~Aboard Newark station, in the [IND] private bar, a fat man enters, unshaven and the remains of his hair unkempt~
"Morning Sophie, my usual if you please."
"Well well, look what the cat dragged in! Again. You're starting to hone this disappearing act of yours into a fine art, Mr. P"
"Well it's not my bloody fault this time!"
"I see. Well the fryer needs to warm up, so in the meantime don't keep us in suspense."
"It's like this. I was making a particularly long run out to the rim when I get jumped by a bunch of Outcasts. Tried to tell 'em my rep with them was good, but the IFF just happened to be playing up. They didn't buy it. So I though it prudent to leg it out of there... unfortunately one of their cruise-thumpers got lucky. Suddenly I'm having to veer back to the jumphole while being mercilessly pummeled by the mongrels. Anyway something jarred me real good coz I blacked out. Next thing I remember I'm coming to in the... get this... sickbay on a Rogue base."
"Now Mr. P, I think you might be stretching it a bit..."
"Not a word of a lie! But the most bizarre part is, I had no idea who I was or where I came from. A bad case of amnesia, as true as I'm standing here now. Of course I only remembered any this much, much later. Those Rogue dogs must've known who I was, though... but instead of enlightening me by throwing me out the airlock, I guess they decided to buy me off the Outcasts and "enlist" my services for their own scabby ends. So there I was, flying some leaky tub filled with contraband from one end to the other. This went on for months... until a little drinky in their filthy dive of a bar turned a little heated. I gets hit over the head with a barstool, and... my memories come flooding back! One minute I'm a Rogue lackey, next minute I'm Pete again."
"Sounds like a right grim pickle."
"Well I had sense enough not to start blurting out, "Hey! Bugger off, I'm IND!" I stayed down after that king hit, and you can't begin to imagine how much of an effort that took. Then after things had cooled I picked myself up, went to my freighter, took off and kept right on going. And here I am."
"But what about your big ol' transport?"
~sniffs sadly~ "Gone. The thieving rats must have pawned it or scavenged it or something. I have nothing to my name but that rusty crate of a Taiidan freighter I "commandeered", and that's what I have to do business in, at least until I fill out the paperwork hopefully."
"Poor Mr. P! I'm surprised those Rogues let you off that easy."
"Well I can only guess I was too small for them to worry about. I could move from Kusari to Magellan completely unmolested, and that's a first! Or at least I could -- seems like my rep has caught up with me. But that's ok, coz I've made some "anti-pirate" modifications to my ship... complete with fuzzy dice."
"Not a bad tale if I do say so. The other boys'll love to hear it, once their all back from wherever they've squirreled themselves."
