My story begins at Trevithick Dock in the LHS 3447 system. Well, of course I could have it begin in other places, like Riedquat, Leesti or Jotun, but it was in LHS 3447 that I took the first steps that were truly my own.
It was 3279 and I had just turned twenty, when I followed the man I called father on a business trip to LHS 3447. He was not well when we left Marshall Dock, and even his youngest son, the brute Casilin, remarked at his appearance. Father shrugged it off and said something about having the flu, and we took off without a word more on his health. However, after the first jump he asked me to take the helm, as he was a bit tired. One of my first times alone in the cockpit, I enjoyed steering the ship, but I woke him up when we arrived in LHS 3447. He had trained me to fly the ship myself, but flying directly from the star to a station in an unknown system was not something I was used to.
Father took the helm and landed us at Trevithick Dock. The station was smaller than I expected, and to my surprise it didn’t even have a commodities market. We checked in at the only hotel on the station, and I could not help speaking my wonder at why we were there. Father fell silent and looked at me for a while.

“Sit down, Little Lion”, he said, “We have things to talk about”
He had not called me Little Lion since my preteens, so I was immediately somewhat worried. Also he did not look well at all.
“You do not look well, father”, I said to him.
He smiled and got a bit of color back in his face. “I am proud that you call me father”, he said, “But it is time that I told you more about how you came to be with me and my family”.
“You already know that Casilin and Zepo are not your true brothers, and mother and I are not your biological parents”, he said.

Mother had died in a freak accident on a visit to La Soeur du Dan Ham a few of years earlier, but I did not miss her much, as father was the only one who had ever truly cared about me. Finding out that Casilin and Zepo were not my real brothers was actually a relief to me, as they had never been kind to me. They were much older than me, Casilin by about twelve years and Zepo by sixteen. Zepo had always ignored me, but Casilin had often been quite mean to me. “Don’t worry about them”, father said to me once, “It is me that they want to hurt. I was never close to them when they were children, so they are jealous of the relationship between you and me.”
Father did spend a lot of time with me, and he tried to teach me everything he knew about the Universe and all it holds. He even let me fly his Eagle during the Riedquat harvest season just after getting my junior pilot certificate.

Father continued, “You know that you came to our family when you were just an infant, but I have not told you how this came to happen”. He paused and looked doubtful for a moment, but then determination swept across his face, “I bought you from the slave market at Marshall Dock”.
I had suspected this for a while, but still, hearing this from his own mouth made me shiver. I was a slave. Father had bought me, and by local law he owned me. I was his property.
“I am sorry”, said father, “I never planned for you to hear this until later, but …”, he looked down, “But I will not be here to take care of you for much longer.”
“Are… are you going somewhere?”, I asked after some seconds of silence. But I already knew the answer.
“I am dying, Little Lion”, said father, “You know that I have been in treatment for a while. It may be radiation sickness, but the doctors don’t know for sure.”

Radiation sickness, the most common cause of death for spacefarers. Technology can only shield us from the mighty powers of the stars to some degree. Popping in and out of normal space close to the stars means exposing the spaceship to forces so strong that the atmospheres of green planets would evaporate in mere seconds, and the planet crust would twist and mangle by the tidal gravity forces, should the planet somehow venture as close to the star as the spaceships do.

“When I am not here you will be left to the custody of my sons”, continued father, and I knew what this would mean. Then they would own me, and if I was lucky, they would sell me to the mines. If I was not lucky they would give me a fate even worse, and since I was a slave they could even do it openly, as the local laws gave the owner the right to decide on the life and health of his slave.

“I will not allow this”, said father, “So I have prepared for this day.” He handed me a small secure terminal. “This will give you access to the documents and identity of an Alliance citizen of Kolmogorov Hub in Leesti. I have bribed Alliance officials to put this identity into their system. You will be able to start over and make your own destiny.”

I opened the terminal, and it showed the identity of a person called Nordic Lion. Father smiled, “Yes, that is you, Little Lion, that is who you are. I don’t know your original name, but I do know that your parents came from the old Nordic colonies on Jotun. And you have always been my Little Lion.”
“Now we will go to the Pilots Federation office here, and we will enroll you as commander Nordic Lion. I cannot give you a ship of your own. That would be inviting Casilin and Zepo to claim their belonging. But I have made arrangements with a business associate who is also a good friend, and he has agreed to loan you an old Sidewinder to fly for as long as you desire.”

