Moonlake's Fiction Space

We ended up tracking Guppy by the beacon on the buggy, which indicated a factory at the edge of town, with a forest and farmlands lying beyond. Estella assumed she’d been kidnapped. 

“Let’s not waste any time then, we can follow the road until we’re close, and then circle around through the forest, get a good look at the place and see if we can find a good way in?” Mother-hen Aurora was getting anxious. Whoever did this would have it coming. 

I stood up in response, in a “What are we waiting for?” way.

“We should commandeer a vehicle,” Aurora suggested, “An hours a long way to go on foot.”

“Let’s ask the barkeep?” Estella looked over at me, “Do you want to give it a go? You’ve been drinking here longest, he’s probably more inclined to do a well paying customer a favor.”

“Sammy, you heard us, can you help?” I asked friendly-like.

He peered over at the display. “Where did you say you needed to go?”

“The factory at the edge of the town. You know the one?”

He looked at it and got a weird expression. “Um, yeah, I’ve heard of it. They started building it, I don’t know, a couple years ago? And they’ve been building and refitting and working on it ever since. Far as I know, it’s not even in operation.”

“And what else?”

“I’m not ever really sure whose factory it is. I think it was maybe in some kind of dispute at one point but I never heard what happened.”

“And that’s all?”

“That’s all I know.” He shrugged.

“And how do we hitch a ride to there?”

“Since you’re helping out here, you can take my ride if you promise to be nice to it.” He tossed a keyring to me.

I caught it easily. “No worries. We will take good care of it.” 

***

We went back to the Xing to gather our gears and there it occurred to Estella that we could just fly the Xing over the factory and call for surrender else we razed the whole building. 

“Risky, if they call our bluff we’ll have tipped our hand, and they’ll probably realize we won’t level the place with Guppy inside.” Aurora said. 

Estella nodded. “You’re right, let’s stick to the original plan.”

So we ended up hiding in the woods so that we could do some connoisseur first. The factory was not your standard fare. The main structure was huge with various sections that had been cut out or built onto the outside. If you asked me, I would say it looked like someone was running a freak experiment of architecture on it or it was this fusion architecture style that was all the rage on one of the outer fringer planets that I once visited. I didn’t think it would have carried across. There were no windows. 

“That’s some odd architecture work.” I commented.

Estella nodded, “It’s like they changed the design specs a half dozen times during building.” She took the spyglass in hand and looked through it. 

“Definitely bizarre, maybe it’s some kind of automated production process they’re trying out that ran wild?” Aurora, our resident theoriser. 

“Not a lot of ways in from this angle,” Estella passed the spyglass to me. “I’ll slip around through the forest to get a look at the two sides, see if maybe there’s an air vent or something we can sneak in through.”

Aurora eyed one of the trees, “Might be worth climbing up and getting a better vantage, good shot with a rifle could provide covering fire up there too.”

I did as Aurora suggested. From that vantage point, I found a slatted vent in the side of the building. I could see shadows thrown against the wall, showing the outlines of two large persons and one smaller one. Some vines grew along one wall that looked a little odd and just a tad familiar. 

I clambered back down and described what I saw. “That small shadow might be Guppy.”

“The vent sounds like the best way in, but the plants… I wonder what those are doing here?” Estella said. 

“They are getting to become familiar faces. I would think they put a tracker on us somehow if I didn’t know better.”

“Stray spores from when we took off the first time?” Aurora shrugged. “They got on our ship somehow in the first place, we can worry about that after.”

“Right, do we all want to head in through the vent or maybe pull a distraction to draw off the people while one of us rescues Guppy?” Estella gestured towards the back door. “We could throw a grenade at that, have a couple of us shoot from the trees at whoever shows up to see what the mess is.”

I put my vote up for the distraction trick. Aurora did but worried over where to put me, given that I seemed to be good at both. Estella decided I should grab Guppy out from through the vent and Aurora agreed that was the priority. 

“So I shall leave you two out here with the fireworks then.”

Aurora nodded in approval. “Sounds good.”

“Understood, the grate should be easy enough for you to rip off or whatever, let us know when you’re ready to get in there and we’ll demo the door.” Estella told me. 

