Chapter five

      "It is asking for you." 

        Suddenly all of my crew were chocking on their food and spitting out their drinks in shock. I myself neatly inhaled the whisky I had brought to my mouth to take a sip. I used a napkin to wipe my face and looked towards the screen and calmly said,

      "Excuse me, I'm sorry for that but for a second I thought that you said that the compendium wanted me."

        The synthesized voice continued on , unbothered by our little display, "That is what I said Callaghan, the compendium is asking for you."

        "Is this your idea of a joke?"

        "I never joke Mr Callaghan. The compendium requested that you and your crew make your way to the enigma system to these coordinates."

         I studied the coordinates and nearly fainted, "So you are telling me that the compendium is not only asking for me but it actually wants me at its home? You are telling me that the compendium just invited me over for tea? Are you all crazy ? What makes you think I would ever do something so nuts? Granted I have been known to take a little risk now and then but I am not completely insane."

         "The compendium has given its word that you shall have safe passage."

         "Do you really think that I would risk my crew's and my own life on the word of a giant machine? I'm sorry Finkelstein but you are wasting your time, I am not doing this."

         "But you haven't even heard the reward."

         "I don't give a damn about the reward."

         "It is an unlimited supply of shards for you. A literally inexhaustible supply of money, tell me that that doesn't interest you."

         "It doesn't interest me. This is in the category of things that are too good to be true and I haven't survived this long by throwing myself at everything that looked shiny and alluring."

         "The compendium has also promised to tell you who you are if you follow its instructions."

          From all of the things that he could have said this might have been the only thing that could have changed my mind. One of the biggest questions in my life involved my identity. Ten years ago I had woken up in a seedy inn in Tortuga, completely naked and unable to remember anything except basic knowledge and common sense. Ten years later I still am not sure where I came from and it is a question that haunts me to this day.

          I turned to my crew and they were all looking at me with sympathetic expressions. They all knew of my amnesia and how much this would mean to me and I could see it in their eyes that they would come with me on this insane trip if I asked them to. But could I ask them to do something so dangerous for something so selfish?

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              Sandy seemed to read my mind and smiled, "Captain , we can't let an opportunity like this pass us by. Unlimited number of shards? I don't know about you but having a private planet and an Armada of ships sounds good to me."

              The professor got up and started to gesticulate wildly while saying, "The learning opportunities are going to be massive! No human has been in that area for a long time and if I can get my hands on some of their technology I could reverse engineer some of their secrets from it. We have to go!"

               Tank's deep booming voice talked next, "I have been getting rusty without proper opponents, a round or two with those droids is just what the doctor ordered. I say we go captain."

               Twitch slammed his glass on the table and said, "I heard that the compendium ships are the best shooters in the universe , we should go just to teach them a thing or two about what real shooting is."

                Blade just stuck his knife into the table then nodded. Blade had been with us for over a year but had never said a single word. He was a very rare weapons expert, he joined us in Tortuga after he demonstrated his skills on a group of ruffians who were trying to capture us for the bounty on our heads. The short man who was completely covered up in layers of black clothing had suddenly appeared and used a small dagger to completely annihilate a group of fifteen cyborgs who were following us, he has been with us ever since. He is an expert in every gun I have ever put in his hand but he preferred close up work and he was damn good with that blade of his. I was very surprised that he agreed to come along because he never seemed to be part of our group and had always been careful to keep a certain distance between us. I guess he was more attached to us than I thought.

               I felt tears well up in my eyes as each of my crew members voted to go. I knew for a fact that besides maybe the professor nobody really wanted to go on this crazy mission but they were willing to put their fears aside to help me find something very important to me, my identity.

                I had always felt close to my crew but now I knew that they were no longer my crew, they were my family.