A Black Hole?
23 Jun 2021User319792
"Where'd you go, Cadence?"The man in the black suit looked relatively disinterested. The explorers stopping through Achenar mentioned some planetary collision in KOI 413, so I went to check it out. "I was following up on a lead."
He looked at me, squinted, then looked over at Coral. Coral looked over at me before lowering her eyes and coughing down a laugh. The man in the black suit looked back over to me. "You find anything out?"
"There isn't much to find out. They're not kidding around about this need-to-know thing, over here in Achenar. There's an unregistered comms beacon that Canonn lists as related to the crashed Thargoid ship; The Cartel of Alacagui is causing problems for the factions over here, across the board; and the United Condovichs Freedom Party is the sole hold-out in an otherwise Patronage-based system." The man in the black suit nodded. He and Cadence sent me a holofac request a few days ago and the discussion turned to me going over to Achenar to have me explore what may or may not be going on with what we'd been looking into. I think Coral might not have been clear on the whole ACT trajectory, but I've been wanting to do some load-out testing on Charon, so I said fine. I've been running assassination missions to take out the Cartel for the past few days before checking out the planetary collision. "I can keep looking into it if you'd like."
The man in the black suit continued to slowly nod his head in silence as he mused the information. "Anything about this news about the NMLA wanting to legitimate itself and how its being received?" I sat quietly for a while, scrunching my lips.
"Nothing on my end but the same smoke and mirrors I always get over here. Beyond the whole 'wheels within wheels' thing those Pratchett Gateway guys used to mumble about, its a lead-encased, watertight, container. A circularity-driven, perpetual-motion machine of the absence of information."
"A black hole?" I looked at Coral. We locked eyes in irritation. The man in the black suit turned his head and coughed down a laugh before looking down to the sound of some ruffling paper, then back at me
"You're not violating any of the terms, are you?"
"No, but I think that might be what the issue is." He looked at me, with his head turned slightly to the side. "Well, you said it yourself. This is the pumping, muscular heart of the Empire. If a ruling comes down from the Emperor, people here just abide. Its embedded in the entirety of their world-view and it dribbles out with every gesture and word. And no, Coral, a black hole captures and takes in everything through the sheer power of its gravity whereas this is just some iron-clad factory that takes things in and puts things out without anyone seeing inside."
"So a black hole?" I looked at her and squinted. For the girl from the science factory, I'd have expected a keener understanding of history.
"Coral, that's enough." The man in the black suit looked at Coral with a hint of irritation before coughing down another laugh.
"What's so funny?" Coral immediately looked away from the holo sensor and the man in the black suit coughed down another laugh.
"Its nothing, Cadence."
"No. What's so funny? Coral, you're the one coming up with these crazy conspiracy theories about President Hudson's surveillance and its connection to the League of Reparation. I should be laughing at you." Coral snorted a laugh before leaning out of the holo sensor's range and making that dumb sound she makes whenever she thinks something's funny. It beats that banshee shrieking whenever she wants something she's excited about.
"Yeah, laugh at me, Cadence. Tell me more about this alleged 'history' thing you're talking about." I raised one eyebrow as my lip curled and my eyes widened. I'd considered killing her over and over again during the course of our training together and this was yet another of those times. The man in the black suit waved his hands into the holo sensors.
"All right, girls, that's enough!" I backed away from the holo sensors at the volume and gruffness in his voice. I relaxed my widened eyes, but the sneer in my lips remained as my vision surrounded Coral like a flight suit, who continued laughing uncontrollably.
"Uh oh... the beauty queen's upset."
"Coral, shut it." The man in the black suit raised his hand toward Coral, pinching his fingers in her direction. What do you suggest, Cadence?"
"In terms of finding anything else out about what's going on with these connections?"
"Yes." With the din of Coral laughing, I sat quietly, thinking through a response.
"I could visit my dad over in Nanomam. Maybe there's some information there. I've been meaning to pick up a Core Dynamics Corvette for a while."
"Your Dad's in Sol, right now, Cadence," I turned my head to the side and scrunched my lips together. He'd been in Nanomam since the tail end of my rescue missions at Hahn Gateway. We'd exchanged brief glances and smiles during my promotion ceremony before I'd awoken the day afterward with him sitting in the cockpit of Ovid looking out into Gresley Dock sipping from a cup of coffee. "and you're not gonna get anything out of the people at Mars High, much less Olympus Village."
"What about Caspatsuria? It's basically an appendage inserting itself right into the chest of the Empire." Coral exploded with laughter. I looked at her, trying to figure out why that was funny, before slightly raising my voice. "And, with it being there, there's no way the Federation's agents aren't trying to suck all the information it can get out of the Empire." Coral dropped straight downward out of the view of the holo sensors, laughing harder.
"How does she always end up getting it the opposite way?" The man in the black suit coughed down a laugh before looking over at me, pursing his lips, before nodding his head.
"Coral, stop it. That might work, Cadence. Try to avoid any direct conflicts between Imperial and Federation factions and forces for the time being. If you happen to decide to make some money with any bounty-hunting or assassination missions, try to avoid any that will put you in the middle of the Empire or Federation. Otherwise, trade as you normally would."
"Can I undock my ships from Achenar?" The man in the black suit rolled his eyes and looked off screen, shaking his head.
"No. No you may not. You've been honored by the Empire, Cadence."