Dean Dean finds himself adrift in deep space after an unfortunate collision on the fold space highway. A chance discovery of an unusual artifact brings him to the attention of the feared Dedan Empire.
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"I knew it, I just knew it." Dean said to nobody.
Back on his ship, pacing around his captain's chair, he was thinking to himself that it was nice of the admiral to have the ship cleaned as well, but, "Locate another source of the energy and capture it. It's just as simple as that!"
As he thought about the task at hand and the minimal amount of information given by the Admiral, he couldn't understand why he'd agreed. Not a single being who knew of this blast could believe that Dean survived it. And who was to say that it wasn't just a fluke and if it was to happen again it wouldn't decimate him and mist his innards. Or however the Admiral so eloquently put it not long ago.
Dean finally sat down on his chair, swiveled the control board towards him and got comfortable in a reclined position. "How can I locate this by randomly scanning areas for surges? Does the admiral know how big the galaxy is?"
He placed the ship into cruise once he exited the fold boundary and started the hyper scan that Dashnor had given him. Unfortunately, all previous data was rendered useless due to the erratic nature of this energy, so Dean was starting from scratch again. He'd also been told the energy immediately dispersed in deep space, with no sign of physical damage, which was confirmed by the survival of his ship. This also reduced the already finite window for detection. He was at a loss with what to do.
He tapped on the control board and set a course to the nearest Bunda beacon. Perhaps he could somehow find a way to covertly discover some of their tactics in this energy arms race. He knew that was almost a guaranteed suicide, his freighter was about as covert as a Cephaloid's sneeze, but he was struggling to come up with any other ideas. Maybe a sleep would help, he thought, as he shifted onto one side after setting an alert for the scanner and ships defenses.
He wasn't going to be caught sleeping. Literally or figuratively.
* * *
What felt like hours passed and Dean Dean irritably wriggled over to his other side to glance at the control board. "Only twenty minutes?"
He looked at the ETA for the Bunda Beacon and audibly sighed. This wasn't going to work, he thought to himself. Where could he go to find help or even just a friendly nudge towards the goal?
Kualanandar came to mind immediately. It scared him that Pirate's Haven seemed to be his best option, but he expected somebody there would have to know something and if he shouted about it loud enough, he would get the help he needed. Or a plasma round through the skull. Either way, he'd be out of his current stalemate.
The only trouble was getting a freighter the size of his through wouldn't be an easy feat. It would be searched high and low before being allowed to dock at any substation and that could take hours.
Surely the admiral had some sway with the transit authorities?
He started tapping, rushed and heavily on his control board, to call back to him. Once the call location was selected and Dean sent through the comms connection request it was only a matter of time before the admiral's face popped onto his screen.
