The Jansa Prince

Garen sat at his post and twiddled his thumbs. So far the journey from Sol had been pretty mundane and he had been pretty much redundant. As the Junior Technician on the bridge he was responsible for keeping watch on all the secondary systems and emergency backups, but in this day and age, that basically meant he was free to do the coffee runs and help out at any other station that needed it.

He sighed. He had spent four years at the Naval Academy and then a further three at Poly Tech getting fitted with the cerebral implants that enabled him to access and communicate with Earth's vast computer systems and the Naval battle systems for this? He felt ripped off. The recruiter had made the job seem so glamorous when he had been approached fresh out of high school. He had been too poor to afford college but the guy had assured him that the Navy would pay for everything, all he had to do was give them four years service after he graduated. Four years and he would have a college degree, neural implants and high job expectations. Garen had signed without a second thought.

Now as he sat here he was beginning to regret that decision. He still had three years to go and the most fun he had had, was flying a shuttle to the moon. Still this mission was supposed to be different. They were flying a bunch of delegates to a conference of the Galactic Alliance on the neutral planet of Nandu.

It was the first time Garen had been out of the Sol system and the first time he had used the Earths Jumpgate. The feeling of going into greyspace had been very strange. He had experienced it before of course. He had travelled all over the solar system and it had become second nature to experience the feeling of the massive FTL engines powering up and then pushing them into the other realm now known as greyspace. The longest he had ever been in that realm however was just over a couple of hours. It was always strange to see the stars start to stretch out like a long tunnel of light and then go out. If it wasn't for the throb of the engines you would swear you were not moving at all. Most captains chose to shut down their viewscreens because of the never ending blackness.

On this journey though they had used the Jumpgate. It was going to take them almost a month to journey to Nandu and no ship had enough fuel for that sort of journey. Instead the gate would do all the work. The silence had been shocking for the first week, but gradually he had got used to it and the drudgery of every day life aboard ship had returned. He had to attend classes and med bay to have new implants put in so he would be able to access the Galactic standard computer system. Apparently it was a lot cruder to the Earth system, in fact it was almost as crude as Earth's first first few computer systems, yet it was the height of the Galactic Alliances technology.

At first the Humans had not been able to believe this. After all, these were races that had been in space for centuries before them, yet it turned out to be true. For some reason Earth technology, when it came to computers, and other similar products, was way ahead of anything else out in the galaxy. They also excelled in something else as well. Tactics. They found that out in their one and only battle with the Sobek. True it could have been anyone of the races as they were all using the same Tactics.

The first time Earth's forces had ventured out into deep space, they had sent five ships. Four heavy battle-cruisers and one Air-destroyer. The fact that they still named their ships on standard Earth naval ships said a lot about their mentality. As they had dropped out of greyspace they had encountered a larger fleet of unknown origin. A truly significant event as the question of whether or not humans were alone in the galaxy had just been answered. Unfortunately it turned out they decided not to be friendly. Afterwards the reasons would become clear why what happened next had happened. The Human fleet had wandered too close to a Sobekian world and they had thought it had been an invasion. Because the two could not communicate with each other due to their systems being incompatible a fight had started. The Sobek's had outnumbered the humans 5 to 1. Unfortunately the usual intergalactic tactics were to simply overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers.

The human Admiral upon seeing the odds, simply split his fleet sending two Cruisers out wide too come at them from the sides and launched all his fighters. Their orders were to harass the enemy and do as much damage as possible to their engines and guns. He was surprised when his two Cruisers were not fired upon, instead all fire was concentrated upon his vessel and the two remaining Cruisers. His small fighters were able to do a lot of damage and then his flanking Cruisers opened fire, seeming to plunge the other fleet into chaos. He had not even fired a shot yet having put all his power to the shields, but now he ordered his own guns to fire and soon the opposing fleet began to run.

Being smart he let them. They still outnumbered them and he was damaged, but had not suffered any loss of life. He made it home and was deemed a hero. The intergalactic community had never seen fighting like it. To actually split your forces was unheard of. That would only make you weaker, not stronger. They could not understand how the humans had won the fight.

Still they excelled at so many other things. Clean energy, Nano Technology, Medicines, building materials. There was a wealth of knowledge to be had and after that initial hiccup, Earth had gradually been invited to join the Galactic Alliance. It had not been all smooth sailing of course, it never was. In fact that was why they were supposedly taking these delegates to this conference. Still that was not Garen's problem. He was the back up to the back up. The most he would be doing was standing night watches. Still it had got him out of the Solar system, a nice new upgrade and he would have a chance to sight see.

Smiling to himself he got up from in front of his viewscreen as the chimes for shift change blared out over the PA system. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all. He had heard that Nandu was the glittering jewel of the Galactic Alliance and one of the most beautiful planets there was. Plus every species there was, was on it. He would be able to try out some new foods, look at all those aliens he had studied in Xeno class and maybe even buy a few things for his Mother. As he threw himself into his bunk he laughed. Yeah things were looking up.

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It basically all came down to Math and Sex.

Kabri hummed to herself completely tunelessly. There was no was she could possibly have heard herself anyway, the helmet to her spacesuit had heavy baffling over her ears. The Valinor were a hearty people, but they were prone to having their equilibrium easily disrupted in vacuum, so her space suit was specifically designed to keep her ears within their own pressure fields. She hummed nonetheless, however, as she worked on the hull of the Jansa Prince scrubbing the fusion-bonded ceramic plating with a nano-saline solution meant to keep it from degrading during atmospheric entry. It was busy work and it had to be done in vacuum, which meant that she had to spend a few hours magnetized to the underside of the hull. One of the endless drudgeries no one ever mentioned when they dreamed about owning their own ship.

So there was no surprise that her mind was wandering, and she came to the conclusion that everything came down to math and sex. Two and two are four. There were so few things that were true EVERYWHERE, but that one fact connected to all of them. Two and two are four, and therefore two TIMES two was four. And two SQUARED was four. And so on and so on… until you could engage a ship’s greyspace drive core and use math to bend the fabric of reality around you and make the speed/distance constant your bitch. Math… it drove everything. Except… that it didn’t. People weren’t driven by math, not at all. People were random, nonsensical bundles of instinct. You could never predict a person’s behavior with math… but you COULD predict it if you understood their instincts. Ultimately, it came down to surviving, and to procreating. To Sex.

Yep, she thought as she finally finished scrubbing the last ceramic plate. Math and Sex. She had done it, she had solved the whole universe. Time for lunch.

She disengaged the maglocks holding her securely to the hull, and used the small directional thrusters built into her suit to coast freely through the black void outside the Prince, finding her way to the upper airlock. From here, inside her ship's orbit, she could see all of Nandu, it’s broad open oceans of incandescent green spreading across its expansive ionosphere, punctuated by staggered islandettes, all with spiraling chrome expanses of the gorgeous, completely self-sufficient cities the planet was known for. She didn’t know the planet well enough to be able to say with a certainty without the Prince’s nav computers, but she thought she could even make out Exatum, the actual Capital City of the entire Grand Galactic Empire. She exhaled, the moisture in her breath making tiny crystals form in the nanoplastic of her helmet viewer. For most of her visit here, she had been docked in the southern hemisphere; She had delivered a cargo of exotic carbon-forged hydroponic filters to a farming community, collected her pay, and basically spent the better part of the last cycle just chilling out on the beach. But it was definitely time to get back to work, and there was no way she’d find a job worth doing among the egalitarian farmers of the planet’s greenhouse continent.

