MEMORIES
28 Feb 2022Jav Marlo
MEMORIES28 FEB 3308, Mu Capricorni system, Pegasi Sector.
Hey, it’s me, Ayumi, recording this log at Chang-Diaz Colony, in the Mu Capricorni system.
Chang-Diaz Colony
I know you wanted to come with me here and that you must be pissed off because I left you behind. But you don’t need me for getting ready the Mjolnir for this big heist the Kumo Crew wants us to perform and, besides, we have been in the Pegasi Sector for nearly a month working for the pirate clans and still we haven´t found my sister nor the imperial slaves that were smuggled here. This pirate ‘Omertá’ is testing my patience. I cannot sit and wait for the Kumo Crew to accept us on their ranks and decide to disclose some information. I need to try to find out by other means. And this cursed place, Chang-Diaz Colony, is where the nightmare started. This is where they sold me as a slave.
Chang-Diaz Colony outpost
Damn! Now I understand why you are recording logs all the time. It’s much easy to talk and open yourself to that thing than to... well... people. I guess I am even more a loner that you. But I was not ever like this. You are helping me, you always do, and I want to tell you about me, about how I was, about my sister... (sigh) It’s just that I don’t know how... but I’m trying. I’m trying now, and I hope that you understand when you hear this.
Chang-Diaz Colony outpost at Mu Capricorni
I don’t even know how to start... Well, Chang-Diaz Colony is not precisely a major pirate stronghold or slave market like Gabriel Enterprise. It is more a refueling outpost on a crappy system containing only some metal rich planets. Just a few extraction and refinery installations here. Its inhabitants are mostly miners and pirates. Like many outpost of the kind, it has basic dock services, a black market, cheap lodgement, a poor stocked bar and a brothel.
Ayumi entering the concourse of Chang-Diaz Colony
And six years ago, I woke up from a cryostasis on that brothel. (Deep sigh) It feels so strange coming back here… You already know how my family was demised, purged, after Emperor Hengist Duval was killed. My father tried to expose the conspirators, but all he achieved was being falsely accused of taking part on the plot and being vanished from the Empire noble houses. Anders Blaine, Chancellor of the Empire, our alleged patron, that bastard got rid of us and arranged it for us to end as slaves in the Pegasi Sector. (Grunt) Blaine, that scheming rat, even if I found his ties with the NMLA, even if he covered the kidnapping of Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval, the traitor might probably get away with it. DAMN! Someday, sometime (deep breath) I will go after him. But not yet. First, I need to find if my sister is still alive.
Ayumi recording a log at Chang-Diaz Colony
So let me tell you how the rich imperial girl ended on a brothel in the Pegasi Sector. After the trial, we were condemned to slavery. But imperial slavery is not as bad as it sounds. We expected to have to serve some other noble family for some years to regain our honour, and my father even believed that one day they would restore our privileges and allow us to occupy again our place among the patrons. So foolish! They sent us to a lodgement facility in the Facece system and told us to wait for transfer. We stayed there for weeks. We were well treated, security was minimal and we could move freely by the installation. I never feared for my life back then. Not even the day a huge ship, a magnificent Imperial Cutter arrived to pick us up.
Slusar Entertainment Zone in Facece
The day I saw the big ship landing at the settlement I run into my sister’s Elizabeth room. (Chuckle) You would have not recognized me then. I was so stupid, so naïve, so weak. The perfect daughter of a prominent imperial patron. Never questioned my parents or their decisions. Did I ever tell you that they genetically engineered my sister and I to be blondies? Blonde hair is considered a nobility trait in the Empire. My brothers were raised to continue with the family business, but we, the girls, we were educated to be the perfect wives. The jewels of the Hutchinson family. A precious merchandise bound to seal political alliances. Before our trial, I had many suitors and I was loving it, but Elizabeth’s marriage had already been arranged, and she rebelled.
Ayumi, when she was Eveline Hutchinson, at Slusar Entertainment Zone in Facece
(Sigh) We were so physically alike but so different. She was a bit older than me, and I admired her so much, she was involved in so many causes, she hated slavery, quite ironic we both ended like this! She was the first person that told me about Salomé and her deeds, when she was still Senator Kahina Tijani Loren. Contrary to me, she was smart, committed and strong. When she knew that our father has arranged her marriage, she cut her hair like a boy and dyed it black. (Chuckle) I told her It made her look like a ship mechanic. She was so courageous; I would never have considered to cut my beautiful blonde hair back then. (Sigh) Nor that any of that mattered after the trial, but she kept the haircut to challenge our father.
