Dal Segno al Fine
Genesis region — Ekrin constellation
Sosh System — Adani Yusev’s Raven
22 October YC 127
Agent Yusev called me as soon as I landed on the grid where his Raven was anchored. He was a man of few words and fewer emotions but he looked agitated as he asked, “Have you got him? Is he alive?”
“Affirmative to both,” I replied.
“Show me.”
“I can just transfer Dagan to your hold and you can inspect him yourself.”
“No,” objected Adani. “As per our agreement with Sister Alitura, Dagan must remain on board of your ship until he is transferred into Sisters’ custody.”
“As you wish,” I shrugged and shared the livestream from the CCTV camera pointed at the viewport of Dagan’s escape pod.
The agent stared at the screen for a few seconds, then nodded and said, “Yes, it’s him. I am closing the mission and you’ll receive your reward shortly.”
“That’s nice but what am I supposed to do with this bastard?” I asked.
“You must deliver him to Sisters of Eve.”
“You mean, just drop him off at SOE Bureau in Arnon?”
“No, the transfer will occur in space, at a secret location. I, as well as agents from Amarr, Minmatar and Gallente, will be present there to witness the handover. You will be paid 1,000,000 kredits for a successful completion of the operation, and 176,000 more if you finish it in the next,” Adani looked at his watch, “4 hours and 42 minutes.”
I tried to whistle, but that was impossible in pod goo. It was an impressive reward by the standards of Level 1 agents.
“That’s a lot of money,” I said eyeing the agent suspiciously. “Where is the drop-off point? Somewhere in null-sec?”
“No, it’s actually in this system. The reward is high because all four empires chipped in to ensure that the transfer goes smoothly. Specifically, you are expected to keep Dagan alive, to transfer him directly to Sisters of Eve and to keep the details of the vessel which will collect Dagan confidential. Oh, and there is one more request from Sister Alitura — whatever happens, do not shoot.”
I frowned, “Does she expect trouble?”
“I don’t know. Do you accept the terms?”
I thought for a moment. Keeping Dagan alive wouldn’t be my choice, but giving him to Sisters of Eve was the next best option.
“I do,” I confirmed.
“Excellent,” said Adani. “I am transferring the coordinates of the handover point to your navigational AI. I’ll see you there shortly.”
After that, the connection ended and the Raven warped away.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” I muttered. “Aura, have you got the coords?”
“Yep,” confirmed Aura, “the location is about two AUs from us. What do you want me to do if… there is trouble.”
“Eject Dagan’s pod to space.”
Aura raised her eyebrows, “You will let him go?”
“No. It’s just that I can’t shoot him while he is sitting snugly in the belly of my destroyer.”
Aura chuckled, “Good point.”
I started the engine and warped to the coordinates provided by Agent Yusev.
Genesis region — Ekrin constellation
Sosh System — Mission location
When I arrived at the mission location, the only thing I saw was an acceleration gate. That made sense. If someone wanted privacy in space, a deadspace pocket was an ideal place for that. Such pockets could only be accessed through acceleration gates which could be programmed to let only trusted ships pass though it. I approached the gate and tried to activate it. Apparently, Kaukokärki was one of the trusted ships as the gate started glowing red and, a few seconds later, flung us into the deadspace.
We travelled 26,974 kilometres in a few seconds and found ourselves near a mint-green gas cloud. It didn’t look like any useful gas I learned about while studying Gas Cloud Harvesting. I wondered if it was corrosive or otherwise dangerous. Then I noticed some vague outlines in the cloud and sent my camera drones to taker a closer look. As the drone approached the cloud, the layers of gas became more and more transparent, and finally an incredible image appeared on my screen. There were four battleships, one from each empire: Minmatar Tempest, Caldari Raven, Gallente Dominix and Amarr Armageddon. They floated together in the void and they didn’t fight. I could never have imagined that Minmatar and Amarr battleships separated by a point-blank distance would not be at each other’s throats! As I said before, Dagan had a real talent — he managed to piss off empires to such a degree that even mortal enemies had united against him.
There was one other reason for the uneasy truce — an SOE Wreathe-class transport ship which floated in the middle of the circle formed by the battleships. Sisters persuaded each empire that, as a neutral party, they would be best-placed to take custody of Dagan. He possessed valuable knowledge about drone design and manufacturing which exceeded even the expertise of Gallente companies, such as CreoDron. Naturally, every empire wanted to obtain that knowledge. At the same time, they didn’t want any other empire to get it. The Sisters of EVE proposed a compromise, and all the empires sent their battleships to ensure that the other parties stuck to the terms of the deal.
While I was gawking at the scene, Sister Alitura’s face appeared on the comms screen.
“Greetings, Captain Korff,” she said.
“Good day, Sister,” I replied.
Looking at me with a strange expression, she said, “We’ve come a long way together, Captain, and finally we are at the end of our journey. Let’s make sure that we don’t stumble at the last step. Simply deposit Dagan in the Wreathe Prison Transport, and your quest will be over.”
