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Friedrich had given me the tip to buy fresh food at the Rayari Kaltag Research Outpost before my return flight to Pyro. I could sell them in Pyro for a very good profit. I was refueling at the Port Tressler orbital station when I received a message from Xine.
Xine needed an encryption using the Diffie Hellmann method. He had asked me to do it a long time ago, but we had to postpone it because I was leaving for Pyro. The complicated thing was that I needed a high-performance computer for this. Xine had already obtained the necessary cryptokey. Now it was my turn.
The necessary computing power was available in a Microtech Data Center. As I was in orbit around the planet Microtech anyway, the time was right. I wanted to get back to Pyro as quickly as possible to look for a trace of Brubacker and Husky, but Xine wanted to get to Port Tressler in a few hours. Half a day’s delay didn’t matter, so I decided to help Xine now. The only question that remained was how we would gain access to the Data Center without breaking in illegally.
Even before Xine arrived, I had found a way. I confronted him with my plan when he arrived.
“We can get into a data center without a problem. I’ve accepted a support job that will get us access. Apparently there’s been a security incident. There’s talk of some criminals. You take care of the criminals, I’ll take care of the encryption. But maybe it’s not that dramatic and the local security forces have already sorted the situation out.”

Xine looked at me with some irritation. He didn’t seem quite so enthusiastic. I just shrugged my shoulders. Then he replied.

“I assume we’re flying on my ship.”

My grin was answer enough and a short time later we landed with his Zeus between snow-covered trees near the Data Center.

“I see someone walking around in front of the bunker. I don’t know if friend or foe,” Xine said.

“If the person is wearing white and black armor, then he’s security. Then don’t shoot,” I replied.

“In this snowstorm, all the armor could be white,” Xine remarked somewhat cynically.

In the hold, we put on our helmets and pulled out our weapons. Then Xine opened the rear ramp. A cold, blustery wind blew towards us. My plan was clear. Xine operated the weapons, I operated the computers. My coda was more of an alibi.

At a distance of 30 meters, we approached the building in a line. Xine was on my right. The snow shining in the evening light crunched under our boots. I had to keep wiping the snowflakes off my visor.

The person who had seen Xine no longer seemed to be there. But suddenly I heard shots. A trail of light came towards me, then bullets whistled right past my helmet.

“Contact!” Xine shouted.

More shots rang out. I had no idea where the shots were coming from or who was shooting. As if in a trance, I ran towards the building and took cover at a corner.

“Contact on the other side of the building. I need to reload,” I heard Xine say from a distance.

I looked carefully around the corner. There was a person 20 meters away. The pink mark on his chest clearly identified him as Nine Tail. As if remote-controlled, I put the coda revolver on, took aim and pulled the trigger. The Nine Tail fell backwards into the snow.

It was as if an inner program had been activated in me, a survival program. Without realizing it, I ran to a platform with several containers on it. Xine went to the left of the platform, I went to the right. Shots rang out again.

“Damn,” Xine shouted. “It hit me in the arm. He must be in your 10 o’clock position.”

When I reached the end of the platform, I peered around a container to my left. There were two booms from my revolver. Another Nine Tail was lying in the snow. While I was examining the slain pirate’s weapon, I heard Xine.

“The entrance is secure.”

A few seconds later, the elevator had taken us into the deep recesses of the bunker.

“Do you see any guards?”

“No, but Nine Tails.”
In a flash, we took cover behind the cargo crates at the entrance. But it was too late. A whole armada stormed towards us. Shots were fired from all barrels. It was a deafening noise and total chaos. The six rounds of my Coda were quickly used up. While I was reloading, I heard Xine shouting against the noise.

“Reload!”

As I placed a new magazine in my revolver, I looked up. Like a menacing tsunami, a giant Nine Tail in heavy armor loomed directly in front of me. The cartridges from my heavy revolver were thrown at him.

Then it was suddenly dead silent. In front of us lay several lifeless bodies in Nine Tail armor.

“You can shoot after all,” Xine said.

“If I have to,” I replied thoughtfully.

Something was out of balance with me. The danger to my life was taking me off the center and pushing me to an extreme pole. Ray Keaton had once said “If you want peace, you have to be prepared for violence”. I was pretty sure that this was not the middle way. However, the extreme situations I had experienced had done something to me. Extreme danger triggered an inner program that took control of my actions. I was unsure whether this was a good thing. On the other hand, given the ubiquitous violence, it wasn’t a mistake to be able to defend myself.

“Let’s find the server room,” I said to Xine. “And if you see a weapons crate, take a look inside. I need a P6 sniper rifle and a railgun.”

“I really can’t figure you out,” Xine mused.

We crept cautiously through the bunker. On our way to the server room, we found nothing but death. The lifeless shells of Nine Tails and guards were scattered everywhere. We were the only ones alive.

At the server console, it only took a few minutes to create the software for the encryption and transfer it to Xine’s stick. Before we left the bunker, I took the uniform from a dead guard.

“Did you just take this off?” Xine asked with a horrified undertone.

“The law of the desert. Leave nothing behind,” I replied curtly.

“I was afraid of that answer,” Xine replied.

When we were back on Port Tressler, I invited Xine for a rust in the White Rabbit. His cough clearly showed that he was not used to such a strong drink. I couldn’t suppress a reaction to the burn of the intense alcohol either. We pondered the properties of our spaceships. Although Xine had only recently acquired his Zeus through dubious means, he was flirting with a Mercury Star Runner.

Finally, I said goodbye to him and set off to buy some fresh food. A few hours later, I approached the Pyro jump point. The jump into the chaotic and violent star system was imminent. The star system that Husky and Brubacker had broken into and disappeared without a trace. I could only hope that I would find some clue about the two of them. And I hoped that no one was waiting on the other side of the wormhole who thought I was still transporting valuable data or wanted revenge for the revelation about the Slicers.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)