Action and Reaction Chapter 3 - 31/05/2010

[Dragoongfa]

Prologue
Chapter 1


Chapter 2:

Elena’s Fortune Sector in the Argon Trading Station, sometime before the rediscovery of Earth.

“It is unclear what caused the explosion at the Crystal Fab in Kingdom’s End; Boron authorities have yet to release a formal statement for the matter sources within the Boron security force say that they are examining all potential leads, even an act of terrorism...”

After a long time finally I am having a bath, only the Boron and the Argon truly appreciate a good old fashioned water bath these days; she thought while checking the temperature of the water with her hand.

“In other Kingdom of Boron news, a spacefly sanctuary has been attacked and destroyed in the sector Queen’s Space, no survivors have yet to be found in the wreckage of the station but rescue operations are still underway, Boron security officials have released this statement:

A hideous act has taken place in the heart of our territory, unknown villains attacked a defenseless station dedicated to the preservation of the endangered markus spacefly, we will bring those responsible to justice.”

Just go three sectors to the east, spaceflies are really expensive there. Now where is that lavender bubblebath…

“And now we go back to the award winning Teladi hit comedy series ‘Profit squad’.”

An annoying repeating music started to play, soon it was joined by a chorus of overly joyous Teladi.

“Profitsssss
For Profitsssss we trade, for profitssss we fight, for profitssss we build.
Profitssss are EVERYTHING…”

Oh damn, not these guys; what was the command again? Ah yes…
“Deactivate News and Entertainment channel”.

After a beep of acknowledgement the entire suite went quiet again.

“Finally some peace and quite.”

I wonder what people would say if they learned that the Teladi were making that thing as a serious action series for propaganda purposes.

She leaned her head back at the towel she was using as a makeshift cushion, she tried to relax but she simply couldn’t stop thinking, about how she turned out in here, why she resigned from the ASF and the Navy.

“You had a long run girl, you deserve some rest now, stop thinking about the past.”

Some rest I am having, I can’t even relax in a freaking bubble bath.

“Incoming call from…Unknown Caller.” The computer said.

Ah great, more advertisers, I may find rest from Pirates, Xenon and Kha’ak but I will never rest from these bakkas, one of these days I will have to do something about these guys…

“Activate answering routine.”

A female voice, her voice answered the call.

“Hello, you have reached Jenai Sammers, unfortunately I can’t take your call right now, leave a message.”

“Hello Jen…”

This one sounds familiar…

“I am pretty sure that you are listening to me but you probably don’t want to speak with anyone, so I will go to the point, we need someone to do us a favor…”

Of course Michael from A.S.S. what does he want this time?

“You may have learned about the explosion at Kingdom End, the Crystal Fab that was destroyed… We need someone to investigate it, we would normally send one of our operatives but due to various events that are taking place we can’t spare anyone.”

“I am retired you moron.” She couldn’t stop herself from saying that out loud, the routine recognized that as an answer, at least she programmed it to only broadcast her voice and not her hologram.

“Ouch…Who pissed in your coffee?” He said with a ting of humor in his voice.

“A Teladi and a Paranid, something to do about 3 defective advanced satellites and the Pontifex Maximus Paranidia.” This was true all things considered, although the Teladi lost his freighter and the Paranid his head after all was said and done.“

“That explains it, you can tell me how you resolved the Teladi and the Paranid later but now I need an answer. I know that you are retired but frankly we got no one else on the level available, we are willing to pay handsomely if you find out who did this, more if you can take care of them.”

She frowned…

“So you are saying that this was an attack?”

“Yes, we knew this from the first mizura, the problem is that we have almost no clues as to who was behind it.”

“If the A.S.S. is involved in this then the station was a front, what were you doing there?”

“Glad to see that you can still do basic math; yes the station was one of our operations, nothing to fancy, a mere training facility for low level security personnel and tech experts.”

“I take it that there was no warning from our usual networks?”

“Well…”

Idiots…

“The thing is that all the intel we get lately is fragmental at best, the Paranid have gone completely dark and the split have started acting up on our normal operations. You know what this means.”

