A Stranger’s Face
Essense region – Peccanouette constellation
Arnon System – Planet IX – Moon 3
Sisters of EVE Bureau station — Sister Alitura’s Office
15 September YC 127
“Good morning, Sister. What have you got for me?” I said, entering Sister Alitura’s office.
“Good morning, Captain,” the agent said and pointed at a huge container in the corner of the room. “This.”
“What’s that?” I asked, eyeing the box suspiciously.
“Station air-filter replacements,” Alitura replied deadpan. “I need you to deliver them to Bank of Luminaire Depository station in Aydoteaux.”
I blinked in surprise.
“What the hell? I thought you had something related to The Damsel investigation for me. If you need to deliver station supplies, don’t waster my time, call a courier — it will be cheaper too.”
A glint appeared in Sister Alitura’s eye.
“I’ve told you, Captain — there are missions that only you can do for me.”
“I know, and they are The Damsel missions. Now, tell me how fixing air filtering in the Depository will advance our investigation.”
Alitura smiled, “Not all filters are made the same. One of them contains a little extra — a microchip with a very special payload.”
I winced, “Okay, I get it — it is not a run-of-the-mill station supply delivery. Still?”
“That payload,” the agent continued, “will be covertly loaded to all Empires’ civil identity registers to fix a small mistake in their records, to wit, the fact that biometric information of Tahaki Karin, a ship engineer from The Damsel, identified a wrong person.”
I took a long moment to digest this information, then the penny dropped.
“Ah! You mean that you are not fixing an error but introducing one, right?”
Sister Alitura smiled beatifically, “Do you have any other questions, Captain?”
“So, is it some kind of witness protection program?”
The agent thought for a while, then said, “No, it’s not. As you are going to be involved in this operation anyway, it won’t hurt to tell you the details. When you saved Tahaki Karin from the Heartbreak wreck and delivered her to us, we tried to help her hide from whoever was trying to kill her. Surprisingly, Ms Karin rejected our assistance, giving us no reason. Initially, we acquiesced to her wishes and let her go. Tahaki’s behaviour, however, raised a few red flags, and we dug a bit deeper into her past. What we found was that she was a member of Society of Conscious Thought.”
“Like Dagan?” I gasped.
“Yes, like Dagan. Fortunately, we made that discovery before Ms Karin left our station. We promptly took her in our custody where she has remained ever since.”
I frowned, “I understand that it looks suspicious but, by itself, SoCT membership is not a crime. You may be detaining an innocent person which is not lawful even by Gallentean standards.”
Sister Alitura’s eyes hardened as she replied, “Gallentean standards, Captain, give corporations a significant leeway in managing order on their space stations. If Ms Tahaki Karin is found innocent of any crime, she will be released with our sincerest apologies.”
I was silent for a few moments, considering if I approved of such an approach. I wasn’t sure that I did but I couldn’t think of a strong objection either.
Finally, I said, “OK, so what is that ‘mistake’ you are fixing?”
“We are just changing Ms Karin’s fingerprint, retina and DNA records to match those of our field agent who will be ‘released’ from our custody instead of the engineer. The agent will then infiltrate a group of Dagan’s corp mates whom we found at a nearby station. Hopefully, she will be able to discover Dagan’s location and find out more about his role in The Damsel incident.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something, Sister? People who don’t know Tahaki may rely on the biometric checks to identify her but, surely, there will be SoCT members who know her personally. All they need to do is look at her face to realise she is a fraud.”
The agent smirked, “And that is why, Captain Korff, it took us six months to prepare this operation. During that time, our agent underwent a series of plastic surgeries which made her virtually indistinguishable from Ms Karin. And now, we need your help to fix things which cannot be fixed by a scalpel.”
“Right,” I said, finally getting the full picture. “And whom shall I deliver this crate to?”
“That,” said the agent, “is not something you need to know. The delivery is anonymous and will be retrieved by a bearer of a security token. Whoever they are, they’ll know what to do with the cargo.”
There was nothing else to discuss. I called a courier drone, loaded the crate on it and returned to the docks.
Everyshore region — Elalan Constellation
Aydoteaux system — Planet VII — Moon 20
Bank of Luminaire Depository station
Half an hour later I was docked at the Bank of Luminaire Depository Station in Aydoteaux system. As expected, the crate went through the customs without a hitch — after all, there were dozens of air filter deliveries each day and none of them deserved more than a cursory glance. You might think that a Caldari destroyer delivering a single box of filters could have raised a few eyebrows, but customs officers had seen weirder shit done by capsuleers, and it would take a lot to surprise them. To give you an idea, I’d heard a story about a battleship which flew from Mastakomon to Balanaz — that’s 74 jumps! — just to sell the excess of their Fedos for a better price.
As I was pondering whether I should spend some time in Aydoteaux system or return back to the SoE station, I got a call from Sister Alitura.
The agent confirmed that the mission was completed successfully and added, “Captain, our friends will need a few days to correct the error that we discussed. In the meantime, I would be much obliged if you helped one of my colleagues, Alpedurch Soulobert. He works in SoE Distribution Division in Sheroo, just 6 jumps away from your current location.”
I grimaced, “Distribution Division? I don’t fancy a courier job. One is enough for today.”
“Captain Korff, trust me, it is anything but. I don’t know the details but I was given to understand that the mission will require a combat ship. And if this is not enough to interest you, Agent Soulobert said that a successful completion would guarantee a significant SoE standing boost for the contractor.”
“Okay,” I said, “now we are talking.”
A good standing with any corporation was nothing to sneeze at — it opened the way to higher-level, more lucrative missions.
“But if you want to get this mission, you have to go to Sheroo right now,” Alitura warned me.
“Already undocking,” I replied. “Send the coordinates to Aura.”
“Got them, Cap,” Aura said immediately. “Warp drive active.”