“I will let you know through the com once I get into position.” I said and hurried off. I got about three quarters of the way across when two guards came rushing out of a door holding guns. “Stop right there!”

I opened fire on the left one and tried to swerve around the other.

The one I shot went down. He was not dead, but he was not fighting. The other one saw that and looked uncertain. 

I went up, kicked the weapon away from the one down and looked at the one still standing. “If you put your weapon down now, I might settle for a talk. Otherwise…” She signaled with my gun.

He nodded, threw down his gun and ran off away from the factory and me. 

I let him go but told Aurora and Estella over the intercom, “Watch out for him in case he sneaks back.”

I kept on running towards the vent. No one else came out. “In position.” I said before I climbed in. I tried to not touch the vines on the wall, in case they came alive. It wasn’t hard. I pried the vent off and climbed in. 

It led to a room inside with a desk. It appeared to be a sparsely furnished office. A large bald man was just walking out the door, with his back turned to me. He closed it behind him after he walked out. 

Not hearing any other noise in the room, I climbed out and went to the desk. Some small spots of blood were on the desk. I inspected them and saw that there were some more droplets on the edge of the desk, not seen easily unless you looked closely like I was. 

“One large bald man who just exited the room. Blood on the edge of desk .” I summarised over the intercom. 

“Stand by one sec, Estella’s questioning the guy you got to surrender.” Aurora told me.

“Only three more inside according to this guy, they’ll probably come out here to see what the gunshots of Sam’s were, when they do we’ll take’em down, See if you can find Guppy and take out anyone who gets in your way, this guy apparently has no idea that her, or our ride is in there.” Estella told me after a few minutes had gone by. 

“Roger.” I listened at the door, to see if there was any sound. None. Then the delivery door opened. 

“Someone coming out from the delivery door.” I told the gals. 

“On it,” Aurora told me. 

I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, with doors lined along it. There was a set of steps leading down towards the end. 

I decided to check out these other doors, just in case Guppy was trapped inside one. Then a shot rang outside. I assumed it was the girls. 

“One down, Guppy’s in the sled near the rear door!” Aurora yelled over the intercom. 

“Coming.” I stopped what I was doing and hurried down the steps towards the back door. En route, I saw the bald guy who left the office when I was in the vent running from the sled deeper into the factory. I chased him down. 

He put his hands up. “Please, don’t shoot.” He shook. 

“Now what’s the kidnapping about?”

“It wasn’t me, I swear.” Sweat dripped off his forehead. His eyes darted back and forth. 

“No tricks.” I warned him.

“Just please don’t shoot me.”

“Now walk slowly around to the side facing me. Make sure to move very slowly.” I stretched out the word very, to make sure that he understood me. 

He took a step, then tried to run past me towards a door. I shot him in the leg. He fell down, crying out “I’m sorry.” 

Exasperated, I went over, locked an arm around his throat while lifting him. He had the sense to not struggle. 

“Now I will just walk you out the door so we can talk about what happened.”

I brought him outside. Estella was bending over a guy on the ground, frisking him over. Aurora was doing some motherly thing with Guppy. I brought my captive over to the side of the sled and then let go, letting him bang against it. He slid down to the ground, held his head as he cowered. 

“Now, tell the story from the beginning.” I told Guppy who was sobbing into Aurora’s arms. 

“It’s okay, you’re safe now, tell us what happened, start from the beginning.” 

Estella stood up and came over, “I’m going to back up Sam.”

“Stay sharp, I’ll move the sled outside and cuff our other prisoner.” Aurora said. 

“I was just gonna go out and play with the sled a little, honest, Aurora.” Guppy told us amidst crying hiccups. “It was a lot of fun, and then I came out this way to see how fast it could go. You know, in the open. But then I… I’m sorry, but I hit something, and I was so worried that I dented it. Dented the sled. And so I stopped to look at it. But then these guys, they just grabbed me from behind.”

“And they were saying, ‘Tell us what you saw!’ and ‘Why are you out here!’ and I thought they were really going to hurt me. They took me in a room, and one of them, he hit me, and they were asking me things and I couldn’t answer.”