Ok, they are not idiots, they are scared; She though to herself

“Fine I will look into this, you will owe me one though, not including the 7 digit figure that I will get when I am done.”

“Damn…that will come out of my paycheck.”

She laughed at that.

“Says the man that scammed a Teladi with the nividium roid trick, your Teladi front was good by the way.”

“So you learned about that huh? I was just bored; anyway I will send you everything we have and give you some clearance with the Boron authorities, check your mail.”

“See ya later Mich.”

“Have fun Jen and be careful.” With that the commlink was closed.

“Well he will forgive me if I start after I finish my bath.” She said and she relaxed her head on the towel again.

* * *
“Right for Fight.” She said while pinning her battlemaster insignia on her left arm, her master economist insignia already pinned on the left arm of her jacket. She looked one last time for anything she might have forgotten in the hotel suite, she wasn’t worried that she would lose anything, a hotel that charges 10.000 credits a night would keep until she came to pick it up but she would pissed if she left anything personal behind.

After checking out at the reception it was just a few mizuras walk until the lift that would take her to the hangar bay. The hangar bay was designed to house a large number of fighter size craft, the freighters were all docked on the external clamps but even now it was still impressive, it is now wonder why the Argon and the Teladi insist in keeping an internal hangar bay in their trading stations, although for somewhat different reasons for both of them, the Argon simply liked the idea of an internal docking bay, many fighter pilots frown at the docking clamps of most stations, the may speed up the process of moving good but the pilot still has to ride the same elevator as the cargo, someone once had the bright idea to replace the elevators with transporters but after a few incidents with accidental spacings the idea was dropped; the Teladi on the other hand have found the hard way that on the special environment of the trading stations internal docking bays provide a greater measure of security against certain types of scammers.

She soon found herself in front of her ship, a black Nova. She pressed a few buttons on her wrist comm device and a ramp extended from the back allowing her to board.

After the preflight checks the permission was given by the dock controller for take off and she soon was in space, at the middle of the sector of Elena’s Fortune.

“Now Michael, lets see at what mess you are sending me into this time.”

She decided not to use the jump drive, instead she went through
President’s End to Red Light then all the way north to Kingdom End; only at President’s End she stopped to look at the destruction caused a few Jajuras ago, she was here when it happened after all. She spent the rest of the way on autopilot studying everything Michael sent her, which as she soon learned wasn’t nearly enough, reports of suspicious activity by secondary sources, personnel background, the logs of the station and partial security footage.

Kingdom End was always one of the most peaceful sectors in the universe, the Boron always kept a strong military presence, the explosion at the Crystal Fab was one of the rarest instances of violence in these parts. The Crystal fab, or rather what is now left of it, was one of the last factories that allowed internal docking with freighters, so it boasted an impressive security detachment by the ‘Samurai security’ corporation, which also works as a front for various A.S.S. activities. The explosion tore the station in half and at least a dozen are confirmed dead, the damage would have been far greater if not for the quick actions of the security personnel; the opening of the docking bay allowed most of the force to escape in space thus preventing the complete destruction of the station; still the station will never be operational again, already an Orca and its support craft are clearing the debris, all survivors have been moved to an other Orca that is acting as a hospital ship.

The security operator, Misao is not on the confirmed dead list, so the best place to start looking will be the hospital ship; she opened up a channel with the hospital ship.

“This is Jenai Sammers, I have been hired by Samurai security to conduct an investigation about this explosion, requesting permission to dock in order to speak with some of the survivors of this incident, sending security clearance now.”

Surprisingly the Boron responded immediately, a slightly weary Boron appeared on her screen, his melodic Boron voice giving hints of fatigue while surprising for a Boron vessel, things where chaotic in the background.

“This is captain Namo Bo, I have already been informed, you have clearance to dock, I bid you a peaceful welcome.”

So it seems that Michael is ahead of things, I wonder what strings he pulled to put me so high on the priority list of this Boron captain.

