The Living and the Damned - Part IX
28 Dec 2017Jellicoe
Coulomb Ring, HIP 104759 SystemCoulomb Ring was typical of the Pegasi, it was a shabby, ill maintained station kept running on a shoestring budget and a lot of improvised repairs, always with several landing pads out of order and ship lifts that felt and sounded on the verge of breakdown under the pads that were still operable. The hangars stank, seldom if ever cleaned, the edges strewn with slowly decomposing rubbish, rats were rife. Leaving the docking area things were little better, paint peeled, refuse accumulated and broken windows were boarded up with any material available, all in a perpetual twilight due to the station only having enough power to maintain two thirds Earth normal illumination. In the public areas packs of grubby children in threadbare clothes exuberantly and noisily played, seemingly running wild while by the bars youths congregated in surly, menacing groups, most openly and ostentatiously carrying weapons all in black leather and most heavily tattooed in the style of the Pegasi clans.
HIP 104759 was ruled by the Bureau Freedom Party who had swept to power pledging to drive out the gangs and bring order and prosperity to HIP 104759, but the gangs had proved tenacious and the cost of smashing them so vast that the money had run out and the systems idealistic new rulers had had to settle for just keeping total anarchy at bay a choice, so the rumours ran, made easier by large amounts of cash. There was a third kind of person clearly visible in the public areas of Coulomb Ring, lacking either the unrestrained exuberance of the children or the dangerous machismo of the youths. These people clustered together mostly dressed in rags, huddled under cheap blankets, vacant, empty eyes staring hopelessly out onto the world before them, clearly out of place and just as clearly with nowhere to go.
Across an open square, clearly meant to be a pleasant public space for the stations occupants but now occupied by a group of young men and women drinking rot gut and smoking so much Onionhead that its pungence temporarily masked the stench of rotting rubbish and unwashed bodies strode two men and a woman. Clearly strangers they had attracted numerous glances since exiting the lift from the docking bay and as they crossed the square a pale, squat, muscular young man in a sleeveless leather jacket and trousers, gold decorated plasma pistol on his hip swaggered across to intercept them.
"Man hear you the 'Vette guy." The youth said to the strangers apparent leader in the thick local accent.
"Could either of you translate that gibberish into recognisable English?" Jellicoe asked his companions while keeping his eyes fixed on the youth, a slight smile playing on the corners of his mouth.
"Man come for the dock fee." The young man continued.
"Piss off sonny before you get yourself hurt." Jellicoe replied with a chuckle.
"Man gonna spin your jaw..." The youth began, his hand reaching for his pistol when a punch from Vik that would have stopped a charging rhino drove into his guts, but before he could double up Vik had him in an iron grip, his razor sharp Kirpan pressed to the boys throat.
"unless you want your friend to get a very big and very red new smile keep your hands well away from your guns." Jellicoe said covering the youths comrades with his burst pistol before turning to the helpless figure in Vik's grasp. "Now either I'm in the wrong part of the station or the man I'm meeting has a taste for shit holes but where's the Panther's Rest?"
"Guy looking for Daman?" The youth asked trying to get his windpipe away from Vik's curved dagger.
"You know Daman?" Jellicoe asked surprised.
"Ye bro, man work for the Railroad."
"you work for the Galactic Railroad?" Jellicoe asked in a voice dripping disbelief.
"For real bro, man take guy Daman ye?"
Jellicoe and Vik exchanged glances, Vik nodded looking questioningly, Jellicoe nodded back and Vik let the lad go.
"Sorry for the misunderstanding sonny." Jellicoe said to the gasping young man and pressing a credit chip into his hand. "Here, treat yourself and your mates to a hot bath and a trip to the launderette."
The Panther's Rest was much like the rest of the station, scruffy, dingy and badly maintained. The choice of drinks was largely limited to local concoctions, all mindbogglingly potent and all, to those with tastes developed in the core worlds, bordering on the undrinkable. Commander Daman was an honest but weary looking young man whose face bore a long, livid scar and wearing the silver wings of an Expert ranked combateer, and both Jellicoe and Vik wondered if he really knew what he was getting into by poking one of the most feared criminal firms in human space with a sharp stick.
"Rakki found you then? He's a good kid." Daman said once the introductions had been made.
"Slight misunderstanding at first but we got there eventually. He's not the sort of chap I imagined in this Galactic Railroad of yours."
"Takes all sorts Commander, his sister was grabbed in Wongo, he joined up with us to get her out and stayed after that because he believes in what we're doing."
"You're a brave man meeting a complete stranger in a place like this."
"Not really," Daman replied with a smile. "I checked you out first, plus if any of you go for a gun you'll be dead before you draw so you might wanna keep your hands where they can be seen. Now, you told me you're looking for someone?"
"Yes, a young woman and her pilot. They were captured in April and fell into the hands of Black Omega, I'd like to check your records just in case you've got her."
"Records? Wouldn't that be a thing?" Daman snorted.
"You don't have records of who you've rescued?"
"Commander we're just a bunch of guys trying to do what's right, we do what we can once we've got them out but unless they have families or friends who can pay their fares home all we can do is feed them till we find pilots who'll take them home."
"The down and outs we saw?" Jellicoe asked.
"Yeah." Daman said. "I don't like it either and we're working on getting cash to help them but trust me, they're still better off here than being worked to death by Black Omega, not a single one ever wants to go back."
"I can help you with that." Kira said.
"Lady you have my full attention." Daman replied.
"I'm used to running a multi-stellar operation." Kira explained. "I can organise a reception centre to process, house and feed them and I have contacts across the bubble I can use to find them places to go where they can start a new life if they've no family to go back to."
"Lady that takes money and right now..." Daman answered uncertainly until Kira cut him off."
"Leave me to worry about that. Find me an office in the better part of the station with up to date coms and computer systems, I'll handle the bill."
"You're staying here?" Jellicoe asked surprised.
"If she's here we need to find her, I'm useless on the ship and I hate it. You do what you're good at, now I can do what I am."
"Sure you trust me?"
"Stannis I've always trusted you." She said with a small but genuine smile. "You just sometimes need a push in the right direction."
"Alright but I'm leaving Harry with you as a bodyguard."
"You could stay too Commander." Daman put in. "We could sure use a ship like yours."
"No." Jellicoe replied. "You're doing a good thing here, but I need to find this girl, and that road leads right into the belly of the beast."
OOC Many thanks to CMDR Daman for letting me use his character and organisation in this story