No, the thing to do would be to head up to Exatum, and start putting it out that her ship was for hire.

She keyed the outer control to the airlock, and eased herself back to avoid the doors as they whirred open, the small open space just large enough for her to slide into. Once she engaged the maglocks in her boots, the ship ran a series of spatial scans, ensuring that her body was placed correctly before it closed the outer airlock door. The interior space of the airlock flooded with gentle blue light, soothing her from the creeping existential dread that had been clawing at her psyche from her extended spacewalk, and purging her body of any foreign pathogens she might have picked up while being bombarded with whatever cosmic horror-radiation might have bounced through her. The inner door opened and she reached down, gripping the curved metal rack and sliding her body down, letting her legs drop down under her to find the deck, and hoisted herself up to her feet. She reached up and disengaged her helmet, letting the static umbilicals retract into her suit as she lifted it up over her head, shaking out her short, colorful hair, her elongated ears twitching at their sudden freedom.

“Nice to have you back in one piece.”

The voice sounded throughout the ship’s corridors, a gentle but subtly powerful-sounding male voice with a pleasant base register that made it sound just a tiny bit sexy. She grinned, tugging off her fine-manipulation vacuum gloves and starting in on the bulky seals on her suit. “That’s right. My life was in constant jeopardy.”

“Well, technically speaking, captain… it WAS in constant jeopardy.”

She pulled the suit open, peeling it’s bulk up and over her shoulders, squeezing her narrow, willowy frame through the opening, leaving the shell of the full, bulky armor behind, and her in her light underclothes. She stretched up onto her toes, reaching up toward the bulkhead. “Xan, we should head planetside.” She said, descending the stairs into the ships’s central cabin, dropping into the acceleration bench, curling her legs up under her as she draped herself back over the cushion, eager to work the stiffness out of her body. “Can you contact the Exactum harbor master and get us a docking order, and then plot me an entry course? I need to take a shower.”

“Are you picking up that suit?”

She rolled her eyes. “YES.”

“Then yes, of course I can.” Xan said, his central processors already setting to his task. After a moment, he chimed in again, “I assume we need one of the small, outlier births? Rather than attract the attention of the local constabulary?”

She exhaled heavily, shaking free of her momentary laziness. Her AI was right, she didn’t want anyone looking at her ship too closely. It was ostensibly a long cargo hauler. It’s wide, bulky frame built to accommodate it’s heavy low-slung cargo bay. Structurally, however it was actually built up from an old-model Din Mora Fleet Tug, ships built with massive power cores intended to power the individual parts of the Din Mora Clanships into contact with each other. The Din Mora were notorious for obsessively overbuilding, and they really did a number on these old tugs; their power output was drastically outperforming their mass by several orders of magnitude. The completely rebuilt drive systems on the Jansa Prince were already pushing the boundaries of the legal limit for thrust/mass, but if someone really buckled down and did a complex inspection, she would be in trouble.

Still, She couldn’t help it. She loved engines… had loved them since she was a kid. She had built a thing of beauty in the Jansa Prince, and she couldn’t bear to part with it. They’d have to catch her first… which, she thought with a smile, clearly wasn’t going to happen.

“Yea, Xan, sounds good.” She said as she hopped up to her feet, stripping her undershirt up over her head, leaving her naked save for her undershorts, her creamy yellow/tan skin shivering at being exposed to the cool, crisp air of the ship’s interior. She flung her top up into the hallway in the vague direction of her vacuum suit. One more thing to clean up later.

The landing at Nandu was everything that Garen hoped it would be. The huge ship had glided into the space port and he had gotten his first view of an alien world. It was indeed vastly different to Earth. Towering buildings thrust high into the air, far higher than anything that had ever been built back on Earth. The material looked like nothing he had ever seen before, and the shapes of some of the buildings were mind blowing.

Yet as they descended he still caught sight of large stretches of wilderness and oceans and for a place that was so built up the skies were remarkably clear. Earth had done a great job improving it's atmosphere but still it could not compete with this. No wonder trade with the Galactic Alliance was so important.

As soon as the ship docked, safety protocols were put into place. They were now on foreign soil and as such they were on a war footing. Sure this was a peaceful mission, but they were nothing if not careful.

Garen as he was sure he would, was assigned night watch on the bridge. It wasn't all bad, it gave him time by himself, and he was pretty sure nothing would happen. It basically meant he was going to miss out on some sleep for a few nights. Still he had a good book to read and a couple of new Holo's to watch so it shouldn't be a total loss.

The first night passed uneventfully and the Delegates had a productive day. Garen was able to get some extra sleep in the afternoon and so at midnight when he relieved the watch he was feeling wide awake. By 3am that feeling had gone. He was bored. He had watched his Holo's and the book had proven to be a snore fest. He had nothing to do and his shift did not finish until 8am.

He sighed as he looked out the viewport at the spaceport and the city beyond. A thousand lights twinkled back at him, beckoning at him to explore and he shook his head. He didn't have shore leave for another week. How was he supposed to find out about this place until then.

Suddenly a sly grin slipped over his face. Sitting down in his chair, he leaned back and made the connections in his mind and pulled up the new neural links that had been established. Sure enough he was able to link up to the planets computer system. Smiling he took a few minutes to tinker with the settings to set it up for human interactions then dove in.

Soon he was swimming in information. He was amazed how easy it was for him to find out things. He started off slow, requesting good restaurants for humans, then places to see, then information on the other races. From there he decided to check out the other delegates. Some of the information was off limits, but with a few simple commands he bypassed the basic security and brought it up. It made for some fascinating reading and he learned a lot of interesting information. Some of it was the same as the things he had been taught in Xeno class. However some of it actually contradicted the things he had been taught. He chose to believe the reports he was reading.

As he was glancing through one file he came across an attachment that was locked. He found that a little strange. Why in the world would a file be locked in information that was already locked? Especially in files like these. Examining it he saw that it would be a simple matter to crack it, in fact for someone like him it would be child's play, but did he want to? Obviously someone had hidden this file here for a reason not expecting someone like him to look. Could it have been one of the Delegates themselves? Garen debated with himself for five minutes before curiosity won out and he quickly cracked the file and opened it up.

What he found had him sitting up in shock. Inside was the time schedule of the Delegates next meeting, the seating arrangement, a schematic for a shaped charge, a projection of the bombs blast radius and who it would effect and the likely outcome of the scenario. The problem was it was all in an Alien script. Still it did not take a genius to figure out what was going on. The delegates were all drawn in and it seemed the only ones not getting hit by the blast were the humans, yet he knew these plans were not human so what was going on.

Sitting back to think he went through all he knew. Obviously someone planned to blow up the Delegates tomorrow and somehow throw blame on the Humans. He had the plans and could of course throw a monkey wrench into their whole plans but how did he explain knowing about it? As far as he knew spying on a foreign powers private information was still classified as...well spying. People went to jail for that. So how did he stop them and keep himself out of prison?

Getting up and walking up and down the bridge he pondered and deliberated the puzzle for the next hour. He came up with and discarded plan after plan. He thought of putting an anonymous note in the Captains quarters, but he was pretty sure it would not be taken seriously. He could phone in a bomb scare to the delegates meeting hall, but he didn't know how to do that, and besides he was pretty sure it could be traced back to their ship. He came up with and dismissed numerous other plans and finally decided he would just have to deal with it himself.