She activated the autopilot and docked with the TL vessel, she wore a breathing mask just in case but the Boron had directed her to a docking bay that was adapted for Argon breathing, a Boron was waiting at the ramp, his breathing mask barely visible on his head since the Borons try to make their masks as minimalist and comfortable as possible, by his stance it was obvious that he was a long time spacer.

“Jenai Sammers?” He asked with a happy voice.

“Yes that’s me.” She replied, bowing slightly as a sign of respect.
He made the Boron welcoming sign with two of his tentacles.

“I am Bomo Na, I have been assigned to be your guide in this vessel.” He really seemed happy with that, judging by his body language, things must be really messy if that’s the case.

“I would like to speak with a particular Argon woman, her name is Misao Namitz.” She took out her datapad and showed him a picture of Misao. The Boron in turn loaded the picture in his datapad and gestured Jenai to follow him.

“This way, all argon survivors are in a compartment near here.”

It was a short walk from the docking bay to the hospital compartment, the corridors were a hive of activity, Boron and Argon medical personnel trying to help the wounded, some ship security trying to organize everyone; all in all real chaos.

“Michael must really have pulled a lot of strings if he arranged for me to be here in the middle of all this.”

“Did Jenai ask something?” Bomo Na asked.

“No I was just thinking about all this.” She responded while gesturing to the chaos around her.

“Yes a very bad situation, peace shall prevail in the end.” He responded.

They soon entered a huge cargo compartment that was retrofitted as a makeshift hospital, there were hundreds of Argon inside, some people obviously hurt, others were physically fine but in a clear state of shock, some people were screaming, either from pain, shock or simply sorrow she didn’t know. Argon and Boron doctors and nurses were going about their trade, helping as many people as they could.

Bomo Na stopped a couple of nurse and showed them Misao’s picture, one of them recognized the girl and directed them to where she was.
Misao was sitting on a medical bed, physically unharmed but her eyes did betray weariness and shock, by her record she was 13 Jajuras old, barely an adult but right now she looked like she was 20 jajuras old.

“Misao Namitz?” Jenai asked.

“Yes, what do you want?” Misao replied in a depressed manner.

Bomo Na quickly found a stool and offered it to Jenai.

“Thanks.” She said while she sat down.

“I am Jenai Sammers, I am here to ask you a few questions.” Misao looked at her, her eyes betraying her anger.

“What if I don’t want to talk, what are the odds of me answering questions?” She replied aggressively.

“Then I will just sit here and keep you company.” She said with a calm voice.

“I don’t want your company.”

“Pity, cause you are stuck with it.” Misao eyed her.

“Who do you represent? The police?” She asked with a voice that clearly showed her anger.

“Not in the way you are implying it.”

“How am I implying it?”

“You are not considered a suspect, ain’t that what you are thinking?” Misao was glaring at her, obviously thinking about starting throwing things.

“The people I represent know about your past and they know about you, they are the ones who pushed for your sentence to be turned to ‘community service’, the same ones who turned that ‘community service’ into a fulltime, well paid job as a tech expert. They don’t do it for people who would do such things.” She told her while gesturing to the chaos around her.
Misao obviously debated if she started yelling, throwing things or start crying but in the end she resigned, she lowered her head, her manner completely catatonic.

“Ask your questions then.”

“I understand that you were on duty when the explosion happened?”

“Yes, I was the security operator on duty at the time, responsible for monitoring the internal security feeds and the computer networks.” Misao answered in a stiff voice.

“This ain’t an interrogation, you don’t have to treat it like that.” Jenai said to her. Misao looked at her with a resigned look, Jenai saw the meaning behind that.

“I am sorry, you can answer the questions the way it makes it easier for you.” Misao lowered her head and continued.

“It was the middle of the morning shift, things were normal, beyond the usual stuff all was quite in the station. Then I started getting some anomalous readings from docking bay 3 and I sent…I sent…” Misao suddenly became distressed.

“I don’t remember their names…” She said while bursting to tears.

