The story now is above 78.000 words. That is exactly 26 times more than I envisioned when I started on this story (originally I planned writing something like 5 A4 pages).
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am writing it…
In glossary I have added stats of Mandalays, Bayamons and Orinocos, for benefit of those that have not played the X2: The Threat.
Spoiler
Show
In story, Otto & Co. bring a Buster Mk5 to Elysium and exchange it for two customized Bayamons. The story still takes place during X2: The Threat right after Presidents End attack. The Mk5 model of Buster is X3: Reunion variant of Buster 
That’s why the Elysium accepts the “one M4 for two customized M4s” deal.
That’s why the Elysium accepts the “one M4 for two customized M4s” deal.
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Links to other chapters:
Chapter 10: The Khaak
Chapter 9: New Player
Chapter 8: The Hunt Begins
Chapter 7: Among the rogues
Chapter 6: Anger of the Giants
Chapter 5: Awakening of the storm
Chapter 4: Trade run to Hell
Chapter 3: Old connections
Chapter 2: Means for revenge
Chapter 1: First kill
The glossary of Unknown Heroes
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The Elysium
Erich, Otto and Ni Lan had all their attention focused on sounds coming behind the slide door leading into their corridor. Someone was having trouble opening the door, despite it being the push-button type. Ni Lan’s tentacles were white on their tips, Erich noticed in the glow from the infoscreens. The poor fellow will suffer the heart attack soon, Erich thought. Would be best if it did – there was no way of knowing who was beside that door and if it does not turn out well, who knows what was in the waiting for them… The pirates sometimes pushed the people in the airlocks, while they let the air out, slowly but fast enough that the victims felt their veins exploding…
Ni Lan let out a small gurgle, equivalent to Argon scream, upon hearing the door opening, fearing the worst. But there was no pirate that had opened the door. The corridor behind the door was without lights so Otto and Ni Lan could not see the properly the outlines of the newcomer.
Erich, with his augmented vision, had no trouble seeing and asked, “Friend or foe?”
“It depends on you, O great Argon warrior,” Ha’nt replied.
His both arms had many cutting wounds, like if he had tried to stop a lawnmower’s blades with them. A deep gash run across his chest and his breathing was deep and heavy. He limped nearer the plastglass cell doors, into the weak blue light emitted by the infoscreen on the wall, opposite the cell door.
“It depends, whether you are willing to accept my help,” Split continued, struggling to get the words out.
“With your wounds, perhaps it is you that should be asking for help,” Erich noted. There was obvious that Ha’nt would not make it out of the station without help. Split came nearer.
Recognizing Ha’nt, Otto asked, “Did you come to revenge your wounded honor?”
“This Split has no family and therefore the previous insults against his honor are irrelevant! This Split is Nameless!”
Erich looked enquiringly at his friend. Otto having more experience with the Split culture was in doubt whether he should ask the young Split whether he was a renegade. If he had misunderstood the last two sentences, he risked offending the Split to the point where they all could easily loose their lives.
After few moments, figuring that the Split’s was in no condition to fight, he asked,
“Is the Split warrior a renegade?”
“This Argon is knowledgeable about Split ways. Yes, Ha’nt the Renegade is without the Family”
Otto relaxed. The motives of the young Split seemed clearer.
A Split renegade was the loneliest creature in the Universe. Whenever a Split was disavowed from his family, all Split race turns away from the renegade. Their family tries to kill him and other families refuse assistance.
The young Split heard from the news broadcast during last tazura about us, maybe he was even present when we were brought in, Otto reasoned. What was more natural for a renegade than to seek the company of other renegades like Erich and Otto?
Otto understood that situation was awkward for the Split. Despite him declaring himself an outcast, he was after all a product of Split upbringing. A proud Split never asked anyone if he could join a group. If he were of any value, his assistance would be requested.
“We too are renegades outcasts of the Federation and Kingdom, betrayed by our masters. I am Otto and this is Erich. The Boron is Ni Lan… It would be wise if we joined our forces against the common enemies.”
“I too considered that option,” Ha’nt said, halfway admitting his motive.
“Well, our joining could be far easier if the locks on the prison doors could be disabled,” Erich pointed out dryly.
“I could help! I could help!” Ni Lan yelled, twitching his tentacles in joy for the first time since his imprisonment.
Ha’nt snarled at the Boron, “Silence you Boron scum!”
“Let him speak!” Erich said.
“There is panel on the wall right over there. See? Now if Split could only gave it a small push”
Ha’nt waited few moments, having an inner turmoil, before limping over to the panel and doing as Ni Lan suggested.
When he pushed the metallic box, it parted in two, revealing a screen part and keyboard part.
“There, scum. What now?”
“Now we will tell the computer that there is a fire in those two cells,” Ni Lan said, ignoring Split’s insult. Erich exchanged a smile with Otto. The cyberborg had wondered whether the Ni Lan was of right stuff. By ignoring the Split’s jibes and keeping his focus on the important things, the Boron gained small measure of respect from both Erich and Otto.
