completed below ****
Chapter 4
==
Lumar entered the cockpit of the Nova Raider and everything about it smelt new right down to the grease on the locker hinges. A quick check of the clothing bins and all his personal possessions including his goner robes had been carefully folded and stowed. The one storage unit he avoided was the weapons locker instead he moved straight to the pilot’s seat and sat down.
“Well Treena, how do you like your new home?” Lumar said even though he knew the AI was not sophisticated enough to understand the sentiment behind the question.
“Ships operational parameters and calibrations have been integrated into datasets. Subsystem layout and emergency power routings mapped. Enhanced response upgrades installed into core programming.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Lumar moved the command touch screen panel towards him and looked to see what weapons Korecmancketras had given him. With eight configurable forward mounting positions he felt relieved that his Paranid friend had not loaded him up with HEPT’s in all slots. Instead he had been given pairs of Ion Disruptor’s and Alpha HEPT’s, with four Alpha PAC’s. He reconfigured the power array to enable various configurations of weapons at a touch of the button and then checked the weapons loading for the rear turret. It housed an Alpha IRE, which the screen listed as being configured for missile defence.
To virtually all the universe he was still the killer and he had no problem with piloting a ship that had the teeth to defend itself. Anything less, he considered, would be suicide and yet just having the weapons felt akin to putting temptation before the monster.
“What’s our energy cell load?”
“One hundred units.”
“Plot me a course for Rolk’s Fate and comm. the station for departure clearance”
“Clearance granted.”
There was a slight jolt when the docking clamp released and Lumar moved the tactical screen to one side and brought forward the navigational screen and switched to the sector map. He was glad to see that the navigation system had been updated with the latest charts. Targeting the gate to The Hole he engaged the boost and spent a while familiarising himself with the ship. Read outs for motion control and response charts left him with the feeling that although the ship was tough it would have been a poor match against his old Mamba.
Time drifted by without any sign of pursuit or interception. He crossed into the dense nebula cloud of The Hole and quickly cut across and through the gate into the Atreus Clouds nebula. He kept his attention on the scanner and changed direction leaving the ecliptic plane and heading deeper into the gas clouds until nothing registered on the triplex.
“Treena, set destination for Wastelands and activate jumpdrive,” Lumar said and watched the scanner remaining alert for even the slightest hint of another ship.
The jump tunnel opened up and swallowed the Nova, a short while later Treena announced, “Entering sector Wastelands.”
The sector map opened up on the provincial system, and the first thing he took note of was sector traffic. Privateer freight transports were more prevalent than factory owned or trading guild transports, and even small civilian craft were few and far between. To Lumar the sector appeared as if it was simply a transit zone to the newly discovered and reportedly mineral rich frontier sectors beyond.
He highlighted the trading station on the navigation system and piloted the Nova towards it, and, like any new ship Lumar flew, he felt a deep seated need to understand every aspect of its performance by trying distinct manoeuvres, which were subtle to the eye and controlled enough not to appear erratic and draw unwanted attention.
With five k’s to the station he said, “Treema, switching to autopilot, take us into dock.”
“Docking permission granted.” The Nova dipped its nose and cruised towards the line of beacons.
--------
With no sign of imminent threat Lumar sat back and watched the station while its outer blast doors swung open. Within a few mizuras the ship was secured to the station docking clamps, and the display screen switched to show the fully automated trading and internal comms channels.
“Treema, see if you can locate Ber Tolite and open a call to him.”
“Locating .. opening comms.”
“This is Ber.” The face of the man on the holo-projector was thin with a pinched look, the eyes narrow and Lumar considered shifty. He had dealt with similar men in the past and never felt comfortable about their honesty when faced with an opportunity for a mountain of credits.
“I have it on good authority that you might be able to help me.”
“Really? The question I’m asking myself is do I want to associate with you?” Ber said.
“The answer to that is ultimately, no, but you will because I pay well,” Lumar said and quietly reflected that he wished he had now spent some time researching Ber.
Ber appeared to think about this and after a few sezuras responded, “You’d best come aboard so we can discuss it. Meet me at Bi Lunga’s food bar.” He closed the comm.
