About twelve hours later we got a beep from the station that they were looking for us. No alarm though. That was nice. I got out of the bunk and went to the monitor, and Jochim was there. Laura woke up too, and climbed down and sat in the co pilots seat.
“Alex, I've got an assignment for you.”
“OK. I assume it has to do with our current situation?”
“Yes it does. There were a couple of unconfirmed reports that traders out in the closed zones near Tau Ceti told stories of contact with an alien race by the pirates out of Trajians 7. The stories were, that there was some kind of contact between the outlaws there, and a band of outlaws from some other race. They made a deal to work together to help each other. I want you to fly out there, to Tau Ceti, and pick up the trial, find out what you can, and track down any leads. If it takes you to Trajians 7, so be it. If there is anything behind these rumors we need to know it and we need to know it fast. You ship is ready to fly, yes?”
“It is. I take it you want me to leave immediately, before the council comes back with any orders?”
“Correct. The faster you get out of here the better. You and Laura. Send me reports, one way, deep space. Here are the codes.” He clicked on a hand held communicator and it transmitted the data to mine. Now get on the move. I sent you the case files on these reports as well.”
“We are out of here. ten minutes and we will be underway. I'll keep you informed.”
“Good luck Alex.”
“Thanks, you too.”
I turned to Laura. “OK you ready to make tracks?”
“Yea, though I'm not real sure about going into the closed zone. How do we get back out safely?”
“Well, for one thing we don't ignore any broadcasts from SC. That is for sure.”
“That it is.”
She was silent. Then she spoke in a low voice.
“Trajians 7?... That place really exists? And is it as bad as the stories say it is?”
“Trajians 7. Yes it exists, and its worse than the stories, most likely. It's a really lawless outpost. Run by a guy who calls himself lord of the dark empire.”
“Oh great. Sounds like he has an overinflated ego along with a lot of other problems.” She giggled. And then got serious again.
“Yea, he is a full blown psychopath. Real nut case. The federation has been hunting him for years, Trajians 7 is way way out, actually outside the closed zone. Its a long flight out there, and well defended. The only route out leads past an out post that acts as a forward attack base. Plus, Trajians 7 is actually a network of small outposts on a several twin planets, around two star systems that circle each other once every 700 years. It's a weird kind of long distance binary star system. Lots of asteroids, debris etc. You can hide in a million places in an environment like that, and he and his people do. It's a very dangerous area of space. Worst one out there to my way of thinking. Morda Prima is a holiday resort in comparison.”
“Great. Sounds like we are in for a nice vacation ahead.”
“Well. We have some advantages. The ship is totally stuffed with supplies and fuel. We have extra weapons, some of the best in known space. And we aren’t traveling in a federation ship. So that makes us look like another set of prospectors who are a little on the dark side of things. We keep a low profile, and we should be OK.”
“That sounds very reassuring, Alex, thanks for those kind words.” She smirked.
“Yea I know. Well, unless you got a better idea, I think this is the plan.”
“No, no I don’t.” She looked at me. “So maybe what we saw was some kind of alien pirate ship? That could cause a intergalactic cultural catastrophe. Not a good way to make first contact, at all.”
“No it isn’t. So we have to get on this as fast as we can go.” I looked over the info Jochim had sent us in his data file. He had included a pass document that would allow us to get supplies at any SC outpost, or non outpost, up to fifty thousand credits. Enough for about five years of fuel and supplies. Assuming of course that it would be honored, and that there were functioning SC outposts for the next five years. It was electronically signed by admiral Denitz, a four star. That at least was an advantage, there were few people that were going to argue with a document like that. At least in normal times.
The ship cut through space as fast as we could go. eight weeks and we would be there. It was going to be another long boring spaceflight. Or at least it was going to be a long spaceflight. There was several hundred pages of case investigation material to go through from the data files Jochim had sent. I wanted to review all of it, until I knew it by heart. And Laura had her tapes to work on. She was totally fixed on the monitor, and had the headphones on. I pulled up the first report and started reading.
Discoveries.
The Incident at Kruger 60, Part 1 Page 10