"Orbital Control Tower 111 to 666-888, clear night skies ahead. Ascend at 54.6 degrees in vectors 213.67. Full power. No traffic above," a fresh new voice spoke over the transmitter.
"666-888 to Orbital Control Tower 111, received. Ascend 54.6 degrees in vector 213.67," I replied, pulling the flight stick towards me in one hand and the throttle in the other.
I watched the night view of the glittering buildings twinkling away, as my ship moved further away from the ground.
A slight turbulence rumbled through the deck when my ship soared faster and faster into the thin clouds. The ship began rattling violently to struggle against atmospheric forces and the gravitational pull of the planet.
"Orbital Control Tower 111 to 666-888, prepare for escape velocity from the planet's outer atmosphere," the voice of controller alerted me via the transmitter while small dancing flames formed around the shields of my ship from the atmospheric friction.
With a throw of the switch at the side of my flight stick, the front viewer duly reported
"666-888 to Orbital Control Tower 111, received. Escape velocity in 5,4,3,2,1."
The starlight engines roared with gusto. The accompanying violent vibrations through this junk shook my bones and deafened my ears into the darkness of space as the flames around the ship's shields dissipated.
The front viewer alerted me.
I always liked the term 'escape velocity' - a clear and simple term of the speed required to escape from the planet's gravitational pull.
What I didn't like was the rattling of the panels in the ship's interior as the speed continued to increase despite the shields and shock dampeners.
Without shock dampeners, the gravitational force from the rapid acceleration would have crushed me into my seat.
The strong shaking slowly died down into a smooth ride, signaling the entry into the great vacuum of nothingness - space.
A wave of relief overwhelmed me as my ship successfully exited the planet's orbit.
[Accessing all subspace frequencies]
[Subspace band wave frequency: five hops]
The entry of my ship into space reduced the number of satellites to patch a communication line with my war cruiser.
[Initiated sub space frequency dialing]
[Anti trace and scramble protocol initiated]
[Durgian satellite communication systems: Local Level 1 disabled]
[Durgian satellite communication systems: Local Level 2 disabled]
[Durgian satellite communication systems: Local Level 3 disabled]
[Durgian satellite communication systems: Local Level 4 disabled]
[Durgian satellite communication systems: Local Level 5 disabled]
[Durgian communicator system: Locality scrambled to Narakan system]
[Initiating satellite link to the Narakan system]
[Space Punk call sign… contacting]
[Standby for Connection security verification]
[Connected. Secured Frequency initiated]
[Standby for Connection security verification]
[Connected. Secured Frequency initiated]
Same view of pitch black darkness appeared on the view screen in front of me.
"Not on planet?" Arabaki's imitation of my voice irritated me.
[Analysing voice signature…]
[Pitch frequency matched]
[Tonal frequency matched]
[Result: duplication match]
The droid swarm's adopted way of speaking always felt like I was talking to myself and no one was listening at the other end.
"No, exiting Eden now," I replied.
"Trouble?"
"Yes. Scan any frequencies for the news of an attempted assassination on General Perkuna."
"The Perunian General?" Arabaki asked.
"Who else?"
"Tell me the story, so I have an idea."
"I thwarted an attempt on him. But someone disguised the assassin as a Velesian."
"Ah, like those conspiracy stories you told me about - borrowing a gun to shoot someone."
Really, Arabaki chose the worst timing to practice metaphors.
"By the way, someone on Eden sent a high priority transmission… a military encoded message, for information on a certain Temari of Deridia to the Nuwans."
Not good news. If the Eden authorities sent a transmission to the Nuwans, they will send one to Deridia to check. I can't use this identity anymore.
"Sent to Senator Zhuyin's ship?" I asked.
"Actually, the Senator's ship intercepted and cancelled the request to the Nuwan Imperium Headquarters. But if there is another one forth —"
Why do I feel that more bad news was coming my way?
"Hang on, got an emergency hail from The Durgema," I told Arabaki.
