Chapter 13. Losses
14 Oct 2020Black Llama
October 9, 3306Watt Port, Enayex system
It's a big galaxy. It's so easy to go out into the black, and vanish.
Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking we can handle it: with frame shift drives, system scanners and translight communications, sometimes we are asked to retrieve somebody's lost wallet somewhere in deep space. Just as in Old Earth when fast transports and electromagnetic communications were invented, over a thousand years ago, and people felt everything on the planet was within reach. But the sad truth is that objects in space are often lost forever.
Today I landed at Watt Port in the Enayex system, right after collecting my reward from the Keltim Empire League on the Prelude To Victory megaship in Eurybia. The whole starport was very animated: right after landing I could see many commanders cheering and celebrating Eurybia Blue Mafia's victory. Since I was flying the Affondatore, my Federal Assault Ship, nobody paid much attention to me - they all must have assumed I was just a Federal agent passing through on some unrelated business. I left the ship on the pad, with a group of techs refueling it, and headed off to the pilot's lounge. That place was also packed, with lots of drinking, cheering and laughter: a group of commanders pushed me aside as they walked out, very drunk, singing some lewd anti-Empire song.
I decided I needed a quieter place. I walked to the bar and, shouting to make myself heard over the chaos, managed to secure purchase of one of the few beverages still remaining, a small flask of Apa Vietii. I then left the lounge and wandered through the station until I could find an observation deck which was relatively tranquil. I sat down, looking at the stars outside. This time, nobody came and blocked my view.
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Two days ago, in Chelomey Orbital, someone grabbed my arm as I was exiting the landing pads: "Your Grace, please. You know my daughter." I stopped and turned around to see a very dignified-looking Imperial noblewoman. She was much taller, with brown instead of jet-black hair, but it only took me two seconds to figure out who the daughter was. "I am the Countess Misato Makutani-Rusetti" she continued, wringing her hands. "My daughter Tania has mentioned you many times."
I raised my hands, smiling: "I assure you, madam, that nothing improper..." but I shut my mouth as I noticed the anguish on her face. "She has left the starport without saying anything to me" she said. "Your Grace, I'm told she has gone to join the campaign in Eurybia. I fear for her life. My daughter can fly, Your Grace, but has no combat experience." After a pause: "My husband was an administrator at Tsiolkovsky Terminal. He and our eldest son died during the terrorist attacks. I cannot lose Tania too."
As she was speaking, in my mind I contrasted her despair with my memories of Tania's can-do cheerful attitude. The Countess went on: "I am willing to pay a very generous sum if you can intercept and bring her back -" but I interrupted her then. "Madam, I am sure she is perfectly fine. But if it will make you feel better, as a friend, I can fly off to Eurybia and check that she's safe."
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The Affondatore rammed hard into a Blue Mafia's Python. I watched its cockpit crack open and the pilot get ejected into space, as a series of explosions broke the ship in two. Kill number twenty. As my ship bounced back I heard the COVAS chanting "Shields offline", but I didn't worry too much. A quick glance told me that hull integrity was still above 60 per cent, and the fast regen bi-weaves would be back up soon. Looking around, I set my sights on a pair of Cobras which were targeting an Imperial Clipper. I throttled up and started firing the ship's four multicannons at one of them.
I had just wanted to fly into the system, grab Tania on the campaign megaship's missions room, shake some sense into her and send her back to her mother, then back to my own business. But she wasn't there. One of Keltim Empire League's flight controllers remembered her: "Oh yes, she was part of a wing of three Couriers", she said, looking down at her monitors. "They went out to conflict zone #4 but none have returned here - yet." A sudden instinct told me that this wasn't right. I ended up in the thick of the fight, anxiously checking all conflict zones for signs of the Adesso è Fortuna.
I ended up collecting thirty-seven combat bond kills during that day, the last day of the conflict, before the Keltim Empire League broadcast throughout the system their retreat signal. I spent a few hours scouring the wreckage in the conflict zones. Parts of ships, bent and twisted by the explosions that destroyed them. Some salvageable materials. Corpses, lots of them, faces forever frozen in terror. None I could recognize. I found plenty of wrecked Imperial Couriers, but none that I could identify as the Fortuna. I never found any trace of Tania, or of any of the young pilots of her wing. Perhaps she never even made it to a combat zone; what if she was interdicted and killed before she realized what was happening...
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Back to the present, looking out at the stars, I took a swig from the flask as I tried to guess which one of them was Eurybia.
Somewhere out in the black, a friend had met her fate. I raised the flask to the stars one last time: "Here's to you, kid." I stood up and slowly made my way back to the starport's main concourse. My mobile chimed as a message came in: "Your Type-6 has arrived at Watt Port". A quick search on the market explorer told me that I could buy Landmines at Bruce Penal Colony in the Cadubi system. Well, I thought, time to finally pay the famous Liz Ryder a visit.