Leaving Colonia - Parting Thoughts
13 Nov 2019Smertkopf
Life never ceases to amuse, does it?I've not been in Colonia for two days, and already I'm itching to get back to the Bubble. It's not mere caprice that has me ready to return to the center of human civilization; there is indeed some of that involved, but there is also the opportunity to make unimaginable amounts of money in the mining business back home, as well as duties to my squadron to which I must now attend.
I've always enjoyed exploration, figuring it was a good and fairly straightforward way to make creds. When I needed some excitement, I would do a spot of bounty hunting to make some extra money, all with the dream of becoming the admiral of my own fleet of ships someday. Such a dream is expensive, however, and expanding the human frontier seemed a lucrative enough way towards that goal. My trip to Colonia from the Bubble netted me about 70 million credits in exploration data, which I thought was decent enough.
That all changed yesterday evening. I was summoned to Jaques Station Security to be questioned about the sudden disappearance of my newly-hired pilot, Joaquin Allen, a rookie with a good sense of humor. I wasn't a suspect, but as one of the last people to see the man alive, I needed to be questioned. My crewman going missing troubled me, and I decided to do a little investigating of my own on the station, using some of my newly acquired funds to hire a private detective by the name of Tanja Murphy, a hard-bitten local who seemed to know the ins and outs of Colonia. StationSec could learn a thing or two from Tanja, because she pretty quickly tracked Joaquin's movements through the local HoloNet and noticed that he had gone off into an unmonitored section of the station with a woman he had met at a bar called The Jaques Attack. When security investigated the lead, they found Joaquin's body, a number of laser blasts to the chest being the obvious cause of death.
I paid Tanja a bonus for uncovering the fact that Joaquin was in debt pretty deep to some unsavory types out of Carcosa. Apparently my rookie had a bit of a past. While the detective and I enjoyed a brew at a spot she liked called Just Beers, we got to talking about the money to be made in our different trades, and I told her about clearing 2.5 million for hunting down the pirate lord Jackster with the late Joaquin. She nodded approvingly, but from behind us I heard a laugh, followed by a creaky voice that sounded like it had a lot of years behind it.
"Two-point-five million?" the voice said, the note of awe clearly mocking and insincere. I turned to see a grizzled old man wearing a beaten-up cowboy hat that was maybe the same age as he was. The old fellow wore a sardonic grin that lacked all but three teeth and yet still managed to convey his sarcasm quite adequately.
"That's right, old fella," I said, a bit flippantly. He didn't seem to take it amiss.
"And all you had to do to for that payday was go and take out some void-hearted pirate out to Ratraii, putting life and limb on the line in a dogfight that came a bit too close for comfort?"
I frowned. "You didn't need to eavesdrop, my friend. I'd have happily invited you to join us."
He held up one hand in appeasement, "Now don't get wound up, young fella. I know the bug that you squashed, and it was a long time coming for the rotten bastard. He did me and mine a great wrong, and I thought I'd never see justice. That's why I so rudely interrupted."
I motioned towards an empty chair at our table, and the old man stood and walked over, holding out a hand for Tanja and I to shake and then taking a seat.
"Silas Willoughby," he said, "originally out of Betelgeuse, but lately of Colonia."
"Pleasure," I said. Tanja only shook and nodded, visibly analyzing the newcomer with the jaded stare of an experienced private eye.
"No disrespect, kid," said Silas in a conspiratorial whisper, "but 2.5 million is chump change."
I laughed, "For some people, it's a small fortune."
All the mirth vanished from Silas' face; the old man had grown dead serious, and his voice had lowered so much that we had to lean in to hear him.
"Not for a painite miner...."
"Tell me more," I said, intrigued.
Well, Silas told me a whole lot about painite mining that I won't bore you with here, and clued me in on a great spot to mine the stuff not at all far from Colonia, as well as some choice spots he knew about back in the Bubble. He told me he was giving me the tip of a lifetime in gratitude for taking care of Jackster. I thanked the old fellow, and decided to follow his advice and kit the ship out for mining. Twenty four hours later, I have added about six hundred million credits to my account after shipping about eight hundred tons of painite mined from the rings of a gas giant in a nearby system which I will not name for my own safety. So industrious was I that I kind of crashed the local painite price, so I decided to give it a rest and get on with my journey to Sag A before the local miners find me and toss me out of an airlock. Then it will be back to the Bubble to begin my mining career in earnest.
As I write this, all the ship's extraneous modules have been stripped and sold, I've added a nice big fuel tank so that I don't have to scoop so often, and I now have two Automatic Repair units for safety redundancy.
It's off to the center of the Galaxy, and from there back home to civilization. I'll be out in the black for awhile, but I'll keep in touch. Fly safe, my friends!
o7
CMDR Smertkopf