Walking on the Wild Side

[Crazy Lou]

Freeport Seven was the biggest freeport of all Sirius. It had more than one thousand residents, but on a busy day like that more than double of that number passed by the station, comming from or going into the Omicrons. Lou made his way through the crowd on the main public deck, going to one of the many restaurants. He had a bussiness meeting. Suddenly, red lights started to flash all around, an alarm sound filled the hall.

"Attention!! The station is under attack! Everybody to the emergency areas! This is not a drill!"

Everybody started to run, each one in a different direction. The chaos had taken control of the Freeport. Lou was paralized for a moment, not knowing what to do. The red lights flashing at his face made him dizzy...

He then looked down and...

His hands...

His hands were full of blood. He was not at the Freeport anymore. But the red lights were still there. Still flashing. Lou then recognized the dark corridor with metal walls. Huntsville. Docking Bay Two. The blood on his hands was from the dead officer on the ground. He heard voices. They were after him. His only choice was to run.

Behind a corner was the parking bay. A Rhino was just finishing to unload some supplies. Lou knocked down the unsuspecting pilot, jumped in the freighter and launched. Control was not able to close the bay doors in time. He was away.

Lou engaged the cruise engines and flew away, visually pointing the ship towards an asteroid field, trying to hide from the patrols that were surelly called. Not long passed until an alarm sounded in the cockpit, and he was hit by a cruise disruptor. The ship's engines overloaded and quit. Laser blasts quickly disabled the shields and damaged the small freighter. Lou was able to see the ship falling into the gravitational field of a jumphole, and emerging on the other side. Soon, another alarm sounded. Several red contacts appeared on the radar screen. The radio came to life.

"Unidentified ship! This is Rogue patrol Omega, from Alcatraz. Who the %$&@$% are you, anyway??"

Alcatraz? But that was when he passed out...

***

Lou opened his eyes in the dark. "Again these damn dreams..." He sat on the bed. The comm terminal screen showed 2:13 at the clock, and an icon was flashing at the bottom. It was a message from the docking bay master, saying his ship was ready to fly. It was time to run again.

He took a quick shower. He had already packet his stuff. It was not much, just a couple plastic boxes and a bag. Oh, and his sound equipment, of course, but that was already boxed and loaded on his ship. He carried the stuff down do Docking Bay One. That's where the freighter was parked.

It was an old Rhino, the one Lou highjaked when escaping Hunstville. The burn marks of the hits the ship took on that day where still visible under the patches in the hull. The painting had lost color over the years in storage. But he could see the new shiny parts on the rear. The mechanics had replaced the engines on that afternoon. The old ones wouldn't even start.

He stowed his stuff safely on the ship, and checked to see if his sound equipment was also secured. That's when he realised he was forgetting the most important thing of all: his guitar!

Lou walked quickly down to the bar. Despite being almost three in the morning, that was a busy hour at the Rogues base. The bar was packed of scum of the worst kind, as usual. His guitar was sitting on the corner, near the bar amplifier. He picked the instrument up, and then thought he could play one more song before leaving Alcatraz behind.

Crazy Lou - "Beginning of a Great Adventure"

Playing his guitar always made Lou feel good. Those were tense days for him, and that music helped him to be more confident of his decision to leave. He locked the instrument on its case and walked out of the bar, and back to the docking bay. All the pre-flight checks were quickly completed. The new engines were running nicely.

"Alcatraz, this is Side Effect, all warm'd up and ready to roll..."

"Side Effect, this is Alcatraz. You're good to go. Have a nice swim."

"Thanks, kiddo. Launching now."

After leaving the bay, Lou set up course for the Cortez jumphole. Before going to Freeport 2, he needed new papers and transponder codes for his ship. So he was going to Barrier Gate first. The unregulated black market there was perfect for his needs. "I hope they have some of that sweet Baffin weed there too..." - he was thinking, while engaging the cruise engines and the auto-pilot.

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