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Even before we could attack the Slicers’ Idris, they had ravaged the Hurston area. The hospital in Lorville was overflowing with wounded and activated Imprints. Becky, the nurse at Maria Pure Of Heart Hospital, who I had worked with before, sent me a call for help. Without thinking twice, I answered her call and brought medical supplies to Lorville.

I met Becky in her on-call room at the hospital. I looked at a picture on her desk with interest. It showed her with a man and two women. The four of them seemed to know each other well. They were laughing happily into the camera. The Lorville skyline could be seen through a window in the background. I knew the man and one of the women. They were Maria and Richard, the refugees from the Pyro system who now lived in seclusion on Microtech in the Moreland Hills.

I tried not to let it show and asked casually as I looked at the picture.

“Friends of yours?”

“Yes, and united in purpose,” Becky replied cheerfully. But then her voice turned sad. “At least we were.”

She took the picture from my hand, looked at it and stroked Maria and Richard with her index finger. She continued sadly.

“Maria and Richard went into the pyro system. Unfortunately, we lost contact with them. I have no idea what happened to them.”

I knew exactly what had happened to them. And I also knew that Maria had come to terms with her past. Should I say something? Becky seemed so sad. Knowing that her friends were doing well would certainly make her happy. On the other hand, Maria had also become a good friend to me and I respected her wish not to dig into the past.

However, I couldn’t suppress my curiosity. I had already suspected that Maria was not a typical settler and was more likely to come from a town. And here was confirmation. But why had a well-appointed citizen from Lorville set off for the Pyro system?

I stood next to Becky, looked at the picture and asked.

“Why did they go to Pyro? From the golden city to pirate hell. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does,” Becky replied. “The other woman in the picture is Madge Hartford, we call her Dash. She founded Citizens for Pyro. A non-profit organization dedicated to taming the border crime system once and for all. We are helping her. That’s why Maria and Richard went to Pyro.”

I looked at Becky in amazement.

“You want to tame Pyro? How is that supposed to work?”

“It started with occasional forays into Pyro to hunt down criminals. It’s since evolved into a full-scale colonization plan. The idea is to build a community that provides economic and cultural incentives to keep the system safe. The hope is that businesses will be attracted to the system because of the higher level of security and will take root there, bringing in credit and influence that could transform Pyro from a lawless wasteland into a vibrant center of new growth.”

I looked at Becky in fascination and disbelief at the same time.

“You don’t believe me?” Becky laughed. “I’ll send you an article from the Observist. Read it and you’ll see that it’s really true. In the meantime, the Citizens for Pyro have renamed themselves Citizens for Prosperity. In addition to Pyro, they want to expand their mission to other systems.”

While I was reading the article about the Citizens for Pyro, Becky elbowed me in the side.

“Jeez Zero, you like to help too. There’s a big campaign going on at the moment where we’re recruiting volunteers to deliver supplies to the pyro jump point. From there, they will be taken to the Pyro system. Won’t you help us too?”

The idea of helping people who wanted to live peacefully outside the UEE systems appealed to me. However, I didn’t like the idea of large corporations and eventually the UEE entering these independent systems. But there was a very long way to go before that happened. If it would even get that far. Until then, the free peoples could benefit from it.

I decided to help. And to my surprise, I was also provided with a spaceship. A MISC Starlancer MAX. A large transport ship that had almost twice as much cargo capacity as my Star Runner. So I began to deliver the needed supplies to the Pyro jump point.

*

A few days after the meeting with Becky, I received a message from Friedrich Winters. He had also started delivering relief supplies for the Citizens for Prosperity to the Pyro jump point. However, he was having trouble unloading the cargo. His 890 Jump could not be unloaded at the Pyro Gateway. Now he was standing in Lorville with his cargo.

I met up with Friedrich at Teasa Spaceport. Brubacker wanted to come too, but was still stuck at the orbital station. He had some kind of problem at the clinic there. While Friedrich went into orbit to get Brubacker, I went to the hangar to unload his 890. Our plan was to transfer his cargo to my Starlancer and then take it to the pyro jump point.

While I was using the tractor beam to get the large containers out of the belly of the “Nordlicht Eins”, I noticed Brubacker standing next to it watching. That was typical of the scribbler again. Instead of getting stuck in, he stood there, watching, probably taking pictures and thinking about what story he would write next.

I didn’t want to be too offensive and asked casually.

“Bru, are you all right?”

“So far. Can’t really join in yet, I’m afraid.”

I refrained from commenting. The main thing was that he wasn’t in the way.