Step by step, Ni Lan guided Ha’nt on how to gain access to computer and convince it that fire had broken out in the two cells. Five mizuras later, after two retries, fire alarm sounded, following by female voice, “All prisoners leave their cells, guards to the corridor 22C!”
Both cell doors opened, allowing the prisoners to “escape from fire”.
“Are we taking the Boron scum with us?” Ha’nt asked Erich and Otto.
Erich looked him in the eyes, “He just proved his value to us, didn’t he?”
In case that Ha’nt did not get the message, Otto pointed with his finger on the open doors.
“The Argon warrior has my respect; I trust his wisdom,” Ha’nt agreed and added, “Besides someone is needed for non-warrior tasks too”
Ha’nt, having obviously overtaxed his strength last few mizuras, was forced to sit down on the floor. He was breathing heavily and had dreamy look on his face.
“Where did you get those wounds?” Otto asked, pointing to Split’s wounds.
“Argons will think that I am crazy, so I will not speak of this matter”
“Why do you care of our opinion of you? Tell us and let us decide what we will think of it,” Otto said using the phrases Ha’nt would be used to hearing from other Splits.
“Wise words. I fought against a monster. And I smelled several of them on the way here,” Ha’nt said, telling them about the encounter with unknown creature.
While Ha’nt had been waiting for his laspistol to recharge after he had failed to kill the creature on his first attempt, the creature had charged him. Using his arms, he had kept the creature’s mouth away, while at same time he suffered from the cuts from creature’s claws. After few moments, the pistol had recharged to the point where he could fire a beam. This time he didn’t miss. Wounded, he continued on, using his smell and hearing to avoid further fights.
“And that’s entire story,” he finished.
He offered his gun to Erich, saying, “I am afraid that my wounds will prevent me to use it efficiently”
Erich took it, looked doubtingly at the laspistol. He noticed small discharge of static electricity when he touched it. It was to Erich an unknown Split laspistol model, but its producer marks, Family T’kr* Armaments, was indicator of the laspistol’s age…
“This relic must be older then me… Let me guess, it discharges quickly?”
“Yes, the instructions say nine beams, but I only can fire six or five.”
“No wonder, you got capacitors leakage…Well, there is no point in complaining, let us go”
“Where to?” Ni Lan asked.
“Good question… People must have taken all the spaceships when they fled the station” Otto said.
“I got a Zarrkt 13M. Bit small for four of us, but still…”
“Sorry, Ha’nt but that ship is probably gone”
“What? How?”
“In station with 12.000 people, you really think that there isn’t at least fifty scoundrels capable of breaking into an old Jaguar, or Zarrkt as you call it?”
From the Ha’nt’s expression, Otto understood that Split never considered that.
“Perhaps we will be lucky?” Ni Lan suggested.
Otto doubted that. Nevertheless, he didn’t express his doubts and instead said,
“Only one way to find out – to the docks we go”
Otto and Ni Lan helped Ha’nt on his legs while Erich took the lead. They had barely walked fifty meters before they had their first encounter. Erich had heard the creatures and gave signal to others to stop. He continued to advance alone, listening for every sound and constantly changing modes. Here and there he saw stains of blood on the floor, walls and the ceiling.
Rounding a corner, he saw three insect like creatures on the far end of the corridor. They looked like huge mosquitoes with their undersized wings and insect-like body, with four eyes in upper part of their head with an eye on each side of their head. Walking on four legs, they had two more appendages ending with huge claws.
Using his augmented vision, he took a careful aim, aiming for the group of four eyes. Even if creatures’ brains were not there, they would be blinded by the laser. He listened for one sezura more to see if any other creatures were around that he have not noticed before, before firing three times.
Laser projector inside the laspistol was bad – both beams were slightly off from where he intended to hit. Still the result was three dead creatures. On of them moved and Erich fired again, not taking the chance that the movement he was seeing was just death throes. Strange, undefined smell filled the corridor. Good, Erich noticing the smell. It meant that the creatures he had killed were biological and not mechanical. If they had been mechanical, the encounter would have ended differently.
He stayed for while, listening for new sounds, before returning back to others.
“You found something? I thought I heard laser fire,” Otto asked.
Erich nodded and then remembering that Otto could not see him said, “Yeah, two of those things Ha’nt described”
“Just what we needed. Monsters inside the station and raging battle outside,” Otto commented.
“Friends, I found this, but I do not understand the signs,” Ni Lan attracted their attention. Boron was pointed to the box with “medic supplies” written on. Erich had missed it first time he passed through the place.
They quickly emptied it, using Splits nocturnal sight to find what they were looking for. Ha’nt got anti-wound injections and Otto closed his wounds with plast-skin as best as he could. It was not adequate but at least Ha’nt stopped bleeding.
Knowing danger of staying inside the invaded station, they moved on. Otto knowing the layout of Trading Stations fairly well, gave instructions where to go.
Suddenly, entire station shook, causing all in the group to loose footing. The wall vibrated and decompression alarms sounded.
