[Fiction] Never Forget Who Owes You A Debt...

[Gotan]

This is a work of fiction based upon a bug that hit me the very first day I played, and eventually solving it via sheer refusal to forget

It began, as so many of these things do, with a chance meeting in a dodgy drinking hole; You've all seen those ancient old movies, the ones where you're a naive young kid trying to hitch a ride somewhere else, and you hire a scuzzy but gold-hearted space rascal to ease you into your new, exciting life. I wish I could tell you where I found mine, but fresh out of Terran academy, heading for the nearest space station, I can only remember thinking "Which of the 3 identictal TER Medical Supply Factories am I supposed to choose?" It was probably number 2. It wasn't a lucky number, it wasn't anything special at all really; It was just the closest, and well, when the paint is still fresh on your brand new Kokri, you don't take risks. You just want to grab more experienced crew as quickly as possible.

That's where I met my first captain; his name was Diego Kojima. Being honest, my first impressions when he came aboard was of what bad facial hair he had. Such a straggly, pencil-thin strand of rubbish stubble. Even now, when he commands the truly unique flagship Erlking, at the head a massive space empire he has helped build and train, I secretly still get the urge to sit at his shoulder for old time's sake and when he says "Undocking soon", to shout "And grow it out or shave it off!" But that isn't the point of today's story. He very nearly wasn't captain at all. I actually recruited a different person for Captain originally. And today, I can finally complete that part of the story.

Her name was Tsuzune Yamasaki; I can still recall vividly meeting her, seeing her bright flaming red hair, as bright as a supernova, running out of the Medical Supply Office's management office; maybe she had gotten as tired of the paperwork as I was getting too, all blah blah blah from some faceless body behind the desk when all I wanted to do was get back out there and start being a space hero; but I admired her literal get-up-and-go, the way she was the only animated thing in the bland corporate setting. So I managed to catch her before she made it to the elevator, and hired her on the spot. She certainly took my money, as later fine reading of my bank accounts would show! But for now, I had a crew, and it was time to start looking at them more closely.

Or at least, I could after solving the mystery of where exactly the closet at the back of my ship lead too; a strange place, and one even now captains are reluctant to go back and explore. Do they unionize back there, take extended spacefly smoking breaks? Is it where the bad crew go? But looking at the performance evaluations, I discovered that Tsuzune had better reports on her piloting evaluations, so I promoted her to the front seat, watched as she came out of the mysterious door, and sent Diego back into the shame-closet. I had a little money left though, and thought I'd invest it in the future; and what an expensive lesson it proved to be! Much as he insists his experience is not as shabby as his face fluff might suggest, I get Diego to attend a piloting seminar, and move him back to the Captaincy. And then, I go for a space walk. I vividly remember that space walk...

... because when I got back, Tsuzune was gone. Those bank statements I mentioned? I checked them very closely and yes, there it is, I paid her recruitment fee, there she is taking the captain's seat and... just gone! And my money with it! With my last few credits, I hired the cheapest replacement I could find, a young lady called Yoriko Zhang and then, and this is still seared into my memory like a red hot laser blast, I spent a few hours schlupping around Terran space, doing boring jobs for lazy people trying to earn enough money to get back on my feet. Had I violated some sort of space code, that she'd just walk out on me like this? Was she still stuck in what became known as the mystery box at the back of the ship, folded up into some nightmare dimension from which that, if I could only find the key, she'd be released? But she never came back. And there I was instead, Space Door Dashing "Fine Meals" to apartment blocks across Terran Space instead.

Over the coming weeks and months, Kojima and Zhang proved to not just be loyal, but went on to be the backbone of our unfurling empire; they crewed my second ever ship, a beat up mining Kopis that turned our first profits, and allowed us to begin growing at last; they were aboard our first medium ship, and I can still recall the late night drunken debates in the staff lounge about Carcinisation, how everything ultimately becomes a crab, and how it applied even to space ships now. They were there aboard the Delilah's Swansong as it finally broke the backs of the Xenon scourge, by destroying a wing of 7 Class K and an I in a hail of co-ordinated plasma inside Tharka's Cascade XVII... We pride ourselves now as a company on never losing a ship, or a crew memember, except for the odd Agent whose allegiences we neither confirm nor deny, but also couldn't quite get back by particular dark arts we don't talk about much. But still, every now and then, even nearing 500 hours of active service, I'd look over the copious backlogs of Empire and wonder... what happened to Tsuzune? And where is my money?

