Into the Black

To say that Don Veta was pleased to see us was only partly true. He was, of course, very happy to see his daughter again. He was less pleased to see Jackson still drawing breath, instead of having his accident. That changed when I informed him of how I found his daughter, and what had been done to her. When I told him that I brought Jackson to him for a father’s retribution, he smiled at me, just barely covering his rage. “You have done well. Whenever you are on Primo, come and see me. Do you know where you will be going next?”

“Well, I’m looking for a quiet yard where I can have some improvements made to my ship, and maybe another I ‘found’. After that, I’ll be heading through the Gate, probably out of Imperial space.”

The Don nodded, and said, “Well, as thanks for bringing this scum to me, I will do two things for you. First, here are the coordinates of an outpost where you can get the work you need done. My name will allow you into the shipyards, since they usually only work with trusted clients. Second, I will give you a letter of recommendation. Take it to Elnaril Triswynn on the knelfi world of Diymia, and he will know you are a trustworthy sort. He may also have work for you, should you be interested.”

I bowed my head to the Don, and said, “Thank you, sir, and may your ‘discussion’ with Mr. Jackson bring you everything you wish to hear.” The Don laughed at that, and had one of his men bring us a bottle of wine on our way out. Just so he could say to his men that he gave us something for our trouble. The real rewards were, of course, the stuff we’d stolen, and a place to get our ships modded, if I decided to keep Jackson’s ship.

Said ship, when we found it, was a pretty sweet little thing. As the title said, it was a light shuttle, but that hardly did it justice. This little beauty had been put together for the sole purpose of moving about as quietly as possible, and then making a loud noise when you got there. It was as much a ‘light shuttle’ as a battleship was a ‘large boat’. This was an Imperial Navy assault shuttle. Checking the files I had access to, it seemed that this was an old surplus model that had been sold, unarmed, after the last war, twenty years ago. I don’t know where Jackson got his hands on it, but he’d updated the shields and engines to current military specs, and he’d gotten a full stealth setup on it. The little thing wouldn’t carry much, but it was small enough to fit within the Raven’s cargo bay.

We’d stopped by the Raven before heading this way to unload the goodies (and the new slaves) and pick up the package for the Sunside bigwig. I put the package in the shuttle, and told the others to head back to the ship, except for Shearah. A We’d meet them in orbit, after flying the shuttle, which I named Stiletto (instead of the Willing Wench, as it had been named), to make the delivery.