“Sounds like they assumed you were spying on them, guessing this factory is being built by the same types as that black tower you three mentioned when you bought the sled.” 

“What about this guy?” Aurora glared at another unconscious guy lying on the ground. I didn’t really notice him at first. 

“I didn’t see anyone but those other two.”

“Guess he might of been telling the truth then,” Aurora shrugged and hefted the guy up to load him into the back of the sled. She went out of sight. 

I glared at my coward still in the thralls of his patheticness. 

“We might want to poke around this place a bit, see if there’s anything interesting going on, and if there’s anything we could salvage, as restitution for taking our crew mate prisoner.” Aurora said over the comlink to us.

“We’ve got a cowering idiot too shaky for anything. What do you want to do with him?” I asked her. 

“Bring him out here, he can blubber in the back with his unconscious pal, we’ll turn them over to the local sheriff once we’re done here, let them do some time for kidnapping.”

I grabbed hold of him and lugged him across to the back of the sled. He  started nodding. “Yes! Yes! Call the sheriff. I can tell him how you shot me in the leg!” I cuffed him on the back of the head. “Shut up!” He did. 

Estella snickered. “Shot you in the leg after you kidnapped a little girl and roughed her up you mean.”

He stayed quiet. 

“Aurora? Can I look around with you? I don’t want to sit here in the sled with him. And I’m really sorry I took the sled without asking.” Aurora agreed, of course. 

“I think you learned a powerful lesson already why you don’t go running off without letting the rest of us know where you went.” She told Guppy, “This is why we have rules, to keep people safe.”

Guppy bought that like syrup, going by how big eyes looked. She nodded. “Yes, Aurora.”

“Given the troubles the locals have been having with people lately, I don’t expect they’ll take too kindly to a kidnapper of little girls,” Estella started on my captive, “They might just lynch you to make an example to the rest, your only real chance of avoiding that is us putting in a good word for you, and for that..” She gestured to the building. “You’re going to tell us everything about this place, why it looks like three drunk architects with dyslexia built it, what goes on here, what your job is, and who you report to.”

He looked over at me, then back to Estella, and his face went pale. He blubbed a bit, sweaty profusely. He tried to talk but his voice cracked so he cleared his throat. He looked carefully between me and Estella again before finally telling us that it’s some discarded factory that was under a legal dispute and they decided to use it from time to time. 

“Use it for what?” I prodded him. 

“Well…” He went quiet, I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. He looked up after a bit and admitted to being part of a smuggling operation. 

“He’s up to his tricks again.” I warned the others. “Right, now you are talking.”

“I swear, it’s the truth. They come by every few weeks, we help them sneak stuff on or off planet. We thought the kid there, um, was going to blow our meet.”

“When are they due next?” Estella asked him.

“Well… uh, they got scared off this time. Probably be a few more weeks. More, if they’re spooked.” His gaze was firmly fixed to the floor as he said this. 

I looked across at the two gals, silenting asking “What do you do about him now?”

“That means you’ve got supplies waiting for the next pick up, show us where they’re stashed.” Aurora told him. That startled him. 

“No, this was a drop off meet. They were delivering. We didn’t have anything for them. Are you going to put in a good word about us now? I mean, we aren’t doing anything to hurt anyone. The kid was just, a, uh, misunderstanding.”

Estella shook her head. “Drop off, that means the supplies are going somewhere, where specifically?”

“We, uh, hold the goods, get them stored away here in the factory. Then someone else comes by a few days later, we load up their trucks, and it’s all good. We don’t know anything else about anything. Honest.”

“So you expect us to believe you decided to just hang out at an empty drop point for a few weeks in the middle of nowhere?” Aurora gave him a doubtful expression. “You wouldn’t waste your time babysitting a lot of nothing.”

“They send us a coded message when they’re coming. That’s how we know to be there.”

“So you’re saying they sent you a message which is why you’re here?” Estella repeated what he said. 

He nodded eagerly. 

Estella sighed, “You’re not a very good liar, you’ve told us they won’t be here for weeks, maybe more, and now you’re saying they sent you a message so you showed up, which is it?”

He started sobbing. 