He had the blueprints of where the device was located, how it was attached and how to get to it. All he had to do was get to it before the time it went off and get it to some place safe. Of course he didn't know when that was but he could find out roughly when. He pulled up the Delegates schedule for the next day and saw that they were not due in the meeting hall until 10. So he had until then at least. That gave him, he thought looking at the clock, oh crap a little over four hours to find, break into, retrieve and get rid of the bomb from the Delegates meeting hall.

Running from the bridge he made his way down to the lower decks. Finally he hit the gangplank. It was supposed to be guarded, but at 6 in the morning the guard sat in his chair dozing. Garen had to risk it and sneaked passed him and quietly down the ramp. Vanishing into the shadows he ran to the edge of the spaceport and then stopped. Heck now where? Seeing a line of what had to be taxi's he ran up and hopped in one. Speaking in basic the universal tongue he asked the driver, “Can you take me to the Delegates meeting hall?”

He got a strange look from the Bastji but the feline just shrugged it's shoulders and took off. “You know the place isn't open yet right? I got no problems taking you there, I mean a fares a fare but they won't let you in.”

Garen just nodded knowing a smile was not a good idea to give to a Bastji. They took that as a challenge not as a friendly gesture. “It's okay I am meeting someone there, but thanks for the tip.”

It took over half an hour to get there and luckily he had enough money to pay for the fare. As he watched the cab drive away he consulted the file in his head and made his way around the building to a shadowy corner. There he found several trash compactors and an incinerator. Moving behind the second compactor he saw that a grate was loose. So far so good. Wrenching it open he climbed into the duct concealed behind it and proceeded inside.

For the next hour he played hide and seek with guards, staff and the occasional shadow as he made his way towards his target. He had to climb several floors but finally he came to a small utility closet. Slipping inside he found he was too late. The back panel had been removed and a rope had been lowered. Looking down he saw no light so he guessed the bomb was already in place. He had been hoping to catch whoever had planned this in the act. Now he was going to have to actually do something about the bomb himself.

Finding a light was easy enough and after his navy training climbing the rope was simple. What he found at the bottom though was not. It looked exactly like the device in his head. A small rectangular device that was going to explode mainly to the sides and up a little. With the Human delegates sitting at the furthest point away they would escape all harm.

Garen looked at how the device was attached. It was not bolted, screwed or put on in any way he could see. Well alien tech meant alien ways of attachment. He looked for anything that might be a switch or release point and then consulted the diagram in his head. There was just one point that looked promising and he pressed it and one side slid down. Grinning he pressed the same spot on the other side and the bomb dropped into his arms. He was surprised with how light it was. Now all he had to do was get out.

Climbing back up was not as easy. He had thought he would just tie the bomb on the end of the rope and pull it up but with nothing to tie the bomb to he had to carry it up. By the time he made it up the two floors he was sweating like a pig and was exhausted. He checked his watch. 9:30. He had at least half an hour to dump the thing and he had a great idea where. The incinerator. The good thing was the place was now open so he should just be able to walk right on out.

Looking around he tried to find something to hide the bomb in. There were plenty of smaller items but nothing it would fit in. Finally Garen decided to just grab a large cloth, create a sling, hide it in that and carry it out. It turned out to be a big mistake.

As he wandered through the halls he began to get the feeling people were looking at him. Maybe they hadn't seen too many humans, he thought, although that really didn't account for the stares. He sped up a little and had almost made it to the front doors when he spotted several security guards on duty there turn and point directly at him. Damn what now? Reversing direction he began to make his way towards the vent he had come in at but several more security guards blocked his way. Damn. Okay something was up, however they couldn't know about the bomb or they would not be acting so calm. So all he had to do was act calm and maybe he could bluff his way out of this.

One of the guards stepped forward and pointed at him. “You, Human,” he began in basic. “Where did you get that cloth?”

Ahh that is what it was. A simple misunderstanding about the cloth. Well that was easy enough. Wait no it wasn't. To give them back the cloth he would have to expose the bomb. This was not good, not good at all. “Oh this,” Garen said running his hand over it. “I found it bundled up in a dark corner. I just thought it was an old rag or something but it looked nice so I thought I would take it home. Why is there a problem?”

The guards looked at each other then the leader spoke to him again. “I am afraid there is a mix up. That is a sacred cloth. You will have to hand it over.”

Oh crap. Now what? There was no way he could hand it over with a bomb inside it, yet it appeared there was no way he was getting out of here without handing it over. He had two choices and they both involved running. One with the bomb and one without. The safest was without.

“Oh I am terribly sorry officer,” he began as he started to loosen the sash he had created. “I didn't mean anything by it. Of course I will return it.” He unwrapped it from around his neck an approached the man. He noticed how the rest of his squad seemed to have relaxed and just before he handed it over he threw it in the air and yelled “BOMB”. At the same time he began sprinting for the exit.

At any time he expected to feel something hit him and bring him down, but he made it out the doors and across the road. Quickly he dashed down several roads and alleyways until he was thoroughly lost. Well now he had done it. Sure he had saved the Delegates but at what cost? He was going to have to lay low and scan the news feeds until he found out exactly what the fallout from this was.

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“Is that… is that the rear compression stabilizer?”

Kabri grit her teeth as her hands adjusted within the compressed holograms projected to either side of her flight mount, gripping the spatial sensors and taking tighter control of the Prince’s descent.

“By ‘that’, did you mean that shuddering you’re feeling in the controls?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Xan, I mean the shuddering in the controls. Because didn’t we just replace that thing?”

The virtual resolution array surrounding her in the Flight Womb displayed her flight path. She eased the Jansa Prince through her flight corridor, coasting through the elegant spires of Exatum. From here, she could see the broad thoroughfares with their succulent greenery, the opulent waterways, and the towering heights of the Union Capital. She was only flying through, of course; their berthing was in the outer reaches of the city. It might mean she wasn’t able to get AS good a cargo, but it was hard to argue against the possibility of having her ship impounded. As it was, she would probably wind up needing to crack open the hidden panels in her cargo bay for some sort of smuggling job. She didn’t actually consider herself a smuggler, per se… She’d met cargo haulers that actually referred to themselves as smugglers, and they were invariably insufferable prats. Still, in a pinch, she happened to be very, very good at it.

“We replaced the stabilizer, but it’s possible that there’s a systemic issue that lead to the failure of the replacement part as well.” Xan was continuing on even as she flew the ship ever downward, across the gleaming glass and transalloy of the city. “We will likely need to perform a diagnostic of the higher flight systems.”

She exhaled in frustration. That didn’t sound like an cheap problem. She focused on her flight path for the time being, not wanting to dwell on the very large expense that was likely looming in her future. The Prince made a wide sweep, coasting near the large government facilities surrounding the Capital. She looked up, watching the ebb and flow of distant starships, all falling into place within their docking orders…

Wait…

“Xan…is that… what I think it is?”

One of the largest ships docked within the outer concentric mass of official buildings was almost the size of a Sobek Warforge. It was a series of large, cubical masses, all connected end-to-end with a series of large domes stacked off each other toward its aft section. It’s drive system outputs were much smaller and longer than most ships this size. She grew up in space, she knew ships. This was a very particular style vessel, but what the hell would it be doing on Nandu?

“That is a Star Cruiser. It’s one of the main vessels of the Sol Navy of the Human Coalition.”

Humans. Kabri’s expression soured. Great. They had to pick NOW to creep out of their star system and start crawling over the capital. They’d be all over the city. She’d have to make sure she was armed.

