After my mining trip, I was back in Lorville. Already in the hangar I had the feeling that the atmosphere was tense. The guards were not standing around loosely, they were extremely attentive and examined my ship critically. On the way to customs, I noticed that there were significantly more guards than usual. Every few meters there was a heavily armed soldier. What was going on here? Had something happened? I had not noticed anything.

I got through customs without any problems. But shortly after customs, a guard stopped me.
“What is the reason for your arrival in Lorville? Where are you going”, she asked me in a harsh tone.
I guess I hadn’t reacted quickly enough or looked at the soldier the wrong way. Suddenly I was standing with my face against the wall, my legs spread, both hands on the wall. One soldier pressed his gun into my neck, the other searched me. I felt the cold metal of the rifle on the back of my neck. Goose bumps covered my whole body. My goodness, what was that all about? All I wanted to do was sell the Quantanium and minerals. After the soldiers found nothing suspicious on me, they let me go on. 

My mood was depressed. I didn’t need this moment of shock. After all, I was able to sell all my Quantanium and minerals for a good price. That was a reason to celebrate. Besides, I needed a drink after the shock moment at customs. I was just coming out of the Admin Office and heading to the M&V Bar when I was blinded. Glaring light surrounded me. Startled, I stopped. I could not see anything. On my left side, I heard the heavy footsteps of a soldier. My heart was beating up to my throat. I expected a kick or a blow with a rifle butt. All my muscles were tensed to the breaking point. Then the light was gone. It took a short moment before I could see properly again. I looked to my left. A soldier was walking in the direction of the Metro Station. The light cone of a searchlight accompanied him. Like the eyes of an eagle, the light scanned the area. Something was going on in Lorville. I took a deep breath, shook myself, and went on.

Finally in the bar, I ordered a beer. I took the first sip, the cool spicy drink caressed my throat. Suddenly, someone grabbed my shoulder from behind.
“Hey you’re Zero Sense.”
I choked and turned around coughing. This couldn’t be happening. How many more scare moments was I going to have today.
“It’s all right, it’s just Piccard, Vasco Piccard. I’m with the Yellowhands.”
I guess I couldn’t place him fast enough, after all, these guys all look alike in their uniforms, because he spoke right on,
“I saw you on Port Olisar. After that crazy Enos story with the kidnapping of Xedan and the skirmish between the Yellowhands and the Helldivers on Security Post Kareah. If you like, just call me Knecht. I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of that name anyway.”
Knecht told me about the events on Kareah. That the Yellowhands had been hired by one Erin. Erin had promised each Yellowhand a payment of millions. But then Citko, the head of the Yellowhands, was put in jail. On Erin’s orders, just to demonstrate his power. The Yellowhands freed Citko and were now on the lookout for Erin.
I told Knecht that Xedan had been kidnapped and interrogated by Erin. And that TYR had freed Xedan and brought him to safety. 

Knecht and I decided to stay in contact. Who knows, maybe knowing a private security company in Lorville could be an advantage at some point. Right now, though, I wanted to get out of this dirty town as quickly as possible. Strangers recognized me in the bar and the atmosphere was tense. I was not comfortable with that. After my Star Runner was unloaded, I took off and flew into the orbit of the planet. I still had some work to do. 

When I arrived at the Comm Array, in orbit of Hurston, I went into the scanner room. I had a big download coming up. My listening device at the Comm Array had recorded lots of messages. One message of urgency included.
“Attention all security personnel. Message of highest alert. Unknown hacker attack. All security barriers have been breached. Reinforce control of all incoming and outgoing ships. Hacker attack took place from unknown source. Massive data stream detected…….control visitors and employees on Huston as much as possible….“
That explained why the Lorville guards were so tense. But who was the hacker, it wasn’t me. Maybe the activists? 

But there was one more message that caught my attention. It had been encrypted and sent to Hurston Dynamics headquarters. The sender was unknown, the encryption sophisticated. I had to make a few changes to the Star Runner computers to break the encryption. It was a tough nut to crack. The computers would be busy for a while to decode the message.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)