“Pathetic,” Aurora glanced over at us, “Let’s take him on a walk thru of the factory, he can show us the secret places they stash stuff, maybe he forgot about some of the supplies left behind, and it will give him time to realize telling us the truth is his only hope.”

“I don’t want them to kill me.” He said through sniffles. 

“You spill what you know and we’ll guarantee your safety.” Estella told him. “Dump you on the far side of the planet where they’ll never find you, otherwise we’ll leave in the locals hands and a helpful note behind saying how useful you were and where they can find you.”

“Please no! I’ll tell you everything I know.” He went silent, furiously thinking in that bald head of his. “You want to see the supplies? I can show you what’s still here.”

I motioned with my gun for him to start moving. He headed inside. 

I walked into a bar that I espied on the way. It was a little place tucked away in a corner. When I walked in, I realised it was one of these dingy places. Still, I’ve seen worse. I sat myself down on the bar stool. Before I could even order, a woman walked right up to me. She had a lined face and grey hair but still looked strong as if she was used to a life of physical labour. And she had the skin tone to show it too. She had on well-worn but good quality work clothes. “Excuse me…”

I moved a little out of the way to make room for her, thinking that’s what she’s asking.

“Um… no, I mean, umm, do you have a moment?” She looked nervous. 

I looked at her and wondered what she could be wanting. “I guess.” I finally said.

“If I’m not mistaken… you look like a soldier or at least someone who knows their way around a tough spot. I mean, everyone else here is like me, a rancher or farmer. We don’t see rougher types like you very often. Am I right about that?”

“Yes, are you hiring?”

“Well, um, yes. You see, me, and well, a few others, could use some help, and we’d all pitch in to pay.”

“The job is? I will consider it after I hear about it.”

“Well… um, let me order you another drink” and she signaled to the bartender. “You see, a lot of us have been having problems. Machinery broken, animals slaughtered, crops poisoned, but we don’t seem to be able to find out whoever is behind it all. Our bosses are getting nervous and we’re getting nervous ourselves. A few have been injured by the busted machinery, and our bosses don’t have endless money to keep pouring into this place. But it’s home to the rest of us, and we want to keep building something here”

“Hmm…” I drummed my fingers against the table top, “a bigger job that I expected. How much are you paying?”

“I guess it depends on what you can do for us. None of us are rich, so not a lot. At least finding out who’s responsible. I don’t know about taking them on or anything, but if we knew what was going on, maybe we could take care of it. But I also think it’s a dangerous job. These are people willing to do very bad things.”

“I’m not alone, I have a crew, so let me take this back to the others. If we make a decision, do I come back here for you or?”

“Yeah, I’ll either be here or just tell Sammy over there,” she pointed at the bartender, “and he’ll know how to get hold of me.”

“All right.” Sometimes things just fall into your lap. For good or ill. I could really use a drink to drown the worries with the Old Boy, though, as least for a while. So I ordered my drink and then a couple more after that. 

At some point, Aurora walked in. “How’s the local brew? Next rounds on me.” 

Estella nodded to me, “Guppy here is a real natural at driving, makes me wonder if she might not be able to take our old girl out for a space jaunt someday too.” That excited Guppy no end. 

“Light refreshments only.” I answered Aurora, pointing to the glass in my hand. “I have a potential job, Sammy here will act as our messenger if we agree to take it on.” I indicated the bartender.

“You’ve been busy it seems,” Aurora smiled wider, “What needs doing?”

“Sure,” Estella ordered a light mixed drink and 2 slices of pie. “We could use the extra cash, so long as it isn’t too seedy.”

“Well, it’s a bit like the converter job, except on a larger scale. Someone tampering with machinery and crops alike. Local workers are gonna chip in and pay us to do what we can.” I told them. 

“So they want us to find the people responsible. and then what? Run’em out of the area?” Aurora tilted her head as if in thought. 

“I wonder if the incidents are related? Whoever’s putting the squeeze on the miner might be doing the same to every independent business on the frontier here, trying to drive them all under so a corporation can set up shop.” Estella contributed her thoughts. 

“Find out who did it, at least. The rest is up in the airs. We might not get paid for anything after that. I doubt they can afford it.”

“Investigating whoever it is might also lead us to find out more about who else might have the pull to hire mercs,” Aurora nodded at that prospect. 

