Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 42

We were still trying to be stealthy, so it took us another two days to make it to Charybdis Station. But we were able to slip by the patrols without being noticed, so that was good. Still, by the time we docked at the station we were truly grateful for some ‘shore leave’.

Aikral Gashriaze

Dark Knelfi Male

Level 20

Titles: Guardian, Thug, Slaver

We were met at the ship’s hatch by a strong EM barrier and a dark-skinned Knelfi male with white hair standing on the other side of it. Apparently, the designers decided to include drow in the game to go with their space elves. According to the lore, they were, well, a splinter race that behaved pretty much like how they do in fantasy settings, and weren’t welcome in most ‘civilized’ parts of Knelfi territory. Which, of course, is why one was here, looking officious with his nicely tailored clothes, and having two hulking Ihm males behind him as bodyguards.

“You are the captain of this ship?” Straight to business, it seemed. That’s fine, I preferred things like that.

I smiled at the man, and said, “That’d be me. Captain Mirikon Mollen of the Metrion’s Favor. Who might I be talking to?”

The dark knelfi nodded, pleased I’d at least gotten this bit of protocol correct. “I am Aikral Gashiraze, Dockmaster for Charybdis Station. You and your cargo will be scanned for nanites before they are allowed on the station. This is not negotiable. Refusal will result in the termination of yourself and the destruction of your ship. Is this understood?”

I nodded. “Only fair since I’ll be scanning anyone and anything that tries to get onto my ship for nanites as well. I have two shipments to offload here. The first is a set of four crates for Alok Paxisys. I am given to understand that he is now on this station, from the updates my shipping log gave me. The second is a set of crates which I had a buyer for, but am now unable to deliver, as they were on Jagloth Station.”

All three of the station personnel got tense at the mention of Jagloth Station. “And did you go to the station?”

“No, we arrived in system just in time to see the station destroyed.”

Aikral got interested at that, his eyes taking in the Raven’s lines more carefully. “So, you slipped past the navy blockade? Several ships have tried that. Except for a few freighters early on who slipped out from stations around the outer planets, no one has made it in or out.”

I shrugged. “Well, they probably tried to jump directly into the system. We stopped well short, and coasted in on a ballistic track, at least until we had to make course corrections to get to Charybdis. Basic smuggler tricks, really.”

The knelfi nodded slowly, and manipulated several items in his AR display. “Very well then. Stay behind the EM screen until the scanning crew arrives. You and your crew have been provided provisional access to the station datanet. We have a branch of the Teris Auction House here, if you wish to get rid of that second shipment you mentioned.”

I smiled at that thought. There were several auction houses in game. They typically worked as a clearinghouse for trades in goods and gear between smaller parties. If, say, you had twenty units of Sibexian Tiger Leather, and you didn’t have a craftsman you knew that could make it, you’d toss it on the Auction House, and people would bid for it. If the trade was accepted, the goods would be sent to the buyer, after the House took its cut of the sale.

If you were buying local, that was the end of it. Otherwise, getting the goods was a bit more complicated. Anything big, or organic, and especially anything living (that wasn’t in a Capture Ball or similar) got shipped about on bulk freighters, and you’d specify the destination you’d meet the freighter at. The problem with this is that it wasn’t good for… discrete delivery, which is why people like me stayed in business.

Small items (like individual weapons or armor, for instance) had their own special system. No one outside the Auction House business truly knew how it worked (and the ones that did saw no need to tell anyone), but they had apparently a bit of Lost Tech that they’d reverse engineered enough to be able to send items under 30 kilos from one place to another. Whatever it was played hell with electrical fields, so any gear had to be turned completely off (bonus: you couldn’t send a warhead through) and organics were banned completely unless they were in a contained stasis field. It only took one time for someone’s dog to come out on the other side looking like it had been through the microwave for people to decide that sending living things through was a Bad Idea^tm.

The knelfi was still talking, “If you’re looking for someplace to relax, Scylla’s Maw is where the spacers, and people looking to hire them, hang out. Also, with the arctic base on Jagloth being destroyed, Charybdis Station now hosts the system’s only slave market, if you were looking for alternative means to increase your crew. We also have a shipyard for upgrades or new ship construction, if you’re looking for that.”

Well, looked like this trip to the station wouldn’t be a complete loss. I was going to be out the three million I’d been promised for the weapons, though I could make some of that back with the Auction House. Still, if I completed the jobs that I already had, that’d get us seven million. Well, my cut would be less, but over two million would go a long way towards getting a second ship. Not something on the Raven’s level, of course, but perhaps an escort of some kind?

I amused myself with thoughts of ship designs while we went through the ‘fun’ of mutual scans of personnel and cargo. Raven had already sent a message to Alok Paxisys, and he was already waiting for us once everyone and everything was declared free of nanites. Alok was what, in a fantasy game, would be thought of as a stereotypical ‘High Elf’. You could practically see the elite breeding and arrogance rolling off him. The fact that he was on a station like Charybdis, however, made the whole effect just seem… wrong.

