Personal Log 90: 25th - 31st January, 3302 (Part One)
07 Oct 2016Jemine Caesar
25th - 31st January, 3302 (Part One) I made a nice profit on the sale of the farming equipment at Blackman Ring. Feeling quite pleased with myself, I booked a pamper session at 'Gorgeous Georgie's' beauty salon. After an invigorating hyper-g facial, I settled into a relaxing Dermasite cleanse bath. This involved soaking for two hours up to my neck in a tub of green gloop containing millions of microscopic parasites. These tiny organisms roam all over your body, devouring dirt and dead skin cells with great voracity, leaving you feeling fresh and implausibly clean. Credits well spent.
Whilst enjoying this remarkably sensuous yet strangely disturbing beauty treatment, I watched the newsfeed from Galnet, neverendingly played on a large wall screen. An item about bounty hunters in the Meliae system was eminently ignorable, until my attention was caught by the sound of the name 'Nagita'.
"Commander Nagita," enthused the newscaster, "has been congratulated by system authorities. Indeed, all by him or herself, he or she claimed around 12 million credits with a confirmed number of 105 pirate takedowns."
My good friend Nathalie Hudson was clearly doing very well in her preparations to hunt down scourge-of-the-galaxy Archon Delaine.
Then came an item about the funeral of Wy, a singer/songwriter from LHS 3356. Her image flashed onto the screen briefly; a winsomely pretty woman of about 30, with green eyes and carefully unkempt brown hair.
"The funeral barge departed Blackman Ring at 1300 today, accompanied by an escort of around 50 ships packed with fans paying their respects to the 'why me' singer." I'd never heard of her.
Sam, on the other hand, had. "The name rings something of a bell," he said over the comms link. "The music is an acquired taste but enjoyable nonetheless."
At that moment, Sam was bounty hunting around Wolf 751, having been removed from his diplomacy role in the Beta Hydri political mediation talks. Federal Intelligence had intercepted a small force intent on eliminating Sam from the talks.
"You remember Alec Russell?" said Sam. I certainly did. Russell was the ex-Navy officer who had gone after Sam once before.
"It turns out," Sam went on, "that Russell has gone black ops with various Empire factions. He's essentially trying to lead an insurrection against any Federal interests right at the core, but who he's working for is as yet unknown. My links with both the Federation and the Alliance seems to make me a prime target for elimination." Sam was trying to make light of his predicament, but I could hear the tension in his voice.
*****
The next day, January 26th, found Sam and I back together again at Galileo starport in the Sol system. My route there had been trouble-free, apart from one short battle with a Novice-rated pilot in an Imperial Courier. Sam, however, had travelled via Beta Hydri, pausing to investigate a call from a base on one of the system's airless worlds.
"It was a trap, Jem," Sam told me. We were standing in Galileo's arrivals lounge. Sam, visibly shaken, showed me a nasty bruise on his neck. "I was jumped by one of Russell's Black Widow Cartel cronies. I... was lucky to get away. It was almost..."
Sam reached out to take a bottle of whisky, then thought better of it. "No," he growled. "I'm not going down that route again!" And then he crumpled into my arms, sobbing. I seethed with a silent rage against the bastard who could do this to Sam. We lay on the bed together for a while. Once he had calmed down, Sam fell asleep.
An encrypted message from Nathalie arrived on my dataslate. She told me she was hunting Tatiana Vidrovka, head of the Meliae cartel.
"The most important thing to note," said Nathalie, " is that Archon Delaine is forcing her to work for him." Nathalie explained that she intended to somehow turn this Tatiana Vidrovka into an ally against Delaine. I hoped for Nath's sake that the woman was prepared to listen.
I was feeling very low, and needed something to take my mind off the troubles surrounding the two most important people in my life. I picked up my dataslate, and tapped in the address for a music download site. Minutes later I was listening to Wy's songs from her album, 'Wy mE?"
It turned out to be soil music, which I absolutely adore. Wy had the most amazing voice. Harsh and husky, but mellow and soulful at the same time. It brought tears to my eyes. Such a pity she died. A great loss.
*****
waSTEd beLIEf
(From the album 'Wy mE?', released 15 April 3301. Music and lyrics by Wy)
I was singin' for drinks in a two-credit bar,
When a sweet-talkin' bastard said he'd make me a star.
Gave me a kid, then left me high an' dry, yeh...
Couldn't even stick around to watch his own son die, wo oh oh...
(Instrumental)
wo oh oh... Why me? And why the fuck did I believe your lie?
So ya called me and ya gave me a shiny Sidewinder,
Said I had to go to Earth, that's where I would find'ya.
But ya took my future from me, and that cut me like a knife, yeh...
So I sold your fuckin' starship and got on with my life, wo oh oh...
(instrumental)
wo oh oh ... Why me? And why the fuck did I believe your lie?
I know what you did, I know what you do.
That thing in your head, should really get it seen to.
How many more poor girls did'ya you screw?
Cos this poor girl wishes she'd never seen you, wo oh oh...
(instrumental)
wo oh oh ... Why me?
wo oh oh ... Why me?
wo oh oh ... Why me?
And why did I believe your lie?
Why, oh why did I believe your lie?
(instrumental)
wo oh oh ... Why me? And why the fuck did I believe your lie?
(Reproduced courtesy of Nymand Songs)