"No child of Jacob Moore gets a free-ride just because I have made it in my life. You have to earn the value of money by yourself."
How ironic I thought. To think how much I had detested the old man when he had said those words to me. I was born to riches. I could have have it all. The speeders, the clothes, the girls and the Orbital Spa & Cruise vacations at Gaia. But no. My dad had this clumsy idea of making his children appreciate the value of money by making them earn every credit, so no vacations for me unless I paid it myself. No, sir.
When I graduated he bought me an starflier and gave me a nest egg of 8500 credits. Some big graduation present. Pah! Granted he paid my tuition in the economics school in Manhattan, but still! "Don't blow it on girls" he said and gave me a couple of pointers on good trade routes. He was never stingy about advice thought. I'll have to give him that.
Some of my class mates sold their souls to factions and got a nice setup. I guess some have paid dearly for that. There's no leaving those organizations unless you are vacuum packed so I hear. I've seen some of the classmates begging outside Manhattan! "Please, someone give me a 100k." Or those more aggressive types just short of demaning the money like it's their birth right! Some people really have some nerve. How low can you go? I guess their dad didn't teach them the value of hard work. I just wish the LPI would pack them tight and send them to Sugarland.
Luckily I made friends in school. And at a local bar. Worked nicely when I paid the tab after evenings. "Use the money to buy connections and friends." That piece of advice from the old mizer was solid gold. Just a month ago one of my long-time-no-see pals hailed me from his ship Megiddo. Megiddo - what kind of a name is that anyway? I was about to hail a police officer when he identified himself. He had hit it with the bounty hunters. It turned out that he had a good business proposal. He was short on credits and I could use his protection and information. I'd pay him 100k hiring him and he'd show me a route that would cut my flight time to Leeds big time. I never would have found out on my own that very handy jump hole from Magellan to Leeds. It sure has paid off hauling Boron. No need to inform my boss though. The insurance won't cover the off trade lane flying. It sure pays off to have friends in places I smiled.
With all his seeming faults my dad was a good man and a good dad. I just couldn't resist honoring him when my boss gave me a raise and a choice on the ship's name I was flying for the company. Tightwad. That's what I used to call behind his back. He sure did know how to keep money flowing his way. But that flow stoppped just short of us, his family. We always had food on the table and clothes on our back, but that was it. His personality didn't include an idea of spending on himself or his closest ones. And now it was too late. How could my dad have been so trusting? It had been his weak spot. And now he was dead because of it. My uncle. That snake of a man. He stole it all. Someday I'll find him and make him pay. I spare no cost in this. No doubt he has changed his name, but someday he'll make a mistake and I'll be there.
"No child of mine..."
The words came back to me. I'd never have imagined that I would deliver the exact same message to my son like I did just an hour ago. Like father like son it seems. So be it. He would have to make it largely on his own too. Kids! They thought the money grows in tree, I grunted.
Maybe that old saying nomen est omen is true I smiled. My dad had given me a name Sterling because of some ancient myth when minted coins where in use. And the omen was coming to pass. Soon I'd have enough credits to become an independent contractor in Bowex. To choose a gig I liked. To fly the routes I wanted to. To be my own master. I was looking forward to that.
Melissa was caught in reverie of things of the past. The night they had met in Edinburgh onboard Shetland. She had sneaked secretly away from her family cabin that night to gaze upon Gaia and there he had stood at the vista deck looking mesmerized at that magnificent Planet. There they had stood in comfortable silence after the man had said "hey" and had resumed watching the planet revolve around it's axis. After half an hour the man had introduced himself.
"Hi, I'm Sterling. My night is complete now. A beautiful vista over there and a beautiful lady sharing the view with me. I find it rare nowadays that people take the time enjoy the spectacular, and oh so wonderfully colored sceneries, that are ours to gaze in space. All they do is thrust to trade lanes and speed dock on gates."
And with those seemingly simple words she knew she had found something special. After that they has spent most of the time left on their cruise in each other's company enjoying every minute of it. And that enjoyment of the one another had carried them through the tough times for the last 13 years. He still loved him very much. It was a different kind of love than the passionate love of their youth. She loved him with a kind of love that endures and is not dependant on feelings.
The trip had been the last time her family had been together. After that trip his brother had gone to the university in New Berlin. In his senior year he had dissappeared. Mom and dad had been grief stricken. The Federal Police investigation found out that there had been a Red Hessian recruiter in the campus and her brother was one of the students who had gone with him. It had been 7 years since she had seen her brother. She still wondered sometimes if he was still alive.
She shook out of the reverie and resumed finishing the task at hand: The cleaning up the table after dinner. The paste had been ok. But all those synthetic paste from Synth Foods was really getting on her more and more as the years passed. And putting farmers out of business. No wonder they had taken up arms. What you can do if you got nothing to lose? The only way is to fight, she thought.
And she was witnessing all too closely what happens when someone is being pushed over the edge. Sterling had become introverted and explosive after hearing of his father's death. The rage towards his uncle was eating him from inside. Sterling was slowly destroying himself. And his family. The unforgiveness in him was slowly poisoning all he cared about. Melissa was very worried and anxious about the future they might have. She would have to try to talk to him tonight about it.
The changes in his nature were noticeable. How had this loving and open man become so cold and uncaring so fast? He was taking dumb risks at work she had heard. The wife of the company's accountant had told her of the near disastrous cargo run he had made last week. He had accepted a small arms delivery to Gran Canaria of all places! Everybody else had turned down the offer because of the risk involved, but he had taken it because of that cursed bonus coming with the run.
He had taken off from Leeds and headed through the jump hole to Dublin. The company had given him the coordinates of the jump hole to Omega-49. The trip there had gone fine, but the return trip had been almost fatal. A Gaian, reportedly going by call sign Sinn_Fein, had been napping at the jump hole to Dublin and let him slip past. After reaching Dublin he had headed to New London. Thinking of being safe he had encountered 3 outcasts. One in a destroyer, another in cruiser. Luck had smiled on him again. They were not interested in him.
All too much close calls to Melissa's liking. She didn't like it one bit that company was taking advantage of her husband's sudden desire to collect money to start as an independent contractor for the company. And that just for that he could go after his uncle and hunt for clues of his whereabouts all across the galaxy. That surely would be even more dangerous than anything so far. She had to make him see sense in letting go of his anger before it would destroy all of them.
Sterling was in a foul mood. 5 days ago he had had a fight with Melissa. She had been trying to ease up the tensions between them. He had been wound up tight after his father's death, but he had it under control.
"Or do I?" Sterling thought. "Couldn't she understand that I need to immerse myself in to my work?" "Why can't she see that I can not, WILL NOT, rest until I see justice done to my father?" And for that he needed the money quick. To keep the emotions raw to fuel his personal vendetta. The initial blind rage and bloodlust after hearing about his father had transformed into cold, methological and calculative purpose driven revenge. And Sterling was afraid that time would indeed heal the wounds. He needed to keep the emotion and hate fresh. That's why he needed the money quick! Damn it!
This trip could have been taken exactly from her "arguments". Boss had suggested a quick extra trip to Newark. Take a load of Beryllium there from Stokes and bring Boron back. Simple. "You are our top man, Sterling. Keep up the good work and I'll see you go places." And a pat on the shoulders. That's how managers gave tasks around here. Flattery and a jovial back pat.
"Am I in a hurry to die?" he thought. It sure seemed so based on his recent decisions. Using that jump hole to Magellan sure suggested that he was indeed taking foolish risks. And that risk almost had realized.
A ship had emerged from the astreoids speeding towards Tightwad. The instruments were showing all white. But then Sterling's gaze had been riveted to the ID. Hacker! Sterling had lost precious moments scanning the oncomer. The hacker must have been a new for not to have infamy riding on his shoulders yet.
The call to stop must have been lost in that asteroid field. The signal bouncing and echoing from those rocks. He had engaged cruise towards the trade lane gate to get to Freeport 1. The ship had been exerted to the limit and so had been his skill. Still that hacker had been on him like a Curacaon eel raining cruise distruptors on his ship. And those eels can suck a man dry over night.
Finally he had reached the trade lane and he had picked up speed. No use. The hacker had followed him in under a click. Freeport 1 zoomed in on his cockpit window and he was thinking frantically about his next move.
"This is it. I've got to try to talk myself out of the situation." As he had been opening the comm shots had been fired in rapid succession! The blistering lights had criss-crossed the space and then a brilliant flash had cast shadows in his cockpit.
"Harvesting completed."
