The Bounty Hunter on Ames was right: the wreck was right where he said it was, and there was indeed a spectacular black hole nearby. What he'd failed to mention was that every Outcast in Sirius seemed to be in the system and that the view of the black hole was somewhat obstructed by an enormous and busy Outcast base. A conveniently thick nebula, some careful flying, and a lot of luck kept me largely hidden from the Outcast Sabre patrols. Still, I thought, it was worth it, despite the close calls. There's nothing quite like the thrill of exploration and discovery. Mortal peril just spices it up a bit.
After exploring that corner of space a bit more and narrowly evading a Corsair pirate in Frankfurt, I returned to Manhattan to sell some of the salvage I'd recovered. Not surprisingly, some Junkers took an interest and bought them. After that, I hauled some Boron to Leeds. While doing so, I received a message from Freeport IV: they needed someone to ship some fusion reactor cores from Honshu. Fine with me. I swung through the Taus, then headed through New Tokyo to Honshu. That's where things got interesting again.
At the jumpgate, there was a ship transponding as "Mon'Star" and a whole lot of wreckage. "You!" a voice roared over comms, startling me. It was the kind of voice that makes you wish there was a sturdy set of bars between you and it.
"Uh...hi!" I said carefully. "What can I do for you, friend?"
I was greeted by a volley of blaster fire. "Die!" the voice said, then trailed into a laugh that would make a hyena flee for its sanity. It certainly convinced me, I got out of there fast and blasted into Honshu. Luckily, I wasn't followed.
That was...surreal I thought. So that's what insanity sounded like. As I approached Honshu, I noticed a couple of ships in very high orbit, but didn't pay them much attention...until, as I lined up to dock, I was asked for a "tax" for passage. Blasted pirates. Where are the police when you need them? I thought. The fellow didn't even accept my magnanimous offer to buy him a drink. Fortunately, he did eventually agree to let me "trade" him some navigational data in exchange for safe passage. Good enough: my ship and my wallet stay intact.
And now I'm on my way back to Magellan with the reactor cores. Still no word from Thastus or from the Legion though. Time to start digging for information...blast it. Digging for information means hanging around in bars, and bars mean more headaches.
![[Image: aedos_mini.jpg]](http://students.cs.byu.edu/~sushi/aedos_mini.jpg)