"All right, I'll pay!" I yelled over the comms. Things had not gone quite as I had hoped. It all started when I jumped into Magellan and found a junker trying to extort money out of a trader. I couldn't let that just sit... besides, the trader offered me a lot of money to get that particular monkey off his back. I'd engaged the junker long enough for the trader to get away, then ran for it myself. The junker was flying a much more nimble ship with some very sharp weapons, and I wasn't anxious to prolong the fight any longer. Unfortunately, the junker had different ideas, and proceeded to chase me all over Magellan. He offered to leave me alone for a small sum of credits, but I thought I could get away... turns out I was wrong. Of all the times to run out of countermeasures... After wiring the junker some money (far less than the trader offered me to assist him) I was allowed to go on my way.
I had planned to meet the trader and collect my reward at Planet Leeds...and bad luck struck again. Just as the trader came into view, a corsair pilot named Benitez appeared out of nowhere and tried to extort his own sum from the trader. "Pay or die," the Corsair said. "I need to feed the people of Crete." The trader managed to escape down a trade lane, and I took the liberty of disrupting the ring before the corsair could follow... the Corsair then turned his attention to me and asked for a "tax." I'd already gotten to a safe distance, though, so I didn't feel particularly threatened. Still...
"Tell you what," I heard myself say to Benitez. "If you're concerned about feeding your people, I will personally deliver a full hold of food to Crete. No charge."
"Then you do so," Benitez responded.
"I will. On my honor," I promised.
The next day, I set out to fulfill my promise. I stopped at Stuttgart and picked up a full hold of the finest food that money can buy, then made my way to Omicron Gamma and delivered it. Benitez wasn't there, but a pilot identifying himself as "Gentle" promised to ratify that I'd fulfilled my promise. "The blessings of the Corsairs upon you, Senor!" he said as I departed. The Corsairs are quite civilized people, at least to their friends.
Why did I do that? Part of it was to prevent an angry Corsair from hunting me across Sirius. Part of it was out of hope that an expression of goodwill from traders towards the Corsairs would make life easier for all of us that ply the lanes. Part of it was sympathy for the people of Crete... I've been there, and life isn't exactly pretty for most of them. Maybe someday they'll be able to prosper without having to resort to aggression and piracy as their only means of survival.
Almost forgot... The Corsairs have some of the best mechanics to be found anywhere, and I took advantage of that while I was on Crete. They were able to fix my broken turret, faster than I would have thought possible: they had it done before I'd finished unloading the food from Stuttgart.
![[Image: aedos_mini.jpg]](http://students.cs.byu.edu/~sushi/aedos_mini.jpg)