“I sent them there and I don’t remember their names.” Jenai went and sat next to her and tried to comfort her.

“Its ok, its ok; we can continue later.”

“No, I am good, I want to continue.” Misao said while wiping her tears.

“Go on then.”

“I sent one of our two man patrols to investigate. When they arrived they tried to open up the crate that was sending the anomalous readings; It was electronically locked, so I went in and hacked it open, it was some pretty decent stuff, the security of the container that is, hard multilingual password protected; It took me a few sezuras.” Misao stopped to catch her breath.

“Then what happened?”

“Things went to hell …One of the security guards started saying code red and that there was a live hornet in the cargo bay.”

“Code red?” Jenai asked.

“That’s the code we use when the on the spot security deems necessary the venting of the compartment to space, in order to preserve the integrity of the station.” Misao answered as if reading the security manual.

“What happened next?”

“I started the code red, I saw them run as the blast doors were closing, I saw one of them getting through at the last second, the other one…The other one was trapped inside…The docking bay doors started to open and the guard reached for his sidearm then…” Misao was about to burst in tears again.

“The explosion, the shockwave; I… I can’t remember what happened afterwards.” Misao said, tears running down her face.

“Its ok, its ok, you were more than helpful.” Jenai tried to calm her down.

“I killed them, if I was faster they would both be alive…and I can’t even remember their names…” Misao was in the middle of a nervous breakdown, shaking, her face contorted. She looked at Bomo Na and gestured him to bring a nurse.

“No you didn’t kill them, the ones who planted that hornet killed them; You saved all the people in here.”

“No I didn’t.” Misao answered.

“If the docking bay doors were closed, if the blast doors were open, the explosion would have reached the E-Cells storage compartment and the whole station would have been nothing by space dust.” Jenai knew that this was the truth, Misao probably knew it but she couldn’t see it.

“If I was faster…” Bomo Na had returned with a nurse, Jenai gestured to the nurse for a tranquilizer shot.

“Sshhh, calm down, everything is ok now.” Jenai said while holding Misao still for the nurse.

The tranquilizer didn’t take long to take effect.

“Why would someone do such a thing?” Misao was starting to dose off.

“Because some people are monsters.” Jenai answered her, standing up to let the nurse put her to sleep.

“Someone needs to stop them...” Misao said while closing her eyes.

“That’s what I am here for, kid; that’s what I am here for.”

[Dragoongfa]

Finally after a few years , I have managed to find the notes.



Seriously now, I am trying to write a book of my own, the problem is that I am still struggling to find my footing in writing, so I have to write a story that will allow me to find it.

I began to write this story back in 2007 and all in all I had completed my plot notes but due to time restrictions at the time (uni + job = no time) I had to abandon it.

Now I find myself with more time and a need to improve my writing skills for my big project.

So here it is Action and Reaction with some X3:TC hindsight (although I have to admit that the only thing I missed were the goners moving).

Hopefully I will finish the story this time.

Ah and yes, I will clean up the mess that the Prologue and Chapter 1 then I will link them here (I am SO embarassed for those two).

[Captain CAVEMAN!!!]

A good read

however you should format it into smaller chunks to keep readers as i felt the urge to stop reading several times.

also marking dialogue in colours would help

Keep it up

Captain.C

[Dragoongfa]

A good read

however you should format it into smaller chunks to keep readers as i felt the urge to stop reading several times.

also marking dialogue in colours would help

Keep it up

Captain.C

You should see the previous chapters .

The smaller format is a good idea, the problem is that it has to be used in such a way so it doesn't break the flow of the story; I can see one, maybe two points were I could put a break but that's just it.

Colours?

Hell no .

Now I have to fix the Prologue and Chapter 1.

[Dragoongfa]

The prologue has received a face lift, it should be readable now .

[Dragoongfa]

Chapter 1 has also received a face lift, although it was better than the prologue, I think that with the rewrite its the best piece of my work so far.

Not surprisingly its a little bigger than chapter 2 but since it covers a part of the battle of Omicron Lyrae I can say that the length is well justified.