“Sounds like an easy enough job, did they say how much they were willing to pay?” Estella asked me. 

“Not directly, I told the woman we will chat again after I discuss it with you all. I’m not expecting much, something to tie us over for the short term.”

“Sounds good,” Estella glanced over at the bar tender. “We might be able to get a better deal in local goods and services rather than straight up credits as well, if there’s anything we need for the ship or our crew still?”

“Depends what they have to offer, but credits are useful beyond today, let’s hear their full offer first, also we can ask them about that black building you mentioned, I’m sure they know something, it’s not as if it sprang up over night, someone had to buy the land, build it, they probably know what services it offers at least.” Aurora suggested. 

“Something hush-hush or uppity-uppity, I’m guessing.” I shrugged. 

“Yeah, probably, either way feel free to let them know we’re interested in the job.”

“You heard all of that.” I told the bartender as a way of officially accepting the job offer. He told us that the woman, Julie apparently, would be back soon. 

“In the meantime, what’s the deal with the black spire building in town?” Aurora leaned forward towards him. 

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, them. Bunch of annoying types from the Inner Worlds. Came out here to do surveys or some crap. Bunch of scientists in lab coats running around being useless. Each and every one with a stick rammed up their asses and looking down on the rest of us.”

“How long after they showed up did your problems start?” Estella asked him.

He blinked and went silent as if he didn’t understand what was being asked. 

“I’m pretty sure they’ve already ruled out the obvious suspect.” Aurora said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

“Umm… let’s see. They were here before that. Maybe a year or more? I’m not really sure, come to think of it”

“Thanks, that’s helpful.” Estella shrugged. “No harm in being thorough.”

“True that. The pie will be here soon.”

“Anyone see where Guppy ran off to?” Aurora asked us, out of the blue. Then I realised the kiddo was gone. 

Estella looked down, into her pockets. “”Out for a joy ride would be my guess.” She shook her head and concluded. 

“I’d be mad, but given none of us told her not to.” Aurora chuckled, “So long as she brings it back in one piece and the fuel cost comes out of her cut of the job I won’t make a fuss.”

“You’re way too soft on her, she needs to learn she can’t just run off without telling anyone.” Estella gave me a mock glare, as if I had rubbed off on the kiddo. “Can’t imagine where she might of learned that little stunt.”

I shrugged.

“I’ll speak to her, don’t worry, let’s get this job sorted first.” Aurora assured Estella. 

Julie came up. “Hi. Sammy said you’re ready to talk about the job?”

The gals and her made the necessary intro, and we went through the job again. She was under the impression that it could be a dangerous job and did not want us unaware. 

Estella grinned while looking over at me. “I half expected that’s the reason you were hiring people like us rather than more.. Respectable sorts.”

She blushed and looked down. “Well, you look like you can take care of yourself if it comes to it…”

Aurora admitted that we were no strangers to violence.  “Though we prefer to keep on the side of law and justice, when there’s a way to.”

“We also don’t have much money. We can get together 4, maybe 5 thousand, but that’s it. Better to give you what little we have though than to be driven out of our homes.”

Aurora nodded in understanding, “Two thousand sounds pretty fair to put a name to your hostiles.” Then she looked over at me and Estella. 

“Closer to 2500 was my thought, we do need some more fuel for the ship and some spare parts for the buggy.”

I shrugged. I can live pretty lean if I needed to. 

“That’s a deal,” she said. “Do you need anything from me before you begin? I’ve got a list here of some of the places that were hit and what happened.”

“I was just about to ask that,” Aurora looked over at Estella, “Also my companion here was wondering about the sciencey types at that shiny building in town, have any of the locals had any unpleasant dealings with them of late? Or ever really.”

She half smiled. “Define ‘unpleasant’.”

“Anything beyond the usual haughty attitude and coldness.” Estella complied. 

“They’d rather run us over than admit we exist. Keep to themselves. Far as we can tell they work in wilderness areas that haven’t been settled so we don’t really see what they do. Everything they got is as shiny as that building. New looking, fancy, high-tech. But the bosses say they’re ‘surveying’, whatever that actually means.”

