(Holding Cells, BSN Shinokage,
Tietera System)
I watched as Captain Aeson ‘Quickblade’ Shaxidor began
waking up, clearly having the mother of all headaches. It was a common side
effect of the knockout poison on the darts we used. Works like a charm on most species,
and twice as fast on Knelfi, but it leaves them with an absolute bitch of a
headache when it wears off. Since we didn’t usually sleepy-time anyone we
actually cared about, that wasn’t a priority of ours.
The Captain was currently sitting in a chair we’d designed
to be uncomfortable, especially since he was tied to it with his hands behind
his back, and dressed only in his underwear. The bright white spotlight above
his head made it difficult for him to see anyone or anything in the darkened
room outside his little circle of light, adding to the psychological pressure
of the whole ordeal. Normally, we wouldn’t have stripped the man, but we’d
found enough hidden weapons, escape kits, and other nasty surprises that we
just stripped him of everything. As a precaution, the doctor scanned him, and
found a false tooth filled with poison, an effective suicide pill if he got
captured. We also dug out the emergency beacon in his wrist, so that he wouldn’t
be able to call for help.
Shaxidor groaned, and finally opened his eyes, blinking and
squinting in the bright light. “What the? Where am I? You got no right to be
doing this to me!” Ah, it seemed he was lucid enough to complain, which meant
that he was lucid enough for us to begin the questioning.
“Aeson Shaxidor. Pirate. Smuggler. Slaver. Thief. Murderer.
Oh, dear, you even are involved in dealing addictive pharmaceuticals. You
really are a renaissance criminal, it seems. Let’s see, Captain of the Death’s Shadow. Now isn’t that ironic?”
All the while I was speaking, I walked softly outside the
circle of light, so my voice was constantly changing position, causing Shaxidor
to turn his head to try and track my movements in an attempt to see who he was
dealing with. I kept my voice calm, conversational, like I was simply reading
something off the pages of a dossier. It was a psychological game, of course.
The unknown figure who knows so much already, what else is in their file on
him? That was a powerful lever I could use to break Shaxidor.
“What do ya mean, ironic? And who in the hell are you? I got
rights, damnit! You can’t be doing this to me! I’m a free trader—”
“Oh, please, Aeson. Can I call you Aeson? Anyways, do give us
some credit for our intelligence department’s ability to get to the truth
behind the lies. You are no ‘free trader’. You are a pirate, and have been
working this area of space for twenty years, now, always knowing the right
officials to bribe so that the Navy never troubled you, so long as you kept
your activities within an acceptable level.”
“Then why are we having this ‘conversation’? You know that I’m
protected, so there’s no point keeping me here. When the people in the Governor’s
office hear I’ve been taken…”
“Oh my. You are behind the times. Here, let me play you a
little something. I think it will do wonders to show you exactly what your
position is.”
A screen popped on in front of Shaxidor, showing the local Tietera
News. There was an attractive female reporter standing in front of the Seven
Star Lounge.
“Still no word from
officials in the Tietera Health Services on the identities of the two men who
were taken from the locally famous Seven Star Lounge here on Zanchul Station by
emergency medical transport earlier this evening. However, we have received unconfirmed
reports that this may have been a case of Morbilor Astsimus poisoning, a
condition that is known to be caused by consuming the flesh from infected
Vermaw. Sources in the Seven Star Lounge confirm that the two men were eating
vermaw steaks sourced from the Sagthad region of Ziphad. We here at Tietera News
will work to find out whether this was an isolated incident, or whether our
food supplies are at risk of contamination.”
The anchor cut in here, and said, “Taenya, is there any news on when we may learn more about the identity of the two men who were evacuated?”
“Unfortunately,
sources in the Medical Service have said that an official announcement will not
be made until the families of the victims are notified, if possible. However, we
have obtained this footage of the medical teams evacuating the two men from a
nearby store’s security cameras. We’re going to show you an enhancement on one
of the victims now. Facial recognition gives a 67% match to Aiwan Gilwarin, a local
financier and number 454 on the Orbesf 500 list for the Tietera System’s most
affluent people.”
I cut the screen off, and said, “So, unfortunately for you,
you haven’t been arrested, and no government contacts will be calling demanding
you be released. Of course, even if they demanded it, that wouldn’t mean
anything. After all, no one on this ship is a government official.”
“What? If you aren’t government, then who the fuck are you? Some
spy agency? I got nothing for you backstabbing spooks. Saw how you just like
using us and then tossing us aside when it is politically inconvenient.”
“Ah, no. You see, I told you that the name of your ship was
rather ironic, didn’t I? Death’s Shadow
has such a nice, grim ring to it. The irony, of course, is that the name of the
ship you’re currently on translates to ‘Shadow of Death’. But you would probably
recognize it better as Shinokage.”
Ah, there it was. Even if I wasn’t in his head, reading his
surface thoughts, it would be easy enough to see the fear that just went
through him, as the Captain stiffened in response to my declaration. “No way,
we haven’t done anything to your group!”
“Oh yes, that is why you are still alive and uncollared.
Whether either of those things remain true is something I have not yet decided.
Some of it will depend on your attitude, of course. I have this thing about people
insulting me or mine. It makes me want to smack them around a little bit until
they’ve learned their lesson. Sometimes, though, it involves someone taking a
walk outside without a suit.”
