A Matter of Decorum
Derelik Region — San Matar constellation
Tanoo System — Planet V — Moon 1
Ammatar Consulate Bureau
4 September YC 127
My last mission was not really urgent — as Keita Eslin said, by the time I reached the Ammatar agent, he would already know that I was the one who killed Mizara. Nevertheless, Keita made half the payment conditional on my delivering the message within six hours. I had a suspicion that she simply wanted to get me off her station as soon as possible, which was understandable after Aura’s glorious, and successful, attempt to crack mercenaries’ encrypted files that paralysed the whole station. Whatever Keita’s motives were, I didn’t have any reason to stay in Hek any longer, so soon enough I was on my way to Tanoo. En route, I followed the agent’s advice and made a fresh infomorph backup at one of Sisters of Eve stations.
When I arrived in Tanoo, I was surprised to discover that Ammatar Consulate Bureau station had the same design as Krusual Tribe Bureau. I expected to see a polished, gleaming specimen of Amarrian imperial space architecture, but then I remembered that Ammatar Mandate systems had belonged to Minmatar before they were captured by Amarr. Space stations were built for centuries, so it was not impossible that the one I was approaching had originally been constructed by Minmatar.
Before docking, I checked in GalNet if there was a bounty on my head. I didn’t find any. If Ammatar were hunting me, they were doing it without fanfare. I requested docking permission which was granted. The berthing was completed without an incident, everything was normal. I hesitated in front of the airlock, then shrugged and opened it — there was only one way to find out how much the Ammatars were pissed off by my killing of Mizara.
At the dock entrance, I checked the station directory and was only mildly surprised to discover that Ammatar security department was located in the same part of the station as the Minmatar one in Krusual Tribe Bureau. I found a door with Dovirch Anselm’s nameplate and knocked on it.
“Please come in, Captain Korff,” a soft voice replied immediately.
It looked like I was expected. I opened the door and entered the office.
Security Agent Dovirch Anselm was an austere middle-aged man. His most striking feature was red hair cut in a style which was popular a couple of decades ago among some fringe musicians (pardon the pun). His face was expressionless but somehow I got a feeling that I was disapproved of. Wordlessly, the agent pointed at a guest chair.
I took the seat and said, “It appears, Mr Anselm, that introductions are not necessary.”
“No,” he agreed. “Moreover, I know what you did in Hek and why you have come to me. So we can skip that part too.”
I nodded my head in appreciation, “Impressive. So what will you do? Are you going to arrest me?”
Not a muscle twitched on Dovirch Anselm’s face but he was silent for a few seconds before he replied. I was getting an impression that he expressed his feelings with the rhythm of his speech.
“Arrest you? What for?” the agent finally said.
“For killing Mizara Nefra who, I understand, was in your employ.”
Another pause.
“I do not blame you for Mizara’s death,” Dovirch Anselm said slowly as if explaining something obvious to an especially thick child. “Mizara worked under cover, and being mistaken for a common criminal and attacked was a known occupational hazard for her. The fact that such a hazard manifested itself as Captain Vladimir Korff does not make you personally liable.”
“That’s… very reasonable of you,” I said. “Then, will you help me with The Damsel investigation?”
“Not with The Damsel, no,” the agent said, allowing a note of wry amusement in his voice. “I will help you with the Revelation case. It’s not every day that Amarr Empire loses a dreadnought to an unknown adversary.”
I blinked in confusion, but then remembered that, while The Damsel was the titular ship in the case, there were also two other vessels destroyed, one of which was Amarrian Revelation-class dreadnought. Of course, it made sense that Ammatar were interested in finding out who destroyed the ship belonging to their masters, not to Minmatar.
I was about to thank Agent Anselm for his kind offer of cooperation, when he said, “But first, I have a mission for you.”
I smirked — nothing was free. Even when the interests were aligned there was a price to pay.
“The fact that you destroyed Mizara’s body makes you uniquely qualified for this mission,” the agent continued. “The late Mistress Mizara’s parents entrusted the safety of their child to my lord.”
I cringed when I heard Dovirch refer to someone as his lord. One might argue that the relationships between managers and workers in some Caldari corporations were similar to masters and slaves, but even the lowliest labourer would not consider his boss an innately superior creature. Despite all economic inequality, there were no classes in Caldari society.
Meanwhile, Dovirch Anselm proceeded with the mission briefing, “My lord is fair and generous. He will provide a suitable monetary reparation to the parents but I feel that this situation requires more… delicacy. Take this toy.”
The agent produced a small doll from a drawer and carefully put it on the table in front of me.
“When Mistress Mizara first arrived at my lord’s estate, she had nothing to her name but this doll. Now that the mistress is gone, it is the only physical connection to her left in this world. Her parents will treasure this toy more than all the money my lord will give them. You will deliver this to the family, and will do it with utmost care.”
I felt a shiver run down my spine. I expected some kind of a suicide mission as an indirect punishment, but this…
I swallowed a lump in my throat and asked almost in a whisper, “Do you want me to deliver it personally?”
A long pause.
“No, I would not recommend it. If nothing else, it would be insensitive. Leave it in their mail receptacle and come back to me.”
I picked up the doll and said, “Please send the coordinates to my navigational AI.”
With that, I stood up and was going to leave the room when the agent said, “Ahem, there is a formality to be observed, Captain Korff. You have to sign this.”
Dovirch turned his datapad so that I could read the text on the screen, and pointed at the fingerprint sensor. I looked at the screen in disbelief — it was an official mission brief with a reward.
“Are you going to pay me for this?” I asked incredulously.
“I have told you, Captain Korff, that I need you for a mission,” the agent explained, “and I pay for missions.”
I took a deep breath and said, “I… I don’t want this money. Please transfer them to Mizara’s parents. They don’t need to know who sent them.”
A very long pause.
“I have to admit,” Dovirch Anselm said articulating each word, “that you have surprised me, Captain.”
He did not explain the reason for his surprise but I suspected that I was the first capsuleer who refused the payment.
“Very well,” the agent continued, “be it as you wish.”
He took the datapad and quickly changed the mission reward conditions. I touched the fingerprint sensor with my thumb and accepted the mission.
Derelik Region — San Matar constellation
Tanoo System — Mission location
It turned out that Mizara’s parents lived on an asteroid. They ran a business which could be called “subsistence mining”. A family or a small cooperative would find an asteroid which contained deposits of valuable minerals and establish a base on it. They would use drills and hand-held mining lasers to reach the minerals which could not be extracted by strip mining. The ore would be sold and then they would move to another asteroid, never earning enough money to expand their operations. It was a hard and dangerous life, so I would understand why Mizara’s parents would send their daughter as a ward, or even as a servant, to Ammatar lord’s household. What they probably didn’t expect was that she would be trained as a combat pilot and a spy, but of course no one gave them a choice.
I looked at the base — it was pretty modest: a habitation module, a communication tower, a warehouse but not much else. There were navigational beacons but I didn’t see any ships around. Chances were that they didn’t even own a ship.
As I approached the asteroid, I got an incoming call from the base. I ignored it — the last thing I wanted was looking Mizara’s mother in the eye and telling her that I brought her deceased daughter’s doll. I approached their mail receptacle and used the tractor beam to place the sealed container with the toy into it. Then I turned around and warped away.