“Alok Paxisys? I’m Captain Mollen. We brought your shipment from kisArra. Would you like to inspect the cargo?”

The Knelfi sniffed disdainfully at me, and then nodded. “Yes, yes, I suppose it must be done. They are unopened, yes?” His manner said disdain and dismissal, like a stupid noble flop talking to his ‘lessers’, but his eyes… those were sharp. Wouldn’t surprise me if he was just playing the fool to get the dumber criminal types to underestimate him.

I took a breath, and then nodded. “Aye, sir. They arrived to us already sealed, and we haven’t touched them since loading. I’m sure you’ll find everything in order.” As I said that, Cali and Carissa arrived, pushing a pair of loading pallets from the cargo bay, the four crates belonging to the ‘businessman’ stacked upon them.

Paxisys checked both the physical and digital seals on the crates, before nodding slowly. Two handlers from the station came up as he began sending commands with his commlink, bearing their own pallets to take the crates wherever they needed to go. Before they touched the cargo, I was alerted that the job was complete, and saw the two million credits going into the various accounts. I nodded to the knelfi, and stepped back so his men could unload the crates.

“Pleasure doing business with you, sir.” I sent him a digital ‘business card’. “If you ever need discrete shipping in the future, I hope you’ll remember Black Star Trading.”

Paxisys looked me over again, and smiled. “Hmm. Yes, I do have a couple trifles you might do for me. Do you still have business in the system?”

“Yes, sir. I have one other delivery, down on the Southern continent on Jagloth. I expect that will be a bit more difficult to manage, but Black Star delivers, even when it looks like the world is going up in flames.”

“An admirable business ethic. Very well, if you are going to the Southern continent, you’ll probably wish to dock at Shadara Station. Before the main continent was overrun, several irreplaceable items were moved from the Jagloth City to Shadara, after being thoroughly scanned, of course. If you would be so kind as to ‘acquire’ the items I require, then in addition to the pay, I can arrange for your ship to be able to return to Charybdis from Shadara after your business is complete.”

Since the Navy was blasting anything bigger than a shuttle that was moving between stations in orbit of Jagloth, that was a pretty good deal, if it worked out.

Research Misappropriation Alok Paxisys has asked you to acquire the research documentation, logs, and any remaining specimens of ‘Project: Hidden Champion’, and deliver them to him on Charybdis Station. The Project was packed up and moved to secure storage on Shadara Station prior to the Main Continent on Jagloth being overrun.
Rank	C
Success	Deliver Project: Hidden Champion to Alok Paxisys.
Failure	Fail to deliver the Project.
Payment	3 million Credits Increased Reputation with Alok Paxisys.
Penalty	Decreased Reputation with Alok Paxisys. Decreased Reputation with all Confederate factions. Your ship will probably be destroyed.

I looked the details over, and nodded. “Black Star will get it done, Mr. Paxisys.”

(Paxisys POV)

I was glad to be away from the vermin. These humans are always uncultured swine. And this one was as bad as most. The scans of those coming off his ship showed that most were slaves, and had been fitted with the obscene ‘Stepford’ devices. Only human perversion would think of something like that.

And those slaves! The scans the station ran showed there were no nanites in them, but they didn’t look for anything else. My augmented olfactory sensors could easily tell that the human was regularly intimate with at least seven females, three of whom were knelfi! I pitied the poor knelfi women who had to submit to this beast. Interbreeding like that was an offense against nature. One that would be punishable by death, if I had my way. Keeping the bloodlines pure was the only way to defend against the rot one saw in the Terran Empire infecting the Confederacy.

Still, the human captain had proven to have at least a modicum of skill. I had read the Dockmaster’s report, and the tactic the captain claimed to have used to slip through the blockade was not a new one. The Navy would take into account ships trying to drift into the system. However, my sensors could detect that his ship was, at the very least, covered in a substance that not only hid him against the backdrop of space, but seemed to absorb sensor radiation. By the time the Navy discovered radiation burst of dropping out of hyperspace so far outside the system proper, the ship would have been all but invisible.

Skilled and prepared. And not adverse to jobs which led him and his crew into harm’s way, if the pay was right. Despite his being a filthy human, it would be worthwhile to keep tabs on this captain, and his ‘Black Star’ company. There were always jobs that were best performed by outsiders, or ‘deniable assets’.

And even if he proved to be unreliable as an asset, it would be worth a bit of expense to keep an eye on him. He spoke with a Terran accent (slight, but recognizable), but the olfactory sensors were trying to say that he wasn’t human. Well, that’s not quite right. They didn’t recognize the man at all, as though he was simply not there. That suggested some new augmentation he had not heard of, which suggested that this Captain was more than he seemed. If I could turn one of the Terrans spies against them before the war started…

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