In the deep dungeons of the lands of the dwarves, where the laborious stout fellows worked day and night by their foundries, bellows and anvils, where the hard ringing of metal against metal was the predominant sound, all was silent. What was at times a cacophony of metallic sounds was now at best replaced by the silent whisper of the wind and the occasional running water. At least that was what he thought, because they all seemed to have taken up residence inside his skull and had brought their tools along for the ride.
The hangover had started slowly with a slight pressure-headache right behind his right eye that slowly grew like some malignant beast to be a fully fledged massive pressing pain that made him want to dig his brains out in order to relieve the pressure. Slowly, ever so slowly the pain had settled into a rhythmic throbbing that pulsed with his heartbeat, which was almost bearable as long as he kept his eyes shut. The pain of searing light (from the night glow tube) when his eyes were open was like lances of fire. So he endured the spinning effect that closing his eyes had while occasionally using the floor as a bucket. John Eldritch had not felt so bad, ever. A new sound presented itself, a metallic noise that delivered yet more agony to his already hurting head followed by footsteps.
"Hello councillor Eldritch. I am here to take you home."
John risked opening one eye and saw the immaculately green-clad, beanie wearing smiling Hortan stand in the door. He almost turned and faced the wall but his survival instinct told him that he needed to get up. He slowly but surely managed to push himself into a sitting position although his stomach content seriously wanted to come up and visit his mouth. Barely containing it he responded with a voice think of misuse.
"You have better tell me that you have painkillers."
Hortan smiled and produced a first-aid kit from which he found a small purple pill that he handed to John. He rummaged around but only came up with a small hipflask.
"Sorry Sir, no water Sir."
John shook his head, immediately regretted it and threw some more bile up on the floor. He spat several times to clear his mouth and dry-swallowed the pill. Somehow it didn't want to go where it was supposed to and he shook a hand at the flask, which Hortan handed him. He took a large mouthful and swallowed it along with the pill. Helio Mists, why that stupid recruit could have warned him. John's face turned first red, then purple as the vomit started to rise again with him forcing it to stay down. He won the struggle and in spite of his own protesting body drank the remainder of the fiery liquid. He tossed the flask back and growled with a voice that sounded like a set of industrial stone grinders that were pushed together at high speed.
"Right, lets go."
Hortan handed a temporary TGFT ID card to him as he exited and he pocketed it without checking it. Hortan showed him the way past the guards and out into the corridor that connected to the commercial area.
"Hortan, I don't know what your orders are, but I need a large infusion of Koffee, eggs and beans. If we can scrounge some synth-bacon too it will be heaven."
Hortan looked uncomfortable at the prospect of staying on Daltas Station a second longer than needed but he could see that it was not up for discussion. They went to the commercial area in search of some fatty food, John in the lead.
###
They finally found him stuffed into a crate with a piece of tape over his mouth, tape around his wrists and tape around his ankles. The two security guards quickly helped him out of the crate and removed the silver foil that had been wrapped around his head. His brainpal instantly connected to the station net and a swarm of updates flooded his internal screen. He sorted them by timestamps and found his armour immediately along with three groups of his own officers that were located around it. He was furious at himself as well as at the unknown assailant that had stunned him. Another alert popped up on his screen. "He" himself had apparently emptied the hold of his own ship and the ship wanted to know if it should make an auto-purchase of more champagne. He felt rage rising and forced himself to breathe slowly until he had calmed down ever so slightly. If only he had implanted a real Serco brainpal that allowed him to control his hormones and emotions as well. Breathe in, relax, breathe in, relax. Another alert arrived, this time from the station police. Apparently they had caught the murderer and had him in their custody. Alex Hartron tried to keep a lid on his emotions but this time in vain. He punched his fist into the plastic bulkhead that surrounded the launch bay airlock door, with a sickening crack.
"FUCK THIS."
He looked down at his hand and noticed the wrong angle on three of his fingers before looking at the officers that were waiting for him to speak. He ignored them and activated the voice mode on his brainpal.
"APIG control, stand down all. Ready for relocation on my orders. The killer may have been apprehended. Good job all."
He didn't really mean the last sentence but he had a business to run. And there would be other killers, other jobs where he needed his men. Right now, however, he wished them all to hell and let him alone with his shame.
###
Yoda did not like being disturbed. He did not like being summoned. He particularly hated being disturbed because he was being summoned. Only one thing could actually annoy him more, and that was when someone summoned him while he had guests. Without knowing it Physhi had placed himself in that situation after running from the docking bay as fast as he could.
"Maybe your very important situation can wait for a few seconds more while I finish whatever for you insignificant and utter worthless business that I was in my own time attempting to do, mmh?"
Physhi had been in CLM long enough to know that whenever yoda spoke nicely to you, that you had better just be silent and wait for either the strike, the verbal overhauling or the endless nights of extra duty that inevitably followed. Saying anything would only make it worse. He stood as silent as if he had been made of marble.
"Mmh? In the light of your consent I shall finish my arrangements here and maybe only resort to remember your infringements on my personal space when next I assign patrol duties."
Physhi remained completely still and looked straight ahead. From inside the room a deep voice could be heard, slightly mispronouncing the words almost as if the tongue of the person was slightly too large for his mouth.
"It is of no concern master yoda. I believe we are finished here anyway. Perhaps we can move that way to my ships berth and kill two birds with one stone?"
Physhi saw the twitch of yoda's face and braced for the shitstorm that was about to hit when yoda turned and bowed to the dark robed figure in the middle of the room.
"A wise suggestion Chief Inquisitor Ahriman. And I believe you are right."
He turned to the non-moving Physhi and frowned.
"Don't just stand there, lead the way pirate."
Physhi looked confused while the words were analysed for hidden meanings. There were none, they came up clean and he shrugged before turning towards the docking bay again, helmet under one arm and rifle slung on his back. He actually didn't think he had done half-bad at all. Maybe yoda would forget his intrusion; maybe he would even reward him for the swift message.
###
Cat exited the warp hole and saw Aeolus Trading Prefect lined up in front of her, the large iron asteroid to the right of the station dotted with mined ore and two miners that skittered around the surface and the large ringed gas giant behind it. She smiled at the picture perfect image and pushed for a docking vector with station security. She docked at a sedate pace at the single fighter class docking station without problems. Safe in the grasp of the grav-operated clamps she methodically went through her systems check-down before opening the cockpit chainglass.
"Welcome back Cat. We feared the worst when Tomahawk returned alone."
She looked out and saw Silia stand with a bottle of ice cold Serco Ale and a smile on her face. Cat grinned to her while she jumped out of the ship.
"Well, I couldn't just let the traders be killed. That was kinda why we were there right? I had some help from a flight of Vipers."
Silia continued smiling as she handed the ale over.
"You must tell us all about it Cat. Let's walk to the debriefing room and identify what can be done better next time, okay?"
Cat took a healthy swig of the ale and nodded. Silia started walking into the station and Cat followed.
"I tell you Silia, you should have seen the way they worked together. It was like they knew precisely what each other thought and who to attack. Kind of a space ballet really. And they were so nice, even scouted ahead even though I didn't ask for it and couldn't afford to pay them for anything..."
Silia smiled and nodded and let Cat explain about the escort while they wound their way into the station proper. It looked as if Cat had promoted KAOS in a very good way and Silia sent a reminder to her brainpal that Cat should be allowed to fly more escorts. After she had trained the others in EVA techniques. Those skills would come in handy in a rather short while....
