I've managed to deliver a couple cargo holds full of supplies: food, water, medicine, oxygen. I hope it gets to the right people. It's the first time in quite a while that I've wished I had a larger cargo hold.
Later, I was on my way to deliver some supplies to Planet Harris. As I flew through the half-completed trade lane from the Leeds gate (will they EVER get that thing operational?) I was startled to hear the standard "pay up or die" routine that pirates use. Oh space, I thought. I slowed down as I approached, and sure enough there were nearly half a dozen pirates blockading the planet. There were also a few trade ships, trying to get past the blockade. My stomach curled as I saw a bright explosion near the planet, punishment inflicted by the pirates on a transport that tried to leave without paying them.
Blast it all, no way am I going to get through this, I thought. As much as I would have liked to help the pinned-down traders, the Aedos was very much outmanned and outgunned. Where's the blasted Bretonian Navy?, I wondered. Wasn't there usually a battleship parked in orbit?
Uh oh. I'd waited too long, and had been spotted. One of the pirates was closing the distance in a Titan-class fighter. Time to get out of here, I thought, engaged cruise, and put some distance between myself and the pirates. I vaguely recall saying something cheeky to the pirate before I left, and then I was gone.
Most of the day was pretty uneventful, except for a drawn-out tangle with a Molly gunboat.
Naturally, I turned off the power first. I've heard too many stories about pilots doing their own weapons maintenance who didn't. I wasn't actually surprised when I found out that my turret was jammed. All of my weapons have had quite a workout over the last couple days. Let's see, I thought as as I slid on my back under the hull of the Aedos, what all was there?. There were all of those Mollys who weren't happy with me mining the Dublin gold fields. They chased me all the way to Cambridge. I'd never seen them quite that determined. I wonder what they were so upset about? I thought as I shined my flashlight up at the underslung chaingun. Maybe it had something to do with that gunboat I took out the other day.
What else... There were the Hessians in Omega-5 that ambushed me at the jumphole. Luckily for me, they were distracted by a wing of Corsair ships long enough for me to get away. I took a gamble that the Corsairs would tolerate my presence slightly more than the Hessians and headed for their territory... as it happened, right through a minefield. That didn't help either. Come to think of it, I thought, that was the most likely place for the gun to take damage... aha!
There it was. I could tell immediately what had happened: a bit of shrapnel had pierced one of the barrels and lodged in it like a hatchet deep in a log. When that barrel had tried to fire, it had melted the shrapnel into an imperfect plug. The gun's internal diagnostics had eventually detected that there was a problem and shut down the barrel, but frankly I was lucky the whole gun assembly hadn't exploded.
The bad news, of course, was that I couldn't repair it. Blast, I thought as I slid out from under the ship, I'll have to get a specialist for this. The turret was too expensive to simply replace.
Well, it wouldn't have been, if it hadn't been for that malfunction... I was bitter about that too. After spending a very long time carefully mining chunks of rock containing alien organisms, I was halfway back to Cambridge to sell them when my cargo hold's radiation containment field collapsed. By the time I got it back up, it was too late: everything in my hold had been sterilized. More than three hundred thousand credits worth of organisms, gone just like that. And that's a lot of money to an independent trader like me.
Yes, my luck has been a bit rocky of late.
I climbed into my ship and hit the button to activate the information console. Nothing happened. I tried again...still nothing. Oh...right. I stepped around the corner, flipped a switch, and watched the ship's power grid come back online. Grinning sheepishly to myself, I returned to the console and fired it up. Time to start looking for a weapons repairman, I thought. The console loaded, and then informed me that I had a new message waiting for me.
Tannik,
We could use your help.
Head to the provided coordinates. I think you'll be very interested in what you see.
-Leroy Fenning
Attached to the message were some coordinates... quite a trip, way out in the Omicron systems. Well, this is interesting, I thought. I'd met Fenning once before, the first time I wandered deep into Omega space. I hadn't planned to keep in touch, but apparently he had. As it happened, he was one of the few people in Sirius that I felt like I could wholly trust.
Why wait? I thought. If the Zoners wanted my help, they would have it, and as soon as I could get there.
"Los Angeles Traffic Control, this is the Aedos, requesting permission to launch."
The ship roared as the engines spooled up for launch, vibrating every bone in my body. I grinned again. Space, I love this ship!
Fenning was right: I was very interested in what I found. It was a long trip though: the final waypoint was nearly 200 clicks from the last jumphole. But it was worth it. As I cleared the last cloud between myself and the destination, I forgot to breathe for nearly a minute.