“I doubt they’d bother pestering the locals then, no profit in it.” Estella took the list from Julie and looked it over, reading out loud the highlights to me and Aurora. It seemingly covered a wide range. Sabotaged machinery, poisoned crops and livestock, a few injuries… 

“Wait, what was that last you just said?” I asked. 

“Was it an Atherium converter that was sabotaged?” Estella tried to confirm with Julie. 

“Oh, yeah, that was a bad one. I thought ol’ Frank was dead for sure. That doc sure patched him up but good.”

“He’s lucky to be alive.” Estella commented. 

“That doc, would her name be Jessica by chance?” Aurora asked her.

“Sounds familiar, maybe. I didn’t meet her though.”

“I don’t suppose you know where we can get a map of the local area?”

“I can bring you one early tomorrow. Or they got some at the shop down the street.”

“I’m also wondering, has your local sheriff looked into this?” Estella started a different thread. 

Julie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, he’s looked at every single one of them. Just shuffles his feet, says he can’t find a single clue, and just wanders off. I think inept is the word I’m looking for.”

“Inept, or bought off. Either way, we’ll do our own investigation, kick over some rocks, see what crawls out,” Aurora promised her. 

She thanked us and shook all of our hands. 

“We’ll get to the bottom of this, and provide you with all the proof you need to take further action.” Estella promised her as she returned the handshake. 

“Or have us take it for you.” Aurora added. “Vigilante locals on a lynching party can get out of hand in a real hurry, hurt a lot of innocent folks, and that’s no good for anyone.”

Her face went blank. “I suppose it will depend on what you find.” I didn’t have a good feeling about that but didn’t comment. 

“Fair enough, we’ll keep you in the loop.” Aurora said. She nodded and left us. 

Estella suggested we go back to the Xing, except that we were short of transport. But Guppy had a com band from the ship so we called her. Or Aurora tried. All we heard was static and other background noise. 

“You know Sam, I get the real impression some days Aurora has a lot more in common with Guppy than she lets on, the way she never seems surprised or upset by that girl’s antics.” Estella commented to me. 

“Help Aurora!” came through in a high-pitched squeal, and then silence. 

“And like any good drama, the too adventurous kid now needs rescue.” I commented. 

Aurora  sighed. “We’re coming kid, but we need to know where you are first, can you describe your surroundings?”

Just silence. 

We landed on a farming community some distance from the Frontier, that looked large enough to have a vehicle seller. Only Jessica had been here before and she couldn’t tell us much except that it was a quiet place. We decided that made it safe enough for us to split up in two teams: me, Estella and Guppy to get a buggy while Aurora went with Jessica to get supplies. Aurora gave Guppy a sly wink before we parted from each other. “If you ask Estella nicely you might even get some driving lessons on the way home.”

Guppy spinned to Estella, her eyes big and making weird sounds. 

“No might’s about it,” Estella told her firmly, “We own a buggy, everyone knows how to drive it, no exceptions, too useful a skill not to have.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “It’s also damned fun!”

Guppy skipped around, all bubbly. 

“I’m not sure if this crew and ship is the best or worst place for her to grow up,” Aurora commented to Jessica, “But I’m pretty sure she’s loving every second of it.”

“You said she came from the, uh, tunnel rats? If that’s the case, she’s much better off with all of you, no doubt about it. Most of them don’t make it to adulthood. And the ones that do… well, it’s not a bright future”

Aurora agreed and sighed, “Real bad lot, her previous crew, we have unfinished business with their leader, he’s not the kind of guy you turn your back on.”

“Oh, I don’t think I ever saw him. I’ve stitched up my share of the kids, but I did my best to never cross paths.”

“We’ll fill you in on him after our shopping trip,” Aurora promised her. “Hopefully he’s moved on to a more lucrative place, or that convoy of mercs that was riding towards our ship last time scared him off, still curious who hired them and why.”

“The way you reacted, I gather they were not your average sort of mercs. Any theories about them?”

“I figure they’re the kind someone with a lot of money to burn would hire to make an example out of someone, or at least they’re not the small time mercs that just intimidate people, they show up to spill blood.” Estella looked uneasy at the admission.

