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Brubacker seemed to be quite upset. To get back on track, we sat down at a table in the food court with a can of coffee. There was a tree and some greenery in the middle of the table. It was a welcome change in the metallic atmosphere of the space stations. Friedrich sat opposite me with a smoothie. I was just about to start talking about the information I’d gotten from the Dusters in Dunboro when Brubacker took my coffee and took a big sip.

“Bru, yo, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“What do you mean? Oh, I’ll get you another one.”

When Brubacker was back with a new coffee, I started talking.

“Well, I got a report on the dispute between two influential Dusters in Dunboro. The report says that Charlie Blackblade and Philipp were at odds over the handling of the Prose, MTA Hoffmann’s ship, and how they should relate to the Slicers as a faction. A few days ago, the first mate of the Prose requested spare parts for the ship in Dunboro. The exciting thing is that the Prosa has communication data that is directly linked to the Slicers. Philipp plans to board the Prosa, steal the data and sell it to the Civilian Defense Force or other mercenaries. Charlie was firmly against this. Neither of them is a friend of the Slicers. The Dusters are pursuing their own goals. Philip was simply in it for the money, Charlie didn’t want any attention and saw the connection between Hoffmann’s crew and the Slicers as an incalculable risk. In any case, the data could also be interesting for us. Perhaps they contain information about the crew of the Beluga. Friedrich could also pass the data on to the Civilian Defense Force. Maybe that will finally put an end to the terror.”

“I see. What kind of ship is that again?” asked Brubacker.

“A Polaris,” I replied.

Brubacker’s eyes widened.

“The best thing is,” I continued. “I intercepted a radio message from a trader. He reported a ghost ship in orbit around the planet Hurston called Prosa. So we know the coordinates of the Polaris.”

“Maybe we should take a closer look,” Friedrich suggested.

“But it could also be a trap,” replied Brubacker.

Friedrich thought for a moment, then said.

“If it’s a ghost ship, the risk could be manageable. We could take the Medical Piscis, pretend to be a rescue team and offer help.”

We decided to put Friedrich’s plan into action.

During the flight to the coordinates of the Prosa, Friedrich reported that Cora, his head of security, had quit her job at Nordlicht Aviation. Probably because she could no longer guarantee safety on the cruises. In addition, the death of Francis, the captain of the Beluga, had thrown her off course.

“The two were friends. Cora had come to Stanton because of them,” said Friedrich in a sad voice.

The attacks by the Slicers hit Friedrich and his company hard. He was in a completely different situation to me. For me, they meant profit if I turned the remains into money after the attacks. For Friedrich, they meant no profit, no business, they were a threat to his company. The whole thing made me surprisingly thoughtful.

Brubacker pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Take a look at the news on SSN/CATV. An Idris frigate and its escort ships have turned up in Stanton. The fleet is marauding through the system and attacking everyone indiscriminately. We have no more time. The slicers are bringing out all the guns.”

Only a few minutes later, we reached the position of the Polaris. The large warship lay motionless in the darkness of space. Friedrich radioed the supposed ghost ship. There was no response. Then we saw that the Polaris hangar was open. Friedrich prepared to land.

Just seconds later, I was standing in the large hangar of the Polaris, impressed. Above me, I could see the bluish glow of an atmospheric shield, with the stars shining behind it. There were large doors on all four sides of the hangar with the words “Hangar 01” on them.

The ship really seemed to be abandoned, at least there was no welcoming committee. We decided to search the ship and took the first available gate. It led us into a corridor that went off to the left and right. Directly in front of us was another door with “Brig” written above it. We went in and couldn’t believe our eyes.

There were prisoners in both cells. In one was Kjeld Stormanson, the commander of TYR. In the other were two of his mercenaries, Raff and Batou. They were in civilian clothes, Batou was only wearing pants. There was a dead body on the ground that we couldn’t identify. We freed the three of them.

“What has happened? Where is the team?” asked Friedrich.

“We don’t know.”

“How did you get here?”

“No idea. We drank beer on Everus Harbor and then woke up here.”

“Have you seen anyone on board?” asked Kjeld.

“No, we just arrived at the hangar with a Piscis. The brig happened to be the first room we searched.”

“Do you have weapons? Then let’s search the ship first.”

We gave our weapons to the guys from TYR and let them go ahead. The mercenaries combed the ship professionally. Friedrich joined the search party. There was more to the old guy than met the eye. Bru and I kept to the background.

It was eerie. The ship was deserted, but all systems were up and running. When we reached the bridge, we were greeted by a magical moment. A huge glass dome spanned the bridge. The view into space with its billions of points of light was gigantic. Brubacker sat down in the captain’s chair in awe. He almost seemed to like it.

