SPECTRES. ACT 2. The Purge
08 Jun 2020Maggie Oz
Be sure to read Act 1 Things had fallen back into a vaguely normal routine.
All of the planets of the Marque were economically booming so I was finding plenty to do shuffling all manner of things back and forth.
It was crazy competitive and I was making some good profits. Cr19million for 1500 units of Consumer Tech for the shops of Aztlan !
I did wonder what sort of mark up the shops must be putting on that to be making a profit. I had spare cargo space on my final run so I took a full load anyway and gave the leftovers to the Nexus7 St Vincent d' Paul for distribution to underprivileged families.
I was managing to keep a fairly low profile, the whole "Maggie for the Senate" thing was still going strong, I wasn't the slightest bit interested.
Roy wasn't helping with all his spin doctor crap, I think he was playing the other professional pollies off against each other, using my support as a bargaining chip to sway them. I did get the feeling though he was trying to urge some of the other Senators to look at revising the CG laws to let me take office.
The comm chirped, I saw it was Jamie, odd he would ring from work.
"Maggie's Pizza and Pasta, can I start with your commID?" I answered
"Maggie where are you right now?" James said with urgency and fear, quashing the joke
"I'm at Babcock Hub in Baal, running some riot control gear up to Stromgren, why"
"We don't have all the details as yet but we've had about a dozen ships, owned by Imperial Citizens, destroyed and their occupants murdered in the last hour. All of them in or on the border of Federation Space."
"That's terrible Jamie, but I'm a long way from Federation Space,"
"That's good to know babe but .... it looks like all of them were GC's and possibly specifically 3 Gens"
"Oh. Oh, that's not good at all. You think this is specifically targetted at us?"
"It's starting to look that way. Go home love and stay there."
"Yes OK, I'm nearly done here anyway. I'll head home and see you there later on. Don't worry though, with the drives and shields I have on Always Forever, I can get out of any interdiction"
"OK but be extra careful, love you, got to go."
I offloaded the final shipment at Stromgren, the ground crew were gossiping about rumours of ambushes on Empire piloted ships. News travels fast.
The flip back to Aztlan went without a hitch, but I did fly a wide arc out in Deep Space on the transit from the drop in to Tannhauser.
Pris was waiting at home when I got there.
"Oh Maggie I was sick with worry, thank God your OK" she said, hugging me tight.
"I'm sorry Pris, I should have called to let you know. I was just focussed on getting home"
"That's alright, so long as you are safe."
I held her hands.
"Umm ... Pris?"
"Yes?"
"I've ... a .... I've made arrangements, for you and Mon..... if anything should happen to me ... I did it a little while ago when I got to thinking one day."
"Nothing's going to happen to you Maggie"
"Yes, but on the off chance ..... I've .... I've paid out your bond. I didn't want to say anything but I thought I should let you know, now."
"Thank you, Maggie, I'd like to stay on and finish my work though. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't."
"Yes, of course, I've arranged a credit account for your wages, I've put in the funds for what you've done to date. I'll send you the authorisation.
I've also excised your quarters from the Palace grounds, they are private land now, owned by you, as an inclusion in your contracted engagement as the Tannhauser Horticulturalist. Its a Totius Uitae Contract, so you can stay as long as you wish.
If anything does happen, you and Mon will have somewhere to live and a job. "
Pris didn't' speak, but her tears and hugs said it all.
I didn't watch the news feeds. All their hype and misinformation, they didn't report news, they just produced a real time, real people soap opera, with a lot of things made up to pad it out.
I started pinging the 3Gens in my contacts list but after the first few I realised it was fruitless as I was either pinging dead people or they were out or they were hiding.
I spent the remainder of the day fretting. In the early evening, much later than usual Jamie came home.
"Big day hey?" I said over our reheated dinner
"And then some. I've never seen anything like it. The Admiralty has put me in charge of a Task Group to handle the response."
"Are there any more details? Do you know any names yet?"
"We have everyone's name now," said Jamie, sending a list to my databand
I studied it.
"Oh this is terrible, I know everyone on here a ..... oh no, Amy. Not Amy, why would anyone kill her?" I said mournfully.
"Maggie," James said, heavily. I saw the look on his face
"What? " I asked hesitantly
"We haven't found any EBU's. Not one. Some of the bodies were decapitated. Some were .... I don't know who would do the sort of wicked things we are seeing. It's inhuman. This isn't just an attack. It's an .... extermination"
Tough times for Maggie. Act 3