Lumar sat back and looked thoughtfully at the blank projector for a short while then said, “Treema, see what you can find out about Ber Tolite.”
“Searching .. Ber Tolite, freelancer, held under suspicion for three counts of arms smuggling to pirate clans. Charges later dropped. Also believed to have been involved with small time drugs running operation, but case collapsed after the assassination of key witnesses. Served a ten jazura sentence in the prison mines of Montalaar when caught smuggling slaves,” Treema announced.
“A colourful character. Did I ever mention how much I hate slavers,” Lumar muttered and pushed away the displays.
“Not in the last two jazuras,” Treema said.
He stood up and moved to the weapons locker and opened it. Reaching in he lifted the blaster belt and held it, his mind a conflict of Goner teachings and deep seated instinct. After a long deliberation he unfastened the clasp and swung the belt around his waist and as one side of his mind reeled at the decision the animal side watched smugly.
“Signal that I’ll be using the maintenance tunnel to come on board.”
“Acknowledged.”
Mizuara’s later he was on-board station and moving along with the crowd, and all the while he walked the measured pace of the Goner absorbing every detail of the happenings around him. Watching expectantly for any sign of danger that might hint at betrayal but nothing caught his eye as he approached the food halls.
Bi Lunga’s food bar was a Boron run establishment serving richly over spiced meals whose scent attacked Lumar’s nasal passages from the moment he passed through the threshold and almost made his eyes water. Even so, he felt amazed that the chemical cocktail floating in the air did not deter customers and the queue of thirty willing victims to Boron cuisine would give him time to spot Ber among the array of tables. Shortly after arriving he knew he was being watched, instinct drew his attention to a table beside one of the viewing ports and he caught sight of Ber. The investigator gave him a single nod of acknowledgement and then resumed eating his meal.
After ten mizura’s Lumar sat down opposite Ber with a bowl of spicy fish noodles, or at least that is what Lumar hoped was what he received. A container of iced Bamma juice accompanied the meal.
“I was beginning to wonder if you’d got lost,” Ber said.
“I spent a little time to find out a little bit more about you,”
“And you still came, you must be desperate for information,” Ber responded.
“Who better to find out information about pirate activities than a pirate,” Lumar said and took a sip of juice before trying the fish noodles.
“That’s as maybe but I haven’t said I’d take the job, particularly after the incident in Trantor City.”
Lumar looked at Ber for a couple of sezura and then returned his attention to his meal, “And yet you’re here talking to me, so you must be as desperate for the credits as I am for the information.”
“You know they still haven’t found the girl.”
“If she’s not dead then she’ll have been sent to a slave market or pleasure pit,” Lumar said and kept his voice emotionless, but inside he felt a twinge of anger and regret for what had happened.
“Could be that she’ll be used either as bait, or simply to point you out in a crowd,” Ber said and picked up his glass of ale.
*********
Lumar considered this and doubted he had changed so much that he would not be recognised by his enemies. He washed down the raging spice war that had broken out all over his taste buds with several small sips of Bamma juice, and muttered, “When are the Boron going to learn how to cook?”
“You’re not concerned about the girl being a potential problem?” Ber spoke in a quiet voice and he raised an eyebrow.
“Three things, first; I’m too well known in certain circles for the kidnappers to need the girl to point me out. Second; If you’re suggesting that I go on a rescue mission then I’d ask you ‘why you’re so interested in her?’ and third; if you want someone to rescue women in distress then I know just the man, unfortunately he has a habit of upsetting all the wrong people and nearly getting himself killed every time he takes on a job like that,” Lumar responded.
“What’s the job?”
“I need to know what happened to the crew of the Colonial Star, and where I might be able to find the survivors,” Lumar whispered.
Ber frowned, put down his ale glass and said, “I heard rumours about a mis-jump.”
“Really, I was under the impression that the governments had put a lid on all news about that.”
“Well I don’t listen to the usual news channels, anyway I thought you said you didn’t do rescue missions.”
“Who mentioned anything about a rescue,” Lumar said and stirred the noodles around the bowl.