We had a long talk before we went to the Pilots Federation office. Then we walked to the hangar to see the Sidewinder. Father was clearly not well, but he seemed relieved.
The Sidewinder was indeed old, and it was dented and not very pretty. But still, it was in good shape, it had a Frameshift Drive and two lasers. And now it was mine to fly.
“I have taught you how to trade between the stars,” said father, “Now go and do some trading, build up your funds and then settle down on a nice, quiet, green planet. Keep away from combat and illegal goods, and don’t risk your life. You deserve to have a good life.”
I do not remember his exact words, but that was about what he said to me before I bade him farewell and entered the cockpit.

Well clear of Trevithick Dock I spurred the Frameshift Drive on and went away. Feelings surged in my blood, and I was not ready to have a quiet time just yet. After circling the planet I went to the nearest Resource Extraction Site. Father had always warned me to keep away from these places, and I had heard plenty of tales about pilots getting in trouble there. But at the moment I longed to get in trouble.
Arriving at the RES I found nothing but a few freighters with mining lasers chipping away at the rocks. I reversed the thrusters and came to a halt a few clicks from the RES beacon.
For hours I waited, contemplating my situation, and just as I was about to head for a secure station my radars picked up three Security Force Eagles speeding across the area, hardpoints out. I couldn’t help but throttling up and going after them to see what was going on. Sure enough, a few clicks along the way a big Python was chasing a miner in a Type 6 around, trying to make him dump the valuable minerals he had just mined. With no combat experience to speak of, and a rating of, not even novice, but harmless, I felt no urge to rush in and join the fray, so I throttled down again and contented myself with being a spectator.
Expecting the small Eagles to explode from a hit with the Python’s massive lasers I kept a good distance. But far from being killed the three Security Force Eagles smashed the Python’s shields and began chipping away at it’s hull. The Pyhon pilot showed a “Dangerous” rank in the scanner, but he didn’t manage a single hit while trying to chase the nimble fighters away, and soon things began to look critical in his end. That was when I, inexperienced but optimist as I was, decided that maybe I should give it a go, and I joined the fight with lasers blazing sped straight towards the pirate. Out of sheer luck I managed to hit his powerplant with my lasers before I could smash into his hull, and instead I flew right through the debris of the exploding ship.
“Thanks for the help, commander”, called the Security Force squad leader, “That was quite impressive shooting. Take the bounty, you deserved it”. Hardly being able to see how I survived my headless charge I was exalted to see the bounty text on my HUD, 88,000 credits!

After doing a small celebration round I decided to claim the bounty right away, and I set off to go back to Trevithick Dock. After I had landed and parking the Sidewinder in the hangar, I went straight to the hotel reception to have them call father for a celebration.
The receptionist blinked when I asked for father. “Oh”, he said, “Didn’t you hear? He took off shortly after you, only to be rammed by an unmarked Anaconda. We finished cleaning the debris from station orbit only a couple of hours ago.”
My stomach turned and the world seemed to move away from my eyes. “Sir?”, said the receptionist looking worried, and then I vomited on his desk.

The receptionist got me a blanket and led me to some kind of waiting room while a small autobutler started cleaning the mess I had made on his desk. I sat for a while until a station officer came to see to me. “We already contacted his relatives. They wanted to know if he had taken his slave with him. Did you see if he brought someone with him?”, the officer asked.
At realizing that Casilin and Zepo would be coming for me, adrenalin surged in my blood, and my mind cleared.
“No”, I said, “I didn’t see. Actually I didn’t know that he had any slaves, but I am sure he took all his belongings with him”.
“Hmm”, said the officer, “Yes, he probably did”, and he hesitated. “You know, we do not condone slavery in these parts. Maybe we should just tell his relatives that the slave went with him in the ship before the, erm, accident”.
I looked up into the officers face. He seemed friendly and genuinely helpful. I nodded, “Now that I think of it I am quite certain that my colleague brought the slave with him on the ship before leaving.”
“Yes”, said the officer, “I am sure that the deck officer saw this also. We will tell his relatives that they were both on the ship when it exploded.”
“All right”, I said, getting up from the chair, “It was quite the shock to hear that my colleague died, but I think that probably I should get going now”.
“Yes”, agreed the officer, “There is no need for you to wait for the relatives to give them your account. And they don’t need to know about any business of other commanders here. Have a good journey onwards from here.”

