The Living and the Damned - Part IV
29 Nov 2017Jellicoe
Stargazer Asteroid Base, Pleione SystemDanny Swift grimaced as his PDA bleeped to inform him that his ship was prepped and ready. He had planned to spend that day in the company of a couple of bottles of Old Sol and a large amount of Onionhead, but then a job had come through. The employer was not the kind that a man like Danny Swift could ignore, and so, gulping down the last of his coffee, Danny set off for the hangar.
By the time he reached the access corridor Danny's mood had improved slightly. The job was simple enough; recover some encrypted communications from somewhere in Merope and deliver them to Blackmount Orbital. With luck he could be back inside a couple of hours, with a lot of extra money in his pocket. He turned into the corridor to his hangar to find his path blocked by a tall man in a tatty blue jacket and black trousers.
"Hello Danny. I'd like a little chat."
"Sorry, Mr Jellicoe, got a job on, urgent like. Catch you later yeah?" Danny said. A conversation with Stannis Jellicoe was unlikely to be an enjoyable experience, and the last thing a man in his line of work needed. He turned hurriedly to leave, only to find a huge man barring his way. A dark, bearded face smiled down at him from beneath a neatly arranged turban.
"I insist," Jellicoe said. Danny tried to make a run for it, but the giant man was too quick. Danny found himself in a vice like grip with his arm twisted up his back in a most uncomfortable manner.
"That's better," Jellicoe said with a grin. "Now, I want to know what happened to the crew of a ship you knocked over about six weeks ago. A Diamondback Explorer named the Beagle. There was a man and a woman on board. What happened to them?"
"I don't know nothing about any...AAAAAAAAAARGH!" Danny yelled as Jellicoe’s bearded associate twisted his arm a little further.
"Danny, Danny, Danny," Jellicoe said, his voice laced with feigned disappointment. "Do we really have to play this game? We all know how it ends."
"I ain't never heard of no Beagle...AAAAAAAARGH!"
"I suppose that means we do. Very well, here's what's going to happen; my friend here has you in a particularly unpleasant arm lock. The more pressure he applies, the more pain you will be in until finally your shoulder joint will explode in a way that even modern medicine will find difficult to put back together. When that happens we'll then move on to your other arm. If, when you run out of joints you still aren't squealing then I suppose I might accept that you're telling the truth."
"I don't know anythin...AAAAAAAAARHG!"
"Try again."
"I swear, Mr Jellicoe...AAAAAAARGh!"
"Think very carefully, Danny. I do believe that shoulder's almost ready to go."
"Okay, okay, it was me what knocked over the Beagle."
"What happened to the crew?"
"I...I...AAAAAAARGH!"
"Tell me, Danny."
"I passed them on, it was a slave grab, I don't know what happened to them after that."
"Who did you pass them on to?"
"I don't know, Mr Jellicoe, some geezer in a pub at Obsidian...AAAAAAARGH!"
"Rubbish, Danny, you don't even wipe your arse without someone telling you to. Who were you working for?"
"I can't...AAAAAARGH!"
"Wrong answer."
"He'll kill me."
"At this precise moment I'd say you have rather more immediate concerns."
"Please, Mr Jellicoe...AAAAAAARGH!"
"I know you're hiding something now, Danny. This carries on until you squeal."
"It was Viktor, Mr Jellicoe, it was Viktor."
"Viktor Kuznetsov," Jellicoe explained later in the Resolution’s briefing room, mainly for Kira's benefit, "is a viscous little bastard, and, in terms of the criminal food chain out here, he's not far from the top; extortion, smuggling, vice... you name it, he's into it."
"Slaving?" Kira asked.
"It doesn't surprise me," Jellicoe replied. "Given the number of people out here now in hopelessly inadequate ships completely incapable of defending themselves, Viktor is just the kind of man to grab the chance to diversify his ‘business.'"
"We know she's alive, though," Kira said hopefully.
"No," Jellicoe replied. "We know she was alive. Slaves aren't kept in the best conditions; a hell of a lot die in transit but yes, it is looking more hopeful than a few hours ago."
"So what do we do now?"
"I have a snout in Viktor's firm. I'll see if he can turn anything up."
"Snout?" Kira asked.
"An informant. You know that I used to be a bounty hunter before moving on to... other things. When your work relies on information, I try to have as much as I can get."
Big thanks once again to Jemine Caesar for corrections and amendments