The bright yellow TPG Atlas was flanked by a trio of TGFT green combat ships, Vardonx and John Eldritch in Centaur III's, and Lambin in a Valkyrie X-1. Hortans ship was armed with a healing gun and a scanner. You never knew when you ran into some nice roids that needed to be logged. Lambin was scouting ahead to make sure the wormholes were secure. Finally they arrived at CLM headquarters in Latos, one of the few places that was out of bounds for TGFT. Lambin and Vardonx kept a respectfull distance, but John insisted on flying all the way with Hortan. When he came to the 3k mark from the station, a warning tone beeped and the CLM strikeforce, consisting of sharingan and Azumi this day, undocked and started their intercept course.
sharingan: You are trespassing. Go away or be plasma.
At the same time that John received the message from sharingan in his HUD, the radio crackled,
"Hortan can dock, he docks alone. Azumi, escort him to me." Yoda had spoken, and that was all there was to it. Hortan swallowed an extra time and boosted for the station with the pink vulture right behind him. He started sweating as he always did when he had a pie rat on his six.
The station disgorged two more fighters, tramshed and LNH. They boosted directly for John, and he drifted slowly towards Lambin and Vardonx. Three on three was ok odds if it was to be a fight, but he hoped that yoda would be true to his word and that it would not come to that.
The docking was quite uneventfull. As Hortan went through his post flight checks, something hammered on his canopy. Azumi, standing outside with what looked like a wrench in one hand, was trying to get his attention. He looked out at her and held three fingers up, letting her guess the meaning. It seemed to work, because she jumped down from the steps. He continued with his checks when an even larger noise came from his canopy. Startled he looked to the side of his ship and saw her standing with a sawn off shot gun that she was reloading. The lead hail had been smeared across the window and the side of his ship. Deciding against getting even more lead paint on his ship, he abandoned the remaining checks and opened the canopy.
"Yoda-sensei said to bring you at once, not when the trader felt like it. So get a move on, we have to go by my room first."
Hortan was rather scared already. He was easily scared to start with, but the prospect of going to this young woman's room alone, was almost enough for him to get inside his Atlas and launch, let mission be mission. She had a predatory sneer on her face that made her look a bit like a pale version of His Queen. And as he realised that, he knew how to handle her. With utmost patience, a little flattering, and complete submission. Maybe these pie rat vixens received a course in sneering and swaggering after joining a pie rat guild. The thought almost made him forget his fright.
"Was it Azumi they called you?" Seeing her nod, he continued, "I am very sorry that I have kept you waiting. Any bad standing you will get with yoda, I will naturally explain to him as being the fault of my lack of understanding of the issue of speed, with which I have been sorely misinformed, naturally not by yourself." He bowed deeply and looked up at the young woman again. She was smiling broadly, making her face much more pretty he thought, and much less dangerous.
"Shit, are you for real? Now, really, we have to go." She pointed in the direction with the shotgun and let him lead them down the corridor. Hortan noticed how clean looking the white walls were, they looked as if they had been painted within the last week maybe.
"Very well maintained here." Hortan noted, trying to ease his nerves with small talk.
"Yeah, well, tell that to sharingan. It is his doing. I liked the paint stick creatures better, but this is probably for the better" she laughed.
Hortan missed the joke completely, but at least he made her laugh. He felt slightly more at ease. She stopped him at non-distinct door, and he started to open it, believing that they had arrived.
"You wait here, it'll only take a minute for me to get ready," she said and slid the door shut in his face after entering.
He looked dumbfounded at the door. Now what? Why had they had to hurry up so much if he was going to stand and wait for her to get ready? Was this some kind of CLM ritual he was witnessing?
Just as he was about to become impatient, and that is not easy for a miner to become, the door clicked open and the room, that had served as chrysalis for this particular pie rat, revealed the butterfly emerging. Azumi had changed into a dress made of strings and beads, created so it did not reveal anything, but at the same time you could see she was not wearing... Hortan felt the familiar heat rise in his cheeks and instantly looked away. Too late, Azumi had seen that he blushed immensely and smiled coyly at him.
"So, you like it I can see. Shame it doesn't work like that on everyone. Follow me," she said and started walking towards the depths of the station. Hortan really didn't know where to keep his eyes, if only she had let him lead as before. He settled for her heels, and even that was a bit too much for him.
The large KEEP THE HELL OUT sign alerted Hortan to the fact that they might have arrived. Azumi showed Hortan the call button, and he pressed it. Apparently he had done something wrong, because she let out a snort of disappointment. He thought abut pressing it again, but the door opened before he had decided.Yoda was standing inside. Hortan was surprised, he had expected yoda to be at least three meters tall, not three feet. His surprise must have been obvious, and along with the still blushing cheeks, he was looking like a complete fool.
"Think of me as espresso," yoda said, catching Hortan completely off guard. "The most potent of caffeine shots comes in small cups. Just like skill and malice," he smiled a very unpleasant smile.
"And you are the Meatan that managed to survive the convoy attack, solved the TGFT-PA conflict and singlehandedly took out the terrorist that was responsible for the Remley atrocities. I guess looks can be deceiving, no?" He motioned them both inside.
"Ehm, the name is Hortan sir, and let me first say that Azumi was completely guiltless in us arriving late, she did her utmost to make me move faster, and it was not until she, at great risk to herself, made me open my canopy that I realised the need for haste."
Yoda looked at Azumi, then at Hortan and back again. He shook his head slowly, "testosterone, GHU knows you young folks have too much of it. You didn't make it easier for him Az, but then you don't like easy, hmm?"
"I have brought you here for a reason, and it is not merely to look at young female pirates. I need for you to deliver a message to your guild, and I want you to be my personal liaison. A diplomat of sorts if you need it spelled out. The first item is, that once you find the person that masterminded all this, I want him delivered. Let that be my payment for the help I have given you so far."
Hortan shivered with the thought of being CLM's prisoner, kept deep in some wet dungeon, and only taken out for torture or worse. Yoda handed him a mem crystal and looked him in the eyes.
"Here are the findings I have made so far. The name is for Surbius or Ecka only. Let them decide how, where and when. But make sure they understand that I want him." With that he waved his hand at Azumi, who bowed deep and led Hortan out of the door.
"So, do I call you Your Excellency from now on?" she asked Hortan, only halfway jesting.
"Just Hortan will do nicely," he responded. "I never asked for the position, I never asked for anything of this to happen."
"Well Just Hortan, it did, and now you have work to do." She moved in front of him and started walking towards the docking area, hips swaying and lips smiling as she could imagine him blushing once more.
Yoda sat down after they had left. He chuckled silently as he thought of the young man thrown to the lion, or rather lioness. He remembered that even he had once been that young and innocent, back before he flew with [CLM]Demon. Those were the days where yoda had terrorised all traders no matter where they were to be found. And now he was so mired in paperwork he rarely got time to fly. Getting older was not what he had envisioned. Maybe it was a time for a change. He would use this present situation to his utmost advantage, and then he would focus his attention elsewhere.
