Frozen Soul, and other works: Chapter 144 – Ambush at Zanchul Station

(Seven Star Lounge, Zanchul Station, Tietera Orbit, Tietera System)

Tietera was a busy industrial system. Tietera itself was rich in mineral resources and industry, but the rocky planet was crap all for sustainable food production outside of hydroponics bays. Ziphad, the third planet in the system, was actually an agrarian world that could feed several planets easily, but had little to no mineral resources. During the initial colonization phase, the Knelfi pioneers who founded the system decided to land on Tietera, and build the resources they would need to grow food on Ziphad. That, combined with the fact that most of the industry and economy in the system flowed through Tietera, meant it was the seat of power in the system.

Zanchul Station was a seedy place run by the local crime lords, much like Choson Ring in Sol System. Every system had at least one place for the criminal element to gather. The cops, if they were smart, didn’t bother with it unless something high profile was going on, because it was easier to keep an eye on the illegal trades when they were centered in one place rather than underground and constantly moving. The syndicates knew what was up, as well, and self-policed to some degree, to keep things at a tolerable level.

That was why Aiwan Gilwarin was so confident in walking down the halls of the station’s promenade without constantly checking for cameras or other annoyances. He had no warrants, no bounties on his head. He was, however, the facilitator for a good deal of the pirate fleets in this sector, helping turn stolen goods and credits into something that could be spent without getting law enforcement involved. He paid his taxes as a ‘financial consultant’, plus a few bribes that made it so he would hear about any legal action against him long before it got to the point people were trying to arrest him, and he could have his people quash the trouble or arrange for the investigators to find something that threw them off the scent.

As he walked to the bar he frequented (and owned, though few people knew that), Gilwarin’s thoughts turned towards the reason he was having a meeting tonight. The current state of affairs was getting hot. Too many pirates had come into the area too quickly, and there were calls for people to start getting solid Navy pirate hunters, instead of just the border patrols they had in the area, and start cleaning house. There were even some that were considering bringing in Mercenary groups like that Black Star Company that had been in the news recently.

The Seven Star Lounge was what passed for upscale dining and drinks on Zanchul Station. It wasn’t high society, by any stretch, but it held itself to a bit of a higher standard than the dives that the common pirates went to, and was priced accordingly. The food and drink offered were also of a higher quality than you would find elsewhere on the station, including the real meat in the dishes, from actual animals. It was the only place on the station where you could find vermaw (a beast not dissimilar to the Terran ‘cow’ native to Ziphad) steaks fresh, never frozen. He didn’t usually partake in meat dishes, as there was a bias in knelfi society about ‘barbaric’ practices like that, but he always made sure there was a steak on his plate when he was meeting with pirates. Little things like that made all the difference, after all.

As he walked past the line and to his normal table, Gilwarin smiled, seeing that everything was in order, ready to meet with Aeson “Quickblade” Shaxidor, Captain of the Death’s Shadow, the only pirate battlecruiser in Known Space. Sure, it was an older ship, retired after the last major interstellar war, but he happened to know that Quickblade had been keeping the Shadow in good repair, and upgraded the systems quite a bit over the years. After all, he’d help finance some of those transactions. But Captain Shaxidor was one of the smart ones. Hopefully he could get the Captain to agree to help quiet down the pirates, or at least get them to do most of their damage on the other side of the border with the Alliance.

Hope Walters

Human Female

Level 10

Faction: Terran Empire

A human female dressed in the club’s uniform for servers came up to the table, and smiled at him, asking if he would like a drink and whether he wanted a menu. He ordered his customary drink and something for a ‘friend’ who would be joining shortly, while looking over the woman. She was pretty, in that blonde-haired, blue-eyed way that appealed to so many humans, and the way she was wearing that uniform would be more than a little enticing to many. He didn’t remember her, so she must be a new hire. As she walked away to the bar to order the drinks, he admired her form. Perhaps he should schedule an ‘employee review’ soon, to ensure that the right ‘qualities’ in his staff were being maintained. The Seven Star Lounge had a reputation to uphold, after all. It was one of the perks of being the ultimate boss that he got to be the one doing the testing.

He was enjoying his drink when Captain Shaxidor made his appearance. At least the pirate captain had the good sense to dress appropriately for the venue, though Gilwarin noted the presence of the pistols on each of the man’s hips as he walked. While Zanchul station had few weapons laws (mostly centered around things that would damage the station’s hull), this was not the part of the station where one would typically carry weapons openly. Unfortunately, that was one of the perils of dealing with pirates, and their rather unfortunate tendency to be worse than base animals when it came to social situations. At least the ‘tourists’, as he called the normal patrons of the bar, would have a tale to tell of how they got to have lunch while a ‘dangerous pirate’ was in the room, without being in any real danger, themselves.

The pirate, though, was either ignorant of the fashion faux pas that he had committed, or chose to ignore it, as he he spoke up the moment he got to the table. “Ah, Gilwarin, you penny-pincher! Good to see ya, man. So, what has been on your mind? I know this isn’t about any problems between us, right? Seeing as how you’ve been taking your cut regularly, same as always, and things are going good.”

