Chivvying a Chef
Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Planet IX – Moon 3
Sisters of EVE Bureau station
16 March YC 127
Sister Alitura followed me into the office and closed the door behind her. She did not offer me a chair and remained standing herself. Obviously, the agent took a leaf out of my book which brought a knowing smile to my face.
“Captain,” Alitura started drily, “we received information from Mr Centrien about the ship’s cook, Mr Aubrei Azil, but there is a problem. It appears that he has shipped out as well.”
That new intel made me frown, “There is no way three of them could get reassignments so soon after an incident like this. I think they are being shuffled through the system so that we don’t find them.”
The agent opened her mouth to retort, then checked herself. Her face assumed a thoughtful expression, and she gazed into the distance for a while, considering what I had said.
Still not looking at me, she nodded and said slowly, “Yes, that figures… And then there are the drones…”
I narrowed my eyes, “Drones? What drones?”
Alitura emerged from her reverie with a start, “Never mind the drones. Your task is to find Mr Azil and bring him to me. Do you accept the mission?”
I extended my index finger instead of an answer.
Alitura brought her datapad in contact with the finger, confirming the mission, and dismissed me.
Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Mission location
Luckily, the former Damsel chef was still in Arnon. The coordinates given by Alitura led me to a small cluster of asteroids. As soon as I arrived I received a message in the local channel.
“Good day, Captain Korff. Captain Elen Vorell of the Cinder Drift is here. Could you give me a hand? The damn things took out my propulsion. I’m dead in the water.”
I knitted my brow, confused. Cinder Drift was the name of Azil’s transport but the overview did not show any ships on the grid, so I was not sure where the message came from. I did a double take and noticed a grey container icon in the window labelled Cinder Drift. It must have been pretty badly damaged for Neocom not to identify it as a ship.
“Happy to help, Captain Vorell,” I replied, “but what are those ‘damn things’ you are talking about?”
“The bloody Rogue Drones! Wait, where are they?”
I was about to ask for further information when two Infester Alvis and one Splinter Alvi appeared on the overview. Apparently, they powered themselves down behind the biggest asteroid and were waiting in ambush.
The time for questions was over and I said, “Hang tight, Captain. Let me take care of these pests.”
Elen Vorell snorted, “As if I could do anything else. Don’t worry about us. Go get’em!”
Infester Alvis were only 23 km away, so they started firing as soon as they acquired target locks on me. That was good. My main goal was not to avoid the damage but to keep their attention away from the crippled transport. I didn’t waste time either, targeting all three of them at once. Making a split-second decision, I resolved not to spread the fire across all hostiles, focusing it instead on the closest Infester. It was important to reduce their combined firepower as soon as possible, in case they decided to attack Cinder Drift.
Two cycles of one-fifties and the Infester was gone. Another two cycles and the second Infester exploded. While I was busy de-infesting the system, Splinter Alvi had gained on me and started harassing my shield, not very successfully. The first two shots glanced off and the third missed me completely. By that time, my railguns tracked the rogue drone down and fired in rapid succession, landing a solid hit. Then the Splinter was upon me and my railgun tracking became less effective, but three more volleys finished it off.
Aura, who was monitoring the damage log, shook her head in disbelief, “What kind of peashooters do they mount these days? Even when that Splinter hit us slap-bang in the middle, we lost only five hit points.”
I was preparing a smart reply when another group of drones popped up on the overview. So I did the next smartest thing, namely, targeted and engaged the newcomers. They were the same old Infesters and Splinters, and it took me only 25 seconds to dispatch all of them.
“Wow, that was impressive,” said Captain Vorell. “I wish I had a one-fifty installed on my Heron.”
Heron? I was surprised. Herons were scout ships employed by the Navy for reconnaissance. I then realised that since I warped in I didn’t really have time to look at my surrounds. To rectify the omission, I focused my camera drones on Cinder Drift. Indeed, it was a Heron-class frigate but without Navy insignia.
“Do you even know how to use one-fifties?” I asked sceptically.
From my own capsuleer experience I knew that piloting a ship and firing guns required totally different skills.
“Nah, the Navy never allowed me to learn anything more serious than a Gatling gun. Said higher calibres were not required for scouting. But my Gunney, he served on Cormorants like yours and knows his way around one-fifties. Well, Tech I variants, at least.”