Captain Shaxidor grit his teeth, not trusting himself to say
anything that wouldn’t get him into more trouble, though he did have some
interesting thoughts about what he wanted to do. I continued my little trick of
moving around the room, and said, “Don’t bother trying to use the implant to
signal your crew. We made sure to remove it after our operative brought you in
for questioning.”
“Operative? You mean that blonde bint? She was working for
you guys?”
“Oh yes, it was quite easy getting her a job as a server at
the lounge. Your friend Mister Gilwarin is, unfortunately for you, a rather bad
judge of character. But don’t worry about him. He’s currently being interviewed
in another cell. Though I’ve been informed he’s currently working very hard to
make a deal for himself that will allow him to go free after all of this is
done.”
“What? That rat! What is he telling you?”
“Oh, nothing much. Just all the accounts that he has used to
launder money for you pirates over the years, and details on the loans and
other financing he’s done as well. I do believe he’s been keeping careful
records of all of his dealings since the beginning, just in case a day like
this ever came up.”
I paused, and then said, “Now, as you can see, this leaves
you in a somewhat worse condition. The more information he gives us, the less
valuable any contributions you have may be. Right now, your best-case scenario
is… well, I won’t say, but at least you’d be alive. That’s something, right? But
right now, you’re looking at death. Maybe slow and painful, as an example to
other pirates. Maybe something quicker and more dignified, an easy end, if you
keep your attitude in check. But you’re going to have to do a lot of work if
you want to keep breathing.”
Shaxidor’s eyes widened, his nostrils flared, as a surge of
anger flared through him, but he stomped down on it swiftly, keeping it in
check. Promising himself that he’d get revenge in time. Just had to keep it
together, give me what I wanted, and then get out of there. Get his crews, and
taking them out of the sector until we had finished killing the new pirates,
and then returning to pick up the pieces at a more established rate, until they
could find a chance to fight back. Too bad it would never work, but whatever
little lies he told himself to keep his ego in check were fine with me.
“What do you want?”
“It is simple, really. We had a great deal of success last
time we went up against pirates by attacking their bases. We have received
confirmation of the location of the main pirate haven in this sector. But your
people aren’t as foolish as the so-called Pirate Queen from the Badlands. The
reports we’ve gotten talk about all kinds of defenses.”
Shaxidor glared at the empty space where I formerly was. “You’re
going after Madrigal Base? That’s madness! Even the Navy isn’t stupid enough to
go trying and taking that base! We’ve been building it up for almost a hundred
years. The damn thing is as good a fortress as you’ve ever seen!”
“Ah, yes. That was what we have heard. However, you forget who
you’re talking to. Black Star has launched successful attacks on some of the
most heavily fortified positions in the galaxy, slipping through Defense
networks that make yours look cute and antiquated by comparison. If we set ourselves
to wiping out Madrigal Base, it will be wiped out. The only question is what
will it cost us, and what will it cost the pirates.”
“Then what in the abyss do you want with me? If you’re so certain
you can break the Maddy, then why all of this?”
“Simple enough, Aeson. Destroying Madrigal Base and everyone
on it would be child’s play, when you have precision mass drivers, and other,
even more destructive weaponry. No, we could easily destroy Madrigal Base. But taking
it? Capturing the base, complete with all its supplies and personnel intact? That
takes more than simply going in and blasting away. And so we come to why you
are here. You are one of the senior captains in this sector. Twenty ships
answer to you, mostly little corvettes and frigates, of course, with some
converted freighters. You’re the third most powerful pirate captain in the
sector, which means you would have quite the inside knowledge of Madrigal’s
defenses.”
Shaxidor blinked. He didn’t like that I knew about the number
and type of ships that answered to him. Worse, I knew things that I wasn’t
supposed to know. Someone had leaked the existence of Madrigal Base, and told
me enough about the defenses that I decided to get an ‘inside man’. But he knew
he was trapped. If I didn’t get cooperation from him, he’d die, or worse, and I’d
find some other patsy. There were plenty of pirates out there that would throw
the rest of them under the cargo transport to save their own skins. Maybe he
could feed enough false information to—
“Oh, I wouldn’t recommend doing that, Aeson.”
“W-what? What are you talking about?”
“You were just thinking about how you were going to try and
deceive me, getting me to take out most of your enemies while getting me
killed, no? Unfortunately, that plan simply isn’t going to work. No, that plan
won’t work either. And really, trying to sell your sister to get me off your
case? Tsk, tsk. Very disappointing, Aeson. And here I thought we were going to
be able to work together, instead of you just being a corpse.”
Shaxidor’s mouth went dry at the sudden realization that I
was in his head, and had been this entire time, even before I started talking.
Everything he thought was an open book to me! Gritting his teeth again, he
tried to think of horrible things to get me out of his head. Too bad for him, I
was able to retaliate with images of my own. A montage of all the pain I’d felt
since coming to Dreams Amongst the Stars. Shaxidor screamed, his head already hurting
from the drug, and now wracked by even more pain. It only took a moment for him
to stop trying to keep me out.
“Now, Captain, we will discuss the defenses of your hidden
pirate base.”
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Tales of the Void Traveler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
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Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y
City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
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Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR
The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T
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