Bad news and debts.
10 Dec 2020Teafox
Kid's concentrating on flying the ship and I'm sitting here thanking all that's holy that he can't see my face.What the hell do I do now? It took me an hour to even figure out which cypher the message was written in and at first I thought it was pointlessly sentimental. Morgan loved to use coding systems which involved personal information, if you didn't know that one key clue, the rest of the cypher wouldn't work. Now that I know what the message reads, I'm glad. I'm tempted to burn the notepad and flush the ashes out of the airlock, play dumb and... Well, actually, I guess if the Feds or the Imps knew for sure, we'd have been arrested already. Heck, the alliance would too if they knew.
To try and calm my nerves, I read the kid's DNA report again. Pretty understandable now.
Clearly human DNA, but typical genetic ancestral markings are damaged or simply absent on a fundamental level. Comparison to initial population sample shows zero matches and a confidence of 0.002% of finding similar subjects on available records across publicly accessible genetic repositories. High percentages of artificial blood cells suggest massive surgical restructure or entire body replacement consistent with pilot's guild imprint duplication.
That part was the relatively safe part. Truth be told, there are hundreds of thousands of families that never go on official records. If it were just that, I'd assume we should start asking questions in some of the belter communities where I found him.
But then there was the other document. In itself it's an article on an Federal experiment in overlaying artificial intelligence with the human brain. Some time ago, apparently a federal group in the Noli system wanted to improve the sale price of their slaves by implanting some level of skill in food preparation artificially. If you use the first document as a cryptographic key, after a lot of mistakes, eventually, you can decode the following message from it.
Yankies and Romans both on high alert. Black budget yankie project failed handover assumed accident. Military patrol arrived at Enayex following DNA trace request on seek and destroy briefing. Recalled due to terrorism incident. Romans assume attempting capture or destruction assuming weapons research. Patrols stationed at Ngaruaianka system. Avoid area at all costs.
The system name didn't ring a bell until I drew it up on the star charts and saw what's nearby.
I don't like the implication of who this means the kid might be. Or, more accurately what he might be... Quite aside from the most illegal thing that has ever been on this ship.
I can see why the Feds would patrol from where they are, but that cuts off the most obvious answers. Still, I can think of someone who might help. I have to steady my voice before I give the order.
I tell Covas to plot a course for Yoru's fourth planet, avoiding inhabited and mapped systems as much as possible. The kid's ears prick up, seems he can tell something is wrong. I have to admit, there could be trouble ahead, and honestly, there are all kinds of things that are wrong... Not sure we can put 'em right, but maybe we can get some answers and figure out a plan.
At least it's good to know Morgan's still around and looking out for his friends. Being even deeper in his debt might be more dangerous than the Feds and Imperials combined though... But that's another day's problem.