Favors Pt 1
26 Apr 2024Vasil Vasilescu
Favors – Part 1(Part of an on-going series of events.)
Title of Marque
It's Your Face's Fault
Vasil moved around the command deck of the Alpina, going through the post-flight landing checks when Carina, the cutter’s COVAS, announced an incoming trid transmission from his sister, Octavia.
“Accept,” said Vasil, pausing in his checks long enough for the cutter’s holographic sensors fix on him.
Octavia’s life-sized holographic image formed at the center of the command deck. She sat, imperious as ever, in a high-backed chrome and gold throne-like chair. “Vasil, I understand you have brought Sir Halston’s grandson back home.”
“We arrived on Mackenzie Station twenty minutes ago,” said Vasil continuing with the landing checks. “Sergeant Lydko and his team will be watching over him until Sir Halston’s people come fetch him.”
“You will be accompanying him as well?” Though phrased as a question, Octavia’s tone indicated it was more of an expectation that Vasil would remain by the young man’s side until he was safely back with his family.
“No, I have more important business.” Vasil did not have to see the look on Octavia’s face to know she found his reply unacceptable. He could practically feel her disapproval pulse from the hologram. “I’ll need to leave as soon as the Alpina is secured.”
Octavia’s hologram rotated to remain facing Vasil as he moved around the command deck. “And what do you deem more important,” she demanded, her lips pursed tight.
“The same thing that made you agree to fetch the young Mr. DeVey before he was shot in the back of the head: A favor. I am sorry, Octavia, but babysitting children of privilege who piss off career criminals because they get their street smarts from movies is not on my agenda for the day.”
“And what favor could you think more important than returning the grandson of Sir Halston, one of Her Royal Highness, Princess Aisling’s advisors? And dammit, Vasil, stop moving around! I’ll not speak to the back of your head!”
Vasil completed the final engine shutdown before turning to face Octavia’s hologram. “I’m following your lead, Octavia. This is a political favor, just like retrieving Sir Halston’s grandson. I’ve offered assistance to Lady Lambast Mercy in an effort to extend your influence beyond Cemiess.”
Octavia glanced to the right and reached her hand past the scanning range of her holo camera to tap a screen on her desk. “Oh yes, these Errand of Mercy people. On the surface they seem legitimate enough. I am still not convinced that their goals are completely in line with the Emerald Repatriation Society.”
“Aligned enough,” said Vasil. The goal of both organizations was to help Imperial Citizens. The ultimate reasons, though, were different, with Octavia’s being to gather political influence by resettling citizens displaced by war. “I think the Lady Lambast might be motivated by slightly more altruistic or financial reasons than you, but our charity taking in their overflow serves our purpose well enough.”
Octavia’s attention remained on her screen as she tapped at it, saying absently, “Yes, Katarzyna tells me that we need to start building another settlement soon. So, tell me what this favor is. Will it require the Alpina or the Onoarea?”
“It’s best to not involve any ERS assets in a favor of this type.” Vasil knew that would be enough to keep Octavia from asking for too many details. That the less she knew and the less involved she was, the more she could distance herself from any bad publicity. “I’ll be using a personal ship, the Long Road.”
“Oh, god," huffed Octavia, "that atrocious Type 9 of yours. You could stand to focus a bit more on style rather than plain practicality.” Plain practicality, in this context and tone, clearly meant cheap and ugly.
Octavia’s left eyebrow arched at something she saw on her screen. She slowly drew her hand away from the screen and back into the focus of the holo camera, looking to Vasil with a knowing, dangerous grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. “The Lady Lambast looks very well put together, Vasil. Stylish, I’d say. Not at all plain and practical. A bit young for you -by about 20 years- but definitely more elegant than the common women you tend to gravitate toward. Are you certain this favor of yours is strictly in the interests of the ERS and not in the least bit personal? I mean, better men than you have been manipulated by a pretty face.”
Vasil had expected as much from Octavia. Belittling and demeaning people was her favorite hobby. “You know, Octavia, if you were not my sister, I might think you were joking rather than simply being a bitch.”
Octavia smiled. “And if you were not the only family member I fully trust, I'd not let you get away with saying that to my face. But the question remains,” she said, her tone becoming more serious. “Is this favor in the interest of ERS?”
“It is. In the end it may be the first step in establishing an ERS settlement on Cubeo.” Vasil did not elaborate. When offering someone as few details as possible, odds were that they would fill in their own details. Vasil knew that building Lady Lambast’s port, the supporting small city for it, and filling that city with ERS refugees would be a long shot. All Octavia needed to know at that moment was that Vasil was working toward establishing an ERS city on Cubeo.
Vasil saw the light in Octavia’s eyes. Once settled on Cubeo, a city of people fleeing the war, grateful for a fresh start that ERS and Octavia had given them, would be a major coup to help expand Octavia’s growing political influence.
However, Octavia was as practical as she was ambitious, never counting on dreams of what-ifs, but on reality and accomplishments. “Do not waste too much time and effort if the goal is unattainable,” she said.
Octavia stood and smoothed out the front of her shimmering blue and silver gown, indicating that the conversation was over. “I sometimes find you frustrating and insufferable, Vasil, but I know I can trust you to make decisions that are in the best interest of ERS and the family. Do what you feel you must as long as it does not jeopardize the reputation of the ERS, our family, or me.”