My scepticism was replaced by respect – it appeared that I was talking to a real combat pilot.
“So you did fly this bird in the Navy? What’s the story?”
Captain Vorell shrugged her shoulders, “A rather usual one, I reckon. Worked my way up the ladder to the Captain rank. Was on multiple deployments to contested systems in low-sec. All was going well until that day in Teskanen, right after we lost it to Feds in YC 122. I was patrolling the ‘roid belts, when out of nowhere appeared a Gallentean capsuleer and locked me before I could move a finger to activate the cloak. One of those damn insta-lockers, I guess. Anyway, before I knew it, I was scrammed and hit by Tech II blasters. My scout fit didn’t have a chance against an Ares, so we just had enough time to run to escape pods before my ship would have exploded.
“Then one of those curious things happened – the Heron did not explode. One of the blaster hits damaged something in the power grid which made the ship look very dead. After that, the Gallentean lost interest and warped away. When the hull was towed to the nearby Navy Assembly Plant, the techs discovered that it was one-in-a-million hit which managed to disable the grid, the capacitor and the CPU in one go! It was mostly broken conduits which were not hard to replace. Unfortunately for the Navy, and fortunately for me, the Ares also managed to damage the core subsystem which provided bonuses to scanner probe strength. It could not be repaired and, without the bonus, the Heron became a half-arsed frigate which had no place in the Navy doctrine.
“The Navy decided to write it off, and I was quick to take her off their hands at the price of scrap metal. Then I got a few mates together; we chipped in and repaired the bird. I changed her name, re-registered her as a commercial vessel and started taking transportation contracts.”
I looked at the scorched hull of the immobilised Heron and chuckled, “I fly a Heron myself, it’s a good ship, but maybe you should reconsider her name.”
Elen Vorell raised her eyebrows quizzically.
“I mean, it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy – you are burnt to cinder and you are adrift,” I explained.
“Oh, that!” laughed Elen. “That’s nothing. You should have seen her after that encounter with the Ares! We’ll fix her again once we get towed to a nearby station.”
While we were talking, I kept my eye on the overview in case Rogue Drones sent reinforcements, but all was quiet. It was time to get to my mission objective.
“By the way, Captain,” I said, “do you have Mr Aubrei Azil onboard?”
“Yes, I do. Are you here to pick him up?”
“Yes, I am.”
“You chose a strange place for a rendezvous, Captain Korff.”
I frowned, “Me?”
Captain Vorell looked suspiciously at me, “My ship was chartered to deliver Mr Azil to this place from which he would be picked up for the next leg of his journey. If you didn’t choose this place, how did you know that Mr Azil would be here?”
That new intel put the situation in a completely different light – someone sent Aubrei Azil to a drone-infested asteroid cluster where he would have waited for a connecting flight which would never arrive.
“Oh, I see what you mean,” I drawled, buying time to think up a plausible reply. “The fact is that I didn’t choose this place. I was also chartered to pick up and transport Mr Azil, and my employer gave me these coordinates. If I had my way, I would never have chosen a drone nest as a rendezvous point.”
Elen Vorell relaxed and chuckled, “Those landlubbers will be the death of me. But not today.”
“Do you have a docking tube?”
“I surely do. What kind of transport ship would I be without one? Had to install it after I bought this wreck.”
“Oh, good. I haven’t got to that yet, so my last passenger had to be jettisoned in an EVA suit.”
We laughed together.
“Anyway,” I continued, “please extend the tube and be welcome aboard Kaukokärki with Mr Azil and your crew.”
“Wait a moment,” said Captain Vorell, “thank you for the invitation but my crew and I aren’t going anywhere.”
“But your ship is crippled and Rogue Drones may return at any moment. Let me take you to the nearest station where you can hire a tow ship.”
“No, if we abandon the ship, it will be considered a legitimate salvage for any scrapper. I can’t risk it – this ship is all I have. We have to stay and defend it.”
I paused to think over this dilemma. On the one hand, I couldn’t in all conscience leave Captain Vorell and her crew to their fate. On the other hand, I had an urgent mission to complete. I didn’t see how I could achieve both objectives. Unless…
“Look, Captain,” I said, “if you have to stay on your ship, I respect that. I will hang around and protect you until the tow ship arrives.”