There, laid out in orderly rows, was a fleet: the largest I'd ever seen. Even from a distance, I could make out scores and scores of titanic ships. Some of the configurations I recognized, some I had only seen in pictures, some I had never seen at all. But most amazing of all, nestled in the center of the fleet, was a ship greater than any of them. From a distance, all I could initially see was a cylindrical main body and an enormous array of engines. Each of the engines was bigger than almost every battleship I had ever seen.
"Quite a sight, isn't it?" A voice broke in over comms. I jumped. I hadn't even noticed the wing of Eagle fighters that had joined up with me. "What do you think, Tannik?" I was speechless. I think I squeaked slightly. Several seconds later, I managed to regain my vocabulary.
"What is it?" I asked.
"That, my friend, is the Discovery. As you can see, it isn't quite complete," Fenning responded. It had to be him. And now that we had almost reached it, I could see what he was talking about. The outer hull was mostly complete, but the scaffolding and construction ships scattered all over its surface attested to the ongoing construction. "It will be some time yet before she is ready to begin her journey."
"But what isit?" I asked again.
"A generational ship," he answered. "That ship is the future of humankind." Wow, I thought. Wow. Fenning continued, "one day, we will set her on a course that will take her to stars hundreds of light years away. Maybe even thousands. The Discovery, when complete, will be a self-contained world, able to sustain itself for centuries at a time, until she reaches a place where humanity can flourish, and plant itself anew among the stars. And perhaps, after establishing the colony and replenishing her own supplies, the Discovery will continue on after that to colonize yet other worlds."
"A pretty ambitious dream," I said admiringly. This was, in all senses of the word, the most incredible thing I had ever heard of. A generational ship, launched in the hopes that the descendants of the original pioneers would someday find safe harbor.
"It's the only future for humanity," said Fenning. "We must colonize, and we must expand beyond our petty differences and conflicts. If mankind is allowed to stagnate, we will perish. Tannik, you know this!"
"Yes Fenning, I do," I almost whispered.
"Call me Leroy."
I laughed. "All right, Leroy, here's a question for you. Why a generational ship? Why not sleeper ships?"
Leroy answered, "Good question. I have a good answer for you. The problem with a sleeper ship is that the people who arrive are the same as the ones who left. That's not what we want. We don't want old prejudices and old ways of thinking. We expect that in the generations the people aboard the Discovery are betwen the stars, they will forget. The conflicts over resources that spark war here in Sirius will simply not exist. After a few generations, many of them may not even really understand that there exists a universe outside the ship. When they finally arrive, they will be a different people."
"Then how will they finish their mission? I mean, someone has to pull the ship into orbit and get people onto the planet. Someone needs to find a planet for them: if they're going hundreds of light years away, they have no way of knowing where to go..."
Leroy interrupted, "...and who to protect them from danger? You're right, of course. That's what the rest of the fleet is for." I looked again at the scores of huge ships around me. "I said that most of the people would live their simple lives, growing food in internal biodomes. Not all."
"In the beginning, there will be two cultures. One will be the people that live in the Discovery, and lead a basic, happy, tranquil life. The other will be those that live in the fleet, and a few that fly the ship. The fleet are the scouts, the guardians, and the gatherers of whatever outside resources are needed. They are the ones who ensure that the journey is completed. Those on the ship who hunger for adventure and exploration will be allowed to join the fleet, and those who have served and want no more than to live out their lives in tranquility will be allowed to return to the generational ship."
"We don't know if that arrangement will endure. We have no way of knowing. Nevertheless, we believe and hope that it will work, and that if it doesn't, this isolated seed of humanity will find a way to adapt."
I sat back. Wow, I thought for about the millionth time.
"This has been a goal of the Zoners for quite some time," Leroy said. "This has been something that has been developing since the first Freeports were established. Actually, the arrival of the colonists of Battlestar Galactica gave us the idea and the ability to create the two-culture model. Thanks to them, we have the designs to create a fleet that can operate and flourish in deep space, and we've decided that such a fleet is the perfect complement to a generational ship. We have been and continue to use those designs to build a fleet that will be ready to cross the galaxy."
I thought for a very long time. Leroy was right: this ship is the future of humanity. Finally, I spoke. "How can I help?"