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A lot of captains just dropped their cargo bays when they landed, making for easier egress while they were planetside. Kabri’s uncle Durnbaern had always impressed on her what a bad move that was. You never wanted your competitors to see what sort of cargo space you had available. Your ship is your life, and it’s nobodies business just what you’re flying but your own. She exited her ship out of the starboard airlock, climbing down the access ladder.

She had changed into a utility coverall, with a small cargo pack fixed to her back, and a tool harness around her belt. Among the various tools was her sidearm; a cold-carbon disruption blaster, a weapon she preferred for its high levels of overkill. Simply drawing it tended to have a pretty resolute effect on most situations. Most potential attackers, when confronted with the intense bass-reverberation of its fusion compressor throbbing in the pit of their stomach while looking down a barrel so wide she could fit most of her hand in it, almost always backed down immediately. When she did wind up needing to fire it, the utter swath of destruction it carved meant she rarely had to fire more than once. She reached the bottom of the ladder, her boots thudding against the fusion-bonded concrete of the low-budget hanger bay she had hired. She looked up, watching the hanger’s umbilicals extending to connect with the Prince, refueling and replenishing it’s raw matter storage.

She ducked under the half-open cargo doors, and made her way out into the city proper, ready to find herself either a cold drink or a hot meal. She ducked into a nearby cantina, finding herself a booth near the back and placing an order. She tapped the table, logging into the cities network, entering her ship info into the ‘for hire’ listings. Hopefully, she’d get a reply from someone with a cargo worth hauling before she wound up having to pay long-term docking fees.

Garen had made his way back to the spaceport by back alleys and crowded streets. He had managed to change out of his military jacket and now sported an old but serviceable black one. It actually went rather well with his navy pants and he had to admit he looked rather good.

His first thought had been to sneak back aboard ship and pretend like nothing had happened. Unfortunately that hope was dashed when a cordon of Galactic cops was stationed in front of his ship. Looking around he spotted a small bar and headed inside sitting in a small cubicle up the back. He needed time to think and plan.

He ordered a cold drink and then started to scan the holo feeds. So far nothing was on the news feeds but he knew it was only a matter of time. Until then he had a small window to do a few things. He should get in touch with the Captain and explain what was going on but what could he say. The only proof was in his head and he was not going to download that information on an open network. Besides he knew the language it was written in was not one of the major ones of the Galactic Alliance.

Okay so if he couldn't do that he had to solve this himself. That meant he first had to find out who was behind the attempt and his only clue was that language. He started a basic search for anything that resembled it and then started searching for a way off planet. It would not take long for the authorities to have his likeness plastered all over the place and he wanted to be long gone before that happened.

Of course he was going to need money for that, but luckily his acess to his bank account had not been cut off yet. He quickly created a fake account and transferred all his Naval money to that account. He even added a few zero's just to see if he could get away with it. He was surprised at just how easy it was and decided to set up a few more with several other banks just to be careful.

Finally with his finances in order and several fake identities set up he sat back and began to drink his cider. Finally halfway through a small chime sounded in his ear and he pulled up the result of his search. The language was old, very old and in fact there were only a few speakers of it left. He ran through the list and several names popped out, but the one that looked most promising was on a small agricultural world not that far away in terms of space distances.

Now he just had to find a cargo and a ship to take him there. He started to search around and quickly found a cargo of essential fertiliser and nutrient enricher's. He purchased them and then glanced through the ships available for hire. He wanted one big enough to take the order he had just bought yet small enough to not have too many crew that would remember him.

Unfortunately as he scanned all he was seeing were large ships with large crews. He was starting to get desperate when he came across a ship called the Jansa Prince. It looked perfect for his purposes even though it did look a little small. However according to the specs it would be able to carry his load and really he didn't have time to be picky. He checked out the details and hit the contact button on the add listing and waited for the person to answer.

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The Cantina was a bit of a hole.

Not that it was low class. Not at all. Even in this part of town, they were still in Exatum, the capital of Nandu, and the actual capital of the entire Grand Empire. These might be the slums, but they were a damn-sight prettier that most whole planets she had been to.

No, it was a LITERAL hole. The entire cantina was an artificial crater, dug down in a series of concentric circles that led deeper and deeper into the place, connected by a succession of alternating flights of stairs, down into the lower level, where a large boulder of brightly iridescent stone illuminated the entire establishment. Around the boulder was a completely circular bar, tended to by servers wearing heavy goggles to cut down the glare of their workspace. Surrounding the bar was what probably passed as a dance floor, with a throng of young-looking folks all grinding against each other to the tones of some sort of electro-thob mish-mosh. Kabri liked to consider herself a citizen of the galaxy, but with so many billions of inhabited planets all exchanging cultures willy-nilly, it was actually surprisingly rare to find music that didn’t sound like someone farting rhythmically into a recorder.

Thankfully, the server-droids were fairly prompt, so she didn’t have to try to carve her way through that crowd to get her drink. It came in a tall, narrow glass pipette, it’s multiple layers of different density liquids disrupted by a single dollop of density-shifting plasma that worked it’s way through the different-colored alcohols, the surface constantly steaming away, spilling a dense orange smoke from the top of her glass to pool on the table, where it soon spilled down to the floor. She lifted it, and sipped delicately, wincing appreciatively at the bite of ammonia. They made a decent spurla here, she’d need to remember it.

Her food took a bit longer, of course, so she leaned over the table and thumbed through it’s display, checking out all the local news on the planetary data cascade. The Prince had very good data transceivers but even it needed to be within range of a major transmission source to keep its files updated, so she was a little bit behind. If she kept to major trade routes (or even better, only used Jumpgates) then her ship’s data cascade would be updated so quickly she could send real-time messages to anyone in the entire galactic data network. Of course, that would often mean staying out of entire systems completely. The network simply couldn’t be everywhere, the expense of building and maintaining it…

Of course, she scoffed, thumbing through a story about the arrival of the human delegation; that hadn’t stopped the humans. An entire planet of data thieves. They had built a functional data network on their own planet before they had even developed FUSION, had started installing neural uplinks within their own brains before they had even left their solar system. It was unthinkable, but their data technology somehow outperformed every other species in the galaxy before they had even HEARD of a neural cascade. A lot of people (though no one she knew personally) actually said that if you went into human space and linked up with their neural network, it actually performed BETTER than the galactic cascade. She didn’t know if she believed it, but she certainly knew she didn’t trust it.

She was a Valinor. Her people had always been focused on science, and healing. So of course, when the Sol system had been discovered hundreds of years ago, they had sent scout ships. Nothing armed, just the traditional stealth saucers her people had been using for millennia in their research. They would find isolated humans, tranquilize them, do a series of non-invasive tests, tag them and release them, all to learn about this new intelligent species; and what her ancestors learned terrified them. An entire planet of deviants. They delighted in all manner of twisted behavior, made artforms out of conflict. They discovered atomic energy and immediately detonated it on themselves, murdering hundreds of thousands.

And when they stumbled on an downed Valinor saucer, what did they do? They imprisoned the scientists within, holding them captive for decades in a facility in the middle of their desert. Denied it’s existence even to it’s own people. They were never returned.

The Valinor had been leery of these newcomers to the Union, but the humans had adapted to almost all galactic technology with unprecedented speed thanks to their advanced data systems. There seemed to be no stopping them. This, then, had to be the reason for this human delegation here on Nanbu; one more step toward the humans taking their place on the central council. She shook her head, sipping her spurla, looking up as the droid brought out her plate of roast daelian tentacles. It wasn’t really anything to do with her, and she understood herself well enough to know when she was letting her prejudice get the better of her, but it irritated her, all the same. She toggled the table’s display, moving it from the tabletop to a hologram hovering just over it’s surface, and grabbing up a small bottle of spice nectar to dribble over her tentacles….