“This is bad. Very bad,” Otto commented, when vibrations died away.
“What is it,” Ni Lan asked.
“Self-destruct command. I bet that top of the station is gone now. Probably the docks too”
“Say again?”
“Trading Station serve as CCI posts for sector defense. When one is being in danger of being overrun, the commanding officer issues the order to blast the CCI module. The construction of the station is such that rest of the station will collapse in five mizuras under because of the pressure”
“Why five mizuras?” Ha’nt asked.
“So that the civilians have a chance of escape. I’ll give you the explanations to the finer points of human culture when we get out of here.”
“But where?”
“Escaped pods”
“Where are they?”
“Should be on every level. Keep your eyes peeled for maps on the walls”
Erich sprinted quickly around, giving damn in possible encounters with hostile creatures. Soon he found one map, explaining the route to nearest batch of escape pods. He run back to Otto and others.
“Found it, follow me”
They moved quickly, following Erich. Otto carried Ha’nt on his back, ignoring Split’s grunts from the pain this was causing him.
Ni Lan being the slowest, soon ended up as rear guard. Not much of the guard, Ni Lan thought. He slipped. He felt that floor was covered by something sticky. Ni Lan had been in human hospital once he got arrested, and he never forgot the smell of human blood. The same smell was heavy in the air here. He also felt the presence of something else in the dark, behind the group. Ni Lan hurriedly moved on.
“There,” Erich pointed to the row of sixteen escaped pods, illuminated by an infoscreen.
“Look for SC type,” Otto advised.
Erich looked worried on his friend. The noises of approaching group of unknown aliens were getting louder. Few screeches could be heard now and then.
“Do we have time for that?”
“Just do it!”
“Allright…No…Not this one…Here!”
“Jump in!”
Everyone quickly climbed into the small escape pod. Otto moved to the controls starting the eject sequence. While Erich was closing the door, he heard the sounds of more creatures, nearby. He hoped that the creatures could not figure out the way to abort the eject sequence.
“Everybody, into EVA suits!”
The rest obeyed, finding the suits under the seats. Otto himself found one and took it on.
“Everybody secure yourself, we are ejecting in 7..6..5..4..3..2..1…”
The escape pod freed itself from the station with high speed, causing Erich to be thrown back against the wall. He was not seated, having trouble putting his EVA suit on.
“You OK?” Otto asked.
“Yeah, but…”
Otto looked back. Once the pod was detached from the rotating station, the gravity disappeared. Erich was floating upside down in the pod, disoriented by this new situation.
“Ni Lan, help him out.”
Otto activated the chemical thrusters. His head moved around, taking overview of the situation, ignoring what happened inside the escape pod. His mind changed to that of Otto the Pilot, only interested in the space around the pod.
The destruction of several ships around the station, had created a sea of metal parts flowing around the station. Otto found one group, consisting of water containers, heading away from the station. He headed there, placing the escape pod between those parts.
By pretending to be part of space junk, Otto hoped that those ships that were destroying everything in the sector would ignore them. At same time, he did not want to be to close to station when it finally exploded. Few triangular ships passed the escape pod, paying no attention.
Erich, Ha’nt and Ni Lan all sat glued to the rear window.
The battle was still going on. One Buster was firing missile, after missile on the hostile ships, killing couple. Then it seemed like all enemy ships turned fire on him, killing him in few moments. An inertial shuttle was spinning wildly. It had stopped because of some unknown reason. Having no engine, it was sitting duck for enemy ships. The spin was caused by two holes in its side, from which the oxygen was leaking. Few surviving militia ships were isolated and despite fighting bravely, were easily dealt with by invading forces. The greatest losses to the invader, was the few camouflaged floating missile batteries* around the sector. Camouflaged as rocks or space junk, they waited until sufficient number of hostile ships was on their scanner before firing all their missiles. Despite that, their numbers were too few to have impact in overall battle. No not battle, Erich thought. Slaughter is more fitting description…
Few meter of the escape pod, Otto spotted a still moving missile with its fuel spent up. It was still moving forward and probably with its warhead active. It was only time before self-destruct mechanism activated, so Otto changed slightly course and gently accelerated to put as much as possible distance between the unshielded escape pod and missile.
The hulk of a destroyed Navy’s Supply station, 800 meters away, was just the hiding place Otto was looking for. Taking a chance, Otto gave three short bursts to ship’s thrusters, accelerating ahead. No beams struck the ship, meaning that no one had noticed them. Expertly he positioned the escape pod inside the hulk.
Few sezuras later, huge increase of fast flying debris told Otto that Trading Station had finally succumbed.
“Not too late,” he commented to himself. Others moved forward in the escape pod to get better view. The pieces as large as freighter were flying by with incredible speed. If the escape pod had been in the path of the flying debris, it would have been pulverized.
“What now?” Ni Lan asked.
“I will turn of electricity and life support to reduce our electronic signature. Soon it will get very cold in here and air will not be breathable. So close the helmets of your EVA suits and don’t talk much. We will sit and wait.”
