Aborovi Causeway 1: black market
21 May 2023Claude Lecardunoie
It's been about 40 minutes that we were riding on an old mining buggy. As the artificial gravity was getting lower along the way, I guessed that we were heading for the center of the asteroid. I was seating on one of the backseat, blindfolded, and with a gun pointed at me. Aside from the guy holding the gun and the other one driving, there was a third person, a woman. She was the one guiding the driver through the tunnels:- "Keep going, Lulu, all the way until the old fuel depot, then take the second gallery on the right", she said.
- "All right, Princess", said Lulu, the driver
- "You call me Princess again and I drop you in one of the sulfure chimney, ok? Astrid, my name's Astrid, allright?", she answered abruptly, putting an end to the conversation.
A turn on the right, another 10 minutes or so and the vehicle stopped.
- "Ok, terminus!", said the woman, "Everyone out. Lulu, bring the buggy back to the station garages, we'll tell you when to come back".
I heard the vehicle going away through one of the gallery and still felt the gun in my back when they unblinded me.
- "You two stay here", ordered Astrid, "Tianjin, you keep a close eye on our guest, if she moves, you shoot her in the knees. I'll be back in 10 minutes"
I was in an abandonned mining gallery of Elephant's Trunk Mine, the only station in GM Cephei, a mining and extraction installation, carved in an asteroid. After more than a month of exploration around Elephant's Trunk Nebula, I found this remote spatioport after checking the galaxy map looking for a spot for maintenance and supply for my ship and my SRV. You can't always use synthesis to repair and refuel: synthesis products are not refined enough and damage the main systems after a while.
But when approaching the station, following the standard procedure, my ship got scanned and it turned out that I was carrying prohibited freight: weapons and narcotics that I salvaged some weeks ago on a ship wreck. I thought I would be expelled from the system, but a few seconds later, to my surprise, I received a landing permission from the traffic control but with the instruction to remain on my ship.
After I docked, I opened the access ramp, expecting the local police, but instead I found myself facing a gun, hold by Tianjin with Lulu and Astrid behind him.
- "We don't have much time: Lulu, go to the cockpit and send the fake ship manifest to Traffic Control, Tianjin, you keep an eye on our smuggler here, and I go check the cargo", ordered Astrid.
- "Woo, what's going on here?", I asked.
- "Simple. We seize your freight. And then you take off and leave the system. With the fake manifest Lulu is sending, at the moment your ship doesn't exist and you never landed here. Or we call the authorities and not only will they take your freight but also your ship and they'll send you to detention: your call", she answered.
I didn't have much choice. So, I showed her the way to the cargo. She started scanning the containers and quickly found the illegal ones:
- "Lulu, get the buggy near the ship, Tianjin help him transfering the containers", said Astrid while starting scanning the escape pods I picked up near that same ship wreck.
She was on the second pod when she suddenly stopped to open her pocket terminal to text some message. Then she smiled:
- "You might be lucky here, Commander", she said, "We could have a better offer for you: you come with us and don't ask any question".
And here I was, in this damp and cold abandonned mine, waiting for...
- "Tianjin, right? What are we exactly waiting for?", I asked to my jailor.
- "Well, we are waiting for the boss", he said, "Don't worry too much: for some reason, he wants to cut you some deal".
- "Ok, then, why don't you lower your gun, I'll stay quiet and besides, how could I find my way out of these galleries?".
- "Yep, you're right, I guess", he said, putting the gun back in his holster, "This galleries network is quite a maze indeed. They were the first ones exploited, to build the actual spatioport first, and then for ore exports. But that was long ago and they've been decommissioned since. Now we use them as a hideout and storage for all kind of illegal freight and smuggled cargo".
- "I see, but who is we exactly?", I asked.
Tianjin didn't have the time to anwser as Astrid and another man were entering the gallery.
- "We is the organisation handling black market operations and supervising smuggling activities here in GM Cephei", answered the newcomer, "My name is Basileus Thornby, and I lead it, with Astrid. Therefore we don't really like any unexpected pilot with illegal freight such as yourself landing at our station, but this time I think we can help each other."
... To be continued in Aborovi Causeway 1: trading behind the curtain