Wedged in between massive towering factories and shipworks, the Shrapnel Club had all the looks of a crashed niktu cruiser – the entrance sign flickered with loose wiring, the walls crawled with soot, grease and erratic plasma burns, even the main sewage drain out front consistently blocked up, leaving large puddles of foul garbage water standing about. Add to that the tendency of the Korban district to always attract the dingy, poor and desperate masses, and you have a location on Param Eon that even matu rats and flybacks stayed away from.
When the entrance to the Shrapnel Club slid open and a robed figure walked out, they were sure to give a quick scan to the wet streets and humid air. With nothing but a few vagrants lying about in tossed garbage, the robed figure strode away from the bar and entered a darkened alley. Once there, the man pushed back the hood to reveal his face – bearded with a green sash tied around his forehead.
With a dash, Morigin removed the dark brown cloak and approached an elderly man in a dirty white tunic sleeping amidst a cache of empty hydronal barrels. The man had a long grey beard with a couple of scars emblazoned on his eye and cheek. He wore an ancient leather belt and attached to it was a cylindrical device that crackled with the occasional spark when he moved.
Morigin bent down to the man and brushed his hand across his face. The old man woke with a start and tried to lean up, but had no strength to do so. Reaching out, Morigin lifted him to his feet and helped put the dark robe over him.
“Oh, dear son,” said the old man. “Thank you. But I have nothing in return.”
Morigin helped the old man back to the ground and said, “You owe me nothing.”
With a crotchety hand, the old man reached to his belt, took his sparking device in his hand and reached out to Morigin with it. “Take it,” the man said. “It has served me well, but I am afraid it is damaged beyond repair. The crystals inside have long since died. Take it as a token for your kindness.”
Morigin took the device and said, “Thank you and rest peacefully.”
As he left the old man, Morigin pressed a button on the device only to get jolt of electricity pumped into his hand. “They don’t make them like they used to,” Morigin said and stuffed the device into his long-coat pocket. Then he ran his finger down the curve of his ear and touched his chin to activate his COM. “Jade?”
“Did you get the kor?”
Morigin tightened his long-coat around him as he walked and said, “Yes, I did.”
“Head a click north to the Erip Mav shipworks,” said Jade. “Dock 1173.”
“Got it,” Said Morigin.
Walking the docks at night in Param Eon looked more like a celebration than deep bruteiron hull construction – above him, in shallow orbit, enormous cruisers hung, partially completed, the snap-fire of helios welders crafting metal into vessels of power. Morigin looked up and smirked. He thought of Telo and how they met. A scrappers pub on Spectre. After a three day shift without sleep, Morigin joined some co-workers in a little celebratory moir wine. His hobby project was done. “I’m calling her the Jade Tendril, boys,” he had said. “Because I built in some custom surprises for anyone trying to take her.”
After nine bottles, Morigin grew belligerent and picked a fight with a Perado, and even though they’re small, they have one mean stinger. Morigin took two shots of that stinger – one in the leg and another in the neck. He took enough bioelectricity in those stings, he would later feel them every time a storm brewed on any planet.
But Telo found him outside that pub and nursed him back to health. “Scrapping is a waste of time,” he told Morigin as he changed his bandages. “Battleships, technology, the COM. It means the end, young man. What do you think the GSA is fighting the Slavos for? Freedom? Peace? No. Nothing as patriotic as that. Power. It’s all a quest for control over the other. No one believes in anything but power. Faith and God died many millennia ago. But I intend to put an end to that. And I can show you ways of making a larger difference – making a life for yourself than just being a scrapper.”
As Morigin entered dock 1173, he looked up to see shift shuttles arriving from orbit, no doubt loaded to the gills with workers ready for shore leave. He smiled at the memory of Telo, privately thanking him for saving his life, even changing it. As he approached the Jade Tendril, the running lights fluttered to life and the entrance ramp opened with a great whir.