Suad Khan watched the Trading Station explode, however his view was from another angle than that of those trapped in the escape pod. Using the advanced optics of a spy satellite, one of nine of the EYE’s network of satellites in the sector, he watched how first top of the station disappeared in bright light, leaving relatively little debris. Then some time later, rest of the station exploded with its fast flying debris obliterating everything in its path, including many of enemy fighters.
Suad Khan wondered whether the Erich and Otto had been on the station when it exploded or had they been evacuated. He had seen their capture, also using an EYE spy satellite. He had no choice than to hope that two men would find a way to escape.
Unnoticed by humans that too used the EYE network, another presence watched the happenings in the Presidents End. A89.0001 noticed and stored every detail. It dwelled on the feeds for some time, before moving to next sector in search of more knowledge.
Argon Federation’s 1. Jump Fleet finally managed to disengage from engagement with Xenon raider fleet. The raider fleet had been unusually huge, with two carriers and six destroyers. The fight had been lasting over one standard day, straining the task force to its limits. Finally the last carrier was destroyed and 1. Jump Fleet could leave, letting the Sector Militia and other races volunteers to deal with remaining Xenon forces.
“All Little Friends, return to your Mammas”
Naval fighter immediately obeyed, setting their course to two of task force’s carriers. The procedure of docking took half stazura and another ten mizuras was lost when one of the destroyers had to resupply.
“To all captains, this is Admiral Von Roth speaking: Maintain code red. Jump to Presidents End, in usual manner”
One by one, the Titan destroyers jumped out, followed by the two Colossus carriers. Mightiest of the Federation’s fleets arrived in Presidents End only to find few of the enemies left. Still the Admiral Von Roth decided to set up the usual defensive screen around the two carriers, before sending out the rescue parties. Remaining enemies were easily defeated by Novas escorted by Buster medium fighters.
“Sir, the sector is clean and under our control,” captain of Von Roth’s flagship reported to his commander.
“Not much to control,” Von Roth told himself while watching the wrecks of stations in what once was busy sector. Not a single station was left. Three kilometers from the carrier, the hulk of destroyer “Constellation” could be seen.
“Order two squadrons to search for survivors.”
“Yes, Sir!”
The Admiral could hear how his orders were relayed down the ranks.
“This is the Command to 102. and 103. squadrons: You are to search for survivors. Proceed with caution.”
“This is Red Papa to Red 1 to 4, we are to search for survivors”
“Fat chance for that,” one of the pilots commented.
“What was that Red 4?”
“Nothing, Sir! 100 percent ready to perform, Sir!”
“Yeah… I pick up an escape pod on the scanners almost at the West Gate. Go check it out, Red 4”
The Buster broke of the rest of the group and headed for the escape pod. Tobias felt lucky. He never could keep his mouth shut and always said the wrong things at wrong places. This time at least he did not get punishment; he was just assigned the most tedious job. The escape pod was not emitting any signal so it was probably empty.
Still it is strange that has managed to drift almost to the gate, Tobias thought. After couple of mizuras, the escape pod was within the reach of his scanners.
“How is it going, Red 4?”
“Four heat signatures, Sir”
“Check up on them and tow them to “Invincible”, pilot”
“Yes, Sir!”
Tobias placed his fighter fifty meters away from the escape pod. No one was peeking out of the windows, he noticed.
“Red Papa, this is Red 4. Something is fishy her, Sir”
“What’s wrong, pilot?”
“They aren’t extending the hook, Sir”
“Because they are civilians, Red 4. Probably they don’t know how to use the equipment.”
“Yes, Sir”
“Now try to connect your fighter to the pod, walk over and explain them how the things are done”
“Yes, Sir”
Tobias still felt uncomfortable. Something was wrong, but he could not set his finger on it. Slowly he approached the escape pod and connected to the pod. He waited until he got green light and then opened the hatch on the bottom of his fighter. The hatch of the pod was opened too, but nobody was coming out.
Tobias bent forward to see better but there was no light in the escape pod so he could not see anything
“Hello, anybody there?”
One hand shot out, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the escape pod. He tried to wrestle down his assailant but the man seemed extremely strong, ignoring the Tobias punches. Then he felt the tip of a laspistol against his back.
“But I am here to help you! What is happening?”
“We are very glad for your help. And you are going to help us further…” one of Argons finally spoke as he was tying Tobias’ hands. He was placed at one of the seats and then he heard the hatch being closed. Soon the sounds of disconnecting could be heard and through the window he could see his fighter setting the course for the gate.
“Oh boy, now I am in trouble,” he told himself. How am I going to explain this?
“Elisa’s Elysium,” Otto announced. The announcement was unnecessary – the lights of the legendary shipyard had been visible for tenths of kilometers. Endless stream of ships were docking and undocking with this grand station making any navigation buoys unnecessary. Space based holographic projectors were projecting the news and commercials of the Elysium*, making any pilot, no matter from which direction he flew, to read the messages.