Elen Vorell laughed bitterly, “Thank you for your offer, Captain Korff, but I can’t afford it. It may take the tow ship days to arrive. With capsuleer rates being what they are, I’ll have to sell Cinder Drift to pay off my debt to you.”
“Don’t worry, Captain. The escort is on the house. As to the wait, let me see what I can do about it. I need to make a call, and in the meantime, please send Mr Azil to my ship.”
Two minutes later Sister Alitura’s face appeared on my comms screen.
“Good day, Sister,” I said jovially, “I have good news and bad news.”
“Go on,” Alitura replied curtly, not expressing a preference for the order of the delivery.
“The good news is that I found Aubrei Azil and he is being transferred to my ship as we speak.”
I made a pause. No reaction.
“The bad news is that I am stuck here guarding a damaged ship, and I don’t know when they can be towed to safety.”
Alitura frowned, “Just get them onboard and deliver them to my station. We’ll take care of the rest.”
“Well, the thing is, they don’t want to leave the ship. And I can’t abandon them unprotected in this dangerous area.”
“Then it’s their problem,” fumed Alitura. “According to Space Rescue Law, you only have to save lives, not the property. If they refuse to be saved, then you have no further obligation.”
“But in this case I choose to take on such an obligation. There is no law that prohibits me from doing it.”
“But your first obligation is to me. You signed up for the mission, and you have to complete it ASAP!”
I raised my finger, “Uh-uh. The mission does not have a time limit. There is, admittedly a time bonus, but I am happy to forego it, if this is what it takes to save lives. Anyway, if you are in such a rush to interrogate Mr Azil, I can put you through to him, once he is aboard.”
“It’s against the protocol,” hissed Alitura. “I have to talk to the witness face-to-face in a secure location.”
I narrowed my eyes, “If you care so much about protocols, then why don’t you make sure that your rescue protocol is executed in the most expeditious manner?”
“Our rescue protocol only covers saving lives, as required by Law.”
“Then it’s your problem,” I shrugged my shoulders and ended the connection.
Thirty minutes later, a hauler with Sisters of Eve emblem warped to the grid, scooped Cinder Drift and transported it to SOE Bureau station.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” I chuckled.
“Are you talking about Alitura or yourself?” asked Aura.
“I guess, both,” I replied and winked at her. “It takes two to dance.”
Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Planet IX – Moon 3
Sisters of EVE Bureau station
Having delivered Aubrei Azil to Sisters, I went to a bar and had two pints of Amarrian stout which I now considered obligatory before facing Sister Alitura. I was halfway through the second pint when she called me and invited for debriefing. I took my time to savour the taste and walked leisurely to her office. As soon as I entered, Alitura was up on her feet and growling at me.
“Why are you always such a trouble, Captain Korff? Why can’t you complete a single mission without causing a drama? I do not understand why am I still working with you!”
I smiled nonchalantly, “Because of my good looks and a cool ride?”
“No, it’s because my supervisor insists but I don’t know why.”
A-ha, there it was. Alitura just confirmed that it was my message to her supervisor that produced the desired effect.
“But I am sure she will change her mind,” sniggered Alitura, “when I inform her how negligent you were in the execution of your last mission. And I’ll make sure that it is your last mission with SOE.”
My face flushed red with anger, “You dare talk to me about negligence? You, who wilfully concealed vital information from me?”
“I haven’t concealed anything!”
“During the mission briefing you mentioned drones. When I asked you to elaborate, you refused. And guess what I encountered at the mission location – Rogue Drones!”
“B… but I didn’t mean Rogue Drones,” stammered Alitura, “although they could be, but I didn’t know for sure… I didn’t have full information. It was just a guess.”
Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself and said, “You have to give me all information relevant to the mission. If you don’t have full confidence in its veracity, tell me it’s a risk, and I’ll decide how to interpret it. Knowing what type of hostiles to expect during the mission is vital for its success. You were lucky that I was well-prepared for the encounter with Rogue Drones, but by failing to mention that possibility you endangered the lives of Mr Azil and Cinder Drift crew.”
Sister Alitura had a look of a rabbit lectured by a python.
I thought that she had had enough and finished in a gentler tone, “We all make mistakes and we learn from them. Let’s not bother your supervisor with the details of this mission and move straight to the point where you tell me what you learned from Mr Azil and what our next steps are. How’s that?”
Alitura swallowed hard and gave me a short nervous nod.