'Of Future Heroism' - Pt.13 - Dark Star...

[silentWitness]

'Of Future Heroism' - Pt.13 - Dark Star...

Despite now having a jump drive I thought it best if Kiseedrann learned how to control her new body before we reached the station... We had plenty of time to get to Circle of Labour as it was just an intelligence gathering mission... We would then know our final destination... The split intelligence service that under my father had been considered one of the best in the universe was fractured and silent... With the decimation of all high profile Chin within the family, Ronkar had effectively obliterated all contact with foreign and internal agents... A vast network of highly trained Chin operatives, many of whom served as assassins, saboteurs, and counter insurgence, simply disappeared into their assigned covers... The Chin Underground had been born. On the outside was us guys... 'Steslza, 'Kiiran, 'Sallix, 'Shmit, 'Chi'zaia and myself... the Chin Uprising... A rag tag fleet of Corvettes and Fighters of all races but mostly Paranid... Shmit has constantly been an asset in procuring personnel from the small groups of intelligence operatives he came into contact during his service but so far we had only managed to collect 19 pilots... If we were ever to mount more than a raid we were going to need some serious firepower... And that would require crew...

Space flies buzzed around us, I watched Kiseedrann softly piloting the ship, a testament to just how good she was getting at controlling her new body... She's promised not to snatch one of us while were not looking... It doesn't work that way anyway... or atleast that's what she said. "Entering system 'Circle of Labour' we were finally there... Despite all the extra time it took to get here I'm glad that we took the time... we visited a multitude of Teladi, Argon and Boron stations on our way! Mostly to sample the cuisine and of course for shopping, but now we were here... I felt almost sad that our journey was at an end... from here on in we were on business.

Chi'zaia skipped down the promenade closely followed by Kiseedrann... Those two... they were like children most of the time!!! Ok... ok... so I was doing it too... there's so little enjoyment in this world... I'm entitled to a bit of fun... hey there's an idea maybe if my mother became president we could add that to the constitution!!! Suddenly a split caught my eye behind us... my hand autonomously went down to my holster... another one on the balcony... A bellowing laugh came from the bar... a Paranid staggered out of the bar. "Y-Youuu... like them... then!!!" Kiseedrann suddenly became very serious "Perhaps I should decapitate you to make sure!" the guard gave her a little squeeze "Haha little Tikirin..." this Paranid was either blind, drunk or had a serious death wish... he staggered in my direction "My Queen!!! how... radiant you look..." yes... a death wish!!! He was faking it as the Paranid got closer I couldn't smell spacefuel on his breath... What was going on??? I gave him a firm slap... the Paranid just laughed. We guided him back to our ship... the moment the airlock closed the he snapped a solute "Lacorastiin! Paranid Intelligence... It is an honour to work with such as you oh, Queen!" Kiseedrann looks like she wants to shoot him until Chi'zaia tickles her... "So where next???" he looks at me "Xenon Sector 472". A Xenon sector... why a Xenon sector!!! What could possibly be so important in a Xenon sector...

Black Hole Sun was a rough and ready supply port, Xenon raiders dotted the gravidar... Their senseless battle of attrition against overwhelming odds... then we entered the gate... Xenon sector 472... the blood red nebula swirled in the distance... I looked at the Gravidar... several destroyers circled menacingly while a sea of red... hundreds perhaps thousands of fighters... The turrets automatically deployed psgs in case one of the patrols took an interest. I looked at the fat Paranid intelligence officer stirred in his seat... his interest suddenly peeked ... "Go North..." his voice was full of disinterest and he quickly went back to his reports... Chi'zaia sat uncharacteristically quiet as if noise would attract the Xenon to us... In a sense it was already too late... a destroyer had targeted us... I activated the Speed booster and accelerated away through the nebula. There was nothing in front of us... wait... there was something in the fog... debris of some sort... a mamba swooped out of nowhere... Incoming Burst Transmission, Lacorastiin looked up tapped in a digit code into the console... A split command console appeared on the holoprojector "Jump to Family Tkr"... This was going to be one of those days... I could tell... I was beginning to wish that we'd not brought Lacorastiin with us... If it had just been us we could have had some fun... but this strait-laced Paranid has us all on edge. This mission has a sense of inevitability to it...

We docked with the Tkr shipyard... a rough and ready facility... slaves met us at the door... slavery was once prevalent in the Paranid empire but as they attended us I saw tears come to Kiseedrann's eyes... she looked over "I'm leaking again" I smiled... it was touching completely against the Paranid to connect with us unholy beings. Don't get me wrong the Paranid hide it well but their entire religion, the Holy Three Dimensionality is based upon multiples of three... deep inside the borders of the empire most Paranid are disgusted by our presence... which made my position within the Paranid empire both exciting and frightening all at the same time... a double edged sword. Kiseedrann was experiencing life from our perspective... before she considered me a curiosity... something she didn't understand... maybe even a puppet. Now that she was one of us, I think we both felt a genuine bond form between us three...

