Chapter four

           The large screen in the mess hall lit up then split into three equal parts to display three very different figures,

             On the right was a regal looking woman wearing an ancient Victorian style crimson dress that was the color of fresh blood with a large stiff white collar framing or more accurately displaying her bountiful chest. The way she was displaying her chest and the fact that she had clearly taken steps to make herself look as attractive as possible made it obvious to me that the duchess wanted something, she flirted with me only when a particularly big job came along. The duchess was a broker that acted as a middle man when one of the big powers wanted to hire some 'privateers' and was also the only beautiful woman that makes me feel more unhappy the more undressed she gets.

              On the left was a short blue creature about a meter tall with four wings and a small snout where his nose should be. He also had four small tusks sticking out from his mouth. Bozo was one of the Pakedrius , a peace loving race that was nearly wiped out when the federation got tired of their peaceful protests. Bozo unlike the rest of his race had a more Tandurian approach to life, by that I mean that he was a shameless cheat and a swindler. Unsurprisingly he was the head of the criminal element in Tortuga.

             Lastly there was the center partition which was left completely dark, Finkelstein didn't like to show his face but he was the undisputed ruler of Tortuga. A fly couldn't burp on Tortuga without him knowing it. People pay taxes to Finkelstein and he kept everything running smoothly, he settled disputes, he took care of port maintenance and repairs, he even instituted a welfare system for retired pirates. He was also one scary motherfucker, not only did he single handedly keep the federation, the corporation and other powers at bay but anybody who disobeys him disappears without a trace, nobody even knew how he does it. Despite all of his power he rarely speaks with people, the only time he ever makes contact was when something really big was happening.

            I put on my best fake smile and said,"Hello Duchess, you are looking particularly radiant today."

           The duchess replied with her best simpering hard-on inducing voice, "Charlie darling, don't be mad. I didn't know that the Tandurian thing was a setup, I swear."

             You could probably scrape the sarcasm off my voice with a spoon as I replied with a sardonic, "Sure you didn't."

              "You have to believe me Charlie, plus you didn't get caught so you aren't too cross with me are you?"

              Finkelstein's synthetic computer voice suddenly burst into creepy synthetic laughter before saying, "Oh he did more than escape duchess, he cleaned out the Tandurians."

              Bozo finally spoke in his nasal voice that sounded suspiciously like a pig's squeal, "That's my boy, only you can take the bait from right under the dick's noses. You remind me of myself in the good old days, brash and successful. You should come work with me, we can make serious money together, what do you say?"

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                The duchess  interrupted Bozo's sales pitch, "Oh cram it Bozo, you just want the reward for yourself. Well that is not going to happen you disgusting filthy parasite."

                 "Right, because you are not after the same thing you shameless whore? Why don't you just take out your breasts and get it over with, maybe offer him a blow job?"

                Well that was interesting, what was this reward they were talking about?

                Finkelstein's creepy synthetic voice spoke again, "If you two are done bickering like little children maybe you can actually ask Callaghan instead of swapping insults like four year olds?"

                 Now I was really curious, "Ask me what?"

                 Suddenly both the Duchess and Bozo fell silent. Finkelstein sighed and continued,"Fine, I'll tell him. As you probably know the new shipment of shards has arrived."

                 Shards were currency that most people in the universe use. It is a very strange crystalline structure that is almost entirely made out of energy. Shards are used in everything from the cold fusion reactors that power our ships to our personal communicators, a shard the size of my pinkie could power my communicator for a year. They were a clean efficient source of steady energy but there was one catch, only the compendium could produce it.

                The compendium was a group of A.I.s(artificial intelligences) that were created to answer the greatest questions in science, philosophy and religion. The structure to house it was so large that they needed an entire planet to build it. When they were finished the A.I.s tried to answer the questions but were unable to do so, so they started to upgrade and modify themselves to accomplish their task. In the end the compendium gained enough autonomy that it decided it didn't like people inside its systems so it kicked out all the people in it's system, then it decided that it didn't like people in it's solar system so it also kicked everyone out from its solar system. Now the only contact we have with the compendium is when they deliver the shards. Nobody knows why they even bothered to do this for us but any attempts to enter the compendium's solar system which was renamed the Enigma system was met with rapid and brutal retaliation.

              The A.I.s had developed technology so advanced that even the federation Armada was unable to penetrate their defenses, now everybody lived in fear wondering if this frightful power would ever be turned on us.

              I didn't know what the shard delivery had to do with me but I was starting to get nervous and just like I feared Finkelstein's answer nearly made me crap in my pants.

             "There was a message from the compendium, it is asking for you."