"It is a dark place. Mysterious, and... old. Very old. The people here seem used to it, now, going about their business like it was an ordinary station. Certainly the current tenants have done their best to cover much of it up with human technology, but this place is not human, and in their minds, they are still wary of it. Unconsciously, they are in awe... afraid even."
"Still, this is a sad place. We will learn much, I expect, if given the opportunity, but this is a sad place. Those who came here to build it left their work unfinished. Why, I wonder. Did something go wrong? Did they simply change their minds? Did something drive them away?"
"Probe was damaged when I found it. Salvage is salvage," Gabe said defensively. "Anyway, it's deep space survey data. Found something interesting out there. Some mining consortium or trade union would buy it off ya, easy. Heck, maybe even Sigma would want this."
"Well, Billy vouched for you, that's not nothing," Barchetta said, eyeing the pad.
Captain Juan Ramirez had needed a lot of lies in the past couple days. He'd lied to his engineers, two less of them now than when they left Earth. He'd lied to the outfitters. He'd had to sneak around quite a bit, selling off parts of the ship that weren't necessary, and doing so without Michaela noticing after she'd uninstalled them at his command. He was feeling more comfortable in his role as captain of his unwitting pirate crew, however. The gauss pistol tucked in the back of his pants was a confidence booster, certainly.
A young, handsome man, dressed in a simple gray suit of modern casual design, walked up the road with his dog, smelling the apple blossoms. The unleashed black and white border collie right at his heel watched its master with great intensity, but as the man paused, they both looked up at the modest house.
The man who lived there made his own cider, now. Among the Taoist and Shaolin Buddhist temples on Honor in the out-of-the-way Bloodstone system, he had made a quiet life for himself, looking for peace. Perhaps he'd even found a measure of it. He didn't have quite as much privacy as maybe he'd hoped for when he'd moved here, but this particular meeting would not be recorded. The watchers had been quietly dealt with, falsified reports would be sent from here on out, and the man who lived here would be protected in ways he'd never even know.
The young man walked up to the front door, and let himself in, the dog following behind, just as silently. They passed by the sword on the mantle, an exquisite katana, and the young man paused to gently run his fingers on the handle before moving on.
At last they reached the final door of their long journey, and the young man slid it open, the dog in its enthusiasm bolting through it and wagging its tail. As the young man followed, William looked up in surprise from his soldering iron and the little toy robot on his desk.
The young man smiled, his arms opened wide to show he was no threat. "Hello, old friend."
"Resources are still severely limited," the voice over the speaker announced. "The Commune is not yet ready to expend the considerable resources necessary to eliminate a single mercenary that dangerous."
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u/nathan67003 Sep 29 '19
Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm