Tales from the Inbox: The Pilgrim’s Departure

2952-09-18 – Tales from the Inbox: The Pilgrim’s Departure 

Obviously, the trail of Ayaka Rowlins dead ends at her launch from a hired smuggler vessel in the Margaux system. Unfortunately, until the war ends, I doubt anyone will be able to determine for certain what her fate was, but these described events happened several months ago, so she has met that fate by now. 

I shudder to think of what the Incarnation would do to an Immortal defector. No doubt Rowlins had some idea, and this was considered in her preparation for going rogue on this apparent suicide mission. 

As Fey Wanderer finished its slingshot maneuver around the fifth planet in the Margaux system, Emilio B. paced behind his chair on the bridge. There was no drive activity anywhere near them, nor was there any signal activity, but that would be true if his ship was flying right into a trap just as it would be if the area was empty. They were committed to the run now, and would be in real trouble if detected at this stage. 

Their passenger and erstwhile employer Ayaka Rowlins had departed the bridge some time before, which suited Emilio just fine. With their current course, they would be in a prime position to launch her little ship toward planet Margaux in about ten standard hours. Most likely, she had gone to her quarters. After all, her odds of making planetfall would be vastly increased if she was well rested for the attempt. 

As the minutes ticked away and Wanderer’s passive sensors still showed no sign of enemy forces detecting the intruder, Emilio handed off command to Vargas and headed down to the wardroom to get something to eat. He’d been on the bridge nearly every waking moment since they’d committed to their course, and with no food-fab up there, he’d subsisted on nutrient shakes run up to him from the galley for the better part of two days. Some proper hot food would feel good, even if it was, deep down, just another preparation of the same nutrient slurry used to make the shakes. 

As he walked down the corridor to the wardroom, Emilio punched in an order to the food-fab at his destination for chili, one of his favorite items on the ship’s extensive food menu. The machine’s programmed recipe was intended to imitate the flavor profile of Tranquility-style homesteader chili, and though there were neither genuine ground diregoat nor mashed white T-beans in what the food-fab made, the program nailed the flavor of the dish’s key spices: cumin, flyerseed, paprika, and ice-belt pepper. 

The bowl of chili appeared in the machine’s receptacle just as Emilio entered the wardroom. The compartment was empty, of course; all of the senior officers were on duty or sleeping, and most of them were probably getting their meals the same way he had been, or hurrying through their meals to get from duty to sleep and vice versa faster. Being on a run through occupied territory put everyone on edge. 

Sitting down, Emilio had barely put the first spoonful to his mouth when the door opened, and Rowlins stepped in. She had changed from her shipboard fatigues into a skin-tight black flight-ops suit, and with most of the accessories most pilots attached to this suit still missing, this attire left very little to the onlooker’s imagination. 

Emilio waved Rowlins in without a word. That suit might have been a distraction if another young woman was wearing it, but he’d learned too much about her to be at all tempted to fantasize. Her body was corrupted by Incarnation science, and though she had repented of their ideology, no-one could undo the unpleasant things that had been done to her. 

“Captain, I just wanted to-” She looked down at his bowl. “Is this a bad time?” 

Emilio swallowed and shook his head. “No, not particularly. As long as you don’t mind me eating while you talk.” 

Rowlins nodded and sat down across the table. “I wanted to say goodbye, and to offer you a warning. It may be that there will be no time for it later.” 

Emilio nodded. “It has been good doing business with you, Miss Rowlins. But you know your credits are all the thanks we need.” 

Rowlins smiled. “Yes, how very mercenary of you.” She slid a cred-chit across the table. Emilio saw that it was one of the unmarked ones that you handed in to complete a pre-arranged transfer. “Then let this be my thanks. There’s a little extra on there. I won’t need credits where I’m going.” 

Emilio pocketed the chit, then took another bite. When Rowlins didn’t speak right away, he held up his hand. “And the warning?” 

Rowlins sat back in her chair. “At some point, someone’s going to try to figure out where I went. They’ll be good. Maybe the best.” She shrugged. “When they catch up to you, don’t bother to try to lie to them. I think it will go better for you if you tell them everything.” 