“But, then, who has that kind of money? And why would all of you… I mean all of us be worth it?”

“That’s the million dollar question isn’t it?” Aurora shrugged. “The usual sorts we make enemies off are run of the mill thugs, they don’t have deep enough pockets to hire that kind of muscle, let alone that convoy that rolled on us when we lifted off the other day.”

“My working theory is rivals of that guy we fixed the Atherium converter for, rival mining corp or whatnot, we’re keeping him in business, that makes us someone to take out so they can go back to cutting his profit margins.” Estella said, then looked over to Aurora “Your talent for fixing and making machines out of nothing is a game changer for a major guild, they might just want to capture you and force you to work for them, make them shiny new toys to outdo the competition?”

“It’s not like I go about bragging about my talent. Hue did most of the repair work on that converter anyway, so they’d have no idea I was involved.”

“And why do they want to cut his profit margins? This is the frontier. It’s wide open for people to come in and set up shop. I don’t see much competing out here.”

“Someone sabotaged his converter, apparently there’s a push to turn this planet into a mainstream supplier instead of the quiet backwater it is right now, or at least that’s what we were told.” Aurora explained. 

“Sam was the one who cut the deal with the owner,” Now I was the one Estella looked at. “Did he seem shifty to you? Like he was hiding something?”

“You know those businessmen. Always have something up their sleeves.”

“But why would there be money in stopping progress out here?” Jessica looked confused. 

“It’s a while ago but I get a gist of mostly resistance from the everyday people, not sure about big money. Maybe there’s something else here that we haven’t been told.”

“I don’t think any of the locals would have the kind of money you’re talking about though.”

“That’s what I’m saying. That converter thing was a done job to me. And then we had that adventure at the asteroid and well, makes everything seem so long ago.” I said. 

“Maybe someone wants what we know about the moon,” Aurora paused, “Did either of you tell anyone about our moon adventure?”

“So would anyone come after you for a job you did awhile ago? The more you all tell me about this, the more confused I get.” Jessica said. 

“Well, I bragged a little to the old boy.” I said after a pause. 

“As in Scorsby?” Jessica asked. 

“Yes, we know each other for a while now and that’s what we do together.”

“Hmm, you told him and then these mercs started showing up, I wonder if he’s behind it all then?” Estella glanced towards the horizon in thought.

“But why would he hire mercs instead of just asking us for details or to show him the place? It’s not like we’re trying to keep it a secret.” Aurora scratched her head in confusion.

“Actually, I thought everyone knows how to get to that junk asteroid, it’s so close. But now that I think about it, I think the old boy’s trying to suss out the route to it?”

“Or the way inside?” Estella nodded. “There’s a fortune to be made in salvage alone, let alone being able to take the place over and turn it on, whoever did that would own the entire star systems trade hub if they could control the moon.”

“Assuming that’s his goal,” Aurora nodded in agreement, “There’s also the possibility he knows what’s down there, and wants to make sure we don’t live long enough to tell anyone else what we’ve found, keeping the secret for later exploitation, or just because he thinks it’s too dangerous.”

“He might just want the asteroid for himself.” Then Estella clarified for my benefit. “I confess it wasn’t exactly easy to locate, if not for the ship flying us there on its own I doubt we’d of never found it.”

“Sounds like our friend Scorsby might not be as nice as we originally thought.” Aurora concluded. 

I thought about it for a while. “The old boy sure is not all up-and-up. That makes him fun in some ways.”

“Being blackmailed by him surely isn’t fun.” Jessica said grimly. 

“True, so when you told him about the asteroid were you two alone? Thinking if someone overheard they might be behind it rather than him.” Estella suggested a different story. 

“We were at his office. I went to him to get a reference to black market doctors. It was that day I met Jessica.”

To be fair his office could be bugged, but the more I hear about his shady dealings the less inclined I am to assume his innocence.” Aurora said. 

“Well, hopefully you’ll keep an open mind when you interrogate him over drinks later.” Jessia said. 

“Life’s no fun. One day you are drinking buddies, the next day you have to cloak and dagger stuff.” I lamented over life’s turns. 

Jessica puts her hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, Sam, I really am. I guess I didn’t realize I was putting you in that position. I’ve been thinking too much of my own situation.”

“It’s not you putting us in that position. Jessica, if Scorsby’s the one hiring Mercs to take us out, your involvement is secondary.” Aurora told her. 

“Still, I can see that it’s a difficult thing. It sounds like you have a lot of history with him.”

I sighed. “It’s not you. I’m too willing to believe, and go over my head all the time. It’s like I’m always drinking, when I’m not.”

“It’s ok, Sam. We all have our moments. I managed to get blackmailed.”

“It’s time to get to work.” I concluded and walked off in a different direction to Aurora and Jessica. I didn’t really know where I was going, I just wanted to leave the conversation. After a while, Estella caught up with me from behind and pointed out that the town was in the other direction. “Unless you know of a good dealer on the outskirts?” She asked me hopefully.

“Uh? Oh, I was… I thought we were meant to split up. Then seemed a good time to.”

“Oh, um yeah..” She smiled awkwardly. “Well the buggy dealer is that away so…” She gestured towards the town. I turned in the direction indicated and started walking. 

“You okay?” Estella asked me after a couple minutes of silence. “I know the whole situation with Scorsby is sketchy, but.. It might still all work out okay?”

“I’m not worried. Sam’ll kick his butt if he’s tryin ta mess with us. Hey Sam, what’s the biggest butt you’ve ever kicked?”

I turned around and showed Guppy a twisted smile. “Too many I’ve kicked, hard to tell which is the biggest.”

She got a big grin on her face. “See Estella, nothin ta worry about.”

“Is it just me, or does that building stick out?” Estella asked me and Guppy, “It looks like it was built by someone other than the original colonists.” I looked at it and couldn’t find anything familiar about it. I did note that it was very defensible and commented so. 

“I’m sure you could take it, Sam.” The kiddo had so much confidence in me that I might have been touched if I was that sort of person. 

“Now I’m curious,” Estella started walking towards it. “Might as well see what’s going on inside, worst they’ll do it tell me to leave when I walk in the lobby. It’s probably a law firm, it looks like the kind of intimidating structure legal vultures would build.” She muttered to herself. 

There was a transparent wall near the entrance but it sort of wavered, which I took to be some kind of shielding mechanism. The door slid open, however, as I followed on the heels of Estella. 

We went straight into a small lobby with a couple of uncomfortable chairs and a well-dressed man sitting behind a desk. There was no logo like you would expect in a corporate building. 

“And who said I’m the only one who wanders off?” I muttered under my breath. My eyes invariably were drawn to the few holes high on the walls that did not look particularly inviting. “May I help you?” the man asked in a cold voice. 

I pretended to cough, signalling for Estella to look up. I saw her glance up and nod slightly. 

“Yes, I’m new to town and learning my way around, is this the right place to inquire about hiring mercenary services?” Estella asked the man, playing it cool. 

His mouth almost disappeared into a thin, lipless line. He glowered at us for a while but finally said, “I’m sorry, but you have come to the wrong place.” He had an accent that’s hard to place. Not strong but noticeable. 

“I see, so what is this place again?”

He sneered in response. “If you don’t know, you have no business here.” He turns away from us as though that’s our cue to leave. 

“Yep, they’re second rate, just like we thought,” Estella gave me a nod as she started walking back towards the door,

I shrugged and followed her out of the building. “We’ll send Aurora back there later, I’m betting she can learn more, she’s better at social graces, I prefer the charm of a cockpit.” Estella said. 

We proceeded on to our actual task- the buggy buying, which went smoothly. We went for a large hover sled style of craft, which burned through most of our funds. 

“That taps us out for savings, time to look for more work once we get this Scorsby business settled.” Estella commented. 

I nodded “Time to go back.”

“Okay Guppy, I’ll drive us part way home, get a feel for our new ride, she handles okay, you’ll take us the other half.” Estella offered Guppy, who giggled. “I can’t wait, Estella.”

Estella fired up the sled and nodded to me. “Ready to head back? Or do you want to chill at a local bar for a bit while I pick up Aurora and Jess and haul their stuff back home?” She asked me. I decided to take her up on the offer and climbed back out.