Mahara wouldn't use the code unless she wanted to cover her tracks. The High Durgian code meant her telecommunication signals produced a normal recording for anyone to intercept, while hiding the actual message in a hidden subliminal layer.
"Share the frequencies so that I know what's going on," Arabaki said.
Mahara's smiling face appeared on the video as she spoke, "You have left an item behind at The Durgema. Where shall we send it to? Security has tightened because of the incident, but we can get it to you within maybe a tenth of the galactic cycle around the Great Swirl."
That's her way of telling me that there's big trouble ahead. Anyone who intercepted this message would think it routine.
"Send it to the Pasha system," I replied.
The Pasha planetary system is under the control of the Nuwan Imperium. Since Mahara outed me as a 'Nuwan Mercenary', I might as well continue the farce.
"Very well. Have a pleasant trip. Over."
I closed the transmission.
"Eden lockdown, checks on all departing ships in the system. All communications intercepted. Cargo ship stopped and checked. Bio scanners used. It exited the system," Arabaki decoded the subliminal encoded layer faster than my program on the ship's mainframe.
Arabaki added, "Bio scanners will blow your cover."
Bah. The lousy droid swarm need not remind me of the grim prospect. If my life wasn't getting any worse, I wanted no more surprises, or even to think about the risk of being thrown into some desolate space station prison by the Great Swirl Council.
"Switch identity," Arabaki suggested. "They are looking into who you are."
I scoffed at his suggestion. An identity switch required time, which I didn't have.
Time to create or gain a 'believable' new identity, time to hack the database of the cover species and also time to register the darn ship to the identity. Get one process wrong and watch the fake identity collapse like a house of cards.
That's why I used experienced hackers in the Narakan system to change details of this Deridian identity. Not do it myself.
"Can't. If Eden locks down, the other planets in the system will undergo lockdown. I have to go for gapping."
"Scan for gaps?"
Arabaki hadn't grasped some of the old military slang yet. Gapping, as we used to call it, involved sweeping the area with wide range sensors to avoid contact with all ships based on the known radius of their sensors.
More of slipping or sneaking gaps through a large surveillance net cast by others.
"Scanning for evasion gaps on this war cruiser poses a higher chance than the lousy merchant ship of yours. I could use the ship to jump into a nearby sector."
Not too long ago, Arabaki whined about piloting a ship through the nebula and now the droid swarm volunteered?
"Aren't you wary of the nebula clouds around Tengshe?"
"To ensure your safety, I have to do it even if I don't like it."
What Arabaki proposed sounded like a good solution.
However, with Zhiva in Eden, I knew that some of his space pirate gang were scouting around the outer boundaries of the Eden Planetary system.
Zhiva was on the lookout for my war cruiser to carry out another space fighting match.
Engaging him in a space battle was easy for me, not Arabaki, because of my past military experience.
Zhiva used unconventional tactics which may prove too much for Arabaki to handle even with the droid swarm's ability to compute possibilities at an amazing speed.
Without instinct, a trait unavailable in the droid swarm, computation of even over a hundred scenarios may not provide the countermeasures to win Zhiva in a straight fight.
Arabaki won't only be handling only Zhiva but a fleet of pirate warships. I couldn't risk a high chance of my war cruiser being blown out of space.
Arabaki, I can lose but a war cruiser? No. I'm not prepared to waste away on some planet, like the Kamuy who recorded his last moments on the relic.
"You can't." I sighed.
"Why?"
"Perkuna Zhiva is in Eden."
"Oh, Perunian space pirates. I might have another solution."
"What is it?" I asked, wondering what it could be.
"Access the Nuwan Imperator ship to issue a diplomatic immunity pass using Senator Zhuyin's authorisation. Then tag it to your merchant ship."
Right, I could bypass checks with diplomatic immunity, but that could bring on a new slew of problems.
"So listen carefully. All the goods for the war cruiser and you are on their way to our old Narakan hideout," I said. "If I don't make it out on time to Tengshe. Get to the Narakan system, get the goods and go as far as you can or hide."
"You sound as though you will not make it back," Arabaki grumbled.