Elizabeth Hutchinson
Elizabeth was on a grim mood when I found her on her room. To me, the arrival of the Cutter meant the opportunity to finally abandon that boring place. To Elizabeth it was the dark omen of an uncertain future. She could not have been more right. But at the time I remember her reprimanding me for my light attitude and warning me about all kind of perils we were facing that seemed so exaggerated to me.
Ayumi arguing with her sister
We exchanged some hard words. She called me childish and I called her bitter and worst things. She knew something bad was going to happen to us, she wanted to protect me, and I felt offended and insulted her back.
Elizabeth Hutchinson arguing with her sister Ayumi
That was the last time we talked. I left her alone on the room, sadly looking to the ominous Cutter through the window, and walked my way towards the huge ship. My parents and brothers were already on board. And Elizabeth would not board voluntarily and make the guards go and take her by force.
Elizabeth Hutchinson observing the Imperial Cutter
I had never flown on a Cutter before, but my friends had told me that they were incredible luxurious ships, and I was eager to see one from the inside. I will never forget the name of the ship: the Pretorian.
Ayumi approaching the Pretorian
The moment I set foot on that ship my life was torn apart. There were no luxury cabins, nor trip to an Imperial system, nor new life serving another prominent imperial family. Instead, we were sedated and placed into pods. We were carried away like merchandise. My sister was the only one that had understood that our trial was not a mistake, that it was orchestrated to get rid of us. And that we were too much a threat to the Chancellor to be left alive.
The Pretorian
When I regained conscience, I found myself on the cell of a brothel in Chang-Diaz Colony. But I did not know that yet. Later I found out that the Pretorian used to smuggle imperial slaves into the Pegasi Sector. Political dissidents, traitors to the Empire, anybody the Chancellor wanted to get rid of, ended as a passenger of the Pretorian. Nobody asks about the fate of political dissidents, and when somebody does, you just need to say that the ship they were travelling was attacked by pirates. Contrary to imperial slaves, that are well treated, slaves in the pirate systems don´t last long. They do the hardest and most dangerous works, things that would be done by robots in any civilized place. But lives are cheaper than robots in the Pegasi Sector.
The Pretorian arriving to Chang-Diaz Colony
I never got to know which was the final destination of the Pretorian, of the other slaves, of my family. Because the crew of the Pretorian had a side business. Lives are cheap in the Pegasi Sector, but some lives are cheaper than others, and young boys and girls are always a prized commodity. The Pretorian was well known in Chang-Diaz Colony. In all its trips it used to stop by the outpost, open its cargo hold doors and drop a few pods. The Pretorian crew handpicked those of us they found too young and attractive to end working in the mines. Brothels pay better. And they left us there, floating merciless sleeping inside our pods. For the pirates to pick us.
The Pretorian at Chang-Diaz Colony
Every time the visitors of Chang-Diaz Colony saw the Pretorian approaching they knew fresh meat was on its way. The outpost became quite popular due to this sordid traffic. Pirates from all the surrounding systems came here looking for the exotic merchandise.
The Pretorian closing by to the outpost
(Deep sigh) When I woke up on the cell of the brothel, I could see one of the girls that was with us in the settlement at the Facece system. Probably the daughter of another disgraced patron. Trembling and scared like me. I did not recognize anybody else. And Elizabeth was not there. I guess her hair made her look too ordinary and she was discarded. I was alone for the first time in my life.
Chang-Diaz Colony in Mu Capricorni system
There is where Ferdinand Haim found me. He was a pirate chief from the Lusonda system passing by the outpost. He came to the brothel and immediately noticed me, the young imperial girl with the long blonde pale hair. But Haim’s avarice was bigger than his lust. He had participated in the raids to the imperial systems that lead to the ‘Operation Davy Jones’. He knew imperial culture. And he knew that my hair, looks and manners were not casual, that I was more than just a pretty imperial slave girl.
Ayumi at Chang-Diaz Colony
He bought me and took me to the Lusonda system with him. He was passing difficulties. His last heists had not ended well, and he was expected to present himself soon in front of the Pirate Lord Archon Delaine with some tribute on behalf of the pirate clans of the Lusonda system. For him, I was nothing more than the solution to his problems, a lavish gift for the pirate lord. A beautiful and educated young imperial slave. Too good for the petty pirates. Something valuable and exotic enough for Archon Delaine to spare his life and let him continue leading his pirate clan.