It was another chance encounter in a disreputable dive that helped solve the mystery. There were hints, rumours out there in the confusing, complex galaxy, that she still survived; in the down time between deliveries and deal making, I'd ask around the bars and clubs if, you know, the name Tsuzune rang any bells? And one character, let's call him bob2323jones as a code name, whilst sharing drinks deep within a hive of scum and villainy, and telling tales of disgust with the obsfucations of paperwork and documentation, well Bob pointed out there were suggestions in the files that at the same time as she was signing up for my ship, she'd actually been taking a job with another company! That space hussy! Nothing concrete, nothing certain, and personnel records in particular appeared to be a nightmare to navigate, but the trading records? Ahh now where cash is concerned, those are always more complete, and those records seemed to point towards a different Baldric freighter, holding registration "CFS-971" for the Terran empire, where a Tsuzune Yamasaki was now employed. A quick search of the galaxy didn't show the ship, but there it was in the records; had she really just walked straight across the hanger bay and hitched her wagon to the first other ship she'd seen?!

By now I had the money to hire some very expensive lawyers to protect my corporate interests, but even they could find no way to edit the byzantine agreements to transfer her personal contracts back to me. So she just haunted my universe like a ghost, possibly out there, possibly real, but maybe not? And if so, somehow surviving the many pirate attacks and the harassment of Xenon and Kha'ak via her own wits; intruiging, but still... I even considered cloning her, but the science of that is still in its infancy; you need more than just the seed of a person to grow a new one even today, and anyway, you owe me money missy, and if I didn't get that back too, was that really the same thing as getting the person back?

More weeks passed by, my empire expanded further, and now had satellites almost everywhere to aid trading. And one day, Bob's words came back to me; you could set up alerts for your staff and securities to tell you if something specific was nearby. I'd never tried it, and in a universe this large there were still always new things to learn. So, I sent out the word to all who took my dollar, or just quietly beeped away out in space... Let me know if you see her name, or the ship registration pass by. It didn't take long until a satellite in Brennan's Triumph, way out beyond Neptune, sent out the alarm "Yamasaki Ship SPOTTED!". The expected type matched, it was a Baldric. And hello, what's this, a shiny unique "Solset" skin on your ship? I hope my wages didn't pay for your space bling, Tsuzune!

Orders went out to the nearest fast courier ship; "get within Comms range and hail the captain." By a coincidence of destiny, that was my original Kukri, also safely trading in Terran space. The past caught up with the present at a PIO Solar Power Plant II, and at last, there she was again on my viewscreen. Same red hair in bangs, same Tsuzune; Ahah, found you again! The rumours were right! Now though, a dilemna. I knew of no legal way to bring her back. I could disable and board her ship, risky with such a small vessel, and besides that would kill the crew: I'd get the ship not the wage stealing scoundrel. Could I get lucky and get her to bail from it? I'd never tried scooping up those pirates fleeing the righteous beat downs I'd given those who'd dare bother my traders. And I'd shot the unrepetently red and angry leaders, frankly. I could experiment, but was it worth it? Perhaps there was an easier way...

It wasn't easy to find the easy way; but for the price of a bit of social shame, for the cost of wearing a "Modified" badge, I found a way. Lurking near the docking port until I could get line of sight on the ship itself, I sent a barrage of spurious legal claims and dodgy documents to the ship's computer, and managed to pursuade it that yes, everything and everyone aboard really did belong to me. And why not? My rights had been ignored way back when I was a young space sprout fresh in the academy!

I teleported aboard to finally, finally reconnect with Tsuzune. And then... felt a huge wave of guilt. I really didn't want the ship; I originally planned to just delete it, but her skills had much improved since she first jilted me at the space alter of Medicine Supply, no doubt from a life spent aboard it and without me. And she'd made 8 new friends, friends who she'd obviously had many adventures with. Could I really just shove Maria Han and Elizabeth Adegboye et all out the airlock now? I was "Modified" yes, but I'm not a monster. Eventually no, conscience won out, and I decided they should all be welcomed into my Empire. So, escorted by my starter ship, I ordered Tsuzune to fly instead back into the bosom of my Empire. And to witness all she'd missed since she'd fled all that time ago; past my destroyer fleet, currently waiting outside the Holy Temple being constructed for the about to be unified Paranid factions. To my Headquarters where she saw the collosal hub of my trading web, and upgraded her ship to all the newer, better blueprints I had (ahem) acquired. She could even keep her Solset skin. But she'd better work to earn it now! Perhaps by helping earnt the 400m the Split are demanding, perhaps by helping with the soon to be unleashed Terraforming projects... there is always work to be found in our shared universe.

She has not yet been re-united with Diego... But when I build my first Asgard, she will. Not that anyone wants to challenge me now, the galaxy as a whole loves me, and the Xenon and Kha'ak were crushed long ago whilst she was off doing her own thing. Yet call me a sentimentalist, but I like the idea now of the first ever crew back together, and the beginning can be the end. Welcome back, Tsuzune Yamasaki, you five fingered discounting wretch, you!

[Blaze1st]

That was a cool story!

Sucks you had to get a modified tag for it though, I hope she proves well worth it...