All clear. No trackers or Bretonian Intelligence vessels.
Took me a few days to get my ship cleared. Freeport Six wasn’t too pleased about the possibility of a tracker, but what can you do when you meet someone whose clearly interested in whats going on around you? At least theres nothing following me. Though… that strange musics disturbing. Where is it coming from? Its been in the back of my mind since I left Coronado, unwavering in intensity. Not so much that I can’t drown it out… but enough to distract in times of meditation.
I received an echo protocol ping from mine and Crowleys private line. Encoded, as expected. No words, just a location. It lines up pretty close to where we met, not far from Honshu. Now i know where he wants to meet, I’ll head over there. If memory serves, theres an abandoned base that sounds like an ideal location to lay low. Worst case scenario i get a break from all the commotion this side of Sirius.
No Crowley, though theres a whole new mystery to unravel…
Waited several weeks, nothing so far on the Bretonian intel guy or anyone else. Crowley seems to have gone dark, our private link is as quiet as both Cat and Daros.
Took awhile to decide what to do, but I set out to the coordinates Crowley sent in the last message. Before long, anomalous energy signals, gravitational fluctuations, and a feminine voice. Of course someone would be here, especially considering I left it a good while before coming out this far. And why would it not be anything less than the generic “I’m asking the questions.”?
Several moments of conversation passed with her hidden, likely a cloaking device much like one I have mounted on the Eternal Journey. Every truth that hides the bigger picture is always the best option. After learning I wasn’t the echo sender, she revealed her Gunboat-class vessel. Yeah, some doctor. With a highly armed vessel. At least she wasn’t blasting, the weapons arrays weren’t giving any power signatures. Rose Emery. One thing I will say about her, she doesn’t linger too long, just straight to business. Some guy names Sailas Montgomery. Also a doctor. No, Ms. Rose, the only doctors I know are the ones that patched me up.
She mentioned a “Consortium”. The Starlight Research Consortium. One for the notebook. Explorer slash science guys who push the boundaries. Located in Tau 23. Her father was the director of it, who is missing. Something about in hiding. Sounds like he don’t wanna be found huh? Well maybe I keep an eye out. Sailas. Yeah, I am looking for people too. She changed the subject. Asking about how I heard of this anomaly and “From where?” The Freeport, Rose. Where else would someone get information? Gas miners wont share their last food ration if you were dying of starvation. Of course, she don’t know that ain’t true but. Well, it wont make a difference.
“Grandpa Crowley”. Okay well this is interesting. And Alberta? Weren’t that connection de-stabilised? “Oh, it is. Not for malfunctioning hyperdrives apparently.” I’m sorry, what? Theres a variation of Jump Gate tech compacted enough to fit on ships, and generate an anomaly at any time? Prototypes or not, thats quite an immense invention. Bet its something Kishiro have managed to pull off. Theres been rumours here ‘n’ there about them developing something monumental for the Kusari people. How did Zoners get their hands on some? For science, I suppose? Of course, for science.
Another name, Brad, and a little more sharing on Cat and Daros’ strange disappearance, last seen at Freeport Eleven in Delta. And well. She cursed. Quite unladylike if you ask me but who am I to judge? Not like I maintain a clean vocabulary all the time. “Always, its in the centre of this kind of shit.” She said that too. Lotta fire in that one. But no, maybe it depends more on if he is the kinda person to go out there and expand the knowledge of that sector. Well, until she described him. Yeah, definitely would be likely to go out there. More names, Liam, Crowley, Dante. Yeah… I do know a Crowley, but you don’t need to know that. He probably knows you’re onto him, girl. O’sullivan. No. But you know theres something up. I’ve gotta tread carefully. These are dangerous times.
She advised words of caution about the anomaly. Not exactly my first time being around one actually. She told me it links through to near Liberty. So its an alternate path between Rheinland or Kusari to Liberty. Could come in useful, once the hazards are bypassed. We parted ways shortly after, but not before I gave her the names of my friends. Seems two pairs of eyes on two lots of missing people would be better for us both, peace of mind. A memory clawed its way back into my mind, something Cat used to say.. Stars keep you. I mumbled it as the Infinitum departed.
I asked myself why I didn’t tell her I knew a Crowley. The answer is simple. If he wants to be found, he will be found. Not exactly the first time he went to ground with little answer. In any case, the anomaly wont explore itself. Jumped through and headed towards what seemed to be a reading between two planets. Reached the edge of the nebula and my sensors just lit up with dangers and radiation hazards. Yeah, probably not a great idea to cook yourself, Jack. Get some sleep first. Freeport has room still. There I can see what dots of these names she gave me connect to who, or where, or what in this growing spiderweb of missing people…
Something at last from Crowley, though he himself likely doesn't realise I haven't received it till now.
I took several trips into the Copernicus system, seeing as there was little information anywhere about the contents. So far mostly what I’ve found is wrecks, deadly gas pockets and ultra high radiation. On my last foray, within one of the nebulae, there was a beacon. The signal was faint and the radiation was pretty harsh on the ships systems, but she pulled through well enough at first. A location, almost. Two Co-ordinates. Looked to be quite a ways off the normal travel for vessels. "Engine 1, Malfunction. Maintenance Required." Great. Navigation controls were still functioning, but they were barely hanging on. One of my two engines were fried and thrusters kept cutting out. I needed repairs, and there's no way I was gonna push my luck. Back to Sigma 13, to the Freeport.
I anticipated the repairs to take awhile, but what I didn't expect was for it to take three months. Three bloody months of being station-bound and unable to leave. There might have even been one engineer who even knew what they were doing, too! Woulda done it myself had I got the know-how to rebuild the entire ship from scratch, y'know? Its been quite some time since I've brushed up on the kinda heavy duty ship maintenance that was needed. No matter, what's done is done. Not like re-learnin' now is gonna get back that time I spent waiting for these guys to do it.
Another Echo relay logged along our private line. More coordinates, this time in Omega 5. And a message with the ending "...hic sunt dracones." First opportunity I get to go out there, I'm taking it. There ain't no way I'm waiting on this hunk of metal any longer. You just can't solve anything where everyone is about as braindead as the nebula that houses it! Breathe, don't let it get to you. It's almost time to get back to the stars. Just some more medical checks, a few flight tests and then that's as little a green light as they'll give for me to go my own way. Shouldn't take more than a week or so to do so. Well, that depends on these "Highly Competent" engineers, don't it? I have about as much confidence that a pirate I meet won't cut my throat if he could make an extra credit as I have in these guys to do a job that wont need fixing in two weeks time.....
Omega Five. Hasn't changed in all the years I've flown through here.
The good news. Ship remained stable after them workers finished on it. How, I have no idea. Spose it took 'em all long enough that they might have actually done enough. Lesson learned in future, chance the trip to somewhere timely and reliable. Took them ten extra days for the final touches. Ten days! Eh, I should stop complaining about it and move on. She flies. That’s all I need.
Now the not-so-good news. The private line echo that bounced its way over from Crowley: Two months ago. By now he probably would be long gone and gave up on me arriving. Though I s’pose he did turn up on barrier gate after a month or so…
The flight over was quite uneventful. Nothing more than the occasional passing freighter hauling some needed resource to a remote hole. No authorities, no pirates, just the odd civilian. Gotta admit, there’s nothing more relieving than cruising without distractions. Even got to find out my coffee machine still works! At least they didn’t need to fix that.
The co-ordinates are oddly specific, I’ll have a poke around tomorrow around them, now that I’m here. See if I can’t figure out what these pebbles are. And if Crowley will even be there when I decode his little riddle..