“And spend the rest of my life in a military prison?” Emilio scoffed. “We’ve got ways of throwing the authorities off our scent, don’t you worry.” 

Rowlins arched one eyebrow. “Do you think the Confederated government just lets Immortals roam the Reach freely after they promise to be good, and sends the regular constabulary after us if we start causing problems?” 

Emilio hesitated. “Well, no. I figured it would be Naval Intelligence. Maybe B.C.I. I've handled that sort of interference before.” 

Rowlins smiled. “You’ll be lucky if it’s just B.C.I. If it’s-” 

The lights dimmed and an alert klaxon began to blare. Without being prompted, the wardroom’s holo-projector woke up and showed the tactical data-plot, with several fresh red pips at its leading edge. 

Emilio stood up and tapped his earpiece to set it to the primary command channel. “Status report.” 

“Looks like a strike patrol, Captain.” Vargas sounded rattled. “They came out of nowhere.” 

“Have they seen us yet?” 

“Don’t think so. But they’re going to pass within spitting distance.” 

Emilio winced. Incarnation sensor suites were excellent. It would take a truly incompetent pilot to fly close to Fey Wanderer without seeing it, even running cold with stealth systems fully engaged. Changing course risked discovery right away, even if only using the low thrust of the ion engines. 

Rowlins stood up and tapped her forehead with two fingers. “I’ll be ready to launch in five minutes.” With that, she left the wardroom. 

Emilio sighed. It probably had come to that. Wanderer could deal with a few strike launches and make a break for the exits, but it would mean abandoning the run in toward Margaux. Rowlins, obviously, wasn’t going to let that dash her hopes; she would launch and try to make it the rest of the way in on her own, whatever the odds. 

“I’m on my way up.” Emilio took one last look at the meal he’d barely started, then tossed it in the recycler and headed for the bridge. If it came to a tangle with Incarnation forces, they were about to learn that Fey Wanderer was the worst kind of slippery customer. 

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Tales from the Inbox: The Pilgrim’s Wager

2952-09-11 – Tales from the Inbox: The Pilgrim’s Wager 

Emilio B. drummed his fingers on the side of his command chair and watched the sensor plot in the middle of the bridge. Fey Wanderer being in hostile territory, their sensors were all on passive mode and every feature intended to conceal the ship’s presence from unfriendly eyes was active; this did wonders for their chances of survival, but didn’t have any good effect on her ability to see what was going on more than a few hundred kilometers away. 

The gravimetric sensors had picked up a few drive signatures, but not nearly as many as he had been expecting. Margaux, in Confederated hands, had been a fortress and an industrial powerhouse, at least by Coreward Frontier standards. Surely the invading power, with no such worlds of its own before the war, would have to make use of the ones it had taken, and that meant there had to be far more ships in the system than currently showed as visible on the plot. 

Most likely, the majority of the ships he couldn’t see would be parked in orbit around the planet for which so much blood had been spilled, and Wanderer wouldn’t be going close enough to be threatened by them. If there were some parked elsewhere, though, Emilio had to guess where before he committed his ship to any particular course through the system; no amount of stealth features in the world would help him if he blundered within a few hundred klicks of an Incarnation cruiser while setting up a gravitational slingshot around one of the outer gas giants. 

Wanderer had the legs that made such a mishap escapable in all but the worst circumstances but it would mean either abandoning the delivery or dropping poor Rawlins so far out that her chances of making planetfall were miniscule. She’d paid in advance, but Emilio didn’t like taking money and only delivering on half of what she’d promised. It wasn’t good business, because it didn’t encourage repeat customers, and it would bring rise to the idea that when the Fey Wanderer and its crew agreed to do something, they didn’t see it through. 

“Captain?” Miss Vargas turned away from the helm controls. “What’s our course?” 

“No course yet.” Emilio shook his head. “We need more information, and there’s nothing in our neighborhood to find us.” 

“Aye.” Vargas reluctantly turned back to her controls. She clearly didn’t like loitering in a hostile system, and Emilio could hardly blame her. The sooner they were out, the safer they’d be. 