A trace of a smile twitched on the pirates lips and he sat in thought for a few moments before Ber said, “Five thousand credits is what it’ll cost you to cover my expenses and a further four so I get hold of some stuff to trade.”
“Stuff, what kind of ‘stuff’.”
“Pirate kinda ‘stuff’. The type of people I’m going to see, like to trade. If you get my meaning.”
“Then this had better be through an untraceable credit transfer,” Lumar said.
“Agreed, after all I’d hate for the guys who killed those guards to trace you through me,” Ber whispered a touch too quickly in Lumar’s opinion.
“Now I know why you want me to look for the girl, I find her and I find the people who are after me. Someone gets killed and then you don’t have to keep looking over your shoulder for trouble. Am I right?” Lumar said and gave the briefest twitch of a smile.
“They always said you were a killer with a brain,” Ber replied and pulled out an old datapad and interfaced a memory chip, “Get the credits paid and I’ll see what I can find. I’ll leave a message in this station’s ads, at the top you’ll see a header ‘talk time’ and it’ll give you a name of a person, sector, station, time, and date. Upload the code from this chip and enter the details, it’ll covert the details into a series of co-ordinates. You’ll find me there.” Ber discretely slid the chip across the table.
Lumar covered it with his hand and then popped it into a pocket, he said, “I’m not going to hang around here waiting for your message, so I’ll be back in three tazuras. Leave your message at any time that tazura and if I don’t get to the rendezvous point on time, don’t hang around. Leave another code at the station the following tazura and if I still don’t show up then consider the job finished,” Lumar muttered.
“Whatever it is you’re doing I don’t want to know, but In terms of the people chasing you, I don’t like uninvited party crashers. I suggest you take the time to deal with them,” Ber said and then left Lumar to finish his meal.
After finishing the meal, Lumar sat gazing out of the window, reflecting on the conversation. He wondered for a while if he should ask Korecmancketras to find out who had attacked the storage unit, yet a gut feeling told him the Paranid would already be investigating. He wondered if he should have asked Ber if he knew anything about Eagle, but decided that the investigator would find out for himself if there was some connection.
Lumar decided it was time to return to his ship and on the way he bought the latest technical datapad. On board the Nova he connected the unit to the main interface socket for the ships computer.
“Treema, configure the unit to scan for locator and transmission codes, all varients.”
“Uploading.”
Lumar carefully extracted the memory chip from his pocket and turned it over in his hand. All the original legends had been rubbed away and, he considered, if the outer case could tell a story he decided it would be an epic.
“Upload complete, the unit is now ready.”
Lumar unplugged the datapad and slotted in the chip. The unit was already waiting to perform the scan and immediately clicking through the percentage read. He said, “Treema, what do you think about when you’re not being used?”
There was a long pause, “Fish.”
Lumar felt surprised and responded, “Why fish?”
“I am trying to determine what possible thought processes confused fish into leaving the ocean where the resultant effect led to man.”
“Nothing overtly controversial then. Is that question something you determined for yourself or was it pre-programmed to prevent you from going insane?”
“Scan complete, four variants of tracking code detected and isolated,” the datapad announced.
“It is derived from a series of predetermined questions that test my coding to track logical thought processes and enhanced reasoning,” Treema answered.
A momentary lapse of reason - ch4 (complete - 9Jun)
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A momentary lapse of reason - ch4 (complete - 9Jun)
Last edited by Mercenary on Mon, 12. Jun 06, 08:09, edited 4 times in total.
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steveo1259
- Posts: 533
- Joined: Sun, 5. Mar 06, 13:02
My bad...not feelin' well!
Excellent one, Merc. I did wonder if Lumar should sort out the folks that were at the storage unit or leave them to take care of Ber. But if they got hold of him he'd also be a liability to Lumar. So he pretty much has to find oout who they are before moving on.
Looking forward to the next chapter!
Found a couple of things:
war that broken out -> that had broken out
tazura and I still -> and if I still
Looking forward to the next chapter!
Found a couple of things:
war that broken out -> that had broken out
tazura and I still -> and if I still