"Right now, resources. Just about everything, really. Fuel, supplies, electronics, engines, weapons... every once in a while, we may have you transport small groups of people that we have selected to be passengers on the ship. We intend to have the Discovery fully settled long before launch. And should this place ever be in danger, we hope you will help protect it. You see, Tannik, we know you. I know you. I've watched you for a long time. I have every reason to trust you and believe that you will be willing to help us."
"And you're right," I grinned. "I'm your man."
"Thanks Tannik," Leroy said quietly. "I knew we could count on you. Now, let's get back to civilized space, shall we?"
"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.
The proximity alarm sounded. I jumped: if it hadn't been for the restraining harness, I would have floated right into the cockpit ceiling. Space, I've been found! I thought. A second later, I relaxed: false alarm. In fact, my orbit had taken me close to a wrecked Eagle spacecraft. What's that thing doing way out here?, I wondered. For that matter, what am I?
Let's see... yes, it was yesterday afternoon. I'd received a message while docked at Ames:
Tannik,
You probably know that the Lane Hackers, and especially the Hellfire Legion, are in possession of the most advanced scanner technology in Sirius. This technology would be extremely useful for the Discovery Project. Anything you can do to obtain that technology would be appreciated.
I am aware that you are not exactly on the best of terms right now with the Hellfire Legion. However, I believe that some of your past experience may buy some sympathy with them, and it's possible that this will allow you to gain sympathy that credits alone can't.
Naturally, if it does come to credits, we will be able to back you. This technology is worth a lot to us.
Good luck, my friend.
--Leroy
Well, I thought, I hope he's right about that "sympathy" thing. On one hand, I had indeed found myself at the wrong end of a dangerous conspiracy (a mystery, unfortunately, that still hasn't been completely solved). On the other hand, at the time I had been working for the Liberty Navy, hunting Hacker and Hellfire ships at every opportunity. And I was still regularly engaged by Hacker ships, although the HF had been pretty much leaving me alone.
Still, it wasn't like I could just waltz into Vespucci and demand the technology. Or could I? I wondered. Perhaps a show of boldness would buy me some respect and time to make my case. I grinned. A little excitement never hurt anyone, right?
"I take it back!" I yelled to nobody in particular. My "bold" approach had not worked. As soon as I entered the system, I found myself under attack by at least a half-dozen advanced fighters. I didn't even know the Hackers had Sabres. Diplomacy would have to go on hold, and fighting against these odds was not an option; in the finest of pilot traditions, I plugged in the afterburners and scooted for my life. "This is the Aedos, hailing fighters!" I yelled on general comms. "I, uh, come in peace!" I winced at my own words, and they certainly had no effect on the pursuing ships. If anything, they shot faster than they had before. My shield gave out, and the Aedos shuddered as a hail of tachyon bolts bounced off her armor. "Space that," I muttered to myself, then activated my turrets and fired a stream of purple energy at the nearest fighters. They swerved to dodge, giving me just enough time to engage my cruise engines before they could land any more shots or get a disruptor off.
Alright, I thought. Let's try this again. "Esteemed and brave pilots, " I began. "It is an honor to be here. I have an interesting proposal that I would like to discuss with your leaders..."
I noticed something: a blinking red light on my dashboard. I swore again, then continued my address, "and I've just observed that you've shot out my comm array and that I might as well be talking to an asteroid." I was in bad shape now: now I was a trespasser with no way to communicate my intentions. Time to make a hasty exit.
I still had fighters on my tail, but I was optimistic that I could keep them at a distance if I made a very wide loop. It looked like the trajectory would take me through a field of ice rocks, but I could probably use that to my advantage.
I was halfway through the arc when the newest bad news appeared: some sort of cruiser or battleship on an intercept course. My computer identified it as a Hellfire Legion vessel. Luckily, I had just entered the ice field, but the Hellfire ship was pacing me just outside the edge of the asteroids, too far away to attack but close enough to keep me on scanners. If I continued my arc, I would fly right into him, and Bad Things would happen: in any case, there was no way I could get back to the jump hole unmolested. I only had one choice: I made my way deeper into the asteroid field, where the larger ship couldn't follow. Hopefully.
It worked... sort of. I was sure that the Hellfire ship would be sitting on top of the jump hole, waiting for me: trying to run that kind of blockade would be a very short suicide. At least I could approach it from a hopefully unexpected direction: I made a very long, very wide loop and started back towards the hole, hoping the Hellfire ship had given up by now.