The soles of hard dirtside boots clicked on the deck in the corridor behind Emilio, and his blood ran cold.  

“Can I help you, Miss Rowlins?” Emilio didn’t turn around; he was still focused on the data plot. Miss Rawlins might be a client, but after their last meeting, when she’d made it only too clear what she was and what her business was, he wanted as little of her company as possible. 

“Just observing.” Rowlins fell silent for a long moment, probably looking at the same holographic readout Emilio was. “The view is better here than in the hangar.” 

Most clients got bored or got themselves kicked off the bridge within minutes of trying to “observe” Wanderer’s operations, so Emilio didn’t expect her to remain long. He waved a hand of assent, then went back to watching every minute development on the display. Passive sensors had just detected a pair of small craft moving in from one of the outer systems without a gravitic signature; most likely those were cheap-fabbed industrial barges using ion propulsion. If so, the moon they’d departed from was an active industral base; several potential courses were no longer viable. 

For her part, Rawlins remained silent, but her presence loomed over Emilio like a cloud. He wished he had some excuse to send her away. 

Signal scatter suggested some sort of Incarnation military activity near the fifth planet, a md-sized gas giant, making another set of courses inviable. The list of low-risk courses was shrinking by the minute. No course was without risk, of course, not in an Incarnation system. 

“There.” Rawlins stepped up beside Emilio’s chair and pointed. “The fifth planet.” 

Emilio frowned and turned to his client. “I’m sorry?” 

“Make our course there.” Rowlins stepped back. “That signal scatter is from a strike patrol. They’ll have moved on hours before we get there.” 

Emilio raised one eyebrow. “How can you be sure?“ 

Rowlins shrugged. “Nothing’s certain. But with no drive signature, it’s either strike units or a garrison. They wouldn’t park a cruiser out there with a cold drive.” 

Emilio considered this. Odds favored this wager, but to go that way instead of to use another planet as a slingshot with no traffic detected there at all? 

Rawlins was, of course, the client, and the major risk was to her. Given her background, perhaps it was more than a simple wager. “Miss Vargas, start preparing for course... nineteen or twenty-two.” He looked up at the woman standing next to his chair. “We won’t be past the no return point for at least half an hour, so let's see if anything else comes up before then.” 

Ayaka Rowlins going rogue on a supposed vengeance mission is an interesting development, but it is sadly one which I don’t have any expectation of learning more about in the near future, or ever. Emilio (not his real name of course) sent in what he could, but the only person who could tell the whole tale is Rawlins herself, and I do not expect that she will ever tell it to us or anyone. 

 

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Tales from the Inbox: The Pilgrim’s Task

2952-09-04 – Tales from the Inbox: The Pilgrim’s Task 

Some of you might remember that years ago, we featured the account of one Thomas Nyilvas as to the redemption of a Confederated Worlds youth turned Immortal saboteur. Nyilvas himself would go on to his storied end on Margaux, but up until this point we have had no further account of the doings of the Immortal who he sought to redeem at great personal risk, at least until today. 

The vessel name and the name of its skipper are not genuine (as is prudent on the part of the submitter), but I have heard through other channels that one Ayaka Rowlins did indeed go rogue from the place the Navy had assigned her some months ago. 

“Are you sure about this, Miss Rowlins?“ Emilio B. leaned on the railing of the elevated catwalk at the bow end of Fey Wanderer’s small hangar. 

The woman below didn’t look up; she continued to work at the module she’d pulled out of the launch craft berthed there. Emilio hadn’t seen anything like this launch before; it bore a slight resemblance to that long-time favorite of mercenary service, the Savitri Seax, but it was a bit larger and had clearly seen a lot of use and heavy modification. If present evidence was to be believed, Rowlins herself had been the author of at least some of these changes. 

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, Wanderer can get you there, but you aren’t paying us for a pickup. Just a drop off. In enemy territory.” 

Ayaka Rowlins paused and looked up. “Would it buy your silence if I paid for you to return in a few weeks?” 

Emilio frowned. “Would you be here for us to pick up?” 

Rowlins turned her attention back to her work without answering. 

