Sunderbans K: The beginning of the Ky Epic

III

Mostrel Occupied Territory

Merchant's Hidden Station

The sun shone brightly in a system where no habitable planets orbited. Instead, it contained an asteroid belt where once two great bodies had passed. After thousands of years of near misses, they finally collided. Now, huge chunks of stone and ore spun as they careened through the solar system. Many of the asteroids clustered in the old orbit while others spread or orbited elsewhere, and the former proved to be a haven. In one such cluster was a Cartel base station. Moving with its entourage, it was well concealed from those who did not know of its presence.

On board in the control center stood the shift commander with a fairly new recruit. Training was an integral part of life among the stars; too little and the troops were inadequate for the tasks -- their motions were not well-honed habits; too much, and one could become complacent.

"Now," continued the commander. "Let's try this. There's a cloaked cruiser nearby with a full load of charged torpedoes."

"But sir, a Byzanyn wouldn't attack us, even if we were closer to their borders." The trainee's statement harried the commander.

"Iles, that's not the point. It could be another cartel coming to return some merchandise."

Iles looked confused, but went along with the rest of the scenario.

"A cloaked ship can be difficult to locate, especially in an asteroid field. You must to be able to look for signs of the enemy, anticipate his moves. Remember just how much power his ship has to expend and how long his weapons take to charge. Even if you don't know the captain, you can know the ship."

Iles continued to follow along when a glimmer on the viewscreen caught his eye. Excitedly he blurted out, "Cloaked ship off of pylon one!"

The commander looked at the time, then he checked the position of the approaching ship. "Right on time. Instruct him to dock at Number 2 after he decloaks. Oh, good call Iles, make sure you find him just a bit further out next time -- or that full load of torpedoes would have wrecked the station."

Iles mused and then hailed the ship. The ship decloaked, revealing a Cartel Heavy Merchantman. Iles then decloaked the station, gave docking instructions to the ship, and then the docking computer. The ship moved slowly towards the station, matched her orbit and rotation, and finally docked. While docking, the Merchantman's captain noticed a smaller ship, the Crucible, docked to pylon 3. He also noticed the damage to the portside of her hull. "He never comes back without a scratch." He spoke while shaking his head. "And he never comes back empty handed." He spoke with a smile.

Jonathan McAlester, the commander of the heavy ship, had once commanded the Crucible, but only for a few years. He rose swiftly to command a Runner, the Lamprey, and then on to his newest ship, the Payday. He wondered if he had left the Crucible in good hands when Sigor Ratan purchased her. Sigor had been the ship's mate for years, even before McAlester commanded the Crucible. Now she led a more quiet and peaceful life, or so Sigor said.

McAlester made his way through the ship to the docking port with his first mate, Zeerith, a Bask, and his navigator, Tramoth Gilli, a Praxian. Once the port opened, they made straight away for the bar. That's where Jonathan usually found Sigor and company, ranting about his exploits, his booty and how honorable he was.

This time Sigor and three of his crew were found in the company of several Mostrel, all none too pleased. Jonathan stopped, then slowly moved a bit closer to listen to the conversation. The largest Mostrel, Raztakk, was speaking with Sigor. He was large by human standards, and big enough to give most Ky trouble. He was dressed in a dark cloak with silver curls, like vines that wrapped around from the back, streaming forward and down the arms. There were gold bracelets on his wrists and rings on his fingers, and a heavy gold chain about his neck. Sigor was attempting to work out his deal with Raztakk, but his words fell on deaf ears.