The Cult of Personality
30 Dec 2020Elkyri
Darlton Terminal, Guan Yun3306.12.29
A few thousand years ago a man named Webster wrote "In every generation, there are those who want to rule well -- but they mean to rule. They promise to be good masters -- but they mean to be masters." Those words came to mind as I was going into one of the stations in Imperial space a day or two ago.
When you enter a station elsewhere you might see the name of the station and "welcome" in large letters near the airlock. That's pretty much the norm. In Imperial space it's a bit different -- you might see "Bask in Her Glory" or "Hail the Emperor" in that space. A month or so ago I might not have given that a second thought. If I thought about it all it would have been along the lines of "it's the Empire; that's just the way it is here." But this situation with the Marlinists has put things in a different perspective. I'm spending maybe too much time thinking about "the way it is here."
I ran quite a few deliveries for them over the last few days. The most interesting run was delivering a load of tea for the Navy. What made it interesting was an armed interdiction attempt. They warned me when I took the contract that it might happen. Imagine that -- a load of tea became a matter of military significance to someone.
It was to Jackson Port at Hip 18714. I don't know if you've been there but it's a beautiful approach. The station orbits between the planet and its rings. The gap is so wide it's easy to make a straight in approach with plenty of open space all around. It was there, on the final approach, that the pirate caught up to me. It caught me by surprise, frankly, as I let myself be distracted by the view. I should have been paying more attention. The interdiction ended as quickly as it began when the tether suddenly broke. I'm guessing the pirate slammed himself into the planet's exclusion zone while trying to stay behind me as I swerved back and forth between almost hitting the rings to almost hitting the planet. I'm glad it was him and not me.
I guess the Imperials were pleased with how things worked out since they've given me some sort of commission -- a rank in their navy. Get this -- the rank is "serf." Look that up in the dictionary. It's purely an honorary rank, I'm sure, but the pilots loitering around the concourse tell me those ranks and a big pile of credits get you access to Gutamaya ships not available to the general public.
Speaking of piles of credits, we're looking pretty good on the balance sheet. Given my frugal lifestyle I could probably retire tomorrow... but I don't think I'm ready for settling down anywhere just yet. That leaves me wondering how to make best use of this wealth. I could upgrade ships but I'm happy with Yalena. I could buy a small fleet of ships and hire crews to run them while I sit back and run the operation from a plush office somewhere but I don't think that's me either. Instead I have another idea rattling around in my head. We shall see if I can make it work.