heavily encrypted message pinged my communications during one of my trips to the South Pardus Rim.
When I finally got the message decrypted, I found nothing interesting. Some fella named Harrison Straw was calling me outlaw and offering me a spot in his shadow organization. Now I am always happy to earn some credits, but suggesting to me that can come from things like causing mayhem and destruction in the verse or repressing the noble and powerful or exploiting the weak is ludicrous. My adopted father instilled in me a genius notion reaped from the history of his people: credits come from hard work and ingenuity, not from killing. You can only collect from a dead man once, but let’em live and you can collect forever. So saying that I was disinterested in the proposition is the best way to put it nicely, but it just so happens that I had a delivery to the same sector (Elnath) as the location where I was supposed to meet Mr. Straw’s representative.
So what the hell, I figured I would give TSS a little looksy and then go about my own business if it wasn’t gonna be interesting, and yes by interesting I do mean highly profitable. I go to Elnath sector, do my business and then head over to the planet. At the planet, I head to the market, going past the legitimate retailers and slip into black market. Outside of seeing the normal faction sleazebags and a few traders, nothing happened. I did not see nor here anything even remotely interesting, just business as usual.
Disgusted, I returned to my ship and prepared to leave. Just before liftoff, the ship just shut down and the following message appeared on the main screen:
“Welcome, Hope Hubris, I have been waiting for you!
I was told you would be interested in joining our fine organization, The Shadow Syndicate. To prove your willingness, courage, and legitimacy, I want you to perform a little demonstration for us: Fly to Tau Ceti in Tau Ceti [11,4] (Federation Human Core Cluster), a developed planet deep in Federation space, and enter its black market - all within 72 hours. Another Shadow Syndicate member will wait there for you. As soon as you arrive, she will finalize your application, and you will be welcomed into the club. Don't forget to leave that place as soon as possible - as you know anyone will be able to shoot you down there.”
What the message didn’t say, but my security sweep did reveal was that Straw and his cohorts had rigged my ship with explosives. If I didn’t complete the “mission,” I was going to be dead in space. Bastards!
Of course, I was now heading to Tau Ceti. Worried about the stability of the explosives and the long standing ire of the Scorpion Guard against me I had to carefully use the x-holes. I went to Nex-06, then on to Nex Kataam. In the West Pardus Rim, I had to engage in ambush avoidance mode. Saw Crypto, but had to resist attacking him because I didn’t want to bring undue attention to myself. I passed through the MO walls at Pass Fed 02 and slipped into Tau Ceti.
Landing proved to be a little more difficult. Either the Federation was running training Ops in the sector, or the authorities were expecting me. There were fighting ships all over the place, and they were actively stopping every Harrier that entered the area. Luckily for me, I entered just after an unfortunate sap who quickly found himself surrounded and immediately boarded. My first reaction was to turn back into the worm hole and jump out of the sector, but a ship full of explosives told me that wasn’t an option.
I would have to use subterfuge to get as close as possible to the planet, then make a run for it. If I could land, I would just leave the ship—it wasn’t of any use to me in its current state anyways. Instead of waiting to be pounced on, I sent out a priority communication beam to one the nearest nighthawk keeping an eye on the other Pelican.
“This is Hope Hubris, connect me to your superior.” I directed. One thing important to remember about military types is they are trained to follow orders. If you speak to them in a commanding voice, and act like you are in charge, most won’t question you.
“Excuse me trader, but prepare to be boarded.” He responded.
“Are you questioning a direct order? Who is this?” I replied, “Patch me through to your superior.”
“Umm, okay . . . one moment, sir.” He stammered uncertainly. The great thing about the factions is they a really good about maintaining order among their lackeys. This guy probably knew that I was full of crap, but it was safer for him to pass me along then to openly risk a reprisal if I actually was important.
“Command says to wait here, the Captain is on his way.” He intoned. “Captain? I said patch me through to your commander. Where is the admiral? Look I haven’t got time for this, those kids need the medicine I am carrying. Tell your commander to meet me planetside.” I harped back, kicking my ship into gear and heading for the planet.
The Captain’s mantis pulled up alongside The Jack Crow halfway across the sector. The pilot didn’t send a message, so I took his silence to mean they were actively searching Federation archives for any information they could find on me. There wasn’t much outside of the fact that my adoptive father was an ambassador for the Federation. Probably explains why “the captain” was handling me with so much caution. As we came into orbit, the silence on the comm channel ended, “You are directed to land on the military dock at 14375.”
Shit I thought, now I was in serious trouble. I did not want to see the commander, admiral or any other faction leader. There would be too many questions. Straw’s contact made it clear that I was not to talk to anyone about why I was in Tau Ceti, so answering questions was not going to be possible. I needed a reason to land in another location, and my only option was to fain engine troubles and then cut them off. It would mean free falling into atom, which couldn’t possibly be good with so many explosives in my hull, but Straw might detonate them at any moment anyways so it was worth the risk.
“Captain, there seems to be a problem with my left engine. Can you see anything from your position?”
“R-i-g-h-t. I don’t see anything. Just land at the coordinates trader. You wanted to see the admiral, so now you are going to see him.”
“No can do Captain. Something is seriously wrong here,” I said, cutting the engines.
“W-T-F! I didn’t see an explosion. Did you just cut your engines?” He yelled over the radio.
“I don’t think I’m gonna meet the admiral. Engines out, falling fast.” I screamed back. He followed me down several thousand meters, then pulled up to wait for me to crash. As soon as I was far enough away to make a run for it, I cut the engines back on and raced across the surface toward the main starport. I glided my pelican into the softest landing possible at high speed, gathered my wits, then popped the hatch and went for the safety of the nearest crowd. Due to my screeching halt of a landing, it didn’t take much. The Captain slammed into the star port hot on my tail, which distracted the crowd gathering around me long enough for me to slip away.
With planet security searching for me, it was no small thing to get to the black market. I made it just a few minutes before the 24 hour deadline. I never saw my contact. Shortly after entering the market, I felt a slight jab in back. I awoke, several days later, in the cockpit of a rover docked in the squad bay of the SB in Grefaho. The ship computer was keyed to my body signs, so I started it up. The main communication screen blanked out, then flashed the following message:
“Congratulations MR. Hubris! Welcome to the Shadow Syndicate. I hope you enjoy your new ship. Your harrier has been properly disposed of. I hope you didn’t leave anything valuable aboard.”
And that is how I became a member of TSS. I never really had an interest, but it has proved to be a useful affiliation.
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