The Diary of a Space Scoundrel: "Home"
22 Feb 2020Seth Bradwell
Cemplanpa system, 4 February 3306"So you took my advice then". Patron Leroy Wallis (effectively retired as of five years ago, with everyday affairs being delegated to his daughter, Sara) said as we talked over dinner in one of Gorgani Orbital's more lavish restaurants. I could more than pay my share but Old Man Leroy (aged 75, but not looking a patch above 40) was having nothing of it.
"I am not planning on staying here for long. But this is just the only place that has any meaning to me, although I really don't know why. Everything has changed beyond recognition - and as for Nyalayan..."
"I did advise against dwelling too much there. But all the same I knew you just had to see for yourself."
"Not a trace remains of the A 4 I grew up in. New Blackburn, Burnley Prospect, Preston Gateway, all obliterated. In some cases the settlements are there but the names are different, and all traces of what happened twenty years ago have been wiped away."
Two weeks earlier
Why did I come back here? Out of the tens of thousands of systems in the Bubble I have to come back to the one place which haunts my psyche the most. On leaving Xuane behind I spent an hour looking at the star map, looking at system after system, with nothing to pull me in. It just turns out that this is the one part of the galaxy that holds any meaning to me, somewhere where I could find answers to what I will do next. But it's almost a different place. Security has been shored up to the max during the past 20 years, and Denton Patreus may not have destroyed the Kumo Crew but their influence beyond Pegasi seems to be almost non-existent.
I took a shuttle down from Sutter Ring, a place that held so much awe for me as a child growing up planetside but now looks quite ordinary, to see lush, green vegetation and signs of a booming economy, with no sign that a bloodbath had ever happened. What I found more disturbing is how even the names have changed, with a modern settlement called Williamson City built where my home town of New Blackburn used to be. I spent hours wondering aimlessly along streets that were alien to me but amid a landscape that was so familiar from childhood, getting more and more depressed, until I eventually got the shuttle back to Sutter Ring, realising that there was nothing of any value for me there. Even Sutter Ring was brand new since I last had business in the area, a top-class Orbis station taking the place where the old Coriolis once traced circles across A 4's skies.
I make my way to the Ahriman and return to my latest base of operations, Rizvi Station in Bolowari, where I have been doing what I do best, contract killing, making the most tiny of contributions towards ridding this corner of the Empire of pirate scum, although, judging by the pitiful state of the Mafia of Cemplanpa, pirates are but a minor irritation here. Denton Patreus sees to that, yet I find how all the citizens of this sector slavishly portray him as some hero unnerving. It's not just that we passionately believed in the Empire's ability and willingness to protect her citizens from harm only to find that belief utterly shattered. Patreus does keep the Kumos in check, and they love him for it. But something bothers me about him, I need to be very careful what I say whilst I am here but even by the inherently authoritarian standards of the Empire, very little in the way of dissent is tolerated around these parts - on Sutter Ring I witnessed a woman being dragged off by a pair of IISS goons after ranting about how Denton Patreus was a crook and a thief. Yet Patreus remains popular even as he exploits the people under his rule, with local Clients, Patrons and neighbouring Senators all having to kowtow to him, all acquiescing out of fear, both of him and his minions, and of the Kumo Crew who Patreus claims to protect us from, and therefore everything he does is somehow in the interests of all Imperial citizens.
"You have to admit, Seth old boy, they have completely managed to rebuild the system. Yet I see why you are troubled. For my pains I did not agree with them trying to erase all traces of the previous colonies there, but the will of the day was to just sweep it all under the carpet." Leroy continued.
"Sounds like a cover-up to me. With that said, there is a lot about the new order that gives me the creeps. One person particularly, who I dare not name -"
"You are wise not to. Let's just say I am glad not to be in the front line of politics any more, though I worry about my daughter now that's she's effectively Patron in all but name. She's no fool, and can see what's happening, but there is little we can do."
"How are Sara and Emmanuel anyway?"
"Sara is obviously very busy - you can understand, you saw first hand how busy a Patron's life can be, and these are taxing times, and to make a stand for what is right is fraught with dangers, as many less privileged citizens here have found to their cost. Emmanuel is presently carrying out expeditions for the Imperial Navy into the Pleiades, pretty dangerous work, although one can argue that he is safer in the military than in politics at present, especially in this corner of the Empire."
"As has been the case with powers and superpowers throughout the millennia. I had my own... encounter with the Thargoids. It wasn't what I, or anyone else out there expected."
"You are not the only one to be puzzled by what happened with the Gnosis. So much doesn't add up, and the mysteries have just gotten deeper since that time."
"I am just trying to come to terms with what's happened whilst I was a popsicle drifting in the black. It was a pretty unusual event."
"You will be surprised with how little has changed. The Empire still sabre-rattles with the Federation and vice versa, and the Alliance claims to have no interest in Imperial affairs whilst secretly perusing their own agenda, the mega corporations remain as powerful as always, and the Thargoids... well who knows what they are really doing."
"Must admit, I struggle to make much sense with it, but I guess I am not supposed to easily make sense of things. Yet the opportunities to make a mark are as limited as ever."
"Well take my advice, old boy. If you must go back down the path of the soldier of fortune there is nothing I can do to stop you. If you wish to serve the Emperor, then serve her to your greatest ability and bask in her glory. But as you have probably seen for yourself, there is nothing for you here. I will still be around to support you as I promised your late mother and father, and House Wallis remains a friendly place for you. But I do not see you being contented with doing endless trade runs around here, and as much as I appreciate your recent actions against those Mafia of Cemplanpa troublemakers, our forces are more than capable of dealing with them. Whilst it may not seem that way to you, you have a whole galaxy open to you, and I know you are hardly short of credits. So out and and seek your destiny, my young man."
Two hours later
I am leaving. I don't know where to, and what for, but Old Man Leroy is right - there's nothing here for me. Anything that was violently disappeared back in the Sack of '84, as those few survivors who remain in Nyalayan call it - although under Denton Patreus' oversight it has become frowned upon to even mention that, to him, the Empire has been here, always will be here, and can never be threatened, not by the Kumos or anyone. I am thinking about finding a wing to join up with, one thing I miss about my time at the Gnosis was the camaraderie as we fought for our lives. Yet I am a loner by nature, surviving on my own wits. Also one thing I find quite perturbing that since my absence Galnet has been pretty much dead, I never thought I would miss hearing about what Asling Duval had for breakfast but it's hard to find anything about what's going on in the galaxy now, I am having to rely on Lave Radio and Hutton Orbital News to even get an inkling of what's happening in the 'verse today. Time for me to do a bit of digging. Anyway, as much as it would pain Old Man Leroy I am considering rubbing the Imperial eagle off my ship and starting a new life as an independent. As much as deep down I still consider the Empire my home, the rot runs deep and the corruption eats at its very soul, and I struggle to justify risking my life for the Emperor just to be entangled in a web of machinations from those that consider themselves "Imperials" yet are traitors to the very ideals the Empire was founded on. For all the talk of honour among Imperials I cannot claim to be supporting the Empire in its current state whilst having any regard for my own honour. Tomorrow, I head out to the real frontier, far away from the hypocritical gestures of superpowers and choosing to look after number one.