One thing about taking a pirate ship is that you’re sure to find lots of loot. The supply of several hundred Stepford Defiance slave collars that the pirates had for ‘pacifying’ their captured slaves was reduced somewhat by the survivors of the Savage Rose, who were none too happy about their new ‘accessories’, but did not have a choice in the matter. The fact that Captain Valkian had no choice but to happily give up the location of his base, all the while screaming inside, did cause me some measure of joy. Especially when I saw the two captives who had been held in his cabin.
They were a pair of knelfi women, clearly unrelated, but calling eachother ‘sister’ due to the perverted whims of their former master. Gritting my teeth, I fought the compulsion from my tattoo urging me to claim them as my own, and managed to release them. It was something I’d noticed over the last few weeks. The longer I had the tattoo, the more its influence affected me. It wasn’t an overwhelming compulsion like my mental powers or a Stepford collar, but a subtler one, like a voice always whispering in your ear about certain things, guiding you down one path over another. I could resist, if I wanted to, but it was not unlike a man at the bar turning down a drink when he’s had a couple already. It was so easy to just let it go, and enjoy where things took me.
When I released the two girls from their collars, they immediately went from an alluring ‘horny sisters’ act to flinching if I merely looked their way. Given what they had likely experienced at the captain’s hands, I found it hard to blame them. Still, I did my best to assure them that I was no pirate, and that once the prize crew was sorted, we would be underway, and taking them to Dimiya. The knowledge that I not only was releasing them from their collars, but also returning them to civilization, was too much for them, and they broke down crying.
I left them in the hands of Ms. Quest, the Valkyries’ medic, so she could see to their needs, and returned to the Raven. I had already spoken with the Valkyries’ leader about their performance, but I figured I might as well give everyone a bit of a commendation. The crew of the Shadowdancer was, it seemed, quite pleased to hear that when we reached port I would be sending aboard several cases of booze, and would pay for a few ladies of negotiable virtue to give the crew their rewards. They weren’t getting prize money directly, being slaves, but there were plenty of ways to keep spacers motivated.
With all that done, and the Savage Rose ready to depart under the command of her prize crew, we went back into hyperspace after disabling the buoys in this area of space. There wasn’t anything I could do for the rest of the ships that were out there, patrolling the tarpit trap, except to hope that they found Navy cutters before they found merchants. My crews were still too new to eachother for me to risk splitting them even further with a second prize ship, if we were so lucky. Trying for all four of the remaining ships would be far too much.
So we continued on, completing the trip to Dimiya only slightly behind schedule, but quite a bit richer for our troubles. I had no doubt that our passenger would have a song written and composed about it as soon as she got herself a new contract. Still, we all would be glad to get to a nice port of ill repute and sell off the Rose and the captured crews.
After talking it over with Nyna and Raven, we decided to enter the system at the ‘standard’ point for ships entering from Jagloth. While the Morrigan’s Blessing, as the transponders called her, could hide well enough, and the Shadowdancer (which was going by Destiny’s Call) could make like a hole in space if she wished, the Savage Rose was no stealth ship. If we were bringing in an obvious pirate ship as a prize, we might as well bring it in openly, instead of trying to be sneaky, and perhaps giving some overeager Navy type the idea that we were pirates ourselves.
It was little surprise, then, when a Navy cutter appeared alongside us as we entered course for Dimiya, otherwise known as the Knelfi homeworld and capitol of the Confederacy. As I said, we considered sneaking about in these parts with a known pirate ship to be a Bad Idea™. When the hail came for all three ships, I answered it from the Raven’s bridge. I was not surprised by what I heard.
“Unidentified vessels, state your identification, destination, and business. Respond or be taken into custody.”
“This is Captain Mollen of the free trader Morrigan’s Favor. I’m the owner of the Favor and the Mercenary Vessel Destiny’s Call, heading for Netherstorm Station out of Jagloth. We encountered pirates along the way from Jagloth, using a tarpit to trap those helping in the evacuation. Having captured the pirate vessel Savage Rose after being accosted, I am laying claim to the ship and her crew as prizes.”
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“Jagloth? That system is still under quarantine. You better have news, or I’ll be bringing all of you in for questioning.”
“The Legion overran the planet using missiles to deliver nanites. They took out the surface and most of the stations in the initial attack. One of the navy ships sacrificed itself to block the second wave of attacks and take out the launchers. As we left the system, the Navy was getting ready to organize a full evacuation of those who were left.”
“I’ll require your sensor logs for confirmation, and we will escort you to Netherstorm Station, where you and your cargo will be scanned before being allowed onto the station.”