For the second time in a day I left Trevithick Dock, this time with a little more urgency. Once again I activated the Frameshift drive, and once again I aimlessly circled the planet, before I, once again, set course for the nearest Resource Extraction Site.
At the RES I waited again, this time my mind in even more turmoil. The miners moved about the rocks, minding their own business, and I just sat there watching the calm activity.

“Anybody out there?”, a multichannel cast sounded from them coms. “Please help, I am under attack from pirates! Anybody out there? I am towards the planet, 30 clicks from the beacon. They are hammering away at me, haven’t even asked me to jettison my cargo. They are trying to destroy me. Please help me!”
I had only a few fluttering signals on my screen in his direction, but I was sure that this was where the pirates and their victim were. Without any further thoughts I set full throttle and turned my ship to go towards the planet, and after a couple of minutes the signals got clearer, and I could see three smaller ships harassing a Type 7 that desperately tried to defend itself. This time I didn’t hesitate but went straight towards the nearest pirate, lasers blazing. I believe I hit the pirate, but being the complete beginner at space combat I had forgotten to redistribute the power, and the lasers fell silent just when I had the best shot at him. Quickly I put more power to the weapons, but while I did this, he was already on my tail, and the first shot hit my shields. Turning, turning, I tried to escape, but he kept his aim, and lasers fired through space mere inches from my ship. The frantic chase seemed to go on for minutes before the Security Forces arrived and distracted my pursuer long enough for me to break the turning battle and escape his sights. This wasn’t the trio I had met earlier, it was an Eagle and two Vipers, and clearly they were not as experienced as their colleagues, as soon after they were chased around by the pirates. Just then matters got even worse, as an unmarked Anaconda, that had been lurking behind an asteroid nearby decided to join the fight on the pirates’ side. His giant beam laser tore away the miner’s shields in seconds, and just when I decided to go after him, he sliced open the Type 7’s cargo bay, sending a shower of debris into space in front of me.

Not knowing what else to do I immediately opened fire on the behemoth. He was slow, but really not that much slower than my old Sidewinder. I got a few hits in, but it was nothing that his shields couldn’t absorb. While this was happening one of the Security Force Vipers broke loose from the three smaller pirates and charged past me and towards the Anaconda. Behind him came a somewhat battered pirate ready to take him down. This brought him right into my sights, and with full pips to my weapons I gave him everything I had. He desperately tried to break off and escape my barrage, but along the way I must have hit his brake thrusters, because he veered off his course so little that I could put in every single shot to his hull. Within seconds the ship exploded, and my HUD showed me being awarded an 11,000 credits bounty.

Delighted with my second kill I turned to join the Viper in attacking the Anaconda, only to see the Viper zip past me with a trail of smoke. Before I located the Anaconda, my ship’s hull echoed with the eerie sound of a beam laser grinding away at it. I banked, put full pips to engine and tried to run away, but the Anaconda followed me. The beam laser nicked my cockpit and the ship immediately warned me: “Imminent hull breach!” Frantically maneuvering the Sidewinder to avoid the beam laser I put full pips to systems, and after what seemed like hours my shield came back up. With the added security of my shield I dared going closer to the asteroids to find cover for the beam laser. Thankfully my reverse thrusters were at full capacity, and I got into cover behind a big, lumpy asteroid. The anaconda, not being able to slow down at such a short distance, flew over the asteroid, and I immediately rounded the asteroid to put it between me and my attacker. Full pips on engines again I ran away hoping the asteroid would cover my escape, and sure enough I got out far enough from the asteroid belt to engage my Frameshift Drive without seeing the Anaconda again.
Escaping with only 26% hull integrity I made my way towards the largest station in the system, Ackerman Market. There would be nothing but trouble for me waiting at Trevithick Dock, so even though it was risky going several thousand lightseconds further I decided that Ackerman Market was the best place to find refuge.

After claiming my second bounty I had the Sidewinder repaired, and the next couple of weeks I took small courier assignments to neighboring systems while doing a little trade on the side. In Eravate I decided that it was time to say goodbye to the loaned Sidewinder, and I bought my first very own ship, a Hauler.