The hologram blinked out, fading like a retinal after-image.
“Carina, complete final landing checks and request Station Control move the Long Road into a hot hangar.”
* * *
In high orbit above Emerald, Vasil sat in the commander’s chair of the Long Road, his attention drifting from the Type 9’s cargo and power monitors to a blinking yellow light on the command console. He had not expected the COVAS to take so long compiling and analyzing information from the Imperial Slave Association’s Class A database, and thought that he had made the query too broad.
All he knew was that Lady Lambast needed information from a raider, who in turn would only give it to her if she assisted in an attack on an Imperial privateer ship, the “Destinies Jester” commanded by a captain calling themselves Red Jade.
Complicating things was the fact that the Destinies Jester had been operating under a Title of Marque for several generations and it had attained a level of respect within certain Imperial circles for its actions against both Federation shipping and smugglers. Attacking the Jester unprovoked would lead to nothing positive, meaning Vasil could not directly involve the Emerald Repatriation Society in helping Lambast, but helping Lambast could further the goals of establishing ERS settlements outside of the Cemiess system. In that regard, the risk was worth the possible reward. He just had to mitigate the risk for ERS and Octavia.
Vasil had committed to helping Lambast--he’d not back out of that promise—but he wanted more information. With only a few hours until Lambast was to rendezvous with the raider and presumably attack the Destinies Jester, he was not sure he’d find any helpful information. However, with the Jester suspected of capturing slaves from a transport in Torval-controlled space, Vasil believed he could use ERS membership in the Imperial Slave Association to find something useful.
The ISA kept track of every slave transaction, monitored anti-slavery activity, and tracked illegal slave trading throughout Imperial space, so maybe there was something to be found in their records.
The blinking yellow light turned as green and the planet Emerald’s namesake. “Data analysis complete,” announced the ship’s COVAS, Victor. “However, missing or incomplete data may result in incorrect analysis. Margin of error estimated between ten and thirteen percent.”
“That’s better than nothing. Victor, what are the results for pirate activity regarding slavery in the past four months?”
“In the past 4 months there have been 1,592 reports of pirate activity involving slavery. Of these, 73% involve pirates engaging in illegal slave trading, 19% are attacks on legal slave transports, and 8% are undetermined due to lack of information.”
“How many reports mention Destinies Jester or Red Jade?”
“Destinies Jester and Red Jade are mentioned individually, or on conjunction with one another in 53 reports. Of these, 47 involve attacks on illegal slave traders and 6 are undetermined due to lack of information. All have occurred within Imperial Space.”
“By political region, how are the 47 attacks distributed?”
.
“28 In Torval space, 8 in Patreus space, 5 within the Emporer’s space, 2 in Aisling Duval space, and 4 undetermiend due to insufficient data.”
Vasil expected there would be more incidents in Torval space; the criminal element often took advantage of Torval policies to traffic illegal slaves. However, he found it suspicious that over half of the reported incidents involving the Jester had been in Torval space.
“Of the 28 in Torval space involving the Jester or Red Jade, how many were reported by the Jester?” To claim bounties and cargo under its Title of Marque, and not be branded pirates by the Empire, the Jester had to report their captures to Imperial authorities and give the Empire a percentage of cargo’s value.
“All 28 incidents were reported to the Imperial Slave Association by the Destinies Jester.”
Vasil called up the nav map. “What are the locations of the three most recent incidents reported by the Destinies Jester?”
“Iota Hydri, LTT 970, and Tetrian.”
Vasil focused the nav map on the three systems. Each was inside of a 25-lightyear bubble. In addition to the three, the only other inhabited system within that bubble was CPC 22 212. Each system was Imperial. Odds were that the Destinies Jester was somewhere in that area, probably in one of the Imperial systems.
“Are there any commonalities in the 28 incidents reported by the Destinies Jester?”
“Seventeen incidents indicate that the majority of the illegal slaves seized may have been procured from a single source by the smugglers. However, there is no definitive proof of this beyond testimony of liberated individuals describing similar descriptions of a central slave vessel where they were processed prior to being encapsulated. There are no other evident commonalities in the data.”
“What about possible systems that could serve as the source of the illegal slaves?”
“There is not enough data, and too many variables, to generate possible sources with any degree of accuracy.”
“Victor, record message.” Vasil waited a few seconds to receive the acknowledgement from the COVAS that it was recording. “Lady Lambast, I believe the Jester is within 10-15 LY of CPC 22 212, probably in one of four Imperial systems. I am heading to the general area to try and find the Jester and gather more info. From what I have found, they are acting within the limits of their Marque, so I expect that system authorities may assist the Jester if it is attacked. The Jester has been attacking illegal slavers, and, curiously, most of the illegal slaves they are liberating have been supplied by a single, unknown group. That seems suspect, but I don’t know if it has anything to do with your pirate. Regardless of what happens, I’ll be standing by for repair and recovery support. End recording.”
Vasil began plotting a course to what he believed was the Jester’s operating area. “Victor, encrypt message level 2 and direct send to Lady Lambast Mercy with priority routing.”
A band on the wrist of his flight suit flashed blue as the message was sent with the encryption code he’d given to Lady Lambast. “Victor, begin preprogramming limpet protocols. Set primary to repair and secondary to recovery.” Vasil glanced to the cargo monitors, wondering if 550 tons of limpets was going to be enough.