That's when the best thing to happen all day occurred. Another jump hole, just ten clicks away! I had no idea where it led, but I didn't care: the Hellfire ship wasn't there. As I got closer, I noticed the weapons platforms... Blast. They'll know I went this way/ I thought. A couple of seconds later, I was through, then in open space in another system I'd never seen before. The only scenery visible was a lonely looking planet: with nowhere in particular else to go, I made for it. As I approached it, my long range scanner beeped: a large ship had just entered the system. Not again! Only one thing to do. I was fairly close to the planet now, I moved in as close as I dared, fired thrusters to set up a stable orbit, then cut the primary power. The lights went out, and the hairs on my arms pricked as the artificial gravity died out. I could only hope that my low orbit and lack of power signature would be enough to hide me from that famous Hacker scanning technology... the planet slowly revolved from a wedge to a thin crescent, and then I was in the shadow...
the next thing I knew, I was waking up to the proximity alarm and finding that wrecked Eagle. Since I am still alive, I can only assume that I wasn't found. Still, that was too close.
Time to see if I can get that comm array repaired... and then, I have a mission to finish. Where's that vac suit?
I'd had to use just about every single tool my ship had on board, from the handheld microdiagnostic to the sledgehammer. But the comm array was fixed... well, hopefully. And most likely, temporarily. I walked along the surface of my ship towards the airlock... that was always a wierd experience. The magnetic clamps in the boots of my vac suit kept me attached no matter what the angle, and rotating around the ship did disturbing things to my sense of direction. It was felt more like the ship was rotating under me than like I was moving around the ship.
I climbed into the airlock, waited for the pressure to equalize, then stumbled into the cargo hold. Once I was out of the vac suit, I headed for the cockpit and powered up the Aedos. I held my breath, and checked the diagnostic panel... All right! Comms lit up green. Engines, shields, life support, everything was green. The Aedos was ready for action once again.
"HaHah!" I laughed out loud as relief and adrenaline surged through me. I slammed the throttle to the notch, flipped the ship around, and rocketed my way into the shadow of the planet. A minute later the sun appeared around the other edge of the planet, and I grinned at the blazing crescent growing ahead of me...sunrise from space never gets old.
"They might go for it? That's great!" Leroy said. "Very good news indeed."
I'd just finished telling Leroy the short version of my visit with Executive Commander Mori of the Hellfire Legion. After the disaster of my first attempt, contacting and communicating with the Hellfire Legion had gone incredibly smoothly: I was able to return to Vespucci, hail the HFGB-Silverfire, apologize for the intrusion, then arrange a meeting in Magellan. Still...
"Might," I reminded him. "Mori was cautious, and I don't blame him. Not only is the offer strange to begin with, the last time I had anything to do with the Hellfire Legion I was working for the Liberty Navy and trying to shoot them down."
"But that was before the incident with the Liberty Department of Defense," Leroy responded.
Which was true. If it hadn't been for that, I probably wouldn't have made as much progress as I did. I took another sip of the lightly carbonated prune cider that Leroy had brought and looked out the window of our private booth. The view of Planet Manhattan was spectacular, well worth the price of the booth. Still, I was glad that Leroy was paying.
I hadn't expected him to come all the way out to Manhattan to meet me personally, but he had. One moment I was ordering a sandwich in the Newark Station bar, the next Leroy Fenning had popped out of nowhere and offered me a drink to go with it. And not just anything, I thought with a grin, the best prune soda Sirius had to offer, imported all the way from the orchards of Canaria. What a great guy. As I found out, he'd been in Liberty for a couple of days, so that he could get in touch with me quickly once I made contact with the HF. I took another pleasant sip, then it was back to business.
"So, here's what we're looking at so far," I said. "It looks like getting a working model is right out: they custom build each of their advanced scanners right into the ship it's designed for. Mori asked if we could bring the ship in question to Phoenix shipyards, I figured that wouldn't fly and told him so.
"And you were right," said Leroy. "That's right out."
"I did, however, say that we would be completely content with just appropriate blueprints. Not surprisingly, Mori wasn't too excited about that idea: they don't want to give up their technology. He was, however, open to another idea: we give them partial blueprints, just enough for them to know how to integrate their scanning technology into the target vessel. They use those to write a set of blueprints that would only work for that unique ship configuration...and we would use those blueprints to build and install the scanner."
"Wonderful!" Leroy said. "We can do that, I'm sure we can provide some schematics that are detailed enough to build a scanner for but that don't give away any information we don't want to spread."
