(Holding Cells, BSN Shinokage, Tietera System)
I watched as Captain Aeson ‘Quickblade’ Shaxidor began waking up, clearly having the mother of all headaches. It was a common side effect of the knockout poison on the darts we used. Works like a charm on most species, and twice as fast on Knelfi, but it leaves them with an absolute bitch of a headache when it wears off. Since we didn’t usually sleepy-time anyone we actually cared about, that wasn’t a priority of ours.
The Captain was currently sitting in a chair we’d designed to be uncomfortable, especially since he was tied to it with his hands behind his back, and dressed only in his underwear. The bright white spotlight above his head made it difficult for him to see anyone or anything in the darkened room outside his little circle of light, adding to the psychological pressure of the whole ordeal. Normally, we wouldn’t have stripped the man, but we’d found enough hidden weapons, escape kits, and other nasty surprises that we just stripped him of everything. As a precaution, the doctor scanned him, and found a false tooth filled with poison, an effective suicide pill if he got captured. We also dug out the emergency beacon in his wrist, so that he wouldn’t be able to call for help.
Shaxidor groaned, and finally opened his eyes, blinking and squinting in the bright light. “What the? Where am I? You got no right to be doing this to me!” Ah, it seemed he was lucid enough to complain, which meant that he was lucid enough for us to begin the questioning.
“Aeson Shaxidor. Pirate. Smuggler. Slaver. Thief. Murderer. Oh, dear, you even are involved in dealing addictive pharmaceuticals. You really are a renaissance criminal, it seems. Let’s see, Captain of the Death’s Shadow. Now isn’t that ironic?”
All the while I was speaking, I walked softly outside the circle of light, so my voice was constantly changing position, causing Shaxidor to turn his head to try and track my movements in an attempt to see who he was dealing with. I kept my voice calm, conversational, like I was simply reading something off the pages of a dossier. It was a psychological game, of course. The unknown figure who knows so much already, what else is in their file on him? That was a powerful lever I could use to break Shaxidor.
“What do ya mean, ironic? And who in the hell are you? I got rights, damnit! You can’t be doing this to me! I’m a free trader—”
“Oh, please, Aeson. Can I call you Aeson? Anyways, do give us some credit for our intelligence department’s ability to get to the truth behind the lies. You are no ‘free trader’. You are a pirate, and have been working this area of space for twenty years, now, always knowing the right officials to bribe so that the Navy never troubled you, so long as you kept your activities within an acceptable level.”
“Then why are we having this ‘conversation’? You know that I’m protected, so there’s no point keeping me here. When the people in the Governor’s office hear I’ve been taken…”
“Oh my. You are behind the times. Here, let me play you a little something. I think it will do wonders to show you exactly what your position is.”
A screen popped on in front of Shaxidor, showing the local Tietera News. There was an attractive female reporter standing in front of the Seven Star Lounge.
“Still no word from officials in the Tietera Health Services on the identities of the two men who were taken from the locally famous Seven Star Lounge here on Zanchul Station by emergency medical transport earlier this evening. However, we have received unconfirmed reports that this may have been a case of Morbilor Astsimus poisoning, a condition that is known to be caused by consuming the flesh from infected Vermaw. Sources in the Seven Star Lounge confirm that the two men were eating vermaw steaks sourced from the Sagthad region of Ziphad. We here at Tietera News will work to find out whether this was an isolated incident, or whether our food supplies are at risk of contamination.”
The anchor cut in here, and said, “Taenya, is there any news on when we may learn more about the identity of the two men who were evacuated?”
“Unfortunately, sources in the Medical Service have said that an official announcement will not be made until the families of the victims are notified, if possible. However, we have obtained this footage of the medical teams evacuating the two men from a nearby store’s security cameras. We’re going to show you an enhancement on one of the victims now. Facial recognition gives a 67% match to Aiwan Gilwarin, a local financier and number 454 on the Orbesf 500 list for the Tietera System’s most affluent people.”
I cut the screen off, and said, “So, unfortunately for you, you haven’t been arrested, and no government contacts will be calling demanding you be released. Of course, even if they demanded it, that wouldn’t mean anything. After all, no one on this ship is a government official.”
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“What? If you aren’t government, then who the fuck are you? Some spy agency? I got nothing for you backstabbing spooks. Saw how you just like using us and then tossing us aside when it is politically inconvenient.”
“Ah, no. You see, I told you that the name of your ship was rather ironic, didn’t I? Death’s Shadow has such a nice, grim ring to it. The irony, of course, is that the name of the ship you’re currently on translates to ‘Shadow of Death’. But you would probably recognize it better as Shinokage.”
Ah, there it was. Even if I wasn’t in his head, reading his surface thoughts, it would be easy enough to see the fear that just went through him, as the Captain stiffened in response to my declaration. “No way, we haven’t done anything to your group!”
“Oh yes, that is why you are still alive and uncollared. Whether either of those things remain true is something I have not yet decided. Some of it will depend on your attitude, of course. I have this thing about people insulting me or mine. It makes me want to smack them around a little bit until they’ve learned their lesson. Sometimes, though, it involves someone taking a walk outside without a suit.”
