Untitled Captain Koell Adventure - Day 5

Over the next three days he’d worked hard to finish off his responsibilities for his regular job, a task that fully occupied the first day. After that he was free to spend the transit following up on Aru’s investigation of their destination.

Unsurprisingly, it was tough for Aru to find information on the motives of the original colonists, people who’d lived thousands of years in the past. Records were scarce, and those that did exist painted a picture of a hardy and determined group who’d inhabited a single colony site for at least several generations.

The pirates were somewhat easier to get data on. There were far more records to retrieve, largely culled from the files of various militaries that had operated over the centuries, and most ended with the assertion that the pirates’ occupation of the ancient colony site had been ended, mostly by force.

That left gaps though. A casual browsing of the records left the impression that there was nothing special going on, that the colony had simply failed long ago and pirates had moved in time and again and been wiped out by military action. A more careful analysis showed showed several sizable pirate occupations that ended abruptly, with nothing to say why.

None of the records Aru had produced gave any insight into why the location remained unsettled these last several centuries, either, after so many thousands of years of attempts to claim it.

Corwin poured over the reports, taking notes on the weak areas and compiling a list of more in-depth inquiries, giving each new avenue to Aru. Aru was cut off from the galactic data-stream while they were in transit, so he stored the requests.

Finally they neared their time of exit from transit. “Aru, nothing in the dossier specified a time limit on this task. Think we can afford an extra day or two to research?”

Aru sent his text-only reply to a screen in Corwin’s quarters. “I expect they’d prefer that you did.”

“Yup, my thoughts too. Give me what you’ve got on those queries as soon as you can then.

Untitled Captain Koell Adventure - Day 4

Aru chriped an affirmative and Corwin set course. He’d never been technically inclined, but his lifestyle change had made him learn; he was starting to get the hang of this star ship pilot thing. He punched in the last of the coordinates and kept an eye on the readouts for an estimated course calculation time.

“She’ll be ready for Transit in … 15 minutes, Aru. I’ll be in my quarters.”

The hardest thing Corwin had encountered in getting used to the space-faring life was how incredibly slow it was. He’d grown up on tales of glory and excitement where heroes zoomed around the stars and Transit took only seconds, and interplanetary explorers could find wonders on a half dozen planets in a week. The truth of it was quite different.

Corwin’s inner twelve year old had been very dejected to discover that even the shortest Transits generally took a complete day at a minimum, and travel times of between one and two weeks weren’t uncommon.

He was lucky that this relatively unknown world he had to visit wasn’t complicated to reach; he’d be Transiting for about three days. Three days which he would have to spend catching up on paperwork for his job at the university. “Yup, it sure is a glamorous life,” he said aloud. Aru twittered inquisitively. “No, nothing, just talking to myself Aru.”

Untitled Captain Koell Adventure - Day 3

“Just tell me what you know then,” Corwin said.

She actually sighed a little. “Very well. There are more details in the dossier you’ll be receiving shortly, but in short, this time we want you to acquire the artifact in question, not just examine and appraise it.”

Corwin tapped his fingers on the console in thought. That was outside his usual line of work. “I don’t know anything about archaeology, Ms. Sobol. I don’t have the training or the equipment for it, fascinating as the subject is. And I don’t know anything about the world this artifact is located on. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”

“Nonetheless, that is what they wish of you. You are, of course, free to refuse.”

Free wasn’t the word he’d have chosen. Twice in the past he’d turned down assignments that had conflicted with his duties at the university, and while there had been no overt action taken against him, the distance between the burden of his debt and the progress he’d made in repaying it had almost magically seemed to widen. It was a subtle but effective message.

It sounded ridiculous, so he was tempted to refuse on the spot. He schooled himself to patience though. “Okay, fine. I’ll check out the information and transmit my decision.”

“Excellent. And, do be careful, Captain. Sobol out.” Her holo dimmed to nothingness.

He leaned back, staring at the cockpit ceiling until Aru alerted him with a chime that the info-pack had finished transmitting. “One of these days I’ll be able to afford a new vocalization module for you, Aru,” he said. One of these days I’ll own this ship and Aru with it, and maybe then I will indulge my interest in archaeology, he thought with a mental sigh.

The dossier in the info-pack was almost as skimpy on detail as Madeline had been. Several facts stood out in his attention; the target world had been the site of a failed colony more than a thousand years before, had been used as a base of operations by pirates numerous times in the time since, and had been utterly abandoned for the past two centuries.

Most notable at all, there were no details about what kind of artifact it was he was actually seeking. Instead, the dossier used words like “rumored” and “alleged” to describe some sort of information store or database.

“Well Aru, at least this doesn’t sound terribly dangerous,” he said aloud. Aru already knew the contents of the dossier, of course. “Though I do wish there was more on what caused the colony to fail and why the pirates stopped coming back. Can you see what you can dig up about that?”

Untitled Captain Koell Adventure - Day 2

The response gave Corwin pause. It wasn’t like Madeline to be coy like that when the subject was business. “Just how far outside my usual area of expertise are we talking?”

“Perceptive as always, Captain. I’d tell you more, but … well, I’m afraid I just don’t have all that much to tell you. Naturally we have people who usually check these sorts of things out for us, but there are those in the agency who are most impressed with your resourcefulness. They’re of the opinion that you can handle this.”

“But you have your doubts.”

“I do have some reservations,” she said.

Untitled Captain Koell Adventure - Day 1

The incoming message light lit up on the control panel, immediately shattering Corwin Koell’s state of placid contentment.

“Great, just I needed. Aru, put it through for me will you?”

A series of chirps responded; he assumed it was an affirmative. A glowing holo-projection appeared in the cockpit of his freighter; he swiveled the pilot’s seat around to look at the perfectly kempt, professional figure standing patiently in the projection.

“Good evening, Captain Koell. I trust all’s well?”

He bit back a sarcastic retort; it wouldn’t help. It never did. “As well as can be expected, Ms. Sobol.”

“Please, Captain, do call me Madeline.” The woman in the image frowned a moment, then resumed her patiently pleasant tone. “I’m calling to thank you for your swift and expert handling of your last task. The agency is very appreciative of the translation you accomplished.”

“Then the agency should be thanking Jayni, not me. He’s the one who did the translation.”

She nodded. “Of course. But Jayni would never have had the opportunity to translate the tablets for us had you not brought him in to help you. The agency prizes that kind of initiative, and rewards it as well. You’ll find a bonus on your next payment, Captain. Isn’t that good news? You’re that much closer to paying off the debt on your ship.”

And that was the rub. He was always ‘that much closer’ to paying off the debt, but somehow the numbers never showed it. For the first few months he’d simply told himself that star ships were incredibly expensive, and it was only natural to be overwhelmed by the numbers. Two years with no measurable progress though, that had him frustrated and angry.

“That’s just great news. Best news I’ve heard all day. Be sure and give the agency my thanks.” She’d always been his sole contact in the shady organization he worked for, and she was never willing to give up any details about them. “So that’s it then?”

“There is just one more thing.”

Of course, he thought. There always is. “And that would be …?”

“It’s a little outside your usual area, but nothing too strenuous. We’ve obtained information about a discovery of interest. A person of your background can streamline the process for us.”