When Maya didn't come back to the ship that night, Jack wasn't too surprised. He had received a text from her earlier, telling him the history class she joined would go on a day trip to a nearby city and she was thinking about joining in.
That suited him just fine because the two hours he had planned to prepare for the conversation had been almost entirely spent analysing Lyna's list.
Jack put the communicator on silent and switched his pilot seat to sleep mode. Unlike almost everything else in the interior, the entire cockpit was the best money could buy. Neither beautiful nor elaborately decorated, but of the highest quality.
Consequently, when he folded his chair down, it was more comfortable than his bunk in the cabin. Besides, he still loved to watch the stars and stare into the vastness of space, and the cockpit was one of the few rooms with viewing windows.
Once he found a comfortable position, he was asleep in minutes.
When he awoke the next day the sun was already out and filled the cockpit with its warm ray. He stretched and was briefly tempted to remain in bed or chair in his case. Then he remembered there was absolutely nothing stopping him from doing exactly that, so he did.
It was around midday when he finally got up. After taking a long shower and eating some nutrient paste, he checked the progress of the ship's upgrades. Most things were already installed, the only ones left being the upgrades to the Med Bay as well as the weapons locker. Right now his ship was classified as a trading vessel, so he could only have civilian grade firearms for his crew. He was in the process to change to an explorer classification, that would allow Military-grade weapons purchasable with a tier two license, which in practical terms meant almost double the firepower. The new classification would also allow for improved scanners and surveying equipment. As well as much better radiation shields and a legal way to shut down the ship's responder.
He was about to finish the paperwork when Lyna called him.
"Captain, can you come over? I think I found the person you are looking for."
"Let me just finish the ship's re-classification application. Or is it time-sensitive?"
"As long as you can come within the next few hours it should be fine."
It took him another thirty minutes or so to finalize the details before he went to see what Lyna had found.
The woman was sitting on her chair, both legs drawn up in front of her body and a blanket wrapped around her. There was no sign of the seductive grace she had radiated at the market.
It was immediately clear to Jack that he liked this version of Lyna much better. He knocked on Ramen's door to draw attention to himself. The woollen package on the chair turned to him. He could see that she had thick circles under her eyes.
"You wanted to show me something?"
The pile of blankets nodded.
"After we spoke, I created a new search algorithm to go through the data from the market and actually found someone. But in the old files under sales."
"That means our person is already gone? Do you know who bought them?"
"Yep, unfortunately, they're not there anymore either. But from what you told me, I looked for incidents similar to the Call of the Void."
She was silent for a moment and turned slightly in her chair to see if Jack was suitably tense.
"And did you find anything? Don't make me ask at every intersection."
With a sly grin, she continued.
"Two weeks after the purchase, the buyer's eldest son was admitted to a psychiatric ward with symptoms resembling the call of the void. Shortly after, there was an investigation by law enforcement and one person was arrested and brought to court."
"I'm guessing that person is who we are looking for?"
"The accused person always wears a blindfold on the court's surveillance videos and you can see how her mere presence makes people uncomfortable."
"Pretty sure the Courts surveillance videos are restricted material?"
"Pretty sure they still use the Imperial encryption methods that were encoded like a hundred years ago. Can't really call it restricted in that case now can you?"
Jack chuckled and smiled lightly, although this was the first time he had had this kind of talk with her, it felt like they had been doing this for a long time.
"So where is our target now?"
"They are being held on a military station near the fringes of the system. But we have to be quick If you want to get them. They have been sentenced to death for irreversibly damaging the psyche of the young Lord. But If I recall correctly you said their death would rid us of some trouble, right?"
Jack shook his head with a troubled expression.
"No, we need to get them out as soon as possible, If they get killed someone else with these eyes will appear, but we won't have a clue where they are. I knew they would be around here somewhere but I can't make such a prediction ever again. The source of that information is lost to me."
Lyna simply nodded. A big part of living on a Spaceship was having faith in the captain and a Voidfarer would only stay on a ship if they felt the captain was worth it as they quite literally had to trust their decisions with their life.
"Then we should make haste. I think the verdict is to be executed in a few days."
Jack sighed, thinking about how much it would cost him to reserve the hangar and the workers while they were away. But in the end, staying and waiting was not an option.
"Thanks for your hard work. We will lift off as soon as we can. Now go get some sleep before you fall off that chair."
He was already halfway out the door when he finished talking and Lyna just lazily waved at him before closing her eyes. While going back to the Cockpit he already sent an emergency starting request to the spaceports administration as well as a notion to the crew to get ready for departure.
Maya and two of the newcomers couldn't be back in time, so he decided to start without them, even though it felt wrong. And so it came about that twenty minutes after his conversation with Lyna, they were already on their way to the military station.
The journey took roughly two days but this time Jack couldn't enjoy the travel, as he constantly worried about the fate of the unknown person.
Luckily for him, the station's commander turned out to be one of his acquaintances from the game. As soon as they were in radar range Jack called them man and begged him to halt the execution, to give the prisoner a chance to hire on his ship. He invoked the Void Charter, Part 3, which allowed a prisoner to sign on to a ship for 10 years and become a voidfarer in return for having his sentence waived.
"I guess I can do you the favor, but honestly what do you want with that thing?"
The station's commander was a woman in her sixties, that had taken the post as a way to get her last years of active duty done on a quiet, but well-paid post near the capital. As Jack had played a major role in her getting said post, she felt obliged to help him a little.
"I think your prisoner could help me develop a method to shield people from the call. From what I heard the reaction they trigger in people is quite similar."
"Ahh, that makes much more sense all of a sudden."
He could hear in her voice, that she took his lie unsuspecting.
"You already got a plan in mind for how to talk to them? I don't think they speak intergalactic common. Honestly, I'm not even sure if they understand."
"Ah, Yes, I'm pretty certain I know the language."
"Well if you say so. Guess I will be awaiting your arrival then. Shall I send you an escort? Should help you clear the checks, not that I think you would not pass them coming directly from Vallia."
"Much appreciated, you have my gratitude Commander."
"Think nothing of it, Jack without your help I would still sit on that god forsake swamp planet in the middle of nowhere."
After they finished talking, Jack could feel relief spreading through him. He handed over the controls to the AI and could finally enjoy the spectacle of light and darkness around him.
The station was in orbit around an uninhabitable planet. It was too far from the sun and was a desert of ice. Moreover, it rotated so slowly that a single day on the ground was equivalent to three quarters of a standard galactic year.
The only reason for the station's presence was the rich mineral resources and the expensive mining equipment on the ground. Besides, the noble lords didn't want the prison right on their doorstep.
Another half-day later, two military ships approached them, they were destroyers, both less than half the size of Jack's ship. They saluted him properly and then flanked him on both sides the rest of the way to the station. Normally Jack would have taken the opportunity to manually steer the ship while flying in formation, but he was too busy observing the frozen waterfalls and other natural wonders on the surface of the ice planet.