Finally, the containers were unloaded and transported via the freight elevator to the hangar where the Starlancer was parked. After I had shown them the Starlancer, Friedrich and I started to load it. Brubacker just stood around again. He looked like a little boy with something on his mind. Then it burst out of him.

“Guys, what the hell are we doing here?”

Puzzled, I looked at Brubacker and replied.

“Excuse me? We….”

Brubacker interrupted me.

“I mean: What exactly do we know about these Citizens for Prosperity? Who knows who exactly is behind it… it stinks to high heaven!”

“John…” said Friedrich.

“Honestly,” Bru interrupted, ”there’s a call for help from Pyro and then everyone runs off to clear out half the Stanton system and deliver whatever they want free of charge….”

“Let me send you the call for help we received,” Friedrich said calmly.

Bru read through the Citizens for Prosperity appeal. It was the appeal for help that Becky had told me about, which Friedrich had responded to and which I also supported. After reading the message, Brubacker said.

“Okay, anyway. Maybe we’re pampering pirates here in good conscience so they’ll be better equipped for the next raids.”

Did Brubacker really suspect that we were supporting the Slicers with this action? That the Citizens for Prosperity were just a mask used by the pirates to get the resources they needed? That was madness. I shouted angrily at Bru.

“You really are paranoid. The nurse I work with in Lorville knows the founder of Hartford and…”

“…who is that again?” Brubacker interrupted me again.

“For a journalist, you’re sometimes really badly misinformed. Here, read this before you spout any more nonsense.”

I sent Brubacker the article from the Observist about Madge Hartford that Becky had given me. While Friedrich and I loaded the containers into the Starlancer, Brubacker studied the article. Then he said in a conciliatory tone.

“Okay, that reads differently.”

“Then you can finally get to work,” I replied.

“I’ll try out this ATLS thing.”

Brubacker walked into the Starlancer’s cargo bay and stomped out with the ATLS, the Assisted Transport and Loading System. An exo-frame in which you stood, moved it with your own legs and arms and could easily move heavy loads with a tractor beam. I had a bad feeling.

“That’s really cool. I want something like that,” exclaimed Brubacker enthusiastically.

He grabbed the first container, moved it wildly through the air and slammed it against the hull of the Starlancer.

“Careful, man,” I exclaimed. “I don’t own this ship.”

After half an hour, the Starlancer was loaded and we set off for the pyro-jump point. Once there, we unloaded the cargo. Brubacker stood enthusiastically in the ATLS and helped.

“Guys, maybe I’ll retrain as a loadmaster.”

“I’d rather not,” I replied. “But the Citizens will be happy.”

After everything was unloaded, we sat down in the Starlancer’s crew compartment.

“Do we actually know anything about the fate of the Slicer-Idris?” asked Brubacker.

“It seems to have been boarded,” I replied. “And then she was taken out of service.”

“Things have been quieter in Stanton since then,” Friedrich added. “Perhaps that was the healing shock the Slicers needed, that we don’t put up with everything.”

“That would be nice,” replied Brubacker. “And what do we actually know about the Frontier Fighters? They probably want to continue the fight against the Slicers through the jump point.”

Worry lines formed on my forehead. As much as I liked the idea of the Citizens for Prosperity helping the peaceful settlers, I was fed up with fighting. My eyes wandered around the room. Then I noticed that the gold coin on the shelf was missing.

“Hey, where’s the gold coin?”

“What gold coin?” asked Brubacker, putting on an innocent face.

“Well, the one that was on the shelf earlier.”

“Uh, yeah, well, it fell off,” Brubacker replied.

He stood up and picked up the other things on the shelf.

“I wanted to have a look,” he continued. “Then there was a jolt when we went into the quantum tunnel. It all flew down. The coin fell into a slot in the floor.”

“Bru!” I said angrily. “You look with your eyes, not your fingers. Can you just respect other people’s property and keep your fingers off it? How do I explain this to the owner of the ship? These are not my things.”

“It’ll come up again,” Brubacker replied. “And shall we call it a day?”

“There are more requests from Citizens for Prosperity,” said Friedrich, glancing at his Mobiglas. “Come on, let’s do one more round.”

*

A week later, Brubacker published a newspaper article about the Slicer attacks. Once again, his small, independent editorial office “Off The Record” proved to be the mouthpiece of those who did not follow the propaganda of the Empire, who did not want to be banned from speaking out. I was glad that John Brubacker had the courage to address what otherwise remained hidden.

NEVER SILENT.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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