A chime sounded on her holo-display. She looked up, reached into the hologram and slid the newsfeed she had been reading up and away, leaving her with her original feed. Someone had placed a bid on her shipping offer. She thumbed through the bid, looking at the shipper’s credentials. There wasn’t much there; they were just hauling basic farm supplements to… she tried to make out the name of the planet, but it was a blur to her. The cargo wasn’t even red-listed; they didn’t need any special certifications to haul it, so they hadn’t needed to put up a lot of info about themselves. The name seemed Karnian, but who knew how close she was. She kept reading, grabbing up a tentacle with a pronged utensil and popping it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

Oh lord… they wanted to send a representative. She sighed, leaning back, folding her arms. It wasn’t unheard of… sometimes with these small cargoes the intention was to have a person on the other end to make sure the exchange of goods went smoothly. It meant she’d be expected to provide a bunk for the person, which… She exhaled. She didn’t MIND company, obviously… it meant someone to talk to besides Xan, someone to play an occasional game of Rogue Deck with. But it also meant she couldn’t just decide arbitrarily to be naked whenever she wanted, or to make a good Din Mora stew and watch garbage old horror vids until she passed out on the acceleration couch. She didn’t fly all by herself by accident.

Still, she thought to herself, keying into the bid and accepting it, It’s a job. She needed to stop being so childish about the way she chose these things. The bidder replied quickly stating their location… and she blinked, her drink halfway to her mouth, still churning out it’s thick odorless smoke, pouring down to the floor. They were, in the same cantina? She raised her eyebrows, looking around. Weird. She sipped her drink, and took another bite of her tentacles, keying in her table number.

Garen had thought he would be in for a long wait and so was rather surprised when a chime sounded in his head to tell him that his bid had been accepted. As he polished off his cider he was about to call up the details when another chime sounded. Puzzled he pulled up the display and there was a note from the Captain of the vessel informing him that they were in fact in the same bar he was.

Garen was amazed. Sure this was the closest place to eat and drink to the spaceport, but looking at the clientele he would not have figured a Captain would have been seen dead in here. Still who was he to judge.

He ordered another cider (Definitely not earth apples, but damn it was nice) and checked the table number again. It seemed whoever this Captain was they were down a few more levels.

Maneuvering his way through the crowd he soon reached the right level and began to search for the table. He did it slowly and carefully. He didn't want to give himself away yet. It would be better for him to get a measure of them before allowing them to see him.

Finally he spotted the table and was shocked to see a woman seated at it. The fact that it was an alien was not as big of a shock, he had been prepared for that. Yet seeing a Valinorian for the first time was still a shock. He knew they were similar to humans but the woman who was calmly sitting in the seat eating some type of seafood, and sipping a smoking concoction was one of the most striking beings he had ever seen. She had the body of a model, slim and very attractive and he was surprised that he found her so, after all he knew she was an alien. Still there was no denying the fact she looked very beautiful.

What he found very disturbing however was her coloring. He knew from his studies that the Valinor came in different hues but actually seeing someone with Yellow skin, bright yellow skin that looked as beautiful as she did was a little unnerving. As he looked closer he noticed her pointed ears and he grinned, god they looked cute. Maybe it was just him but he had always wanted to meet a person with naturally pointed ears. Ever since he had been a kid he had been fascinated with elves and creatures like them. During Xeno class that fascination had transferred to the Valinor and now that he was actually looking at one his fascination was only growing.

He loved her short colorful hair as well. It just added to the exotic nature of her beauty and he knew traveling with her was going to be both a pleasure and maybe a chore. Stuck alone with an exotic beauty sounded like a lot of peoples dream. However they were from two very different cultures. Who knew if they even had anything in common.

As he continued to study her he noticed that she had tattoo's on her face. He was a little puzzled as he thought that was a practice of the Din Mora. They often tattooed their faces to show which clan they belonged to. However what a Valinor was doing with Din Mora clan tattoo's was a mystery.

Deciding he had looked enough, he strolled over and took a seat opposite her.

"Captain Kabri?" he asked. "My names Garen. I am the one who just hired your ship. It's rather fortunate you being in the same place and all. Makes it easier to discuss times for my cargo to be delivered and when I can board so we can get underway."

As he was talking he got the feeling that things had taken a sudden turn for the worse. "Is something the matter Captain? You look a little pale."

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"Captain Kabri?"

The guy that slid into the booth opposite her seemed to look at her like she owed him something. He had roughly the same build as a Valinor, but he was stockier, with broader shoulders, and a squarer jaw. His hair was close cropped to his scalp, but she had no way of knowing if that was by design or biology. It left his ears uncovered; weird little round things that sat tight to his head, making his whole structure seem even more squat. His coloring was like some sort of sickly pink… it had none of the vibrancy of a Valinor skin tone, making him look vaguely squalid…

Well, that wasn’t true. He looked healthy as hell. Strong, and young, and full of vigor. You never knew the lifespan of a strange species when you met them, but you learned not to judge people by their years but by the wisdom in their eyes. This one clearly thought quite the world of himself.

She finished her mouthful of tentacles, raising an eyebrow at him. “Can I help you?”

"My names Garen. I am the one who just hired your ship.”

She nodded, sitting up a bit, pulling her leg under herself to sit up a little higher. “Ah, right… right.” she said, wiping at her mouth with a cloth. “The fertilizer guy…”

“ It's rather fortunate you being in the same place and all. Makes it easier to discuss times for my cargo to be delivered and when I can board so we can get underway."

She turning her head to her side, watching him. He sat so strangely. He wasn’t looking about suspiciously… but he also was very ACTIVELY not looking about suspiciously. He seemed TOO comfortable.

"Is something the matter Captain? You look a little pale."

She lowered her brow at him. “I… what?” She blinked at him. What sort of things was that to say to someone? Why would you just start talking about someone’s skin color out of nowhere… She swallowed. Oh. OH. It all came together to her in an instant. His body looking like a stockier Valinor, but with his palid complexion, his stubby little ears… and his obsession with skin color.

This guy was a human.

She swallowed, her hand slipping under the table. She remembered what they said about the old reports about humans; about they way they would commit atrocities on each other just for having different skin colors. It seemed an utter madness to Kabri; the Valinor could have two different members of the same family with completely opposite pigments; She was yellow, but for all she knew her mother and father could have been blue. What other possible reason could he have for bringing up her paleness?

“You know what?” she said, reaching for her glass, disguising the fact that her other hand was sitting next to her blaster. “I know this is bad business… but I actually just took in a competing offer.” She set her glass down, and held his gaze, her face hard. “So I’m just going to have to decline to take you on my ship. Ever.”

Her hand popped the catch on her holster, waiting to see just what he would do.

“You know what?” she said, reaching for her glass, disguising the fact that her other hand was sitting next to her blaster. “I know this is bad business… but I actually just took in a competing offer.” She set her glass down, and held his gaze, her face hard. “So I’m just going to have to decline to take you on my ship. Ever.”

Garen may not have much experience talking to alien species but he knew when he had put his foot in it. Obviously he had offended the woman somehow but for the life of him he couldn't work out how. Still he was the Alien in these parts so it was probably something he didn't understand.

Looking her in the eyes he nodded. "Very well Captain, it is your ship after all." With a small smile and a nod of his head he stood up.