Ayumi remembering
An that´s it. The rest of the story you mostly know. Haim kept me on drugs for some months. ‘Tamed me’, he said, for the Pirate Lord. Then, the night before the Kumo Tribute Day, I took of one of my earrings and cut my face with the crystal shard. Made myself no longer a worthy tribute for the Pirate Lord. Ferdinand almost beat me to dead, I lost the eye; and he had to present himself empty handed to Delaine pledging his undying loyalty. Delaine asked him to prove it by taking his own life. If you ask me about it now, the only thing that I regret of that day is that I could not kill Ferdinand myself.
Ayumi
Eveline Hutchinson died that day and Ayumi was born. I thought about what my sister would do. And I recovered from my wounds, I struggled, became harder, smarter. I did what I had to do to survive. The pirates were looking for me because of what happened to Ferdinand. I shaved my head to hide from them. Then, one day, I got enough to buy me a passage out of the Pegasi Sector. I took solace on the California Nebula, with the Exemplars, where you found me.
Ayumi at the concourse of Chang-Diaz Colony
(Sobbing) And that is another thing I feel I have to share with you. You know that the Exemplars changed me. They did not just healed me and gave me a new augmented eye. They experimented with me. I am not talking about common augmentation. They used cybernetics on me, but they did not replace any other limbs or organs but the eye. They talked about chemical and physical conditioning to help me reach peak mental and psychic capabilities. And it is true I became faster and stronger. But nothing compared to what I have been experiencing lately. Do you remember the incident at Huberath Gateway? I know you are worried about me, and I know you freaked out when you saw what I did to that poor bastard. It was necessary to earn the respect of the pirates.
Ayumi at the bar in Chang-Diaz Colony
But that’s not all. I would lie if I say that I hadn´t everything planned. I am sorry you had to see that side of me; but when that moron Micah tried to grab me by the neck, I saw him coming like in slow motion, I put him down effortlessly with a combination of movements that came to me naturally, without thinking. And the strength I felt (deep breath)… I had to restrain myself not to crush his skull against the table while I was holding him. Something is changing in me. I am different, I am becoming more. I feel restless, tireless, blood thirsty and… (sobbing) and I am scared.
Ayumi walking by the bar at Chang-Diaz Colony
(Deep breath) Anyhow, the show worked out. Now I can walk among the pirates unmolested. Feels almost like if I could read their minds, whispering one another behind my back: “Look, that must be the pirate girl that bate the shit out that fellah Micah and removed his eye, she does not look so tough, that Micah must have been a pussy, I bet I could take her down”, but nobody dares.
Ayumi talking to a pimp at Chang-Diaz Colony
I had a talk with a local pimp. I told him I had experience smuggling slaves from the old times of the Robigo Run and questioned him about the local brothel and how they supplied it. (Sigh) I had to listen to him brag for half an hour about the good old times when the Pretorian dropped by at least one per month with new exciting commodities. While listening to him I seriously considered breaking his neck. But when I asked him about the Pretorian, he told me that he had not seen the ship in years.
Ayumi and pimp at Chang-Diaz Colony
Many things have changed since the last time I came here. And it is not just me. I do not recognize myself on the scared stupid girl that woke up on that cell. And Chang-Diaz Colony is not as popular anymore. The steady supply of imperial slaves stopped, and nobody knows about the whereabouts of the Pretorian. DAMN! I thought that somebody here would be able to tell me about the final destination of that ship. THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING! I was not ready to survive something like this. Liz was. Honestly, if I managed to survive is because I think I was inspired by her. If she might be alive, I have to find her… Perhaps it was a bad idea to come here. But I had to try. (Deep sigh) I better be back.
Ayumi passing by a pair of thugs on her way to the docks
(Fast breathing) I should leave this place. All those memories… No clues… SUCH A WASTE OF TIME!... (Fast breathing) I cannot express with words the WRATH I AM FEELING NOW. Can you imagine that I just passed by a pair thugs on my way to the docks and I wished that they have the guts to attack me? I won’t be so lucky.
A pair of thugs considering attacking Ayumi
Well, I will be back with you soon. That big diamond heist looks like our best chance now to get into the Kumo Crew and perhaps find where the imperial slaves were taken. But I cannot stop thinking about… Shh! (Whispering). I hear steps… It looks like those two thugs finally grow a pair. I think they are trying to ambush me at the dock. (Slow breath). Damn good! Oh, I could use the exercise! I have to leave you now. I'm busy.
Ayumi out.
Ayumi at the docks of Chang-Diaz Colony