Walking aboard his beloved ship, Morigin stopped by an empty display case and opened it. He took the sparking device from his long-coat and placed it carefully into the holding pins. He looked up at the cutlass gleaming from its post above the entrance to the cabin. “Don’t worry, old glory,” he said. “You’re still my favorite.”
“You’re not talking to your relics again, are you?” asked Jade.
Morigin shut and locked the case, then said, “Don’t worry baby, you’re my favorite.”
“You just said that to the cutlass,” Jade said.
Morigin strode into the cabin, removing the kor from his long-coat and said, “Let’s take a look at this.” He inserted the kor into a data port, turned around and removed his long-coat. Laying it over his seat, he added, “For selfish reasons, I hope it was a complete siphon.”
He watched the viewport of the ship light up in streams of data. As the data streams opened up, Jade systematically sorted, named and filed all the data from the siphon kor. As Morigin watched he saw a file structure developing on the screen and soon it reached the end of the page, only it didn’t stop, it kept scrolling with new files. Before long, he couldn’t track the creation of the files – the viewport was a flurry, creating the file structure.
“We’re at 35% capacity,” Jade said. “It looks like they took all of it.” The file list moved faster and faster. Morigin stood and watched even though his eyes couldn’t register anything on the screen. “43%...51%...59%...67%...69%”
Morigin finally sat down in his chair and watched the processing from the corner of his eye. “You don’t really have to list off the percentages. Just let me know when you’re done.”
“73%...88%...92%...99%” Jade listed with the smallest hint of a snicker.
“Very funny,” Morigin said.
“125%”
“It’s not funny anymore.”
“143%” Jade said. “No, I’m not being funny. 159%.”
Morigin stood up and watched the data download again, the file structure continuing to grow beyond comprehension. “What does this all mean?”
“173%” said Jade. “The human cortex can hold approximately 11.713 krayts of information. We’re at almost 19 krayts and it’s still going.”
“A standard kor only holds 20,” Morigin said.
“182%” Jade said. And like that the date stream ended. Only a blinking cursor at the bottom of the list made any movement. “The kor didn’t have enough space to hold all of Telo’s memory.”
Morigin rubbed his bearded chin and stared at the blinking cursor. “How could a human hold almost two times more information than his body could hold?”
“Implants?” asked Jade.
Morigin stood up and began pacing in front of the viewport. “No. He wasn’t the tech type. Not keen on biological upgrades.”
“Perhaps his brainpan was abnormally large,” said Jade. “From what I’ve heard, biology can at some times be ‘miraculous and mysterious.’ I mean, you’ve said it yourself that beings don’t need technology to expand their minds, open up their abilities. Right?”
Morigin looked down at his feet and then looked up at the viewport. “This is beyond biology, Jade.” Pushing a button by the data port, Morigin ejected the memory kor. He held it up to the interior lights and looked deeply at it. Then he muttered under his breath, “The old man as right.”
“What was that, Captain?”
Morigin put on his long-coat again and placed the kor in a pocket. “Nothing,” Morigin said. “Listen, I’m afraid we’ll need to find Telo’s son. They’re bound to be gaps in Telo’s memory and I have only been with him the last twelve years. He may have some information we’ll need.”
The viewport changed and showed Jade splicing into the Param Eon directory. “Palladin Complex. 224-M.” Jade said.
“Fire halos and let’s go get him,” said Morigin. “Pull up a building schematic. We may have to bust in to get him. If I remember correctly, he had no love for his father. So this might be harder than tracking down those Carniv. And on the way, hyper-encrypt all sensitive files on this matter. I don’t want to take any chances.”
* * *
High above the Palladin Complex, the Jade Tendril soared. The Palladin Complex glowed violet. Numerous windows were dark, no doubt their residents fast asleep.
“Let’s not wake the neighbors, Jade.” The running lights to the ship blinked out as it hovered around the building. “Take us around to his place. I want to check to see if he’s there.” The Jade Tendril banked and slowly hovered around to the left side of the building. They lowered down a few floors before stopping just outside Palo’s apartment. “Let’s tighten the cameras to the interior.”