I had Raven quickly edit the sensor logs of the missile launches so that they did not include my ignoring the evacuation order, and sent them along. Once receipt was confirmed, the warship escorted us into orbit, being quite careful to keep her guns focused on both the Raven and Shadowdancer. While the escort was annoying, I did note that it kept any other interested parties from coming too close, so it wasn’t all bad.
As we were docking with the station, Raven appeared next to me in her drone avatar. “Captain, I’m detecting a pair of destroyers heading out of the system on our entry track. I believe they’re going to go verify our story, and perhaps deal with the remaining pirates before more ships get caught in the trap.”
“Good, we simply didn’t have the crews to be taking multiple prizes with us at the moment, unless we decided to space the pirates instead of enslaving them and selling them. I’d rather avoid that kind of thing, if I can. Killing in battle is one thing, but throwing those who surrender out the airlock is quite another.”
I took a breath, and said, “Have you gotten in contact with Ravandwyr? I would like to deliver this information from Councilor Socrethar quickly, so we can get on to our other deliveries.”
Raven nodded. “Aye, Captain. He said he’ll have a representative waiting for us when we finish decontamination procedures.”
“Very well. Work with Nyna and that Blue guy I got to be her first officer, and work on selling the prize. Have the Valkyries escort the pirates off the Savage Rose and to the local slave market. Tell them that they are to get the best deal they can, but I see no reason for us to continue having that many hungry mouths to feed now that we are at Dimiya.”
Fortunately, everything checked out fairly quickly, so while Nyna and her people were working on selling the Savage Rose and the captured pirates, we on the Raven had already finished one of our jobs. Oh, and it turned out there was a bounty on the ‘Pirate Lord’ and his ship, so as the capturing vessel, Shadowdancer got a solid cut of the action. Having more money to spread around on supplies, whether ‘necessary’ or ‘recreational’ made everyone happier. As did me following through on my promise to provide booze and companionship for those who wished it.
In the meantime, the crew of the Raven loaded up into the assault shuttle, along with our passenger and the materiels we needed to deliver to the planet below. Because Alais had strongly hinted that her Uncle was both pretty rich and definitely important in the local underworld, we wore our best outfits that didn’t look like we got lost on the way to some high class ball, and were instead fairly successful at our own less than legal ventures. Sana coming with us really helped to sell that idea, oddly enough, due to the way she had been essentially broken down with the abuse we heaped on her.
Since we had a passenger to deal with, and potentially sensitive jobs to do after that, it only made sense to go and drop Alais off in Shvehona City, where her Uncle was going to meet us with the promised payment. Not that I didn’t trust underworld bosses, or anything, but dealing with major issues like that first seemed to be a good idea, since it reduced the chances anything would happen to the girl that we’d be blamed for. Plus, I had another reason to see this Uncle of hers.
Shvehona City was not the capitol of Dimiya, but it was one of the most important manufacturing centers on the northern continent. With the number of workers involved in keeping the factories running, it made sense for an underworld type to be based there, as there were many opportunities for profit there, and it might be easier to buy the law enforcement there than nearer to the seat of power.
We made planetfall shortly before noon, local time, and so we got a good view of the city as we came in. The south side of the city had some traditional knelfi architecture, full of graceful curves and spires. There was more than one building that I could almost swear was in fact a swan or some other creature, turned to stone.
As one approached the northern district, and the river that had, in the early industrial era, provided power for the factories, the designs became more and more utilitarian in nature, until there was nothing but the plain blocks of factories, warehouses, and buildings designed for efficiency and cheapness, rather than for quality and aesthetic appeal. It was so very… human.
We were directed to a landing pad in the northern part of the city, on the roof of a converted warehouse not far from several of the factories. I noticed that our comms were picking up advertisements for the casino that occupied the ground floor of the warehouse, as well as the brothel in the floors above, where I was assured that I could find anything my heart desired, and then some. This was clearly the place, then, as some things never changed, no matter how far one went.
I was piloting the shuttle myself, in part to increase my proficiency with the skill, and set down in the exact center of the landing pad. Looking to the external cameras, I was pleased to see a group of five knelfi already waiting for us, as we had transmitted our ETA ahead of time. Four were obviously security or bodyguards, and armed with pistols and a heavy blade. Two stayed flanking the rooftop access, while the rest of the group headed for our shuttle.
The shuttle’s ramp was barely down, and my feet not even touching the rooftop yet when Alais ran past me like a blur, throwing herself into the arms of the one man on the roof who didn’t look like he was a security professional.
“UNCLE!”
Elnaril Triswynn
Knelfi Male
Level 63
As I thought, we’d found not just the uncle Alais had been talking about, but also the local crime lord Don Veta had urged us to meet so long ago. Good thing I slipped that letter of introduction in my pocket before we left, the ship, then.