The bar... Do every single covert organisation in the universe meet in the central station bar??? Is it a convention??? Well imagine my surprise when we entered the small family run Chelt restaurant next door!!! Family Sjar... one of the small families, bearly a transporter in their name compared to Njy, Ronkar and Zein

The Argon man placed his blaster against Kiseedrann's cheek "So here you are..." two bolts slammed into Lacorastiin's chest... for the first time I see a genuine expression in his face as he collapses to the floor "I do so hate double agents" a few slaves came and cleaned up the mess... Two alien's in a scuffle... Tkr couldn't care less... the body would probably be shot out into space and no one would be the wiser. A man had been murdered in front of our eyes... I tried to push all those horrid thoughts from my mind and concentrate... "You kill him!?!?" The man put his gun back in it's holster and grabbed hold of my hand... guiding us to the docking rig... his touch was vaguely familiar, "Ronkar has spies everywhere and he cannot be allowed to know the true extent of Paranid involvement in the Chin Rebellion... besides he's more useful to us alive than dead"... was he joking??? We entered the docking bay and entered the docking bay... an unassuming station Ts awaited. The argon man put his gun into a cabinet... then smiled "I guess it's time we were introduced" the man reached for his neck with a device... suddenly his face seemed to crumple and melt softly he pulled it off. The split slowly revealed himself... he placed his 'face' into the cabinet and closed it.

My mind rushed back... I had seen him before... he was a older but it was him... "My protector" the man smiled "I didn't think you would remember, you were very young" the man humbled himself "I've thought about you every day since then... who you were... why you did it... what you said?!?" a little smile came to his face... his eyes closed. "It's time we left this place".

The journey was slow... Not that we went very far... it just took so long!!! Family Whi is just four gates away but it took the entire day to get there... but unlike with Lacorastiin I felt totally at ease... the ambience that he projected was calming. He hadn't actually killed Lacorastiin but he would likely wake up on some backwater outpost with no knowledge of how he got there. He kept us three entertained with his little stories of espionage... this man is the father I dreamed of... nights and nights I was convinced that he was my father... My father refused to even talk about that... not that I'd really push for him to answer... but now here I was with the man who had saved my life from uncertainty... here he was the mystery man... and I didn't know what to say to him...

From Whi we changed to an overnight transport to Three Worlds... Chi'zaia and I were coming back from dinner when he opened his door "Tikirin... I have something to tell you... Just you..." I walked into his room and sat down "You know when your father first introduced your mother to me I laughed in his face... I couldn't comprehend what he found... then you were born and I understood... you were so fragile... so quiet... a little jewel." he wipes a tear from my cheek "Such a union was considered heresy! He wept for you both... banished from seeing either of you, it almost broke him. He decided that one tazura he would have you back... his determination propelled family Chin to dominance to hell with the consequences! I was his dark star... espionage was always a talent" I summoned up the courage and asked him "What did you say to Flascammus?" he laughed "I said is that anyway to treat a daughter of Xaar" I looked up at his starry eyes "What's your name?" "Oooohhh! Now there's a question!!! Well a long time ago, not too long mind you... I was called Sahl" I smiled at him... "You have no idea how long I've wanted to ask that question" He reached into a small bag on the little writing desk and retrieved a large envelope "You must give this to your mother... Chin believed it to be important"... Chi'zaia sat in the corridor despite the fact that she cannot understand more than a few words in Argon I could see that she had understood the emotions...

By the morning Sahl had disappeared... Kiseedrann felt disappointed not to have negotiated with him... or in fact said anything to him... her entire reason for going through all that pain had been for nothing... but as we exited the transport it was plainly clear that something was wrong... Maybe not wrong... different.

[silentWitness]

Not particularly happy with it myself... It's become a link to part 14 more than anything else...

[GoateeCat]

I'm having a lot of trouble following the sequence of events in this one.

[silentWitness]

Thanks for saying something... I'll improve it for part 14...

Atleast you bothered...

[KiwiNZ]

Only read it last night. Good read but as you mentioned yourself, you have done better ones in the past Still, it works well in filling a gap to a new chapter. It was tricky to read at times but I like the twists that you keep throwing in.

Looking forward to the next chapter.

[MrFrog]

Just read it - I agree it's a little muddly (spelling?) - I will read it again tonight, it will probably make more sense then !

[Thalass]

Only just read it, SW. You're right, it's not your best work. It's almost more like a list, rather than a story. But it's still good. I look forward to the next installment