Sterling nearly had had a seizure. He had feverishly worked the nav controls and had docked with the lane leading to California jump gate. To have been saved by those machines. As he had looked the controls Harvester 11 and Harvester 21 had glowed bright red there. In front of the jumpgate there had been debris everywhere. Couple of pilots, H-fuel, bots and bats had been floaring around in hundreds. Those machines apparently had come from the California system. After tractoring in the pilots he had made the jump.
The journey to NY through the California was uneventful and had given him a much needed respite and a chance to pull himself together.
Harvesters. What were they harvesting? Sterling had had a feeling that he didn't want to know. If harvesting was about blowing up people he would surely steer clear of those abominations.
Still shaken by the events Sterling was relieved and glad to see a familiar ship on the scanners. Megiddo. He hailed it and hired it to escort him back home to Leeds.
On their way back in California they spotted a rogue in California Minor. They took the lane to Magellan jumpgate but Rogue came after them. Rogue apparently thought Tightwad being ripe for plucking and arrogantly started making demands in front of ships thinking nobody would have nerve to interfere. A grimm smile crossed Sterlings lips as he stalled in his reply in comm and played time for captain of Megiddo to line up with his target.
Shots lazed the space in brilliant colors. Rogue tried to make frantic evasive manouvers, but it was just a metter of time for him. The rogue was about to be reduced to dust by the powerful cannons of the gunboat when the strangest thing of all happened. The Megiddo started popping in and out of scanners as well as the rogue ship. The indicators showed the ships in front of him in one instant and behind him the next. It was like watching a video clips cut in 2 second takes. At one moment the ships were there and the next they weren't. There we no debris about so no ship had died. Sterling was too bewildered to be afraid. The comm screen was going haywire of ships across the California system popped in and dropped from the radar. All the ships in the vicinity must be experiencing it.
"This is not happening" Sterling groaned. He tried to dock on the jump gate leading to Magellan to escape this madness. The gate opened and jump was being initiated. Sterling let out a relieved breath.
The ship entered the vortex and nothing! Tightwad just flew through the gate at pulse speed. No jump, no nothing.
Sterling swore heartily at that Ageira piece of junk. "I'm gonna sue them if I ever make it out alive" he muttered to himself under his breath.
And then the shields of his Train started taking a bounding from the fire coming from the rogue ship. The rogue had taken advantage of the mysterious phenomenom and resumed his hunt. Sterling was so out of balance that he almost died before he came to his senses in a nick of time to recharge the shields and repair the hull. The warning klaxon wailed and the yellow light cast shadows in the corners. Things were in rapid motion. Information flowed too fast for Sterling to keep up with events. He was feeling every minute of his age of 40 years and his hands slowly moved on the controls.He fought the controls and tried maniacially to engage the jump again bounding the docking icon on his control panel. The Ageira built gate was malfunctioning. "Great way to die. How ironic that Ageira spends trainloads of credits to finance studies of dangers of jump holes in every major university all over the Sirius and have one of their own product fail at this critical moment" he thought bitterly.
Just about when he was to be blown up he pleadingly concented to rogues demands. The firing ceased. Then the anomaly vanished. The sensors showed Megiddo and the rogue was reduced to rapidly cooling space wreckage in a matter of seconds.
Relieved to see his escort alive and in his sensors back to somewhat normal he hailed him. He felt like he had woken up from a nightmare.
"An ion storm" was the reply.
Then the whole universe seemed to crash. All the sensors went black. "What's happening?" was Sterling's last concious thought as his head came crashing to the desktop.
His life was in tatters. The past months spent searching for his uncle had been constant failure. Sterling had sold the BMS.Tightwad and bought an Eagle and scoured bars and systems in his vain search. Many times escaping death only by a hair's width.
Until that one near fatal encounter in Taus. He'd been ambushed by the Outcasts and next thing he knew was he woke up in Planet Harris' hospital ward. He had spent there a month.
Then Melissa had had enough and took the kids and gone to her parents in Leeds. She hadn't filed for a divorce yet, but she threatened to do so unless he'd shape up.
He heard that the old management in Bowex had been moved aside. He decided to call in few favors and get his old job back at the Bowex. To start a new. Luckily they had a spot open commanding Bowex)Newton.
Retirement! That sounded excellent to Sterling's ears. Wouldn't Melissa be pleased to hear this. And Sterling had reserved a month long cruise with Hawaii for him and his wife.
He had managed to put something aside for the retirement days , but most importantly he had managed to forgive.
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