Diamonds are Forever
24 Oct 2020Lakshmi Bai
Lakshmi expected the abode of the local Rani to be high up in one of those towering spires amid the sprawl of landing pads surrounding Soper Hub. Situated on a barren rock dangerously close to a dying star, this former mining colony was now home to a vast array of people who didn't have anywhere else to go, cast out from their former lives and left to fend for themselves amongst the stars, or die trying.Some were descendants of the great Corporation that founded this place, inheriting vast vaults that now housed thousands upon thousands of former slaves, dealers, even fugitives who hoped to blend in and pass by unnoticed in the underhive sprawl.
Closely guarded, and with shock prods to the small of her back a stern reminder to keep her eyes forward and down, she had little choice but to be shepherded into the lower levels of what must be a vast underground slum that reeked of effluence, pollution, death with the aftertaste of sickly sweet and densely woody incense used by the local nobility that somehow kept a semblance of order in the place.
It smelled expensive, like jasmine and sandalwood imported from far away. She smelled expensive too, for she had undergone a 'cleansing' ritual bathed in the smoke of that same incense as two handmaidens rudely unzipped the front of her Remlock survival suit shortly after disembarking from the crippled "Cat Fisher". She'd tried to fight the two women, clearly the local equivalent of nurses except clad in red silk sarees and headscarves as though a fable from Sol millenia ago. But a tight slap from the older of the two followed by a devious twist of her sprained right leg made it known to a squealing Lakshmi that resistance was indeed, futile.
So she sat through one elaborate ritual after another, as the local nobility hailed their lone visitor from the stars as a sign from their Goddess herself, and what an auspiciously timed visit it was. Grain from the Federation to ease the suffering of a colony cut off from the Galaxy's computer-controlled trade routes, because someone bothered to sort the prices manually and found this poor, starving community ironically right next to a bustling star cluster used as a protected sanctuary for new Commanders who would one day decide the fate of the Galaxy.
Or perhaps this place was meant to be a lesson that Lakshmi would one day learn.
But whatever the future told was far out of reach hidden behind a mental fog no doubt caused by whatever medical narcotics was 'prescribed' for her speedy and unnatural recovery. She could barely walk after the ungraceful crash of her crippled explorer, tumbling end over end through no less than three different emergency impact barriers erected hastily by the local spaceport normally meant to defend against incoming meteors! They had shattered the Adder-class transport into a barely recognizable chunk of wreckage and she'd landed on Pad 4 Sierra (which was not even on the instrument landing system menu of the place) upside down and with cargo spilling out of the shattered robotic hatch that was supposed to keep everything inside.
(Credits; Google search)
"So you come to give us salvation," said the disembodied, lyrical voice in the oddly archaic neo-Hindi accent.
There was a makeshift thone lit from behind, and on it sat a hooded figure, ceremonial sword in hand. The voice deep and melodious like a supervillian from old Earth fiction.
"And at such an auspicious time, how could we refuse," she continued, waving a dusky hand at two young, female attendants in bright red dresses and flowing orange scarves. Like her they wore their hair free and unbound, half floating, half flying in the minimal gravity of the place as they half floated, half leapt into position. One of them held an elaborately embroidered red pillow with her datapad on it, clearly jailbroken by now to the whims of the local cartel.
One of the girls smiled. The one who gave her a savage chop to her chest when she'd refused to wear those strange, archaic raiments she brought. Shiver in the filthy, derelict decontamination chamber she might, but she was not here to be converted to whatever culture or religion the natives had in mind for her! She was a pilot, a Commander!
And yet she had given in sweetly and willingly, any trace of physical abuse lovingly soothed and mended as they groomed her into a form that the Rani would find... acceptable.
"I've received feedback that your behavior needs... improvement but we have no time for such things. We quickly need your help if everyone here is going to survive..."
"Our crops have failed and the Federal Navy has been wrongful to detain us. We are not outcasts. We are people... with a dream of a second chance."
"We want you to tell the neighboring systems that. And spark the fires of revolution in their hearts."
She saw on her data pad a ship, and credits to her name was awarded for a large delivery of humanitarian aid to the "Ay Indi Drug Empire." A Diamondback Explorer they'd found buried in the barren desert for a decade, once owned by the first explorers of the land. She would use the ship to reestablish contact with the neighboring star systems and if necessary, persuade them to opening trade. She would bring back wealth to the land, an acolyte of the Goddess of Wealth she was once named after, and that was determined to be her destiny.
The local engineers cooed and aww'd as she flipped switches in the ancient vessel's cockpit, bringing long dormant auxiliary power to life. Uttering praises to a nonexistent Machine God she sang a litany of sacred pre-flight checklists as the cogitators sprang to life, sending glowing streams of data shooting across her helmet mounted display.
Behind her, there was a gasp of surprise and a clattering of metallic cookware as the startled handmaiden grabbed on to her arm for support as the ship wobbled on its landing legs, inertial dampers and counter-grav actuators coming to life as she exercised the controls. Lakshmi's head swung around with a chastising glare.
"Rekha!! We're on a space mission, there's no need to bring your entire kitchen!"
But the radio cracked to life before the two girls could unsheathe their claws again. "Soper STC to Lima-Alpha Two-Zero Delta, you are cleared for departure and unlimited climb to prograde orbit."
"Lima-Alpha Two-Zero," what a mouthful, the Diamondback Explorer's new Commander thought, "copy clear for departure and unlimited climb to prograde orbit.
For the first time in five decades the ship's three fusion torches blazed a trail of fire across the sky.
"Lima-Alpha Two-Zero, contact Farkas Departure at 121.30... and does that ship have a name?"
Lakshmi smiled, happy to have made the aquantaince of a neglected neo-Hindu civilization and established her role amongst the stars as their ambassador and chief trader, albeit in unconventional ways. She fiddled with her long, silken orange dress that covered the skintight Remlock flightsuit and fiddled with the gem-studded bracelet that adorned her wrist, letting it slowly glimmer and sparkle as the ship soared across the surface of the dying star of Ay Indi A. The colours of our revolution, the Rani said. And she should wear them, like the Goddess herself would unite the warring tribes of the land.
"Roger contact Farkas Departure 121.3. Diamonds are Forever, signing off."