He bowed to her then walked away, back to where he had been sitting before. Okay file that under experiences never to repeat, but a lesson learned. For now though he had to find another ship. Pulling up the list again he began to scroll through them. Like before though most of them were just too damn big.

Finally he just bought space on a medium sized hauler that was leaving in two days. It was not ideal but it was the best he could do. He was pinged the berth number and told the hours he could have his cargo delivered and what time he could board.

Sighing he finished his cider and walked out of the bar. Now he needed to go shopping. Having only the clothes he was wearing was not a good idea. He needed at least another few sets and some underwear and shoes.

Looking at a map of the city near the spaceport he found a decent place only a couple of blocks over. Deciding it would be okay to walk he hurried over. He wanted to be on board his ship by tonight and have his cargo delivered first thing tomorrow. Then he would just wait out the time in his cabin.

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"Very well Captain, it is your ship after all."

Kabri watched as he bowed, and walked away. What an asshole, she thought, setting her drink back down, keeping her hand on her blaster as she watched him cross the cantina, and going up a few levels and taking a seat at an empty table. So he was actually going to stay here. She exhaled, reaching for her drink again, quickly downing the last of it, gasping as she swallowed the last drop, her breath briefly filled with orange smoke. She then reached into her hip pouch, drew out a couple of ingots, and tossed them on the table. No way was she staying here, the human could just turn up again.

She stood up, popping a couple of the tentacles from her almost-empty-anyway plate into her mouth, and started toward the exit. She’d have to find another spot to access the planetary cascade. The light outside was a little blinding at first; the artificial glow from the incandescent stone in the cantina had SEEMED bright, but it was a strange spectrum. Stepping into the bright yellow light of Nandu’s star was a strange shift. She blinked, and started to walk in the direction of the taller buildings. Maybe she’d have better luck closer to the city center. Of course, the city’s network was still carrying her posting, but she just didn’t feel so much like sitting in a dive and being approached by nutjobs.

Of course… he HAD left. She had to at least allow that when she said no, he didn’t try to talk his way back into her good graces. He had simply accepted it, and left. It was kind of refreshing, actually. Maybe she was attracting a better class of jerk.

“Excuse me, miss?”

She looked up, and realized that she was bing approached by a Sobek wearing what looked like a very nice formal coverall. If she wasn’t looking directly at it, she might not have ever noticed that it was actually cut to give him a lot of freedom of movement; and a lot of room in the chest to conceal a weapon.

She slowed down, but didn’t completely stop. “Are you talking to me?” She asked, pulling her hands out of her pockets but actively NOT reaching for her sidearm.

And a good thing to, because he held up a badge. “Just a moment of your time, if you don’t mind?”

She looked behind her, and realized that a second Union Agent was approaching her through the crowd, his hands tucked into the pockets of his long coat. She felt her teeth clenching. Was this about the Prince? Would they be involving actual Union Agents over something like a violation of lift/thrust protocols? Shouldn’t that just be a local concern? She stopped, looking back and forth between them. “Ah… no… it’s no problem.” she said, resisting the urdge to fold her arms, knowing that would make her look like she was hiding something. Instead, she rested them on her hips, executing a well-practiced casual stance. “What can I do for you?”

The second Sobek, still walking toward her, drew a portable viewmount from his coat pocket, and thumbed it online. An image from the inside of the cantina coalesced, showing her sitting at her table, and the human sliding in to sit across from her. She blinked. What the….

“What is this?” She said out loud, looking back and forth between them.

“The fellow that approached you in the cantina.” The first Sobek intoned. “We have reason to believe he might be associated with a terrorist attack that happened earlier today.”

She watched the exchange. It was thankfully short, with the human bowing to her as she left.

“Can you tell us the nature of your relationship?”

“W...what?” she blinked, looking back and forth between them. “Relationship? No… he was just a possible client. He had a cargo he needed hauled, fertilizer…” She shook her head. “It… it doesn’t matter, I turned him down. Something about it seemed wrong.”

“What seemed wrong?”

“It… ah…” He looked at the viewscreen again. There wasn’t much to the encounter. Just him talking to her for a minute, her rejecting him, and him getting up and bowing. “He just… seemed odd. I didn’t like it.”

“I see. Can you come with us please?” He turned, indicating the small, nondescript transport with the blacked out windows that had been idling on the other side of the thoroughfare.

She blinked, looking back and forth at them again. “Wh… I don’t understand…”

The second Sobek was putting away the viewmount. “We’ll explain in due time, but right now you need to get in the transport.”

She swallowed, her hands lifting up from her hips and folding against her chest.

Garen

Garen walked hunched over with his head down, trying to not draw too much attention to himself. It was bad enough he was a human in a sea full of alien beings, still he could keep a low profile if he tried.

It did not take him long to make it to the store and once inside he saw a few other humans along with the other species, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Finally he was not the only one. He had been feeling a little like the protagonist in a spot the human game of 'Where's Wally'.

Moving along the racks of clothes, he quickly picked out several shirts, pants, jackets and a couple of hat's to wear. He also found some underwear that looked like it would fit along with some socks, heavy duty boots, casual footwear, and a large bag to carry everything in.

As he went to pay for everything he even spotted what looked like sunglasses and added them to his haul. After the Bajit behind the counter had rung up everything and he had paid, he asked about the facilities, and after a few awkward moments of miscommunication, she finally understood what he needed and pointed him in the right direction.

Thanking her, he headed off and was soon looking at several weird and wonderful stalls and basins. Finally he picked one that at least looked somewhat familiar and walked in and locked the door. Besides he was not here to use the facilities anyway. Quickly undressing he got changed into some of his new purchases, putting on a new pair of pants, a shirt, a jacket, a hat and the pair of sunglasses plus a new pair of boots. The old stuff he tucked away in the bag.

Exiting the cubicle he looked at himself in the mirror and nodded. He looked different enough at a casual glance to fool most people and he hoped any cameras. The sunglasses and hat should throw off any facial recognition software, especially if he just acted casual from now on.Unfortunately the jacket was not big enough for him to conceal his blaster in. He had to put it in his bag and leave one end open and rest his hand near it just in case something happened. Honestly he was hoping he didn't have to use it but things happened.

He checked the time and realized he was going to have to hurry if he was going to make it back to the spaceport on time to take up his berth. Still he did leave by a different exit and travel back a different way, However the Golden Iris was berthed near the bar where he had been drinking, so he headed back to that gate again.

It had been less than two hours since he had left, and the large sun was sinking slowly casting deep shadows off the buildings as he walked up. There was still a lot of traffic, both foot and vehicle, trying to pass through. Garen saw that the procedure was a little different to when he had exited. To get back in a person had to show both their ID card and either a boarding pass or provide the guard with a ships name to verify they were a member of it's crew. The guards were thorough but quick. The computer systems quickly verified both ID to ship records and things ran smoothly if a little slowly.

Garen was a little worried that the false ID he had whipped up might not stand up to scrutiny, but seeing as it had not failed at any banks so far he was pretty confident. When it was his turn he handed it over and calmly told the guard he was reporting to the Golden Iris to take up a berth. It seemed to take a little longer than the other scans had but eventually his ID was handed back and he was waved through.

He started to walk towards the large freighters docked at the far end of the ferrocrete slab when he got a familiar tingling on his neck. Someone was watching him. Oh he knew a lot of people were watching him. He had been attracting stares all day of course. Being an alien in a strange far off universe would do that, but this was different. Someone was definitely watching HIM specifically for some reason.