“We’ve run people into occupied worlds like this before, but usually they at least plan to come back." Emilio gestured to the craft she was working on. “You’ve got a fancy ride all prepared. You’ve clearly thought all this through.” 

Rowlins hunched her shoulders, then slowly set her tools down and stood up, scowling. “If you would please come to the point, Captain?” 

Emilio shuddered as her cold eyes met his. “Well... I just mean, I’m happy to take your credits, but the crew and I need some assurances that this isn’t-” 

“That this isn’t something that’ll get you branded as traitors?” Rowlins’s face softened, and she shook her head. “You need not worry on that account.” 

“If you don’t intend on returning, then why should we not worry?” Emilio countered. “Self-directed suicide mission is a pretty thin story.” 

Rowlins smiled. “I see. You think that if I am not scheduling a return, that suicide or treason are my most probable intents.” She glanced back at her craft for a moment. “Will a brief explanation buy your silence until we have arrived? I have many things to finish before I launch.” 

Emilio nodded. “I suppose so.” 

Rowlins arched one eyebrow, then bent her knees and, without any apparent difficulty, leapt three meters up to the catwalk and landed lightly beside him. Emilio staggered back in terror and reached for his sidearm; even in shipboard half-gee, even if she was acclimated to the gravity of the heaviest world in the Reach, such a jump shouldn’t be possible. 

His fingers, however, found the holster already empty, and the gun, now with the magazine removed, was in the girl’s hands. “I’ve already tried treason, once. I was young and stupid, and I failed at it, like I’d failed at everything else I’d done to that point.” She held the weapon back to Emilio. “Only one person believed I might still be worth a damn.” 

Emilio took the gun with trembling hands, wondering where the magazine had gone. He had plenty of spares, of course, but the meaning of this demonstration was obvious – if Ayaka Rowlins had intended him and his crew any harm, she could have easily accomplished it by now. 

“Despite what I let Nate do to my body, that man still did what he could for my soul, and he helped me find that I had another chance in this life as well as the next.” Rawlins bowed her head. “And then he and I parted ways. His route led to Margaux.”  

Emilio nodded. “You think he’s still down there?” 

“I know he is. I spoke to one who was with him at the end and was evacuated.” She bowed her head. “He was in a group of captives processed by the Incarnate Inquisition, and they made a martyr of him.” 

“Oh. I’m sorry.” Emilio didn’t know what else to say. “If he’s dead, what do you think you can do?” 

Rowlins shook her head. “For him? Nothing. He has crossed over. But I will visit his grave nonetheless.” 

“And then?” This plan of course, did not preclude a return trip. 

“Once I have done this, I intend to find out what has become of the Inquisition team responsible.” Rawlins smiled, and this time it was a very unkind smile indeed. “And perhaps I will pay them a visit.” 

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Tales from the Service: A Pilot’s Narrow Escape

2952-08-28 – Tales from the Service: A Pilot’s Narrow Escape 

[2952-08-30: I must confess that the delay in this item reaching feed ingest is entirely my own fault. I thought I had it scheduled properly, and Nojus and I went away from our quarters aboard Ashkelon for several days on an errand which I will perhaps be discussing in this space in the near future, and we were quite out of datasphere contact for most of that time. I returned to a very full inbox complaining about the lack of this week’s Tales from the Service.]

I found the item sitting waiting for final confirmation on my terminal when I got back to Ashkelon; it really is as simple as me failing to hit the final button. 

Though Lieutenant Livian Vega’s account is not official proof that our foe is taking captive stranded pilots, even on battlefields they are actively retreating from, it is strong evidence of such efforts. The numbers appear to be small; few enough pilots go missing after ejecting that equipment failure and other causes can explain their disappearance. What they mean to achieve by capturing pilots in this way, I cannot imagine. 

Livian Vega scanned the status panel on her wrist with a frown. There was no problem indicator for her recovery transponder, or for any other system. The only amber light was the one indicating that the power and atmospherics linkage to her Puma interceptor had been severed, but given that the Puma had exploded shortly after she’d ejected, this was no cause for concern. 

