Border Disputes Chapter 4

[Hawk_strike]

Chapters 1-3 here

Chapter Four: Civil Blood

-Heres everything i know about war; Somebody wins, somebody loses, and nothing is ever the same again-

The coldness of space it is said, can be outmatched by the hearts of sentient beings - and space is cold…Very cold. It is this sort of man that joins the ranks of the pirates; men who will kill for their next fill up of space fuel and their next adrenaline rush. It is these pirates, which also scavenge the wreckage after battles, and these sorts of men, that would stumble across the lonely prison corvette.
Hahri often thought badly of these men, they made him a murderer by having to destroy the pirates stupid enough to stray into Aladna hill, they haunted his dreams. But it is easy to judge these men, when you do not consider how cruel space and life can be, hearts freeze only when the heat of emotion gets to great to handle.

Two pirates by the names of Paul Garth and Ban Harling attached there Teladi “ship sucker” to the hull of the prison transports command and passenger section, floating mainly intact in space, disembodied from the rest of the ship. The ship suckers where designed to enter ships that didn’t have airlocks, they where recently deployed by the argon military to “inject” troops into Pirate Freighters. The front of the ships would be a Magnetised Airlock plus an advanced Cutting system built by TerraCorp then the ships would have the Drives and command sections that varied from race to race. Seldon couldn’t hear the cutting, he couldn’t hear them coming, he couldn’t hear anything - he was in a state of hypothermia, freezing and half dead. He couldn’t hear when they cut open the cell door, and couldn’t see who it was that was carrying him out of his huddled position.

It wasn’t long, at least by his experience in this semi conscious state before he “awakened” in a tank of bubbling warm water, wires attached to his body, Tubes stuffed in his mouth going deep inside feeding him food directly to his stomach, and ensuring he could breathe. What little energy he had in him he used to turn his head towards the source of light from the edge of the tank. It was Ban Harling (off course hahri didn’t know this) checking the equipment with his torch, other then this tiny spec of light the room was dark, and probably to preserve his eyesight Seldon thought in a moment of clarity. Hahri went in and out of consciousness as his condition would dictate - until he awoke to a dropping water level, and a sensation of falling and pain, later he would learn the falling was him hitting the bottom of the tank and getting knocked out, and the pain was the various “accessories” attached to his body snapping off. When he regained consciousness Seldon found himself sitting up on a medical bed being looked at by three staring eyes very much the way one would look at a meatball sandwich if you hadn’t eaten for lord knows how many weeks. Suddenly it dawned on Hahri “three eyes!!” he turned to the one eyed man and questioned;

“If you don’t mind me asking - WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU!”
The one eyed man backed away when Hahri yelled and responded in a very timid way “Am Paul Garth my friend, and this is my associate Ban Harling … we are… Entrepreneurs we found you and your ship floating in space after the battle a couple weeks back and….”
Hahri Interrupted “I don’t very much like the way you said Entrepreneurs there Polly…”
“Just trying to make our way in the world friend, what’s your name then?”
“Am Hahri … Hahri Peters…”
“Peters is a rare name Hahri, in fact in all my travels I don’t think we have heard it once have we Ban”
“No not once Paul” Ban responded lifting one eyebrow
“See we think you’re that traitor Hahri Seldon, and if you are you could be very valuable to us indeed…”
“And if I was… what value would I have?” Seldon enquired knowing that his attempt to cover was blown
“Well, you best be Hahri Seldon, otherwise we spent a lot of money keeping you alive when we could’ve just sold you as a slave there couldn’t we Ban”
“Yes a slave, those paranid are always looking for … Filthy human slaves…”
“Indeed, so we where hoping Hahri that you could then help us with the security codes for the Argon Sector patrols - what with them cutting up our business and all…”

Seldon thought to himself for a couple seconds, it didn’t matter to him what happened to the federation now, in a time of war the sector patrols could be the only thing standing between wars being simple border disputes and full scale invasions penetrating all the way to the capital, but the argon federation was little more then a corporate republic now, and what few friends he had were so delusioned by the principles of democracy and liberty that it would take deaths now to ensure future lives. He then responded;

“The sector patrol codes always begin with SOL3 and then continue with the ship registration which are clearly visible on the sides of the ships with video enhancement goggles, they’re not really that hard to crack. You’ll also need a Military logon, you’ll have to get into a military installation and steal one though, and mine will be invalid.”
“Wow ban, look he really is a traitor, how bout we make him get the logon himself, what with him knowing the layout of the stations, and being a former military personnel himself and all, or instead we could off course kill him….”
Hahri stuttered in himself, knowing that if he didn’t go these cutthroats would kill him, but if he does go he risks capture and execution.
“Look, ill go okay, just don’t hurt me, wouldn’t want all that money you spent keeping me alive to go to waste now would you… Hey?… would you?”

[therjw]

good read
cannot wait for the next chapter

[Urashima Keitaro]

Good reading, man. Nice to know the creative forums aren't void of other creativity.

Sweet. I wasn't really checking for spelling mistakes so found nada. Just decided to give some feedback to a guy in the same boat as me. Looks like therjw is the only one to give feedback to your stuff too, huh.

Like I said, sweet! Keep it coming, can't wait for Chapter 5.