As he passed the first freighter, Garen stopped and looked at it as if admiring it's looks, checking it out from all angles and bending down to see all the bit's and bobs, playing the awe struck out of towner. What he was really doing was looking all around himself, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. Hard enough to do normally, near impossible to do in such a foreign place. Yet certain things always remained true. Most people had things to do, thus they moved with a purpose. If they were doing a job they actually did something and if they were goofing off they tried to hide.

By the time Garen moved off again he knew he was in trouble. Ahead of him between him and the ship was a group of four supposed 'Workers', playing some form of game. If they had been Human he would have said cards, but it didn't look quite right. Still the point was, they were out in the open, betting (He could clearly see the glint off the bits) and not one of them was looking around for a supervisor. Besides them were two guys behind him. One had been a guy aimlessly walking around looking at things, and the other had been a worker with some form of cleaning truck he guessed. Garen had watched the guy clean the same strip of ferrocrete six times while he looked at the transport. So there were six that he knew of and probably more hidden elsewhere.

His eyes scanned the way ahead looking for options. He had two more ships to pass before he met up with the Workers. He could of course dash into one of them and try to loose them in the maze of corridors, however he was sure that his pursuers were the law and as such they would just impound the ship, starve him out, or even pump some type of gas in and get him that way. No better to remain outside. Still using the ship as cover wasn't a bad idea. The next one up seemed to be refueling and it was covered in pipes and ramps. If he was going to make a break for it that was the place to do it.

He slowed as he neared it and looked beyond the ship. Behind it was a narrow space where service vehicles could come and go freely and cargo could be delivered, then another similar space for the berths on the opposite side then there was another ship. He would have to run about 50 meters in the open before he could loose himself under the other ships fuselage. Of course he had to first navigate the nearly 300 meters of the ship. He was glad these were only a mid sized hauler. Looking beyond the ships he tried to find the nearest exit to the yard that wasn't near any structures. He saw what he thought was a way out. It looked like a section with very few ships in it. If he could make it to there he might have a shot at scaling the wall or working something else out. At the very least, they would probably think he would head for either his ship, the earth vessel,or one of the gates to escape so his plan might work.

Slipping his hand into his bag he continued on as if nothing was wrong but his hand grabbed his blaster. As he came level with the freighter he drew it and fired two shots towards the workers aiming wide of them, then turned and fired once at the cleaning cart, taking out it's propulsion unit and sending it sparking and spluttering towards several crates stacked neatly near the first freighter, then once towards the other figure. Unfortunately he had already thrown himself on the ground, drawn a blaster and fired back and unlike Garen he was not trying to miss. The bolt of super heated plasma just missed him and Garen bolted under the freighter, running over and between pipes, putting as much distance between his pursuers and himself as he could.

As he dashed through a particularly dense series of pipes he turned and grabbed a small bottle of lubricant a mechanic had been using to do something with. Spreading it all over the concrete he dashed off and smiled when he heard cursing from behind him. Still it seemed to only be one voice and he had hoped he would have got a few more. He just hoped he was mistaken.

He made it to the end of the freighter and a quick look to the left and right showed no pursuers and no traffic. Not wasting any time he continued to sprint straight ahead then as he heard a large vehicle approaching he angled towards it. Around the side of a freighter in front of him came a large cargo carrier moving several containers. Judging the distance he put on a burst of speed and as he heard shouts from behind him and bolts once again whizzed past him, he dived and rolled and came up on the other side as the vehicle got between him and his pursuers. Smiling he followed it for a short way then ran under another ship two berths down from the one he had been heading towards. Slipping into it's shadows he headed halfway along then started to move from ship to ship instead of moving to the next ring. Let them think he was still heading straight, he would head down further then towards his spot.

He waited for five minutes to let them get really confused then hurried off again. He had almost made the other side when he saw the official looking car. Ducking under the next ship he headed straight. Damn it looked as if they had called in reinforcements. Now it was going to be really tough.

For the next twenty minutes he played hide and seek with his pursuers, never knowing who they were or how many. He spotted several cars though and noticed a lot of people, although they could of been the same people as he didn't stay to get a great look. Eventually though he ran out of ships to hide under and spaceport to be in. The good thing was he thought he had lost them. He had not seen anyone for almost two minutes. The only ships parked out this far were a couple of old junkers and one sleek looking ride. What it was doing so far out here was anyone's guess but it certainly was not big enough to really hide under, or close enough to any of the walls for him to climb on and use it as a ramp so he ignored it.

His best bet was to try to find one of the service trucks, drive it against a wall and climb over. Not a great plan, but it could work...Maybe. Garen searched around with his eyes and finally spotted one over between two freighters. Slowly he made his way towards it and it wasn't until he was actually opening the door he realized he had no idea how these things operated. Fortunately for him they had been built with that in mind. It had a single lever that looked like a old earth fighter pilots control with two pedals on the floor. Smiling he jumped in and hit the one on the right and it moved forward a little. Pushing it down harder and pushing the joystick left he turned the vehicle left and was soon headed for the wall. It didn't move fast but it was moving.

The problem came when one of those cars came around the corner and began approaching on the other side. It didn't look like it was after him, but once they got close they couldn't fail to spot him. The cab was basically one giant window so the operator could see where to put the large ladder platform. Perfect for it's job, not so good when you were trying to not be spotted. He had a choice to make, continue on and hope they just didn't see him, or ram them. He chose the latter.

Pushing his foot flat to the floor he moved slowly towards the middle of the lane, picking up speed, then at the last minute he yanked the joystick to the right and turned into the car knocking it sideways. He didn't have enough momentum to do serious damage, but he was twice their size and weighed a hell of a lot more. The car was pushed back and it's front squished up. It wasn't going anywhere now, but neither was he. Getting out he took refuge behind the truck and drew his blaster. The only thing near him was the gleaming ship. Well as a last resort he could always try and crack it's security codes.

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“Dear lord…”

Kabri sat in the back of the Union Transport, watching the live feed of the human terrorist carving a swath of destruction across the hanger. She covered mer mouth with her hand, watching him fire at the officers that were waiting to arrest him, hijack a Service Trans. And start smashing it into other cars. He was getting closer and closer to the Prince.

“So this is the human that approached you?”

She nodded silently, unable to look away. She was fully aware that she had some unpleasant prejudices about humans, but even she couldn’t blame this guy’s actions on his species. He was clearly a deranged sociopath. He was getting closer to the small hangers where she had berthed the Prince. If he kept going like that…

“Why don’t you guys just stop him?” She finally said, looking between the two of them “Don’t you have orbital railguns for this?”

The Sobek that was piloting their transport as they headed toward the Union offices downtown looked back over his shoulder. “That’s not information we’re prepared to share with a civilian…”

The second agent, the one sitting in the back with her, watching the footage on viewmount stationed in the vehicle, shook his head. “But seeing as you’re already involved…” He craned his neck, looking up at his partner for a moment before he looked back at Kabri. “He’s an officer of the Human vessel, and has certain rights. His ship needs to authorize the use of lethal force.”

