Personal Log 81: 30th November - 6th December
05 Oct 2016Jemine Caesar
30th November - 6th December, 3301 Two more delivery jobs took me to Luhman 16 and Ross 775, passing through Alpha Centauri and Sol on the way. Shortly after arriving in Ross 775 I was attacked by an Eagle flown by Competent-rated pilot Shaun Fulham. Fortunately for me, commander Fulham must have been having an off-day, as I beat him rather easily.
Another two jobs ferrying explosives and medical supplies (there's an irony in there somewhere) led me to V374 Pegasi and then to Hyroks.
Once docked at Watson Horizons I booked into a room and paid a quick visit to the outfitters. I was tempted by an A4 Power Plant, but the 1.6mCR price tag would eat a huge hole in my savings. I decided to sleep on it.
Next day, December 1st, I returned to the outfitters and bought not only the Power Plant but a new set of A3 Sensors. This reduced my credit balance to 1,778,682, and my ship's rebuy cost now stood at 157,899CR.
With Jenna's baby due to be born in two weeks time, I decided to move towards Beta Hydri. Babies are unpredictable little things, and if this one came early then I wanted to be there for Jenna. My course took me through Caucan, LP336-6, Vega, Jastreb CL-Y D145, LHS 450, Barnard's Star and...
*****
Sol.
As soon as I dropped out of witchspace I was interdicted and hailed by a system security patrol.
"Attention!" came a stern voice over my comms. "Commander Jemine Caesar, you are under arrest! I order you to power down your shields and weapons, and follow us."
Shaking with fear I obeyed the order and, a short time later, was sitting in a holding cell on Abraham Lincoln starport. From there I was shuttled to the New York Supreme Court for a preliminary hearing, where I was formally charged with the murder of John Graham.
I learned that his badly decomposed body had been discovered by a subaquatic engineering survey team off the coast of somewhere called Massachusetts. It didn't take long for forensics to identify him from DNA, and the subsequent police investigation led them to me. A witness said I was the last person to see him alive. The police wouldn't tell me the name of their witness, but I could only think of one person it could be; Aoife Hohnlein.
So now I was prisoner 671 202 282 015, incarcerated at New Albion Women's High Security Correctional Facility, New York. I had no ship, no money, no make-up and no clothes (except for an orange jumpsuit). I was given permission to send two k-cast recorded messages, so I sent one to Sam and another to Nathalie, telling them of my plight. And then I went to my cell and cried myself to sleep.
To make matters worse, December 6th was the first anniversary of my darling daughter Bekka's death. And I was spending it stuck in prison. I didn't know how long I was going to be there. Perhaps I would never get out.
I was so very, very frightened.