The shipyard was the largest in the Independent systems, even when planet based shipyards were counted. Elysium had always been around it was said. The Mandalays, Bayamons and Orinocos were all invented and mostly produced here. Even the Ranger, Goner’s trademark ship was born here according to some rumors. If you were Independent and space pilot, it was good chance that you flew something that shipbuilders of Elysium had built.
Entire Elysium was controlled by the most powerful woman in the Known Space, known simply as Elisa. A legend throughout the Known Universe, she alone had made a mediocre wharf into huge shipyard, extending her operations into mobile mining, missile production, energy supply, car markets, even in the fashion industry. For women wearing Elisa’s was statement of independence and strength.
“And therefore the cabaret is a prohibited artform in the Elysium,” Erich finished his story, his grin from one ear to the other. Ha’nt and Ni Lan greatly enjoyed the story, it was only Otto that had felt uncomfortable. The story had been how he had managed to fall out with Elisa. Otto had only told bits of the story to Erich, omitting certain parts. All Erich knew is that certain cabaret girl had been involved and the legendary Elisa herself with Otto in middle. It did not stop Erich to fill in gaps when telling the story, using his own imagination and rumors he had heard.
Otto was just to blame Erich for inventing the whole thing, when Elysium’s flight control interrupted him,
“Elysium to unidentified Federation Buster. Stay away or be blasted to space dust”
“Buster…ehh…”Lucky Escape” to Elysium. We are salvagers coming to trade and buy ships”
“You got your hands on a Buster “salvager” and expect to come here to fence the goods?”
“My salvage was honorable”
“I am sure it is…Elysium don’t deal with “salvaged” ships”
“Elysium check your scanners once again. Allow me to dock. If you don’t like my ship, I will take my goods somewhere else…”
Otto had made unveiled hint about the scan and he knew that the woman on other end would check scanners thoroughly. The silence was telling and Otto smiled. Even superficial scan would reveal that this Buster was remarkable. When the group had hijacked the Buster ship, they got their hands on Buster Mk5, the newest variant of this medium fighter who had been just sent to Federation’s crack units. Otto slowed down the fighter than accelerated to top speed, taking a sharp turn, before stopping again. He knew that by now shipbuilders of the Elysium would be very interested in the new ship. The Mk5 variant had over the double of acceleration and steering compared to previous models of Buster fighters. In addition, it sported the larger weapon power plant and had three times more hardpoints. The Elysium may take high moral ground on “salvaging”, narcotics and prostitution but Otto knew that shipbuilders were technological junkies.
“This is flight control to “Lucky Escape”: you indeed are “lucky” – welcome to Elysium. Dock at Docks 5, bay 2341.”
“Thank you, Elysium”
“They let us in?” Ni Lan asked.
“Yeah, but now the hardest part comes,” Otto said with grim face. There was still case of getting approval to stay onboard.
Ha’nt stood up from the floor, stretched his legs and leaned on the wall. Medications have worked for some time on him and he had been attentively listening to anything said.
“Why can’t we just use this fighter?” he asked.
“First rule of piracy and let me tell you that from now on we are condemned to piracy – the first rule is to never keep a capture”
“Why not?” Ni Lan asked.
“Every ship can be traced. Right now, every ship in Navy is looking for this Buster. They may even sent a squadron to this sector to destroy us. So we have to change ships and do it fast…” Otto explained, steering the ship into assigned docking approach.
Erich could see how Elisa’s Elysium kept its freedom and independence in part of space on border with Federation and controlled by paranoid warlords. Already 12 km away, automatic weapon platforms were placed in such way that they covered each other. Between them lasertowers combined with missile batteries were placed to provide additional powers. Between this ring of defenses and the Elysium, myriad of fighter ships were flying patrols. Now and then, he could see pocket-cruisers, yachts or freighters converted to deadly warships. Also the station itself had many laser and missile towers dotted at its hull.
The Buster approached a large hangar door with painted number five on it. It opened revealing a tunnel leading deeper into station. Erich saw that walls had MD positions that were tracking the Buster.
The tunnel came to a cross and Otto took the upwards going route, coming to huge hall with many bays. He finally found the right bay, secluded from the rest of the hall, and docked.
Opening the door, they were faced with welcoming committee of ten heavily armed guards along with one mechanic.
“I am in charge of security in this section,” one woman announced. She took out a PDA and took picture of every member of the group. Obviously, she was running the pictures through her archives looking to find any matches. Ni Lan and Ha’nt did not get any reaction, but she stopped by Erich. She looked at him with utter contempt and disgust.
“Assassin,” she said, as if she was spitting out the word, “We don’t like your kind here.”
Erich calculated that only archived picture of him was that of last month, when he was put on wanted list for Rudel’s murder. He gambled also that Elysium had no sources at Anarchy Port where he usually resided.
“Accused of? Yes…Then again we all know how Federation never accuses anyone wrongly”
The last comment drew a smile on the mechanic’s face. Erich had obviously hit a nerve there. However, the woman in charge did not appear affected by the comment, “If anyone, including the animals dies here, you will get a tour out of airlock, got it?”
Erich nodded. At least he got access.