"One catch, " I said. "They want their men to supervise the installation. They actually wanted us to send the ship to their shipyards, which is plainly impossible. I did get a 'maybe,' though, for the idea of having them provide a team of technicians."
Leroy was quiet for a long time. I didn't blame him: it was quite the pickle. On one hand, the Zoners needed this scanning technology for the Discovery Project. On the other hand, any technicians sent by the Hellfire Legion would undoubtedly see way too much.
"Well, " Leroy said quietly, "I'm not sure we're going to have a choice. I doubt we could get the scanner properly installed without their help. So we're just going to have to take them into our confidence."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked. "Odds are, they'll talk to somebody."
"What would you have me do?" Leroy said blankly. "Kill them?"
"No!"
"Imprison them?"
"No."
"Wipe their memories?"
"No. We shouldn't harm them."
"Then the only choice we have left is to trust them."
Leroy was right, and knew it. He continued. "Make sure you emphasize the importance of sending technicians that know how to keep their mouths shut. No doubt they'll tell Hellfire leadership everything they can, but I think we can trust the leadership to keep quiet and not interfere. After all, this has nothing to do with any of Hellfire's interests."
"True enough," I conceded. "So, I can tell them we're OK with the blueprint-exchange plan and that they can send a team of technicians to install it. What about money?"
"Let me worry about that," Leroy said. "You just get a price."
"And one more thing," I continued. "They wanted proof of my identification. I've promised to send them everything I can, but I think the biggest problem will be proving that I'm working for the Zoners."
"Have them contact me directly. I'll provide them all of the proof of that they need."
"Thanks Leroy," I grinned, then finished my drink. "I'll let you know how it goes."
"Well, that tears it," I told Leroy. "Drake Thastus is missing."
"Are you sure?" he replied. "I heard the rumor, but I didn't believe it."
I shook my head. "I do. I saw a dozen men on Ames sitting around in the bar comparing notes on when they'd last seen 'the boss.' I saw almost the same thing on Freeport 4. Pilots in Navy bars are talking about the same thing and speculating about when they'll get to move on Vespucci. Besides, he hasn't answered my message."
I could tell that Leroy wasn't quite convinced, although he looked a bit worried.
"Look, " I continued, "a character like Thastus doesn't just disappear. Either something's happened to him or he's decided to hide for some reason. In either case, it seems that nobody knows how to get ahold of him right now." My fingers drummed irritably on the cafe table. This time, I'd met Leroy on Houston. The dusty atmosphere of the outdoor cafe irritated me too, but this place served the best T-bones to be found anywhere. Although small, it was very well known: people had been killed for daring to insult their famous pepper sauce.
"Well, " said Leroy, "there's nothing we can do but wait. Either Thastus will reappear, or someone will take over and answer your message. And if they don't, we'll just have to try again."
As usual, Leroy Fenning was right. I bit off a chunk of beef and thought, then nodded. "OK. I'm going to get back to my usual business then. I refuse to sit around and worry like a schoolgirl. I'll find you if...when I've heard more."
"Good. Safe travels, my friend."
A few minutes later, I was warming the Aedos up for launch. I'd found some other things out on my last trip to Ames, including some interesting information about a wrecked ship. There was also something about a vaporized planet and a black hole... at any rate, it seemed worth investigating.
Time for some good, honest exploration, I thought as the Aedos roared into a deeper and deeper blue sky. This should be fun.
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.
I had no luck at Ames, or on Manhattan. Nobody was willing or able to drop any information about Hellfire's intentions. But on Freeport IV, I had better luck. The fresh spaghetti I had for dinner came with a brief note, typed on paper and slipped under my plate. The message was brief and without signature, but it reassured me that my offer was still under consideration. That was enough to put me back in a good mood. Good enough, I thought. I'll just have to keep being patient.
It wasn't that bad waiting, after all. The Zoners were obviously not in an extreme hurry, why should I be? It's not like I didn't have enough to do... space was plenty big and goods still needed to move. Still...this was an opportunity to make a real difference in something important. I hadn't felt that way since my days flying for the Liberty Navy. It was perfectly understandable that I would be excited.
Enough introspection, I thought, and attacked the spaghetti. It wasn't bad... the ingredients were freshly grown in the Freeport biodomes. Much more fun to eat than the cheap paste at most places. Good food, I thought, is definitely worth the extra it costs.
![[Image: aedos_mini.jpg]](http://students.cs.byu.edu/~sushi/aedos_mini.jpg)