Incoming Press Report, Zero Light Years Away (Jahellios System Comm Network, FEG Controlled).

Renewed talks with the Union finally show progress. High-level talks between Union and FEG officials had been in progress in the wake of the Venkfurt Bombings, in yet another attempt to stabilize the abysmal trade relations between the two and “stabilize” economic turmoil in both FEG and Union worlds. A freezing of port restrictions “might be possible” soon, an FEG diplomat remarked.

- Orion Press

+++ Jonathan Jones +++

Jahellios System

New Krakow

Artowisz City

“It’s been five days already,” Harold sighed as he looked at the windows outside of the hotel we took for now. “Still no leads. This is turning out really badly for us. For all we know, the kid’s already—”

“Harold, I want you to hold off whatever thoughts you’re about to say right now,” I interrupted, looking at Louise’s distraught demeanor. She had buried her head in her hand ever since she sat on the sofa when we arrived just minutes ago. Our last expedition, as usual, lent no results.

Our search was still dry. We tried going through Districts Two and Five, scouring the establishments and landmarks for any sign of her brother, all while keeping an extremely low profile, but none of them lent any results. The ongoing socialist protests and riots however still kept the authorities stretched and on their toes, which was enough of a severe background noise to drown out our activities.

Still, I wouldn’t count on it. Time was limited, and so was whatever these protests and riots were. At some point, the Colonial Government would have enough and bring down the hammer on these people. I would prefer to be outside of Artowisz before that happened, as while I had no ties with the socialist movement around here (and I sure as hell had no ties with the DSA or any red-aligned movement), I still wouldn’t want to be caught in an unfortunate crossfire.

The only good news was that Harold joined us on the search, going down planetside after that night. He even bought twelve of his men, all of them already on the mission in separate search groups, scouring the city with us and sending us whatever scraps of intel they could find. But none of it was effective as only Louise truly knew who her brother was.

We’re grasping at straws at this point. But again, big money was involved here, and Ms. Kalista’s favor. I wouldn’t just give it up, I needed to recoup the money losses I took for getting the Jukebox’s new refits. Running out of SCs in the middle of a long-range expedition, whatever it would be, was not something I was interested in.

Not to mention, the leads for the answers about what exactly happened to my father. I still held that insignia that I had found in her estate, and each night I would look at it just to attempt to remember what it exactly was, and who would possibly bear it.

Plus, I pitied Louise. Perhaps genuinely this time. Sure, she was a snobby aristocrat, but a lone individual being cast off by this new society around her, all while her family was snuffed away…it almost reminded me of myself when I was a child.

“What’s the news from Ms. Kalista?” Juliett asked. “Surely, her agents would have come up with something by now?”

“No, her agents are still turning up empty,” I replied, looking down at the table. “She already increased our reward money to twenty-eight thousand SCs as well, after these complications.”

“She’s determined to get both Louise and her brother out of here,” Harold said. “I wonder why.”

“Ms. Kalista is my father’s close friend after the FEG retook control of New Krakow,” Louise said. “My father always told me that if something happened, she would be doing everything to help me out. I think he also already paid her sums of money to ensure my protection, especially after mother died two years ago.”

“Well, let’s hope whatever investment he made makes dividends then,” I said, leaning my back on the sofa. “While House Fleur is probably practically dead here in New Krakow, if we can get the both of you out of here, it’d be something at least.”

She looked down. “I just…until now, the police still refuse to listen to my reports. They haven’t sent a single unit to investigate what happened in our neighborhood. They just…it’s like they refuse to even look at what’s happening. Why? Why do they hate us this much?”

“Power struggles,” I said. “Hard to stomach, but I would bet good money, again, that the Colonial Governor is an accomplice to this, or, he knows what is happening, and he likes it.”

Juliett scoffed. “Disgusting. He just wants to get rid of a political rival, completely. If House Fleur is wiped out of New Krakow, there would be no one to oppose him.”

“Well, the New Krakow Socialist Party would,” I countered. “But, it’s a bit hard tackling an entire organization with a loose leadership. Targeting one family, however, is far easier. So I bet he’s just getting rid of his enemies one by one.”

“What about Ms. Kalista?” Harold asked. “She’s the New Krakow Station Administrator.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Well, if there’s anything I can say, she’s probably also in the power struggle,” I laughed. “If you think about it, if the Colonial Governor fails to wipe out House Fleur, she’d be weakening his reputation with this world’s elites, as most likely, they’re watching this clown car from the sidelines.”

“I just wonder how House Fleur lost completely,” Juliett said. “They’re a part of this world’s elites, right?”

All of us looked at Louise, who nodded. “Yes, we were. But throughout the years, every other nobles, politicians, and factions ganged up on us. First, they collapsed our connections with this world’s corporations. Then they targeted the Restoration Party, which was our political organization that once took at least forty percent of the vote here until it was banned for ‘seditious activities’. Then they targeted our businesses. Now, they struck us directly when everything was gone.”