She switched the transponder off and on again several times, but it still refused to transmit the recovery signal. This meant that either there was no recovery ship in range, or that it was broken. She could activate it manually, but the transponder would drain her battery quickly. If no recovery ship was nearby to hear it, she would be down to emergency reserve power in less than an hour. 

Lilian decided to switch on the transponder anyway, but only for a minute. Sure enough, when she did, she heard a bright ping in her ears. As she watched the chrono count up to thirty seconds, she didn’t expect to hear a second chime, but sure enough, one sounded. The transponder now seemed to be working perfectly. 

Frowning, Lilian went over what she knew about the transponder. Fortunately, since she’d found herself ejected and waiting for recovery several times throughout her service with Seventh Fleet, she had been given more opportunity than most pilots to observe the device’s functionality. In theory, when a recovery craft came into range, the transponder would respond to a coded signal by activating automatically. It could always be enabled and disabled manually, but before now she’d never had to do this. 

Reaching over her shoulder, Livian verified that the suit’s comms antenna was fully extended. If this was broken off or still stowed in its spool, that would explain weird behavior of both transmission and reception. She found it locked in the deployed position, and the portion of it she could feel with her gloves was intact and undamaged. 

The transponder chirped a third time, indicating that a minute had elapsed. Livian shut it back off to save power. The recovery craft had much more powerful comms gear, so she doubted it was near enough to hear her, if her systems were not receiving its signal. As she did, a shiver started at the base of her spine and worked its way up to her head. She lacked any ability to diagnose the problem further, and in any case, it might be too late; if a glitch had kept the recovery ship from noticing her, it would be far out of range now. 

“They won’t leave me out here.” Livian’s voice sounded hollow inside her helmet. “They’ve got time to do a full sweep after the fighting dies down.” 

As she rotated back toward the local star and her faceplate began to dim, Livian thought she spotted something moving in the corner of her vision. She turned to look at it, but already the smart-glass was nearly opaque to protect her vision from the local star. Probably it was nothing more than a piece of shrapnel from her Puma catching the light, but she couldn’t be sure, and the last thing she needed was more uncertainty. 

When the faceplate cleared a little while later, Livian scanned what she could see of her surroundings without turning her face into the light again. There was nothing visible but empty space; no sign of a piece of glinting shrapnel. Livian felt a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead. What had she seen? 

Once again, her transponder emitted a bright ping, indicating that it had received the recovery signal. Maybe what she’d seen was the recovery vehicle doubling back? 

“Recovery tug, my transponder might not be working right. Do you read?” Livian tried to keep the nervous tension out of her voice. 

“We’ve locked onto your position, Lieutenant Vega.” The faint, unfamiliar voice was all too welcome. “Your biometrics are out. Are you injured?” 

“I’m fine. Having some tech issues with my suit, I think.” Livian chuckled. “Nothing serious. In fact-” 

A dark shape moved in the darkness ahead of Livian, and she broke off. The recovery tug would come in with its lights all ablaze; what was this? 

Using a little bit of her limited thruster capacity to slow her spin, Livian tried to pick out the shape in the darkness. Whatever it was didn’t reflect much starlight, and she could only estimate its size and shape by the faint stars it occluded. She could tell it was getting slowly closer; its path and hers were converging. 

Shivering, Livian wondered whether she should call the recovery ship and announce what she was seeing. Would they believe her? Could they do anything? Would raising the alarm by radio only serve to draw its attention further? 

The transponder chirped again, and Livian, already nervous, nearly jumped out of her skin. She was already transmitting for anyone to see. What if this skulker was using the signal to intercept her? The ready-room rumors of Incarnation ships spiriting away stranded pilots once again came to mind. 

“Not me.” Livian, trembling, switched off her transponder once more. “Better to be lost out here.” With a few strong bursts of her thrusters, she changed her trajectory drastically, and the dark shape began to recede once more. 

“Lieutenant Vega, we lost your transponder signal.” The recovery ship pilot sounded concerned. “Is everything all right?” 

Livian didn’t dare transmit a reply; she simply watched the dark shape slowly dwindling into the void as the increasingly urgent trasmissions from her rescuer echoed dully in her ears. 

 

 

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