“Erm… Cargo transfer is hard to botch, you know. Is there a reason why you think I might ‘stumble’?”
“It should be a straightforward task, Captain, provided you stay calm and do not fire.”
I snorted, “You can’t expect me to be calm heading into the circle of four battleships each of which would rather kill Dagan than let others get their hands on him. But I promise not to fire at them.”
“Good,” said Alitura ignoring my sarcasm. “Whatever happens, proceed with the transfer and don’t get distracted.”
I thought that I couldn’t promise that. It was stupid to fire at battleships but if any of them targeted me I wouldn’t be going on with the transfer — I would be warping the fuck out. With that cheery thought, I started my engine and flew towards the transport.
I almost reached the circle of the battleships when Aura yelled, “Captain! Rogue drones!”
I quickly looked at the Overview window — there was nothing. Then Aura changed the angle of one of the camera drones… and I gasped. Right above me, enveloped in a cloud of red gas, floated a humongous rogue drone hive. I swear it wasn’t there when we jumped to the deadspace pocket, but I was so focussed on the battleships that I didn’t notice when that hive appeared.
My first reaction was to flee. I attacked rogue drone hives before but they were half-finished and did not have many defenders. This one looked ready for business and I didn’t want to be its customer.
My panicky train of thought was interrupted by Alitura’s voice, “Captain, as I said before, you have nothing to fear. Please complete the transfer.”
I looked at the overview again. There were no hostiles and no one was targeting me. The hive was classified as a large structure and was coloured neutral grey. Having realised that I was not in immediate danger, I supressed my impulse to warp to a random celestial and stayed the course.
“Captain,” said Aura, “you have an incoming call.”
“Can it wait?” I grumbled.
“I don’t know. It’s from Dagan.”
I blinked in surprise. Being locked in his pod, Dagan could not talk to me through CCTV cameras in my hold. However, the pod had standard comms equipment and, if Dagan wanted, he could establish a radio connection to my ship.
“OK,” I said, “put him through.”
Dagan’s face appeared on the comms screen. It looked like it was chiseled from granite — angular and impassive. The only feature that animated it was his eyes; they burned with suppressed anger and drilled into me.
“This is not over, Vladimir Korff. Not for you. Not for me,” he said, biting off each word.
Without waiting for my reply he ended the connection.
Aura and I were silent for a few seconds, then Aura noted grimly, “He didn’t call you ‘Captain’.”
“No,” I agreed. “He took it personally.”
Aura raised an eyebrow, “Shall I eject his pod?”
I smiled sadly, “Thank you for the kind thought, but no. I just can’t betray Alitura’s trust after everything we’ve been through.”
While we were talking, Kaukokärki closed the distance to the Wreathe transport and we were ready for the transfer. I opened the external cargo hold door and extracted Dagan’s pod using a tractor beam. The beam moved the pod across the space between us and the transport and deposited it into Wreathe’s hold. I deactivated the beam and the Sister’s ship closed its cargo door.
Dagan’s message and the transfer operation held all my attention and I nearly forgot about the Rogue Drone hive. When I glanced at the screen where my camera drone projected the hive’s image, I found it empty. The only evidence that the hive was there was a slowly dissipating cloud of red gas.
“Where did it go?” I asked Aura.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
“Can’t you check the footage?”
“I did,” said Aura and played back the last 30 seconds.
The screen was filled with static. I looked at it with a mixed feeling of dread and wonderment. How could such an enormous space structure simply disappear? For that matter, how could it appear out of nothingness in the first place? And how did it manage to disable my cameras? Dagan knew the answers but he was out of reach now. While I stared at the empty screen, a call came from the Wreathe. I accepted it and saw Sister Alitura looking solemnly at me from the comms screen.
“Thank you for everything you have done, Captain Korff – for your dedication to justice and unwavering determination to see this matter through. Where others might have despaired and abandoned the case, you doggedly pursued every possible lead, however tenuous or unreliable. I would never have been able to catch Dagan without your assistance.
“Return to Agent Yusev and tell him Dagan will no longer trouble the empires. Farewell, Captain. Perhaps there is hope for your kind yet.”
Alitura terminated the connection and the Wreathe warped away.
“What did she mean by ‘your kind’?” asked Aura. “Caldari?”
I shook my head, “No. She meant capsuleers. I don’t know what grudge she holds against us, but she seems to harbour a deep hatred for all pod pilots.”
“Probably not anymore or, at least, not for all,” Aura said, her eyes smiling.
“Probably,” I muttered noncommittally.
“So, what do we do now, Cap?”
“Now,” I said, “we go home.”
“Home? And where might that be?”
“I am a capsuleer. All of New Eden is my home. But right now, I would settle for our base in Tsuguwa. Plot us a course, will you?”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” Aura replied. “Warp drive active.”