“Well, if that isn’t the awful story,” I said. “I guess House Fleur just accrued a lot of local enemies. And the FEG’s ire to boot. Quite frankly, it’s a surprise your House survived for three decades in the first place.”

“Hmm, then why didn’t you all just move to another world?” Harold asked, and Louise shook her head.

“No, New Krakow is our home. I was born here. My father was born here. House Fleur ruled this place and fought for this place for centuries since the collapse. Abandoning it would be an insult to our dignity. And, it’s not like there are a lot of other planets as good as New Krakow.”

“Well, I mean, the rest of the Sector is a shithole in comparison to this…from what I can see, an ocean paradise, but I mean, Rubenfolt or Trianta isn’t that bad. I think you and your family just made that mistake out of blind pride.”

She frowned. “That may be so, but I don’t care. We made our stand here. We would never dishonor our ancestors.”

“And what happened? Your brother is missing. Your father’s dead. You were almost dead too when we met you.”

She turned even redder. “No, I was not. Those people didn’t even have a chance to chase me. I met the two of you safely. I had already been acting on my own and surviving on my own while finding my brother before all of you arrived. Quite frankly, you have all been detrimental to my goals.”

“Oi, young miss, watch your godd—”

I held Harold off. “Shut up, Harold. Louise, is that…really how you view the three of us?”

She fell silent, as she seemed to try to cool herself down. “I…I apologize. I just…look, can I please take this time off? I need some sleep.”

With that, she picked herself up and went straight to her own room. I sighed to myself, as Harold shook his head. “Look, the two of you, she’s just in a bad state right now. I think we can all understand that, right?”

“We have to knock her down a notch,” Harold said. “That arrogance is going to kill her. Eventually. No one likes to deal with a whiny brat.”

“You have a point, yes. But that’s not our position to dictate, especially since she’s just our temporary responsibility.”

Juliett crossed her arms. “I’m not of the same opinion, Jonathan. I’m taking her as my responsibility. I’m not just here for the money.”

“You can’t be possibly suggesting that we take her into our group,” I said, and Juliett frowned.

“I won’t drag her if she doesn’t want to, but with things the way they are, she has no future here, and what, do we just send her off to her own ship with her brother, get our money, and leave her to her fate?”

I sighed. “I suppose her financial power if she successfully liquidates her family’s assets and turns them into workable SCs would be great for us, but, still…”

“Jonathan, are you speaking as if you look at everything from a purely financial perspective?” She asked, and I didn’t really have an answer to that. Was I in denial then? No, I had always made a vow to myself that everything I would do would be for my continued survival. Yet, after what I did for Juliett, then Harold, and now Louise…

“That’s not you, Jonathan,” she added. “Truthfully, I think you’re in on this mission for reasons beyond Ms. Kalista’s rewards. So why do you have to oppose me in taking her in if we can? She could certainly use our help.”

“I’m only letting her in if she knocks her pride down a notch,” Harold said, as he walked away from the two of us. “I’m not endangering my crew by having an inexperienced spacer tag along with us.”

And with that, he too left. I sighed to myself. “Look, how about we problematize this scenario once we find her brother and rescue them both from this planet? We’ll just see how it would go.”

“I have no objections from that,” Juliett said, as she too sighed softly to herself. She took her cup of tea on the table and sipped it all in one go, before holding it and looking at the empty cup. “I just wanted to propose the idea after everything that happened.”

“I understand.”

She smiled, before standing up. “I…have a good evening, Jonathan.”

“...You too.”

She soon left me alone, all as I pondered with my thoughts alone. I took a deep breath, before taking out the insignia that I had been keeping in my wallet for a while already. I checked it for a while, thinking back about my father. This thing…only added to my set of problems.

Rescue Louise’s brother. Get Ms. Kalista’s favor. Help Louise. And…if I do this…find whoever killed my father.

Should I even really follow that trail? Would such a path realistically even bear fruit for me? For all my life, it was the only path I had known. Now, there were so many more things that mattered to me. Suddenly, ever since that fateful day when I traveled to Lubola and met her.

But that path…to search for my father’s murderers. The same path that I abandoned after the disaster in Loran, and the same reason why I was still without purpose in life…everything within me wanted to return to it.

Revenge…would it feel nice? Was there even anyone I could take revenge on? The mere fact that he had known the ‘Voidqueen’, which I was still assuming was Juliett, was already a clue to myself that perhaps, whatever happened to him would be bigger than what I was thinking.

But again…could I really just leave it alone? This loose end of my core being?

“Nothing would make sense to you.”

I frowned, remembering that man’s words, trying to hold the urge to crush the insignia that I held. I breathed out and placed it back in my wallet.

Someday, something would make sense. I hope.