And as the viewport lit up and showed the interior of the apartment, Morigin stood up from his seat. In the living room of the apartment lied the courier he had interacted with earlier. He seemed to be just waking up from taking a stun bolt to the forehead. His arms and legs were bound.
“What in the name of –” said Morigin, before he saw another person step in front of Palo. “That kid is Telo’s son?”
“It appears the person he was supposed to deliver the kor to has found him, Captain,” Jade said. “We should do something before something bad happens.”
Dazed, Morigin shook his head and said, “Yes. Get him!”
A panel beneath the front of the Tendril burst open, revealing twelve mechanical tentacles. They struck quickly, blasting through the apartment wall. One jabbed at the intruder, spinning him around, while another lurched in and coiled around a screaming Palo. Before the intruder had a chance to react a third tentacle slammed into him, knocking him through four apartment walls.
From the viewport, Morigin saw frightened tenants peering through the rubble at his ship. The intruder looked to be down. “Get him in here, Jade!” yelled Morigin, but the tentacle froze. “Jade? Get him in here before that crony gets his marbles back!” Nothing. He slammed the console with his fist and the viewport shuddered briefly. Then the tentacle recoiled and pulled Palo into the cargo bay.
“Sorry, Captain,” said Jade. “I don’t know what happened.”
Morigin looked into the viewport as if it were a face. He winced his eyes and said, “What’s wrong with you lately? Are we missing a patch or something?”
“I don’t know,” Jade said. “Something hasn’t felt right –”
“– since Kcid station, right?”
“Yes.”
Morigin turned away from the viewport and stormed out of the cabin. “Well, find it and fix it. I need you to be less…ditsy.”
Morigin walked through the halls of the Tendril toward the cargo bay, thinking about Jade. They had been together for so long, he couldn’t imagine ever being without her. But something was wrong and it needed fixing. Maybe he needed to visit his pal Spiglas again. One of the best system profilers he knew, Spiglas helped Morigin program Jade with personality patches and silco-DNA. “She’ll be a one-of-a-kind vessel once I’m done with her,” he told Morigin. And that she was.
Morigin arrived at the cargo bay door and punched the entry code in. The thick metal door slid open and Morigin stepped in. Palo was sitting in the corner and stood up when he saw Morigin.
“Thanks,” Palo said. “How did you know I was being attacked?”
Morigin waited impatiently for Palo to approach him. “We didn’t. You got lucky.”
Palo cocked his head at Morigin and said, “Do I know you? You look familiar.”
“Top of the Skylar Vane,” said Morigin. “You probably saw me splay that Carniv before you fell off the roof. And no, you don’t know me.”
“What’s going on?”
Morigin stepped toward Palo and grabbed him by the arm and ushered him out of the cargo bay. “Did you ever answer any of the messages your father sent you?”
Palo pulled his arm back and said, “My father?! No. I have nothing to say to my father.”
Morigin strode away toward the cabin. “Well good then. Because he’s dead.”
Palo ran to Morigin to catch up. “What do you mean dead?”
“Deceased. Not breathing. One with the ether,” Morigin said. “Not of the living. It’s a pretty simple concept really.” They approached the annex of the ship, where Morigin had displayed all his relics. Palo turned around and took them all in – the cutlass, the Colt 45, a rusty dagger, numerous old journals, an ancient war helmet.
“My father has stuff like this.”
“Had,” said Morigin.
Palo ran up behind Morigin and put him in a choke hold, but Morigin easily twisted around and threw him to the grated floor. “Why do you have to talk like that about him?” asked Palo.
Morigin had Palo by the scruff of his shirt with both fists and said, “At least I talked to him.” And with that he released him and walked into the cabin. Palo got up and followed him.
“Jade,” said Morigin. “Let’s map a course for Draedus. Maybe junior here can be of help.”
“Help with what?” asked Palo.
“Captain?” asked Jade. “I found the system error and am attempting to fix, but I’ll need your help.”
“My help?” asked Morigin. “How can I help you with a system error?”
“We have a stowaway.”
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