She shook her head, still watching. All those people… the bomb he had set off in the Union Assembly, all the innocent people down by the hangers… Not every ship down there had passive blast shielding. They would rely on repulsor fields to protect their hull’s in space. While they were docked, they were vulnerable. He could hit a ship and puncture their drive core, and cause god knew what sort of destruction… or even worse, puncture someone’s hull and have it go unnoticed until the ship started to break atmosphere. The crew would suffocate in seconds, and turn the ship into a giant missile, caroming down into any part of the city…

“You have to do it…” She said softly… feeling sick. No one deserved to be on the receiving end of an orbital railgun. Even if she had found the human distasteful, her stomach turned at the thought of what was going to happen to him. The railgun satellites used greyspace generators to fire a tungsten projectile at super luminal speeds, regulating exactly where it re-entered normal space, allowing it to pass through any and all matter, rendering all forms of cover completely ineffective. The projectile would rematerialize as it entered the target, but even with a projectile the size of a pen, the amount of kinetic energy involved would literally rip the target apart. It was brutal both in its application, and in it’s efficiency. The technology enabled law-enforcement to instantly pacify any target, anywhere on the planet, with pinpoint, unerring precision, but the sheer violence involved made it one of the most regulated technologies in the Grand Union. The firing of one of the satellites required an executive order.

A green icon lit up on the screen. She covered her eyes.

Garen had been thinking wildly about what he could do. He had come up with and dismissed plan after plan up to and including surrendering. His list of crimes was just too big. He had already checked the news feeds and found out that the bomb had gone off inside the assembly hall despite his warning. Why they had not gotten rid of the thing he didn't know, let alone store it properly. Still those lives were on him.

Add to that his mad dash across the spaceport in which he could have harmed some people. He had tried his best not to but as they said, 'the best laid plans of mice and men'.

He needed a plan that would get whoever was chasing him off his tail and allow him to get off world. Think you idiot think, he muttered to himself. There had to be some way.

Then he had a brain wave. He had noticed something on his way down from orbit and had actually mentioned it to the Captain. The planet had been ringed by a series of large satellites that looked vastly different to the normal communication ones he was used to.

"Those are this planets final and most useful deterrent to any would be Terrorist, Mass murderer, Serial Killer, you name it. They are orbital railguns. One shot from those things and their target ceases to be. You can see that they are set up in such a way as to have full coverage of the entire planets surface and the technology involved I am told allows them to fire and have the bullet materialize mm above the target or even inside it making hiding impossible."

At the time Garen had shuddered at the thought, but now he had a plan. If he hijacked the one directly overhead, he could use it to threaten the authorities into letting him leave the planet. Of course he would never use it, but once off world he could set about clearing his name.

He madly began to use his military connections to piggy back a signal to the main security forces, then through their systems to the railguns control systems. It hardly took him any time at all. Even at this level their security was virtually non existent to a hacker like him. His problem came when he saw that the firing mechanism was already armed and was in the process of targeting him right now.

FUCK. He had thought his human military status would have provided him some semblance of immunity, but either they didn't care or.....

The thought hit him hard. The Captain had probably thrown him under the proverbial bus. The fact that it was probably the right thing to do still didn't make it any easier for him to swallow. Well it looked like he was on his own.

He managed to halt the targeting for now, but it would not last long. He was not going to be able to take control now and he was not going to be able to run. Really that left him with one choice.

Stepping out from cover he raised his hands and threw his gun away. Kneeling down on the ground he kept his hands well up and out to his sides to show he was not going to go for anything hidden. He could already see two figures approaching him and only hoped they were authorities and not pissed off crew members.

Still as he awaited his fate his mind was still working on another plan and he slowly started to smile. Oh yes this one could work, but it all depended on whether he could still count on the Human Ambassadors listening to him and the Navy doing it's duty by him.

http://i.imgur.com/tC8GWJt.jpg

Thank god, he surrendered. It didn’t matter what he had done, the idea of seeing someone struck by an orbital railgun was utterly horrific. It wasn’t until I had heard the agents escorting me talking over their coms that I realized that they actually HAD issues an order to fire, but that the human had actually hacked the satellite. It was unthinkable… that such a violent sociopath actually had the ability to hack such a lethal technology so easily. How could they ever have humans on the planet again? She felt a sourness in her chest when she thought about it. Prejudice was one thing, but the idea of an entire planet’s population being quarantined from the rest of the galaxy felt *wrong*. That was where the public opinion was going, though. The human vessel was under constant protest. Kabri was escorted back to the Union Spire, where she was held in contained quarters, and regularly questioned by different members of the Comission. The video feeds of her conversation with the human were reviewed over and over, along with the reconstructed audio… they even had telemetric scans of her vital reactions during those few moments. She was asked to speak before the commission, and answered the same questions over and over again.

It was a full six cycles before she was told they had what they needed from her. She was never named as a suspect, just as a witness, thank god. The agents that had brought her in had seen to it that her ship’s docking fees were taken care of. They must have seen the Prince when the did it, but no one said a word about his drive system. Either they hadn’t gone on board, which seemed unlikely, or they saw her for what she was; a tramp pilot trying to make a living, caught in a bad situation. Thankfully, enough time had passed that she had several inquiries about cargo. Two of them had expired when it took too long for her to reply, but she still had her pick of several destinations. She took a contract to haul several tons of medical relief supplies to a mining colony on Ardus 4. She reported her cargo and destination to the Comission, wanting to leave as good an impression as possible.

Once she had broken atmosphere, she pushed back from the control womb for a moment, unbuckling herself, feeling the odd pull of the ship’s artificial gravity still compensating for the diminishing gravity of the planet. She folded her arms over her chest, watching the planet disappear in her viewer. She hoped humanity would recover from the actions of that one bad apple. No one deserved to be blamed for what one crazy person did. Hopefully, someday, they could find some way to integrate into society.

She plopped back into her harness, pulled forward, and placed her hands into the control yoke. “Do you have my course, Xan?”

“I do, captain.”

She keyed in the commands, and activated the Greyspace Drives.

Garen was taken into custody and confined in a small cell. As soon as he walked in he felt his access to the net cut off. Some sort of dampening field had obviously been set up. It made sense, they couldn't have prisoner's having access to that sort of thing, especially humans.

He didn't know how long he sat in that cell before he was taken to a small room and questioned. He was asked why he had bombed the building, and he calmly informed them that he had in fact been taking the bomb out of the building and that it had been placed there by someone else. Of course they did not believe nim and grilled him for hours on end, showing him holo's of what had happened. It was pretty gruesome. The Sobek who had been carrying the device had the misfortune to have it facing him when the charge went off. He never stood a chance. The rest pretty much went as the terrorist had planed and the shaped charge did it's job. A field of destruction behind the man was devastated and because he had still been in the lobby and they had called in reinforcements, many lives had been lost.

Garen had shook his head. "Look I warned you guys it was a bomb. Why was he holding it? Why didn't you dispose of it properly for God's sake. That's not on me it's on you, if a guy is dumb enough to hold a bomb to his chest how is that my fault?"

To say that had not gone down well was an understatement. He woke up battered and bruised back in his cell.

He was grilled for three more days but he stuck to his story and eventually a lawyer from the Navy was assigned to him. Lieutenant Rabb told him there was going to be a trial and he was in serious trouble. He was charge with blowing up the Assembly, evading capture, endangering lives, discharging a weapon in public, attempted murder, hacking a Union government computer system and a whole list of other charges. The penalty was death on any number of them.

Garen had sat numb then looked at him. "Look I can prove my innocence on the Assembly charge. Somebody wanted to kill all the Diplomats and blame it on us Sir. That bomb was a shaped charge, check the film. Now it was originally planted..." he began to explain the whole plot. the lieutenant listened his eyes going wider the whole time.

"So you have proof of this?"

"In my head sir, but with this dampening field I can't access it."

Rabb smiled. "Don't worry during trial you can. However I am going to have to investigate this. If it proves correct we might have a shot of getting you off. Stay strong son."

For the first time Garen felt a glimmer of hope.