Part 1
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Captain Solaris signs off his last load of goods for the duty shift.
It has been fairly eventful, compared to normal customs duty.
First there was a load of foodstuffs contaminated with parisites, and later a transport whose callsign didn't correspond with their ID code.
Just as well he was off to join a new group where all kinds of interesting things might happen.
"Mr Solaris, are you daydreaming again?". A dull sounding voice comes from a dull, grey looking man further down the ramp.
"What? ... No just considering where those contaminated foods may have originated from."
"Very good. We wouldn't want anything substandard slipping past the customs, would we?"
"No of course not"
The dull grey man looks towards a stack of crates and sacks nearby. "what are these then?"
"Well, obviously they would be from the last cargo shipment in...let me see...yes... various seed types and organic compounds purchased for hydroponics groundside."
"Why haven't they been examined yet?"
Solaris looks around for a moment. "Well, they should have been looked over by the last sweeper team... Who are you anyway?"
"no-one that need concern you".
A concealed dart fires from the sleeve of his robe.
The last thing Captain Hermes Solaris sees is the ground coming up to meet his face.
The dull, grey looking man chuckles to himself as he leans over with a large syringe.
The face of a worried looking woman looks down on him.
"what? Yes I think I'm alright"
"That's good. Your vital signs are better. I'm Doctor Neess by the way.", she passes over a glass of water.
"Better get your fluids up again, You've been out for a while".
"What happened? how did I get here?".
"We're not really sure what happened. Everyone else on the base is dead as far as we can tell. You were picked up by a scheduled shuttle that we had on the shopping list, as planned...so you ended up here, above Gran Canaria in a Coalition command ship.
She looks around for a moment as though worried about something. "It looks like some kind of fast acting plague. Strangely, we couldn't find anything unusual in the air samples...
"We can find no trace of anything out of the ordinary in your tissue samples, and a full scan has detected nothing.
"We're still in quarantine here, which explains the force fields around the area.
"Still, you'd better get your head around your new orders. We live in a very different place out here. Here's your new terminal card.
"Quarantine should be done in a few hours...and I believe you have a new command waiting for you...Commodore."