“After your dealings are done here, the assassin is not welcome here again,” she added.
Next the woman moved to Otto who was still wearing the pilot helmet, obscuring his face.
“Remove it,” she ordered.
“Forget it”
“Remove it freely or get thrashed in process. Either way it goes off”
Otto turned to the ship and started to climb aboard, ignoring the lasrifles pointed on him. Erich, Ni Lan and Ha’nt followed after.
“It seems that against better judgment, our mechanic here wishes that you stay here”
Otto turned. Wasting no more time than needed, the woman and guards marched away without saying another word.
The mechanic smiled and said, “Welcome to Elysium”
Boris Gellar was in good mood. The killer of Max Rudel was probably dead and even if the death of Erich Campbell stopped him from finding out where Binyamin was hiding, he at least could feel safer.
His anger with Olav Lie, after his security chief had failed to capture the assassin on that pirate base, had abated and Boris even informed his security chief that he was getting raise in his salary.
Yes, Boris felt good. His secretary massaged his back as he was reading the latest news about attack on Presidents End. Someone from media had christened new race as Khaak already.
His secretary, as always, said few words, just as Boris preferred from women. He was in mood for more than massage, but decided against it since the video conference with Senator McCarthy was due in few mizuras.
Few rooms away, Olav Lie was already holding the videoconference with the Senator.
“How sure can you be that they are dead?”
“I am not sure at all. I have heard that a Navy fighter was hijacked and that story is worrying me. I tried to find that story again in news media, but I failed”
“It is a real story; I am orientated about developments in Presidents End through my daughter. She is heading the Defense Committee as you know.”
“I know Senator. I am worried that Campbell is aboard that fighter. As we know the hijackers were hiding in an escape pod…”
“I find it very unlikely that they are the ones that hijacked the fighter. Still I can use my connection to find out where they went”
“Better to be on safe side, Sir”
“That’s right. It is time to inform Mr. Gellar that it is time for our videoconference”
“Yes, Sir,” Olav Lie said and turned off his holograph projector. Walking towards the massage room, he thought about the missing fighter. His gut feeling told him that Erich was aboard that fighter. If he was, Olav Lie did not need Senator McCarthy’s access to the EYE network to find out where that fighter went.
In Elisa’s Elysium, the fighter would be sold and new ship bought. Then, even the all-seeing EYE network would not be able to track Erich, because it would not know what ship to look for…
He knocked twice on the door leading to the massage room.
“Enter,” the voice of Boris could be barely heard through thick doors. Olav Lie took a deep breath. He hated the man, but still he had to play his role of subservient henchmen. Not for long, he thought before entering the room. Not for long…
“What next Argons?” Ni Lan asked while they were waiting for mechanic to return with his scanner.The Boron was still taking in the new situation. Three weeks ago he had escaped from a Boron orphanage and hacked himself into ticket computer of a shuttle that took him to Federation’s sector of Presidents End. At that point, he thought that it had been the greatest adventure of his, until then, uneventful life. Then he got arrested and placed into a lonely cell. Week later two Argons were placed in cell next to him. And few hours after that a Split, of all creatures, is freeing them while station is under attack of unknown forces. Now he realized that he was fugitive along with two Argons and Split he knew nothing about.
“The Ha’nt needs to visit the hospital section. Then we will try to sell a ship. We need money and we need it fast,” Otto answered.
“We need guns too,” Erich added. Two men exchanged glances. Otto understood that illusion of safety aboard Elysium was just that. An illusion.
“Guns too…”
“And then where should we head next?” Ni Lan asked.
“We got to avoid the Federation’s space. Boron Kingdom is no better…”
“Split space may be unhealthy too,” Ha’nt added. In his mind, he did not doubt that the powerful enemies of Argons or the assassins hired by his family to murder him in order to keep family’s honor would be able to find them…
“Yes, Split space is potentially dangerous,” Otto acknowledged, reading the Split’s mind.
He continued, “Only what remain are Independent systems and Paranid territories. Still lots of space to hide in”
Otto made mental note to himself to find out what the young Split had done to receive outcast status.
“Thank you for waiting for me,” mechanic announced his return. In his hand was a portable scanner while in other he had portable computer.
“They have just told me that your ship has been transported to A-Room”
“A-Room?”
“It stands for Analysis Room. That’s where we dissect, so to speak, new ships,” the man explained, giving them signal to follow him.
They walked through the docks, following the short man. For Erich it was the first time he had been to Elysium and he was surprised to see the amount of law and order, despite the obvious presence of large number of pirate ships. Every 50 to 60 meters couple of guards was positioned armed with laserbeam carbines of, to Erich, unknown design. He detected over 60 cameras present in the docks.
They walked into lift, taking them to another level. Once the doors opened, they were greeted by a PMD nest. The mechanic passed through a retina scan test and explained their presence before the group was allowed to enter.
A blast door opened leading into A-Room. The “room” was misleading term. What looked like entire level of the station was filled with spacecrafts of many origins and their parts. The place teemed with activity and buzz, with every ten or so meters occupied with crews working on some project. They passed, following the mechanic, several spacecrafts that none of them had seen before. Noting their interest, mechanic smiled and commented, “Independents’ designs”.
In sectors not ruled by any of five major races, many worlds formed their own states, commonly known as Independents. Most of these worlds were not acknowledge by the five leading powers, constantly being in danger of being invaded by one of the five races. Some of them developed their own weapons and fighter spacecrafts, sufficiently advanced to rival any fighters produced by the five races.
Finally, they reached the Buster they had arrived in. It had been brought down by spacecraft lift and was now surrounded by five mechanics.
“Do you give your permission to perform scans on the fighter?” the mechanic asked.
“Go ahead,” Otto said.
Two of mechanics climbed aboard, while others started to scan its exterior.
“Why don’t they just take away the fighter?” Ha’nt asked.
“Who would then come here to trade? Remember, this is not a pirate station,” Otto explained.
After half stazura of scans and two starts of the engine, they seemed finished.
“You people have brought in fine catch,” the mechanic that had brought them here commented.
“Shall we speak price then?” Otto asked.
“I say… One million credits”
“I prefer hardware if you don’t mind”
“What hardware?”
“Two customized Bayamons plus 20 grand as pocket money to spend while we are here.”
“The price of customized Bayamon is about 600.000 to 800.000 credits. Double that since you are asking for two of them. Your demand is not realistic.”
“How many opportunities do you have for getting your hand on next generation of Navy’s Buster fighter, with zilch damage? And buy the way, buying brand new Bayamon that is customized may cost up to 800.000 in Freeport, but not in the place they are produced - Elysium”
The mechanic smiled. Obviously he was connected with someone else since he appeared like he listened for something. Erich scanned him with magnetic field detection mode and saw that he had a communication device operated in his ear.
“I got “go ahead” from above. You get also your pocket money too and your docking allowance has been extended to five standard days, station time”
“Before I forget. Add flight training for him there,” Otto said pointing to Erich.
“Ahh…Sure…That will not be a problem”
When they left the earshot of the mechanics, Erich asked, “What was that for?”
“A part of living in space is that you will need to know how to steer a spaceship. Can’t expect me to fly you everywhere…”
“The arrangement worked nicely up to now!”
“Yeah, but then I was not really in need of a wingman. Now that half the galaxy wants to fry our sorry asses it might be good idea to have extra firepower out there,” Otto said tapping the viewing window in the lift.
Erich bite back the answer to that and instead asked, “We got to provide proper treatment to Ha’nt”
“Yeah and we have to buy message drones”
“Why do we need message drones?” Ni Lan asked.
“We two have a friend that needs to be told that we are ok.”
Suad Khan was reading the contents of the message drone. Rereading them again to make sure that he did not overlook something, he then took out the memory chip out of the drone and crashed it below the heel of his shoe.
Checking the cameras outside his shop, he decided to take another visit to his nephew. Walking towards the station’s hospital he thought what next move should be. Finding the causes behind the hunt of Erich and now Otto, had proven fruitless. And perhaps pointless too…
If Boris Gellar was taken out before, at least Otto would not be fugitive in Federation’s space. Erich and Otto had only been saved by attack of what media took to calling Khaak, from long time in prison and who knows else.
Time to strike back had come, Suad thought, seating himself behind the hospital computer. First he took a throughout background check of Ha’nt and Ni Lan. On Ni Lan he found nothing noticeable, beside the Argon charges of hacking into government network and Boron Kingdoms charge of stealing identity.
Ha’nt Renegade, after some search, revealed to be Ha’nt Wyrta and also his story proved true, nothing spectacular beside denunciating notice in official Split government news service, SFN. Below that notice, a prize on his head had been posted by his former family.
Being done with that, he wrote down a message to Erich and Otto and encoded it. The message appeared as announcement on Goner Meeting, something he was sure that no one wanted to go to. He posted it on MIN job network, that way being sure that it was posted on Elysium too.
Then he shut down computer and found his way to his nephew’s room. As always Buck was staring into the wall, his eyes focused on something far away.
Perhaps one day, Suad thought with heavy heart. Perhaps one day you will wake up…
Olav Lie was often compared to machines by his subordinates, of course this talk taking always place behind his back. To him efficiency was question of survival, something he had learned Army long time ago. And efficient man is man that never let anything to chance. Erich was threat and if it had not been for Boris’ usual paranoia this fruitless Erich would have been eliminated long time ago. Binyamin Halevy may or may not be alive, but that threat was toothless or that man would made his move earlier, Olav thought.
Holographic display before him showed a secretary, beside her a sign saying “Coal & Blue, Toys for Future!”
“Is Arthur McKenzie available?” Olav asked the secretary.
“Sorry, Sir. He is on factory tour…”
“Leave him message that client reference number 62.3001.A4 called”
“Will do, Sir”
He turned off the holographic projector and waited. Soon the computer announced incoming call, asking if he wanted to accept it.
“Yes,” he said.