Captain Shaxidor grit his teeth, not trusting himself to say anything that wouldn’t get him into more trouble, though he did have some interesting thoughts about what he wanted to do. I continued my little trick of moving around the room, and said, “Don’t bother trying to use the implant to signal your crew. We made sure to remove it after our operative brought you in for questioning.”
“Operative? You mean that blonde bint? She was working for you guys?”
“Oh yes, it was quite easy getting her a job as a server at the lounge. Your friend Mister Gilwarin is, unfortunately for you, a rather bad judge of character. But don’t worry about him. He’s currently being interviewed in another cell. Though I’ve been informed he’s currently working very hard to make a deal for himself that will allow him to go free after all of this is done.”
“What? That rat! What is he telling you?”
“Oh, nothing much. Just all the accounts that he has used to launder money for you pirates over the years, and details on the loans and other financing he’s done as well. I do believe he’s been keeping careful records of all of his dealings since the beginning, just in case a day like this ever came up.”
I paused, and then said, “Now, as you can see, this leaves you in a somewhat worse condition. The more information he gives us, the less valuable any contributions you have may be. Right now, your best-case scenario is… well, I won’t say, but at least you’d be alive. That’s something, right? But right now, you’re looking at death. Maybe slow and painful, as an example to other pirates. Maybe something quicker and more dignified, an easy end, if you keep your attitude in check. But you’re going to have to do a lot of work if you want to keep breathing.”
Shaxidor’s eyes widened, his nostrils flared, as a surge of anger flared through him, but he stomped down on it swiftly, keeping it in check. Promising himself that he’d get revenge in time. Just had to keep it together, give me what I wanted, and then get out of there. Get his crews, and taking them out of the sector until we had finished killing the new pirates, and then returning to pick up the pieces at a more established rate, until they could find a chance to fight back. Too bad it would never work, but whatever little lies he told himself to keep his ego in check were fine with me.
“What do you want?”
“It is simple, really. We had a great deal of success last time we went up against pirates by attacking their bases. We have received confirmation of the location of the main pirate haven in this sector. But your people aren’t as foolish as the so-called Pirate Queen from the Badlands. The reports we’ve gotten talk about all kinds of defenses.”
Shaxidor glared at the empty space where I formerly was. “You’re going after Madrigal Base? That’s madness! Even the Navy isn’t stupid enough to go trying and taking that base! We’ve been building it up for almost a hundred years. The damn thing is as good a fortress as you’ve ever seen!”
“Ah, yes. That was what we have heard. However, you forget who you’re talking to. Black Star has launched successful attacks on some of the most heavily fortified positions in the galaxy, slipping through Defense networks that make yours look cute and antiquated by comparison. If we set ourselves to wiping out Madrigal Base, it will be wiped out. The only question is what will it cost us, and what will it cost the pirates.”
“Then what in the abyss do you want with me? If you’re so certain you can break the Maddy, then why all of this?”
“Simple enough, Aeson. Destroying Madrigal Base and everyone on it would be child’s play, when you have precision mass drivers, and other, even more destructive weaponry. No, we could easily destroy Madrigal Base. But taking it? Capturing the base, complete with all its supplies and personnel intact? That takes more than simply going in and blasting away. And so we come to why you are here. You are one of the senior captains in this sector. Twenty ships answer to you, mostly little corvettes and frigates, of course, with some converted freighters. You’re the third most powerful pirate captain in the sector, which means you would have quite the inside knowledge of Madrigal’s defenses.”
Shaxidor blinked. He didn’t like that I knew about the number and type of ships that answered to him. Worse, I knew things that I wasn’t supposed to know. Someone had leaked the existence of Madrigal Base, and told me enough about the defenses that I decided to get an ‘inside man’. But he knew he was trapped. If I didn’t get cooperation from him, he’d die, or worse, and I’d find some other patsy. There were plenty of pirates out there that would throw the rest of them under the cargo transport to save their own skins. Maybe he could feed enough false information to—
“Oh, I wouldn’t recommend doing that, Aeson.”
“W-what? What are you talking about?”
“You were just thinking about how you were going to try and deceive me, getting me to take out most of your enemies while getting me killed, no? Unfortunately, that plan simply isn’t going to work. No, that plan won’t work either. And really, trying to sell your sister to get me off your case? Tsk, tsk. Very disappointing, Aeson. And here I thought we were going to be able to work together, instead of you just being a corpse.”
Shaxidor’s mouth went dry at the sudden realization that I was in his head, and had been this entire time, even before I started talking. Everything he thought was an open book to me! Gritting his teeth again, he tried to think of horrible things to get me out of his head. Too bad for him, I was able to retaliate with images of my own. A montage of all the pain I’d felt since coming to Dreams Amongst the Stars. Shaxidor screamed, his head already hurting from the drug, and now wracked by even more pain. It only took a moment for him to stop trying to keep me out.
“Now, Captain, we will discuss the defenses of your hidden pirate base.”