The waitress appeared again at that moment, setting Gilwarin’s drink in front of him. Turning to smile at the pirate, she said, “A double bourbon, straight up, sir.” She set the drink down in front of Shaxidor, and yelped when she got slapped on her rear by the pirate. “S-sir, is there anything you would like to get from the menu?”

Gilwarin nodded, rescuing the girl for the moment, and said, “Yes, let Gaspard in the kitchen know that I’ll have my usual ‘business dinner’, with the steak cooked mid-well.” Looking over to Shaxidor, “I know you’ve been here enough to have an idea of the menu, my friend. Or would you rather wait and order later?”

Shaxidor chuckled, and looked over at the waitress, his hand resting on her ass. “No, I’ll take the ‘business dinner’, same as my friend here, except make my steak rare, so I can taste it.”

“Right away, sir.”

As the waitress ran off, Gilwarin sighed. “I do wish you wouldn’t do that in the middle of the restaurant, Aeson. The poor girl is new, and doesn’t seem to know the way things work on this station just yet. I’d rather you don’t scare her off before I have a chance to properly break her in. Perhaps, when this is done, I can have a couple girls brought up to your room? You’re staying at the hotel you normally use, yes?”

The pirate laughed, and said, “Fine, fine. I won’t scare away your prey. Never let it be said that Quickblade Shaxidor didn’t know when to leave a fellow man some treasure to plunder for themselves. And yes, I’ll be staying at the hotel again. Does a body good to get off the ship now and then, and this way I don’t have to notice when the boys bring their own party aboard, so long as they clean up the mess before I get back.”

Gilwarin simply laughed, and raised his glass in a mock salute to the man. Seeing that the situation had been calmed down, for the moment, Shaxidor brought up the reason for the meeting again. “So, why call this meet? Things have been going swell, so far. Not seeing any reason to go changing things, just yet.”

The financier sighed, and said, “Yes, things are going swell. Quite a bit too swell, if you catch my drift. I’ve been hearing rumors, and running some numbers, and things aren’t looking good, long term.”

The pirate frowned, suddenly very attentive on the matter at hand. “Something specific going down?”

Gilwarin shook his head. “Not sure, yet. I’m sure you’ve heard that the numbers for piracy are way up recently. The Imperial troubles, Jagloth, new gates, all of it going on and making things chaotic, which breeds pirates, everyone knows that. But the numbers haven’t been up high enough for anyone to consider it a real problem in any sector except ours. Piracy in this sector is up 1235% from the numbers three years ago, while most sectors are only up 100% to 200%! Most of that is in the last year!”

Shaxidor nodded slowly. “Yes, there’s been a lot of new blood in the area. That ‘Black Star’ group blew up or killed half the pirates in the central planets, it seems, and the other half scattered across the Confederacy. I don’t think our corner has gotten more than our fair share of the ‘refugees’.”

“Oh sure, but the other side of the border has had their piracy patrols curtailed because of the trouble those Kul’tirans got into, remember? And because of it, everything’s expanding too far, too fast. Like I said, I’ve been hearing rumors. If you can’t get those newcomers to settle down, or settle them down yourself, then there’s likely to be a whole lot more problems in the future.”

“What kind of problems?”

“There are two main rumors I’ve heard. One of them says the Navy is going to put together a task force to smash pirate bases, fleets, and support networks, and just generally be more annoying than they usually are. Honestly, for your sake, I’m hoping that this is the one that’s true, because even a fleet task force has some holes that can be used to help pay people to look away, and mainly hunt the newcomers.”

“You WANT a Navy task force on our heads? What is the other rumor, that makes you hate living so much?”

Gilwarin took a breath, and said, “The second rumor is that there are people, both ‘natives’ and Nomads, who are petitioning their representatives, trying to pressure them into paying the Black Stars to come down and clean up shop like they did in the core. Not just showing the flag and hurting pirates to make the sheep feel better about things, but actually coming and putting paid to any pirates that stick around, trying to drive your type and mine out of this whole sector.”

To his credit, Shaxidor actually considered that, and what it would mean. “They’d be having to lay out a lot of credits to get those Black Stars, now that they’ve got so much success. And way I heard it, the damn pirates in the core made the mistake of trying to hit Black Star directly, and that’s why they went and smacked them all down.”

“Actually, that would be why we smacked them all down for free. This time, we’re getting paid to go pirate hunting.” The two men turned to view the server they hadn’t noticed returning to the table, especially when she had a dart gun in her hand. Two darts hit Shaxidor in the chest with the barely audible sound of compressed air being released, hitting him directly over the heart. The pirate tried to get to his feet, but only ended up collapsing into the booth, asleep.

“What are you—” Gilwarin’s attempt at getting more information died as he, too, received two darts to the chest, sending him into a stupor, and then unconsciousness. The last words he heard before things went black haunted him, as he knew it was already too late.

“Black Star sends their regards.”

Once the two targets were out, the waitress allowed ‘her’ voice to change back to the ‘normal’ one, and held up ‘her’ commlink. “Black Star Prime to teams. I have two for pickup. No casualties.”