Projectors started again and a hologram materialized into a masked creature. Olav had wondered what race the man or alien was. The voice was Argon, but that can always be faked…
“Always pleasure to see you, Mr. Lie”
“Pleasure is mine, Mr. Blue”
“What can we do for you today?”
“Two stage mission. Search and destroy if found”
“Could you be more precise?”
“There is possibility of that a man is on Elisa’s Elysium. The station is…”
“We know where station is. Who is the target?”
“Erich Campbell. The pictures of him are available on any major news service. If he is on Elysium, he had arrived in Navy’s Buster fighter.”
“That makes our search easier. Any more info?”
“The man served as cyberborg in Army. He may have retained his implants, but this is not confirmed. He may be in company of another man, Otto Dahl but this too is not confirmed.”
“The cost is 700.000”
“Accepted. However, note that I am only interested in death of Erich Campbell and no one else”
“Understood. If the target is not found, we will only charge you 30.000. If target is not found, do you want to us to search for him? This will increase the cost to 900.000…”
Olav Lie thought about it. If assassins did not find the Erich in Elysium, then Erich is dead. The station he was imprisoned on blew up under Khaak attack and all escape pods have been found.
“That is not necessary,” he answered.
“If you change your mind, contact us again.”
“Of course”
“Next contact between us will be in 24 hours.”
With that, the image of assassin faded and projectors were again turned off.
Ni Lan had been impressed by the size of Trading Station in Presidents End, although at that time his view was somewhat obstructed since at that time he was dragged behind two human guards.
Elysium was much, much bigger, he thought elated. There were people everywhere. He watched Argons, Paranids and Teladi pass by. He avoided Borons, since he did not want to answer any questions passing Borons would be sure to ask. The Split he avoided too, something Ha’nt seemed to do also.
Ha’nt felt uncomfortable by the glances he and Boron got, something the weird Boron did not notice. Ni Lan was sent by Otto and Erich to pick Ha’nt up from station’s hospital while they worked on arrangements for the new ships. He looked at their clothes. That was not it – he had the same clothes, the battledress for informal occasions, as any other Split present. He looked at Ni Lan. The same, whatever it was, as any other Boron. Then he got it.
“We have to split, Boron”
“Why,” Ni Lan asked.
“How many Split do you see walking with a Boron?”
“Ehhh…,” Ni Lan started to look around.
“None stupid! We are attracting attention to ourselves by being together.”
“Oh…Yes that’s true. Ok then, we have rented rooms 435 and 436. The last one is ours. I have taken the top bunk because…”
“Whatever, Boron idiot!“
To avoid further conflicts with obviously irrational and enraged Split, Ni Lan quickly describing the way to their room, before hurriedly walking away.
He turned to see if the angry Split had walked away and seeing that it was the case, he decided to walk around sightseeing before returning to his room. Maybe the Split would calm down until then.
Ni Lan walked open-eyed around the station. He had not seen many stations in his short life, but he was sure that this one was the most spectacular one. The bustle of people was amazing, with Argons always hurrying somewhere, Splits occasionally snarling at each other and those that passed by, especially if they were Borons. Borons like him were curious in anything around them. Paranids seemed like they never looked at anyone and appeared arrogant to Ni Lan. Passing Teladi from time to time would offer him trinkets to buy, something he would be tempted to do if he had any Credits to spend.
The level he was on overlooked the docks they had docked at, when they had arrived. He watched different freighters docking with station, swarming few sezuras later with logistic drones loading or unloading cargoes. He watched spaceships departing and wondered what faraway destination they traveled to.
Ni Lan heard the Station’s time announcement and decided that he had spent too much time sightseeing and walked over to the lifts, taking one of them to living quarters. He would explore the station another time.
A Goner Ranger jumped in Elena’s Fortune system. To casual observer it appeared as any Ranger type ship, unarmed and carrying the bore-me-to-death-with-earth-preaching Goners…
That could not be furthest from the truth. This Ranger was outfitted with latest forward firing mass drivers, cleverly built into hull so they could not be detected by scanners. Two rear firing missile tubes were also installed, camouflaged as exhaust tubes. Its scanner was unusually sophisticated for a Ranger type of ship and it also had latest ECM and ECCM devices installed, something no civilian ships had access to.
It approached the Elysium station and asked for docking permission. Goners had privilege of docking rights in most of the Universe so the docking was, as expected, approved.
Slowly the Ranger docked with the station. Four monks stepped out wearing novice robes. In their robes, undetectable weapons were hidden and they passed the check without problems, not that guards searched too much the newcomers.
Unlike other Goners, who would at once try to convert any Argon at sight, those Goners parted. One of them headed to local drinking dens, visiting the shabbiest ones first. Two of them walked around the various docks, checking the ships that were docked there. The fourth headed to station’s registration office, something that seemed weird behavior for a Goner monk, especially since the office was closed during station’s night hours.
All in all, their behavior would have seemed odd if someone had watched their actions. Then again, most people would rather watch the wet paint dry than to pay attention to Goner doings and goings.
To next chapter