While Brubacker enjoyed his brief moment as captain of a Polaris, I scanned the on-board computers. The data revealed a lot. The Prosa and its captain Hoffmann were from the Pyro system. The most frequent radio contact was with the flight control of the Jackson’s Swap settlement. The communication logs also showed that Hoffmann was in contact with the Versipellis Sica, a radical splinter group of the Nine Tails. He was involved in human trafficking through them. Memories of ENOS came flooding back. Were the crew of the Beluga to be taken to Pyro to take part in illegal ENOS experiments?

Finally, I also found information about the Slicers and the position of the Idris, which was ravaging the Stanton system. Also confirmation that the Polaris had been boarded. Presumably by Philipp.

I told Kjeld about my information from Dunboro and the argument between the two Dusters Charlie and Philipp.

Suddenly Brubacker cleared his throat.

“Guys, could it be that we’re losing focus here? Jesus Christ, pirates want to take over Stanton. Why do we care why they’re fighting internally?”

An argument broke out over what we should do next. Leave with the data? Attack the Idris with the Polaris? Bru was firmly against an attack. I tried to find a middle ground.

“The Prosa and her crew were allied with the Slicers. So we should be able to approach the Idris with this ship without any problems. Once we’re within five kilometers, I can establish a data link. I’ll copy as much data as possible from the Idris and then we’ll leave again. We’ll give the data to the Advocacy and the Civilian Defense Force and Friedrich, and with any luck we’ll learn more about the Beluga’s crew.”

We took a vote. Everyone except Bru decided to go ahead with my plan. Then Kjeld divided us up into different positions and we flew to the position of the Idris.

As we came out of the quantum tunnel, we could see the huge frigate from a great distance. Several ships were circling it like flies around a quasi-grazer. Raff brought us closer. Everything was quiet at first, but then all hell broke loose.

A storm of laser flashes thundered down on the Polaris. Raff called into the radio.

“I’m taking us further away. Target the escort fighters first. Batou, on my signal, fire two torpedoes.”

We opened fire on the fighters with our guns. It was hectic, it was exhausting. Sweat was pouring down my back. The fighters flew past me so fast that I barely hit one. My turret was moving wildly from top to bottom and from left to right. I began to lose my bearings. The others were more successful and at some point it was just the Idris and us.

But it proved to be a tough break. Not only did the pilot fly excellent evasive maneuvers, but the Idris’s automatic defense turrets were extremely effective. Only one of our torpedoes hit the enemy ship, all the others were intercepted.

The on-board radio was hectic.

“Concentrate your fire on the stern. The Idris’ shields are giving way. The hull at the rear has already been damaged and the tailgate is open.”

“There are hoverbikes flying around.”

“Fuck the hoverbikes. Our front has been badly damaged. Our ballistic cannon is defective.”

Luckily we had Raff at the wheel. He skillfully dodged the devastating rail gun of the Idris. Again and again, he kept us at a distance so that our shields could recharge. But at the same time, the Idris’ shields were also recharging.

It was an eternal back and forth. Approach, engage, retreat to recharge the shields. We had no more torpedoes and we couldn’t do much damage to the Idris’ strong armor with the laser guns. It seemed hopeless.

But suddenly the Idris’ weapons fell silent. Stunned, Raff said.

“The Idris has changed its identification. Looks like she’s been boarded.”

“Zero, were you able to download the data?” asked Kjeld.

“No, that didn’t work.”

“OK, then let’s get out of here before the Idris changes its mind.”

Drenched in sweat, I left the turret. After a few shaky steps, I held on to the wall. The floor seemed to move, the walls spun around me. Then the contents of my stomach emptied over my clothes.

I entered the hangar in just my underpants.

“Sweating wet?” Friedrich asked somewhat cynically.

“As well. And puked all over myself,” I replied meekly.

At that moment, Kjeld came into the hangar.

“There are containers with equipment down in the cargo hold.”

Perplexed, Brubacker Friedrich and I returned to Everus Harbor with the Piscis. Was that it? Had the Slicers stopped fighting now? And was the crew of the Beluga hopelessly lost? I only knew one thing, I needed a whiskey and coke first.

*

A few days later, we received a message from Kjeld. He and his people had intensively investigated the Prosa and gutted it. They discovered that the Prosa had indeed been attacked and the crew had been thrown out of the airlock. As the cameras were defective, it was not possible to clearly identify the people. They also found out that the Prosa had been built in orbit around the planet Monox in the Pyro system in an improvised shipyard and used for illegal operations. Captain Hoffmann had a deal with the Slicers. He was to hunt down and paralyze support forces of the Civilian Defence Force. To this end, Hoffmann kidnapped executives and mercenaries, including Kjeld and his men. Kjeld was also able to confirm his cooperation with Versipellis Sica.

Due to bad experiences with Hurston Security, Kjeld asked us to keep his name and that of TYR out of all investigations and reports.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

The Brubacker perspective (german only): https://sternenwanderer.org/jahr-2954#S26